Okay, our text is going to be
Romans 3. We'll be returning to verses
9 through 19. Romans 3, 9 through 19. And Paul here, as we saw last
week, he's setting the record straight. And he's showing what
he's been doing throughout the first three chapters of Romans
is showing that every one of us comes forth under the reign
of sin. He's laying this foundation that
all men, all women, young and old, are depraved That is that
we don't come forth knowing the things of God. We're not innocent
to begin with. We're not aware of and worshiping
and rejoicing in God by nature and then are taught these evil
things, but rather we have an evil, corrupt nature. So sin
and iniquity and wickedness is very natural to us. It's the
most natural thing. to not believe God and to not
know the true and living God. And so Paul's been addressing
the several objections that man raises and Paul is shown plainly. He's answering these objections
and he's laying the foundation to show us plainly that every
one of us is a sinner. and to shut us up to the grace
of God, which He's revealed in His Son, Jesus Christ. So God
has revealed salvation. He hasn't kept it from us, but
He's revealed salvation in His Son, and so He's teaching us,
making known to us, making plain and known to us that we ourselves
are sinners in need of His grace, so that we would cry out and
call upon His Son, Jesus Christ, for mercy and forgiveness. Our title is Setting the Record
Straight, Part 2. So you might want to put Part
2 in the beginning, Joe. Alright, so setting the record
straight. And so we'll do a quick review again to show that since
it can't be by our works because we're wicked, it must be by election. It must be by God's grace shown
to the sinner. And then we'll pick up We'll
do a quick review of what Paul has said to this point and then
we'll pick up and just continue with what Paul is showing in
these verses 10 through 18. And then, very quickly, the last
point is brief, and it'll be the conclusion of the matter
in verse 19. Alright, so Paul here has been demonstrating to
us that all our sinners, Jew and Gentile, under the law, apart
from the law, or just the natural law, if you will, and Paul is
teaching that therefore, by nature, by religion, all are under sin. All come forth bound in darkness,
bound in a prison of sin and darkness, and having no hope
of freeing ourselves. And what we see, the importance
of this, is because just naturally, in our experience, what we see,
what we know and understand to be true is that religion is very
good very good at teaching us that, oh, you can free yourself,
you can set yourself free, there's things you can do to make yourself
right with God, and so religion begins to lay out for you, to
prescribe for you a pattern of things that you can do, that
they say you can do, to free yourself, to bring yourself into
the light, and to make yourself known to God and to make God
known to yourself. And so they focus on religious
things. Read your Bible or read this
holy book that we say is what you should read. Say your prayers,
do that which is good, do your best before God, follow the law
of Moses, or they lay out things that you could do in terms of
service in the church, whereby you can know that you know God
and that you are one of His children. And they may say a lot of right
things, even. They may say a lot of good things
and teach good doctrine. But the issue with man is that
man sets his heart on those things because he's confused. He's dead
in trespasses and sins. He's in darkness. He's confused.
And so he says, well, I don't really understand the salvation,
but I am doing what they tell me to do. So I guess I'm a Christian
now. And so they look to those things,
and they never just look to Christ and see that Christ is salvation. He is the righteousness of his
people, and so they don't set their heart on those things. Turn over to Romans 9, and we'll
start in verse 11. I just want to show you a few
verses. And again, what the Lord is doing,
He's stripping away that religious hope that we have in religion
and what we do and what we say. He's taking that away to shut
us up to the salvation that He's provided in His Son, Jesus Christ. And so it's God who must save
us. It's God who must bring us to
see that It can't be by something I've done in the flesh. It's
got to be by His grace. It's got to be by Him showing
me mercy. And He shows mercy and grace
in His Son, Jesus Christ. And so Romans 9-11 shows us and
convinces us it's not by my works, but it's got to be by God's choice.
God doing something for the sinner. Romans 9-11 for the children.
