Please turn with me to Romans chapter 3, the passage I'm going to read today in Romans 3, from verse 9 to 20. And this passage actually is the conclusion to the first section that is found in the book of Romans, the sections that deal with a reality that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, the declaration that God has declared about all human beings. about all human race, about the whole human being, the whole creation, the human creation. And so look what he says here in Romans chapter 3, beginning from verse 9. What then? Are we better than they? No, in no wise, for we have before proved that 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 understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are all together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher. With their tongues they have used deceit. The poison of asps is under their lips. Whose mouth is full of lips. Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways. And the way of shalom, the way of peace, had they not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.

Now we know that what thinks soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. 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. I'll stop here. Now we could go further, more if need be, from verse 21, but I want to say, by the time we end in verse 20, in chapter 3 of the book of Romans, we know that that section is the conclusion of the first part of the book of Romans, and the first part of the book of Romans deals with the question of sin.

It is so interesting that today, if you will ask people, if you will talk to your family, your friends, and people around us, you will ask a very simple question. What do you think God's opinion is about you? What do you think the Bible is saying about the whole human race? Of course. Naturally speaking, you probably said it as much as I have said it before we became believers in Yeshua the Messiah, we often thought of ourselves that we are, after all, not bad people. We haven't committed murder. We haven't done anything that is pretty bad, very drastic. We are pretty decent individuals. And we often time measure ourselves and compare ourselves with other people around us, with maybe family members or even the worst enemies that we have.

We are comparing individuals with individuals, but the Apostle Paul, Shaul in the book of Romans, now brings us before the person of God himself. He is bringing us to the presence of the Lord, and he is declaring before us the reality, what God is thinking about you and I. And so, in our earlier verses, we have looked at those three groups that Paul had divided them for us. The Gentile pagan world, in chapter 1, verses 18, all the way to verse, almost to the beginning of chapter 2. Actually, he has spoken to them up to verse 23. He declared the fact that they have been sinners before God. God gave them over.

God declared them wrong and not right before him. Then he went secondly, and he had gone to the second group, and he talked about the moralist Gentile. And there, where we read in our chapter as well, in chapter 2, I should say, verses 1 all the way to verse 16. And he also declared them wrong before God. He says, "O men," he says, "O men, whosoever are you that judges another, and you yourself are going to be judged by God." In our last meeting together, beloved brothers and sisters, we talked about the Jewish people, about ourselves, those of us who are Jewish. And the Jewish people, the religious Jewish people, depended and was exalting himself in the fact that he has the law.

He has the Torah. He has the scriptures. And he also needed to realize that when God looks at him, God sees the reality of his life. And so you remember, you that call yourself Jewish. A Jew. You that call yourself a Jew, he says, "You rest in the law. You make your boast in God. You know his will. You approve of the things that are more excellent. You are confident that you yourself is a guide to the blind. That you are light to them that are in darkness. You are an instructor to the foolish. You are teachers unto babe." And he says, "Which has the form and the knowledge of the truth in the law." And he says, "You that teaches, don't you teach yourself?

You that preachers that men should not steal, you steal? You that say that you should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery?" In other words, he had declared and he showed to the Jewish individual, to us who are Jewish, that we are just as much guilty before God as the pagan Gentile, as the moralist Gentile. The Jewish person is just as guilty before God. And now, when we have arrived to chapter 3 and verses 9 to verse 20, he gives us the climbing. And you know, brothers and sisters, we really need to get a hold of this because this is the reality of the human race. Unless people will recognize that that's who they are by nature, they can never get saved.

They can never get saved. They can never get over this hurdle. They'll never be able to get beyond the hurdle, the realization that they are not right with God. It doesn't matter who they are, where they come from. Up until today, in my visits with my own people, I still have a hard time to expound to them the reality that they still are sinners before the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I am a pretty good, decent man. Or I haven't done anything wrong. I sought to keep the law. I sought to live my life right. I keep Shabbat. And I keep the holidays. And I keep kosher.

