The Closing Argument

If you're our visitor today, we're so thankful. You're going to hear some really important stuff about what we believe today. I'm really thankful that you're here for that reason. But it's also probably not the most chipper message you've heard in a long time. And so I really want to encourage you to come back next week, because it's gonna be really good news. But this is really important preparation for that good news. Romans 3:1-20. If you're able, would you stand with me as we honor the reading of God's word?

But it's really not all well and good unless the prosecutor secures the guilty verdict. And that's where Sam Waterston comes in. That's where Jack McCoy, the prosecutor, enters the episode in the courtroom and takes all this evidence that's been compiled for him by those hard working police officers. That's where he crafts all that into this argument so that he can make the charge stick against that person who's been doing evil out in the world. And really everything, if it's going to have any lasting significance, what those folks did at the first part of the show, if it's going to have any lasting significance, what happens at the end of the show is so important. It's crucial. The prosecutor has got to make an airtight case to secure the correct verdict so that justice can be done. And the Apostle Paul has been acting in Romans 1, 2, and 3 as God's prosecutor. He's God's Jack McCoy. He's God's Sam Waterston. 

Those two words, if you've missed anything from the last three weeks, those two words sum up the last three sermons. You say, "you could have saved us all a lot of time if you could have just used those two words, you know what I mean?" But those two words sum up everything that we've been learning in Romans 1, 2, and 3: All people, Jew and Greek, all kinds of people are under sin. That is the human condition.

That's such an important and descriptive kind of phrase because it reminds us that sin is not just something that we do occasionally. Sin is not just this occasional slip up, or mistake, or foible, or something like that. "Normally we're good people, but every once in a while we mess up and so we sin." Paul says, "No, it's not like that. You are under sin. It's a power over your life." He will say this in Romans 6, "It's a tyrant who orders you around and tells you what to do, who tells you how to use your hands, your feet, your mouth, your thoughts, and you just obey it. You are under sin's dominion. You're in its grip.

Another phrase that Paul will use sometimes, it's like a disease. And the symptoms may show up in different ways for different people. But we've all got the same disease that spreads to every part of who we are. It affects everything. You're under sin. And what that means when you boil it all down is, "I don't want God to be God. I do not want to (to use Romans 1 language), I don't want to acknowledge God or give thanks to him. I don't want to put God in his rightful place in my life as my authority, as my king, as my center, as my everything. I want to be in that place.

Sorry--I've been at Youth Camp listening to somebody else preach all week--I've been all bottled up. "I wanna be in the place of God. I wanna call the shots. I wanna say what's right, what's wrong. I want people to serve me. I want people to worship me. I want people to carry out my desires. I wanna be God." I've got enough sense not to say that. I would get locked up in Bolivar for talking like that. But in my heart, that is what's behind all of the bad stuff I do, and all the good stuff that I don't do. I insist on putting myself in the place of God. And that makes me unrighteous before the actual God. The one who made me, who upholds me, the one I've got to give an account to. I'm unrighteous before him because I'm under sin.

And Paul has applied it to this group, and that group, and that group, and that group: the immoral idol worshiper, the moral rule keeper, the religious churchgoer. He's applied it to everybody. Whatever the symptoms are in your life, the disease is the same. All are under sin. 

Paul's been making this case. He's been making this charge (as he puts it in Romans 3:9). And now as we get to chapter 3, Paul is moving into his closing argument. And like in Law and Order, this would be like the last five minutes of the show. This is the big dramatic moment where after all the stuff has been presented, all the facts have been heard, now this masterful prosecuting attorney is going to bring it all together in this brilliant, closing, persuasive argument to make the verdict stick. And that's what Paul's doing. He's making the verdict stick that whoever you are, whatever your brand of sin may be, you're in the same spot before God, Romans 3:19: "mouth stopped," nothing to say at the judgment bar. And you need righteousness that you can't provide for yourself. That is the human condition.

