August 13, 2021 Show with Dr. Jeffrey C. Waddington on “An Exegetical Survey of the Book of Romans” (Part 4)

Live from the historic parsonage of the 19th century gospel minister George Norcross in downtown

Carlisle, Pennsylvania, it's Iron Sharpens Iron. This is a radio platform in which pastors,

Christian scholars, and theologians address the burning issues facing the church and the world today.

Proverbs chapter 27 verse 17 tells us, Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.

Matthew Henry said that in this passage, we are cautioned to take heed with whom we converse and directed to have in view in conversation, to make one another wiser and better.

It is our hope that this goal will be accomplished over the next two hours, and we hope to hear from you, the listener, with your own questions, and now here's your host,

Chris Arnzen. Good afternoon,

Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Lake City, Florida, and the rest of humanity living on the planet

Earth who are listening via live streaming at ironsharpensironradio .com. This is

Chris Arnzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, wishing you all a happy Friday. I don't even remember the date, oh, it's

Friday the 13th. What a perfect day to have Dr.

Jeffrey C. Waddington on the program. We are so thrilled to have

Dr. Waddington with us today. He is pastor of Faith Orthodox Presbyterian Church of Fawn Grove, Pennsylvania.

He is an author, a conference speaker, and the vice president of the board of directors for the

Reformed Forum and articles editor for the Confessional Presbyterian.

Today we are launching into part five of a series we began last year, which is an exegetical survey of the

Book of Romans, and it's my honor and privilege to welcome you back to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, Dr.

Jeffrey C. Waddington. Well, thank you, Chris, for having me back on the program to pick up where we left off ages ago.

I must confess it's been a little while since we did this series. Yeah, October 9th, 2021, and in fact,

I'm sorry, 2020. And for some reason, I don't know what happened, but the recording of that is not available on the

Iron Sharpens Iron Radio website. The previous recordings are. I have no idea why the

October 9th recording is not there unless we, for some reason that I can't remember, had to postpone or cancel that interview.

Yeah, I don't know. I just have an announcement that I emailed out to my bulk email list that has part four from October 9th, 2020.

But from what you can recall, we are starting off today at chapter two of Romans 9.

That's correct. I'm sorry, Romans. I'm sorry. Yeah, Romans. See how Calvinist how he says

Romans 9 on his mind? Yes, yes. I understand. Chapter two of Romans 9.

Well, before we do that, before we go into that, let our listeners know about Faith Orthodox Presbyterian Church of Fulham Grove, Pennsylvania.

Sure. We are located a half mile from the Maryland border, so we're on the

Mason -Dixon line. We're about an hour south of Harrisburg, an hour north of Baltimore.

We are to the west of the Susquehanna River. So if you're looking for us on a map and you're not using your

Google where you can find it easily, you're still using a paper map, for instance, that's how you would find us.

We are in York County with the city of York, I suppose, being the county seat.

We've been a congregation of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church since 1964, although the church left the mother denomination, the

PCUSA, in 1936. So I've been the pastor for now 14 months, and then

I was before that stated to apply for nine months.

So almost two years since I began my service here as stated to apply.

Well, if anybody wants more detail on Faith Orthodox Presbyterian Church of Fulham Grove, Pennsylvania, go to faithopc .net.

That's faithopc for orthodoxpresbyterianchurch .net. Now tell us about the

Reform Forum. Sure. The Reform Forum has been in existence since 2008.

So I guess that's 13 years. And it's an internet and conference and book ministry,

Christian education ministry. We have several different podcasts, but the major podcast is

Christ the Center, which has aired every or been posted every

Friday for the past 13 years. And we have a new venture called the

Reformed Academy, which last I heard had over 1700 students from around the world.

So that's an exciting ministry to the church worldwide.

That's the beautiful thing of the internet is you can be of service to the church even where you're not physically located.

Well, if anybody wants to look up more information about the Reformed Forum, go to reformedforum .org.

Now, lastly, let our listeners know about the

Confessional Presbyterian Journal. Yes, the journal has been in existence for about the same period of time, a little longer than Reform Forum.

It is a journal committed to confessional Presbyterian distinctives, although we have had

Reformed Baptist contributors. It recently was brought under the umbrella of Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Greenville, South Carolina.

So they now have with the Confessional Presbyterian Journal, they have a journal of record, you might say.

And we publish once a year. It's a fairly substantial volume, a couple hundred pages typically, usually coming out sometime around Christmas, the end of December.

So the next issue will be due out around that time. And if anybody wants to know more about the

Confessional Presbyterian Journal, you can go to their website, which is cpjournal .com.

C -P for Confessional Presbyterian Journal dot com. Isn't that, I probably have said this before, but isn't that somewhat of a redundancy?

Is there such a thing as a non -confessional Presbyterian? Yes, there are, but we'll leave that alone for the time being.

Well, I know that there are those that give lip service to the

Westminster, but I mean, as far as... You're right. They're all technically, officially confessional, though, right?

Correct. Correct. So what we're saying by that name is that we come from a particular viewpoint, basically.

Right. Well, if anybody has a question about anything in regarding Chapter 2 of the

Book of Romans, and if you have a question on Reformed theology in general, or even about Presbyterianism, the

Orthodox Presbyterian denomination, faith, Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Fawn Grove, Pennsylvania specifically, send in an email to chrisarnsen at gmail dot com.

C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E -N at gmail dot com. As always, give us your first name at least, your city and state, and your country of residence if you live outside the

USA. Why don't you, since it's been so long, since we got sidetracked, and I think there were a whole bunch of factors that caused delays in getting back onto the subject, but why don't you give our listeners an overview of the

Book of Romans? Yes, I thought that would be a good idea, because I couldn't even remember how far back it had been since the last episode devoted to this study.

