All right. Praise the Lord again. I'll tell you, let Christ be magnified. That's what it's all about. We are in the book of Romans. If you will, turn in your Bible to the book of Romans. We are working verse by verse through the Bible. Some of you say, no, it's not verse by verse, it's word by word. That's true. And we're going to dig in this morning. Romans chapter 3. Romans chapter 3. Let me set up the message a little bit here with a bit of an introduction. Romans is the Magna Carta of the church. Romans is the systematic theology of the church. Romans is written very precisely and very orderly. So in chapter one, two, and three, the first part of chapter one, first part of chapter three, one, two, and three, the whole point of those chapters, verse after verse after verse after verse, can anybody tell me? It is to let you know you are a? center very important but understand we're preaching through the book of Romans and I really want to emphasize this there is something God wants you to learn in chapter 6 and 7 that you just won't get if you're not absolutely faithfully here because there's, this is like building a building. When this building was built, there's block after block after block after block after block. You wouldn't want the Masons to skip a day and just leave those blocks out, right? Because it all builds on top of everything. And so what he is strongly, he's heading somewhere, right? Remember, he wants you to get saved. He wants you to get genuinely saved, and he wants you to live a holy, God-honoring life. But he has to lay the foundation first, which is that you are a lost sinner. Chapter one, let me just recap very quickly. Go back to chapter one, in Romans chapter one, and look at verse 18. And while you're turning there, I have a note on the inside of the worship folder called expository preaching. Not everyone knows what expository preaching is. Expository preaching is where we expose the Bible. We go verse by verse. In other words, it's not simply a verse by verse commentary. Expository preaching identifies the unit of thought, that there is a unit of thought. And in that unit of thought, it's made up of verses. And that unit of thought is built upon the previous unit of thought and builds toward the coming unit of thought. And that there is an argument to the whole book, and you're gonna learn the whole argument of the book. You're gonna learn each piece of the argument. Think of the Book of Romans like a book. So if there was a book on how to do corvette mechanics, Right, you would expect the first chapter to deal with corvette mechanics and the second and the third all the way through. I'll tell it 12 chapters or 20 chapters or in my case a million chapters. So you'd have this building. Well, the same with the Book of Romans. There is a starting point and there's a goal of the Book of Romans and each one builds on the previous one. Where he's headed next week is how to get saved. but you are not going to really, really value. In fact, one of the brothers said to me, he said, he learned a phrase and I thought, I gotta steal that phrase. The phrase is the gift of desperation. Is that the right phrase? The gift of desperation. When you are finally, absolutely, utterly desperate for Christ, then the gospel will be the sweetest words you could ever imagine. But that won't happen until you are slogging through your sin, verse after verse, section after section, paragraph after paragraph, chapter after chapter, where you're like, I can't breathe. God says, all right, you're almost there. Right? I remember hearing a preacher, old preachers used to do some crazy things. But there was a young preacher that had watched this older preacher for many years do mighty things for the glory of God. Preached to great crowds and people would get converted and lives would be changed. And he came up to that preacher and he said, I want to be able to preach like you. And the older pastor said, all right, come with me. We're going down to the water. And the younger preacher's like, well, I've already been baptized. He says, come with me. And they walked all the way down to the water. He walked out into the water and he says, all right, puts both of his hands on his shoulders. And the young preachers think, well, maybe it's like a second baptism for something, or I don't know what it is, but walked out there and he held him under. and the young preacher goes down, and the older preacher's hands are on his shoulders, and the younger pastor's there for a minute, not a minute, a second, then a couple of seconds, then five seconds, then 10 seconds, and then 15 seconds, and he didn't take a big gulp of breath before he went under, and he's thinking, He might be praying for me up there or something. I don't know what this is all about. But he started to lift himself up because he's like, I need to catch a breath. And the pastor's hands went down harder on his shoulders. And he thought, no, he's pushing me under. And I didn't get to get a big breath. And he held me down. And so he starts really trying to get up. And the older pastor's holding him down even tighter. And this guy said, man, he's gone nuts in his old age. What in the world is he doing? And he's holding that now he's thrashing underwater. He is thrashing. And he's when I get out here, I'm going to beat the tar out of that preacher. And I mean, he couldn't catch a breath. Finally, at the last minute, the older pastor pulled him up. What is that all about? What are you trying to do, kill me? He said, did you really want a breath? He said, what do you mean, did I really want a breath? I absolutely wanted a breath. How bad did you want that breath? I wanted that breath more than anything. He said, when you want God that much, then you will see the power of God flow through you. That's the problem in the lives of people where we're getting half-baked converts. We're talking to them about Jesus can make you happy, and Jesus can make you wealthy, and Jesus can do, and we're giving all kinds of frilly frills to them. We're not getting them lost lost. We're not really convincing them of their desperation before God. They are utterly, absolutely without hope. Let me clarify that. You and I are utterly, desperately without hope outside of Christ. And so he spends, like in verse 18 of chapter one, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. And we sit back comfortably in our chair and we say, yeah, those are ungodly men. Boy, God's really upset with them. And he begins to show