which literally means stringing pearls. When the texts were all brought together and arranged in order, they were known as Testimonia. We are now going to view a divinely given testimony depicting the character, communication and conduct of the natural man. In verses 10-12 sin is shown to be in human character; what a man is. "There is none righteous, no, not one" (3: 10). The quota tion is from Psalm 14: 1-3. Where is the man or woman who is perfectly right by God's standards? The natural man is incapable of being right or doing right in the sight of God. The Scriptures tell us that "the nattiral man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned" (I Corinthians 2: 14). Now keep in mind the fact that this is God's view of man; it is as God sees and knows man considered from the Divine vantage point. It is man's character as seen when "The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men" (Psalm 14:3; 53:2). There is a human viewpoint of what is right, but it is far removed from God's standard. In the days of the Judges, we are told, "every man did that which was right in his own eyes" (Judges 17:6; 21:25). Now mark well the fact that men did not do what was wrong, but what was right. But he did what was right "in his own eyes." It was right as man understood right to be, yet it was one of the lowest periods in Israel's history, a period of idolatry, infidelity and immorality. "There is none that understandeth" (3: 11 ). The absence of righteousness results in a lack of understanding. We live in a day when there is much knov.rledge with little under standing. The natural man is destitute of spiritual compre hension. The wave length by which spiritual truth comes to man cannot be tuned in by the human mind independent of the work of the Holy Spirit. When Paul prayed for the Christians in Colosse, he requested of God that they "might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding" (Colossians 1:9). And then, in the same context, he said to them that at one time, before they were children of God, "You ... were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind" (1:21 ). In our age of scientific enlightenment we have never had so much educated ignor- 85
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