God's Charge: All Mankind Under Sin

Okay, if you'll open your Bibles to Romans chapter 3. Last week we looked at Romans chapter 3 and verse 9 and we never got past there. And welcome back to Katie and Latham. How was your trip? Good. A lot of pictures, if anyone wants to see them. Oh, okay. Okay.

So Romans 3, chapter 9. Chapter 3, verse 9. We're going to try to get through three verses today, or four verses, 9, 10, 11, and 12. In verse 9, Paul says, What then? Are we better than they? No, and no way. For we have before proved, both Jews and Greeks, that they are all under sin. This is a test now. In verse 9, who are the we? Paul says, are we better than they? Okay. Are we believers better than they? And then if the we is believers, who's the they? unbelievers, or back up in the context, it's the Jews and the Gentiles, unbelieving Jews and unbelieving Gentiles.

Okay. In verse 10, as it is written, there is none righteous, no not one. There is none that understands, there is none that seeks after God. They are all gone out of the way. they are altogether become unprofitable there is none that that does good no not one so as we look at this in verse nine last week we ended with the entire unbelieving world under sin and uh...

When we talk about under sin, it's under its dominion, under its power, under its penalty, which is condemnation. We'll look at this in a little bit more detail, but I just want to mention one thing. When it says all mankind is under sin, its dominion, power, and penalty, what is What is sin? We're under sin. Sin, the word sin, harmatia in the Greek, means just to miss the mark.

It's missing the mark. And you can, I like to think of it as if you have a big, how many are shooters here? Whether bow and arrow, whatever. If you have a big target over here, The center of that target is a bullseye, and in the bullseye is God's righteousness. And you have mankind over here, and it says, all have missed the mark. No one has ever hit the mark of God's righteousness.

So, I think in this context here, in verse 9, when it says that the world is under sin, is specifically talking about man's sin nature. Now, there's no definite article there. Usually when it's talking about the sin nature, it has a definite article. When we get to chapter 5 and chapter 6, you'll see the word sin, singular, and you'll see the definite article almost every single time, talking about something specific, the sin nature. Now, the definite article doesn't appear here. But sometimes, in the Greek, something is so definite that the article is not even mentioned, not put in.

So I think that's the case here in Romans 3.9. Now, in these four verses, God makes just a broad assessment, a broad assessment of mankind. And so I look at it. And when you get down to verse 13 through 18, he goes down through all the specifics of the sin nature. And here he just makes a broad assessment of all of mankind. First he says in verse 9 that all mankind is under sin.

Then in verse 10, He says, there are none that are righteous. No, not one. There is none that seeks after God. And then in verse 12, not one does good. Now, I'm going to ask some questions when we get here. I mean, isn't there one righteous person in this world? I mean, with all the people in this world, isn't there one person that does some good?

So think about that. As we talk about now all mankind under sin, we just previously looked at the slide where we talk about its dominion or reign, its power and its penalty, which is condemnation. So we're going to look at these three aspects of mankind being under sin. its dominion or reign. So the question is this, when it says all mankind is under sin, who are the ones under sin? Unbelievers. Are we under sin? Are we under the sin nature? Okay. Positionally, we're not. Okay.

And so the next question is, why is mankind, unbelieving mankind, under sin? So when it's talking about mankind here, it's talking about unbelieving mankind. It's not talking about believers, it's talking about unbelieving Jews and unbelieving Gentiles.

So the question is, Why is mankind under sin? Now, we're going to be getting to chapter 5, but in chapter 5, in verse 12, it says, For by one man sin came into the world. And there is the definite article, For by one man the sin, the sin nature, came into the world, and death by sin. And it goes on to say, so death has passed upon all men, because all have sinned. So the reason why all mankind is under sin, under its dominion, under its power, under its penalty, is because everyone born into this world is born with the Adamic sin nature. So my little grandbaby, who is so beautiful and so wonderful, she's under sin. And she's going to have to come to know the Lord Jesus Christ one day in her life. But all mankind is under sin.

Question, are believers of the Church under sin? I want to hear a resounding, no, we're not under sin. And if we're not under sin, are we under something else? What does scripture say that we're under? Somebody want to turn to Romans chapter 6, verse 14 and 15, and read 14 and 15? Got it? For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?

May it never be. Okay, go back to verse 14. Read that again, Laban. For sin shall not be master over you. Okay, stop right there. For sin, and there's a definite article there. For thee sin nature shall not be master over you. Does someone have another translation for the word master over you? Dominion over you. Okay. Shall not have dominion or master over you. And I'm sorry, finish it Laban.

