Ron Dunn Podcast - God's Verdict

Episode Date: February 5, 2020

From the sermon series on Romans

The book of Romans, chapter 3, and I'm going to begin reading with verse 9 and read through verse 20. Romans, chapter 3, beginning with verse 9 and reading through verse 20. If a person next to you doesn't have this Bible, would you share yours with him so that all of us can follow along in this portion of Scripture? And I hope that you'll keep your Bibles open because I'll be referring to these verses throughout the course of the message. The third chapter of Romans, beginning with verse 9 and reading through verse 20.

What then? Are we better than they? Now, Paul is contrasting the situation of the Jews and of the Gentiles which some people say well the Gentiles have it better and other people say well the Jews have it better of course the Jews thought they had it better and the Gentiles think they have it better so Paul says well what about it are we better off are we Jews better off than the Gentiles

is anybody better off than anyone else no in no wise. For we have before proved, both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin. As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. 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 things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. 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. Now there are three ways of looking at sin. You can look at it through the eyes of a teacher and see sin as merely ignorance. Or you can look at sin through the eyes of a doctor and see sin merely as a disease. Or you can look at sin through the eyes of a judge and see it as guilt and lawlessness. Now, I think it is imperative that we understand that when God looks at human sin, he does not look at it through the eyes of a teacher and view it merely as ignorance which can be cured with a little enlightenment. Nor does he look at sin through the eyes of a doctor,

seeing it as some contagious disease that we can be immunized against with a little drug. But when God looks at my life, and when God makes an analysis of your heart, he looks through the eyes of a judge, and he sees your sin, and he sees my sin as lawlessness, as rebellion, as guilt. Therefore, the one thing we need is pardon acquittal now this is an astounding passage that Paul has written for us under the inspiration of the scripture of the spirit and as I read through this over and over again this week to try to get the drift of the passage and try to catch the spirit in which Paul was writing, the thought occurred to me, and I read some authors who reflected this, that this description of a human heart

seemed a little too severe. It seemed a little too harsh. If it wasn't in the Bible, I don't think I would believe it, especially verse 12 in the latter part of that verse when it says, there is none that doeth good, no, not one. And even as I read that, I began thinking about people who I know do good. And he says, he starts off that description in verse 10, there is none righteous, no, not one. I want you to notice the universality of this description. He says, there is none righteous, no, not a single 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. God doesn't allow for a single good person on the face of this earth. And I'm afraid that we're a little bit too soft and sentimental to take the toughness of this passage. Our generation is really spiritually soft, you know. The generation that will relegate Jesus to the object of a pep rally cheer doesn't really care too much about this kind of description of the human heart. But you'll never understand what God is trying to say until you understand one thing. He is not picturing human life

as viewed from my eyes. He is picturing human life as viewed from the eyes of God. What Paul has done in this passage is to bring us in the presence of God. This is how God sees us. This isn't how we see ourselves. This isn't how our neighbor sees us. This is how God sees us. And when God takes a picture of my heart and that picture is developed. This is what is shown. There is none righteous, no not one. There is none that doeth good, no not one. All of us are unprofitable in God's sight. And after all, that's all that really counts. I mean, if I'm brought before a judge on a charge, it doesn't make any difference how good I look to my milkman. I want to know how I look in the eyes of that judge and jury. You know, some of us ease

our conscience and compare ourselves to someone else. Why, I've been elected such and such in the city, and after all, I give to the cancer fund, and after all, I do this and I do that. You just take a gallop poll of my community. You ask my friends, ask my mother first, please, and don't ask my wife, and don't ask my wife and don't ask but let me give you some people that will give me a good reference that's all well and good if you're applying for credit or for a job in the school system of Irving but when you're standing in the presence of God it does not matter what the milkman thinks of you it doesn't matter what the banker or the lawyer or your mother or yourself what is all important is how you look to God.

For he is the judge. He is the judge. Paul here has us in the presence of God. God has convened his heavenly court. And he does three things. First of all, he makes the charge. He reads the indictment. Then he presents the evidence. And then he brings in the verdict.

Now we're going to look at these three things. First of all, the indictment, the charge. Notice what the apostle says in verse 9. What then? Are we better than they? No, in no wise, for we have before proved. Now that Greek word translated proved is a court term, which means we have accused, we have indicted, we have charged. William's translation, I believe, translates it charge.

We have charged both Jews and Gentiles that they are all under sin. This is the indictment. This is the charge that God levels against every person, and it's a twofold charge. First of all, it is the charge that we are under sin's dominion, that sin is a power in our life. Notice the way the apostle expresses it, that they are all under sin. He doesn't merely say that everybody has sinned. Now, I think few of us would deny that fact, that all of us at some time or another have done something wrong. Not a person here would stand up and say, preacher, I have always done what I knew to be best and knew to be right. I have never willfully, deliberately, knowingly done anything wrong. We wouldn't be so foolish as to make that charge.