The Book of Romans, of course, is Paul's most comprehensive discussion of the gospel that he had been preaching for up to 20 plus years after his dramatic conversion on the road to Damascus.

So, all of Paul's letters, of course, are God's word, but Romans is the one that seems to cover all of the bases, or most of the bases of the

Christian faith. In the first chapter, you had 17 verses devoted to an introduction, where Paul introduces himself, because remember that this letter is written to a church that Paul had not established and had not visited at the time he wrote the letter.

We know, of course, that he would subsequently arrive in Rome and change.

That was not, as far as we can tell, that was not how he thought he would arrive when he wrote the letter.

So, this letter is a letter of introduction, but also it is a letter trying to explain the gospel of the

Lord Jesus Christ and salvation through him, and it is a systematic, although not a systematic theology in the technical sense, it is a thorough presentation of the gospel.

After that introduction, which is where, of course, verses 16 and 17, you have

Paul's comment, he is not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God and the salvation for them that believe, first for the

Jew, then for the Gentile. After that, he spends several verses, verses 18 to 32, giving a catalog of vices to which

God responds in holy indignation, or he reveals his wrath, and I noted that sometimes when we look at those verses and its discussion of one example of human disobedience and rebellion, specifically homosexual acts between men with men and women with women, that we think that that will lead to God's judgment, when in fact it is a form of God's judgment already.

Of course, it will also lead to further judgment as well. Now, all of that, he goes into all of that detail, he's painting a dark background, which will highlight the brilliance of the gospel, in much the same way that a jeweler will display a brilliant diamond against the back cloth of black velvet.

So, in order to demonstrate or to exhibit the brightness, the brilliance of the gospel, he has to deal with the problem which the gospel is offered to, which is given to correct.

Well, why don't I read several verses at a time.

Sure. And then you can begin to isogeet them.

Oh, I heard that. I'm only kidding. I know. What else am

I going to say to a Presbyterian? I know. Then you can begin to exogeet them.

Very good, very good. We'll begin, obviously, chapter 2, verse 1.

Therefore, you have no excuse, every one of you who passes judgment.

For in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself. For you who judge practice the same things.

And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things.

But do you suppose this, O man, when you pass judgment on those who practice such things and do the same as yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God?

Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?

But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to each person according to his deeds, to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and in mortality eternal life.

But to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation, there will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil, of the

Jew first and also of the Greek. But glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good, to the

Jew first and also to the Greek, for there is no partiality with God.

Well, begin your exegesis. Okay, well thank you.

No doubt Paul's fellow Jews, his countrymen, kinsmen, would echo a hearty amen to the condemnation of the typically

Gentile forms of sin that Paul reveals at the end of chapter 1, verses 18 to 32.

And because these kinds of catalogs of vices, they're called, were not only prevalent in our

New Testament, they were a common feature even of secular literature of the time in the ancient

Greco -Roman world. And it is perhaps the thought of Paul's fellow countrymen that they would come in for commendation rather than condemnation.

But in fact, what Paul does here, beginning at verse 1 of chapter 2, is to turn his guns on his fellow countrymen.

That's what he's doing. He's going to say, tu quoque, in Latin, you too.

Therefore, he's now going to talk about sin amongst

God's people. He's talked about sin amongst the Gentile nations who are outside the covenant relationship with God.

Now he's going to talk about the relationship that God has to his people, who, as we know from the

Old Testament, were rarely, if ever, as a people, obedient.

And so Paul doesn't have to go hunting for illustrations of this kind of problem.

Remember again that Paul is laying the black velvet backdrop to the beautiful diamond that is the gospel of the

Lord Jesus Christ. He has to unfold for us. What is it exactly that the gospel is meant to address?

Why did the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, take to himself a true body and a reasonable soul?

Going beyond the sins of the Gentiles, Paul is now going to say to his fellow countrymen, you too are under God's judgment for your disobedience.

Now that shouldn't have shocked his hearers or his readers because they presumably know the history of their own people.

The history of the Old Testament church is one of continual disobedience, continual idolatry, spiritual adultery, and the like.

So he begins here by talking about the problem of demonstrating the universality of sin.

That sin is not just a Gentile problem, it's a human problem. And here at the beginning of chapter 2, he deals with the problem of hypocrisy.

The idea that we're pretending to be one thing while we are actually something quite different.

Paul tells his fellow Jews that they have no excuse when they sin just as much as the

Gentiles. Now, he says there, you have no excuse. Literally, you are without an apologetic, you are without a defense before the face of God.

And he says, you rightly pass judgment on those sins that I just described.

However, you practice the very same thing. It reminds me of when the prophet Nathan went to King David and told him that wonderful little parable about the two neighbors, the rich man and the poor man.

And the rich man takes the poor man's sheep and David rightly condemns that behavior.

And then Nathan says, you are the man. And of course, that was the prophet's condemnation of David's adultery with Bathsheba.

And then his ordering her husband to be put at the front lines of the battle, therefore virtually guaranteeing his death, which is in fact what happened.

So that David not only committed adultery and lied to cover that up, no doubt, but he also committed murder.

And so Paul is doing something like what Nathan did with David. Paul is saying, you also are guilty before God.

We know in verse two here, we know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things.

That is, those of you who pass judgment, but you do the very things you criticize. You do the very things that you condemn.

You who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself. Do you think that you will escape?

Do you suppose that you will escape the judgment of God? Of course, the answer is, if you do think that, you are terribly deceived, yourself deceived, right?

You have talked yourself into believing something that is just plainly not true.

And in verse four, Paul goes on to point out that what is happening here is that God is in fact exercising patience with his people as he did, of course, throughout the

Old Testament. We see that we see that he could have destroyed his people when they fashioned the golden calf in Exodus chapter 32.

Moses then acts as a mediator and God spares the judgment, the righteous judgment that would have fallen upon the children of Israel.

