Our text this morning, particularly following verses 13 through 20, but I need to begin reading at verse 9 of the third chapter of Romans. Paul has been arguing that the Jew has no advantage because the oracles of God in him individually have not prospered. It simply brought him to see his sin more clearly. And he advances that argument now about the Jews are not better than the Gentiles. He begins in verse 9 restating that, but also then advancing the argument, because that last portion of verse 9 lays the accusation there, that you are under sin. And last week we looked at verses 9, 10, 11, and 12, particularly the verdict of God already pronounced, the judgment of God, the accusation against us. This morning we pick up verses 13 and following where he presents the evidence that is there that supports such an astounding declaration. And then verse 19 we get to the purpose. We need to understand where he is going with it. It's not simply to point out that we are all under sin, but then knowing that, what is the response? So it furnishes there the beginnings and the foundation for the greatness of the gospel message. We need to read in Romans chapter 3 and verse 9. This is God's word. What 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. As it is written, none is righteous. No, not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God. All have turned aside, together they become worthless, no one does good, not even one. 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, and their paths are ruin and mystery, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. 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 the knowledge of sin. Thus far, God's Word. Let's pray. Father, we do thank you for this portion of your Word. We come to the confession that We do see ourselves in this mirror. And yet, Lord, we thank You that beyond that mirror, we see the grace that is ours in Christ Jesus. So we ask for clear understanding today that we might know our Savior, might know Him more fully and richly in the glory of salvation. We come in His name, asking these things. Amen. The charge is serious. The accusation is profound. That's why we spent the whole time last week looking at details. You're all under sin. Every man, woman, child alive born naturally of Adam's race is under sin, under its power, under its corruption, and under its judgment. He says they found it worthless. They have been spoiled. They're ruined beyond being used for their original purpose to honor God. He says this is the accusation. really repeating, because he's quoting there Psalm 14. Psalms are the testimony of the psalmist, often from the human heart, responding to what God has said, but always inspired by God. It's a God-inspired response. So from the prophets and the Psalms, Paul now begins to quote things in responding to God's law and the reaction as God has opened the eyes and minds and hearts and given the words of saying, we're under sin. There's no one acquitted. There's no one who is beyond that. See, we ask the question and think of it, and our usual methodology or approach is, well, how blatant is the sin? Or how gross is the sin? Or how widespread is the sin? But the charge is that there is sin. that you have been contaminated and corrupted by sin, that throughout all of your being are the effects of that sin and of that guilt. Its presence and its power are shown by the hand of God, restrained in so many different ways that it's not expressed as outwardly as it would. But the accusation is not you're as big a sinner as possibly could be, but that you are a sinner. You are not acceptable to God. You are not pure as he requires. As I was considering the passage, it came to mind some of the earlier trips to Uganda that we would go, we would take medical supplies. We would scrounge from local doctors' offices and places that have out-of-date meds or various things or supplies dumped over that were still quite usable but by U.S. medical standards weren't going to be allowed. You would have antibiotics that were like a month out-of-date or something, which were fine, or you'd have part of the surgical packages that would be used in surgery where they have the big package and you have the individually sealed little packages And the ones that don't get used are thrown in the trash. And so we would take the gauze with us and the new scalpels and things like that. But sometimes packages are broken open. Now, you're preparing for surgery. And the nurse looks over and says, oops, the surgical gauze seal is broken. It's been exposed to the air. You want to use that? Safety seal is gone. You can use it to put streamers from the ceiling. You can use it to tie ribbons on your daughter's dolls. But you can't use it for the purpose for which it was intended. The safety seal is broken. There is contamination. It's opened and therefore it is no longer suited to that. The purity is no longer there. And it has to be pure in order to be used for that. And that's what the apostle is asserting here. You are under sin. There is sin in your life. You're a sin in the life of every one of us. You've been exposed and contaminated. Not good for what we're designed for, and so God condemns as worthless. The question then pops up in the human heart, which Paul then reiterates at the end as he hammers it home. You're not going to be found a judge right judged wholly, judged satisfactory by the law because it's going to condemn you. That's a horrible verdict. What's your evidence? I mean, you're declaring this, that I am under sin, that my mind and my life and my heart are under the corruption and power of sin. Maybe I was open in a sterile environment. And maybe these sins have come upon me. And just ironic, in Uganda, the local language, you have to tell the translators carefully because they express what most of us try to read into it. If you talk about, I sinned