that this is you and me. Every man outside of Christ is absolutely, totally depraved. The title of my sermon is Non-Righteous. I thought maybe a better title should have been Bad to the Bone. Because that's who we are. Outside of Christ, we are bad to the bone. We are utterly wicked. You see, this is an absolutely crucial theological truth to communicate. Theologians use big terms like the total depravity of man. That's fine, that's fine, that's fine. I like, you are a lost hell bound sinner outside of Christ. You have nothing in you, nothing that you've done, nothing that you've accomplished, nothing that you can muster up, nothing that you can generate, nothing that is inside of you that appeals to God, and we're gonna see that. So the wrath of God in chapter one is revealed and he gives example after example of how his God has given them up, given us up, given America up, given the population of America up to their sin. Now remember, giving them up to their sin does not mean God gave up on them. Giving them up to their sin does not mean God gave up on them. That's why we're saved today. Hallelujah. That's why we're saved today, because God didn't give up on us, even though he had given us up to and given us over to our wickedness. And he lists all of that in chapter one. And then in chapter two, remember, chapter one is talking about the Gentile world living in their sin, all of the sins, and the Jewish world sits over here thinking, yes, oh, those Gentiles, they're shocking. Do you realize what they have? I mean, they just randomly commit adultery with anybody. Oh, can you believe that? Oh, we would never do that. Do you realize they dye their hair in rainbow colors? And they abort their babies. And oh, wow, what kind of horrible weirdos are these? And so the Jew sits there thinking, hey, I got a plum on each thumb. Remember that story? Little Jack Horner, you know what I mean? He's looking good with God. He's fine with God. And Paul says, now let me make an application, verse one of chapter two. Therefore, you are inexcusable, oh man, whoever you are, Jew judge, because that's what you're doing. You're looking comparatively at your comparative righteousness compared to those wicked, hell-bound heathen, and you're not some wicked, hell-bound heathen. You are an upright Jew. You have a Bible. You've got a synagogue. You've got Bible teachers. You've got prophets who taught you the Bible. You've got the law of Moses. You've got all of these advantages. And Paul goes on to say, all of that is absolutely useless in helping you get saved. All of the rituals, you can get baptized every afternoon at 12 o'clock and you go down a dry center, you come up a wet center. It doesn't move you one inch. Sometimes, you know, someone will do something really nice for me and I'll kid around with them and I'll say, well, that got you one more inch up closer to God. But I'm saying that to really communicate that that didn't do anything with helping you get to God. And then he goes on to say, you have all of the advantages of Judaism, et cetera, et cetera. The last thing we looked at in verse one through eight, the question that the Jew had in verse one of chapter three, chapter three, verse one was this. Well, then what advantage is there of being a Jew? I mean, why do I have this funny outfit that I wear? Why do I live in Israel? Why do I have a priesthood? Why do I have a Torah? Why do I go to the synagogue? Why do I go to the temple? What's the point of all of that if none of that will get me one quarter of an inch, one millimeter closer to God? And Paul goes on to explain. You have tremendous advantages having a Bible. You have incredible advantages having Bible teachers. Let's apply it to today. You have an incredible advantage sitting in this building today. But the advantage is not that you can then tell God on judgment day, I went to church over at Berean Baptist. It was started by a soul winning man, a disciple making man, been living for the Lord all these years and planted other churches, and now it's pastored by a raving lunatic. But at least you can tell God, hey, well, I showed up, no, no, no. That's not the advantage. The advantage is not that that is something you can appeal to on judgment day. The advantage is you get to hear the Bible. You have the crystallized words of Almighty God in your hand. These aren't partly the word of God. These aren't generally the main idea that God wanted to communicate. It is the word for word, verbally inspired, inerrant, infallible words of Almighty God. So you can read this and you got a question about anything that really matters, the answer's in here. All things that pertain to life and godliness. That's an incredible advantage. The Hottentots out wherever Hottentots live, if they're thinking about eternity, they're just, you know, playing with a bone in their nose going, hmm, I wonder what's out there. They don't have a clue. If you are in a church and you sit down and you say, hmm, take the pen behind your ear and you're tapping your chin with it I wonder, where do we go when we die? I wonder, is there a heaven? Is there a hell? How do we get to heaven? How do we avoid hell? Put the pen back behind your ear, listen up, and we'll tell you. You see the advantage that you have? Put yourself in this environment every chance you possibly have. Get under the preaching of the word of God, the teaching of the word of God, like your soul depends on it. Why? Because it does. So he says in verse one through eight of chapter three, you have incredible advantages having the law of God, incredible advantages having all these things, but they are not advantages that help you earn heaven. Very important point to make. So on your notes, the new title I'm giving this sermon is Bad to the Bone, None Righteous. The title underneath Man to the Bone there, if you wanna write that in, is this. Good works, no matter how good, no matter how numerous, can never justify a guilty sinner. Good works, no matter how many of them you do, no matter how sincere you are in doing them, No matter how good they are, I mean, you know, it's a good work to pay someone's check that doesn't look like they can pay the check at a restaurant. You look over and you think, well, it might be a help, okay, I'll pay their check for them. That's a nice good work. You save somebody's life. That's a different good work. Doesn't matter. Neither one has any, any, any impact in the slightest, what's smaller than a millimeter? I like that, I've never heard