(Romans) the Problem With Religion

We're picking up, like I said tonight, in verse 17 of the second chapter, and let me remind you that we we're picking up in the midst of Paul developing an argument, and he's arguing for the necessity of salvation in Christ because of the fact that every man is in a place of condemnation, and he starts that train of thought, he starts that argument in the 18th verse of the first chapter, and we looked at that some time ago. He there speaks of the fact that the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, and his whole point in this section that we'll conclude tonight is to show that all men, regardless of how we might categorize one another, all men stand in a condemned place before God and need a savior, need the savior, because the wrath of God is going to be poured out against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. The only way to escape that is to come under the covering of the blood of Jesus Christ.

So Paul has dealt with the the openly wicked, and we looked at that in the latter portion of the first chapter, and then he moved on from dealing with the openly wicked to showing that the seemingly moral man is, at least as far as God's concerned, not really any better off, stands in the same sort of place, a place of condemnation, because although he might stand in judgment over certain people, he himself is doing similar kinds of things. So now he comes to the third and the final category of men, and that would be the religious man. Now if you think for a moment, Paul is addressing this letter to the church in Rome, and this is a mixed group of people.

It's a group of Gentiles, but it's also a group of Jews who have come to believe in Jesus as the Messiah, and I think Paul anticipates that there are going to be some Jews there among them who are not yet at that point of really embracing Jesus, but yet are perhaps contemplating that or moving in that direction. And so all the way through this epistle, Paul has these different groups of people in mind and their different responses that they might have, and I'm sure at this point Paul can imagine that the Jews particularly would be in full agreement with everything he said up until this point, that the openly wicked, the heathen, those among the Gentiles that have just given themselves over to debauchery and all forms of lewdness, yes, amen, Paul, absolutely, these men are under God's wrath, yes, we agree with you 100 percent. And then Paul moves on and he builds his case against the moral man, and again a hearty amen would come from that crowd of Jews, yep, just exactly what we thought right on, Paul, we agree with you 100 percent.

Even these seemingly righteous Gentiles, they're condemned as well, but now Paul, he suddenly turns toward them and he says, indeed you are called a Jew and rest on the law and make your boast in God and know his will and approve the things that are excellent being instructed out of the law. And you could imagine that they would say, that's us, you're right, everything you said is true, Paul, we are that special class of people and we have that extraordinary and unique relationship with God. And now he says this, he says that you are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, having the form of knowledge and truth in the law, although that's true, that's exactly how we feel, you therefore who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that a man should not steal, do you steal? You who say do not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you as it is written.

So here Paul suddenly turns in a completely unanticipated direction. He's showing the Jew that they are responsible for God's name being blasphemed among the Gentiles. Why? Because they did not practice what they preached, because they told other people how somebody ought to live, but they failed to do it themselves.

And basically because of their hypocrisy, God's name was being blasphemed among the Gentiles. The Jew at this time in history saw himself as exempt from judgment and guiltless. The rabbis were very outspoken regarding the superiority of the Jewish nation, the Jewish people over the Gentile nations, over the goyim as they would refer to them.

And there's much in the rabbinical literature that shows clearly the attitude that existed among the Jews at the time. Of course coming down from their leaders, filtering down to the average person, they did see themselves in a place of spiritual superiority. The rabbis would say things like the Gentiles were created only as fuel for the fires of hell.

That was a common phrase among the Gentiles. They would actually pray and thank God that they were not born a Gentile. So there was this incredible animosity that existed between Jew and Gentile because of this arrogance that was there.

The Gentiles accused the Jews of hatred for their fellow men and complete unsociability. Tacitus, who was a Roman writer, he said this concerning the Jews. He said, among themselves their honesty is inflexible, their compassion quick to move, but to all other persons they show the hatred of antagonism.

