Romans 2:17-29 Jack D. Terry Jr.

Dr. Terry discussed his approach to studying the Book of Romans, taking his time and providing more information. He highlighted the themes of God giving light to people and the concept of circumcision of the heart. He also mentioned Cornelius and Lydia as examples and addressed the arrogance of the Jews. The importance of faith was emphasized. I want to introduce you all officially to John and Sandy Mann. Please stand up and wave at them, John and Sandy. These are colleagues of mine from the seminary. They work with me. They don't work for me. They work with me. We are all workers together in the Lord. John, Dr. John Mann, by the way, I want to introduce you officially, John. John teaches in our college. John has a, we have a Texas Baptist College on our campus, and John has a master's degree in business administration. So he's teaching some business administration courses in our college, but then he doubled over and took a doctorate in theology, so he's also teaching in the seminary. So he's teaching some theology courses in the seminary, and in his spare time, he is helping me raise money for the seminary. So he is a development officer, so he's wearing three suits and 19 hats as he comes around. So you all remember to pray for John, would you please? Now his beautiful wife, Sandy, who sits here by him, has been with us for a long time. She has been working with us. John's been pastoring, and he also, by the way, was the interim president of Jacksonville Baptist College for a while down in Jacksonville, Texas, and that's where we stole him from. We brought him, can you hear me? Dad? Are you all all right now? Can you hear me now? Yeah. All right, and we stole him from Jacksonville Baptist College and brought him up to seminary again, so that's why he's here with us. Sandy's been with us for a long time, and she's been a beautiful addition to our women's program at the seminary. Sandy is in charge of our women's auxiliary program. It's a large program that involves a number, number of women, and also, as part of that auxiliary program, she's also the director and in charge of what we call a program, the Widow's Might. Now that's not spelled M-I-T-E, it's spelled M-I-G-H-T, Widow's Might, okay? And she has over two, three hundred people in the Widow's Might program. Many of you in here are part of the Widow's Might. Now I'm going to do an advertisement for you all. At the Widow's Might program that's going to happen in September the 18th, we have a celebrity in our midst. That day, Mrs. Charlotte Robeson is going to be the speaker. So you all will want to remember what's going on during those days. And so I wanted you to know Sandy and John, and I wanted you to meet them. They told us they were coming. I'm grateful that they're here. Thank you. Now, you may have seen a name on your prayer list that maybe you did not know. I'm going to ask you to pray for him in particular. He's one of our dear friends. Barbara and I have had the privilege of almost raising him as a second son since he was about 16, 17 years of age. His name is Scott Cates. You may have seen his name on the prayer list. Scott was diagnosed three weeks ago with a massive lymphoma. And he has been in Baylor Hospital for the last three weeks, taking chemotherapy, taking many rounds of chemo. Yesterday, they let him go home. So now he's at home, and he will be doing work there, going back and forth. So I want you to pray for Scott Cates. We have been witnessing to him, sharing with him. The other day, I left him a little cross that I carry in my pocket all the time. And I gave it to him, and I said, Scott, you put this in your hand, and you hold it, and you trust Jesus Christ, who is the center of this cross. Whenever you need help, you just trust him and pray for him, and he will help you. So would you all please pray for Scott Cates, okay? So if you see his name on the list, you know who he is. He's a wonderful young man, a tremendous florist, and a tremendous floral designer. In fact, he did trees for a large hotel. Was that in New York, baby, that he did the trees? Atlanta. In Atlanta? He did trees, Christmas trees, for a large hotel in Atlanta. Over 500 Christmas trees in that hotel. Are you ready for the next statement? And they were upside down. They were hung from the bottom down, and he did over 500 of them. He's a tremendous designer. And you all pray for Scott, would you please? He's a wonderful young man. We pray for him many, many times. We love him, and you pray that God will take care of this limb for him. Okay. Brother Jimmy and I are kind of, you know, yes, ma'am, did I miss something? Oh, yeah. We had a colleague, Dr. Darryl Watkins, who taught for me in the School of Education for many years, whose wife passed away last Sunday. She passed away Sunday evening about 6.30. Thank you, sweetheart. So if you all can remember, pray for Darryl Watkins and family. The funeral services will be probably sometime this next week. We have not heard yet, and we want you to be praying for Darryl. His wife's name was Janice. She was a magnificent pianist and taught in the School of Church Music. And so you all pray for Darryl. Darryl taught social work and psychology for us, and a wonderful, wonderful gentleman. So thank you, baby, for telling me about that. So you all pray for him. Now, Brother Jimmy and I are trying to tag team the Book of Romans, and we're trying to do things that will keep