"THE WORLD ON TRIAL........THE EVIDENCE Romans 3 v 13-18.
Paul has proved that the domination of sin affects all men without exception; there is not even one, who is not a sinner and therefore under Divine judgment, not one Jew , not one Gentile, the ruling principle of sin is universal! He now proceeds to show another shocking aspect of sin, that is, sin is total! Not only are all men sinful, but the whole man is affected: the throat, the tongue, the lips, the mouth, the feet, the habits, the mind, the eyes. This is the true human condition, as seen by God.
SIN IS TOTAL:
This section can be subdivided; of the eight descriptions of the human condition, four refer to WORDS, four refer to DEEDS, so that by both words and deeds we are condemned, and if we are being honest with ourselves, we will quickly realise the truth of this. Our words are sinful, our deeds are sinful, and so sin has affected the whole man. Today we will concentrate on the first section Romans 3 v 13 - 14 which describe the sins of the tongue. The apostle James describes the ravishes of the human tongue, and its potential to hurt as follows; "the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity; it is set among our members in such a way that it defiles the whole body and sets on fire the wheel of nature; and it is set on fire of hell." R.V. James 3 v 6 He continues to say that while every kind of beast can be tamed, and has been tamed of mankind "the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil full of deadly poison." James 3 v 7 The seemingly placid neighbour who smiles at us and does us the odd good turn can suddenly resort to gossip which can harm all around them. We know this to be a fact. There was a favourite ditty, in Scotland as follows " sticks and stains will break yer banes but names will never hurt ye." This is popular, but of course is not always true, because sinful words can be very hurtful. The four aspects of the sins involving words are as follows;
1. "Their throat is an open sepulchre"
There are two ideas associated with a sepulchre in scripture. The first is the idea of cruelty " jealousy is cruel as the grave" Song of Solomon 8 v 6. The second is the idea of greed "There are three things that are never satisfied, ye four things say not it is enough; the grave and the barren womb, the earth that is not filled with water and the fire that sayeth not it is enough." Proverbs 30 v 15 - 16. What is being illustrated here is the twin intentions within each and every one of us to get as much as we can for ourselves, even if it means being cruel to others. This is a very powerful trait of sin within us. The thought of a sepulchre which is open would be horrifying to us, yet as God sees us, we are in fact the distasteful thing of a sepulchre which is open. We are greedy for ourselves and we are cruel to others, and it is openly evident, we don't even try to hide our shame. Jesus called the super - religious Pharisees "whited sepulchres" clean on the outside but unclean inside, now the Holy Spirit describes us all as " open sepulchres," which is obviously a very demeaning description, but nevertheless true.
2. "With their tongues they have used deceit"
Here we have something which affects every human being, and we know it, and is part of every day life; yet it is severely condemned by God. It is a practice that first entered the garden of Eden, when Satan perpetrated the lies to Eve, who was deceived by it. Jesus, when speaking of the devil said "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own; for he is a liar and the father of it." John 8 v 44 Therefore all lies have their source in Satan, and when we lie we are doing his work. The lies we tell may seem innocent enough, but their origin is satanic, and we should not minimise their effect. We indulge in what we call "little white lies," there are no white lies and there are no little lies. When we lie it is a sin, and is the spawn of Satan. We indulge in half truths, which has caused the courts of the land to coin the phrase "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth." This is because of our tendency to only tell part of the truth. There is also the aspect of flattery where we over praise another human being, for whatever reason, but in fact we don't really mean it. Another very obvious source of lies is the propagation of religion in the world today, which has absolutely no basis, no confirmation, no proof, just the fabrication of men's minds who wish to control other human beings. the reality is that "God is true and every man a liar." Jesus said " I am the way, the truth and the life" John 14 v 6 Everything else, which is not supported by Holy Scripture, and which therefore is not the revelation of the Holy Spirit of God is a lie, and there are many propagators of it even today. This solemn aspect of human life is highlighted at the end times, in the day of judgement "all liars shall have their part in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone; which is the second death." Revelation 21 v 8 Every rogue salesman, overstating his product, every politician making promises they know they won't keep, every perjurer in a court of law seeking to pervert the course of justice, every form of deceit by the tongues of individuals will be judged by God who is THE TRUTH.