And I seek to do this or this. And it just, they don't get over the hurdle, over this fact, the reality that they are still not right with God no matter what. And here now the apostle, in those verses, he actually, what he does here, he gives us a proof of the universality of the guilt of all mankind, the whole creation. And so here, look, in verse 9, here is a question that had been risen like this. What then? Are we better than they? Notice twice, question mark. What then? Question mark. Are we better than they? Question mark. You see, after he already spoke about those three groups, someone might say, well, we, at all this, what you have said to us, Paul, apply to them.

I'm not a pagan Gentile. I'm not a moralist Gentile. I'm not even the religious Jew or the Jewish religious man or woman. He says, but I am okay. I have no problem in my relationship with God. And the apostle Paul said, are we better than them? He asked this question. And he asked, he's writing to the Romans, of course. And he clued himself when he says, are we? Are we better than they? And notice the answer. The answer is clearly no. No, we are not better than anybody else. No. He says in verse nine, in no wise, for we have before proved both Jewish people and Gentiles that they are all under sin.

Notice the word all. If you circle it in your scripture, in your Bible, all under sin. This is, we have already proven this. I've already wrote to you in the aerial part of my letter that we have concluded that are all under sin. All the human race is under sin. All the human race is under sin. The problem that we have today in this world, the issues, the wars, and the hatred, and the difficulties that are existing in this world, and the unfairness, and unjust judgments, and all the animosity that exists today in this world, come from this fact that we are all under sin.

Sin. Sin, S-I-N, in Hebrew, Chet, or Chetet Aleph, is showing to us that this is missing the mark. We all fell into this condition that is called sin. And so now, after he declared that, that all are under sin, that is found in verse 9 here, we prove that both Jewish people and Gentiles, they are all under sin. Then he is telling the Romans, he says, as it is written. As it is written. Do you know how many times he used the word, as it is written? Remember again, the Apostle Paul do not have the New Testament in his hands. You know, often times people think that all this information that we have today about the fact that all have sinned, including the people of Israel, it's something new.

But no, Paul is only quoting the Tanakh. He opened before us the Hebrew scriptures. And not only did he take passages from the law, the first five books of Moses, he also takes the prophets and he takes the Psalms and he opened the scriptures to us and he shows us. Listen, this is not new. It was already declared in the scriptures, in the Hebrew Bible, in the Hebrew scriptures. And he says, as it is written. And when he says it, as it is written, from verse 10 to 18, he demonstrates, we have a demonstration of the fact that everybody is under sin. He gives us a demonstration.

He shows us explicitly that everyone is under sin. And he brings this to us very vividly from an Old Testament, the Tanakh passages from the scriptures. And he gives us, by the way, passage after passage after passage after passage that all have sinned, that everyone had fell under this condition. And so, in verses 10, 11 and 12, he shows us the universality of the guilt, that it is all inclusive, that everyone is in this condition. And so, what does he do? He is quoting Old Testament passages. And the first passage he is quoting is found in the book of Psalm, Psalm 14. And I would like you, please, for a moment, to turn to Psalm 14 with me.

In Psalm 14, we read the statement that is said by the psalmist. Psalm 14, verse 1, it's a psalm of David. And David said that the fool, the Hebrew word for the word for fool here is naval. The amar naval belibo, the fool said in his heart, there is no God. They are corrupt. They have done abominable works. There is none that doeth good. The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand and seek God. They all have gone aside. They all together become filthy. There is none that doeth good. No, not one. See what Paul does.

He takes the Hebrew scriptures and he is unfolding the verses. Bring before us the verses, the passage in Psalm 14, that what is the thoughts that come from the heart of man? You notice it says already in the beginning of this chapter, Psalm 14, it says, "The fool said in his heart." As I said earlier, the word for fool in Hebrew is the word naval. Naval is a very bad word in Hebrew. When we call somebody nevela or naval, it's a wicked man, an expression that we often apply it to a wicked individual. He is such a naval. She is such a nevela. That's the way we use it when we use, when we speak Hebrew.

