So You Know About God pt.II

It's grab our bibles. Grab our bibles and turn to Romans chapter two.

Romans chapter two. If you don't have a Bible with you, just raise

your hand. We're passing those out right now. So if you didn't have

a Bible with you, just raise your hand, or a bulletin. There's

sermon notes on the back of that'll be really helpful. So just raise your

hand if you need a Bible or a bulletin, and just keep your hand

up and we'll get to you and turn to Romans chapter two. We're going

to be in the second half of that chapter, verse seventeen, all the

way to the end of the chapter. It's open there. And while you

turn there, I'm going to ask our brother to come and read our scripture

text for us. I'm on bro Romans two seventeen and following Romans two seventeen

through twenty nine. But if you call yourself a Jew and on the law,

and boast in God, and know his will and approve what is excellent

because you are instructed from the law. And if you are sure 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 children, having in the

law the embodiment of knowledge and truth. You, then, who teach others,

do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing? Do you

steal? You who say that one must not commit adultery? Do you commit

adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast

in the law, dishonor God by breaking the law? For as it is

written, the name of God is blasphemed among the gentiles because of you.

For circumcision, indeed is a value if you obey the law. But if

you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. So if a man who

is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded

as circumcision. Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law, will

condemn you who have the written code and circumcision, but break the law.

For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, Nor is circumcision

outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly. And circumcision is a

matter of the heart, by the spirit, not by the letter. His

praise is not from man, but from God, word of the Lord.

Amen. In December of twenty thirteen, my family and I had spent four

long months in the suburbs of Chicago and we were headed back to the homeland.

And when we crossed the border of Texas, we crossed the Red River.

I mean this, this minivan. I'm telling you, guys, like

four months of earthly possessions and five people, and we crawled out of this

minivan into this first gas station in Texas. And what I remember most about

the thing I first laid my eyes on in Texas was this giant display in

the gas station of cowboy hats. You know, yeah, all right,

we're excited patriots, that's what we have here. And there wasn't just any

kind of cowboy hat. There was a particular kind. It was these big

pink cowboy hats with a sequined and bejeweled cross affixed to the giant crown of

the cowboy hat. You know them, you know them. I mean it

was the definition of pink. It was the definition of bejeweled. It was

the definition of I don't know what. In my more hopeful moments, I

and you'd be surprised how often this, this this cowboy hat comes to my

mind? Really, in my more hopeful moments, I I just think of

it as like being loud and proud for Jesus. Right, I'm loud and

proud for Jesus. It's awesome, let's go. In my more patriotic moments,

it's just like this is Texas, God bless us. Maybe in my

more realistic moments, I'm caused to think of this Texas saying, maybe you

know it way more hat than cattle, or maybe more jewels than Jesus.

I'm not being judgmental. No one was actually wearing the hat. I'm just

saying I've known a lot of people who've been loud and proud about God on

the outside, maybe with what they say and with what they wear, but

the life, what's happening on the inside more hat than cattle. And here

in Romans too, Paul takes that kind of idea and he aims it at

Jewish hypocrites, saying basically this, so you're loud and proud for God because

you have his instruction, you have your heritage. Do you really live it

or do you mostly talk about it? You have a lot of outward signs

that you have a relationship with God. But a real relationship with God isn't

about the outside, It's about the inside. Sounds a little convicting, convicting

enough for us to say, well, I'm glad God is talking about Jewish

people and not about us. All right, you already know I have to

say not so fast. I mean, yeah. One of the things that

Paul is doing with his argument here, and he's getting to it, is

to show the spiritual equality of Gentile Christians and Jewish Christians. Right, he's

getting there. He's going to show you that the ground is level at the

cross. But the other thing these two paragraphs are doing is simply going after

or hypocrisy in people who call themselves the people of God, is that you

do you claim him? Do you know about God? Because knowing about God,

as vital as that is, that's important. You can't know Him unless

you know about him. Knowing about God is good and right, but it

comes with its own danger, and that is hypocrisy, pretense more hat than

cattle. And in this passage, this is what hypocrisy is made up of,

being more about the talk than the walk, being more about the outside

than the inside, and being more about man's honor than God's honor. And

that's how we'll walk through this. This more about the talk than the walk.

Are you more about the outside than the inside? Are you more about

man's honor than God's? So let's go, let's get after it. Are

you more about talk than walk? Paul starts this way in verse seventeen.

