I want you to turn back in your
Bibles, if you will, to Romans Chapter 2. Romans Chapter 2. And again, I echo my elders'
regards. For those of you who may be visiting
with us, we are so glad to have you in the house with us. We
are going through a magnificent book, if I might say so myself.
And if you can hang in there, saints, for a year and a half,
you will grow immensely in those essential gospel truths that
will keep you from telling lies on the Lord Jesus when it comes
to his word. A year and a half is really not
that long. It's just not that long. The late Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones had to apologize
to his church when he preached a series in the book of Romans
And he said, I am sorry that I had to preach 29 sermons out
of Chapter 1 alone. He says, I promise I won't be
that long in the rest of the chapters. But I've been following
him through that series, and he was just as long in Chapter
2 as he was in Chapter 1. Two things with that. One is
the word of God really does merit that kind of patience and focus. But my generation can't handle
it. We just don't have room for that much word, to be honest
with you. So you got a pastor who got through
Romans one in four sermons. And we are in our second sermon
in chapter two. And according to the outline,
we finished chapter two today. So you can go, yay. And we will
have not even scratched the surface of what the text is teaching. And everything that God has said
in his word is for us. Really, I should have a room
full of people. Whose soul says, take your time, preacher. And preach the truth to us till
Jesus comes. who are not constrained by time,
are constrained by clocks, are constrained by man's measures,
are yielding to the weakness of our flesh because we got to
watch the football game, or because we got ADHD. Somebody called
another syndrome a P-ADHD, a preaching ADHD. Got ADHD for preaching. Once the preaching gets started,
all of a sudden you get jittery and can't wait till it's done.
And we have that culture today. And so we miss out on a lot when
it comes to the depths of the Word of God. It's a shame. It
really is. So today our topic is true Judaism. And we will be making our excursion
through this latter half of Romans 2 fairly quickly. But at least
I hope to draw out some salient points which the art of the Apostle
Paul has laid down by the Spirit of God for the good of our souls. When God called Israel to circumcision,
he was calling them to a new nature, not merely a new ceremony. When he called the nation of
Israel to himself by Moses, he was calling them to a new life
and a new nature. And circumcision was simply an
emblem of that. He didn't call them to mere ceremonies,
nor to a new creed or confessions or a set of doctrines as such,
but he had called the nation of Israel out of Egypt, ladies
and gentlemen, to a new way of life, which would correspond
to the saving ways of God. Now I must call your remembrance
to the saving ways of God. It was one of our last points
last week. Remember in your outline the
saving ways of God. I described to you in Romans
chapter 2 verse 5 how that God, verse 4 rather, how that God's
goodness is that which is the manifestation of his attributes
and his nature and that in his goodness towards humanity he
blesses us with rain Indiscriminately upon the just and the unjust
he gives us days and seasons and weeks and years The Apostle
will help us argue through that a good again, and we often in
religious circles quickly say God is good. Do we not? And sometimes
we may know what that means, but often we're simply saying
it because the circumstances are favorable to us But what
I would say to you is when we say God is good. What we mean
is God is good by nature and God is good intrinsically his
attributes and characteristics are good, which means everything
that proceeds from God is good No matter how it feels looks
God is good in all that he does God is good in his mercy and
God is good in his judgments God is good and everything that
proceeds from God is Proceeding from his nature and therefore
his goodness. Remember what we learned last week when Moses
said show me your glory What did God say? I'm going to show
you my goodness. I And when he showed Moses his
goodness, he showed Moses his attributes and characteristics
relative to his covenant responsibility to the people of God, one of
which is where we are now as we are contemplating what it
means to be a true Jew. So I continue to assert that
circumcision, which was the sign of Judaism, taught that God,
as God, had called Abraham out of Babylonian darkness into a
journey leading to glory so that all of God's elect being Abraham's
seed. If you are a believer in Jesus
Christ, do you know that you're Abraham's seed? and you bear
the marks therefore of the life of Abraham whom God had called
out of Babylonian captivity and bondage into a journey of liberty
and grace and a path of righteousness of which Abraham walked and then
also the children of Israel were made to walk under the law of
Moses so that Whether that be the Jews coming out of Egypt
with Moses and therefore being circumcised in the flesh once
again, remember when they came into the promised land, Joshua
had to circumcise them again in order to sustain and perpetuate
the promise that was given to Abraham. Circumcision was a promise
to father Abraham. The circumcision of the flesh
was a promise by God the father to Abraham. It was simply that
the children of Abraham had to bear that sign which God had
given to Abraham in order to perpetuate the symbol of that
sign which was the promise of Messiah that would come into
the world through the seed of Abraham. So that circumcision
was merely what? A sign. And Paul is going to
help us understand the rich truth behind that circumcision which
avails all who believe to become the sons of God in Christ because
of faithful Abraham and God anticipating. that the Jewish people would
do in their generation, what we do in our generation, take
the sign and make it more substantive than it ought to be. Take the
symbol and make it more relevant and more essential to our salvation
than it ought to be. And in fact, what we do is what
Israel did. They put their hope in the sign
and not in the Savior. They put their hope in their
baptism and not in the Savior. They put their hope in their
identification with the denomination and not in the Savior. We be
Abraham, see, Jesus says that's not going to help you. See, in
other words, we have to be very careful that our faith does not
transfer from Christ to some existential or visible thing
by which you can affirm to others that you are a believer. Am I
making some sense? Your hope in denominationalism
will not save you. And you're going to learn some
other things today along those lines. So what Paul is doing
is pressing home now in true messianic form. I love Paul because
Paul learned some lessons about who Jesus was and followed Christ's
pattern, even though Paul didn't have the luxury of three and
a half years with Jesus like the other apostles did. Now they
learned the lessons too. Haven't we learned that in Friday
study? To walk with Jesus is to be a disciple. And to be a
disciple of Jesus is to put on the pattern of life of Christ.
