The Sinfulness of Man

Amen, if you have your bibles when you opened them to Romans chapter three. Romans chapter three, we continue today. It seems like it's been forever since we started a series of the Great Doctrine of Salvation. The Great Doctrine of Salvation, we started by looking at the Covenant of redemption. The Covenant of redemption is the covenant between the Father and the Son, an eternity past, where the Father bequeathed a people to the son out of his love for the son. The son, out of his love for the Father, in obedience, redeemed the people whom the Father had bequeathed to him, and the Spirit, the personification, if you will, of the love between the Father and the Son, applies redemption to those whom the Father gave and the Son redeemed. So we see salvation really as an extension and expression of the love of the Triune God. Well, this week we moved from looking at the coventive redemption to looking at the sinfulness of man. Today we get a picture of man and his depravity, because in order to understand salvation, we need to understand what we are saved from. Why it is that we are saved. If you remember In our first passage, we talked about those two questions. The first question, are you a Christian? That question that is answered overwhelmingly in the affirmative. We just heard about Brazil and where ninety percent of Brazilians would claim to be Christians and there are many places like them. Said that here in Zambia would be very similar. The overwhelming majority of people if you ask them, are you a Christian? Unless they belong to another religion, the answer would be yes. Right, I'm not a Buddhist, I'm not a Muslim, I'm not a Hindu. Yes, I'm a Christian. But then you ask the second question, and it gets stricken. Why why are you a Christian? How are you a Christian? What is it that makes you a Christian? And we looked at the fact that there are two obstacles there. There is the obstacle of tradition and the obstacle of theology. From the obstacle of tradition, we have the idea that you know, we grow up in an environment where we see people go through processes. Right, someone goes forward, someone you know makes a profession of faith, someone is baptized. There's a list of things that were told that Christian people don't do anymore. So from a traditional perspective, someone, are you a Christian, Yes, I'm a Christian because I was baptized. You know, I walked the isle. I was baptized, and I stopped doing ABC and X y Z, And we talked about the fact that hell is going to be full of people who can make that claim, full of people who can claim that they raised a hand, walked an aisle, got dunked in the water, or had it done to them before they were even able to understand it, and has a list of things that they started doing or stopped doing. You can do all of that and not be Christian. So there's the traditional barrier. You're a Christian. Yes, I'm a Christian because these are the things that people do in order to become a Christian. Or you're a Christian. Yes I'm a Christian because these are the people. These are the things that people stopped doing in order to become Christian. When it comes to the theology and the difficult that we have difficulty that we have with theology, we looked at the fact that there is four major themes that the Bible uses in relation to the doctrine of salvation. The four major metaphors motifs if you will. There's the idea of marriage, the idea of redemption from slavery, the idea of redemption from punishment, and the idea of adoption and family. All of these ideas are important and they give us different pictures and understanding of what it means to be a Christian. The problem comes when we take one of these metaphors and we have it as our only understanding of what it means to be a Christian. I use the example of the person who uses the love and marriage metaphor, and all of a sudden, you know, an salvation is all about the love of God and the grace of God, and anything that they hear that has anything to do with the wrath of God or anything to do with the holiness of God, all of a sudden, it just doesn't bring true because they've held on to that one metaphor. Another problem that we have is when we take these metaphors and we bring them from the culture that we find in the Bible into our culture and then redefine the doctrine. So the Bible uses the doctrine of adoption. Okay, here's what adoption means in my culture. Therefore, that must be what salvation is. The doctrine uses the Bible uses the doctrine of marriage, or the metaphor of marriage. Here's what marriage means in my culture. You know, therefore, this must be what the Bible means when it relates to marriage, or the issue of slavery and redemption from slavery, crime and punishment and redemption from punishment then comes from a theological perspective when we think we understand what the Bible is saying, and we don't. So the goal of these ten messages this year is for us to sort of tease out and understand clearly from the Bible's perspective what salvation means, what these metaphors mean. We started with the Covenant of redemption. We move now to the idea of sin, what sin means salvation, and what salvation and sin have to do with one another. It's interesting you ask people, you say you're saved, what are you saved from? And usually people will say I'm saved from hell? Yes, but what does that mean? And ultimately press the point we are saved from God. Let me say that again, we are saved from God. God is holy, He is righteous, and he is just the author of heub who says our God is a consuming fire. There is no shadow of turning in our God. Our God repels sin and wickedness like light repels darkness. Darkness doesn't even have to think about lightness. Light doesn't even have to think about repelling darkness. It's just what like does, by its very nature, same thing with God and his holiness and his righteousness. It repels sin. And we know this. We know this. We often condemn ourselves because we say things like that's not fair. We often condemn ourselves because we shake our fists at God because something happened and we feel like God's justice ought to have been meted out against