Good morning everyone, today my original intention was to delve into Romans 3:9-30, but I found as I was doing my research, it would prove to be too long for the normal Sunday worship consumption for a sermon.  Regardless, today I will just share to you Part 1 of my sermon.

The Bad News

When I was young, if a person wanted to be updated with the local news or events around the world, he or she would turn to a specific channel on the television at a certain time, to obtain the news.  People back in those days would also buy newspapers to update themselves of current events that are happening. Nowadays, the news is available in all mediums and can be accessed easily from smart phones.  Instead of obtaining the news from just one source, we now have the luxury of choosing from a variety of different sources in order to have better informed opinions.

How do you determine if the news that you received is considered good news?

For news to be good, it needs to point the hearer to something positive.  Good news has more of an impact when it usually transforms negative circumstances into positive ones.  For example, it is considered good news when a specific disaster is averted, wars stopped, famine solved, or diseases cured. Upon reflection, we need to hear the bad news first in order to appreciate the good news.

If the person reporting the current events of the church reported to you that “Dave de Leon ate a hamburger”.  Would that be considered as good news? It would more likely be considered to just be news.  The person was just stating a neutral fact. What if it was reported that “Dave de Leon was eating a hamburger, and as he was swallowing a small piece, someone else suddenly gave him the Heimlich maneuver even though he was not choking and made him spit out the tasty burger”. Would that be considered good news? No, it will not be considered good news in my opinion because forcing me to spit out a hamburger for no reason will only provide me with slight annoyance. Now, what if it was reported that “After having saved enough money and no longer depending on scraps from the garbage dump outside of the city, Dave de Leon is now eating a clean hamburger.”  Will that now be considered good news? For me, it would be good news. You can see that there is a transformation of something bad into something good.

The Gospel itself is considered the Good News and many believers attest that it is. It introduces us to the bad news first and then enlightens us with the wonderful good news of Jesus Christ. However, I fear that in some of our churches today, in fear of not being offensive or politically incorrect to the unbelievers, they have masked, chipped off, or taken away the bad news that makes the Gospel so good to hear. In the Gospel, what is the bad news that we need to hear before we hear the good part?

The Human Condition

Today we will look at what the apostle Paul has written to the Roman church in Romans 3:9-20.  Let us read.

⁹What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, ¹⁰ as it is written:

                  “None is righteous, no, not one;

            ¹¹    no one understands; no one seeks for God.

            ¹²    All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;

                  no one does good, not even one.”

            ¹³  “Their throat is an open grave;

                 they use their tongues to deceive.”

                 “The venom of asps is under their lips.”

            ¹⁴  “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”

            ¹⁵  “Their feet are swift to shed blood;

            ¹⁶  in their paths are ruin and misery,

            ¹⁷  and the way of peace they have not known.”

            ¹⁸  “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

¹⁹ Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. ²⁰For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Ro 3:9–20.

In this passage the apostle Paul states first the bad news that the listener needs to hear. It is not only bad news; it is offensive as well because it deals with the very moral deficiencies of every human on earth.  We all feel elated when we get showered with praises and in contrast, we feel offended when someone points out our faults.  We act defensive and answer back with statements such as “You have no right to judge me,” or we redirect the accusation back to our accuser. We hate to hear bad news, especially if it is about us.

In Romans 3: 10-12 it states, “as it is written:  None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks God.  All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

This passage which is quoted from Psalm 14:1-3, points out that mankind is universally and intrinsically evil.  Apart from God, no one has the intention to do good and no one has the ability to do good.  Furthermore, because of sin, no one has the ability to understand God and no one has the desire to seek Him.  In some churches today, Christians would try to think of ways to get the unbeliever to come to the church and to stay. There’s a belief that there are people who are seeking God, and if we the church find out ways to hook and reel them in, then they will not be seeking anymore and that they indeed have found God.

The term we call “seeker sensitive” makes the church develop programs that would make church very exciting such that worship services would be modified in order to make the whole experience palatable to the unbelievers. In order to make church palatable and well received by “seekers”, the church would have to remove anything that would offend them. And this, my brothers and sisters, is how the Gospel of Jesus Christ is watered down in order to appeal to our human inclinations. These types of seeker-sensitive churches would often say, “We shouldn’t tell these people that they are wicked, even if the Bible says so, its offensive.  They need to hear uplifting messages which say that there is really nothing bad about them, but if they want to be better, here are four or five ways that they can be better in their lives because they have potential. We must tell them to live their best life now!”