Being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, whatever
works, they haven't even done anything, but that the purpose
of God according to election might stand, not of works, but
of him that calleth. Look at verse 13, as it is written,
Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. Verse 15 and 16,
for he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have
mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
So then, it's not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth,
but of God that showeth mercy. And that verse, Romans 9, 16,
is if you're dealing with someone who's trusting in their works
or someone boasting about their free will and how they accepted
Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, you can show them right here
from the scriptures, it's not of him that willeth. We don't
have a free will. God has a free will and he exercises
that will as he sovereignly pleases, as he chooses But man has no
will for God, not the true and living God. Our will is not free,
and so it's not by us choosing salvation in Christ, but of God
choosing us. And it's not of us running or
doing works for salvation, but of God that shows mercy. It's
all in the Lord's hands. It's what He does. All right,
now this brings us back to our point where we were looking at
last week. And I'll just do a quick review. Romans 3.10, where we
see there's none righteous, no, not one. And what Paul was showing
is that's not our actions or our deeds, but rather this is
God saying to us, your status before me is that you are not
righteous. God looks at us, we're not righteous
before him. We're not accepted of him. And
we're sinners. And so he's saying to us, you're
not righteous. No, not one. And then we see
God's assessment of man's wisdom. Man's wisdom. He says in verse
11, there is none that understand it. And so there's none that
understands. And because man is ignorant,
therefore, because he doesn't understand, he's ignorant of
the depths of his sin. And because he's ignorant of
the depths of his sin, because he doesn't realize how wicked
he is and disconnected he is from the true and living God,
We read there in verse 11, the second phrase, there's none that
seeketh after God. All right? So there's none that
seeks after God. Now, to the religious person,
they may have a problem with that. They will have a problem
with that, because they say, wait a minute. I seek after God. I'm trying to find out God. And
I'm doing these things to seek after him, that I may know him.
And scriptures reveal that, by nature, we are very religious. We're a very religious creature,
right? We seek after certain things
to worship the God that we believe is the true God, right? The God
of our imagination. So we seek after things through
religion by doing certain things and not doing other things to
try and know and find out God. And the Lord shows us that we
may be very religious, but that doesn't mean that we know Christ. And so he says in John 5, John
5, 39 and 40, he says to the religious Jews, He said, search the scriptures,
for in them you think you have eternal life, and these are they
which testify of me. And then he tells them, you will
not come to me that you might have life. And what we're learning
from that verse, John 5, 39, where he says, search the scriptures,
that's exactly what religion does. They search the scriptures
or some holy book. They search that and they think,
well, this is my life. If I do these things, this is
my life. God will be pleased with me and
forgive me of my sins and call me a child of his. That's what
he's saying. You search the scriptures for
them. And what's prescribed here, you think this is your life.
The issue is, though, that they testify. This Word of God testifies
of Him who is salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's who
we're to see. That's what the Lord is bringing
us to see, that we can't do that which is righteous and pleasing
to God. We can't set ourselves apart
to know Him. It's only by the Lord Jesus Christ
that we are reconciled and brought near to God. He's the one that
brings us near to him. And then he says, if left to
ourselves, ye will not. That's man's free will. Not to
come to God. Not to come to Jesus. We'll come
to religion. We'll do what religion says,
but we never come to the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ.
All right. And then verse 12. Well, let
me just say, too, that that was to the Jews back then, the religious
Jews. And that's every bit as applicable to us who are called
Christians in our day. Because just like the Pharisees,
we're all very religious. We're all caught up in religion. And so we need to hear that with
fresh ears, just like the Pharisees heard it in their day. All right,
so Romans 3.12. They are all gone out of the
way. In other words, since Adam's
fall, since our fallen Adam, We're in a state of nature, of
sin, and we're falling out of the way of God. We don't walk
with God, we don't have that fellowship and friendship with
God in nature, by our works or by our nature. Alright, now going
forward into new territory here, he says, they are become, they
are together become unprofitable. So in other words, We're not
profitable to God by the things that we do. We're not gaining
any ground with God. We're not adding to God. We're
not improving God. We're not expanding upon God
and that which is holy and right. In other words, man is vain and
empty. and vanity before God. We don't
profit Him or add anything to Him. In fact, the Lord said in
Luke 17 verse 10, So likewise, when ye shall have done all those
things which are commanded of you, say, We are unprofitable
servants. We have done that which was our
duty to do. We have nothing to boast in what
he's showing us. What he's saying to us is, you
are to do what is right. Do that which is right, but don't
think that you've earned any favor with God or profited him. You've only done that which is
your duty to do. And so what do we have to boast
in before God? In fact, Paul, speaking of this
vanity, Paul was talking to Titus, a pastor, a preacher, being established
in one of the churches. And he says to them wisely, don't
get caught up in the things of religion. Don't get caught up
in the things that religion focuses on and teaches and talks about
and thinks that as they talk of these things that this is
their salvation. But he said in Titus 3.9, he
said, avoid foolish questions and genealogies and contentions
and strivings about the law, for they are unprofitable and
vain. Just because, you know, whether
you think Adam had a belly button or not, or how many angels can
dance on the head of a pin, all those silly questions. And it
goes even into deeper things that men like to get caught up
in and talk about. And the Jews still talk about
this to this day. I've worked with many Jews and
they would just get excited to talk about something in the law. Talk about pigs and talk about
whether or not, you know, who's circumcised or not circumcised.
