Romans Chapter 3:10-15

You know, early in my Christian life, I would look at people who had messed up as a young, passionate, on fire believer, and I was so judgmental. And then I had my own stumbles.

I came to realize that it happens to us all. So the key, friend, isn't if you're going to mess up. You're going to mess up. But what do you do when you mess up?

You run back to Daddy and say, Daddy, forgive me. Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David McGee. David is the senior pastor of the bridge in Kernersville, North Carolina. The truth is that every one of us has failed.

And because of that, we shouldn't be quick to judge. Today, Pastor David continues this theme from his teaching 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 his teaching, God is Seeking You. Turn with me to 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. So we talked a little bit last week about verse 10 that all people, every one of us stands under a guilty verdict, if you will. There's none of us who have ever done everything right. There's none of us who have never gone through our entire life and never done anything wrong.

So we talked about how the foot of the cross is level for all of us. Then it leads into verse 11 and it says, There's none who understands. There's none who seeks after God. That's really a profound statement if you think about it because we think that we seek after God and we do, but it is at His initiation. See, He starts the process.

It's not like one day you just woke up and you thought, you know, I want to be a better person. I'm going to start seeking the Lord. I'm going to start going to church. I'm going to start praying.

I'm going to start reading the Bible. That's not what happened, friend. What happened was the Holy Spirit pursued you. He chased you when you were running and trying to hide. God was still coming after you going, come to me, come to me, come to me. And after years, probably of that going on, you said, okay, Lord, all right, I'll give in to you. And because you're doing something in me, I will now seek you. We use that phrase, I found the Lord.

I don't understand. I understand the phrase, but did we find God? Was God lost from when we found Him? No, it's, you know, God found us is more than we found God because He was pursuing us. And this isn't just a theological truth for 2000 years ago, or at 57, 58 AD when Paul wrote this, this is true today. God is seeking you.

God desired for you to come here today for you to hear the things you're hearing right now, to be reminded of how much He loves you and how much He wants to communicate to you. Luke chapter 19 verse 10 says this, for the son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. That's the reason He came to seek us, to save us.

And it's still going on. And friend, I don't know if you've ever gone through one of those phases where you decided you wanted to jump up on the fence, you know, and kind of straddle between your relationship with the Lord and your relationship with the world. And maybe you even just ran off like the prodigal, but God wasn't, He didn't just say, okay, bye bye, done. He sought after you.

He continued to look for you. We're reminded of that and that story about the parable of the prodigal son in Luke chapter 15 verse 20. And it says, and he arose and came to his father, speaking of the prodigal says, but when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. You know what struck me about that? I'd read this story, I don't know, dozens of times.

And then one time I was reading it and something struck me about this. It says he arose and came to his father, but when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion. How did the father see him when he was a long way off?

There's only one answer friend. The father was sitting there waiting, looking, searching. And as soon as the prodigal son popped up from a great distance, the father saw him and took joy. Is that the way you see God?

See, a lot of us maybe grew up in religious and denominational things where we really didn't see that side of God. I know that long time as a backslider, I kind of ran from what I call the big stick God. And what I mean by that is, you know, I was wandering, I was doing my own thing. And I thought, you know, if I came back to the Lord, the first thing that was going to happen is he was going to beat me with a big stick. And he was kind of waiting to do that. And I came to realize that that's not what he wanted to do. He wanted to welcome me back home.

I'll never forget, and I've shared this before, but I had a buddy who custom crafts guitars, makes them basically from scratch and had made me some guitars and stuff and works with a lot of professionals and stuff. And he's a believer, you know, and he was a friend. And in my wandering days, I really didn't want to talk to him because I thought, man, he's going to, you know, he's just going to bash me.

He's going to yell at me and all these sorts of things, and it's not going to be good. And so I needed some work done. So I came off the road and then went into the shop and, you know, he was working on the instruments and stuff.

And he didn't say anything, didn't yell, wasn't mad, wasn't angry or anything. And, you know, I sat and I thought, oh, okay, well, you know, maybe I'll get out of here alive kind of thing. And as we walked towards the door, he turned to me and he said, you know what, I miss you and I love you. And man, the tears started to well up in my eyes. And I ran for the door because I knew I had to get out of there before I fell apart. But as I got out to my vehicle, I realized that what he had just told me was what God was wanting to say to me. Not he wanted me to come to him so he could spank me and beat me with a big stick, but he missed me and he loved me.

Think of that, friend. God, creator of the universe, seeks a relationship with you. He gives you a sunrise to remind you that he's created all this and loves you. You're in his thoughts.

You're in his heart. It's not that he's just like sending you spam mail or something, you know, and yeah, I mean, I don't know about you. Do you get a warm fuzzy when you get spam mail? I don't.

Some of you guys need to stop that. And, um, you know, he, if you love God, you'll forward this to a hundred people. God's not sending you spam mail. He's reminding you how much he loves you and that he's seeking a relationship with you and he's causing you to seek him. But God friend, God is the initiator.

You weren't the initiator. You didn't all sudden come to your senses and decide you were going to straighten up and start flying right and all that stuff. So the life lesson, the Lord is seeking or looking for you. The Lord is seeking or looking for you constantly. When you're out of fellowship with the Lord, he's looking for you. He misses you.

He desires that. It really, if you, if you take this whole book, the whole Bible, the whole Bible is about God seeking and looking for you seeking and looking for people. You go back to the garden and Adam and Eve fell and then God came up with a plan. And what was the whole garden about?