Also, he said, the first thing Gentile converts to Judaism were taught to do was to repudiate their nationality and to disparage their parents, children, and brothers. Another Roman writer, Juvenal, declared that if a Jew was asked the way to any place, he refused to give any information except to another Jew, and that if anyone was looking for a well from which to drink, he would not lead him to it unless he was circumcised. So there was this air of superiority among the Gentiles, excuse me, among the Jews in regard to the Gentiles.

And Paul now, of course, he himself is a Jew. He himself has come out of the rabbinic background. So remember, he was a Pharisee, so he would have known this stuff inside out.

And now, much to their amazement, he is pronouncing a judgment upon Jews as well. He is saying ultimately that they are in the same predicament. So he goes on to tell them that circumcision, which is something they had a tremendous amount of confidence in, circumcision was indeed profitable if they were keepers of the law.

But if you are a breaker of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. Therefore, if an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision? And will not the physically uncircumcised or the Gentiles, if they fulfill the law, will they not judge you who even with your written law or your written code and circumcision are a transgressor of the law? And then he goes on to state, for he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart and the spirit, not in the letter whose praise is not from men, but from God. Now, the Jews trusted in three things primarily to justify them before God.

They trusted in circumcision, they trusted in the fact that they were the recipients of the law, and then thirdly, they trusted in their descent from Abraham. So circumcision, the fact that they had received the law, and that they had descended from Abraham. These gave them a false sense of security.

Now, Paul points out that these things were all valuable if they were understood properly. Circumcision was, of course, the sign of the covenant, it was a valuable thing if it translated itself into a life that was consistent with what it symbolized. But just to have the mere outward sign was to no benefit.

But you see, this is where they had degenerated to. They were thinking that it was simply because they had these things that this put them in a better position than others. Remember when John the Baptist began to preach, and they were very bothered by the fact that John the Baptist was calling Jews to repentance.

And so a delegation from the Pharisees came, and as they sat and listened, John, knowing what they were thinking, he said, do not think to say in your hearts that we have Abraham as our father. You see, he pointed out that that's what they would be trusting in. He says, because God is able to take these very stones and raise up children for Abraham.

So the things that they were trusting in, these outward things of circumcision, of the law, and so forth, these were the things that became really a stumbling block for them, because they were just depending on the external aspect of it and failing to realize that, of course, being circumcised was symbolic of something else. It was symbolic of a life that was dedicated to the spirit rather than a life that was governed by the flesh. Having the law was a wonderful privilege, but it was a privilege that brought great responsibility, because now that you have the law, you're obligated to do the law.

And they made the mistake of just thinking that because we've got it, that's in and of itself sufficient. Now, Paul sums it up in verse 28. His whole point is simply this, that being a Jew is not about external things.

Now, the word Jew is derived from Judah. Judah was the fourth son of Jacob, as you know. And the name Judah means praise.

And so the term Jew was derived from that as the people who were set apart for praise to God. Now, Paul says a Jew, or he is not a Jew who is one outwardly. So he's really coming against their traditional view of things.

He's basically telling them that their genetic connection to Abraham isn't of any profit spiritually unless there's the spiritual connection. So he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew who is one inwardly. So you see, it's about the heart.

Now, some people have mistakenly taken Paul's words to state that every Christian is a Jew. That's not what Paul is saying. What Paul is saying, though, is every Jew is not a Jew.

Just because a person is a descendant of Abraham, just because a person is physically circumcised, doesn't mean that they're a Jew. That's a rude awakening, to say the least, to a lot of people who are absolutely confident in their ability to stand before God because of their family connection. So Paul's just blowing all of this out from under them is what he's doing.

He's basically bringing them to a point of realizing they need a savior just like the Gentiles do. Because although they had the law, they haven't kept it. And he says here that the Jews, this is the amazing thing, he turns it around and he tells them that they are in a worse predicament than the Gentiles.

The Gentiles could to some degree plead a bit of ignorance. The Jew had no such plea because he had greater privileges, greater revelation, and had violated those things which brought him into a state of greater condemnation. Now, Paul would be accused by those opponents of his as dismissing any sort of advantage to being Jewish.