that one. A nanometer, not one nanometer closer to God. Right? So what Paul is trying to do in the first three chapters is this. Take away all of your props. Take away all of the things you've been relying upon to get you to heaven. Well, I've been relying upon that I'm not a horrible heathen like those heathen over there. I mean, look at what the Muslims are doing, good night. I'm not like that. God's gonna take that into consideration. He's gonna look at me, he's gonna look at these crazy Muslims or whatever other banshees are out there, and he's gonna say, oh, Dave, you were really a good guy. I'm just so glad you were on my team. And will Paul say, no, you gotta get rid of that prop. That prop is not going to help you. Some, it's the rituals that you've gone through. Well, I go to a church, I genuflect, I have a cross around my neck, we take the Lord's Supper, I've baptized, you know, at least three times, I'm gonna bring all of this up to God and say, God, you really owe me. I mean, you know, I shouldn't put it that way, I know, and it's all grace and everything, but you kind of owe me because I've worked hard to keep my nose clean, right? And God will say, no, you haven't worked anywhere near hard enough to keep your nose clean, your nose is filthy. All of your best righteousness is filthy rags, amen. So now what he does, he has gone through the court case, he has argued and won the case with the Gentiles, yeah, they are obviously hell bound, nothing they can do to get to heaven, nothing they can do to merit salvation. He now goes to the Jews and knocks out all of the props that they're relying on. All of their name, I'm a Jew, their law, I've got a Bible, I've got a big King James Bible. It's a big one. In fact, I have to have a large, I bought a larger car to carry it in my trunk to church. And I brought it in on one of those dolly things today so that everyone would know that I'm really, really, really serious about having a big old Bible. Right, sorry, that doesn't do anything to help get you saved. So you might be saying to yourself, see, here's what I'm praying, please God, help me to make this clear. You are unsaved, you're in this church, and there's still some little foxhole you've dug in the back of your brain that you're hiding in. There's still something that you're thinking, yeah, but when I get to heaven, I know I don't go to church, I don't read my Bible, I have no interest in the things of God. I'm immoral, I'm unreliable, I'm untrustworthy. I know I got all these things, but after all, it's by grace, and so I'm gonna get a pass because I'm so bad, right? That was the argument that the Gentiles had. Well, I never had a Bible, so God can't hold that against me. He can't judge me for what's in the Bible, because I never had a Bible. God can't judge me for not going to church, because there was no church anywhere near where I live. See, what I'm trying to do is root out anything. What is the last vestige of whatever it is that you're holding on to? Just flush it. You need Christ and Christ alone. Because if you've still got something that you're holding on to, you won't be desperate for Jesus Christ. And so, here Paul makes his final closing argument on the state of humanity in verse nine through 20. Let's look what it says. Romans chapter three, verse nine. What then? When Paul asks this question, he's asking it in behalf of the Jews. because he has just told them all of their religion, their direct descendant, my daddy was a preacher, my grandpa was a preacher, my great grandpa was a preacher, and we came over on the Mayflower, and we helped build the Mayflower, and what else good stuff? I mean, whatever else you can imagine, right? You go all the way back to all the way back to all the way back. I like to tell someone what Adrian Rogers said. He said, yeah, and if you go all the way back, we go back to, a corrupt farmer and a drunken sailor, Adam and Noah. Corrupt farmer and a drunken sailor. So that isn't gonna get you. You point at your lineage and that's gonna get you nowhere on Judgment Day. So he asked, well, what then? Are we better than they? In other words, Paul, I mean, aren't we Jews somehow better than the Gentiles? And he says, no, not at all. We're not. So a fine upstanding priest with immaculately pressed, starched, bleached clothing and a filthy savage running around in a loincloth and a bone in his nose, when they stand before Almighty God on judgment day, the ground is perfectly level. And they will be judged, we will be judged outside of Christ by our works and they will condemn us. Does that make sense to everybody? So Paul goes on to say, let me start again in verse nine. What then? Are we better than they? No, you're not any better than they. We have previously charged. We have just spent all of chapter one, all of chapter two, and most of chapter three charging for this illegal term. We have previously charged, right? Previously charged what? Both Jews and Greeks are in the same leaky boat in the midst of a storm with a hole in the bottom surrounded by sharks. But I've got a rifle. Well, there's too many sharks to shoot. But I've got an oar. I can whack them in the head. They're much bigger than your oar. But I've got a motor on the back, yeah, and it's going down with the rest of the boat. In other words, I'm trying to show you you've got nothing to rely on. Is that clear to everybody? You have how much to rely on? A little bit louder. You got how much to rely on? Outside of Christ you have nothing to rely on. Amen? So who do you need? You need Jesus. Who do I need? Who do you need? We need Jesus Christ. And so let me, what Paul does, he says, okay, I've made my case in chapter one. I made my case in chapter two. I made my case in the first part of chapter three. Now judge, let me get some tables, those fold out tables, right? Whatever those ones you get, like we have at the fellowship hall. And I'm gonna set them up in front of the judgment bar. And I'm gonna stack up all of the evidence that says this man is a guilty sinner. And he does something very interesting. He says, I have previously charged both Jews and Greeks, they are all under sin. What it means to be under sin means that you are under the domination and slavery of sin. Jesus said, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin in John 8. Paul says later in Romans 6, we're gonna see this, that we are slaves of sin. We are under the dominion of sin. Jesus is the one who breaks that slavery, but outside of Jesus Christ, you are a slave to sin. Sin has a choke chain around your neck, and whenever it pulls the chain, you go, whip, and off you go, and you do what sin tells you to do. Outside of Jesus Christ, you are a hell-bound, lost, totally depraved, totally unable, unable, unable sinner. And so you are under the dominion and domination and condemnation of sin. In fact, look over at 2 Peter with me. If you know your Bible, find that. If you don't, just listen. I don't wanna take too much time trying to find it. Hebrews, James, Peter, and John. So it's over toward the end of your New Testament. If you get to Revelation, you've gone too far. 2 Peter 2. 