Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Romans.  Tonight is study #20 of Romans 3,  and we will read Romans 3:11-18:

There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used 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 have they not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes.

I will stop reading there.  This is a description of fallen human beings since Adam’s fall.  It is very unflattering, ugly description of man, and yet it is perfectly accurate.  It is not how man would describe himself.  Fallen man tends to think highly of himself, but it is the true picture that God sees and knows, so God declares it in His Word.

This is why the Bible is like a “looking glass,” and it is why people do not want to come to the Bible.  The sinner that is in his sin wants to remain deluded and believe his own lies and the lies of others, and think of himself as a good person, someone who is decent, righteous, and upstanding.

But the truth is, “Come here, and stand in front of the Bible, and take a look.”  Just like a mirror on the wall shows you what you look like physically, the Bible will show you what you look like spiritually in your soul, the deep-down part of you.  It explains it all.  And it is an ugly picture.  Can you imagine if you went to the mirror, and you looked at yourself, and you had warts growing out of your nose, and warts everywhere?  Everywhere you looked, it was an awful thing to see.  If you looked at your physical body, and all you saw were horrible things, you would probably want to get away from that mirror, and avoid mirrors in the future. “I am not going to look in the mirror if I look like that,” especially if people had been telling you, “You look great today!  You look young, and beautiful!  You look handsome and strong!”  But you do not look like what people are saying: “I do not look young, or beautiful, or handsome, or attractive in any way!  It is so horrible and terrible.  I cannot stand this mirror, so I am just going to listen to how people say I look, and I am not going to take an honest look at myself.”

Of course there is not anyone that fits that kind of physical description, but, spiritually, that is what is happening.  People are telling others, “You are such a good guy.  You are really a nice person, so sweet and kind!”  But when we look at the Bible, that is completely contrary to what God says.  I cannot think of a passage in the Bible where it says concerning man, “Man is good.  Man is gentle.  Man is kind.  Man is wonderful.  Man is merciful.  Man is righteous.  Man is forgiving.”  No, we do not read anything like that anywhere in the Bible.  We read similar things to what we are reading in Romans.  Remember in Romans 1 there was that frightening list of things that God had given man over to, in Romans 1:28-31:

And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:

And, here, it also mentions “without understanding,” as we have been reading about in Romans 3.  This list of sins is just exhausting to read.  Then it says in Romans 1:32:

Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.

There is not one good thing mentioned.  No wonder we read of King Ahab, the wicked king of Israel, and what he said to Micaiah, a true prophet of God.  King Jehoshaphat had come, and they were trying to go to battle together, and all the false prophets were called, and they lied to the kings:  “Go up to battle.  God will be with you.  You will be victorious.”  It did not sound right to Jehoshaphat’s ears because he was a saved man, so he said to Ahab, “Is there not here a prophet of JEHOVAH besides?”  Then Ahab said, “There is yet one man, Micaiah …but I hate him; for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil.” 

The characteristic of a true prophet, or true man of God, is not to prophecy good of man, but evil, because that is what God does.  God does not flatter men.  He does not “tickle their ears,” and tell people how nice, kind, and good they are, but God does the opposite of that, and that is why the Bible is true.  That is why the Bible is honest with the reader.  It does not lie to us like the writings of men. There may be some writings of men that point the finger, indicating that there are many unfaithful, but it always leave allowance for a few good, faithful, and righteous men because they understand that the reader will identify with the few in number, and not with the wicked majority.  The Bible does not do that.  The Bible says, “There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth…” 

It is all-encompassing.  Every reader who comes to the Bible will read the same truth about himself.  God is no respecter of persons.  It applies to you, me, and everybody else.  “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.”  After giving us this account in Romans 3:10-18, it even goes on to say in Romans 3:19-20:

Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them 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 there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

This is how we can know that this (the Bible) is a supernatural book.  This book does not come from men because if it were written by men out of the minds of men, then it would leave a “loophole,” and make some allowance for man to do good or attain righteousness of his own.  But the Bible closes all “loopholes,” and it does not allow any individual in all the world to say, “I am just, righteous, and good in the eyes of God because I have done this and that.”  No matter where we read in the Bible, it condemns man.  It pronounces man guilty, and when we read and come to learn the Law of God more, and more, we realize, “I have broken the Law.  I have offended against that Law.  I have transgressed this other Law.  I have sinned.  I am like everyone else, a sinner.”  That was the purpose of God in giving the Bible to mankind. 

That is why God multiplied Laws in order that we would see the extent and desperate nature of our sinfulness.  There was just one Law in the beginning, not to eat of the fruit of the tree of good and evil.  Then God gave us the whole Bible, and the whole Bible is a Law book presenting the Law of God, and we have offended in thought, word, and deed.  In every way possible, we have broken the Law.  We are covenant breakers.  We are transgressors, and we are subject to death.  This is the “reflection” the sinner will see of himself when he comes to the Word of God, the Bible.

And of course this is why false gospels develop their “quick remedies.”  They come up with something to keep people in their churches and congregations.  You cannot have a church full of natural-minded people left in the situation where they have to wait on God to save them.  Oh, they cannot have that, because the people will hear the Law, and they will feel guilty as they hear Law after Law.  They will feel like they are not good or righteous (which is the purpose of the Law), so they will stop coming to church.  They will get away from the Word and from seeing their spiritual reflection in the “looking glass,” which is the Bible.  So the churches came up with a sure-fire remedy to apply as a balm of sorts.  When the Bible convicts of sin and teaches the people in the pews that they are sinners in need of a Saviour, they say, “Here you go!  Take these steps: one, two, three.  You can do it in five minutes.  Accept Christ.  Say the Sinner’s Prayer.  Walk down the aisle.  We will baptize you, and all is taken care of!”  So now when they hear the things the Bible is saying that are very convicting, it is now for people “out there” that have not accepted Christ.  It is no longer speaking to them any longer because they have become saved through their own work.

The flaw in that whole false gospel is that the Bible also condemns their “work.”  The same Bible that shows the guilt of their thoughts and deeds also shows the guilt of their doctrine and false teaching, as they have developed “another Christ” and “another gospel,” but there is not another.  They have tried to apply a remedy, and yet it is all delusion, a strong delusion that God has sent them that they might believe a lie.

But it has accomplished one thing, and that is that it allows them to sit in the presence of the Bible, but not see the ugliness of the true condition of their souls.  And the Lord speaks of this in Ezekiel 13 when He condemns the false prophets of Israel, which relates to the false prophets within the churches and congregations.  He says in Ezekiel 13:22:

Because with lies ye have made the heart of the righteous sad…

The “righteous” here would be the elect of God.  When we hear the lies of a false gospel, it does not comfort us, just like when Jehoshaphat heard the lies of the many prophets of Baal.  It did not comfort him regarding the battle he was about to be engaged in because he wanted to hear the truth.  And that is how it is with all of God’s true people.  Again, it says in Ezekiel 13:22:

Because with lies ye have made the heart of the righteous sad, whom I have not made sad; and strengthened the hands of the wicked…

This is what the lies in the churches and congregations are doing at this time.  They accomplish nothing more than to strengthen the hands of the wicked.  In the Bible, the “hands” represent the “will,” so the wicked, the sinner who is contrary to God and dead in his soul, has his will strengthened with the lies he is being fed.

Then it goes on to say in Ezekiel 13:22:

…that he should not return from his wicked way, by promising him life:

What lie did they tell him?  They promised him life: “Just accept Christ. That is all you have to do.  Then you will have eternal life.”  If they do not outright state it that way, they definitely imply it: “Here, just look at what it says in this verse in Acts 16 where it says, ‘…Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved…’  Now what are you waiting for?  Believe!  Do you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ?”  Then the person says, “Yes, I believe.”  Then they say, “What this verse says you can apply to yourself.”  They are saying that person is saved and has eternal life.  They promise him life by following these steps and doing this work of faith, but they are not telling the whole truth because they do not know it themselves.

The truth is that it is a commandment of God “to believe,” but if you seek to go that route, then you are placing yourself under the whole Law because a “work of the Law” is anything by which you seek to obey a commandment of God.   If God commands you to believe, and you attempt to do it, it is a “work of faith,” and the Bible tells us that in a couple of verses specifically.  However, it tells us in Galatians 2:16:

Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law…

This applies to the work of Abraham in offering up his son Isaac, or the work of keeping any of the Ten Commandments, or the work of “believing,” as Jesus tells us in John 6:29: “This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.”  It does not matter.  All of these were commandments, and attempted or actual obedience to a commandment is a “work,” and no man is justified (made righteous) by the works of the Law.  And that is what the people are not told, which means they are all lies. 

And this is why God says in Ezekiel 13:22:

Because with lies ye have made the heart of the righteous sad, whom I have not made sad; and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, by promising him life:

That is, now he is not going to repent of the sins of his heart.  He is not going to turn.  Why should he?  He already has the thing that is of greatest importance (eternal life), and he has his sin as well.  He has both.  He can continue to seek after sin, but he has that guarantee from his church that was promised to him of eternal life.  He has been strengthened in his sin.  It is a terrible thing.

Again, going back to Romans 3, this is why so many people run away from the Bible because God does not hold back the truth.  He does not hide His assessment of us.  Remember that the Bible says, “…but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.”  God sees our heart.  We do not see it.  Remember, that same heart is said to be, “desperately wicked, and deceitful above all things,” in Jeremiah 17:9.  It deceives us.  It deceives us into thinking we are “basically good.”  Yes, we do wrong, and we sin, but overall, we are basically good.  No, that is not true.  “A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.”   If you commit a single sin, you are guilty of all.  You are now a sinner.  You have broken the whole Law.  You are guilty of all, and subject to what the Bible says is the penalty of sin, which is death.

I think we will stop here.  Lord willing, when we get together in our next Bible study, we will come back to this passage regarding what God is saying to us here.  It is not pleasant to hear these things, and to realize that it is referring to all of us.  But, of course, God has changed His people, and that is our hope for you that are listening.  We hope you have not been deceived by a lie and a promise of liberty.  EBible Fellowship would never dare to do something like that.  But God does promise liberty, and if you received that liberty through forgiveness of sins by God in the washing away of all your filthy deeds of the flesh, then you have been made righteous by the righteousness of Christ.  And that does permit us to look into the Bible, and we can see what we were, and although we admit that we still have sin in the flesh, all our sin has been washed and paid for by the Lord Jesus.