For you are not under law but under grace. Not under law but under grace. So we're under grace. Because we're under grace, we're not under sin, we're not under law. And the question that was asked back in verse 9, are we, believers of the church, better, or do we excel, or are we superior in and of ourselves? So is there something about us in this room that are better, or that we excel in some fashion, that God poured his favor on us and no one else.

And these poor unbelieving Jews and Gentiles, they have missed the boat. But there is something special about us. No, there's nothing special about us. We were in the same exact boat as they were. But we responded to God's grace. So the thing is, God's grace made the difference. We responded to His grace.

And it was unmerited. There was nothing in and of ourselves that God looked down on Hal Molloy and said, yes, I'm going to pour my favor on you because you are very special. He didn't do that. He's poured his grace on every single person. So there was nothing in and of ourselves that was deserving. We did not deserve God's grace. But it's available to every single person, and God's will as we find over in 1 Peter, his will is that not one person should perish. Not one.

And he's made his grace available. Okay, so talking about all mankind under sin, now let's take a look at its dominion or reign. So when we talk about under its dominion, would somebody read Chapter 5, verse 17. Okay? For if by the transgression of the one death reigns through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one Jesus Christ. Okay. So it's by one, and who's the one that's talking about in verse 17? Adam. For by one, Adam, Death reigned.

Death has dominion. Or you can say the sin nature reigns, because it was because of the sin nature that resulted in death. So death reigns. So as you look at an unbeliever, death is reigning. Death is reigning, the sin nature is reigning, has dominion over that person. And when we talk about death, what's the one word we should always think of when we say death? We should always say It means separation. So death means separation, spiritual separation from God. And they're living under this in nature, under death. It's 24-7.

It's forever unless they respond to God's grace and put their trust and faith on the provision that God has made through the Lord Jesus Christ. So, we need to note that by God's grace the believer is not under the dominion or the reign of the sin nature. And in verse 14 of chapter 6, which Laban just read, it says, For sin, that is the sin nature, shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the law, but you are under grace. So the believer is not under dominion. If there are questions as we go through this, ask them. Of the three aspects of mankind, unbelieving mankind, being under sin, it's under its dominion or reign, it's under its power, it's under its penalty. So we're going to take a look at it's under its power. Would somebody turn to chapter 5, verse 12, and read verse 12? And somebody turn to chapter 6, verse 20? I have 512. Okay.

Word pours by one man, sin enters into the world, and death busts in. And so death has to come on them for that And again, as I said, when we get to chapter 5 and chapter 6, we'll always find this definite article there, the sin, the sin nature. And notice that it's singular. It's not talking about sins, it's talking about sin. It's not about the sin, and it's making it specific, the sin nature. So every person is born with an endemic sin nature. It has inherent power. The sin nature has inherent power, and as a result, the unbeliever is a slave to it 24-7. It's inescapable.

No matter what the facade of someone may be, no matter how they act, and you know there are many unbelievers that appear an act, how should I say this, more Christian-like than believers? Boy, I'd look at some unbelievers and say, wow, Lord. Is the Lord living through me that that people are seeing the Lord Jesus Christ. That they're seeing the love and the grace and the mercy. Because sometimes you look at unbelievers and you kind of see those aspects in an unbeliever.

Okay. Somebody read verse 20 in chapter 6? When you were servants of sin, you were free from righteousness. Okay. Now, he's talking about believers. When you, believers, were servants, again, there's the definite article, when you were servants or slaves to the sin nature, you were free from what? Righteousness. From righteousness.

So if you were free from righteousness, then how was your life characterized? Slavery to sin, and what else in that verse? You're free from righteousness and therefore you're slave to unrighteousness. Bill, if you're still at chapter 6, could you read verse 22? Okay, talking about believers now. You were made free from the sin nature. Isn't it wonderful to know that you're free, that you're free from the sin nature, that you're free from the law.

Someone want to turn to Galatians 5.1 and read 5.1? Dave? It was for freedom that Christ set us free, therefore we keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. Okay, so Christ is the one that made us free. Don't go back into slavery. Don't go back onto slavery of the old sin nature. Don't go back to slavery under the law.

Alright, so the last item here is with respect to all mankind under sin, dominion or reign, its power. The last item is under its penalty, which is condemnation. and I want you to, somebody turn to Romans 8 verse 3 and read it and tell me what it says.