That's the way we're using. It's a very, very bad expression. In the English, of course, it says fool as if somebody is not smart, he's foolish, but it's not correct when you take it from the Hebrew language. And so the naval is the evil individual says in his heart, God, I don't want you to be in my life. They don't only say, well, I'm not sure if there is God in heaven, yes or not. No, that is not the thought here. The naval is saying, God, I do not want you to be involved in my life. I do not consider you someone that I need to be accountable in my life.

God, I do not want you to participate in my life. No wonder we look at ourselves as well, how often time we really don't want God in our life. Unless the Holy Spirit of God working in our life, we by nature do not want God in our life. There's a song that used to be sung. It's a Christian song that the people say, send the light, send the light, send the light. But I remember when one of the Jewish believers used to think about the passages from the Bible, he said, this song is not biblically correct. No one wants the light to be sent to them.

In fact, they said, don't send the light. I rather live in darkness than live in light. Men love darkness rather than light. We read it in the Gospel of John. And so no wonder when we read in the book of Psalm here, that man said in his heart, Naval said in his heart, God, I do not want you in my life. I do not recognize you. God, no. That's what man is saying. And so the Apostle Paul, when he is quoting Psalm 14, he shows us here that men do not want God and live a life that is so far from God that in various areas in his life, he really do not want God.

In his mind, he set God aside in his mind. In his heart, he does not want the things of God. In his will. In his will. You know, there is one man that really wanted the will of God. And his name was Jesus, the Messiah, Yeshua. Only one. The natural men do not want the will of God. It is only Yeshua said, not my will, but thine be done. You and I never need to train our children to have their own will. We always teach them and try to teach them to have the will of God and not their own will. And you know what God have to do in the life of people such as you and I?

We want to break our will, but not to break our heart. To break our will because our will is always away from the things of God. And so look, Paul. He's quoting here, by the way, verses 10, 11, and 12. And I want you to see how he does that. First of all, he gives a declaration. He says, there is none righteous, no, not one. You notice that in verse 10? You and I might say, there is none righteous, no, not them. But Paul is really clear here. He says, there is none righteous, not even you, Gideon. Not even you. And you can put your name in there. You also are not righteous.

Not even one that is just and righteous here in this world. And so now look what he said when he's quoting Psalm 14. He shows us these three aspects of the human life. First of all, you see, he says about the mind of man. Verse 11. There is none that understand this. What we do with our mind, we understand with our mind. In other words, men, men's mind do not grasp the things of God. You remember what we read in 1 Corinthians chapter 2? That a natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. Because they are spiritually discerned. They can't understand the things of God. Because the mind of man is so filled with everything else.

That's why Paul had to say to the believers at Philippi. Let this mind be in you, which was in the Messiah, Yeshua. Fill your mind with the things of the Messiah, the things of the Lord Jesus. Because our mind are filled with everything else. And that's why he's quoting Psalm 14. He says there is no one that understands. With their mind, one would understand. But the human race, the human mind does not grasp, does not understand, does not want to understand the things of God. But he continues. He says, not only with the mind, what about our hearts? And you notice that verse, in the second part of verse 11, he speaks about the heart.

He says, look, there is none that seek after God. There is none that seek after God. You know who is the heart? Our hearts. God has given us hearts. That our affection will be devoted to him. That our hearts, we will seek him with a whole heart. That our hearts will be filled with the things of God. But when sin came into this world, man's affection, man's hearts, do no longer seek after the things of God because of sin. Our hearts, our hearts have turned away to other places, to elsewhere. You know, we already see it in the beginning of creation. We see it in the life of Cain, the brother of Abel.

You remember that Cain's heart had been turning away, turned away from God. And God had to look after Cain and says, Cain, he says, look, you can turn to me if you have an opportunity. Come my ways to me, my way, Cain. You come my way and I will accept you. But Cain went away from the presence of the Lord. He began with his heart to turn away from God. And after with his action, he have gone away from God. That was the condition that began right away when sin entered into this world. The mind do not understand the things of God. And the heart has been filled with everything else.

