North Athens Baptist Church

Today was a day for doing unpleasant tasks and one of them was spraying weed killer around the house.  Our yard is not particularly good for growing grass, as a matter of fact, I have probably spread approximately a million pounds of grass seed on it over the last 18 years and about three blades of grass have come up!  However, the weeds come up everywhere.  A gravel drive on one side of the house is covered in them and they are constantly coming up through the landscaping gravel in the flower beds.  The other day I told my wife that the way to get really good ground cover over the yard would be to gravel it.  Why is it that weeds are so prevalent?  Well, because we live in a fallen world and the sin of Adam not only affected him and his posterity but the physical creation as well.  Concerning the earth, God told Adam after the fall: “…cursed is the ground because of you…thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you…” (Gen 3:17-18).  As the creation has been affected so has man.  The doctrine of Total Depravity means that man, like the earth, is radically corrupt.  That does not mean that man is as wicked as he can possibly be; even Hitler loved his dog.  It does mean that corruption pervades our lives and that our lives deteriorate as time progresses.  It also means that apart from the life changing power of Jesus Christ there is nothing that fallen man can do that pleases God.  We may please other men and do things that are applauded by them as being noble, virtuous and beautiful but they do not merit us any favor from God.  In order to please God our sin must first be dealt with, not just our “sins” but our sin nature.