Romans 3:9-26 He’s Making a List Checking It Twice or We’re All On the Naughty List

You're listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan. This week, Pastor Don Filsek is preaching from his series, Correcting Christmas Clichés. Let's listen in.

The Incarnation at Christmas and the Need to Recenter

There's something really great about Christmas Day, right? Like, there's something that's just kind of magical about it. It's unique, it's different. The entire celebration centered on incarnation and the birth of our Savior.

And for me, this series on Correcting Christmas Clichés has been helpful. Kind of re-centering my mind and thoughts on incarnation and less on the other festivities. The family, the giving of gifts, the traditions.

We've done a lot of that stuff. But for some reason, this series and the text that I've been able to go through over the last few weeks has really helped me. My Christmas has been a lot more focused and centered on the past than even the present or the future.

And I hope you were also able to shake just the mere expectations of a 24-hour day on the calendar of December 25th. And instead, this year, we're able to place your focus on that distant past when God became flesh and dwelt among us.

This morning, I have one more Christmas cliché that I chose to help bridge the gap between Christmas and the launching of a new year. This is one that I want us to tackle and kind of face. It's more like, you can call it a cliché.

You can call it just lyrics to a song. We're all familiar with the phrase, he's making a list and checking it twice. How many of you have heard that before? Okay, and then what comes after that? Go ahead and finish it.

He's going to find out who's naughty or nice, right? And that phrase is applied, of course, we know. And I don't want to be, again, petty about it. But it applies to jolly old Saint Nick, right? But I want to be sure that we correct a fundamental religious misconception that could dovetail with this idea.

A naughty and nice list. Let's think of it this way. How many of you had a lump of coal in your stocking yesterday? Anybody? Not really, okay. How many of you received a present yesterday?

At least one.

Okay, we received presents. So now, let me ask you the more fundamental question. How many of you got more than you deserved yesterday? You didn't earn it. You didn't deserve that. I think we all know where this is going, right?

If Santa, or more to our point this morning, if God himself made a list of naughty and nice, I think we all know that we'd be in trouble. Would we be in trouble if God made a list of naughty and nice?

I think we know that we would be in trouble. When it comes to diagnosing our problem, I think many of us need a reminder from Scripture about our true condition. And I'm going to take us to a passage this morning that we could camp in for days.

What we're going to do is we are going to take some very deep waters and we're going to skip across the crest of some of the waves. But let me just encourage you that as we talk about this passage, as we read it this morning, and as you acknowledge the depth of the things that I'm going to be reading to you, in this next 35 or 45 minutes of time that I'm going to be preaching on it, I want to just encourage you to go back to this passage.

This is a passage that I'd encourage you to check out again in your own time in God's Word. And to dig and mine deeper, you're going to find that there's just a lot, a lot, a lot of depth to this text this morning.

We're going to be basically doing a survey of a text that I preached back in 2019 in Romans. But I'm not taking us there just merely because I want to recycle a sermon. That's really not the point. I can think of, and I did, I restudied it this week.

I reread a bunch about it and I formed even some new thoughts because it's such a deep passage. But I can think of no better text when it comes to both diagnosing our problem and prescribing the solution.

It's going to be super discouraging at the front end and immensely encouraged in the second half. If God is making a list of the naughty and nice, according to our behavior, we're all on the naughty list.

But let's open our Bibles or our devices to Romans chapter 3, verses 9 through 26. Romans 3, 9 through 26. And as you turn there, let me remind you that the good news of the gospel is set against the backdrop of the depth of our rebellion against a holy God.

Just as Jesse mentioned in his testimony, he mentioned this very passage that I'm going to be reading. And this message will be dark right up to the point where it's not. It's going to be really, really dark right up to the point when the light shines in.

So see if you can hear it as I read it. Romans 3, verses 9 through 26. Recast God's holy and precious and valuable and rightly diagnosing word. What then? Are we Jews any better off? This is the Apostle Paul speaking.

