Romans 2:17-24 "Condemned By the Law" - 4/25/2017

[Laughter] he's getting all this so she's coming to visit here right take care of that we're going 2000 now and that's in a week last Thursday so kind of invested a week but in the first couple of days are you yeah a lot of smaller alright guys we're getting ready to to start up now thanks for flexing with your schedule being here on a Tuesday I'm flying out tomorrow to go to st. Louis and do a one passion conference on preaching the Bible so I just needed to do this this week and I don't want to miss and later in the summer I'm gonna hit a spot where I'm gonna be gone a bunch and so I just want to keep making these installments as much as I can next week we're gonna have to meet on Tuesday one more time so we'll send out reminders and if you're not on our email list get Kent your email and we're not going to bombard you we're just going to tell you you know what day of the week we're meeting so you don't come up here on a day that we're not meeting and I do want to welcome those who are watching around the world with us on livestream and the Lord has really given us a wonderful expanded circle of friends and supporters who join with us for this Bible study and you're so welcome and though this is the men's Bible study we have a lot of ladies who watch so we just require they put a baseball cap on as they watch I have a head covering in the fall so ladies we we love you and so thankful that you're a part of this study we're in Romans chapter 2 and we're going to be looking depending upon our time verses 17 to 24 and keep your mind active in that we're going to have Q&A at the end of this and I want to hear from you so just know that that that's coming you may want to jot down in your notes a question or some insight but I want to set the context before I read the verses and just to remind you of where we are in the book of Romans as you recall the whole book of Romans is about the gospel chapter 1 verse 1 Paul writes that this is about the gospel of God and so we're in the first main section on the gospel which is the need for the gospel the necessity for the gospel and no one will ever be saved until they know what their true need is for the gospel so Paul is laying this foundation and it's a massive foundation but the taller the skyscraper the deeper the foundation has to be and what Paul is getting ready to tell us and teach us about the gospel it's going to be soaring to the heights of heaven so there's got to be a firm base and that's what he is laying and we're in this first section that in one word it would be reduced to condemnation now I know how negative that sounds and it is negative but there is no true desire for the positive until you know what the negative is you've got to know what the bad news is before the good news is really great news and and grace will never be amazing grace until you know what the bad news is so that's that's where we are in the book of Romans and we're in Chapter two and we're in the very middle of this section on condemnation and our desperate need for salvation and when we get to salvation Paul is just going to to soar to the heights of heaven so just know that that's coming but he's tightening the screws right now and he's driving these nails down deep in the board so that they're very securely fastened in our in our thinking so as we come to verse 17 the transition is from the Gentile to the Jew last time in verses 12 through 16 Paul addressed the one without the law and that the law was written upon their conscience and upon their heart and that refers to the pagan Jew excuse me the pagan Gentile who is without the law has never heard the law has never heard the gospel now as we come to verse 17 you'll note the very first word of verse 17 but and that's a sharp contrast that's a sharp pivot point whenever you see the word but the arguments going to go in a different direction and so beginning in verse 17 he says but if you bear the name Jew so Paul is putting his arms around all of humanity he has addressed the the one without the law the Gentile and now he is going to address the one with the law the Jew so that whether you are without the law or with the law whether you've never heard the gospel or whether you have heard the gospel all are in desperate need of salvation so beginning in verse 17 he now addresses the Jew now before I read this I want to get out ahead of our thinking in this regard if you're like me as soon as I hear Jew I immediately go well I'm not a Jew so this doesn't really apply to me I'll start listening when we get back to the Gentile well I want to head that off at the pass okay before we go down that that that road because the similarities between the Jew and you and me are nevertheless very very closely tied in that the Jew grew up in a very privileged nation in which there was great exposure to the Word of God in which there was some degree of external morality and that's that is you and me living in America with great exposure the Word of God now I know there are those watching around the world right now that you don't live in a nation like that but for us here in America and especially what I would call the buckle of the Bible Belt here in the south southwest Dallas Texas I mean that there's almost a church on all four corners of an intersection I mean they're they're just everywhere and and people grow up hearing the truth of of at least an outward framework of morality and righteousness though many never hear the true gospel but as we look at this in verse 17 this this is really some mail that is still nevertheless addressed to us because we can put ourselves into the sandals of these Jews who have grown up in a privileged place of hearing the Word of God but as Paul will argue if you do not act upon this word and believe in Christ in reality you're worse off because it will be a greater judgment that