Benefits and Drawbacks, Part 3

Turn to Romans chapter two. Romans chapter two. Where I first
proposed several weeks ago, Paul is in the midst of essentially
a Nathan and David moment, a thou art the man moment. Perhaps he
had stirred the hearts of his countrymen with his severe rebuke
of the Gentile world in chapter one, an indictment of them that
is like no other. So clear, so over the top. And it pulls rebuke of the Gentile
world, pointing out of their sinful tendencies to idolatry. And to an attempt to suppress
God, perhaps he had stirred the hearts of his countrymen with
a hearty amen of their own, that finally the Gentiles were going
to get what’s coming to them. But Paul is in the midst of a
thou art the man moment with the nation of Israel itself.
In chapter 2, Paul turns his attention to indict God’s people,
the Jewish nation, and to show them that all of their privileges
and all of their blessings did not exempt them from a life of
righteousness. It did not exempt them from calling
out to God for grace to live according to his desires. It didn’t exempt them at all. No doubt, as we have seen, it
is the nation of Israel that comes into focus in chapter two.
If you would, let’s pick up All the way back in chapter 2, verse
1. We’ll take just a portion of this passage today, all the
way down through verse 11. We’ll pause there for the next
several weeks and we’ll pick up going all the way down through
verse 29 in the weeks to come. Chapter 2, verse 1, where Paul
writes, Therefore, you are without excuse, every man of you who
passes judgment, For in that you judge another, you condemn
yourself. For you who judge practice the
same things. And we know that the judgment
of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things. And
do you suppose this, oh man, when you pass judgment upon those
who practice such things and do the same yourself, that you
will escape the judgment of God? Or do you think lightly of the
riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that
the kindness of God leads you to repentance? But because of
your stubbornness and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath
for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous
judgment of God, who will render to every man according to his
deeds. To those who, by perseverance
and doing good, seek for glory and honor, immortality, eternal
life. But to those who are selfishly
ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness,
wrath and indignation, there will be tribulation and distress
for every soul of man who does evil of the Jew first and also
of the Greek. But glory and honor and peace
to every man who does good to the Jew first and also to the
Greek, for there is no partiality with God. I presented just an
overarching outline several weeks ago. Let me reiterate that just
to nestle you back. Into the place where we are focusing
for the next several weeks, There’s no doubt the nation of Israel
is in focus in this section. I received numerous questions
over the last several weeks about judgment. What about judgment? How do we face judgment? Those
that are in Christ are not going to face the same kind of judgment. That those who are outside of
Christ are going to face in a very real sense, Those who are in
Christ, their sin has been judged already. And Christ paid for
that already. What Paul has done is say that
the Gentile heathen world is utterly sinful and in destitute
need of Christ. What he also says is those of
Israel are also sinful and also desperately in need of a Savior.
They deeply need the Lord Jesus Christ. What he gets into in
chapter two is simple. He basically says the Jews are
all likewise condemned. The nation of Israel is condemned
right along with the Gentile world. In chapter two, verses
one through twenty nine, it is essentially one long argument.
It is the status of the Jewish people. You get some argumentation
and Paul answers some questions in a rebuttal in chapter three,
verses one through eight, and then he gives biblical support
proof for that in chapter three, verse nine through 20. And that
shows up the argument that the Jews are all likewise condemned. That’s the argument. Let’s consider
it for a moment. Go back to chapter two, verse
one, the Jews are in focus. We’ve looked at this for several
weeks. When Paul uses that literary device, oh man, in verses one
and three, ultimately he’s going to tell you the man’s name. And
he does that in verse 17, and it’s plainly the name Jew. It is the Jewish nation that
is in focus here in chapter or rather in chapter one, verse
two, Paul says, We know the judgment of God rightly falls on those.
And he calls his Jewish brethren to agree with him that the Jewish
nation is likewise under judgment. Paul puts himself in with that
group. Only the Jews definitively knew of the judgment of God because
they knew God’s law. They knew that God was a judge
and a very capable one. Verse four, as we saw, points
clearly to the nation of Israel, because what nation had enjoyed
a greater measure of God’s kindness and forbearance and patience?
It is the Jews, without a doubt, that are in focus. In these verses,
we began considering, though, that Paul is seeking to really
clarify and educate about the judgment of God. You see, the
Jew, the average Jew, really believed that because of his
standing in Abraham. That he was somehow exempt from
any kind of judgment. that the world, especially the
Gentile world, would be judged. But if you were in Abraham, if
you were a child of Abraham, well, then you were exempt from
the judgment of God. And Paul says, let me clarify.
