 And the title of our sermon this morning is Form Without Substance, Form Without Substance, a serious theological error that we'll be talking about from Romans chapter 2, specifically our text this morning, verses 17 through 24. As we come to this text, we're dealing with difficult subjects from the apostle Paul. The apostle Paul is set to now, as he has been, develop a case. He's developing a case in which he will indict all men under the penalty of their sin. He'll indict all men under the righteous judgment of God, under the condemnation of God. So we're talking about very sobering subjects now as we deal with these texts in Romans. All the way from Romans chapter 1, where Paul began this treatment in verse 18, down through chapter 3, all the way down to verse 20, where Paul will wrap up this indictment, universal indictment against all men, and begin his exposition of the gospel. The Paul's purpose in this is to push us to the gospel, to drive us to the gospel, for us to see the glories contained in the gospel for the salvation of sinful men. In order to be able to see that, understand that, appreciate that, apprehend that, comprehend that, we have to come to grips with our own sinfulness against God. And so Paul intends here to place the sinner under conviction. Place the sinner under conviction. And this morning, dealing specifically with the inexcusable man of chapter 2 verse 1, what we have come to know as the self-righteous hypocrite now as we come to verse 17. When the Lord saves a sinner, the Spirit of God brings that sinner to the end of himself, to the absolute end of themselves, they are brought to a sense, a strong sense of such shame, such guilt over their sin, that they're left with absolutely no confidence in the flesh. Now, if that's a completely foreign concept to you, if you've never heard such a thing, never experienced such a thing, I call you to look at the text of scripture and consider your own salvation, the state of your own soul. When God saves a sinner, he brings that sinner to the end of his own righteousness, to the end of himself, such that that sinner is spiritually bankrupt before a holy God. There is nothing with which we can commend ourselves to him. We are sinners. That sinner, lacking any confidence in his own flesh, brought to the end of his rope, so to speak, then wrecked over their sin, cry out to God, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. That is part and parcel with God saving someone's soul. They look in that sin, that shame, that guilt, they look to their only remedy who is the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Lord Jesus Christ becomes our righteousness, wisdom from God, righteousness, sanctification, redemption. The Christian life then from that point forward really is a life of sober joy. We consider it a solemn rejoicing. Why would we frame it that way? Why would we call it a sober joy? Not just rejoicing, right? It's because we're still dealing with our sin. We are sinful, fallen human beings. We have sin to contend with on this side of eternity. We're not done with our sin, so to speak. Then Paul in Romans 7, Paul cries out, I'm a sinner, wretched man that I am. Who will deliver me from this body of death? And what does he do? He rejoices in Jesus Christ. I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. That's sort of a microcosm of the Christian life, isn't it? Dealing with our sin in sober self-examination, a sober understanding of our own state, our own condition, right? Our own fallenness, our own inward corruption. Dealing with that sin at the same time that we rejoice with joy inexpressible at what Jesus Christ has done for sinners. And I would submit to you the only way to truly appreciate that, what Jesus Christ has done for sinners is by understanding and comprehending the other, my sinful, lost, depraved condition that is deserving of eternal torment. When the Lord saved me, he saved me out of an easy-believeism church, false church preaching a false gospel, false teacher standing in the pulpit, and crushed me over my sin. I wasn't looking for it per se. The Lord just convicted me and convicted me over reading the Bible. I wish that you were hot or cold, but Mark, because you are lukewarm, lukewarm at best, a poster boy for lukewarm. Mark, because you're lukewarm, I'm gonna vomit you out of my mouth. What that meant to me was the end of myself, crushing me over my sin, connecting me where I have offended him. I was one whom Jesus Christ would vomit out of his mouth. But what amazed me then and what amazes me still today is my presumption upon his grace before that day. I would have said, I would have fought you tooth and nail to confess, to acknowledge that I was a Christian, that I had been saved by grace, that Jesus Christ had saved me. And you know how he did it? I was sincere when I said that prayer. I said that, if I said that prayer once, I'd said it a thousand times, just to be sure. And based upon some little thing that I did, some religious motion that I performed, I had all my trust, all my hope, based in, founded in, grounded on that little thing, that little superstitious thing that I did, thinking that because of that I'm right with God and on my way to heaven. When my life looked like a wreck and I'm sinning against God every day in my sin, making provision for my sin, such gross presumption upon the grace of God. It amazes me today to see so many professing Christians and so many professing churches guilty of the very same presumption. The staggering self-confidence, ignorant of the law of God, ignorant of the gospel, ignorant of what Jesus Christ has done on the cross to save sinners, not having any real interest to understand those things for myself. And yet I presumed upon the grace of God that he had died for me and that I was saved right with God and going to heaven when I die. And couldn't have been any more deceived, couldn't have been any more misled, couldn't have been any more stubborn and intransigent in my own ignorance. And yet that is the staggering self-confidence of so many professing Christians today caught in the same error. Do you see? Churches filled the