Romans Chapter 3:10-20

God's intent is not for you to sit in front of Him and realize how messed up you are and stop there. But friend, that is part of the process. Because once you realize, you know what?

I am messed up. Then you realize that you need a Savior. That it's not actually that you just want Jesus. The fact is, you need Jesus. You don't just want a Savior.

You need a Savior, friend. Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David McGee. David is the senior pastor of the bridge in Kernersville, North Carolina. Even the best person stands condemned under the law. Find out more about the hope we have in Jesus today as Pastor David continues in the book of Romans chapter 3. But before we get into today's teaching, from beginning to end, the Bible shows the special nature of God's relationship with the nation of Israel.

But what does that have to do with you today? Romans chapter 11 tells us that God's covenant relationship with Israel has huge implications for you. To help you understand more, Pastor David wants to send you his teaching video recorded in the Holy Land called Israel, the Bible, and You. This powerful resource will encourage and strengthen you as you learn how connected you are with God's chosen people. Israel, the Bible, and You is our gift to thank you for your donation to help more people on this station and beyond cross the bridge from death to life. So visit crossthebridge.com to request your copy.

Again, that's crossthebridge.com. Now here's David McGee with part 2 of his teaching, God is Seeking You. Turn with me to Romans chapter 3. We've talked about the fact that this has been a life-changing book.

It's altered the course of not only church history but human history through Martin Luther and the fires of the Reformation. And same Holy Spirit, same Word of God is here today to change our lives. So Romans chapter 3, we'll pick it up with verse 10.

That's where we left it off last week. But pick it up with verse 10. It says, As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. Verse 11, there is none who understands, there is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside. They have together become unprofitable.

There is none who does good, no, not one. Verse 13, Their throat is an open tomb. With their tongues they have practiced deceit.

The poison of asp is under their lips. By this point you're feeling very affirmed and warm and fuzzy, aren't you? Guys, this is kind of the bad news, if you will. We're going to get to the good news.

But this is the bad news and we have to recognize this. Now Paul is quoting here from different places in the Hebrew Scriptures. Here it's from Psalm chapter 10, verse 7 says, His mouth is full of cursing, deceit, and oppression, and under his tongue is trouble and iniquity. Another place he's going to quote from is Psalm chapter 5, verse 9 says, But there is no faithfulness in their mouth. Their inward part is destruction. Their throat is an open tomb and they flatter with their tongue. And then Psalm chapter 140, verse 3 says, As they sharpen their tongues like a serpent, the poison of asp is under their lips.

So this is kind of tearing us down so we can be built up. But we need to understand, and certainly you've probably come to the place in your life where you realize how damaging your tongue can be, the things that you say, how damaging words can be. Maybe somebody suffered under the woundings of somebody saying something they shouldn't have said, or maybe somebody even lied about you, maybe somebody messed up your reputation just by opening their mouth. Maybe you hadn't done anything, but it's interesting.

A lot of times it's not an action that can mess us up. It's simply an accusation that can derail our Christianity sometimes. So we're looking at this and going, wow. Let's see if it gets better in verse 14, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Oh, man. Let me ask you a question, though. Now, we're looking at this, looking at the mouth, the throat, the tongue, the lips.

Ask you a very cutting question. Where does most of your trouble come from? I know it comes from other people, but I was just, you know.

No, no, no. It comes from our mouth, doesn't it? I mean, you think back on the things that you've said and you go, oh.

And I've done that, and maybe you're angry, maybe you're tired, maybe whatever's going on, and you say something, and even as the words come out, man, you're going, oh, no. You know, but it's too late. They're out there. You can't take them back. In a devotion with my kids one time, I took a tube of toothpaste, and I squirted all the toothpaste out. I said, okay, I'll give any of y'all that can put all that toothpaste back in the tube, I'll give you $10. They tried. Couldn't do it. I said, okay, here's the meaning, guys. When words come out of your mouth, you can't take them back.

You can try, but it's a done thing. It's over. You've already spoken that. So we need to be careful. James talks about, well, what do we do with this? If the tongue is such a bad thing, how can we control it? James comes to the conclusion and says, you know what?

You can't. You're dependent upon God for that. Now, some may go, well, I don't necessarily think that's true that this is such a troublesome thing. Let's look at the book of James. James 3 verse 4 says, look also at ships.

Although they are so large and driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. Even so, the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. It goes on later in that chapter and says this, with it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men who have been made in the similar to our image of God. Out of the same mouth, perceive blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. See, our words, our words can hurt people. They can ruin reputations. They can sidetrack the work of God, or we can glorify God. We can bless God.

We can encourage other people. But it's kind of interesting. Something can happen, just a small thing. Say you're working on something at the house, you know?

