Romans 2:17-24

Coram Deo Reformed Baptist Church

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Alright, we're in Romans 2. We're going through verses 17 through 24. It is expository.

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There is a lot of flipping. I do apologize in advance. Well, I do and I don't apologize for it.

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This is a continuation of what Paul has been saying in the previous verses and what we've been learning the last couple of weeks.

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Paul started in to a diatribe to Jews in chapter 2, and he continues it here.

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If you, for some reason, need a break from the condemnation of Paul, I do apologize.

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It's not coming for a while. It's Romans. And though Paul is dealing harshly with the

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Jews in these verses, let's not forget that he himself is a

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Jew. He says of himself that he was a Jew among Jews. He's a

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Pharisee. He knows full well who these people are.

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He knows the culture, and he absolutely knows the law. And he also absolutely knows how they treat it.

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Also, as a side note, we are coming up on Reformation Day, the day that some of us celebrate the

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Reformation. I do think that we should learn about church history.

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It is part of our history. But I did want to point out how providentially we are in Romans.

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Coming up on that day, the book that showed

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Martin Luther that we're saved by grace, through faith alone.

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By grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone. Let's begin in verse 12.

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For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.

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For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who are justified.

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For when Gentiles who do not have the law by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves.

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Even though they do not have the law, they show the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them.

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On that day, when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.

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But if you call yourself a Jew, and rely on the law, and boast in God, and know

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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 the 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?

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You who boast in the law dishonor 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. Back in verse 17,

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But if you call yourself a Jew, and rely on the law, and boast in God, I've cut some of these in half.

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We're doing all of it. I just sectioned them off. This is the first time that Paul calls the people out that he has been speaking to in chapter 2 by their given name, the

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Jews. In case you were wondering, now we know exactly who he's talking to.

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He's saying, if you claim to be one of God's chosen people, betting all of your cards on your own works in the law, and brag that you have

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God on your side, because this is what they've done. You see, the

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Israelites, rather than having a true understanding of the scriptures, they came to view themselves as ethnically special in relation to God.

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Not in right relationship with Him through the promised seed of the woman, the

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Savior. They thought their blood lineage and works would save them.

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An example of this is in John 8, 39 -44.

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This is Christ speaking with the Pharisees. Verse 39,

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They answered him, Abraham is our father. Jesus said to them,

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If you were Abraham's children, you would be doing the works Abraham did.

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But now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God.

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This is not what Abraham did. You are doing the works your father did.

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They said to him, We are not born of sexual immorality. We have one father, even

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God. Jesus said to them, If God were your father, you would love me.

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For I came from God, and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but He sent me.

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Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word.

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You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires.

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Christ himself here points out the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and what they taught.

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That they were specifically special not because God chose them and gave them revelation, but because they were ethnically special in relation to Him.

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They were related to Abraham by blood. And now

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Paul is saying the same thing, and he says it multiple times. Back in Romans, verse 18,

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And know His will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed from the law.

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And if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, an instructor to the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth.

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Paul, in these verses, isn't saying anything that any Jew would disagree with.

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They would absolutely be in agreement. They had the objective truth from God through the prophets, the law from Moses.

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They had, at the time, the full counsel of His will. They knew who

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He was and what He wanted from them. However, they were not humble in this.

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Rather, they became very puffed up and proud. They catechized their children from a very young age to know the truth.

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As it says in Deuteronomy, they were set apart as a people and given the written law.

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The only people that had that. And they were very selfishly proud of their ability to teach this and hold it over others.

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You can tell in Scripture by the way they treat the other nations. The Pharisees especially loved to teach others how they ought to be.

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Leading spiritually blind, those who are in darkness, teaching those that are spiritually ignorant.

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The issue is, like I said before, is that there wasn't in humble service to those that they were teaching.

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Rather, they did it in vain pride. They considered themselves better.

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And their culture even promoted this behavior. I'm getting an echo from somewhere.