And so he immediately responds to that. And he says, what advantage then has the Jew or what profit is there in circumcision? In other words, he's saying, look, are you thinking that I'm saying that there's no advantage whatsoever to being Jewish? He says, no, that's not what I'm saying. He says, there is much and in every way, chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God.

But what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? Certainly not. Indeed, let God be true and every man a liar as it is written that you may be justified by your words and may overcome when you are judged. So Paul is saying, in other words, he's saying, don't misunderstand me.

There were certain advantages. Of course, there is the great advantage of having the oracles of God. You see, the Jews had the promises of God.

They had the word of God. They should have been living in expectation of the Messiah and the fact that he was going to come and save them from their sin. So they had a great advantage in as much as they should have known.

They needed a savior and there was one on his way. But what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? Certainly not. Now they were sort of twisting things to the point of saying, well, since the vast majority of the nation has not believed, God's plan must have failed.

Paul is saying, no, it's not. It's not that God's plan was faulty. The fault is with you, not with God.

Let God be true and every man a liar. But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unjust to inflict wrath? I speak as a man. Certainly not.

For then how will God judge the world? For if the truth of God is increased through my lie to his glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner? And why not say, let us do evil that good may come as we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say their condemnation is just. So Paul's going along here and he's just quickly answering different objections that he anticipates to the things that he's saying. If our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, is God unjust to inflict wrath? You see, Paul is telling them something that they, it's going to take them a long time to get this through their head.

He's telling them that it was the fact that they're sinners that brought the Savior to save them. And then they would misinterpret Paul to be saying, oh, well, then sin must be a good thing. That's what you're saying, huh, Paul? So you see, they were trying to catch him and trip him up in his argumentation, of course, because they didn't want to face the fact that they were in the same boat as the Gentile.

That was the bigger problem. More, I think more than even just the admission of sin, it was being categorized with the Gentiles and being put on the same level. That was even the bigger problem.

Remember when Paul was arrested and he was being led up the steps of the Antonia Fortress there after he had come to Jerusalem and he had delivered those gifts to the church and he was going into worship and they caught him and they, oh, this is the man who's teaching everybody among the Gentiles to forsake Moses and all of that. And so they're leading Paul up to flog him and he says to the man, he says, stop, you know, let me speak to the crowd for a moment. And he says, can you speak to them? I mean, can you speak their language? Aren't you an Egyptian? He says, no, I'm not an Egyptian.

I'm a Jew. Let me, let me have a moment to talk with them. So remember, he begins to preach to them and he says, I understand how you feel.

I was just like you are. I thought also myself that I should do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And he goes on to tell the story of how he received these documents from the high priest and went to Damascus.

He's telling the whole story and it says they're listening intently to what he's saying. And there's a moment where you, you're reading that story and you're thinking, wow, Paul's got them. How could they argue with anything that he's saying? He's got them right in the palm of his hand.

Surely they're going to get converted. And he goes on in the story and then he tells them about how while he was in prison, a vision came to him from the Lord that told him, they're not going to receive your witness here in Jerusalem. Get out of town because I'm going to send you to the Gentiles.

And it says they listened intently till this one word. And when he said Gentiles, they began to rip off their clothes, throw dirt in the air and shout, this man is not fit to live. They absolutely flipped their lids when he insinuated that the Jewish Messiah had something to offer the Gentiles on the same level that he had offered it to the Jews.

That was the thing that enraged them. That was the thing that incensed them. And this prejudice is so inbred in them.

It's so deep in them that they just, Paul is just going to keep arguing this point all the way through the 11th chapter. He's going to come back to it in a dozen different ways. He's going to say over and over again, the same thing to break them free from this, this bigotry, this religious bigotry that it set into their lives.

Now he then goes on and he says, what then are we better than they? Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and As it is written, there is none righteous. No, not one.

