We'll be reading Romans 2. Hear now the Word of the Lord. Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest. For in thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself. for thou that judgest doest the same things. But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things. And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to every man according to his deeds. To them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life. But unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath. Tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first and also of the Gentile. But glory, honor, and peace to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first and also to the Gentile, for there is no respect of persons with God. For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law, and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law. For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. For when the Gentiles which have not the law do by nature the things contained in the law, these having not the law are a law unto themselves, which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness. And their thoughts, the meanwhile, accusing or else excusing one another in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel. Behold, thou art called a Jew, and resteth in the law, and makest thy boast of God, and knowest his will, and approvest the things that are more excellent. Being instructed out of the law, and are confident that thou thyself are a guide to the blind, a light of them which are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which has the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law. Thou, therefore, which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? Thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal? Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? Thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege? Thou that makest thy boast of the law through breaking the law, dishonorest thou God? For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written. For circumcision verily profiteth if thou keep the law, but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy uncircumcision is made uncircumcision. Therefore, if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision? And shall not uncircumcision, which is by nature, if it fulfill the law, judge thee who by the letter and circumcision does transgress the law? For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly, neither is he that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not of the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God. You have heard the word of God read. May you receive it as such. You may be seated. Having reached a new section in the infallibly and inerrantly Holy Spirit-inspired words of the called and saved servant of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Apostle Paul, written to the believers in Christ in the capital city of the pagan, lost, and idolatrous empire of Rome, as well as to you, believer, if you confess Christ, For God ordained that what Paul wrote to the believers in the idolatrous and lost city of pagan Rome 2,000 years ago would become part of His holy Bible, His glorious gift to all those who bow their knees in true repentance and faith to King Jesus, something I hope and trust you are doing today, testify to by your desire and to gather for the public praise of the Lord and to hear His infallible and inerrant, holy, Spirit-inspired written word, hopefully opened up to your edification and instruction today. Because God alone knows how many are gathered in edifices today, capable of seating large numbers of people for any number of other reasons than to praise and worship the God of their salvation. But as I begin to preach on this new section of this section of Paul's letter to believers in Christ, seen by the word that begins verse 17 of chapter two, the word behold, A second-person imperative word meaning here is something you should pay attention to. Behold, even being commanded to do so. Behold, thou art called a Jew. What an amazing thing. What an amazing thing is the preaching of the Word of God. I am seeking to hold forth a section of the Bible written to a specific ethnicity of people. The Jew. Yet I don't think any hearing my voice at the present time claim to be of Jewish ancestry. And how many who profess to be Jewish today would look at me like I had lost my mind trying to get them to think that what is called the New Testament, even Paul's letter to the Romans, has application to them today. But who was Paul? a gloriously saved true Jew who could trace his ancestry back to Benjamin, as he does in Philippians. seeking to show in what he writes specifically to his Jewish brethren how they, like all men, regardless of their ethnicity, need to face, see, and believe that the saving gospel of God that Paul unashamedly preached is mankind's only way of hope and acceptance with God. Truth, I hope none hearing my voice today are ashamed of, but as I preach on this new section, a section in Paul's letter to believers in which Paul is showing you with meticulous detail why he is not ashamed of the gospel of God, because it is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. I want to mention three brief things by way of introduction to this section. First, are you awed and thankful to the Lord for Paul's meticulous detail in these verses, starting back in verse 18 of chapter one, in which Paul declares why he's not ashamed of the gospel of God. For I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith. Why is he not ashamed of it? What's going on in the world around him? Verse 18, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. And what follows, verse 18, is Paul's meticulous description in the sobering number of ways he lists how lost and sinful men actively suppress the truth of their absolute need of the Lord Jesus Christ, the