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Due to the large amount of sermons and topics that appear on this site I feel it is necessary to post this disclaimer on all sermons posted. These sermons are original to the author and the leading of the Holy Spirit. While ideas and illustrations are often gleaned from many sources including those at Sermoncentral.com, any similarities and wording, including sermon titles, that may appear to be the same as any other sermon are purely coincidental. In instances where other minister’s wording is used, due recognition will be given. These sermons are not copyrighted and may be used or preached freely. May God richly bless you as you read these sermons. It is my sincere desire that all who read them may be enriched. All scriptures quoted in these sermons are copied and/or quoted from the Authorized King James Version of the Holy Bible.
Pastor James May
I’M GUILTY ON EVERY COUNT!
Romans Study Series
Romans 3:10-19
Paul begins this section of the Book of Romans with an indictment against all of mankind that is based upon three main points. In this discourse Paul proves the point that there is not one righteous man in all of creation who can stand before God innocent unless their sin has been washed away and covered by the Blood of Jesus Christ.
A few days ago I attended the revival at Live Oak PCG in Watson, LA where Rev. Dwain Mixon is preaching. In that sermon, Bro. Mixon was talking about the fact that we don’t have absolutes in our lives any longer. I want to tell you that there is one real absolute and Paul is presenting it to us right now. It is absolutely true that not one man on the face of God’s green earth is righteous before God. God’s righteousness is perfect and no man can claim that he has obeyed every law and attained unto God’s righteous state of his own volition.
Romans 3:10-18, "As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps 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 ways: And the way of peace have they not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes."
Paul continues to build upon his point. Every man lives according to the flesh. That flesh is only desirous of one thing – whatever it takes to make me the center of the universe. The flesh only wants to please its own cravings. The flesh only wants to feel good, look good, and do its own thing. The flesh does not seek after God and doesn’t care to know Him, learn of Him or to hear from Him. No one craves the knowledge and understanding of God without the Holy Spirit drawing them. The flesh will never understand God and will ultimately have to be put down before we can reach any depth in the love of Jesus.
The flesh knows that it needs something more than it is able to produce but is unwilling to surrender to God who can supply that deep need to fill the empty chasm of our hearts. Man, in the flesh, attempts to produce his own “way to godhood.” We do so through our various religions, rituals, and ceremonies that are designed to ease the conscience, satisfy the mind and inspire the heart. The fulfillment is temporary at best and sacrilegious in its entirety. Man’s attempts to reach God are feeble, weak and impossible. Our miniscule attempts to reach out to the great God of all Creation are but puffs of smoke that are lost in the omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent God.
The flesh, not willing to be ruled by the true God, begins to justify its rebellious attitude. Man does all he can do to discredit or circumvent the confession that there is only one Lord, one God and that man must serve that one true God or lose his eternal soul.
The very nature of sin, born into the heart of every baby that comes into this world, is ever deteriorating into a more decadent lifestyle and condition of the heart. The power of sin, in all of its horror and tragedy, takes that, which is perfect, and causes all things to flow toward the negative.
Everything that man attempts to build or create simply deteriorates over time and usage. Look at that new car you bought and watch the miles build up. It’s disheartening to know that it is already wearing out so very quickly. Look at every religion that man has created to satisfy his needs and you will see that the lofty ideals that were present in the formation of a new religion will degenerate quickly over time to become a religion that brings a curse and damnation upon its followers rather than lead them ever closer to the God of Heaven. That new home already needs some repairs. Your new clothes and shoes are already showing signs of wear. Even it you don’t use it, the things we build will deteriorate quickly. An unused car loses value because of age, whether it’s driven or not.
Because of the nature of sin and its effect upon our heart, we become useless vessels to accomplish God’s work. We have become as rotten fruit, damaged goods, broken pottery and spoiled rotten creatures. Paul says to understand that all of us are in this lowly condition. There is not one who can stand above the rest and say that we aren’t controlled by sin. Our only hope is in Jesus Christ.