brim with marks. And maybe some of you experience the same, went to churches just like those. It is an easy and presumptuous assurance, right? And they'll tell you the ignorance in those churches is rampant and inexcusable. And yet they'll tell you it's easy as A, B, C. Just admit, believe, confess. Where's the R? Repentance. Where's the W? Wisdom. You understand where all the other letters in the acronym. Just an easy and presumptuous assurance. The haughty ignorance. You know we're supposed to have a childlike faith, but that childlike faith is not an excuse for ignorance. What prideful neglect. Where does that confidence, that damning, self-righteous, prideful, presumptuous confidence come from? Where does it come from? In many cases, it may come from a presumption of knowledge, as we'll see in our text today. You know so much theology. You know the Bible. You've read, you've been taught well. So based upon all this that you know, you think that what you know gives evidence that you're right with God and on your way to heaven when you're playing the hypocrite. But many today, what's more the case in our day today is a presumptuous ignorance. Not knowing any of these things. Not understanding. I didn't know what the word repentance meant. I'd never been taught it. Didn't know anything about the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. His propitiation for sinners. Didn't know any of those things. And such presumptuous ignorance. Presumption sometimes regarding salvation. All these blessings that are mine. Based upon a simple prayer that I prayed. Based upon simple religious motions that I performed. I go to church every Sunday. I do the things that I'm supposed to do. I'm a pretty good person. I believe. Even the demons believe and tremble. What differentiates your faith from the faith so called of a demon? Presumption. Presumption. Presumption. Presumption. Presuming upon God for his blessings. Presuming upon God for the salvation that is offered in Jesus Christ. Where does that confidence come from? Often presumption in the face of a complete lack of understanding of our own guilt. You believe yourself to be a good person. You don't see how you've offended God with your sin. And yet somehow you presume that you're right with him and you're on your way to heaven. Presumption. A lack of understanding of your own guilt. A failure to consider the high cost of our redemption. They don't even know the law. Much less how to apply the law. You bring the law to bear on someone when you're witnessing to them. It's no, I've never sinned in that way. No, I've never sinned in that way. No, I've never sinned in that way. They're guilty of sinning in every way according to God's law. And yet they can't see it. Don't comprehend it. Don't acknowledge it. What presumption? Presumptuous confidence. But they've done that little thing that they're supposed to do. I walk the aisle. I said the prayer. I go to church. I'm a pretty good person. It's shameful. Shameful presumption. It is tragic ignorance. It is a devastating miscalculation. It may be a damning miscalculation. When they're challenged with the Word of God, when those walls of defensiveness are besieged, challenged by the Word of God, brought under the searing spotlight of God's law, they lash out like a Pharisee. Often defensive, often hostile. Why? Because you're chipping away at their armor. You see? They've done the same thing that the Pharisee has done. They're acting, thinking, behaving, conducting themselves just like the Pharisee has acted, believed, conducted himself. They've trusted in themselves in some form or fashion. They've trusted in themselves that they are righteous. When the law of God being brought to bear upon them is calling them unrighteous. Witness to people before. I know you have two if you've been here any length of time and you've been sharing the gospel. Witness to people before you'll get them all the way through the law, all the way through, and you'll get them to a point where they must confess, yes, I've sinned in that way, yes, I've sinned in that way, yes, I've sinned in that way, yes, I've sinned in that way, yes, I've sinned in that way. So what does that mean then? Are you innocent or guilty of breaking the law of God? I'm innocent. Such presumptuous ignorance, such presumptuous confidence, acting like the Pharisee. In this text today, Paul intends to place them and you under conviction. Paul intends to confront us with the law of God, such that we, before the law of God, before the bar of God's justice, see ourselves as inexcusable, without hope apart from Jesus Christ, without any confidence in our flesh. I want to do that. I want to consider our text this morning under three headings. First, the boast of the self-righteous. Second, the hypocrisy of the self-righteous. Third, I want us to look at the shame of the self-righteous. The boast, the hypocrisy, and the shame of the self-righteous. Consider with me point one on your notes, the boast of the self-righteous verses 17 through 20. Look there at verse 17 with me. Indeed, you are called a Jew. Paul says, Paul is referring to the inexcusable man of chapter 2 verse 1 now with specific reference, not a general reference to all men who fit this category, but now he narrows in on a specific reference to the Jew in verse 17. Indeed, you are called a Jew. Rest on the law. Make your boast in God. Know his will. Approve the things that are excellent being instructed out of the law and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, having the form of knowledge and truth in the law. This, brothers and sisters, is the boast of the self-righteous hypocrite. This is the particular boast of the Jew as the quintessential example of the inexcusable man introduced to us in chapter 2 verse 1. These verses are what he would say of himself. This is how he would describe himself. This describes the relationship to the Lord, the relationship to his word, his relationship to the church, the relationship to the Lord's people that the religious hypocrite assumes that he himself has. Do you see? He is fatally presumptuous. He believes himself to be in right