What People are REALLY Like
Romans 3:1-24
March 5, 2023
Pastor Craig Ledbetter
Bible Baptist Church, Ballincollig, Cork, Ireland
I. Introduction and Review (Romans 3:19)
A. Romans 3:19 Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
B. We have heard the words “before God” at special occasions
1. Like at weddings… “We stand here today, gathered together before God, to join these two people together in marriage…” making a vow in the sight of God, not just people
2. It is sometimes said at funerals
3. It means, “being in the sight of God”
4. Genesis 6:11 The earth also was corrupt before God [IN THE SIGHT OF GOD], and the earth was filled with violence.
C. Most people are very good at hiding their sins…
1. Hiding their google history to porn sites
2. Hiding phone numbers, and images from their spouse, and parents
3. Hiding drink, and drugs, and who they really are
D. But God sees it all – plain as day!
E. So, We have no defence argument! God will shut us up from our excuses, exposing what we all already know in our heart of hearts – that we are ALL guilty of breaking God’s Laws, and that God’s wrath has been revealed against ALL unrighteousness, not just that of the Gentiles, but also of the Jewish people.
II. Message
A. The Advantages Being a Jew (Romans 3:1,2)
1. Romans 3:1 What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision?
2. What Good is Being a Jew Then?
a. If circumcision does no good, And if no one can keep the Law
b. Are they special at all?
3. Paul answers, There is Much advantage in every way! They are still a special people
a. Romans 3:2 Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.
b. The Jews DO have an advantage over us Gentiles – don’t let anyone tell you otherwise
4. They have God’s perfect Revelation of Truth
a. They have the advantage over everyone else because they have been given God’s perfect revelation and Laws (starting back in Exodus 20)
1) God didn’t give His revelation about Himself, and His Laws to Dubliners, Italians, Goths, or Australian Aborigines
2) God gave His very words, the Bible to the JEWS (not US)!
3) This Bible is a JEWISH Book, given by God to the Jews, using Jewish writers. Every page was written by JEWS (Moses, David, Nehemiah, Ezra, as well as Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Peter, Paul, James, Jude) – every one a JEW!
b. The Bible is Superior to our conscience, our education, and progressivism because it is absolutely true and balanced and right in what it says about the human heart!
5. The Jews therefore have every reason to believe, Because of being given the truth, the Jews have every reason to believe God, trust God, obey God, preach to the world ABOUT God, and enjoy the blessings of God…
6. Yet Most Jews Don’t Believe the Gospel (Romans 3:3) For what if some [MOST] did not believe?
a. Shouldn’t the Jews actually believe their own Book?
b. And if they don’t, doesn’t that reflect badly on God?
B. God Is Still True (Romans 3:3,4)
1. Romans 3:3,4 For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.
2. Just because people don’t believe in God, and don’t obey the Bible does not disprove the existence of God, nor the power of God
a. Gravity is true whether people believe in it or not
b. The earth is round whether people believe it or not
c. YOUR belief or disbelief doesn’t change a FACT
3. Faith in God is true because GOD is true – He cannot lie
4. And every man, every religion, every scientist, theologian, politician, teacher, housewife, nurse, doctor, lawyer and plumber is a liar!
5. WOW! What a statement! “let God be true, but every man a liar”
a. It wouldn’t matter if most people are Muslim, Buddhist, atheist – God is still true, and everyone else is LIAR!
b. And Paul quotes Psalm 51, where David admits God cannot ever be proven to be wrong, and will always be proven right, as He was right when He exposed David’s secret sin with Bathsheba! (Psalm 51:4) Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. [GOD IS RIGHT WHEN PASSING JUDGMENT]
C. Do Sins Make God Look God? (Romans 3:5-8)
1. Romans 3:5-8 But if our unrighteousness commend [SHOW] the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man) God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world? For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner? And not rather, (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil, that good may come? whose damnation is just.
2. Paul makes a strange statement… evidently people thought that since sins make God look good and righteous, sin is not so bad!
3. And that God shouldn’t judge sins if they actually make God look good
a. Like a torch is obviously brighter in a dark room…
b. People were claiming that, If a lie makes God look better, why punish liars? Why not let people do evil, that good may come from it?
c. How can God be right to judge sins if sins are good for something?
d. That is a weird viewpoint
4. Paul almost screams “YOU ARE SO MESSED UP, and your damnation is right! If you believe that” Sin has NEVER benefited anyone – do right ladies and gentlemen – do right!