only one who can save them from their sins. For if you are hearing Paul correctly, in this section of his letter that goes back to chapter 1, 18 to chapter 3, verses 19 and 20, now we know that what thing soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, in whatever way that law comes to man, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. What is Paul doing in this meticulous section? He is shutting you up to the saving gospel of his beloved son. He is shutting you up to the saving gospel of his beloved son as your only hope of acceptance with God, regardless of who you are. Second thing by way of introduction, I hope you see how God the Holy Spirit is infallibly guiding his chosen servant Paul to write what he does. For no non-inspired man could write or would write what Paul does in these verses that begin this section that shows you that the gospel that Paul wrote on and preached is mankind's only hope regardless of who he is or where he has lived. As written by John in the book of Revelation, God's gospel is the everlasting gospel. For if I dare put it this way, Paul offends and annoys every flavor or kind of unsaved, unbelieving sinner. Truth I will return to. Third, anyone who dares call the unique saving revelation of God a religion of man has denied what the saving gospel of God is. Because the saving gospel of God is not a religion of man. It is the unique and only saving revelation of Almighty God. As Paul said, he didn't make it up. He received it, what? By revelation from God. Religions of whatever form or flavor, too many for me to exhaustively list today, or I would exhaust you and tire myself out if I tried to list all the various soul-destroying religions of man. And man is so lost in his lust in creating soul-destroying religions that he has even succeeded in distorting and denying the saving revelation of Christ. turning it into a soul-destroying religion. Because how many, sitting in edifices like this one today, think that something they have done, something they are doing, or something that they can yet do can make them right with God? Rather than saving faith in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ alone, And if God was to give us an accurate number of those in this soul sobering and lost condition and edifices calling themselves churches today, it would or it should sober us. Which is why I think Paul leaves, if I might put it this way, the most blessed lost sinner to the last. The most blessed lost sinner to the last. Now hopefully you are saying, how is it possible for someone to be a most blessed but still a lost sinner? It's not possible. I agree. No lost sinner is truly blessed unless he or she is enabled by the regenerating sovereign saving grace of God to see their true lost condition in sin and truly cry out in repentance and faith, Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner. But it is soberingly possible for a lost sinner to be among the most blessed of lost sinners and still be lost without the saving gospel of God, because they have misused and misunderstood the blessing they have been given from the Lord God. The fact that man warped and ruined by sin misunderstands and misuses the gifts given to him by the Lord does not mean that they are not true blessings. It is simply a sobering testimony to how truly depraved the heart of man is apart from the sovereign regenerating grace of God. If a man misuses the good gifts of food or sex to become a glutton or a fornicator or an adulterer, that does not mean that these good gifts of God have become evil. If men misuse the good gift of the Word of God, the Law of God, the Holy Bible, to the destruction and damnation of their own souls, That does not make the Bible an evil book. Perish the thought. But it testifies to how truly depraved the heart of man, the mind of man is apart from God's regenerating grace. Which is true of the Old Testament or Old Covenant Jew, which is the reason I said why Paul leaves the most blessed lost sinner to the last. Although lest anyone thinks that what Paul wrote specifically about his unsaved and lost Jewish brethren is not applicable to those unable or unwilling to claim any Jewish ancestry, I will make what Paul says supremely applicable later to how many calling themselves Christian but who show by what they think a Christian is that they need to hear the truth that Paul applies to the Jews of his day and to those calling themselves Jews today if it is biblically and historically possible to do so, a rabbit of controversy that I will not chase in this message. For Paul makes reference to the most blessed lost sinner, his unbelieving Jewish brethren who are misusing the blessed gift of the word of God that they were uniquely given to shut up all mankind regardless of who that man is to the one and only saving gospel of God. Now, how does Paul so wonderfully do this? Well, by way of very quick review over the verses I've already considered, after Paul declares that he is not ashamed of the saving gospel of God and why, in verses 16 and 17 of Romans 1, he begins, as I said, his meticulous declaration of why this is so after stating the sobering truth of Romans 1, verse 18. Why is the wrath of God being revealed from heaven against all the unrighteousness and ungodliness of men? Because they suppress or hold the truth of God in unrighteousness. No lost sinner uses the light the Lord God has been pleased to give him correctly and savingly apart from his amazing grace in his saving gospel. How does the lost sinner man do this regardless of the flavor, if I put it that way, that regardless of the flavor of his sin, he engages in sin without shame? He engages in sin without shame and blushing, as seen in Romans 1, verses 19 and following, culminating with Paul giving his list of 22 sins that Paul says men commit such things are not ashamed of doing. I won't read the list. But what does he say in the last verse of