3. The poison of asps is under their lips.
This aspect has already been considered from James 3 v 2 - 6 and focuses on the hurtful aspect of the human tongue and compares the action of sinful words to the venom, the deadly poison of a snake. They say that anyone so bitten, is in great pain, as well as being in danger of death. Slander, which is baseless accusation, or half accusation (not quite the truth) can be very hurtful, and can have fatal consequences, if not physically certainly socially and spiritually. We can "kill" another human being
with our words. Jesus took up this aspect of things in the sermon on the mount, when He said "whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgement; and whosoever shall say to his brother "worthless" shall be in danger of the counsel; but whosoever shall say "fool" shall be in danger of hell fire." Matthew 5 v 21 - 22 A wrong attitude to another human being is a serious matter in the eyes of God and if severe enough can be considered as an intent to murder. Our sinful words can and do bring hurt to other people.
4. Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.
This is self-explanatory. How many expletives are used in a day to justify our words or to magnify the meaning of our words, when in fact they are demeaning our words. Jesus gave the advice to His disciples "let your yea be yea, and your nay, nay; for whatsoever is more than these comes out of evil." Matthew 5 v 37 We indulge in these things every day and they are an evidence of sin controlling our entire being. The scripture says" our mouths are full of cursing and bitterness". The cursing may refer to our attitude to God, the bitterness may refer to our attitude to other people. Whatever is the case the truth about us being explained here is that our mouths are full of it!.
This evidence is overwhelming, and if we would only admit it. it is part and parcel of every day life, and is a matter of shame to every one of us. We were created to be better than this. The need for God's intervention is becoming more and more clear as we go on. Finally, tomorrow d.v.we look at THE EVIDENCE OF SINFUL ACTIONS.
Paul has proved that the domination of sin affects all men without exception; there is not even one, who is not a sinner and therefore under Divine judgment, not one Jew , not one Gentile, the ruling principle of sin is universal! He now proceeds to show another shocking aspect of sin, that is, sin is total! Not only are all men sinful, but the whole man is affected: the throat, the tongue, the lips, the mouth, the feet, the habits, the mind, the eyes. This is the true human condition, as seen by God.
SIN IS TOTAL:
This section can be subdivided; of the eight descriptions of the human condition, four refer to WORDS, four refer to DEEDS, so that by both words and deeds we are condemned, and if we are being honest with ourselves, we will quickly realise the truth of this. Our words are sinful, our deeds are sinful, and so sin has affected the whole man. Today we will concentrate on the first section Romans 3 v 13 - 14 which describe the sins of the tongue. The apostle James describes the ravishes of the human tongue, and its potential to hurt as follows; "the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity; it is set among our members in such a way that it defiles the whole body and sets on fire the wheel of nature; and it is set on fire of hell." R.V. James 3 v 6 He continues to say that while every kind of beast can be tamed, and has been tamed of mankind "the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil full of deadly poison." James 3 v 7 The seemingly placid neighbour who smiles at us and does us the odd good turn can suddenly resort to gossip which can harm all around them. We know this to be a fact. There was a favourite ditty, in Scotland as follows " sticks and stains will break yer banes but names will never hurt ye." This is popular, but of course is not always true, because sinful words can be very hurtful. The four aspects of the sins involving words are as follows;
1. "Their throat is an open sepulchre"
There are two ideas associated with a sepulchre in scripture. The first is the idea of cruelty " jealousy is cruel as the grave" Song of Solomon 8 v 6. The second is the idea of greed "There are three things that are never satisfied, ye four things say not it is enough; the grave and the barren womb, the earth that is not filled with water and the fire that sayeth not it is enough." Proverbs 30 v 15 - 16. What is being illustrated here is the twin intentions within each and every one of us to get as much as we can for ourselves, even if it means being cruel to others. This is a very powerful trait of sin within us. The thought of a sepulchre which is open would be horrifying to us, yet as God sees us, we are in fact the distasteful thing of a sepulchre which is open. We are greedy for ourselves and we are cruel to others, and it is openly evident, we don't even try to hide our shame. Jesus called the super - religious Pharisees "whited sepulchres" clean on the outside but unclean inside, now the Holy Spirit describes us all as " open sepulchres," which is obviously a very demeaning description, but nevertheless true.