And then you wake up one day and you find yourself doing those
things that Jesus did. The apostles did that, didn't
they? Here's what Paul is doing now. Paul has just, for our sake,
demonstrated the efficiency and sufficiency of the revelation
of God given to mankind through creation, being adequate and
sufficient as a testimony to condemn mankind for knowing that
there's a God. He has sufficiently demonstrated
that the Gentile peoples who had their origin in Adam and
therefore were also under covenant have departed from the living
God, opting to worship idols and ultimately themselves, and
therefore God has given them over, as we learned last week,
three times, peridokian, given them over to the dark powers
of the sinful flesh as well as to the devil. And now that he
has let the Gentiles know, hey, you guys were jacked up, He now
turns to the next constituent group among all of the Roman
Christians, and that's the Jews. See, we are now seamlessly transitioning
from his argument to the Gentiles to his argument to the Jews,
because the Jews thought that they were better than the Gentiles
simply because they had a Bible. And so what Paul is doing now,
true to form to the Lord Jesus, wherever Jesus saw people rising
up in opposition to other people on the false premise of superiority,
he defended those poor people, did he not? And so sometimes
Jesus would say, hey, salvations of the Jews. For those who are
sincere Jews, legitimate Jews are what he said in John chapter
two, Israelites indeed. He said, salvations of the Jew.
And then he turned around and say to the Jews, but none of
you can ever be saved. until you believe on me." And
he would protect poor Gentiles, and he would protect poor women,
and he would protect poor children, those who are incapable of defending
themselves because he understood their disadvantage over against
elitism, and self-righteousness, and discrimination, and racism,
and all of the facades that men put on to give themselves a false
security that they're all right with God. Which means you and
I have to be careful of that too. which is where we're going
today as we press on Paul's argument, his brilliant argument to his
Jewish brethren to make sure that they don't think that their
standing before God is acceptable simply because they know the
law. What did God say in the Old Testament
about circumcision? This is remarkable. Even before
Israel made their way out of the wilderness in their 40-year
journey, do you remember what God said about circumcision?
He said in the book of the law, Deuteronomy chapter 10 verse
16, he says, circumcise the foreskin of your heart and do not be stiff-necked
anymore. In other words, Israel failed
to understand that circumcision was merely a sign and that the
true circumcision was a new nature. And that only the new nature
could be that wherein men rest in the promises of God. And Israel
lauding itself in the circumcised boys and calling themselves Abraham. See, God let them know even before
they entered into the promised land. That little foreskin on
the front of your reproductive organ is not going to get you
into heaven because you cut it off. Did you hear that? You must understand that the
flesh is the flesh and the spirit is the spirit. Without a spiritual
circumcision whereby your old man is cut off in Christ and
your new man is resurrected in Christ and you having adopted
a new nature by the work of regeneration, you are not the children of Abraham.
What God called Israel to way before they entered into the
promise of Jeremiah warned about it in Jeremiah chapter 4 verse
4 as well You are uncircumcised in heart and you know what God
said in his own word Deuteronomy chapter 30 verse 6 I will Circumcise
your heart and when I do it, it'll get done See, what Paul
is getting ready to press home is that same promise. True to
prophetic form, as the apostles were, Paul has to bring the law
in on top of people who were confident in the law to help
them understand that your salvation can never be based upon your
mere knowledge of the law. You guys got that? This is where
we're going in our text. So I call your attention to point
number one as we work through reflections of Romans chapter
two. God's patience will save you or damn you. Isn't that what
we considered as one of our final points last week? God's patience. will save you or damn you. Remember
what we learned? Macrothumea means that God is
slow in the temperature rising of His holy indignation against
sin. Do you guys remember that? God
is slow in the rising of His holy nature, in the temperature
of His holy nature, because naturally God is repugnant. Sin is repugnant to God. There's no room in God's nature,
no room in His being. to tolerate sin. Really, I want
you to get that. If you have any hope for heaven,
you've got to have the true God. And the true God does not tolerate
sin. He doesn't play with sin. He
doesn't belittle sin. He doesn't mock sin like this
generation you and I live in does. Every day men and women
are heaping up the wrath of God against themselves As his macro
through Mia is rising and as his forbearance holds back the
floods of wrath against humanity Do you believe that? And I showed
you last week how we had several examples of that in the Old Testament,
right? Where God poured his wrath out, but only after he was what
patient? Only after he was patient he
poured it out And God has demonstrated that in the post-New Testament
era, too. If we had to argue for the judgments that have come
on humanity all around the world, we could show you plague after
plague after plague, judgment after judgment, crisis after
crisis, as the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the epitome of all prophets,
gave us in the Olivet Discourse. There will be famines, there
will be wars, there will be judgments, there will be ecological problems,
economic problems, spiritual problems, judgments all over.
There will be apostasies and departures from the faith. These
are God's secondary passive judgments on humanity. Do you know that?
His first judgment is the decree that a thing is wrong. The wages
of sin is what? That's a judgment, ladies and
gentlemen. His second judgment is to back up and let the consequence
of sin have its way in your life. Those are the passive judgments
of God when he says, whatsoever man sows, that shall he also
what? So then when the judgment of
a seed that I have sown comes upon me, I can't blame God. I
can only blame myself. I'm reaping what I'm sowing,
as he told Israel. You have sown the wind, you are
reaping the whirlwind. Israel is crying, where are you,
God? Where are you, God? God said, I've been crying, where
are you? Where are you for the longest? And you wouldn't hear
me. Now, when you call on me, I'm not hearing you. Now, that's
the God of the Bible. See, again, in our present generation,
where we love to distort God's characteristic, we'll tell people
God is available to you all the time. The Word of God says no
such thing. Now is the hour of salvation
now is the time to call upon the Lord while he is near call
upon him There's a day when he's not near Israel learn that You
got a bunch of hardened Jews right now Who dare to believe
that God who dare not believe that God exists? because of all
of the horrors and atrocities in the Holocaust and For them,
that's their grand indictment against God when they meet God.
I can't wait to get to God, they say. Because I'll show him that
he did not exist or he did not care because of what he allowed
to happen to the Jewish people. And God will say, hey, hold on.
I warned you. And I held my wrath back. I will
be justified in the day of judgment. I'm jumping ahead to Romans chapter
3 But he says I will be justified in the day of judgment when you
come with all your gains sayings and arguments I will overcome
them and I will condemn you in the court of law. That's what
God says He can't wait till humanity comes to the courtroom of the
final judgments with all their arguments and all their lawyers
He will blow with his wind and everybody will disappear. I and
you will be left there by yourself as an individual without the
devil, without all of your deceivers, yourself standing before a holy
God in your nakedness according to Revelation chapter 20, all
by yourself. Even heaven and earth will forsake
you on that day. I ain't coming to that courtroom.
