Are People Good?

Good morning Church!

Today we are wrapping up our series in Heresies. We’ve talked about going to the Word for knowing what is and is not heresy, we’ve talked about Jesus being both fully God and fully man, and last week we looked at just who the Holy Spirit is and how important these things are to us as believers in Christ.

Today as our title suggests, we’re going to be asking the question “are people good?”

We hear it said often that that person is a “good person” or they’re “good people.” He’s a good guy. She’s good for him. Things like that.

Now a lot of people out there would answer that people, as a general rule, are “good.”

So, let’s just play with that thought for a moment -

If people are good, then why are there prisons?

Because some people are bad!

Ok, so our rule changes then, because now it has to become some or most people are good.

But is that true?

How do we define good?

Most of us would say that a liar is not a good person. Without raising your hand, how many would admit that they have told a lie in their life.

Most people would say that a thief is not a good person - how many would admit that you have stolen something, even something as small as a pen or a paperclip?

So, if you told that little white lie or if you stole that paperclip, by definition you are a thief or a liar, and therefore you are not “good.”

But there’s more to that. Because I think most of us get focused on the people that do bad things, but what about the people that choose not to do good?

Someone on the side of the freeway, they’ve got a flat tire, they’re out trying to figure it all out and you just drive on by because you’re too important to stop.

Today we’re going to be in Romans chapters one and three, and we’re going to be looking at this main point:

Main Point: People are born into sin and struggle with sin. Even the smallest sin must be punished but can also be forgiven through the redeeming work of Jesus.

We’re born into this sinful nature. We struggle with the flesh. And before you say something foolish like “I don’t have a sin problem,” I want to invite you to the words of Paul.

Paul says in 1 Timothy 1:15

1 Timothy 1:15 CSB

15 This saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I am the worst of them.

Paul acknowledged that he had a sin problem, and I would say that most of us are not going to measure up to Paul.

In fact, some of us may not even measure up to Judas if we are going to begin comparing ourselves to other people.

But instead of comparing ourselves to Paul or Judas or anyone else past, present, or future, let’s open our Bibles to Romans chapter 1 and compare ourselves to the Word of God and what it says about people being good.

Beginning in verse 18 we read:

and in

Romans 1:18–32 CSB

18 For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth, 19 since what can be known about God is evident among them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made. As a result, people are without excuse. 21 For though they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became worthless, and their senseless hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles. 24 Therefore God delivered them over in the desires of their hearts to sexual impurity, so that their bodies were degraded among themselves. 25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served what has been created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever. Amen. 26 For this reason God delivered them over to disgraceful passions. Their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 The men in the same way also left natural relations with women and were inflamed in their lust for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the appropriate penalty of their error. 28 And because they did not think it worthwhile to acknowledge God, God delivered them over to a corrupt mind so that they do what is not right. 29 They are filled with all unrighteousness, evil, greed, and wickedness. They are full of envy, murder, quarrels, deceit, and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, arrogant, proud, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 senseless, untrustworthy, unloving, and unmerciful. 32 Although they know God’s just sentence—that those who practice such things deserve to die—they not only do them, but even applaud others who practice them.

Would you pray with me?

Paul introduces Romans with this image of the Gospel as God’s saving power and revealing God’s righteousness to all who believe. In fact, in the verses prior to our passage for today we read

Romans 1:16–17 CSB

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, just as it is written: The righteous will live by faith.

Paul sets everyone up to hear more expounded upon by this wonderful truth and the hope that is in Christ, but then suddenly Paul shifts to a different truth.

Paul shifts to speaking of the depravity of man, our sinfulness, the hopelessness of the world without the Gospel. Paul begins to paint the portrait of why this revelation of God’s glory and righteousness are necessary and why our hope rests in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Paul wanted to show people that people are not, in fact, generally “good” by God’s standards.

And when we look at our main passage for today, we are able to see three problems with seeing people as “good” people.

The first problem is that:

1. God is KNOWN by man.

God is able to be known because God has shown all of creation about Himself verse 19 says.

Verses 18 through 20 speak about how we can know God from the evidence around us. Paul says His eternal power and His divine nature have been seen since the creation of the world through what He has made.

Romans 1:18–20 CSB

18 For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth, 19 since what can be known about God is evident among them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made. As a result, people are without excuse.

There are a number of theories out there of how the world was made and how life came to be on planet earth. There’s the big bang theory, there’s a theory that the world has been around forever, there’s the theory of evolution. None of those really hold water to the reality, Paul says, that God created.

If you believe in the big bang theory, that everything just suddenly exploded into the universe we have now, then the question remains, what caused the explosion? Because observable science says that every reaction needs a cause, nothing ever spontaneously happens.

If you believe that the world has always been, there’s problems with that as well, because science also shows us that everything that is formed has a known beginning.

If you believe in evolution, there are obvious problems there because that too would have some observable evidence, there would be skeletal evidence and fossil evidence for the life forms in between, but there aren’t any.