For what the law could not do, weak as it was to the flesh, God did, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. And as an offering for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh. Okay. Christ came and he condemned sin in the flesh. The word sin there again has a definite article. He condemned the sin nature in the flesh. What goes through your mind when you think of condemnation? When you think of someone being condemned, when you think of Timothy McVeigh who blew up that building down in Oklahoma.

Thank you. And he had his trial here in Denver. And if you went downtown Denver, I mean, they had that thing blocked off right with barriers, concrete barriers. You couldn't get near that courthouse. And he was condemned. What was the process of the condemnation? What's the process of condemnation in a trial today when someone is finally condemned?

There's the accusation, there's the evidence, and the trial, and the proof that yes, they are truly guilty, and then there's the verdict. The verdict comes out that they're guilty. And then there's the sentence, the judgment, or the penalty, whatever, that their life be taken. Now, in terms of Timothy McVeigh, from the time that he was sentenced, that is, proven guilty and the sentence was death. There was a time when he was still in prison. He was condemned, he was a condemned man, but he was still alive. Believers today, excuse me, unbelievers today are condemned people, but they're still alive.

The condemnation is death. It's spiritual death, eternal separation from God. So they're living under this condemnation because Christ condemned the sin nature in the flesh. It's condemned. And every unbeliever is in a vital union with his or her sin nature. You cannot separate the person from the nature. So if every unbeliever is in this vital union with his or her sin nature, talking about unbelievers, if the sin nature is condemned, what about the person? It's also condemned. Wherever the sin nature goes, the person goes.

So if the sin nature is condemned and Christ condemned it in the flesh, then they are condemned. And the condemnation, is eternal separation from God. So your heart goes out to friends and to neighbors and to relatives, those who you know who are not believers, and you know that they're in this union with their sin nature. and their sin nature is condemned, and they're going to spend eternity in hell.

And what a wonderful privilege the Lord gives us just to live our life such that as we walk by faith and we are abiding in Christ, that the life of Christ is being lived through us. And our prayer is that they may see Him. That they may see Him and ask us about the hope that's in us.

Okay. Now, anybody still in Chapter 8? And here's the good news about you and about me. Somebody want to read verse 1 in chapter 8? There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. OK. Look what it says. There is now. Therefore, no condemnation to those who are in Christ."

So, the unbeliever is in this living union with their sin nature. The believer, what God has done, and when we get to Romans 6, we'll see all this, but when we put our trust and faith with Christ, that union was broken. And a new union was formed. And the new union that was formed is that we became one with the very nature of Christ. So we came into a living union with the Lord Jesus Christ, His nature, and not the old nature. That was cut loose. We were separated from that. We are now in this wonderful living union with the Lord Jesus Christ. And that union can never, never, ever be broken.

It can be broken one way, Scripture says. You know how? Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. Alright, so here's blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, which would mean that there's a sin that we could commit that could Break that union? We'll get to it. But it says in Romans 6 that the only way that union could be broken is that Christ would die again and he can never ever die again. So therefore the union can never ever be broken. Isn't that wonderful to know? that we're in this living union with Christ and it can never be broken and there is no sin. There is no sin that you can commit, that I can commit, that would ever separate us from Christ. As we look at verses 10 through 18, I just made a little summary. in terms of what Paul is doing here. And Paul is like a skillful lawyer. It's like in a court of law.

And I think when we started the Book of Romans, we said this, that the Harvard Law School, which was the most prestigious law school in the country, years ago made every single student read the Book of Romans. and analyze the argument because it is the best argument, it is the best indictment ever penned in history. And so every student had to read it. Now you get locked up if you bring your Bible into college or whatever. Isn't it crazy?

But he has just proven in verse 9 that all are under sin. And the word proven means to previously charge. It's a law term. He's like a lawyer. And that all men alike are under sin. It's dominion, power, and penalty. The charge of conviction was based upon factual evidence. And he presented this evidence starting in verse 18 on through verse 8 in chapter 3.

So, in chapter 1, he goes and he says that every man knows that there is a God. That God has put the knowledge of himself in every single man. And man is without excuse. And he knows two things by just looking at the creation, two things about about God. He knows that his deity, that he is a God, and he knows his eternal power. He knows those two things about God. And then Paul goes on to say that man is without excuse. He knows, he knows in his heart, in his conscience, that there is a God.

And then he says, but when they knew God, when they experientially knew God, When they look at creation, and experientially, in their heart, they look at creation, and they know that there must be a God, experientially. So when they know that there's a God, what did they do? What was their response? They turned away. But specifically, remember what it says? They glorified Him not as God. They did not give Him the glory for the creation. They glorified Him not as God. And they became vain or empty in their imaginations. And then they went off worshiping four-footed beasts and creeping things and man.