relationship to God. He is not, as we'll see. He believes himself to be justified in the sight of God. He is not. He believes that all he's been given, all the blessings that he has, all that he knows, all the religious motions that he goes through are all evidence that he will make it to heaven. He will not. He has deceived himself. Do you see? Placing a deadly, devastating, damning confidence in the trappings of his religion without a true and saving confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. He has made a tragic error. Now the text reveals two areas in which the self-righteous inexcusable Jew of Paul's day would boast two areas. He's placed an empty and presumptuous confidence in his privilege. We're going to see that in verses 17 and 18. And he's followed that up with an unwarranted, very presumptuous confidence in his own knowledge. We'll see that in verses 19 and 20. Privilege and knowledge are often the basis of boasting for the religious hypocrite in Paul's day. But privilege and knowledge often the reason or the basis of boasting for the religious hypocrite in our own day. And we're going to apply the text to ourselves as we work through this. First, the boast of the self-righteous hypocrite reveals a presumptuous confidence in his privilege. Verse 17. Indeed, you are called a Jew and rest on the law and make your boast in God. Now think with me. Verse 17. Paul's use of the term Jew here serves less of an ethnic purpose and serves more of a religious purpose. Jews were contrasted with whom? Gentiles, right? Contrasted with Gentiles. Most often post exile, the word was used to refer to those who practiced Judaism from those Gentiles who practiced their paganism. Those who kept the law of Moses were referred to as Jews. Those who kept covenant with their God. These were the Jews. Dr. Murray says that Paul's use of the term Jew here indicates that it was the name associated in the mind of the Jew with all in which he prided himself. To be called a Jew was an umbrella term, for example, of all that the Jewish man, Jewish woman, prided himself in. To be a Jew was to be highly privileged. Jews represented the covenant people of Yahweh, the covenant people of God. They were chosen by God, the apple of his eye, his treasured possession, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the Jews prided themselves, prided themselves on being connected to that heritage. Think with me about Deuteronomy chapter seven, verse six. Listen. God says you are a holy people to the Lord your God separated to God, set apart to God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. Rather than receive that with humility, look at that with gratitude. The Jew used that as an opportunity for pride and ignorance. I'm a special treasure, right? It was also the way in which the Jew would distinguish himself from Gentiles. He would distinguish himself from all those pagans, all the other peoples of the world on the basis of that heritage. Now you can see the way that he thinks about his heritage in the verses that follow. Look at verse 17. He rests in the law. He makes us boast in God. These are all fruits of that heritage understanding, so to speak. Right? Verse 18. He knows his will, approves the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the law. Verse 19. He has confidence that he himself is a guy to the blind, a light to those in darkness, an instructor of the foolish. By the way, all words meaning Gentile. A teacher of babes having the form of knowledge and truth in the law. That's obvious. This is the way the Jew thought of himself, but it's obvious the Jews had been given great advantages. No question. The Jews had been great, had been given tremendous advantages. Look at chapter 3. Glance over. Verse 1. What advantage then has the Jew? What profit is circumcision? Verse 2. Much in every way, chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God. They were given the very word, the living word of the living God. Paul would describe them in chapter 9, verse 4. As Israelites to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service or the worship of God, the promises of whom are the fathers and from whom according to the flesh, Christ came who is overall the eternally blessed God. Amen. The Jews have been given tremendous spiritual blessings, tremendous religious advantages. That religious heritage, his descendants from Abraham, all the tremendous blessings that flowed from that reality was the way in which the Jew would have differentiated himself from all those poor pagan Gentiles who weren't so favored. You see, became a way that he differentiated himself rather than responding in humility, rather than responding with a humbling sense of gratitude, rather than responding with pity and compassion, a gospel preaching evangelistic pity and compassion on those poor lost pagan Gentiles in the world. The Jews responded by placing a presumptuous confidence in their privileges, in their blessings. Rather than devoting themselves heart, soul, mind and strength to the one who gave them those blessings, they placed a presumptuous confidence in the blessings themselves. They began to worship the gifts rather than the giver, so to speak. Now this presumptuous confidence shows up in our text beginning in verse 17 in four ways. In four ways. First, instead of resting in him, the one who gave them those blessings, verse 17, they rest on the law. Rest on the law. Now what does that mean? They rest on the law. Romans chapter 3 verse 19, you can flip the page and look there. Romans 3 19, whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped, that all the world may become guilty before God, not so that in it the Jews might find rest. Right? They're finding their rest in the wrong place. They're resting in the law. But that's exactly what Paul means by the phrase. They're resting in the law. The Jew found comfort, that's what that word means, found encouragement, found rest in the law. Now that's clear evidence they didn't understand the law, didn't understand the scope of the law, didn't understand the extent of the law, didn't understand how the law applied to them, didn't understand