But this is not the charge that God levels against us this morning. He doesn't simply say that we've all sinned. He says that we are under sin. We are under sin. In other words, sin is above us. Sin has authority over us. Sin controls us. And we are under its dominion, and that's the indictment that God levels against us. We are under the dominion of sin. This is what Jesus said in the Gospels, whosoever commits a sin becomes the servant of that sin.

In Ephesians chapter 2, Paul is writing to people who have experienced this victory in Christ. He's writing to people who have been saved from their sin. And he describes what they used to be before they came to Christ. And he says, at that time, you walked according to the course set by you by the prince of the power of the air, talking about Satan. Before you were saved, the way you lived, your conduct, your behavior was ordered by Satan. You weren't aware of it. You didn't know it. If somebody had told you you were the slave of the devil, you wouldn't have believed it. But nonetheless, that was your case. And God says that every person outside Jesus Christ is a slave to

his sin. I don't see how any of us can deny that. Some of you have been trying for years to get on top of some things in your life, and you've not been able to do it. Some of you for years have been trying to get victory over some things in your life, and you're no farther down the road than you were when you began. The problem with the human race, and this is what Paul is writing to us in this passage. Here's an amazing thing. What he's saying in this passage is that everything that is wrong in the world, everything that's wrong in the world can be traced back to man's sin. Every wrong relationship, the wars, the unrest, the hatred, the prejudice, everything that is wrong in this created universe can be traced back to the fact that man is wrong with God. Man is wrong with God. He's like a wheel that's

off center, and as long as that wheel is off center, it's not going to roll right. And as long as you are wrongly related with God, you're not going to live right. But he doesn't merely say that we're under sin's dominion. He also says that there is a deficiency in man, that man is incomplete. I want you to look in verse 23. This is a familiar verse to all of us. Paul says, for all have sinned, as a result are coming short of the glory of God. The word short means to be in deficit. It means to be lacking something. Because of man's sin, he is lacking something.

I like to read over there in Genesis chapter 3 when the story is recorded of the first sin. You remember Satan came to them and said, listen, I tell you what, if you'll do what I tell you, you'll no longer be simply human beings, simply creatures. You will become as gods. Now, you know, that was a terrific sermon the devil preached because his entire congregation was converted. The devil said, listen, if you do what I tell you, you'll become more than an ordinary person. You'll become more than a mere human. You just, you live the way I want you to live. You do what I want you to do. And Adam and Eve swallowed it and they sinned. Now I want you to listen to this. They sinned in order that they might become more than human. And when they sinned, they became less than human. Did you know you've

never really seen a real human as God intended him to be apart from Jesus Christ? You see, Jesus Christ is not only the revelation of what God is like, he is also the revelation of what you're supposed to be like. We've never really seen human nature as God intended it to be. All we've seen is a replica of human nature. I've seen pictures of the London Blitz. Those stately cathedrals. Those magnificent skyscrapers that once stood, and yet the bomb gutted them out. And you can see the outline, a wall here standing, a wall there standing.

That's the way humanity is. When God made us, the Bible says he made us in his own image. He made us for glory. He made us to share in God's glory. But when that bomb of sin exploded in our lives, all that is left is a wreckage of our human nature. That's the purpose of redemption, of course. When Jesus Christ comes into our life, he begins to restore what we lost in our sin.

You're deficient this morning without Jesus Christ. You're incomplete without Jesus Christ. You're lacking something without Jesus Christ. That's why I love Colossians 2, 9 where it says that all the fullness of the Godhead dwelleth in Jesus bodily and you, talking about me and talking about you,

you are complete in Him. It's only when a person comes to turn the control of his life over to Jesus Christ and by an experience of salvation, you invite Jesus Christ to come into your life. Then and only then are you complete. This is the indictment.

We're under the power of sin and we're deficient. We're lacking. We're incomplete. We're not as God intended us to be. Now, let's look at the evidence. Let's look at the evidence. The evidence begins in verse 10, and I will not take the time to deal with every phrase and every verse, but Paul is presenting the evidence that

you and I are under the power of sin. He is trying to prove now that we are lacking something that we're not as God intended us to be, thereby we do need conversion. First of all, he points to our character. He points to our character and he says our character is one of unrighteousness. There is none righteous, no not one. Now I want you to underscore that, not one. There is none righteous, no not one. And remember, we are looking at ourselves as God sees us, not as we see ourselves. This is God's analysis of the human heart. And there is none righteous, no not one. You know what it means to be righteous? To be righteous means to be perfect. Once in a while somebody says,

Oh, preacher, you talk about this sin and you get overexcited and talking about sin. He says, I'm not so bad. I think you can overdo this bit of telling people they're sinners and creating guilt complexes in the minds of people.

