All right. The reality of sin
and depravity part two. Now one of the things as you
read through passages of scripture like this that it's so important
for us to keep in our minds because you know how people do. They
read scripture and they just bring things to it instead of
getting things out of it. And one of the things that's
important as we read these words, that what Paul is describing,
the people that Paul is describing here in these verses. involves
and describes and includes all natural people. What the Bible
calls the natural man. You know the Bible in many different
ways and many different situations divides the whole world up into
two categories of people. I've often said there's only
two kinds of people on this earth. There are sinners lost in their
sins and there are sinners saved by the grace of God. There's
no in between there. And you're either a sinner lost
in your sins or a sinner saved by the grace of God. You could
call it unbelievers and believers. You can call it unregenerate
and regenerate. Not born again, born again. All
of that. Well, the natural man, as you
know, describes all unregenerate people. That's as we are naturally
born. We fell in Adam. We're all born
dead spiritually in trespasses and sins. And that's the natural
man. Now once God gives us spiritual
life and brings us to faith in Christ and repentance, once we're
born again, we're spiritual people. Now that doesn't mean that, and
when you talk about natural people, unregenerate people, You're not
necessarily talking about people who do not appear outwardly righteous. You're not talking about people
who are necessarily not religious, not moral in the eyes of men.
And at the same time, when you talk about spiritual people,
the spiritual man, the spiritual woman, you have to realize that
we don't always act spiritually, do we? You know, Paul talked
about the Corinthians there, how he says you're acting carnally. That means fleshly, the way you're
acting because of their divisions, because of their behavior. He
says you're acting carnally. And he was, instead of condemning
them, he sought to recover them. So when we look at this, what
Paul's talking about here is the natural man. And he says
in 1 Corinthians 2 verse 14, he says, the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God. Neither can he know them. They're spiritually discerned.
So when he says in verse 10, there's none righteous, no not
one. What's he talking about? Now we know that God's elect
are righteous in Christ, don't we? The Bible says that. We know
that God says in the Word that those to whom he chose before
the foundation of the world and gave to Christ, that he does
not charge them with their sins. He says, who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? They have Christ's righteousness
imputed to them. So we can say we are righteous.
in Christ by the grace of God, based upon his righteousness
imputed. But here's what Paul's talking about. As we are born
naturally, fallen in Adam, spiritually dead in trespasses and sin, in
ourselves or by our works, there's none righteous, no, not one.
You see, I am not a righteous person in myself. Do you understand that? In myself,
I'm a sinner. Now I'm a sinner saved by grace,
and I am righteous in Christ. And you've got to make that distinction
or you won't understand the Bible at all. I can claim righteousness
without embarrassment, but it's all Christ. I think it was one
of the old reformers who said it's an alien righteousness.
That means it's not in me, it's not of me, it didn't come from
me and I didn't work it out, it's all Christ. Bunyan said
my righteousness is in heaven. And that's Christ, Jesus Christ
the righteous. But what Paul's talking about
here is why we need Christ's righteousness imputed. And the
reason I need his righteousness imputed is this, there's none
righteous, no not one. And then he says, there's none
that understandeth, none that seeketh after God. Verse 12,
they're all gone out of the way. They're together become unprofitable.
There's none that doeth good. No, not one. Now that's the sin
and depravity of man. The sin, meaning we all fall
short. Nothing I do, even in my best
attempts to obey God, will measure up to the perfection of righteousness.
And let me tell you something, this is where one of the points,
or you might even say the main point, where the enmity of natural
man comes out against God, is when you tell the natural man,
God requires perfection. And of course I mentioned this
last week, how well they say that's not fair. Well, it is
fair. It's the only thing God can require
because he's God, but it's also fair because God has provided
what he requires by his grace in Christ. We just by nature
don't want it that way. We want it some other way. So
he says, so all of this, he's showing the sin and depravity
of man, the sin we all fall short. The depravity comes out in what
he talks about in verse 11 and 12. None understand it. By nature, we don't understand
God's way, who God is, who we are, who Christ is, how God saves
sinners, how God can be just and justify the ungodly. We don't
understand the concept of righteousness imputed. All we can understand
by nature is we gotta be good enough to get there. I've gotta
do enough good works or I've got to make a decision, or I've
got to walk an aisle. That's all we understand by nature.