the curse of the law, didn't understand how they had violated the law, didn't understand that the law was intended to be our tutor to drive us to Christ. In other words, this was a tragic failure, a tragic failure, a miscalculation, a misunderstanding, a damning miscalculation. Simply being in possession of the law as given by God had become their confidence. We have the law, no one else does. Do you see? It's presumptuous. They presumed to imagine that simply being given the law was a reason for rest. Because we have these things, we're okay. Rather than seeing that being given the law only increased their accountability to it, they presumed upon having the law as a blessing, an indication that they were right with God. Look at John chapter five. Flip back there quickly with me. John chapter five. In John chapter five, the Lord is talking to the Pharisees, and in verse 45, the Lord says something very interesting to the Pharisees. John chapter five, verse 45. Speaking of the law, the Lord says to the Pharisees, verse 45, do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you, who's that? Moses. What does Moses represent? The law. The law. There's one who accuses you, Moses, the law, in whom you trust. They had their trust in the law. You see how absurd that is? They placed their confidence in the law. They rested in the law. They had their trust in the law. Verse 46. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me because he wrote about me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words? They wouldn't believe Moses. They had their confidence in the law. Their trust in the law. They hoped in the law. Amazing presumption. The Jews believed that by being within the system that the law represented, the covenant of Moses, by being within that system, within that covenant, by being under the law, performing those ceremonies, sacrificing those animals, eating those things, not eating those things, by obeying that law in outward morality, they believed by being in that system that they were in the kingdom. They were as good as in heaven. The height of presumption in the system meant salvation. Out of the system meant certain judgment. So the Jew had nothing to worry about. All those other pagan nations, they were certainly going to be judged by God. This was the ground on which the Jew rested. They rested in the law. You have examples of that in Scripture, right? And remember the New Testament, the examples of the rich young ruler or the Lord's story, the parable of the Pharisee with the public in the temple. The Jew believed that he had sufficiently kept the law of God such that he would be accepted by God on that basis. We have the law, we're good with God. Paul also says that being ignorant of God's righteousness, being ignorant of God's righteousness, seeking to establish their own righteousness, they rested in the law. Secondly, this all resulted in a very presumptuous boast in God, a presumptuous boast in God. Look at verse 17. Indeed, you are called a Jew, rest on the law and make your boast in God. The Lord says, multiple places, he who glories, let him glory in the Lord. If you're going to boast, boast in the Lord. Paul says, I don't have anything to boast about, but Jesus Christ and him crucified, right? That commendable form of boasting in the Lord is not what Paul has in mind here. The self-righteous, hypocritical, religious Jew makes a presumptuous and therefore empty boast in God. What should be a humble, sober-minded, but joyful rejoicing boast in God himself for all that he's so graciously, compassionately, mercifully done for wretched sinners became a boast for the Jew that inflated his sense of self-worth, became a boast that flowed from a sense of his own self-importance as one worthy of those gifts. Look at all the Lord has done for us, and he boasted in that as if he were worthy to receive it. Do you see the difference between the two? One, flowing out of that bankruptcy, flowing out of an understanding of our spiritual unworthiness and that humility, that gratitude, overflowing in joy for what God has compassionately, graciously, mercifully given, and the other inflating a sense of self-worth, flowing out of self-righteousness, flowing out of pride. There's a stark difference as far as the East is from the West. Paul would ask in 1 Corinthians chapter 4, who makes you to differ from another? Who makes you to differ? What do you have to boast in that you haven't received? And why do you boast as though you had not received it? Rather than proceeding from a place of humility, a place of personal bankruptcy before God, they presume upon the favor of God with no regard to their personal bankruptcy. I would submit to you that that's the case with a lot of professing Christians today. No regard whatsoever to their spiritual bankruptcy before God. No regard to their guilt outside of Jesus Christ. No regard to the shame, the offense of their own sinfulness. No regard to their corruption, their fallenness. No regard to their depravity. No regard to their offense against God. This may be the Jew of Paul's day, the inexcusable hypocrite of chapter 2 verse 1, but this is the haughty presumption that is the plight of the modern professing Christian today. I can call myself a Christian. I can rest in all the trappings of my religious observance. I can go to church. I can fellowship. I can dance it up on a Sunday morning. However, little or much I make of them and then presumptuously boast in the favor of God toward me, assured of heaven for all the blessings that I've been given by him with no consideration whatsoever of my own condition or of what Jesus Christ has done or of all that it cost him to redeem me. It is the height of presumption. Third, third, they placed a presumptuous confidence in their knowledge of God's will. Confident, verse 18, that they know his will. Now, again, remember, this is something they would have said of themselves. This is not Paul saying that they actually did, okay? This is a presumptuous statement. More revelation was certainly given to the Jew. There's no question. They had more revelation given to them than the Gentile who didn't have anything but general revelation, who only had creation. They've been given special revelation. They have scripture. They've been given the very oracles of God. And this is the way that they see themselves. Paul refers to them here as ignorant of his will. Look at Romans chapter 10. A few pages to the right. Romans chapter 10. Look there at verse one. Paul refers to them as ignorant. Romans chapter 10, verse one, brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, very zealous, but not according to knowledge. For they, being ignorant of God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. Outside of a knowledge of Jesus Christ and how everything in the Bible points to him, you're ignorant. You're a fool. We need to be pursuing a knowledge of Jesus Christ from scripture. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. Is Christ the end of the law? No. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. You're not going to earn righteousness through keeping the law. Jesus Christ is the only source of righteousness through which we can be justified in the sight of God. The Jews would meticulously labor over the scriptures, meticulously read and study. And Jesus said in John chapter five, verse 38, listen to the words of the Lord. You do not have His Word abiding in you. Now listen, they've been given the oracles of God. They have the scriptures. They have the books of Moses, the Old Testament writings, the prophets. They have His Word. They're meticulously studying His Word, copying His Word, memorizing His Word. And Jesus Christ says you do not have His Word abiding in you. You do not have His Word abiding in you because whom He sent, Him, Jesus Christ, you do not believe. You search the scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life. And these are they which testify of me. The Jews would have boasted, he would have boasted that he knew God's will. Such a false, empty, presumptuous, tragic, devastating confidence. Always learning, never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. Why? Because they had rejected their Messiah. They rejected the Lord Jesus Christ. The truth as it is in Jesus Christ. Far from being a reason for confidence in the J of judgment, additional light given to the Jew as we saw only renders them more accountable to God as it will you and I. If you stand before God in judgment, having rejected the Lord Jesus Christ, having turned from the way, then all of that additional light, all that additional truth only serves to hold you more accountable, more responsible to what you have rejected. Once said, once said, far from being ground that the Jew could stand on, his increased knowledge became quick sand that would soon swallow him up. What a blessing we have to know the Bible, amen. What a blessing we have to be in a church like this, where we can and we count not just on Sunday all day, but during the week, multiple times during the week, the access that we have to faithful sound, biblical teaching, all the access that we have to sermons, to books, the blessings that God has lavished on us, all the blessings that we have to know the word of the living God. But that knowledge has a purpose, that blessing has an aim, has an end. And that is so that we might worship him and serve him and love him in grateful obedience. Knowing his will is for the purpose of obeying his will and driving us to Jesus Christ in faith. Fourth, fourth. Given this knowledge of his will, they place the presumptuous confidence in their moral discernment. They know his will and they approve the things that are excellent. You see that? Literally they are discerning, documato approving, approving or testing those things, literally which differ. That's what that means. They're discerning or testing those things which differ. What does he mean by that? Whether the things are true or false, whether they are righteous or unrighteous, the Jew in meticulously pouring over the scriptures touted himself as an expert in determining discerning between that which is true and that which is false, that which is righteous and that which is unrighteous, to the point where the Jew compounds his righteousness, so to speak, with law, after law, after law, after law, before, you know, you've got 613. We can't keep those laws well. What's the answer to that? We need to add more law. No, that's not the answer to that, right? The Jew would boast in his knowledge of the law, approving of the things that are excellent, discerning or testing those things which differ, would pride himself on testing everything with meticulous detail, according to the law, to the point where he would, according to the testimony of Jesus Christ himself, he would tithe all manner of mint, anise and cumin, and yet would then neglect the weightier matters of the law, justice, mercy and faith. Do you see the hypocrisy? Do you see the absurdity of that? So meticulous about every fine point discerning those things which differ, and yet miss the boat on the weightier matters of the law, justice, mercy and faith. What a tragic and ignorant presumption, presumption. This all arising, as Paul concludes in verse 18, being instructed out of the law, being instructed out of the law. The Jew in Paul's day, as well as the self-righteous, religious, formalist, or hypocrite in our own day, might pride himself in all manner of religious knowledge, all manner of religious observance, watch all manner of videos and documentaries, be able to defend the faith against any comer, and yet miss the point altogether, might have years of Hebrew and Greek under his belt, might be able to parse every last verb in the New Testament, and miss the point altogether. Miss it so completely, so totally, so incomprehensibly that he misses heaven. This is all over the place today. Do you see? Seminaries are full of these guys, churches full of these guys. I witnessed to a young lady just a couple of days ago who was a Hindu, and I'm trying to talk to her about Christianity somewhere in the middle of the conversation. She mentions that her live-in boyfriend, lives with her, not married, is a Christian, and it's a tragic presumption, isn't it? A