Let me teach you about God’s judgment. Paul begins to point out the
privileges, rather, and arrogance of the nation of Israel, and
he begins to correct their understanding of judgment. Three correctives
I proposed judgment, first of all, is totally inappropriate
in the hands of man. Paul even goes on to say you’re
without excuse using the same word that he said in chapter
one, verse 20, with regards to deciding that God doesn’t exist.
You can come to that conclusion if you want, but if you do, you’re
totally without excuse. And Paul says the same thing
here with regards to judging others. You set yourself up as
a judge. You’re on your own, you’re without
excuse. This tendency, as I said, to judgmental attitude was such
characteristic of the nation of Israel. As Charles Hodge said,
the nation of Israel expected to be regarded and treated not
so much as individuals. Each being dealt with according
to his personal character, but as a community, they wanted to
all hide under the umbrella of Abraham and Paul says it’s not
going to happen. We looked at the subject of judging
that all judging is not forbidden because many times we’re called
to discern. Ultimately, we’re called to decide
what it’s talking about is that critical fault finding attitude
that sets us up as superior over others. That somehow decides
that we are incapable of such a crime against God and man,
but others certainly. are capable. It is unfavorable
judgment here is that judgmental heart and spirit that is in view,
and the Jews have become quite accomplished at it. One Puritan
said this character of judging belongs to the Jews who, according
to a principle of their religion, condemned the other nations of
the earth and regarded them as strangers from the covenants
of promise. It was a Jewish fault. But not
exclusively. As we pointed out. That sinfulness
is a universal condition, everybody has sinned, Paul points that
out, and because of that, it is utterly inexcusable to carry
yourself in a judgmental way, to think that you’re above sin,
to think that only others sin, that you are alone are the virtuous
gift of God to man. It’s wrong. I said there were
three correctives and we looked at the second one last week.
Paul is adjusting their perspective on judgment, and he says, first
of all, judgment is inappropriate in the hands of man, but it is
absolutely justified in the hands of God. It is God’s job to judge. And God is a very capable judge,
Paul says, we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those
who practice such things. He’s drawing in. His Jewish brethren. And he’s saying, can’t we just
agree? Can’t we stipulate to the fact that we know that God
is a judge? We know that God is a just judge
and we know that God will justly judge sin and sinners. Can’t
we agree to that? When they heard those words,
the judgment of God, every Jew, Every Jew must have shuddered.
Every person must give pause to that. We believe that we have
placed our faith in Christ. We believe that we are following
him, but it does give us pause to bow and to consider and to
reevaluate our lives, to make absolutely certain that our lives
are in good standing. That we are calling on the grace
of God to walk with Christ. There is a judge. God is that
judge. And as we saw, the Scriptures
constantly point to what they call the day of judgment coming. There is such a thing. Paul said
he has fixed a day in which he will judge the world. And when
God judges, it goes on to point out When God judges, he judges
rightly. It’s a fascinating little word,
and we spent no little time on it last week. We know that the
judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such
things. In other words, God is justified. God executes perfect
judgment, flawless judgment. It rightly falls upon those who
practice such things. It’s not capricious. God doesn’t
fly off the handle. The timing is perfect. The assessment
is perfect. The penalty is perfect. It’s
all perfect. Because it’s God. It’s God, the
one that is executing that judgment. Just by way of a brief review,
Psalm 711, God is a righteous judge. And throughout the Psalms, God
is extolled as the one who judges uprightly. God is the one who
judges with equity. God is the only righteous judge. And that’s why it’s so ill-fitting
in the hands of men. We know that the judgment of
God rightly falls upon those who practice such things. And that calls us to leave the
hand, leave rather judgment in the hands of God. Habakkuk realized
he was a poor judge, the disciples learned that they were poor judges.
Jonah found out that he was not such a great judge of character. Repeatedly throughout scripture.
We find that when men typically exercise judgment, it is from
a self-centered perspective. It is inaccurate. It is incomplete. And oftentimes it is unjust.
