 recording is on. All right, good morning everyone. Welcome to today's class on Wednesday. We have two lectures on our journey through Romans. Time to just study the scriptures, the verse by verse, and see what the Lord has revealed here. Let's take a moment just to pray and we'll get started. I just want to invite somebody, please, pray with us as a class and we will get started. Anyone can unmute you, Mike, and please pray. Thank you for your grace and your mercy over us. We thank you for your goodness, Lord. We submit the rest of the today's lecture into your hands. Jesus, even as we learn from your word, help us understand Holy Spirit. Do be your word beautifully to us, I pray, in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. All right, thank you. All right, so we're in Romans chapter 2. We are journeying through the book of Romans chapter by chapter, reading it verse by verse, and trying truth out of that. So just a quick review. Romans chapter 2. What we have seen earlier is that, you know, Paul is writing to the believers in Rome, and by this time, the congregation of the church in Rome is made up of believers who are both Jews and Gentiles. So initially, of course, it was started by, you know, there were many predominantly Jewish believers because they were the ones who were impacted in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. They headed back to Rome. But then, you know, over time, we have Gentile believers as well. And by the time Paul is writing, it is very likely that the leadership of the church of the church in Rome, many leaders would have been Gentile believers. But you also have Jewish believers. So in chapter 2, you know, so Paul, of course, this, this episode is written to the church in Rome, meaning it's to both Jews and Gentiles. But in chapter 2, he's really addressing Jewish believers, meaning believers who've come from the strong background of the law of the circumcision. And now they are, they have embraced Christ. How do you speak to them? How do you explain things to them? Right? And so, in the initial starting of chapter 2, he is really Paul. So if I want to summarize chapter 2, and we're going to read through chapter 2, read through it first by first, but if you look at chapter 2, Paul, it's almost like, you know, he's very logically addressing these Jewish believers. And he's saying, okay, you have the law, but if you don't keep the law, it's of no use. So these people were, you know, taking so much pride. We have the law, we have the covenants or circumcision, which is a sign of the covenant. We have, we have people of the law. We have people, you know, who have circumcision as a sign of the covenant with God. But Paul needs to drive home to them that if you're a teacher of the law, but you don't keep the law, it's pointless. And you can be excited that you have the law and that you can teach the law. This is what is the right thing to do. And this is what I must avoid. But if you don't keep the law, then it is pointless. Then, because God is going to judge us, according to, you know, and he tells us how not the judgment of God is, you know, that's another theme we see in chapter 2, the judgment of good power is going to judge us. And he highlights that. And then he also says, look, the Gentiles, they don't have the law, they don't have the written law. God has given them a conscience, which is the law of God in their hearts. So for them, there's something inside them telling them what is right is what is wrong, conscience. But then he Paul is very clear and we will see in this chapter that eventually everyone, whether true or Gentile, they'll be judged by God according to the gospel of Jesus Christ. So we will see that he points, he's very clear about that. And then towards the closing part of this chapter, he addresses the issue of circumcision. So he says, you know, the Jews, you know, initially, he addressed the issue of the law, you have the law, wonderful, but if you don't keep the law, it's no use. The Gentiles, they have the conscience, which is God's law in their hearts. And eventually, everybody's going to be judged by the gospel. And then he says, okay, circumcision, that's another thing that makes the Jews very proud that we have circumcision, the sign of circumcision. And then Paul says, look, there is something more important than this physical circumcision. But God really is interested is in the circumcision of the heart. That means a real Jew is somebody whose heart has been circumcised towards God. So and then, you know, basically in chapter two, he's trying to tell them, look, neither Jew, both Jew and Gentile, are falling short, are sinners before God, which he gets into chapter three, are sinners before God, and fall short of God's righteous standards. So that's what he's building up to. But you know, it's very interesting to see how he develops the thought, right. So we had covered the initial part of chapter two. We will just quickly maybe read verses one through 11, just to refresh your memory, just read Romans chapter two, one through 11, and then we will kind of go forward from there. Romans two, one through 11, somebody could just read it, just to refresh our memory. Romans two, one through 11. Therefore, you are incusable, O man, whoever you are, who judge for in whatever you judge, another you condemn yourself, for you, who judges, practice the same thing. But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things. And do you think this, O man, you have you who judge those are practicing such things and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you dispel the riches of his goodness, forbearance and long suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance, but the accordance with the