God's Judgment of the Religious Man
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Introduction
Introduction
We’ve spent some time in the past couple weeks preaching on the wrath of God.
We looked at the last half of chapter 1 on God’s judgment on the heathen, then last week, we looked at the first half of chapter 2 on God’s judgment on the hypocrite, or self-righteous, and today, we will examine the last half of chapter 2 on the thought of God’s judgment on the hebrews, or the religious...
Many people believe that being religious is a good thing. However, those same people fail to realize that religion will send you straight to Hell!
There are those who are attached to form, ceremony, and religious practices, but know nothing of the saving grace of God .
These have ritual without redemption, works without worship, form of service without the fear of God, and thus come under the condemnation of God.
These verses will teach us that it is not what we do externally that saves our souls, but it is what happens internally that determines where we will spend eternity.
While the Lord is speaking directly to the Jewish people and their boast in the Law, He could just as well be speaking to Baptists.
We need to know that Hell will be just as filled with the religious as it will be with the sinner.
These verses tell us why! Let’s take a look at what the Bible has to say to the Jew, who is our example of a religious man.
The Cockiness
The Cockiness
17 Behold, thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law, and makest thy boast of God,
18 And knowest his will, and approvest the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law;
Paul, a born-again Jew, targets the religious, or self-righteous Jew who is proud, boastful, and cocky in his identification.
Now, right off the bat, we have people in our Baptist churches today that are exactly like this. They are comfortable in their lukewarmness and pride. They can’t be taught anything because they “know it all” or they don’t want to know anything.
These Jews were judging others, especially the Gentiles.
Surely, they were God’s chosen people! But God is about to spiritually punch them in the nose they are using to look down at other people. Paul begins by listing their blessings and advantages before he yanks out the rug beneath them.
1. They called themselves Jews. The word "Jew" comes from the name of the tribe of Judah, the dominant tribe. It was applied, however, and with pride, to all Israelites.
2. They relied or rested as the Bible says, in the Law. This was a picture of the blind and mechanical reliance upon the Law.
3. They boasted and bragged about their relationship with God. They were God’s chosen ones.
4. They knew God’s will because of the Scriptures.
5. They discerned matters that were excellent.
What was supposed to be a blessing, ended up becoming a burden to the Jews years later. Their cockiness was costly. Their judgmental spirit and inability to learn robbed them of God’s blessings.
The same consequences continue today, not only for the Jews, but for anyone who will not submit to Jesus Christ.
The Confidence
The Confidence
19 And art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness,
20 An instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which hast the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law.
The Jew's pride in racial heritage and revealed law led to another source of confidence, a sense of responsibility to instruct others.
When one has been given special revelation from God, it becomes his responsibility to teach others the content of that revelation.
The Jews here had a false confidence in their leadership ability...
Four phrases are used, but all refer to the same sense of responsibility.
A. Leaders of the Blind
B. A Light in the Darkness
C. Lecturers of the Foolish & Babes
D. Learners of Knowledge & Truth
Paul chooses these phrases carefully to expose the vanity and pride which the Jews had, creating a false confidence about their own situation and boastful disdain of others.
Because the Jew had a spiritual lineage, because they had the Law, because they felt they were in a relationship with God, they felt superior to everyone else on the planet.
They felt that it was their responsibility to show everyone else the way. Certainly, the idea was fine, but the motive of the heart was wrong.
These people did not even know who God was, and there was no way they could point anyone else to Him. All they could accomplish was to make disciples to their dead religion and cause even more souls to be condemned to Hell. This is the situation Jesus addressed in...
15 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.
This same brand of hypocrisy is still being played out in the world today.
A religious person will try to force everyone else to conform to his standard of living. If they don’t act like him, if they don’t dress like him, if they don’t talk like him, then they are lost and headed to Hell.
Listen, that is called legalism and it makes God sick!
The person who tries to makes everyone conform to his standards as a means of pleasing God, probably doesn’t know God to begin with according to this passage before us!
Our duty is not to point men to our hair cut, to our manner of dress, to our method of worship. Our duty is to point men to out Savior! If they come to Jesus and He saves them, He can make them what He wants them to be.
A lady told me just a couple weeks ago about a church close by where her neighbor had visited, and after the service, the Pastor approached her and told her to make sure when she came next time, to have a dress on and not pants.
