Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible

Guest (Male): The Alliance of confessing evangelicals presents the timeless teaching of Dr. Donald Gray Barnhouse.

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse: A great mistrust of ourselves is connected in our hearts with a great confidence and strength founded on the grace of God in Christ. To Timothy, Paul wrote, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Strength then comes from grace. Thus, when we know with Paul that there is no good thing dwelling in us, then we can turn away from self to Christ. And in the glorious grace that God has given us, we can enter into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

Guest (Male): Over a half a century ago, the late Dr. Donald Gray Barnhouse, then pastor of 10th Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, saw the need to spread God's word beyond the hearing of his local congregation. He started the radio outreach which has become known as Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible. The application of God's word as taught by Dr. Barnhouse is as relevant today as when he first taught over the radio airwaves decades ago. The message we will be featuring on today's edition of Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible is entitled The Poison of Asps. If you get a sore throat, it's not really that big of a deal.

Some aspirin, zinc lozenges, and a few squirts of chloraseptic should help you feel better in a day or two. But when the Bible says that our throats are an open tomb and our lips have the poison of asps, well, that's a much more serious condition. Thankfully, God has provided a cure for this terrible spiritual state. What is this divine medication that will restore our spiritual health? Let's find out as today Dr. Barnhouse takes us to Romans chapter 3 and will focus on verses 13 and 14. Here again is Dr. Donald Gray Barnhouse with the message entitled The Poison of Asps.

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse: Through the Lord Jesus Christ, we come unto thee, our Father and our God, and in the Holy Spirit. We know that the world is sick and we know that thy diagnosis is sin. And we pray thee that those who listen this day may be willing to admit the truth of thy statements in order that they may receive the remedy which thou hast provided in Jesus Christ, through whom we ask this for thy glory in Jesus name and for his sake. Amen. Today we have reached the study of Romans 3 13 and 14. Their throat is an open sepulcher.

With their tongues, they have used deceit. The poison of asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. The fundamental difference between man's natural opinion of himself and God's declaration concerning humanity is that man starts off with the premise that there is something good in himself that can be polished and perfected, while the word of God starts off with the premise that everything in man must be condemned and that God must begin with a new creation within the human heart. In our study of the third chapter of Romans, we have considered the generalities of God's verdict and we now proceed to particular examples as he sets them forth.

We must realize in studying this portion of the divine revelation that it is composed of a tissue of quotations from the Old Testament. For God is ever seeking to teach us the power of the word. It is written is final authority as we find it in the New Testament. And if man does not bow before it today, he will face double punishment in the future, punishment for the sins which he has committed and punishment for refusing the verdict of God and the remedy provided to meet man's need. The Lord now proceeds to a physical examination, which is primarily a spiritual examination, for he takes the various parts of the body and uses them for an illustration of man's departure from God.

Very frequently, when a doctor begins the general examination of a patient, he starts by looking in his mouth. The state of the throat and the tongue can be very revealing of the patient's general condition. And here in our text, we begin with God's verdict of our mouth. Their throat is an open sepulcher. With their tongues, they have used deceit. The poison of asps is under their lips. There has been some argument among commentators because one has explained this message in terms of the throat swallowing up man's fellow creatures. Other commentators argue that it refers to that which comes forth from the throat of man through his words.

I see no reason why we should not take both. When the throat of man is declared to be an open grave, we can find in it a symbol of the gargantuan selfishness of man. The appetite for greed in the human race is insatiable. It is not stated that the teeth of man take fellow creatures bite by bite, but that the throat is an open sepulcher capable of swallowing others whole like the grave. Men are devourers and they are not even polite in their gulping down of all that they desire. This fact is easily illustrated in the larger picture of dictatorships devouring masses of men and whole armies marching into the open maw of the Molochs prepared by men drunk with power.

But we must not forget that the whole is but the sum of the parts. And the actions of men collectively in a cabinet or a committee are but the flowering of the thoughts and desires of individuals. Men have even used religion to gain their ends and have swallowed up the common people through dominating their superstitions. The function of a bishop is to be an overseer and the greatest charge that could be made against a man who is supposed to see is that he is blind. The function of a pastor is to be a feeder of the flock.