hand, with the hardness and your impenitent heart, you are preaching up for yourself, what in the day of water and revelation of the righteous, righteous judgment of God, who will render to each one according to his deeds, eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing could seek for glory, honor and immorality, but to those who are immortality, but to those who are self seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and what tribulation and angry on every soul of man who does evil of the Jew, first and also of the Greek, but glory, honor and peace to everyone who was what is good to the Jew, first and also to the Greek, for there is no partiality with God for as many as have Till verse 11. Yeah, thank you. All right. Thank you. So just to quickly review what Paul has explained here is if you are having the law, you're judging others, you know, so you know what is right and wrong. You can teach others what is right and wrong. And you can also judge others. You can condemn what is wrong. Because you know, you don't know, you know what's right, what's wrong. So if somebody does something wrong, you can point it out, you can condemn. But he says if you are doing that, but you yourself are not practicing the same things, then don't think you can escape the judgment of God. So he's really talking directly to the Jews, don't think you can escape the judgment of God. And you must also understand verse four, we highlighted this last week. It's the goodness of God that leads people to repentance. So we must keep that in mind, you know, as we work with people, of course, we know what's right and what's wrong. We those of us who know the word of God, we know what's right and what's wrong. And we can be quick to point out what is wrong. But don't forget that the goodness of God leads people to repentance. And that doesn't mean we condone sin. That's not it. But we be gracious to people. I love them because it's God's goodness that leads them to repentance. And then he says there was five through 11, you know, regardless of whether you're Jew or Gentile, God is a righteous God, his judgment is righteous. You know, that's verse five and the verse five, the righteous judgment of God is a righteous judge, an impartial judge. And he's going to judge everybody. According to their deeds, that's worth six, you know, according to what you do. He's also going to judge us according to what we're seeking, you know, are you seeking for glory, honor, immortality? You know, what are you seeking? Right. And so he says, those who are doing what's right, and you are seeking the truth, they will be judged righteously. And they will end and those who are doing wrong, they will also be judged. And twice in verse nine and verse 10, he says to the Jew first and also to the Greek. The reason he says to the Jew first is because the Jews were given the law. Right. So they have it first. But the Greeks, the Gentiles, when he says Greeks, we mentioned last week, he's referring to the Gentiles, they will also be judged. And then from verse 12, through verse 16, he's talking about how everybody's going to be judged. So he says, you know, there is the law, of course, the Jews have the law, verse 12. Those the Gentiles are without the law. But the Gentiles, by nature, do the things that are accepted by the law. How do they do that? Verse 15, the law is written in their hearts. The conscience is telling them what's right and wrong. So we said the conscience and be closed with this last week. The conscience is an alternate for the law of God. So they may not have the commandments, the 10 commandments, they may not have it written down for them. But in their hearts, they know, it's not good to steal. It's not good to kill, commit murder. It's not good to commit adultery. It's not good to covet. What is not yours? They know. How do they know? It's the conscience. It's the law that's written inside them. But then he concludes in verse 16. In the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel. So notice how he concludes, God is going to judge the secrets of man. I mean, everything, everything's going to be judged. He's going to judge it according to my gospel. That means the judgment of God, which is the righteous judgment, which is an impartial judgment, which is judgment according to the truth, will be done according to the gospel of Jesus Christ, not according to the law, not according to conscience, but according to the gospel. Now I want to emphasize that because, you know, a big question many, many people have is, what happens to those who do not hear the gospel? What happens? How will God judge them? Will God judge them? So what we have, what Paul has explained to us so far in chapter one and chapter two is that there are people who have the law, so they know what's right, what's wrong. And then there are people who don't have the law, but every person has two things. Every person has reason, which we saw in chapter one. In chapter one, he said, nobody's without excuse, because God has given evidence through his creation. And two people can reason, they can look at it and say, there is a creator, because look at his creation, the invisible attributes of God are revealed in his creation. And then secondly, he's telling us every person to our Gentile has a conscience. The Jews have the written law, but the Gentiles have a conscience. So there are two things inside every person, reason and conscience that are directing us, that are convicting us, telling us that there is a God, I need to seek after this true God. And every person seeks after the true living God, God is going to, you know, in some way bring the gospel to that person. But if somebody completely dies, lives their entire life, complete life, and they