WWUTT 122 No One Seeks for God (Romans 3:9-18)

When you read the Bible, or even when you listen to a program such as this and you hear somebody read the

Bible to you, do you understand what it says? Do you know why you understand it?

Because God made you able to understand it when we understand the text. You are listening to When We Understand the

Text, an online Bible ministry committed to teaching sound doctrine and exposing the faulty. Find videos and more at our website, www .wwutt

.com. Now here's our host, Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you, Becky. Romans chapter 3, verses 9 through 18.

If you want to open up your Bibles and join with me there. Paul begins here in this section. What then?

Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both

Jews and Greeks, are under sin. As it is written, none is righteous.

No, not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God.

All have turned aside, together they have become worthless. No one does good, not even one.

Their throat is an open grave. They use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips.

Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood, and their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.

There is no fear of God before their eyes. These verses, in addition to verses 19 and 20, is where we're going to be spending our study this week.

So let's go back to verse 9 here. Paul says, what then? Are we Jews any better off?

Because if you'll remember back to the section that started in chapter 3, he says, then what advantage has the

Jew, or what is the value of circumcision? Verse 2, much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God.

So at first, he gives an indication there at the end of chapter 2 that anyone can become a

Jew and anyone can become Israel by being circumcised from the world and united with Christ. So if that's the case, then what advantage has the

Jew? Well, much in every way. For one, they were entrusted with the oracles of God. The Old Testament was given to them.

So when we come to an understanding of a fulfillment of the scriptures, the Jews are the first to understand this.

They were the first to be presented with the gospel and to then take the gospel message to the world.

The Messiah himself came through the Jewish people. So much in every way, is there a benefit to being a

Jew? So then, as he's defended that case, then we get to verse 9, so then are Jews any better off?

No. No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both

Jews and Greeks, are under sin. From Romans 1, verse 18, all the way up through Romans 3, verse 20,

Paul has been presenting this case of how all men are under condemnation.

He started with the Gentiles, then he started talking about the Jews, and in case there is any confusion, he just really lays it out here in the verses that go from 10 to 18, charging that there is none righteous.

There's nobody. And no one receives any special treatment. The Jews don't get any special treatment just because they were called out as the people of God.

Gentiles also, they don't get any special treatment because the Jews did not receive and so the gospel was given to the

Gentiles. No one gets any favoritism. Nobody is born righteous.

All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. So we see here that this case, the culmination of this case that he is presenting, that all men are under condemnation, in case there is any confusion, he just lays it out point blank as it is written, and he starts quoting from different passages of the

Old Testament, particularly from the Psalms, as it is written, none is righteous, not one.

No one can proclaim their own righteousness. No one understands.

No one even gets it. No one seeks for God. So man, no one can even boast in their decision to become a

Christian because as the scriptures say to us very clearly, no one even seeks after God.

So if no one is seeking for God, then how is it that anyone comes to find God? It is because God drew them to himself.

It is because the Holy Spirit is the one that called us, and the Holy Spirit conditioned our hearts to be able to receive the gospel message, but before the

Holy Spirit intervenes, we don't even have a heart that can hear what the gospel is saying to us.

Consider this in 1 Corinthians. In fact, if you want to take a moment here, turn over to 1 Corinthians 2, just the next book over after Romans, 1

Corinthians 2, and I'm starting in verse 9. But as it is written, what no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what

God has prepared for those who love him. These things God has revealed to us through the spirit.

For the spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him.

So also, no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the spirit of God.

Like you can't even comprehend the gospel of Jesus Christ and this thing that God is accomplishing through Christ, making peace by the blood of his cross, as it says in Colossians 120.

No one can even grasp that concept if not for the spirit of God that conditions the human mind to understand it.

Verse 12, now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God that we might understand the things freely given us by God.

And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.

So you understand, how do we comprehend anything that is written in the Bible? Because the spirit of God has conditioned our hearts to understand it.

A person can read from Genesis 1 -1 to the last verse in Revelation 22 and not understand anything that they have read because the spirit of God had not conditioned their heart to understand it.

We only understand the things of God because of the spirit of God that is within us.

When a person hears the gospel preached for the first time, they are able to understand what that evangelist is saying because the spirit was working on their heart before he even started speaking to be able to comprehend and receive those words.

Still in 1 Corinthians 2, now verse 14, the natural person does not accept the things of the spirit of God for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one.

For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him, but we have the mind of Christ.

Now Paul is quoting Isaiah 40 .13 there, for who has understood the mind of the

Lord so as to instruct him. We can't understand these things of God. We can't read the

Bible and say, well God, here's what you mean by that. We understand the Bible because we have the mind of Christ, because the spirit has conditioned our heart and our mind to be able to understand spiritual things.

When we were dead in our sins and our trespasses, when we were slaves to the passions of the flesh as is talked about in Ephesians 2 verses 1 -3, and we also see this in Titus chapter 3 verse 3, we are enslaved to the passions of our flesh.

When we were that person, we could not understand the things of God. It was only by the spirit of God that our hearts and minds were conditioned to receive and understand his gospel.

No one, not even the Christian, can boast in their righteousness. It is only the righteousness of God that has been imparted to us through Jesus Christ, our

Lord. We'll get to that later on. Romans chapter 3 verses 23 -25, for there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom

God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith.

Do you understand these words that I am saying to you? You know why you understand them?

Because God made you able to understand them. Glory be to God. Thank you for this word, O Lord.

Thank you that we might put our hands upon it, our eyes to it, our ears to hear it. Help us to understand it, to be received in our minds and our hearts with joy and thanksgiving, changed and conformed into the image of Christ your

Son. And it is in his name that we pray, amen. Thank you for listening to When We Understand The Text.

Pastor Gabe is the author of the book, 40 of the Most Popular Bible Verses and What They Really Mean, available in paperback or for your

Kindle. He has also authored a Bible study through the book of 1 Corinthians. Both books can be found at our website at www .utt

.com. Join us again tomorrow as we grow together in the study of God's Word when we understand the text.