And Paul pursues this verdict relentlessly. And sometimes he uses language in this chapter that kind of curls our hair, even if we've been in church all of our lives. We think it seems a little extra. It's a little over the top the way that Paul is describing sin. But he's just using the Bible. He's just using the Old Testament to tell us the truth, the ugly truth about ourselves. Why does Paul do that? Does he just get a kick out of rubbing people's faces in evil, rubbing people's faces in their own sin? Is that how Paul has a good time? No, Paul knows that until we are completely convinced of our unrighteousness, (I don't mean that we're righteous people who sometimes do unrighteous things, but that we are unrighteous people), until we are convinced of that we will never look up to receive the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ. Never.

To shift from the legal world to the medical world, until we are convinced that we are deadly sick, deathly sick, we will never take the cure of the gospel, renouncing all of our righteousness, taking hold of Jesus, giving him all of ourselves. And so Paul so, so much wants to give us the good news about Jesus, the good news that God has for the whole world! That's what the rest of Romans is gonna be about. It's gonna get a whole lot better. He's on a good news mission, not a bad news mission, a good news mission. But we won't even listen to the good news until we know this bad news part. Y'all understand that?

So let's buckle up and listen to what Paul has to say in what is probably the key, classic place in all of the Bible for understanding the human condition under sin. I want to look at it as you might guess in three parts.

That's what Paul is unpacking in verses 1-12. We're going to focus on 9-12. He's unpacking the problem of our sin, making sure we understand what it really is. But honestly what Paul is doing, especially in 9-18, he's just quoting scripture. He's quoting the Old Testament. Paul does not have this morbid fixation on sinfulness because he's weird. No, he's just quoting the Bible to us. This is the Bible's witness from beginning to end about the human condition on the other side of sin and the fall. And there are really two main things that Paul tells us and that the Bible teaches us about the problem of our sin. First, it's a universal problem And second, it's a radical problem.

#1 - A Universal Problem
Now, we learned here in church several years back some Bible study skills. And if you're trying to understand the Bible and study it for yourself, the first thing you look for is repeated words and repeated ideas. And that kind of gets at the main idea. Well, look at verses 9, 10, 11, and 12 with me. What words are repeated a lot in those verses? Words like none, words like all, and not a single one. Those are big sweeping blanket kinds of phrases, aren't they? That's because Paul is wanting us to understand that sin is not just a problem for those nasty people out there. No sin is a universal problem.

We all like to think to ourselves and say to others that we're different. We wanna make distinctions among different kinds of sin and different kinds of sinners. We've all got explanations about, you know, why my sin is different. It's just a little bit cleaner. It's a little bit nicer. It's more respectable. It's more acceptable. Paul won't let us do that. No, what he has been arguing so relentlessly for in these early chapters is that all of us are in the same condition before God.

He started in Romans 1 with the immoral idol worshiping gentile, suppressing the knowledge of God, replacing the true God with an idol of their own making. And then following that out into a darkened mind and a rebellious heart, turning the design of God at its most fundamental level upside down, doing things like practicing homosexuality, parents paying for their six-year-olds to have sex change surgery, and then bragging about how enlightened they are and how stupid the rest of us are! That is Romans 1 kind of sin. And it is upside-down. And Paul says, "hey, y'all aren't righteous, y'all need help." And everybody in the back saying, "Amen, tell him Paul! This world's crazy!

So Paul says, "Well let's get to Romans 2, and let's talk about all these people who find it really easy to judge the crazy world out there. And what you need to know is you've got a judge too. His name is God. You're gonna stand before him. And when you do, he sees all the way down to your motives. He sees all the way down to the secret thoughts of your heart. He knows every word you've ever said in every careless moment. And you're gonna find on that day that you're not righteous before God either. You find it easy to condemn those who sin openly, but you sin secretly, and God knows that. So rule breakers are not righteous. Rule keepers are not righteous.

And when we get to the middle of chapter 2, he says, "Now let's talk about you church folks, because your strategy for being righteous before God is just getting a lot of religion. You go to church. You have a Bible. You don't just know the rules of society, you know the rules of God. And you're able to teach others. And you take mission trips. And you religious people, you think that makes you righteous before God, but you're not righteous either. Your heart is the same as all those other people. And I can prove it to you."

