WWUTT 1177 You Who Boast in the Law? (Romans 2:17-24)

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Just because you have the Word of God does not make you more righteous than somebody else. Because you're probably listening to it and not following it.

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Even then, keeping the law does not make you righteous. It's Christ that makes you righteous when we understand the text.

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You're listening to When We Understand The Text, committed to the sound teaching of the Word of God. For questions and comments, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

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And don't forget our website, www .utt .com. Here's our host,

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Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. In our study of Romans chapter 2, we're picking up where we left off yesterday.

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So I'm going to start reading here in verse 17. We'll go through verse 24. The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Rome, But if you call yourself a

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Jew, and rely on the law, and boast in God, and know His will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed from the law, and if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth, you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself?

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While you preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery?

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You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the law dishonor

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God by breaking the law. For as it is written, the name of God is blasphemed among the

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Gentiles because of you. And to keep this in context, I'm going to go ahead and keep reading here, verses 25 through 29.

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For circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision.

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For if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision?

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Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law.

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For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical, but a

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Jew is one inwardly. And circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the spirit, not by the letter.

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His praise is not from man, but from God. Now that's a section, verses 25 through 29, we're really not going to look at in greater detail until tomorrow.

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But continuing with that, since we're talking about the law, in this particular section we're exploring today, verses 17 through 24.

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And that's where Paul goes from there, talking about circumcision, singling out that law in particular.

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And we do have a few laws that are mentioned here, even from the Ten Commandments, as Paul is meaning to indict the

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Jews for their failure to keep the law. They boast in the law, but they do not keep it.

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We talked about this a little bit yesterday, about not being a hearer of the law only, but a doer of the law.

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Someone who merely hears the law, but doesn't do what it says. James 1 likens him to being a person who looks at his face in a mirror, and then walks away and forgets what he looks like.

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When we look into the holy scriptures of God, it shows us who we are.

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You know, oftentimes you'll hear it said, the Bible's not about you. And that's true in the sense that all of the scriptures are meant to point us to Christ.

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But that doesn't mean you're not here, and that doesn't mean that it says something about you.

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When we look into the scriptures, we should see ourselves, but who we see is not the hero of the story.

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And that is, unfortunately, the way that a lot of the Bible gets taught today.

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Most churches you go into, the way that they're preaching the Bible, they're making you out to be the story.

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You know, the common analogy that goes with this, you're David, Goliath is your problems, right?

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So with enough faith, five smooth stones, you can tackle any kind of problem.

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Or you can bind it in Jesus' name. Satan, I bind you in Jesus' name. So you would follow along with all the men and women in the

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Bible, and you become the hero of the story. But the Bible is not about you in that sense.

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We certainly have examples that are given to us, and these persons who trusted in God, and it was counted to them as righteousness.

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Paul is going to use Abraham as that example when we get to Romans 4. He believed in God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.

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So we have examples that are given to us in that sense, but you are not the main character of this story.

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You are not the hero of the pages that you are reading. Who you should see when you look into the pages of Scripture is the sinful man who desperately needs a

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Savior. You are a fallen wretch who is worthy of the judgment and wrath of God, and it's only by faith in Jesus Christ that you are forgiven your sins, and you will not perish under God's judgment, but you will have everlasting life with him in his forever kingdom, in heaven that is above.

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Jesus died on the cross for our sins. He shed his blood as an atoning sacrifice, and there he took the wrath of God upon himself.

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Taking our sins upon himself, enduring God's wrath, he has given us his righteousness that we may walk in his ways and be careful to obey his statutes, to keep his rules, to love his precepts.

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This is the follower of Jesus Christ who loves the word of God and his law.

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The law, when we read it, shows us our sin. Just as Paul says when we get to Romans 7,

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I didn't know what it was like to covet until I read in the law, do not covet, and then I realized

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I am a covetor. And Paul is going to say here when we get to Romans 3, verses 19 and 20, now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.

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For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

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That's what we should understand when we look into the word of God. When we see ourselves in the word of God, we see the sinful wretch who's desperately in need of a savior.