And you have marshaled to yourself all of your false arguments and
all of your legitimate premises, illegitimate premises as to why
you will not come to God. and especially religious folk.
And so what the apostle is doing is helping us understand that
there's a second category of people for whom God's patience
is even more damnable. So I'll just run through our
four points quickly. God's patience will save and damn. That's four
and five. He restrained for a time by nature,
not by permission. What do you mean by that, pastor?
God's restraining of his judgments are not because of something
you and I do or don't do. In other words, you and I can't
move God to be anything other than God. In other words, God
doesn't just hold back because of how great you are or how great
I am. There's nothing great about us.
Now if God ever appeals to act purely on the basis of who you
and I are, boom! In a picosecond, we're gone.
Because we're beginning what we deserve. So God doesn't hold
back because of us. He holds back because of himself.
It's always within himself. You guys understand that, right?
That's the whole of Exodus 33. That's 2 Peter 3, 9. You and
I are to account that the longsuffering of the Lord is because he's saving
his elect. Did you get that? The only reason
God holds up is because he's saving his elect. And the salvation
of his elect is a predetermined disposition in the nature of
God, which has nothing to do with us. It proceeds from his
own determination to have a people to the praise of the glory of
his grace for all eternity. In other words, the reason you're
saved is because God looked upon you before you had a being and
said, I'm going to choose them. And all the arguers in the world
can come against me. When I'm done, I will have justified
that person as to why I brought them into our presence. Why I
have a world of men and women that will trust me because I
called them out of darkness into their marvelous light. And those
women and men will not lie and say, I'm in heaven because of
something I did. or who I am, or how good I was. See, when Paul gets us to the
end of Romans 3, which is his first major argument, you know
what we all discover? You ready? There's none good. No, not one. That's where he's going with
his argument. If you don't understand what's taking place now, Paul
is getting ready to dig up all bad roots. Every bad plant that
we are sowing in order to argue that we have right into God's
presence based upon our words, or based upon our knowledge,
or based upon our affiliations, He's getting ready to destroy
every false refuge that we can use to say we have acceptance
with God. Right now, He's dealing with
the Jews. And you can, right now, for the moment, take a comfortable
position as this argument unfolds in verses 4 and 5, as it were,
speaking particularly to those people whom we learned last week
Affirmed biblical truth, but didn't practice it. Remember
they said that's wrong, but they were still doing the same thing
So he says over in verse 4 and 5. Do you despise the riches
of his goodness and forbearance and Long-suffering not knowing
that the goodness of God is designed to do what leads you to repentance? Circle that part of your Bible
eat it Until it bears fruit in your
life like the prophets did. Ezekiel, take the scroll and
eat it. Even though it's sweet in your
mouth and bitter in your belly, it will produce the proper fruit
in time. The reason why God holds back
is to call us all to repentance. That's right. And then we read
in verse five, but after your hardness and impenitent heart,
Rather than seeing what God's patience is designed to do, you
want to store up a bank account of God's wrath and judgment against
yourself by your daily not repenting. Do you see that? That's what
we're doing every day. Storing up wrath against the
day of judgment and revelation. of the true and the living God. So under point one, God's patience
will save and damn. He restrains for a time by nature, not by
permission. Secondly, his goodness is despised by all. God sometimes
has to help us understand that when we're looking in the scriptures
at a lost center, a wicked center, an ungodly center, a vile center,
we have to find our place there also, even if we haven't gone
to the extent of their evil and misdeed. Which is the mercy of
God too. Now watch this, I want you to
get this. I taught this last night in our marriage class. Do not
make an egalitarian thesis out of sin. Don't make all sin equal.
It's not. All sin is not equal. There are
degrees of sin and degrees of judgment against sin. Because
God is a moral being who judges on the grounds of righteousness. And while all sin is evil, There
are sins that are heinously evil, of which God will act quickly
to stop, versus others. That's called justice. Are you
guys following what I'm saying? Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth,
life for life, hand for hand, whatsoever man sows, that shall
he also reap. It will be rendered unto you according to your deeds.
That's what we're going to learn. Are you guys following what I'm
saying? The notion then that a little bitty white lie is equivalent
to someone mass murdering millions of eternity bound souls is not
a moral equivalence. Who doesn't agree with me? Let
me argue you down right quick. The person to whom I give a white
lie. Versus the millions of people I destroyed And just a moment's
time with a nuclear bomb is infinitely better off, the person that I
told the white lie, than the people that were destroyed. Do
you know why? He gets to live another day to repent. He gets
to live another day to repent. I have just destroyed millions
of eternity bound souls and they have no other option but to go
to hell if they didn't trust Christ. See the difference? Do
you guys see the difference? Do you see then why Christ says
it would be better for you to put a millstone around your neck
and throw yourself into the depths of the sea than to cause the
little ones who don't know their left hand from their right to
sin against God because of their ignorance, because of your own
selfish agendas and goals. It's important for us to hear
this stuff because you and I as Christians got to represent this
God. There are criminal, moral evils that you and I can put
up with. But there are some stuff that we have to stand up and
say is wrong. And as human beings who are called to be our brother's
keeper, do something about it. That's true. God's patience will
save and damn his goodness is despised by all. Acts 14 verse
17, the apostle Paul says, God pours out his goodness on all
Luke 16 25 is a description of the rich man that went to hell.
Remember that rich man that went to hell? Here's God's argument
in verse 25 of Luke 16. Here's what he says. You, in
your lifetime, have received your good things. In your lifetime,
God poured out on you so much good that you live large. Remember that? Presumptuously
large, exuberant. He partied every weekend. And
Lazarus received his evil things. But now Lazarus is living large
and you in hell. See, truth comes after we die
if we're not converted. My argument is that you and I
are all culpable of the guilt of despising God's goodness.
Is that true? We don't actually esteem God's
goodness as we are. My goodness, ladies and gentlemen,
if you and I wake up on any given day and just go to complaining
about our lot and life, We've despised God's goodness. I woke
up this morning and I saw the sun come out. I said, hallelujah,
Lord. I love vitamin D. I don't know
about you, but I love vitamin D. So I go through stages of
depression. Y'all probably don't do that.
