THINKING BIBLICALLY ABOUT SIN - Romans 3:9-26

So, I have some

holy anticipation this morning. And so,

it it's caused me to feel a little bit

overwhelmed. And so, if I if I seem

short of breath, that that's the reason.

It was mentioned earlier how we are in a

21-day

um fast and prayer initiative. And and

that's not just for the sake of doing

it. My my heart behind encouraging and

challenging the church to engage in

prayer over the next 21 days is that we

would be a people of God united in

compassion for God. uh broken by

whatever it is that maybe you're dealing

with personally, broken by the sin in

your life, broken by the chaos in this

world, and that we would unite under the

banner of Christ and under the duty of

prayer to lift up the name of Jesus for

the sake men of our marriage, for the

sake of our families, for the sake of

our community, and and overall for the

sake of the world. Every movement of God

finds its roots in the people of God

praying that God would move mightily,

that God would move gloriously and and

majestically. And so over the next

couple of weeks, when we challenge you

guys to pray, when when I'm being

challenged to pray myself, it's not just

so that we would fall to our knees and

pray for our personal bubble, for our

personal environment. That's absolutely

part of it. But that we would have a

global

missionwide kingdom expanding

perspective on what prayer does.

And so when I'm praying and and you're

praying and our brothers and sisters

across town are praying and Christians

around the world are praying,

God moves and and God works and God

acts. And of course, God doesn't need us

to do what God does. But here's the

beauty of God's grace. He invites lowly

sinners like you and I that so that when

we call upon his name, he invites us

into

his moving, his working, his redeeming,

and his plan for rescue. And what a

privilege that is. And often times, if

you're anything like me, you don't get

it right. You fail and and you fall

short and and you miss the mark. But our

God is so gracious and our God is so

holy and our God is so loving that that

he invites us back in.

Not because there's any good in us.

We're going to dive into the text here

in just a moment and realize that that

there is no one who does good. Not one.

But there is one who is always good and

his name is Jesus.

And he invites us into life with him. He

invites us into relationship with him.

and and my hope and my prayer and and

and I'm speaking specifically to to

those of us in the room this morning

who have never made a profession of

faith.

I I pray that today that that your heart

is rocked by the truth of the gospel

and that you would be so

disgusted

by the sin in your life

that you would gaze upon the beauty of

the gospel

and take hold of it

because you realize through the

indwelling power of the spirit that

without it you remain eternally lost.

This past Thursday,

we had open prayer. We're praying every

Thursday during these 21 days of prayer

and fasting and and there's no agenda on

Thursday night. There's no service

order. It it just it's an open building

for you to come and have some

uninterrupted prayer time. That's often

difficult. Though prayer is easily

accessible to us, prayer can often be

difficult particularly in Western

culture and particularly in our busy

lives. And so I thought it would be

fitting during these 21 days to provide

an opportunity for us, even if it's just

for an hour for us to come into this

building and have some uninterrupted

prayer time. And so let me tell you why

you need to be praying.

Because it's it's the catalyst by which

our minds, our ears, and our hearts are

open to hear from the Lord. Did you know

prayer is not just you talking to God?

It's you hitting the pause button in

your life to hear from the Lord. And so

this past Thursday, we had a couple of

people here in the worship center. I I

sat in a chair in the lobby. I like to

journal. It's um it's how I express what

what what what's happening up here and

and and how God is dealing with me here.

I put it to pen and paper and um my wife

typically is the only one who who hears

what I write in here. But I was moved on

Thursday to write this for us. This is

this is our this is not my prayer. This

is our prayer. I pray that it's our our

prayer. Here's what I wrote Thursday

night. I said, 'Lord,

how do we become a praying people?

How do we become a faithful people?

How can we seek your face more?

How can we like Moses desire more and

more to see your face?

Lord, teach us to be a people of prayer.

The kind of prayer that makes our knees

callous.

The white knuckle grip desperate plea

kind of prayer.

Am I desperate enough?

Is my church desperate enough?

How can we long for you more?

Break us, Lord.

Break our hearts for what breaks yours.

Break our pride, our selfishness, our

disregard for sin.

Like Moses, I want us to be a people who

declare passionately and boldly, "Unless

you go with us, Lord, we will not depart

from here."