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Okay. Makes me feel better. There is a difference between knowledge and understanding.

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And to be honest, often knowledge without understanding is more dangerous than ignorance. If you've ever witnessed shared the gospel with someone who was an absolute non -believer and shared it with someone who professed absolute faith, which one was the easier conversation?

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This is why Paul is doing what he's doing here. He's setting up for the next couple of verses.

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And you'll see what he's doing. But as a side note as well to this, many pastors and elders and people in ministry neglect their own study for the discipleship of others.

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They do. Many more also neglect the discipleship in the primary mission fields.

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Those in their own home for what they feel to be a higher calling.

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The Jews did catechize their children and ensured that they had the head knowledge of the law.

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But how often did the actions of the adult match what was taught? J .C.

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Ryle said of this, to give children good instruction and a bad example is but beckoning them with the head with the head to show them the way to heaven while taking them by the hand and leading them in the way to hell.

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Christ again says of the Pharisees rather we're jumping ahead or into the past Christ says in Matthew 15, 14 this is short so if you don't want to turn you don't have to but he says in verse 14 let them alone speaking of the

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Pharisees they are blind guides and if the blind lead the blind both will fall into a pit.

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If you haven't noticed yet Paul is setting up those to whom he is speaking and he continues in the next verses or as he continues in the next verses he springs his trap as it were.

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They've agreed wholeheartedly so far with everything that he has said but he asks four rhetorical questions to point out their hypocrisy of the

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Jews of the scribes and the Pharisees and their particular form of so called godliness.

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Verse 21 You then who teach others do you teach yourself

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The Jews especially the Jews and especially the Pharisees taught the high law of the almighty

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God and it absolutely is it is his revelation given to mankind through the people of Israel they taught that they were in covenant with him and they were and that the law should be kept and it should under the old covenant but they did not practice this in Matthew 23 verse 1 through 4

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Jesus says to his disciples the scribes and the

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Pharisees sit on Moses's seat so do and observe whatever they tell you but do not the works they do for they preach but do not practice they tie up heavy burdens hard to bear and lay them on people's shoulders but they themselves are not willing to move with them with their finger if you can visualize that for a moment how do you move with someone with your finger right they're too puffed up and lazy to do that they're more than happy to create these awful burdens for people which the law does if you're convicted but they're unwilling to help people with them one of the things that I'm supposed to do standing here is to absolutely aid in whatever manner

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I can through words this is the means by which you hear the law and the

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Holy Spirit convicts you of it and then I'm also absolutely supposed to give you the rest of the gospel how do you get out from underneath this awful burden?

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Christ Jesus and I'm supposed to help you through it this is the responsibility of a teacher

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Matthew Henry remarks on this and I just had to put it in here the greatest obstructors of the success of the word are those whose bad lives contradict their good doctrine who in the pulpit preach so well that it is a pity they should ever come out and out of the pulpit live so ill that it is a pity that they should ever come in the rest of verse 21 while you preach against stealing do you steal?

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that's the 8th commandment that's quite an accusation that Paul gives there but in Matthew 23 again this appears

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I want to note this Matthew 23 14 doesn't appear in the NASB or the

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ESV but it appears in the King James appears in the Legacy and various other translations this is because it is in brackets the reason it is in brackets and doesn't appear in some translations is not necessarily because it wasn't in the original text but because when they were citing the oldest text it didn't appear in all of them so the things that you see in scripture that are bracketed are to let you know that it doesn't appear in every single version of the texts that they translate from it's in the

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King James and it's also in the Legacy which is the one that I'm using here for this he says,

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Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites because you devour widows' houses this is a singular part of a longer condemnation from Christ that we will absolutely get to in a moment the accusation there is that rather than help widows and take care of them they would rather take from them they would rather take everything that they have which was a common enough practice that Christ saw fit to call them on it and have it included in scripture in verse 22 back in Romans you who say that one must not commit adultery do you commit adultery?