But I go through cycles of depression and life gets hard at certain
times of the year. And I got to swim upstream. And
it's kind of a slow walk through the swimming pool when you're
suffering from depression. And it don't help that the sun
don't shine. So when I get sunny days, I'm
happy because I feel a little better. And I know that's God's
providence in my life. But then I think about the folks
who live in unending, relentless, just abject poverty and suffering
all around the world. And I say, Jesse, don't you even
let that thought come out of your mouth to complain against
God for your lot? Are you hearing what I'm saying?
But sometimes I do. Therefore we all despise the
goodness of God finally It has only one objective the goodness
of God the patience of God has one objective you guys got the
lesson So if you go to sleep on me now, at least you got the
main Premise for my message today, and that's what it's designed
to lead us to what? Okay, so we've got some work
to learn concerning repentance because I think the people that
are most culpable of not knowing what repentance is is church
folks Point number two in our outline I got to go back to point number
one. I need to reinforce this for a few. That's just what I'm
being told. I stated this last thing and I want to run it through.
All through your Bible, because of the fall of mankind, God has
been calling humanity to repentance. Do you guys understand that?
Since the fall of man, God has been calling us to repentance.
There's no way to have a right relationship with the Holy God
apart from it. One of the most obvious Revelations
of this this trend of calling men to repentance is the New
Testament The moment you open your New Testament of Matthew
Mark Luke and John guess what the Prophet is crying repent
John the Baptist is calling you to repent Guess what Jesus is
calling you to soon as he starts preaching repentance Guess what
the Apostles are calling you to as soon as they start preaching
repentance You know why because the whole world's going the opposite
direction. They go in the wrong direction. I Do you know what
the Bible says in Acts chapter 17 verse 31? God is commanding
all men everywhere to what? Did you get that? All men everywhere
to repent. First Thessalonians chapter 110
describes for us what repentance is. Do you know what that is?
Turning to God from idols. to serve the true and the living
God and then to wait for our Lord from heaven. What does it
mean to repent? It means your lifestyle changed
based upon a revelation of the glory of God. You are going in
another direction, waiting for Christ to come while you tell
men and women about Jesus. That's 1 Thessalonians 1 10.
And now to lock in my argument, I want to give you the example
of an Old Testament account where a whole nation heard the word
and they did what God said. You know who that nation was?
Nineveh. Jonah chapter three, Jonah went
there, preached, 40 days, God gonna tell you up. I love it
because that text now, once again, argues my point. So now watch
this, 40 days is plenty time for you to get your act together.
40 days, see God's patience? And I'm going to destroy the
whole nation. And those pagans did not argue
with God. from the king all the way down
to the poorest. They all dropped to the dust
and cried out to the true and the living God. They even made
their animals to repent. Is that repentance or what? If
our nation would ever do that. And you know what God said to
a servant, Jonah, do you see what they did? Jonah, do you
see that? My own people don't do that,
Jonah. And these Gentiles have understood the message of judgment
is designed to turn you from your course. And they did, and
God had mercy on them, didn't he? He had mercy on them. See, the word of God is calling
all of us to one thing, repentance. Repentance. Now we can go to
our second point. Under our second point, here's what I want you
to consider. The fig leaves of orthodoxy and right doctrine
will not save you. The fig leaves of orthodoxy and
right doctrine will not save you. Again, remember what I stated.
Paul now, under inspiration of the Spirit, has to deal with
that second constituency in the Roman church that he knows holds
some really, really flawed views about God because he was one
of them. He was a Jew. He was a Pharisee. He was a teacher. He was a lawyer. So see, he will
not be indicted by his auditors for not knowing what he's talking
about. Sometimes a person will tell you what's right, but you
will reject them because their feet is not in your shoes. That
mean what they're saying is not true. You're just simply arguing
the credibility of the one who's bringing the message. In this
context, the one who's bringing the message knows the mindset,
attitude, pride, arrogance, self-righteousness, and deception of the people to
whom he's speaking, right? Here's my proposition to us then.
The fig leaves of orthodoxy and right doctrine will not save
you. How relevant is that to us today? It's extremely relevant
because I know people whose whole hope for salvation is based upon
their understanding of right doctrine. Their hope for salvation
is based on it. That's tragic. It's tragic when
you think you're saved just because you think you're right. Now watch
this now. Defending the Gentiles against
the delusion of self-righteousness. Paul is now going to press home
and expose the Jewish people of a flawed premise upon which
they are standing. Verse 14 and 15. Watch this.
Watch the work of the Messiah in the heart and ministry of
the apostle Paul towards church folk. He says in verse 14 and
15, for when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature
the things contained in the law, these having not the law are
a law unto themselves. Do you see that? These not having
a law are a law unto themselves, which show the work of the law
written in their hearts, their conscious also bearing witness
and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or excusing one another.
You know what Paul just did in verses 14 and 15? He's just told
the Jew that just because you have the Bible, the Torah, the
external code of the law, and because you can quote it, because
the Gentiles didn't have it that you are no better than the Gentiles
for God has written his law in their conscious and in their
heart so that the law is working internally in the life of the
Gentiles as that external code should have affirmed in the life
of the Jew More than that. This is powerful. This is powerful. You know what he said when the
Gentiles heard the gospel and who were not under the law. That
gospel so resonated with them that they were hill-bound sinners,
that they ran to Christ, which is the aim of the law. And he's
saying to the Jews, you got the law, they didn't, and they made
it to Jesus. What's your problem? Here's their
problem. They trusted in the law that
they had. They didn't let the law do its work in them. of which
the law did in the Gentiles, which led them to Christ. Are
you seeing my argument? Now again, if I need to, I can
give you example after example in the ministry of the Lord Jesus.
The Jewish people, who were the elites, who were the aristocrats,
who were the self-righteous, who went to church, who paid
their tithes, sometimes twice in the week, and boasted themselves
that they were Abraham's seed, despised the Gentiles. And you
know what they would say about the Gentiles? This is John chapter
7, verse 49. You know what they would say?