There is no one that seeks after God. Don't you ever think that you sought after God? Don't you ever think for a moment that you wanted God in your life so much that you are the one that really sought after God. But in actuality, it is exactly the opposite. Because we turn our back by nature on God. And we have gone far away. And thank God that he sought after us. And so we read here that no one understands. And no one seeks after God. I don't know if you mark your Bible. But you will see how many times the word all or none is mentioned in those verses.

All understand. None righteous, not even one. None that understand. And none that seek after God. They're all gone out of the way. And now look at the third verse. The third in verse 12. Now he's talking about the will. Not only the mind. Not only the heart. But also the will. This is verse 12. And again he's quoting Psalm 14 where we just read. They are all gone out of the way. They are all together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good. No, not even one. See, here we're talking about our action. Doing has to do with our action. And you know what makes the difference between Christianity or Messiah followers than all kind of other religions?

You know what's the difference? Is in many other religions or most of other religions that men made is something that they have to do. What are you going to do in order to please your God? This is exactly what our own people fail into when they say, if I will do this by keeping this and doing this and doing good works, I will be justified with God. And God says, look, by the way, it's not only a New Testament teaching. Paul, Shaul, quoting the Tanakh. He doesn't have Romans in his hand. He's quoting the Hebrew scripture that God had given to our people Israel. And he says, listen, you read your Bible.

You read your scripture and it says there that there is none that do good, not even you. And you might say, well, I did my best. I have tried very much. I have sought to do a lot of good deeds, a lot of good actions. And God says, listen. And if you read Isaiah, Isaiah teaches up to 62. He says, all our righteousnesses are filthy rags. Even the deeds that we have done, the good deeds that we have done, God looked at them and he says, listen, in the eyes of God, there's filthy rags. And so we see here, beloved brothers and sisters, in verses 10, 11, and 12, the universality of guilt.

And you might say, well, Brother Gideon, very discouraging to hear this from you. You know what? We need to hear that because unless we hear that and unless we accept that, we will never be able to go to a place where we can truly come before the Lord and recognize, I am in a need of a redeemer. I am in a need of a savior. Because many of the Jewish people, as well as non-Jewish people, because they don't like to hear this, and they don't accept these truths that are found both in the Tanakh and in the Brit Hadashah, they never come to a point that they can declare before God, God, I admit that what you say about me, you are 100% correct.

I agree with you, God, what you are saying about me. And so, verses 10, 11, and 12, we have the universality of sin and guilt, that everyone found guilty before God. And the reality is that man does not seek after God, but God seeks after man. That's the difference. Because God sent his son, the Messiah, Yeshua, into this world because God sought this world. God sought mankind. God wants mankind to be redeemed, to be forgiven, to have a hope in heaven. That man said to God, God, I want you to send the Messiah. God, I want you to send the redeemed. No, the opposite. God is the one that sent the Messiah, Yeshua, into this world.

We sang this song today that had been taken from John 3:16, that God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son. He sent his Son. 1 John 4:15, the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of this world. Even Genesis 3:15, God made a promise of the seed of the woman to come into this world right from the beginning, that he will be the one that will seek after men and not men will seek after God. And so verses 10 and 11 and 12 describe to us the universality of guilt. God searched for men, not men search for God. God has sinned and come short of the glory of God.

Well, we continue here in our time as we are dealing with these verses. We are going to the climax, to the conclusion of what God has to say about the human race. And so in the next verses, verses 13 to 18, we see all men fell into the total depravity. There is no one that can say I am not part of what the scripture is telling about me here in these verses. And so, look at this, beloved brothers and sisters. What man is saying? Where man is going? And what man is thinking? We have in these verses. I repeat that. What man is saying? Where man is going?

