this evening and turn to the book of Romans in chapter number three. A couple of months ago, I was attending a simian workshop and this is one of the texts that was assigned to me to prepare, not preach this passage. At least I don't remember ever preaching it here, maybe over the 10 years and who knows how many sermons I've spoken. But 1 Kings chapter 5, we're not going to go there. We finished last week, well week before, because we were meeting last, we finished 1 Kings 4. And then when you get into 1 Kings 5, you're getting into the beginning of the construction of the temple. And I didn't want to start that and then stop being gone next week. And I am. I'm wanting to find a scale model of Solomon's temple. gone to the most reliable source of information on the planet, Google. and have not been able to find exactly what I'm looking for. You can find Herod's Temple, what is called Herod's Temple, the temple that would have been there during the time of Jesus. But I want Solomon's Temple, and I'm wanting to find a scale model. So anybody need some homework, there you go. Try to find a scale model of Solomon's Temple so that when we construct it, or I'm sorry, when we preach it, we'll have something here that we can sort of look at to visualize. to help us see that. If not, maybe we can throw something up on the wall here. But in the meantime, Romans chapter three. In your copy of God's Word tonight, Romans and chapter three. I'm gonna read in your hearing verses nine through 20. If you've been in church any measure of time, you will be or will be familiar with this. You have heard it read. and preached at some point. Romans chapter 3 verse 9 says, what then? It begins with really a couple rhetorical questions. What then? Are we better than they? Just to set some contextual background, chapter 3 opens up with Paul talking how the Jewish people had received upkeen blessings and benefits by God. They had received the oracles. They were sent prophets. They had the law revealed to them. God spoke to them on Mount Sinai. They had all kinds of pluses in their column. yet they were still sinners, still depraved sinners. And so his question is, is are we any better off than the Gentiles who didn't have those benefits? The answer is no, we're not any better off. Yes, it was good to have those things, but that didn't make us any more right with God than the Gentiles who weren't given those special privileges. Again, verse 9, what then? Are we better than they? No, in no wise, for we have before proved, charged, both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin, as it is written. There is none righteous. No, not one. There is none that understandeth. There is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher. With their tongues they have used deceit. The poison of ass is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift, to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace have they not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that what thing 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. Therefore, because of this, in light of what he has just said, by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. I wanna speak to you this evening on the thought of guilty as charged. Guilty as charged. Good news is only good news in light of the bad news. Let me develop that a little bit more. There are many people who, well-meaning Christians, who in evangelistic efforts say things like, God loves you and he has a great plan for your life. It's not all bad, but it's just not all good either. It's not the whole story. They say things like Jesus died for you. He's got a wonderful plan for you. Everything could be great if. And I'm saying that and there's something of an exaggeration, but it's not a whole lot of an exaggeration because That is a very one-sided representation of the gospel. If someone submits to the Lord Jesus Christ, trust in him, they may not have a great earthly life, but they can have a wonderful eternal life with God. What's missing in that type of evangelism is what we just read in our text. the good news is only good news in light of the bad news. Or to say it another way, it doesn't really matter to people how wonderful God is if they don't think they need God. It doesn't really matter how wonderful salvation is if they don't think they need to be saved. In their eyes, in their mind, if If everything's good and everything's great, I don't need God. I worked up something of an illustration in my mind like this. Imagine someone came to you and said, I've got good news. There is a cure for fibromyalgia. And you would probably be sitting there and you'd be thinking, well, that's good, but it has nothing to do with me. I don't have fibromyalgia. If, however, you were sitting in a doctor's office and you had been diagnosed with that, and he says, I've got bad news, you've been diagnosed with this disease, but I've also got good news, there's a cure for it. Then the good news would be good news in light of the bad news. And what's missing in many pulpits and evangelical circles today is the bad news. That is the candid truth that men are sinners and guilty before God. And the only way that the gospel, which means good news, the only way that the gospel is truly good news is if you put it against the black backdrop of sin. And so we must present Christ in all of his glory and all of his beauty. And we must tell others about the love of God, but we must not neglect