Please turn with me in your Bibles to Romans 3:23. We read:

Romans 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God

If you came here today to hear a “Mother’s Day” sermon where “mothers” or “grandmothers” are the focus, you’ll be disappointed. One Mother’s Day years ago – at the end of the message – I was chewed out by a “single mother” for not preaching on the value of that type of mother. Listen: I love mothers and grandmothers and great-grandmothers.

I love my mother who, I believe, is with Jesus.
I love my grandmother who is with my Lord.

If my mother and my grandmother were here today, I know they’d expect me to preach focused not on mothers, but on the greatest need of every child – and YOU are someone’s child. I believe our greatest need is GOD.

“Sin” Tells Us We Don’t Need God. So, What IS Sin?

Our text tells us …

“ALL have sinned”

What is “sin”. We ALL have it according to the Bible, so we need to understand what it is. The longest living Apostle John put it this way:

1 John 3:4 (ESV) Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.

Sin is to break the law. What law? The law that God established. Sin is rebellion against God, the Creator of all life. Sin began in Heaven. God created all the angels, and made one angel named Lucifer to rule over those angels. But Lucifer forgot who made him, and began to stare at himself in a mirror one day, admiring his own beauty. As the most beautiful angel he was stunning. Lucifer (whose name means “Shining One”) began to believe that he himself was the source of his beauty and power. Lucifer said,

“I will make myself like the Most High God” (Isaiah 14:14)

What was Lucifer’s plan? He could not defeat God, could not overthrow God. So losing Heaven, Lucifer led 1/3 of the angels in rebellion (Revelation 12:3-4, 9) to this earth. God had created this earth in perfection, and east of the Garden of Eden God placed the height of His creation – man and woman. God gave man and woman – Ish and Isha – “dominion over the earth”.

Genesis 1:28 (ESV) … God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion … over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Adam and Eve were in a perfect place and a perfect position. God gave them immortality, and God gave them a perfect earth to live in and rule.

The earth and all that was in it was given to Adam and Eve. Lucifer could not take over Heaven. So Lucifer came to the earth. If he could get Adam and Eve to rebel against God, the sin he tried unsuccessfully to seed in Heaven, he could spread it on the earth.

Lucifer convinced Adam to disobey God, and since God gave Adam and Eve dominion of the earth, Adam’s sin – his following Lucifer in rebellion – caused sin to be planted into every human heart that came out of Adam and Eve’s family. Sin is rebellion against God. What does our text say?

“ALL have sinned”

“ALL” have sinned. All people. Old people. Young people. Infants. Toddlers. “ALL”. I was talking to another preacher one day who told me, “I don’t believe that children sin”. I told him, “Then you don’t have any children – or if you do, you don’t have any sense.” You don’t have to teach a child to lie. Children are born knowing how to lie. “Who broke that?” the parent asks. “Not me!”, the child replies.

Illustrate: One of my earliest memories was of being caught stealing chewing tobacco from the local Piggly Wiggly. I saw what I thought was candy on the shelf at the checkout. It looked good. I looked to see if mamma was watching – she wasn’t – so I grabbed a pack. I couldn’t have been very old – maybe 6 or 7. When we got to the car, I got in the back seat, and once mamma took off I started unwrapping my prize. Smelling it mamma pulled over, and was mortified at what I was doing. We went back to the Piggly Wiggly, where I was made to tearfully apologize to the manager of the store. King David wrote, “I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Psalm 51:5).

“All have sinned”

Black, white, red, yellow. Male, female. Jew, Gentile. Rich or poor. It amuses me – and I’m certain amuses Lucifer – when we begin to think “I am better than someone else”.

Look just a few verses away from our focal text:

Romans 3:9-11 What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; 10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: 11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.

Sin is a reality. It is sin that moves people to murder one another. It is sin that causes the addict to steal to support a habit. It is sin that abuses and murders children. It is sin that fills the prisons of every country. It is sin driving the murderous assault on the Ukraine. It is sin that causes bullying in school. It is sin that makes the alcoholic.

It is sin that is driving a stake through the heart of common sense in every nation around the world.

It was one fallen angel that planted the seed of rebellion into Adam’s heart. But it was Adam who grasped that seed. Just a few chapters from where our focal scripture is, we read:

Romans 5:12 … by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned …

Sin is a violation of God’s Law. Sin is rebellion against God. But sin is also that which brings DEATH. We as humans die because of sin. God made made humanity “in HIS IMAGE and after HIS LIKENESS” (Genesis 1:27). Humans are made to be immortal. Listen to me – animals die – but God made you to LIVE FOREVER. Your soul is designed to live forever, though your body dies. Your body DIES because of sin.

