Now, would you please take your Bible and turn
with me into the book of Romans? We're going
today to look at the last half of Romans chapter
2. This section of Romans, remember, deals with
the matter of sin. In chapter 1, he deals with
God's righteous judgment upon the pagan. the
immoral people who degenerate because of their
rejection of the knowledge of God and their suppression
of the truth of God. Now lest there be some who
were moral and who would condemn the immoral
and thus think themselves. Thank you, sir. It
is coffee, isn't it? Well, bless you anyway,
John. Lest there be some moral do -gooders, if
we may use that term, who would condemn the immoral
and think themselves to be righteous because
they had higher moral standards, the apostle
in the first part of chapter 2 condemns them.
He says, you who condemn the immoral, don't you
realize that you do some of the same kinds of
things yourselves, if not indeed, at least in
thought? You reject the kindness of God, which
is intended to lead you to repentance? You have
a stubborn, unrepentant heart which stores up
God's wrath which will be poured out upon you.
And then in chapter 2 verse 17 he begins to deal
with the Jew. Now the Jew may have been in mind
in these first 16 verses as well. He doesn't
specifically mention them, but he does now. He
comes to the Jews who did feel themselves quite
righteous. and quite in contrast to the immoral
people of the world and the idolaters of the
world, they felt themselves superior to them
as we shall see here in our text today. Now you,
if you call yourself a Jew, if you rely on the
law and brag about your relationship to God,
if you know his will, and approve of what is
superior because you are instructed by the law,
if you are convinced that you are a guide for
the blind, a light for those who are in the dark,
an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants,
because you have in the law the embodiment of
knowledge and truth, you then who teach others.
Do you not teach yourself? You who preach against
stealing, do you steal? You who say that people
should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery?
You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? Do you
brag about the law? You who brag about the law,
do you dishonor God by breaking the law? As it
is written, God's name is blasphemed among the
Gentiles because of you. Circumcision has value
if you observe the law, but if you break the
law, you have become as though you had not been
circumcised. If those who are not circumcised
keep the law's requirements, will they not be
regarded as though they were circumcised? The
one who is not circumcised physically and yet
obeys the law will condemn you, who, even though
you have the written code in circumcision, or
a law -breaker. A man is not a Jew if he is only
one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward
and physical. No, a man is a Jew if he is one
inwardly, and circumcision is circumcision of
the heart by the spirit, not by the written code.
Such a man's praise is not from men, but from
God. Having showed to us the righteous judgment
of God upon the moral do -gooders of verses 1
through 16, the Apostle now focuses particularly
upon the Jew. So we have said the Jew prided
himself in his outward righteousness. But what
the Bible tells us is that this outward righteousness,
or this self -righteousness, is no righteousness
in the sight of God. That is an important thing
to understand because there are many people in
America today who call themselves Christians
who are priding themselves in their self -righteousness
and are planning to get to heaven on the basis
of what they can do for God rather than on the
basis of what God has done for them in Christ.
So it's an important thing to understand that
self -righteousness is no righteousness in the
sight of God. We have an example in John chapter
3 of a man who was a Jew and who was depending
upon his self -righteousness. Would you turn
there with me to this familiar story, please?
John chapter 3. That coffee's poisoned, you know
that? I may die before I get out of here this
morning. In John chapter 3, we have the record
of Nicodemus. And it says, now there was a man
of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of
the Jewish ruling council. This man was a ruler
of the Jews. The ruling council was called what?
Sanhedrin. He was a part of that distinguished
elite group. He was a part of the sect of the
Pharisees, which was a very strict sect of Jews.
They would be compared perhaps to the fundamentalists
of Christianity in the sense that they were concerned
about the exactness of the law and their attempts
were to keep the law as perfectly as they possibly
could, and they felt that they did that. And
it says that this man came to Jesus at night
and said, Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who
comes from God. And so he had respect for Jesus,
but he really did not have a full appreciation
of who Jesus was at this point. He says no one
could perform the miracles, the miraculous signs
you are doing, if God were not with him. In reply,
Jesus declared, I tell you the truth. Unless
a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom
of God. And so the conversation follows that.