And this kind of shows it's right beneath the surface. Say you're working on the house, and you're using a hammer, and that hammer slips and comes down on your thumb. What is it that you say at that moment?

Praise God, I hit my thumb. Is that what you say? No, sometimes bad words come out. Or maybe you're driving your car and somebody cuts you off on the highway. What do you say?

Praise the Lord. Or maybe you're involved in an accident. Or maybe you get angry.

What happens? Sometimes you say things that are foul, that are bad, that are wrong. Now, you know what we do.

After that, we'll pass it off. We'll say things, oh, well, that's not really like me. What a bizarre thing to say. Who's it like? You're the one that said it. No, that was you.

It's amazing, just a slight little squeeze, and look what comes out. And I'll be honest, it took years because the Lord really has to do that deeper work in your life before you start to let go of this, and God cleanses you from the inside out. And, friend, that shows you what a deep-rooted issue it really is. So we've said hurtful things, every one of us. Every one of us has said things we shouldn't have said. We've said things about other Christians. We've said things about God. We've said things about pastors, about churches, about ministries. But how beautiful it must be when we do what we did this morning and we gather together and we begin to worship the Lord with our tongues and with our speech. How blessed. The Lord tells us that that's a blessing to him, that he's listening, that he inhabits our praises.

But, again, the unregenerated, unsaved-mouthed tongue is a very deadly thing. So the life lesson here is we should seek to glorify God with what we say. We should seek to glorify God with what we say. There's a passage in the Bible that talks about that's interesting. It says that we're going to give an account. It's a scary, scary passage.

It says we're going to give an account for every odd a word. Boy, that'll keep you on your knees, won't it? But we can use our mouth, use our speech to worship God, to bring him praise, to encourage one another. But let me ask you a question. Is that the natural inclination of your mouth?

It's not. Our natural inclination, our sin kind of bent, is to tear people down, is to talk about people, is to gossip about them. And Paul's bringing us out.

He says, okay, this is what your mouth is like. And, see, this is kind of a bad news chapter if you haven't figured that out. We're kind of getting the bad news. We've got the bad news about the mouth. Let's see what else there's bad news about.

Verse 15 says their feet are swift to shed blood. There's a telling thing that happens sometimes on the highways. Whenever there's an accident on the highway and they slow people down, often there's another accident.

Why is that? Because what occurs is it's called rubbernecking. In other words, you're trying to drive, but at the same time you're trying to see what happened with the accident. I was on the highway one time driving past an accident, did the same thing, rubbernecking. And I thought, what is it about me that I want to stop and see the damage and the destruction that happened to another human?

My feet are running to destruction. Now, see, friend, that's not, you know, if you've done that, I've done that. It's a recognition. Hopefully you're not really, really twisted and visit weird websites about it or anything if you do stop. But there's something about us that is bent towards destruction.

And when people start going that way, they're simply following their natural inclination. And God has to intervene or it winds up in a bad place. You're listening to Pastor David McGee on Cross the Bridge. He'll be back with more powerful insight from God's Word in just a moment. But first, God's grace and mercy is greater than any of us could ever fathom. That's why he's been so faithful to the nation of Israel throughout the ages.

And he's not finished. He's promised to remain true to them to the end. We want to show you what God's faithfulness toward Israel says about his relationship with you by sending you Pastor David's teaching video, Israel, the Bible and You. In this exciting teaching recorded in the heart of the Holy Land, Pastor David unpacks important truths from God's relationships with Israel that impact your life today. Israel, the Bible and You is our gift to thank you for your donation to help more people on this station and beyond cross the bridge from death to life. So visit crossthebridge.com to request yours. Again, that website is crossthebridge.com. This is Pastor David McGee with Cross the Bridge.

You know, I want to thank you for listening to Cross the Bridge. I also want to tell you about an exciting website. The website is lostlovedones.org and it works very simply like this. You go to the website and you put the first names of up to 10 people that we begin praying that they get saved. Now it takes two things to get saved, presentation and prayer. And what we're offering is prayer and also there's different tools there to help you present the gospel to them. So we're there with you, helping you with the presentation, helping you with the prayer.

There's over 920 people that belong to the prayer team on Lost Loved Ones and you can join the prayer team as well and help us to pray for others who don't yet know Jesus and together we can see a huge revival starting with your lost loved ones. Now, back to today's teaching. Verse 16, destruction and misery are in their ways.

Let's read the 17. These are all cross references everywhere. Destruction and misery are in their ways and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. He is quoting from the Hebrew Scriptures. Psalm 36 one says, an oracle within my heart concerning the transgression of the wicked.

