Sermon for March 10, 2002
Romans 3:10-26
The 3:16’s of the Bible
Introduction:
World Trade Center Bombings and the unifying effect.
The togetherness is disappearing gradually, and human race is getting back to the business of fragmentation. President Bush is doing a good job of keeping people together. Become more challenging as time goes on.
WBTU:
A. Why does mankind always splinter and divide?
B. Mankind is united on this point: All are sinners. Can unite around this. Must unite around this.
C. The gospel is the greatest unifying message in the world. It begins with putting us all on the same footing. We are all depraved sinners.
D. Introduction to Romans.
1. Written by Paul
2. Paul was chosen by God to be the chief expounder of the Gospel to the world, and this letter to the Romans is Paul’s completest explanation of his understanding of the Gospel.
3. It is deep. Paul was a scholar of the first degree.
4. The righteousness of God is the central theme of the letter. God is the only standard of righteousness.
5. Many of us consider ourselves good people when we compare ourselves to others but when compared to God, we are all off course.
6. In the same way that there is and can only be one magnetic North and that all other points of the compass find their identity in relationship to North, so righteousness is found solely in the character of God, and all other standards of righteousness must be determined with reference to Him.
Thesis: In Romans 3:10-26 we have a description of the gospel message. We need to recognize that all of us are sinners: Vs. 10-20 gives us a description of ourselves. We need to have the cure applied: Vs. 21-26. Without these two things, mankind will never be unified.
For instances:
I. The Sinner’s Condition (vs. 10-12)
A. Sin (Vs. 10)
1. We are all unified in this condition.
2. Sin can be compared to a disease or a sickness. Any solution to the human problem that fails to deal with the root cause of sin is no more a solution than cold compress on a fevered brow are a cure for the infection causing the fever.
3. We deal with the symptoms of a virus; we do not know a cure. Mankind deals with the symptoms of sin, but never deals with the real problem, the problem of sin. Mankind does not know of a solution.
4. NO one is righteous. Those people who have no interest in God and those who blatantly live in opposition to God are heading south from God’s north and are clearly at odds with Him. Paul drives home the point because some people, many people even in our day, believe that they are close enough. Close only counts in darts, horseshoes, hand grenades and nuclear war and we are not talking about any of those. Close does not count.
B. Slothful (Vs. 11)
1. Our minds are so affected by sin that there will always be some degree of deficiency in our grasp of the truth as it is to be found in the knowledge of God.
2. Most people are too slothful to really seek the truth. Minds do not want to seek out the truth.
3. Ask our society what is the main problem and most of the responses will basically be spiritual in nature. This does not mean that man has an inclination to go looking for God to fill the void. Many people recognize the problem but they refuse to go searching for the solution themselves because they are too slothful.
4. If they find the solution, they do not want to do it because it requires something on their part. Pass the buck. Somebody else’s problem.
5. Do not want to take responsibility. No way.
6. Most people know that they need to attend church but they are too lazy or too preoccupied with worldly concerns to do so.
7. If mankind really sought God, this place would be full.
C. Stubborn (Vs. 12)
1. Without exception, the human race has a bent to evil and a bias to disobedience.
2. Unprofitable. The word here really means something that has turned sour. Meat that goes bad, salt that loses it savor, so mankind is pitiful in its deteriorated uselessness.
3. None does good- Wait a minute. I know people who do good. Violently rejected by many people.
a. The expression does good would better be translated if the word "habitually" were included.
b. Again, the concept of goodness is defined with reference to God himself.
c. God is good all the time while man is not.
4. What Paul is saying is that there is no one who habitually does good apart from God. No one.
II. The Sinner’s Character (Vs. 13-17)
A. Tongue (Vs. 13)
1. Obscene and depraved vocabulary.
2. We see the barren deadness from the language of the world.
3. Flattery- Sugar coated statements and flattery expressed in cultured, modulated, perfection are no less demonstrations of human perversity because they are designed for deception.
4. Even the cultured use their knowledge and large vocabulary for evil purposes. More dangerous than those who are crude.
5. Asp- A snake that has a small sac of deadly poison in its mouth which can have devastating, paralyzing effect on the victim of its bite.
6. (James 3:8 NIV) but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
B. Talk (Vs. 14)
1. Swear word would be contained in this talk.
2. More than that, words meant to bring about a desired result that leads to wickedness.
3. The words that we use expose our hearts.
4. (Mat 12:36 NIV) But I tell you that men will have to give account on the Day of Judgment for every careless word they have spoken.(Mat 12:37 NIV) For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned."