Jesus does not respond to this man's statement
actually, but he deals with the real need that
Nicodemus had. Nicodemus was depending upon his
righteousness as a Pharisee. The fact that he
had kept the outward law. He went through the
ceremonies. He did what he was supposed to do.
He was a Pharisee, a righteous man in the sight
of the Jewish religion. But Jesus speaks directly
to the man's need. He says, Nicodemus, unless
you are born again, you will never see the kingdom
of God. You see, Nicodemus had the need to be
born anew, on the inside, to be born from above.
He had to have a new birth in order to be acceptable
in God's sight. And the blessed report of the
Gospel of John is that Nicodemus, over the process
of time, came to a saving knowledge of Christ.
He was one of the two men who did what? He took
Jesus' body down from the cross and laid it in
the tomb. And so he identified with Christ and
in that sense gave an open confession of his
faith and his understanding of who Christ was
and is. And so we have in Nicodemus an illustration
of this truth that self -righteousness is no
righteousness as far as God is concerned. No
matter how good a person may be, no matter how
sincere in his religion, no matter how many rites
or rituals he may have gone through in the name
of God, in the name of his church, that kind
of righteousness is no righteousness as far as
God is concerned. It is not the kind of righteousness
that a man needs to get into heaven. Now let's
go back to Romans chapter 2. I say again, if
personal righteousness, if self -righteousness
had been enough, the Nicodemus would not have
been told, you must be born again. He would have
been okay. But that's not what Jesus told him.
Now Paul explains in the text that we've read
today three important facts about the Jews' relationship
to God. He talks about the privilege which the
Jew had in verses 17 through 20, and then he
talks about the problem of the Jew, verses 21
through 27, and finally the proof of a true Jew,
verses 28 and 29. The Jew was a highly privileged
person. The name Jew itself was one thing which
they prided themselves. This name is first found
in the King James translation at least, in 2
Kings chapter 16 and verse 6. It was a term that
originally referred to the citizens of the southern
kingdom of Judah, as opposed to the northern
kingdom, which was called Israel. You remember
that the tribes divided. after the death of Solomon,
so that there was a northern kingdom and a southern
kingdom. The northern kingdom adopted the name
Israel, the southern kingdom adopted the name
Judah. From the time of the Babylonian captivity,
that was a time when Babylon came into the southern
kingdom and took the people away, from that time
it seems that this term Jew began to be used
of Israelites generally and not just those who
had been a part of the southern kingdom and the
reason for that was that By that time there were
not too many who are pure -blooded Jews who had
been a part of the northern kingdom they had
gone into captivity over a hundred years before
that and Because they were an ungodly nation
actually there were not many of them left the
larger portion of the people who returned ultimately
to Palestine and who reestablished the temple
and the walls of Jerusalem and so on, were members
of the southern kingdom of Judah. Most of them
were. And thus most of them, or rather all of
them, acquired this name Jew at that point. And
you can see where they get the name Jew. It's
from Judah. It's a condensation of that word.
So a Jew is one who is of Judah, the southern
kingdom, but now applying to all people who are
descendants of Israel. Now the apostle points
out ten benefits or ten advantages which the
Jew had. We're just going to go through this
list quickly. The first benefit is that he could
call himself a Jew. In other words, he was a
descendant of Israel or Jacob, as he was called
earlier. He could call himself a Jew, one who
was related to the patriarchs, Abraham. Isaac
and Jacob. And as the Apostle writes this, he
emphasizes that word Jew, a Jew you call yourself.
