Thursday, August 6, 2015

The Righteous Judgment of God (Part 7)




SERMON: GM15-067

SERIES: Renewal Through Romans: The Gospel Defined, Explained & Applied

SETTING: North Kelso Baptist Church

SERVICE: Sunday AM (August 2, 2015)

SECTION: The Perversion of Righteousness (Romans 1:18-3:20)

SUBTITLE: The Righteous Judgment of God (Part 7)

SCRIPTURE: Romans 3:9-17

SUBJECT: All men are guilty

SUMMARY: Paul proves all men are guilty of sin since there is no difference between the Greek and the Jew by using the OT Scriptures which prevents anyone from relying on their own efforts for salvation.

SCHEME: To motivate genuine believers to proclaim the gospel


TITLE: The Righteous Judgment of God (Part 7)
TEXT: Romans 3:9-18

TRANSLATION

“What then? Are we any better? Not at all. For we previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin. Just as it is written, ‘There is no righteous, no not one.’ There is none who understands; there is none who seeks God. All have turned aside; together they became unprofitable; there is not one doing kindness, there is not so much as one. Their throat is an opened grave; with their tongues they deceived; the poison of asps is under their lips; whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their fee are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery are in their ways; and the way of peace they did not know. There is no fear of God before their eyes.” (English Majority Version, from Majority Greek Text)

THEME: All men have sinned
THRUST: which is proved by the OT scriptures

TRUTH: Paul proves that all men are guilty of sin since the Jews are no different than the Greeks by using OT Scriptures as evidence proving again from claiming justification by their own efforts.

THUMBNAIL

1A The Sinful Heathen (1:18-32)
2A The Sinful Hebrews (2:1-3:8)

1B The Judgment of God Declared (2:1-16)

1C The Jews deserved the judgment of God (2:1-5)
2C The Jews determined the judgment of God (2:6-10)
3C The Jews doomed by the judgment of God (2:12-16)

2B The Judgment of God Discussed (2:17-29)

1C The Jews Misunderstood their status (2:17-24)
2C The Jews Misunderstood their symbol (2:25-29)

3B The Judgment of God Defended (3:1-8)

1C The Favor by the Judge is not nullified (1-2)
2C The Faithfulness of the Judge is not nullified (3-4)
3C The Fame of the Judge is not nullified (5-8)

3A The Sinful Humanity (3: 9-20)

1B Humanities Sinfulness Is Presented by Paul’s Exclamation (9)

2B Humanities Sinfulness Is Proved by Paul’s Evidence (10-18)

1C Proved by the evidence of their condition (10-11)

1D All men are unrighteous (10)
2D All men are unreasonable (11a)
3D All men are unrepentant (11b)
2C Proved by the evidence of their character (12)

1D Disobeyed (12a)
2D Depreciated (12b)
3D Damaged (12c)

3C Proved by the evidence of their conduct (13-18)

1D Their conduct is seen in their wicked words (13-14)

1E Words likened to the vileness of a sepulcher
2E Words likened to the venom of a snake

2D Their conduct is seen in their wicked ways (15-18)

1E …their murderous ways
2E …their miserable ways
3E …their mutinous ways

Five Lessons Taught By This Passage:

1. It demonstrates the tragic blindness of the Jews
2. It demonstrates the universality of sin
3. It demonstrates the terrible character of sin
4. It demonstrates the what must be understood in order to understand the gospel
5. It demonstrates the contrast between the sin of humanity & the glory of God

The Righteous Judgment of God
Romans 3:9-18 * (Part 7)

INTRODUCTION

A. Attention Getting Device

There was an angel named Evan who was called in to the heaven’s front office and informed by St. Peter that he had been picked for a special assignment—he was to go down to earth and make a list of all the people who had sin.

Two months went by then three months, then four months went by. Then one afternoon the angel came flapping wearily through the Pearly Gates and collapsed on a golden stool by St. Peter’s desk. “Sir,” he said, “you don’t know the magnitude of this job. I’m going to need some help.”
“Impossible,” St. Peter replied tersely. “We’re shorthanded up here as it is. You’ll have to go it alone.”

The angel struggled to the door. Then, suddenly, he was struck with an idea. “Saint Peter, suppose I made a list of all the people who didn’t sin. It would be much shorter and I could finish it in hardly any time at all.”

“Good thinking,” said St. Peter.