But your soul will live somewhere forever beyond the grave. Where will your “somewhere” be?

Death comes to us all. Sin is rebellion against God, and we are infected with sin. We all sin. We all die. Death will come to us all when we least expect it. Why? Because the Bible says:

Romans 6:23 … the WAGES of SIN is DEATH …

So we as humans have a big problem. We sin because we are sinners. We are sinners because Adam listened to a fallen angel, and rebelled against God. We are born sinners, born in rebellion against God and His law. Sin causes us to rebel against what God says. Sin not only causes rebellion, but it causes confusion. Rejecting God, the Creator of life, we are vainly trying to be our own creators. The longer we reject God and embrace sin, the more confused we will be.

Romans 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God…

Sin does not bring glory to God, but glorifies MAN while rejecting GOD. This is why we see strange things in the world today.

Illustrate: A transgender MAN is declared “WOMAN of the year” by USA Today. He is a MAN, but identifies as a woman. “There is no God – I am my own god”.

Illustrate: A transgender MALE SWIMMER set a new world’s record, winning the NCAA WOMEN’S swimming championship. This must be true, because he identifies as a she. “There is no God – I am my own god”.

Pastor Mark Spence, the Senior Vice President of Living Waters Ministries highlights the confusion normalized in our world today.

“If gender is fluid, then there is truly no difference between men and women. So {why did}President Biden {come} along and he said, ‘I’m not sure who I’m going to nominate. I’m just going to make sure the person’s black, and the person is a female.’ ?”.

That’s a valid question. If gender is fluid, why make sure a “female” is chosen. This same woman who was nominated to be the first black woman of the Supreme Court (Ketanji Brown Jackson) was questioned by our state Senator Marsha Blackburn as a part of the confirmation process. The Senator asked, “Can you provide a definition for the word ‘woman’ ”? Ms Jackson replied, “Can I provide a definition? No, I can’t. Not in this context. I’m not a biologist.”

The Prophet Daniel wrote of a nation that rejected God, saying:

Daniel 9:8 (ESV) To us, O Lord, belongs open shame, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against you.

Sin is rebellion. Sin is idolatry. Sin is confusion. Sin brings death. All are under sin. This is the bad news. But there is good news. There is GOD news. Though we all sin, and fall short of the glory of God.

Here’s The GOOD NEWS

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Sin Is Deadly. Sin Separates Us From God.
But God – not man – Has Provided A Way To Cover Sin.

Illustrate: John Stonestreet in a recent Breakpoint Daily article wrote:

“In March, online magazine Vox ran a series of stories under the title “America’s Struggle for Forgiveness. {Quoting that article Stonestreet writes} We wake up mad, we go to bed mad, and in between, the only thing that might change is what’s making us angry. The one gesture that could offer substantive change, or at least provide a way forward—forgiveness—seems perpetually beyond our reach. … As a society (emphasis mine) we have absolutely no coherent story—none whatsoever—about how a person who’s done wrong can atone, make amends, and retain some continuity between their life/identity before and after the mistake. … Grace, the act of allowing people room to be human and make mistakes while still loving them and valuing them, might be the holiest, most precious concept of all in this conversation about right and wrong, penance and reform—but it’s the one that almost never gets discussed {in our world today}.

We have made ourselves gods – and we cannot fix the mess we’ve made.

Illustrate Puny gods: When I was growing up, I loved to read Marvel Comics. If I could get my hand on a comic book, I’d read about Superman or one of the other “super heroes”. When Marvel Studios began to make movies, as an adult I love to go to them and watch them. One of the movies I saw had “The Incredible Hulk” in it. One of the villains, called Loki, begins to brag that he’s a “god” and no one can defeat him. The “Hulk”, who is big and green and has immense and immeasurable power, grabs Loki by an arm, and proceeds to bash him repeatedly into the ground. When the “Hulk” is done – and it only takes a few seconds, Loki with a stunned look on his battered face just says “uhhhhh”. The Hulk walks away, but not before he mutters two words.

“Puny god!”

That is a perfect illustration of every one of us today. “Professing ourselves to be wise, we became fools. We changed the glory of the uncorruptible BIG “G” God into an image that looked like us fallen humans” (Romans 1:22-23). We are wiser than God. We cannot be defeated. We are greater than anything that has ever been. Like the poem that William Ernest Henley wrote called “Invictus”,

“It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.”

PREACH! This is what we believe. We crow it on social media, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Parlor, Linked in, Instagram, whatever. We are our own gods. We know what’s best. We need no “God” of the Bible, for we are gods, we are immortal. No one is wrong, especially me! What I say is right, as long as I say it loudly. We believe this.

Then life, like that big, green Hulk, comes along and grabs us by the collar.