it going in your minds. So what we're going to try to do is we're going to try to just take our time, because we don't have anywhere really to go except here on Sunday morning. So why rush? So we're going to start just taking our time. I'm going to do the last half of Chapter 2 this week. Hopefully, I'll get through with Chapter 2 this week. How many of you believe that I'll get through with Chapter 2 this week? Thanks a bunch. So you know me. You know Jimmy, too, don't you? You're not going to get through with it either. So anyway, we'll try. And then I will do Chapter 3 next week, okay? And then after next week, then Brother Jimmy will come, and he will pick up with Chapter 4, and he'll probably take a couple of Sundays to do Chapter 4. I think what we're going to start doing is maybe doing a chapter, but taking two Sundays to do the chapter. So we can kind of slow it down a little bit, take our time, give you a little more information about what's happening in the book, and perhaps that'll be able to help you some. So I just wanted you to know, I'll be this Sunday and next Sunday, I hope, because actually Chapter 2 should not have become Chapter 3. What happens is, Chapter 2 just flows right into Chapter 3, and when St. Jerome was translating the Greek New Testament from Greek into Latin, which later became called, it was called the Latin Vulgate, which was the first translation of the Greek New Testament into, oh, actually the entire Bible, the translation of the Old Septuagint, the whole Bible, the whole Old Testament and New Testament Bible, and when he translated it from Greek to Latin, he was the one who was doing the chapter divisions. So perhaps when he got to the end of Chapter 2, he should not have put Chapter 3, because Chapter 2 actually just flows right into Chapter 3, and you'll see what I'm talking about when we get ready to start it next Sunday. But today, we're in Chapter 2. Now, let me share something with you that Brother Jimmy has said on two or three occasions that you need to know. Two things I want you to remember, number one, God is going to give people as much light as He can, either without the information of the blessed Lord Jesus Christ, but they have all of nature around them. They have everything that God has created, and you all know, and Brother Jimmy has said on many occasions, God will give us enough light to move us toward Him until we get to the place where we become Christ-centered in God. But now, also, this particular chapter is going to be talking about, at the end of it, circumcision. And it's going to be talking about circumcision, not of the body, but circumcision of the heart. And you'll see what happens as we get toward the end of the chapter, and it helps us to understand life. In this particular chapter, I'm going to refer to Cornelius and Lydia. You remember Cornelius, who was the centurion that Simon Peter was encouraged to go visit, and you remember Lydia, who was the young lady who was in Philippi when Paul was there, and he witnessed to her, and she was the first European to be saved. She was from Thyatira, and she lived in Europe. They were over in Asia Minor, and so she was the first European to be saved in the kingdom of God. So, we'll talk about her because she was called, as Brother Jimmy has said on occasion, a God fearer. These were people who did not believe in what was the common God relationship during that day, which was polytheism. Just about every nation in the, well, all the nations in the entire world had multiple gods. You remember the Greeks? You remember Mars Hill? You remember all the gods that were up on Mars Hill, to such an extent that Paul said, let me tell you about the one who's not here, that empty little shell over there. The Romans had multiple gods. In fact, the Romans even moved so far that every emperor became a god. So they had, they were polytheists. Actually, the entire world was made up of two different kinds of people. It was made up of polytheists who had multiple gods, or the Jews who were monotheists. They had one God. Now, because of that one God-ism, because the Jews were so proud of having the only true and living God, they boasted a lot, and they bragged a lot, and they were arrogant a lot. In fact, the end of chapter two is exactly what we're going to be talking about, is going to be Paul addressing the arrogance of the Jew. And now, Paul was Jew of Jews, you know, and yet he's going to address the fact that just because you have the law, just because you have circumcision, just because you have the only one God in the entire creation, that doesn't give you privilege to be redeemed unless you have, hang on, faith. That is the big word. You remember Abraham by faith. That's the word. And so we're going to look at that today. Now, I'm going to pick up on another thing Brother Jimmy said that I enjoy. He said every time the Jews spoke about the Gentiles, they called them Gentile dogs, and that's exactly what they called them. They thought they were no better than a dog, and they always called them a Gentile dog. Kind of interesting. It is classically reported in history that every Jewish male, when he awoke in the morning, when he awakened in the morning and stood up, said a prayer, and the prayer is following. Dear God, I thank Thee I am not a woman. Dear God, I thank Thee I am not a slave. And dear God, I thank Thee that I am not a Gentile dog. Every morning. That was their first prayer. I saw