It's a great privilege to come and preach the word of God. I don't have to come up with my own thoughts. I can preach what God said, all right? That's a wonderful privilege that we have in knowing the Lord. We're gonna turn to Romans chapter three. We looked at Chapter 1, and the context of Chapter 1 is basically saying to those who are not associated with the Old Testament, New Testament, the secular world, the non-Christian world, and Paul goes through that and explains the moral obligations that we all have. Because we all were made in the image of God. We all know there is a God. We all know there's a right and wrong. So we know that we should be seeking God. And it talks about the sinfulness and the degradation of man and the problem with that. But when we get to chapter 2, it talks about the fact that the Jewish people have many privileges. They've turned away. They've not paid attention to the Word. They've just gone through rituals and whatever. And then we come to chapter 3 tonight, and it covers everybody, Jew, Gentile, you name it. Everybody is talked about in one way or another in chapter 3 and about our need for a Savior. Let's read chapter 3, verses 1 through 20. Then what advantage has the Jew, or what benefit of circumcision? great in every respect. First of all, that they were entrusted with the oracles of God. What then? If some did not believe, their unbelief will not nullify the faithfulness of God, will it? May it never be. Brother, let God be found true, though every man be found a liar, as it is written, that you may be justified in your words and prevail when you are judged. But if our righteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous, is he? I am speaking in human terms. May it never be, for otherwise how will God judge the world? But if through my lie The truth of God abounded to His glory. Why am I also still being judged as a sinner? And why not say, as we are slanderously reported and as some claim that we say, let us do evil that good may come. Their condemnation is just. What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin. As it is written, there is none righteous, not even one. There is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God. All have turned aside, together they have become useless. There is none who does good, there is not even one. Their throat is an open grave, with their tongues they keep deceiving. The poison of asp is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their paths, and the path of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes." Now, we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may be accountable to God. Because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight, for we know through the law comes the knowledge of sin. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for your grace and your mercy, and we pray, Father, that you would help us in our understanding of this scripture. These are your spirit-breathed words that you gave to your apostle, Paul, and they're here for our edification as they were there for the Roman church that day in that first century. We pray now that you would help us grasp more deeply the magnitude of your grace and the depth of our sin and our need for you. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. proposition for this text tonight, there are many ways to describe it, but I would describe it this, that, you know, arguing about God or arguing with God does not remove our accountability. We are all declared to be guilty before God, as the scripture says, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And so as we look at this text, we realize that there is a failure, all the philosophical religions of the world, because they're based on human self-effort, as though you could somehow do well enough just to squeak by and make it into a wonderful, blessed, eternal life. Well, you know, the problem with sin in our lives, it's like being stuck on a treadmill. You keep trying and trying and trying, and there's a treadmill that never cuts off and there's no way to get off. You just keep trying to get there, and you can't. Or it's like, I don't know if you've ever seen this, there's a thing called a zorba ball. It's the human hamster ball. You put people in it, and it rolls. It's a really fun thing to do, but it's not a good thing to be in. So we don't want to be a squirrel in a cage that runs and runs and runs and never can escape. That's what our sin in this world is like without a Redeemer. We need to see, can we escape this humanly inescapable treadmill? Paul is addressing a number of questions in verses 1 through 80. These are rhetorical questions, and these are set of objections that people may have, arguments they may be raising. And he's addressing that to the Christians there, and both Jews and Greeks there in Rome. And so we're going to go through those, look at each one of those, and see what kind of answers we can find. So when God answers, however, when God answers our objections, guess what it does? It exposes our sins. It exposes how vulnerable we are, how wrong we are, when God gives us a clear answer. And he does. So even though we might want to avoid admitting anything wrong, you know, deny, deny, deny, we don't want to admit it, or we don't admit to other people. Verses 8 gives us those questions. The first question raised in verses 1 to 3, I think that's a quote from Psalm 14. says this, what advantage was there for the Jew in the 1st century? That's the question. If they have all these rituals, all the Torah, all this information, what advantage is it to them if they're lost? Well, Jews and Gentiles we are all sinners in God's sight. And so, what is the advantage of that heritage? And as a Christian, you say, well, I'm 8, 10, 12, 14, whatever, you know, 20, whatever, years old. What is the advantage of being raised in a Christian home? The hearing the Word of God, having the scriptures in my home available to me, what is the advantage? And the answer is, there is a great advantage that you have. And