So Paul says, can we agree on this one thing? God will judge. God is a judge and he will judge
sin and sinners. Can we agree on that? So instead
of worrying and criticizing and judging others, instead of your
applause that the Gentile world is going to be judged by God,
can we agree that God is a just judge and that we too ought to
be humble before Him? We know that God will judge righteously. We know that God will apply His
righteous judgment to all sinners. Point three. Paul is addressing the privileges
and the arrogance of the nation of Israel. He is adjusting their
perspective, if you will, on judgment, and he’s offering us
three correctives on judgment. First, he said, judgment is inappropriate
in the hands of men. It is justified in the hands
of God. And it is thirdly, inevitable for hypocrites. It’s inevitable. It’s coming. Look at verse three. And do you suppose this? Oh,
man. When you pass judgment upon those
who practice such things and do the same yourself, that you
will escape the judgment of God, is that your argument? It’s as
if Paul says, let me be clear on this, let me make sure that
I’ve got your argument correctly, because he restates it with absolute
precision. Do you really say have you really
come to this conclusion? Now. Think with me as ridiculous
as this sounds to our ear. When the reasoning is plainly
laid out, it’s true, this is actually the way that some people
think. The Jews, yes, but not just the
Jews, as we’ve been pointing out for several weeks, and the
reasoning goes something like this. Look, if I take a hard
line publicly. On some of these sins, no doubt
God will have mercy on me for the sin that others cannot see
in my life. You get their argument and you
hear it from time to time, you still see it in legalistic people. who think that if they’re just
hard on other people’s sins, people will somehow elevate them
in their mind as being righteous. And that will lead them to overlook
their own sin and God as well. It’s hypocrisy. This is the core
of hypocrisy is what it is. And it’s a lot more rampant than
to be isolated as a tendency only of the Jews. We’re guilty,
as I said, of the same thing many times. Whenever we expect
in others that which God by His grace has not perfected in ourselves. We’re doing the same thing, it’s
hypocrisy. This is a call not only to repent
of a judgmental attitude. It’s a call to humility. It’s
a call to self-examination. It’s a call to repentance for
our own sins. And the cultivation of a heart
of mercy and compassion for the sins of others. This hypocrisy was clearly shown
to be true in the Jews in general, we spent plenty of time on that
last week. I take you again in your mind’s
eye to Matthew, chapter 23, where repeatedly Paul rebuked The religious
elites calling them scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites repeatedly. And it’s a condition. That is
so endemic to the human condition that we have to be particularly
watchful in our own lives. Do you realize that Paul and
James and Peter each address this tendency to hypocrisy? Paul
said it simply later on in the 12th chapter of Romans, and no,
this does not cover what we’ll treat there in Romans 12, 9. Paul said, let love be without
hypocrisy. That’s an interesting thought.
You would think that all love, all love, especially in the church,
all love is sincere and legitimate and real. But what Paul points
to there is that all love is not real. There is a feigned
love. There is a pretend love. There
is a phony, a sham love. We can go through the motions
just like the rest of them. But God doesn’t settle for cheap
imitations. God wants the real thing whenever
God calls. For virtue, whenever God calls
us to mend and amend certain character qualities in our life,
he doesn’t want pretend. God wants real, genuine, deep,
vibrant love. When we love, it’s an active
love. One pastor said love must be
unhypocritical, unfeigned, sincere, genuine. It must not be faked
and it must not consist in empty words. It’s a sad thing, isn’t
it? You sensed it before. Perhaps
we all have. Empty words, kind of a pretend
love, just a walk through kind of go through the motions kind
of love. Paul says it can’t be that way.
It can’t be that way in the church. Paul said the same thing to Timothy.
The goal of our instruction is love. Where? From a pure heart
and a good conscience and a sincere faith. There he’s talking about
faith. But sincerity in all that we
do. A genuineness in all that we do. one very capable expositor, penned
these very deep and insightful words. And I’ll take it slowly
because I really want us to grasp what he says. He says, it is
difficult to express how ingenious almost all men are in counterfeiting
a love which they do not really possess. They deceive not only others,
but also themselves. Do you hear what he’s saying?
He says they get so good at it, they really think that they’re
loving. They really think that they’re doing what God would
have them to do. They deceive not only others,
but themselves, while they persuade themselves that they have a true
love for those whom they not only treat with neglect, but
in fact, reject. And yet all the while, they really
think that they’re doing what God would have them to do. And
he closes with this profound statement. Stick with me. He
says the state of a man who believes that he’s loving. When he is
not. Is worse than the man who pretends
to be loving, knowing that he is not. You see, you’ll get people
from time to time They know they’re just, you know, sugarcoated. They know that they’re just being
phony and plastic. Perhaps they’re bucking for your
votes. Perhaps they want some kind of
favor out of you. A salesperson perhaps. They know they’re being phony
and they lay it on thick. The man who pretends to be loving,
knowing that he’s not, But a worse condition, the far worse condition
is the state of the man who believes he’s loved. He really believes
he has achieved and arrived. He’s the most loving person he
knows. And all the while, he hasn’t
even begun to comprehend what love is. James said the same
thing regarding sincerity. James 317 said the wisdom from
above is pure, peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy, good
fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. Here, wisdom is in view. I loved
what my brother said about the reading that we had in Ecclesiastes.
You can achieve all of the world’s wisdom that there is. And if
you’re without Christ, it’s still empty. That’s what James is talking
about. We want the wisdom from above.