You tell a person, what must I do to be saved? Well, you give
a person something to do, they'll do it. But just to depend upon
another person for my whole salvation, now that's one thing the natural
man won't have. And so he says, there's none that seeketh after
God, the true and living God, as he reveals himself in the
Word. Man's got a lot of gods. And they're all very similar
to his main God, himself. And you know how they do with
idolatry. They give their idol gods, we give our idol gods,
as natural people before regeneration, we give our idol gods attributes
like ourselves. And that's how it ends up. He
says they're all gone out of the way, the way of Christ, the
way of grace, God's way. They've got other ways, there
is a way. that seems right unto a man, natural man, but it's
a way of death. It's the broad way that leads
to destruction. Many are on it because that's
what we're naturally on. Why are so many people flocking
to the broad way? Because it's natural to us. It
just seems right to us until God intervenes. And then he says,
there's none that doeth good, no, not one. Now remember, that's
good in God's measure of good, God's standard of goodness, not
mine and yours, see, but God's standard. Now, from verses 13
all the way down to verse 20, he gives us the two ways that
man reveals his natural depravity. And here are the two ways. The
first way is by what he speaks. By what he speaks, and look at
it in verse 13 and 14, their throat is an open sepulcher. You know what an open sepulcher
is? It's an open grave. Their throat. With their tongue,
they have used deceit. You know, James talked a lot
about the tongue, didn't he? The poisonous tongue, all right?
The poison of Asp is under their lips. Verse 14, whose mouth is
full of cursing and bitterness. Now that's the way man speaks.
And then the next way man reveals his depravity is his ways. You might say his way of walking,
his way of conducting himself, his conversation. You know, a
lot of times in the Bible, The word conversation, it means more
than just having an oral conversation, it means how you walk, how you
conduct yourself. And this is what he says in verse
16, destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of
peace they've not known, there's no fear of God. Now I'm gonna
get to that next week, but I wanna focus in today, verses 13 and
14, on man's words. You've heard the saying, sticks
and stones may hurt my bones, may break my bones, but words
can never hurt me. Wrong. Words can hurt. Words can be
deadly. Words can be poisonous. What
kind of words are poisonous? And I'll tell you, as I've been
studying for this lesson and writing the lesson out here,
it just, it just, I'll tell you, it comes, it just reminds me
of how careful I need to be when I'm standing here behind this
pulpit and I'm speaking words. And I tell you the truth. That
I tell myself the truth. That I tell you what we need
to hear, not necessarily what we want to hear. And that I speak
mainly that I speak the word of God and not the word of men.
I don't want to just get up here and ramble on and just tell you
what's on my mind because what's on my mind may not be what you
need to hear. And certainly it might not be
what I want you to hear. But I want to speak the word
of God. And that's what I'm talking about.
These verses speak of the natural sinfulness and depravity of man's
speech. And let me tell you something
right off. He's not just talking about people telling dirty jokes. He's not just talking about people
using cuss words. I understand that. Is that sinful? Is it bad? Yes. Somebody said,
we better be careful how we speak because God's gonna judge every
idle word. Well, you know we all speak idle
words. Listen, you know what an idle word is? It's a vain,
it's an empty word. Worthless speech. You ever talk
throughout the week about stuff that doesn't mean a thing, you
know? Well, of course, we all speak idle words. But the idle
words that he's talking about, and that's from Matthew chapter
12, by the way, and I've got that referenced in your lesson.
