WWUTT 124 Every Mouth Will Be Stopped (Romans 3:10-20)

The Bible says that the law of God will stop every mouth from proclaiming their own righteousness so that everyone will be held accountable before God.

That's a good way to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with someone else when we understand the text.

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Thank you, Becky. Romans chapter 3, verses 10 through 18, as we hope to finish off the rest of this section today, even getting through verse 20 if we can here.

So let's start in verse 10. 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. In their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.

There is no fear of God before their eyes. 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.

For by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

So at the start of the week, we talked about verse 10. Well, the start of the week, we talked about the

Super Bowl, but then on Tuesday, we were looking at verses 10 and 11. None is righteous, not even one.

No one understands and no one seeks for God. No one can stand before God and claim their own righteousness.

By comparison, we are but dust compared to the holiness and goodness and perfection of God.

We have no righteousness. God is righteousness, and it is because of the sacrifice of Christ that God has given us his righteousness.

He became sin who knew no sin so that we might become the righteousness of God, as it says in 2

Corinthians. No person apart from God is righteous. No one understands and no one seeks for God.

We went to 1 Corinthians 2 and looked at how the spirit of God transforms us to seek after and understand the things of God where previously we do not.

In verse 12, all have turned aside together. They have become worthless. Apart from God, we are even worth nothing.

As Jesus talks about in John 15, apart from me, you can do nothing. No one does good, not even one.

No one can do any good thing. It is God who makes us good, again, by giving us the righteousness of Christ.

So now we get through verses 13 to 18 today. Their throat is an open grave.

They use their tongues to deceive, which is Psalm 5, 9, what Paul is quoting there.

The venom of asps is under their lips. That's Psalm 140, verse 3. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness,

Psalm 10, 7. We see from the Proverbs, their feet are swift to shed blood and their paths are ruined in misery in the way of peace they have not known.

That's come from Proverbs 1, 16 and chapter 3, verses 15 through 17, Isaiah 59, 7.

And then the last Psalm that we have quoted is verse 18, there is no fear of God before their eyes. That's Psalm 36, 1, which is a great

Psalm, incidentally. The transgression speaks to the wicked deep in his heart. There is no fear of God before his eyes, for he flatters himself in his own eyes that his iniquity cannot be found out and hated.

The words of his mouth are trouble and deceit. He has ceased to act wisely and do good.

He plots trouble while on his bed. He sets himself in a way that is not good, and he does not reject evil.

And all of us without Christ, we are like this. That is exactly the way that we do things.

Psalm 5, which Paul quoted from, tells us, for you are not a God that delights in wickedness.

Evil may not dwell with you. The boastful shall not stand before your eyes. You hate all evildoers.

You destroy those who speak lies. The Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man. The Psalm goes on, but I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter into your house.

Why? Because David was righteous? No, he enters because of the abundance of God's steadfast love, not by his own merit, but because God is faithful.

I will bow down toward your holy temple in the fear of you. Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness, because of my enemies.

Make your way straight before me, for there is no truth in their mouth. Their inmost self is destruction.

Their throat is an open grave. They flatter with their tongues. Sound familiar? Make them bear their guilt,

O God. Let them fall by their own counsels. Because of the abundance of their transgressions, cast them out, for they have rebelled against you.

But let all who take refuge in you rejoice. Let them sing for joy forever, and spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may exalt in you.

For you bless the righteous, O Lord. You cover him with favor, as with a shield.

What beautiful language there that David uses to describe the faithfulness of God.

Though we have walked in this faithlessness, he has been faithful to us.

And again, it is by the power of God, the working of the Spirit, the work that Christ completed on the cross, that we now bear his righteousness.

Not because of any good thing that we have done, because no one is good and no one is righteous, but because of all of the good that God has done for us.

So let us praise him and rejoice in his name. Romans 3 .19 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.

So we can use the law of God to stop a person's mouth from proclaiming their own righteousness, because no one is righteous.

As it says in Romans 3 .10 -18, we're able to show a person that using

God's law, they can't proclaim their own righteousness and then direct them toward the righteousness of God.

If you've ever gone through Way of the Master or you've watched Ray Comfort on YouTube doing evangelism out on the street, then you kind of understand a little bit about how this works.

Proverbs 21 .2 says that in a person's own eyes, they think that they're right.

Everyone thinks that they're good in their own eyes. And then Ray will use the law of God to show them that they're not good.

His icebreaker is usually, do you think you're a good person? And then that person says, sure, I think I'm a good person.

So then he says, can I test you on that a little bit? Sure, let's do it. And then he starts going through the Ten Commandments.

You ever told a lie before? Have you ever stolen anything before? Here's an example from one of Ray Comfort's videos.

Ever lied in your life even once? I have. So what do you call someone who tells lies? A liar.

Have you ever stolen something, even if it's small? Yes. What do you call someone who steals things? A thief.

Have you ever used God's name in vain? I have. Okay, it's blasphemy when you do that. It's very serious to take

God's name and use it in the place of a cuss word. Now Jesus said if you look with lust, sexual desire at someone, you commit adultery in the heart.

Have you ever done that? Sure. So, Sybil, listen to this. By your own admission, I'm not judging you, you're a lying thief, a blasphemer, and an adulterer at heart.

So if God judges you by those Ten Commandments on the Day of Judgment, do you think you'd be innocent or guilty? Guilty, but if there is a

God, I don't really believe that it would specifically be determined by that. I think those are things that have been written by people long ago.

So if you're guilty on Judgment Day, according to that standard, would you go to heaven or hell?

Hell, I suppose. Does that concern you? No. Because you're using the word if, which means there's a possibility.

I mean, your own conscience affirms the truth of those commandments. You know it's wrong to lie and steal.

It's written on your heart. It's God's law, the work of the law written on your heart. So we're without excuse on the Day of Judgment.

You can tell as that young lady is answering those questions, she's realizing, I can't really proclaim my own goodness anymore, can

I? Her mouth has been stopped to be able to hear that a solution has been given.

Though all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and the wages of sin is death, the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our

Lord. And now her heart is prepared to be able to hear about the righteousness of Christ.

Romans 3 .24, By works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

So in this interaction, hopefully she's become knowledgeable of her sin and realizes that she needs to hear about one who has paid the price for her, and that is

Jesus Christ. Lord, we thank you for this lesson that we have been given in Romans chapter 3, and I pray that it humbles us in our spirits not to proclaim our own goodness, not ever to proclaim our own goodness.

Even though we know with our minds and our hearts that salvation only comes through Christ, let us not boast in ourselves, but rejoice in your great name and your righteousness, for you have made us worthy.

And we pray and ask these things in Jesus' name, Amen. You've been listening to When We Understand the

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