never hear the gospel, what will happen to them? True, they have a conscience. True, they have reason. And maybe they reason and their conscience that there is a living God, you have to seek for him. But they never hear about Jesus Christ, and they die. What about them? Well, we can state these two things. One, we know according to verse 16, everybody is going to be judged according to the gospel. So there is no excuse, but the Jew or Gentile, everybody's going to be judged according to the gospel. That's one thing we know and we cannot change that. Does God have, will God have another way to judge people who have never heard, never heard the gospel? Does God have another way to do it? Not as far as scriptures tell us. So what I want to put forward to us is that we shouldn't come up with some alternate options because the scriptures don't present that. The scriptures just say, look, God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ. I'm looking at verse 16, according to the gospel. That's all we know. There is no alternate option available. So from Romans to keep this in mind so far, there is law, there is conscience, there is gospel. The conscience is an alternate to the law, telling people what's right and wrong. The reason and conscience serve to convict people and direct them to seeking God. But everybody will be judged according to the gospel. As far as we know, there's no other option. What I want to request that we do not do is, we should not and come to the conclusion that the conscience is an alternate to the gospel. Because sometimes you might hear some people say that. They'll say, well, for those who've never heard the gospel, Paul has said here that the conscience is bearing witness and it's the law of God in the heart. So maybe God will judge them according to their conscience. Now that is a wrong conclusion, I feel, because he is clearly telling us in verse 16 that people will be judged according to the gospel. And what is the gospel? They live in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. And without Christ there is no salvation, there is no other name given under heaven among men by which we can be saved. So we should not conclude that the conscience, the God would use the conscience as a replacement for the gospel for those who have not heard the gospel. That's a wrong conclusion. We just say goodbye by the gospel is God's standard for everybody and that's why we need to proclaim the gospel. We need to share the gospel, let people know about the gospel. Okay, so that ends us to end of verse 16, kind of where we stopped last class. Any questions so far on what we have just, you know, just gone through so far? Any questions? All right, there are no questions. So we pick up in verse 17 Romans chapter 2 verse 17 and let's read through verse 24. Romans chapter 2 verse 17 through 2 verse 24. Could somebody read that for us please? Shall I read? Shall we give somebody another chance, someone else a chance? Romans 2, 17 to 24. Thomas? Accelerate. God, thank God. Okay, go ahead. Yeah, you can go ahead. Okay, behold, God called a dew and rested in the law and make it by boast of God and knows his will and approves the things that are more excellent being instructed out of the law and are confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes which has the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law. Thou therefore which teaches another teaches thou not thyself, thou that preaches a man should not steal, thus thou steal. Thou that says a man should not commit adultery, thus thou commit adultery, thou that arrest irons, thus thou commit scarlet, scarlet, thou that makest thy boast of the law through breaking the law, dishonorous thou God. For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through youth as it is written. So this is a strong rebuke to the Jews. He's saying, you know, Jews, we know you are resting on the law. This is verse 70. I'm looking at verse 70. You are, you know, resting in the law, you rely on the law and you're boasting in God and also the Jews say, hey, we got the law. We have it all written down for us here. This is what we are, you know, counting on and we are boasting in God and we know verse 18, we know his will, we can tell you what is right, what is wrong and we have all been taught by the law. Very good. But he says, look, how come you're all doing the same thing? Right? You are telling people, don't steal, you're stealing. You're, you know, and he goes through those things. You see, yourself are doing the things that you have learned from the law, which you're not supposed to do. You're telling others, don't do it, but you yourself are doing it. So, really, it's, it's lead, you know, Paul is building up the case here to tell the Jews that Jews, it is true that you have the law. It is true that you know the law, you have been instructed of the law, you know what is approved by God. All of it is true, but you're also breaking the law. So, he's building that case. And he's actually even quoting from the Old Testament prophet, that's verse 24, he's saying the name of God is blaspheme because, you know, you're doing exactly opposite of what the law says and what you're even teaching others, doing exactly the opposite. And then verse 25 to 29, like we said earlier, he not only addresses the issue of the law, but he now goes into the issue of circumcision because that's another thing the Jewish people are very proud of, right, which is a sign of the covenant with God. So, he addresses that, okay. So, let's read verse 25 to 29. Let me look at that. Could, yeah, Thomas, you want to read that now? Yeah, for circumcision is indeed profitable. If you keep them, but if you are a breaker of the law, the circumcision will