You see, to be called a Jew, they felt was a
real privilege, and indeed it was. And then he
says, if you rely on the law, the second advantage
or benefit which they had as a part of their
privilege was that they had the law, and they
relied upon it. They possessed God's truth, and
that truth came to them through revelation. You
see, the Old Testament is not a record of man's
groping after God, as some people try to tell
us, but it is the record of God revealing himself
to man. There's a real difference. There are
some people who see the Old Testament as a record
of man increasing in his knowledge of God and
There develops out of that eventually Judaism
and so on The Bible says it's just the opposite
the Old Testament really is a record of most
of the world going away from God degenerating
in his knowledge of the truth and God chose out
a people Descendants of Abraham to whom he could
reveal himself and through whom ultimately the
Messiah would come So the Jews had the law and
they relied upon that A .T. Robertson says this
was a blind mechanical reliance on the Mosaic
Law, and it was that. It was not really knowledgeable,
it was kind of a blind thing. It became a custom
among them, but nonetheless they had the privilege
of the law. Thirdly, he says you brag about your
relationship to God. They boasted about that,
and well they might have had they done it with
the right spirit, but so often that boasting
about their relationship to God was with a wrong
spirit. And God was not pleased when they boasted
in that way. We have an example of that in the
book of Micah. I think it would be good for us
to turn back there into the Old Testament. This
is one of the minor prophets when they're all
kind of scrunched together there at the end of
the Old Testament. If you can find Jonah, just
turn forward a little bit. Jonah, or rather Micah,
chapter 3, verse 9, gives us an example of this.
God is here rebuking his people through his prophet.
He says in verse 9, hear this, you leaders of
the house of Jacob, you rulers of the house of
Israel. who despise justice and distort all that
is right, who build Zion with bloodshed and Jerusalem
with wickedness. Her leaders judge for a bribe,
her priests teach for a price, and her prophets
tell fortunes for money." He's talking about
God's people here. He's talking about Israel.
He's talking about Judah. And notice, he says,
their leaders judge for bribes. and the priests
that they have teach for a price. The prophets
tell fortunes for money. He says, yet they lean
upon the Lord and say, is not the Lord among
us? No disaster will come upon us. Therefore,
because of you, Zion will be plowed like a field.
Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, the temple
hill a mound overgrown with thickets. Do you
see what God is complaining about? Here they
said all the Lord's among us Jehovah is with
us. We don't have to worry about ever being overcome
and Though they boasted about that and bragged
about that They were not godly people Their leaders
were godless and there's a nation were godless
and God says because you boast about knowing
me and yet your your lives are wicked and sinful
that I'm going to cause Zion to be plowed like
a field, Jerusalem's going to become a heap of
rubble, and the Temple Hill, a mound overgrown
with thickets. And that's exactly what happened.
Because they boasted about God, but it wasn't
real. Now going back to Romans again, in chapter
two, we see the fourth of the things that he
mentions that were advantages to the Jews. They
could boast about their relationship to God.
They were his peculiar people, but that did not
humble them. They prided themselves in it. Now
fourthly, he says that they had the advantage
of knowing his will. In other words, they knew
that the will of God was to save and not to condemn.
They knew that God's will was that all of the
earth should someday be blessed through them.
They had that knowledge because God gave it to
them in the law. In Genesis chapter 12, when
God called out their most famous ancestor, Abraham,
he said, Through you will all the inhabitants
of the earth be blessed. They knew that was God's
will. And yet, instead of becoming humbled by
that and allowing God to work that out as they
should have with the right spirit, they were
self -righteous, they prided themselves in it,
and responded wrongly. And then the fifth advantage
that he gives, he says, and you approve of what
is superior because you are instructed by the
law. In other words, they had an understanding,
not of what God was going to do, but of what
his moral orders were. They were able to tell
the difference between truth and man's speculations.