2 Peter 2. And look, if you will, at verse 18. You say, well, I don't want to go to a church that preaches the Bible and tells me Jesus is the only answer. I'm going to go to a church that makes me feel good. How many weeks have we spent on Romans so far? Let's say 12 weeks. You have spent 12 weeks telling me how rotten I am. I could have gone to a Greasy Grace church, and they would have spent 12 weeks telling me how nice I am. How good I am? I could have gotten a spiritual massage. They would have just, ooh, you're a good guy. Right, Joel Osteen, right? You leave him. You don't feel like a guilty sinner. You feel like a good guy. Hey, honey, I know I left my first wife and my second wife to get you, and we're not married, and we're sleeping together, and we're gonna have some dope afterwards, but isn't it great to be viewed by God as a nice guy? We're doing good. Isn't everything good with us? Oh yeah, honey. Verse 18. For when they, these false teachers, verse 19, 18, sorry, chapter two, verse 18, 2 Peter 2, 18. When they speak great swelling words of hot air, you go to an easy believism, greasy grace, big box church. And you go and you've listened to the feel-good music. Our music is theologically rich. You go to these ones, it's Jesus, I love you, Jesus, I love you, I love you, love you, love you, Jesus, I love you. All you need is love, love, love. Oh man, I'm so moved. And he says, when they speak swelling words of hot air emptiness, they allure people, they allure you, they entice you through the lusts of your flesh. They will give you what your flesh screams for. Tell me I'm going to heaven even though I'm not genuinely converted. Tell me I'm right with God even though I have no interest in God. Tell me that I don't have to come to listen to an hour-long sermon, I can listen to a 15-minute feel-good homily. Through lewdness, they entice the ones who are actually in the process of escaping. They've actually escaped from the, like, I've seen it time and again. Someone, we go out and evangelize, we get them, we disciple them, we follow them up, they come to church. and they're in church, and we're trying to teach them the word of God, and two weeks go by, two months go by, and then, hey, where's so-and-so? I don't see him. You go and try and visit him, try and follow them up, try and get them to come. Finally, you get a hold of them. Hey, I haven't seen you in a couple of months in church. What you been doing? Oh, I've been going to, and they pick some cultic church they're going to. And I'm like, wow, you have been enticed that quickly, away from the truth? Well, you know, after all, they tell me what I wanna hear. Verse 19, here's what you wanna hear. They promise you liberty, verse 19, they promise you liberty, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For by whom a person is overcome, by whom also he is brought into bondage, into the bondage of sin. For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, yet they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. So when we encourage someone to come to church, they're hearing the word of God, they're hearing the word of God, and then they hear something they don't like. and then they drift off and they start going to a large, feel-good church where they're not challenged, there's no repentance being preached, there's no church discipline being preached, there's no challenge in how you're living your life being preached, so it's an easy, comfortable thing. Did Jesus say, come and follow me and it'll be easy and comfortable? No, you gotta take up your cross and be willing to die for Christ But that's what happens. Then the next time I see them, in their mind, they have it all figured out. Like, well, I didn't like this, I didn't like that, and so I'm gonna go over here. I remember one young man at a previous church. I mean, I had worked my tailbone off trying to get him saved and get him on track. And one Sunday he's gone. Another Sunday he's gone. I'm calling, he's not answering. I go by his house. Finally, I get a hold of him about three, four weeks later. And I said, Peter, where you been? He looked hangedog. I mean, his tail was tucked between his legs. And he said, well, he said, I was invited to a singles ministry at this mega church. The pastor of that mega church is the guy who prayed at Obama's inauguration and said, now, at the end of my prayer, I'll say in Jesus' name and you say in Allah's name or Buddha's name or whatever you'd like to pray. That's the guy. He says, I went to a singles ministry at this guy's church. I said, well, what happened? He said, well, they had it at the Cheek to Cheek Bar. And I said, well, I don't know the bars. I said, did they like rent the hall or something? He said, no, it was full-flowing booze, foul-mouthed comedian telling filthy pornographic jokes. And he said, I met a girl and we started fornicating. And he said, I'm just ashamed. I said, man, see what I'm trying to say to you as a pastor is this is what Satan wants. He wants to drag you out of a biblical church. He doesn't want you there faithfully wide awake, right? It's interesting to me. You can sit and watch a worthless TV show for two hours and you don't fall asleep. But you come to church and within 20 seconds, or, you know, you got the guy who's like, man, oh, he can sit at home and play bridge or like what other card, that's a card game, isn't it? I don't know. So, you're playing cards. Hours go by. Oh, you know, do I have a three or a four? Oh, I win over, I don't know how many of these things work. But so you got your three and he's got his four and he beat you and you're just all thrilled about it. Wide awake! Wide awake for hours. Come to church, you're snoring. It's shocking. It's your soul. I mean, if you don't care enough about your soul to stay awake and listen to the preaching of the word of God and have your Bible open in