God vs. Humanity

Adriene Rogers was a motivator, an encourager, and a leader of the faith. He was also passionate about presenting scriptural application to everyday life circumstances, and you'll hear that in today's message.

Now, let's join Adriene Rogers. We're studying together the constitution of Christianity, the book of Romans, the greatest piece of literature ever written. Now, when you have Romans chapter 3 open in your mind, let me tell you something that you already know. There's something terribly wrong in the world. Amen?

Something terribly wrong. You don't even need a Bible to tell you that. You know that there is something wrong in the world, but God did not make a world with something wrong. When God created the world, He said, that's good.

That's good. Now, what has happened? There's something come into the world, something that may sound old-fashioned when I say it, but it is sin. S-I-N, sin. You can almost hear the hiss of the serpent as you say sin, and when you look in the middle of that word sin, you see a capital letter I, and the sin is not primarily in the world as much as it is in hearts and not primarily so much in hearts as in my heart and in your heart.

Life is short. Death is sure. Sin, the curse.

Christ, the cure, but you're not going to get the cure until you have a proper diagnosis. You see, you've got to understand what the need is, and so you may think that Paul is morose or Paul is cruel or Paul is vindictive when he begins to tell us about sin. We have a generation today that doesn't want to hear much about sin, so Paul opens this book and he begins to lay down the problem so we can see it and understand it. So first of all, he talked in chapter one about the sin of the heathen, those who've never heard. Then in chapter two, he talks about the sin of the hypocrite, those who've heard but those whose lives are full of duplicity. And then in the last part of chapter two, he talks about the sin of the Hebrew, those who thought because they were God's chosen, because they'd heard so much because they had the Bible, because they knew the truth, that somehow sin did not affect them. And so after he deals with the sin of the heathen and the hypocrite and the Hebrew, then he just sums it up and he comes to the sin of humanity, all of us. And he says, there's no difference between the Jew and the Greek for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

And as you open the book of Romans to chapter three, you realize that what Paul is doing is this. He is becoming a prosecuting attorney and he is bringing the human race before the judgment bar of almighty God. And he's making an indictment. And the case is this, God versus humanity. And since you're human, it's an indictment against you. So it would pay you well to listen.

I want you to hear the indictment as it's stated when Romans chapter three, verses nine and 10. What then? Are we better than they? Better than the heathen? Better than the hypocrite? Better than the Hebrew?

What then are we better than they? No, in no wise, for we had before proved. Now the word proved here is a very interesting word.

It is a word, it is a legal term, which means to make an indictment and prove it. We have therefore proved both Jews and Gentiles that they are all under sin. As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. Now the word under sin literally means dominated by sin, ruled by sin, subjugated to sin. It is not only that we sin, but we serve sin, that we have become slaves of sin. The irony of it is that the sinner boasts about his freedom. He's so free.

That's so ridiculous. He is a slave to his sin. He is free to do what he wants, but he's not free to do as he ought. He is the servant. He is the slave of sin. It doesn't matter about his ethnic background, whether he's a Jew or a Gentile, white or black, young or old, rich or poor.

He is a sinner. Sometimes we think that because of our environment, our pedigree, that we are excused. I preached one time in a church and a lady could hardly wait to get to see me because my name is Rogers. She said, you, sir, are a Rogers. And she said, I am a Rogers. I said, my father was a Rogers and my maiden name was Rogers. And then she just smiled and threw her shoulders back and she said, you know, I have studied our family background and you will be pleased to know that we came over on the Mayflower. And I said, well, that's interesting. I said, I traced it back further than that. She said, you did. I said, yes, we have come all the way from a crooked farmer and a drunken sailor. The farmer was Adam and the sailor was Noah. And we go all the way back. Friend, we are sinners by birth, by nature, by heritage.

It doesn't matter about our race or our background. Now, what the people in the book of Romans were wanting to do was to stretch themselves out in the gutter alongside somebody else and say, I'm better than he or she is. But you see, that's not the standard. The standard is the glory of God. And that's the reason Paul is going to say later on in verse 23, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

We need to quit comparing ourselves to one another. Sometimes you ask people to come to church. They say, I don't need to go down there. I'm just as good as those folks down there at the church.

They've got it backward. But they need to say, I'm just as bad as those folks down there at the church. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Total depravity doesn't mean that we are as sinful as we could be.