who's, you know, what famous Jews are in movies or not in
movies. These are the things that they
still get excited about and focus on and talk, just like to talk
about religious things even. And there's no profit in it. So what? Who cares? And we can
do it just as well in so-called Christian religion. But in Psalm
62.9, the psalmist says, surely men of low degree, men of low
degree, low stature in the eyes of men, they're vanity. Okay,
we get that. They're just vanity. And then
men of high degree. Yeah, what about men of high
degree? Those that are high in the view
of other people and seem to have accomplished so much. The psalmist
says, they're a lie. No such thing. No such thing. Put them in the balance before
God, and they don't exist. They are altogether lighter than
vanity. And so the Lord teaches us. He
humbles us in that way so that we remember we have to stand
before God, who is our creator. Let us not think of ourselves
more highly than we ought to think. Let us remember that God
has created us. He's the judge. and we were created
by Him for Him, and so we're to serve Him and seek Him. All
right, Romans 3.12, there is none that doeth good, no, not
one. All right, here this is talking
about our actions and our deeds, and he's saying everything that
we do those actions and deeds that we do, those things are
tainted and polluted. And we defile the things that
we touch and the things that we do. And Proverbs 21.4 says,
in high look and a proud heart and the plowing of the wicked
is sin. And that's the saying, you know,
when a man or a woman labors to provide for their family,
to do that which is good and right. They're supposed to take
care of their family, but even that, in our state of nature,
there's sin present even in that. And so again, we're just doing
what we're supposed to do, but we've got nothing to boast of
before God. And the reason is that Ecclesiastes
7.20, there's not a just man upon the earth that doeth good
and sinneth not. And we see this even in our own
flesh as believers, as those that are believers and hope in
Christ. Paul said in Romans 7, if you
want to look over there, in Romans 7, 21 and 23, he says, I find in a law that
when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight
in the law of God after the inward man." That law of faith. We delight in the law of faith.
Trusting the Lord that we should do what is right. Believing Him
that He's in our inheritance. So we don't have to hurt and
cheat people to get what we want to get in this life because This
isn't our inheritance. We walk by faith, believing that
our inheritance is Christ. And He'll do what is right in
that time. Verse 23, But I see another law
in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing
me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. So that's where we see that That
fight and war in the flesh where we lash out at people that we
love and care about and bite and devour and fight and war
with one another, that's where all that comes from, from the
flesh. Not from the new man, but from the flesh. And so that's
still present in us, right? And that's why we still get offended
and and like to defend ourselves and you know lash back out at
people that lash out at us or whether we start it or we finish
it but either way there's still that that warring in the flesh
all right all right and then if that's not enough paul says
in romans 3 13 the first phrase there he says their throat is
an open sepulcher an open sepulcher and what he's saying is that
When we open our mouths and talk about the things that we talk
about in the flesh, especially when we don't even know the true
living God and we're going to talk to others about religion
or about faith and telling others what they can do to be saved,
he equates that to basically the reeking smell of an open
suffocator. when we're speaking it's just
like a grave has been opened up and the rotting corpse inside
begins to just ooze out and just smell up the room and just that
that reeking smell so that's what man And what he speaks of
is equated to a rotting grave. All right, so when we speak,
by nature, it's just the savor of death coming out and infecting
and poisoning those that hear us. Look at Romans 3, 13 and
14, going on in it. He said, with their tongues they
have used to seek, the poison of asps is under their lips,
whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Right, so that's
just, we inflict upon others that which is not right, that
which is hurtful to them. Alright, now Romans 3.15 says,
their feet are swift to shed blood. And remember how often
when when Christ would speak to his hearers, he that is truth
and that is life, and he would speak to his hearers and they
would get angry and they wanted to kill him. They're swift to
shed blood. If they did that to Christ, the
Lord of glory, how much more will they do that to his people
when they speak according to that spirit of truth and life
for their good, just for telling them the truth, right? And so
men by nature harbor hatred in their heart toward those that
shine the light of Christ, that have that light and speak of
those things that glorify Christ and what he's done. Verse 16
says, destruction and misery are in their ways. Right? So that you see it just, you
know, everything that we touch that we say, I'm going to fix
this. I'm going to improve this. How often we destroy it and make
things worse. And we mess things up and we.