Romans 1 32, who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. You know anyone like that? Then Paul exposes the folly of those who think that because they are not as obvious and blatant sinners as those he writes of in Romans 1, that they're all right in the sight of God, totally misunderstanding the long-suffering goodness of God towards them. Just verses 3 to 6 of Romans 2, and thinkest thou this, O man that judges them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long-suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance, but after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, O, or render to every man according to his deeds. Yes, there are those who are blatant and unashamed in the sins they are going on to, but what about you men? What about the sins that God could righteously and justly judge you for? Then Paul exposes the folly of sinners who think they have the ability to make themselves right with God through what they do, never facing what level? of doing that is required for such acceptance with God. Because the last thing Paul is doing in this section of shutting you up to the saving gospel of God is introducing a way of acceptance with God other than the saving gospel that he preached. Yes, he says in verse 7, to them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honor in immortality, eternal life. But I ask you, who has lived an absolutely perfect life. Who has lived an absolutely perfect life of living for the glory of God alone. If you think you have, you're a hypocrite. No one, no one except the Lord Jesus Christ. No one except the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus lived His perfect life. Believer, remember this. Jesus lived His perfect life so that He could save you from your imperfect, formerly sin-filled and dominated life, and your sin-marred, regenerate life, not lived 100% to the glory of God, since He redeemed and saved you by His almighty and sovereign grace. Oh, the wonder of the gospel of all gracious and glorious glorification when those Christ died for will be delivered forever from the sins that can so easily beset you as you fight the world, the flesh, and the devil that assaults you with them, believer. Then Paul addresses the truth that even those who have not had this special revelation of the Bible have not lived up to the law of God written upon their hearts in creation by God who has made them in His image. Just verses 14 and 15 of Romans 2. For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these having not the law are a law unto themselves, which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another." If man did not have an innate or given sense of the ought or the ought-not-ness, of things from the moment of their being made a man or woman in the womb of their mothers, they would not even express their sin warped ought and ought notness by telling somebody they should not preach the gospel on the campus of a university or outside the doors of an abortuary simply because they don't like it. Because slime evolution can never result in a person saying that you should or should not be doing this or that. You can't get an ought or an ought not out of something that simply is. an impenitent fornicator or adulterer, shamelessly expressing their lust on the dark streets of Salem, Mass., and then finding out that someone has run the blade of their utility knife down the side of their brand new Porsche in the parking spot he found because he's still making payments on the car he coveted it, is testifying to his relationship God and not to slime and slugs when he says who did this? Where's the police when you need them? I need a lawyer. Because if he did not have that innate ought or an ought notness written upon his heart, he'd just look at that scratch and say, it is what it is, get in and drive away. And you know, that foolish, atheistic fornicator would not do that. The reality of his being made in the image of God that he's been trying to suppress, trying to hold down in his unrighteousness would rise up. Because friends, you can't use the word ought or ought notness in a slime evolutionary not created universe. He's reflecting the fact that he's been made in the image of the God of scripture. For as I said, if he was related to slime and slugs and saw his car defaced, he would simply say it is what it is and drive it scratch. But the fact that all men for either right and biblical reasons or wrong, unbiblical reasons, express moral outrage does not mean that they don't need the saving gospel of God, because all men have the burden to varying degrees of guilty consciences. And they have to sear those consciences to endorse that which is biblically wrong and sinful. A truth every law center needs to hear because what lies ahead for all men who have or have had consciences that have convicted them in whatever degree That conscience has, verse 15, which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Christ Jesus according to my gospel. Friends, there is an awful and awesome day coming. When the reality that there, when there is no such thing as a secret sin will be revealed. Know how many people need to face the truth that they need to flee to the Lord Jesus Christ for all the secret sins they have committed, known only to God and those who have committed them. Because on that great day that no one can miss, Everyone is going to stand before the one who never sinned in thought, word, or deed, the all-glorious Savior of sinners, the Lord Jesus Christ. He never had any secret sins so that he could shed his one shed blood to save his people from all the secret sins that they know they have committed. Known only to him and yourself. What fools are men and women who use their lost religions as cloaks and covers for their going on in their secret sins? I hope no one hearing me so briefly today is in such a deceived and dark condition, using the fact that they're in a place