There is none who understands. There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside.

They have together become unprofitable. There is none who does good. No, not one.

Their throat is an open tomb. With their tongues, they have practiced deceit. The poison of asp is under their lips.

Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways and the way of peace they have not known.

There is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. So here, Paul pulls out as he often will do in his argumentation with the Jews.

He pulls out the of the word. He pulls out the scriptures and he reinforces everything that he's telling them with their own scriptures. Basically saying, look, I'm not telling you anything that God hasn't already told you.

But there was this blindness. There was a refusal to believe that there were things that were true about themselves. And of course, that's the way it is.

Usually we are very happy to believe that everybody else has a problem, but very slow to admit that we have any sort of a problem. And that's just a human characteristic. And so Paul goes back to the Psalms and he draws from the Psalms to show that there's none good, no, not one.

And then he goes over to the prophet Isaiah. And so he's mixing two different portions of scripture here, Psalm 14 and Isaiah 59. And he's showing from the Psalmist and from Isaiah, the same thing that everyone is under condemnation.

Now he says things here that are amazing and things that we ourselves even have to, you know, take a moment to really digest and embrace. When he says things like there is none righteous, no, not one. You know, as human beings, we tend to think ourselves better than we actually are.

And to really lay hold of the reality that there's none righteous, no, not one. Oh, that's, that's huge. We tend to want to think that we're just better than we really are.

But he says something even more profound. He says there is none who seeks after God. None who seeks after God.

Paul, you're kidding. What about all of these religious people in the world? What about these people that faithfully go through their ritual, their ceremony, sometimes numerous times in a day and observe all of these different feasts and fasts and these different kinds of things. What do you mean there's none that seeks after God? Well, here's the reality.

Even though men might appear to be seeking God, they're not actually seeking God. People are religious for a variety of reasons. None of them because they're seeking after God.

People are religious because it brings them self-satisfaction. It brings them security. It keeps them connected to their culture, to their family.

There are many, many reasons why people are religious that we assume they're religious because they're seeking after God. That is the wrong assumption because man left to himself does not seek God. Man left to himself goes in the opposite direction of God.

I was in New York City a few years ago and I was having a conversation with this young Jewish guy. He was dressed in all the orthodox regalia. He was a student at the rabbinic university there in New York City.

And as we're talking and I'm sharing the Lord with him and I'm challenging him with the scriptures, suddenly he looks at me and he says, I don't even believe in God. Why are you telling me this stuff? I don't even believe in God. And I looked at him and I said, you don't believe in God? Why? What's with the, you know, the curls? What's with the skullcap? What's with the prayer shawl? What do you mean you don't believe it? You just told me you're a rabbinical student.

You go to the Hebrew religious school here. He said, I do it for my dad. It's the only way I'm going to get my inheritance from the family.

I thought, wow, that's heavy. But you, you find that not just among Jews. One of the strongest ties in the Islamic world is the cultural family tie.

You're a Muslim because that's what your family is and has been for generation after generation. And you go through that same motion, that same routine, because this is just what you do. It's just part of your culture.

Same is true with Buddhism. Same is true with Hinduism. So we ignorantly assume at times that all these, these people are all seeking after God.

No, they're not seeking God. God himself says there's no one who seeks after me. A man only seeks God as God goes seeking him.

It's only because God initiates something that man then will respond to it. We love God because he first loved us. Left to ourselves, we would keep going further and further and further and further away from God.

Now he says that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, notice this, that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world becomes guilty before God. This is an interesting statement. Now who were those who were under the law? Technically it was Israel.

The Jews were the only ones under the law in that literal sense. They were the ones who had it. But he says, whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may become guilty before God.

How can the world be guilty? A world that hasn't had the law, how can they end up being guilty? Well, as we pointed out before, when a man breaks any law, that law is just a dim reflection of the higher law of God. And so in breaking the dim reflection, you automatically break the law itself. Now here was a huge revelation and a great, you know, a bomb really that Paul drops upon them.

