The Race in Ruin

Guest (Male): Have you ever looked at the consequences humanity faces when we go our own way and forsake God? Join us and find out why, according to God's word, the human race is in ruin. Welcome to the Bible Study Hour, a radio and internet ministry of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, featuring the Bible teaching of Dr. James Boice, preparing you to think and act biblically. Today we continue our series in the book of Romans called None Righteous. In this series, we've been exploring the full impact of the phrase justification by faith alone and seeing God's holiness and love as a call to living a disciplined faith. So is the human race really ruined? More importantly, if it is, where must we turn to find hope? Let's turn to Romans chapter 3 verse 13 and find out.
Dr. James Boice: We've already had one particularly grim and devastating portrait of the human race in its sin in our earlier study of the book of Romans in chapter 1. You may recall from our study of that chapter that toward the end, the apostle Paul describes the race as filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. He says they are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God haters, insolent, arrogant, and boastful. They invent ways of doing evil. They disobey their parents. They are senseless, faithless, heartless, and ruthless. We might well think when we have read a list of vices like that, that nothing else would be necessary. That is said it all and said it well. And yet, as we come to the end of this first great section of the book that portrays the lost condition of the race in sin, Paul, it would seem, felt that he had to sum it up once again. And so he does. We find it in chapter 3 verses 13 through 18. Their throats are open graves. Their tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Ruin and misery mark their ways. And the way of peace they do not know. There is no fear of God before their eyes. The difference between these two passages, of course, is that in the first, we have what is essentially Paul's own description. He writes as an apostle, of course, and by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. But these are nevertheless his words, his adjectives. No doubt they were drawn forth by his day by day observations on the nature of the world that surrounded him, just as they should be drawn from us as we observe the world around us. In the second passage, the one I've just read, we find something different. Here Paul is not so much describing the race as he sees it, but rather quoting from the Old Testament. He describes the race as God sees it. As I said, when he writes as an apostle, he is also describing the race as God sees it. But it's very clear in this passage where he quotes specific Old Testament text that he's dipping back into the inspired scriptures of the Jewish people and is saying in effect, look, this is not just my description. This is the way God sees the human race in its rebellion against him. Now these statements fall into different categories. And the first, which are quotations from the Psalms, Psalm 5 verse 9, Psalm 140 verse 3, and Psalm 10 verse 7, all have to do with speech. Matter of fact, he refers to the various organs of speech. Our throats, our tongues, our lips, and our mouths. And what he refers to here is the way we harm other people by our words. Our words do harm. Perhaps when you are a child and some of the other children said something particularly nasty or mean to you, which children always do, you were taught by your mother or by another member of your family, this little ditty that goes like this. We've all heard it. Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me. I don't know if you have ever stopped to think about that little rhyme, but if you have, you certainly have concluded that it is not true. No doubt the words are helpful in their way. They bolster our egos and they give us a little bit of strength to go out and deal with unpleasant situations. But when they say sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me, they lie because as a matter of fact, words do hurt. And what is more, words hurt permanently. I can think back in my childhood to times that I was hurt physically and remember the incident. I remember breaking my collarbone on one occasion. I remember playing football and breaking two teeth. I remember doing damage to the cartilage in my left leg. And I suppose there were hundreds of other bumps and bruises and physical assaults. But as I think back on those incidents, although I can remember the time and the place where the injury occurred, I cannot remember at least in the slightest the pain. That's something that's simply blotted from my mind. And yet, I remember harmful words that were spoken. And not only do I remember the words themselves, I feel the hurt today just as if I were living all those many years ago. Now you know that to be true. People will say things to you which decades later will come back to your mind and wound you as the words were meant to do. Now when Paul says that the wicked by which he means the race in general have throats which are open graves and tongues which practice deceit and mouths which are full of cursing and bitterness, certainly he's speaking of the way we harm other people by our words. Yet I think he's saying something more than this. I've been greatly helped at this point by reading Martin Luther. Luther is always brilliant and incisive. And moreover, he expresses himself vividly. And Luther, as he looked at these verses, saw that they referred not merely though they refer to that no doubt, not merely to the mean things we sometimes say to other people and that hurt them, but rather that they refer to those kinds of things, sometimes said in very loving ways which are nevertheless false and which harm them, not in this life only, but eternally. What Luther was concerned about was false teaching or heresy which, as he pointed out, not only harms us here, but can condemn us in the life to come. Say I think we have to think of it in those terms because when Paul quotes as he does from these great Old Testament texts, the result of them is not merely what we would call psychological injury, but rather the end of these harmful words is death. And by that he means not merely physical death, though words perhaps could harm that way as well, but spiritual death. Now Luther analyzes this, looking at each of those terms, the ones that we find there first. Verse 13, their throats are open graves. Luther says, well, that means