The angel returned to earth and, as promised, he was back in a week with his list. St. Peter studied it and passed it on up the chain of command. Shortly, an order came down to write a letter to everyone on the list, commending them for their good behavior.

At this point, the man who was telling the story turned to his friend. “And you know what else the letter said?” he asked.

“What?” replied the friend? “Oh! So you didn’t get one either.”
(Quoted by James Dent in Charleston, W.Va., Gazette)

B. Raise a Need

Have you ever wondered why God is so angry at the unsaved?
Have you ever stopped and thought about what God thinks of the unsaved?
How many of you would like to know just how bad mankind really is?
Would you like to see why men cannot save themselves?

C. Orient the Theme

We are going to examine why mankind needs the gospel.

D. State the Purpose Bridge (What is the purpose of this sermon)

Today I want to prove from our passage that all men are sinners and therefore are in need of the gospel.

Sub-Introduction

A. Announce the Text:

Paul explains that are men are sinners in Romans 3:9-20. Please take your bibles and turn there as we examine why all men are sinners and need the gospel.

B. Review:

We are in series that has been looking at the Perversion of Righteousness. Last week we saw that is just in His judgment of the Jews and that the Jews can have absolute confidence in God.

And so, last week we answered the question of, “can the Jews trust God even while under the judgment of God? We can answer that questions, yes, since judgment does not nullify the advantages of being Jewish, nor does judgment nullify God’ faithfulness, and nor does judgment nullify the character or nature of God.

So, last week you saw that “God is faithful to the Jews.”

C. Background to the Text

Historical Background – Paul mission in this letter is to explain the Gospel about salvation through faith in Jesus. He especially highlights that the Jews are guilty of sin and need the gospel as much as the Gentiles.

Textual Background – Remember 1:18-3:20 deals with the fact that all men, all Gentiles, all Jews, and all Human beings are guilty of sin and warrant the judgment of God.

Preview structure – Today we will examine the second section of Chapter 3.

Our passage divides itself in two three sections, vs. 9 reveals mankind’s sinfulness through the exclamation of Paul, vss. 10-18 reveals mankind’s sinfulness through the evidence of Paul and vss. 19-20 reveals mankind’s sinfulness through the explanation of Paul.

Repeat CPS - I want to challenge every genuine believer to always be proclaiming the gospel to all men who are sinners

[Let’s dig into our…]

TRUTH FOR TODAY

Remember we have already thoroughly examined Paul’s teaching about the Sinful Heathen (Gentiles), and we have just finished his teaching on the Sinful Hebrews. No we are going to examine Paul’s teaching on what I call…

3A The Sinful Humanity (3: 9-20)

Paul has just finished demonstrating that the Jews cannot expect to be exempt from the righteous judgment of God simply because they are the covenant people of God. The Jews have no advantage over the Gentiles in regards to justification.

As a matter of fact Paul has proven that both the heathen (Gentiles) and the Hebrews (Jews) are equally guilty before God. Paul will further demonstrate that all of mankind is both sinful and under the righteous judgment of God.

[So, as we move to verse 9 we will see…]

1B Humanities Sinfulness Is Presented by Paul’s Exclamation (9)

Again, Paul is probably still “utilizing” his diatribe and anticipates another objection, so he uses an imaginary opponent to make…

1C The Inquiry

“What then? What is the conclusion from the preceding discussion? It is like the Jews are collectively asking, what does it all mean? What should we believe? What should we take away from what you just said?

[The reason they ask this question is because of…]

2C The Implication

Are we better than they? There is much debate, difficulty, and division over this verb. I think our text is probably correct. I think the Jews read Paul’s statement in vss. 1-2, and they were thinking that maybe we do have some advantages over the Gentiles. So it is understandable that after hearing that they have the advantage of having God’s word and that there is some profit in circumcision, they might think, “Wow, maybe we are better than the Gentiles.”

[So, this forces Paul to come back with…]

3C The Indictment

Not at all. There is an emphasis here in the Greek that we miss in the English. You could say it this way, not at all in the least.

For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin. Paul is referring to his overwhelming indictment of all men, Jews and Gentiles in beginning in chapter 1:18 all the way through chapter 2:29.

Paul has made it clear that all men (peoples) who have not been a recipient of God’s righteousness by faith are guilty of sin. They are helpless captives to the power of sin. Men are not just sinners, they are helpless pawns of sin, in bondage to sin as helpless slaves.
Paul’s indictment makes it clear that Jews and Gentiles don’t just sin or just commit sin, they are helplessly and hopelessly enslaved to sin.

