our condemnation
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someone has to charge a person with a crime. And the
charged that he gives here is I've previously done it. And
where I did it was in chapter 1, verse 18, "For the wrath of
God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and
unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in
unrighteousness" (NKJV). Notice in verse 9, he doesn't say
that all have sinned; he says all are "under" sin. That means
we are under the penalty of our sin that we have sinned is a
given. That we pay for it. So Paul's charge is that we are all
under the penalty for our sin. Well that moves him right into
the second phase of his legal presentation here, and that is the
indictment. Look at verse 10. “As it is written . . .” Now an
indictment has to be a written charge, a formal accusation
that a person has committed a criminal offense. He says, "As
it is written." Now he's probably quoting mainly from Psalm
14, from Psalm 53, and again from the Book of Isaiah. Now
ordinarily, you have a one count indictment, two and maybe
three counts. There are three occasions where the law
enforcement people can say you did this on three different
times, or you did three different things. Paul is so detailed in
his looking at humanity, standing before God knowing that we
need a Saviour, that we are guilty for our sin; Paul was so
thorough, he lists no less than 14 counts to the indictment.
We're going to see all 14 charges that Paul brings against all of
humanity which he has to prove that charges.
Charged number one: there is no one righteous, "no,
not one." Verse 10. Righteousness is to have a right
relationship with God. And he says, "God looks around the
universe and He doesn't find a single person who has a right
relationship with Him. He finds lots of moral people; He finds
lots of religious people; He finds lots of other kind of people;
but nobody who is righteous." So the first count to his
indictment is none of us possesses God's righteousness.
Charged number two: There is no one who
understands. Also in verse 10. Now he's not talking about
mental understanding here, he's talking about spiritual
understanding. It's not that we don't have the mental power
to understand what God says in His Word, most of it. We
don't have the spiritual discernment to understand what God
says in His Word. In fact Ephesians 4:18 speaks about
people "having their understanding darkened, being
alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that
is in them, because of the hardening of their heart" (NKJV).
There is just this veil that comes over people's faces that they
do not understand what God has to say to them. They don't
even understand they need a Saviour. And until that veil is
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removed, this count of this indictment is true for all of us.
Charged number three: There is no one who seeks
God. Verse11. Now Paul is quoting here from Psalm 53:2-3.
"God looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if
there are any who understand, who seek after God. They
have all fallen away; together they have become corrupt;
there is none who does good, not even one." Did you notice
the universal words there: all fallen away; No one who does
good; all have become corrupt. Naturally, we do not seek God.
In fact, the Bible tells us very clearly, unless the Spirit draws
us, we never come to Him.
Charged number four: "They have all gone out of the
way" (NKJV). Verse 12. People like you and me have gotten
off the path to God. We've created our own paths. We've
listened to the path of someone else, and so we're traveling
around on our own journey, our own way, going our own
destination, and not finding God in the process.
Wrath The
God
Of Romans 1:18
Charged number five: "they have together become
unprofitable" (NKJV). Verse12. So what he's saying here is
we have created in our own lives a certain un-profitability
toward God because of our own sin. God has designed us to be
useful to Him to bring praise to Him, bring glory to Him, to
help others come to Him. But our own sin keeps us from
doing that, so we're kind of like soured milk to God. We're
good, but unprofitable. Therefore, he says in this indictment,
we're not good at all, because sour milk is of no good to us.
Charged number six: "there is none who does good,
no, not one" (NKJV), verse12 again. What he's meaning
here is that we can't do anything spiritually good that buys us
any chips that gives us any stock with God. There is nothing
we can do spiritually that will take away the stain of our sin.
Psalm 14:1 "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.'”
They are corrupt; they do abominable deeds,
there is none who does good. None of us left to ourselves can
make it to Heaven on our own.
Charged number seven: "Their throat is an open
tomb" He says, "Their throat is like an open graveyard." They
have graveyard throats. We sweet-talk with our tongues.
August 2009
With our tongues we both curse people and flatter them at
the same time. What comes out of our mouth tends to be
totally inappropriate to God.
Charged number eight: "with their tongues they have
practiced deceit" (NKJV). verse13. In other words what
he's saying is, left to ourselves we will try to take advantage of
people with our tongues. We're deceitful in the way we use
our tongues because we want to use our tongues to our
advantage, not to the benefit of others.
Charged number nine: "the poison of [snakes or]
asps is under their lips" (NKJV). verse13. It's like we
have poisonous tongues. The things we do, the things we say
that destroy peoples' lives, we are equally guilty just as a cobra
would be. Psalm 140:3 "They make their tongues sharp as
serpents; and under their lips is the venom of asps."
Tenth count of the indictment: "whose mouth is full
of cursing and bitterness" (NKJV). verse14. Psalm
10:7 says that, "The mouths of the wicked are full of cursing
and deceit and oppression; under his tongue is trouble and
iniquity" (NKJV). Well, Paul says, "Look, left to ourselves, we
will curse; we will be bitter; we will say things that we wish we
hadn't said." And that happens to all of us. Sometimes we just
have a sharp word to a child or a sharp word to a friend, and
oh, we wish we could take that word back. But it's indicative
of the entire human race.