that they devour the dead. They devour those who are already spiritually dead. That refers to mankind in general. We're dead in our trespasses and sins. These false words, these false teachings, the kind of teaching that says everything is all right with you. You don't have to worry about God. God is like a great big grandfather in the sky. Only wants you to do is be happy and have a good time. You go do that and everything will be all right. Luther says, when the world utters those words in our hearing, the world damns our souls. Because what the world is saying is peace, peace when there is no peace, no peace with God. Luther concludes, heresy or faithless teaching is nothing else than a kind of disease or plague which infects and kills many people just as is the case with the physical plague. Now we have to face that. And we need to face it squarely. This world of words that is out there is not something which is conducive to the health of our souls. On the contrary, it's quite harmful. Do you believe that? You should believe it because that's what our culture has become. And that is what Paul is talking about. Paul is not just digging into some old fashioned Old Testament ideas when he says their throats are open graves, their tongues practice deceit, the poison of vipers is on their lips. He's saying the words of the world are damning. Because if we listen to those words rather than to the word of God, which alone gives life, what we are listening to is that which will draw us as spiritually dead people to an eternal spiritual grave. Luther says something else about this. He says not only is it a case of them devouring the dead, it is also a case of their deceiving the innocent. That is exactly what Paul says, of course. Their tongues practice deceit. The deceitful aspect of this is important because it means that when you listen to the world and its wisdom, the world is not saying what the world is actually doing. The world is saying the contrary. The world is saying, look, this is the way to be happy. This is the way to be fulfilled. The world is saying there are no absolutes. There is no judgment. There is no day of reckoning. What you need to do is do whatever makes you happy. That's the way to live. You only go around once. Indulge, enjoy. If it feels good, do it. The world does not say even in the life that we know here, these things have consequences. The world doesn't even say that, let alone say there are consequences in the world to come. Now that is deception. And we see it around us on every hand. Luther says finally, you see, these things kill. We weren't dead already. We would be by the time the world gets through with us. That's the reference to asps. The problem with this is that if somebody is bitten by a viper, there is no cure. And haven't you known people that have been bitten by the viper of false teaching? It would be bad enough you see if they were just blank tablets with no truth there and no capacity for receiving it. We know that's true because earlier here Paul has said there is no one who understands, no one who seeks after God. That alone would be bad enough. But if in addition to that they helped bought in to a secular, misleading, heretical, false philosophy, well, then they are almost inoculated against any positive good. And any teaching that says your heart is all right without repentance and salvation through Jesus Christ, that you are secure for the life to come without faith in Jesus Christ and his death on your behalf is not only a false teaching, but one that will carry your soul, transport your person to hell for all eternity. You see why as Paul comes to the end of this section, he quotes the Old Testament. Think it was bad in chapter 1 when he spoke of every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. Well, it was. But it's much worse here. And then there's something else because it's not just this matter of words being misleading, words harming. As Paul goes on to talk about that, these words now give place to actions. These soft words, these nice words, these deceitful words eventually give way to cursing and bitterness, I suppose, upon those who are not easily taken in by the falsehoods. And then as he builds his case, adding line upon line, the harsh words, the cursing and the bitterness gives way to violent actions. Their feet, he says, are swift to shed blood. Ruin and misery mark their ways. And the way of peace they don't know. Those three things are related and they should be taken in inverse order to understand the progression. They don't know the way of peace because they don't know God. They're at war with God. And because they're at war with God, they're at war with one another and with themselves. People apart from the grace of God are at war with him because they know frustration and restlessness. Isaiah said the wicked are like a troubled sea that knows no rest. It casts forth mud. That's the heart of the wicked as God sees it. And then not only are they restless within, they are at a lack of peace with other people. And so they're always antagonistic. They're trying to overcome other people for their own benefit. And ultimately they are at war with God. And then moving back a step because of this ruin and misery mark their ways. This is the path of the wicked. It has to do with sinful men and women themselves. Their ways are ways of ruin. They make misery of their own lives. This is not hyperbole. This is the nature of the heart of man apart from the grace of God. Verse 18, there is no fear of God before their eyes. You know I am sure that the word fear in the Bible when it's used in reference to God does not mean what we usually mean when we use the word fear. When we speak of fear, we generally mean fright or terror. In biblical language, it means something different from that. It actually means reverence or a right and reverential attitude before God. It has something of awe involved in it because God is awesome before us. It involves something of worship because to see God aright is to fall down and worship him. That's what the Bible means when it talks about the fear of the Lord. It's why it can say the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the holy one is understanding. It's a way of saying if you get your attitude to God right, all the other things fall into place. The problem, of course, is that we don't do that. We do exactly what Paul has said we do in the first chapter. Rather than allowing the fear or reverence of God to guide us, seeking him out, we suppress the knowledge about him and we