And he's been proving it to us. We're just able as religious people to wrap our sinful hearts up in this really shiny foil packaging called "religion." And he's still talking to religious people actually in verses 1-8 of Romans 3, talking to the Jews. And what he's saying is, "Look, it's a blessing that you have all this religion in your life, that you have a Bible, you have a church, you sing songs, you have rituals like baptism and the Lord's supper and circumcision and all that kind of stuff. But that just makes it worse that you've had all of this religious stuff in your life and it never went down to your heart. That stuff is gonna rise up and condemn you on the judgment day, because God privileged you with all this teaching and information, and it didn't make a lick of difference in your heart and your life.

So if you're a rule breaker, or you're a rule keeper, or you're a religious person, you've all got the same problem. You're unrighteous before God. No one is righteous, not one. We express our sin differently, but God sees us all in the same condition. Y'all that can be really hard for us to admit, can't it? It can be really hard for us to admit. There is nothing better in me than in anyone else. The Apostle Paul is going to say, "there is no good thing that dwells in me." If you can't say that, then you and Paul are at odds. And that's between you and Paul. More importantly, that's between you and God. I am not better than any person in this world. I'm in the same position before God: Unrighteous. Sin is a universal problem.

#1 - A Radical Problem
And by the word radical, I mean, it goes to the root of who we are. We tend to think again that sin is this outward thing that we do: I stole something, I told a lie, I said a cuss word. We think of sin as this kind of isolated outward stuff that we do. But Paul says, "no, no, no, that's not it. Sin is not just the stuff that we do. Those are just kind of the symptoms of the disease. You are not a basically good person who messes up sometimes, which is what everybody thinks sin is. You are not a basically good person who messes up sometimes. You are a sinful person at your core. Something has gone wrong deep down in your heart. And that's why it shows up in the things that you do and say. That's the Bible's teaching. If something has gone wrong at the root, at the heart, that's what it means to be under sin. Everything is now impacted by this fact.

So for example, sin impacts my mind. Verse 11, "no one understands." That doesn't mean all unsaved people are stupid. Of course not! You can be super duper intelligent, but you won't understand spiritual things. The unspiritual man, the unsaved man, the unregenerate man, he cannot understand the things of God. He doesn't understand who God is. He doesn't understand who he is before God. He doesn't understand his need. He doesn't understand God's provision. It makes no sense to him. It seems crazy to him. So no one understands. I can't accept the truth. My receiver is broken. I can't get those messages from God because no one understands because I'm under sin.

Still in verse 11, sin affects my heart. He says, "no one seeks for God." We may scratch our heads at that because it sure looks like a lot of people are seeking God. This is a super religious place, this world of ours. There are temples everywhere, and churches that have all kinds of people going to them. And I went into a Barnes and Noble bookstore in a city not too long ago. And the shelves are loaded with books on religion, and spirituality, and all this kind of stuff. I mean, Oprah is all the time talking about all these spiritual gurus. I mean, this seems like people are seeking God all the time, right? But Paul's point, the Bible's point is no one seeks the real God. And no one seeks the real God wanting him to be the real God in their lives. Now, you may seek a God of your own making. You may seek the blessings of God, and the help of God, and the stuff of God. But you don't want God for who he is, not naturally, not in and of yourself. You know, we're under sin. And the last thing we want is for the real God who we belong to, to be God in our lives. No one seeks him, which means, not to blow the lead, but God's gonna have to seek us, right? If we're gonna get right, God's gonna have to seek us. So sin affects my mind. It affects my heart.

Sin affects my purpose. It says, "all have turned aside together, they have become worthless." I mean, that's maybe the strongest statement in here. But please understand. Paul's not saying that human beings are worthless. He's not saying human beings are trash. No, they're made in the image of God. They're supremely valuable to God. And human life should be precious to us as well. What he means though is we are unable to perform the function for which we were made. We can't do what God made us to do. Now, we still have all kinds of value. We can still do lots of things well as human beings. But we can't do the one thing God made us to do, which is reflect his character, to be a little mirror of his glory, to show the world consistently what God is like. That's what human beings are for! And we can't do that. And so in the sense of what God designed us to do, we're worthless. Sin has rendered us unable to do what we were made to do.