become un-circumcised. Therefore, an un-circumcised man keeps the righteous of the law, will not feel un-circumcised as a circumcision, and will not be physical un-circumcised if he fulfills the law, judge you. Even with your written code and circumcision, the aggressor of the law, for he is not a Jew, who is one outwardly, nor is a circumcision, that is which is not in the flesh, but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit that whose praise is not from man, but from God. So, now he is addressing another part, which, thank you, Thomas, he is addressing another part, which Jews are very proud of. He says, look, the Jews, they say, verse 25, you know, we are circumcised, and that's another big thing, and of course, circumcision is a sign of the covenant with God, which they have physically, and he says, look, even if you have circumcision, but you're breaking the law, you're not doing the right things, then the circumcision, which is a physical sign of your covenant with God, amongst another thing, because he says, look, the un-circumcised, that is the Gentile, if the un-circumcised keeps the law, or does the things that is right, then shouldn't we say that, look, his un-circumcision is as good as him being circumcised, because he is keeping the law, he is doing what's right before God. So, then he says, verse 28, 29, you know, what really matters is not the circumcision of the flesh, what really matters is not the physical circumcision, but really he's saying the circumcision of the heart, now that circumcision of the heart is talking about, you know, a change of heart, God takes out the heart of stone, and he puts in the heart of flesh, so they understand that it has to deal with an inward change, so he says, that is what is really important, not the physical circumcision of the flesh, okay, and so he's really building this up now, so you can imagine a Jew saying, look, I have no options, one, I'm not able to keep the law, and so just having the law or having circumcision doesn't amount to anything, because I have failed before God, and I don't meet up to the righteous judgment of God, so through chapter two he has come built up so far, and he's going to continue on in chapter three. Now, I just want to highlight, you know, in the lecture notes we have, we have a couple of things that we have highlighted, and I'll just quickly go through it, it's slightly different from how I have presented it, so in the lecture notes, so let me just share my screen, so we just look at that, because there are some smaller side studies that are there useful to look at, so let's just do that, right, so I'm just sharing my lecture notes with us, all right, so chapter two, so what we say is positively challenging the attitudes of Jews towards Gentiles, right, so we have mentioned this, and we've summarized, you know, what are his main arguments, he says, you know, if you're judging others, you've got to hold yourself to the same standards, if you judge others and you practice the wrong, then you cannot escape God's judgment, it's God's goodness that leads us to repentance, God's judgment is without partiality to the Jewish Christian, to the Greek, those who have the law, God will judge according to the law, those, God has his own way to judge those outside the law, and you know, and Paul says, look, you have the written law, but this is of no use if you break the law and you don't keep the law, right, now here are some other summaries that I've done from this chapter, which may be of interest, Paul presents an understanding of God's judgment in this chapter, so we can see, you know, how does God judge, and if you will look through the chapter, you'll find this, first he's going to, God judges according to truth, that's Romans 2-2, then he judges righteous judgment, Romans 2-5, and then in Romans 2-11 we see judges without partiality, and Romans 2-16 we said he judges according to the Gospel, so as far as God's judgment, this is how God will judge according to truth, which is the word of God, righteous judgment without partiality and according to the Gospel. What does God judge, what are the things that God looks at when he is judging people, again you can see an interesting thing in Romans chapter 2, he says God will judge us for our deeds, what we do, he will judge us for our desires, what we seek after, and he also judges according to what drives us, that is our motives, so our deeds, our desires, and our drives, what motivates us, these three things, so God is going to judge that, so it's not just the deeds, but also the desires and the motivations, the drives, or the things that inspire us, in the part of us which many times we don't look at, and Paul, you know, he, for example in 1 Corinthians 4 and verse 5, he once again says that when the Lord comes he will reveal the council of the hearts, the council meaning the motives, the purposes of the heart, and God will judge us based on that, what God judges, and when will he judge, you know, twice, you know, Paul in Romans 2 indicates that there's going to be a day of wrath, or the day when God will judge, so there is an appointed day, and of course we see this in other places, Acts 17 verse 31, he has appointed a day on which he will judge the world, so just a little study on the judgment of God, you know, how will God will judge, what does he judge, and when does he judge, just we see these in Romans 2, another interesting study you can do from Romans 2 is on the conscience, so we have explained that, you know, we see in Romans 2 that the conscience is presented to us as the law which is built into every person, so that is the conscience, it is a function of the human spirit, the conscience, and it's the human spirit which is like programmed