But if you call yourself a Jew, that is the people who call themselves

the people of God, people who whom God made a covenant with and rely

on the law, which is to say He gave them a covenant. Conduct

and boast them God, and know his will and approve what is excellent,

because you're instructed from that law. And if you're sure that you yourself are

a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness,

which God said be a lie to the rest of the nations, an instructor

of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment

of knowledge and truth. In other words, do you know about God?

Do you identify with him? Do you teach other people about him? Do

you talk about him to others? Do you see yourself as knowing more about

who He is? And what he's done than maybe other people do. Paul's

not criticizing that, per se, It's totally a possible reality for you to

know more. But that's not the same as godliness. In fact, it

can often serve in our minds as a dangerous substitute. And man, I've

seen it, which is where he goes next verse twenty one. You,

then, who teach others? And may we teach others? Do you not

teach yourself? While you preach against stealing? Do you steal? You who

say that one must not commit adultery? Do you commit adultery which would have

been a very common thing in Roman society and is a very common thing in

our society. You who abhor idols do you rob temples? Most commentators,

I think that what Paul's talking about here is he's talking about those who would

look down their nose at common Roman idol worship, but would have no problem

profiting even without integrity, like cheating those people who were engaged in idle worship,

just looking down their nose at them, and then cheating them in that

whole commerce and economic trade that surrounded idle worship in Rome. Says you who

boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law. For as it is

written, the name of God is blasphemed dishonored among the gentiles because of you.

In other words, there are people who claim God who have collected familiarity

with his ways that should translate into godly action, but it just sits there

while their life is somewhere else. It kind of reminds me of something my

grandfather would sometimes say when he would visit some people who called themselves craftsmen.

My grandfather was a wood craftsman for forty five years. He was amazing,

and you could go and visit his shop out on his land. It was

four two car garages all put together, and he had he had curing rooms.

He had room for saws and sanders, and he had, you know,

a whole room for a POxy and finishing and other things. And and

the thing that you that was most prominent in his shop was like sawdust,

like snow drifts. You would like, go through this shop smelled wonderful if

you love the love the smell of sawdust. And every once in a while

there would be other people who were craftsmen and they would they would run into

his work or they'd be a part of a project or you know, they

would see at least one of his projects and they would ask him, Hey,

once you come over and see my shop. You know that is,

go see my setup. And and he would go over there and they usually

had, you know, nicer stuff and more expensive setup, and Hey would

check it out and be real polite, and he'd come home, Grandpa,

So he went and saw their set up. What do you think? And

sometimes he would say this nice shop, fancy tools, no sawdust. That

was my grandfather's way of saying, this guy is not the real deal.

He had all the stuff, but he didn't have a life in the shop.

There's a difference between collecting familiarity stockpiling the things of God and not living

them. There's a difference between having a small group and actually con seeing sin

with and repenting of sin with your brothers and sisters together. There's a difference

between attending a course study on how to grow and then actually stepping out in

faith, in spiritual disciplines and growing. There's a difference between talking about sexual

purity and walking in sexual purity, between even reading the Bible daily and trembling

at his word and then the point isn't that any of that stuff is bad

or wrong at all. That isn't the point. It's the point is not

that outward things are bad or wrong. We're about to celebrate some outward things

this morning, praise God. Those things provide tremendous help, but they don't

provide Godliness. If you possess knowledge of God's ways, and you profess knowledge

of God's ways, but you don't walk in God's ways, you're not a

spiritual example. You're a spiritual fraud. You're not helping anyone follow God.

You're causing people to mock God, to mock him. That's what it says.

Blaspheme him. And we'll come back to verse twenty four a little bit

more later. So what should be done? What are we gonna do about

this? Well, the next paragraph sort of hints at the answer, but

it also takes the concept further. It basically asks this question, are you

more about the outside than the inside? Are you more about the outside than

the inside? He goes on in verse twenty five for circumcision, so that

the outward sign right that was the sign of the Covenant was circumcision. It's

indeed of value right, the outward sign is valuable if you obey the law,

if you are following in the covenant conduct, then the sign makes sense.

But if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. Like what's

the point of the sign? Now? So if a man who is uncircumcised

keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision.