It's like my precious laptop that I've written way too many words on. It finally gave up the ghost last week. At least for me, it gave up the ghost. You could probably still, you know, watch a video or play Candy Crush on it or something like that. But the keys were breaking. I couldn't even type! I can't write my sermons. I can't write the little devotional books. So, for my purposes, it was worthless, right? I mean, you could use it as a doorstop. You could hold some papers down on it on a windy day. I mean, you could do stuff with it, but for the purpose for which I had it, it was worthless. You understand?

And the main root purpose for which God made human beings, to reflect his glory, we're worthless for that, at least apart from Christ. That's Romans 3:23, that's what it means. When it says, "all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." We're supposed to shine the glory of God. We can't do that. So sin affects my purpose.

Sin affects my ability. "No one does good, not even one." You say, "That's crazy! I see lost people doing all kinds of good things. I see a lot of lost people doing a lot more good things than the fine folks of Sharon Baptist Church!" That's probably true. People who are lost, who reject Christ, they can do all kinds of good things, inspiring things, benevolent things. But you've got to understand, we're talking about God's perspective on his human beings, who he made. And from God's perspective, no one does good all the time.

Just try it sometime. Try to only do good from the inside out all the time for one day, and let's talk. No one does good all the time. And no one does good all the way, which means you don't just do good things. You do good things for a good reason, which is not to glorify yourself, but to glorify your father who is in heaven. No one does good like that. I don't care if you write a check for a billion dollars to St. Jude. That is a very good thing from one perspective, a very good thing. But from God's perspective, it's not a truly good thing unless it's done from a good, God-centered motive. Sin affects everything, including my ability.

So let's review in case you didn't get your stomach full of it yet. Sin is a universal problem. And sin is a radical problem. The traditional term that Christians use for this teaching that I've been laying out so cheerfully is "total depravity," total depravity. "Little Jimmy, what did you learn at church today?" "Total depravity, dad!" Total Depravity. That does not mean that Christians think that every person is evil incarnate. We don't think that. It does not mean that we think every person is as bad as they could possibly be. We don't think that! We think that lost people can do all kinds of great things better than Christians do, from our viewpoint. What we mean by that is that sin has affected all of me. Nothing is untainted.

The classic way to talk about this is if sin was the color green, then every part of me would have at least a green tint. There might be some parts of my life that are a dark, dark green, but other parts of me might be just a really light, faint green. But it would all be tainted by sin. That's very important.

Let me give you a few points of practical application. If you never come back, I wanna be faithful today. OK? So a few points:

What this means is, I am not basically good. I am basically sinful. I commit sins, because I'm a sinner. I'm not a sinner because I've committed a few sins. I've got a deep problem.

It also means that I may have all kinds of other problems in my life. I may have a drinking problem. I have a problem with my mouth. I may have a problem of disrespecting authority. I may have a problem of being lazy. I may have a problem being really selfish in my home. I may have any number of problems. And y'all, people come to me often with their problems. They want me to help them fix their problems. But y'all, it doesn't matter what we do with those problems unless we talk about the problem under every problem, which is "I will not let God be God in my life. I'm a sinner." And until we start dealing with that problem under our problems, those outward presenting problems, they're not going to make a dime's worth of difference in your life. Does that make sense?

Another point: It means I'm no better off (v9) than anyone else before God. Let that sink in. Because I don't think you believe it. I am no better, and I'm no better off than anyone you meet in this world, same level before God. And it also means that I can't fix this. I can't fix this problem I have. I've got a radical problem, which means I need a radical solution that only God can provide. Now we're talking about needing to be saved. I don't just need some lessons. I don't just need some therapy. I don't just need some coaching. I don't just need a better set of friends. And many of those things might help you. But what I really, really need is, I need for God to save me. Now, we're talking about Christianity. That's the problem of our sin.