you have had the light but then don't act upon the light so having said all of that by way of introduction let me read verses 17 through 24 but if you bear the name Jew and rely upon the law and boast in God and know his will and approve the things that are essential 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 a corrector the foolish a teacher of the immature having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and of the truth you therefore who teach another do you not teach yourself you who preach that one shall not steal do you steal you who say that one should not commit adultery do you commit adultery you who bore a poor idols do you rob temples you who boast in the law through your breaking the law do you dishonor God for the name of God is blasphemed you just as it is written now those verses are kind of hard to follow these are kind of hard to track and one benefit of an outline is it helps you walk through a passage that is difficult to get your arms around so I'm gonna give you the outline it's a it's a great outline okay now all you need is the outline okay so it's a killer outline but it will help us walk through this passage to see the framework okay so here is how this lays out in verses 17 and 18 for privileges then in verses 19 and 20 for practices then in verses 21 and 22 for charges and then in verses 23 and 24 one judgment so how simple is that for privileges for practices for charges one judgment and that outline really serves like a skeleton that will help us put the meat in the flesh on this on this skeleton okay so Paul begins in verse 17 this this kind of unusual section the way it's laid out but it's a powerful argument he begins with four privileges and he says in verse 17 but if you bear the name Jew the word but as I've already mentioned pivots from the Gentile previously mentioned without the law now to the Jew who has the law he says if you bear the name Jew and and there's there's a little bit of sarcasm there meaning well you're not a true Jew you're only a Jew in name only a true Jew would be a born-again Jew a true Jew would be one who has not only circumsized in the flesh but circumsized in the heart and Paul will talk about that at the end of this chapter when he says well if you bear the name Jew there's a little bit of distancing that Paul wants to make here that you really are a Jew and named only by your heritage by your birth by your by your upbringing and so he says but if you bear the name Jew and now he gives the four privileges number one and rely upon the word now this is the V number one privilege and there's a reason why this is number one because of the importance of special revelation you remember we said no one can be saved without special revelation and the law is a part of this special revelation now I want to mention the law here because I took a yell I see rocks this page in my Bible yesterday and took a yellow highlighter and just highlight it every time I saw the law it's kind of interesting in in these verses verses 7 through 24 the laws mentioned four times in verses in the previous section verses 12 through 16 the law is mentioned ten times and in verses 25 and following verse 25 to 27 is mentioned 5 times that's a total of 19 times in just this cluster of vs. I mean so the law is dominant in this in this section of Scripture so I think we need to think for a moment so when he says the law what's he talking about okay because we don't normally think about the law and and I don't think we don't I think we don't think about it enough yeah the law is referring to the law of Moses given to Moses it's divided out into three sections moral law ceremonial law civil law you've got to make those three distinctions moral law is how you're to live ceremonial laws how you're to worship and approach God civil law is how you are to function as a nation and society as Paul is mentioning the law here he's referring to the moral law he is referring to the embodiment of the moral law is found in the Ten Commandments and the Ten Commandments are still directional in our life today nine out of the ten are repeated in the New Testament if we had time we could trace down every one of those and the only one that has been fulfilled I think is the Sabbath requirements so I I do think you can eat in a restaurant on Sunday I do think you can mow your backyard on a Sunday I don't think we're still under the the mosaic requirements on the Sabbath but the other nine these are still in play in our spiritual lives and and we would be antinomian if we did not hold to the teaching of the Ten Commandments I mean who's gonna argue with that that God should be number one in your life that you shouldn't have graven images of God shouldn't take God's name in vain it's yata honor your father and your mother that you shouldn't steal you ought to tell the truth you shouldn't covet with within your heart I mean who here would argue that no that doesn't have an effect upon my life no it it must and so the law is very important now what are the purposes of the moral law I want to give you five purposes of the moral law only because in this section the law is so emphasized and it's still a part of our lives today the 10 commandments number one it reveals the holiness of God it reveals the character and the the attributes of God we see in the Ten Commandments God's holiness we see his righteousness we see his sovereignty his right to reveal to command our lives we see his love and that it directs us into the center of his will woo we learned much about God by by simply looking at the Ten Commandments you learn a lot about the author by looking at what he writes second the law reveals the sinfulness of man we are measured by the law and we are found that we have fallen short of the glory of God Spurgeon uses the analogy that the law is like ten plowshares that plow up the hardened soil of our heart