Shake our idols,

shake our comfort, shake our worldly

confidence, and bring us to dependence

on you.

Open our eyes and give us a heart that

craves and lips that declare I want more

of you.

Sometimes

please Jesus is the only prayer I can

muster.

Two words, but I believe God knows all

the words they mean.

So tonight I pray, please Lord, not as a

bargaining plea, but with a submissive

heart.

Please bless our church. Please bless

our community. Please bless my home, my

family, my ministry, my marriage, my

work, my enemies, my neighbors. Please,

Lord, please.

Thank you, Jesus, for the strength you

provide and the mercies that are new

every morning.

I am nothing without you. And I am often

in awe how you've taken a sinner like me

and have blessed me like you have. I

don't deserve any of it. And I imagine

you now watching as I write this, giving

me a nudge to remind me of your grace,

your mercy, your compassion, and how

despite my sin, you still call me your

own. I am grateful for salvation and how

your grace knows no bounds.

My sin, though great, is washed away by

your grace that is infinitely greater.

My tears are wiped away. I don't need to

cry over my sin. I don't need to be led

by it because my sin is no longer mine

to bear. Christ has taken it for me.

He's bled. He's paid the price for it

and he has overcome it. He did that for

me. He did that for us, church. Thank

you, Jesus.

It's my prayer for us.

And it's my hope and it's my desire that

we would be a people who compassionately

before Jesus

in repentance of sin and in greater

desire to be used by him. None of us

are unqualified

when we have been qualified by Christ

himself.

when he's called you and I to step out

of death and sin and be transformed by

life eternal. I I share all of that to

share what what we're going to be

looking at this morning as we turn to

Romans chapter 3. If you have a Bible,

Romans 3 · chapter mention

meet me in Romans chapter 3.

Romans 3 · chapter mention

We're going to begin in verse 9 and make

our way through verse 26. It's a lengthy

passage, but it's packed with so much

theological truth

and a call to live a transformed

life.

God doesn't work in us because of us. He

works in us despite us.

Despite the sin that we so passionately

hold on to, despite the rebellion that

we are set against, despite the

disobedience. And what I want to look at

this morning is a deep dive into the

text of of what it means to understand

the heinous nature of the sin that often

defines our life.

Last week we looked at what it means to

think biblically about God.

Because you can't grow in God. You can't

pursue God. You can't mature with and

through God if you don't even know who

God is. And so many people have an idea

of who they think God is, but when

compared to the tr the truth of

scripture

completely falls apart.

And so once we begin to think biblically

and and truthfully about who God is,

then we can step into every other realm

of life. Which is why Jesus in Matthew

Matthew 6:33

6:33 tells us this that we are to seek

first God's kingdom and his

righteousness

and then everything else will be added

to us.

It's when God is given his proper place.

It's when we understand the nature of

obedience to the call of God in our

life. when we understand the depth of

our sin and how it's an affront to God's

holiness.

And so I was overwhelmed

as I began to study and and think about

the sin in my own life

and the chaos and the sin in the world

around us.

What scares me the most

or what concerns me the most

is not the sinner who sins.

It's not the one who openly refuses to

place faith in Jesus. They don't know

any other way. That's their nature to

sin. What concerns me and scares me more

is the sin that is so prevalent in the

life of people who say they're followers

of Jesus.

think

that because of this lack of

understanding of what sin really is and

what sin truly does to people.

We look at sin just like we would look

at any other inconvenience.

It might be a bump in the road. It it

might put me off course, but nothing

more than that. And I want you to know

that that sin is an agent that is set

out to kill you.

Sin wants to destroy you.

It wants to harm your marriage. It wants

to harm your family. It wants to harm

your self perspective. Sin has no desire

for your good.

And often when we think about what takes

place in our sinning, there's a phrase

that I've often heard that doesn't

really sit well sit well with people. Is

this the devil is influencing you.

The devil is using you.

And maybe for someone here today who

doesn't know Jesus, the devil and his

demons are in you.

It's shocking to often hear that.

But when we engage in sin and we openly

receive it and we openly participate in

it, make no mistake, the devil and his

demons are using

you.