of worship so that they can go on in their secret sins. Flee to the Savior of secret sinners while you have breath to do so. Oh, but Paul is not finished showing how the saving gospel of God is mankind's only hope. And as I said a few moments ago, or maybe even more than a few moments, for is this thing called time not a mystery? If you are enjoying something, time passes so quickly. If you're not enjoying something, you feel like you're in a dentist's chair. But Paul has saved the most blessed, lost sinner to the last. To shut up all men to the saving gospel he preached, for until the coming of the finished revelation of God and the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, who were the most blessed lost sinners in this lost world? Old Covenant Israel. Why? Because they had been given the written revelation of God. They had been uniquely given the written revelation of God in the law, what is called the Old Testament. No other nation but Old Covenant Israel had the law revealed from heaven, that written revelation given to Moses. And now we have that complete revelation in the Holy Bible given to the New Covenant Church. Truth I will return to. For it was not only the believing and unbelieving Gentile who needed to clearly see how the saving gospel was the only hope of acceptance with God, but the same is true for both believing and unbelieving Jew. Now, the Lord alone knows how many unbelieving Jews read about all the types of sinners that Paul writes about prior to verse 17 of Romans chapter 2. But knowing how blind the lost religious heart of man is, it would not surprise me That if any did, they would have had no problem with Paul exposing the natural sinfulness of Gentiles in the meticulous way that he does. That was one of the rebukes. Blasphemously heaped upon Jesus, he eats with sinners. It wouldn't surprise me that many Jews hearing Paul declare the depravity and the debauchery of the Gentile world would say, preach it, Paul. You're seeing the law sinful, debauched and depraved Gentile world without the law of God. And now Paul turns his attention to his fellow Jews, whether saved or lost, who are given the special revelation of God in the law. We Jews have the law of God, something Paul acknowledges. Yes, we Jews are the most blessed of lost sinners. You declare that you have the special revelation of the living, true, and only God. Verse 17, behold, now I am telling my Jewish brethren, whether lost or saved, to what I am saying about you. Thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law, and makest thy boast of God. Behold, my Jewish brethren, you are able to discern things that the Gentiles are unable to discern. You have God's revelation to you. Verse 18, and knowest His will, and approvest the things that are more excellent, being instructed of the law. Behold, my Jewish brethren, you see yourselves as being able to teach others. Verses 19 and 20, and are confident that thou thyself are a guide to the blind, a light of them which are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which has the form of knowledge, and of the truth and the law. Behold, my Jewish brethren, we are truly a nation blessed by God, unique from any other nation on earth, Until the coming of Christ. Until the coming of Christ, having been given His Word and His prophets like no other nation upon the face of the earth. The idolatrous lost pagan nations of the world had demon-deceived and were led by false priests and prophets, deceiving and misleading them. We had the Word of the living God held forth to us by His holy prophets, culminating in the coming of the final prophet, the Lord Jesus Christ, that all nations of men should be listening to and bowing their knees to. For the old covenant came to an end with the words of the Lord Jesus from His cross. It is finished, and the temple curtain was torn in two from above. But these most blessed of lost sinners were still lost. Why? Because old covenant Israel had woefully misunderstood the purpose or the reason that the Lord had given them His special revelation. You see it in the example of Saul in the Damascus Road. He persecuted the church until he understood the purpose of the Old Testament was to point him and all men to their need of the Lord Jesus Christ. Truth that Paul will write on again in Romans 10 even as he prays for them. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer for God for Israel is that they might be safer. I bear them record that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they, being ignorant of God's righteousness, are going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law, for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Lost Old Covenant Israel was doing with this special revelation of God in the law what every lost religious sinner does in their false and biblical lost religious systems, thinking they could make themselves right with God through it. rather than showing them how great their need was for the amazing grace and mercy found in the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, chosen before the foundation of the world, the very one that John the Baptist pointed them to, but whom they rejected needing. Old covenant Jews, until the distortion of the saving gospel of Christ, under the new covenant into the religion called Christianity, were the most blessed of lost sinners. They had the law of God, but were not using the law of God correctly, showing their absolute need for the coming Messiah and Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. Truth Paul confronts his Jewish brethren with in the next verses, verses 21 and 22. Behold, my Jewish brethren, verse 21, Thou, therefore, which teach another, teachest thou thyself? Thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal? If you do, the law is forever closed to you as a means of making yourself acceptable to God." You are shut up to the saving gospel of Christ. By