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it's another very heavy seventh commandment violation that's given here let us not forget that Christ earlier has elevated this sin and our understanding of it from a sin of the flesh to a sin of the heart just along with murder as well but a particular example we can find in 1st

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Samuel chapter 2 verses 12 -17 and 22 -25 1st

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Samuel 2 verses 12 -17 and 22 -25 now this is an example and it's lengthy so bear with me now the sons of Eli were worthless men they did not know the

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Lord the custom of the priests with the people was that when any man offered sacrifice the priest's servants would come while the meat was boiling and a three pronged fork with a three pronged fork in his hand and he would thrust into the pan or kettle or cauldron or pot and all the fork brought up the priest would take for himself this is what they did at Shiloh to all the

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Israelites who came there moreover before the fat was burned the priest's servants would come and say to the man who was sacrificing give meat for the priest to roast for he will not accept boiled meat from you but only raw and if the man said to him let them burn the fat first and then take as much as you wish he would say no you must give it now and if not

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I will take it by force thus the sin of the young men was very great for the men treated the offering of the

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Lord with contempt you see what they're doing here they have a particular set of rules that they have to follow in the temple the

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Levites are allowed to partake of the offering this is allowed but they are not doing it in the prescribed manner in which

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God told them to do it they're stealing not only are they stealing from the people who are giving the offerings but they're stealing from God they're stealing from the offerings given to Him and they're stealing from His glory because they're giving it to themselves skip ahead to verse 22 you are welcome to read the in between there but for this particular example's sake we're going to skip ahead verse 22 now

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Eli was very old and he kept hearing all that his sons were doing to all

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Israel and how they lay with the women who were serving at the entrance to the tent of meeting and he said to them why do you do such things for I hear of your evil dealings from all these people know my sons it is no good report that I hear the people of the

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Lord what I hear the people of the Lord spreading abroad if someone sins against a man

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God will mediate for him but if someone sins against the

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Lord who can intercede for him but they would not listen to the voice of their father for it was the will of the

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Lord to put them to death see the understanding part there comes into play they knew what they were supposed to do they knew the law but they didn't understand it and they did not care we have someone who intercedes for us

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Noah had someone who interceded for him as did Abraham and Moses and Paul and Peter and us we have our mediator our savior

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Christ notice here also at the end for it was the will of the

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Lord to put them to death I do suggest that you read the rest of this narrative but you see this numerous times with the

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Pharaoh the hardening of hearts that it is the will of God for certain people to die that's a conversation for another time you who abhor idols do you rob temples back in Romans 2 notice also in the passage from 1

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Samuel that we just read the stealing of the meat that we talked about the robbing from the temple the robbing from God and later on in history from that point you get to Malachi in scripture the last book in the

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Old Testament in chapter 3 verses 8 and 9 says this

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God says this through the prophet Malachi will a man rob God yet you are robbing me he says this of all of Israel but you say how have we robbed you in tithes and contributions you are cursed with a curse for you are robbing me the whole nation of you he condemns the whole nation this is

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God condemning this particular behavior there are others in Malachi but this particular behavior is exhibited by the

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Jews over and over and may I add to that this is one of the reasons that I was absolutely convinced that the

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Bible was true in the first place what other people in the history of the world have written of themselves in this way no one first of all condemns themselves more often than the

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Jews in their historical writings nobody the

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Romans might say we made this mistake or that mistake but not like the

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Jews but we know that when we read the Holy Scriptures it isn't the

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Jews talking is it it's God telling us the truth of what actually happened that he has preserved through history for us they weren't just committed by the people of Israel they were also particularly committed by the people who were in charge of taking care of the temples the servants and the priests they took what was not given to them in verse 23 he says of them you who boast in the law dishonor

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God by breaking the law Paul has pointed out multiple violations the last four questions that he's asked to those who have consistently for generations selfishly bragged that they are better because they are related to God because they're related to Abraham rather and because Abraham had a relationship with God they must also he's presenting the law here just as we would to someone before we give them the rest of the gospel or the gospel the good news we have to tell them everyone that they are guilty before they can understand why they need a savior

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I see so many signs and tags and bumper stickers and church billboards and the little changey signs from out front that say

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Jesus saves and I want to retort even though it's never possible from what?