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Now the Jews had forgotten about the use of the law. They didn't understand the use of the law.

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They thought by external keeping of these laws that they were righteous, that they were saved.

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They'll live forever in heaven with God because they kept the laws. But nobody keeps the law. Everybody breaks the law.

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Jesus, when he was speaking in the Sermon on the Mount, confronted the fact that the Jews had forgotten the very use of the law.

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When he gets to talking about murder and adultery in Matthew 5, he says, you have heard that it was said you shall not murder, and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.

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Now that's true. That's exactly what the Old Testament says. And then Jesus goes on to say, but I say to you, everyone who hates his brother is liable to judgment.

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So why did Jesus quote the commandment as is, you shall not murder, but then go on to say, but I say to you.

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He wasn't rewriting the law. He wasn't saying something new about the law.

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He was pointing out to the Jews that they had forgotten the point of the law, that it was not just about keeping some sort of external thing that they could do and therefore be righteous because no one could do that.

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No one was righteous. The law was meant to go to the very matter of the heart. When you read in the law about the righteousness of God, because that's what's being exposed to us in the law, it's showing us the righteousness and the holiness of God, his righteous character is being revealed in his law.

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And when we look at the law and realize that we were unable to keep it, not just externally, but from the very heart, we had no desire for it and could not keep it because coveting in particular, the 10th commandment, that's all about the heart.

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That's not just something that you can do externally. That's going to the very heart of the matter. And the whole law was meant to be understood in that way.

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It's not that do not murder was its own commandment. Do not commit adultery was another one. And then do not covet was its own over here for James says that whoever is broken, one part of the law is guilty of breaking the whole thing.

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So when Jesus points out murder and adultery in the sermon on the mount, he's showing the Jews that they've sinned from their very hearts from the heart, they are wicked and sinful.

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They might think that they're not killing somebody else. And therefore I'm a righteous person or,

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Hey, as long as I don't sleep with my neighbor's wife, then I'm not committing adultery. But Jesus says, if you hate your brother, you've committed murder in your heart.

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If you lust after a woman and undress her with your eyes, you have committed adultery with her in your heart.

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So before God, you are not righteous. You do not possess the holiness of God.

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And therefore, as it says in Isaiah 64, six, even your best deeds are as filthy rags before a holy

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God. Your ability to not do certain things does not make you righteous.

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You must be transformed and changed from the very heart. So Paul is, is kind of confronting that here with the

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Jews. He's, he's coming at this in the same way that Jesus did in the sermon on the mount. They did not understand the use of the law and they thought by external keeping of the law, that they were righteous people.

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But Paul points out not only were they wicked at heart, but they weren't really, and even truly keeping the law externally either.

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There were certain things they would apply and say, you know, as long as I'm not stealing this, then I'm not guilty of theft, but I can take this over here.

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And that's not actually stealing. That's not actually breaking the commandment. I'll explain that a little bit more as we go on here.

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So once again, verse 17, But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast in God, now understand here, this is not

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Paul congratulating the Jews for giving glory to God, because that's not what they're doing.

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What they're doing is they're boasting the fact like, Hey, we have God. He is the God of the

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Hebrews. He is the God of the Israelites. So we have the true God, all you other pagans.

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Yeah. He didn't have this kind of favor on you that he has upon us. We were called out of slavery.

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We were given a promise land, but that's not you guys. He didn't call you. We're the special group of people.

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That's what it is that Paul is referring to here. So it's not this solely day. Oh, Gloria kind of boasting in God.

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It's not to God be the glory. It's boasting in themselves because God showed himself to them and gave the

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Jews his law. So if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast in God and know his will and approve what is excellent because you are instructed from the law.

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Now there is somewhat of a congratulatory statement in this somewhat of a, of an,

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I'm proud of you sort of an air to what Paul has just said there, because the Jews did indeed study the law of God.

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So that's very commendable. By the age of 13, a boy had all of the

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Pentateuch memorized Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus numbers, and Deuteronomy could quote it from heart. Could you do that by heart?

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I can't do that by heart. I know some people who have a great memory and they have huge chunks of scripture memorized.