And what man is thinking? Found here in these verses 13 to 18. And again, Paul is quoting the Hebrew scriptures. Most of the passages that he's quoting here are found in the book of Psalm. He also quotes the prophet Isaiah as well. And let's read those verses, verses 13 to 18. "Their throat is an open sepulcher. With their tongues they use deceit. The poison of asps is under their lips. Whose mouth full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways. And the way of peace have they not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes." Those verses are actually a quotation from the Tanakh, from the Psalms and the prophets and the prophet Isaiah.

And in those verses, verses 13 to 18, God really takes men to the x-ray machine. I don't know if you've seen an x-ray of your teeth or some bones. I've seen the other day an x-ray of somebody that had a problem with hips replacement. And it's amazing to see how clear you can see the x-ray. How clear you can see the hips and the problems that existed in the hips. Amazing! You can look at the picture that had been taken of the body of this individual. And you can look at this, it's an x-ray. And you can see so vividly, so clear, the hips, the legs, and the parts they have a problem with.

When you go to the dentist, and you have a pain in your tooth, and the dentist put this, you know, put this thing in your mouth, they take the picture, and then they show this to you and they say, "Listen, you have a cavity here on this tooth. And you have another cavity on this tooth." And really what we read here in these verses, God takes the human men, the men and women, the people, He takes them to the x-ray machine. And He put us under the x-ray machine. And He lay before us the reality, the picture of how do we really look inside. We may come with a nice suit and tie, we look pretty decent outside, but God takes us through the x-ray machine to show us the reality of our hearts.

And boy, can you imagine if today, we've come to the meeting today, can you imagine if God is going to take each and every one of us right now, and He will examine what we just had thought about, what we felt in our hearts, and what the desire that we have in our own will, and He will say, "Come next week to the meeting." The next week meeting we're going to have everything that you thought about, even today at the meeting, spread before everyone else right here on the screen. I can assure you, beloved brothers and sisters, that none of us will be here at the meeting next week.

Because we would not want anybody to know the kind of thoughts that we have in our own hearts. That's the reality. We would have needed to wear our hearts on our forehead. We will end up staying at home. Because we do not want anyone to know the thoughts that are going through our minds. But you see, God telling this to us, because He wants us to understand what He thinks about the human race. what He knows about us, and how much He loves us in spite of our condition. And that's what He does here. Take us to the extra machine, and He lay before us the full picture.

And in the full picture, He shows us what you think. He says us where you go. And He shows us what we say. Those three things. And look at this. First of all, verses 13, A, B, and verse 14. Look what He tells us what man is saying. What comes out of the mouth of man. Look. He tells us here in these verses. By the way, you notice how many times the word throat, tongue, lips, and mouth is mentioned here. You notice that? Look, it says here. The throat is an open suppulker. With their tongues they have used deceit. The poison of asp is in their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.

You notice what He's using those four words here. The throat, the tongue, the lips, and the mouth. Here He tells us what man is saying. What man is speaking about. Look what man is speaking. He says here, deceit, poison, cursing, bitterness, bloodshed, destruction, and war. You tell me that it is not the picture of the human race today around the world, including you and I. You tell me that you and I do not fit into this picture one way or another. We might say, well, I haven't participated in war, but did you participate in deceit? You might say, I haven't shed blood, but do you have bitterness?

You might say, I haven't had any poison in me, but did you curse? You see what He's saying? You see what He's saying? He's saying what comes out of the mouth, of the lips, of the throat of the human race. What a picture to see coming out of the x-ray machine of the examination of the human heart. And that is a sad picture. We need a Savior. No wonder we need forgiveness of sins. No wonder God judgment. No wonder we deserve the judgment of God. And we cannot compare ourselves with each other, but we have to recognize that this is the measurement of the comparison between human being and a living God, a holy and a righteous God.

Their throat is an open sepulcher. Have you ever been in an open sepulcher in a grave site that is open and the dead remain there for quite a while? You remember what we read about Lazarus in chapter 11 of the book of John, when they were talking about him, when the Lord was going to raise Lazarus. And they said, you know, by now he stinks. It stinks because of the smell that come out of the dead body. And that's why he said their throat is an open, not closed, an open sepulcher. With their tongue they have used deceit. Poison of asps is in their lips. And then it says that with their mouths they are cursing and bitterness.