doing this, their translators say, the sin came upon me. This sin happened to me. And you have to be very explicit to say, no, the sin didn't happen to you. The sin didn't come upon you. You did the sin from within. That's what Paul is saying. There's evidence that corruption actually took place. There's evidence that shows that you were under that power of sin. It's not just the hidden mysteries of God. It's not something intangible that God saw floating in an aura around you that you can't see. It's very clearly hidden there all the way. And God does not accept the Bart Simpson defense. I didn't do it. Nobody saw me do it. You can't prove I did it. He cites very clear evidence that is entirely irrefutable. There's nothing hidden about it. He said, I'm going to call witnesses in two areas. The first is everything you say. The second is everything you do. You're guilty and you show it. And immediately, I try not to. Why do you have to try not to? because sin is already there. These are not the fine points of law. These are not bound in obscure verses in Leviticus hidden between the requirements for the sacrificial lambs and goats or the priestly requirements for ritual washings or something. This is broadly expressed in the law so that the prophets and the psalmists whom he quotes are saying this is indicative of the corruption found in all of us. And if you wish to deny it, then you have to be ready to cross-examine and refute these two witnesses. Although it's a very unpleasant task. Look at the first witness. He says, their throat is an open grave. That's from Psalm 5. not an open grave. We picture a graveyard, a cemetery with a casket sitting there and with a grave pit dug for the casket to be lowered into, individual hole, unused, etc. That's not the grave that these people knew. You have a lot of rock, so you don't dig many holes. In fact, normally you'll look for a cave in the side of a hill, or carve in. You don't just place all that effort on a single lot. You take family members there, or wealthy people, or the potters, or whatever. It's not a new one. Jesus was laid in the new grave specified where nobody was in yet. Normally you go to the funeral and they open up the grave and you have the stench of the bodies already rotting inside. It's one of the reasons why when Jesus prepared to raise Lazarus from the dead, Lazarus' sister said, Lord, he's already beginning to stink. It's been three days. So you envision not a neat little six foot deep hole in the ground, with nothing in it but dirt and a liner, you envision a large stone cave with a number of bodies in various stages of decay, and you just open that door. Now, you probably have the experience of power outage or something, and you didn't realize, and you open your refrigerator, and it's fragrant. You can begin to imagine the stench she's talking about here, and the apostle and the Because God has inspired the both of them, are saying, every time you open your mouth, the stench of death just comes forth. Every time you open your mouth, you show that death that is in there. You show that what comes out of the mouth, as Jesus said in Matthew, what comes out of the mouth is what has come from the heart. It's not what you take in the body, it's what comes out. Your words condemn you. How so? Well, he says, how do you use the tongue? The tongues are used to deceive. The tongues are there wanting to disguise the rottenness that is in, not wanting to elaborate on reality as it is, but to deceive and to pretend something else. There is an attempt to evade reality. You know how it is when you You try to find out which one of the children left the cookie jar out and then had to be that little blue midget that runs around and does all that stuff because all of your children said, we didn't do it, I didn't do it. We want to lie to get out of our responsibility. You know that some of the more recent studies say that by the time they're six months old, children have already learned to lie. They can't use words yet. But they misrepresent what's happening so they can get your attention. And you're aware of that. That's a form of lying. He says you're always lying. You're always lying about yourself, lying to others. Your sense of flattery or a sense of slander, whatever. How many times do you have to teach your children to lie? You don't. It comes from within, naturally. He said your tongue is deceitful. And the venom of aspirin. is under their lips. And the word he has here is for an adder, a particular type of snake. And literally, their poison sacs are under the lips. When they open the mouth, the fangs extend. When they bite, the poison is pushed then through the fangs. Well, it's one thing that our mouths open up and our tongues utter these deceits, but the words that come out are painful and burning and hurtful and destructive and deadly. I'm sure your mom taught you when you were a child that sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. She was wrong. Words are very hurtful. And we use them that way. We say things to and about others that are hurtful things. I try not to. Why do you have to try not to? Because you've got to get up a clamp. on the Poisoned Sacks of Sin, because it naturally comes out in the things that we say. I had a fellow several years ago who was talking about a new gadget that was on his VHS tape player, which tells you how many years ago it was. But there was a language control feature, and you could set the keys up in a certain way so that any time there was any profanity in the movie, or cursing, it would automatically go silent. And it was almost like watching a Buster Keaton movie or a Keystone Cox because you didn't have much left over after all that's removed from movies. Profanities everywhere! Vulgarities everywhere! Cursing! Bitterness! Lying! All over the place! It's what happens! Does this come from the mouth of man as he