It just means that every part of our nature is contaminated by sin. It is there. It is incipient.

It is inculcated in our hearts and in our minds because the Bible says sin comes out of our heart. Now, you may not have committed that sin, but it is down there. It is down there. You say not in my sweet little heart. Yes, it is.

An oak tree is in the heart of an acorn. Now, it may not ever come to maturity, but it is there. Sin is hurtful, hellish, heinous, and it is in every heart and in every mind. And so Paul says that we have proved that they're all guilty. You see, because sin is an internal thing.

That's the reason reformation is not enough. We frequently use illustration of the timberman who takes a log from the woods, and that tree may be crooked. But he brings it into the sawmill and puts it on the cradle and begins to run it through that sawmill where that great buzz saw is there. And the saw lops off one side of that log, and then he turns it, runs it through again, and it lops off the other side. He turns it, runs it through again.

It takes the other. And then finally, the fourth side. And there it is perfectly straight, perfectly square. But if you look at it from the end, the heart is still crooked. Now, that's what reformation does.

All reformation does is to square us up on the outside, presumably, but the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. So first of all, you see the indictment that is given. That's the indictment as God versus humanity in verses 9 and 10.

Have you got that? Now, what good is an indictment without evidence? So the next thing the apostle Paul is going to do in God versus humanity is not only make the indictment, but God is going to present the evidence against us. And he's going to show how sin has corrupted the entire human personality of every man, woman, boy, and girl, and child on the face of this earth. First of all, he talks about man's corrupted wisdom.

Look in verse 11. There is none that understandeth. Man's mind has been warped by sin. Now, man may be otherwise brilliant, but the apostle Paul has also told us in 2 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 14, the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for their foolishness unto him. Neither can he know.

You take a man with a PhD. He still cannot understand God. There's none that understands. I'm amazed at the brilliance of the human race today. Don't you stand in all the computers now and what they're able to do?

And even in the simple things where you get in the automobile, it says shut the door. He said, who? You, shut the door. Yes, sir. You find yourself interacting with machines.

It's an incredible thing today. But when it comes to spiritual and eternal things, man is an ignoramus. His wisdom is warped.

His imaginations are filthy. His deductions are false. The average man thinks he can go to heaven without being born again. He's absolutely ignorant of two things. He doesn't know how sinful he is and he doesn't know how holy God is. He has a corrupted wisdom, but not only has his mind been touched by sin, his will has been touched by sin. He has a corrupted wisdom. He has a corrupted will. Look, if you will now in verses 11 and 12, there is none that seeketh after God. They're all gone out of the way. Now, you would think that men seek God, but this verse says that they don't seek God.

They are together become unprofitable. Now, there's none that doeth good, no, not one. You say, now wait a minute, pastor, surely people seek God. All over the world there are temples. People are worshiping in jungles. Everywhere you go on the face of the earth, people are religious. How could Paul say to Rome that had all of its gods that there's none that seeketh after God?

Get the point and don't miss it. These people are not seeking God. They're in demon worship.

First Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 20, the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils. They're not seeking the true God of heaven. They are fleeing the true God of heaven. The only reason that you sought Jehovah God, the true God, is that he first sought you.

Did you know that? Did you know that ever since the Garden of Eden, man's been running from God? When Adam sinned, he beat it to the bushes. He hid from God and God came seeking Adam. God said, Adam, Adam, where art thou? It wasn't Adam saying, oh God, where are you? The voice of God was not the voice of a detective. It was the voice of a brokenhearted God. You see, ever since man sinned, he has been running from God and God is chasing you. That's why I brought you here today. Did you know if God couldn't run faster than you could run, you never would have been saved. He caught you. There's none that seeketh after God.

No, not one. The Bible makes it clear in plain that we love him because he first loved us. Thank God for that. You see, Jesus said in John chapter six and verse 44, no man can come unto me except the father which hath sent me draw him in evangelism today. Sometimes we hear about seeker sensitive services. Now they say to preachers today, now if you want to build a church, all these people who come who are seeking God, you'd be sensitive to them. Well, friend, humanity is not seeking God. Do you know who the seeker is? His name is Jesus. Listen, Luke 19 10 says, the son of man has come to seek and to save that which is lost.