Some of you are thinking at this point, "Wow, Eric had a rough week at youth camp." It's a tough one. I know that what I'm saying is offensive. More importantly, Paul knows that what he's saying is offensive. And he's been doing this for like 20 years at this point. That's why he's finally writing it down for the Romans. And he's heard every objection in the book. "Are you saying that my memaw is totally depraved?" "Not my little Johnny! Little Johnny ain't depraved!" Which means little Johnny is the most depraved person you've ever met. "I'm not depraved." He's heard every objection in the book, but Paul has brought the receipts y'all. He's got the evidence, he's got the proofs. And best of all, he just has to open up to his Old Testament. And he brings Isaiah, and David, and most importantly, he brings God on to the stand to share the evidence of our depravity.

So y'all think about these in your own life. If you want proof that really there's a problem way down deep. First of all our mouths prove that we are under sin. 

Maybe the clearest proof that our sin problem goes way down deep is how we have twisted God's amazing gift of speech and words. We're God's only creatures who can speak. I mean, birds can chirp, you know? And animals make all kinds of cool sounds, but they can't speak, and communicate, and express like God does when he said, "let there be light," right? Only we get to do that too! And we should use our words like God uses his words. It's a superpower that we have. But we have so misused and twisted that great gift into an ugly thing.

So for instance, verse 13, "their throat is an open grave." Proverbs says that our mouths should be a fountain of life. Whoever gets close to us and hears our speech, we're giving life to them. We're expressing encouragement, and love, and we're building up, and we're praising God, and we're thanking God. Instead our mouths, when you open up wide enough, you see dead stuff. And death comes out of our mouths through harsh, sharp, mean, hateful, critical speech that wounds and kills. Throats are an open grave.

Verse 13, we use our tongues to deceive. You know, we're supposed to speak the truth like God does. I mean when everything goes wrong in the world and in the Bible, it's when the serpent comes into the garden and twisst the truth that God had spoken. And now we use our words like the serpent uses words to manipulate and to control, to shade the truth, to deceive, to mislead all for our advantage. Who do we think we are?

Verse 13, "The venom of asps (or serpents) is under their lips." If you want proof that there's depravity in you, think about your life up until this moment, how have you talked about people when they're not around? What's the conversation like at your cafeteria table? What if we pulled up all your text threads and got to see what you're chit-chatting with your friends about? What have you said to make people laugh and to make yourself look cool?

How do you talk to the people who you should love the best when you go to your home? And if you're a man, you're talking to the wife of your youth who gave you your children. How do you use your words? How do you use your words towards your children? They are a heritage from the Lord. Lord knows they need some strong talk sometimes. But do you use your words like God uses his words when he talks strong? Or is it just poisonous? Man, I heard the other day about some little kid writing this burn book where you just get to write down all these hateful things about people that you hate. That's some depravity at work.

That's how we use words, because guys something has broken down inside. Do y'all understand that? Am I making sense this morning? You don't have to like it. I know only about three of you like it. And that may be kind of weird. But do you understand that something is broken down inside? And this is how it's showing up.

Verse 14, "their mouth is full of curses and bitterness." I heard a preacher talking about this one time. He said, "I was working with some cabinet makers, and they were hanging these cabinets. And whenever the cabinets wouldn't fit, you can imagine what they were saying, Man, they were cursing, and cursing God, and using the most awful language." He said, "But you know something that was really funny, when the cabinets fit perfectly the first time, how many hymns do you think they sang? How many times do you think they said, "Thank you Lord. You're so good." And that's how we use our words. Cursing and complaint and bitterness flow out so easily. Praise and thankfulness and humility before God comes so difficult, doesn't it? So our mouths prove that something's gone wrong.