Who, while Moses was getting the Ten Commandments at the top of Mount Sinai, the children of Israel were down in the valley carrying on, not just getting up, rising up to play.

But that, of course, is an indirect reference to sexual misbehavior, amongst other things.

So here, Paul reminds his fellow countrymen that rather than presuming upon God, they should recognize that God is patient because he's exercising kindness and forbearance.

That because God intends for that kindness and forbearance to create, to allow them to come to repentance, to see their sinfulness and to return back to God and to forsake their sinning.

Sadly, of course, we know that many, not only Gentiles, but many of God's own people in those days will stockpile wrath for themselves.

They will heap one sin upon another and they will not seek, they will not exercise repentance.

They will not turn in faith back to God, the God who has entered into fellowship with them, not because of anything special about them, but because he set his love on them.

They spit in God's face, as it were. I think it's one way we could look at it.

Paul goes on to say that because of your hard and impenitent heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when

God's righteous judgment will be revealed. Now, of course, that's ultimately referring to the judgment at the end of the age.

But also, of course, we know that God does render judgments in history.

We have plenty of examples of that in the Old and in the New Testament of God's stepping in and punishing sin.

But ultimately, none of us will escape judgment at the end of the age, except for those who hide under the wings of the

Lord Jesus Christ and find refuge in him. Now, what

Paul does here may sound contradictory maybe to what he will say later about justification being by grace through faith in the

Lord Jesus Christ. He says to those who by patience and well -doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life.

But for those who are self -seeking and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.

And he goes on and says there will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the

Jew first and also the Greek. But glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the

Jew first and also the Greek, for God shows no partiality. Well, when

God created Adam and Eve in the garden, he entered into a relationship with them based upon a covenant relationship.

And that relationship has often been referred to as the covenant of works or the covenant of creation, covenant of nature, various ways of looking at that relationship that God entered into with Adam.

And Adam, as the federal head, which we'll learn more about in Chapter 5 of Romans, Adam as the federal head, his obedience would lead to unending fellowship with God, but his disobedience would lead to death and judgment.

What Paul is saying here is that outside of Christ, outside of faith in the

Lord Jesus Christ, all of us will be judged according to our works. Outside of faith in Jesus, all of us will be judged according to our works, what we have done in the flesh.

So one could argue, of course, that when Paul talks about someone who is well doing, for those who by patience and well doing seek glory and honor and immortality, only

Christians will do that. And even then we will do it imperfectly, of course. But because we are clothed in the righteous robes of the

Lord Jesus Christ, we will have or we do have eternal life.

Once you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you pass from death to life, you transfer from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of his well beloved son.

And of course, those who do not turn to the Lord Jesus Christ, but remain in their sinful disobedience, they will experience wrath and fury.

They will be cast along with Satan and his minions into the flames of hell.

Sadly, from our perspective, from a human perspective, for eternity, for every human being who does evil, the

Jew first and also the Greek, this is what will happen. Paul is basically in verses 9 -10 repeating what he has just said.

You might think of this as repeating, going over again what he said in verses 6 -8.

That there is both judgments that occur in this world, in time and space, and there is the judgment that will occur at the last day.

When we stand before the risen Lord Jesus, who Paul says elsewhere in Acts chapter 17, being one place where he says this.

That the God raised up the God man Jesus Christ to be the judge.

So the one in whom we are to find refuge is in fact the one who will judge the living and the dead at the last day.

In fact, we have to pick up right where you left off there, because we have to go to our first break. If anybody has a question for Dr.

Jeffrey C. Waddington on anything that he has addressed already, on anything regarding the book of Romans in general, or a general question on theology.

The email address is chrisarnsen at gmail .com, C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E -N at gmail .com.

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Welcome back. This is Chris Arnzen, if you just tuned us in. Our guest today for the entirety of the program is

Dr. Jeffrey C. Waddington, and he is Pastor of Faith Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Fawn Grove, Pennsylvania, as well as being the

Vice President of the Board of Directors at the Reform Forum. We are entering into our series that we began a year ago on the

Book of Romans, and this is an exegetical survey.

We are now entering into Chapter 2, and if you have any questions, our email address is chrisarnzen .gmail

.com, C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E -N -G -M -A -I -L .com.

Please give us your first name, your city and state, and your country of residence. If you live outside the

USA, only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter. And where exactly in Chapter 2 did you leave off before the break?

Well, we left off at verse 11. I did just want, before we move on to the next section,

I did want to maybe just sum up some things. In that portion of Paul's letter,

God's Word, that we just looked at, I had mentioned the covenant of works or covenant of creation, sometimes called the covenant of life.

Adam, our representative, was required to render unto

God perfect, personal, and perpetual obedience, sometimes referred to as exact and entire obedience to God.

And so the question, somebody might have the question, is Paul saying that it's hypothetically possible for a sinner to obey

God to such an extent that he or she would inherit eternal life?

That was the offer made to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, but it is with the disobedience of our first parents that is no longer offered.

And in fact, it's not really a hypothetical possibility either, for no one who is born through normal descent keeps the law.

And there are various passages which reveal to us that the law, the keeping of the law was to be entire.

In other words, if you think of the Ten Commandments as a summing up of the moral law, the law required that precise obedience on all matters.

In other words, you couldn't break one law and only break one law. By breaking one, you break them all. And the

Westminster Divines, for instance, in the larger catechism, go into some detail on this, and you can see there how they parse this all out.

So only one person has ever obeyed the law and therefore satisfied what we call the covenant of works or covenant of life.

And that is, of course, the Lord Jesus Christ. And that helps us to understand what he was about when he came in the

Incarnation. How do we understand his death on the cross? How do we understand his life as he lived it during those 33 years or so during the time of what we call his state of humiliation?