These Gentiles, not having the law, are accursed. You see what they were saying?
They were saying, because you don't have the law, you have
no hope for righteousness. And by logical deduction then,
they are asserting that if you do have the law, you're blessed.
You get that? These Gentiles who don't have
the law are cursed. But what Paul would say is, you
Gentiles who do have the law are double cursed. That's exactly
right. Because to whom much is given,
Much is what? Are you guys following the argument
that I'm dealing with now? You see what Paul is doing? Paul
is saying, hey, hey, hey, come from behind your Bible and quit
pretending that your Bible is going to save you. Your Bible
is leading you to a person. We're going to see that at the
end of the message here. Oh, yeah, we need the Bible. Paul
argued that. What good is the law? It's good in every way,
so long as it leads you. to the right place. The fig leaves
of orthodoxy and right doctrine will not save you. He's defending
the Gentiles against the delusion of self-righteousness. You know,
the Jewish people were constantly trying to jump on the Gentiles
and get them to become Jews. You know that, right? Even when
they were Christians, the book of Galatians argues that the
Judaizers would come to the Gentiles and say, hey, you haven't made
it all the way in. You sitting around boasting in faith in Christ
alone, apart from works, you still need to be circumcised.
You still need to keep the law. You still need to eat, stop eating
hamburgers and hot dogs and barbecue. You want to be saved, you got
to stop eating barbecue. I am so thankful we got a God
that lets us eat barbecue and go to heaven too. Back to the argument of the law.
You can tell when I get to heaven, I'm looking for food. Back to
the argument of the law. When you are depending upon your
legal righteousness, in order to reinforce your false premise,
you have to impose it upon others. And when once you are imposing
your false premise of legal righteousness upon others, guess what you do?
You get stupid with it. Like you tell folks how short
and how long they dress have to be. Like you can wear braids
or you can't wear braids. If you ladies wear lipstick,
you're going to hell. Right? Brothers, you can't ever
smoke. Ain't nobody smoking going to
heaven. Now, you guys understand what I'm saying? Now we're building
up all of these silly, ludicrous arguments, which are man-made
standards that have nothing to do with the righteousness of
God. And we're getting stupider and stupider. Right. It's important
for you to know that, you know, what Paul is talking about in
this generation, we're still dealing with. It gets so deep,
it gets so deep, it gets inside the church. All of these little
rules and regulations. If you do this, I don't think
you're saved. If you do that, I think you're saved. It's terrible
how the Apostle Paul must deal with this as he has the privilege
of writing down the treaties. Point number B under our main
argument of verse, point number two, is the law of conscience
and the law of Moses has but one purpose and that's repentance.
We just asserted that, didn't we? verses 14 and 15 Paul argued
it but look in Romans chapter 3 verse 19 and 20 Romans 3 verse
19 and 20 Are you there? Here's what Paul says. We know
now. I love when he uses the little a little the little word
we he's using that word we in the first person plural and What
he's basically saying is now we all know this not just me.
You know this we all know this, right? He's saying we know that
whatsoever things the law said it said to them that are what
I that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world become what?
Guilty before God. He's actually demonstrating a
funnel. A funnel that's designed to bring the whole human race
to one place and that's guilty. That funnel incorporates both
the law of God written in the Decalogue or the external code
and the law of God written in our hearts. You guys got that?
You got that? It's not just merely the Ten
Commandments. but the Ten Commandments, which
are a reflection of the intrinsic code that God has written on
the heart of every human being. Both of them will collaborate
together to agree with God concerning God's inflexible moral standard. And then the whole human race
will be guilty together of idolatry, of rejection of God's revelation,
of stealing, killing, murder, and all of the list of moral
evils that we engage in. Is that true? The whole world
will become guilty. See how Paul is forcing us all
to one place, herding us together like a bunch of miserable pigs. This is necessary for us to understand
the beauty of grace. Otherwise we will despise his
grace too. So his argument is so very clear.
Let's go back to our point. Not only does he defend the Gentiles,
not only is the law of conscience and the law of Moses effectual
for the purpose of leading us to repentance, as we have demonstrated
both in the Old and the New Testament, but he plainly tells us in Galatians
3, 16, that no man by the works of the law is justified in the
sight of God, is he? By the works of the law shall
no flesh be justified. And then in Romans 10, 1, we'll
treat that more fully when we get there, Romans 10, verse 1
and 2, as he really gives a final conclusion about the Jews. He
says, now, look at this, Saints. Look at Romans 10, 1. Romans
10, 1 and 2. Watch this. This is a beautiful masterful
conclusion. My, brethren, my heart's desire and prayer for
God or for Israel is that they might be what? Stop right there. That's my whole point. See? See? The labor of the preacher,
the labor of the teacher, the labor of the minister of the
word is that men and women be saved. Sometimes people misunderstand
the process, the method and aims that they use to get there. And
certainly we can do that with the servants who were used to
write the word of God. But I am very clear on what Paul
is doing. I'm very clear that Paul's goal
is to strip both Gentile and Jew of every form of self-righteousness,
including religion, in order to shut them up to Christ. We
already learned about Paul's ethic in 1 Corinthians chapter
9. He wants all men to be saved. Right now he cares about his
Jewish brethren, doesn't he? So verse 1 of chapter 10 is a
compendium of his whole argument from Romans 1 to 10. Hey, I want
my Jewish brethren to get it, because right now they're stuck
on stupid. They say we be people of the law. But that's a millstone
around your neck to give you a severer judgment of God than
for people who don't know the law. Verse 2, watch this. For I bear them record that they
have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. Verse three, watch
this. For they being ignorant of God's
righteousness, there it is, and going about to establish their
own righteousness. See that second clause? Going
about to establish their own righteousness. Now watch this,
I want you to get this as we treat this tonight. It's important
that you be able to detect when you are doing that. It's important
for you to be able to detect when you have shifted from the
absolute completion of the work of redemption in the person of
Christ and all of its merits imputed to one who believes from
that to subtly now working to weave your own garment of self-righteousness
no matter what that material is. It's important to be careful
that you are not shifting from the objective work and person
of Jesus Christ to something you are doing, thinking, feeling,
perceiving, or wanting as some kind of evidence that you are
right with God. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
Very important. Very important. Establishing
your own righteousness. Have not submitted themselves
unto the righteousness of God. They didn't submit. See that
last line? That last line is equivalent
to our basic theme. What's our basic theme? Repentance.
