Scripture referenced 5 passages
The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
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Romans 2:11 closing verse of last week's passage, 'there is no partiality with God'
11 For there is no partiality with God.
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Keep this verse
Romans 2:12-24
main passage for this sermon, covering sin, judgment, and the indictment of the religious
12 For as many as have sinned without the law will also perish without the law. As many as have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.
13 For it isn’t the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be justified
14 (for when Gentiles who don’t have the law do by nature the things of the law, these, not having the law, are a law to themselves,
15 in that they show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience testifying with them, and their thoughts among themselves accusing or else excusing them)
16 in the day when God will judge the secrets of men, according to my Good News, by Jesus Christ.
17 Indeed you bear the name of a Jew, and rest on the law, and glory in God,
18 and know his will, and approve the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the law,
19 and are confident that you yourself are a guide of the blind, a light to those who are in darkness,
20 a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of babies, having in the law the form of knowledge and of the truth.
21 You therefore who teach another, don’t you teach yourself? You who preach that a man shouldn’t steal, do you steal?
22 You who say a man shouldn’t commit adultery. Do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?
23 You who glory in the law, do you dishonor God by disobeying the law?
24 For “the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,” just as it is written.
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Romans 7:24-25
referenced as where the congregation turned last week to find hope after the hard passage
24 What a wretched man I am! Who will deliver me out of the body of this death?
25 I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! So then with the mind, I myself serve God’s law, but with the flesh, the sin’s law.
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Romans 8:1-2
referenced alongside Romans 7:24-25 as the 'no condemnation in Christ' turn
1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who don’t walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death.
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James 1:22
quoted to parallel Paul's point that hearers of the law are not justified, only doers
22 But be doers of the word, and not only hearers, deluding your own selves.
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Recap
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
The pastor opened by acknowledging that this passage offers no comfort on its own, and he held to that honestly throughout. Romans 2:11-24 sits in the foundation of Paul's argument, before the gospel relief arrives, and the sermon stayed there without rushing to softer ground.
What was said
the pastor had spent the previous week closing out Romans 2:6-11, where Paul's point is that God shows no partiality. God does not reward people for religious heritage or church attendance. He does not play favorites because someone's parents were faithful Christians. Everyone is judged on the same terms, and that is a hard place to stand.
Moving into verses 12-16, Paul addresses both those who lived without the Mosaic law and those who lived under it. Both groups are accountable. The Gentiles never had the Torah, but the pastor pointed out that ignorance of the law is no excuse, the same way it is no excuse in civil court. The fact that all people everywhere recognize some difference between right and wrong is itself a testimony, pointing back toward God. Conscience, that inner voice that accuses or defends a person's own choices, is what Paul has in mind when he says the Gentiles are "a law to themselves."
Verses 17-24 turn directly to the Jewish audience, but the pastor was clear that the same logic applies to anyone with religious confidence. Paul lines up a series of rhetorical questions: you teach others not to steal, not to commit adultery, not to rob temples - do you do these things yourself? The questions demand honest yes answers, not the comfortable no answers the audience might prefer. All of it builds to verse 24, where Paul quotes scripture to say that God's name is being blasphemed among the Gentiles because of the behavior of the very people who claim to represent Him.
To make that point land in a present-day direction, the pastor read from a book called "Unchristian," written by David Kinnaman after research by the Barna Group. The quotes described how outsiders experience Christians as arrogant, moralizing, and hypocritical, and how that perception causes people to turn away from God rather than toward Him. The pastor connected this directly to Paul's warning: the name of God is dragged through the mud not by strangers, but by those who call themselves His people.
To work through the more difficult Greek in the passage, the pastor turned to a translator's translation by Ellis Deibler, a Wycliffe Bible translator he had met in person. Deibler's version makes implicit information explicit, filling in what a first-century reader would have understood without being told. Read that way, the passage becomes even more direct: all people who sin will be separated from God, God Himself is the one doing the judging, and He will judge even what was done in secret, through Christ Jesus, who alone lived without sin and therefore alone is qualified to judge.
The pastor noted that Paul ends this section by calling all of this "the good message." That seemed strange after so much hard material, and he admitted it had been a difficult Lenten season of preaching. But the bad news is the necessary foundation for the good news. The weight of sin that runs through Romans 2 is precisely what was placed on Jesus at the cross, and the sermon closed with that in view, Palm Sunday and Good Friday still ahead on the calendar.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
- The pastor described these chapters in Romans as foundation work, laying out the bad news before the good news. Why do you think it matters to sit with the bad news rather than rushing to the hope? How has that felt over these weeks of Lent?