But he is the only one who has ever perfectly kept God's law. And for those of us who have trusted in Christ, we are forever grateful or we will be forever grateful on in eternity ad infinitum.

Because he did obey the law perfectly because we haven't been able to. And even as Christians, while we are called to endeavor after new obedience, we are in fact unable in this life to perfectly obey the law.

And so therefore, we need Jesus throughout the whole of our Christian life.

But so I just wanted to kind of clarify that for our listeners.

And so he's Paul is not contradicting himself here in chapter two when he talks about those being justified.

Those who are endeavoring to do who are seeking honor and glory, they will receive eternal life.

Well, in the original plan that God had with Adam, that was true. But when it was once it was broken, it was no longer possible for that pathway or that road to lead to eternal life, except for the

Lord Jesus Christ. For us, we are now we are under the covenant of works as far as its condemnation goes.

But we are not there's no way that we can achieve eternal life through obeying the covenant of works that God had with Adam.

And that Christ has fulfilled for us. So I just wanted to clarify that if there were any, you know, a lack of clarity in what was said.

Now that brings. Yeah, go ahead. I just wanted to point out a verse. Obviously, you and I, as Reformed Christians, we would disagree with those that try to imply that verse 11 of chapter two.

For there is no partiality with God. Anti -Calvinists have sought to use that as a proof text against the doctrine of unconditional election.

Well, my response to that would be that's no help for the

Armenian, because according to the Armenian, God does show partiality to those who believe on Christ.

Yes, but I think that the Armenian or any non Calvinist would say we are talking about prior to salvation, the natural man.

They would say that God does not rescue intentionally only some while passing by others to be left in the deadness of their sin.

Obviously, you and I as Reformed people and all historically accurate and biblically faithful Reformed people believe that both the sheep and the goats, the saved and the reprobate or the elect and the reprobate are formed from the same lump of clay.

But God rescues some of us from this wretched situation that we're in and leaves others to be judged and condemned because of their own sin.

He just chooses not to rescue some. So therefore, the non Calvinist very often will say, well, there's no partiality with God.

So that can't be a possible scenario. Well, in a state, if we want to say in apart from faith in Christ, God holds both holds everyone to the same standard, which is what

Paul is saying. Okay, for God shows no partiality. In other words, remember, the context here is that the children of Israel who are the people of God, the

Old Testament church, they don't get a free pass because they are the people of God.

That's because of the context. You don't those five words can't be taken and separated from the immediate context in which

Paul is speaking. He's addressing the Jew Gentile relationship, as he will throughout the rest of the book.

Throughout the rest of the letter, he will, he will be, especially when we get to chapters 9, 10 and 11.

You know, the favorite chapters of Calvinist, and you already made reference to it with the reference to the pottery,

Potter and the clay. There is no partiality left to our own devices, whether we're

Jew or Greek or Greek is another way of saying Gentile. Okay, and what

Paul is saying is that all of us come up short. That would even include, as according to other texts, whatever your position of authority on earth is, you could be a king or a slave, you could be rich or poor.

Correct. There's no, there's no. And I've heard, you know,

I've read accounts of monarchs and men and women in positions of authority, whatever form of government they're serving in, who honestly thought that because they were to say the king or the queen, that the day would, they would automatically receive

God's favor. Clearly, they hadn't read their Bibles. If they had them.

No one, no one, apart from the grace of Christ, is graded on a curve, you know, the bell curve, right?

You know, God does not grade on a curve. He grades according to his absolute righteousness, which is himself.

It's his own character and nature, which requires that he show no partiality.

And remember that for the one who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, that is the elect, that the punishment that should fall upon them because of their sinfulness has actually fallen upon Christ.

Now we're getting into the discussion of the atonement. So it's not as if the elect do not, that the punishment that is due to the elect isn't exercised.

It just is exercised on the son of God for them. Go ahead.

Yeah, go ahead. No, no, you can continue. That's all I wanted to say on that point.

I'm sure that we could go into more detail, but but the clearly we can't take what

Paul says in verse 11 as a as a overly universalized statement, because as a matter of fact,

God does show partiality to his own people. Right. Well, which is what we're going to look at next.

Yeah, the Armenian actually would agree with us on that. Yes, that's correct. That would that would that would not be something that divides

Armenians from Calvinists. We recognize that if you were to push that statement too far, then we would have no special relationship with God.

By grace, of course, not because we've earned it, but by grace, we do have a special relationship.

God calls his people his own peculiar possession. What does that mean?

If it doesn't involve some sort of partiality, but that's assuming that the people who are among the peculiar possession that the judgment has not been withheld.

It just has not fallen upon them. In particular, it has fallen upon the son of God on their behalf.

That's the whole point of what we call substitution in substitutionary atonement.

And that, you know, we could go to Genesis 22 is a foreshadowing of that with Abraham and Isaac in the when

God says to Abraham, sacrifice your only son, the son whom you love, Isaac. And you remember,

Abraham and Isaac are walking up Mount Moriah. And Isaac notes that we've got the wood.

We've got the fire. We've got the knife. Where is the animal for the sacrifice?

And Abraham says to his son, God himself will provide the lamp. Now, he said he spoke more than he could have possibly,

I suppose, completely known, although he spoke the truth. He spoke prophetically in that instance to his own son.

And, of course, in the immediate context, Isaac, in fact, was spared from being sacrificed.

And there was a ram caught in the thicket nearby the altar that had been built for the sacrifice.

And the ram was offered in the place of Isaac. Again, a foreshadowing of how

Christ dies in the place of and on behalf of and instead of the elect.

And we're going to go to our midway break right now. I have a question. So remind me to ask you about the text to the

Jew first and also to the Greek. Will do. And verse 10. But if anybody has a question for Jeff Waddington on Romans in general, on Romans chapter 2 specifically, on any matter of theology and doctrine.