5. I wish I could take those words back, however, I really meant them.
C. Traits (Vs. 15)
1. On the playground when a fight breaks out.
2. Mankind loves violence.
3. Recent national and international events.
D. Trouble Makers (Vs. 16)
1. Mankind is a being of destruction. Like jinks.
2. Miseries follow our paths.
3. We are all troublemakers in one way or another.
E. Trouble (Vs. 17-18)
1. Mankind does not understand peace. Never have peace in heart.
2. Man is uncertain of where to find peace.
3. Mankind tries to find peace in various areas. This results in confusion in his efforts to discover it and live in the good of it.
4. Every man’s best and most noble efforts at peacemaking result so often in increased hostility.
5. In the Middle East; between Israel and Palestinians.
6. (Isa 57:21 NIV) "There is no peace," says my God, "for the wicked."
7. Paul really defines the central issues. No fear of God.
8. To fear God and to keep that fear before the eyes means to respect God for who He is and to constantly keep that knowledge of Him before us in all activities of life.
9. Human beings who do not respect God as their Creator can never understand the mystery of their own being.
10. Those who fail to respect Him as Judge will never approach moral concerns with any seriousness.
11. Those who do not know Him, as Savior can never be motivated to love as those whose hearts have been overwhelmed with the love of God as shown in Christ. Cannot understand love apart from this.
12. It should be stated here that Paul does not mean to say that all the characteristics of sin listed above are in evidence in every person. At least some of them are in operation in every person.
Conclusion:
III. The Sinner’s Cure (Vs. 21-26)
A. Purging (Vs. 21-22)
1. But, a different thought, more pleasant one, hopeful one.
2. We can be free from impurities and defilement apart from the Law. The Law is the one who makes us away of our condition. It cannot purify us.
3. Our sin condition is removed.
B. Problem (vs. 23)
1. How can this be? We are again faced with our problem.
2. God is all holy and righteous. We are sinful, unrighteous, and unholy.
3. We are we going to do.
C. Pardon (vs. 24)
1. God has come to our rescue.
2. Justified, just as if I had never sinned.
3. Redemption- To deliver by paying the ransom. We were under bondage, under slavery to sin, but Christ came and bought us and freed us. The payment was Christ’s blood. Christ voluntarily surrendered his life unto the Cross-to pay the blood price for our freedom from sin.
4. We were waiting the execution, but Christ came and pardoned us.
D. Patience (Vs. 25)
1. God rightful could have punished us forever. God could have let his evil creation to self-destruct, but the Creator decided to offer forgiveness and reconciliation with no strings attached.
2. Christ helped to give God patience with us.
3. Propitiation- A gift that turns away wrath.
4. The illustration of me getting home late so on the way I buy a dozen roses. Crystal meets me at the door…
5. Christ is our propitiation. When his blood cleanses us and pardons us, God sees the blood of his Son and has patience with us.
E. Plan (Vs. 26)
1. God is just. He will punish sin.
2. However, God is merciful and gracious. He sent Christ who makes a way back to God. He is both just and the justifier.
3. Many people say that they are good people and that their good works will justify them.
4. Even people who have no particular love for Christianity, when asked what they feel about meeting God, will usually answer that they expect things will work out all right because what they have done has been pretty good and they estimate it will be good enough to make the grade with God.
5. In this whole section Paul is telling us that it just doesn’t work. Much of his life Paul tried to be justified by his works and in his heart He knew that he failed.
6. Stuart Briscoe- When I was in training as a Marine, I remember one particularly grueling exercise where we were deposited in the center of Dartmoor, England. We were told to make our way on foot to a certain point on the map more than fifty rugged miles away. As we had done a similar journey the previous day, slept out on hard ground for a number of nights, and been brought slowly to the point of physical and mental exhaustion, we knew that it was going to be a long day. What we didn’t know was that my partner’s feet, which had a tendency to blister, would become so badly worn after a few miles that they would become like pieces of raw meat. When I realized he was in pain, I took his equipment and added it to mine. Later I supported him on my shoulder as he hobbled along, but it became increasingly plain to me and to the colleagues who caught up with us that he wasn’t going to make it. But he was made of stern stuff and he insisted that he would keep going, that we should go on and stop worrying about him. After many more excruciating miles, however, he came to the point of admitting he was through, and then I was able to pick him up, put him across my shoulders, and carry him the rest of the way. He had no option but to trust himself to me to do for him what he was incapable of doing. It was hard for him to be so humiliated, but it was his sole recourse, and it is hard for proud people like Paul and other good people to admit that there is no way of justification through self-effort, but only through faith in Jesus Christ.
7. How do I have faith in Jesus? How is the blood applied to my life?
8. Plan of salvation.