That he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who

have the written code and circumcisition but break the law. So here's what the

Holy Spirit is communicating. Wearing the outward signs and knowing the instruction is great

at all if you live it. It's the person who really lives it,

who truly owns those signs and those instructions, or maybe better put, who

is owned by that sign and that instruction. God is looking for the person

who can truthfully say, I don't just have a Bible. The Bible has

me. I don't just wear a cross. I carry my cross and I

follow him. Holiness isn't just an idea that I can explain. It's the

desire of my heart. And God is saying there's a way for the person

who displays a lot of God things on the outside to be a spiritual phony,

and the one who doesn't display a lot on the outside to be the

real deal. Guess which counts, he says in verse twenty eight. For

no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward

and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter

of the heart, not by the spirit, sorry by the spirit, not

by the letter. Paul's not saying that God is done with Israel, and

now that the gentile a Church just replaces Israel. He's not saying that.

He's saying that true Israel has always been the Jews who inwardly authentically trusted God's

grace, and in Christ, that grace is now completely revealed and generously extended.

And the Gentiles, who also inwardly and authentically trust God's grace are drafted

in to that same tree, which is true Israel. We're all of a

peace. And those who won't trust God's grace as he has extended it in

Christ Jesus, whether Jew or Gentile alike, anyone who won't inwardly trust God

is broken off, no matter what background or ethnicity or any claim that they

may have. It's like, it's like a wedding ring, kind of a

little bit like wedding vows. Right. A wedding ring doesn't make you married.

I can take off my wedding ring right now and toss it to my

six year old, and you wouldn't be married to anybody, would you.

Likewise, you could have the perfect wedding ceremony and the perfect wedding ring and

say all the right things in your wedding vow is. It's comprehensive, it's

meticulous. But if that person doesn't honor and respect, love and cherish,

hold themselves to this other person and them alone for as long as they both

shall live. And another person, maybe from a different culture, who doesn't

have any of those trappings when it comes to a wedding ceremony, Maybe they

don't even know of a ring. Maybe there's hardly a word exchanged, but

they honor and respect and love and cherish and keep themselves only to this person

for as long as they both shall live. Who's really married? What counts?

And I think if you're not a Christian yet, you you you totally

get this. You have seen people who are more about the outside than the

inside, and it has disgusted you. And I say, good, it

should. But my encouragement to you is this, don't let someone else's phony

thing about God keep you from having a real thing with God. And you

might think that that means like that. Faith means like coming to God with

your whole thing all cleaned up, having your thing all straightened out. It's

like you're good or something, which you know if you've given a few shots

at that, how well that goes. That's not faith in Christ, though

you need to know that. Just like faith isn't tacking things on from the

outside, faith is also not cleaning yourself up by yourself on the inside.

It doesn't work. It's admitting the mess that's there and authentically trusting Christ with

it. It's trusting Him to cover it and to clean it and to continually

work in you to reconstitute in you a heart that looks like his. Trusting

that His blood is strong enough to cover your sin and His righteousness is given

freely enough for you to have it. That is shepherding is trustworthy enough that

you can keep stepping forward where He leads. When you come to faith,

it's not faith in you, it's faith in Him. And if you're not

yet a Christian, I genuinely invite you to that. I would love nothing

more than for you to come to me after the service and say, hey,

I think I've started trusting Christ like that, Let's talk about it.

You might end up in this water one of these days. But let's circle

back. Let's circle back around these two categories of people that's here in this

paragraph, right there's the phony one with the god stuff playd outside and the

disobedient heart. And then there's the authentic one who's kind of clothed in ignorance

but has a heart of genuine faith. Okay, you know these two categories

of people, and I'm pretty sure that most of the people hearing this right

now would say, I don't see myself fully in either category. I think

most of the people hearing me right now would say, if I'm honest,

I think I'm kind of a mixed bag. And that's to be expected because

Paul is not saying there are only two kinds of people in this whole world,

which one are you? It's not what he's saying. He's saying,

when I lay out these two categories, can you see what's important, Because

it's not the prioritization of the outside. God is saying, don't trust in

that, because when you trust the outside, you start to look down on

people who have less knowledge or less familiarity, forgetting that you are both saved

entirely by grace through faith. But when you're more about the inside, humility

and unity flourish because the ground is level at the cross, and that stays

in the front of your mind. And then you have the missionary kid and

the ex motorcycle gang member and the mother of teenagers, all in the same

small group living room, actually praying for one another's hearts and ready to share

this message of the Gospel together, and the pseudo religious barriers come down.