Well, you know what a sinner is? Very simply, a sinner is anyone who is less perfect than God. That's all. Anyone who is less perfect than God needs to be saved. Anyone who is less perfect than God is lost. Anyone who is less perfect than God is unrighteous. Anyone who is less perfect than God is a sinner. That's what the word righteous means. And when I by faith come and accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and my Savior, miracle of miracles,

God makes me righteous. You say, Preacher,, you trying to tell us you're perfect this morning? No, sir, I'm not. But when God looks at me through Jesus, I'm perfect. You see, the thing that counts is how you appear in the eyes of the judge. Now, I'm not perfect in your eyes. I'm not even perfect in my own eyes. But praise the Lord, I'm perfect in the eyes of God this morning because when God looks at me, he says that he remembers my sin against me no more and he sees Jesus Christ dwelling in me by faith. And Paul says, being made righteous by the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ. Paul came to realize in his life in Philippians chapter 3 that he had no righteousness of his own. And so when he came to that place where he recognized

he himself was unrighteous and a wicked sinner, he turned to Jesus Christ and trusted him as Lord and Savior. And at that moment, God wrapped him up in his own righteousness. And so Paul brings the evidence. And the evidence to our character is that we are unrighteous and that we are unreasonable. Notice what he says. There is none, in verse 11, that understandeth. There is none that seeketh after God.

There is no one who comprehends God. You know, that's a tragic thing. That's a tragic thing. Did you know that when God made you and God made man, he gave man the mental ability to know God and to grasp God and to fellowship with God? But when man turned away from God and when you in your day life turn away from God and you let sin invade your life, suddenly your mental ability to grasp and know God is destroyed. You cannot know God through your intellect. You cannot know God through your mind.

And the greatest heresy that was ever forced upon anybody was this idea that we can reach God and we can know God through our intellect, through our reason. You cannot do it because you are walking around with the replica of the reason God gave you. There is none that understand us. Nobody understands God until Jesus Christ comes into his life. That's what that verse means in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, where it says, the natural man, the unsaved man, receiveth not the things of the Spirit. If you don't understand what I'm talking about this morning, if you just can't see some of these things. If you just can't understand, it's because you've never been saved. The natural man, the unsaved person, understandeth not the things of the Spirit,

for they are spiritually discerned. We've got a new television set for Christmas. And my children are very happy because it has a UHF channel. Because on UHF you can get lost in space. That's a program. I don't mean literally lost in space. I remember we had our old TV that didn't have that UHF. They'd look in the TV guide, and there was Channel 39,

had all these neat programs on that, and they'd drive and complain. But I'd say, my little boy, come on, I'd say, Dad, let's turn to Channel 39. No, you don't have a Channel 39. Can't tune in. Now, all that time, Channel 39 was telecasting, and those beams, those waves, whatever passes through

the air were going through our house and through my body and through our neighborhood, but we couldn't pick it up. We couldn't pick it up. We couldn't tune in because we didn't have the right channel. That's the way a lost man is. That's the way a lost person is. God can be in this place and he can be speaking to people and they can feel his presence and be aware of his presence. And as far as you're concerned, God may not even be here because you're not tuned in and you cannot tune in. And when a person is born again, he's born of the Spirit, God saves him. What God does is put a UHF channel on his television set,

and now he has the ability, the capacity to tune in to God. Now I want to ask you this morning, if you're tuned in, all of the Holy Spirit coming into your life and making you a child of God can tune you in. He says they're unreasonable and they're unresponsive. In verse 12, they're all gone out of the way. They are together become unprofitable. Unprofitable. Let me just mention in passing

that when God looks at the Ph.D. without Jesus, God says he's unprofitable. When God looks at the millionaire without Jesus, God says he's unprofitable. When God looks at the millionaire without Jesus, he says he is unprofitable. When God looks at the king of a nation without Jesus, he says he is unprofitable. The Greek word is used of milk that has gone sour. It is used of meat that has putrefied. It is worthless. It is worthless. And I want you to know this morning that when men do not have Jesus Christ dwelling in their lives by faith and God looks at their lives, I do not care how talented, how educated, how sophisticated they are, God's analysis of that person is, he's useless. He is no more profitable than milk that

has gone. He is no more useful than meat that has gone rotten, apart from Jesus Christ. Oh, I tell you, there's nothing that this generation needs anymore today than to realize how God views us apart from Jesus Christ. Why do you think that God is going to come back someday in the person of Jesus and destroy everything unrighteous? You don't destroy things that are worth something. You don't destroy things that are good. You don't destroy things that are good. You don't destroy things that are profitable. But the Bible says in that last day, God is going to come with flaming fire, taking vengeance upon

them who know not God and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of his glory. You only destroy and throw away and get rid of that which is not profitable. And I want you to know, friend of mine, if you are without Jesus Christ, you are unprofitable as far as God is concerned. Well, he brings forth the evidence to our character. And then let's look very briefly. He brings forth the evidence to our character, and then let's look very briefly, he brings forth the evidence to our conduct. I just want to say two brief things about our conduct as revealed in this passage. First of all, man has the capacity to destroy himself.