with the law of God, so to speak, and so the human spirit is telling the person, you know, this is right, this is wrong conscience, so it's good to kind of, I mean, just do a little study on that, so it's a built-in judiciary system that is within every person, and one of the things the conscience does is it convicts us, and you know, we can see one example here in John 8 when, you know, these people came to condemn this woman who was caught in adultery, and Jesus says, you know, whoever is without sin, you throw the first stone, the scriptures say here, they were convicted by their own conscience, so their own conscience is telling them, you know, hey, you're not perfect, you know, this is this is God's standards and so on, so the conscience convicts, that's one of the things the conscience does, it convicts a person, saved or unsaid, but when you have any study in the scriptures about the conscience, so here I make that comment that, you know, we should be careful not to say that the conscience replaces the gospel, I have explained that, and yeah, I also explained about both reason and conscience, two things within every person, so we need to study on the conscience in scripture, this is just a side, you know, study, you know, we can see in scripture, you know, the Bible talks about a good conscience, that means the conscience is functioning properly, it's fine-tuned, it's serving its God-intended purpose to tell a person what's right, what's wrong, but and so there's conscience with that offense, that means it hasn't been violated in any way, it's been protected, it's a pure conscience, clear, no offense in it, but then we also see other things that Paul talks about, he talks about a weak conscience or a seared conscience or a defiled conscience, and then in Hebrews it talks about an evil conscience, that means, you know, when we start out, we started with a good conscience, I mean the conscience is in the way God intended to be, it's good, it's without offense, it's pure, but over time, if we are not careful, you know, the conscience could become weak, that means it's no longer having a strong voice in the person to give him a conviction of what's right and what's wrong, it's become a weak conscience, it could be a seared conscience, meaning it's now almost dead, you know, and then it could be even a defiled conscience, now it's thinking wrong, so it's gone from a, you know, a conscience that is pure and good to becoming a conscience that is totally opposite, meaning it's conscience, the conscience is permitting them to do things evil, you know, so it's gone to that state, so what we can, you know, conclude from this little study on the conscience is that it's possible for a conscience to go from the God's original state to a state that is completely defiled, that it's dead and defiled, meaning it's no longer serving its original good function, but it is actually encouraging the person to do things that are wrong, it's a defiled conscience and then, yeah, we talked a little bit about circumcision, the circumcision sign is the sign of the covenant, but what's more important is circumcision of the heart, so that's just a quick walkthrough in the notes that we've put so, we'll just take a few moments for questions from chapter two, right, I see Kiran's question, what about those who do not hear the Gospel and have died, yeah, so that's where Kiran, we have said that the only thing the Bible does reveal to us is that everyone will be judged according to the Gospel, we don't see an alternate approach, an alternate option in God's judgment, and so we have no right to introduce something that we come up with, now we'll just stay with the word, if God is going to do something different that's completely his choice, but as far as the scriptures are saying everybody's going to be judged according to the Gospel, so we will stay with that, right, okay, any other questions from chapter two, is it clear, is chapter two, is Paul's, you know, writing and thinking here, chapter two very clear, he's addressing the Jews, he's telling them, you know, he's really showing them that look and eventually he's going to say all I've said, you know, that's what he's building up to, so Paul shares on, sorry, yeah, when Paul shares on circumcision, is this like what he shares in Romans in this chapter, is this also the reason why, like in Acts 16 I think he encourages Timothy to get circumcised, but later, sorry, he, he does not encourage Titus to get circumcised, I think the dialogue goes back and forth in other letters also, no, that he writes, but is this like the core of it or the reason? Well, over here, Paul is letting them know that what the physical circumcision is really amounting to nothing if they don't keep the law and he's letting them know there is, what really is important is the circumcision of the heart, right, so that's what we're saying here, but yes, there is the, another very important side to circumcision which, which I don't, personally, I don't see it connected to this, what Paul is saying here, he is, you know, in one sense, yes, it is connected because it is circumcision, but in this case, he is telling them that look, I mean, in this chapter, what he is really driving at is he's telling the Jews, your circumcision amounts to nothing. The other debate that we see happen in the book of Acts is that it actually happens in Acts 15, so what has happened is, at the end of their first missionary journey, Paul Barnabas, they've brought a lot of Gentiles to the faith, but the Gentiles are believers along with Jewish believers, so they're all together, so now, at that time, especially in the early stages of the church, because there were so many, many Jewish believers, everybody thought, look, you're