Isn't that great? So, you know, we need to be sensitive to the seeker, but we need to be sensitive to the seeker who is the Holy Spirit, not sensitive to the sinner who couldn't give a hoot because we are dependent upon the Holy Spirit to convict him. And that's the reason we have to pray and soak all that we do in prayer because there's none that seeketh after God.

No, not one. Just like a sheep. Jesus said, oh, we like sheep have gone astray. One thing about a sheep is he never says, oh, I'm lost. I've got to go back to the shepherd. If the shepherd doesn't go and find him, he will never come home. And then he goes on to say in verse 12, they all become unprofitable. Do you see that?

We're still talking about his corrupted will, unprofitable. You know what that word literally means? It refers to milk or meat that has spoiled. Have you ever been on a vacation and left milk in the refrigerator?

You know, it's the kind that's dated and then you come back and your wife goes to the refrigerator and she opens the refrigerator and she opens that milk carton. And I mean, friend, it's rancid. I don't know why they do this, but they come to you and they say, smell this.

Why do they do that? You don't have to smell it. Man, you can smell it when they open it way across the room. Smell this. You think that's okay? No.

No. It's unprofitable. It's rancid.

It refers to stinking meat. You see, God made us to serve him, but we don't do it. We're unprofitable. We're unprofitable servants.

Unprofitable literally means good for nothing. Little boy asked his mother, said, mother, would you pay me if I'm good all day? She said, why don't you be good for nothing like your father?

We are good for nothing. You see, man has a corrupted wisdom. He has a corrupted will. He has a depraved will. And then go on, look if you will, he has depraved words.

Look in verses 13 and 14. Their throat is an open sepulcher with their tongues they've used to see. And the poison of asps is under their lips. Serpents, look at it.

He's talking about their tongues whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Corrupted wisdom. Corrupted wills. Corrupted words because the words just tell us what's down in the heart.

This world is so full of wicked words. Fondlers of filth. Now God help us, they've gotten on the internet. Lovers of lies. Traders in trash.

Peddlers of profanity. It's all around us. And out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

The country they say what's down in the well comes up in the bucket. You say, well, pastor, I just curse a little. I take God's name in vain, but I don't mean anything by it.

That's where you're indicted, sir. That you could take the thrice holy name of almighty God in vain and not mean anything by it. That God is no more to you than a curse word that you can mix in the muck and mire and slime of the sewer. The Bible says God will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. He will not. You'll not curse him when you meet him face to face at the judgment. What is God speaking about here? He's bringing an indictment. There's none good.

No, not one. And he talks about man's will. He talks about man's wisdom. He talks about man's words. Then he talks about man's ways, depraved, corrupted ways.

Look, if you will, in verses 15 and 16, their feet are swift to shed blood. Sin and misery are in their ways and the way of peace they have not known. Further information, read any newspaper in America today, across the land or around the world, violence, child abuse, abortion, war, filth. Man's wicked ways. Sin has turned this world into a madhouse.

But the indictment continues. And not only does he talk about man's ways, but he talks as the crowning indictment about man's worship. Look, if you will, in verse 18. There is no fear of God before their eyes. You would think that mankind would be prostrate on the ground saying, oh, God, have mercy.

Not this generation and not a prior generation. People are ego maniacs strutting to hell, laughing about God. The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. What is the fear of God? It is a reverence, a holy awe for almighty God. The fear of God is love on its knees before the almighty God.

Our generation has lost the fear of God. Do you know what the worst form of badness is? The worst form of badness is human goodness when that is substituted for the new birth. That's the worst form of badness.

We have the idea that somehow our goodness is good. But the Bible says in Proverbs chapter 21 and verse 4 that the plowing of the wicked is sin. A farmer who plows a field without giving glory to God, who causes the rain to fall and the seed to germinate.

That's sin. What does it mean when it says the plowing of the wicked is sin? It means that the sinner can do no good. He can do no good.

Even his good is bad if he's not saved. Plowing a field is fine. Making crops grow is fine. Being a farmer is fine, but not if you're unsaved. All of that is iniquity.

You say, I don't understand that. Suppose you go to dinner today and there's a fruit salad made of the freshest, finest fruits mixed with the best ingredients. But the man who has made that salad and mixed that salad has open running sores on his hands and he's mixing the salad. Contagious sores on his hand and he's mixing the salad.

Finest fruit, finest ingredients. Here, you want some? Do you want any? No. I don't want it.

