The most terrible thing about us… —Martyn Lloyd-Jones

"This is the most terrible thing about man. It is bad enough that he should be breaking God's law. It is bad enough that he should be transgressing, that he should be falling short of the pattern and the standard. But, my friends, that is not the most terrible thing about us by nature. The most terrible thing about us is that even when we are offered salvation, we do not take it. We resent it. We reject it.

Listen: "Who hath believed our report?" (Isa. 53:1). Here is the question and here is the "report": "My servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled" (Isa. 52:13). He will "sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider" (Isa. 52:15). Here is the message, but "Who hath believed our report?" Here is the trouble with humanity, and here in this rejection you see it at its very worst. Man is perverted; he has become depraved. He is offered a way of salvation, but he will not believe it or receive it. He still prefers to trust to his own philosophies, his own knowledge, his own efforts, his own understanding. Here is God's offered way of salvation, but "Who hath believed our report?" (Isa. 53:1)"

—Martyn Lloyd-Jones. Compelling Christianity