Rom 3-That Every Mouth May Be Silenced

| That Every Mouth May Be Silenced! Romans 3:9-20

March 26, 2006 (NLT) 9Well then, are we Jews better than others? No, not at all, for we have already shown that all people, whether Jews or Gentiles, are under the power of sin. 10As the Scriptures say,“No one is good—not even one.11     No one has real understanding;no one is seeking God.12     All have turned away from God;all have gone wrong.No one does good, not even one.”13     “Their talk is foul, like the stench from an open grave.Their speech is filled with lies.”“The poison of a deadly snake drips from their lips.”14     “Their mouths are fulyl of cursing and bitterness.”15     “They are quick to commit murder.16     Wherever they go, destruction & misery follow them.17     They do not know what true peace is.”18     “They have no fear of God to restrain them.”19Obviously, the law applies to those to whom it was given, for its purpose is to keep people from having excuses and to bring the entire world into judgment before God. 20For no one can ever be made right in God’s sight by doing what his law commands. For the more we know God’s law, the clearer it becomes that we aren’t obeying it.  Pray Memory Verse:Therefore, I urge you brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Roman 12:1 (NIV) Intro: Total Depravity…There is a big difference between admitting that I am not perfect and admitting that I am completely and fully worthy of Hell.“We are willing to admit that there are things not known to us, but not that we are devoid of all spiritual understanding. We are willing to admit that we wander off the true path at times, but not that we are not even on the right path. Instead of admitting that we are running away from God, we pretend that we are seeking Him.” (Boice)Jesus will show Himself only to those who are see their need. As long as we, or to the degree with which we feel competent in and of ourselves, we cannot see the glories He desires us to see.Turgenev, the Russian poet, caught it perfectly when he said, “I don’t know what the heart of a bad man is like, but I do know what the heart of a good man is like and it is terrible.” [Turgenev] This Week (vv. 9-12):F    Man’s Depraved Character After Easter (vv 13-20):F    Man’s Depraved ConductF    The Root of DepravityF    Our Advantage Man’s Depraved Character:1. There is no one who is good. (v. 10) “No one is good—not even one – lit: No one who is righteous| Except God |

Jesus ( in Luke 18:19): “Why do you call me good? No one is good—except God alone.” (NIV)

No one who is righteous – morally good, NOT EVEN ONE!

There is no such thing as a truly innocent person, not even a baby.

This is talking about moral character, moral character as GOD sees it. We can certainly find people with more moral character than others. There are people who stand out in this arena in comparison with the rest of us…

The Doctrine of Total Depravity means:

Ø   That, apart from the grace of God, we are totally incapable of doing anything to please God.

Ø   That, apart from the grace of God and the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit we are totally incapable of moving towards God. We cannot because we will not. 

Ø   Apart from the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit each of us would choose to reject God. By nature, “We would rather be slaves to sin than to serve God as King.”

Total Depravity does not mean:

Ø   | We are free to choose |

That we are as bad as we could possibly be.

Ø   That we are not responsible for our choices.

“I have had to face up to what I am sure has been clear to everyone else all along: I am deeply flawed. Mind you, I always knew theoretically that to be human was to be flawed—as in, ‘Hey, nobody’s perfect.’ But as the years have gone by, I have had to face up to more dramatic, specific, and undeniable evidence that I was my own worst case.”  (Rebecca Manley Pippert)

Question: Does this doctrine teach that unbelievers cannot do anything “good”?

The answer is “Yes….” and “No.”

It all depends on how we define the term “good….”

Verse 12: There is… No one does good, not even one.”

Certainly there are many people to do “good” things, in terms of that which is helpful, even sacrificial for other’s benefit.

However, that which is good in the eyes of God is not measured merely by WHAT we do, but rather by WHY we do it.

“A good work must not only conform to the commandments of God, it must come from a heart committed to honoring him.” (R. Kent Hughes)

The difference between human righteousness, on the one hand, and the righteousness God requires of us, on the other, is like the difference between real money and Monopoly money…

Question: Does this doctrine teach that there is no good at all in people, or that we are each as evil as anyone else, or that there are not different degrees of wickedness?