And the greatest charge that could be made against a man who is there to feed is that he has become a mouth to be fed. And if it can be said of dictators at one extreme and bishops at the other that they have frequently had throats like open graves, swallowing whole the men whose personality and individuality is precious to God, it can be said of the whole human race individually that men are willing to devour each other for selfish ends. But our passage is undoubtedly the most forceful when the mouth is considered not so much as the symbol of what it takes in as of that which it gives out.

I can remember at the close of the First World War going through ruins in northern France and Belgium and seeing graveyards that had come under direct bombardment. Here were many open sepulchers where the explosions of the shell had brought hidden death to the surface for all to see. And when I now read the word of God, I find that this is his opinion of mankind. This is not man's thought about himself. This is God's revelation of what he feels and thinks about men in and of themselves. How great is the love of God seen against such a shroud that has come out of the grave.

God does not love me because of any loveliness in me, for he tells me plainly that there never was nor can be any loveliness in man that could commend me to his heart. But he loves me because his heart is love. God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. For as the opening of a grave reveals the death that is within, so the opening of the human mouth reveals the death that is in the heart. The Lord Jesus said this plainly in talking with the leaders of the people when he was here on earth.

Oh, generation of vipers, he called them and added, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. As an earthly physician can look into the mouth and discern the physical state of the digestive tract, so the great physician looks into the mouth of man, listens to his words, and declares the state of his heart. It is a grave. It is corruption and death. Now let us look at the throat of humanity using the word of God for our lens and find out what is in the heart.

The inventory has been spread across the pages of the word by the Lord Jesus himself. There was a great discussion between the Lord and the leaders concerning the fact that the disciples did not follow the ceremonial practices of washings. When the conversation was over, his disciples asked him some questions about the matter and he answered, are ye so without understanding also? Do you not perceive that whatsoever things from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly and goeth out into the draft, purging all meats?

And he said, that which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these things come from within and defile the man. Now it is not a pretty subject. And though we would like to turn away from it, our God will not permit it. And he now demands that we examine three or four examples of that grave's death. Men can use words for several different purposes and God examines some of them.

With their tongues, they have used deceit. This is a statement which announces man's departure from truth and his arrival in lies. He uses words to convey death instead of life. He wishes to create a false idea in the mind of another person in order that he may escape the reward of his own doings, lying to avoid just consequences. Or he wishes to ensnare another man to do his will, to gain mastery over another. Or he wishes to enhance the prestige of his own being by making himself more wonderful than he is in reality. Or he wishes material gain for himself.

The Greek word is akin to the one used for bait. The idea is that men can use words as worms are put on fish hooks. Others will take the word at its face value and be caught on the barb. God says that this is the common practice of the race. Now I do not need to illustrate these points profusely. I believe that the Holy Spirit can take the truth to each heart for I believe that the conscience must admit the fact of the lying nature of man. Never never did parents have a child that they did not have to correct in this matter.

The child lies naturally from birth and only by real use of training, the rod of correction, can a habit of honesty and words be instilled into the heart of the child. Even then, the individual is capable of deceit unless restrained by the Holy Spirit through the new life that comes from Christ. Not only does man use words in deceit to gain his own ends, but he uses words to injure others. From the sepulcher of his throat, the heart belches that which the word of God describes as the poison of asps. One writer explains the animal illustration as follows.

The fangs of a deadly serpent lie ordinarily folded back in its upper jaw. But when it throws up its head to strike, those hollow fangs drop down. And when the serpent bites the fangs, press a sack of deadly poison hidden under the lips at the root, thus injecting venom into the wound. Our text says the poison of asps is under their lips. This is to say that man is born with a poison sack and that he uses words to strike at his fellow men. How many ways this venom is used? It lashes forth against others because of envy, because of jealousy.

In his character study of Cain, Alexander White of Edinburgh tells how envy loves to speak its poison. Cain's motive was envy of his brother's goodness and of the acceptance and the praise that his brother's growing goodness was every day bringing from the Lord. The Lord had respect to Abel and to his offering. That was all. But that was quite enough to kindle all hell in Cain's evil heart. And let our brother worship God alongside of our altar also and let him find more acceptance with God and with man than we find. Let him be better gifted of God and better placed by God, more approved of God and of God's people than we are.