So you think about all the religions of the world in past history. You look at all that, and you see man's response to the knowledge of God. He knew God, but he glorifies Him not as God. So Paul, in this charge here, he presents all of the factual information. So he says, Yeah, we have charged before that all are under sin.

And then the point is that this charge and conviction that Paul makes, that he further illustrates that charge by going back to the Word of God, and he goes back into the Word of God, into the Old Testament, into the book of Psalms, and to the book of Isaiah. the sin nature has never changed. It was the same the moment Adam fell till March 5th of 2006. It hasn't changed. It will never ever change. And so it was the same back then.

And God made this indictment against man back in the Old Testament. And so when Paul goes back Back to that. And now think about the Jew. And the question is, could the Jew attempt to refute God's assessment of mankind? If I block the answer, could he possibly do that?

The answer is no. Because remember when we looked at Romans 3.1, what advantage Is there any advantage to the Jew?

The answer was, what? Much in every way. For unto them were what? Committed the oracles of God. Right? So they always had the oracles of God. So they were the ones that had no excuse. God has already revealed that to them. Okay. So we're going to look at these four things now. The first thing we looked at is that all mankind is under sin.

The second one, God says there are none that are righteous, no not one. And literally it says there is not a righteous man. Now I don't want you to look at your notes because I want to ask some questions here. You can't look at your notes. So the question Who is this speaking of? When he says, there is not one, that is righteous. I mean, there is not one single righteous person, God is saying. Who is it speaking of? Is it speaking about everybody in this world?

Okay, some say yes. From the view of what is within us. Yes, everything. From the view of what is within us. Okay, so let me ask this question. What's within us? It's in nature. But what else is within us? Christ, the Holy Spirit. Is Christ unrighteous? What's the word for man there? Doesn't that have a bearing? There's not a righteous man?

As you look at the Greek, it says It's a participle in the Greek, and it says there is... I think that was my edition of man. Does anybody have a translation? Just an adjective. Adjective? Dikaios. Pardon me? Dikaios. Okay. A righteous one. There is not a righteous one. And so I've added that, Margaret. I probably should have said righteous person. a righteous one, just taking the one that is in that verse and saying it's... Now, remember the context. Last week we went through verse 9.

And we said, when it says, are we better than they? And we are believers, the church, better than they, Jews and Gentiles. And so this is talking about Jews and Gentiles, unbelieving Jews and Gentiles. It's not talking about the church. So when it says there's not a righteous one, It's not talking about those who have believed on Christ, those who have believed God. It's talking about those who are unbelieving Jews and Gentiles. The whole context.

So the problem is, you may go into a church and a pastor gets up and he starts preaching and he says, there's not one righteous one out there among you. So here's what scripture says. Not one. And what would you say? Are you righteous? Absolutely, you are righteous.

Okay, so as we look at scripture, we see that Noah was righteous. God declared Noah righteous in Genesis 18-23. Abraham was righteous. Remember back in Genesis 15-6 when it says that Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness. So we have Old Testament saints who God declares are righteous. Are we righteous in Christ?

Would somebody just read Romans 3.22 and 5.18? Somebody take 3.22 and somebody take 5.18. 3.22, Harry. Even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe, for there is no distinction. Okay. Even the righteousness of Jesus Christ to all of those who believe. So, all of those who believe have the very righteousness of the word Jesus Christ. Right? 518?

So then, through one transgression, there resulted condemnation to all men. Even so, through one act of righteousness, there resulted justification of life to all men." Okay. So, one act of righteousness. There was justification to all men. Justification is a similar word to righteousness. Justification means to be declared righteous. So, through one man, the Lord Jesus Christ, every believer is declared righteous. And when we look at the word righteous, it's oftentimes hard to define righteousness, but But it's a state of being right according to some standard.

And sometimes it's been defined as something that is straight, absolutely straight. And if you guys ever worked with sheet metal or machinery and you had to lay something out, You, in order to lay something out and do something with either sheet metal or metal, you have to have a flat plate. You have to have a plate to scribe lines to do things because you have to get it to with a thousandth of an inch. In order to do that, you have to have a table that is more accurate than a thousandth of an inch. down to ten thousandths of an inch.