They were instructed in the law. That was a real
advantage to them. It was a benefit. Number six,
he says, If you're convinced that you're a guide
for the blind, and that's how they viewed themselves,
the guide was one who led along a road, that's
what the word literally means, and the Jews supposed
that they were to guide the Gentiles. But instead
of doing that again with the right spirit, they
had become arrogant. But that was God's intention
for Israel. They should be a guide to the blind.
He says then, a light for the dark. The dark,
the blind, referring to the Gentiles, you and
me, who are non -Jewish. God intended for them
to be a light to the dark, an instructor of the
foolish. Number eight. That is, they were to
be the correctors of those who were foolish,
the stupid, the senseless Gentiles who worshipped
idols. Instead of instructing them though, what
did the Jews do? They adopted their idols. Instead
of instructing those who worship Baal, they adopted
Baal worship. They failed, but that was a privilege
that they had. God gave it to them. He says,
you're a teacher of infants, number nine. Again,
that refers to the Gentiles, the infants. And
the idea is those who are proselytes or who are
novices. He says, you are teachers of them. And
finally, he sums it up by saying, you have in
the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth.
In other words, the Jews had a rough outline
of knowledge and truth that all belonged to them
in the law. God gave it to them. And so he outlines
here very clearly as a Jew himself, Paul was
a Jew, he outlines the privilege which the Jew
had, what God intended to do through that nation.
Now later in chapter 9 we're going to see Paul
going down a similar list as he explains the
advantages and the benefits what the Jews had
and which they rejected. And that brings us to
the second point I outlined this morning, and
that is the problem of the Jew, verses 21 to
27. Despite all of the privileges and the benefits
that they had over the Gentiles, the Jews failed
to attain righteousness before God. Now why was
that? They had what they needed. Why did they
then fail to attain righteousness, salvation
righteousness, before God? Well, the answer is
that it became self -righteousness and pride
to them that they had these advantages. And so
in these verses beginning in verse 21, you'll
notice that he kind of summarizes the ten things
he's previously mentioned, and he takes them
in an inverse order, and he shows the lack of
their righteousness. Notice he says, you. Now
back in verse 17, he said, now you. If you call
yourself a Jew, and now in verse 20 it says,
now you then, who teach others, and notice they
had called themselves those who were teachers
of infants and instructors and so on. He says,
you who teach others, do you not teach yourself?
He says, you who preach against stealing, do
you steal? He says, you say the people should
not commit adultery, but he says, I have a question.
Do you commit adultery, you Jews? You think you're
righteous? You abhor idols. He says, yet, don't
you rob temples? Now what does that mean? Well,
there's a statement back in Acts chapter 19.
Turn back there a minute with me. Where this
same thought is used, Acts chapter 19. What we
have here is a riot that took place in the city
of Ephesus because of the preaching of Paul and
the city clerk got up and spoke to the people
who were in riot. He says in verse 35, Men of
Ephesus, doesn't all the world know that the
city of Ephesus is the guardian of the temple
of the great Artemis and of her image which fell
from heaven? Therefore, since these facts are
undeniable, you ought to be quiet and not do
anything rash. You have brought these men here,
though they have neither robbed temples nor blasphemed
our goddess." And he goes on to talk. He uses
that term, these have neither robbed temples.
What that probably refers to is the practice
which many of the Jews had of merchandising,
selling things in the pagan temples. They were
out to make a buck, though they didn't have bucks
in those days. But they were out to make money.
And so they would sell things in these pagan
temples. Oh, they condemned the temples. See,
they condemned idolatry. They said, oh, you pagans,
you immoral people, God's order is not to worship
false gods. And then they would go over and set
up their table and put out their wares, and they'd
make money right there in the temple. And so
apparently that's what Paul has in mind when
he says, you who abhor idols, don't you rob temples?
And then he says, you brag about the law. Remember
we said they boasted about their relationship
to God and they relied on the law. He says, you
brag about the law. Do you dishonor God by breaking
the law? And the word there literally means that
they were transgressors of the law. Now that's
something a Jew never felt that he was, a transgressor
of the law. He says, you are breaking the law.