so that the seed of the gospel may go down into our heart and when our heart is just hardened the seed of the gospel just bounces off but even in our evangelism there is a place for the use of the law to bring about conviction of sin look at Jesus when he talks to the rich young ruler how did Jesus do evangelism he appeals to the law and so there is a place a rightful proper place for the use of the law to reveal the sinfulness of man third the law is to be a tutor to lead us to Christ Galatians 3 verse 24 talks about this that the law is is is is that which points us away from itself to Christ because Christ alone is the one who obeyed the law perfectly and Christ alone is the one who and forgive us our offenses of the law then forth the law is a restraint to evil in society it is a limited restraint but nevertheless it does serve as some degree of a restraint that's why you would want laws in a general way to say you cannot kill you cannot steal if you come into a courtroom you should tell the truth and so the law does function as a restraint of evil somewhat limited admittedly and then fifth for us as Christians the moral law of God reveals the will of God it points us into the very center of God's will it tells me how I should relate to to my parents it tells me what I should teach my children it shows me how I am to work it shows me how I'm to be content it shows me how I am to use my mouth and my lips the moral law of God is like a moral compass that is pointing us into the will of God so that's just a brief footnote just a brief caveat to remind us of the importance of the law and please note Paul still talking about the law in the New Testament so let's come back now to Romans chapter 2 and so he says in verse 17 but if you bear the name Jew and rely upon the law and when he says rely upon the law he is saying that you have a knowledge of the law you have a knowledge of the Word of God and you are relying upon your head knowledge of the law and boast in God you you boast in having this special relationship with God because you have the law and in the third privilege you know his will well how do you know as well the law the law reveals the will of God and then he says and approve the things that are essential how would you know the things that are essential he says that the universe 18 being instructed out of the law so Paul is not here in New Testament times just discarding the law and setting it aside no he is saying that the law is written upon every person's heart he is saying that the law reveals the things that are essential the law gives the knowledge of the will of God this is very much a privileged position to know the law and to have access to the commandments of God those things that are pleasing to God and those things that lead us into the very center of his will so these are the four privileges and this is where he begins and those of us who live in this part of the world and in this part of the United States we have these very same four privileges also now he advances his argument from four privileges to four practices and these Jews who have the law are not inactive but they are active with the law they are ministering the law they are teaching the law they are preaching the law they are passing down the law to their children so note now the four practices he says in verse 19 that you are confident that you yourself are now let me just stop right there this confidence brings about a false assurance that just because you have the law and are using the law and telling others about the law does not mean that you have taught yourself the law you're very good at passing it on to others but you yourself have not applied it to your own life that's where he's headed but for right here the four practices of the law and these come in rapid-fire succession I mean there's no verbs here it's just all statements here of pithy short statements you are confident that you yourself are number one a guide to the blind the blind here refer to those here without the law refers to the Gentiles it refers to the pagans it refers to those who are outside the community of of the faith to be a guide to the blind means you're a teacher to those who are without the law you bear witness to those who do not have special revelation in the written word of God so he says you are a a guide to the blind now as Paul says that in reality the nation of Israel at this time was not exactly a missionary force to the world I mean they they had become a spiritual call to sack that they had become a self-contained holy huddle I mean they weren't going out into the world they weren't trying to reach the surrounding nations I mean they were very self content in just sitting on the wall and just hoarding the law and just keeping it to themselves so even as Paul says this there there is a bit of sarcasm almost prodding them almost shaming them by saying what they are doing when in reality is what they should be doing but and really are not doing that they have just become an inner circle unto themselves a holy huddle that's that's an awful place to be so but but look at these four practices and in reality this is what you ought to be and should be doing with the law a guide to the blind and then second a light to those who are in darkness now the darkness here refers not to physical darkness it refers to spiritual darkness and it refers to those who are without the knowledge of the law and even in Isaiah 42 verse 6 it says that Israel was appointed to be a light to the nation's and Christ Himself becomes the ultimate fulfillment of this Isaiah 42 passage that Christ will be a light to the nation's when he says in John 8:12 I am the light of the world and then sends out the disciples to preach the gospel in to all the nations so where Israel failed Christ has commissioned the church to go preach the gospel and be a light to the nation's but this was