to tell men the reason why this matters is because of who and what you are. All men stand guilty before a holy God. All of us, outside of Christ, are guilty as charged. We're sinners and we're sinful. And this is exactly what Paul is arguing in this passage. This is, I think, in a great sense, this is, Paul is sort of like a lawyer in a courtroom arguing his case. And he's going to read out the indictment and level all of the charges. And when he gets done, there is absolutely no argument. We are guilty. And if we were left there, we would be without hope. This is the bad news. But Paul doesn't stop there. He also offers the good news. And that is that we're sin did abound. grace did much more about. In this passage, we read of God's assessment of all humanity outside of Christ. Because of our fallen nature, Because of our sinful condition, we cannot justify ourselves before God. We cannot be right with God. Our guilt, our condemnation has separated us from God. And that's, whether we like it or not, that's just the case. That's the way it is. That is the charges leveled against us. As unflattering as it is. These verses describe each and every single person on the planet. And due to our hopeless and helpless condition, we cannot save ourselves. In one sentence, Paul is saying this, the innate sinful condition makes it impossible for anyone, Jew or Gentile, to please God, merit divine favor by human effort. All humanity stands guilty before God. I want to take this passage this evening and I want to split it up into four and then we'll tag on a fifth point, the fifth or fourth and fifth division. First, I want to notice the indictment read against us. The indictment read against us. If you would, notice in verse number nine, Paul begins with these two rhetorical questions. What then? Are we better than they? And the answer is no. No, for we have proved. There in the King James where you read that word proved, it quite literally means to indict or to charge. We have already charged, we have already indicted that both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin. And there's some language here that if you're someone who writes in your Bible, that you would take notice of in verse 9, that we are under sin. And then in verse number 19, we are under the law. But then there is that continuation that by God's mercy, we're not under sin, we're not under the law, but we're brought under grace, freed from the condemnation of the law. This is the indictment against us, against all humanity, Jew and Gentile, that we are all under sin. And that language is that we are under the bondage and dominion of sin. I guess one of the things that really planted in my mind maybe the need to address this publicly was that recently I was speaking at an event and I made mention of the fact that we are all sinners. And it wasn't here, but when I said that, there was a lady there who shook her head in disagreement. I mean, it was obvious she didn't like what I was teaching and what I was saying. I said that we're all sinners and we're all guilty before God, and she made eye contact with me and made it clear she did not agree with what I was saying. Well, I just ignored that and preached what I preach. I don't know what else to do other than to go with what the text says. And that's because we live in a culture and in a society and a growing, growing percentage of people who have no concept of what sin is and what right and wrong is. The lines have been so blurred between righteousness and unrighteous and right and wrong and good and evil. And now these kids have had kids and those kids have had kids for generations now don't know right and wrong. And when someone stands up and has the audacity to use the word sin, they are treated like some kind of Neanderthal. that's living in a bygone age, that living in some relic of the past, talking about things that aren't true anymore. But friends, the indictment against all humanity is that in the sight of God, we are all guilty. We're sinners, condemned by God under the law. The law has condemned us. God thundered from outside the eye, He spoke to Israel, he said to them, thou shalt not, and they did it anyway. And the truth is, humanity, Jew and Gentile alike, whether the law was written on our hearts or whether it was written on tables of stone, we knew right and wrong and we've still chosen to do wrong. That is our condition. And that is the argument that Paul is making. Like a lawyer in a courtroom, here's the indictment. I am charging all humanity as guilty before God. God is the judge and Paul is writing there under the inspiration of the Spirit and he brings every single person on the planet under indictment. We're all guilty. Every single one of us. And then he goes on in verses 10 through 18 and lists the charges against us. So you've had the indictment read against us, now the charges leveled against us. In verses 10 through 18, depending on how you divvy it up, there are 14 or so characteristics, behaviors, speech, language, conduct, whatever you want to say, and none of it is good. None of it is good. I could probably get away with this tonight in this setting. But if you went out in a very secular setting and tried to preach something like this, brother, you better expect some pushback. You better expect it. Because men do not want to hear that they're sinners. They don't want to be told they're guilty. They don't want to be held to account for their sin. But Paul here