You may have been reading these verses, and you say, well now, nothing I've read so far, beginning in verse 13, nothing I've read so far fits my case. Well just keep reading. You'll find your name there sooner or later. We have a capacity to destroy ourselves with our words. Our throat is like an open grave.

Our tongues deceive. Our mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. And how many people we have destroyed by the words we've spoken about them. We have the capacity to destroy man, not only with our words, but with our works. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways. And the way of peace have they not known. And then not only do we have the capacity to destroy man,

we also have the audacity to disregard God and that's the greatest sin you notice Paul puts this last because it is the capstone of man's sinful impurity in verse 18 there is no fear of God before their eyes you know what it means to fear God? Fear God is not this slavish kind of being scared like you're afraid to go into a darkened house at night or you're afraid to walk down a darkened alley. That's not the kind of fear he's talking about. He's talking about

this kind of reverential awe where we stand in awe of God and God is in the center of our thoughts and he's on the horizon of our life and our whole life revolves around God. And the Bible says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom. And if you don't fear the Lord in that way, you are a fool in God's sight. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom. The ABCs of smartness is fearing God. It's the beginning. You haven't even begun to be smart and intelligent until you've let Jesus Christ become the center of your life. Most of us haven't until we come to a place

where we die to self and to submit ourselves to him. Now let's just briefly at the verdict. God has brought in the charge. He has presented the evidence. Here's the verdict. Verse 19. Now we know that what things to wherever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped.

I want you to know the verdict that God is going to bring in about your life is indefensible. There is no court of appeals. You have nothing to say in your defense. There is nothing you can say in your defense. You know, we're always talking about how good we are. Always talking about how much we've done. Always talking about how much this person has done for humanity and how much this person has done for society

and how fine this person is. God says, when you come into my presence, I want you to shut up. I don't want to hear anything that you've got to say about how good you are or what you've done or how much money you've given to the church or how fine a person you are or what a good father you are, what a good member of the chamber of commerce you are. He said, every mouth be stopped.

Don't want to hear anything you have to say, God says, because the verdict is already in. There is no defense against it that every mouth may be stopped and all the world become guilty before God. All the world become guilty before God. That's God's verdict on your life. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty.

No defense you can make. That will be acceptable. There is no higher court than the court of heaven. You have just heard the verdict from the supreme court of the universe, God says, all of you, all of you are guilty. That's when I come to Jesus, when I realize I'm guilty. You see, until a man recognizes his sin, he'll never recognize the Savior. You've got to get a man lost before you can get him saved. A man must recognize his sinfulness before he can be saved.

You'll never turn to Christ. You'll never see the need of turning to Christ as long as you refuse to accept God's verdict on your life. And this is why some of you have never given your life to Christ, because you've never been convinced that you're not just a little bit good. And some of the things that you do somehow please God just a little bit. They don't please him at all apart from Jesus Christ. I'm so glad this morning that Jesus loves me.

I'm so glad that Jesus loves me. Even me. And I'm glad there was a time in my life when I recognized imperfectly but I recognized my sinfulness, my lostness and as best I knew how, which again was imperfect but I turned my life to Jesus Christ and trusted him as my savior and you know what God's verdict upon my life is this morning

and I do not say it boastfully with pride because it's not anything that I've done. It's just through Jesus. You know what God's verdict on my life is this morning? Not guilty. Not guilty. Well, Lord, I thought I was guilty. I thought every sin had to be punished. I thought since I was guilty, sentence had to be executed.

And God says, you're right, it does. And 2,000 years ago, outside the city of Jerusalem, on a hill shaped like a skull, and on a cross, my son died in your place and bore your guilt and was executed for your crimes

and paid your debt and now you're free. Your sins are gone and your guilt has been blotted out. I've buried them in the sea. I've cast them behind my back and I will remember your sins against you no more. Because Jesus took away my sin.

Has he taken away your sin? Have you ever come to Jesus Christ and said, Lord Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner. I know that there's not any good thing in me. I know that when you look at my life, you see all the sin that's there. And I know I'm guilty. And I do not plead this morning for justice, but I plead for mercy. And I come to cast my life to Jesus Christ.

The Ron Dunn Podcast is available only for personal edification, not to be duplicated, uploaded to the web, or resold without prior written consent. It is managed and operated by Sherwood Baptist Church. If you would like to listen to additional Ron Dunn messages, visit sherwoodbaptist.net slash bookstore and search Ron Dunn. For more Ron Dunn materials, including sermon outlines, devotions, and scanned pages from a study Bible, please visit rondon.com.