Our email address is chrisarnsen at gmail .com. C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E -N at gmail .com.

Give us your first name at least. Your city and state of residence and your country of residence if you live outside the

U .S .A. And only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter. We'll be right back after these messages.

Don't go away. The boys are back in town. The boys are back in town. The boys are back in town.

The boys are back in town. I'm James White of Alpha and Omega Ministries. My friend Chris Arnson, host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, and I are headed down to Atlanta, Georgia once again for the

G3 conference. This year's G3 will be held Thursday, September 30th through Saturday, October 2nd on the theme,

Christ is supreme over all. I'll be joined by over 20 other speakers and musicians to lead in the worship of God through preaching, teaching, and singing, including

John MacArthur, Phil Johnson, Conrad M. Bayway, Daryl Bernard Harrison, and Virgil Walker.

For details, visit G3conference .com. That's G3conference .com. Chris Arnson and I hope to see you

September 30th through October 2nd at G321. This is James White reminding you that Christ is supreme over all.

Chris Arnson, host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, announcing a new website with an exciting offer from World Magazine, my trusted source for news from a

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As host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, I frequently get requests from listeners for church recommendations.

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Tell Pastor Dunn that you heard about Grace Covenant Baptist Church on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio. Hello, my name is

Anthony Uvino, and I'm one of the pastors at Hope Reform Baptist Church in Quorum, New York, and also the host of the

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Please be sure to also give it a good review and pass it along to anyone who would benefit from the teaching and the many solidly reformed guests that Chris Arnzen has on the show.

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I know it would be a huge encouragement to Chris if you would. All the details can be found at ironsharpensironradio .com,

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And remember, always mention Chris Arnzen of Ironsharpensironradio. Before I return to my interview with Dr.

Jeffrey C. Waddington as we continue in our exegetical survey of the

Book of Romans, we are currently in Chapter 2, if you just tuned us in, we have some important announcements to make.

Many of you have been praying for my oldest brother, John, 76 years old, in a skilled nursing facility in Denton, Texas.

He has critical stage emphysema and cancer and has been informed by his doctor that he has at best six months to live.

I ask you to pray for my brother's physical healing, that the

Lord might have mercy upon him and extend his years on earth far longer than the six -month prognosis.

But most importantly, please pray that the Lord saves his soul.

He is demonstrating evidence that he is trusting in Christ, and I'm very, very thrilled about this.

My mind is a lot more at peace over this. But please pray that he continues to bear fruit, that his profession is genuine, and that he is trusting in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ alone and his imputed righteousness as his only hope for salvation.

Also, now add to that list, that prayer list, my brother John's wife, my sister -in -law

Jan, who is now also in the hospital with COVID pneumonia.

So please pray not only for her physical healing, but salvation as well. Also, if you are a man in ministry leadership, whether it be a pastor, an elder, and by the way,

I believe those are the same office, a deacon, a parachurch leader, well, as long as you're a man in ministry leadership, you are invited to the next

Iron Sharpens Iron Radio Pastors Luncheon here in Carlisle, Pennsylvania at the

Bongiorno Conference Center. And it is featuring one of the most powerful preachers on the planet

Earth today. In fact, I think he is the most powerful preacher alive today, Dr.

Conrad Mbewe. He is an author, a conference speaker, and pastor of Kuwata Baptist Church in Lusaka, Zambia, Africa, and founding chancellor at African Christian University.

He'll be speaking on Monday, September 27th from 11 a .m. to 2 p .m. Well, that's the time frame of the entire event.

He's not going to be speaking for all those hours, but the event is from 11 a .m. to 2 p .m.

And it's absolutely free of charge. You not only get free admission, a free meal, you're going to be fed spiritually for free by Dr.

Mbewe, and you're also going to be getting free books by many major publishers in the

United States and the United Kingdom, a very heavy sack of books that you will be getting for free, brand new books selected personally by me, enough so that every man in attendance can have each of the books that I have requested from each of the publishers.

And I know my friend and guest today, Dr. Jeffrey C. Waddington, has enjoyed thoroughly his experience at the

Iron Sharpens Iron Radio Pastors Luncheons, have you not? Indeed, brother, very much so.

The fellowship and the preaching were wonderful. Well, if you want to register, send me an email to chrisarnson at gmail .com,

chrisarnson at gmail .com, and put Pastors Luncheon in the subject line. And remember, it is absolutely free of charge.

There's not even anything for sale there. There is no hidden agenda, no ulterior motive.

The only motive, upon the insistence of my late wife, Julie, in the 1990s when we started these, she insisted that nobody sell anything.

And this is not to convince you of getting involved in Amway. This is not involved in anything other than blessing men in ministry leadership to a time of rest, relaxation, and nourishment, both physical and spiritual, and to have each and every one in attendance leave with a very expensive gift, being a sack of brand new books selected by me personally from most of the major Christian publishers in the

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and put Pastors Luncheon in the subject line. Also, folks, if you love this show and you do not want it to disappear, please go to ironsharpensironradio .com,

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Iron Sharpens Iron Radio as a platform, a friend, a helping hand, and an extension of the ministry of the local pastor and the local church, such as my guest today,

Dr. Jeffrey C. Waddington of Faith Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Falling Grove, Pennsylvania.

I never intended, nor do I ever wish, the local pastor and the local church to be hindered or harmed in any way, including financially, by the existence of this program.

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I've helped many people in our audience find churches, sometimes within a few minutes of where they live.

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but I need a church in the subject line. That's also the email address where you can send in a question to Dr.

Jeffrey C. Waddington, pastor of Faith Orthodox Presbyterian Church of Fallen Grove, Pennsylvania, and that is chrisarnson at gmail .com.