We need to understand that there is a difference between total depravity and absolute depravity.

Certainly, we need to acknowledge that we have the capacity to do far more evil than we think we might….

We need to acknowledge the deep truth of the statement: “There, but for the grace of God, go I.”

It is not that some people are more righteous than others. To compare one person’s righteousness to another’s before God would be like placing us all before the tallest structure in the world and see who could come the closest to jumping over it, or even more, who can jump the closest to the moon!

It is not that some of us do more good than others and therefore are more acceptable to God. No. Before Him all our best works are but filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6)

It is not that some of us have merely missed the bull’s-eye. We are shooting in the wrong direction!

People do not do good because their hearts are godless. It is like the EE illustration… (the dirty hands)

No. We are not as bad as we could be. And no. Some people do do things which are good in a humanistic sense. But in God’s eyes, in that which has eternal value, ONLY that which is done for God’s glory is truly good. Only that which is done from a pure heart, a heart truly surrendered to God and cleansed by the finished work of Jesus Christ can do that which is truly good.

We do not merely need the gospel like some insurance policy to cover the bases we cannot cover. It is not like we try as hard as we can and then the gospel makes up the difference.

2. No one seeks God (apart from the work of His Spirit in our hearts) – (v. 11)

11No one has real understanding; no one is seeking God.

F    No one understands – There is no one who understands the depth of the attributes of God –

The problem is not one of knowledge, it is one of desire. We do not truly understand because we do not truly seek God.

The issue is not that we cannot understand, but rather that we do not really WANT to move in that direction. So we suppress the truth about God, refusing to glorify or give thanks to Him, and as a result our thinking becomes futile and our foolish hearts are darkened. (Rom. 1:21)

F    No one is seeking God. Our natural state, apart from the intervening work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, is to reject God and to live for self. Our vaunted “free will” is, in reality, self-will which cannot chose God because we WILL not… apart from God’s grace at work in our hearts.

We CAN NOT because we WILL not choose God.

Question: What about the invitation to all, to WHOEVER calls upon the Lord, etc.? The invitation is certainly there to all. However the same invitation that God uses to call His own to Himself, He uses to confirm the justness of His judgment upon those who WILL not.

“The fact that we MAY come is what makes our refusal to seek God so unreasonable and increases our guilt.” (Jonathan Edwards)

Question: Will there be anyone in Hell who would prefer to be in Heaven?

The point:

Ø   Those of us who believe cannot look down our noses at those who do not.

Ephesians 2:8-9 – 8For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9not of works, lest anyone should boast.

Ø   We cannot claim that God OWES us salvation because WE chose Him.

Rather all glory goes to God and to Him alone. HE worked faith in me, to HIS glory alone.

HE changed my stubborn heart and enabled me to respond to His offer of forgiveness and reconciliation.

Ø   And HE will keep me from falling completely away.

“We are wholly given over to sin. Therefore, our only proper role is humbly to acknowledge our sin, confess our blindness, and admit that we can no more chose God by our enslaved wills that we can please Him by our sullied moral acts. All we can do is call on God for mercy, knowing even as we seek to do so that we cannot even call for mercy unless God is first active to convict us of sin and lead us to embrace the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation.” ( Martin Luther – The Bondage of the Will)

Question: Then why evangelize?

Every time we proclaim the gospel God is glorified, no matter what the response. And besides, the One who told us that no one will come unless the Father draws him (John 6:44), also commanded us to go and preach the gospel to all people in every nation.

Similarly: Why pray for the salvation of unbelievers?

…Because we know in our hearts that unless God does a supernatural work in their hearts they will NOT surrender to Him.

3. Everyone has turned away from God.

12All have turned away from God; all have gone wrong.

No one does good, not even one.”

This is the essence of sin, the cornerstone of it. It is at the heart of our total depravity.

It began in the garden with our first parents’ decision to disobey God in the hope of knowing for themselves good and evil rather than accepting God’s definition of them.

