Years ago when I became the new pastor at Holly Brook Baptist church in Texas my first sermon was entitled , ‘What Sin Looks Like’. They used the sign out in front of the church to [put my name and the sermon title. The sign read, ‘Dr. Guy McGraw, What Sin Looks Like’. The sign could not have been more correct.
Every one of us who looks at ourselves in God’s mirror will see nothing but sin.
In 1886, Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson wrote The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. It’s the story of a respected physician and medical researcher who embodied the very best ideals of morality and decency. When Dr. Jekyll experiments on himself he releases a murderous savage from within who because of murders in nearby Hyde Park is given the name Mr. Hyde. This story fascinates us because—at some level—we see ourselves in Dr. Jekyll and we fear the Mr. Hyde we try to keep hidden.
Mark Twain once said, “Everyone is a moon and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody.” That dark side is usually where we are grossly losing the battle to our sin nature. Apart from God’s Power we are hopeless against it.
The central theme of Paul’s letter to the Romans is the gospel, the good news but he begins with the bad news, the dark side, the universal problem of human depravity.
How can anyone understand the need for the good news offered to us unless we first understand the bad news about each one of us?
SIN- Interesting word that has ‘I’ at it’s middle.
When God created the world He looked around and said, ‘That is good’.
Paul reflects on the world/mankind through the eyes of God now, ‘This is bad’.
Picture: When we look at ourselves we almost always feel it is a bad picture. Someone else looks and says, ‘It looks like you’.
The Ultimate opinion of us is what God says about mankind. Romans 1-3 is a stark revelation of what God’s holy eyes see when He looks at sinful man.
DEPRAVITY: The word bothers us. We may feel that there are a lot of worse people than us. And we could also be a lot worse than we are.
DEPRAVED DOES NOT MEAN THAT WE ARE AS BAD AS WE CAN BE BUT THAT WE ARE AS BAD OFF AS WE CAN BE.
Every part of our nature is TAINTED BY SIN. It runs through us at every level. Effects everything we do and every thought we think.
DEPRAVITY has more to do with our vertical relationship with God than with our horizontal relationships with others. We may look pretty upstanding to others but to God’s eyes there is a great separation caused by our sin. The only way to address it is not to improve ourselves but to find God’s pardon thru Christ.
Imagine a man on DEATH ROW. He is condemned because of his crime and simply waiting for justice to be carried out. What if on the day of his schedules execution he tries to make the case:’ I kept my jail cell spotless and clean, I never complained about the food I was given, I was kind to others on death row and I even helped them in many different ways”.
The response would be something like, ‘All of that was nice for you to do but your problem is much greater than that, the only thing that can save a man on death row is a pardon regardless of all the good things he might try to do. His problem is not his present conduct but his past condemnation’.
We are all on death row. The schedule date of justice is whatever day we die. Hebrews 9:27 says, ‘There is appointed unto each man once to die and after this comes judgment’. People don’t like hearing this and many pastors or Christians don’t like telling this to people. But the good news is that we can be saved from the bad news and the bad news is not that my life is messed up or I can be happier by going to church but that I will face eternal judgment unless my sin is confronted and forgiven.
God’s Diagnosis of Man: Great Physician speaks! No cure without an accurate diagnosis. A doctor is not cruel who tells you the truth:
He might use words we hate like stroke, pneumonia, cancer, disease but we need to hear them to treat the problem. Many today don’t want to hear the diagnosis God gives of the disease that is destroying many lives.
R.C. Sproul is a great theologian/pastor who was also trained in the medical field regarding the brain.(advanced Harvard degree in Neurological studies) He said that our brains are so amazing that they record every even of every moment of our lives.
He said that Judgment Day could be as easy as God taking out our brains and plugging them in to a machine that downloads all the information stored there. Given enough room it will print out every sinful thought, word or deed we have ever done.
STEP INTO GOD’S Courtroom: God’s case against every man or woman.
THE INDICTMENT is Verse 10 ‘There is none righteous, no not one…’
PAUL: God’s prosecuting attorney has already argued two facts. Two groups have conspired against God
Chapter 1: Gentiles are lost
Chapter 2: Jews are lost
(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;
Paul’s case has been made against both Gentiles and Jews.
(UNDER: idea that sin is on top of us, pressing down on us, we can’t escape it, like a wrestling match and sin has us pinned:
In every life sin has won, it has a death grip on every person)
Summation: There is none righteous, no not one… the final argument continues thru verse 20.
Verses 19-20 state what the conclusion should be.
(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; (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.
(If you did not know what a healthy body looked like you would not know what a sick one would be. The Law defines health, the Sermon on the Mount identifies spiritual wellness.)
These are the standards we have fallen short of, the marks we have missed.
Paul describes a spiritually sick life in verses 11-18.