And that comes from concerning ourselves with the inside, and we see so clearly

the forgiveness that we need and the work of God that we need. So

we can say, in unity together because of Him and only because of Him,

I have been made truly his. And if I have been made truly

His, then we are brothers and sisters. Let's be more about the inside

than the outside. Okay, last question, are you more about man's honor

than God's. Are you more about man's honor than God's? I mean,

this whole honor and praise situation is a big deal to understanding this and understanding

ourselves. I said, we come back to twenty four, and let's come

back to verse twenty four. It says, for it is written, the

name of God is blaspheme among the gentiles because of you. And so Paul

is quoting Isaiah chapter fifty two, when all of Israel's enemies were scoffing at

the God of Israel because Israel was in bad shape. Right, they were

in bad shape. God had given them over to their enemies as a matter

of discipline for them, and the enemies were saying, some God you have,

he doesn't seem to be able to do anything for you, and you

guys talk about him all the time. And God's like, hold it,

this is all my doing. This is all my doing. It's Israel,

Israel. It's because of your walk and because of your talk that now I'm

the one that's being dishonored at all of this. And Paul brings that back

around, saying, once again, it's because of your walk and because of

your talk, namely the difference between the two of them that's causing God to

be dishonored by those who don't know him nearly as much, because the honor

that you're concerned about as you go on with your talking, the honor that

you're most concerned about is your own. You're more concerned about man's honor,

namely yours, than God's and you. Where I see this played out most

heartbreakingly is in the relationship between an overbearing father and his children. In those

fathers who have come somehow to understand that moral instruction is mostly about words,

usually a high volume, and their talk is loud and constant, but their

walk is being watched by their children, especially how they treat their mother,

how he treats their mother, especially how he talks about people when it's just

them in the home, especially especially watching how he walks when his instructions aren't

followed. They're watching to see if you resemble the gracious God you invoked when

you talked at them about what conduct He requires, And you have to ask

yourself, will my talk end up causing God to be dishonored in the hearts

of these little ones who don't know him as well, because of the difference

between my talk and my walk. But verse twenty four isn't the only verse

that speaks of this honor. So when I wrote, are you more about

Man's honor than God's? I meant it in two ways. Because Paul brings

this idea back up in a different way in verse twenty nine. Look at

it real quick. His praise, that is the faithful one. His praise

is not from man but from God. So not only this faithful one,

not only does he honor God, he receives honor from God and not from

man. All right, he's looking to hear well done, good and faithful

servant from God, and he's not worried about what other people are thinking.

So much reminds me of something that Jesus says to the Pharisees in John chapter

five. He's already given the Pharisees a whole fearful and then he gets right

to the end of what he's laying out for them, and he says something

stunning. He says, how can you believe when you receive glory from one

another and not from God? How can you believe when your glory comes from

one another? In other words, there's something about who your audience is that

fundamentally steers your motivations and the authenticity of your soul. What audience are you

playing to? And if people are the audience that you're playing to, you

will posture and you will spend your energy managing perceptions. Do I receive honor

from man? Right? Am I more about man's honor? Or? Am

I more about receiving honor from God? And again he would say probably.

I don't think I fit neatly. I think I'm a mixed bag. I

think my experience is like man. Sometimes I think I'm more about the outside

than the inside. And everything we've read and everything we've heard from our Lord

says that is a deadly place to be. But it is a spiritually life

giving place to be honest about because it opens the door to the kind of

authenticity the Holy Spirit's commending right here. It opens the door. And here's

what it's like to step into that door and stay there, actually taking your

hypocrisy to God in confession, and not just in not just in confession,

in gospel trusting faith. I mean, hypocrisy is just about the ugliest disease

there is, right, And I trust that he can make you well.

God, you know you know my conduct, you know my motivations, you

know they have been mixed. It's ugly even to me. I can't imagine

how it looks to you. But I'm trusting this. No matter what,

the blood of Christ can wash me clean in your sight, I'm trusting your

grace for a repentant hypocrite and the power for staying there is no different.

It's still gospel trusting faith. It's the faith that would say, because of

who he is and what he's done, why would I want praise from anyone

else? Like the Cross proves his love for me, That's whose praise I

want. The Cross proves his insight into who I really am. That's whose

praise I want. The Cross proves his willingness to look past my worst flaws

and see into the best of what he can do in me and do through

me. That's whose praise I want. Why do I want people's praise because

of the Cross? I want to be known as his, and I want

to be truly his, and I want to enjoy being really his. That's

the prayer, and this morning we're gonna celebrate exactly that, ironically through an

outward sign, huh, which is to say, remember the outward sign.

That's not a bad thing. It's like a wedding ring. It's like a

wedding ring. So let me talk about baptism for just a moment. I'm

gonna ask the band to come on up.