was created by God? The God of truth who made man into his own image? No, something's happened. What's happened? There's sin within. It shows itself, and with some will show itself more clearly, more often, more vehemently. But it definitely doesn't show the sinless lips of our Savior. It shows the presence and reality of sin. That's the characteristic. Only if there is sin in the heart would there ever be deceit and bitterness coming forth like the stench of the grave. So the first accusation is sustained. First witness is on the stand. Is this person under sin? Well, look at how the mouth is used. Look at your own mouth. That's kind of hard to do without a mirror, but look mentally and in your heart. Well, I don't do it very often. That's not the question, is it? Does not your mouth show the presence of sin in your heart? Does not the mouth show corruption that is there in your heart, that sin is present? No more questions, this witness. Well, who's the second witness? Second witness is in the life. A life that's also destructive. One of the aspects of sin is it's never beneficial, that's a lie of Satan. Sin never is beneficial or, in the long run, really advantageous. He says, their feet are swift to shed blood. There is a readiness and an eagerness and a promptness there to go out and assault. Look back in the pages of history. How often, if ever, is there a time without a war underway somewhere? Mercenaries have lifetime employment. Mercenaries can go, when this little war is finished, they can be hired here because there's always warfare somewhere. Because somebody wants something that somebody else has. And either they fight to get it or they have to fight to defend against it. There's always that warfare going on. The blood of thousands has been shed. And still the hatred and the war keeps going on. Well, I try not to do things that will hurt people. Really? Why would you have to try so hard? Driving traffic, and that person in the other car is there, and you get furious, and you're tempted to run them off the road, and you don't. What reason do you have that you're willing to run them off the road for taking an extra 10 seconds in your trip? Because there's that proclivity within, ready to shed blood. And over the most trivial of reasons, somebody cut you off from the lane. There was a news story briefly about a week, two weeks ago, where a man killed his wife He'd ask her to bring home a chicken sandwich for lunch. She brought him home a pizza, so he killed her. Most fights are over something about that significant. There was a battle, I believe it was early in 1812, so it started a war called the War of Jenkins and Ears. It caused British sailors to come on board to endroon some of the men who said they were Americans. They had a fight and they cut off the ear of a man named Jenkins. That started the whole war. our Hugh Ferdinand on the bridge being shot started World War I. Something totally out of proportion. We're swift to shed blood. You see, what happens to the others doesn't matter as much as what happens to me. It doesn't really bother us that extensively that somebody else suffers. Because we're all psychopaths. Psychopaths are people who are described in mental journals as those who have no compassion for other people. They believe really they're the only person who is significant and they can use and manipulate other people to achieve what they want. We all have psychopathic tendencies. We all love ourselves so much more that we will use these others and destroy others to advance ourselves. That's what happens. Their feet are swift to shed blood, and their path are ruin and misery. We do things to tear down, not build up. We just destroy stuff right and left. That's why when children are rearing them, you have to teach them accountability, teach them to care for things. Otherwise, they just keep on destroying it. I'm sure you're familiar with the broken window syndrome. If you've got a property sitting empty and has a broken window, you have to fix it quick. Why? Because if you've got a broken window on an empty house, everybody goes by and brings more windows. And it's a lot of fun going rocks through windows in empty houses. We'll get into that later. We just like to tear things up. Why do guys like movies that have not only car chases but lots of things blowing up? Because we like to destroy things. We like booms. We like tearing things up with other things. It's why you have laws against arson. We just are swift to bring misery and ruin. And the way of peace they have not known. That's not ignorance. That's approval. We're not people inclined to seek peace. Our lusts are not met. These others are obstacles in our way to gratify us and therefore forget this peace thing. We go to war. The way of peace is the way of shalom, to use the Old Testament word. I read it here in the New Testament. Shalom is the wholeness. Not simply a lack of conflict, but a whole restoration. And mankind is not wholly restored. So we cannot choose that path. And so it just tends to fight and to fight at war against God and against others and against ourselves. your witness. What are you going to ask about your own behavior? What are you going to show from your own behavior that says that's not me? I would never have to worry about hurting someone because that's just not my nature to ever hurt anybody. Never normally say a bad thing or do a bad thing. Never look to take out somebody who is Obstructing my goal. Never have the inclination to want to do it. No more witnesses. We're all guilty. What's the conclusion? He puts it in different words there in verse 18. There's no fear of God before their eyes. They do not live as those who look to honor God entirely. They do not look to those whose awe and reverence for God guides and directs every thought, that their focus is on Him and honoring Him and glorifying Him. They don't