expected of the Jew though the Jew is not fulfilling us you remember Jonah when God said to Jonah to go to Nineveh and to preach the gospel there Jonah was like in essence in Dallas Texas told to go to New York City and preach the gospel it gets on a plane and flies to Japan I mean I mean he goes in the opposite direction he tries to go as far away from New York City as he possibly could because he doesn't even like the Ninevites because there's such wretched sinners they don't deserve the Word of God and so he wants to just hoard it and keep it within the nation and you know and the best way he knows to keep it to themselves is he'll just get on a ship and go to Tarshish which is in reality Spain it's just in the opposite it's like a an in Reverse you know so he says you are confident that you yourselves are a light to those who are in darkness that they're not being this and in reality this is an indictment of the nation that they're not even using the law passing on the law in the way that they should have been and then he adds to that in verse 20 and Paul is just driving this nail deeper and deeper into the board as he's stacking these up like pancakes he goes in a corrector of the foolish well the foolish refers to those who have worldly wisdom I mean first Corinthians 1 will talk about that they are those who sit at the feet of Aristotle and Plato and and the Greek philosophers and they think that wisdom is found in the in the the brilliance of the the Greek intellectual mind and so they need to be corrected of such foolishness and and and so Paul says that these are that this is another way that they were supposed to be carrying out the law and then forth a teacher of the immature now the immature here refers to spiritual babes who are lacking in the knowledge of God's Word and this could have reference even within Israel to their own children who must be taught like Deuteronomy 6 says hear o Israel the Lord your God is one God and you shall bind it on their forehead and bind it on the back of their hands and write it on the on the the the the door leading into the house probably a reference here to teaching a new generation that is coming up even within the nation the law of God and then he adds at the end of verse 20 having in the law and so that tells us that being a guide a lie a corrector and a teacher has to do with the law having in the law he says the embodiment of knowledge and of truth I mean that's not a bad thing that that that's a good thing and when he says the embodiment of knowledge and truth it's really referring to the form and the structure of the knowledge of God and the knowledge of man and the knowledge of the need of salvation and the knowledge of the need of Christ and the knowledge of how a believer is to live his life so the law contains the embodiment the internal superstructure if you will it the infrastructure we would say of knowledge and of truth and what a privilege that the Jew has had this embodiment of knowledge and truth entrusted to them so men I can easily say to us before we move on to the next verse that there has been a stewardship entrusted to us of knowledge and of truth and I mean later this year I'll have the privilege to go to places on the other side of the earth that there is not this this this knowledge of the law and this knowledge of the truth you and I are really in the epicenter of a privileged place I I don't know that there's a place on planet earth right now let me just think about that I don't know that there is a place on planet Earth that is more privileged than Dallas Texas and the surround Metroplex of just access to the Bible and the end to truth so we could easily place ourselves right here where this Jew is and so as Paul will advance his argument it's very important that every one of us in this room examine ourselves have I've been born again have I exercised saving faith in Jesus Christ do I have more than just the embodiment of knowledge and in truth do I have it in my heart through the gospel of Jesus Christ so what what have we said to this point well Paul has said there are four privileges and four practices he now comes to four charges and and really the four practices that we just looked at were a backhanded way of giving four charges but now he's much more direct and and and so he says beginning in verse 21 you therefore great preaching gets to the you great teaching gets to the you it becomes very personal very personal and Paul is very personal and for those of you who teach the Word of God and for those of you who preach there has to come a point in our preaching and teaching where we become extremely personal and we get to the you and where are you as it relates to what we've been discussing and so that's what that's where Paul is right now in in verse 21 so for charges you there for you mister Jew with the law you mister teacher of the law here are the four charges number one who teach another do you teach yourself I mean you're really good about running everyone else's life how are you with yourself you're very good about telling others how they need the Lord do you teach yourself how much you need the Lord and this is in the form of a question and I will also say if you're a teacher or a preacher or even a parent who's teaching your kids learn the powerful use of the question to ask the question causes the listener to think because I'm not giving you the answer I want you to come up with the answer and so Paul puts this in the form of a question and it's very provocative to self-examination and to run a self audit of your own spiritual life and so he says you therefore who teach another you teach yourself and it implies a negative answer that you have not been applying the law to yourself you should know how holy God is and you should know how sinful you are and you should know your desperate need for one to stand between holy God and your sinful