And you will soon see Cain. Praise the talents, the industry, the achievements of our very best and dearest friend. And it is gall and wormwood to us. But blame him, belittle him, detract from him, sneer at him, and we will embrace you, for you've put marrow into our dead bones. You've given wine to him that was of a heavy heart. Praise a neighboring minister's prayer or his preaching or his pastoral activity at another minister's table and you will upset both him and his listening house for days and for years to come. Of the six sins that are said to forerun the sin against the Holy Ghost, the fourth in the fatal order is envy at another's grace.

Take care then how you get about with a tongue in your head that no man can tame and tempt good men and women toward that sin which shall never be forgiven them. Now when I read that paragraph from the great Scottish preacher, I realized afresh how the poison of asps is under the lips of men, that it is ever possible to use good and gracious words to kindle the fires of hell in a human heart. The passage we are studying in Romans, I say, is a tissue of quotations from the Old Testament where originally the words were used of God to describe the condition of the ancient people who were the only ones in the world who were the object of God's grace.

God shows us that even those who are restrained by religion have the seeds of all evil within. Even though Israel is taken as a specimen, their history is nothing more than the developed and legitimate history of what in your own mouth and in your own heart is to be found. If only that which is in you were allowed to be manifested and if the same opportunities favorable for its development were given, this would be the result in you. So that this you are in principle. That poison of asps lurks under your lips, even under the lips of saints, for it is equally true of all of those who are brought under the control of the Lord Jesus.

The control of evil, the restraint of evil is indeed a blessing. And that is the privileged place of the disciple of the Lord Jesus. Still, if anyone asks what kind of evil is thus controlled and repressed within a child of God and what kind of noxious weed it is that is thus mowed by the scythe of the Spirit, I reply that we may read the description of it in this passage. So in that sense, it is the picture of all men, of everyone that ever breathed on this earth except only the Lord Jesus. He was the exception, for he in all his ways and thoughts and feelings was not of the earth.

But with that exception, this is the natural picture even of every saint and all that are in the world would be full of the development of it if God did not restrain it. He restrains it in a saint by his own spirit and by his truth. He restrains the full development of it in the world by educational discipline and by laws which men make to repress evil, as well as by his own divine governmental order. But nevertheless, this is the description which belongs to them when men are looked at by him as they essentially are.

And observe in this what an imperfect estimate we have of our sinfulness. How far our apprehensions of our sinfulness fall short. If we read the scriptures, we're perhaps able to say that we believe this to be the description of our natural selves. We believe it because we believe God. Grace may enable us to say that, but I'm quite sure that few of you apprehend it experimentally. Few of us can say, I have felt and known this to be my true description. Thus, we fall short of a just estimate of ourselves and our own iniquity, even of that estimate which might be expected of us.

No doubt if we sought to serve God more devotedly, we should grow in the apprehension of this evil. We should become more conscious of it and would see that it is that which hinders us from serving him fully. And that would be a means of blessing. I do not say it would be in itself a blessing without a corresponding growth in our knowledge of Christ and of that blessed freedom of serving Christ which God has been pleased to give to his believing people. It would be a sorrowful thing to say, God has forgiven me this iniquity through Christ.

I see the depth of it and I see God has forgiven it, but I cannot free my thoughts from the dreadful apprehension of the greatness of this my sin. That would not be desirable. It is most desirable that we should see the sin, but not so as to be hindered thereby from the happy liberty of serving God. It is quite possible for the knowledge of this evil to be connected with the joyful knowledge of serving God. For we may regard it not as a terror that fetters and destroys our energies, but as something from which we have been freed, not only as to condemnation, but as to its controlling power over us.

Thus, the very blackness of this picture can be a great means of grace in the life of a believer. The condition of the soul becomes healthy and happy when we recognize what we are by nature and recognize the presence of the roots of all sin within us. Then meekness and humility are produced by means of this knowledge. At the same time, energy and strength are produced by the knowledge of God's pardoning and restraining grace. But we must return to the final picture of the mouth of man, an open grave filled with deceit and with snakes venom under the lips.

It is finally stated, their mouth is brimful of cursing and bitterness. Words of lies, words of envy, words of backbiting and hatred are followed by words of blasphemy. Stand still on any street in the country where many people are passing and it is doubtful if you will remain for five minutes without hearing someone take the name of the Lord in vain. Such an overflow of profanity, of course, is an indication that these lips do not know the name of God in all its holiness and majesty. No one who has truly named the name of the Lord Jesus Christ as savior could ever use that name lightly.