There is no fear of God before his eyes. Isaiah chapter 59 verse seven and eight says their feet run to evil and they make haste to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity. Wasting and destruction are in their paths. The way of peace they have not known and there is no justice in their ways. They have made themselves crooked paths.

Whoever takes that way shall not know peace. See, our way is bent towards destruction. Our way in the natural is bent towards doing wrong things.

Verse 16, destruction and misery are their ways. When we're left to our own devices, that's the way we go. When we get in a situation where we think we can do wrong and get away with it, guess what our natural inclination is?

It's to do wrong. See, that's part of what happens and that's part of why God put in the structure of governments and police officers and highway patrol and stuff like that because we need that reminder, you and I. Let me ask you a question and talk about highways. Have you ever been driving down a highway and all of a sudden there's a sign that says 55, but nobody's really reading it and everybody's pretty much trucking along, I don't know, 60, 65, maybe 70. Not me, but other people. And everybody seems okay with it, don't they?

But then let a state trooper join the little fray. What happens? All of a sudden you're trying to figure out how to go from 70 to 55 without hitting the brake, aren't you?

What happened? You got reminded that it was wrong. But without that reminder, guess what you would be doing?

You would be doing the wrong thing, whether it was a speed limit or not. You don't care, I'm going 70. Now that's very revealing about who we are and our character. And I know that God is transforming us, but we're from the starting place of left alone without God, without the Spirit of God interacting with us what we do and what we look like and how we act. Now if you're in here and you're going, no, no, no, not me, then you're the very person Paul is trying to speak to this morning through this passage. Because what happens is we begin to get spiritual pride. We begin to think, oh, it's me that's doing these good things. It's me that desires to go to church, that desires to tithe, that desires to serve, that desires to do these things.

No, friend, it's not. It's God causing in you the desire to do these things. Look at verse 17, in the way of peace they have not known. That so describes the world, doesn't it? People that don't know Jesus don't know peace. You can literally have everything this world has to offer, but if you're not in a relationship with the Lord, you're really not going to have peace. And it's interesting, if you think about material goods and money and possessions, they don't bring peace.

What about chemicals? They bring a false peace for a little while, but not lasting peace. Oftentimes when I'm in a crowd or somewhere, I'll just watch people.

I'll look at their faces and look at their eyes. Man, one thing that marks this world is people lacking peace. But see, you can't know peace until you know the Prince of Peace. And then that peace washes in like a flood as you serve the Lord, as you walk in a right relationship with the Lord. But apart from that right relationship, I'm not saying you can't ever know little glimpses of peace, because you can know glimpses of peace and not know Jesus. I'm talking about that lasting peace that no matter what's going on around you, you're at peace.

The peace that passes understanding. You don't have that in and of yourself. You can't achieve that in and of yourself. It doesn't matter what you do.

It doesn't matter if you cross your legs and go, hmm, however long. You're not going to have that peace. You're not going to find it.

It's going to elude you until you find Him. And then when you find Him, the Prince of Peace, you'll find peace, but not before. Yeah, I think in people groups, a massive generalization, if you will, there's people who are following Jesus, who believe Jesus. There's people who are not following Jesus, who don't believe in Jesus.

And then there's a third category, if you will, and that's people who believe in Jesus, but they're not really living for Him. I tell you, I think the third group probably lacks more peace than the group that never met Him. And I say that in part from personal experience because I've tried to run from God and I've tried to do my own thing, and man, that peace that had once flooded my soul was gone.

It was gone. Do you understand so many people in this world are looking for peace? They're looking for peace.

I don't just mean in a world standard sense. We started that thing, that organization, the United Nations, so we could all have world peace, and that's gone so well. I'm not sure we've had a day of peace since they started. And then, of course, we had the bumper stickers that came out a few years ago, you know, visualize world peace.

Did you see that one? And then there was the one that followed it that said visualize world peace, P-E-A-S. And then I found one that I put on my trailer as we were hauling around. It said visualize world judgment because that's what it's all coming down to. It's not like we're all going to all of a sudden come to this nirvanic place where we all join hands and sing either Kumbaya or like to teach the world to sing or something. That's not going to happen. That's not going to happen until the Prince of Peace is reigning. Individually, you're not going to have this peace until you're really following the Lord, not just until you get saved.

Notice how I phrased that. Now, the moment you ask Jesus to forgive you of your sins, you're released from all the guilt. That peace begins to come into your life. But, friend, the fullness of not living your life for yourself anymore is when that peace really starts to flood.

When you realize that you're not really in control, it's very frustrating trying to be in control, but you're realizing that God is in control and you give yourself over to that. That's the kind of peace I'm talking about, the peace that passes all understanding, the peace of God, what's that peace like? That's the peace of God that allowed him to be asleep in a boat in the middle of a storm. That's the peace that allowed him to be hanging on the cross, look down at the people who had executed and say, Father, forgive them, they don't know what they're doing. That's peace, friend. That's a peace I desire. That's a peace you probably desire.