Paul says here that all of creation points to a Creator, the entire universe points to God as the starting poing and as the sustainer of the universe. The perfection required for sustainable life on planet earth amongst the entire universe by chance is so far removed that it would take immensely more faith to believe than Creation.

Yet people choose to believe that over creation.

Verse 18 is that ultimate problem, God’s wrath is constantly being revealed, and people by their unrighteous suppression of the truth have blinded themselves to not see God’s justice and holiness that demands righteousness.

We hide the truth, and we hide from the truth Paul says.

What can be known about God is clear as day, but we hide from that because God’s eternal power and His divine nature bear witness against what we think is “good.”

When the truth is bad news, we’re going to hide from that bad news.

And the bad news that is alluded to in verse 18 of God’s wrath is explained in chapter 3 verse 23:

Romans 3:23 CSB

23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God;

All have sinned, the Bible says. Every one of us on our own power, the Bible says, has fallen short of the glory of God.

Now I know that calling everyone on the face of the earth a sinner sounds terrible, but it’s the truth. I am a sinner. You are a sinner. The people you associate with are sinners, your spouse is a sinner, your best friend is a sinner. Your kids are sinners. There is no escape from our sin nature that we are able to do ourselves.

And that’s some pretty lousy news. That offends people if we just leave it at that. If you don’t find that offensive, you’d be considered pretty strange I’d say.

We hear that word that we’re all sinners and that shame and guilt weighs heavy on us. But apart from Christ there is no hope to be had, and each one of us is a sinner. There’s no escaping that while we still have this old flesh.

And Paul then gives us our second problem - as a result of our hiding from God and His truth:

2. God is REJECTED by man.

Verses 21 through 23 tell us that even though we were able to know God, we did not glorify Him and instead we rejected Him.

Romans 1:21–23 CSB

21 For though they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became worthless, and their senseless hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles.

Paul says that in human “wisdom” they became fools and chose to immortalize men, birds, animals, and reptiles.

What does evolution use to try to prove its points? Men, birds, animals, and reptiles. What do we put on currency? Pictures of men and animals.

There are people today that still worship or elevate men and animals over God.

And so, what does God do?

God says ok, here you go. You want to destroy yourselves; I’m going to let you have your own way. Verse 24 this time in the ESV says:

Romans 1:24 ESV

24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,

The CSB said sexual impurity, and that’s just one way that the Greek can be translated, but I think most of the translations just say impurity or uncleanness, but the bottom line is that He’s going to give you over to the desires of your hearts Paul says. And if the desire of your heart is to sin, then He’s going to give you over to that.

Now before anyone goes wahoo, that sounds great, I get to do whatever I want, remember those words from verse 18:

Romans 1:18 CSB

18 For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth,

There is still going to be a price to pay for unrighteousness and godlessness. This is just saying that if you are going to choose that, then God is going to turn you over to that.

If you are going to choose to worship sin over God, then Paul says that God is going to turn you over to that, and that isn’t a good thing. It may feel “good” but understand that you don’t know what good really is if that’s the case.

The turning over that is being spoken of here is like that of a prison sentence. God will turn them over to the prison of their sin. This in turn will lead to the degradation of their bodies and they seek to please the flesh that is going to be their destruction.

It’s as verses 25 and 26 says,

Romans 1:25–26 CSB

25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served what has been created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever. Amen. 26 For this reason God delivered them over to disgraceful passions. Their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones.

These verses mirror 23 and 24 - people exchange God’s truth for a lie, we worship the created things rather than the creator, and because of that God is going to deliver us to the prison of our disgraceful passions.

Then it begins some sexual sins, that last part of 26 says that “Their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones” then continuing on in verse 27:

Romans 1:27 CSB

27 The men in the same way also left natural relations with women and were inflamed in their lust for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the appropriate penalty of their error.

These are sins the Bible says, and God will hand you over to that prison for committing sexual sins. Now here it’s specifically speaking of homosexual acts, it’s not going to stop there, there’s a full laundry list of things that are coming, but God’s Word right here speaks of homosexual actions as sin.

Lately there’s been a lot of people coming out and saying that the Bible doesn’t mention homosexuality or didn’t until a certain period of time, but the Word hasn’t changed. The Greek uses this language that speaks of exactly what we see here, and that is homosexuality.

Yet again, people are going to refuse to see the truth and heed to the truth and they are going to choose the lie and the prison of their sin because it feels good to them. The problem is, it’s not good, and it’s not good for you.

Now before we get too hung up on homosexuality, Paul continues, verses 28 through 31 he says:

Romans 1:28–31 CSB

28 And because they did not think it worthwhile to acknowledge God, God delivered them over to a corrupt mind so that they do what is not right. 29 They are filled with all unrighteousness, evil, greed, and wickedness. They are full of envy, murder, quarrels, deceit, and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, arrogant, proud, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 senseless, untrustworthy, unloving, and unmerciful.