And so what we need to do as believers

is we need to frame our minds, our

hearts and our spirit around the truth

of God

and to understand that sin has one

purpose which is to steal, kill, and

destroy. This is what Jesus warns us of

in John's gospel chapter 10. But you

know what's beautiful about the rest of

that sentence? Jesus says, "The enemy,

the devil, that thief, he's come to

steal, kill, and destroy. But I

have come that you may have life,

abundant

>> life."

Jesus contrasts the sin of this world

that brings nothing more but death,

decay, and rot, and puts you at war with

the holiness of God. And he lines it up

against who he is, his nature, his

character.

If you remember that passage in John

John 10 · chapter mention

chapter 10, Jesus is talking about how

the sheep enter into the gate,

where the shepherd protects, where the

shepherd provides, where the shepherd

molds and forms and builds up.

And if we hadn't understood it at that

point in John's gospel, Jesus brings

clarity and he says, "I am the gate.

I am the good shepherd and through me

you enter in. But as long as you give

yourself over to sin, you rob yourself

of the life I've destined you for. And

so if you're an unbeliever,

your sin is robbing you from eternal

life.

Your sin is robbing you from life in

God's kingdom the moment you draw your

last breath. And if you're a believer in

here who is engaged in habitual sin, you

are robbing yourself of the blessed life

God has called you to.

And we can be honest in a place like

this. A lot of the issues that we face

in this life are a result of our own

rebellion against God because we refuse

to call the very thing in our life that

cripples us, that is killing us, the sin

that it is.

I began to think

about why we don't take sin seriously.

And I think it's because we don't truly

understand that sin is set out to kill

us.

Men in the room, someone walked through

your door

into your living room where your family

was enjoying time together. And they

were set on killing you. And not only

killing you, they were set on destroying

every generation that would come after

you. You would do everything in your

power to stop that man.

to say, "No, that ain't happening here."

And yet, we don't do that with our sin.

We treat it as a casual relationship

where I'll embrace it when I'm having

this desire to feel good,

where I'll turn to it when life isn't

working out.

But you can't have, hear me now, you

can't have an intimate relationship with

Jesus and be growing in your love for

him if you refuse to kill the sin in

your life. Because faith and sin, they

can't cohabitate. It just doesn't work.

And so until we understand the depth of

our sin, here's what I want us to know.

We'll never fully appreciate the beauty

of salvation. So, Romans chapter 3,

Romans 3 · chapter mention

right here, beginning in verse

9,

here's what the Apostle Paul writes.

What then?

Are we any better off? Not at all. For

we have already charged that both Jews

and Greeks are all under sin,

as it is written. And I love this

because Paul,

he writes in Romans chapter 1 what the

Romans 1 · chapter mention

gospel is. It's the power of God for

anyone who believes. The power of God

unto salvation for anyone who believes.

And then he goes on, we did a whole

sermon series over Romans chapter 1. He

Romans 1 · chapter mention

goes on to then articulate

why no one is safe because we rebel

against God. We choose creation over

creator. We exchange the truth of God

for the lies of the world. And it's not

because we're ignorant to who God is,

but rather it's despite knowledge of

God, despite knowledge of the gospel

that we still choose the lies of this

world.

And then Paul gets into Romans chapter 2

Romans 2 · chapter mention

and and he anticipates

this rebuttal. He anticipates this

response from the Jews who would say,

"But aren't we God's chosen people?"

I mean, doesn't salvation come through

the Jews? Jesus was one of us, the

prophet, the laws, the kings, the

priests of the Old Testament. It all

came through the Jewish line. We're

God's chosen people. Which is why here

in Romans chapter 3, Paul anticipating

Romans 3 · chapter mention

this responds to it. Are we not better

off? Not at all.

For we have already charged that whether

you are from the Jewish nation or you're

from any other nation, you are still a

sinner before the holy God of creation.

And then he begins to appeal through the

Old Testament. He'll quote Isaiah. He'll

quote the book of Psalms. If if you have

a Bible with with these particular um

verses in bold font, it's because it's

showing us that Paul is quoting or

referencing something from the Old

Testament. He says in verse 10, as it is

written, there is no one righteous, not

even one. There is no one who

understands. There is no one who seeks

God. All have turned away. All alike

have become worthless. you and there's

no worth or value in us.