What mankind needs, both Jews and Gentiles is a new power to break the hold of sin and to set people free from sin. And Paul is leading up to this. But he needs to make his case, he needs to drive the point home.

I want to prove from our passage that all men are sinners and therefore are in need of the gospel.

[So, we see that humanities sinfulness is skillfully and powerfully presented by Paul. But, Paul doesn’t just present his point, we see that…]

2B Humanities Sinfulness Is Proved by Paul’s Evidence (10-18)

Paul is going to prove once and for all and conclusively that all humanity is guilty of sin and of being sinners. Paul will prove his point with extremely damaging evidence. As a matter of fact Paul will prove his point by using the Scriptures as exhibit 1 and the evidence of mankind’s sinfulness as exhibit 2.

Paul says, “As it is written…” This is Paul’s way of introducing OT Scriptures. Paul’s purpose in citing these verses is to substantiate his accusation that he made in verse 9 – “…previously charged both Jews and Gentiles that they are all under sin.”

[The fact that all of humanity is sinful is…]

1C Proved by the evidence of their condition (10-11)

[The very first evidence about humanities condition is that…]

1D All men are unrighteous (10)

“There is no righteous, no not one.” This evidence is from Psalm 14:3. This is what attorneys would call “damming evidence.” Man is incapable of doing that which is right in the presence of God.

The majority of humanity thinks that their behavior is right. Many people are religious and many are moral. They think that God will not reject them.

Let me remind you of what good thinks of humanities “righteousness;” – But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are like filthy rags…”

The meaning is graphic and nauseating. Isaiah is referring to cloth that has been stained with menstrual blood. And clothing that has been stained in this manner are ceremonial unclean and cannot be worn before God or worshipped in.

Now, let me say it is obvious that men are able to do many things that are morally right. Even the most wicked or evil person occasionally does something that is either right or good.

Paul is not talking about specific acts or even patterns of good behavior. Paul is talking about man’s inner character. The inward nature of man is so corrupt that no man can do a single thing that is righteous by God’s standards. Paul wants to make sure the church at Rome did not miss this point, because he added, “no not one.”

I know some Christians get all hung up and worked up over the doctrine of election. They don’t understand how God could have picked some people to be saved and left some people to be eternally lost. I know some Christians get all hung up and get their nose out of joint over limited, or definite, or particular atonement- that Christ did not die for every human being.

The reason is that they are starting at the wrong place. You must get the Total Depravity of man right and those things fall in to place. The problem is that most Christians don’t believe man is totally depraved.

Most believers in our evangelical circles don’t believe Paul when he says, there is none righteous, not even one. They want to make room for a lot of people. They want every man to have a “fighting chance.”

They believe men can do righteous things that please God, like turn to God on their own, make a decision for Christ, or decide for Christ.

Jesus said, “You are to be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matt 5:48)

What Jesus was saying was, if you are not as perfect as God is perfect, then you are unacceptable to God. There are no levels of righteousness by the way. You are perfectly righteous or perfect sinfulness.

You have to get the depravity of man right. You must realize before Christ you were sinful and unrighteous, like a filthy or bloody rag.

God didn’t choose you and save you because you had any redeeming quality in your at all. Don’t forget Paul is going to say in chapter 5, “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

I hope you get that. I hope you understand that. This is why men do the bad, vile, or sinful things that they do. They are not righteous, they are incapable of doing righteous things. This is why they don’t respond to the gospel. They won’t. Unless God draws them to Himself through the work of the HS.

[And so, the very first evidence about humanities condition is that all men are unrighteous (10)]

[The second evidence about humanities condition is that…]

2D All men are unreasonable (11a)

“There is none who understands…” This piece of evidence is from Psalm 14:2 and Isaiah 53:3.

All men, both Jew and Greek do not have the ability to fully understand God’s truth or God’s standards of righteousness.

Don’t forget God revealed enough about His character to know that He exists. Paul made this clear. Since they know that God exists they should seek after God. But man won’t.

Don’t forget Paul told the Corinthians that “…the natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; because they are foolishness to him and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Cor 2:14)

The letter to the Ephesians makes it clear that humanities spiritual ignorance is not due to any outward circumstance. It is due completely to man’s own innate sinful nature that does not want to know or understand God.