life and to be a mediator between the two you should know of your need for the Lord Jesus Christ in the gospel second charge he continues in verse 21 you who preach so he goes beyond teaching to preaching you who preach that one shall not steal do you steal and it is it is as though Paul is putting the witness on the witness stand and is examining the witness with with questions where were you on the night in question you who preach you shall not steal do you steal and the the appeal here is to the eighth commandment so Paul is still dealing with the law the eighth commandment says you shall not steal and Paul is using the law is an evangelist to drive the Jew away from self righteousness to one who has a righteousness that they so desperately need the Lord Jesus Christ himself so the answer implies a positive answer here you who preach that you should not steal you do steal and they may say well we don't break into people's houses and take money from people maybe not but you're still a thief because you robbed god of his glory because you do not put God in the very center of your life you robbed God of the glory of the gospel because you have not repented of your sins and you have not believed upon the Lord Jesus Christ you have robbed the poor of what you should give to them in benevolence and in kindness no you are a thief of a very deep nature in your own heart you robbed from God and from others what rightfully belong to them now in verse 22 he continues to advance this by asking these soul-searching questions in verse 22 you who say so please not even the parallelism here in verse 21 you who teach you who preach and now in verse 22 you who say for those of you who are in any form of communication please note how Paul alternates his words and does not repeat himself he layers them out very effective teaching and preaching that is very effective communication to you who teach you preach you who say in a sense he's saying almost the same thing but is using alternate words to hold the attention and to pry a little bit deeper into the thinking of the listener so verse 22 you who say that one should not commit adultery now that's in the law is it not that's the seventh commandment in the law Paul won't let go of the law and I just want to say again I think we need more appeal in our own lives to the law in our evangelism in our Christian living the law is not a bad thing it's a good thing so you who say that one should not commit adultery do you commit adultery and it implies a yes answer and we can hear Jesus in Matthew five say yeah but you have lust in your heart for someone who is not your lawful spouse and that is adultery so Paul is bringing these charges and now he brings this forth charge and and please note how aggressive Paul is in exposing sin and and I think most preaching today pulls back from this kind of exposure and I think most witnessing today pulls back from this kind of exposing of sin and in in the life of other people and so he says you who up or idols well this is an appeal to the law again to the first and the second commandment that you shall have no other gods before me and you shall not have a graven image by which you worship me that's clearly stated in the first and the second law and guess what that's still in effect today hadn't gone away yuhua poor idols do you rob temples and the answer to that is yes and you may say well we're not running over here to these Canaanite temples and fishing out idols and breaking the 1st and the 2nd commandment but Paul is reasoning is yes you do break the first commandment and even the second commandment in that you have allowed other things in your life to become more important than God and an idol is anything you love more than God fear more than God and serve more than God that that is an idol in your life and in an idol may be something that's even something good that is is elevated to a place beyond what it should be elevated your job can become an idol your ministry can become an idol your family can become an idol your health can become an idol I mean if if that's what you spend your time daydreaming about and investing in and being preoccupied then that has taken a place in your life that should be reserved exclusively for God alone and so he says listen nothing should be more important in your life than God and for him to be at the very center of your life and for you to follow God but this is a charge saying yes you do have idols in your life and those things that are more important than than God so he is leaving them indicted before God and is charging them with sin just like he charges the pagan heathen with sin even those who are within the the circle of sitting under the teaching of the word of God and having access to the Word of God but if you have never applied it to your own life first of all with repentance and faith then you're in the same boat with the man who has never even heard the gospel so this now leads in verses 23 and 24 to one judgment one indictment we've had four privileges for practices four charges you see how logical Paul is in his thinking to these verses though as I read them may have seemed to be somewhat difficult to follow in Paul's mind they are highly structured Paul is very linear in his thinking he is very logical in his thinking and and he is laying this out in systematic fashion fashion there's more perfection here than what originally meets the eye as far as the the arrangement of his thoughts and the bringing of his case against those who have access to the law so this now leads to one judgment so verse 23 and verse 24 Paul now brings this down to a bottom-line summation and I will say great preaching and great teaching you've got to get to the bottom line you've got to get to the soap what you've got to get beyond the facts - so what does this mean to me well here is now the so what and please note the very first