- Paul says in Romans 2 that all who sin without the law will perish without the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by it. God shows no partiality. Where do you find yourself tempted to think your background, upbringing, or church attendance gives you a kind of standing with God that others do not have?
and 3 more questions in the guide
Read the full transcript 7,465 words
0:00
Speaker 1This morning, the first service, it was a lot more obvious, I hope, than it is right now. But I was up very late last night, and that was amplified by the fact that we skipped forward sprung forward. And I think I finally got enough caffeine that I'm awake now. And it was rough. 09:00 was pretty rough.
0:18
So, would you stand with me? I'm going to invite Scott Humphrey and Bob Wells up to the front and we're going to along with Judy, lead and singing. Oh, how I love Jesus is hymn number 92 and trust me, get all the goody you can out of the song service today, okay? You, trust me. Get all the good you can out of the song service.
0:39
Alright.
0:40
Speaker 2Get on. This is where
0:41
Speaker 1the hope is right here. Amen. And great is thy faithfulness. Alright. That's right.
2:49
Hymn number one thirty nine, if you wanna look for your part and I do.
2:55
Speaker 2Sing it out y'all. Great is thy faith. Let's worship together. Unite our hearts. Let's sing together
5:42
Speaker 1Amen. Y'all can have a seat. Have a few announcements this morning. Awana is happening tomorrow night, 06:00, Monday nights. Meeting in this room to begin with and then they spread out over almost the whole church except for the fellowship hall which is where Monday nights at first be are happening.
6:09
Carl started to study this or started a preaching series on Nehemiah last week and the first one was really, really, really good and second chapter, Nehemiah is where he is this week. So, meal music and a message and the message will be Old Testament, really, really good one. Connect hour happens between services and y'all most of y'all know that. It's a place coffee donuts but mainly for people to connect. Between the services, it can feel like two churches sometimes but we're one body, one spirit, one baptism.
6:39
So, that connect hour was designed to help that. There is a kitchen renovation meeting today at 12:15. So, that's right after this service and this is a speak now or forever hold your peace meeting, okay? Do y'all get what that means? It's like we, the board of trustees has worked diligently up to this point and they've gotten input several times we've done this.
6:58
We've been considering this for about a year and a half. But if you're a frequent user of the kitchen, your opinions are welcome. Come to this meeting, though. Rather, come to this meeting ahead of time or when it's after the fact, the complaints will be kind of invalid. No, I'm just kidding.
7:12
It's a speak now. I forever hold your peace because we really want to get started the next couple of months. So, women's ministry, there's a study on Wednesdays already for the ladies. It starts about 11:45. And after that study's over, they're gonna do a meeting at 01:45 to discuss ideas for women's retreat for planning.
7:32
And if anybody that's interested in helping out, please be at that meeting. One hundred forty five on Wednesday if you're interested in helping out. Please attend that and this one is a different and new and interesting. So, our band for the first service which I play bass and Carl Leeds, you know, this 09:00 band is going to go down on Tuesday night this week to Rivercross and we're going to join their band and we're going to have a night of contemporary, mostly probably, worship from seven to whenever it lasts, probably 08:30, maybe a little longer but their band and our band, we're going to play separately and probably together some too. So, if you want to just come and hang out and dwell and worship, 07:00.
8:14
Amen. At River Crossing, come on down. So, I think that's all of em that I had. If y'all will stand and greet one another, high fives, hugs, handshakes, enjoy one another. Get to find somebody you don't know.
12:25
Sins far away rising he justified freely forever one day he's coming oh glorious day
12:41
Speaker 2That's That's quite a story, isn't it?
12:42
Speaker 1It's stretching the limits of. Nice. Of my range too. Holy, holy. This one is not to be confused with holy, holy, holy.
12:50
Okay. God is so good. Amen. Amen.
12:56
Speaker 2This is great for worship.
15:22
Speaker 1I can have a seat. If I can get the frontline team to come forward. Would you pray with me? God, thank you for thank you for uplifting music. I thank you that you have inspired so many to write truth about you.
15:42
I thank you that they gave that back to you that that they didn't spend it just any kind of way frivolously lord but they directed their efforts towards singing praise to you. God, would you take these offerings that we give and direct it towards other people praising you. God, we want for your kingdom to advance, and we'd like for you we'd like for you to use us in that endeavor, God. We give this portion of that which you've given to us to tell you that we trust you and that we love you and we want for other people to love you and trust you. Lord, would you use these offerings, multiply them to do your kingdom work, to advance the message of the cross In a hopeless and weary world.