Oh boy, look at what man is saying. That's what God is thinking about the human race. That's why Paul is giving us those three chapters of the book of Romans to show us the reality of the condition of the human race. And so what man is saying, and by the way, he's quoting Psalm 5 verse 9, Psalm 140 verse 3, Psalm 10 and verse 7. Those three passages that is found in the Hebrew scriptures. Shaul, Paul is quoting here in these verses. This is not even New Testament at the time when he is writing this. It is a Tanakh. He is speaking about that which God said already long time ago to the prophet of Israel, to the psalmist of Israel.

That is the condition of man. You know, they came to Yeshua when he was here on earth and they were challenging him. And you remember what he says in Matthew chapter 12. He says this and I'm just reading this passage. Matthew chapter 12 and verse 33. He says either make the good tree and his fruit good. It's Matthew chapter 12 verse 33. Or else make the tree corrupt and his fruit corrupt. For the tree is known by the fruit. And he said, O generation of vipers, how can ye being evil speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth is speaking. A good man out of the treasure of his heart bring forth good things.

And an evil man out of the evil treasure bring forth evil things. But I say unto you that every idle word that man is speaking, he shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. How many times we have spoken words that we should have never take out of our mouth. How many times we have said things that if we could bring them back. If we can bring them back, we would be so happy to bring back what we took out of our mouth. Because in the day of judgment, it says here, they shall give an account in the day of judgment of what we have said.

And then he says, for by thy words, you shall be judged. And by thy word, you should be justified. And by thy word, you shall be condemned. Matthew chapter 12 and verse 37. So here we can see what man is saying. Man is speaking deceit, poison, cursing, bitterness, bloodshed, destruction, and war. That is what man is saying. And you and I are part of this. We can honestly say before the Lord, Lord, I fit here into this with what I am saying. And Lord, help me to use words that will be honoring to you now that I am a child of God. Now that I have accepted the Lord Yeshua as my Lord and as my Savior.

Well, here he shows us what man is saying in verses 13, 14. But now notice in verses 15 and up to 17, 15, 16, and 17, he tells us where man is going. Where does he go? What does he do where he goes? And so notice this, it says here in verse 15. He says, their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery is in their ways. And the way of shalom, the way of peace, have they not known. Now we're not talking about what we say only. But wherever we go, wherever man goes, the ways of man, wherever he uses his feet for, it's seemed to be always being led into destruction, in action that is not pleasing to God.

And so he's saying here, their feet, with their feet, they shed blood. But their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their way, wherever they go. And the way of shalom, they do not know. That's what he's saying now when he's dealing with the fact that all fell into the universal total depravity. We never should come to a point that we think that we are pretty decent, we are pretty good. In fact, I don't think we should always hit ourselves on the head like we are bad, bad, bad sinners. But God is declaring to us the condition of the human race.

That's why in the book of Romans, it's such an important book. First of all, he brings the reality of the condition of man before he can talk about salvation. And so, not only what men say, where man goes, what does he do? We learn here that there is destruction, there is bloodshed, and war. And just look around in a world in which we live today. Today, we heard about Iran. Iran is getting ready to get the bomb that is able to shoot those rockets against Israel, nuclear rockets in order for them to be more powerful so they can destroy the people of Israel. What about North Korea and what's going on in North Korea?

And they already have shot a couple of those rockets, so they are getting ready to fight their own fight. And everywhere you look around, you can see that the man's way is destruction and bloodshed, and that which is described here, a war constantly that exists here in this world. And if there is so-called peace, it's only absent of war, a temporary season. Let's take a break until the next war will come about. And what about in a personal relationship between men and men, families and friends? Even believers, often times, are at war with each other. Always fighting. Always fighting. It seems like it's our business to fight.