the time Jesus entered the world in the fullness of time, the saving revelation of God in the Old Testament had been changed into the religion of Judaism and Pharisaism. Because who were the most offended at the coming of Jesus? Who were the most offended at the coming of Jesus? Lost, religious, Old Covenant Israel. They had this special revelation of God, but it turned it into a soul-destroying religion. And time doesn't permit a consideration of this in any detail. But what did the Lord Jesus Christ do that so enraged lost Old Covenant Israel? He exposed how they had transformed the law into something they saw themselves as being able to keep because of how they had changed it and still be acceptable to God despite their denial and distortion of the very law that the Lord had given them. Behold, my fellow Jews, verse 22, thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? Thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege? Jesus didn't endorse either the strict or lenient pharisaical distortion on adultery. He went all the way back to the garden Eden declaring the unbreakable covenant bond of marriage until the physical death of the husband or wife and his disciples knew Jesus was giving an undistorted and correct view of what marriage is and what adultery is because they responded with shock at what he taught. Matthew 19, verses 10 and 11, his disciples saying to him, in the case of the man, be so with his wife, it is good not to marry. But he said unto them, all men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given. For there are some eunuchs which were so born from their mother's womb, and there are some eunuchs which were made eunuchs of men, and there be eunuchs which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it. My fellow Jews, thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege? What did Jesus have to do twice during his sinless ministry? He had to clear the temple. He had to clear his temple out of the money changers who were using the temple of God as a means of financial gain. How many churches would Jesus have to clear out today, profiting off of usury and endowments given to them by unbelieving men before they died? Paul was offending the most blessed of lost sinners because when you are misusing the law of God, if you do not see that His law should show you your absolute need of the Lord Jesus Christ to save you from your sins, you have been the most blessed of lost sinners by misusing the Word of God. Something someone without the Word of God could not do. Behold, my fellow Jews, verse 23, thou that makest thy boast of the law, thou breaking the law, through breaking the law dishonorest thou God. Old covenant Jews who prided themselves in having the law, but did not flee to Christ when he came to his own, are the clearest demonstration up to the coming of Christ. that apart from the regenerating grace and mercy of God, lost sinners will misuse and misunderstand whatever revelation they have been given from God in creation, in conscience, and even in the coming of God incarnate, apart from His amazing grace. Man in sin is so depraved, man is so lost in sin that he will hold the truth of the revelation of God that he has received from God in unrighteousness in whatever form he has received it, in creation, in conscience, in the giving of the law of God, in the old covenant, and even in the coming of the Messiah. The one given the name Jesus who will save his people from their sins. Man is so depraved and lost in sin that apart from the regenerating grace and mercy of God, he will distort and deny the purpose of the revelation of God in whatever form he has received it. The last thing the law of God was given to Old Covenant Israel for was as the means of making themselves right with God. It was to show them and it was to show all sinners their absolute need of Christ. But their rejection of its purpose resulted in the truth of who God is and who God alone can be, the only Savior of sinners, being blasphemed and denied among those who need the truth about who the living God, the thrice holy God, is and alone can be, who receive all sinners who face their sin and flee to Him alone for the last thing old covenant Israel was doing. was declaring the truth that the Lord through Isaiah reminded them of. Look unto me, all ye ends of the earth, and be ye saved, for I am God, and there is none else. That's the one message that Old Covenant Israel should have been preaching to the world. Behold, my fellow Jews, verse 23, thou that makest thy boast of the law through breaking the law dishonorest thou God. Because what did the lost religious Jews use the law of God for? To separate themselves from sinners and not face the truth that they needed the coming Savior as much as the sinners they shunned and looked down on. For what so annoyed the lost religious Jews about Jesus? He ate with sinners. It's the only ones He could eat with, friends. He ate with sinners. He touched sinners. He allowed sinners to touch Him. He forgave sinners. Even those that lost hypocritical law, distorting law, misusing Jews, when they tried to use the law of God, Friends, when you are using the law of God to try and trip up King Jesus, you are misusing the law of God. And these hypocritical, law-distorting, law-misusing Jews tried to use the law to get Jesus to condemn a woman they caught in the very act of adultery. What perverts are lost religious people? But what does Jesus say to them in John 8, 7 and following? So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him cast a stone at her. And again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, being at the eldest even unto the last. And Jesus was left alone and the woman standing in the midst. The only one who could stand before that sinful woman was Jesus without sin. And what does Jesus say to her? He doesn't endorse her sin, he forgives her and tells her, neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no