890. All Under Sin

Welcome to The Daily Platform from Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina today speaker is Dr. Steve Pettit, who served as an evangelist for over 29 years before becoming president of Bob Jones University last year. Please take your Bibles and turn with me this morning to the third chapter of the book of Romans Romans chapter 3 this morning and were going to read beginning in verse nine down to verse 12 and our tax verse this morning is found in verse nine, the Bible says what then are we better than they know in no wise, for we have before prove both Jews and Gentiles that they are all under sin as it is written, there is none righteous, no not one. There is none that understand if there is none that seek after God. They are all gone out of the way they are together become unprofitable.

There is none that do with good no not one.

These words that we just read were written by inspiration by the apostle Paul. Paul had a passionate desire to get to go to the city of Rome. The city in that day, which was the largest in the world.

He wanted to go and preach the message of salvation to both Jews and Gentiles, and Paul was eager about it. He was as we would say he was fired up. He was stirred up, but Paul knew all too well that there is no point in preaching the way of salvation unless a person recognizes their need of salvation. Or you could say it this way, the old preacher said you can't get people saved until you get people lost. So what is Paul do he devotes three entire chapters to showing people there need to be saved.

Or you could simply say to help them understand that they are lost in Romans chapter 3 in verse nine, the verse that were looking at this morning.

Paul makes both a conclusive and irrefutable statement. Notice what he says.

What then are we better than they know in no wise, for we have before prove both Jews and Gentiles. They are all under sin. This morning I like us to take a few moments to look at these three words, where Paul is conclusively stating the true condition of all of us that we are all under sin and the first thing I want to see this morning is that Paul makes it very clear that sin is a universal problem. Notice what he says. He says all are under sin without exception, all men, Jews and Gentiles, and by the way, that statement is basically referring to the whole world because in the day of the apostle Paul.

There were either Jews or there's the rest of the world.

The Gentiles, Paul is saying that without exception, in all places at all times under all circumstances that men do consistently and persistently sin all are under sin. This is clearly validated by the Scripture we read Romans chapter 3 verses 10 through 12 were Paul strings together Old Testament verse verses to validate man sinfulness. Look at what he says in verse 10 as it is written, there is none righteous, no not one. There is none that understand that there none the sake of after God, they are all gone out of the way they are together become unprofitable. There is none that do it's good no not one.

Think about it six times. Paul uses the phrase there is none or not one two times he uses the phrase they are all in what is he doing he simply showing the comprehensive nature of the sinfulness of man is the whole testimony of the Bible for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Let me make it very simple. This room is filled with hundreds and hundreds of sinners, so look around you. What do you see you see sinful people but not only is the universality of sin validated by the Scripture.

But it is verified by experience flat to the remotest parts of the earth. Visit every tribe and every people groups study carefully every human culture and you will discover without fail, and without exception that every single person is living under the controlling power of sin, and if you worked in internship this summer and another American city.

How many of you went to a foreign country this year and did missions work.

It doesn't matter the culture language can be different. Food can be different dress can be different worldview can be different. But what's not different is that in every culture. People lie, people cheat people steal people commit adultery and people kill one another. Why, because all are under sin, the famed theologian Charles Hodge stated we have no account of any family, tribe or nation that is free from the contamination of sin, the universality of sin among men is therefore one of the most undeniable doctrines of Scripture and one of the most certain facts of Scripture. We all know this is true because we know it by our own experience because when we do wrong. We all feel bad number of years ago I was on a flight sat next to a gentleman began to have a conversation with him. His name was Dan a sedan. What do you do for living. He said I install polygraph machines and teach people how to run them you don't a pot polygraph machine is is a lie detector. He said I've installed them in Russia and Israel in South America so I asked him a question sedan.

By the way, he gave me his card is.

He was called Dan the polygraph man I sedan can you lot can utilize in the polygraph machine not pick it up and he said it is impossible. I said why he said it's just the way where made up as human beings are body, our emotions are words our thoughts are all together so that when we lie our body respond, and I thought, why is that true because we are all made in the moral image of God and God only tells truth and men in sin lie. You see folks, it is a universal truth of what Paul said we have all sinned and then noticed, secondly, that sin is not only a universal problem, but sin is a control problem. Notice he says all are under sin. The word under means to be under the control of just like the Israelites who were under the bondage of the Egyptians, so men are enslaved, or they are controlled by sin.