Not only do we not desire or even attempt to reach the perfect state of righteousness within our selves, but also we cannot do so no matter how much we may desire it or how hard we try. Man’s greatest level of self-righteousness is still nothing more than filthy, smelly rags in the eyes of God who judges all things by perfection.
God doesn’t grade on a curve. God grades on the absolute. He doesn’t look at he life of a man who does good things and set that man as the standard for all to reach. God’s only standard is Jesus Christ, the perfect lamb, sacrificed for our sin. Thank God that Jesus is my Savior and it is He that will defend my case in the courts of Heaven for He has purchased me with His own blood!
In the second part of Paul’s case against man, he reveals the depths that man will sink into in becoming more sinful.
Paul uses every part of our being to show that we are absolutely immersed in the power of sin and that we are powerless, within ourselves, to break free from the bondage that the chains of sins have upon our lives. Every part of us, throat, tongue, lips, mouth, feet, eyes, etc., are used to drive us farther from God and deeper into the depths of darkness and sin.
Our throat is like an open sepulcher, an open grave! Can you imagine the stench and the horrible sight that you would see if you were to go into the local cemetery and open many of the burial vaults? Not only does sinful man spew out filth and garbage but also the mouth is like an open pit where we can constantly insert our foot. The words that come from our lips begin at the heart, enter into the mind and then come out of our mouths. No wonder so many speak such awful things or blaspheme God so greatly. They cannot but speak the things that are really in their heart.
Our mouth is always ready to spread gossip. Our mouth is always ready to speak the negative, spread the bad news, stab one another in the back, or lie our way out of trouble. The mouth is a pit of sin, ready to swallow anyone who comes by.
James 3:5-6, "Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell."
There is no other power on earth that destroys quicker and does greater damage than the tongue. An unruly tongue can kill your testimony in seconds or cause damage that will take many years to overcome. The tongue is deceiving, every stretching, ever hiding, ever evading the real truth.
Illustration:
Do you want to see just what power the tongue can have, even when it is “controlled”?
(Take 10-20 people and line them up then give them a simple sentence to repeat. Tell them to whisper it in the ear of the next person, one at a time, until the last person hears it. Then, have the last person repeat the statement for all to hear. Is the final statement close to the original? I venture to say that it will have changed drastically, and that’s under the best of conditions.) Here is an example of the sentence to use: “The Lord is good and gracious and will save every man who comes to him repentance, confessing Jesus Christ as Lord of his life.’
Oh how much power is in the tongue of the man or woman who doesn’t have Jesus as the center of their lives, helping them to control the power of their tongue! Paul says it is as though man carried poison under his lips like an asp or a viper. Our words carry the power of life or death and, if we don’t watch them closely, we can kill another person just as surely as if we had pulled a trigger on a weapon.
The anger and frustration in the heart of man is quick to speak curses and bitterness to another. Even as Christians, we must guard against letting our mouth speak before we put our brain into gear less we allow some words to slip that we wish we could stop. Whatever is in the heart is immediately released to the mind and then flows across our vocal cords and out of the lips. Have you ever noticed how much easier it is to criticize or even to joke in a negative fashion than it is to give a sincere compliment? That’s because our heart dwells upon the negative and not the good in other people.
Paul says that the feet of all men are swift to shed blood. The whole body tends to follow the feet into the path of sin. We don’t have to resist doing good things – we have to force ourselves to be ever vigilant to do that which is right in the sight of God and live a holy, sanctified life. But we do have to resist the temptation to do evil because the nature of the flesh is to ever drift into sin and we sometimes must fight the urge to do certain things that we don’t want to do with all our might. Without the grace of God, we simply can’t resist enough to keep from drifting into sin.
Paul says in Romans 7:18-25, "For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then 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: 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. O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin."
If the Apostle Paul had trouble resisting the natural tendency toward sin of his flesh, what makes us think that we can escape without those same tendencies? Thank the Lord that He is able to give us the power to overcome sin and we can live according to the Spirit and not the flesh!