writes and lays out very clearly the natural condition of every person on the planet apart from Jesus Christ. This is what we all were. And in a sense, we still have that old nature within us that we're warring against. Notice as Paul lists the character, conversation, and conduct. character, conversation, and conduct of these charges leveled against us. And what you may not know, and one of the benefits of looking at different translations and versions and having the time to do the study, is verses 10 through 18, Paul is literally quoting scripture after scripture after scripture. He is quoting Psalms, Proverbs, and the prophet Isaiah. Every single thing he says is an Old Testament quotation. Or in other words, this teaching of depravity, of man's total inherent sinful condition, is nothing new. Back in the Old Testament, God's men preached and called men sinners, identified them as sinners, which is why verse 10 begins with, as it is written, and then he begins to make a list of charges. All of these things could be read against us and we would be guilty, some to greater degrees than others. Verse number 10, there is none righteous, no, not one. Someone may jump up and say, well, wait a minute, what about such and such? What about this person? They're a very good person, very religious person, even a very righteous person. Paul says, no, not one. Now, I don't want to be doom and gloom. But the good news is only good news in light of the bad news. And the bad news is there is none righteous, no, not one. Outside of Christ, there is not one single person that has merited or earned a righteous standing before God. None have and none will. There is none righteous, no not one. Verse 11, there is none that understandeth. This is inclusive language, all inclusive language. None, no not one, none, all. Look, verse 11, there is none that understands, there is none that seek after God. This is God's estimation of every single person apart from Jesus. that we cannot, do not understand spiritual truth at the risk of making you feel worse. Verse 11 says that all humanity is ignorant of spiritual truth. And that's that old word that we don't use much anymore, not in a good sense. But the word just simply means you don't know. You do not know. You don't have understanding. 1 Corinthians teaches us that the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God. Cannot understand or discern spiritual truth because they don't have spiritual life. In order to discern spiritual things, you have to have spiritual truth. And all men, there is none that understands. Paul is not saying there's no one that understands 2 plus 2 is 4. No one understands the basics of math or science or history. He's talking about spiritual things. There's none that understands spiritual truth on their own. There is none that seek God, after God, on their own. Verse 12, all people are going in the wrong direction. That's exactly what verse 12, they are all gone out of the way. Literally walking the wrong way. By nature, all humanity is walking the wrong way. There is a way that seems right unto a man, but the end thereof is destruction. By nature, all men are on that broad road headed through that wide gate that leads to destruction. Verse 12 goes on to say, they are together become unprofitable. Together. Now this is harsh, but all humanity together are spiritually useless outside of Christ. That's hard, but it's true. There is none that doeth good, no, not one. Again, Paul is not saying that the unsaved person, the non-Christian, that they can't do good things, moral things. Certainly they can. There have been, I don't know, a plethora thousands upon thousands of men and women who have died on foreign fields fighting for God and country. There have been men and women in our own military who have died protecting the freedoms that we enjoy. That is a good thing. That is a right thing to do. But that doesn't earn them favor with God. It's not about human effort. Our moral goodness Yes, men can cure disease. They can thank God for doctors and nurses and people who come up with medicines. But when it comes to spiritual matters, there is none good that are inherently good. I know it is very popular in our world to say things like, I really believe that all people really down deep that they're good. That may be popular, but it's not biblical, because down deep we are sinners, depraved and separated from God. I bet y'all thought, man, I wasn't going to get this on a Sunday night, but that's what we are. That's what we are. Verse number 13, their throat is an open sepulcher. That's a grave. It is an open grave. I put in my notes this, I said it is like Paul is diagnosing people and he's at the doctor's office and he takes that little wooden stick and he sticks it in your mouth and says, say ah. And when the individual says ah, the only things that comes out is death, destruction, vile, cruelty, ungodliness, And I hate to sound so hard, but that is who we are. And again, Paul, let me just remind, Paul is saying, you Jews who think that you are so right with God just because you've been given these blessings and benefits of God, you're no more right with God than anybody else outside of Christ. Or to put it in contemporary terms, you might be a good little boy. that was brought up in church. You might be a good little girl that was brought up in church. You never got into the depths of sin or depravity. You've never gone off into some of the more lewd and