You got it. Let's go back to our next point.
Let's understand our next point now. This is very important.
Point number three, teaching does not save us. So I get to
get hit right square knives. Pastor, just because you are
a teacher does not mean you're automatically saved. just because
you know the Word of God and can preach the gospel does not
mean you're saved. This is where Paul is going to
press it home. See, I could be subtly, imperceptibly finding
my confidence in the fact that I know the law, can expound the
law, teach the law, preach the law, and that my security for
heaven is based upon my orthodoxy or my capacity to communicate
the gospel to you, or that God would use what I'm preaching
to save multitudes. If I am trusting in that as my
salvation, I am headed to hell. I'm headed to hell. Got that? Point number three, teaching
doesn't save you. It makes you more accountable. Crazy. Teachers are the more condemned,
James 3, verse 1 and 2. My brother, and be not many teachers,
as you will receive the greater condemnation. How come? Because you open your mouth a
lot. How come? Because you say a lot of things.
What does that mean? In the multitude of words, there
lacketh not sin. You want to be a pebbler of words?
You better stay near the cross. You want to be a communicator
of God's word and expounder of his words? Well, you've got to
weave his words with your thoughts. You better be standing on the
brim of the labor. So after you preach, just dive
right on in. They don't know what the labor
is. Take a bath before and after you preach. the blood and righteousness
of Christ and say God wash me clean of everything that I said
that was not like you that didn't correspond to your truth because
I'll be guiltier than anyone else am I making some sense and see
when you run across pastors and preachers with this uppity attitude
thinking that they're at the elbow of God because they know
more than you let them know you better read James 3 1 preacher
Because I might be in hell, but I'll be able to bend over and
look way down and see you way down in the lower parts of hell
with the devil. Point B, the teacher of the word
of God's life must correspond with their message. That's true. The preacher of the word of God
must have a life that corresponds with his message. The church
ought not to accept the low standard that our culture does in politics.
This drives me crazy. I'm one of these even handed
communicators. You know, I do talk radio and
when politics runs around, I quickly jump into France. Hey, watch
out. The politics is nothing but the art of deception. Be
careful. That politician, you didn't even
know him a few months ago. He walking in your church with
a big old Bible with a big cross on it, a big cross around his
neck, talking about he loved Jesus. Before the whole season
began, the whole political season began, you didn't even know what
he was doing. Living like hell, tearing up stuff, stealing. Now
he want to come stand in your pulpit talking about how he loved
Jesus and needs your vote. That's the art of deception.
And I get into it with my own kinfolks around these uncouth,
unprincipled politicians. And I say, do you examine them
in light of the word of God or do you like how cute they are? Politics will send you to hell.
Are you guys understanding what I'm getting at? If you don't
think Christianly with your politics, you are in trouble. Teaching
doesn't save you. Teachers are the more condemned.
Our lives must correspond with our message. Now, if I'm going
to give that politician my hard-earned tax money to represent me when
I still got three kids to get through college and college is
killing me already. Why should I give that politician
a dime who's gonna lie to me with promises that he know, she
knows they not gonna keep and gonna only increase the bondage
of my economic slavery to them in this ungodly immoral taxation
system we're already engaged in. Some of y'all didn't get
that. Here's my point. Economically,
we're all slaves. You don't feel like it? If you
don't feel like it, the only reason you don't feel like it
is because you under the radar. You slick. You living large because
you under the radar. You didn't work this thing. Ah,
but when he catch up with you, what you gonna do? What you gonna
do when he come for you? My third point and that's James
chapter 2 verse 17 by the way James 2 17 faith without works
is what? That's right. I wouldn't give
two cents to a preacher whose life was diametrically opposed
to what he teaches He would never get my approval Never get my
approval I wouldn't spend five minutes in his church under his
teaching and I might put up a sign outside say beware of this false
prophet Teaching does not save us. Point
C, faith in Christ must dominate both his doctrine and his deeds.
You got that? Faith in Christ must dominate
both my doctrine and my deeds. I must be driven by a real vital
union with Jesus in how I comprehend the word of God and in how the
word of God comprehends me. See what Paul said in Philippians
chapter three was this. Not as though I have attained,
neither were already perfect, but I apprehend that for which
I have already been apprehended of God. Watch this. Watch this
now. Watch this. Has God by the gospel apprehended
you? If he has, you are on a different
trajectory because the gospel has you and not you simply having
the gospel. You got that? Very important
for you to know. That's why I love Paul too. Paul
was, Paul liked to talk. That's why we got 65, 70% of
the New Testament, his writings, because he loved to talk. And
I thank God for him, don't you? Because a lot of what he said
really was personal, but it was still the work of God in his
life. He shared with us his being. He opened up to us. He showed
us his heart like no other. Paul is a great pastoral model
for us who are in ministry because he could cry. He could open up. He could get mad. He could get
angry. He could say, now I'm getting ready to act a fool.
I just want you to know this. I'm getting ready to act a fool
because I just feel like acting a fool. Don't do like me, but
just hear what I'm saying. Because he was so sincere about
the salvation of his people. He says, if they can act a fool,
I'm going to act a fool, because I know what I desire for you.
See, some of our churches, the preacher can't even act a fool.
But it's too late for me. You guys do know that, right?
It's too late for me. Your pastor's already jacked up. Faith in Christ
must dominate both his doctrine and his deeds. Teaching does
not save us. That's just so powerful. Look at verse 17 through 22.
17 through 22. Are you there? Behold, you call
yourself a Jew. See what you're calling yourself?
A Jew. Isn't that horrible? In the era of Christianity, Jesus
is risen again. He's put away all of the needs
for the tutorial system of Judaism. He's calling men and women to
faith in himself. And these Jews who call themselves
Christian are going around calling themselves Jews. Belittling the
person of Christ. I'm a Jew. How about a Christian?
See what I'm getting at? I'm a Jew. How about a Christian?
Now he's getting ready to show the argument, the unbroken link
between Judaism, the law, and trusting in it too. Here it is.