Paul moves past the sexual deviation sins and moves into all of the other sins that are out there that we can be handed over to.

We have been delivered over to a corrupt mind, Paul says, because we did not acknowledge God.

Because of that we are filled with ALL unrighteousness, evil, greed, and wickedness.

People are not good, Paul says.

He says they are full of envy - I want what they have.

Murder.

Quarrels - people have a hard time getting along.

Deceit - they lie and tell half-truths.

Malice - they’re thinking of ways to set people up.

Gossips, slanderers, God-haters, arrogant, proud, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, senseless, untrustworthy, unloving, and unmerciful.

Paul says there is not a single person alive that is righteous. Apart from Christ, this is who we are.

In chapter three verse 10 Paul says

Romans 3:10 CSB

10 as it is written: There is no one righteous, not even one.

Paul reveals the problem with people. The problem with people is that we are all corrupt, we are all sinners. We rejected God for sin, because we’ve been corrupted by that sin to believe that this sin feels good or triggers these receptors in our minds that make us think they feel good, but in reality, they are destroying us.

There is no one righteous, not even one.

The first problem with seeing people as good is that God is able to be known, the second problem is that in light of the ability to know God, we still reject Him. The third problem with seeing people as good is that:

3. God is JUDGE of man.

God is the judge of man, not us. God’s definition of justice and goodness are what matter.

And in verse 32, we see how that works against people being “good.”

Romans 1:32 CSB

32 Although they know God’s just sentence—that those who practice such things deserve to die—they not only do them, but even applaud others who practice them.

We know God’s justice, we know the sentence, that those who practice ANY of these sins, from homosexuality to lying, deserve to die according to God’s righteousness, and that we don’t only do them, but we encourage others to do them.

God’s perfect law requires justice, not justice as we define it, but God’s justice, and He can’t have that sinfulness and that unrighteousness in a perfect Kingdom.

That all is horrible news. Our sin demands it though. The Law requires a price for sin. The Law requires death. We’re all bound by sin to that, and there’s nothing that we can do about it.

Fortunately, there’s something He can do about it.

Paul continues to paint this vivid picture of the depravity of all people, our inability to do anything about the sentence of death, but then he gets to chapter 3. Beginning in verse 21 Paul says:

Romans 3:21–26 CSB

21 But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been revealed, attested by the Law and the Prophets. 22 The righteousness of God is through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe, since there is no distinction. 23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; 24 they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. 25 God presented him as the mercy seat by his blood, through faith, to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his restraint God passed over the sins previously committed. 26 God presented him to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so that he would be just and justify the one who has faith in Jesus.

God provides a way to be free from the chains of sin and death.

Apart from the Law, He reveals Himself through the prophesies of the Old Testament that Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, came to pave the way for freedom!

We are able to have righteousness through Jesus Christ if we believe. And if you believe, if you trust Him and follow Him and repent, Paul says there is no distinction between Jew and Gentile, between someone who has sinned much and someone who has sinned little, all have sinned and all who believe are justified freely by the redemption of Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ paid the price that we were destined to. Jesus went to the mercy seat and by His blood demonstrated His righteousness and gave of Himself to justify us and to make us clean.

Verse 25 speaks of the propitiation of our sins. Instead of us receiving the wrath of God, Jesus Himself too that in our place. When it says the mercy seat by His blood, that’s saying that instead of God’s righteous wrath being poured out upon us, Jesus took our place in His mercy, and by that God has passed over our sins.

And verse 26 carries this to those that receive Him today are justified by their faith.

All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Every one of us deserves the wrath of God for our sin, because our God is Holy, and His justice requires it.

But by His grace and mercy, by His love for us, God also provided the sacrifice that is able to take away sin.

All that is necessary is to place your faith in Jesus Christ.

Would you stand and pray with me?

Prayer - Lord, thank You for Your mercy and grace. Father as we gather here today, a group of people that have heard Your Word today, if there is anyone here today that doesn’t know You and who is still subject to Your wrath, Father I pray today that You convict that person and call them into a relationship with You today. That they would know the price that Jesus paid, that they would come to faith in Jesus Christ as the propitiation for their sins, and that they would walk away today free from the prison of their sin today, Lord.

In a moment we’re going to have a song of invitation, where you can come forward if you’ve made that decision to turn from that prison of sin to faith in Christ, and we’d like to talk more with you and help you with that. I would encourage you to not leave here without speaking to someone about any questions you have, and right now as the music plays softly or as we sing you can come forward and we’ll just have a conversation or after service is over you can catch one of us and we’ll talk.

If God is calling out to you and He’s saying to you that you need to know Him today, let’s make sure that you know Him today. As the music plays, won’t you come?

Lord’s Supper

As the ushers are coming forward to receive today’s offering, if you’ve got a prayer request or if there’s just something that you need to talk about after today’s message and you’d like to talk, I want to encourage you to either fill out that connect card that is attached to your bulletin or to text that number on the screen. We’d love to hear from you and add you to our prayer list.