No One Is Righteous

Children’s Bible Page 1225

Introduction: If you do not diagnose the problem correctly, you will not pursue the correct solution.

When my family lived in South Louisiana, we had a toilet in the house that would not flush correctly.

So, of course, I get a plumber out there, and he tells us our lines aren’t installed properly in order to get a proper gravity flow, so we need to have this expensive pump installed that will push everything through the pipes correctly.

And ignorant me bought it.

We buy the pump, still having the same problems.

We get a different plumber from a different company out there, he digs a little in our back yard and finds that the pipe has been broken by a tree root.

So, that pump could push as hard as it wanted, it wasn’t going to push the water past that root.

The first plumber got the problem wrong, so he pursued the wrong solution, and I paid dearly for it.

So let me ask you, what is your greatest problem?

No doubt, we all face struggles, problems, and challenges in life, so what is your greatest problem?

You need to think about that because if you are not diagnosing your greatest problem correctly, then you are spending your life pursuing the wrong solution, and you will pay dearly for it.

Is your greatest problem financial? Then you pursue finance counseling, a better job, better budgeting techniques.

Is your greatest problem your relationships? Then you pursue books, therapy, and counsel on relationship techniques.

Is your greatest problem emotional? Then you practice mindfulness, therapy, self-esteem, and wise boundaries.

Is your greatest problem boredom? Then you pursue entertainment, fun, and excitement.

Is your greatest problem a lack of knowledge? Then you pursue education and training.

We are in election season, what is our country’s greatest problem? Surely we are hearing all over what different candidates think our country’s greatest problem is.

What is mankind’s greatest problem?

Here at Christ Covenant Church, we have been walking through a sermon series through the book of Romans.

And as we come to Romans 3:9-20, this is the concluding passage for the first major section of the book.

And this section has all been about human sinfulness.

You see, I have entitled this series: “It’s all about the gospel!”

And gospel simply means “good news,” and God’s word is filled with good news - the best new in the universe actually,

But here’s the thing:

You will never truly come to understand just how good the good news of the gospel is until you grasp the weight of the bad news.

Francis Schaeffer was once asked the question, “What would you do if you met a really modern man on a train and you just had an hour to talk to him about the gospel?” He replied, “I’ve said over and over, I would spend 45-50 minutes on the negative, to really show him his dilemma – that he is morally dead – then I’d take 10-15 minutes to preach the Gospel. I believe that much of our evangelistic and personal work today is not clear simply because we are too anxious to get to the answer without having a man realize the real cause of his sickness, which is true moral guilt (and not just psychological guilt feelings) in the presence of God.”

So, our passage today is going to definitively finish answering the question: What is our greatest problem?

And as we diagnose that correctly, we can then be sure to learn in the rest of the book of Romans how to spend our lives on the correct solution, to make sure we do not waste our lives, and in the end, pay dearly for it.

Romans 3:9–20

9 What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, 10 as it is written:

“None is righteous, no, not one;

11 no one understands;

no one seeks for God.

12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;

no one does good,

not even one.”

13 “Their throat is an open grave;

they use their tongues to deceive.”

“The venom of asps is under their lips.”

14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”

15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;

16 in their paths are ruin and misery,

17 and the way of peace they have not known.”

18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

19 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. 20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

One of the dynamics we see being addressed over and over again in the book of Romans is the dynamic of Jew and Gentile.

Jew simply refers to the ethnic people of Israel whom God gave his word to in the Old Testament, and through whom God promised would send the Savior who would save from sin all who place their faith in Him.

Gentiles simply refers to all other people on earth who are not ethnic Jews.

And this was an important dynamic because since Jesus had come to earth, died on the cross, and risen in the resurrection, the church was now made up of both Jews and Gentiles, because it was made up of anyone who repented of their sin and placed their faith in Jesus.

But, the Jews had been tempted to think that because God chose them to receive his Old Testament word and send the Savior through their line, that they were approved by God and going to Heaven because of their ethnicity.

And while Paul has just said back up in verse 2 that Jews were given a great advantage by being entrusted with God’s word,

Our passage today begins by asking if the Jews are any better off, and Paul writes no, not at all!

Well, which one is it?

Do the Jews have a great advantage like in verse 2, or are they no better off like in verse 9?

And the answer is “yes.”

In regards to having God’s word, the Jews had the greatest of advantages, but in regards to being saved and going to Heaven, they have no advantage over the rest of the world, because that Old Testament word of God makes clear that we have all sinned against God, who is the perfectly holy and righteous Creator, and so we all deserve the judgment of God due our sin.