damning presumption, but one that also does damage. So first, the inexcusable Jew of Paul's day, the self-righteous, religious hypocrite of our own day places an empty and presumptuous confidence in his privilege. Secondly, he also places an unwarranted and presumptuous confidence in his own knowledge. Look at verse 19, in his own knowledge. Verse 19, he's confident. Confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes having the form of knowledge and truth in the law. Those blind, in darkness, foolish babies, by the way, are all descriptions referring to Gentiles. The Jews boasted, they had been given the law of God, boasted in knowing his will, boasted in being instructed out of the law, such that the Jews saw himself as an expert in all matters of faith and practice, ready, willing, presumptuously able to teach others also. An unwarranted and presumptuous confidence in his own knowledge. This is one who has entirely missed the point of the scriptures. Entirely missed the boat is missing heaven and yet presumptuously confident in his own knowledge, such that he sees himself as an expert, ready, willing, able, and should be teaching everyone else about it. All unwarranted, presumptuous confidence in his own knowledge. Always talking, always teaching, and yet knowing nothing. Not only presumptuous, not only pretentious, but deadly and damning. There are so many today in that boat, in churches all over our country, all over the world, right now as we speak, standing up behind thousands and knowing nothing of the Bible, preaching error and presuming to be a teacher of the law, presuming to teach those foolish babies, you know, and it is not a light matter when you sit under error. It's not a light matter when you sit under the opinions of men. You need to sit under the verse by verse teaching of God's word. It's not a light matter. We're talking about heaven or hell. We're talking about life or death. What may seem like a single drop of arsenic in a bucket of water is enough to kill you. Don't tolerate religious error. Expose it and flee it, right? Matthew chapter 23 verse 15, the Lord Jesus Christ. Whoa to you scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. That's not exactly how to win friends and influence people, right? That's what you call the truth in love, right? For those of you who would say, that's just so unloving, so mean-spirited, that's Jesus Christ. That's the truth in love. Whoa to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. What should the scribe or the Pharisee do at his reproof, turn, repent, be converted that his sins may be blotted out, right? But what does the self-righteous Pharisee do? He gets angry. He gets defensive. He gets hostile. That's not the fault of the messenger. That's the self-righteous hard heart of that Pharisee. Do you see? Whoa to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. You travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves. There are many who do the same in our country. We export theological filth all over the world. We call them missionaries. Luke 11 verse 52, the Lord Jesus Christ to the scribes and Pharisees, the lawyers. You have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter in yourselves, and those who were entering in, you hindered. The Lord Jesus Christ is speaking to those who are charged with teaching the people, and he says to them, you've taken away the key of knowledge. You're not going in, and you're blocking the way for others to get in. They presume to be a guide to the blind. Jesus Christ describes them as blind guides. Straining out gnats, swallowing camels. Amazing. All verse 20, having the form of knowledge and truth in the law, having the form, having the body, the content, having the knowledge of the truth in the law, having scripture, the moral law, the Ten Commandments, the Mosaic Covenant, the Books of Moses, the Old Testament scriptures, the law, the writings, the prophets, tremendous privilege given to the Jews, just as tremendous privilege is given to us today, and yet they miss the boat. The Jews took comfort in having all those things, certainly took comfort that God would show favor to them for all those blessings, and they entirely miss the point. Worship of love for devotion to, obedience to, affection for, gratitude toward, repentance toward, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's where it points. If it doesn't point you there, you have missed the boat and you're going to miss heaven. It should point us to faith in Jesus Christ, who has become for us wisdom from God. Knowledge, right? Righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Apart from him, you know nothing. Apart from him, you can do nothing. He is our confidence. Do you see? He is our wisdom. He is our righteousness. Point one on your notes, the confident and presumptuous boast of the self-righteous. These are the presumptuous claims that come out of his own mouth, right? Now Paul turns an interrogating spotlight on the conduct of his life. Look at point two, the hypocrisy of the self-righteous. His hypocrisy. Verse 21, you therefore who teach another, do you not teach yourself? Paul exposes the hypocrisy of the self-righteous religious fake in a devastating series of questions here in 21 through 23. We'll look at this under two headings quickly. Hypocrisy charged, hypocrisy exposed to the religious hypocrite who presumptuously, self-righteously thinks of himself as knowing the will of God, as instructed out of the law, guided the blind teacher of babies. Paul asks you therefore who teach another, do you not teach yourself? It's apparent from your conduct, Paul is saying, that you do not, right? With the first of five questions, Paul charges the self-righteous Jew with hypocrisy. You see yourself in such high and exalted terms, resting in the law, boasting in the law, your knowledge in the law, teaching in the law, then why don't you obey the law? That's what Paul is essentially asking him. Paul's point now is crystal clear. We must practice what we preach. It is particularly distasteful when someone like me, standing in the pulpit, preaching God's word, doesn't live according