even now, as Christians, we look at the Hebrew scriptures and then we realize those are fulfilled in the New Testament. We have the richness of God's revelation. And believers, you have the oracles of God. You have the revelation of God's will in your hands, written form, so you can examine it again and again and meditate on it again and again. So the scriptures are there to have us to seek, to know the God of scripture. And we have the knowledge of his existence, but we also see the record of how he works in human lives and history, the works that he's accomplished for us. And it shows us that he is absolutely faithful in everything that he's ever said. So what is the advantage of keeping the ceremony of the Old Testament and the New Testament? What is the advantage in the Old Testament of having the sign of circumcision if the sign doesn't save you? Or the sign of baptism if the actual action, ritual, doesn't save you? Well, these two signs were given to point us to Christ, to point us to our need of Him as our Redeemer and Savior. It's to show that we need the brokenness of heart. We need the cleansing of the heart. So, there is a great advantage in knowing these promises and the covenants and the promises of God in the Scripture. The example of instructions in the Old and New Testament is that the Word of God and these oracles of God are to prepare our hearts to seek God Himself, to come to Him in humility, admitting that we don't know how to live our lives, but we need to know how to believe in Him. And so the Word of God is a light to our feet and a lamp unto our path. That is the truth. So that's the value of the Word of God, the oracles of God. Another question or complaint that came up there in the first three verses is what advantage is there to God's revelation of Himself in the Bible people who read the Bible then just don't believe it. I mean, doesn't that just cancel out its usefulness? If you read it and you don't use it, what value is it? That's sort of the question that's asked here. And the answer is that the disbelief of others does not cancel out the truthfulness of God. It does not. God is true to His Word. The problem is not the word of God. The problem is the heart of man. We are the problem. And our minds take us off on all kinds of wayward tracks. So God forbid that we should miss the promises of God. God is God. He is the source of all truth. It is man who has the problem of lying, and deceit, and covering up the truth, and avoiding the truth. Now, when we get down to, let's see, what's this, verse four, it's an interesting passage of scripture that Paul goes to here, and he answers this complaint about, you know, man's unbelief. And he uses the words that God gave to David in Psalm 51. Now, we know that David had committed two horrible sins of murder and adultery. And that finally, after nine months or more, David admitted his sin to God when he was confronted by the prophet Nathan. He acknowledges God's justice and God's purity and exposing his own sin. David defends God. David does not defend himself. David said that God is correct and David is wrong. So here's what David says about the condemnation of his own sin in verse 4. to you that you may be justified in your words and prevail in your judging. In other words, God is right and we're wrong. Having access to the scripture does make us definitely accountable to God. We have his oracles, we have his word, and we have the advantage to read and respond to God's call to repent and believe, follow him. Let me get to verse 5. It's another objection, another question. Notice that it says unrighteousness. If our unrighteousness reflects or shows God's righteousness, then why blame us? Why condemn us if God is still glorified? This is a strange twist of reasoning, but man can get there. Another way to say this, if I cheat and I lie, and it shows God's truth about cheating and lying, and God's righteousness, well, God is glorified, so why blame me, right? I did something wrong, so you can see the glory of God. That's a strange way of thinking. The short answer is the argument is a slander against God. It is as though our sin adds to the glory of God, it never does add to the glory of God. It is a challenge to the justice of God and condemning our sins. Now verse six says, may it never be, God forbid, that's what that means. For otherwise, how will God judge the world? Now that's a good question. If God is going to punish evil, Then he has to judge evil. He has to judge the world. If he's going to let things go, then he can't apply justice. So these arguments we see are a problem because of the carnal mind of man. It's not God's thoughts. It's our thoughts that are wayward, that are carnal and fleshly. Matthew Henry made an observation, he points us to Abraham. Back in the time when he was, his nephew Lot was in trouble living in the city of Sodom near Gomorrah. And God was going to bring judgment on Lot and the whole city. And so God, the prayer of Abraham is rather insightful. It shows you his understanding of God and then what God does. Here's the prayer from Genesis 18, 28. Abraham was addressing God. He says, "'Far be it from you to do any such thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from you, shall not the judge of all the earth deal justly?' And that is the answer. The judge of all the earth, our God, always deals justly. And that's part of the answer. Now, in verse 8, there is a false premise that's put forward. And that premise is, let us do evil that good may come. That's a very strange thing. This is the thought of a rebellious mind. the proud heart that holds that deceit and argument with God that you can get by with something with Him. The condemnation of evil is always just. That's God's way. Sin is breaking of the law of God. Sin is willfully disobeying God's clear instructions. So, the rebellious will of man is in opposition to the holy will of God. So, the wages of sin is death, both physical and spiritual. The condemnation of sin by God is always just. It always