the Jewish people were very arrogant, very arrogant, much so arrogant that we can ever begin to think about. So what the Apostle Paul is going to do in the end part of chapter 2, he is going to review for us the law. And in reviewing the law, he's going to try to help these Jewish Christians. Now remember, the church in Rome, as Brother Jimmy has shared with us, at the beginning was a Jewish church. Because all of the people who were in the city of Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, who were from Rome, or others who were from around the world, who later on made their way to Rome, all of these were Jewish believers who were probably brought into the kingdom of God on the day of Pentecost. And they went back to Rome. The church at Rome is the only one we know of that the Apostle Paul did not establish, and was established probably by these Roman Christians who went back after the day of Pentecost. And so the beginning of the church was totally Jewish Christians. They were Jewish believers, and they were from the Pentecostal day when they went back to their city after Pentecost. And so the Apostle Paul is wanting to help these Roman Jewish Christians understand their position, and this is very important, their position in Jesus Christ. And that's what is going to happen. Because you see, the arrogance of the Jew always believed that because they had the eternal creator God, and they had his revealed word, they were very special people. Much more special than you or I. And so the Apostle is going to try to come and help them to understand a couple of things. What he's going to try to help them understand is there is a great deal of difference between professing the law and practicing the law. There's a great deal of difference in knowing from memory, if you please, or many parts of the law, and being able to take those multiple parts of the law and put them into a daily practice of the law. And in fact, don't break your arm patting yourself on the back because you're a Christian. There's a great deal of difference between our profession as a Christian and our daily demonstration of our possession as a Christian. You got it? It's the same thing Paul's talking to these people in Rome. There's a great deal of difference between you saying you profess the law than there is in you saying you practice the law. Now you've got to remember one thing about what the book of Galatians said in chapter 3, in chapter 5, the book of Galatians said, no one can be saved by the law. The law never saved anyone. The only thing that saves an individual is faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. And that was why we can say, and Abraham by faith. It was faith that brought Abraham into the relationship with an eternal God, which later on developed, built the Jewish people of whom we are speaking today. So what we're going to do today is we're going to try to see how these Jewish people felt ultra superior to everyone else, even though their profession never really lined up with their practice. Pause. Again, don't beat yourself on the back and break your elbow. How many Christian people are proving their profession in relationship to their possession? So let's not criticize the Jews for not doing what we perhaps every day are not doing. Let me give you, for instance, how many of you have read the Bible today? Oh, you're going to be, well, you're going to be reading it now. But how many of you read the Bible every day? Sure. The majority of this class will read the Bible every day. We need to. It is commanded. Jesus said in the Great Commission, doing some of the things that I have commanded you. Correct? I don't think so. I think Jesus said doing all things that I have commanded you. Therefore, if the Jew says I'm a Jew because of the law, but I'm not keeping all the law, are you really a Jew? If you are possessing the law, professing the law, but not practicing the law, are you a Jew? Are you practicing some of the law? And the book of Galatians says if all of the law is not obeyed, you cannot have any of the law. Well, that's pretty tough, folks. Now, let me help you understand something about the Apostle Paul. Brother Jimmy and I both have a commitment to this class, and that commitment I have shared with you all for over 25 years. And I'm going to share that commitment with you one more time. I feel, Brother Jimmy feels, that our responsibility to you all is to do one thing. To prepare you to get to the place where when you read this Bible by yourself, you will understand it better. And that's been my commitment. You know that's been my commitment to you all, all these years, to help you understand the Word of God better. So therefore, Brother Jimmy and I oftentimes go in and out of some interesting things about which you have little or no information whatsoever, because he and I, and Dr. Mann and others, have been trained theologically. Therefore we are able to go in and out of some of these passages that we look at and understand from the Greek text and from the Hebrew text, that they're saying in English something which you might not understand they're saying in the original language. So on many occasions we attempt to help you understand what the original language is saying. And that's because we want you, when you come to a place where you need to, you can read the Bible better. Now let me share something with you. Paul was a magnificent student of the Old Testament. He was a