And so when you think of righteousness, it's that state of being right level, absolutely right. But it's according to a standard. Now the standard could be God or Christ, his very character. So as we look at Psalms, as it's listed here in Psalm 11 and Psalm 145, it talks about God's absolute righteousness, His state of being right. A person under this standard is righteous. So if we're under this standard, we're righteous. That is, we have a right standing with God, so that when you say that a person is righteous, you can say that that person has a right standing with God. We are righteous, we have a right standing with God, because we're in Christ, and He's the absolute standard of righteousness.

Now, you could have a standard, One could be righteous, quote, unquote, but to a different standard. And that standard is man's standard, man's very character. Tell me about man's character. What's the problem with man's character? Up and down? Misses the mark? It's simple. It misses the mark. And this is unrighteousness. They desire to live under their own standard. And a person to this standard does not have a right standing with God. Yes, Carol? I always remember as a new Christian I was told that righteousness was a right relationship with God. And I love that because I knew I didn't have a good relationship with God prior to believing in Jesus. Yeah, okay. Yeah, great. Here's a look at what our Lord said.

He said, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners unto repentance. And so when Christ talked about the scribes and the Pharisees, He talked about them, about the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. Did they have righteousness? Some say no. Think about it. They had righteousness, but what kind of righteousness? Self-righteousness. It was according to man's standard. It wasn't God's absolute righteousness. So, he talked about the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, but he was really talking about their unrighteousness. In verse 11, we're going to zip on here.

It says that there's not one that seeks God. And the verse starts off to say there's not one understanding. And when it's talking about the one not understanding, it's not understanding who God is, His ways, His thoughts. And there's not one that acts on the knowledge that He has from God. And we looked at Romans, we talked about Romans chapter 1. then goes on to say there's not one that seeks after God and the word seek there means to seek out okay so there's not God saying there's not one unbeliever that seeks me out.

Think about your life. I can think about my life because I didn't become a believer till I was about 33 years old. In those 33 years did I ever seek out God? Never. Why would I want to seek out God? Because I wanted to do what I wanted to do. And if there was a God, then, wow, I'm in trouble. Because then I'm going to have to be responsible to Him. And I don't want to be responsible to any God because Because I want to live my life the way I want to live it. And so, I can attest to this personally. I mean, I think if you analyze your own life, you don't seek out God.

So, but here's the deal. It's Christ who seeks out you, who seeked out you, who seeked out me. And like he said, for the Son of Man has come to seek and save that which is lost. So we don't seek Him, He seeks us. Here's the interesting thing in terms of seeking.

The Jews In their frame of reference, the Jews always seek out a sign. They want a sign. Prove to me that you're God. I remember working with a senior scientist who was Jewish, and I talked to him about the Lord. at work, and we were walking out in the parking lot after work one day, and he says, Hal, you keep telling me that there is a God, and he says, tell you what, you ask your God to show me a sign, to do something right now, right now, and I'll believe him. I said, Bob, He's not going to give you a sign. He's already given us the Lord Jesus Christ. He's not going to give you a sign. He says, well, then I'll never believe.

So the Jews seek after a sign. The Gentiles seek after wisdom. They're going to find God by wisdom. And how about what do we seek as believers? So you have the Jews, the Gentiles, and the Church. And the Church seeks out those things which are above, because we're seated in the heavenlies. Our citizenship is not here, it's in the heavenlies, and we seek out those things which are above. So when you look at Colossians chapter 3 verse 1, it says, If ye then be risen with Christ, Seek those things which are above, where Christ is on the right hand of God.

As you zip through this, I'm talking about no one does good, and my question is, aren't there some people in this world that do some amount of good? Just a little bit? I mean, how about, take the whole United Nations, aren't they doing Or just a little bit of good somewhere? Or how about philanthropic organizations? Don't they do a little bit of good?

Well, the good here, it's not talking about deeds. But the word for good here has the idea of kindness, and it's the word that's translated kindness. And it's descriptive, it describes the character of our father, that in all ages to come that he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his goodness. kindness. This is the word kindness toward us. So that word good is the word kindness.

And you see that also in the fruit of the Spirit. For the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, and it goes on to kindness or gentleness. Same word. And it is the very character of the Lord Jesus Christ that is manifested through us in believers as we abide in Him.

In Colossians 3.12 it says, put on therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercy, kindness. So you see this word associated with the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Okay. And the point is this, that no one other than a believer can manifest this kindness. Questions? You want to go?

Let's close in a word of prayer. Father, again, we are just so thankful for this time together and the study of your word. We pray, Father, that through it, that each of us may grow in the wonderful grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. And it's in his name we pray. Amen.