become fools exchanging the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. I find it interesting that at this point the apostle Paul uses the word eyes. He's been very graphic here in speaking of these physical parts of our being. This is the sixth one. He's spoken of throats, tongues, lips, mouths, and feet. And now he talks about our eyes. In every case, these organs of our body given to us by God for our good and for his service are warped by sin and actually used by us to harm ourselves and other people. And it's true of our eyes as well. Takes me back to what we were saying about the eighth Psalm verse 5 which describes men and women as being made in God's image a little lower than the angels. And therefore having it as their chief task and responsibility in life as well as their joy of looking up to the heavenly beings or angels and beyond the heavenly beings to God, being made like that one to whom they look. We saw as we studied that that although that would be having the fear of God before your eyes, looking to him in reverential honor, we do exactly the opposite. We turn from God and instead of looking upward to the heavenly beings, we look down to the beasts. And therefore instead of becoming like God and whose image we are made, we become like the beasts and behave like them doing things that even the beasts would not do. Could you say of the beasts their throats are open graves? Their tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness and the way of peace they do not know. Some aspects of that might be applied tentatively to the animal kingdom because it participates with us in the fall. Whatever can be said of the animal kingdom can be multiplied 10 times over, a hundred, a thousand times over in the kingdom of men and women. We will not fear God, or we'll become like the animals which we inevitably worship. Now I said a moment ago that when that word fear is used of God in biblical language, it doesn't mean fear or terror as we use the word. And yet I can't help but concluding that there is a sense nevertheless in which that would be a proper attitude for anyone of us if we have not come to God through Jesus Christ. God, you see, is not only the almighty creator and the savior who has provided redemption from sin through Jesus Christ. He is also the judge. And those who will not face him in Christ will face him as the judge. And that is a cause for terror. The Lord Jesus Christ spoke about it on one occasion. He said the time is coming when God will judge men and men and women on that day will call upon the hills and mountains, even the rocks of the mountains to fall upon them and crush them, to hide them from the wrath of almighty God. But the rocks will obey not fallen men and women, but God the creator. And they will not fall. And God will draw all men and women before his judgment seat. The irony, you see. The irony of the human condition and it's part of the deception is that the one thing we should fear, we do not fear. And then women for the most part do not fear God. They banish God from their thinking. They fear all sorts of other things. In Paul's day, the pagans feared the gods and goddesses of the Greek, Roman, Babylonian, and Eastern pantheon. In our day, the pagan in the jungle fears the trees, the rocks, the thunder, the sky, and all the things about him, including the spirits of the night. In our day, the pagan, by which I mean the unconverted man or woman, sophisticated as he or she may be, in our day, the pagan fears the future. What will happen tomorrow or next week? His or her neighbors, what will they do to me? Disease or sickness, when will it come? And above all, death. What lies beyond that portal? We fear all these things, but we do not fear the one to whom we must give an account, before whom all hearts are open and all desires known. When we were looking at the earlier verses, those that say there is no one righteous, no one who understands, no one who seeks God, I ended by talking about grace because that's what we need. Those verses say that we cannot save ourselves. We don't seek God. We can even understand the ways of God and we certainly are not righteous. If any of us are going to be saved, it's going to be because God is gracious toward us because he provides the salvation that we cannot achieve for ourselves. What should I say when we come to the end of these verses? Their throats are graves. Their tongues deceitful. Their mouths filled with cursings. Their feet swift to shed blood. Is the proper way to end at this point by speaking of grace? Oh yes, we need grace. But we need something more than grace. We need mercy because people like this, people like ourselves deserve not merely to be overlooked. See, unless you realize that about yourself that in yourself this is what you are like and what you deserve is God's judgment, then you are never going to be ready to come to Jesus Christ because after all, why should you? You don't need him. You're doing quite all right by yourself. You've bought into the world system. You love the way it flatters you. And the newspapers and television and the radio and the secular magazines, you'll go on in that delusion to the grave. But if you can hear the voice of God, the voice of God which speaks through scripture powerfully by the Holy Spirit and recognize as you read words like this that this describes you, then you can come to God and say God, be merciful to me a sinner. And that's the prayer God hears. Jesus spoke of the publican in his day who prayed that prayer, God be merciful to me a sinner. And he said that man went home to his house that day justified rather than the other who said, oh God, look how good I am. As if we bring our goodness, God will spurn it. It is no goodness at all. But if we plead for mercy, God is not only the judge, he is the merciful God who loves to show mercy upon those who seek him and who now strive to keep his commandments. Let us pray. Oh our father, bless these words to our hearts. These are not words which on the surface speak to us of your mercy. They do not speak of grace. They speak harshly of our sin and they point us to the judgment. We know our father, you have given them not for our harm, but for our good. And therefore we ask that you would take these words strong as they are and speak to those, all of us who need such strong teaching. Convict us of sin, point us to Jesus, and give us grace by the power of your spirit to plead for mercy and to find it in him who died for us. Amen. And amen.
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