You know what I said? I told her to tell her neighbor to come to Shining Light, we’d gladly welcome her, pants or dress!
Pastors, Christians, Churches, need to quit majoring on the minors and minoring on the majors! We need to get back to the main thing and that is pointing people to Jesus, not religion!
The last part of verse 20 is interesting and adds backing to my illustration just now...
In verse 20, Paul adds a touch of irony with the use of the word "form." The Jews or religious people, had the form, the shape of knowledge and truth, but they missed its true spirit and essence.
5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
We are to know the truth, and make much of it, and share it as a Christian!
The Contamination
The Contamination
21 Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal?
22 Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege?
23 Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonourest thou God?
24 For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written.
God wanted these religious Jews to look inside and have a change in focus and a change in heart...
This was the punch in the long noses of those who were self righteous and religious.
It wasn’t the possession of the Law, but the practice of it that mattered.
Paul reaches into their everyday life and gives three examples of their inconsistent lifestyle.
First, the Example of Stealing.
This is an interesting one to start with.
Throughout the ancient world, the Jew was looked upon as a thief. He used every method he could to get a few extra pennies from his customers. The Jew was known for being sneaky and shrewd in his business practices. They wouldn’t dare go out and steal anything, but they would get dishonest gain in their business dealings and shrug it off like so many today, “I’m just making a living...”
Paul points out that while they taught others not to steal, they themselves were crooks.
Second, the Example of Adultery.
Paul really hits them where they were living. A large number of Jewish men were living in adultery. It was common for a Jewish man to divorce his wife simply because he was tired of her or he wanted another woman. This was his way of manipulating the law and maneuvering around his responsibility to be faithful to his wife. However, Jesus made it clear that divorce for any old reason was unacceptable.
32 But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.
Jesus made it clear that a marriage can end in divorce and the innocent party be free only if it is on the basis of sexual immorality. So then, all of these guys who divorced their wives because they were tired of them or for any other unscriptural reason, were living in adultery.
Third, the Example of Idolatry.
We think of idols as statues or false gods and that is true. However, it goes much further than that.
An idol is anything that takes the place of God in your life.
It could be your work, food, books, education, possessions, television, or fashion. Your family can be an idol.
The bottom line is, anything that squeezes God out of first place in your life is an idol. Paul basically said, "You won't go down to the pagan temple and worship false gods, but what do you do with your tithes and offerings." Paul asked, dost thou commit sacrilege? The word sacrilege carries the idea of, "taking for one's own private use what is consecrated to God." This wicked practice was a major sin of the Jew.
8 Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.
9 Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, Even this whole nation.
These religious Jews abhorred idolatry, but they committed the worst kind of idolatry. They became their own gods. They put themselves above God by robbing Him and using His tithes and offerings for their own purposes.
The point was to stop comparing themselves, stop focusing on the faults of others, and start looking at themselves.
Adultery, idolatry, and theft can be done in the heart. Lip-service and life-service were to go hand-in-hand. Our inward attitude is what is important to the Lord, for if it’s right, then all will be right...
What a tragedy!
Verses 23 and 24 tells us when we fail to live up to our profession we help send others to Hell.
These religious Jews proudly boasted an exclusive relationship with God, but they failed to reflect His purity, goodness and compassion in their lives. The God of the Jews meant nothing to the Gentile world because of what it saw in those who claimed to be His people.
Instead of embracing the God of Heaven, the world blasphemed Him.
Here’s what Jesus preached to them:
13 But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.
14 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.
15 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.
The Condemnation
The Condemnation
In the final verses of this chapter, Paul explains to the Jew that just because he was circumcised did not mean he was saved…The Jews had always connected the two because of the covenant God made with Abraham.
Paul points out that circumcision is only profitable if the Jew keeps the Law. If the Law is broken, the external symbol becomes worthless.
But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God. (Romans 2:29)
Paul explains that circumcision was a symbol of what had happened inside of a man. The Jews had missed their relationship with God and let the ceremony itself become their religion.
Here’s the point...Outward rituals are no substitute for inward submission and surrender to the Lord...
Does the Lord have your heart?
Paul stresses that without obedience to God’s Word, their outward mark was of no value. The person who obeyed the Word of God, even though he was not circumcised, would be acceptable to God.
Do you practice what you preach? Or are you like the religious Jew we’ve been preaching about?
Are you religious or redeemed?