Why? Because even though the fruit may be good, he has contaminated what he's touched. The plowing of the wicked is sin.

The unsaved man contaminates all that he touches because he himself is a sinner. So God makes the indictment and then God brings the evidence and then God gives the verdict. He doesn't depend upon the jury. He himself is the judge.

Here's the verdict. Look, if you will, in verses 19 and 20. Now we know that what thing soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, now watch it, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. The verdict of the court is guilty and he goes on to say as a result of that in verse 20, therefore, by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight for by the law is the knowledge of sin. The law was not given to save you. The law is given to condemn and convict you. The law cannot save you.

God has given his holy law, but the law is given to show us that we're sinners for sin is the transgression of the law and we realize that God has given his holy law and we have come short of God's holy law. So what is the wisest thing that you could do today? What is the wisest thing you could do today? Shut up and plead guilty. Shut up and plead guilty. That's what Paul is saying and I know boys and girls that if we use the word shut up in the wrong sense we ought not to do it, but listen, here's what he's saying in the last part of verse 19 that every mouth may be stopped. God says shut your mouth and that all the world may become guilty before God.

Now you're never going to get saved until you admit your guilt before almighty God. I remember reading in Luke chapter 18 about a Pharisee who came and he prayed and he said, God, I thank you that I'm not as other men are. He was so full of himself, but Jesus said that there was a publican.

That means he was a tax collector and a naive dishonest. The Bible says he bowed his head. He would not so much as even lift his eyes to heaven. He smote himself upon the breast and he said, God, God be merciful to me, a sinner. Literally the Greek language says he said be merciful to me, the sinner.

I'm the guy. Be merciful to me, the sinner. And Jesus said, this man, the publican, went home justified rather than the other, the religious man. There are two ways you can go from church today. Some of you will go home dignified and some will go home justified.

You say, hey, I thank God I'm not as other men are and when the pastor gives the invitation, you'll crane your neck to see if any of those old sinners go down there to get saved. May God have mercy. May God have mercy.

Paul says, shut your mouth. Plead. Guilty. Guilty.

The verdict of the court has been given. There's a story, it tells about a king that visited a slave ship. It was a galley, a slave galley. You know where they chained men to the oars and they row and a man beats the drum and another man has a lash to make them row. They had no diesel engines.

That was the engine. And they would take the prisoners of the state and not just let them languish in prison, they put them to use and made them pull on the oars. And a king visited one of these slave ships, went below the decks and began to talk to those who were chained to the oars and he asked one man, why are you here? He said, sire, I don't know why I'm here.

I was in a crowd when a crime was committed and when they arrested everybody, they got me and I'm innocent. They asked another, he said, why are you here? The king asked another. He said, oh sire, noble king, he said, I have enemies who have lied about me. And he said, I'm not really guilty, but I'm the victim of false witnesses who have lied about me.

And the king went through and each one of them had some reason why he was innocent. He said, sire, I should not be there. Till he came to one man and he said, why are you here? I said, sire, I'm here because I deserve to be here. He said, I've sinned.

I'm guilty. I'm receiving the just recompense for my sin. I have sinned against my God. I've sinned against my king. And now I'm paying the penalty for my sin. When the king heard that, he stepped down and said, you knave, you rascal, you scum. What are you doing here among so many honest men?

Guards, release him and get him out of here. Not until we admit our sin are we going to know the mercy and the forgiveness of the king. God says, be quiet. Paul says, be quiet.

Every mouth, shut up, plead guilty. Now, here's the final thing I want you to see today. Not only the verdict, but I want you to see now the mercy that is available. You see, God is not fair. Don't ever get the idea that God is fair. God is not fair. God is just, just. God doesn't owe us anything. He is a God of mercy, but you will never, never, never, never plead for mercy until you see the justice of God. As long as you are praying about God being fair, you're not going to cry out for mercy. But when you see that God is a just God and we're guilty and we deserve judgment, then we can say, God have mercy.

You understand that? There's an old story about a lady who went to a photographer to have her picture made and when she got it, she didn't like it. The reason she didn't like it is it looked like her. So she took it back to the photographer and said, you'll have to do this picture over. And he said, well, lady, what's wrong with it? She said, it doesn't do me justice.