That's what we live for. If we don't fight, we are not happy, you see? If we don't say something bad about somebody else, how can I live like this? I can't live without saying something bad about you and you something bad about me. We are happy this way, right? That's the human nature. But that's not the ways of God. That's not the way of Yeshua, the Messiah. He's different. When he was reviled, he reviled not against. When he was threatened, he threatened not. But he committed himself to the one who judged righteously. That's the difference. That's why he was not a sinner. He was holy, righteous, undefiled, separate from sinners.

And that's why we are sinners. Sinners that need forgiveness from the Lord. That's what we learn here from those passages. And so, what man say with his throat, his tongue, his lips, and his mouth, deceit, cursing, bitterness, bloodshed, and so on. The way man goes is destruction, and war, and bloodshed, where we hear here a quotation from the book of Saul. Thirdly, to see the total depravity of man, he takes us here. By the way, the quotation here, verses 15 to 17, the quotation from Isaiah 59, verses 7 and 8. And you can see that that was found in the Hebrew scripture. It was nothing new. The Hebrews knew that.

The prophets taught us to our own Jewish people, the nation of Israel, who need to know that more than a Gentile world, because they had the scriptures. Isaiah spoke to our own people. But now, in verse 18, he's going now, and he's back to the book of Psalms, Psalm 36. And now he tells us what man is thinking. Not only what he's saying, not only where he's going, where is he going, but what he's thinking. And look at this, beloved brothers and sisters, look what he's saying here in verse 18. In verse 18, he says, There is no fear of God before their eyes. You know, when you think about before their eyes, it's their thoughts.

It's not only that what they see, just what they see with their eyes, but it's their thoughts pattern, and their hearts, what they are thinking. It says here that man, what is man thinking with his heart and his mind? There is no fear of God in their hearts and in their mind. Do you remember the story in Luke chapter 23 about the thief on the cross? You remember those two thieves when Yeshua was lifted up between heaven and earth, and there were two malefactors on his two sides? And it is interesting, in the Gospel of Matthew, you find both of them railing at Yeshua, railing at him.

But in Luke chapter 23, we find out only one of them railing at him. And the other one, look at him, you know, they're all three on the cross, all are ready to die. All of them are ready to die. But one of them was still railing at Yeshua. And you know, the other one, look at him and he says, Doth not thou fear God? Don't you have the fear of God? You are ready to perish. You are ready to die. At the last moment of your life, you still have the audacity to rail at this man? And he says, we have done that wrong deed and we are justly here.

We are on those crosses because we have done something wrong. But this man, he has done nothing amiss. What, don't you have fear of God in your heart, in your mind? Even at the last moment of your death, you are still railing at a man that hasn't done anything? That's how wicked we are by nature. Even at the last moment, we are still cursing God and have no fear of God. You read in the book of Revelation, in the middle of the tribulation, when the judgment of God is falling on this world, there are still people cursing God. And you know, again, brothers and sisters, this is the human heart.

This is us. Remember how we began. Are we better than they? The answer is no. What we say, where we go, and what we think is clearly laid down before us here. As the x-ray machine of God's revelation concerning man is delivering the x-ray, the picture, very clear. And you know what? When somebody thinks for a moment that he or she is going to sneak in by the side door to heaven, they will find out very quickly what God is thinking about them. Not what this man or the other man or the other woman or the other preacher thinks about them. They will find out very quickly when they're going to stand before God, he's going to take that record.

He's going to bring this DVD and he's going to play before us what is existing in our own hearts. And he will tell us, now you try to tell me, why would I allow you to enter into my heaven? And unless we have the Lord Jesus, the Messiah, as the answer for our sin, man will end up to be cast into the lake of fire. It doesn't matter who we are. It doesn't matter how much good works we have done. It doesn't matter even if we took some beautiful words out of our mouth. God will reveal to us the condition of the human race. And so what we say, where we go, and what we think is presented before us by God himself as the picture came from the x-ray machine of God's holy requirements.