What’s wrong with this scenario?

It is that the Word of God specifically states that no one understands God and no one seeks Him. If they are actually seeking God, it is God Himself who draws them in. It says in John 6:44, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day”. The unbeliever will be drawn to God based on how and when God draws them in. It is not dependent on how smart we are as a church in thinking up ways to draw people in. Again, I will reiterate, no one, seeks God.  That is the nature of the unbeliever.

If we all believe that the Bible is the infallible Word of God and it is the direct revelation of God to us, then Romans 3:9-12 alone points out how God sees us. That is, in His eyes, we are all wicked. We are evil in His sight. We can see the extent of our wickedness and how we do not understand God when we ourselves disagree with Him about our wicked nature. We would often try to justify our actions, our intentions, and even become a better judge than God Himself.

One example of us thinking that we know more than God is with the current social worldview that the world has right now. We live in a culture that abhors genocide and rightly so. We have witnessed the atrocities of past regimes and even current ones regarding genocide. When we read passages in the Bible like Deuteronomy 20:16-18 where God commands the destruction of nations;

“But in the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes, but you shall devote them to complete destruction, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, as the Lord your God has commanded, that they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices that they have done for their gods, and so you sin against the Lord your God.”

Our culture would question why a loving God would ever command the complete destruction of nations. Some of us will wrestle with this idea in our minds that God has caused an injustice. Our wickedness from sin makes us feel entitled that God should not judge us and better yet, we should have the right to judge His motives because we think we have a better grasp of the concept of righteousness than God Himself.

We may never completely deal with the issue of God commanding the Israelites to destroy all of the other nations. But one thing we should ask ourselves when we question God’s motive – Between God and us, who is the transgressor and who is the judge? Does the transgressor have the right to ever question the judge?  If we agree that God is the judge then it is important to note that the transgression has directly offended Him, and it is personal. As a judge, God is not judging offenses between two parties. He is judging people who have directly sinned against Him. It is similar to a judge judging a murderer in court, except instead of the murderer just killing a random person, he or she killed the judge’s daughter. To God, sin is a very serious offense to Him.

In verses 13-17, “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.  The venom of asps is under their lips.  Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.  Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.  There is no fear of God before their eyes.” The first verses that we have read (10-12), deal with how God sees our human condition.  Verses 13-17 looks at what our sinful nature can achieve. Our mouth as it is laid out in verses 13-14 from our throat to our lips can be sinful.  How many times have we used our tongues to lie to people? How many times have we used our mouth to spread gossip especially in the church in the façade that we will pray for the person who is the object of gossip? How many of us lie while we gossip? We lie to people because in the end it will serve our selfish purposes, whether to avoid accountability from people or because it is just a means to an end.

How many of us use our mouth to curse other people.  How many of us use vindictive and unjust words towards our neighbors?  In Matthew 12:36-37 it says, “I tell you on the day of judgement people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”  Also in Ephesians 4:29 it says, “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.”  Do we says things like, “You’re useless, you amount to nothing” or any similar words or phrases to anybody?  I know this because I do these things. I say vindictive words to other people in order to elevate my status or my perceived righteousness. Can you see how wicked it is for me to do that? One day, I will stand before God and I will give an account of the words that I have said here on earth.

Path of Destruction

Verses 15 to 17, lays out the path of destruction our sinful nature can achieve.  “Our feet are swift to shed blood, our paths are ruin and misery, the way of peace is unknown to us.” We can see this just outside our own backyard. Death and destruction are prevalent and they are everywhere in the world; if you follow the path of its origins, it usually leads to man being the culprit. Murder, rape, and all other injustices are the cause of our sin. I used to say that these verses cannot apply to me since I did not murder anyone nor raped anyone. Would it be the same when I wished the person that I hated to die a horrible death?  And is it the same when I look at a woman who is not my wife, lustfully? If there are no moral convictions to restrain me, and I especially do not have the Holy Spirit guiding me, I can be capable of doing those very acts and it is indeed a frightening concept to think about.

Paul concludes the summary of our human condition by citing Psalm 36:1 which is “Transgression speaks to the wicked deep in his heart; there is no fear of God in his eyes.”   It should be noted that due to a lack of fear in God, Adam and Eve disobeyed God. They did not believe and trust His word when they sinned. Comparably, if we look at our own sins, we sin because we think what God says is not important to us. We think our way is way better, and the path of least resistance or the shortcut is more efficient. It’s ironic that when we take shortcuts like cheating on an exam, lying, having pre-marital or extra marital relations with someone else, or any sin under the sun, the path suddenly becomes harder and longer to walk on. The fallout from sin a road full of hurt and suffering. The consequences of our sins may even continue to affect us even until the day we die.