As you may remember, Dr. Waddington, before the break, I just wanted to ask you about a controversial verse in Romans chapter 2, and that would be in verse 10,

Glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good to the

Jew first and also to the Greek. And many brethren in Christ, and they're not all dispensationalists, by the way, a very, very close friend of mine who is

Reformed and a Presbyterian, he has an outreach specifically targeting

Jewish people. He actually believes that this is a text that is spelling out the priority of our evangelism.

In other words, we are most importantly to evangelize the

Jew and then secondarily to the Greek or the

Gentiles. I disagree with that. I believe this is chronological because the

Jews were the first to receive revelation from God. They were at one time, with the exception of proselytes, exclusively the people of God.

And then when the new covenant came, the wall of separation was broken down.

The gospel went out to all the Gentile nations. And we have even reached a point in history where Gentile Christians far outnumber

Jewish Christians. But if you could comment on that yourself, do you agree with my

Presbyterian friend in Jewish mission? So do you agree with me? I would agree with your take on that,

Chris. Although that is that the this is a what we would, as you say, chronological or we might say redemptive historical.

It's a fact that the gospel came. Well, first of all, the Jews were the people of God in the old covenant.

But also when Jesus came, he was a Jew. Yes. And he came to his own people.

And of course, we the Apostle John said they did not receive him except those who believed on him.

Right. Paul. Now, where our brother can point to at least the practice of the apostle

Paul in his day was to go to the synagogue first until he was thrown out. And then he would go to the marketplace.

So I so I would say not so much this passage, but those passages that we see in the book of Acts where we see

Paul's normal practice when he entered a new community was to go to the synagogue and then to the

Gentile. So we want to be careful. And I don't think this is what our brother is saying.

There's not first and second standing in the church.

Right. There's not a second class, first and second class Christians, Jews being first class

Greeks or Gentiles being second class Christians. That's not at all what certainly not what

Paul's saying. Of course, as you pointed out, and as I've often noted that, you know, the situation in our day and actually for quite some time now,

I think is reverse of what it was in Paul's day when most Christians, at least up until a certain point where a tipping point was reached.

Most Christians were Jewish. And in the introduction of the gospel to the

Greek, to the Gentiles was the radical thing. Now it's almost in reverse.

Right. Now it's Christianity is seen as a Gentile religion. And that sometimes is that that wall that Christ has torn down.

Some folks try to rebuild. And so we want to be we want to be mindful that we should be sharing the gospel not only with with the

Gentiles or pagans. We should also be sharing the gospel with the

Jews. I mean, that that at the very least, that's true.

Yes. But obviously, that cannot mean that Jews should have our first priority in evangelism, because many people, many

Christians throughout the world live in areas where there is a zero population of Jewish people.

Correct. Or or just a few, you know, I mean, I'm assuming that there are people in Africa and other places where they have to send out missionaries.

In fact, they have to send out every person in the church as a missionary to areas where there are

Jews so that they can give them top priority. And it really doesn't make any sense. Right.

I mean, it's so we what we ought to be aware of is the fact that we should be free to share the gospel with someone.

And we'll actually get to this in our next section. So that's a good segue. Unless there's another question.

Do you have another question yet from via email? No, I do not yet.

But let me let me read the next portion. Sure thing. 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, for it is not the hearers of the law who are just before God, but the doers of the law will be justified.

For when Gentiles who do not have the law do instinctively the things of the law, these not having the law are a law to themselves.

In that they show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them.

Well, let me just read this. Yes, go ahead. There's two more verses. Actually, there's only one more verse on the day when, according to my gospel,

God will judge the secrets of men through Jesus Christ. Thank you,

Chris, for reading that so well. And by the way, that was verse 12 to 16.

Right. Right. So just so our listeners will know. And that was is that the

NASB you were reading from? Yes. What else would I be reading from? That's right.

You're using the Bible you advertise. Exactly. I have my own copy there.

I have I have both the nineteen ninety five and the twenty twenty. I know that our brother

James White, I think, prefers the older edition. I don't remember why at this point, but I have

I have both of those. And I do use the ESV as my standard English, but I I try to go with the

Greek and the Hebrew to, you know, work my way through it. So actually, the question of Jew first and the

Greek is dealt with in a sense right here.

Paul is addressing once again the universal nature of sin. In other words, that all are in sin.

Whether you are someone, a Gentile or Greek without the law, or you are a

Jew who are among the covenant people of God under the law, either way, if you're sinful, you will be judged both ways.

For it is, as Paul goes on to say, for it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers who will be justified.

Now, of course, that's under the supposition that we've already been looking at above, which is looking at Jews and Gentiles in in their fallen state.

Without reference to the grace of God and the gift of salvation through faith in the

Lord Jesus Christ. That's coming in chapter three, but he's wanting to tighten the vice grip, if I can put it that way, making his readers aware of the condition they're in apart from salvation in the

Lord Jesus Christ. So we notice that sin shows no partiality.

Sin affects every last individual with the exception of the

Lord Jesus Christ. And even then, of course, he did live in his state of humiliation in a fallen world.

He was surrounded by sinners, even though he was holy, sinless and undefiled himself.

He did live amongst sinners. So here we note that whether you sin as a

Gentile or you sin as a Jew, and by that I mean sin without repentance and faith in Christ, then you will be judged.

Because it's only the doers of the law who will be justified. And Paul will tell us elsewhere in this letter and in other places that, in fact, no one will be justified by the works of the law.

Now, could it not be that this verse, in opposition to hyper dispensationalists and some others, perhaps even just textual critics or opponents of Christianity, they try to pit the apostle

Paul and James against one another? But here you have Paul in harmony with James, do you not?

Well, yes, and of course, I don't believe that Paul and James are in conflict anyway. Of course not.

Right, right. So, yeah, now they're not dealing with the same aspect of justification, okay?

