Sovereign Grace Chapel, located
at 135 Annabel Lane in Beaver, West Virginia, invites you to
listen to a gospel message concerning Jesus Christ our Lord. If you wish to follow along,
turn to Romans chapter 2 again. Romans chapter 2. I debated within
my own mind as to whether I would say anything else concerning
Romans 2, 5 through 16. But I thought, no, I've said
enough for now on that. What I want to do is deal with
Romans 2, verses 17 down through verse 27. Behold, thou art called
a Jew. Now let me stop just a moment. As we will see, probably not
this Sunday, but maybe next Sunday, as we will see, Paul throws a
caveat into this term, Jew. I will mention it only to bring
all of our minds up to par. Verse 28, he said, for he is
not a Jew. You see what it says? For he is not a Jew, which is
one outwardly, neither is that circumcision, which is outward
in the flesh. Now, a Jew is a Jew. and literal circumcision in a
male child is real circumcision. Correct or not? Paul is not denying
that fact, but he's saying to actually be a real bonafide Jew,
to be of the seed of Abraham, to be one who is circumcised
before God and not men, has nothing to do with your genealogy. and it has nothing to do with
any physical right performed upon you. It has to do with the
purpose of God, the grace of God, and an act of God. But Paul
will use this word Jew and Israel back and forth, because when
he says, behold, thou art called a Jew, what Jew is he talking
about here? A natural born Jew. But then
he throws that caveat into it in verse 28. And as you go through
the rest of this epistle, this letter, you will find him using
Jew or Israel in two totally different ways. And God Almighty
will have to teach you the difference. because he doesn't, I'm talking
about a true Jew here, not just a genealogical Jew here. He just
throws out the word, writes it down, and uses it, and lets it
lay where it is. Do you understand what I'm getting
at here? Now as I read this, I thought, behold thou art called
a Jew. Well my last name is Pendleton,
not Horowitz. So I suppose that it's not talking
to me. And in fact, it is not. Paul
is talking, and when he's writing this letter, he is now writing
to those who are of the physical ancestry that is called Jewish. And that actually came through
Abraham. But then when he speaks of Israel,
that comes through who? Israel. Not Abraham. Abraham was not a Israelite.
His grandson was the first Israelite. Now, I know automatically that
is probably, if there's some listening or hear this later,
they are totally confounded, but you will remain that way
until God opens your eyes. Behold, thou art called a Jew.
So there were people of Jewish ancestry in the local assembly
that gathered in Rome, right? And my first thought was, after
I read these verses, a thought popped into my mind, thank God
I'm not a Jew. But look at what he's just said.
The Gentiles either accuse or excuse one another. Now you get
what I'm trying to say here. Now look at it. Somebody says,
well, what's the real meaning in 17 through 27? Just come out
and tell us, preacher. It means exactly what he wrote.
There is no deeper meaning. But as I've said over and over,
our wicked, evil minds love to escape any passage of scripture
that seems to have condemnation or judgment added to it. We try
to find a way to divorce ourselves from that particular fact or
truth in the passage we dislike, in the passage that points its
holy finger at us. Behold, thou art called a Jew.
So he is writing to the church at Rome, but he is now addressing
those who are physically Jews. So it applies to them. but its
truth applies to all mankind. Behold, thou art called a Jew
and restest in the law. Isn't that an oxymoron? Because
the law is about do, do, do, right? Don't do, don't do, don't
do. The law is not about rest, is
it? It's about do. This, do, and
live. And somebody says, well, preacher,
you said that cannot happen. It cannot happen, but it's still
commanded of God. It's still commanded of God. Behold, thou art a Jew and resteth
in the law. But this lets me know how wicked
and depraved our evil hearts and minds are that will rest
in the very thing that's actually bondage to us. will rest in the
very thing that actually condemns us before God, rather than resting
in him who is God's rest. Behold, thou art called a Jew,
and restest in the law, and makest thy boast of God, and knowest
his will, and approvest the things that are more excellent, being
instructed out of the law. The Jew was far wiser. Now listen
to me. The Jew was far wiser in the
revealed will of God than any Gentile ever was unless they
were brought under the covenant of grace in Christ before the
world began. The Jew, even Paul will go on
to say, has an advantage. Or at least I should say, at
one time they had an advantage. The word, God's word's out there
everywhere now. The law, everything's out there
now. But look at it, knowest his will,
approvest the things that are more excellent, being instructed
out of the law, and are confident, oh, oh, how confident we always
are. And are confident that thou thyself
are a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness.