God made us to joyfully love and serve the people around us. But instead, it says, "their feet are swift to shed blood." That may sound a little intense to you. But what it means is how quick we are to hurt people, especially when they get in our way or get what we want, or when they keep us from doing what we want to do. And how quick we are to hurt them, how quickly we get mean and angry and spiteful. And then we act on it and it leaves wreckage. That's verse 16. "Their paths are ruin and misery." That's the world that sinners have made of God's world. That's what we've turned The Garden of Eden into. Their paths are ruin and misery. We deal out misery to others and we end up miserable ourselves. That's verse 17, "the way of peace they have not known." I mean, have you noticed that? People are just really miserable. Have you noticed that? I'm talking about people who on the surface have got it all, and they are absolutely miserable. They are always in drama, always angry at people, always salty, always bitter, always hateful, always complaining. They're miserable and they're making everybody else miserable. And why?! It's because something is broken down inside. We are under sin and we need to be saved.

So our mouths prove we're under sin. Our misery proves we're under sin. 

I didn't just need another "M." I really do think this is a good label for verse 18: "There is no fear of God before their eyes." Y'all, we depend on God for everything at every moment. We live in his world. We enjoy his stuff. Our lives are so fragile. We are in his hands every second of every day. That ought to produce a loving, reverential fear of the Lord. I don't mean living in abject terror, but we ought to respect him the way you respect that 1,000 ft drop when you're standing on the edge of the cliff. It ought to produce a healthy, loving reverential fear. That should be as natural as breathing to a human. And yet, there is no fear of God before our eyes.

We can go long, long, long stretches of time without ever even thinking about God, without ever taking him seriously, without ever giving thought to the fact that we're gonna have to stand before Him and give a personal point by point account of ourselves to Him. We can stomp around and act like we're little gods, like He doesn't exist. Who do we think we are? There is no fear of God before us. And grandpa may put the fear of God in you with that whooping behind the barn, but it lasts for about 45 seconds, and you go right back to being the hellion you were before. It's crazy. It's part of being under sin. There's no fear of God before our eyes. We think we can live as our own God and there will be no consequences.

And these are the proofs, ok? Our mouths, our misery, and our madness. They are evidences that I don't just sin sometimes. I'm under sin. I'm broken deep down no matter how good I look on the outside. This is what God sees. And I think it's really important for us because this is kind of a beautiful place. Have you noticed that our church building is beautiful? The setting that we're in that God made, it's beautiful. Y'all, it's filled with beautiful people. Y'all are a really good looking bunch of people. It's kind of intimidating to me, honestly. You look great. You look like a million bucks every week. Your families are beautiful. Your clothes are beautiful. Your lives look really beautiful. And that can be so deceptive to us. It can make us think that the point of church is just to come and to look beautiful. And coming to church, and singing the songs, and doing all this stuff, that's just a part of this beautiful life that we're showing to the world.

But at some point, we've got to run headlong into a very ugly message about the truth of who we are. As pretty as we are on the outside, God sees some ugliness on the inside. And we can't move forward with God until we face up to that. You understand what I'm saying? Welcome to Sharon Baptist Church. It's a really fun place to be. It's not like this every week, but it is really important. And I don't take any pleasure wallowing around in sin like your dog on a dead fish. That's not how I get my kicks. You know, I'm just like you. I like to have fun.

But y'all, we will never take the medicine of the gospel until we get a good, hard look at our problem under sin. It's like the old puritan said, "until sin is bitter, Christ will never be sweet." And I think Christ isn't very sweet to a lot of us, because sin has never gotten real bitter to us. So, there's the problem of our sin, the proofs of our sin. We'll close with this: 

I'm reminded of what Francis Schaeffer said in the 20th century. He said, "If I had an hour to share the gospel with someone on a train ride, I would spend the 1st 55 minutes trying to convince him of his sinfulness and his need. And I'd spend the last five minutes preaching Jesus to him." And you're like, "Well, good job, Eric. You're following that." But it's because this is essential work before we'll actually believe the gospel and it will become a power unto salvation in our lives. And so how can you know that you have received the Bible's message and teaching about our sin problem? It's right here in verses 19 and 20.. You can know you've received it because:

#1 - Your Mouth Has Stopped (v19).
"Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God." I was in court once. We don't have to talk about why I was in court. I was just in court, ok? And the lady who was going in front of me came before the judge to be dealt with on a speeding ticket. I can't believe people would do that. But anyway, the judge presents the case and calls her name. And the sweet sister would not stop talking. She would not stop explaining why she did what she did, why it was the right thing to do. It was the wise thing to do. It was the only loving thing to do. She had this elderly mom in the car, all this stuff. She would not stop talking. And the more she talked, the madder that judge got. And the more she talked, the worse that it got. And everybody in the courtroom was like, "Just shut your mouth. You're not helping. You're not helping you and you're probably not gonna help me because I'm next.