Total Depravity is bound up in our commitment to autonomy. Even our struggles with the doctrines of predestination and election illustrate this tendency. I can still remember my reaction when I was first confronted with this doctrine…

(Testimony from college days)

We see this today in our society’s commitment to eradicate God from the public arena. Even many of us who are committed to the authority of the Word of God have bought into the idea that it is wrong for us to attempt to impose OUR morality on those who don’t want it… as if it were OUR morality.

We have seen the abuses of radical Islam in their imposition of Islamic law on other countries and we have translated that to our own context, subconsciously equating our standards with theirs, as though each system were equally valid. We have bought into the mindset that it would just as arrogant and wrong for us, as followers of Jesus Christ, to insist on our standards of morality as it is for them….

The reason we are unable to seek God is that… (we WON’T)

We cling to our autonomy. We hold tightly to our individualism and our free will. They are often more important to us than God Himself, if we are honest with ourselves.

Question: Do people in hell want to get out and be where Jesus is in heaven?

What are some practical ramifications of this doctrine for us in the church and in life?

Ø   It enables us to realize that all of our motives are impure at best. Everything we think, do or say is corrupted by sin. This understanding should enable us to be patient with each other, knowing our own need for God’s grace even at our best times.

Ø   We take no pride in our own innate goodness. We do not look down on others because of their sin or wickedness. Rather, it leads us to ever deepening gratitude for the grace of God to us who believe. We no longer condemn even the vilest of sinners because we realize that “there, but for the grace of God, go I.”

Ø   It prepares us to deal with the reality of someone we admire showing themselves to be a sinner.

Ø   We are increasingly grateful to God that He keeps us from going down the natural path we would be inclined to follow. Instead He works in us the likeness of His Son… over time.

Ø   We have no room to get angry at God for the bad things people do.

Ø   It reminds us that the root cause of the human predicament is the corruption of human nature and that the only real solution for that is the grace of God.

Ø   It reminds us how desperately our children need our prayers.

Ø   We need to be mindful of the spiritual battle which surrounds us. Our battle is, indeed, not against flesh and blood….

Ø   It should remind us that our 1st priority is to bring people to know the grace of God.

Ø   It prepares us to deal with the immense component of radical evil in human beings.

“One who knows that there is no bottom to the depth of evil of which men are capable will be saddened but never surprised at the depth of evil to which men do fall.”

Ø   It leads us to a deep distrust of all human power – hence the American system of checks and balances.

Ø   We should not expect unregenerate people to “get their act together.” They cannot clean themselves up until they have life.

Ø   It should remind of the crucial necessity of prayer in evangelism. No one can respond, or even hear the gospel unless they are given new life.

“The doctrine of total depravity does not rest on a few scattered texts. It is basic to the central theme of the Scriptures, which is the grace of God. The Bible is the book of God’s grace—in creation and redemption. The doctrine of grace is predicated on man’s inability to create himself and on the sinner’s inability to redeem himself. Fallen man can no more accomplish his salvation than Adam could create himself. So God out love created man, who then rebelled against Him. But God, moved again by love, entered into a covenant of grace with Christ, the 2nd Adam. Without the grace of God the sinner can no more leave his bondage to sin that Israel could free herself from slavery in Egypt. So, without the doctrine of total depravity, the central theme of the Bible is not understandable. If men can save themselves, God’s grace is unnecessary.” (Ben Lacy Rose)

Do you want to know the grace of God? Pray that you might see your desperate need.

Do you want to know and enjoy the glory of God? Pray that you might see be more aware of your foolish pride.

Do you want to desire God more? Pray that He will create a hunger and a thirst for His righteousness deep in your soul.

A Truth to Remember: We are all, alike, full of sin and depravity. Apart from God’s amazing grace we would never know Him or love Him as we do.

A Challenge to Consider: Are you willing to humbly acknowledge your own total depravity before God and to cast yourself completely upon HIS mercy as your only hope in this life or in the life to come?