16:31
In Jesus name, amen. Amen. So, the daylight savings time thing, the change. I am the one who wakes everybody up in my family. I'm the guy that I I wake up.
20:39
Usually, if the alarm goes as by the third time, my feet are already on the floor. Occasionally, I hit snooze but very rarely. I wake Tanya up and it's a process. I wake Pascal up and it's a process and I do that all the time and this morning, Tanya woke me up. And I think I'm counting back and I remember two other times.
21:01
We've been married for twenty four years. I remember two other times where Tanya woke me up and she woke me up at 08:00. Service starts here at nine. Band gets here at 07:30 to sound check and get ready. So, Carl had already gone downstairs and pulled a sermon.
21:14
Didn't think that I was coming and when as soon as I was cognizant, I said, hey, I'll be there in just a minute, you know, that's the way the service got started. I've now had sufficient time I think to wake up. I was here last night late, really late and I was here seeking to bring hope to this passage. I wanna remain faithful to the text and there is no hope in this text and that's a hard place for a mercy gifted guy like me to start off a sermon but this is where we are. This is where we are in scripture.
21:49
We're building this beautiful masterpiece, Paul's Magnum Opus and he's building it in a very very foundational architectural almost way, structural way and so right now, we're still at the foundation of this building and he has done some profound footers and we're filling them with concrete right now, okay? That's where we are. Last week, we ended the sermon part of the sermon. Now, we had communion and so, we were in the same deep mud. We're in the same foundation process where we're digging down.
22:22
And we finished the sermon part on two 11 for there is no partiality with God. There's no partiality with God to think about that and to let that sit there. That's a big bold print right there. There's no partiality with God. So, you don't win points with God.
22:39
For church attendance, let's say, for doing the right thing the right way. You don't win points with God. There's no partiality with God. Another way to put that is God does not play favorites. He doesn't play favorites because your mom and dad were really good upstanding Christians.
23:00
You get to just come in on their coattails. God doesn't play favorites. That's not the way that he he does things. Actually, I went back hoping to find some hope in these few 12 to 24. I went back and thought, okay, maybe I'll just start from last week.
23:14
That seemed to go alright. People accepted and did not reject that message. It was heavy but we took it, you know, and then we turn to Romans seven twenty four twenty five, eight, one, and two to say, there's no condemnation in Christ. We come to this table knowing that we're destitute and only by the blood of Christ. The the perfect life and the perfect death given on our behalf.
23:38
God does not play favorites. We gotta trust in his righteousness alone. The all of the music this morning has already covered this but I have one more. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly lean on Jesus name.
24:04
On Christ a solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand, all other ground is sinking sand. I had that refrain going in my head because it doesn't matter if you're on that side, the licensed side, or this legalist side, all of that, all of that is sinking sand but this good old way right here is the only way. Now, our passage does not reflect the good old gospel way. It reflects one part of it and that part of it is the bad news. Now, as I've been here and I've been preaching this for the last three weeks.
24:40
Actually, the whole Lenten season. Since Lent started, I have been preaching bad news. I actually think that's a good thing. God worked that out. I didn't think about it.
24:49
It's just where we were in scripture but the bad news is a necessary part of the good news and during Lent in several of denominational traditions and in the Catholic tradition, they would give something up for Lent and we have pretty much steered clear of the grace of God and hope and the joyous quality that normally when we assemble and gather, we seek to bring out. We've been bringing out just some hard stuff. So, we're going to do that again today and I want to say, when I look back through verses six through 11, thank you. When God does not play favorites being the theme there. There's a chiastic construction I bring or chiasm, a chiasm that I did not bring out last week but it a chiastic construction sows what is important in a different way.
25:44
We don't pick it up in English. Normally, we don't think about it very much in English unless we're really, really studying a text but they think about it all the time in Hebrew thought and that transferred into the New Testament through Greek and so a chiasm, an X is a chi in Greek and so the point A will be stated at the beginning and at the end, b will be stated and then stated again and it can be really long. Well, this one from last week that I covered, six through 11 says this, God, who will render to each person according to his deeds? That's point a. Point b, to those who do good, see, life eternal.
26:28
So there's life eternal for those who do good because he renders to each person according to his deeds. But to those who do unrighteousness, wrath and anger. He restates and it starts going the other way. This is the center of the chastatic construction, the center of the chiasm. Affliction and anguish, it matches up with wrath and anger.