And so finally, brothers and sisters, as we conclude this passage that deal with sin, Romans 1, 2, and 3, up to verse 20, deal with the universality of sin. In these last two verses, he gives us the climax, the conclusion, and the application. And so verse 19, condemnation upon all men. It says here in verse 19, Now we know that what things soever the law saith, this is the Mosaic law, it saith unto them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Here he gives us that climax. What do we learn from what he has just said earlier about the pagan Gentile, about the moralist Gentile, about the religious Jewish individual?

What we learn about all this, God is really saying that every mouth may be stopped, and that the whole world may become guilty. And you notice that it says guilty not before men, but guilty before God. You see, we might look at each other and exclaim guilty before another man, or another woman, or another person, but here we find out that he doesn't talk at all about comparison between human beings. He is talking about the guilt, the universality of guilt of the human race before God himself. That's the condition of man, that all the world may become guilty before God. That's why, by the way, we read today, earlier in the psalm, psalm 143, it says, David says it, don't go into judgment with me against me, God, because in your sight no one can be justified.

The whole world may become guilty before God. That's what he's saying here. Every one of us, the universality of the guilt of all men. And finally, and I'm going to conclude with verse 20, it says, Therefore, in view of what had been said, by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified, again, in his sight. You notice that? In his sight. And we learn here that somebody might say, well, God gave me the law. God gave us the law, Israel. God gave us the law. What is the reason that God gave us the law? We find right here in this verse, the reason that God gave us the law.

You know what God, the reason that God gave the law to Israel? It says here in verse 20, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. Many people make the mistake. They said, well, if I'll keep the law, I will be justified. I will be declared righteous. God says exactly the opposite. By the law, I give you the law. You know through my law that you have sinned before me. That's how, that's the reason why I gave you the law. The purpose of the law was not to declare you righteous, but the opposite. To declare you a sinner, so you can listen to what God says in his law, and you will adhere to what he says, especially concerning the sacrificial system, that you need the blood atonement, that you need forgiveness, that you need someone to pay the price for you.

That's the reason that the law was given. Now, if I would write that, I would write exactly the opposite. I would say, by the law, I know how I'm living godly and I'm being righteous. But that's not what the Bible says. The Bible says the executive opposite is by the law, is the knowledge of sin. And because I know that I have sinned, it should drive me to come to God in confession and ask him, God, I bring the sacrifice. I bring the blood that has been shed, that I will not be punished, that somebody else will become my substitute. God gave the law in order that men will go in a right direction towards him.

And if men would go in a right direction towards God, men will understand that God would provide for us a substitute to deal with my sin problem, with our sin problem. And so, beloved brothers and sisters, this is so clear. That's why the book of Romans is such an important book to learn and understand. The universality of the guilt of all mankind. And thank God that we don't have to stop right here. If we would stop right here in the book of Romans, Romans 3 verse 20, we will be miserable. What I'm going to do now? If God declared me a sinner, if God declared the fact that I'm saying wrong things, that I'm going to wrong places, that I think evil in my mind and my heart, and then he declared me a sinner.

What I'm going to do right now? How I'm going to be right with God? And unfortunately, some turn into religiosity and religious activity. And they think, now I've got to be more religious. I've got to keep things. I've got to do things. And they don't realize that it's not this what gives you justification with God. God now shows us that he provides salvation through another person. And from verse 21 up till the end of chapter 5 of the book of Romans, the second S is mentioned. And the second S is salvation. Sin declared. All have sinned. Now God shows us the way of salvation from verse 21 of chapter 3 all the way to the end of chapter 5.

How that holy God, who is righteous and pure and undefiled, can now take a sinful man, a depraved man and woman, and he save them, and he bring them to himself, and he forgive their sins, and make them children of God. But it is only on the basis of the work that the Lord Jesus the Messiah had accomplished for us on the tree. We're going to talk about it in our next meetings, Lord willing, in the will of the Lord. But I just did not want to leave us in verse 20 here. Because if we'll stay in verse 20, we think of all the negative, we will be so discouraged and dismayed.

There is now an answer for the problem of the human race, and the answer is found in the person of Yeshua our Messiah. We will praise him forever for what he has done for us.