Now, this doesn't mean we can't build

each other up. The scripture calls us to

build one another up, encourage one

another. This is talking about the

foundation that we lay to build life on.

Apart from the gospel, apart from

salvation in Jesus, it's worthless. It

crumbles. It's not sure. It's not

steady. It falls apart. You cannot build

your life on the very sin that you

commit. You can't build a marriage on

the sin that you commit. You can't build

a family on the sin that you're

committing. You can't build a business

on the sin that you're committing. What

you can build it on is salvation in

Jesus. What you can build it on is faith

in the gospel.

That is what God desires for his people.

There is no one who does what's good.

Not even one. Verse 13, I love this.

We're going to unpack this here in just

a moment.

Their throat is an open grave. Who's he

talking about? You and me. Sinners.

Who's a sinner in here? 100% of us.

Their throat is an open grave. They

deceive with their tongues. Viper's

venom is under their lips. Oftentimes I

like to personalize the scripture

because it really helps me understand

what God desires of me. So let me just

read verse 13 this way. You'll you'll

pick up what I'm what I'm saying here.

And I want you to do the same thing.

Roland's throat is an open grave.

Roland deceives with his tongue.

Viper's venom is under Roland's lips.

Verse 14. Roland's mouth is full of

cursing and bitterness.

It's very easy to read ourselves outside

of the scriptures and to think it

doesn't apply to us.

Yes. And amen. The scripture was written

for a people during a specific time, but

that doesn't excuse the word of God

being truthful and calling us to

transformation and application and

obedience in our life. Verse 15, their

feet are swift to shed blood. Ruin and

wretchedness are in their paths, and the

path 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 subject to

the law. This is important because the

Jews were then appealing to the law.

They were saying, "But we have the law.

The law was given to us. And so, if I

just follow the law, I'm good.

If I just understand the the covenant

that has been made with with generations

before me, I'm good." And Paul brings

clarity. He says, "No, we all have

sinned.

Let me tell you what the law is for.

He says it speaks to those who are

subject to the law so that every mouth

may be shut and the whole world may

become subject to God's judgment. No one

escapes. There are no excuses. Verse 20.

For no one will be justified in his

sight by the works of the law. Let me

just pause it real quick. This means you

cannot you cannot and will not be

justified by just being good.

Goodness absent of Jesus is evil.

Let me phrase it this way. We've said it

this way several times before.

Would you desire heaven if Jesus wasn't

there?

And the church answers no.

Because heaven is not heaven if Jesus is

not there.

Heaven's a place of no more. Praise God

for that. But all of that is an overflow

from the son who is everpresent

and glorified and loving and merciful.

Goodness absence of Jesus is no good at

all. How do we know this? Well, in the

Old Testament,

there was a prophet

who was hearing

from the crowds around him that if they

followed the law, if they were good

enough, then then they would be okay.

But it was goodness absent faith.

It meant nothing because it was not

rooted in the gospel. It wasn't rooted

on God. It wasn't centered on a greater

desire to seek the Lord and to grow in

him. And so he responds, "Your

righteousness is as filthy rags.

The best day of your life when you get

it all right, if Jesus is absent from

all of that, if there's no faith in the

Lord, it's filthy before God." Why?

Because it's rooted in a heart that is

in rebellion against him.

And so he continues in verse 20. No one

will be justified in his sight by the

works of the law because the knowledge

of sin comes through the law. That's

Bible talk of saying the law had a

purpose and that purpose was to expose

your sin.

The Bible here is so that we would look

at God's holy standard and we would

understand I can't measure up to it.

And that's not to shame us. That's not

to guilt us. It's to invite us and draw

us in to the one who can rescue us, to

the one who can redeem us.

And so he continues here in verse 21,

but now

apart from the law, the righteousness of

God has been revealed, attested by the

law and the prophets. The law and the

prophets were this arrow pointing to the

greater reality that God was going to

send his son, the Messiah, the lamb of

God, to take away the sins of the world.

Verse 22, the righteousness of God is

through faith in

Jesus Christ.

Through faith in Jesus Christ to all who

believe, since there is no distinction.