Maybe you came in this morning and you're thinking, man, I'm just so beat up and life is so frenzied and stuff this and the economy that and Wall Street this and this and that and the other and I just don't have peace. He's here to offer it to you. But in and of yourself, friend, you don't have it. You can't come up with it. You can't manufacture it.

It's not within your capabilities to do that. God wants to give you peace, but you can't create it. Romans chapter 5 verse 1 says this, Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. You can have peace through what? Through drugs, through alcohol, through materialism?

No, no, no. Through Jesus Christ. That's the only lasting peace you can achieve. Everything else is a false peace. Verse 18 says there is no fear of God before the rise. Now, you may have recognized that as I'm reading these verses and I read the verses from Psalms and the cross references that some of them are word for word. Some of them are not. In part, Paul is probably quoting from what's called the Septuagint, which was a Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, the Old Testament. They did it about 200 B.C., mainly in Alexandria, and he may have been quoting that.

It's still valid. It's detailed. It's right down, same intent, same purpose and stuff. Have you ever noticed some people quote stuff that's not in the Bible?

They usually preface it by, Like the good book says... Now, I'm from the south, so I can play around like that. Like the good book says, cleanliness is next to godliness. That's not in there. That's not in there. Another one, as the good book says, the Lord helps them that help themselves. That's not in there.

So be careful. Make sure it's in there if you're going to be quoting it. Verse 19 says, Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, and here's the key, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. See, this is Paul. He's building this discussion beautifully, masterfully. Brailling this discussion, he says, okay, now you're all guilty.

And then he mentions our mouth, he mentions our bench towards destruction, he mentions all these things, and you're going, oh, man, I'm a mess. Now, the world system, psychology, psychiatry, that's basically, they can only lead you to that point of saying, wow, you're really messed up. Okay, your time's up.

Well, you know, you've got to leave now. They take it to that point, they can't really fix you or heal you. That's not God's intent. God's intent is not for you to sit in front of him and realize how messed up you are and stop there. But, friend, that is part of the process, because once you realize, you know what, I am messed up, then you realize that you need a Savior, that it's not actually that you just want Jesus. The fact is you need Jesus.

You don't just want a Savior. You need a Savior, friend, because without a Savior, without that forgiveness, you're in trouble, and you're really, you know, that book came out a few years ago, I'm okay, you're okay. We're not okay. You're not okay. I'm not okay. We're all really being honest.

We're all really messed up. That's the bad news, because if you think that you're righteous by yourself in your own actions, that you're a do-gooder who mostly does things well and don't mess up, you're not going to realize you need saving. You're not going to realize you need Jesus. So you've got a choice. Self-righteous or righteous by Jesus?

The question is, which one will you choose? To declare yourself righteous or say, Jesus, I need your righteousness? Friend, do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven?

You can know right now. I want to lead you in a short, simple prayer, but I'm so sorry in asking Him to help you to live for Him. Now, God wants you to pray this prayer so much that He died to give you the opportunity and the ability to ask Him to forgive you.

Please pray this prayer with me out loud right now. Dear Jesus, I believe you died for me, that I could be forgiven. And I believe you were raised from the dead, that I could have a new life. I have done wrong things. I have sinned.

And I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things. Please give me the power to live for you all of my days. In Jesus' name.

Amen. Friend, if you prayed that prayer, according to the Bible, you've been forgiven. You've been born again. So congratulations, friend.

You just made the greatest decision that you will ever make. God bless you. If you prayed that prayer with David for the first time, we'd love to hear from you. You can call us toll-free at 877-458-5508 to receive our First Steps package with helpful resources to help you begin your walk with Christ. Before we go, we want to encourage you in your faith so that you can experience more of the grace and love of God for you. That's why we'd like to send you Pastor David's teaching video recorded in the heart of the Holy Land called Israel, the Bible, and You. This encouraging look into the history of Israel and God's covenant faithfulness to His chosen people will help you take bold new steps in your relationship with God. Israel, the Bible, and You is our gift to thank you for your donation to help more people on this station and beyond cross the bridge from death to life. So visit crossthebridge.com now to request your copy.

You know each day comes with its share of stresses. So what better way to wake up than with an encouraging word from the Lord? Visit crossthebridge.com and sign up now for David Magee's email devotionals. Each devotion includes scripture and a message from the heart of David Magee. It's easy and it's free. Sign up today at crossthebridge.com. And be sure to join us next time on Cross the Bridge with David Magee to hear more from the Book of Romans. See you then.