joining this form of today's, which is embracing Jesus of Nazareth, and you need to be circumcised, so the other issue was, do Gentiles need to be circumcised? That is the big issue, which came on in the church as the church began to expand, so the issue is about circumcision, but the issue is, do Gentiles need to be circumcised? Here, the subject is circumcision, but he's addressing Jews who are already circumcised and letting them know that their circumcision really doesn't mean anything if they don't keep the law, so it is the same subject, circumcision, but it's coming from two different sites. The debate that took place in the church was, do Gentiles need to be circumcised? So then what happened is, in Acts of Thine, all Barnabas and other elders, they all gather in Jerusalem, and they discuss this, you know, should Gentile believers be made to follow the customs of Judaism, including circumcision? Should they be made to follow that? And so they have the discussion, and then the end of it, you know, James, who was the leader of the church in Jerusalem at that time, he stands up and says, men and brethren, you know, and he brings it to a conclusion saying that, look, we will not put any burden on Gentiles who become believers in Jesus Christ, other than they should not worship idols, and you know, so that was the conclusion, that they should not eat things offered to idols, should not drink blood or something, and yeah, and that's, you know, these are just, that's it. And then they write it down and they send that message out, so then, you know, that message goes out into all the churches, and that's what they follow. So that's, you know, a separate issue. Now, in dealing with Timothy, Paul takes a different stand, and so Paul is, I'm going a little off subject here, but Paul is a, you know, following that decision of the church in Jerusalem, Paul is a very strong proponent of, you don't need to keep the law. Once you become a believer in Jesus, you don't need to follow the customs of Judaism, including circumcision. So that's why he writes the episode to the Galatians, primarily, you know, saying that you don't need to come under the law again as believers, you're free. But then Paul does something very interesting with Timothy, Timothy, because of his blended background, father was Greek, mother was Jew, and because in order to enter into the synagogue and minister in the synagogue, you need to be a Jew, to minister there in those times. So that means you'd have to be circumcised. You have to be circumcised. So many scholars think that was Paul's motivation in getting Timothy circumcised, although Timothy's father was Greek, therefore he was not circumcised. But Paul gets Timothy circumcised in order to make it possible to go into the synagogue and preach. So that was his motivation, not so that, so it almost seemed contradictory, because here is a preacher who's telling people, you don't need to be circumcised, you're free. But then he takes one of his team members and gets them circumcised. So it's almost contradictory, you know, from what he's preaching, what he's doing. But the motivation is, hey, in most places we go to, we start our ministry in the synagogues, and if you're going to start ministering in the synagogue, you need to be circumcised. So that's the reason many people think we don't have that written down, but they think that must have been Paul's motivation. So that's a third issue having to do with Timothy. Thank you, Pastor. Yeah, but all of this is around circumcision. Okay, any other questions for chapter 2? Thomas, Dave, Alclea? All right, so let me introduce chapter 3. Okay, so let me, thank you, let me just introduce chapter 3 and then we will get into the details, right? So chapter 2, he's told the Jew, you're breaking the law, having the law or having circumcision, no use to you. So then chapter 3, you know, remember, it's building up, yeah, building up. So he says, but of course, you know, he kind of lessens the blow a bit. He says, tells the Jew, you know, but it is important. Your people are important because you are the people to whom God, I mean, of course, he's included as a Jew. We are the ones to whom God has given the law, it's important. But what I want to propose, I'm just part of phrasing, right? But what Paul gets out in chapter 2 is, hey, neither Jew nor Gentile is perfect before God. That's the point. Jew, you are important. So he says, look, I'm not throwing you out completely, you know, you are important because God gave you the law. But the point I really want to get at is, whether you're Jew or whether you're Gentile, you're all sinned before God. So by the time he comes through, you know, by the time we go through the first half of chapter 3, that is the, you know, that's like the main thing, the main point. We have all sinned. There's no one who's righteous before God. Then having established that we are all sinned, whether you're Gentile, then he's sad. Now he gets into the gospel message. He says, but God has made a way for both Jew and Gentile to be forgiven. And then he starts talking about Jesus Christ, the redemption that's in Jesus and how it is freely by grace. And then chapter 4, he says, it's only by faith. So we're all sinners. God has provided salvation. But chapter 4, it's only by faith. We receive. Chapter 5, it's because of his grace. We receive. So he's building up like that. Okay. So he has established, we've all broken the law. We're all sinners. God has provided forgiveness. We receive by faith. We receive because of grace. Okay. He's building that up. So we'll take a quick 10 minute break and we'll get into chapter 3 as Paul develops this teaching. Okay. Have a quick break and we'll be back in 10 minutes. Thanks.