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from what? I know from what do you know from what? this is one of the best retorts

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I ever heard from someone from what? you don't tell them what he can save them from why do they need saving?

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by the way it's not from the devil it's from your own sin and God's wrath but let me also give a good reminder here and a rebuke to those in the church we should always be careful to ensure that we do not become puffed up egotistical better than or legalistic we cannot commit the same sins as the church that the

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Pharisees and Israel committed we cannot allow ourselves to do it this happened before in history with the church which is related to what

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I said earlier if you can pick out the time I'm talking about the church acted the exact same way and various men through time guided by the

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Holy Spirit had scripture revealed to them and said the same thing that Paul said no but it continues in verse 24 for as it is written the name of God is blasphemed among the

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Gentiles because of you if you will give me one more time or well two more times turn with me to Ezekiel chapter 36 verses 16 through 21

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I'll be reading this from the LSB it was just easier for me for some reason as I was reading through chapter 36 so the words might be a little bit different but he starts or he doesn't start but he says starting in verse 16 then the word of Yahweh came to me saying son of man when the house of Israel was living in their own land they defiled it by their ways and their deeds their way before me was like was like the uncleanliness of a woman in her impurity that is particularly strong language therefore

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I pour out my wrath on them for the blood which they had shed on the land because they had defiled it with their idols also

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I scattered them among the nations and they were dispersed throughout the lands according to their ways and their deeds

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I judged them then they came to the nations to which they came and they profaned my holy name because it was said of them these are the people of Yahweh yet they have come out of his land but I had concern for my holy name which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations where they went so God has condemned he condemned them he condemned them and exiled them for their behavior and when they went there they continued to do it but might

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I ask does this behavior sound familiar does it sound particularly applicable today how many in the world blaspheme the name of God because of those that claim to be in the church and I mean pagans what is the world's view of the church because of the people who claim to be in it most people don't even know what a

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Christian is they've never read the bible they have no idea they only see from the outside Mormons are

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Christians to those without understanding that they're not so are

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Catholics watch any TV show when they talk about Christians who do they show

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Catholicism they have no idea what a Christian is well it looked like a fish no that's an octopus they like the

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Jews of Paul's day like the Pharisees and the scribes that Christ condemns and like the

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Jews in Ezekiel's day that God is calling out for what they did there are so many like them that speak the name of the

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Lord through posts through books through their pulpits and yet have no understanding of what they speak none and in their lives they act the same just like the rest of the world they do not show that they are

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Christians they have no fruit those that understand what that is can look for it because of this they defile the church and cause his name to be blasphemed how many people have listened to a debate or listened to someone speak about God and it was said of God that if he was really

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God then he would not be so cruel if you've ever listened to a debate with an atheist that's the first thing they go to unfortunately

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Christianity today has become the very same thing that Paul is calling the

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Jews out for it has and I'm not necessarily speaking of the true church

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I'm speaking of the perceived church when members of the body that actually do speak out because there are a lot that don't and that's not a condemnation but I think that more of us should absolutely speak out but when they do who gets called the

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Pharisee when you call someone out for not actually showing fruit not actually teaching sound doctrine who gets called the

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Pharisee remember what I said before about knowledge without understanding how many did the

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Pharisees lead to hell how many are led there by their pastors because they would rather boast in God and their privilege than teach what ought to be taught they would rather wrap

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Christ's bride in fine linens and flowers and fancy garments with loud music and lights behind her than show her for what she truly is there's no need to cover the bride of Christ with makeup and fancy clothes that is not the way that he told her to dress but I'll end with this and if you want to flip with me one more time to Matthew 23

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I believe that this should hit as hard today as it did then after all it is the words of our