26:51
Do you see that? To those doing evil but to those who do unrighteousness. Do you see it? It's one of the most obvious chiasms I've come across lately. So, I thought I'd bring it up for you but glory and honor, life eternal matches glory and honor to those who to those doing good, to those who do good is B and then God shows no partiality.
27:12
Reiterating this point, who will render to each person according to his deeds. So, this is without Christ. Like I said, this is not gospel. This is foundational. Everybody who has ever lived, save one, just Jesus, except for one.
27:27
This who will render to each person according to his deeds, those who do good, life eternal, but to those who do unrighteousness, wrath, and anger, affliction, and anguish to those doing evil, but glory and honor to those doing good. God shows no partiality. It is really a hard issue, and it's really an individual issue. It's not an ideological issue that you've allied yourself with a certain ideology. It's about your heart, and it's about yours.
27:51
Actually, what's important in the chiasm is the central point is the most important part. What they've built up to and they've sloped off from. It's like a mountaintop in some people's explanation. Wrath and anger, affliction, and anguish. Because God shows no partiality and if he gives, sorry, the the slide's a little light.
28:12
Sorry. To the, he will render to each person according to his deeds. Now, that brings us to this. I also wanna say this, there's no partiality with God fit with last week's and it closed out the section very very well. That was the natural break point, I think, for that But it also keeps going.
28:30
So 11 actually fits with what's before it. Some commentators think that it ends that other passage. Some people think that it starts this passage. I think that it does both. It's like a Greek key.
28:40
Anybody know what this is? Tom Jacobson probably does because he installs tile and Greek keys are really popular in tile work. Tile, the, what do you see up here? Do you see two white lines that are kind of interwoven but never touch or do you see one black line that continues all the way through? Right now, we're following a black line that goes through the whole human race.
29:01
Alright? It's the Greek key is also called a meander. It starts right there, and you can follow it around. And it's continuous all the way through. And what we're doing here is we're picking up one and taking a a backwards kind of a turn and moving our way around and meandering.
29:21
Although it's very linear, there's there are points that come up again and again. Paul is doing this and kind of cutting off every avenue. It's a little bit like elaborate like that Greek key. There's no partiality with God. Now, to explain that, he goes, for all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law.
29:43
Wait a second, that's hard. That seems harsh especially in our tolerant society today. Everybody do whatever you want to. Governmentally, I think that's the best way but as far as our eternal destination, Paul's given us straight truth. For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law.
30:03
He does not say, they'll do alright or they might do alright. He's saying, all who sin, period, at all, without the law will also perish without the law. And all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. He's explaining that there's no partiality with God. We all have sinned and we're all accountable for that sin.
30:23
We're all on the hook for it to begin with. We're all on the hook for it. That's that's hard. Just a hard truth, but it's straight up. It is the truth.
30:35
Now, what I'm gonna do today, I'm gonna go through this and try to explain it my way that I normally do with y'all. 12 through 24, 11 through 24. We'll walk through it first, and then I'm gonna go back, and I'm gonna pick up a different translation. Not I'm using the new American standard right now. We're gonna pick up this translation.
30:50
It's called a translator's translation. It's written by a guy named Ellis Deibler which it's a translation, straight up translation of the Bible but he includes implicit information. For those of us who don't happen to be first century Jewish or first century pagan Gentile, it might help. So, I'm going to go to that at the end and just read it straight up and let it sit where it sits. So, for all who sin without the law will also perish without the law and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law.
31:18
For it is not the hearers of the law who are just before God but the doers of the law that will be justified. James speaking early on. He was our first, one of our epistles that we went over. James speaking to a mainly Jewish Christian audience says, prove yourselves doers of the word and not merely hearers who delude themselves. So, Jewish people were used to hearing this refrain of don't just be a hearer but be a doer of it.
31:50
He had lumped them together to the Jew first and also to the Greek or Jew first and also to the Gentile. Last week, we saw that. And in this, there's no partiality with God. He talks about Jewish first those or Gentile first, those who have sinned without the law, so perish without it, and then he talks about Jewish, those who sin under the law, we judge by it. When he gets to here, for when the Gentiles who do not have the law do instinctively the things of the law, These not having the law are laws to themselves.
32:20
That is one of the most confusing statements in the Bible. Commentators only agree on one thing. It's confusing. They're all over the map. I like mister implicit information on this one and we'll go to that at the end.
32:34
What he's saying is, he's already told us we have conscience and we have creation. He's saying the fact that there is such a thing as right and wrong. That everybody world over recognizes that there are some things that are right and some things that are wrong and yes, there are cultural differences as to what those are. When the Gentiles, those pagans, those nations, those other people who do not have the law, do instinctively the things that are in the law. They're a law to themselves.