The idle words that he's talking about is not just us talking,
even sinful talking. He's talking about false doctrine,
folks. He's talking about religious
talk. He's talking about false gospels. Now that's the issue
here. What's Paul's subject? In this
whole context here, it's how God justifies sinners based upon
his grace through the righteousness of another, and he's showing
here why we need God's grace, why we need Christ, why we need
the righteousness of another, why we need his blood to save
us from our sins. All right? So that if I get up
here and I talk to you about some other way, that's idle talk. That's vain, see? Look at it,
verse 13. Their throat is an open sepulcher.
What he's talking about here is death. You see, people today
have this attitude. Your doctrine doesn't matter.
It's how you live. Well, my friend, that is anti-Christ. It's anti-biblical. Everything
that we are, as far as a right relationship with God, in the
revelation of that, who I am and what I am, begins with my
doctrine. And unless that's settled, it
doesn't matter how you're trying to appear outwardly. You say,
what did Paul say in Galatians 1 about the false preachers that
had crept into Galatia? He said, the we? Now who's the
we there? Apostles. Or an angel from heaven. Preach what? Any other gospel
to you than that which we have preached. Let him be anathema.
So here, you know, can you get any better than the appearance
of an apostle? Can you get any better than the
appearance of an angel? But if they preach another gospel,
a different kind. Salvation by works, salvation
conditioned on sinners. Let them be anathema. That's
an evidence that they're cursed of God, that's what he's saying.
That's why we need Christ, who became a curse for us. He says,
their throat is an open sepulcher, with their tongues they've used
deceit, deception. Now, if you know anybody who
is just known by reputation as being a liar, in the affairs
of people, like a liar in financial matters, a liar in family matters
or something like that. You don't want to be around them.
You don't want to listen to them. You don't trust them. And certainly that's
sinful. It sure is. But the deceit that
he's talking about is the deception of false religion, which leads
sinners on the broad road that leads to destruction. Think about
the Pharisees. He says, the poison of asp is
under their lips. That's false doctrine. Now, what
he say, John the Baptist, you vipers. Why did he call them
poisonous snakes? It's because they were teaching
a false doctrine based upon the works of people and not on the
grace of God. That's why the Baptist said,
bring forth fruits, meat for repentance. You need to repent
of that. If you know a person who's a liar, you'd say, if you
want them to repent, you'd say, well, you need to stop lying
and start telling the truth. Well, is there any place where
that's more needed than in the churches where men and women
are standing and telling sinners how God saves sinners if they're
telling a lie? Will those words hurt? It'll
hurt anybody that believes them because they're on the broad
road that leads to destruction. Their throat is an open sepulcher,
an open grave. That's quoted from Psalm 5-9.
I've got it listed there in your lesson. Listen to it. For there
is no faithfulness in their mouth. Their inward part. Now what is
the inward part? That's the heart. He says their
inward part is very wickedness. Their throat is an open sepulcher.
They flatter with their tongue. Flattery. You ever been around
a person who uses flattery all the time? Well, that's what a
false preacher does. Every time he tells himself and
his people that they're saved based on anything other than
the grace of God and the righteousness of Christ, he's using flattery.
Anytime he talks about how sinners have met certain conditions to
be saved, to stay saved, to earn their rewards, he's using flattery.
But that inward part, that's the heart. The inward part, that's
the heart. Look over at Matthew chapter 12. Thought I had it
marked in my Bible here, but I didn't, but look at Matthew
chapter 12. Now Christ taught the disciples this on several
occasions, and I think I've got another passage listed there
in Matthew 15. Matthew 12, Matthew 15. You gotta understand, how do
people by nature think about sin? What is sin in the Bible? Well, it's falling short of the
glory of God. Where is the glory of God found?
In Christ. His glorious person, His finished
work, His righteousness, His blood. So anything that I say
to you concerning salvation and a right relationship with God
that doesn't meet up to His standard as found in Christ by His grace,
You know what it is? It's sin. If I point you anywhere,
let's say we got a problem. Let's say, just like in Corinth,
you remember they were abusing the Lord's Supper, okay? So Paul's gonna correct that.
He's gonna tell them, now what you're doing is wrong. What you're
doing is sinful. And he even said this, he said
that some of you are even getting sick and dying over this thing.