your lap, I got no hope for you. He says, they promise liberty, but they are slaves of corruption. Let's jump back to Romans. Romans chapter three. They are all under sin. That is all of us outside of Christ. Every young person in this building, every middle-aged person in this building, every old person in this building, outside of Christ you are on your way to hell. You are under the domination and the rulership and the slavery of sin. Amen? That's why we need a Savior. Now what Paul does, he says in verse 10, as it is written, and what he does in as it is written is this, he begins doing what theologians call a katina, I'll teach you a new word, C-A-T-E-N-A, C-A-T-E-N-A, katina. That's a term meaning a chain. And it's a chain of scriptures. And where is he getting this chain of scriptures from? The Old Testament. There's a false teacher in Atlanta. He says, unhitch from your Old Testament. If you unhitch from your Old Testament, you're not going to have a New Testament. There's nothing in here to hide from anybody. Spurgeon said, when we evangelize, are we supposed to tell them about the love of God and not about the wrath of God? Are we supposed to tell them about the mercy of God and not about the electing hand of God? Are we supposed to hide certain theological truths from the people we're evangelizing? Not at all. And he says, as it is written in the Bible, there is all kinds of things we can look at And we can point to sociology and psychology and surveys and all kinds of things of that nature, but none of them have the power and authority of the written word of God. It is the written word of God that we go to, and that's what Paul does. And he lists what the scribes and the Pharisees and the teachers, the priests in the Old Testament, would call a chain or a string of pearls. or a pearl string, right? They would take one scripture on the same topic. Watch what he does. As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. There is none who understands. There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside. They have together become unprofitable. There is none who does good, no, not one. Their throat is an open tomb. Their tongues they use for practicing deceit. The poison of rattlesnakes, or I like this word, asps. Say that word. Asps. Isn't that a good word? Whew. I mean, that sounds just like a snake. Asps. You know, the snakes, normally their fangs are flipped back under their lips, right? And when they open their mouth, those fangs come forward, and they jab you with those fangs, and they inject that sack of poison right through that hypodermic needle right into your body. Evolution's a wonderful thing, isn't it? Imagine how stupid that is, thinking that evolved. Like the snake sits there one day and says, hmm, I need a better self-defense system. I think I'm going to hollow out my teeth and store poison up in my skull and have my teeth on some sort of, you see how ridiculous that is? The designing hand of God. God designed it that way. And he uses that as an illustration, these asps. as their fangs are filled with poison. The poison of asps is under their lips." Each one of these quotes is a quote from the Old Testament. He goes on to say, is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways. You see, what I want you to see, this is not a category of people in the world. This isn't like those people who live on the bad side of town. Yeah, that applies to them. This is God's evaluation of every human being outside of Christ. This is God when he puts you under the x-ray machine, what he sees when he looks at you, when he looks at me, outside of Christ. He says, what I see is someone who is not righteous, they don't understand, they're not seeking after God, they're turning aside. So I thought, you know what, I'm going to build on this pearl string, and you don't have to turn to these verses. What I want you to feel is the weight of God's evaluation just from Scripture. Just from what the Bible says, I want you to feel this. Psalm 142, enter not into your judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you. Romans 11, 32. God has consigned all to disobedience that he might have mercy upon all. Romans 3, 23. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. 2 Chronicles 6. There is no one who does not sin. Isaiah 53, all we like sheep have gone astray. Everyone has turned to his own way. Micah 7, 2 and 4, the godly has perished from the earth and there is no one upright among mankind. They all lie in wait for blood. Each one hunts the other with a net. Their hands are on what is evil to do it well. They practice to do evil well. The prince and the judge ask for a bribe. The great man utters the evil desire of his soul. They weave evil together. The best of them is like a briar. The most upright of them is a hedge of thorns. Understand, this is God's evaluation of you outside of Christ. What I want you to do is be in the defendant's box in the courtroom. And I want you to hear Paul, the prosecuting attorney, come forward and read the evidence against you. Because only when you are, I'm not sure if I have it written down here, but Paul, as the prosecuting attorney, closes his case against humanity by piling up the evidence against us. Every man, in every way, has broken every law of God. Every man, in every way, thoughts, words, attitudes, and actions, has broken every law of God. Stop fighting God! Just say, yes, Lord, this is your evaluation of me. This is what Your Word says about me. It is true. Thy Word is truth. And he says in Romans 3, what then are we Jews? We're reading this passage here. Are we better off than the Gentiles? No, not at all. God has already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under the domination of sin. As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. There is no one who understands. There is no one who seeks God. All have turned aside. Together they have become utterly worthless. No one does good, no, not even one. John 1, 8, and 10 says, if we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. Mark 10 says, Jesus said to him, why do you call me good? There is nobody good but God. You see, what I'm trying to do is use the scripture, just an overwhelming machine gun of scripture, scripture, scripture, to convince you of who you are outside of Christ. Why? So that you will experience the blessing and gift of desperation. So that you will fall on your knees before a holy, holy, holy God and say, God, I am not holy. I don't have a chance. If you don't