33:01
They're making testimony because there's such a thing as right and wrong. They're testifying that there is such a thing as right and wrong and where does that come from? It's pointing towards God. So, it's confusing. I'll get mister implicit information at the end, come back, and hopefully he'll help.
33:18
In that, show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness, and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them. Do y'all do this? I mean, those of us who are Christians, now we have the Holy Spirit. I'm trying to put you back in the first century right here. Start to try to understand this as Paul was writing to these folks.
33:40
Do you think that everybody does have a conscience? They start out with one. They might sear that conscience and they might be turned over eventually to a depraved mind or reprobate mind like we studied last week and week before. In that they show the work of the law written in their hearts, they know better. Their conscience bears witness and their thoughts alternately accuse or else defend them.
34:02
They know that what they have done is good or bad. I used the example this morning for for skiers going up the pass. If I pass one of those guys, I'm not saying do this for y'all. If I pass one of those guys, I feel terrible about it. I pick up every single one of them I can and so my thoughts alternately either accuse or defend me.
34:22
You know, well, he looked like he was dragging an axe, you know. I still want to pick him up. And if they show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness, and their thoughts alternately accusing or defending them. So, if it's accusing you, your own thoughts are accusing you of doing something that you should not have done, then that's pointing to right and wrong, right? And you know better but you still don't do better, right?
34:48
Now, you might defend your actions in your own head. This is not to other people that's like, shouldn't have done that or I'm glad I did that. Pick that guy up. It was a blessing for him. It was a blessing for me.
34:58
Good for me. You know, on the day when according to my gospel, Paul says, God will judge the secrets of men through Jesus Christ. He's saying, your thoughts won't be what's judging you. It won't be what's judging you at that point. It'll be Christ who's judging you.
35:17
Now, he's lived this life and he knows temptation. He's tempted in all the ways that we've been tempted but yet was without sin. He's the one who gets to judge because he knows how hard it is. And he was without sin Alright. So, that was 11 through 16 and that was for all of us but some people say, well, he's speaking primarily to Jews.
35:43
Other people say, he's speaking to the moral pagans at that point. Others say, he's speaking to the religious among us in which I fit that. I grew up in church my whole life from nine months before I was born. I was there every Sunday, Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, and we did church all the time. That's what we did.
36:02
Now, I love that. I had a very good foundation from that but it did lead me to believe that I was alright. You know, this message has been hitting me really hard because it doesn't just stop once you get saved. The gospel is good for you forever. It's something you need to realize you don't deserve forever That the grace of God is what it's based on, not on your goodness.
36:26
So, he makes it explicit here who he's talking to. There's no doubt about it. He's talking to the Jewish people in this church, mixed Jewish and Gentile audience but he's speaking specifically here to those who bear the name Jew but if you, singular, if you and it falls like that, if you owe religious one, you who trust in the traditions, you who trust in whatever experience or statement. But if you bear the name Jew and rely upon the law and boast in God and know his will and approve the things that are essential, being instructed out of the law, and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, alike to those who are in darkness, a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of the immature, having in the law, the embodiment of knowledge and of the truth, and that's all good and true, right? He's we we would be going, yeah, okay.
37:22
That's me. I gotcha. You therefore, you, singular, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that one shall not steal. Do you steal?
37:35
You who say that one should not commit adultery. Do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols. Do you rob temples? You who boast in the law.
37:45
Through your breaking the law, do you dishonor God? Now, those verses, they're like four or five right there, rhetorical questions in a row and he's pointing out the things that they would have been pointing out about other people that he's saying they're guilty of too. The rhetorical questions demand, yes, answers. Where they might wanna answer, no, I don't do those things. They demand a yes answer.
38:10
And then 24 is really hard. For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you. Just as it is written and it's written in Psalms, Proverbs. It's written a couple other places too. When I was in seminary, I had to read this book.
38:27
It was something that professor asked us to read. It's called Unchristian. What a new generation really thinks about Christianity and why it matters. The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you. Now, I've told you all along.
38:41
It is about Jewish and Gentile first century wise but I think a good way for us to look at this part of Romans is the church and the unchurched or the saved and the outsiders, okay? And if we're looking at that, everything that he's saying to the Jew, to the religious one, we can take from being a churchy church person, okay? And everything that's Gentiles is the nations, everybody else, everybody else who's not this and he says that the name of God is blasphemed. God's name is dragged through the mud is hard to hear for those of us who love God. Among all of the outsiders, that's hard to hear too.