rabbi. In fact, classical information from history of the Old Testament and the New Testament times indicate to us that Paul was probably the most knowledgeable and intelligent rabbi in the entirety of Judaism. He was very, very intelligent. He will tell you all later, and I'll show you what he was and who he was. Now the Apostle Paul was a great list maker, L-I-S-T, that's hard to say, if you're trying to say list, he was a great list maker. By the way, every Jew makes lists. Oh, hey ladies, why do you always give your husband a list when he goes to the store? So I have a prayer that he comes back with an extra one. So that you get back what you want to get back and not something easy. I mean, Barbara gives me a list and she still gets something she doesn't want. Because I'll run up and down the aisles and find things I want, and I'll bring it back and say, why did you get that? I didn't put that on there. Well, you see, lists are very important. By the way, I remember in college, I had a course one time, and he always gave one word fill in the blank questions on his exams. And I always took all of those words to the questions and I built me an acronym. And one day I was taking a test and the acronym was Blue Bird, B-R-D, not B-I-R-D, Blue Bird Cracklebit. Now, that's a stupid word, Blue Bird Crackle, C-R-A-K-L-E-B-I-T, Blue Bird Cracklebit. But if I could put Blue Bird Cracklebit, I could go up and fill in the blanks and then I could take his test and fill every, I made an A every time he gave a test because I made some stupid words with it. Can you imagine Blue Bird Cracklebit? But I passed the test, don't knock it. So lists are very important lists. Now Paul was probably the world's greatest list maker. If you don't believe it, go look at where he talks about in the book of Galatians, the works of the flesh. Also that's followed by the fruit of the spirit. All of these verses in the book of Galatians, all of them identify lists. The Apostle Paul says, and the works of the flesh are, and then he lists 19 things, adultery, immolation, thievery, all kinds of ugly stuff, and he lists 19 separate items. Then he comes to this statement, but the fruit of the spirit is, and he lists 9, love, joy, here comes the list. Okay? Now you've got to understand, this was typically Judaism. It's typically what the Jew does. They still do it, folks. It's more, it's easier to learn by a list than it is to learn any other way. They discovered that. Also Paul was one of the greatest teachers of the law. Now there is a teaching technique that the Apostle Paul will use in this chapter. You don't know what it is yet, but when I get through you'll know what it is, okay? It is called straw-dogging, S-T-R-A-W-D-A-S-H-D-O-G-G-I-N-G, straw-dogging. It's an educational approach to learning. It was developed first by the Chinese sometime in 4 BCE. Chinese teachers used it a lot. Now straw-dogging is a very simple, understandable kind of a principle. What you do is you set up a proposed set of principles, all of which can either be true or not true. It really doesn't matter. But you set up a group of principles, and you identify those group of principles as if they were absolutely true. But at the end of those groups of principles, then you come in with a conjunction or a conjunctual adverb. Now you say, what in the world are you talking about? Well, the major conjunction is the word, but, that's the conjunction. And we understand that when the word, but, comes in, everything that preceded it following is going to be what? Done away with. So oftentimes they will use the conjunction, but. But also, you have noticed that Brother Jim has talked about it, the word, therefore. Therefore is a conjunctual adverb. It means the same thing as but, okay? So anytime you run into those two words, you can understand that what's here is not going to be over here. What preceded the word is not going to be what follows it. And that was straw-dogging. They set up the principle. They came to a conjunction or a conjunctual adverb, and then they wiped it out. I want to show you one. I want you to turn with me to the book of Philippians. I want you to turn to the third chapter of the book of Philippians. And I want you to see something that the Apostle Paul does. I'm using this one because in the very first verse of our law study today, one of the major words up there is the word boast. You boast in the law. You remember I told you the Jews were arrogant? And the Jews boasted about how good they were and how bad everybody else was? And the Jews boasted that they had God, and they boasted that they had the law, and they boasted that they had the temple, and they boasted that they had sight. They bragged about everything. They were the biggest braggers in the entire world. And I want you to see what Paul does here. He is going to establish some straw-dogs. They may or may not be true. In this particular instance, every one of them is true. But every one of them might not be valuable. So as the Apostle Paul sets up those that are true, he will come to a conjunction, and at the end of the conjunction, you will see him wipe out all of what he had said before with something that is of much better value. I want you to listen to this passage. Verse 3, Chapter 3. For we are circumcised who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. By the way, Brother Jim, this was Johnny Beard's favorite scripture. I was talking with my pastor, John Beard, one