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. 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 the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God has been revealed.

Has been manifest. Apart from the law. Although the law and the prophets bear witness to it. The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ. For all who believe. 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.

This was to show God's righteousness. Because in his defined forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time. So that he might be just. And the justifier.

Of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Let's pray.

Father I thank you for a word that corrects fuzzy notions in our mind. Of our own goodness. That gets right down to the heart of what we are. What does it mean to be a fallen human and a fallen planet.

And it means that we don't have the right understanding. We do not have the right will. We do not have the right desire. We do not have the right trajectory aside from you. And so Father I pray that you would open our eyes.

To setting our feet in 2022. This is right on the edge of launching out into another year. That this would be a year of your gospel. A year of power that comes through the knowledge. That we are not all that but you are.

That you are savior.

You are lord. You are master. You are the one who has loved us so deeply. And that from that place of strength. From a gospel preached this morning. This glorious gospel that means that we can be reconciled to you.

And many of us have been. We have strength and we have power in Christ. Because of your movement to save us. Not because we figured it out on our own. So Father I pray that you would move that into our hearts.

Push it down deep. So that it's like an outflowing of our lives in this next year. That this gospel would be the center of what we do. The center of who we are. I ask this in Jesus name.

Amen.

Go ahead and be seated.

And like I say to you every Sunday. Make yourself comfortable. If at any time you need to get up and get more. There's some brownies back there. There's no donuts this morning. But there are brownies and some different things.

And there's coffee. And then for those of you that maybe this is your first time here. The restrooms are out. The double doors down the hallway on the left hand side. Take advantage of those. And then keep your Bibles open to our passage for this morning.

Romans 3, 9 through 26. So that you can see that the things that I'm pulling from this text.

The truth.

I'm trying to make it clear to us. And at the same time I want to point out. Like I said in the introduction. There's a lot of deep theology in this passage. We're going to be like a rock skipping across very deep waters.

And as I encouraged you.

Maybe this is just a taste tester.

For a banquet that you'll have throughout the week. And so maybe as you're getting ready to launch out into 2022. I'd encourage you to make some focus a little bit on this passage. And think about the great depths of the gospel.

Maybe this week. But here are the points I want to highlight from this text. Again when I think about skipping across. Here's the landing points as we go. The first is we are all on the naughty list. That's step one.

That's the first observation. The second is those on the naughty list deserve his wrath. The third is the law is no help. The fourth is Jesus came to take the wrath of God on himself. Amen. Anybody happy about that one?

The fifth one is we must have faith in Jesus Christ to receive the righteousness of God. And then the sixth is simply that this should be the foundation of our strength. As we launch out. Finish one year and launch out into another.

So let's look together at the beginning here. We're going to take a lot of verses in this first point. We're all on the naughty list. Verses 9 through 18 complete a long argument that began all the way from the apostle Paul writing the book of Romans.

He started off way back in chapter 1 verse 18.

It says this.

And then he's been teasing this out and explaining that this applies to all of us. Verse 18 of chapter 1 says this. For the wrath of God. Got anybody's attention? The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.

Who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. Let me say that again. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. Who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

That's the fundamental starting point of the book of Romans. We're in trouble. Paul then has worked for a couple of chapters when we get to our text in chapter 3. He's been working through those chapters that we're not looking at this morning.

To gather all of us under those headings of a godly and unrighteous. And in this section that we're looking at this morning, this is a crescendo. We're looking at the culmination of a long line of argumentation.

And he is indicting even religious people who think of themselves as law followers. He's indicting even those who would say, certainly I'm on the nice list. Certainly I'm on the nice list. I'm not on the naughty list.

And he uses the Old Testament law to indict those who pride themselves on being on the nice list. In essence, Paul is saying, you think you're on the nice list because you follow the law? Well, let's quote the law.