Verse 20, therefore, by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight for by the laws and knowledge of sin. This is where the Jews made their cardinal mistake. They continued to make the mistake of thinking that the law was their means of justification.

Paul says by the deeds of the law, no one will be justified for by the law is the knowledge of sin. Now, later on, he's going to develop this further and further and deeper and deeper as we go on. He's going to show that the problem in man being justified is not that the law is at fault.

He's not criticizing the law. He's just showing that the law is incapable because man is sinful. The only way the law can benefit you is if you can keep it.

But the problem is we can't keep it. You see, the law was never intended to justify a man. It was always intended to show a man his need for another source of justification.

Paul says to the Galatians that the law was the schoolmaster to lead to Christ. That's what the law was to do. When God gave the law, it was never so that a man could say, great, got it down, God.

See you in heaven. It was so a man might look at it and say, oh, God, is there some other alternative? Is there some other way that I can have a standing before you? Because God, I can't live up to this. And that, of course, is that's the schoolmaster effect is to lead to Christ.

This will all come out much more as we go further and further into Romans, so we won't go any deeper into it tonight. But the thing that I want to wrap things up with is this. Verse 28, back in chapter two.

You see, we can remove the word Jew. And let's just insert the word Christian here. For he is not a Christian who is one outwardly.

We can remove circumcision and replace it with baptism. Nor is baptism that which is outward in the flesh. We could even take it one step further and bring in Bible knowledge to correspond with the law.

And these kinds of mistakes have been repeated over and over. This is not an exclusively Jewish problem. This is a human problem.

This is what man always does. So. It's not about.

The physical ritual of baptism. It's not about how much Bible knowledge I might have gained. It's not about a church membership.

Now, I think most of us in this room tonight are probably well aware of that, but I would imagine that there are some in the room tonight that didn't always know that at one time in your life. Maybe you were trusting in some of these other things. I know before I became a Christian.

I had some confidence in the fact that I was baptized as a child. I mean, that meant something as far as I was concerned in regard to my future. I had a sense that everything will work out okay ultimately because, hey, I was baptized.

But baptism isn't that which is outward in the flesh. Baptism is something in the heart as well. And there are literally millions and millions and millions of baptized people that end up in hell.

They made that mistake just like the Jews did of trusting in the ritual, trusting in the right, and failing to understand the essence of it, what it was about. How many people put confidence in some sort of spiritual ancestry? I've had people tell me things, you know, sometimes you share the Lord with people and they'll listen to you pretty intently, and then suddenly they say, oh, well, you know, my grandfather was a pastor, meaning I'm okay. Don't worry about it.

Well, that doesn't mean anything. Or I belong to such and such a church. We have the same sort of thing that's happened in the church.

People trust in an affiliation. Well, I belong to the Baptist church or I belong to the Presbyterian church or, well, I'm a Catholic or, hey, I go to Calvary Chapel. Well, that could be good, but it doesn't necessarily equal I'm a Christian and I'm going to heaven.

But these are the things that we easily are led into, and we can become deceived in these areas, and we need to make sure that we are not repeating the mistakes of others. He is not a Christian who is one outwardly. It's a matter of the heart.

It's a matter of getting one's heart right before God. I've seen so many times over the years where there will be almost like a pseudo conversion. Guys come into the church because their wives are fed up with them, ready to divorce them.

They come in and say, oh, well, you know, my wife's going to leave me. She said, I need to come down here to this church. And, you know, if I do this Jesus thing, can you get my marriage back in order and all of this? And, you know, I'll just tell guys straight up front, we can't necessarily do anything for your marriage.

And that's really not the primary issue. It's an important thing, of course. But the bigger issue is you need to get a relationship with Christ.

But a lot of times the motive is, you know, things aren't going well, and I want to get my wife back, or I got to get my family back, or whatever. And they'll go through like a pseudo conversion. They're around for a while.