Are you ready? Behold, you call yourself a Jew,
and here's where your rest is, in the law. His rest is not in
Christ. His rest is not in the grace
of God in Christ. His rest is not in the revelation
of the finished work of Christ as an atonement for his soul,
which makes him immutably and unchangeably and irrevocably
acceptable for God for all. He's not resting in the fact
that God has said you are mine for all eternity. He's resting
in the law. Hey, I'm a Jew. I'm resting in what I have. Terrible. Terrible. Terrible. Paul's pressing it home. Do you
know why? That's exactly where Paul was when he killed Stephen. scattered the church and was
going to Damascus, but a higher intelligence intercepted it. Remember that? I'm going to kill
you. I've got rights from the high
priest. Remember? I've got papers from the high priest. But he
went to the wrong high priest. Remember that? He should have
went to the high priest in heaven, because the high priest in heaven
had papers against him and stopped him dead in his tracks and turned
him around and said, now Paul, you're going to preach the very
gospel that you persecuted to let men and women know that Jewish
trust in the law will never get you anywhere. And watch this.
And you're making your boast of God. Here's a real problem. You're
calling yourself a Jew not a Christian. You're wrestling in the law.
Not the gospel. You're making your boast of God by those two
claims You're suppressing the truth and unrighteousness and
you say, you know his will Because you got the law, you know the
will of God and you're approving of the things that are most excellent
That's what the lawyers did they they they were so meticulous
and jot and tittle of the law Lawyers will impress you people
who can actually expound scripture will impress you They really
will. And you and I will be taken captive by them because we don't
have their intellectual superiority. But what you have to do is shake
yourself of that delusion. Wait a minute. Let me step back
and watch this dude's life. Because he ain't done. After
he's done teaching, I got to watch him. See if his life corresponds
with his doctrine. If not, what we learned last
week, Matthew 23, 1, hear what they say, don't do what they
what? That's right. More excellent being instructed
out of the law. Look at our next verse. He says in verse 19, and
you are confident that you are yourself a guide of the what?
That's what the Jews were saying about the Gentile, a light of
them which are in the darkness, an instructor of the foolish,
a teacher of babes, which has a form of the knowledge in the
truth of the law. Ah, Paul used another little
caveat. He said, you have a form of the
knowledge of the truth in the law. You don't have the substance
of it. You don't have the essence of
it. You don't have the person of that truth. You just have
the form. It's didactic. It's propositional. It's preceptive. It's not personal. It didn't
culminate in a revelation of the Son of God for you as the
totality of your righteousness. You just have the law in coded
form. Are you guys hearing me? You
can handle the book very well and you can teach moralism You
can even expound certain spiritual principles. But that law book
has not folded itself up and closed itself up and submitted
itself to the person of God in Christ who actually gave us the
law and says, I came to lead you to Jesus. You see what I'm
getting at, ladies and gentlemen? If the law is not leading us
to Jesus, we're not using the law right. He says, you're trusting
that you're a teacher and you have a form of the knowledge
and truth. And now he really gets into it. This is all this
is my argument. Watch this. You, therefore, which
teaches another. Here you are. Here he goes. Are
you ready? Do you teach yourself? And Paul getting at it, isn't
he getting at it? Are you teaching yourself? Before you preach to
others, you better preach to yourself. You better take that
text and go in the bathroom, shut the door and set it in front
of the mirror and say, Jesse, Do you believe these things?
Yes. I got one more question. Are
you obeying these very things that you say you believe? Now
you can go preach to others. It's amazing what he's doing.
It's amazing what he's doing. See, now remember, he's shutting
them up to the need for what? Repentance. Y'all forgot that
too quick. Californians. Verse 22, you say you are, thou
sayest a man should not commit adultery. Are you committing
adultery? See it? You have poor idols. Do you commit sacrilege? You
make your boast of the law, but you do it by breaking the law
and you dishonor God. See what he just did? Boom, nailed
him. He got all of them. Now, just
in case you don't know your Bible, all he's reiterating is what
we call the law of recapitulation. Jesus did the same thing twice
in the gospel. You know what Jesus said? You
who make your boasts to Moses, you don't even keep Moses' law.
You're all guilty of breaking the law. All Paul is saying is
the same thing Jesus said. You got the book, but you don't
keep it. Ladies and gentlemen, you have the book, but you don't
keep it. Now, if that's the true assessment, there's one thing
for you and I to do. Not argue. What's the word? Repent. Y'all
getting it. Y'all getting it. He knows what
he's doing. He knows what he's doing. Bless
his heart. And it's his love that's causing him to press in
on his own Jewish people. Because religious folk who know
stuff that other people don't know are obnoxious. You can't live with them. It's
like having your wife be a top-notch psychologist. Worse than that, a psychiatrist.
Just imagine your spouse being a psychiatrist. Every little
quirky idiosyncrasy you have, she didn't already put a title
on it. She got you sick to death just because, you know, you're
a little anxious from time to time. Or your voice raises a
little bit when you get excited. She got a malady for that. And
you know, the professionalism of the psych, they look at you
certain ways and fold their arms, okay, okay, okay. You all jacked up because you're
married to a psych. You got all kind of problems
now. That's what it is when you allow religious elitism to bind
you with burdens they don't even bear. Matthew 23. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
You you you the moment you think about going in their presence
you get sick Get ill It's amazing what he's doing now watch what
he says this is so so important I'll make my way through this.
I know you hungry. I'll make my way through this. This is
so good. He says you Are to teach yourself three things then under
that as he says As we deal with our first one
going back to our point and I'm my Texas say something there
We go teaching does not save us the the I'm sorry go to my
next point my next point This is what I want to go to I was
gonna alright here. We go grace must teach us before we can teach
others Grace must teach us before we can teach others. This is
very simple. I want you to get this now So Paul actually overcoming
the delusion of elitism and pharisaism and knowing more than other people
came to discover this and he was making sure that this corrective
was operating in the life of all of his ministers in Titus
chapter 2. So in Titus chapter 2 verses
11 through 15, I want to read that briefly and underscore these
three points there. Go with me in your Bible to Titus
chapter 2. Watch what it says in verses 11 through 15. Under
this statement, grace must teach you before you can teach others. Now, this is not only true for
the teacher. This is true for every Christian. Are you guys
marking me? So now watch this Christian.