What does he mean no distinction? Jew or

Greek, there's no distinction. Your

faith before God is received by Christ.

For all have sinned and fall short of

the glory of God. They are justified

freely by his grace through the

redemption that is in Christ Jesus. I

love how Paul doubles down. God

presented him as the mercy seat by his

blood. There's so much theology there,

so much doctrine. I want to encourage

you. Go back home verse 25. do a deep

dive on what it means that Paul's

referencing Christ as the mercy seat by

his blood through faith to demonstrate

his righteousness because in his

restraint God passed over the sins

previously committed. Now there's a

reference to the Exodus here. Why did

God pass over the sins previously

committed? Through the blood of the

lamb. How does God pass over your sin

and my sin? Through the blood of the

lamb. It has not changed. But we've seen

the greater reality of who the lamb is.

His name is Jesus Christ.

God presented him verse 26 to

demonstrate his righteousness at the

present time so that he would be just

and justify the one who has faith in

Jesus. And all God's people said,

>> Lord, bless your word. Holy Spirit, stir

our hearts.

It's incredible

the truth,

the conviction, and the accountability

the Bible speaks into our life regarding

the sin that we cling to. So, as always,

here's here's what I want to do. I want

us to look at some truths, some

movements through the passage that Paul

is presenting here, not just for then,

but ones that that are absolutely

relevant and applicable today when it

comes to the sin in the world and the

sin in our life. And here's what I want

to challenge us with. If you're in here

today and you have never placed faith in

Jesus Christ,

I sense that that perhaps the spirit is

already working in you. The fact that

that in God's sovereign plan for your

life, you are here this morning if for

no other reason than to say yes to Jesus

Christ.

Secondly, there are some of us here,

whether we've been a Christian for 10

minutes or we've been a Christian for 10

to 20 years.

Some of us may be battling with a sin

that we have refused to let go of

and one that we embrace

and one that that perhaps whether it's

through pride or whether it's through

shame or whether it's through fear or

guilt, we refuse to call it sin.

and we approach it casually and we make

excuses for it and and for whatever

reason we think life's circumstances

give us permission to engage in

relationship with habitual sin.

I want to challenge you take hold of it

and put it to death. I think it was St.

Augustine

who said be killing your sin or your sin

will be killing you.

What Paul's doing here

is he's not trying to make you feel bad

about yourself.

Does sin make us feel bad about

ourselves? Yes, of course, when we

understand what it truly is and the

consequences that it truly brings.

But what he's doing is he's telling us

the truth about sin

so that we just don't feel bad about it.

we would gaze upon the beauty of the

gospel and have our lives transformed.

So, let's go back to the passage. Let's

look at some some truths that we can

draw out of it that I hope and I pray

will change us from this moment forward.

If you're taking notes, here's here's

the first thing that we see. Sin is

universal and it fers.

I love how Paul is playing here.

claim here that there is no one who is

righteous. No one seeks God. What that

means is that sin is not something that

we stumble into. Often times that's the

way we see it. Well, you know, the

environment was was not one that I

should have been in and so I just I just

stumbled

into it.

And while the devil and his demons may

take advantage of the situations that

you purposefully put yourself in and

refuse

to remove from your life,

what often happens

is a sin that is birthed out of us is

not because we stumbled into it, but

more so it's because it's natural to us.

Did you know that

we are born with a sin nature? This is

the point Paul is making. It's a

universal issue. It's an illness, a

disease, a cancer,

and it is spread across the globe. Not

just presently, but it will continue to

spread into the future. Which is why the

gospel is so necessary, why the gospel

is so important. Because this, the

gospel is the only hope in the world.

I love the old proverb. Some may trust

in horses. Some may trust in chariots,

but I will trust in the name of our God.

And so sin is universal. And if it's not

dealt with, it fers like a growing weed

in our life. And we know this. If we

don't take care of the weeds in our

yard, giving enough time, it takes over

and it kills the good grass. It kills

the fruitbearing

crops.

We don't have to learn to sin. It is

natural to us. It's instinctual.

It flows out of us without any effort

or any instruction. Go back with me to

verse 10.

There is no one righteous, not even one.

