Can We Fix Our Sin Problem From Within?
Sermon Notes
Hey everybody my name’s Louis I’m the lead pastor here at City Awakening, it’s great to gather with you both onsite and online. At this time we can dismiss our children to children’s church, and if you didn’t get to check your child in please see our children’s ministry leaders in the back to assist you with that...Before we get into today’s message I want to remind you there’s still time to sponsor a child in poverty through Compassion. As I mentioned last week we want to push back darkness in our lives, relationships, city and world, by fulfilling our vision to reach people and reach the world with the gospel. Last week we had 15 households decide to sponsor a child, which means 15 children are now receiving poverty relief from people in our church. Let’s praise God for that!...Compassion is a non-profit organization pushing back the darkness of child poverty, and for $38 a month you can sponsor a child, even have written communication with a child in poverty. That $38 will provide them with food, clothing, healthcare, education, and the chance to hear the good news of Jesus. If you’re interested in learning more, we’ll give you next steps at the end of the service. If you decide to sponsor a child, it’ll help that child come out of poverty, and it’ll help us fulfill our vision to reach people and reach the world with the gospel.
Now as for today we’re continuing our teaching series on a book of the bible called Romans, and it’s a series about renewing your mind, for the transformation of your life. What we’re talking about specifically today is the doctrine of sin, and everybody struggles with sin. Even if you’re a skeptic you know it’s true, you know there’s things in your life you’ve wanted to change, but you’ve been powerless to change. Your willpower hasn’t just failed you once, it’s failed you repeatedly. So what we don’t need is more religious laws and post-it notes telling us what to do or not do, since we don’t have the willpower to live out the religious laws and post-it notes we currently have. Our willpower can change some things, but it can’t change everything. It can’t change the deep rooted sin issues in our hearts. What we need is a greater power than our willpower to change and transform the sinful depravity in our hearts, and that’s what we’re talking about today. So let’s turn to Romans 3 and get into it. You’ll find Romans in the last quarter of the Bible, and we’ll be in Romans 3:1-22. Title of today’s message is Can We Fix Our Sin From Within, and here’s the big idea. You need a greater power to help you, fix the sin problem within you...You need a greater power to help you, fix the sin problem within you.
Here’s your context. Romans was written by the Apostle Paul who was a skeptic and enemy of Christianity, until 35 A.D. when he has an interaction with Jesus that changes his life, and he becomes a Christian. Then 20 yrs later he writes this letter to Christians living in Rome to teach them about Jesus and the gospel that transformed his life. In chapters 1-2 he builds a case for why everybody needs God’s grace, and it’s because of our sinful depravity. No skeptic or believer can ever claim their hearts and emotions are always good, their passions and desires are always good, their minds and thoughts are always good. Paul says we’ve all sinned at some point in our lives, which means nobody’s escaping God’s judgment. We’ve either sinned against the moral laws in the bible, or we’ve sinned against the moral laws in our own conscience. But either way we’ve all sinned, and desperately need God’s grace to forgive us and transform us from the sinful depravity we’re in. He builds his case even further in ch 3, by pointing out that having a bunch of religious laws isn’t the solution to our sinful depravity either. Let’s check it out.
Romans 3:1-22 states, “So what advantage does the Jew have?” The Jews believed they had an advantage over the rest of humanity because of their covenant relationship with God. So this concept of total depravity, this concept that we’re all equally stuck in sinful depravity, could cause people to question if there’s any advantage to having a covenant relationship with God? It could cause people to ask “What’s the point of having a covenant relationship with God, if we’re all just equally stuck in our sinful depravity anyways?” Paul gives us one advantage in vs 2.
Vs. 2 states, “They were entrusted with the very words of God.” He’s talking about the Old Testament part of the bible. He’s saying the Jews had some advantage over others, because they had God’s moral laws in the Old Testament. But they also had a greater responsibility over others because they should’ve known better. They should’ve known not to sin against God’s moral laws, which proves the concept of total depravity even more. It proves our willpower isn’t enough to escape our total depravity. I mean the Jews knew the right things to do, but they still failed to do it, which happens to us too! Both skeptics and believers know the right things to do based on the moral laws in the bible or the moral laws in our conscience. But we still fail to do those right things, proving our willpower isn’t enough to escape our total depravity.
Vs. 3, “What then? If some were unfaithful, will their unfaithfulness nullify God’s faithfulness? 4 Absolutely not!”In other words, God promised to have a covenant relationship with the Jews, so why would God judge them for being unfaithful? Doesn’t that nullify God’s faithfulness? Doesn’t that make God unfaithful in fulfilling his promise? Paul says absolutely not, and because Jesus came to fulfill that promise. Jesus came to offer salvation to both Jews and non-Jews. He came to offer salvation to anyone who accepts his hand for covenant friendship. Paul’s point is everybody’s unfaithful except God. God is the only one, who’s always faithful.