He uses OT passages from the Psalms, the Proverbs, and from Isaiah to demonstrate man’s true condition: Ps 53:1-3, 5:9, 10:7, Isa. 53; 59:7-8, Ps 36:1
(11) There is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God;
(12) All have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one.
(13) Their throat is an open grave, with their tongues they keep deceiving, the poison of asps is under their lips.
(14) Whose mouth is full of cursing and bittereness;
(15) Their feet are swift to shed blood,
(16) Destruction and misery are in their paths,
(17) And the path of peace have they not known.
(18) There is no fear of God before their eyes.
FIVE WAYS PAUL SHOWS OUR SPIRITUAL CONDITION
CORRUPT WISDOM: (14) There is none who understands
I Cor 2:14 ‘The natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him, he cannot understand them because they are spiritually appraised’.
AMAZED AT INVENTIONS TODAY: Human ingenuity, machines, computers, rockets, medicine, architecture, the internet, cell phones. It is amazing what man can do. We stand in awe at what man continues to do.
We also stand amazed at how warped by sin man is. How man cannot understand the most simple thing that God is trying to communicate to him. none who understands
UNDERSTANDS – carries the idea of putting a puzzle together.
Paul is saying that regardless of how clever and inventive man might be that he never is able to put the puzzle of what life is truly all about together.
JOHN 1 says ‘Light has come into the world…BUT men loved darkness rather than the light because of their evil hearts and deeds.
The darkness within man makes him unable to see the light God gives.
There is corruptness in our depravity that keeps us from seeing the truth.
We all have a brain: Our brains differ somewhat in size or wattage or whatever makes one smarter than another. Some have higher IQ while others will have a stronger common sense.
When God comes into your life and we become brand new creatures we don’t get a new brain. The bible says we get a NEW MIND, a new heart. THE MIND OF CHRIST. The person outside of Christ has a DEPRAVED MIND(Absent of the true knowledge of God) Not a depraved brain, they may have a very good brain.
SOMEONE HAS SAID: The mind is to the brain like a song is to organ/piano.
The instrument may be very good but what is played is dependent on who is allowed to play. The Holy Spirit wants to play through your life a song the world needs to hear. We fill our heart and mind with the truths of Scripture and then God plays them out through our thoughts words, attitudes and behavior. THE HOLY SPIRIT’S TOP HITS: LOVE, JOY, PEACE, PATIENCE, KINDNESS, GENTLENESS, FAITHFULNESS, GOODNESS, & kindness, patience, self-control
Becoming a Christian should have such a radical effect on you that it feels like you have received a BRAIN TRANSPLANT:
You no longer think the same, feel the same, want the same things, live the same way…
ALL THING ARE NEW, Old things have passed away.
The most dangerous person in the world is a person who has a good brain and a bad mind. Their understanding is darkened.
OUR WILL IS CORRUPTED: There is none who seeks for God;
(12) All have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one.
If you look at the world today would you say that there is no one who seeks after God? Religions are everywhere, churches on every street, religious temples and mosques in all lands. YET God looks at all that activity and says, ‘NO ONE IS SEEKING ME’.
Man is innately religious: But in all his religiousness God says man is seeking but he is always seeking alternatives to me to worship.
Religious activity does not mean that God is worshiped.
Every religion but true Christianity differs in one basic area. They all have a works attitude. You work, and do, and achieve and maneuver yourself into a position where you make God your debtor. Only Christianity says ‘I am a sinner, I am depraved, I can only throw myself on the mercy of the court, if God doesn’t forgive me apart from the merits of Jesus Christ then I have no hope’.
TURNED ASIDE literally means that all are ‘bent away from God’
This word was used of a soldier who deserted his post. We are bent away from God to other things in this life. We give our time, resources and affections to substitutes or replacements
JEREMIAH 17:9 The heart is more deceitful than all else and desperately wicked, who can understand it.
All have turned aside (Isaiah 53) All we like sheep have gone astray.
It is characteristic of sheep that when they lose their way, go astray, that they never stop and consider their direction but just keep going in the wrong direction. They never come to the understanding that ‘we are lost’.
GOD HAS BEEN PURSUING MAN! If God could not run faster than you you would never have gotten saved.
Man has been running from God since the Garden of Eden when God said to Adam and Eve, ‘Where art thou’. Sin has that effect.
Together they have become useless;
A poll was taken some years ago that examined the major networks of ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX and considered offensive words that were once banned from being used on television. The study showed that those same words were now used on these networks an average of once every 5 minutes.
Another study was done of the content of TV programs from the years 1967-1997.
It found that the top two story lines had to do with #1 Working Together and # 2 Helping Others. Those have now dropped to #11 and #13. Since 1997 the number one story line or content is ‘How can I Become Famous’.
Ravi Zacharias shared that for many years the top two social concerns in a particular pole have consistently been Human Right and the Environment. As of 2010 another social concern finally beat them out: CORRUPTION.