Ever felt that way about your knowledge of grace? Hm? Hm? Oh yeah. Well now I can enlighten
this person. And maybe you are instructed
in grace. And maybe you know much more
than that person because of God's grace. But remember, it is because
of God's grace. It's not you, it's not me. are confident that thou art a
guide of the blind, a light of them that sit in darkness, an
instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which has the form
of knowledge and of the truth in the law. Thou therefore that
teachest another, here's where the rubber meets the road. Thou
that teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? Notice this
is to teach, not just instruct. There are a lot of people called
teachers that all they do is instruct, but they don't teach.
Now do you understand what I'm getting at? There are some people
that are called teachers, they actually instruct. They make
sure the students get the message. They get the page. They get the
rule. Thou therefore that teachest
another, teachest thou not thyself? Thou that preachest a man should
not steal? Do you steal? Now folks, I could
stop right there and I could start hammering on every one
of us, Jew or Gentile. And we could go into a plethora
of ways that men and women can steal. It doesn't have to do
with me picking up someone else's phone, sticking it in my pocket,
and taking it home for my own. Stealing exists in many areas. Thou that sayest a man should
not commit adultery. You ever looked at a woman and
thought about it? Now I added that in there. But that's what
he thought. The law covers all that. The law covers our thoughts
as well as our overt deeds. It condemns our very thought
of being, our desires that may never play out out here because
they may be suppressed by one means or another. God being the
ultimate suppressor of all things, but nevertheless, we may suppress
their overt thing, but they are a part of us down in here. Thou that sayest the man should
not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? Thou that of
poorest idols, and oh boy, don't we have poor idols, don't we? Ah, that free willism. Oh, I
can't stand it. I find myself all the time, people
say I'm too hot. I said, oh, like a free willer
at a sovereign grace conference. Hot, mad. Thou that makest thy
boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonest thou God? The question is answered rhetorically,
yes. No matter how much we know about
anything, whether it be law or whether it be grace, when we
dishonor God, we have nothing else to fall back on. Nothing else to fall back on.
It is a dishonoring of God. Christ's death for our sins doesn't
change the fact that we still commit them. And it doesn't change the fact
that they steal, God abhors them. You remember what it says about
God when David had that big fiasco with Bathsheba? God was angry
with David. God was displeased with the thing
David did. And David was a man under grace. Under grace. Thou makest not
boast of the law through breaking the law dishonorous thou God,
for the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you,
as it is written. For circumcision now. Okay, I'm going. For circumcision
verily profiteth if thou keep the law. Now here, let me just
give you this. This here is what I'm going to
call the Jewish penchant. The Jewish penchant, we'll talk
about that hitter a little more in a moment. The Jewish penchant
was this, the law says this, the law says that, and you wicked,
evil Gentiles, you don't do this. But the Jews were refusing to
acknowledge neither do I, neither do we. But they could always
fall back on what? Circumcision. Plus one thing,
circumcision was something that somebody else did to ya. and
upon you. You had at eight days old, you
had no say in the matter. This was the Jewish penchant
and it remained the Jewish penchant for many years. For many years. But I'm not here
to talk about the Jewish penchants. I'm here to talk about our penchants. Let me read the rest. Therefore,
if the uncircumcision, that's people who are not circumcised,
basically Gentiles. There were a few Gentiles that
were circumcised, but that was under the auspice of the legal
covenant in the Old Testament. Therefore, Therefore, if the
uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision
be counted for circumcision? Now has anybody ever really done
that? No, but that is a fact. The fact that we can't do it
doesn't change God's truth. Therefore, if the uncircumcision
keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision
be counted for circumcision, and shall not uncircumcision,
which is by nature, if it fulfill the law, judge thee, who by the
letter and circumcision doth transgress the law. One of the
dilemmas that even our Lord came up with amongst these really
strict legal Jews is if a young boy, an infant male child, day
to be circumcised, the eighth day fell upon the Sabbath day,
what do you do? You remember that account? What
do you do? So as I said today, let's consider
this. Religions pin chance. That's my title, that's my subject.