There is no one who understands. There

is no one who seeks God. Because

understanding only comes out of a

relationship with God.

Now, you may have worldly understanding,

but worldly understanding will never

never get you to heaven. It'll never

forgive your sin. It'll never grant you

eternal life. It'll never resurrect you

out of death in your sin. All have

turned away. All alike have become

worthless. There is no one who does what

is good, not even one. And so here's

here's the challenge for us to grab a

hold of.

If sin grows naturally

and if sin fers, you know what that

means, right?

For sin to fester, that means for it to

rot and decay.

And it doesn't just rot and decay in and

of itself. It rots and decays whatever

it touches.

And so that's why many of us have now

become desensitized

to the things in this world because

we've allowed the rot and the decay of

sin in our life to affect our

perspective in life.

And so that's why unfortunately even in

the church we don't view cohabitation as

a thing when the scripture clearly says

people who are living together unmarried

walk in disobedience before the Lord.

Why we don't view sexuality

as a thing? Well, the world and the

culture has accepted it.

The church better get on board or it'll

lose people. Whenever the church

positions itself to be led by what

culture thinks is appropriate rather

than what the truth declares as true,

then we are on the losing side.

And so when sin fers, if we don't deal

with it, it desensitizes

us to what it does, which is why we

don't take sin very seriously, which is

why we have a casual relationship with

it. So if sin grows naturally, then

holiness must come supernaturally.

We must have a supernatural movement of

God. And that truth dismantles the idea

that we can fix ourselves

because left to myself, I am a sinner

who will sin. There is no effort, there

is no discipline, there is no better

behavior

that will make me holy. And so here's

the question. If sin is our default

setting, if sin comes natural to us,

then the question is not am I sinning?

But the question is, where am I letting

sin go unchecked in my life?

Where am I letting sin fester?

Where am I letting it take over?

Am I tolerating it because it feels

normal even though the scripture calls

it sinful?

What you leave unattended

doesn't stay neutral.

It grows.

And that's what sin does. It fers.

Here's the second thing that we see. Sin

corrupts everything that it touches. Go

back with me to verse 13.

Watch. Watch how Paul moves

from words

to action and to heart.

Sin doesn't just affect the things we

say. Sin doesn't just affect the things

that we do. Sin affects the heart.

It affects the focus. It affects the

worship. It affects how we praise or the

lack of. And so you'll notice in this

passage here that Paul moves from words

to action to thought. Verse 13, their

throat is an open grave.

They deceive with their tongues. Viper's

venom is under their lips. Sin will

latch on

and it'll pump infection that is meant

to kill. And here's the thing. Your sin,

I I want you to hear this. Your sin

doesn't just affect you. We've talked

about this so often. Your sin doesn't

just affect you. But in your sin, you

establish patterns, whether seen or

unseen, that now affect the generations

that come after you. We talked about

this last week and what it means to

think biblically about God.

There are ripple effects from the things

that we say, do, and believe in our

life.

And the more you let sin fester, the

more you understand that it corrupts

everything it touches. That sin is a

stone that gets bigger and bigger and

bigger. And you cast it into the waters

of your life. And the bigger the stone,

the bigger the ripples, which is why we

need the biggest stone there ever is,

the truth of God. And let this be the

stone that we cast into the waters of

our life.

Notice their mouth is full of

bitterness. It's full of cursing. Verse

14, their feet are swift to shed blood.

Now, now he moves to action. It's not

just the things that we say. It's the

action, the decisions and the choices

that we participate in. What does sin

do? It corrupts us. So, it doesn't just

affect our speech, but it affects our

actions. Their feet are swift to shed

blood. Ruin and wretchedness are in

their paths, and the path of peace they

have not known. And now, what does it

move to? It moves to heart, belief,

perspective. What does verse 18 say?

There is no fear of God before their

eyes.

What they believe about God? Nothing.

There's nothing but rebellion, chaos.

And sin doesn't just separate you from

God.

It actively kills you.

This is why our sin cannot be managed.

This is why so often I can testify to

this. I know you can testify to this. We

try to control our sin in our own

strength.