save me, Lord Jesus, I don't have a chance. If you don't help me to repent and help me to have saving faith, I do not have a chance. I need Jesus. And he says, Genesis 6, the Lord saw the wickedness of man, that it was great upon the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart were only evil continually. Every intention of the thoughts of your heart are only evil continually. Now, you might be sitting there saying, that doesn't sound like me. That's because you don't believe the Bible. The Bible says every intention of the thoughts of your heart is only evil continually. Only when you come to Jesus Christ does He change that. The Scripture goes on in Ecclesiastes and says, the hearts of the children of men are full of evil and madness is in their hearts while they live. Proverbs 10.20 says the heart of the wicked is worthless. Proverbs 28.26 says whoever trusts in his own heart is a fool. Jeremiah 10 says among the wise ones of the nation, All of them and all of their kingdoms, there is none like you. They are all stupid and foolish. Every man is stupid and foolish. Whoa. God is not pulling punches. You see, we can talk dispassionately and theologically about the depravity of man. I want you to feel the depravity of man. I want you to feel who you are outside of Christ. I want you on your knees before God in your heart, crying out, God, I'm a depraved, wicked sinner. I have no hope without you. Save me, Lord Jesus. I'm going down. I'm going down. Save me, Lord Jesus. You're my only hope. Help me, Lord Jesus!" You see, that is completely different than having this dispassionate theological, well, yes, I think we're depraved and blah, blah, blah. Right? Jeremiah 17 says, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Matthew 15 says, out of the heart come evil thoughts. Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. That's what's in our hearts. We need Jesus to totally transform our heart. If you go to God with the heart that you have as an unsaved person, and you say, well, Lord, you know my heart. He says, yes, and it stinks, and I don't even wanna look at it. That's what your heart is. Ephesians 4 says you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds. All of the thinking and reasoning and all of the stuff people come up with in the secular universities and all of their rationalizations and philosophizing, the Bible says it is futility of their mind. They are darkened in their understanding. They are alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of their heart. Titus says, to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure. Outside of Jesus Christ, you are defiled and unbelieving. As a result, nothing is pure to you. Both your minds and your consciences are defiled. Jesus said, John 8, truly I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. Romans 6 says, we know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. Do you not know that if you present yourselves as a slave to sin, then you're gonna be obedient to sin? Romans 7 says, we know the law is spiritual, but I am fleshly or carnal, sold under sin. Romans 4 says, formally, when you did not know God, when you did not know God, now catch this, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. You had your own pack of idols. When you were not converted, when you were unsaved, your hearts were dark, your soul was cold, your mind was corrupt. 2 Timothy says, God may perhaps grant them repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will. Outside of Christ, you are caught in the snare of the devil. Your foot has that steel clamp Snap down on it, the snare. And you've been taken captive by the devil to do his will. Outside of Jesus Christ, that's all you do. How much good can you do outside of Jesus Christ? None. Is that clear to everybody? That's what the Bible says. We are hopeless outside of Jesus Christ. Titus says, to the defiled and the unbelieving, Titus 1, 15 to 16, to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure. Their minds and their consciences are defiled. And on and on and on we could go. So I pray that you see the overwhelming evidence against you. Do you want to take your chances that God has already said you have no chance? Walk up to him on judgment day and say, God, I've been a pretty good person and I would like you to judge me based on how good I have been. Do you really want to do that? Do you want him to read through these scriptures? And say, don't you remember that time you were at Berean Baptist Church and they told that that lunatic told you over and over and over and over and over? You're lost outside of Christ. There is no hope outside of Christ. Every part of you is depraved. Do you believe that? Do you believe that outside of Jesus Christ you are utterly hopeless and depraved in sin? That was kind of weak. Outside of Jesus Christ, do you believe that you are a lost, hell-bound sinner and there's nothing you can do good enough to get you to heaven? Amen? All right, I'm gonna take your word for that. So let's go on. He says, back at the katina, back at the pearl string in verse 10, there is none righteous, no, not one. You notice how he adds that little phrase, no, not one, because someone's immediately saying this. There is none righteous. Well, hold on a second, Paul. I'm the one exception. And God says, no, not one. That's from Psalm 14 and Psalm 53. There is no one who understands. Paul says very clearly in 1 Corinthians 2, the things of God have to be spiritually discerned. They are understood only by the Spirit of God. It is the Holy Spirit who reveals himself to people and his truth to people, and specifically the gospel. The proof of that, just outside of the proof of scripture, is look at all 100% of all of the world religions. None of them have the gospel. None of them have one true creator God in three persons who sent his son, the God-man, 100% God, 100% man, to earth to live a sinless life, to die on the cross as our substitute, and rise to, no other world religion has that. It's the Bible alone. Every other world religion hears their plan of salvation. Boy, I sure hope you make it, work hard. Oh, you wanna go to heaven? Man, I sure hope you make it, work hard. I call it the seven dwarfs theology. Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to work I go. That's all you got. And God is telling you, isn't it better to run through the judgment day one time before it actually happens, to have kind of a dry run? I mean, if an angel showed up in your room and said, hey, you're about to die in a week, and you're gonna stand before Almighty God, but God sent me to run through the judgment day with you to see how you're gonna do. Let's see. Harry, have you been absolutely as perfect as Jesus in every thought, word, attitude, and action? You're going to hell. That's what he would have to say to all of us. If you're gonna say, I'm getting there, but Harry, hold on, angel. I trusted Jesus Christ. Oh, you should have told me that as soon as I walked in. You trusted Jesus Christ. You put your faith in Him. So all of your reliance, Harry, is on Jesus Christ. Amen. He's in. Amen? Isn't that what the Bible says? So, he says there is none who understands. There's none who seeks after God. You realize there are churches being built today that are called seeker-driven churches. Everything in the church is designed to appeal to this imaginary seeker. And so they will go out and they will do what Rick Warren did out in California when he was starting his church, Saddleback Church. He surveyed thousands and thousands and thousands of people and said, what would you want? Like if you came to church, what would you want it to be like? Now, if you go and ask unsaved people what they want in a church, do you think they're gonna tell you, oh, I want you to preach Romans 1-3? No. What they're gonna get is, tell me I'm a good guy. You're gonna just clone Joel Osteen and you're doing good. That's what you want. Happy music, anybody believing any kind of nonsense, living any kind of wicked lifestyle can go to heaven because really, God's just sort of a senile old grandpa. He's a really nice old senile grandpa, but he looks at you and your total apathy about spiritual things, sleeping through the service, and he's like, oh, those kids. Just like you do with your kids, you know, they smash your fine china and you, oh, these grandkids. And so people think that that's how God is, that he's just gonna shrug his shoulders and let you in. But understand, that's not how it works. The unsaved man does not seek after God. The unsaved man does not seek after God. We go to them. Let me ask you a question. They're out evangelizing. How many houses have you knocked on where the guy's like, I am so glad you're here. I've been praying for the last five years and reading my Bible and pleading with God to send somebody to tell me how to be saved. Right? So what you do, church is not for seekers, church is for believers. Church is where people who come because they love God and they wanna be taught the Bible. They wanna sing songs that are worshiping God, not scratching your back. Don't look for a church that has feel-good songs, look for a church that has worship songs that exalt Jesus Christ, amen? And so, he says in verse 12, they have all jumped the track on the crazy train. Right? That great theologian, Ozzy Osbourne. I'm going off the rails on the crazy train. You've all gone off the rails on the crazy train. You have all jumped track. You're all heading down to the ditch below. And he says, we've all gone aside. We have all stopped following God. We've stopped doing it his way. My ways are not your ways, the Bible says. They have, look at the second part of verse 12. They have together become sour milk. They have together become rotten eggs. This word in the Greek is used for all those different kinds of things in Greek literature. They have all together become fruit that is soggy and soft and wormy. All of us outside of Christ are rotten fruit. All of us outside of Christ are utterly, utterly, utterly, utterly a thousand times hopeless. I'm trying to think of as many synonyms as I can come up with. Amen? I'm hoping that you're getting it, but I know that there's someone who's gonna say, well, he said I'm utterly depraved, but he didn't say I'm worthlessly depraved. Okay, you're worthlessly depraved. Yeah, but you didn't say I'm totally, utterly worthless. You're totally, utterly worthless, right? I can't think of any other terms. Completely, amen. There you go, there was someone hiding behind, I didn't say completely, so it doesn't apply to me. God is saying that, notice the universality of this. No one, no not one, no one, no one, all, all together, together, no one, no not one. I mean, over and over, the universality of our condition before Almighty God. I plead with you as you hear this. Think about your eternal destiny. Think about where you're going to go, let's say, you've got five minutes. The doctor runs in, he says, I've got the results and I had to interrupt the service because you've only got five minutes left to live. You don't know that that's not true, right? So what are you gonna do about what Paul's saying? Now he says this, watch this. They are unprofitable, they are useless, they are worthless. Over and over in scripture, worthless, useless, rotten. There is none who does good. You mean unsaved people don't even love their kids and that's not what he's talking about. He's talking about a good that is pure, a good that is God kind of good, a good that is not mixed with corrupt motives, a good that is not stained with selfishness and hope for a different outcome, right? It's a completely selfless, we don't do that. He says their throat is an open tomb. It's like an open grave. When you look down the throat, what do you see? Death and corruption. Well, the throat is where we speak our words. So the point being here in verse 13 through 14 is the mouth, the words, the speech. The throat is an open tomb, meaning the speech, the words, the talk. What unsaved people talk about, what you and I talked about when we were lost, was wickedness, foul jokes, selfishness, pride, you should have seen me do such and such. Arrogance, and on and on. He says, your tongues have practiced deceit, and the poison of asps, the poison of asps is under your lips. Your mouth is full of cursing, right? You're driving down the road, that guy cuts you off, you don't have blessings for him, you got cursing. You waited too long in the doctor's office, grumbling. They didn't do such as, right? I mean, it's all about you. And he says, your mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Your feet are swift to shed blood. You know, I think a great example of that is this, is Iran. I mean, President Trump gave them 60 days. Like, just come to the table and let's resolve this. We're going to help make you wealthy. Right? If you're like the leader of Iran and Trump says, I mean, Iran has been turned into a ghetto because of that corrupt religion. It's