live as those dependent on Him consciously and seeking His glory and honor and realizing it all comes from His hands. Now he says there's no fear of God. There may be a terror of God, the realization of that judgment, but there's no fear of God, the biblical sense of wanting to honor Him. He says, now, law speaks to those under it. The law has no declarative purpose for those not subject to it. It doesn't matter to me what the laws are in Sweden. I'm not in Sweden. Under what laws are you living? Well, he's here speaking of the Jew and the Greek. He's spoken of those who sinned apart from the written law but knew the law of God. And he's spoken of those who know the word of God and know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under it. And what's the result? So that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world held accountable to God. As John Gill said, the Jews are under it in a particular sense, but the whole world is under it in general. They all have an obligation to be obedient. And they fail. And we fail. And we still argue. We still argue. We try to throw up a defense. But the law stands there and says you can't. Why? By the works of the law, no one will be justified in this sight, since through the law comes the knowledge of sin. Why is that law there? To show you your guilt. We are excellent deceiving ourselves. We can convince ourselves we're really not that bad, or we didn't do that wrong, or that we're not as bad as, or whatever else. In reality, God is of holier eyes, and behold, for iniquity. 5th Psalm, the psalmist says, Of God you are of purer eyes than to ever look on evil with any favor. That's not us. We're so numbed by it. It's a beautiful passage in J.C. Ryle's classic book on holiness. I encourage you all to get and to read it. He says, concerning the guilt and violence and offensiveness in the sight of a God, my words will be few. I say, I say to you advisedly. He goes on to say, we are so caught up in sin, so blinded by sin that we don't recognize its guilt and offensiveness. We are, as he says, like blind men told to evaluate the difference between a signed board and a masterpiece of art. And we see no difference there. And we have no idea how offensive it is in the eyes and nostrils of a holy God. Several years ago, we took some of our grandchildren, when they were younger, out to Living History Farm, which is in Des Moines, where they have several farmsteads there, farming back 1800-1900 farmsteads, people in costume, etc. Those grandkids loved bacon and ham and things of that nature until we took them by the pig pens. They had never been to a pig pen before. They ran. The pig didn't. Pigs thought everything smelled fine. We'd been exposed to pig pens before, so we just laughed. We weren't pleased by it. But the children whose nostrils had not come in, they realized how offensive it was. We dwell before a holy God. We are so numb by the stench of the pink pen of our heart that we want to attribute that to God. That He doesn't really mind. That's not what He says. He says the stench and corruption are there. The death issues out of every time you open your mouth, your sin is shown. And the law serves as God's cadaver dog. Rescue teams have cadaver dogs to go in after the cleanup, and the rescue dogs have tried to find the living people. The dogs are specially trained to sniff out dead bodies so they can recover them and bury them properly. Because we're not sensitive enough to pick it up ourselves. The law is God's cadaver dog. And He's pointing right at us. pointing right at us. We think, I can't be that bad. God really can't be that serious about it. Look back at the garden of Eden. One sin, you're dead. You see that the safety seal is broken. And the corruption that you think might be there, God says, yeah, it's there. I see it and I smell it and you show it. Sin is present. Now, the law stands then as our judgment. What does God make use of this to do? Simply to let us know how bad we are, how right he is to judge? In part. But what else does it do? The law speaks to those under it so that every mouth may be stopped. That everybody is shut down. All the protests are over. All of our arrogant readiness to say that's not me, I'm not that bad, the law says yes you are, you've got no more protests, no more excuses. You've got no appeal left. You've got no grounds to issue an appeal in this court. In fact, it's very unusual, but sometimes the Supreme Court of the U.S. has to invoke Rule 39-8 of the rules of the Supreme Court that says when it's obvious that an appeal is frivolous, then we cannot even have to hear it. Any appeal you're going to offer is frivolous. Well, God, you know, last Thanksgiving, I took a basket of food over. That doesn't cut it. There's still sin in your heart and life. Well, you know, last Thursday, that driver cut me off and I didn't really yell at him. There's still sin in your life. But I've been really good. There's no appeal to that. The law shows the sin that is there. You've got no more excuses. You can't claim good intentions. Much less can you claim extenuating circumstances or good results. You sinned that you could do a good thing because God's law was skewed and therefore not the right thing to do. All that shut down. God says you've got no more claims. There's no more judicial appeal that is possible. When the law does its work in the heart, we finally shut up. You see, until the law does its work in our heart, we keep babbling on, and protesting, and arguing. We're like, sometimes, the police officers tell the person who's stuffing the back of the car, you have the right to remain silent, and I would encourage you to use that right. We keep on babbling, we keep on rambling on, trying to talk until we think of some reason we can give him. Am I really that bad? When the law does its work in our heart, we're confronted with a God before