We just get things wrong and that's why there's no political
solution. There's no political solution.
Whether you're on the left or the right, it's not going to
solve our problems. There's no political solution
because we just corrupt things that we touch and it gets worse
and worse. Verse 17, and the way of peace have they not known. And so if you turn over to Isaiah
57, Isaiah 57, what the Lord is saying there is that by nature
we're like a troubled sea. We're just raging and sloshing
back and forth and it's kicking up that which is on the bottom
and just raising up that which is dirty and the mire and the
filth. We're told that though we can't
bring forth peace, the Lord is able to bring forth peace. And
he says in Isaiah 57 verse 19, the Lord says, I create the fruit
of the lips, peace, peace to him that is far off and to him
that is near, saith the Lord, and I will heal him. And so, We see that when we are
declaring the Gospel, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that's where
the Lord brings healing. That's where the Lord establishes,
in the hearts of his people, he establishes peace. And so
he's created peace. in His Son, Jesus Christ. That's
where we're reconciled. That's where God meets with His
saved sinners, is in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's peace. But
when we're not speaking of those things, we're often stirring
up one another and creating trouble. And it says in verse 20 and 21,
But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose
waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God,
to the wicked. because they refuse Christ. They
will not believe him. They will not hear him. They
won't speak of those things. They're just troubled and continue
to be troubled because they won't look to him who is the very peace
that God has given to us that we might have peace with the
true and living God. All right, now turn over to Isaiah
28, 15. Isaiah 28, 15. The reason why the natural man
won't do this is because he's in league with death. He's in
league with the flesh. He's in league with carnal things. That's what we naturally, what
we trust in, the things of the flesh, our wisdom, our intelligence,
our skill set, and various things of that nature. That's what we
trust in. Isaiah 28 15 says, because ye have said, We have made a covenant with
death, and with hell are we at agreement. When the overflowing
scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us. For we
have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves. And so, that's natural man. Natural man is, again, trusting
in those things. And we see it in religion all
the time because people will not hear the gospel because they've
achieved already their goal. They've reached salvation. As
far as they're concerned, in their works, in their religion,
in their church service, And the things that they do, they've
already arrived. They have salvation. They've
made a covenant, but it's a covenant with death, and so they will
not hear the truth of God. They will not come to Christ
because they've gone as far as they need to go, and they've
washed away their sins, and they've made themselves right with the
true living God. They may speak, again, they'll
say, well, salvation is in Christ, but their confidence isn't in
Christ. It's in the fact that, well,
I gave my heart to Jesus. I accepted Jesus Christ as my
Lord and Savior. I walked the aisle on this day.
I went down to the prayer team, and I bowed at the altar, and
I did what I had to do to get myself saved with God. And so
even though they pretty it up with Jesus sprinkled on top,
they're still trusting in what they've done, something they've
done. And so they never go on to Christ,
and they never rest in Him and trust Him for their salvation. And so unless the Lord breaks
through, unless the Lord shines His light in that darkness, we
don't see it, and we don't hear it, and we don't believe it,
and we don't receive it, because We have no need for it. And that's
what the Lord's shown us. Verse 18, back in Romans 3.18, He says, There is no fear of
God before their eyes. And he's saying that just naturally,
there's no love there for God. There's no desire or love for
him, no reverence for him. But in other words, we're hardened,
hardened to the truth of God. It's like Psalm 14, verse 1,
where it's worded there. What did they say there? The
fool has said in his heart, there is no God. And what it is in
the original is, no God. Not there is no God, but they
say, no God, no God. I know what's better for me. I know what I need to do in this
situation. No God. I'm not going to rest in you
or trust you or seek you to work this thing out. No God. I'm going
to do what I'm going to do, and I don't want to hear it. I'm
just going to push off God and do what they think is right.
