Romans Chapter 3 Verses 13-18 - Messages In Romans – Corrupt Body Parts Reveal The True Man - Message 10 Series

ROMANS CHAPTER 3 VERSES 13-18 - MESSAGES IN ROMANS – CORRUPT BODY PARTS REVEAL THE TRUE MAN - MESSAGE 10

{{Romans 3:13 “Their throat is an open grave. With their tongues they keep deceiving. The poison of asps is under their lips.”

Romans 3:14 “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.”

Romans 3:15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood.”

Romans 3:16 “Destruction and misery are in their paths,”

Romans 3:17 “and the path of peace have they not known.”}}

[A]. THE THROAT, THE TONGUE, THE MOUTH, THE FEET – WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?

It is really great to continue these messages so we can understand these great themes that separated us from God, and what brought us back to God. Romans is Paul’s gospel, or if you like, “The Gospel According to Paul.” Today we will continue where we left off last time and begin with verse 13.

Verse 13 is a quote directly from the Septuagint rendering of this verse – {{Psalm 5:9 “There is nothing reliable in what they say. Their inward part is destruction itself. Their throat is an open grave. They flatter with their tongue.”}} Paul draws on this verse to build up the case that there is not one righteous person in his natural state. Sin has reduced all to a state of putridness in the eyes of God. The following list of verses (13-17) prove the fact.

In Romans 3:13 three parts make up the verse – the throat, the tongue, the lips. Those three are so bad that medical procedures are needed. How putrid is the throat! Imagine an Ear, Nose and Throat specialist saying, “Open wide so I can see the condition of your throat,” and he recoils in horror. He is looking at a grave that’s been opened and the putrid smell fills his surgery. That is not nice imagery at all, but is God’s way of saying the state of the natural man is as putrid as it gets.

So much for the throat. Now look at the tongue and that likewise is revolting. It looks like “a forked tongue,” an expression meaning deceptive; lying, and untrustworthy. What a terrible state that tongue is in. The doctor sees it as twisting all over the place, and there is nothing he can do for the patient.

Yes, that is right. There is nothing the medical profession can do for the terrible condition that this sickness has on all human beings. It is a spiritual disease, not medical. Notice Paul said the tongue KEEPS deceiving. Man can not help it. No matter what he does, he can not help himself. A river will always run downwards, never upwards, and man’s natural path is downwards, never upwards. His is a spiritual problem that only the Creator can remedy.

The third problem with this man is one with his lips, and no medical doctor wants to help him because he can’t do it. The poison is too great. Yes, the poison of asps is under their lips, and when the mouth is opened the lips send out poisonous words, degenerate words, hurting words, threating words and blasphemous words. The only writer other than Paul to mention the tongue in the New Testament in a bad sense is James – {{James 3:5-6 so also, the tongue is a small part of the body and yet it boasts of great things. Behold, how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire. The tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity. The tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell.” James 3:8 “but no one can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil and FULL OF DEADLY POISON.”}}

Barnes – [[“With their tongues ... In their conversation, their promises, etc., they have been false, treacherous, and unfaithful.”]] {{Psalm 140:3 “They sharpen their tongues as a serpent; poison of a viper is under their lips. Selah.”}}

Further to that, I thought the comments made by Barnes were interesting – [[“The poison of asps - The asp, or adder, is a species of serpent whose poison is of such active operation that it kills almost the instant that it penetrates, and that without remedy. It is small, and commonly lies concealed, often in the "sand" in a road, and strikes the traveller before he sees it. It is found chiefly in Egypt and Lybia. It is said by ancient writers that the celebrated Cleopatra, rather than be carried a captive to Rome by Augustus, suffered an asp to bite her in the arm, by which she soon died. The precise species of serpent which is here meant by the psalmist, however, cannot be ascertained. All that is necessary to understand the passage is, that it refers to a serpent whose bite was deadly, and rapid in its execution.