that individual. And the moment we say that, we have actually admitted the fact that we know that sin deserves punishment and it deserves the wrath of God. And the problem with that is today it's that person, Yesterday it's you. But we almost never call upon the wrath of God in relation to our own sin. Amen, somebody else does something, we go, I can't believe that God let them get away with that. We sin, and we presume upon the justice of God failure. Does he sin is really a failure to see Christ. It's a failure to understand the Gospel. The Gospel is not a message for people who are doing okay and need to do a little better. The Gospel is not a message for people whose lives are not working as well as they would like for them to work, so that they can somehow just have a little better life. The message of the Gospel is a message of Christ and his victory of sin. Isaiah says, all, we like sheep, have gone astray, each of us had turned to his own way. God has laid upon him the iniquity of us, all taking Corinthians five twenty one. For our sake. He made him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God God Romans five eight. God demonstrates his love for us, and this and that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us one John four, nine and ten. And this the love of God was made manifest among us. That God sent his only son into the world so that we might live through him. And this is love. Not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent his son to be a propitiation for our sins. What is a propitiation? Propitiation for our sins means that Christ satisfies divine wrath on behalf of sinners. If we lose the idea of sin and sinfulness, we lose the idea of salvation. Christ died for sin, once for all, the just, for the unjust, in order that He might bring us back to God Colossians two thirteen to fifteen. And you who were dead in your trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, Having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us, with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and the authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them from him. This is the work of Christ saving us from our sin. So if we are to have a right understanding of salvation, we have to have a right understanding of sin. With that in mind, let us look now at our text in Romans chapter three. We'll begin there in verse nine. What then, are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged at all. Both Jews and Greece are under sin. As it is written, no one is righteous, no not one. No one understands, no one seeks for God. All have turned aside together. They have become worthless. No one does good, no not even one. Their throat is an open grave. They use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. In their paths are ruined and misery, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. This is a dreadful picture of the depravity of man. But it's a dreadful picture that we must understand, because again, in order to understand the good news, we have to understand the bad amen. And this is absolutely the bad news. The first bad news is the universality of sin. That sin is universal. Look at those first couple of verses again, are we jewsing a bit or off? No? Jews in Greeks all under sin. Not only that, but no one is righteous, none is righteous, no not one. In fact, the idea of no one or no not one is used five times in this one section of the passage, five times in order to make the point none is righteous, no, not one. No one understands, no one seeks for God. All have turned aside together and they become workless. No one does good, not even one. The idea here is that it's universal. All people, if we continue to read, we come down to verse twenty three, all have sin and fall short of the glory of God. Everyone everyone. You see, we have tendency to believe that the world is divided into sinners and saints, and that the division is natural, that there are some people who are sinful, and that there are other people who are not. And because we believe this, our hearts are actually turned towards certain people, believing that they need the Gospel, but not turned toward others, believing that they don't. You see the lady down the street, you know, the one down the streets. She's got a couple of cats, grandchildren who come and visit. Nicest old lady you've ever known. See sweet every time you pass by, if she catches you, you've got to come in and have tea or something. You know the lady. Do we know the lady? This lady who's always smiling, who always has a pleasant word, who always greets you. You know this, lady, don't you. You can be in the midst of the greatest urgency of your life. You've come to her with some urgent thing, and you say, oh, oh, oh, madam, I just I need to ask you. I need to tell you anything before you can get it out. She goes, good afternoon, Yes, because I have this important thing. I know you have this important thing. Wait, you're gonna greet me first? Good afternoon, Good afternoon. How are you? I'm you know that lady. She's sweet, she's kind, she's gentle, she's patient. She's lost because she does not know Christ in the pardon of her sins, and she is on her way to Hell apart from Christ. But we don't want to believe that. We only want to believe that Hell is designated for certain notorious sinners. In fact, I've said it before, most of us believe that Hell only has you know, ten or twelve people in it, maybe Hitler, you know, Mussolini, a couple of the really big bad sinners. But other than that, we just don't believe that people unless they reach a threshold of badness, we'll ever go to hell. Well, Paul has news for you. Look at it again. All people fail the righteousness test. No one is righteous. And he knows that. When he says that, right there, the lady down the street is gonna pop into your mind. So right after he says no, not even her, no, not one. Every human being is born in sin and is an enemy to a holy God, every human being. I know that there are people out there who argue out, oh, that's just not you know, children aren't innocent. People who believe that don't have children. And all the parents in