Sermon Tone Analysis

MBC – 1~/30~/2005 – Pastor Doug Thompson

*/“Silent Before God”/*

Romans 3:9-20

 

After almost 2 mos.

Away from Romans, we are returning to our study.

Romans presents the Gospel—the Good News from God.

And next week, we will finally come to this Good News, beginning in 3:21, the light finally breaks, and Paul /brings us to the cross /where there is salvation, forgiveness, eternal life, heaven, and peace with God!

 

To me, Romans is like the Himalayas of the Bible, and Rom.3:21ff is the peak of Mt.

Everest.

And at that peak, we find the cross.

Paul has been bringing us to the cross for 3 ½ chs., but if you are looking at the altimeter, the needle has been going down instead of up!

It looks like we are hiking down to the floor of Death Valley, because the only way to get to the cross for salvation and eternal life, is by way of coming to grips with your sinfulness before God.

This morning is the final descent--

 

Ø      ROM 3:9 What then?

Are we better than they?

Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin;

Ø      ROM 3:10 as it is written, "There is none righteous, not even one;

Ø      ROM 3:11 There is none who understands, There is none who seeks for God;

Ø      ROM 3:12 All have turned aside, together they have become useless; There is none who does good, There is not even one.

"

Ø      ROM 3:13 "Their throat is an open grave, With their tongues they keep deceiving," "The poison of asps is under their lips";

Ø      ROM 3:14 "Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness";

Ø      ROM 3:15 "Their feet are swift to shed blood,

Ø      ROM 3:16 Destruction and misery are in their paths,

Ø      ROM 3:17 And the path of peace have they not known.

"

Ø      ROM 3:18 "There is no fear of God before their eyes."

Ø      ROM 3:19 Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, that every mouth may be closed, and all the world may become accountable to God;

Ø      ROM 3:20 because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.

*Intro: /What keeps people from the cross?/*

Before we get to the good news, we have to hear the bad news.

The good news is that there is complete forgiveness, salvation from the judgment of God, and eternal life in heaven for everyone who will trust in Christ.

The bad news is, we all need it, because we are sinful—full of sin, offensive to God, and deserve hell.

The Bible tells us that apart from God’s grace, we are under His wrath!

Everyone wants to go to heaven, but by nature, we aren’t willing to admit that we are sinners who deserve hell.

That is offensive to us!

This is what keeps people from the cross.

Do you see how ironic the situation is: The cross is where grace is! It’s where peace, love, and joy are!

It’s where new life in Christ is, but people stay away in droves and perish in hell rather than to admit that they are sinners who need a Savior.

They put their hands over their ears.

They don’t want to hear it.

Ø      Sometimes presenting the gospel to a person is like trying to help a hurt animal: You try to get close, you are speaking in your kindest, most loving voice, and it’s eyes on fire.

That animal is convinced that you are trying to hurt it rather than help it.

You have the medicine it needs, and it’s running away from you as fast as it can.

Ø      It’s like going up to a person and saying, “I have incredible news for you, this is literally going to change your life!”

The person, says, “Tell me, tell me, what is the good news?”

And you say, “I know a doctor who has a 100% success rate in fixing the faces of hopelessly ugly people!”

This is why people stay away from the cross.

It is the antidote for the poison that is killing them, but they will not admit that they are dying.

The universal belief of unbelievers is that they are basically good.

Not perfect, maybe flawed, but basically good, and where they have gone wrong, it’s because they are victims of their circumstances or society, or their genes, or their parents, or some sexual trauma, or some addiction.

They /refuse/ to believe they are hopeless sinners, and they /excuse/ what sins they will admit.

But the gospel doesn’t tell us we’re victims, it tells us we’re criminals.

Dr. Phil won’t tell you that.

Dr. Laura won’t, Oprah certainly won’t.

Even Michael Savage won’t say that.

But that’s what the gospel says, and it says that you can’t get to the cross until you lay down your excuses, your explanations, and your rationalizations, and confess that you are a helpless, hopeless sinner who desperately needs a Savior.

Beloved, this is revelation from God!

No human would make this up.

*I.

The Prosecution’s closing argument.*

*/A.

An opening objection./*

He’s asking, “Are we Jews better than the Gentiles?”

Let’s review what Paul has covered in this letter so far that leads him to pose this question:

 

In 1:1-17: Paul was telling the church at Rome that his whole life revolves around the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Gospel means good news, and in 1:17, he says that it’s good news about “the rtnss. of God:” Sinful men and women can have God’s own righteousness credited to them, as a gift of His grace, through simply believing in Jesus Christ.

But in the very next verse, he launches into 63 verses describing why every man, woman, and child /desperately needs/ the righteousness of God.

It’s because every man, woman and child is under God’s wrath because of their sins, and on their way to eternal punishment apart from it.

So Paul begins by describing those who are without God’s Word, Gentiles, pagans.

They reject the natural revelation God has given them, they indulge their flesh, they worship idols.

They rightfully deserve punishment from God.

No argument from the Jews on this point!

But in ch.2, Paul turns his guns on the Jews: the stewards of God’s Word, His chosen people, the nation from which the Messiah came.

Even though they maintained a righteous façade, they not only did the same things as the Gentiles, they were worse because they were hypocrites about it!

They were the great preachers of morality and family values, they told the Gentiles how they should be living, but they were no better themselves.

Jesus said they were like whitewashed tombs, pretty on the outside, but full of dead men’s bones on the inside.

When we come to ch.3, an imaginary Jewish objector speaks up: “Well Paul, if what you are saying is true that Jews and Gentiles are on the same level before God, what happened to the promises God made to the Jews?

Is God unfaithful?

Is there any advantage to even being a Jew? Paul answers this question in depth in chs.9-11, but he says here, “Yes, It’s a great advantage to be a Jew, to be brought up with the Scriptures that speak of the coming Christ, in a home that honors God.

But that spiritual /advantage/ doesn’t automatically grant spiritual /status/--/Privilege/ doesn’t equal /possession!/

It never /guaranteed/ salvation apart from personal faith.

So then, in light of what he has just said about the privilege of the Jews, Paul anticipates the pendulum swinging back too far the other way, and some Jewish person saying, “Oh, good, so we are better than the Gentiles!”

What is his answer?

“Not at all! “For we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all /under/ sin.”

Paul’s whole point is that there are no exceptions, as he says in 3:23, “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” Everyone stands condemned before God, no one is excused or exempt, all need the righteousness of God, or they will perish.

So vv.9-20 is the final closing argument from the prosecution.

Everyone, Jew, Gentile, Irish, Italian, Eskimo, you and I—apart from the grace of God--are universally evil, spiritually ignorant, rebellious, wayward, spiritually useless, and morally corrupt.

Notice two things about this list of accusations:

 

1.)

This isn’t Paul’s personal criticism or evaluation—he is citing the OT Scriptures (at least 6 different passages—and it’s the longest OT citation in any of his letters.

He says, “as /it is written/.”

=  perfect tense; it stands forever, written.

God’s verdict on mankind’s sinfulness has abiding permanence and relevance.

It was true when the OT writers wrote it, true when Paul quoted it, true today, and if Jesus doesn’t return for another 2,000 years, it will still be true.

The nature of unredeemed mankind will never change.

There is no expiration date on what he says.

2.) What he says is universal, it’s true of all of mankind—except for Jesus Christ.

“There are none righteous” Paul says “none” or “not even one” 6X in this passage.

There are no exceptions to what he is charging against the human race.

Not one.

Let that sink in: Not your sweetest grandma or aunt, or you or I—there are none righteous—all are sinful.

But this is just unbelievers, right?