ungodly things in this world, but you are just as depraved as Adolf Hitler. You may not sink into that same level of depravity. You may not go into the same depths of sin. You may not be responsible for a holocaust, but within the fallen human heart, The wicked tyrant of sin rules, and it blackens every heart. That's the bad news. I've been wanting to say this, but let me just read. Who wrote this is unknown, but it is so well written, I wanted to share some of this with you. What is sin? Listen to this. It is a debt, a burden, a thief, a sickness, a leprosy, a plague, poison, a serpent, a sting. It is everything that man hates and still embraces. It is a load of curses and calamities beneath whose crushing, most intolerable pressure all of creation groans. This is what sin is. Who casts the apple of discord on household hearts? Who lights the torch of war and bears it blazing over trembling lands? Who, by divisions in the church, rends Christ's seamless robe? Sin. This is what sin does. It is a destructive tyrant that destroys everything in its wake. and it has so corrupted our natural human heart that we don't even see, I'm sorry, we don't even see how depraved we are. We pretty up ourselves with clothes, look good, act good, but the truth is the human heart is so deceitful, it is desperately wicked, the Bible says you can't even know it. So before you think I'm a good little boy or a good little girl, you better take an assessment of the charges leveled against you by God himself. Their throat is an open sepulcher with their tongues they've used to see. The poison of ash is under their lips. Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. All you gotta do is turn on the TV and you'll see it. It's everywhere. I was walking into I don't know, some Walmart or something the other day, and it was a young lady with a five, four, five-year-old boy right there by her side, and the vulgarities flowing out of her mouth in front of a child. I'm just too old. I guess I'm just too old. It doesn't belong. It is unfit. But that is the human heart apart from Christ. Their feet are swift to shed blood. My Bible has a notation here, listen to this. In the notes, it says, during the last century, over 39 million people have lost their lives in war. 39 million people in the last 100 years. And then he's, the commentator here says, and by conservative estimates, human governments have killed over 125 million people with cruel tyrants like Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Hitler, and others. Their feet are swift to shed blood. And I think we see it now in America more than we've ever seen it before. They're quick to hurt others. Destruction and misery are in their ways. The way of peace have they not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. That fear of God has to do with a right reverence for who God is and who we are. A right understanding that he is holy God that deserves absolute unfettered full devotion, trust, love, and commitment, and we are sinners. That knowledge is not naturally before our eyes. These are the charges leveled against us. In verse 19, I want you to notice the verdict given against us. Now we know that whatsoever things the law saith, is saith to them who are under the law. And in case you missed it, that's all of us. The law has condemned us. The law has revealed our sin. We are under sin because we are under the law. And here's the verdict. Close to verse 19, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. Here's the verdict. Guilty as charged. He's laid out the evidence, listed the charges, and we're guilty. We're guilty before God. Maybe you've not run to the same excess as others, but you're guilty. All humanity is, listen, inexcusable. Murder was murder before Mount Sinai. Now, just think on that. I hope that makes some sense to you. When Cain slew Abel, it was sin, it was wrong, and that happened hundreds of years before God revealed, thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not commit murder, really. Right and wrong have been written on the human heart, and it was written on tables of stone and given to Israel. But regardless, all men are guilty before holy God. All people, our children and grandchildren and even those little precious babies, guilty before God. and we do not do men a favor by sugarcoating their sin, by placating them and their hard heartedness towards holy God. Here is the truth. You and I are all guilty. Guilty. We stand condemned before God, that every mouth may be stopped, every mouth shut, stopped, unable to argue back and say, but your honor, no guilty. And in verse 20, notice the sentence do. Verse 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. And I'm gonna give you a one word summary. Condemnation. That's what, condemnation. Our guilt leads to condemnation. Verse 20, there's that great word, therefore. Therefore, in light of what he has just said, in light of everything he has just written, because of who we are and what we are, alienated and separated from God, then no human effort, verse 20, by the deeds of the law, no human effort can reconcile you to God. You will not be justified. And that word, Christian, you gotta get familiar with that language. Justified means to be declared righteous. To be declared righteous by your efforts. you cannot be declared righteous before God. Because everything we do, even on our best of days, is still tainted by sin. How do you think that'd go over at Joel Osteen's