In Romans 620, Paul states that before we are saved we are the servants we are the slaves to sin. We can't stop sinning. Let me say that this control of sin is something that is permanent. For example, let's let's take the rolling of a dice. Let's say you take two dies and you roll them and it lands owned Lucky seven well, you don't necessarily think that something is wrong with the dies by if you throw that same pair of dies 1 million times and it lands on the number seven, 1 million times what you think. You think what the dice is what we called loaded or it's fixed now.

If we know that all men in all places at all times under all circumstances are consistently sinners 100% of the time, regardless of their education. Their economic position or their environment, then the logical conclusion is that the cause for sinning is more than just simply people making bad choices.

We must assume that there is, as Jonathan Edwards said that there is a prevailing propensity in all of us to sin.

That is, we have the inbred tendency, the natural inclination or a bent toward sinning.

Or we could just simply say our dice is loaded and Jesus said this, Jesus made it very clear that if we sin that is actually rooted not just in our choice, but it's in our nature was not what Jesus said in Matthew 1233 either make the tree good, and the fruit and his fruit good, or else makes make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt the tree is known by his fruit. It is the root that produces the fruit what comes out of the life comes from with in the life, the choices of our wills are determined by the dispositions of our heart. And Jesus was emphatic when he declared that sin proceeds out of an evil heart. There is nothing Jesus said from from without a man that entering into him can defile him, but the things which come out of him. Those are they that the file the man, Mark 715 Mark 721 four from within and out of the heart of man proceeds evil fall. You see, you do what you do because you are what you are.

We are not sinners because we sin we actually sin because we are sinners.

The heart of sin lies in the heart of man, our choices are based on our nature and with in our nature. Our nature is fixed.

Our dice is loaded and the problem is that we can't fix it. You can't fix your heart like put it this way, you can't stop sinning. We can't change our natures. Jeremiah said it this way can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots. Can a leopard go to Walmart and buy spot remover and change his spots then may may you also do good, that are accustomed to do evil, the Bible is saying Paul is teaching that the control of sin is a permanent condition. We cannot change what we are. But let me also say the control of sin is not only permanent in its condition, but it is total in its scope. Let me put it this way.

No part of human nature that that there is no part of our human nature that has not been totally and thoroughly corrupted by our sin. What Paul say in Romans 310. There is none righteous, no not one.

There's no secret part of you that is righteous. There's no part of you is one theologian said is an island of righteousness. You don't have a little part of you that is right, sin has penetrated and it has permeated every part of your being. Your mind, your emotions and your will so that you can say that we are total sinners are hard drive has been corrupted and notice what Paul says. He says in verse 11.

Sinners affected our minds. He says there is none that understand within the sphere of the human mind. Nobody can comprehend God. You can't find God in your own. The Bible says the natural man does not receive the things of the spirit of God.

They are foolishness unto him human reasoning cannot find its way to God only God can show you the way to himself. That's called divine revelation. Sinners affected our mind sinners affected our desires. Look at verse 11 there is none that seeks after God. That means nobody looks for God. Nobody attempts to find God and the reason is because nobody is interested in God. I met a fellow playing a number of years ago and I asked him where you go to church, or if you ever go to church. He said I've never been a church in my life that I asked him a question.

I said you ever think about God and he said never. Thomas Aquinas said we desire and we are interested in the blessings in the benefits that only God can give without desiring and being interested in God we seek after happiness, peace, relief from guilt and personal fulfillment. We want the gifts, but we don't want the giver. We want the benefits without the benefactor sin has corrupted our desires and then the Bible says sin has actually corrupted our wills. The Bible says in verse 12. They are all gone out of the way. That means that our will is actually in conflict with God. We're like Adam when God showed up ran in the opposite direction when God comes around.

We go somewhere else we should be running to God but human nature runs from God and furthermore we have no desire to submit to God. The Bible says the carnal mind is enmity against God is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. Our natural wills are in rebellion against God and what is the result of all of this.

Romans 312 says they are together become unprofitable. What is it me, it bees that nobody can earn salvation on your own attempt. Nobody. There's nobody good enough.

Charles Todd said we are destitute of any righteousness and we are disabled and opposed to all that is good.

We are totally we are thoroughly and we are radically corrupted. You say no, wait a minute. Are you saying that nobody can do anything good. No, that's not what I'm saying.