word of verse 23 you there there is no mistaking who Paul's talking to nobody can say well I wonder if he meant me I wonder if he was talking to me no it's very very directive great preaching and teaching is very directive it gets out of the we and the us and it gets down to the you so verse 23 you mister Jew who has access to the law you who boast in the law you boast in your possession of the law you boast in your knowledge of the law you boast in your ministry of the law are you boasting your teaching of the law you boast in your preaching of the law you both Senor speaking of the law notice what he says through your breaking the law you dishonor God you're a law breaker it's like everyone else you're no better than the man on the other side of the globe who's never heard the gospel you're in the same category you too are a law breaker and because you're a law breaker the wages of sin is death Romans 6:23 and because you're a law breaker you are under the curse of the law Galatians 3:13 and the curse of the law is death you have broken the law you haven't made a mistake you haven't made an O or a boo-boo you are a law breaker you have violated the law of God you are an offender of the law and you are guilty of the law and you are condemned by the law and that won't go away and when you break the law note at the end of verse 23 you dis honor God that's not a small thing that is a gigantic thing you dishonor God that that's what you do when something else is placed before God that is what you do when you break his law you are a flagrant dishonor of God and Paul is so tightening the noose here and so setting the knot that when he will get to the gospel in the next chapter people are going to be sprinting to the gospel they're going to be running to the gospel they're going to be falling at there at the feet of Christ and begging for mercy but he doesn't stop there and now verse 24 he concludes by quoting from the Old Testament and the reason he quotes from the Old Testament is to show that this indictment is nothing new that this isn't just a New Testament thing this isn't something that just came onto the scene a few years ago with the public ministry of Christ in his death no it's been this way all along even in the Old Testament and Paul's argument without saying it is oh I thought you knew the law so well I thought you were mr. Old Testament and so in verse 24 he now quotes from isaiah 52 verse 5 and it is a citation from ezekiel 36 verses 20 and following the name of God is blasphemed [Music] here we see to dishonor God leads to blaspheming God before other unbelievers and again there is a note of intended sarcasm here you who are the guide to the blind you are blaspheming God to the blind you who are a light to those in darkness you are in reality blaspheming God to those who are in darkness you who are a corrector the foolish and a teacher of the immature you're not doing that you are actually blaspheming the name of God by the fact that you have a superficial religion it is a religion of all externals it is a religion simply of selective rules keeping you you do not have a religion of the heart and your heart has never been circumcised by this law and you have never been born again and birthed into the kingdom of God in reality you have you have stiff arm God and kept God at safe distance away from you just so you can continue to live your safe little moral life in which there is no conviction of sin and no need of repentance and no need for self-denial and no need for self humbling you just simply have a convenient little religion where you're not disturbed by anything in reality you're a blasphemer and you blaspheme the name of holy God before the very unsaved Gentiles that you ought to be reaching with the message of salvation you are compounding your guilt and compounding your judgment when you will stand before God you who have been given so much never have so few done so little with so much to reverse the Churchill quote you have been given the treasures of heaven displayed before you and you have buried them just so that you don't have to change your life and alter the course of the way you're conducting yourself and where you can just keep everything on the outward facade of your life and never allow it to penetrate into the depths of your soul and for your soul to be opened up by the law and for it to drive you to Christ in repentance and faith and to receive His mercy so this is where we are and I forgot to put my clock in front of me so I I have III I have no idea what time it even is what time is it oh my goodness I did not mean to go this long all right let me just be quiet and-and-and-and there's just a lot to unpack in this suitcase okay I mean there's just a lot in here so tell me your tell me your what you're thinking when you hear this I mean what and we don't have mark Becker here today to go first so you may call in yeah there's big-ticket makeup remark that's why he's not here today prep legit thank you jumps out to me is that it was to the Jew first to Jews were privileged believing they get it never given all of this for hundreds and hundreds of years and they were privileged and it just shows the wickedness of the human heart the grace of God and who we are and so how do we sit on it how do we do the same we do our privilege the same exact time I mean it's a to them but it's us we then go how can we be that's us it's a picture of us it's a picture of me yes I mean we just can't afford this afternoon a bunch is given budget requires that's what I think yeah so we've got to do all that we can first examine ourselves that we're born again that we know the Lord and second to export this to the world it's similar when I was at Baylor everybody you know would get up to go to church but on Saturday night no telling what they were doing but but everybody who okay if you went to Baylor I'm a Christian I'll