day when I was working with him in Lake Jackson. I said, Brother Johnny, I just love you and Marty Bell so much. You're such a wonderful couple. He said, Jack, never put any faith in the flesh. Do not trust in the flesh. The arm of flesh shall what? Fail you. You dare not trust your own. Put on the gospel armor, each piece put on with prayer, and looking forth to Jesus, be never wanting there. Remember? Okay, this is where that verse comes from, 3.3. Now, following that, the Apostle Paul begins to put up his straw dogs. There are seven of them. Now watch this. Verse 3. I, though I might have confidence in the flesh, if anyone else thinks that he may have confidence in the flesh. Now, get ready. Paul's getting ready to brag. He's getting ready to be an arrogant Jew. Get ready. He says, if anybody should have confidence in the flesh, I should have confidence in the flesh. Yet, I just told you, don't put confidence in the flesh, but if anyone should have it, I should have it. Listen, he said, because I more so. Verse 5. Circumcised in the eighth day, number one. Stock of Israel, number two. Tribe of Benjamin, number three. A Hebrew of Hebrews, number four. Concerning the law, Pharisee. Wow. Paul's bragging. Do you realize what I am? I was circumcised on the eighth day. And not only that, I'm the stock of Israel. Man, I am it. You understand? And I was of the tribe of Benjamin. Now, that word may not mean anything to you all, but if you go back and study the Old Testament, and if you study about this little bitty tribe of Benjamin, you'll understand something about Benjamin, why Paul uses it here. He was a Benjamite. Oh, by the way, just in passing, Saul, the first king of Israel, was a Benjamite. He was of the tribe of Benjamin as well. Now, the reason Paul uses the tribe of Benjamin here is, what you don't know is that the tribe of Benjamin was almost wiped out of all of its male counterparts because they did something very disastrous when they were trying to conquer the land of Canaan. Because of that, the children of Israel turned on the tribe of Benjamin, and they killed every male except 600 of them. And finally the 600 ran off and hid, and finally the Israelites realized they can't kill them all because the tribe will die, there'll be no way to propagate that trial, they let the men come back, and Benjamin became one of the smallest tribes. But during the time of the division of the kingdoms, when the northern kingdoms separated from the southern kingdom under Jeroboam and Rehoboam, initially Benjamin went with the northern kingdom. But realizing what they had done, they came back into the southern kingdom. And later on, they became enveloped into, or absorbed into, Judah along with Simeon. So there were three of the tribes in the southern kingdom, Benjamin, Judah, and Simeon. And they were absorbed in there, and they came back because they realized that Judah and God were going to be on the same side. And because of that, a lot of people who were of the tribe of Benjamin bragged about the fact that they were Benjaminites. That's why Paul mentions it here. Hebrew of Hebrews, tribe of Benjamin. Concerning the law? Pharisee. Now, ladies and gentlemen, a Pharisee could quote the entire law by heart. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. And at any point you could say to them, what does that book say in that particular statement? And they could quote it for you. That's how well they knew the law. They could quote the entire law. So if you want to talk about the law, I was a Pharisee. I knew every word of the law. Concerning zeal, I persecuted the church. Concerning righteousness, I had righteousness in the law. I was blameless. Now, look what begins verse 7. But, now watch this, here are these seven straw dogs, all of which are true, all of which are valuable, right, for a Jew. But watch what Paul does now. He gets the seventh one, he set them up here, all these little straw dogs, and he's getting ready to wipe them out. Watch how he puts more value into what he wipes out than he had put into the original seven watch. But, what things were gained to me, these I counted lost for Christ, but indeed I also count all things lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered loss of all things, and count all of what I was as rubbish, cow dung, that I may gain Christ, and being found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness of which is from God my faith. What did he do to the seventh? One failed swoop, he wiped them all out. Now, why was he doing that with Slippi? Do you have any idea why he was doing it with Slippi? Now he does another one that I'll tell you about, and I'll put the scriptural passage in your book. It's 1 Corinthians 15, talking about if there be no resurrection from the dead. The Apostle Paul does a beautiful straw dogging on that one, if there be no resurrection from the dead. Look at it sometimes in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, beginning with about verse 9 or 10, and you'll see another straw dogging, if there be no resurrection from the dead, the dead rise not up. If there be no resurrection from the dead, there be no resurrection from the dead, we're still in our sin. If there be no resurrection from the dead, the dead rise not up. If there be no resurrection from the dead, we are all men stupid. Paul said, sons of dogs, you hear him? But then he comes to the end of that, he says, but Christ is risen from the