is. In fact, the same type of thought was quoted by Paul, referenced by Paul in Romans 6, where a similar question was asked, What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? In other words, the more I sin as a Christian, is that gonna give me more grace? Isn't that gonna mean God's gonna pour out more grace? Well, the answer is, may it never be. May it never be. How shall we who died to sin still live in it? We can't. So if we turn from our sin and repentance to God, to faith in Christ, we're trusting in Him to save us, to save us from our sin and from sin's power and control, then how can we desire to live under the control of sin? It's contradictory. If Christ is our Lord and Master, then sin cannot be your Lord and Master. If we belong or you belong to Christ and we live for Christ, then we cannot continually live in habitual sin. There's another reason that this statement is wrong, that let us do evil that good may come. And that is the fact that God is holy and just in his eternal nature. He is God. He is eternally holy. So he is justified in every one of his proceedings and his decisions. There's none that are wrong. So, we come to the end of that, those sections there, and it says that we are all accountable to God, accountable to God's word, and God's oracles do show us our guilt. Then we come to verse nine. Now, let's read this as a transitional verse. It says, what then? Are we better than they? Are we better than anyone else? Jew or Gentile believer, not at all. For we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin." That's the condition of the human race. Now, then Paul begins to tell us one thing, that it's conclusive. The answer is, the problem of the answer is that we are all guilty. We stand judged by God. And then he takes verses 10-18 and begins to go through proof by proof, text by text showing us how this is what God says in His Word. Showing us the depth of our sin, our This proves the guilt of all mankind in these next verses. Now the Apostle Paul, he cites all these scriptures, a number of scriptures that describe the radical effects of sin on our lives. And both our human nature and our practice. the breadth of these quotes is rather radical because it covers a great deal of time. It shows man's sinful nature and his disobedience. And it shows also that sin permeates throughout each individual's life. I want to use a couple of illustrations on permeating sin. Let's take a couple of positive ones first. Alright, You know, if somebody's gonna have a good cut of meat and they're gonna prepare it to grill it or to bake it. Maybe you pull out your special marinating sauce and you put that on there and you put it in the refrigerator, maybe a day, day and a half, and let that sauce that you have so carefully kept as a secret, it's gonna penetrate into that meat and it's gonna be, oh, so good when it's cooked and grilled or baked. That's what sin does, it penetrates, it permeates. Or maybe you're more inclined not to cooking, but you're a hands-on person and you've got a bolt that will not come loose. It's corroded. There's corrosion in it. And so what do you do? Well, you go grab that can of penetrating oil and you spray it on there and you come back about three hours later and you break it loose. It deals with the corrosion and the corruption in that bolt. Then I have a really good illustration, which unfortunately happened yesterday. Martha's receiving a package in the mail. I go out to the delivery truck. Person goes through the basket, and they finally find it. They hand it to me. I know it's got some stains on the outside. It's kind of strange. So I take it in to Martha, and we open it up. And there's this wonderful book in there. It has some beautiful pictures in it. But that oil went through every layer and penetrated into those pictures and the writing. And the pages were so saturated, they were coming apart. That's what sin does to us. It penetrates and ruins our lives. That's what Paul is saying here. The times of King David were around 1000 BC, and then Solomon came right after that. And then later, 300 years later, we have Isaiah the prophet. And those are the texts that Paul is going to be quoting from here. the reality of human sinfulness is pointed out. Now some of the sins were sins against David, fears of his enemies, we know that. They were not all coming from David, but they were also being laid on David, the consequences. But this presents human nature as it is from the very first parent, Adam and Eve, to the consummation predicted and revealed in the book of Revelation that mankind is sinful. And it's proven by the precise descriptions given in Scripture by Almighty God of the nature of man down through history. times of David you see this ascending kingdom. It's growing. It's expanding. It's gaining territory. And things are being accomplished. And the kingdom of God is being built with growth. And then you come to Solomon's time and everything really is great. Especially the first years of Solomon it was a wonderful place. And people were coming from all over the world just to see the work of Solomon and hear his wisdom. And And then we come several hundred years later, and we have the decline. And Isaiah and many other prophets are saying, God's going to bring judgment because you have forgotten Him and forgotten His ways. And so there again, we see this record of the sinful nature of man and the sinful behavior of man. So then, the background because we're going to get these scriptures going to be quoted from that section. And the first three verses come from Psalm 14 verses 1-3. Now we don't know exactly the occasion for David writing some of this, particularly Psalm 14 maybe. But it might have been during the time when Saul was pursuing him as an enemy. Or it may have been the time when Absalom had turned on him and he was losing his kingdom to his son. So, but these do show the sinful nature and the problems that we have. So in verse 10, it says, there is none righteous, no, not one. This shows us that