the house said, Amen, we have to teach our children almost everything. And I say almost everything, because sin, we don't have to teach Amen, everything else, everything else. I'd have to teach you how to read, but I don't have to teach you how to lie. Help me understand that, Yeah, Paul helps us understand that no one is righteous, no, not even one. Listen to this from our Confession, Chapter six, paragraph three. They Adam and Eve, being the root and God's appointed, excuse me, and by God's appointment standing in the room, and instead of all mankind, the guilt of the sin was imputed and corrupted nature conveyed to all their posterity, descending from them by ordinary generation. We've talked about that term before ordinary generation is very important. I'll say something more about that moment. Being now conceived in sin and by nature, children of wrath, the servants of sin, the subjects of death, and all other miseryes spiritual, temporal and eternal, unless the Lord Jesus set them free. We are born in sin and shaped in an agree that phrase ordinary generation is extremely important. There is a reason that Christ was born by virtue of the virgin birth. This was in order for him not to be born of ordinary generation. Had even born of ordinary generation, he would have inherited sin as well. However, being born of a virgin conceived by the Holy Spirit, he was not conceived in sin and therefore free from it. That nice lady down the street, however, not so. She was conceived in sin, born in sin, and fails the righteousness test, just as every human being fails the righteousness test. Not only do all people fail the righteousness tests. We don't have inherent righteousness, which means we're guilty before God, but we also fail the understanding test. Paul says, no one understands no one is righteous and no one understands. So you don't possess the essence of righteousness, the nature of righteousness, nor do you possess the understanding necessary to have righteousness before God. But wait, there's more. Not only do we all fail the righteousness test and the understanding test, we also fail the pursuit of God test. You would think, if I don't have righteousness, I'm born unrighteous as all people are, and I don't have understanding, then something in me, realizing that I don't have righteousness and I don't have understanding, would seek after God in order to gain righteousness and understanding. You would think that, But Paul says, no one seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together they have become worthless. All men fail the righteousness test, all men fail the understanding test, and all men fail the seeking after God test. We are ruined sinners, every one of us. Yes, the nice grandmother down the street included because she was born in sin under the federal headship of Adam and an enemy of God because of the nature of sin that she inherited. All people also fail the good works test. He says, no one does good, not even one. We fail the righteousness test. We're born without it. We failed the understanding test, south there's no hope of us attaining righteousness. We fail the seeking after God test, which is a problem because God's the only source of righteousness. And then we fail the good works test because no one does good. Now I know what you're thinking. Wait a minute. You just talked about the lady down the street, The lady down the street, who is kind, who is gentle, the lady down the street, who is giving, who is loving? Doesn't she pass the goodness test? And that's a fair question. But understand this. In order for something to be good, it has to be the right thing, done the right way for the right reason. What is the only right reason? The glory of God. Well, here's the problem. Even if I do something that appears good, if I failed the righteousness test, if I failed the understanding test, if I failed the seeking after God test, then how can I do the right thing the right way for the right reason when the only right reason is the glory of God, which I can't seek because I fail the righteousness test. Do you see this? So I may, I may listen, I may people, I may want to be a good neighbor. But what's my goal? Is my goal the righteousness of God? Or is my goal you thinking well of me? Is my goal the righteousness of God? Or is my goal my reputation? Unless my goal is right, the righteousness of God, then it's still not good. We go from here to the next phase, the universality of sin, to the manifestation of sin. What does this look like? We see so far that sin is universal, that we're all under sin, Jews and Greece. All of us fail the righteousness tests, all of us fail the understanding tests, all of us fail the seeking after God tests, and all of us fail the good words test. We're not righteous, we are sinners. But how does that manifest itself look the next part of the text verse thirteen. Their throat is an open grave. They use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are shift to shed blood in their paths are ruined and misery in the way of peace. They have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. So, folks, you're alive. While officer said this is like a tube of toothpaste. When it squeezed, whatever's inside will come out. Amen. And oftentimes all you have to ask yourself is how do I respond when I'm squeezed? Not how do I respond when I have time to prepare, Not how do I respond when I know people are looking? But how do I respond when I'm squeezed. Speech is the principal means by which we make ourselves known to others. It's the place where we express our character to the outside world. It's how we let others know who we are, what we believe, what we want, what we value. Our speech, in a very real sense, is who we are. And so there's no wonder that the Apostle starts with our speech when he talks about us expressing our inward sinfulness Verses thirteen and fourteen. Throat is an open grave. Use their tongues to deceive the venomum of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses. And Paul here is quoting from the Old Testament Psalm five nine, Jeremiah five sixteen, Psalm one O three four, and Psalmchap ten and verse seven, And the