You preach against others, but you don't practice
what you preach. That's essentially what he's
saying. And then he quotes in verse 24 from a
couple of verses really in the Old Testament
that say about the same thing. He says, God's
name is blasphemed among the Gentiles. Why? Because
of you. What an indictment that was of the Jews.
He says the name of God that you boast yourselves
in, the name that you are supposed to declare
to the Gentiles. That holy name is blasphemed
by the Gentiles because of you and your self
-righteousness. He lays it on thick here. He
could well do that because Paul himself had been
a Pharisee and a very self -righteous person.
But there came a day on the road to Damascus
when he laid all of that aside and he realized
that was nothing, that his need was to trust
Jesus Christ. And on that day Paul was saved,
wasn't he? was given the righteousness of God
and became a new creature in Christ and was a
Christian, a real genuine Christian. So Paul
lays it on thick here and as he condemns the
Jews he explains to their problem to them. Griffith
Thomas in his commentary has this good sentence,
there is nothing more solemn or awful than the
case of a man who in mind and speech is ever
boastful and glorying in religion, and yet through
his evil life is bringing discredit to the very
religion he professes." There are many people
in the world today who say, well, I'm never becoming
a Christian because of all the hypocrites there
in the church. Often that is simply an excuse,
isn't it? Many times that is a statement that
is used to cover over that individual's own need.
But you know the tragedy? The tragedy is that
there are some Christians who are hypocrites
and who say one thing on Sunday and through the
rest of the week live like the devil. Through
them the name of God is blasphemed too. I remember
witnessing to a gentleman on one occasion and
trying to win him to Christ. He asked me where
I went to church and where I was pastoring, and
so I told him. He thought for a minute and said,
is that where so -and -so goes to church? When
he said the name, I was concerned because I was
aware as the pastor of some inconsistencies.
I said, yes, it is. He said, I don't want to
talk any more about it. He said, if that's what
a Christian is, then I never want to be a Christian.
That man will not be able to stand before God
and use that for an excuse. He will be held accountable
to God for his own sin. But I'll tell you something,
that Christian in our church who lived an ungodly
life will answer for it before God too. He will
have to give answer to God because through him
the name of God has been blasphemed. Is the Spirit
of God applying that to your life? He applied
it to my life as I prepared for this this morning.
Dear people, it's not enough that we know how
to use the four spiritual laws or some method.
It's not enough that we are willing to share
our faith or even that we put a bumper sticker
on our car. As fine as those things are in themselves,
if we are living lives that are inconsistent
and hypocritical, then God help us to do the
best thing, and that is to repent of our sin
and get our lives straightened out, or to do
the next best thing, and that is to shut our
mouths and get the bumper sticker off our car.
It is better that we say nothing than that we
should try to bring glory to God and have a life
that is inconsistent with that. That was the
problem the Jew had. He wanted to be an instructor
of the Gentiles, a light for them, a teacher.
Paul says the very one that you're trying to
show the Gentiles, you are blaspheming because
of your inconsistency. He goes on to say circumcision
has value if you observe the law. Now the Jews
bragged about their circumcision, didn't they?
That was a physical circumcision. It was the
sign of the covenant. that they had with God,
which Moses delivered to them. It was a very
special sign of their covenant. And he says,
it has value, but if you break the law, you become
as though you had not been circumcised. If those
who are not circumcised keep the law, in other
words, the pagans, those who've never had the
law, who've never been related to God through
the Mosaic law, if those who are not circumcised
nonetheless keep the law's requirements, Will
they not be regarded as though they were circumcised?
The word in that phrase there is the word reckoned
or imputed. He says it'll be imputed to them,
if they obey, it'll be imputed to them as though
they had been circumcised. He says the one who
has not circumcised physically and yet obeys
the law will condemn you even though you have
the written code and the circumcision and you're
a law breaker. What is he saying here? He is
saying that the important thing is not the outward
ceremony, the outward act. The important thing
is the heart. How many people are there who are
trusting their baptism to get them to heaven?