to God's word. The world sees the hypocrisy in that, right? And most of them, that's why I won't go to church because of all those raving hypocrites. He's got his long arm in my short pocket, that's always about his money or whatever the case may be. The world sees their hypocrisy. We must practice what we preach. That extends to you also though, when we preach the gospel, practicing what you preach. Otherwise, otherwise, you are a hypocrite under the condemnation of this text. It's convicting, isn't it? Very, very convicting. The self-righteous religious hypocrite is a hearer of the law. What does Paul say in verse 13? It's not the hearers of the law who are justified. The doers. Maybe a teacher of the law, but he is not a faithful doer of the law. Thereby, as James says, he deceives himself and his so-called religion is worthless. By faith in Christ, we are acquitted from the guilt of our sin. By obedience to Christ, we are acquitted from the guilt of hypocrisy. Having charged the self-righteous with hypocrisy in the first question, Paul then exposes the sin of his hypocrisy in the next four, verse 21. You who preach that a man should not steal, do you steal? It's a rhetorical question. Paul is actually charging him that, yes, he's a thief. He's a stealer. He's a thief. This is the self-righteous Jew of Jex. I've never stolen anything in my life, as many do. Matthew 23, verse 14, woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you devour widow's houses and for a pretense make long prayers, therefore you will receive greater condemnation. While making a pretense of religion, while making a mockery of worship, the Jews were ripping off old ladies who didn't have a dime to their name, devouring their houses. Do you see? Listen to Amos, chapter 8, beginning in verse 2. You can turn there if you like. Amos, chapter 8, verse 2. Then the Lord said to me, the end has come upon my people Israel. I will not pass by them anymore. Why? What's happened? The songs of the temple shall be wailing in that day, says the Lord God. Why? Many dead bodies everywhere, they shall be thrown out in silence. Why? Hear this, you who swallow up the needy and make the poor of the land fall or fail. In other words, hear this, you thieves, saying, verse 5, when will the new moon be passed that we may sell grain? When will the Sabbath be passed so we can trade wheat? They're going to sell wheat on the Sabbath, making the ifa small and the shekel large, falsifying the scales by deceit. Unjust scales are a way that the Jews were stealing, robbing from people. And they had a horrible reputation with nations around them for this very sin. Verse 6, that we may buy the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, even sell the bad wheat. They're stealing from the people, do you see? Verse 7, the Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob, surely I will never forget any of their works. Shall the land not tremble for this? Everyone mourn who dwells in it? All of it shall swell like the river, heave and subside like the river of Egypt, and it shall come to pass in that day, says the Lord God, that I will make the sun go down at noon, I will darken the earth in broad daylight, I will turn your feasts into mourning, your songs into lamentation, I will bring sackcloth on every waist, baldness on every head, I'll make it like mourning for an only sun and its end like a bitter day. It was business practices like these that provoked the Gentiles to blaspheme the name of God, and the Jews were guilty. Verse 22, back in Romans 2, you who say do not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? The Lord explained this on the Sermon of the Mount, to even look at a woman with lust on your heart, is to commit adultery with her in your heart? Sin begins in the heart of man, do you see? And yet the prominent rabbis in Israel at this time had been charged with adultery. We're going to talk about marriage and divorce this evening, in the evening service. Divorce was rampant among the Jews, they had this misconception of Deuteronomy 24 that they could put away their wives for just any reason. And what does the Lord say? Whoever divorces his wife except for sexual immorality and marries another commits what? Adultery. Whoever marries a divorced person commits adultery. Verse 22, do you abhor idols? Do you rob temples? It's likely what Paul means here is the fleecing of the people for money through the ungodly buying and selling that went on around the temple, around temple worship. The money changers, right? When the Lord Jesus Christ goes in to clear out the temple, he says my father's house is to be house of prayer for all nations, you've made it a den of thieves. Malachi charged Israel with robbing God in tithes and offerings. The word he refers to committing sacrilege, the Jews were certainly guilty of that. Verse 23, you who make your boast in the law, do you dishonor God through breaking the law? Hypocrites are guilty of condoning in themselves the very sins that they condemn in others. And Paul is charging the self-righteous Jew here, who saw himself as righteous under the law in the sight of God. He is charging him with violating the very law that he boasted in. He's making the point, making the point that this self-righteous religious hypocritical Jew is just as guilty, more culpable than the pagan Gentile that was under the indictment in chapter one. Paul is exposing them as the worst kinds of hypocrites, sinning in the law, sinning against grace, they appear outside to be clean, inward they are like whitewashed tombs, these hypocrites. Matthew chapter 23, listen to the Lord in verse 27, woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, you are like whitewashed tombs, which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. Even so, you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. The law of God doesn't merely extend to our outward conduct, do you see? The law of God extends to our heart, our motives, our intentions, our desires, our affections. This all results in point three on your notes, the shame, the shame of the self-righteous, their shame. Verse 24, for