Charged number eleven. "Their feet are swift to shed
blood” (NKJV). Verse 15. Paul is likely quoting here from
Isaiah 59:7-8, "Their feet run to evil, and they are swift to
shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity;
desolation and destruction are in their highways. The way of
peace they do not know, and there is no justice in their paths;
they have made their roads crooked; no one who treads on
them knows peace." Did you notice the expression in there,
that their thoughts are the thoughts of wickedness? Now you
can say, "Hey, that's not true," unless, of course you pick up
the morning newspaper. All the kinds of senseless violent
crime we see every day is just an absolute depiction of
what is being said here. In this year alone, Abbotsford is
elevated as the murder capital of Canada. In the mind of the
average individual today is the potential to devise a plan to
kill a lot of people. So what he says in his indictment here is
absolutely true today, as it was in Paul's day.
Charged number 12: "destruction and misery are in
their ways" (NKJV). Verse 16. Now I think we have to
understand this in the active sense. These people that he's
talking about, and that's you and me, these people that he's
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talking about actively try to find a way to ruin the lives of
other people. I mean we go out of our way to make things
difficult for our neighbour, our parents; sometimes our
friends.
Charged number thirteen: "and the way of peace they
have not known" (NKJV). Verse 17. Now we have the
United Nations. One of the sole goals of the United Nations is
to perpetuate peace in the world. And yet, in over 3,600 years
of recorded history, we have had only a total of 292 years
without a war. And that goes on today. Wars are being fought
on almost multiple fronts today because the way of peace,
these people, these human beings, you and I have not known.
We just don't know how to get along with each other because
of the sin that is in our lives.
Last count of this indictment: "There is no fear of
God before their eyes" (NKJV). Verse 18. Now, this is the
basis for all the other counts of the indictment. The reason all
the 13 things he says are true is because number 14 is true.
There is no fear of God. Fear of God here means the
appreciation, the reverence for Who God is. We treat God as if
He didn't exist, and then we wonder why people act like
animals. Now what Paul is saying here is, "I have shown you
14 different occasions, 14 different ways in which it's true that
we are all under the penalty of sin." Now he's pretty thorough
on this. Did you notice verses 10-12; he says that man is
depraved in his character. Our characters are depraved,
sinful. And then in verses 13 and 14, our conversation, what
we say is sinful and depraved. And then 15-18, it's our conduct
that's depraved. And theologians have a word for that. The
word is we are depraved (that makes it an essential doctrine).
Every area of our life is touched by our own sin. verse 19
"Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those
who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped,
and all the world may become guilty before God" . The
opportunity is given for a defence, but every mouth is
stopped. That means it's plugged right up. We are mute
before God. There is no defence that we can offer in the
courtroom of God for our actions. It was the great French
writer/philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau who said "I will
stand before God and defend my actions." When he stands
before God, he won't have a thing to say. The mouth will be
closed. And that means the only thing left is the verdict. You
see the verdict in verse 20. "Therefore [as the result of this
courtroom procedure] by the deeds of the law no flesh will be
justified in His sight" (NKJV). The verdict here is guilty, and
it has to be guilty because by doing things we can never justify
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ourselves. And that's what the person who doesn't know the
Lord Jesus is trying to do. That's what the moral person has
tried to do. That's what our religious friends tried to do. The
things of the Law, and Paul comes to the conclusion, by no
deeds of any law can anyone ever be justified. Now what Paul
is saying here is pretty clear. If we needed educated, God
would've sent us a teacher. If we need to have our heads on
straight, God would've sent us a therapist. If we needed a
mansion, God would've sent us an engineer. If we needed a
companion, God would've sent us a caregiver. But what we
needed was forgiveness. And so God sent us a Saviour. We
needed a defence, and also God sent us an attorney. The first
3 chapters of Romans tell just how very desperate we are and
how needy we are for a Saviour. #
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August 2009
VOLUME 1 ISSUE 3
Life Lessons from the Book of Romans
Romans Overview
Chapters
1-3a
OUR
CONDEM
NATION
Chapters
3b-5
JUSTIFI
CATION
Chapter
8
GLORIFI
CATION
Chapters
9-16
APPLI
CATIONS
Chapters
6-7
SANCTIFI
CATION
ON this issue, we will discuss on “our condemnation”. The
Apostle Paul begins his message in Romans 1:2-6 explaining
the Gospel; and then he immediately goes to our need for the
Gospel that we are condemned. He's proving what is said in
chapter 1, verse 18 that the "wrath of God resides on all of us
who have suppressed the truth of God." The wrath of God
is His holy hatred to all that is evil. EXODUS 15:11; 1
SAMUEL 2:2; ISAIAH 6:3; 1 PETER 1:16.
In Romans 3:9-20, Paul is going to put all of us in the
courtroom and he's going to follow the traditional courtroom
procedures used in the Roman Empire. There will be a
charge; there will be some indictments; the counts that tell
you your charge is correct. Then there will be an opportunity
for defence. Finally, there will be a verdict. And since we're all
in the courtroom, this becomes very important for you and me
as well, Verse 9, he says, "What then? Are we better than
they? Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews
and Greeks, that they are all under sin" (NKJV). Now the
word charge is the key word there because, remember, the
very first thing that happens in the courtroom procedure is
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