whom we have sinned. Then our response is more like that of Job when he's confronted with God. In chapter 40, he says, I'll put my hand over my mouth. I've got no more protest. He's right. I am sinful. I am corrupt. There is sin in my heart and my life that lies at the root of all that I do. I want to sing God's praises, but the stench of sin is still mixed within and comes out like the fountain Christ had to seek. Salt water and sweet water. And it shouldn't be. But we do it. The things we do, we want to serve Him at the same time. We see we do evil things. I've got no appeal left. He's right. Everything I do is mixed with sin. I've got nothing with sufficient righteousness to please God. Nothing I can do, nothing can come from within me. That's the point. See, until we quit arguing with God, we're not ready to hear the good news. We're still arguing with Him about the good stuff we've done or the things that are within us. The law hasn't finished its work. And we still, even meeting Christ, tend to grumble and complain and be discontent with our lot. The law does its work within us, and God hammers it into us. And that's why this is an extended portion in Romans, the whole third chapter, and a lot of the second. You are sinners apart from the works of the law. You can't do it. You will not be saved by your works. You are corrupt. You are wicked. You are hopeless in yourself. Why? Here's the conclusion. Verse 20, the last phrase, since or because through the law comes a knowledge of sin. Trying to keep the law is not going to save you. Doing the best you can is not going to save you. Doing anything the law says is not going to save you. Coming with a ritual is not going to save you. There is no salvation possible by works. He said back in chapter two, the doer of the law will be declared righteous. You're not a doer of the law. We finally brought to silence in defending ourselves. And that happens when the Holy Spirit has so voraciously wielded the law against us that we realize we have to have an alien salvation. We have to have salvation come from outside of ourselves. Salvation has to come to me. It can't come from within me. If it comes from inside of me, that death and filth and rottenness is going to be there. If I try to obtain that salvation by what I do externally, that's not going to cut it either. It has to come to me from outside of myself. And when I reach that point, then, then the Apostle has laid the foundation that he talked about way back in the first chapter, the righteousness that is by faith. Then, as a salvation, he talks about starting in the next verse with that glorious participle. But! You see, until God takes every straw excuse from our hands, we'll keep arguing. The work of the law done rightly within us leaves us confessing our sin. God, I have no hope except in your mercy. That's my only deliverance. There's nothing I can do. I have to have righteousness brought to me from outside. Life has to come to me. It can't come from me and be developed. It has to come to me. Then he talks about the work of the Spirit opening eyes, giving life to the dead. Then he talks about the righteousness of Christ imputed and imparted in our sanctification. Then he talks about all that is done in our salvation. But not yet. Not yet. So we're going to follow his logic and his procedure and ask, have you shut up yet? Have you quit arguing with God? Have you finally, by his Spirit, been brought to the point where you admit, it's all of grace. It has to come outside of myself. Nothing I'm going to be able to do to obtain it. Nothing I can do better, harder, nothing. It's all on him. Child of God, you know exactly what I'm talking about because you've been there. And that's why the sight of a Savior is so beautiful. The total pitch black of the hopelessness of your own heart and life there shown the glory of the righteousness of Jesus Christ. That not only is that filth and vileness forgiven, but you're declared righteous. You're made a son. You're made an heir of heaven. You're brought into the kingdom. All the glories that are there to one so vile and so wretched. Well, remember it. Remember it. Because so often we're discouraged and disheartened because I'm just not doing it well enough. I'm not able to. I've got these problems in my heart. And I'm like, yeah, you do. Yeah, you do. But God didn't save you because He saw a little bit of good there. He saved you seeing no good. and decided he would pour out his grace. So Christian, don't look to your hands and your mouth to be the reason you have confidence in your Savior. Don't look to what fruit he has borne you to say, ah, there you go, I'm a fine, look what I've done for God. Look back to the cross, look back to Christ, look back to the law and confess my grace. Wondrous grace, the mercies of God poured out in such fullness unto me. And there again we see that glorious blessedness of assurance and delight and forgiveness. The glory of the gospel shines in. Why is it people don't want to hear about our Savior? Why is it the world doesn't want to hear us talk about an alien righteousness given by God? Because they won't shut up long enough. They want to keep arguing they've got this good and they can do this, but what about them? They never shut up long enough. The law shuts us down and shuts us up. Because then the voice of God is heard in our hearts. Come unto Me, all ye labored and heavy laden. I'll give you rest. Glorious Gospel. Let's pray. Father, we thank You that You saved sinners like us. Father, we thank You that You do not save because of any good that we have or can do or have done. For if You did, we would be lost again. Thank you for salvation purely of your mercy and goodness. We bless your name and rejoice at the wonder of salvation entirely by grace, entirely by your hand of righteousness given to us. We praise you now and bless you in Christ's name.