TOGETHER WE HAVE BECOME USELESS.(Suggest ‘together’ without God)
USELESS: A very scary word. Literally means to ‘become rancid’.
Word was used to describe rotten fruit, sour milk
When I come across something that is SPOILED & RACID: I have a place for it. It is out by the curb where it can be removed from my sight and nose forever. God didn’t do that with us. He sent His Son to die for us.
We would not pay for sour milk but God paid the ultimate price for sinful man. All we have for that one gallon of sour milk?
CORRUPTED WORDS: (13) Their throat is an open grave, with their tongues they keep deceiving, the poison of asps is under their lips. (14) Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.
Paul describes the communication aspect of mankind, how man expresses himself to one another with horrible language: open grave, deception, poison, cursing & bitterness.
In Paul’s day before today’s embalming they would bury someone quickly and cover the grave(LAZARUS “Stench…’).
Lit it is YAWNING GRAVE(as if the grave opened up and exposed the contents)
That is what God sees on the inside of men. PHARISEES: Whited Seplecures
With their tongues they keep deceiving. When sinful man speaks there is always an agenda to it, an angle he is working. The truth is so hard to hear.
DECEIVING: Word for ‘BAIT’. It covered up the dangerous and deadly hook that was behind it.
When you speak with someone realize that the sin nature is always something you have to take into account.
The poison of asps is under their lips
I have never been to a circus to see a snake act. Trained snakes.
I have seen snake charmers but snakes are always likely to bite at any time.
FANGS are so large you wonder how they fit inside the mouth..
HIDDEN INSIDE and backed by poison glands.
JAMES reminds us that almost any animal can be tamed but man cannot tame the tongue: It can set a forest ablaze.
We cannot even begin to realize the damage done by words: If you carry any influence over another life you will be accountable to God for how you use it.
The one thing that everybody has and is willing to give away is their opinion.
One man’s wife served him breakfast every morning. As he watched her work he determined that what was taking her 20 minutes to do could be adjust with certain steps to be done in a much quicker time. He gave her these suggestions and changed the time spent from 20 minutes to the 3 minutes it takes to pour his cereal.
What do you have an opinion about at First Baptist?
How are you using that opinion? To create unity or to drive a wedge?
We don’t ask anybody to check their brains at the door but true Christianity is about surrendering our rights, preferring others before ourselves, becoming servants instead of Lording over others.
Whose mouth is full of cursing…
How would you like to stand before a judge whose very name you have been using to curse and blaspheme all your life?
If you got angry in court and let the judge’s name fly in anger.
What kind of judgment would you expect?
People who are going to stand before God someday who have used His name repeatedly in their lives but not to praise him.
CORRUPTED WAYS: (15) Their feet are swift to shed blood, (16) destruction and misery are in their paths, (17) And the path of peace have they not known.
Swift feet….Ready to run to every opportunity to enjoy sin.
The end result is a life of destruction and misery
Alan Barnett of MIT has said that a child born in America today has a greater chance of being murdered than a solder entering WW2 had of being killed.
Destruction: total annialation;
To stomp something until it is in the smallest piece possible.
Everything man does ends up like this: Man builds cities and ghettos appear/slums. Wake of sin in everything.
Path of peace they have not known: How long have we been trying to achieve peace in this world? How many organization? How many treaties? How much money spent? How many lives lost?
UN today has the purpose of maintaining harmony around the world:
Give attention to one area and another erupts.
Deal with one bad leader and another rises up.
Peace is really only the opportunity to reload until the next conflict.
CORRUPTED WORSHIP: (18) There is no fear of God before their eyes.
The ultimate problem out of which the others initiate: NO FEAR OF GOD
No respect, no awe, no sense of accountability to God.
World is filled with people strutting their way to hell. Parading their sinfulness assuming there will never be a day of reckoning for their sin.
In the 1950’s a book came out called LORD OF THE FLIES.
It was about British schoolboys who ended up on a deserted island. They tried to make the best of it and initially set up an ad hock governing system. As time when by this system collapsed and savagery began to take over. The stronger began to prey on the weaker. Some of the boys did not get taken up in the destructive spirit and it was determined that one factor made the difference. The difference between those who decayed in to savagery from those who didn’t was ‘the hope of rescue’. Those who knew there was something beyond this island to face and be accountable to.
INDICTMENT: There is none righteous, no not one…
EVIDENCE: Verses 11-18 VERDICT: Verses 19-20
(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
Because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for though the Law comes the knowledge of sin.
The Law was not given to save but to announce guilt.
You know a person is close to getting saved when they stop arguing with God. Lit they ‘stop muttering’. They throw themselves on the mercy of the court.
All the world: Not a single person escapes.
All brought under same condition: hopeless without Christ.
Grace is the only hope: by works…no flesh will be justified.
D.L. Moody wrote,