2. "With their tongues they have used deceit"
Here we have something which affects every human being, and we know it, and is part of every day life; yet it is severely condemned by God. It is a practice that first entered the garden of Eden, when Satan perpetrated the lies to Eve, who was deceived by it. Jesus, when speaking of the devil said "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own; for he is a liar and the father of it." John 8 v 44 Therefore all lies have their source in Satan, and when we lie we are doing his work. The lies we tell may seem innocent enough, but their origin is satanic, and we should not minimise their effect. We indulge in what we call "little white lies," there are no white lies and there are no little lies. When we lie it is a sin, and is the spawn of Satan. We indulge in half truths, which has caused the courts of the land to coin the phrase "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth." This is because of our tendency to only tell part of the truth. There is also the aspect of flattery where we over praise another human being, for whatever reason, but in fact we don't really mean it. Another very obvious source of lies is the propagation of religion in the world today, which has absolutely no basis, no confirmation, no proof, just the fabrication of men's minds who wish to control other human beings. the reality is that "God is true and every man a liar." Jesus said " I am the way, the truth and the life" John 14 v 6 Everything else, which is not supported by Holy Scripture, and which therefore is not the revelation of the Holy Spirit of God is a lie, and there are many propagators of it even today. This solemn aspect of human life is highlighted at the end times, in the day of judgement "all liars shall have their part in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone; which is the second death." Revelation 21 v 8 Every rogue salesman, overstating his product, every politician making promises they know they won't keep, every perjurer in a court of law seeking to pervert the course of justice, every form of deceit by the tongues of individuals will be judged by God who is THE TRUTH.
3. The poison of asps is under their lips.
This aspect has already been considered from James 3 v 2 - 6 and focuses on the hurtful aspect of the human tongue and compares the action of sinful words to the venom, the deadly poison of a snake. They say that anyone so bitten, is in great pain, as well as being in danger of death. Slander, which is baseless accusation, or half accusation (not quite the truth) can be very hurtful, and can have fatal consequences, if not physically certainly socially and spiritually. We can "kill" another human being
with our words. Jesus took up this aspect of things in the sermon on the mount, when He said "whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgement; and whosoever shall say to his brother "worthless" shall be in danger of the counsel; but whosoever shall say "fool" shall be in danger of hell fire." Matthew 5 v 21 - 22 A wrong attitude to another human being is a serious matter in the eyes of God and if severe enough can be considered as an intent to murder. Our sinful words can and do bring hurt to other people.
4. Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.
This is self-explanatory. How many expletives are used in a day to justify our words or to magnify the meaning of our words, when in fact they are demeaning our words. Jesus gave the advice to His disciples "let your yea be yea, and your nay, nay; for whatsoever is more than these comes out of evil." Matthew 5 v 37 We indulge in these things every day and they are an evidence of sin controlling our entire being. The scripture says" our mouths are full of cursing and bitterness". The cursing may refer to our attitude to God, the bitterness may refer to our attitude to other people. Whatever is the case the truth about us being explained here is that our mouths are full of it!.
This evidence is overwhelming, and if we would only admit it. it is part and parcel of every day life, and is a matter of shame to every one of us. We were created to be better than this. The need for God's intervention is becoming more and more clear as we go on. Finally, tomorrow d.v.we look at THE EVIDENCE OF SINFUL ACTIONS.
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