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Mine tends to be pretty selective. There are some days when I can recall things like crazy.

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It's, it's pretty amazing what I'm able to call to mind. And then there are other days where I feel like an idiot and I need to go back to school.

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So that's, that's kind of the way my memory comes and goes, even when it comes to the scriptures that I've committed my life to studying.

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But this is how much a Jew understood the law. Like Paul knew the Bible way better than you ever did.

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It's not even close, not even no, none of the great scholars of today even hold a candle to what the apostle

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Paul knew of the scriptures. Of course, because he was an apostle, but even before that, as a

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Pharisee, he was a ridiculously smart man. And there was just, there was just no comparison to the knowledge that he had in his study of the old

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Testament scriptures. But his, his eyes were blind. His ears were deaf.

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His mind was dumb because he was under a snare of Satan. So we didn't see that the law and the prophets were pointing to Christ, but he still knew the old

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Testament better than you did. So many Jews knew the scriptures very, very well. And because of their commitment and dedication to the scriptures, there is somewhat of a pat on the back here.

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When Paul says that if you know his will and approve, what is excellent, because you are instructed from the law, you know that because you're reading the law, because you're studying the law.

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So you do know something about the will of God from the law. Good. It's good that you've committed yourself to that.

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Keep committing yourself to that. But even though they would study the law, they still didn't rightly apply it.

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And that's where Paul is going to bring them under condemnation as we keep going. So verse 19, and if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness.

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Remember when Jesus was speaking to Nicodemus in John chapter three, Jesus said to Nicodemus that you cannot see the kingdom of heaven unless you are born again.

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And Nicodemus had, he didn't understand what it was. Jesus was talking about. I was totally confused by this.

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And Jesus said to him, are you not the teacher of Israel? And yet you do not understand these things because Nicodemus was a

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Pharisee and it was his responsibility to teach the scriptures to Israel. So Israel understood the teachers understood their responsibility was to be instructors, was to teach the word of God to those who were young.

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You yourself are sure that you are a guide to the blind. Everybody who does not know the light, the law of God is blind.

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So if you're teaching the law, then you believe that you yourself are a guide to the blind.

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You are a light to those who are in darkness. Jesus is the light who has come into the world.

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We read that in John chapter one, but even in Psalm 119, David says, your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.

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So the law of God shines a light, shines a light in a dark place. We walked in darkness.

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It is by the word of God that we have seen the light. So you who teach the law, shine a light to those who are in darkness.

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Verse 20, you are an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law, the embodiment of knowledge and truth.

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Proverbs 1 .7, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Isaiah 66 .2,

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this is the one to whom I will look. He who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.

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So it is in reading and studying the word that we have the embodiment of knowledge and truth.

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Verse 21, you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself?

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This is one of the reasons why James says in James three, one, not many of you should aspire to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that teachers will be judged with greater strictness.

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A teacher has no excuse to say that they didn't know something because as a teacher, they put a great amount of study, a greater amount of study into things than even the student does.

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So the teacher will be judged with greater strictness because the teacher should have known better.

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So here you being a teacher of children, you shining a light to those who are in darkness.

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You then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? Before I preach on Sunday morning,

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I run through the sermon on Saturday night and I preach the sermon to an empty sanctuary.

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There, there are a lot of pastors right now because of the Corona virus. They're doing live stream online and stuff like that.

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Well, they're they're preaching to empty auditoriums, empty sanctuaries.

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There's not any people in there, but they're broadcasting this online and and then the members of the congregation are watching it at home because of the virus.

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We can't go anywhere. A lot of us have been given stay at home orders. So I've seen a lot of comments from pastors saying, this is really weird.

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Preaching to an empty congregation. I'm not all that shaken by it. I do it all the time. I'm preaching to myself on a

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Saturday night before I preach it to my congregation on a Sunday morning. But even when

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I'm there alone by myself, standing at the pulpit, looking into empty seats, I'm still teaching myself.

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Isaiah 55. The Lord says that his word will not return to him void without accomplishing the task that he sends it out to do.