It slams us around economically. It beats us back and forth, bruising and battering us through what seems to be an endless pandemic. It hits us with cancers, and confusion. It fills us with fear and dread. And once that monster is done beating us up, it turns and walks away, saying,

“Puny god!”

We are all in a pitiful shape, but the God Who created all things is not willing to leave us in this shape. We started at Romans 3:23,

“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God”

Let’s look at the words, the pretext that comes before our focal text:

Romans 3:19-22 Now we know that what things 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. 20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. 21 But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; 22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:

God gave us a Law in His Bible to tell us what is right, and what is wrong. Stealing is wrong because God says it is. Sexual sin is wrong because God says it is. God gave us Laws. The Laws He gave us were given to show us what He demands – and how far we fall from what He expects. The Law of God was given to show us that we are all broken, we are all sinners, we are all far from where we need to be – where God says we should be. Look at:

Romans 3:20 “by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin”

Illustrate: Show a tape measure. Show a piece of lumber. Label the lumber “God’s standard”. Label the tape measure, “The Law”. Note, The Law, like a tape measure, tells me what the standard is. The Law shows me where I need to measure up. But the Law cannot save me. The Law is mechanical, but my life is DYNAMIC, not STATIC. I am, and you are, born under sin. We all are. We need to be saved – but we don’t realize it until we use God’s tape measure. When we use God’s tape measure, we realize how far we are from God. We need to be fixed.

Jesus Christ is the Fixer! Jesus is …

the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets

God sent Jesus Christ to this earth. Jesus Christ came for the broken. Jesus said:

Luke 5:31-32 (ESV) “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

Jesus said, “If you’re broken (and you all are), if you’ll come to Me, I can fix that!” Jesus Christ came so that all who have faith in Him – all who surrender their godhood and embrace Jesus as a Savior and God – to those Jesus will fix our sin sickness. We saw the pretext to our focal text – let’s look at the post-text:

Romans 3:24-26 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; 26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.

Let’s break this verse down:

Romans 3:24 Being justified freely…

The word “justified” means “to be made right with God”. We all fall short of the glory of God. But when we receive Jesus as our Fixer, HE MAKES US RIGHT with GOD THE FATHER. What does God charge for this? It is given “freely” upon our surrender to Him. We give up our broken life to Jesus. Jesus gives us eternal life. Jesus is the ONLY SOURCE of eternal life. Jesus said …

John 6:38 (ESV) For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.

God the Father sent Jesus Christ – God the Son – to this earth to fix us. Jesus said:

John 12:46 (ESV) I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.

And John 18:37 (ESV) … For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”

Jesus said, “I came that you may have LIFE, and have it ABUNDANTLY” (John 10:10).

Romans 3:24-26 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood

What is “redemption”? Remember I told you that the world was given to Adam and Eve, and Adam gave it away to Lucifer. We are born enslaved to sin. We are born pursuing the same path that Lucifer pursues. But Jesus came to “REDEEM” us from Lucifer and from Sin. He came to buy us back from sin and death. Jesus came to be a “PROPITIATION” – this is an old word which means “to be a covering for sin”. Sin separates us from God. Self separates us from God. Jesus came to fix our hearts, and to bring us into the family of God.

But we must have faith “in his blood”. He died to make payment for my sin, and your sin. He died to cover us, to save us from ourselves. Jesus died to free us from Satan and Self’s grasp. Jesus died for our sins, and rose from the grave to lead us as the children of God.

You Must Decide Your Own Destiny:
Hell Or Peace With God

God has set Jesus and Jesus alone forth as a covering for sin. The Scripture is quite clear. A very well known scripture says:

John 3:16-18 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

You have a choice before you today. You can believe that Jesus Christ came to this earth to fix what ails you. You can reach out your hand to Jesus, and say by faith “Lord, save Me!” (Matthew 14:30). He will grab your hand. The Scripture says, “Whosoever shall call on the Name of the Lord shall be saved” (Acts 2:21). Will you, dear friend, call on Jesus right now? Ask Him to come into your life, to change your heart. Ask Jesus to save you from sin and death. He has promised to do so.

The choice is yours. You can heed the Word of God:

Accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior,
Believing that He and He alone can save you from sin and death, and
Choose to commit your life to Him.

Or you can reject Jesus. The choice is entirely up to you.

If your mother or grandmother is a child of God by faith in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:26), then the best Mother’s Day you could give to her is to give your soul to Jesus.

What do you choose. I close with:

Romans 10:9-13 (ESV) … if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. 13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

May God the Holy Spirit move on the hearts and lives of those under this Word of the Gospel. To grow the kingdom of God, and for the glory of Christ this I pray. Amen and Amen.