They're going through the motions. They're doing the church thing and all of that. But there's, it's an outward thing.

There's never been a transformation in the heart. And I think that there are many, many people in the church today that are in that kind of a state. They've fooled themselves into thinking that as long as I've got the church thing a week, once a week, or, you know, maybe even a couple times a week, or, hey, I'm getting a little bit of Bible knowledge here.

I went down to Corona del Mar, you know, did the baptism thing. I'm okay. Not necessarily.

It's deeper than that. Have we come to a place personally where we have said, Jesus, I am a sinner, and I need you to save me from my sins. And nothing else, at that moment, nothing else really matters.

All of this stuff out here is peripheral. It might be very important stuff, family, children, career, all of those things. They're important in their place.

But compared to this, they're not important. This has to be dealt with thoroughly and completely, and then we can move on. And those other things will fall back into place accordingly.

But we have got to get it right in this area. It's not about being a Christian in name. It's about being a Christian in reality.

A Christian is somebody who knows Christ. A Christian is somebody who acknowledged that they're a sinner, and have cried out to him for mercy, and has turned away from that sin, said, Lord, I'm going to follow you. You know, I think sometimes today we almost need to just drop the word Christian because it's been so abused over the centuries.

And now, of course, you find people all the time that refer to themselves as Christians, and it's confusing. A Christian in the Bible, Acts 11, it was a disciple of Christ. They were the ones who were called Christians.

So it would almost be better in our day and age to refer to ourselves as simply, I'm a follower of Jesus Christ. That is more descriptive. I mean, that's really what the word Christian actually means, but it's become so abused over the years.

But that's what we want to communicate to people, and that's what, of course, a Christian is, is a person who follows Christ, truly follows him. Not just has a church affiliation, hasn't just gone through a few religious rituals, but somebody who, I'm a follower of Jesus Christ. That's what we're talking about.

Notice, whose praise is not from men, but from God. Always remembering that we stand before God. And, you know, I guess tonight, just in my thinking, and just with our experience in the family this week, I'll tell you one thing, guys.

Last year, Thanksgiving, we had the meal at our house. We do that usually. And Greg was over for the meal, and we ate and sat and talked and watched some TV.

And I remember he fell asleep, and he would have never, ever convinced me that a year later, he would have gone to heaven. You know, it just, it just wasn't in the thinking process. It just, what do you mean? What do you mean he's going to have brain cancer? You know, and these, these things come sometimes so suddenly, so unexpectedly.

And the point is, we've got to be living for the Lord. We've got to be living for the Lord. Life is not anything to take lightly or to mess around with.

It's a life that God has given us, and He's given it to us for the purpose of glorifying Him. And that's what we want to do. Whose praise is not from men, but from God.

Because in the end, it doesn't matter what anybody thought of us or said about us, good or bad. In the end, all that really matters is, what does God think? And what does He say? Because that's where everything's headed. So may we be genuine as men, truly Christians, not outwardly only, but in our hearts.

And of course, that will work itself out into our lives in a beautiful way. The outward, in order to be legit, has to have the corresponding inward reality. And if in some way, shape, or form, that's not happening in your life tonight, don't leave here without getting it right.

Just get it right. Just open your heart. It's, Lord, I want to be right with you.

I want that praise and honor and glory that comes from you. Lord, we thank you that you have given us this great gift of salvation. And Lord, I think that oftentimes we fail to realize how glorious it really is.

We fail to realize the preciousness of it, the value of it, the greatness of it. Lord, may we not take it for granted at all. And may we be true believers, not just going through some religious ritual, but living from our hearts in fellowship with you and in obedience to your word.

Thank you, Lord, that you've given us this wonderful gift of salvation and the wonderful blessing of Christian fellowship, the wonderful encouragement that we receive from one another. And as we spend some time now, this evening, praying and encouraging each other, may you just strengthen us that we might glorify you in these days. We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.