He looked at it and looked at her and said, lady, you don't need justice. What you need is mercy. Friend, God is just, but we need mercy. We need the mercy of the court, but it is not until the indictment is made and the evidence is given and the verdict comes down that then we throw ourselves upon the mercy of the court and then we're ready for God's amazing grace. Then we're ready for salvation. And if you've never ever come to the place where you've seen yourself as a sinner lost before almighty God and cried out to him for mercy, you've never been saved. You may waltz down somebody's church aisle and join the church, gotten baptized and turn over a new leaf, but have you thrown yourself on the mercy of the court?

Have you said, Lord, God be merciful to me, a sinner. Do you remember what a preposition was in school? I want to give you some prepositions and I want to show you what God's mercy is.

Now listen to these prepositions of, by, unto, through, with, these are in and with. Now here's the mercy. Here's what we're going to get. Notice we're in chapter three now and look if you will in verse 21. But now, and boy thank God for that. Just draw a circle of but now.

He's changing the subject. But now, now, now, now that man sees he's a sinner. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested being witnessed by the law and the prophets. This righteousness is of God.

That's the first preposition, the righteousness of God. What is justification? Justification is an act of God. No court can ever justify anybody. If you go into court, all they can do is prove you guilty or innocent. They may pardon you.

They may fail to sentence you, but they can't justify you. Only God can make the unclean clean. It is of God. Justification is the way that God declares us righteous in his sight. He puts the righteousness of Christ on our account and places and takes and bears our own sinfulness.

No one but God can do this. Number two, not only is it of God, it is by faith. Look again in verse 22. It's in the righteousness of God, which is by faith. I'm so grateful that God doesn't require anything else. If he required anything else, some wouldn't make it.

If he required baptism, if he required money, if he required good works, some would be disqualified. Now, faith in the natural realm is a very common thing. You get on an airplane, that's faith. You take a prescription, that's faith. You eat a meal cooked out, that's faith.

It's more and more. What is the difference in saving faith? It is in the source and the object. God gives us that faith. And then we place our faith in the Lord Jesus. It is of God. It is by faith. And now thirdly, it is unto all. That's the next preposition, unto all.

Look if you will in verses 22 and 23 again. Even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ, unto all and upon all them that believe, for there is no difference. All people need to be saved. And thank God all people can be saved. Listen to me, precious friend, there's nobody here so good he doesn't need to be saved and nobody so bad they cannot be saved. That was a good place for an amen. Listen, it is unto all. Whether you are Nicodemus or the Samaritan woman, you can be saved. And God sent me here to tell you that today.

Now here's the next thing. It is through grace. Look if you will in verse 24, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ. You see, grace is the most beautiful word in the Bible other than Jesus. Grace is what makes God love us when there's nothing lovely about us. God committed his love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. It is grace that makes God love the unlovely. We are not loved because we're valuable.

We're valuable because we're loved. That friend is God's amazing grace. It is through grace. Look if you will now in verses 24 and 25 of this, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

I love him today. I love Jesus. Friend, it's in Jesus.

Not in the church. It's not in good deeds. This amazing grace is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Redemption in Jesus. Friend, he made me free. That's the redemption.

The word redemption there means to buy out of the slave market. I have been redeemed by his precious blood. It is in Jesus and I am going with him. He loved me. He died for me. He redeemed me.

Thank God for this justification. Now, it is also with justice. Look if you will in verse 26. To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. You see, that's the gospel.

The whole thing is based on law. God is a holy God. God will be true to his own honor. God will be true to his own law. Why doesn't God just overlook sin? Why doesn't God just say, well, all right, that's okay. You're sinners. I'm a loving man.

Come on. Come on up to heaven. Why can't God do that? Because sin must be paid for. Sin is an affront to a holy God. If God were to let sin go unpunished, God would be unjust.

God would topple from his throne of holiness. They say in the court of law when a guilty man is acquitted, the judge is condemned. But on the cross, Jesus paid the full price and because of Calvary, God is both just and the justifier of those that believe in him. It is in Jesus and it is with justice. God doesn't overlook our sin.

He pardons it freely by his grace. Listen, it is my solemn duty to tell you that there's no other way for you to be saved. You cannot be saved by your good deeds. If righteousness comes by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. That's what Paul says in Galatians. But God is just, but he's a God of mercy and grace. And by the cross, he will save you. But I want you to know this, that your sin will be pardoned in Christ or it will be punished in hell, but it will never be overlooked.