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So even as I stand in the sanctuary and preach, there's still somebody

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I'm preaching to. And that is myself. So here, Paul is telling the teacher you who teaches you also teach yourself while you preach against stealing.

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Do you steal? Now, when Paul asked that question, a lot of the Jews probably going, no, but, but hang on, we're going to get to that here as we keep going.

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You who say that one must not commit adultery. Do you commit adultery?

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And this maybe even calls back to attention. The words of Jesus in the sermon on the mountain, Matthew chapter five, you who abhor idols, do you rob temples?

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This was actually a very common thing in this particular day. Now, not every Jew was guilty of this, but there were

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Jews that were guilty of this temples were places with very expensive artifacts in them.

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But Pagan temples were also places where Pagan gods were worshiped. So it was considered a defilement for a

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Jew to go into a Pagan temple. Yet some of them were going into these Pagan temples and robbing it. And they were justifying as being fine.

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Like, Hey, this isn't true theft because I'm robbed. I'm robbing a Pagan temple. All right.

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I'm, I'm doing everybody a favor. They don't need to be worshiping these artifacts and these items anyway.

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So therefore I'm not really stealing. I'm doing missional work. You know, there were probably some

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Jews that thought that way, but Paul is highlighting here that you're breaking the law and you're defiling yourself.

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And the fact that you are going into a Pagan place, verse 23, you who boast in the law coming back to that again, where Paul had said it in verse 17, you who boast in the law, you dishonor

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God by breaking the law for, as it is written, the name of God is blasphemed among the

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Gentiles because of you. And that's in Isaiah 52, six where, or 52, five,

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I guess it is now. Therefore, what have I here declares the Lord seeing that my people are taken away for nothing.

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Their rulers, whale declares the Lord and continually all the day. My name is despised.

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Why? Because the Jews do not honor the law of God. And therefore the Gentiles despise the name of God.

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Since the Jews who have been given the law and are said to have had the favor of God, do not worship

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God properly. They do not pay attention to his law. They do not follow it. And so the Gentiles are looking at this going, okay, must not be that great a

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God. Then if you're not so compelled to follow his law, and then they blaspheme

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God because of the attitude of the Gentiles. And we must be very careful of that as well.

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As Christians, we say we love God, but are we keeping his law? Got to be very, very careful about the whole antinomian thing.

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That is so very common where a person will sin and just believe, Hey, God is gracious and he's going to forgive me.

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You must love righteousness and holiness. You must be holy as God is holy.

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As it says in first Peter chapter one, we must follow after Christ and keep his commandments because we love

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God. And people will see this. Some of course are going to malign us for it, but there are others that are going to recognize this person truly believes that God sits enthroned on high because they follow his law.

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They keep his commandments and our consistency in our message is going to be seen in the fact that we live righteously and we pursue the holiness of Jesus Christ.

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So let us not fall into the same error of claiming we love God, but not following his law.

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Paul is bringing the Jews into condemnation here with these statements. And then we're going to go on and talk about this further tomorrow with the law of circumcision in verses 25 through 29, so that everyone will see in the section that we're reading from Romans one 18 through chapter three, verse 20, that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

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And we all need a savior. And that savior is Christ. Let us pray. Heavenly father.

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We thank you for this time in the word. We thank you for giving us your word that we may know righteousness and holiness.

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We may know the will of God and what it means to live our lives in such a way that is pleasing to God.

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Now we know that we cannot be saved by keeping the law for the scripture tells us this is not how a person is saved.

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It is by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And that is, is an even greater gift that you gave your son to die for our sins and rise from the grave, that whoever believes in him will be saved.

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So teach us to walk in his ways, forgive us our sins when we go astray, but, but let us not make excuses for our sin.

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Let us mourn over our sin and seek again, the righteousness of God lead us in these things for your namesake that many may see our good works that they are being carried out in God and they give glory to the father who is in heaven in Jesus name.

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We pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to, when we understand the text with pastor Gabe Hughes, if you'd like to support this ministry, visit our website, www .t

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.com and click on the gift tab in the top right corner of the page. Join us again tomorrow as we continue our