the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you, as it is written. The hypocrite is a cause, not for honor, but a cause of dishonor to the name of God, their conduct bringing reproach upon the name of the one who is holy. Even the lost world knows this principle to be true. Listen to Psalm 50, beginning in verse 16. But to the wicked, God says, what right have you to declare my statutes or to take my covenant in your mouth, seeing you hate instruction and cast my words behind you? Those are the words of God, here specifically the words of Asaph, but the words of God to the religious hypocrite, the Jew of Paul's day, the religious hypocrite of our own. What right? The religious hypocrite boasts in the law of God, being instructed by the law, sees himself as a teacher of babes, and yet God says, what right have you to declare my statutes or to take my covenant in your mouth? Why? Seeing that you hate instruction and cast my words behind you, you don't obey it. When you saw a thief, you consented with him and have been a partaker with adulterers, it's as if Paul was thinking of Psalm 50 when he wrote our text, right? You give your mouth to evil, your tongue frames deceit, you sit and speak against your brother, you slander your own mother's son. These things you have done and I kept silent. God doesn't always administer his justice immediately. Judgment is coming. You thought that I was altogether like you, but I will rebuke you and set them in order before your eyes. Now you consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you in pieces. This is a warning of the living God. Lest I tear you in pieces, God says, and there be none to deliver. Whoever offers praise, glorifies me. You're going to offer praise. Praise is glorifying God, right? And to him who orders his conduct a right, I will show the salvation of God. What we see in Romans chapter two is a searing indictment and it's for the purpose of pointing sinners to repentance, for the purpose of pointing you to faith in Jesus Christ that your sins may be blotted out, that you may be forgiven, that you may be justified right with God, adopted into the household of God and a saint in heaven. Don't think to yourselves, and I am so glad this doesn't apply to me. I'm so glad. I sure hope so and so is listening. I'm so glad this doesn't apply. That's exactly the response that a self-righteous hypocrite would give. This applies to every instance of hypocrisy and we're all guilty of hypocrisy. Something that every single one of us should be striving to the nail to root out of our Christian lives. How do we do that? It's not by hiding it under some boast like the self-righteous religious hypocrite. It's by self-examination, taking a look at your own heart, your own mind. Where am I living like the hypocrite? Examining yourself, looking at your motives, your desires, your intentions, your actions, your conduct, your obedience, your disobedience, looking at yourselves, and then looking in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ for forgiveness of your sins, for genuine repentance, to turn from your sin, and to endeavor after new obedience. Reminded of the story that the Lord told in Luke 18, listen, Lord spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and they despised others. He said, two men went up to the temple to pray. One a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed, that's with himself. God, I thank you, I'm not like that other man. Thank you, I'm not like other men. Extortioners, unjust, adulterers, even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I possess. Look at all that I've done, Lord. Look at all that I am. Look at all the blessings that I have. Verse 13, the tax collector standing afar off would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast saying, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled. He who humbles himself will be exalted. Where do we find that grace and mercy? Where do we find it? On what basis may you this morning go down to your house justified? Not on the basis of your own filthy rags, not on the basis of anything that you've done, not on the basis of any of your religious benefits, not on the basis of anything to do with you, but on the basis of Jesus Christ alone and what Jesus Christ alone has done, who he is, what he has accomplished. He alone saves the one who repents of his sin and turns to him in faith. Do that, turn to Jesus Christ in faith. Why would you persist in such hypocrisy? Why would you persist in such a fool's errand, such a damning error? Turn from your sin, trust Jesus Christ and go down to your house justified. Amen. Pray with me. Father in heaven, we rejoice. It is a sober rejoicing, a solemn rejoicing, but we rejoice in what Jesus Christ has done, who he is, our Savior and Lord and what he has accomplished and atoning for sin, paying the penalty that we rightly deserve. Giving is a free gift of grace, his righteousness that we might be justified on the side of our God. Thank you Lord for these blessed gifts. May they always and forever turn us in praise and worship and devotion and love and affection to the one who has given the gifts. Not to the gifts themselves as an end in and of themselves, but to you God for your wondrous grace and mercy on undeserving sinners. Thank you Lord for this text. Thank you for the blessedness that is a good self-examination of our own hearts and minds and motives and desires, intentions and conduct and help us Lord by your spirit to endeavor after new obedience, to endeavor to be faithful to you, devoted to you in love and in gratitude, not because we think it earns or merits favor with you, what a foolish thought Lord, but because we love you because we are forever grateful for all that you've done for us in him. Save sinners Lord for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. Preserve your own in the faith. Grow us in our knowledge of God, grow us in our knowledge of your law, grow us in our maturity and may it cause us, provoke us to greater worship, greater love, greater devotion. It's for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ that we pray all these things in his name. Amen.