Religions, penchants. Now what is a penchant? Just
so everyone at least physically and at least mentally can understand
what I'm getting at. The opposite of a penchant is
a pet peeve. You know what a pet peeve is?
Pet peeve is, well I don't like it when somebody cuts their fingernails
in public. You got a pet peeve? I don't
like it when so-and-so snorts when they drink water. Whatever,
it's a pet peeve. The one or two things in this
world that really get under your skin, that's what a pet peeve
is. You know what a penchant is?
It's that one or two things that just really turn you on in life.
It's that one or two things that just really, you base everything
else around. For these Jews, it was circumcision. What about today? That's the
question. The question ain't, are there
still some Jews that hold to circumcision? Of course they
do. That's already been dealt with.
I need to deal with the penchants of religion that exist in our
day and expose them for what they really are. And then having
laid down this crooked stick, I pray God he will give me the
grace to lay the truth, the straight stick of God Almighty's penchant
down beside it and let us compare the one with the other. Here
are some of today's religious penchants. All, all, I said all
humanistic religion has its penchants. the one thing that they really,
really hold to. Or there may be two or three
things, but they usually fall under one umbrella. Of course,
I could talk about, there are some who if you bad mouth their
prophet, they will kill you for it. Right? There are people in this day,
if you bad mouth their prophet, the prophet of Islam, they will
kill you for it. That's their penchant. That's
the one thing that really, really matters to them. It's a penchant,
but I'm not talking about all of those. I'm talking about what
men call Christendom today. That's what I want to talk about.
That's what I want to expose. Christendom, now when I say Christendom,
I do not mean what your Webster's Dictionary means. Webster's will
basically tell you, or if you go online especially, it will
tell you all of Christianity linked together in spite of all
of their differences. That ain't what I'm talking about.
God's people, when it comes to the person and work of Christ,
they see eye to eye. The Old Testament prophet prophesied
it would be so. It's in the book. But all humanistic
religion has its pin chance. Do this. Obey this. Adhere to this. Lift up this. Everything else is nonchalant.
Everything else is give or take. everything else we can put up
with or not put up with. In other words, there are those
in this world that call themselves Christian, and if you agree with
them about the same creed they love, they will love you back. And you can see them online by
the hundreds. They always, always, every little
bit, now that might not be the one thing they always say, but
it's the one thing they always run to in a tight spot, the creed. the creed. And how do I say this? Those creeds don't mean anything. Now they may be valuable for
study, but you dare not, you dare not hang your hope of acceptance
before God by your acknowledgement, obeying, or adhering to some
creed, whether it be the Westminster or whether it be the Philadelphia
Confession, I don't care what it is. Right here's our creed.
Right here's our creed. It is infallible. Those creeds
have fallacies. They have fallacies. Another
one is this, baptism. Penny and I actually heard one
say this morning. He said this, and I may not be exact, but she
can testify to this. Baptism joins you to the blood
of Christ. He said those words. Folks, the blood of Christ is
not some magical trick. It's not some mystical thing,
though it was real. They acknowledge it was real,
real blood, real human blood, but that blood was the blood
of God, too. Paul makes that clear, the blood of God Almighty.
I can't explain that other than in the God-man, Jesus of Nazareth. But they make that blood as though
if you could just somehow get in touch with it, if it could
just get to you or get on you or get in you or get near you,
then your sins will be washed away. No, sir! Your sins were
dealt with by Christ and His blood at Calvary, or they will
never be dealt with at all other than you being dealt with by
God in judgment and condemnation. His blood is not a magic trick. You don't come into contact with
His blood by baptism. You don't even come into contact
with His blood by faith. You don't come into contact with
his blood. His blood either purchased you,
or I should rather say he purchased you by his blood, or you've never
been purchased at all. That's the truth of this book.