39:18
God's name is being dragged through the mud among the outsiders but why? Because of you. That's like Smokey Bear. Y'all know Smokey the Bear. Smokey, only you can prevent forest fires.
39:32
I heard a comedian say one time, that's some heavy stuff to lay on a little kid, man. I'm the only one that can prevent forest fires. The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you. Wow. As a church, we need to consider what people are saying about God because of us.
39:50
As an individual, we need to think about that too. Unchristian. So, David Kinnaman is the author of this book and he wrote it after having done a study for Barna Research Group. So, Barna Research, I don't know if you're if you've been in church for very long, pastors always are using Barna's research. They are a great organization.
40:09
They understand how to pull. They understand how to pull people's opinions without influencing them for the most part. I want you to just hear a few quotes. They wrote the book after studying all the results. This is what this guy does.
40:21
This is his life. He was, this was his first book. So, he was not an author. He just saw the results of this and then he came up. I'm just reading a few of em and if nobody from the first service has already taken me up on this, I bought this digitally.
40:34
So, if you're one of the first nine people that contact me, I already shared it with Renzi. I could share it with 10 people digitally. So, if you're one of the first nine to text me, I'll send you this book, okay? And it's audiobook so you can listen to it without having to actually read it. Arrogance is perhaps the most socially acceptable form of sin in the church today in this culture of abundance.
40:54
One of the only ways Satan can keep Christians neutralized is to wrap us up in pride. Conceit slips in like drafts of cold air in the winter, and we don't see it, but outsiders can feel it. Most people in America, when they are exposed to the Christian faith, are not being transformed. They take one step into the door, and their journey ends. They're not being allowed, encouraged, or equipped to love or to think like Christ yet in many ways, a focus on spiritual formation fits what a new generation is really thinking or seeking.
41:29
Transformation is a process, a journey, and it's not a one time decision. Something that you trust in them like they trusted in circumcision or like they trusted in Torah, the law, being set apart, chosen ones because God had separated them out. Well, he chose him but he chose him for a reason. He chose him to be a light to the Gentiles. He chose him to share his love with other peoples but what they did was turn inward and hoarded the blessing and called the other people dogs.
41:58
What are Christians known for? Outsiders think are moralizing our condemnations and our attempts to draw boundaries around everything. Even if these standards are accurate and biblical, they seem to be all that we have to offer and our lives are a poor advertisement for the standards. We have set the game board to register lifestyle points, then we're surprised to be trapped by our mistakes. The truth is we have invited the hypocrite image.
42:23
Man, it strikes me as unchristian that we often have more charitable attitudes towards ideological allies than we do toward brothers and sisters in Christ with whom we disagree on matters of politics. Okay, that's that's heavy enough. I can't go on. These are just the quotes of that book. It was hard to read but as I preached in a sermon in Acts, one time, you gotta consider the merits of the murmuring.
42:54
If the people outside are not seeing God in us and they're blaspheming him because of what they see in us. I know some of that they can just give an excuse but Paul's already told us there is no excuse. There's no excuse. So, mister implicit information, this is where we turn the corner and y'all just hear it from mister implicit information, okay? Now, the who this guy is, Ellis Deibler is his name.
43:15
He's a linguist and a Bible translator. He I met him. He's in his that's an old old picture of him. He's in his upper 80s now and he's known as mister implicit information. He for fifty seven years worked with Wickliffe Bible Translators and he has translated the Bible, the New Testament multiple times into various crazy languages I can't even pronounce.
43:41
He and his wife were in South America for a long time studying a tribal language, writing the dictionaries. He's written all of these books. Gatinny Gakkak, have you heard that one? Best seller. Among those people, that's one of the best sellers.
43:55
It's probably one of the few books that they have. This is actually a dictionary, the Alecano to English dictionaries, first one that had ever been written. Semantic and structural analysis of Romans. One of my favorite books that I have on my shelves right now because I'm going through Romans. Now, he gets down way beyond weeds.
44:13
He gets into the into the grains of the weeds, into the fibers and it's pretty amazing how deep he has studied scripture. He believes though that perspicuity, clarity of scripture is very very important that we don't just take it for granted that everybody knows what it was like to be a first century Jew or a first century Greek believer. So, he adds to the text. Obviously, he makes it in italics. He he adds to it only that which is implicit from Paul.
44:48
He lectures a lot. The place that I met him was in the trip a couple years ago when I went with Todd Seaton along with Eric Watt. We went to Nepal to help out with justice, social justice type stuff. Women's women were being trafficked or being trafficked from Nepal into India and we went to help out in that situation. See, examine ministry, and we support that ministry nowadays.