turned into a wasteland. And Trump comes along and says, look, we'll help you become wealthy. We'll get you guys working again. We'll trade with you. You're going to have all kinds of business. We'll start. Send the bombs. What? We don't want you bombing. That's the one thing you can't do, all right? You can't go bombing people. No, we've got to send more bombs. Lunatics. But that's all of us outside of Christ. We don't do it as brazenly or as openly or as barrages of barrages of ballistic missiles. But we're swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in our ways. And the way of peace, the ways, you know, it's interesting, I looked up that word ways. The ways, their ways. What does the word ways mean? You might jot this down. The characteristic or habitual manner of behavior. Your ways are your characteristic, habitual manner of behavior. And the unsaved man, their ways, their characteristic habitual manner of behavior is ways that don't match God's ways. Your ways are not my ways. Our habitual manner and character of doing things is sinful. The way of peace, they have not known. And now what he does in verse 18, he says, and let me give you the root of all of it. Here's where it all springs from. This is the fountain from which the whole mess flows, and it's this, there's no fear of God in their eyes. You say to them, don't you fear God? Eh, I'm not sure there is a God. Don't you fear God? Right, we want things, and that's the last thing you want in these seeker-driven churches is for people to be trembling in their seat. anticipating the judgment of God and the wrath of God and the outpouring of the fierceness and fury of Almighty God so that they would have fear? And yet you read the sermons of Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield and these great preachers of yesteryear. I mean, Jonathan Edwards, one of his famous sermons was sinners in the hands of an angry God. And it was about putting fear, the fear of God in you. Because the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. If you don't have the fear of God, like I'm going to answer to God one day, I had better make sure that I'm genuinely converted. I'd better make sure I'm saved. I'd better make sure things are right with God. And so you get things right. And the only way is through Jesus Christ. Notice what it says in verse 19. We know that whatever the law says, what he just read, right? Oh, that's the law of God. Verse 10 through 18, whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law with a purpose. The purpose is so that every mouth would be shut. Now he's not saying that every Christian's mouth is shut from praising. What he's talking about is the foolish objections that we come up with as to why I don't have to worry about Judgment Day. I don't have to worry about Judgment Day because my wife is a really committed Christian. So I'm gonna walk up behind her and sort of maneuver her in front of me. I'll hold on to her apron strings, you know. And she's like, what are you doing back there? I'm just kind of ducking. And so when God judges me, he's gonna be just be looking at you. And I'll just kind of get in on your coattails. There are people that think that. I have actually spoken with guys out evangelizing and the guy says, I got it solved, I got it covered. I mean, okay, what's your plan? My wife is a really committed Christian. Try that in any court of law in the world throughout history, it's not gonna work. You commit a crime, they don't put your wife up there, it's you. So he says, that every mouth may be stopped, all of your foolish objections, all of your foolish rationalizations, all of your foolish arguments, and that all of the world might become guilty before God. And as Paul says, guilty before God, you can hear the judge's hammer come down on the bench. Guilty as charged. Is there any hope? He says, verse 20, therefore, because of everything I've said in chapter one, two, and three, right? When you see therefore, see what it's there for. Because of everything I've just said in chapter one, two, and three, that you are a lost, hell-bound sinner, and that all of your good works, your rituals, your Bibles, your baptisms, your Lord's Suppers, all of these things will not save you. Therefore, by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight. You cannot go before God and say, I've been really, really good, so therefore, justify me. God says, no, that's off the table. Is it clear to everybody, please, if it's not, come up to me afterwards and say, I'm not getting it, because my priest said over at such and such a holy, mackerel Catholic church that I'm gonna get there because at least I'll go to purgatory for a certain period of time, right? please talk to me because you need the Bible again. I want you to re-listen to all of the sermons in chapter 1, 2, and 3. Am I preaching God's Word? You've got the Bible in your lap. And so if you've got the Bible in your lap, the Bible is saying, and all I'm trying to do is say what the Bible says, but you know, I know what happens when we're at home. We read it like this. What'd you just read now? I don't know, something. So what I do is I take the time and go slow. I emphasize the words that are emphasized and underline the things that are underlined and communicate the definitions of words because you need to slow down, let these truths sink deeply into your heart and cry out, oh God, oh God, my only hope is you. All of my good deeds cannot justify me. You've said that clearly. By the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified. The universal condemnation of all men outside of Christ by the law is the knowledge of sin. The law was never given to save you. It was there to show you that you're a sinner. Amen. Well, with your heads bowed, your eyes closed. Heavenly Father, I pray with all of my heart right now that these precious, precious souls that you love, that you sent your son to die for, that these great truths of your holy word would sink deeply into their heart and they would be given that blessed gift of desperation. That they would be so desperate for you, Jesus. So desperate for you, Jesus, that they would not allow anything to stand between them. Please, Lord, let every person in this church this morning settle the issue before you. They are a lost, hell-bound sinner outside of Christ. They need Jesus. Please help them to do that this morning in your name. Amen. Amen. Let's all stand to sing, His Mercy is More. Praise the Lord. His mercy is more.