more. Powerful verses to the truth of the saving gospel of Christ, denied by false teachers in the churches who say that these verses in John 8 are not scripture. God have mercy on them. Oh, how many blessed but lost Jews face the truth of what Paul is showing in these verses, having the special revelation of God in the Bible, but not using that special revelation to show you your absolute need of the Lord Jesus Christ, not using this great gift and blessing of God in the way that clearly reveals how truly depraved and dead in sin The sin-cursed heart of man is apart from the regenerating grace of God. For if the blessed special revelation of God in the Bible, and now in the completed, authoritative, and sufficient written Word of God, the Holy Bible does not show any lost sinner who has a Bible in their possession, their absolute need of the Lord Jesus Christ, that lost person is no different than the lost Jew. that Paul is exposing in these verses. And the number in this soberingly lost condition in America today and in American pseudo-churches would stagger us if the Lord God was to reveal the number to us. For how many, how many in the churches in America want to be seen as Christian, even call themselves Christian? But if you were to apply what Paul says to his lost Jewish brethren who had the Old Covenant, but were still lost, and applied it to them who have the completed Word of God, and have not applied its truth personally to themselves, but have distorted it and denied the saving message, turning it into a religion, into a way that they think that they can make themselves right with God, rather than showing them their the absolute impossibility of such a soul-destroying religious idea? How many in the church is like that today, friends? How many? I'm a Christian because I was baptized. I'm a Christian because I became a member of the church. I'm a Christian because I teach Sunday school. I'm a Christian because I preach behind a pulpit. How many are teachers and preachers in churches today are confident that they can teach and preach the word of God, but have never done the one thing needful to be able to teach and preach the word of God correctly, personally fleeing to the Lord Jesus Christ alone in repentance and faith for the salvation found only in him and clearly and repeatedly taught in the scriptures of God. Friends, man's depravity is not just seen in all the ways that Paul has shown. This truth is seen in the verses I have so inadequately considered before you this morning. Man's depravity is seen in the number of churches in America today, no different than the unbelieving Jew that Paul is exposing in the verses I have looked at. Because how many lost pseudo-Christians are there in American pseudo-churches who want to be seen as Christian and be called Christian, who are resting in their totally flawed and inadequate keeping of the Law of God, even as they preach against the sins that the Bible reveals, covering up their committing of them by their traditions and confessions? How many in the churches boast about knowing God and believing in God and even have others call them Christian, but have never done the one thing needful? The one thing needful for every lost sinner in the face of the earth is to come to Jesus Christ alone in true repentance and faith for acceptance with God. not resting in what they have done or think they can do, not boasting in knowing God because of what they have done or are doing, but boasting and rejoicing in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ alone for true knowledge of God and acceptance by Him. It is sobering to think of how many Jews had the Old Testament scriptures and rejected and denied their need of Christ. alone to save them when he walked on this earth, something those who call themselves Jews but cannot be biblically shown are continuing to do today. May God yet have mercy on them. But what of the numbers, friends? What of the numbers, friends, who would be offended if their words and actions show that the last thing that they are is what they want to be seen as, a Christian, a true child of God and not the devil? Oh, God alone knows how many in churches today are like the lost Jews Paul is singling out in this culminating section, showing how the gospel that he was not afraid of is sinner man's only hope of acceptance with God, regardless of that man's ethnicity, regardless of that man's gender, regardless of that man's social position. Oh, how many in the churches in America today who want to be seen as Christian, even calling themselves Christian, and being called Christian by other like-minded pseudo-Christians, are resting in the Law. They're resting in the Law, and not in Christ alone. Making their boast that they know God, but they're on the wide road to destruction. Oh, how many have their names written down on church membership lists, but not the Lamb's Book of Life because they are looking to their flawed and totally inadequate keeping of the law of God as their way of acceptance with God, saying they know the Bible and believe the Bible, but show by this soul-destroying idea that they neither understand the Bible or believe it. How many are on the wide road to destruction, sitting in edifices called churches today. May you not be one of them. Let us pray. Oh Lord, it is hard to comprehend how truly depraved our hearts are. You gave your glorious word to a people we call old covenant Israel. And yet when the one to whom the scriptures you had given them came in the fullness of time, they rejected him, knocked him, and crucified him. And how many, Lord, even in the churches today would do exactly the same thing because they are resting in themselves and not in Christ. And the message of the cross is an offense to them. Lord, have mercy on them and bring them to new life in your Son before that great and awful day. We ask in his wonderful name. Amen.