Unsaved men are in darkness in regards to their understanding. Men are ignorant of God because of their own sinful and darkened nature.

And so humanity does not know how much God hates their sin. This is why God hates the wicked. This is why He is angry at the wicked every day. God hates sin and man is so unreasonable, so lacking in understanding that he does not know this. This is why it takes the sovereign, divine, omnipotent work of the HS to resurrect a man from the dead by giving him life in order to open his eyes.

[And so, men are unrighteous and all men are unreasonable.]

[The third item of evidence about humanities condition is that…]

3D All men are unrepentant (11b)

“There is none who seeks after God.” If anyone tells you that humanity is seeking after God, they are first ignorant of man’s condition and they are lying to you. There is no human being who is seeking the God of the Bible.

Now, hold on, I know what you might say. “Look at all the temples, halls, churches, religious places and all the people in them doing very religious things very sincerely.” What about them? What about them?

Listen to what the Bible says about them, “The things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God.” (1 Cor 10:20)

Behind humanities efforts of “spirituality” and worship, behind their belief system is “the god of this world.” (2 Cor 4:3-4)

Kenneth Wuest is a Greek scholar. He writes about the word Paul used for “seeks.” It is the Greek word He defines this word as “to seek out, to search for.” It is a determined search that doesn’t quit until the object is found. Men are not seeking the God of the Bible with this type of determination.

Jeremiah wrote, “And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.” (Jere 29:13)

“All man-made religions are demon-inspired efforts to escape from God, not to find him”, says John MacArthur.

MacArthur also gives us a picture of what a man who is determinly seeking God:

• It includes respecting & adoring God’s sovereignty
• It includes feeding on God’s Word
• It includes obeying or keeping God’s commandments
• It includes regular communication with God by prayer
• It includes living consciously in His presence
• It includes a desire to please God

David said to God, “I have set the Lord continually before me.” (Psalm 16:8) This is the type of person that Christ spoke of in Matt 6:33, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness…”

The natural or the unsaved man seeks his own interests, his own pleasures, and his own desires. Therefore Paul says, there is none who seeks after God.

Have you gotten a picture of the condition of man without Jesus Christ? It’s horrible isn’t it? Listen, this is the picture a man must have in order to be saved. Repeating a prayer, raising a hand, walking an aisle, signing a card, or making a decision does not make a person in this condition a Christian. Only the HS who has brought a sinner to this understanding can be made a Christian.

Paul proves the total and absolute sinfulness of humanity by offering up proof by submitting the evidence of man’s sinful condition, and it ain’t pretty – man’s condition is unrighteous, unreasonable, and unrepentant.

[Secondly, Paul maintains that the total and absolute sinfulness of both the Jews and the Greeks is…]

2C Proved by the evidence of their character (12)

Not only is the condition of man bad, but his character is just as bad or worse. We see the character of humanity characterized as…

1D Disoriented (12a)

“They have all turned aside…” The Greek verb gives the primary meaning of leaning in the wrong direction. In a military setting it refers to a soldier who running the wrong way. We call this soldier a deserter.

The natural and overriding inclination of the human nature is to against God. Our nature is driven to do everything contrary to the will of God.

God says be pure – man becomes as immoral as he can become
God says one man one woman – man says same sex marriage

Isaiah wrote, “All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way.” (Isaiah 53:6)

Humanity are deserters, they are running the wrong way, away from God and toward, death, destruction, and eternal punishment.

This is from birth. Because their nature is disoriented. Listen to Psalm 58:3, “The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies.” (Psalm 58:3, NKJV)

[So, we see humanities character as totally disoriented. Paul also offers up evidence to prove the sinful character of the Jews and the Gentiles by showing that their character has…]

2D Depreciated (12b)

“…They have together become unprofitable…”

Close your ears, you may not like what Paul says here. Humanity is spiritually worthless. They are useless.

This verb was used of milk that had turned sour and rancid and was useless or worthless to drink or to be used for butter or cheese. The milk was no good for any use. Man’s character had depreciated from being part of creation that God had called “good” to now being worthless or useless.

Useless in what sense? In the sense that…

• A branch separated or cut off from the tree cannot live nor can it produce any fruit

• Meat that has spoiled or gone rotten cannot be used to provide sustenance to hungry people

• Salt that has lost its saltiness or flavoring is useless to flavor food or to preserve food

• A light that is covered over and hidden from view is worthless or useless to provide light when needed

Do you get the idea? The natural or unsaved man is useless for the purposes of God.