Notice the second half of verse 9: For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin.

You see, because we as humans are creatures and not the Creator, we are all always under something that rules our lives.

Created creatures do not get to sovereignly rule over themselves, only the Creator does that.

So, mankind was created to live under the loving Lordship of our Creator God,

But the Bible makes clear that we have all sinned against God, and because of our sin,

We do not naturally live in the wonderful position under our Creator God, we live in the horrible position under sin.

And in order to convince us of this: God leads Paul to quote Old Testament passages in verses 10-18 in order to convince us of our greatest problem and the greatest problem of all humanity.

And it makes sense that Paul would use Old Testament quotations, because many Jews thought they were under the favor of God just because they were the Jews to whom God gave the Old Testament,

But God uses Old Testament quotations to show them that the Old Testament itself testifies that all men, including Jews, are under sin.

So, let’s walk through what these Old Testament quotes tell us about the universality of humanity’s sinfulness:

1. We Are All Sinners In Our Character

“None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

Being righteous means having perfect standing before God.

Because God is perfect and holds a perfect standard, only perfection is necessary in order to have right standing before God, and on their own, no one has that.

No one understands.

We do not perceive of our great wickedness, because we do not perceive of God’s great holiness.

No one seeks for God.

We, as sinners, all naturally flee from God.

A true and genuine seeking of God must be initiated by the Spirit of God in drawing a person to seek after him, for no one seeks after God on their own.

All have turned aside.

Jesus calls himself the way, the truth, and the life, and no man comes to the Father except through him,

But on our own, left to ourselves, all humanity turns aside from the way.

Together they have become worthless.

Hebrews 9:27

27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,

And because all humanity was created by God and for God, then any life lived apart from the motivation of the love of God and the glory of God is worthless life that will do nothing but burn on the day of judgment.

No one does good, not even one.

Mark 10:17–22

17 And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’ ” 20 And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” 21 And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 22 Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

Two things about this idea of no one does good and no one does good except God alone:

The great standard of the great commandment is the love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.

Jesus makes clear that good deeds are not only weighed in the action, but even in the motivation of the heart.

R.C. Sproul writes: “If that is the standard of a good deed, then even after our conversion there is a pound of flesh in everything we do.”

So, our motivations are never perfect.

But, secondly, as we see in the event of the rich young ruler and Jesus, our good is never good enough.

When Jesus lists six of the ten commandments to the man, the man says he has kept them all since his youth, and Jesus doesn’t argue that point with Him.

Jesus simply says, “You’ve got to do a lot more. You’ve got to go sell everything and give to the poor.”

And listen, I believe if he would have done that, “Jesus would have said great, but you’ve got to do more.”

You see, the idea is that it is never enough!

Imagine being at the bottom of a deep muddy pit with no resources, and you fight and claw and work and strategize for days and weeks and months if that were possible, but at the end of all that striving, you are still just as deep as you were in the beginning.

It’s never enough.

Because God’s goodness is perfect and never ending.

We are all sinners in our character.

2. We Are All Sinners In Our Words

13 “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” 14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”

Not only are we sinners in our character from the heart,

But Jesus teaches that out of the heart, the mouth speaks.

So, as sinners, our throat is an open grave.

We naturally use our tongues to lie and deceive.

Would any of us be willing to stand up here this morning and simply speak in public every thought that has come out of your heart in the past day?

No, none of us wants to do that, because we all know there is destruction and decay there.

Matthew 23:27

27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness.

The venom of asps is under their lips.

The asp is one of the most deadly reptiles in the world because of their venomous bite.

In the same way, all humanity has used their lips to hurt, harm, and destroy one another.

Where is the one who has never spoken a harsh, hard, or hurtful word to another?

Where is the one who has never said something to make themselves look a little better and someone else look a little worse?

James 3:2

2 For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body.

Yet, none of us has been perfect with our tongue.

Mouths full of curses and bitterness is more the norm than the exception in our world.

Vulgarity, blasphemy, and filthy talk is all over the place.

Even our kind or flattering speech may have impure or manipulative motives behind them.

No doubt, you, like me have had a night when it is difficult to be at peace and sleep because of something someone said to you.

It is most likely that others have struggled with the same due to some word you said to them.

We Are All Sinners in our words.