Romans 3:23, which is famous in our church through evangelism explosion clearly states that “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. This means that everybody has sinned against a just and holy God.  It solidifies the passages from verses 9 to 19 regarding our true human condition. Even what seems righteous to us is like polluted garment or filthy rags before God.  Isaiah 64:6 says, “We have all become like the one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like polluted garment.  We all fade like a leaf, and all our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.”  So, we can be faithful in going to church every week, we can fight for injustices against our fellow man, we can feed the poor and aid the sick, we can even come up with methods in being good Christians, yet these acts of good works alone cannot change the fact that they are still like filthy rags before God.

This is clear when we look at Romans 3:19-20 as it says, “Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.  For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.”  The Mosaic law serves two purposes: it provides us the moral basis on how we should interact with God and how we should interact with one another; and it reveals to us the standard that God set in order for us to be as righteous as Him. The bar is set so high that it is unattainable. God’s standard demands perfection. This means, that for all of your life, you have never failed to accomplish what the law requires. Raise your hand if you have never lied at all in your life? But what about “white lies”? White lies, black lies, brown lies, yellow lies, every Crayola colours of lies you can think of are included.

The Mosaic law by itself is not the means by which we can attain righteousness toward God. Trying to faithfully follow the law in order to appease God or prove that we are righteous will never be enough. What the law actually does is prove that our own efforts at being righteous will never measure up. It is like a test to see if we are qualified to meet up to God’s standard of perfection. But we know all too well that we ourselves cannot fulfill the law by our own efforts.

Based on the passage, the law actually makes sin visible in our lives. In forensic science, a liquid substance called luminol is applied at a crime scene to check if there are traces of blood left. Even when blood has been cleaned, luminol still reacts to the hemoglobin that the blood has left behind. It is the same with God’s law as it reminds us of the extent of our sin toward God.

In Proverbs 6:23 it says,

      ²³ For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life,

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Pr 6:23.

Ephesians 5:13??

In this passage, the law of God is like a lamp that improves our vision of our surroundings. We are not lost in darkness. Similarly in Psalm 119:105 it states,

      ¹⁰⁵ Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Ps 119:105.

The law of God is like a lamp that guides our path as we continually walk on it.

In this picture, it shows a man in complete darkness. Can you see any details in this picture? Do you see what the man is doing? No, and neither can the man in the picture. To him, he cannot see what he is doing and everyone else cannot see what he is doing or who he really is. When we look at the law being a lamp to show us our surroundings and guiding our path, would it also be safe to assume that the law as a lamp can also reveal or expose who we are and our actions? The second picture shows the man this time with a lamp showing everyone including himself, who he is. The law of God exposes all of us on how spiritually bankrupt we are and so that we have no excuse to give.

Without the law, my “white lies” can be justified. Without the law, I would not know how much of an idolater I really am. It would not reveal to me, how I put other things, other people, and even myself above God. The law is a basis where we all fail God’s standard. Therefore, it is in this case why we see that we alone can never attain our own righteousness.

Brothers and sisters in Christ (and visitors), this marks the end of Part 1 of my sermon. In all its entirety, it sounds like a gloomy sermon and it should be regarded as such. However, the next passages after verse 20 deal with the good news itself, the Gospel.  It is indeed good news, compared to the bad news we looked at today. For anyone in here who considers himself/herself to be a non-Christian, or you even consider yourself to be a Christian, yet you have no passion and desire to be obedient to God, and that the sinful traits that I’ve mentioned is okay to you, and that Jesus is a person that you consider to be only a model of morality, I pray that you will indeed put your faith and trust in our Lord Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins before your life ends here on earth. It is because the judgement that you will receive for your sin is also bad news.

For anyone here who considers himself/herself to be a Christian and has put his/her faith and trust in our Lord Jesus, may these passages in Romans 3:9-20 remind us of the seriousness of our sins, and of our old nature. May these passages remind us to hold fast to the Gospel, and may we have a deeper appreciation of the sacrifice that our Lord Jesus has paid for the forgiveness of our sins. May this also encourage us to share the Gospel even if it offends because the person we share the Gospel will eventually appreciate the extent of God’s love toward them. Let us pray.

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