Paul Describes every Human Heart
Romans
3:9-20 What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have
previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin. As it is
written: “There is none righteous,
no, not one; There is
none who understands; There
is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one.”
“ Their throat is an open tomb; With their tongues they have practiced deceit”;
“The poison of asps is under their lips”; “ Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood; Destruction and misery are in their ways; And the way of peace they have not known.”
“ There is no fear of God before
their eyes.” Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to
those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world
may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will
be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. NKJV
The truth that permeated throughout the centuries
and millenniums since Abraham entered into covenant with God was that many of
the Jewish people held themselves up in such high esteem so far above the Gentiles
that it served only to hurt them and keep them from seeing themselves in truth
before God. It was not that they were better than the pagan Nations all around
them that God gave His Word to them and not to the other Nations. It was
strictly an act of His Sovereign Will that He chose them over the other people
of the world. Therefore, instead of them being filled with pride and
self-assurance they should have been humbly grateful to God that He looked upon
them with love and made Himself known to them. Paul knows that the Gentiles who
he was speaking to felt that he and the other Jews considered or thought of
themselves as superior to them. Paul affirms the truth of God that every person
under the Sun is equally sinful and depraved in the Sight of God. Paul affirms
that truth not by mere words from a man, but instead he quotes God’s Word written
to the Jewish people and written by King David as he was moved along by God the
Holy Spirit.
King David wrote the following: Psalms 14:1-3 The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.”
They are corrupt, They have done abominable works, There is none who does good.
The LORD looks down from heaven upon the children of men, To see if there are
any who understand, who seek God. They have all turned aside, They have
together become corrupt; There is none who does good, No, not one. NKJV
The conclusion from God is that every person (even the Jew) is found unclean
and corrupt before the eyes of the Lord. This was for the Jew a hard and
difficult truth as it still is today for every sinner. It is so easy for the
hearts of sinful people to turn their eyes and ears away from the truth in the
Word of God and look around them and compare themselves with other sinners and
declare themselves not so bad or evil. This is the age old practice of all
sinful men and women. I surely found myself guilty of doing just that for many
decades as I justified my carousing, alcohol abuse, drug addiction,
fornication, pornography, masturbation, hatred, envy, idolatry, etc. and
continued in the practice of them as I pacified myself by saying that I am not
as bad as others and everyone is doing these things. Because a majority of
human beings subscribe to believe certain sins are acceptable to them still does
not change God’s view of them.
Paul declares every human heart to be under sin. All
of us are held down or captive by sin and our condition under sin places us in
an inferior position before Almighty God. God’s position with sin and iniquity
is as the Scripture declares, Habakkuk
1:13 “Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on
iniquity.” KJV We see then that God abhors evil and unrighteousness and can’t
even look on it because it grieves Him and detest Him all at the same time.
Paul continues to describe every man’s position with sin and evil by the ways
we sin against God every day. First Paul shows how our speech or our words are
deplorable before a Holy, Pure, and Righteous God. That little human phrase
many of us learn as young kids that says, “Sticks
and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.” Well, Paul
disagrees wholeheartedly with that little phrase because he compares our throat
with a grave, he says under our lips lies the poisonous venom of a deadly
snake, and our tongues of full of lying and like acid spewing out profanity
with no concern or feeling of guilt (Job
15:5 & Job 20:12 & Job 20:16 & Psalms 5:9 & Psalms 10:7 &
Psalm 50:19 & Psalm 52:2 & Psalms 52:4 & Psalms 109:2 & Proverbs
6:24 & Proverbs 12:19 & Proverbs 17:4 & Proverbs 26:28).
Paul describes the human heart as running in the way
to kill other human beings as Cain (1
John 3:12) whose heart belonged to the devil did when he killed his own
brother (Psalms 79:3 & Psalms 106:38
& Proverbs 1:16 & Proverbs 6:17
& Isaiah 59:7 & Matthew 23:35 & Revelation 16:6). From the very
first sin in the Garden of Eden that sprang forth Cain’s sin of murdering his
own brother Abel, the human wicked heart has been tossed to and fro like the
waves of the sea finding no rest or peace in it at all (Isaiah 57:20). Paul declares the heart of humanity to be minus the
fear of God (Psalms 36:1 & Psalms
55:19). Finally, Paul holds up the Law of God before every human heart he
has described in and under the control and bondage to sin declaring every man,
woman, boy, and girl on the earth as a guilty sinner waiting to be sentenced appropriately
by the Righteous and Holy Judge whom we all have offended with such evil hearts.
Paul declares that God’s Law (which is an extension or part of His Nature and
Character) serves only one purpose and that is to shut every sinner’s mouth of
comparing themselves to other human beings (sinners) or justifying their sin.
Paul emphatically affirms that no race of people (not even the Jews who were
first given God’s Law to live by) will be declared justified or righteous in
His Sight by any acts or efforts to obey His Law, but that His Law does one
thing and it does it perfectly and that is to declare every soul a guilty
sinner condemned to hell. Not just the atheist or witch or wizard or rapist or
serial killer or the pedophile but also the religious Jew or the spiritual Buddhist
or the Muslim or the Hindu or the Mormon or the Jehovah’s witness or the mere church
attending hypocrite will all perish unless they receive Jesus Christ by grace
through faith period. The Lord Jesus is still saying, John 3:7 “You must be born again.”
Remember this, Romans 2:11 “For there is no partiality
with God.”“When sin exerts itself and we know its power and by its power we are held in bondage, surely our dire need is for God to deal with the cause, a sinful heart.” Duncan Campbell 1898-1972
“Christ will be master of the heart, and sin must be
mortified. If your life is unholy, then your heart is unchanged, and you are an
unsaved person. The Savior will sanctify His people, renew them, give them a
hatred of sin, and a love of holiness.” Charles Spurgeon
If
you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ and His amazing healing power, pray this
from your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ (you speaking directly to Him), Dear
Lord Jesus, I confess to You that I am a sinner and I need Your forgiveness. I
believe You shed Your Blood and died for my sins. I believe that You rose from
the dead proving that You alone are God. I repent of my sins. I want to turn
from my sins. I ask You Dear Lord Jesus to come into my heart and take control
of my life. I want You to be my Lord, Savior, and my God. Amen...
Sincerely in Christ,
Author of “Silent Assassins of the Soul - Are you
Broken by Pornography and Masturbation? You can be Restored by the Lord Jesus
Christ and brought into Deliverance, Freedom, and Victory! A Guide for Men and
Women in the Enemy’s Crosshairs” e-book available now @ Amazon Kindle, @ Apple
I Bookstore for IPod, Barnes and Noble for Nook, Reader Store for Sony Reader,
Kobo, Copia, Gardners, Baker and Taylor, and eBookPie…
No comments:
Post a Comment