dead. See, you get the picture. If you don't understand how these rabbis talk, you won't understand chapter 2 in the book of Romans. That's why I'm taking this time to help you understand how they talk. That was called straw dogging. And you just heard the Apostle Paul wipe out everything that he had encountered as a Jew, and he counted it as loss for the ultimate, extreme supremacy of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's much better than all of these laws, all right? Now you understand straw dogging. By the way, a lot of teachers do this. I had a professor at UNT when I was doing my second degree up there. I was doing a business administration degree, and we were working on bumpers for ocean piers and for ports. And we were learning how you build a bumper so that you can bring your ship up against the port and not ruin your ship. And I remember he gave us 10 companies that built bumpers for ports, and we had to study all 10 companies, and then we had to come in and prove which of the 10 were the better. And then he put all 10 up there, and in one failed swoop, guess what he did? He wiped out all 10 of them. And then he presented us the one that he thought was the best. Okay. End of the chapter. Chapter 2, Book of Romans, verse 17. Indeed, now watch the straw dogs. He is going to put up here 12 straw dogs before he gets to where he says, therefore. Now, kind of interesting. In the Philippian letter, he puts up 7 straw dogs. In the Corinthian letter, he puts up 7 straw dogs. If there be no resurrection from that, if there be no resurrection, he puts up 7. In Philippians and in Corinthians, he puts up 7. Here he puts up 12. These two numbers are very important in Judaism. 7 is an extremely important number because that was the days of the week that God created the heavens and the earth. And the seventh day was the day of rest. 7 is a very important number in the kingdom of eternal God. 12 is a very important number. How many tribes were there? How many disciples were there? Come on, get your head in the book. Look at these numbers. And so back in those two, he gave us 7, which is a holy number. And this one, he's going to give us 12. Look at them. And by the way, I do have them listed for you in your notes so you don't... In fact, I numbered each one of them for you so that you'll be able to see them in your notes. And when you read, you can just have it. So let's start talking with verse 17. Indeed, you're called a Jew. That's number one. Indeed, you're called a Jew. What does that mean? Well, that simply means they took great pride in that name. By the way, I love Jimmy's by the way. Don't you like his by the way? Thank you, Jim. I like the by the way. I use it a lot. By the way, do you know where the word Jew came from? Hello, good morning. You all know where the word Jew came from? No. It came from the Exodus. It came from the tribe of Judah. And when they got into the wilderness, all of the tribe of Judah were called Jews. And that's where the name first came from. Now, when the northern kingdom was totally destroyed, and the only thing that was left was the southern kingdom, Judah, then everybody was a Jew. Okay, so now they're all Jews. Do you have the answer? No. I thought you had a question. I said, oh gosh, I got a question. Okay, Jews. All right, watch the arrogance. Not everybody was a Jew, folks. Now, Paul's setting up his straw dogs, and they were, they had private name. They hid behind it. They hid behind the name rather than profess it. If you talk to them, I'm a Jew. And if that, you know, I used to do when I was, before I was saved, and some of my Baptist friends would come up to me and try to witness to me in Christ, I'd look at them and say, don't talk to me, I'm a Catholic. And generally the same thing, I was, I was just like a Jew. Don't talk to me, I'm a Catholic. These people say, don't talk to me, I'm a Jew. They took pride in the name. They hid behind it. A lot of things they did. That's number one. Number two, you rest in the law. There's the second dog. You rest in the law. The only nation in the entire world that had the law. The only nation in the entire world that had the word of God. The only nation in the world that had a one God. They were the only monotheist in the world. Hey, that's pretty something to be arrogant about. We are the it. We are the it. Beyond us, there are no more it. We're it. Okay. Number three. Not only were you in the law, but you made your boast in God. You didn't boast just because of who you were. You boasted in God because God, God loved the Jews more than he loved anybody else. Do you all know God loved the Jews more than he loved us Gentiles? Because he gave them the law. Now, I didn't say that. They said it. They said God loves us more because he gave us the law. We can boast in God because of who he is and who we are. So we're going to boast in him. Number four. You know his will. These other monotheists had all kinds of God. They never knew any will. And now Paul is saying, look at these things. And by the way, ladies and gentlemen, all these things are true. And all of them are good. Except for one thing. They don't lead to redemption. They don't lead to salvation. Nobody was ever saved by the law. Okay. Now, the Jews thought they were. And they bragged about it. Number four. You know his will. They were recipients of God's will, but didn't understand it. They had his will. They didn't understand his will. Also, they