Now you gotta correct. But how you gonna do that? Well,
you've gotta do that in a way that glorifies God. So you've
got to recover people and correct people, reprove in a way of grace
and not lay the black whip of the law on them or dangle the
carrot of mercenary reward in front. You see what I'm saying?
You gotta glorify God in whatever you do. However you encourage
people to walk right, to live right, and if you encourage them
in any other way, you're not glorifying God. It's sinful. Brother Mahan used to talk about
preachers who would preach on giving. You either give or God's
gonna carry it out the back of the church in a pine box. That
kind of thing. Give or burn. That kind of thing. Well, should God's people give?
Yes. But out of the heart, out of
love and grace and gratitude. You wouldn't have a thing you
have if it weren't for God. Did you know that? Whatever you
got, whether it's little or whether it's a lot, you wouldn't have
it. You say, well, I worked hard for it. Well, still, God gave
it to you. What if you were born paralyzed
or Charles Krauthammer died. He was paralyzed from the neck
down. What if you were that way? Of course, he did well even that
way. But it's all a gift from God, isn't it? Everything we
have, our intelligence, our desires, our ability to work, our opportunities,
it's all a gift from God. See? So give, yeah, give out
of the love of your heart. Thank you, Lord. See, that's
good stewards, all right. Well, look here at Matthew chapter
12. Look over at, let's see, he's talking about blasphemy
against the Holy Spirit here, and you know how people do. They
call that the unpardonable sin. There is no unpardonable sin.
I've already dealt with it, I think. Listen, the blood of Jesus Christ
covers all sin. What he's talking about is those
who reject Christ have no means or ground of forgiveness. That's
what he's talking about. But look at verse 31. He says,
Wherefore I say unto you, all manner of sin and blasphemy shall
be forgiven unto men, but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost
shall not be forgiven unto men. What is the work of the Holy
Ghost? It's to convince us of sin, of righteousness, of judgment,
and drive us to Christ. That's what he's talking about.
Verse 32. And whoever speaketh a word against
the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven. But whosoever speaketh against
the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven." Now again, Saul
of Tarsus spoke words against the Son, didn't he? He sure did. He called Christ a blasphemer,
a malefactor, a cursed. A devil, that's what all the
Pharisees called him, Jesus of Nazareth. But when the Holy Spirit
came to him, when Christ came to him, and when the Holy Spirit
sent the Holy Spirit to bring him to faith in Christ and repentance,
he believed. And that was by the power of
God. And he says, but neither in this world, neither in the
world to come. If you don't have, what the lesson here is this,
if you don't have Christ, as your Redeemer, if you don't have
Christ as the Lord your righteousness, no sin will be forgiven you here
or in the world to come. There's only one way of forgiveness.
That's what Christ is speaking of here. And that's what the
Holy Spirit does. He brings a sinner to see and
know and believe that there's only one way of forgiveness,
and that's Jesus Christ crucified and risen from the dead, the
Lord our righteousness. So he says in verse 33, Either
make the tree good and his fruit good, or else make the tree corrupt
and his fruit corrupt, for the tree is known by his fruit. In
other words, the work of the Holy Spirit to bring a sinner
to Christ, that's the good fruit. But if I preach a false gospel,
and people flock to my church, and I baptize a thousand, and
they all believe the false gospel that I believe, what have you
got? You've got an evil tree producing evil fruit. It may
look good, but it's rotten to the core on the inside. And so
he says in verse 34, now look who he's talking to. He's talking
to a false religion. He's an old generation of vipers,
the poison of asphyxia. How can you, being evil, speak
good things? Well, do you reckon that any
of the Pharisees ever said anything good about anything? Well, sure they did. I know false
preachers who speak a lot of good in certain areas, but how can you being evil speak
good things refers to the gospel. How can you preach the true gospel
when you're evil? And he says, for out of the abundance
of the heart, the mouth speaketh. Now that's what Paul's talking
about in Romans 3 there. He says, a good man out of the
good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things. Now what is
a good man in the scripture? It's a sinner saved by grace,
a believer. He got a new heart and out of
that new heart comes his speech which is Christ, the glory of
God in Christ. Now you may catch him at a moment
and you may hear him say some things he shouldn't say. But
when it comes to the way of salvation and the way God saves sinners,
he points sinners to Christ and not to anyone else. He said,
an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. But
I say in you that every idle word that men shall speak, they
shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. That's the
false gospels. He says, for by thy words shalt
thou be justified. That means vindicated, authenticated. And by thy words thou shalt be
condemned. So those who preach a false gospel,
their words condemn them. That's what he's saying. If I
come to you preaching salvation conditioned on sinners, what
does that tell you about me? What does that tell you about
my heart? Tells you I'm a lost person. Tells you I don't know
the truth. But if I come to you preaching
the gospel consistently now, that's my life. That's my way,
all right, and we'll talk about that next week a little bit more.