Listen God did not save you because He saw something valuable in you. He didn’t save you because He thought you were worth saving. God did not save you because He knew your potential.

God saved you because He had a unique and loving relationship with you in eternity past, freely, unfettered, and uninfluenced that resulted in your being elected to salvation for His good purpose and pleasure. That is why He saved you. At least this is as much as we can fathom from Scripture in this finite, human state.

[Humanities character is both disoriented and has depreciated from good to useless. Paul isn’t done yet. He also offers up evidence of character that is…]

3D Damaged (12c)

“…There is none who does god, no not one.”

Here Paul rips apart all of man’s ideas about his goodness. The, “I am doing the best I can,” isn’t good enough. Nor is it true. No one does his best.

First of all, this seems to be a repeat of the first thing Paul said against humanity and seems to be a bit of a summary of what he has said.

Second, the verb refers to what is upright, especially what is morally upright. Against God’s perfect righteousness the unsaved man has no ability or desire to do anything upright and good by God’s standards.

Men want to think that they are good and do good things. Jews think they are good and do good things and Gentiles think they are good and do good things. But there is not one human being that has ever done good by the standards of God.

Illustration:

A man in Scotland was walking through a park one day. He had a carrying case for his bible. A group of young people thought it was a camera bag and asked him if we would take a picture of them. The old man said to them, “I already have your picture. It is here in my case.” Naturally the kids were surprised and asked him, “When and how did he take their picture?” The old man took out his bible and read Romans 3:9-20 to them and said “That is a picture of you.” And he tried to share the gospel with them.

It is true isn’t it? Isn’t this section a true picture of the character of humanity, whether it is a Jew or a Gentile?

[Paul has offered up evidence to prove the sinfulness of humanity. He offered up evidence in relationship to their condition, their character, and now he will show the total sinfulness of humanity as it is…]

3C Proved by the evidence of their conduct (13-18)

It is no secret that a person’s character will manifest itself in his everyday life, or in his conduct.

Remember what Jesus said to His disciples: “…for out of the abundance of the heart he mouth speaks. A good man out of the reassure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things.” (Matthew 12:34-35, NKJV)

Don’t be confused here – Jesus is talking about a good man from human standards, not from God’s standards. This verse does not contradict what Paul has been saying. Jesus was showing the Pharisees that the evil words they spoke showed what the true nature of their heart was.

[Paul offers up evidence that says…]

1D Their conduct is seen in their wicked words (13-14)

Paul is very descriptive concerning their wicked words, first he says that their speech or their…

1E Words are likened to the vileness of a sepulcher

“Their throat is an open tomb…” what a horrible way to describe the corruption of human speech! The horrible, rotten, and sickening stink that comes from an open grave is not from the grace itself. It is from the decomposing body inside the grave.

The speech or the words of man stink and are offensive to God and show that inside the man is a defiled, depraved, and deceitful heart or nature.

[The spiritually dead heart can only generate spiritually dead words that are of no use to God. So, man’s conduct can be seen in his words which are vile like an open grave. Well, humanities conduct can also be seen in their…]

2E Words which are likened to the venom of a snake

“…with their tongues they have practiced deceit, the poison of asps is under their lips.”

The natural or unsaved man is deceitful and with their words they keep on deceiving. Keep deceiving has the basic meaning of luring and was used of baiting a hook by covering it with small pieces of food to hide the danger of the hook. The tense of our verb shows that this deception is continual or repetitive.

Unsaved men are liars and are deceitful as a normal part of their everyday life.

You remember that both John the Baptist and Jesus described the Pharisees as a brood of vipers, snakes. They called the religious leaders snakes from a snake pit.

I discovered that the fangs of a deadly snake normally lie folded back in the upper jaw of the snake. But when he snake throws his head in order to strike their hollow fangs drop down and when the snake bites the fangs press a sac of deadly poison that is hidden under the “lips” of the snake which injects the venom into their victim.

But look at the venom of the wicked, it isn’t snake poison, “whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.”

Their venom is foul speech. Curses that offend man and God. One day God is going to judge the speech of sinful humanity.