When Paul deals with justification, it has to do with being justified before God. When James is talking about justification, he's talking about demonstrating our justification before our fellow man.

So there's a difference in the nature of faith, and there's a difference in the nature of justification.

But in one sense, wouldn't you say that they're talking about the same view of justification?

Yeah, apart from faith in Christ, it is the doers of the law who would be justified, let me put it that way, and not the hearers.

Because Paul's point, one of the points that Paul is making is mere hearing the word, mere possession of the word, if I can be more up -to -date, because many of us have multiple copies of the

Bible on our phone, on our computer, on our tablet, as well as hard copies.

Mere possession of the word of God, but in this case, mere possession of the law of Moses is what's in view on this point.

Because in a moment, Paul's going to reveal that there's another sense of law in which the

Gentiles do have the law, okay? But I don't want to get ahead of myself. But definitely, the law of God given through Moses, it was intended to call upon us both to have the right motives, but to then do the right thing with the right motives.

And of course, that's part of the searching capacity of the word of God, isn't it?

The fact that it, as the writer to the Hebrew says, it divides to the bone and the marrow, it separates joints, that's how sharp the word of God is.

And I'm of course expanding law here at this point to be a reference in the broader sense, the broader scheme of things to be the whole word of God.

Here, Paul is talking about the law of Moses because he says the

Gentiles who sin without the law. Well, what law would that be? The law of Moses.

Now, when we come down, so the mere hearing of the law, if that justified us, everybody who went to church and heard the

Bible read and say, heard the Ten Commandments, they would be justified in the mere hearing of it.

That's exactly what I was bringing in, the tie in with James. Spiritual death and spiritual life.

No, there's no sense in which the mere hearing of the word, and by hearing I'm not using it in the sense of listening.

Well, you know what I mean, the distinction between hearing and obeying, right? And that's the point that Paul is making.

It's not the hearers of the law, it's the obeyers of the law who will be justified. And of course, we know that apart from faith in Christ, no one will be justified, as Paul will say shortly further on in the letter.

Now, at verse 14, he gets into an interesting, makes an interesting point for when

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

Even though they do not have the law, they show that the work of the law is written on their hearts while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts or alternating thoughts, as the

NASB says, choose or even excuse them on that day. When according to my gospel,

God judges the secrets of men like Christ Jesus, ultimately a reference to the final judgment.

But of course, that final judgment has backward echoes, if I can say it that way, casts a shadow backwards into the life of all human beings who have ever lived, are living, or will live until the

Lord returns. What he says here is that Gentiles who do not have the

Mosaic law, by nature do what the law requires. Now, he's not actually saying that there are any

Gentiles who do this, ultimately. I mean, he's arguing for the fact that Gentiles as well as Jews have the law written on the heart.

That's general revelation. That's what Psalm 19 is referring to.

The heavens declare the glories of God, the firmament his handiwork. So, God reveals himself both in nature and in scripture.

So, when God's revelation of himself in nature, and that also includes human nature, that knowledge or that revelation comes to us and, by the way, gets through.

Even our sinful distortion of our knowledge of God's law and our knowledge of him does not ultimately overcome

God's revelation in nature. It's God's revelation of himself and his law in nature that is the basis for our guilty judgment at the final judgment.

It's because we have disobeyed God's law, whether it's the law written on the heart or the law revealed through Moses.

It's all of a piece because the law revealed through Moses, for instance, the Ten Commandments, the moral law.

That is a reintroduction of the law written on the heart.

That was written on the heart of Adam and Eve, our first parents. And as Paul says here, it's written on the heart of even the

Gentiles. So that if it were possible, and they do what the law requires, it shows that there is a law of a sort, what we call natural revelation.

And I can even call it natural law, although that designation, natural law, has various definitions depending on who you are talking to.

So it's often best not to use that expression, but natural revelation or general revelation.

Those are two expressions for what Paul is talking about here. So that they show that they, that is the

Gentiles, show that the work of the law is written on their hearts. Now some scholars think that this is a reference to Gentile Christians.

At this point in my life, I've not been convinced of that view. But that is a view advocated by even some

Reformed scholars, even some of my esteemed professors at Westminster Seminary thought this.

But here's something to think about, and this ought to encourage you, that Christians never witness to anyone who has no knowledge of the

God of the Bible. There is no one who has ever lived since creation, all the way to the consummation, who has not been exposed to the

God of Scripture and His Word in nature. Now they also may have been exposed to Scripture, which gives further, further knowledge and clarification.

But there's no need for the Christian to ever really have to prove the existence of God.

The only reason those kinds of questions come up is because of the sin in our hearts, and our suppressing the knowledge of the truth, which

Paul made reference to earlier in Chapter 1. Because remember, we are all made in the image of God, and we are all exposed to God's revelation both outwardly in creation, but also inwardly in our own constitution as human beings.

And Paul will make comments to that effect even further along in this chapter.

Now, having said all that, possession of natural revelation does not save anyone.

It condemns us. It doesn't save us. So it's important that we recognize that.

Yes, the natural revelation leaves us without excuse. Correct. That would be correct. It's just enough so that we can't say,

I didn't know that there was a God. Correct. So that the British mathematician and philosopher, his name went right out of my mind.

Back in the 60s, he debated the Roman Catholic philosophical scholar, and his name went right out of my head.

I hate that when that happens. He said, when the priest said to him, what are you going to say to God when you stand before him on the

Judgment Day? He said, not enough evidence. Bertrand Russell, Bertrand Russell was the name of the

British mathematician and philosopher. He said, not enough evidence, not enough evidence. Well, if I have to choose between the

Apostle Paul and Bertrand Russell, I'm going to go with the Apostle Paul.