Go back to Romans 3 now. So he says, the poison of asses,
verse 14, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Now
the word cursing there is not a Greek word used for foul language. You know what a lot of times
in translations it refers to? It refers to prayer to a false
god. prayer to praying to a false
god. That's the kind of cursing that he's talking about. He's
not talking about somebody saying GD or using the F word. That's
cursing now. And it's bad. You can't even
hardly watch TV or go to a movie now. That's just every other
word in a script. And that's bad. But what Paul's
talking about is the curse that is evidenced by a person praying
to a false god, leaning, trusting a false god. And the term bitterness
there is the term, you remember when, let's see if I've got it
listed, yeah. Bitterness is the same word used
to describe the gall of bitterness that Peter spoke of in Acts 8.23
referring to Simon the sorcerer. Remember he wanted to buy the
gifts of the Holy Spirit. He says you're in the gall of
bitterness. He's not talking, you know people who have a personality
that's kind of like a bitter kind of personality. I know those
kind of people too. I hope I'm not one of them. Maybe
if you catch me at the right moment. But that's not what Paul's
talking about here. Esau, in Hebrews chapter 12,
isn't it? I've got that listed too here.
In Hebrews chapter 12, he talks about the root of bitterness.
The root of bitterness. And remember Esau was in that
because he wouldn't come to repentance. What he's talking about in the
cursing and the bitterness there are things that people say that
are opposed to the blessing and the joy that God's people get
from hearing Christ preached. You see what I'm saying? That
blessing, we have the blessing of fellowship. We can worship
God in spirit and in truth. We can praise God through Christ. We have a mediator. We have an
intercessor. Jesus Christ the righteous, and
he's the joy of his people. Doesn't mean we're all the time
gonna be happy and never bitter in times in our own minds and
our own spirit, but it means that what the message of salvation,
all right? It doesn't bring cursing and
bitterness to us, it brings us a right relationship with God,
enjoying the security of God's grace, standing upon the rock,
Christ Jesus. Now, one of the things that we
need to understand, here's the lies of Satan pouring forth through
the ministers, false preachers, as they speak his words. Remember
Christ told the Pharisees, you're of your father the devil, The
deeds of your father you do. He was a liar from the beginning.
He told not the truth. He was a murderer from the beginning. Well, Christ ministers His glory,
His joy, His blessing pours forth through their message when they
point sinners to Christ. And what the Holy Spirit does,
He brings them to confess. He gives them a new heart, doesn't
He? the regenerate heart in the new
birth, and he brings them to confess from that new heart,
with their mouth, the Lord Jesus, believing in their heart that
God raised him from the dead. Now, what does that mean? Well,
he says, he says, for with the heart, man believeth unto righteousness,
and with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation. With
the new heart, we look to Christ for righteousness and confess
salvation. with our mouths. Salvation by
the grace of God. And then I close this lesson
out with Philippians 3. You can look at that where Paul
said, here's his confession of his new heart. What things were
gained to me, now I count but loss for Christ. I do count them
but dung, but I may win Christ and be found in him, not having
mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which
is through the faith of Christ. All right.