D. The Sinful Condition of All Men (Romans 3:9-18)
1. So Paul now goes right for the heart of , and shows us what we really are: not just liars, and thieves, and adulterers, and killers…
2. But sinful people, who sin in a zillion different ways
3. None righteous – not one person in the entire world (Romans 3:0,10)
a. Romans 3:9,10 What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
b. Doesn’t matter if you are a Jew, or a Gentile
c. By yourself, you are not righteous in the sight of God
d. It doesn’t matter who you are, and what good you have done
e. You always fall short of God’s line of perfection
f. Romans 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God
4. No one understands God (Romans 3:11)
a. Romans 3:11 There is none that understandeth, ...
b. No one can know and understand God without the Bible telling us about Him
c. He is not found in a test tube, or a telescope
5. No one really seeks after God (Romans 3:11)
a. Romans 3:11 … there is none that seeketh after God.
b. People don’t seek after God – because He is NOT what they expect or want!
c. What do people normally seek after and strive for? What do people want? Money, fame, power, food, self promotion, popularity, pleasure, success
d. Even people who go into the priesthood, or monasteries and nunneries, CLAIM to seek after God, but do it their own ways, and don’t really like God as he is, and so, constantly change their view of Him!
e. That is why this church is not full, and why discos and pubs and sports stadiums are packed… Because people don’t seek after God!
f. Yet, Jeremiah 29:13 promises, And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
6. All go astray (Romans 3:12)
a. Romans 3:12 They are all gone out of the way... [OFF-COURSE]
b. Isaiah 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him [JESUS] the iniquity of us all.
c. Astray means, every one of us get off the path – reject God’s design, and reject their own conscience
d. Doing our own thing – marrying whomever we want, thinking whatever we want, saying whatever we want…
e. Never living in a narrow way, like Jesus said we must
f. Matthew 7:13,14 Enter ye in at the strait [HARD] gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
7. All are unprofitable (Romans 3:12)
a. Romans 3:12 … they are together become unprofitable; …
b. Wow! That hurts!
c. Men who are ruined by sin, are of no use to God, to men, or to themselves
d. God doesn’t need us – all we do is TAKE from God – we bring no benefit to Him
e. People are like a load of holes in a boat – not valuable to the boat!
8. None doeth (continually) good (Romans 3:13)
a. Romans 3:12 … there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
b. Ecclesiastes 7:20 For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.
c. No matter how much good we may do, we always end up doing wrong
d. No one just does the right thing constantly
e. All of us sin at different times
9. People have a wicked mouth - throat, tongue, lips, mouth are filthy (Romans 3:14)
a. Romans 3:13,14 Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:
b. Throat like an open grave, full of dead men’s bones, and rotting flesh
c. Full of lying, deceit, death, poison, bitterness
d. Don’t think for a minute that YOU are not like that! All you need is a good reason to start running your mouth into the gutter
1) F-ing and Blinding, ripping people, stabbing with every word, yelling, beating them up with your tongue and talking like Satan himself!
2) EVERY ONE OF US HAVE A FILTHY MOUTH! We find out when provoked!
10. Feet RUN to mischief / riot / trouble (Romans 3:15)
a. Romans 3:15 Their feet are swift to shed blood:
b. People are so quick to hurt people back – revenge – bitter words – making the people who hurt you BLEED!
c. When was the last time you thought of your throat as an open grave, full of DEATH, or your feet anxious to shed blood?
11. Lives are filled with destruction and misery (Romans 3:16)
a. Romans 3:16 Destruction and misery are in their ways:
b. People are like a lawnmower over a flower bed!
c. THAT is how people live without God
12. Ignorant of the way of peace (Romans 3:17)
a. Romans 3:17 And the way of peace have they not known:
b. Oh, how everyone talks about PEACE and LOVE and TOLERANCE…
c. Yet, people never actually achieve it
d. The most INTOLERANT people, in this world, are those who have complained about the whole world being intolerant of THEM!
13. No fear of God (Romans 3:18)
a. Romans 3:18 There is no fear of God before their eyes.
b. THAT is a root problem
c. People don’t care what GOD thinks, and how GOD will react to their way of living
d. Proverbs 16:6 By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the LORD men depart from evil.
e. Matthew 10:28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
14. ALL THOSE THINGS describe how we humans, really ARE
a. THESE ARE UNIVERSAL TO ALL MANKIND
1) Not everyone is a drunkard, or a murderer…
2) But everyone of us are described by all the above things!