And the place Paul has been trying to take us to is that place where our mouths have just stopped before God, where we stop explaining why we really are righteous because we keep the rules, or because we go to church, or because we are so authentic in our self-expression. He wants us to stop that. Stop boasting in your righteousness. Stop comparing your sin to others. "Well, I mean, I may have some issues, but have you seen Clarence over there?" Stop doing that. Stop minimizing your sin. Stop rationalizing your sin. Stop excusing your sin. Stop blaming other people for why you sin. Stop protesting that it's unfair for you to be punished. Just stop it! Just shut your mouth before God and receive his verdict. And know that He is right and you are completely in his hands. So, you know, you've received the Bible's message on sin if your mouth has stopped.

You also know you've received it because:

#2 - Your Works Have Stopped (v20).
"For by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight since through the law comes knowledge of sin. What that means is, I can't fix this. You know, when we hear that we're sinners, we've broken the law, we've messed up, our instinct is to say, "Well, I can fix that. I promise I'll do better. I'll work my way out of this. I'll change my ways. I'll start coming to church. I'll do all this stuff." But what you need to understand at the end of Romans 3 is it doesn't matter if you become a missionary to Antarctica. It doesn't matter if you move in with Mother Teresa and spend the rest of your life feeding the poor lepers of India. It doesn't matter if you become a nun in a convent. It does not matter if you become a Bible translator among cannibals. It does not matter what big bold good thing you do. It won't fix the radical problem of sin.

You'll still be carrying your sinful heart into all those situations and you will be in the same condition before God. And it takes the law of God being applied to us thoroughly, deeply like Paul's been doing, like I've been trying my best to do myself, it takes the law of God to show us the truth about our condition way down deep so that not only will our mouths stop, but our works will stop. And I'll see my sin in its depth. And I'll come to a place where I will know if I am to be put right with God, somebody else is gonna have to do it. Because I sure can't.

You've heard me tell the story about the man who got to the gate of heaven and Peter's there, because he's always there in these stories. And he says, "OK, here's how this works. You tell me why you should get into heaven and I'll tell you how many points each thing that you did earns, and when you get to 100 then that's when the gates swing open and you can come in and enjoy eternity and everlasting life." And I was like, "Wow, I didn't really think that's how it worked, but ok." And he said, "Ok, well, first of all, I was a member in good standing at my Baptist church for 40 years." And Peter said, "That's great! One point!" I said, "Wow, I thought that would be worth a little more than that. Well, I was married to the same lady for 60 years. I was faithful to her and we had this sweet life. We served God together and Peter said, "That is so precious! Two points for you." And the guy's thinking, "I kind of just gave you the best that I've got, you know? This isn't going so well." And he's just sweating a little bit. And he says, "I mean, I took some mission trips." And Peter said, "half a point!" And it keeps going like this for a little while. And finally, the guy just says, "man, at this rate, I'm only gonna get into heaven by the grace of God!!" And Peter said, "that's what I've been waiting for," and the gates swing open and he comes in!

Y'all, that's not what's actually gonna happen in heaven. You have to get that message now, here, today, or you don't get to have those conversations with Peter at the gate. But that's where Paul is trying to get us. My works have stopped. My mouth has stopped. I know if I'm going to be put in a right relationship with God, he's gonna have to do it.