implication is powerful. Listen to this from John Calvin who comments on this verse. It is further added, their throat is an open grave, that is a gulf to swallow up men. It is more than if he had said that they were devourers or man eaters, For it is an intimation of extreme barbarity when the throat is said to be a great gulf, that it is sufficient to swallow down and devour men all and entire. Note the word picture here. Your throat is an open grave. You open your mouth, and you not only kill people, you not only destroy people, but you devour them. You use your words this way toward others. Speech reveals the heart Luke six forty five. The good person, out of his good treasure of the heart, produces good, and the evil person, out of his evil treasure, produces evil. For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speech. You want to know whether or not men are sinful, just listen Proverbs ten nineteen. When words are many, transgression is lacking. Our speech tells the story. Our words give us away, and every word matters. Matthew twelve thirty six. I tell you, on the day of judgment, people will give account for every careless word they speak. Are you thinking about your words, things that you've said, words defile. In Matthew chapter fifteen, Jesus makes it very clear it's not what goes into a man that defiles him, but what goes out of the man that defiles him. Talks about the fact he know men. Whatever man eats and drinks, it's eliminated from his body. Ah. But the words that come out of the mouth, they are what defile. Words will bring about judgment. Matthew five twenty one. You've heard that it was said of old you shall not murder, and whoever murders will be liable to judgment. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother starts in the heart, right out of the abundance of the heart. The mount speaks starts with the heart. So you're angry with your brother will be liable to judgment. Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the counsel. And whoever says you fool will be liable to the fire of hell. What is Jesus saying here? You see, we think of sin in terms of the end result, and so we say I have not murdered anyone. Therefore I'm not a murderer. Jesus says, back it up. You haven't killed anyone, But have you hated anyone in your heart so violently that words were spoken, the intent of which, if it was followed through, would be your hands around their neck, choking the life out of them. Have you found yourself anywhere along that continue? Have you found yourself in a moment of heated anger and heated rage, welling up with murderous intent and speaking out words that kill your throat is an open grave? That's the meaning of the phrase. That's the meaning of the term. You ever spoken words that you wish you could catch before they got to the ears of the other person. Have you you ever said something and thought, I cannot believe those words came out of my mouth. Have you ever destroyed someone or something with your words? Have you ever thought to yourself, I want to say the most devastating thing that I can, and then spoken that devastating thing and seen it do its work in the heart of another Most of us have. It's amazing, isn't it, Because before it comes out of your mouth, your thought is this is just going to feel good. And then something like that is spoken, and before it hits the ears of the hearer regret already begins to build up, and then the words strike and do their dirty business, and the devastation is all over the face of the other person. And instead of you backing up, arms lifted in triumphs as they crumble before you, you crumble because of the devastation that's been wrong. I don't know if you even had to say here. Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. Listen, broken bones can heal a lot faster than the damage done by words. Amen. Words have ended friendships, words have ended marriages. Words have given rise to murder, words, genocide. Words. In fact, one of the things that you note even in wars, when people go to war with another group of people, they not often but always give them another name, something that dehumanizes, because before you can kill, you have to dehumanize. This is what our words do. This is the manifestation of the sin that is in our hearts. Yes, all of us are simple, and if you want evidence, all you have to do is examine your own words, from the heart to the lips to the life. Look the next part of the text, Verses fifteen to eighteen. Their feet are swift to shed blood. In their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. Again, Paul is quoting here Proverbs one sixteen, Isaad fifty ninety seven and Psalm thirty six to one. There is also an implication here. Think about that passage and then listen to this from Psalm one one and two. Blessed is the man who walks not in the council of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seated's coffers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. Think about that walk, stand, sit delight in the law of the Lord. Now listen to Paul again. Their feet are swift to shed blood. In their paths are ruined and misery, the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. Almost as though it's patterned after the Psalm. This idea of walking and path and way is the idea of your life, of the life that you live. Paul is not speaking here about things that people do. He's speaking here about things by which people are characterized violence, misery, strife, arrogance, a lack of the fear of God. So this sin that is in the heart of every man, and of which every man is guilty, manifests itself through the words that we speak, and not just through the words that we speak, but ultimately through the life that we live. Listen to this In First John, chapter three, spaghinni of verse four. Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning. There the idea here is walking continuing. No one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness here keep on walking practicing. Whoever practice is righteousness is righteous as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning there is again is of the devil. For the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. There's the idea. The idea there is practice, path walk life pattern. This is what sin does. We're sinful in our hearts, we express that sinfulness through our minds, and ultimately we manifest that sinfulness in the way that we live. And this is every human being. This is what you need to be saved from. This is what we need to understand in order to understand the message of the Gospel. If we don't understand this, then we turn the Gospel into something less than what it actually is. If we don't understand this now, all of a sudden, it's just I want a better life. I need a better life. I need a better marriage. I need to be a better parent. I need to be a better son, daughter, brother, sister. I need to find a better job. I need better more. Jesus come give me more, or Jesus come get me better. You don't understand the gospel. You don't understand the Gospel until you understand that your heart is deceitfully wicked. You fail the righteousness test. You don't understand the gospel until you understand that your words are even wicked because they come out of your unrighteous heart. You don't understand the Gospel until you understand that your deeds are wicked because they are manifestation of your sinfulness. It is only then that you understand how desperately you need Christ and what you need him for. In Luke chapter twenty four, Jesus puts his work this way, and you open their minds to understand the scriptures. He's on the road to Emmaeus verse forty five, verse forty six, and said to them, thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem. What's proclaimed repentance and forgiveness of sins? What's the gospel message? The gospel message is the person and work of Jesus Christ to do away with sin, his active obedience allowing him to impute righteousness to us, his passive obedience allowing our sinfulness to be imputed to him. It is death on the cross, repentance, turning from sin, and turning to Christ we might find in him forgiveness. Go back to our text in Romans chapter nine, and let's read the rest of the story. Paul gives the bad news in order for us to understand the good verse nineteen. Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by the works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. Again, you can't get there from here. You can't be good enough, because you'll never do the right thing the right way for the right reason. As long as your heart is not righteous, the law can't save you. It can only show you your need for a seed. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, allthough the law and the prophets bear witness to it. The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe, For there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ, Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation. There's that word by his blood to be received by faith. That is, to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he passed over former sins. Remember no shadow of turning in him. God is righteous, he's holy, he must punish them. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. There's the good news when you understand the universality of sin, and then when you understand the manifestation of sin, when you understand the sin that in every human heart, and when you understand that sin that is in every human heart affects even the way we speak to one another, poisoning, devouring, destroying, And when you understand that that sin manifests itself not only in the way we speak, but in the way that we live, and that every human being is under this condemnation, it is only then that you can comprehend the magnitude of our salvation to the person who work in Christ. It is only then that you understand who he, Jesus, is, and what Jesus has accomplished on behalf of all those who were found in him. It is only then that you are able to wrap your mind around the idea that the lady down the street, nice as she is, needs a savior, and that you need a say because you're not compared to other people. You're compared to the absolute standard of righteousness required by a holy, unrighteous God. And I don't care who you are today, you have opened your mouth and demonstrated the truth of this text. And if you follow the pattern of your life long enough, you have demonstrated the truth of this text. How do I know that? Because there is none righteous, no, not even one. And that means you. You fail the righteousness test, You fail the understanding test, you fail the seeking after God test, and you fail the good Words test. But that's okay, because everybody fails those tests. Amen, here's the one that matters. Will you fail the trusting in Christ alone? For salvation tests? You can fail the righteousness test and get to heaven. Amen. You can fail the understanding test get to heaven. You can fail the seeking after God test and get to heaven. You can fail the good Words test and get to heaven. Why because all well, that comes before the test that matters later on in John chapter three, the repentance and faith test. Do you recognize and acknowledge the fact that you fail all of those tests? And have you allowed your failure of all of those tests to point you in the direction of the only one who can save you. You see, if you fail at every one of those points and yet turn away from your sin and turn to Christ and trust in his finished work, well then you've passed the only test that matters, because you couldn't pass the other ones anyway. Amen, cannot understand salvation unless and until you understand sin. When you understand sin, you understand the glory of salvation. Because the sinless Savior died, my sinful soul is counting free for God that just was satisfied to look on him and pardon me. Let's bring, Gracious God, our heavenly Father, we bout before you, humbled and broken as we contemplate our own sin, and rejoicing as we contemplate the person in work of Christ. Grant by your grace that we might not be numbered among those who think of sin but lightning. Grant that we might think of it and the full weight thereof, And Grant that in doing so we might be caused to flee to Christ, for he is indeed our only hope. Grant these things we grad