God having time or relationship with people after the garden, Adam and Eve fell. Then the tabernacle was put in a place. What was the tabernacle place?

It was, what was it about? God desiring relationship meeting with people. Then you move into the temple. What was the temple about? God desiring relationship meeting with people.

What was Calvary the cross about? God desiring relationship with the people. You go to the end of the book at the book of revelation.

What was that about? God desiring and finally meeting face to face with the people. So that whole book, the whole book is wrapped up into this, that God is the initiator and God desires to have a relationship with us.

And as we respond to that relationship, God begins to change us from the inside out. But keep in mind, friend, that it is the Lord that's doing this. How did you come to be here this morning? It's not by mistake.

It's not by accident. Some of you are like, well, my friend made me come. He bribed me with a cappuccino.

He said, if I came, I'd get a cappuccino. So here I am. Or maybe you're driving by and you thought you drove by this warehouse and you thought, my gosh, what are they doing in there?

I got to go see what they're doing in there. Or maybe your parents made you come or maybe your kids made you come. But why it doesn't matter why you're here. How you came to be here is important because it's not just your goodness. It's God working in you. See, we're not here because we're good people and all the people that don't come, they're bad people.

No, it's because God is doing something in us to cause us for some crazy reason to get up early on Sunday morning and to come here. Be encouraged in that. See, now I know that I'm taking away from you something where you, you know, maybe you walked in here and you, well, I'm going to church.

I'm feeling pretty good about me. And I just took that away from you. I'm sorry, but I'm giving you something much better and reminding you that it's not just you, it's God working in you. See, in other words, everybody that's in here, everybody that's listening right now, God's working in you. Let me remind you of this passage. Philippians chapter two verse 12 says this, therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Now I tell you as a, as a young Christian, that verse used to disturb me so much because I thought, you know what?

I basically, the only thing I've done really well in life is trash my life. And now this verse is saying that I'm responsible for my own salvation. But verse 13 says, for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure. What that's saying is when you desire to do something good, that is God in you. When you desire to do something good, that's God in you. When you do something good, that's God in you. So remember that next time you, you, you hold your tongue or you do something really loving that that is the Lord working in your life.

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 in 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 in 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 12 says they have all turned aside. They have together become unprofitable. There is none who does good.

No, not one. A new living translation in this verse says all have turned away from God. All have gone wrong.

Instead of together become unprofitable. And we're reminded again of this message that Paul is trying to communicate because there was a segment of the population that was trying to take spiritual pride in their relationship with God. And Paul is saying, Hey, you know what? Guys, you can't take spiritual pride when it comes to the Lord because everybody has fallen. Everybody has messed up. And so he's reminding and it's kind of a painful reminder, but it's good for us to go back to this gang.

Family, it's good to think about these things. There is none who does good. Not one, not one. The life lesson here, every one of us has failed God. Every one of us has failed God. You know, early in my Christian life, I would look at people who had messed up as a young, passionate, on fire believer.

And I was so judgmental. Whenever a Christian would mess up or stumble, I just, and then I had my own stumbles. I came to realize that it happens to us all. And then reading in the book of Proverbs, I believe it is one day I read that the righteous man, though he falls seven times, gets back up. So the key friend isn't if you're going to mess up, you're going to mess up.

That's very encouraging in it. But what do you do when you mess up? You run back to daddy and say, daddy, forgive me. We're reminded of this, Isaiah, messianic passage, Isaiah 53 says this chapter 53 verse five says, but he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace was upon him and by his stripes were healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way.

And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of assault. So like sheep, we've gone astray. We've turned aside.

We've wandered off. We've messed up, but Lord came up with a plan where he didn't lower the standard. He didn't say, okay, you've messed up. You can't come in, but you've messed up.

I'll let you win. So we all recognize that people like Hitler and Mussolini and chairman Mao and people have been detrimental and hurtful. And we, we recognize that they should be judged, but what about our families and friends who only messed up a little bit? We have to understand God is a righteous judge. He's holy.

In other words, he's not going to say, well, you know, you can't come in, but you know, I like you and you're a friend of the family and that you can come in because that wouldn't be just, that wouldn't be right. 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 a warm fuzzy, aren't you? You just know this is 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 seven 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 five verse nine 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 three says they sharpen their tongues like a serpent.

The poison of ASP is under their lips. So this is, 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. Now you've probably 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 you know, 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. Now, so we're looking at this and going, wow, well 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, 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 and 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 bucks.

They tried, couldn't do it. I said, okay, here's, here's the meaning guys. When words come out of your mouth, you can't take them back. 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, it's such a bad thing, how can we control it? And James comes to the conclusion, he says, you know what?

You can't, you're dependent upon God for that. Now some may go, well, I don't, I don't, I don't necessarily think that's true that this is such a troublesome thing. Well, let's look at the book of James. James chapter three, verse four says, look also at ships, although they are so large and driven by fierce winds, they are turned by very small rudder wherever the pilot desires.

Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. It goes on later 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 civil to our image of God out of the same mouth, perceived blessing and cursing. My brother and these things ought not to be. So 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 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. That wasn't me. That was my alter ego. 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 and you know, 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. That 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 will 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.

Okay. And see, this is kind of a bad news chapter, okay, 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. 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. 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, simply telling God you're sorry and 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. And I've 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. And be sure to join us next time on Cross the Bridge with David McGee to hear more from the book of Romans. We'll see you then.