A fountain cannot give forth both sweet water and bitter. It is interesting to note how our ancestors understood this and described it by the very name they coined to describe the light use of the name of God. An old Latin name for a church or cathedral is the word fane, f a n e. The word is not even obsolete in distinguished English. It would be quite correct to describe Westminster Abbey in London as a stately fane. Now the Latin word for in front of is pro. Therefore, the word profane means literally out in front of the church.

There's some wry humor in the fact that some language was called out in front of the church speech or profane language. People soon saw that the minister stood in the pulpit using the language of God for the things of God inside of the church building. And they realized that godless men picked up the vocabulary and took it outside the doors of the church and fouled the air with its use. Everywhere the name of God and of Christ Jesus is bandied about lightly in defiance of the commandment which says, the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

And many Christians, recoiling from the blunt use of these names, nevertheless uses the G which is short for Jesus and the gosh which is euphemistic for God and the other words of like origin which are known as minced oaths. And the sentence ends with the fact that the mouths that are filled with cursing are also filled with bitterness. The heart gives forth its deceitful words, its lying words, its envious words, its profane words. And finally, it gives forth bitter words. And the bitter words run out of the mouth, the drooling spittle of the heart and stain the face with sin so that the lines of the face form in bitterness.

And it can readily be seen that the joy of the Lord is not a tenant in the house. Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. There will be no true music in the lake of fire. There will be no joy there. There will be bitterness staining everything, for it will be the full product of the human heart. The word of God says that a man who would be able to control the tongue fully would be a perfect man. There is none such. But God can come into your heart and save you through Jesus Christ and bring a certain control that will increase day by day and change your vocabulary to one of praise.

Behold, we put bits in the horse's 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 by 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. therewith bless we God, even the Father, and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. And if they are not to be, it must be by our submission to the restraining grace of God through the Lord Jesus Christ.

May he give us grace to come for more grace. And our God and Father, we pray thee that the Holy Spirit may take this lesson to many hearts. If there are those who listen who have not been born again, may the restlessness of the conviction of the Holy Spirit be upon them. And may they know no peace until they rest in Christ. But upon all thy redeemed own, may thy grace, mercy, and peace abide. And unto thee be all the glory and honor both now until Jesus come and forever. Amen.

Guest (Male): Do you have trouble taming your tongue? Our tongues have great potential for destruction, but the joy of knowing Christ can turn harsh, bitter speech into praise and blessing. We hope you've benefited from today's message by Dr. Barnhouse entitled The Poison of Asps. You can listen to additional Bible teaching by the late Dr. Donald Gray Barnhouse anytime, anywhere around the globe via the internet by visiting the Alliance of confessing evangelicals website at alliancenet.org. An audio copy of today's teaching is available by calling us toll free at 1-800-488-1888. Today's message again is entitled The Poison of Asps or simply request message number R 3-9.

We would also like to make available to you a free copy of Dr. Barnhouse's booklet entitled From Depression to Hope. So many people, even Christians, become overwhelmed by life's problems and difficulties and fall into the pit of depression. Sadly, many people never find their way out of this black hole of hopelessness and despair. In this booklet, Dr. Barnhouse confronts depression with glorious gospel truth that Jesus has the power to lift us from the depths of despair into the assurance of his love and the confidence certain hope that awaits all who trust in him. Ask for your free copy of From Depression to Hope when you call a right.

Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible is the radio ministry of the Alliance of confessing evangelicals headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Alliance of confessing evangelicals exist to promote a biblical understanding and worldview. Drawing upon the insight and wisdom of reformation theologians from decades and even centuries gone by, we seek to provide contemporary Christian teaching materials which will equip believers to understand and meet the challenges and opportunities of our time and place. Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible comes to you through the generous gifts of our listeners. If you have benefited from this broadcast and would like it to continue, please prayerfully consider a donation to help keep this ministry on the air.

For more information or to make a contribution to support and further our work, please contact us by writing Alliance of confessing evangelicals, box 2000 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103 or call toll free 1-800-488-1888. Visit us online at www.alliancenet.org. Be sure and ask for a free updated resource catalog featuring books, audio teachings, commentaries, booklets, daily devotionals, videos, and a wealth of other materials from outstanding reform teachers and theologians including Donald Gray Barnhouse, James Montgomery Boice, Michael Horton, and Martin Lloyd Jones. Thanks again for being with us. Join us again next time for more classic teaching on Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible.