Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Romans.  Tonight is study #26 in Romans 3,  and we will read Romans 3:13-18:

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.

We are continuing with this heavy insight from God,  God knows man better than man knows himself as He searches their hearts, and He knows the desperate wickedness of the heart of man and the sinful nature of the sinner better than anyone. 

In this passage, it really emphasizes and highlights this again, and again.  It is very hard to take, is it not, even if we believe we have been saved and that God has spared us from this?  But imagine that you are still in your sins, and this is God’s assessment of your present spiritual condition.  And furthermore, we know we are at the time when one’s spiritual condition cannot be changed.  It would be terrifying to read the Bible and to look in depth at these things.  It is like looking into “the mirror of the soul,” a phrase that someone coined.  The Bible is a mirror of the soul, and as we read it, it reflects the soul’s condition, and that condition comes before our eyes just like a mirror on the wall reflects our physical condition.

Maybe we come to one mirror, after all the other mirrors have flattered us and given us a good report of our physical condition, and this one mirror gave us a very unflattering but honest appraisal of what we truly looked like.  And in this scenario, it turns out that all the other mirrors were “manipulated” to flatter us, but this one mirror is the truth, a true reflection, and as we come before it, we see the ugliest image of ourselves physically.  We had never seen it before.  All the other mirrors lied to us our whole lives, and people went along with these lies, and they also spoke kind words to us: “You are so beautiful.  You are so handsome.”  They said all these wonderful things, but this mirror is showing us the truth.  Ugh!  We would flee in horror, and run from that mirror to get away from it.  “I want to get away from it.  I do not want to see myself like that.  I want to go back to the thousands of mirrors that are everywhere else.  I do not care if they lie to me because at least I can see myself as lovely and beautiful.  But I never want to see this one mirror again!”

You see, that is why people run from the Bible.  They run from the light that shines into the darkness of their hearts.  They live in a world that constantly lies to them and tells them, “You are such a nice guy.  You are such a good man (or woman).  You are so kind.”   The world tells them all manner of things that are deceitful, dishonest, and false.  And yet it is pleasing to the ear to hear you are a good person.  That is what everyone strives for, except for maybe a few that have gone beyond that, but, for the most part, people strive to be a good person.  But when you come to the Bible, you see you are bad, wicked, evil, a transgressor, and a law breaker.

They say the Eskimos have dozens of words for snow because they experience snow so much in their lives.  So too, the Bible has many words to describe man’s sin because there is so much sin in this world, and God is bringing a lot of those words together in this passage.  It says in Romans 3:13:

Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:

There is a consistent theme with each of these three statements in verse 13.  It speaks of the throats, the tongues, and lips, and it all identifies with speaking.  It all has to do with what comes out of the mouth of man – his words.  And God has been watching, and God has taken note, and this is His analysis concerning people of the world.  In time past prior to salvation (and maybe even afterwards on occasion), you and I had throats that were an “open sepulchre.”  And a sepulchre is a tomb, and it is translated as “tombs” once in Matthew 23 as Jesus was rebuking the scribes and Pharisees, in Matthew 23:27-32:

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.

Again, Jesus said, “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres.”  If you have ever walked through a cemetery, you will see some beautiful graves and tombs (sepulchres) that people have designed and built for their family members.  They are beautiful, and a new one would be very white and shiny.  It can be a beautiful thing, but inside they are “full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.”  And this is what the Lord is saying concerning the scribes and Pharisees themselves.  He is putting His finger on the problem of sinful men who can give an outward appearance of righteousness, and of being a just and good person, but God looks within at the spirit, because God is Spirit, and He sees an ugly sight.  As I mentioned earlier, it is like “dead men’s bones” and all manner of uncleanness.

We also read a similar statement regarding the throat being as a sepulchre in Psalm 5:9:

For there is no faithfulness in their mouth; their inward part is very wickedness; their throat is an open sepulchre; they flatter with their tongue.

This relates to what we read in Matthew 23.  It is speaking of the unsaved, and the next verse tells us, in Psalm 5:10:

Destroy thou them, O God; let them fall by their own counsels; cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions; for they have rebelled against thee.

They will be destroyed.

We also find in Romans 3:13 that the tongue is tied to deceit.  Let us turn back and read Romans 3:13:

… with their tongues they have used deceit…

Of course that would certainly happen because God tells us of the heart of man:  “The heart of man is desperately wicked, and deceitful above all things,” according to Jeremiah 17:9.  So that deceit will come out of the mouth.  That deceitful nature will reveal itself through the mouth.  It is the reason that people are so quick to lie.  Anyone who has had children know that when that beautiful and, supposedly, innocent little child is old enough to talk, the deceit is apparent.  Let us say that there is an older brother, and this toddler that is just starting to talk knocks over a vase and it falls on the floor and breaks.  The mother comes in, and she says, “What happened?  Who did that?”  And he will point his finger and say, “Tony did it!”  But he is lying.  It is deceitfulness, and it is coming to him most naturally to lie.  It is what we do because it is in our heart to do it.  That is, prior to salvation, we are of our father, the devil, who was a liar from the beginning, and the father of it.  We were children of the wicked one, so there was deceitfulness in our tongues.

Speaking of mankind, it says in Psalm 52:2-5:

Thy tongue deviseth mischiefs; like a sharp razor, working deceitfully. Thou lovest evil more than good; and lying rather than to speak righteousness. Selah. Thou lovest all devouring words, O thou deceitful tongue. God shall likewise destroy thee for ever…

And after God tells us these things, the next thing we learn is of God’s plan to destroy them.  That is God’s judgment upon those that have sinned against Him.  The tongues of men love “devouring” words.  And that would be “destroying” words because lies destroy, and that applies to false gospels.  Lies are destructive.   It is only truth that can build and provide salvation.

Let us look at Psalm 140:1-3:

Deliver me, O JEHOVAH, from the evil man: preserve me from the violent man; Which imagine mischiefs in their heart; continually are they gathered together for war. They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent; adders' poison is under their lips. Selah.

And this brings us back to Romans 3, and the next thing God says at the end of the verse in Romans 3:13:

… the poison of asps is under their lips:

First, their throat is like an open sepulchre, or open grave, because of the dead nature of their heart and that which flows forth from it.  And secondly, their tongues have used deceit.  And now it says, “the poison of asps is under their lips.”  We read in James 3 where the Lord speaks of man’s tongue.  After reading these other Scriptures, we can see why God emphasizes this in James 3:3-8:

Behold, we put bits in the horses' mouths, that they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body. Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governor listeth. Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell. For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind: But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.

The tongue is full of deadly poison.  “The poison of asps is under their lips.”  No man can tame the tongue because the problem lies beneath it, in the heart.  If the heart is wicked, the tongue will speak deceitfully.  Maybe someone can put on a show for a little bit, but even that act would be deceitful, would it not?  The things they were saying were not true of themselves.  It is an extremely sad description of the sinner and his mouth – the things that he says.

One other thing regarding this “poison of asps” that is tied in with the “tongue,” we read in James 3:8 of the tongue being an “unruly evil, full of deadly poison.”  Turn to Deuteronomy 32:30-33:

How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had sold them, and JEHOVAH had shut them up? For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges. For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter: Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps.

Here, God is speaking of Israel that He had delivered up to the enemy because of their unfaithfulness.  He is using the enemy to bring judgment upon them, so when He says, “Their vine is the vine of Sodom,” it has to do with their “church” or their “gospel,” as Israel is a type and figure of the churches: “For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter.”  And if you take these kinds of grapes to make wine, then your wine is “the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps.”  This cruel venom would be a deadly poison, and we can see that this would especially have to do with false gospels from those that identify with God and call themselves Christians, but the things they teach are in error.  And at this time it is strong error, or “strong delusion,” as it is put in 2Thessalonians 2.  The teachings of the pastors and theologians of the churches, especially at this time of the end when God has given them up, is a wine that is as poison.  It is poisonous, and that leads us to our closing passage in Mark 16, and it is a little bit of good news.  There have been so many Scriptures telling us very severe things, but it says in Mark 16:17-18:

And these signs shall follow them that believe…

Here, those that believe can only be those that have true belief from the heart, and only those who have become saved can believe from the heart.  Then it says in Mark 16:17-18:

…In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them…

The deadly poison of false gospels will not hurt them.  It would also apply to any falsehood, like falsehoods from other religions or secular falsehoods that they might hear.  Most of God’s great multitude are out there in the world, so they are not under the falsehoods of the churches, but they are under the falsehoods of the world, like those from the field of sciences, and so forth.  But no matter what form the lie takes – whether it is religious or secular – it does not matter because God’s people cannot be hurt, ultimately, by any deadly thing coming forth from the tongue of man, which is like the poison of an asp.