And I have to say one more. You know that you've gotten the Bible's message about your sin if:

#3 - Your Apathy Has Stopped. And I've been preaching from the Bible for 20 years. That's not forever. But it's a little while. I am an apathy expert, because I look out on it every single week. And I've been doing it for two decades. And our capacity to be bored with the good news about Jesus Christ for sinners like us, it still staggers me. Our utter apathy about the glory of God and what he's done for us in Christ to meet our need, it absolutely staggers me. And then I go home and think about me, and I realize I'm just as apathetic as everybody else. You just get to see me when I'm most lit every Sunday morning.

But you know that the truth about the gospel has landed on your heart when you stop being apathetic and you sit up and take notice. And you realize, "Wow, I really need help. I really do need God to do what only God can do to save me. I need a savior!" When that begins to happen in your heart, in your mind, in your life, that's when you know it's getting through. And if it's beginning to get through, it's not because of anything you're doing, because the receiver's busted. God has given you a new receiver. God has begun to do what you can't do. You can't seek after God, but God can seek after you. Isn't that good news? You don't understand God, but God understands you. And he knows what it takes not just to give you a little medicine because you've got a little bit of a sickness. He knows what it takes to raise you from spiritual death to life by the power of his holy spirit. And that starts by bringing you to a knowledge of your sin, a knowledge of your sinfulness, an awareness of your need, an awareness of your desperation for a savior, for a righteousness not your own.

And I have seen God do it and I'm praying that God will do it even today. People who have yawned, and checked their watches, and complained and moaned about having to sit through another sermon on the gospel, having to sit through another worship song about the beauty of Jesus Christ. I have seen God take those people and make them alive, because they see their need. They have a knowledge of their sin. And they reach out in desperation and say, "God, save me, save me!"

Or if he has really saved you, and you've just gotten really jaded to the gospel. You say, "God, thank you for saving me." You know that you're getting the gospel when your apathy has stopped. Has your apathy stopped? Or can you not wait for me to shut up so you can go about your super important life, playing a little more, making a little bit more money, doing anything but listening to how God wants to save you through the gift of his son.

Has your apathy stopped? If it has, here's what you can know. When your mouth was stopped before the judgment bar of God, God sent his son Jesus Christ who stood before the judgment bar of Pilate. And when Jesus could have protested, "I don't deserve to die. I'm not going to that cross. All I do is heal people, and tell the truth, and love the unlovable, and glorify God in thought, word, and deed every waking and sleeping second." Jesus could have said all those things. But you know what the Bible says Jesus did when he stood before Pilate? He opened not his mouth. You know why? Because he was going to take your punishment He was going to that cross. So all your sin could be laid on him. I don't just mean the outward stuff that you did. I mean this deep, deep depravity stuff. It could be laid on the spotless lamb of God, so that He could receive the righteous wrath of God, that propitiation that satisfies the demands of a holy God against you, so that He could make you righteous, so that he could not just bring you back to square one so you can try over again. If you're totally depraved and God brings you back to square one so that you can have another go at it, how's that gonna turn out? Exactly the same. So God said, "let's do better than that. I will clothe you in the righteousness of my son Jesus. And it will be an all-sufficient merit that endures for all eternity. And you can't mess it up. You can't lose it. You can't devalue it. It is perfect because it is the righteousness that Jesus gives you. That's what Jesus does for those who stand before God, mouths stopped, works stopped, apathy stopped, looking to Jesus.

Have you done that? I'm not asking if you've ever prayed a prayer at Vacation Bible School, or at church camp, or at a revival service, or at Sharon Baptist Church. I'm not asking about that. Have you come to a knowledge of your sin and your need for God and stopped your mouth, stopped your working, stopped your apathy, and said, "Jesus, save me!" If you haven't, today is the day. Today's the day. "Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." That's Romans also. And that's the really good news for people who have sat through a long presentation of some really bad news.

Jesus offers himself to you today. He offers himself to you who have never trusted in him. He offers himself to you who trusted him long ago, but for whatever reason because of this depravity thing, you just quit caring about him and taking him seriously. You need to come back to him. He offers himself, all of his mighty generous heart right now. Let's take it.

Sermon by Eric Smith
Senior Pastor, Sharon Baptist Church