And so that's what the Lord says is in the heart of us naturally.
It's in our natural heart and what we'll do unless the Lord
turns us. And it says in Proverbs 1.7,
the fear of the Lord, that reverence for the Lord and trusting, well,
even though I've been raised to think that I'm right in doing
things this way, but the Lord says, no, this is, just trust
me. Seek me in these matters. Seek
me in these things. And that's what Proverbs 1 7
says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but
fools despise wisdom and instruction. So the Lord Thankfully, in mercy
and grace, the Lord knows how to save fools. He knows how to
save us who are ignorant and have no knowledge and have no
wisdom, refuse him, say no to him. The Lord knows how to break
through these stony hearts. He knows how to lead us down
that way, to bring us through His chastening, through His teaching,
through Him creating that new man in us after the image of
His Son Jesus Christ so that we're humbled and taught and
humbled often many times. I know myself many times being
humbled by the Lord and brought to see my sin and to see that
I've got nothing to boast in. and that my inheritance is in
the Lord Jesus Christ and he provides all things necessary
and I'm thankful for that and everything he's taken away from
me in the flesh has been for my good and he's always built
me up and lifted me up more and more in Christ and that's a good
thing. It's painful in the flesh But
that's a good thing because he fixes our hope in Christ. And that's where we're being
brought to. That's why he humbles us. That's why we hear this and
you think, ugh, that's hard to just keep hearing. Why does he
keep talking about sin? Because we're so proud and arrogant
and won't hear the truth. But the Lord causes us to hear
it. with the year of faith and he'll
cause us to walk through that even in the flesh. He'll cause
these feet to go through the fire and through the flood and
through overwhelming circumstances and things that we can't get
ourselves out of but he brings us through it and establishes
our going and our path and our feet in His Son, Jesus Christ. Alright, so again, this is you
and me, brethren. This is you and me, and this
is what He's teaching us. He says, they shall all be taught
of God. All His people shall be taught
of God this way. Now very quickly, I'll just wrap
it up. Look at verse 19, Romans 3, 19. Now we know that what thing soever
the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every
mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before
God. So before the Lord, not before
me or others, but before the Lord, are you guilty? Are you
guilty of sin? Do you need him? Do you need
his righteousness? He's provided it in His Son,
Jesus Christ. He shows us, He's making us to
see, His people, He's making us to see our need of Him. We
have nothing to boast in. Do you believe Him? Seek Him? Has He given you a heart? That's
how you know. Has He given you a heart to seek
Him? And to confess, Lord, I'm the sinner. I need Your grace
and mercy. Please have mercy and grace upon
me and Your Son, Jesus Christ. And that's where He's bringing
us. There's nothing else. He's not looking for us to do
anything. We can't make ourselves righteous.
But he puts that confession of faith in the heart of his child.
He reveals faith from faith to faith. So it's all going to be
of his work and his power and his glory so that when it's done,
we have nothing to boast in but confess, well, I've obtained
like precious faith as all my brethren before me. It's all
His work of grace. So I pray the Lord would show
you His Son, Jesus Christ, reveal to you your need of Him, and
show you that He has satisfied His Father. He's done all things
in putting away the debt of His people. All right? So I pray
the Lord will bless that word to your hearts. Let's pray. Our
gracious Lord, we thank You that You strip us from the competences
that we have naturally in this flesh. And Lord, we thank you
that you know just how to humble us. What may be necessary for
one is not necessary for another, but you do all things well and
all things right. And Lord, we pray that you would
make us to hear your voice, that you would cause us to follow
you, that we would see Jesus and be turned from self and look
to him who is the peace and the righteousness you've provided
for your people. And Lord, that you would meet
with us in Christ. For it's in his name we pray
and give thanks. Amen.