45:09
Todd and I also on the way back got to stop and meet Ellis Diebler. We're in the middle of a large metropolitan area in a safe house and he was meeting with about 20 believers from all over the Middle East. They represented 26 language groups. Those 26 language groups cover thousands and thousands and thousands of of mostly Muslims now but of the Middle East and what he was doing, most of those guys know their own language, maybe another local language, tribal language, Farsi, Urdu, one of those type languages but most of them also know English. He's been working for the last fifty something years on this translation of the Bible and this one's the New Testament and it's almost as thick as a regular Bible because he's mister implicit information.
46:02
He includes all the information that we should probably have. I've used this a couple of times in the past. Usually, when I refer to this, it's because I'm digging deep into the grammar myself, and I wanna understand it, and I wanna say, what is it that I'm missing? Where is the gap here? So would you let me read I've got it on the screen.
46:20
Would you let me read this? This is a smart guy and he's a dedicated believer. No doubt about it. This is his translator's translation of the same passage we just covered. Although non Jews do not have the laws that God gave to Moses, all non Jews who sin will be eternally separated from God.
46:40
Now, it was harsh when I read it the first time. Did that even feel more harsh? Did it feel like but I'm being judged for something I didn't even know. Well, if you're 15 years old, 16 years old, let's say, and you're driving for the first time and you come up on a flashing red light, right there at Bubba's, you come up to a flashing red light. I did it when I left home because they switch over at midnight.
47:00
When I went home last night, I got to that flashing red light and I thought the only test I met, the only answer on the driver's test that I took when I was 15 was that one. What is a flashing red light do? We didn't have one in my county. I don't know what it does. Well, when you get to a flashing red light and you say, well, it's red and you stop and you look both ways and then you go because it don't ever turn green.
47:22
You might sit there three or four minutes waiting on it, then, you're fine. You did, we're looking out for safety and that's what the law actually says whether you knew it or not. You did the right thing but what if you pull up to it and it's a flashing red light and you think, well, flashing yellow light means go. It's flashing. I'm just going to go and you take off through it.
47:39
Middle of the night, nobody coming either way but Smokey, different Smokey is sitting behind the sign and he comes after you, okay? What are you going to say? But but but I didn't I didn't know. What what was I supposed to do at a flashing red light? Ignorance of the law is no excuse.
47:53
You pay $120 downtown, right? You're guilty. Ignorance of the law is no excuse. So, that's what that is pointing to. That first verse.
48:00
Although non Jews, although non Jews do not have the laws that God gave to Moses, all non Jews who sin and who is that? Everybody? It's absolutely everybody. All non Jews who sin will be eternally separated from God. He will not consider whether or not they knew the laws that he gave to Moses because ignorance of the law is no excuse and all that Jews, all the Jews who have sinned in spite of knowing the laws that God gave to Moses will also be punished.
48:29
Now, there are two ways of taking this. This is one of those ambiguous forms in Greek. So, since there are two forms, it gives you both inside of the little brackets there. God will also punish them. So, not just they will be punished but God will be the one doing the punishing.
48:44
They will be punished for disobeying God's laws. They'll be judged by the law. It's what your normal version say. It's right for them to be punished because God judges righteously based on truth. It's right for them to be punished, God, to punish them because it is not those who merely know God's laws whom he considers to be righteous.
49:09
On the contrary, it is only those who continually have always obeyed all of God's laws, of the laws that God gave to Moses whom God will consider righteous whose record of sins God will erase. Whenever the non Jews who do not have the laws that God gave to Moses naturally obey those laws, they prove that they have a law within their own minds. It speaks to conscience which God has given us in his common grace. Even though they do not have the laws God gave to Moses, they show that they know in their own minds what God commands in his laws. The little things like this, he's this translation is actually for translators.
49:49
For anyone who wants to translate the Bible in their mother tongue. He points out every possible place where there's a rhetorical feature. So, right there was a metonymy, a metonymy. So, he points it out. As each person in his very own conscience either accuses or excuses, that's defends, his behavior, God will punish them at the time when he will judge people according to what they have thought and what they have done.
50:14
He will judge them even for the things that they have done secretly. He will judge people by authorizing Christ Jesus to judge them because he did live that perfect life. This is what I tell people when I preach to them the good message. When I preach the good night, this morning, I sat down right here. Like, of all that we just heard, Paul ends with that.