We don’t have to wield a knife or fire a pistol to kill, we can do it with our tongue and we can do it with just a glance from our eyes! Have you ever heard the phrases “daggers coming out of his eyes” or “boy, if only looks could kill, you would be dead now”? There is a lot of truth in those statements for even “the evil eye” can destroy another person under the right circumstances.
Have you ever had your father to just look at you, never say a word, and yet make you cower in fear for your very life? Now there’s a look that can mean death for sure!
In verse 16, Paul says that Destruction and Misery are in the paths of sinful man. Our desire for self-gratification knows no limits. I have seen those who will stomp others into the mud to get a little higher on the corporate ladder. I have seen those who will slander and lie against another to get a promotion or make themselves look better in the eyes of the boss. I have seen those who will bring misery into the lives and hearts of others because they are unhappy within themselves and they don’t want anyone else to be happy either.
Just look at the cases of physical, mental and sexual abuse that are rampant in our society and you will begin to catch just a small glimpse of the depths of sin that man will reach when he is following the path of sin and destruction on the way to pits of hell itself. We have yet to see how far man can go. If we think that things are bad now, just wait a few more years. Should the Lord tarry we will see many things that will make today’s great tragedies seem like nothing by comparison. Man’s sinful heart will ever drag him deeper into sin and bring upon humanity even greater atrocities than we have imagine.
In verses 17 & 18 Paul brings us to source of man’s sin. The reason that man continues down the path of sin is that he has lost his fear of God! Men are living in utter and gross darkness where the light of the gospel is the only light that has the power to penetrate. The gross spiritual darkness that engulfs this world cannot be driven back by the post powerful light beams that man can produce because that darkness is not of the flesh but of the spirit. Spiritual darkness can only be overcome by spiritual light, the light of the Holy Spirit.
The spiritual darkness separates man from the light of God and creates within man a great vacuum that cannot be filled by anything of earth. In frustration for never being able to be completely satisfied, man grows angry, fearful and shameful. Peace is an unattainable wish because the Prince of Peace is not present. He cannot dwell where sin is and there is no agreement between light and darkness. Man can work toward peace, call for peace, create treaties of peace but there is no real and lasting peace for the sin in the heart of man will soon be angry again and will strike out against one another in greed, covetousness and fear.
Proverbs 1:7 says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge…”
Romans 3:19 says,” Now we know that what things 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."
In this final verse for this message Paul states that we, as the Children of God and the Family of God, including those Jews that Paul was speaking to in the church at Rome, have the knowledge that the Law of Moses and the Laws of God throughout the Word of God, actually reveal to us the way of Holiness and Righteousness. The Law also tells us that every man is sinful in the sight of God for not one of us has fulfilled all the Law. We also know that we must, one day, stand before the Judge of all the Earth and answer for every sin we have committed and every Law that we have broken while in this life.
We also know that there is no defense that we can give for our guilt. We can have no excuse for our disobedience because God not only revealed His law through His Word and His Prophets but He has placed that Word within our very heart.
There are no courts of appeal – no higher court that we can petition because God is the ultimate and final judge for every case. Thus, the whole world is under condemnation. There is none righteous, no not one! Mankind stands condemned and helpless to remove his condemnation within his own power.
If man could claim any goodness at all, he could depend upon himself for attaining righteousness. But because there is none righteous, we must all look toward Jesus Christ!
Jesus paid the debt for us that we could not pay. He purchased our salvation and became our substitute in the courtroom of Heaven. He took our penalty of death for our sin upon Himself on the cross. He gave His life and His blood so that we would not have to give ours.
Man cannot depend upon himself for redemption. He needs a Savior. That Savior is Jesus Christ! The Law cannot save, it can only condemn and punish. Jesus came to fulfill that Law and bring salvation to us all. Praise the Lord for His grace and mercy!
If we do not accept the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior and allow His blood to cleanse us from sin then we will have to accept the guilt of the Law for there is no other way.
The breaking of the Law is sin and the penalty for sin is death, separation from God and eternal punishment in gross darkness. What a terrible eternity that will be for those who do not come to Jesus. That’s why it is so urgently important that we tell everyone we meet about Jesus!