3) And all our attempts at “being good” fail
b. THAT is why people spend so much time changing the way people see their sins – redefining sins
1) People are praised for not seeking after God
2) People promote doing as you please as freedom
3) People believe in their self-worth, instead of admitting they bring nothing to God but sin
4) People justify their wicked language, and lashing tongues as “just expressing the way they are”
5) NO! You are lying, and covering for your own sinful nature that will face the judgment of God one day, and receive the righteous wrath of God!
c. AN EXAMPLE of a car on a used car lot
1) You look at it and it LOOKS great on the outside! Shiny, gleaming
2) But then you look UNDER the hood, and check the colour and quality of the oil
3) And then you start up the engine, and listen to the rhythm and start noticing a rocking, pinging sound
4) And then notice a stream of oil down onto the ground, and smoke out the back of the exhaust
5) And the salesman says, “Oh don’t mind that pool of oil, or black smoke, or the pinging of the engine. THAT’S the NEW technology at work! It drives great!”
6) You would declare that that car was a LEMON and should be rejected
d. And that is why God rejects OUR own attempts at righteousness – because we are ALL lemons!
E. That is why God calls PREACHERS to expose the sinful things in men’s lives FIRST
1. A Bible preacher’s job is to NOT make you feel loved and warm and comfortable inside – it is to agitate you and expose you, so that you know the truth about yourself and want to get saved from sin!
2. Don’t rely on your own morality and your own conscience… Your conscience can burn out, and not affect you anymore
3. So, God still calls MEN to stand and preach what this book says!
a. Tell people what is already in the heart of every hearer if they would admit it
b. God tells preachers in 2Timothy 4:2 to, Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.
c. When it is popular, and when it is not!
4. We ALL want Doctors who don’t hide cancers and bad-vaccine-effects from us
5. We all want Politicians who decide to never lie to people to get their vote
6. Oh that God would call men again to Open people’s eyes and minds AND HEARTS to how they really are.
7. May God give us PREACHERS who will tell God’s truth like it really is, Warning every man and every woman about where they are headed when they die
F. The Power of the Law – whether written, or in people’s hearts (Romans 3:19,20)
1. Here is the main Scripture to know and react to…
2. Romans 3:19 Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
3. God’s Law has an awesome power:
a. Whether it is in our conscience, or as found in the Bible…
b. God’s absolute Laws stop people from arguing and debating, and mocking, and rejecting its right-ness
c. Because it exposes the truth about us – proves that the entire world is guilty in God’s sight whether we be Jew or Gentiles, Irish or French, Indian or Swedish
d. A person can FEEL healthy, and then gets an x-ray and find cancer
e. Well, you may FEEL spiritual, or feel like you are a pretty good person…
f. And yet be wicked, and dark, and a liar, and arrogant, and condescending
g. THIS Book, exposes each and every one of us!
h. And when it speaks, there is no more arguing!
4. Unfortunately, guilty people cannot get help from God’s Laws
a. Romans 3:20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
b. It is like an X-Ray machine, or an MRI – those machines can only SHOW what is wrong inside us – they cannot repair what is wrong!
c. The same is true with God’s laws! It shows what is wrong IN US ALL!
d. Neither Jew, nor Gentile, nor anyone else can be justified before God [PARDONED AND MADE RIGHTEOUS] by anything other than faith!
1) The Jews thought that their DOING of the works of the Law would make them worthy / make their righteous enough to go to heaven
2) And they thought that sinful Gentiles had to do those same works
3) But Paul has proven that the Laws of God, and the laws even in our own conscience damn us
5. And THAT is when men usually cry out, “WHAT DO WE DO THEN?”
G. And the Answer is FAITH in Jesus Christ (Romans 3:21-24)
1. Romans 3:21-24 But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
2. THESE ARE THE BEST SCRIPTURES YET!
3. The theme of the entire Bible is,
a. Righteousness is received by FAITH alone!
b. Believing / trusting the life and the faith of Jesus is enough to save!
c. Psalm 103:10-12 He [GOD] hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.
d. HOW DOES JESUS SAVE?
e. 2Corinthians 5:21 For he [GOD] hath made him [JESUS] to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
f. And amazingly, it is available to ALL who decide to believe in the saving power of JESUS over the condemning power of the Law
4. More about these four verses next week!
III. Conclusion
A. This Book describes how we really ARE on the inside – Guilty in the sight of God
1. There is NONE righteous – not one
2. No one understands the seriousness of their sin without preaching
3. None seek after God
4. All go astray from their design, and conscience
5. All are unprofitable
6. None doeth (continually) good…
B. It stops everyone from excusing themselves, because it PROVES our guiltiness before God – even though no one else sees how we really are!
C. Guilty people cannot get help from God’s Law – it only proves we are guilty
D. So, “WHAT DO WE DO THEN?”
E. Believe in what JESUS did for you, believe it right now!