That's the truth of this. Here's another one. Here's some
folks' pin chat. There's even a denomination that
goes by Sabbath keeping. there are those that call themselves
the Seventh-day Adventist. Now what they rarely talk about
anymore is that one of their leaders, William Miller, back
in the 1800s prophesied Jesus was gonna come back between this
date, wait a minute, this date for you, and this date. And he
didn't. Christ did not come back. So
he changed it to another date. And he didn't. That was Seventh-day
Adventism. Now it's a Sabbath-day thing.
Let me tell you something. They don't keep the Sabbath any
more than any other fallen sinner upon the face of the earth. Somebody
says, is the Seventh-day the day of worship, or is the first
day of the week the day of worship? Thou fool, every day is a day
of worship before God. and God ordained the seventh
day of the law and put it into the law so that man would have
a day to physically rest. He's to work not five days a
week, 40 hours a week. That ain't what the book says.
It says you work six days a week and then on the seventh day,
rest. Do they do that? We all like to have some penchant
or another. And you watch these people every
time, when they get in a tight spot, when they run to a spot
that's difficult in the scripture, they'll always run back to their
penchant. They'll always run back to that one or two things
that really stands out to them. And if we agree on that, then
we can sit down and talk about everything else. It don't work
that way. What about free will? Is that
not a penchant of the day? Free will, and that is two different
words. F-R-E-E, space, W-I-L-L. That's the doctrine of free will. It is a doctrine, but it is a
man-made doctrine. The Bible talks of free will
one word. F-R-E-E, same word, W-I-L-L. It means voluntary. and it means
an offering or a sacrifice that a believer in the Old Testament
could offer to God without any legal obligation. They did it
out of mere gratitude. But yet there are those who call
themselves today free will Baptist, and they spell it as one word.
Look at their church buildings. They won't spell it as two words,
but what they're talking about is free will with the space in
the middle. Not free will in scripture. They
are deceivers. Well, free will's in the Bible,
don't you know? Yeah, like you spell it, but not like you teach
it. Now, you hear what I'm saying? But that is the penchant of most,
and it's sad to say, of most of so-called professed Christendom
today. They almost all agree on this
one penchant, free will. They may disagree on Sabbath,
baptism, creed, but they all have that penchant, free will. It's at least way up there on
the top of the list, is it not? What about ethics? Ethics. Ethics, it's in the field of not psychiatry,
but psychology, and ethics originally meant to deal with what is right
and wrong. What is it that one man does
that harms himself or another, as opposed to what does a man
do that helps himself and others? And it used to be based upon
ideals of morality. The problem is with fallen men
and women, ethics change during the generations. And when one
generation stood up for this as ethical, moral, Right. Then a few generations later,
it's totally turned topsy-turvy and turned upside down. So somebody
or both parties were wrong. Right? But I'm saying there are
people in this world that if you're just an ethical person
and you believe in God and you kind of believe in Jesus, it's
okay. It's not okay. It's not okay. Humanitarianism. There are churches
today, churches, I'll put that in quotes now, that are based
totally upon humanitarianism. Helping out the poor. Helping
out the less fortunate, okay? You understand what I'm saying?
You can get online, or some of them on TV, and they will give
you this penchant. It's about feeding the little
children that are starving over in Africa. And they think that's
their penchant. If you do this, we can disagree
on a lot of other things, it doesn't matter. And I could go
on and on. Traditions, rituals, even Bible
rituals. There's a lot of rituals that
were practiced by our brothers and sisters in the Old Testament
that we dare not practice today. Somebody said, well, they did
it in the Bible. Yeah, they did it in the Bible. But do you know
anything about the New Covenant versus the Old Covenant? Huh? About God Almighty and Christ
taking away the old and establishing the new so that these rituals,
even those ordained of God, at one time are now called dead
works from which our consciences must be purged? Or this one,
here's a big one today, social justice or racial justice. There
are so-called churches, that's their penchant, that's what they're
all about. Am I building a straw bed, or
am I telling you the facts? There are so-called churches,
their whole penchant is social justice, or racial justice, or
economic justice, or a conglomeration of those things.