Let's see what the law has to say about you. And then all of these passages, all these things in the next several verses are quotes from the Old Testament. They're all quotes from that Old Testament law that reveal what is true of humanity in our fallen state.

In our rebellion against God. What is true of us from birth. And he starts off and he just levels accusation against accusation. And I think if we are taking honest assessment as we look through this list, we will find ourselves somewhere in this list of indictments.

We all lack righteousness, he says in verse 10. We are broken in our understanding, verse 11a, the first part of 11. The second half of 11, we are broken in our will. You see, the three fundamental things that we need, that none of us have spiritually, are revealed here in just verses 10 and 11 alone.

We need righteousness. We don't have it. We need understanding. We don't have it. We need a will to try even to find God. We don't have it. None of us even seeks for Him. Now we may struggle with these at various levels, but the one that has always required additional thought for me and maybe for you as well, is the idea and the notion that nobody seeks after God.

Anybody ever struggle with that? Anybody just kind of have a generalized idea that most people are looking for God? That they're out there searching for Him? I think it's a pretty natural thought for us.

I personally, when I first encountered this passage, and I have to ask it every time I read it, come on Paul, isn't that what Buddhism or Islam and various religions and cults are really all about? Isn't it all about seeking?

Aren't people out there in the world really looking for God? Don't humans seek for God? Even if they don't find Him, aren't they all looking for Him? But I have come to realize that what is revealed here in Romans 3 verse 11 is accurate to me.

It's accurate to my personal experience. All spiritual seeking through human religion is most fundamentally a quest for self-fulfillment. Hear me out. It's not about finding God, but about finding personal peace.

We are not desperately seeking. Humanity in general is not desperately seeking someone to submit their lives to. Is that what you hear the world saying out there? Man, if I could just find a God who would constrict me and tell me how to live my life.

Is that what you hear people say? Do they really want God? Do they want somebody else in charge or do they want somebody to serve their interests, to make them comfortable, to tell them that they're okay?

In this sense, humanity is desperately seeking someone to solve our problems and make our lives easier. We'd be fine if it wasn't God. Just anyone to ease the suffering. In this sense, nobody seeks after God.

They seek after whatever will make them happiest. Further, we are all on the wrong pathway according to verse 12. We do not do any God-pleasing good. The word good in verse 12 is a fairly unique Greek word for good.

There's another word, agathos, that is used frequently in the New Testament for good. It is a pretty generic word. If Paul wanted to use that, he could have here. Then we would struggle with it mightily.

No one does anything that's even nice. Agathos would cover feeding your kids. Does nobody do that? Buying presents for others. Does nobody do anything kind or good? No, that's not what he's saying. This is a very unique word.

It's christotes in Greek. It doesn't mean that nobody outside of Christians are civil or kind. It means nobody does God-pleasing kindness. A specific brand of kindness. A specific brand of good. Nobody pleases God.

We are people who do no good for God aside from a work of Him in our lives. We are worthless in our sin according to verse 12. Anybody want to say an ouch to that? Paul, did you just call us all worthless?

Yes, he did.

By the revelation of the Holy Spirit, he's saying these things. We use our words for evil according to verse 13. All of us have words we would like to take back. Am I right?

Raise your hand.

Raise your hand right now if you have words that you would love to be able to go back in time and just snatch those out of the air, not let people hear them. I think that's all of us. We curse, we complain, we grumble, verse 14.

We rush toward violence, verse 15. We leave a wake of relational brokenness behind us. Our human path is written in our history books. Anybody like history? I don't know. Some of you enjoy reading history.

Some of you don't. But what we're looking at when we're looking at history is we're looking at the wake of human impact, the things that have been done in the past. How many wars? When you open up an honest assessment of human history, how many wars?

How many genocides? How many atrocities are found in the books of human history? Our wake is wide and full of ruin and misery, down through the ages, covering this planet. Anybody encouraged yet? Anybody going, wait, this is the day after Christmas, Don.

Hold on.

What's going on?

But we're getting there. The way of peace really sounds refreshing, right?

You see it in the text?

The way of peace, but we don't even know how to go down that road, verse 17. We lack respect and fear of the Almighty. Ironically, I want to point out that fear of God is a sign that you know him. Fear of God is a sign that you know him.

But the world makes a mockery of the fear of God, right? Why in the world would you be afraid of him? In my daughter's English class, they were reading the Crucible, and so the teacher had the students watch a YouTube clip with the audio of the famous sermon by the Puritan Jonathan Edwards entitled, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.

An amazing sermon. A stunning sermon. Of course, the YouTube clip had somebody reading it in a very sinister and angry tone, not a pleading and loving tone. And it was a mockery. In this local English class, the purpose of listening to the sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, which is a pleading from the Puritan Jonathan Edwards, indicting himself in the process, saying, all of us must come on our face before the Almighty.

He is holy and we are sinners. A glorious and beautiful sermon that was made a mockery, a mockery against those who would fear like that. The world out there does not understand the fear of God. They do not fear him.

They find it laughable that we would base our lives on a coming final judgment. Have you encountered it? Have you seen it? The world finds it laughable that we would spend the day after Christmas together gathered.

Well, this first one's a tough one. We're all on the naughty list. But the second thing is even more damaging. All of those on the naughty list deserve his wrath. From back in verse 18 of chapter 1, we see that God's wrath is being poured out on the ungodly and the unrighteous.

All are under the law of God according to verse 19. And when we understand our human condition apart from God, we are left with no defense. Like we're in the dock, like we're on the witness stand, and we are the ones under condemnation.

And in the witness stand, our mouths should be silenced by the case that has been made clearly against us. Like a witness in the stand who cannot mount a single defense. The only reasonable response would be to say, guilty as charged, and then put your hand over your mouth to say no more.

The case against us, according to scripture, is watertight. It's a watertight case. The whole world is made accountable to God through the law. What does the law do?

It shows us.

And that's the third thing. The law is no help. It's no help. What are we to do with the knowledge that we are unrighteous, we are ungodly, and the wrath of God is poured out on people who are ungodly and unrighteous.

So the religious person wants to obey more,.

To give more,.

To self-justify more, to attempt to clean up the outside, even attempt to clean up the inside that we can't clean up. A glance at verse 20. The only thing the law is good for is revealing our sin problem.

It's a great diagnostic tool to bring us to the end of our defenses, but the law does not provide any remedy whatsoever. All it does is diagnose the situation and say, look, case against you. You don't keep the law.

Imagine asking for a copy of your medical chart so you can eat it and get better. Of course, it's silly, right?

Obviously, a bit of a stretch.

But the diagnosis is not the solution. Just like you don't rub your face on the mirror in the morning in order to look better. How many of you know that when you get up in the morning, you look in the mirror,.

It's just showing you the truth? It's showing you what is true of you.

Now, it's up to you whether you're going to apply some makeup or whether you're going to shave or whatever you need to do in the morning to get things right. The mirror tells you that you're a mess, but it doesn't do anything to help clean up the mess.

And in that sense, the law is just like a mirror, a really faithful and true and clean, clear mirror that shows you what's true of you. It's a question of whether you're going to believe that, whether you're going to accept that.

And then are you going to say, well, I need some help. I need some help to fix this mess. And it's not going to be the law. So we're left at the end of verse 22, I mean rather the end of verse 20, with a dire situation.

We are all on the naughty list, he says. The wrath of God is being poured out on the naughty list, and we have no way to remove our name from the naughty list. But now in verse 21, but now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law.

But now, and that's a really, really, really big but. And when it comes to Scripture and the Bible, I really like big buts. And I cannot lie. Every time a pastor says that, I always think it, is that just really juvenile of me?

