Romans – Day 25
30 Oct 2009 | Karl Martin | Posted in RomansNo Comments
What shall we conclude then? Are we any better? Not at all! We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin. As it is written:
“There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”
“Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.” “The poison of vipers is on their lips.”
“Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”
“Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know.”
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. [Romans 3:9-20]
Paul in verse 10-18 quotes a number of Old Testament passages. He writes a poem. The rabbis used a teaching method they called charaz. Charaz literally means a stringing of pearls. They would take verses from a variety of sources in the Bible and put them together and present an argument from it, like a topical sermon. Paul very often taught this way – he taught topically, taking verses from different places, bringing them together to make a point.
We have in these verses Paul’s topical sermon on sin.
- Point 1: he talks about humanities character (v. 10-12)
- Point 2: he talks about humanities conduct (v. 13-17)
- Point 3: he talks about the cause of sin. This is Paul’s final indictment and it’s hard!
1. No-one is right with God – not Mother Theresa, or Barak Obama….
2. Everybody’s doing their own thing [v.12] “And all have turned their own way”
From Psalm 5:9 – “Their throat are open graves, their tongue practice deceit” [v.13] Psalm 140:3 – ”The poison of vipers is on their lips.” [v.13] From Psalm 10:7- “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.” [v.14] And from Isaiah 59:7-9 – ”their feet are swift to shed blood, ruin and misery mark their way and the way of peace they do not know.” [v.15]
3. WHY? [v. 18] “Because there is no fear of God before their eyes.” (Psalm 36:1). The reason we do our own thing is because we don’t even let God enter our minds and our hearts.
See if you can pick up a copy of Hello’ or OK’ or Heat magazine, or even a copy of the SUN and pray for our nation: for those who make decisions, and for those thought leaders who determine our culture. God have mercy on us.
- Karl