That's simple. Paul is speaking God's word. The Apostle Paul is a duly appointed apostle of the risen and reigning

Lord Jesus Christ. And what he says is God's word.

What Bertrand Russell said is his opinion. And by the way, he no longer holds that opinion, just so you know.

Yes, right, because he knows better now. Yeah, he does. And we would hope that, unbeknownst to us, he knows that and is worshipping

Christ in eternity, and gloriously glad that he used to be wrong, meaning that he repented before.

Right, I mean, think about it. The Apostle Paul himself was a wicked man, right, prior to being confronted, even though he was a religious man.

He was persecuting the church, and he was killing and having believers hauled off to be judged.

And no doubt, in some instances, people were put to death because of his activities.

So Paul himself, of course, said that he was the chief of sinners. So he understood later in life the nature of his condition prior to his coming to faith in Christ on the road to Damascus.

Okay, we have to go to our midway break. Let me read a question for you now, and this is from a listener.

And you can answer it when we come back from the midway break. We have

R .J. in White Plains, New York, who says,

As the scriptures that you read earlier cite in particularly,

I can't, let's see here. I think he's using improper grammar here. Well, anyway, where the

Apostle Paul says, let's see.

I had this thing right in front of me, and now I lost it. Sorry about that, folks.

Oh, here it is. Just before God. No, let me go back a bit.

Oh, here it is. Okay. For it is not the hearers of the law who are just before God, but the doers of the law will be justified.

How can we respond to Roman Catholics and members of cults that say that works cooperate with our faith in order to justify us, when taken out of context and twisted,

Paul's words may appear that way? And we'll have you answer. We'll have you answer that.

That's a good question. Yeah, we'll have you answer that when we come back from the break. Our email address, if you have any questions of your own as well, is

ChrisArnson at gmail .com. ChrisArnson at gmail .com. Give us your first name, at least your city and state of residence and your country of residence.

If you live outside the USA, only remain anonymous. If your question involves a personal or private matter, don't go away.

We'll be right back. Hello, dear ones.

My name is Justin Peters, and my friend Chris Arnson, host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, and I are frequently blessed to share great times of fellowship with one another at conferences all over the

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Dr. Waddington, as you know, R .J. from White Plains, New York, was asking you to defend,

I'm putting my own words in here, but to basically defend the

Protestant understanding of sola fide, sola gratia, against the works righteousness gospel of Rome and the cults.

When someone may approach you from one of those groups and say that, for it is not the hearers of the law who are just before God, but the doers of the law will be justified, there are many who twist that, as R .J.

rightly states, to become a works righteousness gospel or at least a gospel that involves human effort in some way to be justified.

Right. First of all, for that to happen, and of course it has happened, is to take the verse out of context in isolation.

And of course, a text without a context is a pretext for someone's error.

Okay? Remember that. So, it is true that it is not the hearers of the law, but the doers who will be justified.

Okay. So, remember that sola fide has reference to justification in particular.

And works play no part in justification. Our works,

I should say. For which we ought to be thankful because our works are like filthy rags, as the prophet

Isaiah has said. He goes into a little more graphic detail, but I'll leave it there. So, in justification, what have

I already noted earlier? That the law of God demands perfect, perpetual, and personal obedience.

Okay, let's just take one example. Okay. Love the

Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and strengthen your neighbor as yourself. Raise your hands if you have obeyed this perfectly, perpetually, and personally.

I don't need to see you because none of us, and if you raise your hand, you've just broken that law.

The point is, none of us can claim that we've loved the Lord our God to the extent that we should.

The fact is, we haven't. It is the doing of the law by the

Lord Jesus Christ, typically referred to as his active obedience, as opposed to his passive obedience, which is his death on the cross.

It's his active obedience, which culminates in his death on the cross, that is what justifies us.

And actually, it's also his resurrection, because in his resurrection, the curse that he was under for being hanged on a tree was lifted and reversed by his being brought forth from the tomb and leaving the tomb empty.

Okay. Now, there is a sense, we know, in which the believer who is justified by grace, through faith, by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

Okay. There is a sense in which the

Christian is called to endeavor after new obedience. What does that mean? That means obedience to the law, especially the

Ten Commandments as the epitome, as the summary of the moral law.

Remember there, we traditionally talk about three aspects of the law, and it's the moral law that's ongoing.

It's the moral law that's perpetually binding. Now, once again, we can't obey it perfectly.

So we're always in need of the righteousness of Christ. We're always in need of his perfect obedience for us on our behalf and in our place.

We are still expected, however, under the category of sanctification, not justification, we are still expected to endeavor after new obedience to the law of God as that is summarized in the

Ten Commandments. Okay. I'm doing a quick and dirty response here, but time is running out.

All right. So justification is one benefit of the work of salvation.

So we err if we reduce salvation just to justification.

Salvation includes justification, adoption, sanctification, and eventually glorification.

Those are all blessings or benefits that we get when we trust in Christ, when we repent of our sins, when we rest in Christ alone as he is offered to us in the gospel.

However, we are called, as I've said, to live lives of holiness.

Again, we will only be perfect in our holiness when the Lord comes back or when the

Lord calls us home prior to his return. So what the

Roman Catholic has done historically is to blend or blur the distinction between justification and sanctification so that basically we are justified by our sanctification.

Well, we are actually out of time now, brother. I want to make sure I have enough time to announce or reannounce your website.

Sure thing. If anybody wants more information about the church where Jeffrey Waddington pastors,

I can't find it. faithopc .org

faithopc .org .net, sorry, faithopc .net

faithopc .net and reformforum .org. Am I right?

Yep. That's right. That's where the org belongs. Okay. And I want to thank you so much for doing such a great job today.

We look forward to your return to continue this survey on the book of Romans. I want to thank everybody who listened. I want you all to always remember for the rest of your lives that Jesus Christ is a far greater