3. We Are All Sinners In Our Actions

15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 in their paths are ruin and misery, 17 and the way of peace they have not known.”

Human sinfulness while it flows from the heart into our words, it never stops there.

It always expresses itself in our actions.

Consider Paul before he was saved.

Paul was a terrorist for the Jewish cause as he arrested and killed Christians for their rejection of traditional Judaism.

Millions of humans have been murdered throughout history, beginning in Genesis 4 where Cain killed his brother Abel, which was a display of where the sin of Genesis 3 would lead.

The world seeks to sell sin as something that is fun.

But, God’s word warns us of the ruin and misery that sin causes.

It is not the way of peace.

We are all sinners in our actions.

Verse 18 shows us the bottom line of all of our sinfulness:

There is no fear of God before their eyes.

The honor, awe, and reverence of God that we were created to live in is absent due our sin.

If the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, then the absence of the fear of the Lord is the beginning of destruction.

Verses 19-20 provide for us the summary statement of the whole of Paul’s argument from Romans 1:18-3:20.

Here it is.

This is what all these passages have been driving at

Romans 3:19–20

19 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. 20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

4. We Are All Accountable To God

Paul has already argued that all humanity finds themselves under the law, for all who know God’s written law are accountable to keep it yet none have.

And all who have not known God’s written law have perceived his power in Creation yet still rejected Him and worshipped the creature rather than the creator.

We have all rejected the knowledge of God and the knowledge of good and evil that we have been given.

I don’t know about you, but diving deeply into this passage feels pretty miserable.

But, I would argue that’s a good thing, because we so rarely face our own sinfulness for what it truly is.

We keep ourselves so distracted and we live with such easy excuses,

But when we take a moment like this and consider our guilt before a holy God, we realize that every mouth will be stopped.

On the day of judgment, when there are no more distractions, and there are no more excuses, and all is brought to light, no person in all humanity will have a word of self-justification.

In the present, mankind creates endless noise, endless distractions, endless excuses, but on that day, silence under the law of God.

For what will there be to say?

I was a good person? How silly that will sound!

I was not near as bad as so and so? How laughable a standard!

No, you will be held accountable to God and you will have no word of self-justification.

Verse 20, for by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

5. We Can Do No Works To Justify Ourselves Before God

What are you going to do?

Are you going to fall on your knees and promise God that you are going to do better from here on out? Too late! You cannot come back around to perfection.

Are you going to go sell all your possessions, sign up to serve others, give yourself to endless study, and prayer, and weeping? It’s not enough.

What are you going to do? Are you going to apologize? Apologize to God, apologize to those you have hurt in your thoughts, words, and actions? Being sorry doesn’t make our sin disappear.

There is nothing you can do.

You are a sinner guilty before God and condemned to eternal hell.

What is your greatest problem?

Where will you find the solution?

The Holy Spirit of God must convict us of our sin, because it is only when we experience the weight of the badness of the bad news of our sinful reality,

That we will ever see the goodness of the gospel good news of the glory of Jesus Christ in the cross and resurrection that shines out in full glory against the back drop of such darkness.

Maybe you have not treasured the good news of the gospel as you ought because you have been too distracted and made too many excuses to fully apprehend the bad news as you should.

Jesus came, fully man and fully God, and Jesus lived a perfectly righteous life.

Jesus understood, He sought after God, he never turned aside, he always did what was meaningful and right.

Jesus spoke grace and truth out of the goodness of His heart.

There was never a lie in him.

Jesus was swift to help and to heal and to walk the path of life and peace.

For Jesus always kept the fear of His Father God before His eyes.

Yet, He was despised and rejected by sinful men.

And Jesus was pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities at the cross.

The one who had never sinned, died a sinners death in our place for our sin.

The perfectly righteous was punished for your and my unrighteousness, and He then rose from the grave to gift His righteousness to all who would repent of their sin and place their faith in Jesus.

And all who repent and place faith in Jesus will have no need for a word of self-justification on the day of judgment, for they will have a word of justification by the grace of God through faith in God - the one who did not spare His own son, but gave him up for us, so that we could also with Him receive all things!

This is good news! This is the gospel!

Have you repented and believed?

(Elder at couch)

If you are a Christian here today, may we never forget what God has saved us from.

May we not fall back into sin but may we press on in faith empowered by God’s grace to live a life worthy of the calling of the gospel

And may we look forward to the day where we will see him face to face, and sin is gone, and peace is eternal.

Let’s pray.