Fact is, the Bible recognizes that men can be honest in their dealings, they can be kind in their feelings and they can become and benevolent in their conduct unsafe people why because all people have a conscience and because of this our conduct can be regulated by a sense of right and wrong, so there's no conflict between the good that men can do in the Bible's teaching on the depravity of man by depravity.

What we are saying is that man is is is he's talking about primarily about our relationship with God. When God evaluates our actions. He considers not only what we do our actions. But why we do what we do our motives and the bottom line is that all men are absent of any desire to do what we do, out of a love for God and out of a desire to glorify our God. In other words, our sinfulness is seen in our self centeredness. Instead of apprehending and appreciating God for who he is.

His perfections we are literally as some of said God failures God is not the center of our life. That's what makes us so sinful because God is the center of everything, and the depravity of man is living life without God. Sin is a control problem. We are all controlled by our sin, somehow God delivers. That leads me to the last point, and that is sin is a racial problem.

All are under sin. You see, the Bible teaches that the entire human race descends from one man. His name is Adam Paul says in acts 1726 that God is made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth.

The color of your skin may be different but the color of your blood is the same. We are all made of one blood that Linksys back in creation to the first man, the head of the human race whose name is Adam. It's quite obvious that Adam was a real man.

Paul clearly believe that when God created Adam. He put them in a perfect garden but he said that he disobeyed God and the results of his sin not only affected Adam, but it affected the entire human race.

How do you explain sin preacher.

Romans 512 wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin. So death passed upon all men, for that all have sin. When Adam chose to send the effects of what he did were passed down to the human race. We call that Original Sin Adam's corruption was transferred to his descendents. The human race as a punishment for his sin. This is what we call the fall, and since all of mankind is racially racially connected to Adam, then we are all under sin. It's the human race problem.

We are unable to live without sinning. We cannot not sin and as a result of Adam's sin.

We are all going to die. What is death. It is God's judgment for sin. We are all under judgment because we are all under sin and apart from divine intervention without God stepping in.

We are all lost unless he comes to save if we are sinners racially, then we need a racial Savior.

We need someone who can come and save the human race, and who is that Savior it's one who became a human who is called the second Adam, because the first Adam brought sin, but the second Adam came to deliver us from sin. We need a deliverer who will redeem us from the bondage and the control of sin.

You can't save yourself. You can't change yourself, you can't stop your sin, you need a redeem her. We need a healer who can reverse the curse who can undo what Adam did. We need a Savior, one who loves us and cares for us, so that he can make us new people and change our hearts and start a brand-new race, and who is that one his name is Jesus. Only Jesus can say all who are under sin. Would you bow your head with me as we pray this morning.

There's not a person in this room who is not like what Paul said all are under sin. All of you need to be saved if you've not been saved. If you die, understand that you die under God's judgment. You need to be. You need a Savior.

You need a deliverer. So let me ask a few questions before we pray have you been delivered and redeemed, and saved and healed from the power sin in your life do you have a new heart.

Are you a new person.

Have you been born into a new race. The race of believers. I'd like to ask two questions this morning. Number one. How many of you would say, Dr. Pettit, by God's grace and by his grace alone. I know in my heart that if I were to die today. Now this very hour. I know I would be in the presence of God because I know that God has saved me from my sins, he is changed by heart and made me a new person. If you could testify to that this morning with joy in your heart that you have been saved, would you raise your hand and hold you may put your hands down.

God bless you. Praise the Lord just a moment I'm going to pray. But I'd like to ask those of you that did not raise your hand. Would you allow me to pray for you today who would say, Dr. Pettit. Please pray for me.

I know I'm a sinner.

I got it but I don't know that I've been saved and if I died I don't know that I would go to heaven and I know I do wrong. I've tried to stop and I fail and you would say, please, please pray for me. If I were to die today.

I don't know that I would go to heaven but I want to know that.

Pray for me as I lift my voice to God this morning. Would you let your hand write.

We are seated. Pray for me today. Thank you God bless you, pray for me this morning with your hand where your seated if you will pray for me today. Father, we thank you this morning for the unchanging truth of your word that can change our hearts. Father, please bless these next few days.

We pray for every student that is without Christ that they will they will come to Christ. We pray that is is a student body, our hearts will be drawn to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of our lives that we would love him and serve him. Thank you for this time together the honor today. In Jesus name, amen.

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