Vs. 9, “What then? Are we any better off? Not at all! For we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin…” So are Jews any better than non-Jews? Are Christians any better than non-Christians? Are believers any better than skeptics? Not when it comes to our sinful depravity. Paul says we’re all under sin, meaning we’re all under sin’s power. We’re all under sin’s power whenever we rely on our willpower, instead of God’s power. When we do this our willpower will eventually fail, we’ll stumble in sin, and we’ll need God’s grace to restore us. We’ve all sinned and even continue to sin, whenever we rely on our willpower instead of God’s power. The doctrine of sin is the belief that every human being has thoughts, hearts, words, and actions that aren’t in alignment with God. It’s the belief that we’ve all failed to love God and love others with our thoughts, hearts, words, and actions. Paul’s about to give some examples of this using several Old Testament quotes. It’s examples of how we’ve all stumbled under sin’s power.
Vs. 10, “There is no one righteous, not even one. 11 There is no one who understands...” There is no one who understands, meaning we sin with our thoughts. In ch 1 Paul says we’ve exchanged the truth of God for lies, which we’re seeing in our culture today. We’re seeing a rapid decline for truth in things like our news media, social media, politics, public schools, and universities. We’ve taken the intellectual minds God has given us, and we’re using it to argue against God whenever we don’t like his truths. We sometimes debate God, instead of trust God. We sometimes believe what our culture says, instead of what God says. We sin against God with our thoughts, and we also sin against people with our thoughts. I mean what if people could read every one of your thoughts?...What if you had to choose between letting people read every one of your thoughts, or keeping your thoughts to yourself?...You’d much rather keep your thoughts to yourself, because your thoughts aren’t always good. Sometimes we sin with our thoughts.
Again vs. 11, “There is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. 12 All have turned away; all alike have become worthless.” There is no one who seeks God, meaning we sin with our hearts. We sin with our hearts by seeking other things, more than we seek God. We seek our careers, money, success, sports, materialism, the approval of others, more than we seek God. We seek reading books and social media feeds, more than we seek reading God’s word. We seek gifts from God, more than the God of the gifts. We seek our prayers and needs being met, more than the God who can meet our prayers and needs. We seek for God to align with our will, more than us aligning with God’s will. The point is we aren’t seeking and pursing God like we should, it’s God who’s seeking and pursuing us even though he shouldn’t. It’s Luke 15 where Jesus says he leaves the 99 to seek and save the 1 lost sheep. It’s Luke 19 where Jesus says “I came to seek and save the lost!” We aren’t seeking Jesus, it’s Jesus who’s seeking us! In John 14 Jesus says “I’m the way, the truth, and the life.” But instead of following his way, Paul says we’ve all turned away. We’ve all turned away thinking our way is better than God’s way. It’s the lie in the heart of every teenager, college student, young and old adult. We turn away because we think our way is better than God’s way. Even when his grace turns our hearts to him, we find our hearts pulling away, rushing our quiet times with him. We sin with our hearts.
Again vs. 11, “There is no one who seeks God. 12 All have turned away; all alike have become worthless. There is no one who does what is good, not even one.” There is no one who does what is good, meaning we sin with our actions. Paul isn’t saying we can’t ever do any good actions, he’s saying we can’t ever do any good actions with 100% selfless motives. For example some people do good things to make themselves feel good. Some people do good things to get a tax write off. Some people do good things to gain recognition, to gain the approval of others, to gain the approval of God. Some people do good things to get something in return from whoever they’re doing the good things for. Married people do backrubs for intimacy, children do chores for money, businesspeople do extravagant dinners to close business deals. The point is our motives matter, and nobody has 100% selfless motives when doing good actions. Even if we could do good actions with 100% selfless motives, Paul would say that good action was an act of God’s common grace working through our lives. Without God’s common grace, we would always sin all the time. Without God’s common grace, we would always sin with our actions and motives.
Again vs. 12, “There is no one who does what is good, not even one. 13 Their throat is an open grave; they deceive with their tongues. Vipers’ venom is under their lips., 14 Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.” How’s that for a hallmark card?...“Happy Valentine’s day. You venomous viper!...” What Paul’s saying is we sin with our words. If there was a recording of the things you said last week to strangers, coworkers, classmates, friends, family, what would that recording reveal about your words? Would there be gossip and slander?...Would there be bragging and boasting?...Would there be cursing, wrathful words, hateful and hurtful words?...You know what Jesus’ little brother James said these recordings would reveal? He says in James 3, “The tongue is full of deadly poison. 9 With the tongue we bless our Lord, and with it we curse people. 10 Blessing and cursing come out of the same mouth.” James is right! I mean some of us can’t even make it to church without our family fighting and yelling at our kids. “Would you shut your little mouth! We’re going to praise Jesus!...” And then there’s the kids snarky words back to their parents. “Well I can’t do both. I can’t shut my mouth and praise Jesus at the same time. So which is it?” Boy don’t make me smack you upside the head with my bible!...James says we bless and curse with the same mouth. Paul says our words are like a viper with venom, a deadly poison that can kill people emotionally. Growing up we were taught “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” But that isn’t true, because some words hurt worse than sticks and stones. We’ve all been hurt by words and even hurt others with our words. That includes written words like texts, emails, and social media. We sometimes throw daggers through texts and make fun of others through memes on social media. Our technological culture often uses words to tear down instead of build up, to cut up instead of heal up. We often sin with the use of our words.