[The spiritually dead heart can only generate spiritually dead words that are of no use to God. So, man’s conduct can be seen in his words which are vile like an open grave. Man’s conduct can also be seen in…]

2D Their conduct is seen in their wicked ways (15-18)

It is not only way we say that makes us subject to the judgment of God, it is also by what we do. Here Paul lists at least three activities that subject all of humanity to the judgment of God. Paul list…

1E …their murderous ways

“Their feet are swift to shed blood…” Is worth noting that the first recorded sin outside of the Garden of Eden was murder. Men have committed murder ever since. J. Edgar Hoover in his day said a murder was committed every 40 minutes somewhere in the USA. I wonder what it is today.

From cannibalism to serial killers to moments of heated passion and abortion mankind has been murdering since Cain.

I don’t have to throw out a bunch of boring statistics to prove to you that murder is a prevalent sin among men even in our country. Even though you probably haven’t committed murder, the seed is in your nature.

As a matter of fact, Jesus said that an angry thought is traced to murder.

It is only by God’s grace and the various restraints that we respond to that have preventing that seed in us in coming to full harvest.

Robert Haldane wrote, “The most savage animals do not destroy so many of their own species to appease their hunger as man destroys of his fellows to satiate his ambition, his revenge, or his cupidity [greed].”

[Not only is humanities conduct seen in their murderous ways, it can also be seen in…]

2E …their miserable ways

“…destruction and misery are in their ways…”

Our verb for destruction is actually a compound verb, and means breaking in pieces with the result of completely shattering which causes total devastation.

There is a wanton, unimaginable, and frightening thing happening in our country where men kill, torture, rape, abuse, or destroy other human beings for no reason other than the sheer joy of destroying or shattering something or someone.

This wanton destruction leads to misery. This is utmost pain and despair.

[So, humanity is murderous and they are miserable in their actions. But Paul tells us about…]

3E …their mutinous ways

“And the way of peace they have not known.”

Paul is not talking about inner peace. He is referring to a moving away from peaceablness like you would on a ship when mutiny destroys the peace aboard ship and between captain and crew.
It seems humanity does not want to have peace but goes to great length to create some type of mutiny and is disruptive towards peaceful existence.

Why is this so true? What causes this wanton destruction, misery, and breaking of the peace? We see this in verse 18. What causes mutinous ways?

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

God who should upon the very thought of Him restrain and restrict this type of behavior has been rejected man humanity. Men not only ignore God but they live as if God does not exist.

Humanity has rejected God and therefore they have been abandoned by God and they have freed to act out without restraint from their sinful wicked nature and behave mutinously because they no longer have even fear of God.

Psalm 36:1 reads, “Transgression speaks to the ungodly within his heart; there is no fear of God before his eyes.”

I want to prove from our passage that all men are sinners and therefore are in need of the gospel.

We will have to wait until next week to look at the third and final point to this message. In the meantime…

Five Lessons Taught By This Passage:

1. It demonstrates the tragic blindness of the Jews
2. It demonstrates the universality of sin
3. It demonstrates the terrible character of sin
4. It demonstrates what must be understood in order to understand the gospel
5. It demonstrates the contrast between the sin of humanity & the glory of God

[What do you say that we wrap this up?]

CONCLUSION

The Application for North Kelso Baptist Church:
Paul has declared and demonstrated that the Gentiles are guilty as sinners and are rightfully under the condemnation and judgment of God. Paul has also declared and demonstrated that the Jews are also guilty as sinners and are also rightfully under the condemnation and judgment of God.
Today, we have seen that Paul both declare and demonstrate that all of humanity, all Jews and all Gentiles are guilty as sinners and are rightfully under the judgment and condemnation of God.
Paul has demonstrated this truth by skillful exclamation of his point, and by skillfully offering up evidence, and by a skillful explanation.
All men, all of humanity are guilty

SUMMARY: Paul proves all men are guilty of sin since there is no difference between the Greek and the Jew by using the OT Scriptures which prevents anyone from relying on their own efforts for salvation.

Today I wanted to motivate you as genuine believers to proclaim the gospel to all men because they have sinned against God, and God is angry with them every day.
What Should You Do?

Remember that all men are slaves of sin and they sin because they are ruled by sin

Ask the Holy Spirit to strengthen and empower you in order to resist the temptation to follow the flesh and engage in wicked words or ways

Share the gospel with any and all members of humanity

Let’s pray! 

1 comment:

nashvillecats2 said...

Thanks Gregg for making my Friday morning get off to a good start. Great to read as always.
Yvonne.