approved things that were excellent. Oh, we're going to talk to you about things that are excellent. We don't commit adultery. We don't steal. We don't lie. We don't bear false witness. We don't murder. You hear? Watch what's going to happen later. Okay. So, you know, we know his will. We know how he wants us to operate. And by that, number five, they approved the things that were excellent. It's excellent not to kill. It's excellent not to commit adultery. It's excellent not to murder. They proved all that. Number six. They were instructed from God. They were instructed from the law. No other nation had that instruction. Can you get superiority proud by not having that instruction? And number seven. They were confident as guides to the blind. You remember what Jesus said about that? He looked at the Pharisees one day when he was talking to them in the temple. And he said, you blind guides. You remember? See, they thought they were. They thought that they were guides to the blind. And they also knew that the true and living God was on their side. He wasn't on anybody else's side. And also, they were a light to the blind. They were teachers of the children. Not only were they teachers of the children, they also were instructors to the foolish. You foolish polytheists. You have all of these gods running around. You have all of these little figures. You have all these little figurines. You have all these rocks. You have all these sticks. You have a bunch of idiots. Don't you understand? You are foolish following these little sticks and these little figurines and these little gods. And last, it said, and number 11. They had form of knowledge. Now, in the form of knowledge, most did not fulfill the law. In fact, none of them fulfilled the law. All of them had some knowledge of it, but not enough to fulfill it. Number 12. Knowing the truth and the law, they became Jewish moralists. Do you understand the difference between a redeemed person and a moral person? Ladies and gentlemen, there are a lot of good people in this world. And there are a lot of good people who are extremely moral. And there are a lot of good people who would not do some things as a Christian some of us might do. They had a great morality, but they're lost. They're without Christ. They're without the redemption in the Lord Jesus. They're great moralists. I know a lot of people who are moralists. Most all of your infidels and most all of your atheists are moral people. They attempt to be moral, but morality never saved anyone. And so what he's saying here is these people became Jewish moralists. Now, that's number 12. There are the dogs. Now watch what Paul does. He's getting ready to pull this rabbinical trick on you. He says, therefore, oh, what did I tell you was that? What's the other word on the other side of but? Therefore. And as I've said to you and Brother Jimmy has said to you, every time you run into a therefore, stop and see what it is there for. Okay, this one is there in order to help you understand that what was said since verse 17 was moral goodness and of great value. But what is going to be said after those statements of fact is going to be of better esteem and of more value. You see, it was a more value for Paul to say, I have become nothing. I have counted. Everything is lost. I count everything that I did as a Pharisee and a Jew and a leader and a teacher. I count all of it as cow dung in order that I might receive the very best value that I might know him and the power of his suffering and the fellowship of power of his glory and the fellowship of his suffering being made conformable unto death. The Apostle Paul said this is more superior than the law because this can save you. The law cannot. Watch what he says. You who say you do not commit adultery. Do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols. Don't you rob temples? Whoa, look at all these things getting falling. Look at all these straw dogs falling. Now, this particular verse, you rob temples, is kind of a little difficult to interpret. I ran into several interpretations. The best one I ran into was that a lot of Jewish people in Rome visiting some of the Roman polytheistic temples, seeing little bitty, very expensive figurines that were in there to be worshipped by these Roman people who could accidentally come out the door. And would you believe, find some of those in their pocket? Paul had seen them do it. He saw some of his Jewish Roman friends stealing little figurines out of these temples. They were taking stuff that didn't belong to them. They were robbing temples. They were taking these, later on putting them on the open market and selling them for a gain. That's what he means there. He says, you say that you abhor idols. Don't you steal idols and sell them? He says, you who make your boast about the law, you dishonor God through breaking of the law. You say you have the law, but you break it. Then he says, for the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because the name of God is cursed among the Gentiles because they see what you're doing. They see that you are the exact opposite of what you profess to be. A long time ago, when Baptists didn't do much dancing, Brother Ginny. We did a lot of skating, but we didn't do much dancing. The story was that there was a couple and they danced one night, a high school dance. The young man was a Christian. The young lady was not. And he was dancing with her at the high