Have any of you ever heard a pastor say, there's a really big but in this text? Oh gosh, I'm so juvenile. And then I'm up here, so I figured I might as well just lean into it a bit. And I meant, by the way, single T, but not two T's, okay, just to clarify.

But biblically, spiritually, I love the big buts of the Bible. They're amazing.

And this is one of them.

This is so crazy significant. It is astonishing what is being said here. All of this indictment, all of this evil that we have committed against a holy God, and now, but now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law.

Although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe, for there is no distinction. But now, this should be the turn of our lives.

If you haven't had a turn, maybe today is the day of that turning. If this but in Scripture has not been applied to your life, then you're still on the same trajectory you always were. If there's not been a change of an attempt to obtain your own righteousness by works of the law and by obedience, then you're not on the right path yet.

But there's hope because you're breathing and you're here and you're able to hear and take in this message. I've been praying as I've been preparing for this message that maybe some here don't really grasp this yet.

And if that's the case, that today might be a day of reckoning with this. There's a shift and a change that's required in your life. It is not enough to be born once and to live for God. You must be born again.

You must have a change. You must have a conversion. All of us. It was said earlier that it's not enough to have faith. It's not enough to have parents who have faith. Not to be born into the church. But you must be changed and transformed by a righteousness from God.

This is the reason to end the Christmas season with a correction of any notions of naughty and niceless. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law. The righteousness of God.

His holiness. His righteousness. Given to us. Not by our work but rather by our trust in Jesus according to verse 22. You can see it there. The universally available narrow door of faith. Universally available.

Available to all but a very narrow door of faith in Jesus is the way opened to the righteousness of God. All must walk through that door who is Christ in order to be saved. We're talking about what kind of righteousness?

An imputed righteousness. A given righteousness. Accredited righteousness. Given purely as a gift according to verse 24. Given granted freely. He did this by taking the wrath of God on himself in verse 25.

The word propitiation is a big word. That means atoning for sins by taking the punishment deserved. What was he doing there on the cross? He was being the substitute for any who by faith in him would receive him.

God doesn't ever overlook sins. They are all punished. All of them. Every single one. So there are only two types of people. Those who will bear the punishment of the wrath of God for their own ungodliness and unrighteousness.

And there are those who have accepted the sacrifice of Jesus Christ who has absorbed that wrath on himself on the cross. And that leads to our fifth observation. We must have faith in Jesus Christ to receive the righteousness of God.

According to verses 22, 23, 24, we are all sinners. We all miss the mark of godliness and righteousness which was well established earlier in the text. But we can be justified which means, glorious word, justified.

Declared righteous or even acquitted of all charges. Really in a legal sense, thinking about it that way. Acquitted of all charges by grace as a gift. And it comes to us through a redemption payment made by Christ Jesus.

So how do we get it then? Is it just an automatic EFT transfer? Does it just go automatically into our account? No, look back at verse 22 to see what's required to obtain that deposit. The righteousness of God is available through faith in Jesus Christ.

For all who believe, belief in his son, belief that he came 2 ,000 years ago. Not just to remain a child but to live a sinless life. A life that was acceptable to the father because it was pure and spotless and without blemish.

He came to sacrifice himself, not for his own sins. How many of you know that we're going to die and we're going to die justly? Our death will be because we have sinned. He didn't need to die.

He didn't need to do that.

He chose to do that for us. So how do we get it? It is by faith, by belief. It comes to all who believe. It has been granted for you, if it has been granted for you. Sitting here, I'm talking to you. If it has been granted to you to believe in the past.

And you have accepted Christ as your savior and you're walking with him. Then I encourage you, a fundamental application is just simply this.

Rejoice.

Rejoice with gladness, with exuberance, with enthusiasm. If today you are feeling a nudge to place your hope and faith in Jesus here this morning. Don't let that conviction go unanswered. If you recognize that you have been doing the same thing your whole life and there hasn't been a new birth.