we all have a habitual defect. It's with us. The text argues effectively and universally that every race, every class of people, without exclusion, everyone is included in this. We all have sinned against God. We all have this habitual defect. And so, when we get to verse 10 and 11, we realize, wait a minute, God is saying, I can't point my finger at this person, and they can't point my finger at me, because we are all guilty. We need a redeemer. And then we come to look at the depths of the moral corruption. As we go through this, if you look at verse 11, it says, there is none who understands. There is none who seeks for God. This tells us that not only our habits are sinful, but our nature as human beings is sinful. Our motivations are wrong. And Solomon actually reinforced this. Of course, we know he read some of the Psalms of his father. So, but he says in Ecclesiastes 7, verse 23, he says this, he said, I tested all this with wisdom and I said, I will be wise, but it was far from me. Even though he received the revelation of God and the wisdom of God and recorded that, he knew that in and of himself, It was far from him. It was not of his nature. Solomon is saying that even our best human efforts to stay away from sin, to live a wise life, is still permeated by human misunderstanding and a lack of understanding, a lack of application of God's word. Romans 8, 7 says the same thing. Paul is writing. further on in the book in this letter to the Romans, and he says, here's why there are failures. Because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God, for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so. inability to understand. And then Paul writes another letter saying the similar thing to the church in Corinth, which was notorious for its immorality. But he says this in 1 Corinthians 2.14, "'But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually discerned.'" How corrupt is human nature? Well, read verse 12, it gets even worse. It amplifies the description of our nature. All have turned aside together. They have become useless. There is none who does good, not even one. So that's pretty inclusive of all of us here. It's very much so. So Paul is proving through these verses line by line and precept by precept that we all are permeated by sin. We need the Redeemer. And we bear the consequences of other people's sins against us. We do. But next, Paul describes these human defects. And in verses 13 and 14, He focuses on one aspect, I guess you would say that. He's talking about the way we speak, the use of our mouths and our tongues. You'll notice that when we read through this. And he quotes Psalm 5, verse 9, when he talks about the cruelty and the violence of speech. He says, their throat is an open supplicator. Their throat is an open grave. Remember Mary and Martha said, don't open that grave after four days, it is going to be terrible odor. And here is Paul saying, our speech sometimes is like an open grave. then he quotes Psalm 140 verse 3, and he says, "'They sharpen their tongues as a serpent. Poison of a viper is under their lips.'" Now, I've been bitten by a non-poisonous snake, but I would not want to be bitten by a poisonous snake. But to have someone say that the words coming out of their mouth are like venom, that's pretty rough, very rough. Okay, then Paul quotes again Psalm 7. It says, his mouth is full of curses and deceit and oppression. Under his tongue is mischief and wickedness. Boy, can you get any worse than this? But he's very explicit. He's quoting David. And these defects can be described in several categories. Our speech can be cruel, it can be violent. Our speech can be full of lies, cheating, and deceit. And thirdly, our speech can be slanderous and with cursing. So this stresses the deceitfulness of the human nature in speech. We see Jesus' half-brother James writing about this in the book of James in chapter 3, verse 8 and 9. He says this, but no one contained the tongue. It is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men who have been made in the likeness of God." Now, this spoke to me a little bit. I thought, wait a minute, how critical of that Christian brother. Am I doing what this says? That man was made in the likeness of God. Well, the person is an unbeliever, they're made in the likeness of God. So, I need to be careful about my speech. And he's talking about the corruption that comes out of our own hearts. And it's very vague. But anyway, there are a lot of human defects in our speech, to put it mildly. Then he goes on in verses 15 to 7 to another group of verses that have a trend in them. And the sinful ways of man are described. Sinful man, as someone said, is very industrious in carrying out evil and cruelty. sometimes people are very industrious. In fact, the scriptures say sometimes that's what the evil person does. They lay on their bed at night and think about what next thing they can pull off. You know. But this is, David is quoting Psalm 59, verses 7 and 8. And he's speaking to the rebellious people of the house of Israel. He's speaking to God's people, people who profess him, who have the scriptures. And it talks about God's decision to judge the people so that they will feel the heavy hand of God so that people will come back to him and repent and be his people and live like his people. So the quote is this, verse seven and eight. Now notice the words that have to do with how you get to somewhere, from one place to another. There are no cars involved here, it's only the feet. Okay, notice those. Their feet run to evil, and they hasten to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity. Devastation and destruction are in their highways. They do not know the way of peace, and there is no justice in their tracks. They have made their paths crooked, and whoever treads on them does not know peace." Paul is going back through history and recording the corruption of mankind. That's what he's been doing. He quotes Isaiah, Isaiah's assessment. of the people of God at that time, who