school dance. And he was witnessing to her as he was dancing with her. And he was telling her about Jesus Christ. And she stopped dancing. And she looked at him and she said, are you a Christian? To which he said, yes. She stepped back and she said, then what are you doing on this dance floor and walked off? He says, you dishonor God through breaking the law. For circumcision is indeed profitable. He has just taken in these verses from therefore through verse 24. He has totally wiped out all 12 of the valuable portions of the law. Now, I'm going to stop here because I need to pick up at the next verse next Sunday, because the next verse actually flows from this chapter into chapter three. And as we move through this, we're going to start talking about the Jews now have backed up. Now, have you noticed in all of the 12? He only said one thing about the Jew. Did you notice he didn't say anything about circumcision? Did you notice that Paul did not put any of the 12 as the word circumcision? Because actually circumcision was not in it was in it was not in the law. It was given to Moses and it was carried on as the sign of faith. The sign of faith for a Jewish person is circumcision. It is to remind that Jewish male, because he has been circumcised, that he is to practice faith. It is an incentive. The circumcision was an incentive to practice faith. And as they would go their way and they would remember that as a Jew, they profess faith in God and that faith was demonstrated in an outward show, which was called circumcision. So at this point, the Apostle Paul understands what the Jewish mind is going to ask. And here's what I want you to understand about it. The Jewish mind at this point is going to say, OK, Paul, you've identified all of this that's in the law, all these 12 statements that you made. But what about circumcision? You haven't said anything about circumcision. So, Paul, even though we may be arrogant in the law and you have said that all of our arrogance is worth nothing and you have demonstrated that it's worth nothing, we understand, Paul, that you're saying that our pride is worth nothing in the law. But, Paul, what about circumcision? Isn't it kind of interesting how this comes up here? And Paul is knowing, he knows that all these Jewish Christians are in the back of their mind saying, Paul, we understand what you did to the law, but what about circumcision? And so next Sunday, we will begin with verse 25 and we will flow right into chapter three, because chapter three is a continuum of chapter two. And as I said, Jerome should not have put a chapter break here. He should have let it just flow right on in into the next one. So next week, we're going to look, first of all, at circumcision, which, by the way, as we move to the end of chapter three, we're going to come to a conclusion. If the Gentile is guilty without the law, if the Jew is guilty with the law, then some people are guilty, right? Well, tell me, all people are guilty. Therefore, the scripture says, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Chapter three, we will go there because that's a beautiful passage. It's a great vision. It's a great Greek picture, fallen short of the glory of God. We will go there next week because Paul is going to talk about you and me. He's going to tell you and me that we have not been circumcised in the flesh, but we have been circumcised in the heart. And ladies and gentlemen, when the Holy Spirit came into your life on the day that you were saved, you and I were circumcised in the heart. And with the heart, man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth, confession is made to salvation. Therefore, whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. You got it? With the heart, circumcised heart, the heart of circumcision. Isn't it wonderful? Isn't the word of God wonderful? Isn't it wonderful to understand? Now, every time you run into one of these dogs, talk straw dog, and by the way, Paul does it all through his epistles. Now you know what he's doing. He's doing an old rabbinical approach where he sets up the straw dogs and then he wipes them out. And the wipe out is more valuable than the setup. And that's what you've got to remember. So as you study the word of God and you run into one of Paul's straw dogs, you'll understand what he's doing. Let's pray and thank God for his magnanimous word. Amen. Thank you, God, for the way you love us in Jesus Christ. Thank you, Father, that you have circumcised our heart through the power of the Holy Spirit. Thank you for all that day you brought him into our heart and our hearts were changed. Our hearts were broken. We have the dunamite of God. We have the dynamite of God. The dunamis that blew our hearts apart and put into place the power of the Holy Spirit with a new heart, a heart that had been circumcised by the Holy Spirit. By you, by Jesus Christ. Because we know that you and Christ and the Holy Spirit are three in one. And we love you because of it. Thank you, Father, for circumcising our heart and bringing us into the kingdom of God by one simple word, by faith. And it's by faith, Father, that we trust you. And it's by faith, Father, that we live in you. And it is through faith, Father, that we will go to you in the final days of this eternity. And we pray that and thank you for it in Jesus' name. Amen. Everybody greet John and Mandy and everybody greet our other friends, would you please? See you next Sunday.