There hasn't been a transformation. There hasn't been a time where you've said, Jesus, I need you to fix this problem. I'm done trying to apply the law. I'm done trying to do works of righteousness. I'm done trying to rub my face on the mirror to fix the problem.

I need help. I can't fix this mess on my own. Then let me encourage you to come and talk to me. I would love to talk with you about Jesus Christ and the righteousness of God available to all who believe.

You could go and talk to Jesse. You could go and talk to Mark. That might be a really good introduction. Go up and talk with them and say, hey, I heard your testimony. I heard how you came to faith in Christ.

Could you talk to me about that? How can I be made right in a right relationship with God today? Well, the truth is we all fall short and we all know that. Jesus paid the price for us though. So all who believe can receive the righteousness of God and be acquitted by God of all charges.

And that leads to my final observation. The sixth thing from this text is that this should be the foundation of our strength. And I'm calling all of us to take strength and encouragement in this passage in this new year.

What are we, church? What are we doing?

Are we coming in?

Do we take in a show? Is it just kind of a Sunday morning gig and then go out and do our own thing and then come back again and then go out and do our own thing? I would suggest to you that what a church is, is a colony of heaven here in the midst of enemy territory.

Eugene Peterson, one of my favorite authors, said it that way and I absolutely love that title. Like a colony of heaven in the midst of the darkness.

That's what we are, church. We have light. We have hope.

We have redemption on tap. God's declared forgiveness and his righteousness on tap. Jesus took on himself the wrath that we deserved. And I can think of no better message to take out into the new year than this glorious, beautiful, amazing good news.

And from time to time I like to remind us that a thoroughly appropriate application is at times not a list of things to do this week. Sometimes the right application is to rest.

To rest in the truth.

This is my call to us together, church. If you belong to Jesus Christ and you are in him in faith, you are trusting in him for your salvation. This morning let me encourage you to come to rest in the work completed for you.

Come to praise.

Come to awe. Come to delight that overflows from a resting in it being done for you. Come to a life shifted from darkness to light. Come to hope and purpose and peace and joy this morning. Let me encourage you to go to the tables of communion this morning as David's going to come back up here and play a song.

And we get a chance to sing and lean into that. Let me encourage you as the blood-bought people of God to go to those tables if you belong to him. Let's recognize that we've been carried to the table by the love and grace of our Lord and Savior.

Who rescued us when we were alone and helpless, wallowing in our own filth and unable to remedy any of our situation. If you've not yet asked Jesus Christ to forgive you of your sins and to grant you his righteousness, then let me encourage you to skip communion but take in this song this morning.

And after the final song this morning, please feel free to come and talk with me or come and talk with one of the elders, the two elder candidates. You could talk to David up here who's leading worship.

But we would love to pray with you and explain how you can receive the good news through faith in Jesus Christ by believing in him this morning. Church, take encouragement. We are much more broken than we think we are.

But we are much more loved than we can ever imagine. So go out into this joy and gladness with this new year. Close out this year. I know that there's been a lot in this year that you might need to close out.

You might need to close out a few things. In terms of your relationship with God. And have this be a fresh new start for you. But go out with gladness. And may this good news be our power and our strength as we face whatever comes at us in 2022.

Let's pray.

Father, I thank you so much for this word that correctly, rightly, accurately, we take by faith that it diagnoses our situation. It highlights and shines a spotlight on our own sin, our own corruption, our own brokenness.

But it doesn't leave us there. I thank you for a text that so brightly shines in the righteousness that is available through your son, through faith and belief in him. That we can be declared righteous and acquitted of the rightful judgment that we deserve.

The sentence was carried out on Christ so that we can receive his righteousness. It's just a mind-bending, mind-boggling transfer that's occurred into our accounts for those who belong to you. And I pray that that would result in rejoicing and strength and power to go out.

And to minister to the needs of others around us from that place of strength. No longer striving. No longer working to try to make ourselves look better than we are. But from a place of stable hope in you to be able to then go out and to truly love others.