So how’s your thoughts, hearts, actions, and words?...Do you always have good thoughts about God and others?...Do you always have a good heart that seeks God above all other things?...Do you always have good actions with 100% selfless motives?...Do you always have good words in your verbal and written communication?...The reality is we’ve all sinned with our thoughts, hearts, actions, and words. What Paul’s doing in these first 3 chapters of Romans is an MRI of the soul. He’s showing us the problem with our souls, so we’ll rely on the solution for our souls. He’s trying to point out that our souls aren’t well. Just like a fever is a sign that you’re sick, sin is a sign that your soul is sick. Our sin nature, our total depravity infected us with sin, and it’s been growing inside us since we were kids. Sin is more than an external action, it’s an eternally fatal condition affecting every part of our lives, and everyone in our lives. It’s affecting our thoughts, hearts, actions, and words. Paul’s MRI of the soul reveals we’ve all been infected and affected by sin. It reveals we’re all under sin’s power, and we can’t overcome it with our willpower. We need a better solution than our willpower, which Paul gives us in vs. 20-22.
Vs. 20, “No one will be justified in God’s sight by the works of the law, because the knowledge of sin comes through the law...22 But the righteousness of God is through faith in Jesus Christ, to all who believe...” That’s the solution for our sinful depravity. It’s faith in Jesus. After building a strong case that everybody’s sinful, everybody’s unrighteous, Paul says Jesus is the only who’s never sinned. Jesus is the only one who’s righteous, therefore he’s the only one who has the power to save and change us. This coming from Paul who was a skeptic and enemy of Jesus, until he saw the resurrected Jesus with his own eyes, and experienced the life changing power of Jesus for his own life. Paul didn’t start out seeking Jesus, it was Jesus who started out seeking Paul. Paul didn’t save and change his own life, it was Jesus who saved and changed his life. Jesus wants to do the same with our lives, but we have to stop relying on our willpower to save and change our sinful hearts. We have to admit the solution can’t come from within us, since the sins we’re committing flow from the sinful hearts inside us. We can’t be the cure for sin, since we’re a part of the problem of sin. We need a savior who’s greater than our sin. We need a savior who’s power can resist sin, who’s power is over sin, instead of under sin. We need a savior who can pay the eternal price we deserve to pay for our sins, and that savior is Jesus!
Jesus is our loving savior who resisted sin, lived the perfect life we haven’t lived, paid the eternal price we deserved to die for our sins, then rose again proving his power is greater than our willpower. Jesus is the only righteous God who has every right to judge us for our sins, and he’s the only loving Savior who has the power to save us from our sins. He rightfully declared we’re all guilty of our sins, but then lovingly died on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins. Paul says it’s only through faith in Jesus that your soul can be saved and changed. Will you still sometimes sin after having faith in Jesus? Paul says you will, and you’ll feel some consequences from that sin. You’ll feel some consequences from turning away from Jesus in that moment. But 2nd Timothy 2:13 says, “If we are faithless, he remains faithful.” So Jesus will remain faithful to saving and changing you, even on the days you haven’t remained faithful to him. He'll still seek you, to lead you to repentance and to restore your wandering heart. So following Jesus doesn’t mean you’ll always be walking in perfect righteousness, it means you’ll always be growing in righteousness. It doesn’t mean you’ll never feel the consequences of your sins in this life, it means you’ll always be covered by the perfect righteousness of Jesus for eternal life.
The big idea of the message is you need a greater power to help you, fix the sin problem within you...You need a greater power to help you, fix the sin problem within you, and Jesus is that greater savior with the greater power than your willpower. In these first 3 chapters Paul is challenging the many excuses we have for sinning against God’s moral laws. “Well I didn’t know I was doing anything wrong?” Yeah you did, because you aren’t ignorant to breaking the moral laws in your conscience. “Well I’m religious, I go to church, I read my bible.” That’s a great, but it doesn’t make you better than the person who hasn’t since you break moral laws too. Paul’s point is we all sin, we all deserve God’s judgement, we all need Jesus to save and change us.
The Christian message isn’t about giving us a bunch of principles to live by, it’s about giving us a savior to rely on. What good are principles on life, if your willpower fails to live out those principles? What good are your marital principles, parental principles, principles on living a better life, if your willpower fails to live out those principles? The bible has great principles for things like marriage, parenting, how to live a better life. But the primary message of the bible is to rely on Jesus for help in living out those principles. It isn’t to rely on your willpower, it’s to rely on Jesus and his power. So if you want your life to change, then rely on Jesus as your savior instead of trying to be your own savior. If you want your life to change on the outside, then rely on the greater power of Jesus to save and change your heart on the inside. The more you rely on Jesus on the inside, the more your life will change on the outside. Who’s power have you been relying on?...Who’s power will you rely on?...Will you rely on your willpower for salvation and transformation, or rely on the power of Jesus for salvation and daily transformation?