church? Everything we do, even on our best of days, in our best of efforts, is still tainted by sin. So the only sentence, the only right punishment is condemnation, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. In the close of verse 20, hear me. The law was never given as a means by which mortal men could justify themselves. Many people have a wrong view, the Jews did. And in particular, I'm thinking about those uber-religious Pharisees and Sadducees who thought the law, treated the law like a ladder on which if they did this, they'd move up one rung. And if they did this, they'd move up another rung. And eventually, if they did enough good, they could walk their way up into heaven. But the law was not given in order for us to establish righteousness. The law was given in order that we would see our unrighteousness and how much we desperately need to be reconciled to God. This is what the law reveals about us, that we are sinners. The top of our head to the sole of our foot. Isaiah would portray it like this. There is nothing but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. Whether Psalms or Proverbs or Isaiah, we are all guilty. We are all inexcusable. We all stand, listen, condemned. And if the story ended there, we would be of all men most miserable. This is God's estimation, accurate evaluation of what we are outside of Christ. Guilty, condemned, sinful rebels. But the story doesn't end there. That's the bad news. But I've got good news. I've got good news in light of that. But Verse 21, I didn't get to this. Here is our only appeal. Our only appeal, I told you we're gonna have five points, this is the fifth point, our only appeal. But now, the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, it's revealed, being witnessed to, that is proclaimed or preached 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. Or yes, you are unrighteous. You and I stand condemned. But we can be declared righteous. We can be declared innocent. God, the judge of all the earth, can declare us righteous, have a right standing, not because of what we have earned or what because what we have merited, but because of what Christ has earned and what he has merited. The righteousness of God, which is by faith, by faith in not in us, but by faith in Jesus Christ. And then he says, for all that believe, there's no difference whether Jew or Gentile, doesn't make any difference. And then verse 23, that beautiful verse, I say it and I mean it, that for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. That language, come short of the glory of God, portrays the idea of missing the mark. You think of a competition. I'm trying to remember who I was just talking to about competing in Rollins. That's who it was. He's shooting. He's actually shooting BBs. But the biblical language here has to do with shooting an arrow at a bullseye. And the center is absolute perfection. and we miss the target every time. In our human effort, we miss the target every time. We may aim for a bullseye and we miss it. We fall short. We miss the mark every single time. But Jesus never did. He always hit the mark in absolute, unfettered perfection in every way. And then this wonderful, glorious verse, verse 24, being justified, declared righteous, and that little word right there in verse 24, freely. Listen to this. It means without a cause. There was no cause in you. There was no cause in me. was not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy. Being justified freely, without a cause, not because you merit it, not because you earn it, and listen, not because we're any better than this person, or better than that person, or because we're Jew, or Gentile, or raised in church, or not in church, none of those things. But being justified freely. by His grace through the redemption. That is, Christ purchasing our sin debt, paying our sin debt, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. You can go on reading, it's just beautiful language. But Paul is going to go on in the next two chapters and preach justification by faith alone over and over and over again. In Romans chapter 1, Paul says Gentiles are guilty. In Romans chapter 2, Paul says the Jews are guilty. And in Romans chapter 3, Paul says all people are guilty before God. We're guilty as charged. That's the bad news. But then he goes on in chapter 4, 5, and 6 to share the good news that though we are sinful, we can be justified by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. So no longer by God's grace, no longer guilty. How do I not mention Romans 8 verse 1? There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ. That condemnation has been removed. Christ bore our sin dead in his body on the tree. The good news, friends, the good news is only good news in light of the bad news. I'm all for telling people about the love of Jesus, but why does that matter to them? If everything's the way they want it to be, why do they care? Here's the problem. Men today do not realize each of us, every single one of us, have been infected by the disease of sin. Our prognosis is not good. We're guilty. Sin has corrupted us. It will ultimately destroy us. And we've got to tell others gracefully and lovingly, you are a sinner. That's the bad news. You're guilty. You need to be rescued, saved, and delivered. But I've got good news. If you'll turn from your sins and trust in Christ, you can and will be justified freely forever. by faith in Him alone. God bless you, I love you.