I won't look at those things again. I

won't say those words again. I won't

lash out that way again. I won't think

that way again. And maybe in your own

strength, it helps for a day, two days,

maybe a couple of weeks, or even a

couple of months. But the human, the

human mind and the human heart cannot

bear what only Jesus can.

And so we need him to kill the sin for

us. And when he kills the sin for us, he

empowers us to deal with the sin that

comes against us. I've said it often

this way, and I'll need to hurry.

The more you pursue the Lord, the less

you desire sin. Now, this side of heaven

will never be sinless,

but we are empowered so that we can sin

less.

And let me just say this regarding sin

corrupting everything. Sin never stays

private.

You can fool me. You can fool this

church, but you can't fool God.

And one day, whether this side of heaven

or before judgment, your sin will be

exposed. So, I want to challenge you.

Ask the Holy Spirit

to show you where your compromise

has become the influence in your life

and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal it to

you so that you can put that sin to

death. Here's the third and final thing

that we see.

All I got one more. I'm actually got

four. So, we're almost there. Sin is not

careless. It's strategic.

The devil and his demons, they have an

agenda. They have a strategy and how

they come against the world, how they

come against God's people. So, so you

remember here back in verses 13 and 14,

Paul is describing sin with this image

of viper's venom.

That's intentional language because what

does venom do? Venom spreads, it

infects, it poisons, it kills slowly and

silently.

And because sin has a strategy,

it's going to invite others into your

darkness.

It'll convince us that lies are

reasonable, that compromise is harmless,

that rebellion is freedom. And by the

time we realize what sin has done, the

damage is already deep.

So ask yourself this question.

What am I defending in my life rather

than confessing before the Lord?

What am I making excuses for in my life

rather than submitting to the Lord?

Here's the fourth thing that we see.

This is where Paul, this is the

crescendo of our passage.

The law exposes.

What does it expose? It exposes our sin.

It exposes our brokenness.

But it points us to how we can be made

new. How Christ saves. Let me read verse

19.

Now we know that whatever the law says,

it speaks to those who are subject to

the law, so that every mouth may be shut

and the whole world may become subject

to God's judgment.

For no one will be justified in his

sight by the works of the law because

the knowledge of sin comes through the

law. God, this is God's mercy.

It's not so that God would put a leash

on you to say you can't have fun, you

can't enjoy life. This this is not a

rule book to hinder your joy.

This is God's mercy to invite you in to

the greatest joy there is ever the world

has ever known.

Verse 21. But now apart from the law,

the righteousness of God has been

revealed, attested by the law and the

prophets. The righteousness of God is

through faith in Jesus Christ. to all

who believe since there is no

distinction. For all have sinned and

fall short of the glory of God. They are

justified freely by his grace through

the redemption that is in say it with me

Christ Jesus.

That is where redemption rests. No one

is justified by the law. You're not

justified by good behavior that doesn't

merit salvation. Now, let me hit the

pause button and real quick. Is good

behavior good? Of course. Is obedience a

thing to be pursued? Yes and amen. But

as an overflow of the salvation you've

experienced as a result of what God has

done in your life, good behavior,

absence of Jesus, Old Testament, that's

filthy rags. It's worthless. Obedience

and good behavior as an overflow of

relationship with Jesus, that's

biblical. That's truth.

So until we see sin clearly,

salvation will always feel abstract.

And maybe

maybe you've not appreciated

the depth of your salvation, the beauty

and the majesty of the mercies of God in

your life. Maybe you've not appreciated

it the way we're meant to appreciate it

because you've never fully understand

the depth and the evil of your sin.

Church, I pray that we would be a people

that cling to the cross, that cling to

the Lord, that we come with with with

those callous knees and that white

knuckle grip, bargaining,

not bargaining, pleading with the Lord

and calling upon his name to guide us

and direct us

as we seek to be the people God has

called us to be, all while looking at

our sin and putting it to death. Let me

pray. Lord, we thank you for your word.

We thank you for the truth that is found

in you.

A truth that often times because of the

sin in our life escapes us.

But Lord, I pray that as you stir and as

you move,

as you call upon people today, that

salvation

would be stirred in the hearts of

people.

Lord, I thank you

for your goodness, your mercy, and your

grace.

Christ's name we pray. All God's people

said, "Amen." Hey, let's stand to our

feet.