If you're going to be if you're going to be a benefit in people's
life. And you tell people how to live and what to do and all
that. Grace must be your teacher first. Make sure you are under
the tutor of grace before you tell everybody else. I don't
tell anybody anything. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
For the grace of God which brings salvation hath appeared to all,
verse 12, teaching us. Do you see that? Grace does what? Teaches. That's right. Teaching
us that. And I want you to see what grace
teaches. You ready? Here it is. Denying ungodliness. That's the
first one. Stay there. Denying ungodliness.
So if you have a grace that does not deny ungodliness, you don't
have the grace of God. Because the grace of God denies
ungodliness. That's the first thing it teaches you. That's
an intrinsic law. It's the law of repentance. You
deny ungodliness. And then grace teaches you to
deny worldly lust. That's an intrinsic law. The
new nature now must oppose the old nature. The new man must
now oppose the old man. Now you go to civil war. You're
in civil war mode. Are you there? Civil war mode.
The woman was with twins. Our elder taught this a couple
of weeks ago, right? Rebecca, she had two sons in her. And
she was saying, why am I thus? And God says, because two nations
are in you. Isn't that what he said? That's the warfare you
have when you're born again. Then God gives a promise. I want
you to get this. You guys may not have heard it, but I'm going
to seal it for you right now. If you're truly born again, watch
this now, the elder will serve the younger. That's the promise. The younger will not serve the
elder. The elder is the old man. The younger is the new man. And
God says, and the elder will serve the younger. Got that?
Greater is he that is in you than he that is of the world.
The spirit of God, who is infinite in power, is able to always subdue
the passions of our flesh that would lead us to do the wrong
things. You have that promise from God. Teaching us that denying
ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live what? Righteously. Righteously in what? There you
go. There's your ethic right there.
There it is. You got it. That's what grace looks like
when you and I are being taught. You guys got that? That's what
it looks like. That's what it looks like. All right, let's
go on now. It's very important for us. Look, go back to my point.
So then there are three things that are no, no. Let's go to
verse 13. Look at verse 13. Here it is. Need to teach this
Chinese 213 looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearing
of our great God and say this is interesting This is powerful
because what Paul will do is he will give us our ethic But
that ethic will always be anchored to a premise and a goal The premise
is the finished work of Jesus Christ, right? You know what
the goal is glory So we're on a journey Hebrew people are going
somewhere and We're not just standing still, we're going somewhere.
Watch this now. The premise of why we do what
we do is the finished work of Christ. That means we're not
meriting this. We're doing this because it's in our nature to
do, because we're being instructed by the Spirit of God and the
grace of God to do this, because this glorifies God. Am I making
some sense? But watch this now. I'm headed to glory. See, my
real passion is glory. And why does glory compel me? Are you ready? Because I'm still
struggling with sin. And see, when I get the glory,
all of that will be done with. I'm pressing toward the mark
of the high calling of God in Christ. The grace of God is helping
me to fight this warfare and battle against my own nature,
right? But it's a battle nonetheless. Now, God has promised me rest
and I have rest in my soul, but I don't have rest in my flesh
and I don't have rest in this world. And I don't have rest
in this spiritual battle in which I am engaged in seeking to tell
a God-hating world the truth about Christ. In a religious
world that hates God as well. This is all a battle. I can't
wait to rest one day. I can't wait to take my armor
off one day. I can't wait to sit down after
a good, hot, heavenly shower and sauna and massage by the
angels. and go sit at the table with
the Lord Jesus. I don't know what y'all gonna
do, but that's what I'm gonna do. When I cross over into glory,
I'm going to put my spear down. I'm going to put my shield down.
I'm going to put my sword down. I'm going to take my helmet off,
pull my breastplate off, kick my shoes off, go get in that
hot heavenly sauna, and kick it with the saints for a little
while. Have the angels massage me, and I'm going to sit at the
table with the Lord Jesus and the apostles, and we're going
to talk glory for the rest of our life. I don't know what you're
going to do, but that's what I'm going to do. Give me verse 14. Give me verse
14. They don't believe me, Lord. They don't believe me. Because
he gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity
and purify unto himself a people, a people peculiar, not weird,
not crazy, precious, who are zealous of good works. Do you
see it? Zealous of good works. Zealous
of good works. Verse 15. These things speak. and exhort and rebuke with all
authority, let no man despise you. Got it? You see how we have
to press it home? Because men despise God's goodness. Let's go to our fourth, fifth
point. Going back to our fourth point,
there's three little basic acrostics, sort of a, I just want you to
see it. There it is. So then what Paul calls us to
is a living, a looking, and a what? That's right living looking loving
living According to the principles that grace teaches us looking
for the return of our lord. Jesus christ and loving The aspect
and prospect of being in glory one day. Absolutely point number
five. Let's rush through this. I'm way overdue We shall all be judged according
to our works you see that We shall all be judged according
to our works. I'm gonna stop right here We shall all be judged according
to our works. There's a framework of terminology
in the New Testament that will stumble you if you're not careful.
But there is a law that runs all through the Bible that whether
you stumble or not, it don't matter. You're going to face
this truth. And that's this. On the last day, we're all going
to be judged according to our works. Every one of us so I have
under that proposition. We shall all be just according
to our works romans 2 6 and 13 Which is what paul literally
says psalm 62 12, which is what the old testament says revelation
1950 Jesus is coming and his reward is with him to give unto
every man According as his work shall be and then we finally
have first second thessalonians chapter 1 verse 8 which renders
the coming of christ as an act of vengeance Against everyone
who does not know God and does not obey the gospel He's coming
to judge us according to our works So what I'm gonna do now
is stop right here We're gonna come back next week and we'll
work through that terminology work through that language and
understand why it is that on the last day God is going to
judge us according to our works and not according to our profession
of faith or our credo statements or our doctrinal orthodoxy but
according to our works. Don't you want to know why that's
going to be? Because you don't read anywhere in the Bible where God
said, now stand up here. Now tell me, what do you believe
about the doctrine of eschatology? Here's where God's going to get
us all. How we responded to the gospel. You got that? All right, we're going to have
the offering at this time, and then we're going to close with
prayer. Get ready to go home.