Rom 3:9-20 "NO One is Righteous"

You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink, on the other hand you can “salt his oats”

The primary purpose of an appetizer is to awaken the senses and prepare the palate for the main course.

They provide a glimpse into the culinary expertise of the chef or host and create a sense of anticipation among the diners.

Paul is about to lay out a banquet feast of the riches of the Gospel, but he first spends 3 chapters increasing our appetites. An appetite that won’t be satisfied by some “tapas menu”.

TRANSITION: by the end of today’s sermon we should be starving and craving something substantial

Indictment (Romans 3:9-10)

Advantage (3:1-4), but not Benefit

Is there a difference between Advantage and Benefit? The social pendulum seems to be swinging between equity and equality/privilege and oppression. You may have heard of “privilege exercises” amongst our young people. A group is put in a line and asked a series of questions regarding their previous experiences. After each question the individuals are told to take a step forward or a step backward. The point of the exercise is that we don’t all have the same distance to cover to get to the finish line.

Paul admits that his people had some advantages (they had a headstart from the oracles and goodness of God) to other races, but he clarifies that regardless of advantage, NONE are across the finish line. ALL have some distance between where they are, and where they need to be.

The difference between the “Equity” of DEI and the idea of merit, is that being truly woke means that we are aware of different paces and different starting points, but it seems unjust when we use the starting point as an excuse to implement DEI policies that place some at the finish line before the proficiency path is traveled.

In the true realm of godly guilt and forgiveness, today’s text exposes that NO ONE of us are righteous. The charges are levied against both Jew and Greek, both citizens and migrants, both locals and transplants.

TRANSITION: While a modern trial lawyer may attempt to sway the jury by emotional appeals, Paul provides hard evidence of the crime.

Evidence (Romans 3:11-18)

vv.10-18 in your Bible are most likely indented like a poem or may be all caps as an indication that these are quotes from other places in Scripture. By quoting bits and pieces of several texts the author is summarizing truth without drawing attention to the individual references. – Ps 5:9; 10:7; 14:1-3; 36:1; 140:3; Ecc 7:20; and Is 59:7-8

Just as Luke 24:27 says that after His resurrection Jesus taught the disciples on the road to Emmaus from all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

The passage we studied last week focused on the Jewish law (the first 5 books of our Bible). When we get down to 3:19 Paul will mention this law again, but none of the citations in vv.10-18 are from that portion called the Pentateuch, they are all from poetry and prophets.

Since sin is such a historically lengthy and geographically wide problem, since the Scriptures speak from hundreds of years of man’s rebellion, Paul isolates 3 specific ways that sin shows up in our lives.

Earthly Priorities (11-12)

Apart from God’s Spirit calling us to Himself, each of us in our natural state seeks the desire of self, before others or God.

At our small group at the Parsonage on Wednesday this past week we played a table game as we discussed our struggles and our victories. As the table was covered with dominoes. One person reached out for a particular tile and someone else exclaimed “Mine!”; We all chuckled and recalled the scene from the movie Finding Nemo.

2. Even in a gathering of believers, we all recognize the innate human tendency to seek our own interest, rather than the interest of others.

3. It is a struggle that we all identified, because it is a temptation we all face and a sin we all must battle.

Hurtful Speech (13-14)

words have power: “sticks and stones” v. snowflakes / assault vs.libel

Death, deception, cursing & bitterness frequently flow from the heart through the lips of an unsaved person.

Mt 15:18 states that what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart.

As the Spring rains will soon start and creeks will flow with what looks like clean fresh water, remember before drinking, you must consider what is upstream. If there is a rancid, dead skunk in the headwaters, you don’t want to put that water to your lips!

3. Paul summarizes the human condition by saying that evil hearts produce hurtful words, because we are self-seeking.

4. Self-seeking leads us to the final domain of sin…

Selfish Behaviors (15-18)

Ruin and wretchedness are the end of the path for people who have never been born again.

These verses are not describing the everyday in every way existence of people. It is true that some people find ways to be kind. Fires and storms cause us to recognize, that “it could be me who is the victim and what would I want”.

But, think about this for a moment. Can you name a single society in any part of the world that doesn’t have some sort of taxes or Association dues?  Mandatory contributions must be assessed, because none of us naturally gives abundantly. We may share a portion as an obligation, or hoard so that it is not wasted by others.

3. If selfish behaviors are not such a prolific problem, how is the team appointed by the White House finding so many examples of fraud, waste and abuse. Both political parties admit that waste and abuse are present within bureaucratic budgets, because bureaucracies are run by human beings and someone else’s stink is always worse than our own.

Transition: The Indictment is that no one is righteous. The evidence is seen in attitudes of mine, words, and secret accounts. The Judge and Jury offer their conclusion to the evidence in vv.19-20

The Court’s Ruling (Romans 3:19-20)

Empty Excuses are done (v.19a)

quoting Mosaic law is an empty claim, because NOBODY can keep it, and prescribed sacrifices were only temporary covering for a year at a time.

Romans Conclusion regarding the Universality of Sin (3:19–20)

The difficulty here

Accountability is required (v.19b)

I believe the accountability of the second half expands to all who are described in the Old Testament (remember, the 10 verses Paul cites are NOT from Moses’ writings).

To understand the law, one has to go back to Abraham. To understand the dealings of God with humanity, one has to go back to the flood at the time of Noah. To understand human guilt, one has to go back to a piece of fruit in the Garden.

There is not a single human being who can escape the accountability of the whole world, because all of us trace a lineage back to Adam.

Guilty Standing

If empty excuses are removed and accountability remains, the only conclusion is that ALL of us need a remedy.

Conclusion:

This week I’ve been listening to a radio drama of the biography of Charles Finney. Finney was an itinerant evangelist in the early 1800s who was notorious for his use of the 2nd person—instead of talking about “the wicked” or “those without Christ”, he spoke directly to “you wicked people” and “you who have rejected Christ”

Finney was an example of the “Hell-fire preacher” that many saved people want to speak to others, but nobody wants to be that direct themselves.

Finney, and revivalists like him were those who truly believed what Paul writes in today’s Scripture (and some of us need to hear it). If Romans 3 makes you thirst for righteousness, then only the Gospel of Jesus will satisfy.

Light & Lamp Application:

A Light for my Path

Matthew 5:6 – Only Jesus satisfies!

A Lamp for my Steps

The cross of Christ cancels the guilt of sin.

The Spirit of Christ empowers victory over sins. Memorize, quote and claim the promise of 1 Corinthians 15:57

1 Corinthians 15:57 (ESV) — But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Apart from Christ, man’s condition is desperate! But IN Christ, today you can be made whiter than snow.