profess faith in the Creator, and were supposed to be looking forward to a Messiah, a Redeemer. And the ways of the people are pragmatically proven to be full of human sinfulness. But this history is every man's history. It describes us all, our personal histories. Then finally, Paul states in verse, He comes to a sort of a concluding statement. He talks about all guilt and you could say this is the root of that guilt. When he quotes from Psalm 36, one, there is no fear of God before their eyes, before his eyes. This is the problem of our heart. This is the root of our arguments with God and complaint against God. We do not fear him, we do not respect him, we do not seek him. Matthew Henry had a description of this, he says, the wicked-hearted are governed by their own rules for their own end. You ever met a person like that? You ever heard of a person like that? God originally made man upright, but man seeks out many other inventions or devices. If all people then, have become unprofitable, both spiritually and unprofitable, and contrary to God's original purpose for us to bring glory to God, then what can we do? If all have in our hearts and minds a natural bent to forsake God, and none of us do good, not really in our motives before Him, what can we expect? Well, here is not an answer, but the answer is pointed to in verses 19 and 20. God's revelation sets us free. God reveals that He sets us free. We're not going to be on that squirrel cage treadmill all of our lives if we listen to the living God. Man in his fallen nature has that problem, and we need someone to redeem each one of us. Verses 19 and 20 describe the spiritual state in another way. It goes on and says that these two verses solidify the fact that we are all accountable before God. We're all guilty. There's not one of us here, even tonight, or listening, that is exempt. Verse 19 begins, and it begins with those three words, now we know. Now, notice that word know. Now we know that whatever the law says, or that the scripture says, it speaks to those who are under the law so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God. The non-believer, the person who's never read the Word of God, they do have the moral law in their heart. They know right from wrong. They know that God exists, even though they may deny it and push it back. So we all know we should seek God. And the person who has the scriptures are obviously very much more accountable because they know what God has said. But don't you notice that word, the word we know, eida, in the Greek means we know with comprehension, whether we want to admit it or not, we recognize that God is there and there is right and wrong, and we have accountability to God. We know that the rituals and the ceremonies of a baptism service or the Old Testament, they did the circumcision. We know outwardly that those things cannot save you. They do not. They're pointing to something deeper. They're pointing to the fact that the... that God is looking for a heart that is broken, that is cut over its own sin and comes to him in faith and repentance. God is looking for that heart that repents and is washed and cleansed by the power of the Holy Spirit and bows the knee to Jesus Christ. The ceremonial laws are insufficient, but they point us to Christ. They're for a point. They're there to be practiced. They point us to the Savior. So our works do not redeem us, but we are fully accountable to God. And verse 20 makes this very plain. Listen to this word on accountability. Because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight. For through the law comes the knowledge of sin. But this word for knowledge It's epigonosis. It means precise and correct knowledge. In other words, we really know this. This is really true. We are accountable before God. So God's moral law and God's moral character proves us wrong. And then it says, may every mouth be closed. That's what it has said in verse 19. All arguments are shut up. All of our complaining is shut. All of us are guilty before God. And the laws show it, any law, one law that showed Adam and Eve that proved them guilty. But the conclusion is, the good news is, there is an answer to our guilt and to our guilty condition. There is a way to get off the treadmill of self-effort for salvation, and we don't have to be like a hamster running around the rest of our lives exhausting our energies. It is very clear we cannot save ourselves from our sinful nature by the efforts of our sinful nature. You get that? We cannot save ourselves from our sinful nature and our sinful behavior by the efforts of our sinful nature. We need a Redeemer. And the works of Christ are offered to us as a substitute for our failed efforts and always failing efforts. You know, sometimes you read all these passages, it can make you very discouraged. But we don't need to be led into a shameful deceit. And that is that there's never any grace for us. Well, that's God's answer. Think of the magnitude of David's sin. You would never vote for him a second time, or at least I wouldn't. the magnitude of that sin. And yet, didn't you see the magnitude of God's grace? That's for you and me, the great grace of the living God. So, Christ alone can set us free from that treadmill of works. And by trusting in His work on the cross, on our behalf, to cover our sins, we are free and pardoned from our guilty works. Let us pray. Father, we thank you for your mercy. We thank you for your grace. We thank you for helping us to know the depth so that you could see the heights of your eternal love for us. Come Lord Jesus, fill our hearts with gratitude. Let us praise you because you are the Redeemer, we do not redeem ourselves. You do the work, you have accomplished the work for us and then you've poured it out upon us by placing faith in you and your work. Oh, Lord Jesus, you've loved us with an everlasting love and eternal love out of the depths of your own heart. And we thank you, Lord. We thank you for this great grace. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.