just you know I'll hit church Sunday morning but the rest of the week doesn't matter yeah you know I mean that's a great illustration it's a similar because in this it kind of bubble thing everybody had come from a church everybody kind of knew about God they knew Christ everybody pretty much even had a Bible yeah you know huh but yeah that's a great that's a great illustration there yeah let's say that this is serious business as a understatement because it's so easy just a coast and be that casual cultural gin and have that facade yeah you know righteousness or morality and an inward you're full of dead men's bones and yeah question you know have you buried that treasure yeah that's a good yeah that's a good energy and we all have people around us and opportunities and we intersect with the lives of people and we just need to wisely think through how can I talk to them about the Lord how can I plant a seed even for someone else to cultivate and am i empower my involved even corporately and getting the word out yeah no I mean we just can't bury the treasure I mean think about all that's been entrusted to us you know in Dallas Texas it's just crazy I mean even in our own lives I mean speaking out but then I my quiet time is really for that really struggle with it yeah it's just sporadic it's it's and that's burying that treasure in a sense yeah the dark suits yeah well we got it we had to discipline ourselves for the purpose of godliness person before seven yeah no thank you for that someone else and I went way too long I meant for there to be more time if someone popped in someone else popping in one thing I thought of that we would need to guard against is we've read through this pass that you start thinking about all these pastors and preachers you hear about the affairs who are robbing from their church and this the other and it's so easy to say well I'm not them you know when this section is intensely personal to you do this every single one here so we have no right to push that guilt off on someone else yes when we are just as guilty as they are you know they may be doing all these overt things but the same scent lives in us it's the same sunbathing we saved from that we do now that's very good application I mean Jesus so we've got to remove the log out of our own eye before we can remove the Splinter out of someone else's eye and he's not saying we shouldn't remove the Splinter just you need to deal with your own and I first and get the log out of your own eye but then you can remove the Splinter from your brother's eye yeah yeah someone else well it makes me think about how that fourth charge and you said what are you investing in in your life and yak about a selfish people myself included we look at and how things are going to affect us what's best for me yet we ignore the greatest investment we had possibly make and then also I think it's important to think back to last week where it says it talks about the Gentiles saying having a lot written on your heart so that really lets us just to put the juxtapose ourselves here in Dallas to this seventeen through twenty four and if there's any doubt in your mind I try to count but I was also trying to listen but I think you is in there sixteen or seventeen times I really go good observation so it's really it's intensely for hitting you on the head with the hammer yeah so now that's good I'm actually go through and get my yellow highlighter Xerox in my life to use there no thanks for bringing that to my attention yeah I mean that's bringing it home but it to our own heart yeah anyone else can't what time have you got eight o'clock straight at Baystate will be preaching this week at the leaders Chapel which we're excited about what's the name of that yeah I'm the bread of life he who believes in me will never hunger and he that comes to me will never thirst have Christ is the full sufficiency and satisfaction of the center's heart what one bite at the bread of life and you'll never hunger again yeah please come there's two services and even if you're going to church someplace else you can still make it for one of the services yeah we'd see them get the free lunch in Dallas and so we're excited to have it yeah yeah so please come I love to see you come bring your wife and introduce her to me I'd love to meet her as well so let me just closing a word of Prayer please stay if you can father thank you for this study in your word and it's very convicting and challenging which I need and we all need and it causes us to treasure the treasure even more that's in the gospel of Christ so thank you for the way that you led Paul to lay this case and this this really solid foundation for our need for the gospel and I pray that it would be clearly established in our own hearts today in Christ's name Amen guys thank you for adjusting your schedule and being here on a Tuesday and next Tuesday we'll be here then we'll be back to a Thursday but you got to just check your email Kent sends out an email and if we don't have your email address and we'll never abuse this just give it to us so we can let you know what day of the week we're meeting on or if if we're not meeting that particular week so yeah man I love being with you guys and I love this time of fellowship it means a great deal to me personally so outstanding so we can do a doubleheader if you want I mean we have a brief admission intermission and well will tee it up again yeah yeah they are hard I first read that I just thought what kind of structure to even get out of this

Channel: OnePassionMinistries

Views: 3,555

Rating: 4.7837839 out of 5

Keywords: Bible, Study, Men's, Men, Word, Scripture, Verses, Romans, Teach, Preach, Steve Lawson, Steven J Lawson, One Passion, One Passion Ministries, Christ, Jesus, Church, God, Believers

Id: StuLXIjHp24

Length: 68min 37sec (4117 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 07 2017