They were taken to the church as I was, as a
little baby. They were taken to the front of
the church and there the preacher said a little
prayer over them and sprinkled them with water.
And they think that somehow that brought them
into God's family. The Bible says that is not
true. How many people are there who think that
because they belong to a certain church that
therefore they are set for heaven? That is not
true. How many people are there who think that
by taking the Lord's Supper that they are somehow
getting more grace before God and more merit
and that someday they'll be able to stand before
God because they did that. You see, it's not
the outward things that we do. It's the inward
thing that we do by trusting Jesus Christ. And
that's what he goes on to say in the last two
verses. He talks about the true Jew. He says
the distinction between the Jew outwardly and
the Jew inwardly is what makes the difference.
There are those who are Jews outwardly, that
is, who have been circumcised, who are part of
the Jewish religion, who have been through the
rites, and yet they have never become a Jew on
the inside by what he calls here the circumcision
of the heart. See, that's something on the inside.
It's not done with a knife. It's not done in
a temple with a priest. But he's talking about
the work of the Spirit, as he says here. It's
the Holy Spirit on the inside who, as it were,
cuts away the sin that condemns us before God.
That's the inner circumcision that the Jews needed.
That's the true Jew. And you know there's a sense
in which today, though you and I may not be related
to Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob, that we are a Jew
if we trust Jesus Christ. We'll see that over
in chapter four when he talks to talks about
Abraham. Who are the descendants of Abraham?
Well, actually it's those who believe, like Abraham
did, who trust God, not those who go through
some outward ceremony. Now let's apply that to
Christianity. It applies well. Who is a true
Christian? Not one who's been through the outward
ceremonies. but one who has had the inner work
of God's Spirit in his life. So I conclude by
asking this question today of you. I ask it in
love not to condemn you, but I ask it to be honest
to the word of God. Are you today a true Christian?
Or are you just a cultural Christian? I fear
that some of the 40 million Christians that are
supposed to be in this country are simply cultural
Christians. They've been brought up in a certain
religion, a certain church, they know certain
Bible verses maybe or certain aspects of doctrine,
but they've never come to a life -changing experience
by trusting Jesus Christ. Maybe that's you today.
You've grown up with the church, you've grown
up with the language, but you've never come face
to face with Jesus Christ and repented of your
sin and asked him to come into your life to save
you. That's why he came into the world, to die
and to be raised again, so that he could save
you. He died for you. Will you receive him today
as your Savior? He concludes by saying, such
a man's praise is not from men, but from God.
It makes no difference what men think. The only
thing that counts is what God thinks. How is
it between you and God today? There's an interesting
play on words here that you can't immediately
see. He says such a man's praise is not from
men but from God. He says the true Jew or the
true Christian, we may say, receives praise from
God. Do you know what the word Judah, from which
you get the word Jew, means in Hebrew? It means
praise. You might say it this way, such a man's
Jew, his praise, is not from men but from God.
You see, the important thing is that we'll be
able to stand before God and hear his words,
in or in my child, to the place I've prepared
for you. I hope that you'll be able to hear those
words someday because you have become a true
Christian. It's possible to be religious and
to be lost. Let's bow together in prayer. Lord
God, our Heavenly Father, we come to you today
because all of us have sinned and fall short
of the glory of God. There is not one of us who
can stand before you and claim to have enough
self -righteousness to gain entrance to heaven.
We recognize, too, that there is No church membership,
nor is there any outward ritual or ceremony that
we can go through that will make us fit for heaven.
And Lord, if there be any of us in this auditorium
this morning who are still trusting in something
outward and who have never experienced the inward
reality of salvation, today that one or those
several would open the heart's door and receive
Jesus Christ. We pray this in his name, amen.