50:37
This is what I tell people when I preach the good message to them. Really? No hope, no joy, but he says it's good news and actually, all of y'all have talked to me this in the past three or four weeks since Lent started. Y'all have talked to me and said, when I've said it's bad news, afterwards, somebody will catch me either before the service or after the service, somehow catch me and go, you know, it's really not bad news. I go, no, I know it's part of the good news.
51:02
I know that but it's hard to preach. It's hard to live in that moment because we don't do it very often. It's hard enough for me to do this. I can't imagine Joel Osteen preaching this passage. Right?
51:18
It's part of. The bad news is part of the good news. This is what I tell people when I preach a good message to them. Okay and last little section here. Now, I have something to say to you.
51:30
To anyone of you, singular, Jews, to whom I am writing, you, singular. You boast about yourself saying, I am a Jew and we could we could add, I'm a Baptist, okay? Or Lutheran or Catholic or whatever. We could say, we take take pride in our tradition. I had somebody call me last week.
51:52
He said, I'm a I'm a twice born baptist. Never even heard that before but he, that was the first thing he said to me. For those of you who say, boast about yourself saying, I am a Jew. You trust that God will save you because you possess the laws that he gave to Moses. You boast that you belong to God.
52:12
You know what God desires. Because you have been taught or people have taught you God's laws. You are able to know which things are right and choose to do them. You are certain that you are able to show God's truth to non Jews. As gods show the road to those who are blind, another metonymy there.
52:33
You are certain that by what you say, you can show God's way to the non Jews who do not understand it as a light shows the way to those who walk in darkness. Another metonymy. You are certain that you can instruct and correct non Jews whom you consider foolish because of their not understanding God's message because you have in God's laws a written expression of true knowledge, you are certain that you can teach people who being like children do not know God's truth. Since you claim that you have all these advantages because you are a Jew, it is disgusting that you who teach other people that they should obey the laws God gave Moses, do not obey the laws that you yourself teach. Why is it that you teach other people that they should obey the laws God gave Moses?
53:24
Do not obey the laws that you yourself teach and these are those rhetorical questions I was talking about. You preach, you who preach that people should not steal things. It is disgusting that you yourself steal things. Why do you seal things? You who command people not to have sexual relations with someone to whom they are not married, it is disgusting that if you commit adultery yourself.
53:50
That Why do you commit? I think I put an extra it in there. Why do you commit adultery yourself? You who detest idols. It is disgusting that you rob temples where people worship idols.
54:05
Why do you rob temples where people worship idols? On the rhetorical question, he gives you one straight statement. It's a, this is pointed, this is the truth of that statement and the next one is a question. Why? So, it's a statement and a question.
54:19
Both of em are accurate translations of what Paul was expressing. You who boast saying, I have God's laws. It is disgusting that you disobey those same laws. Why do you disobey those same laws? As a result, you're insulting God.
54:36
You must not be like our ancestors about whom were written these words in scripture. The non Jews speak evil about God because of the evil actions of many of you Jews. They, non Jews, say, God must be a hypocrite if he condones the behavior of people like you. You know what? That's the end of the sermon.
55:02
There's no hope in that passage, right? Well, I told you, get all the good that you can out of the song service. I'm going invite the musicians back up and we're going to thinking about this and considering Lent that we have pretty much just given up the feel good nature of church for the last month. Or at least the sermon. We're going to decide to follow Jesus.
55:26
He is the only way out. He's the only way out. He's the hope. He's the light. He's the truth.
55:33
He's the way. Would you stand with us and sing about having decided that in the face of all of this, religious or licentious, the only way is the good old gospel way of Jesus's sacrifice. Amen. I think that's it. It went black on the screen.
57:07
So, that's what happens. Yeah. I tell you what, can I pray as a benediction today? God, would you apply this truth to our hearts that we do not deserve it, lord, but you've given it. You've given away.
57:21
You've made a way. There is hope. Palm Sunday is next Sunday. The triumphal entry. We'll be thinking about that lord but looking forward to Good Friday too.
57:32
Maundy Thursday, the betrayal. Good Friday. When the weight of all this sin that you've transmitted through Paul and through our hearing here, lord, all the weight of the sin was rested upon Jesus on that cross. God, as we look forward to Easter, to resurrection Sunday, would you let us consider our individual gravity, the gravity for each of us individually, how it goes? And then would you give us the strength to walk out in our actions all of the promptings of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
58:15
Accept the forgiveness for things done in the past and walk forward pressing on to the mark. Jesus, would you bless that way? And God, may it never be that anyone, anyone blasphemes your name because of something that I have done. Would you give us a consciousness of how good you are and how good you can be shown through us. In Jesus name, would you bless?
58:45
Amen. Amen.
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