We want real wisdom. Peter addressed hypocrisy as
well when he said, therefore, putting aside all malice and
all deceit and hypocrisy and all slander, put all those things
aside. Because until you do, you are
not ready for the grace of God. You have not repented of those
things. And you know what? I realized this a couple of weeks
ago. For me, it’s often helpful To consider the antonym of a
certain word. And it was especially helpful
here because I knew that I knew this word hypocrisy and it sounds
almost the same in Greek as it does in English. And I knew there
was a similar sounding antonym. And so I began to look and I
began to study. It was an interesting thing, first of all, to learn
that there are not just one, but six different words that
are used in the New Testament to translate sincerity. That was noteworthy in itself.
Six different words to drive home the need for sincerity,
genuineness in our Christian walks. There’s one word that
was used only once. A fellow of taste used only in
Acts two forty six, which first we read in Sunday school several
weeks ago in our study. Speaking of the church day to
day, continuing with one mind in the temple, breaking bread
from house to house, they were taking their meals together with
gladness and sincerity of heart. They were real. This was the
real deal. And that’s why it was so powerful.
And that’s why it’s so absolutely crucial in the church. We can’t
be phonies. There’s another word that’s used
three times. I like Crania. Because in first Corinthians
five, eight, therefore, let us celebrate the feast, not with
old leaven or with eleven of malice and wickedness, but with
the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, let’s be real with
each other, he says. Let’s get down to brass tacks. And the only there’s two other
places that it’s used, used very similarly. And, you know, what
was interesting is, remember, our slight deviation that we
took in the second Corinthians for what, eight months? That all started when I preached
this one little verse to 17, and then it took us all the way
through chapter six or seven. First, the second Corinthians
to 17 says this. We are not like many peddling
the word of God. But as from sincerity, as from
God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God. We’ve got to be
real. Beautiful word, there’s another word for sincerity that’s
used four times. You get the pattern yet? It’s
going to get overwhelming here soon. Ganesios, 2nd Corinthians
8.8, I’m not speaking this as a command, but as proving through
the earnestness of others, the sincerity of your love there
again, love in focus. There’s another word that’s used
six times. This is the word that I went
looking for in the first place. Unhypocritical. Do you know that
in the church we are called to be unhypocritical? Does that
come as any kind of surprise to any of us? No, it shouldn’t.
We’re called to be sincere, the real deal. Let love be without
hypocrisy, Paul said. 2 Corinthians 6.6 In purity,
in knowledge, in patience, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit,
in genuine love. 1 Timothy 1.5 The goal of our
instruction is love from a pure heart, a good conscience, a sincere,
unhypocritical faith. Second Timothy 1.5, I am mindful
of the sincere faith that is within you. Real faith, unhypocritical
faith. James 3.17, the wisdom from above
is pure, peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits,
unwavering, without hypocrisy. It’s unhypocritical. First Peter
122, since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls
for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from
the heart. It’s a sincere love, it’s an
unhypocritical love that we are called to in the Scriptures.
There’s another word. Apotates seven times in the New
Testament. Typically, it’s translated as
liberality, that we’re to give with liberality, that we’re to
love with liberality. But in Ephesians, six, five,
there’s an interesting passage for anybody who works for a living.
And all the people began to squirm slaves, be obedient to those
who are your masters, according to the flesh with fear and trembling,
and I do believe You know, there’s no slavery now, at least not
in America. But I do believe that these verses
equate very simply straight across to the employee employer relationship. I absolutely do. I used to pin
them on my locker. Slaves, be obedient to those
who are your masters, according to the flesh, with fear and trembling
in the sincerity of your heart. Be the real deal. Don’t just
give eye service. Don’t just be one who nods his
head like the dashboard dog. Don’t just be like that, but
be the real deal. Render service. And then there’s
one other word used twenty six times and don’t panic, I’m not
going to read any of them. One. Maybe two, one. One of the Apostle John’s favorite
words, it’s Alathinos. He is twenty one times of the
twenty six that it occurs by the Apostle John used by Jesus
to speak of true riches. Paul uses it once to speak of
the true God used three times in the book of Hebrews, the third
of which is germane to our discussion. Hebrews 1022. Says, Let us draw
near with a sincere heart. And in full assurance of faith,
Having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our
bodies washed with pure water. The writer of the Hebrews there
says, be the real deal, be sincere. So to think that as Paul is looking
over the top of his bifocals at the nation of Israel and looking
past us is inaccurate. Hypocrisy is no less a danger
to us. As it was to the nation of Israel,
God was very concerned with hypocrisy, the nation of Israel. We know
that to be true. Listen to the words. Of Isaiah,
Isaiah, chapter one, verse 10, said, Hear the word of the Lord,
you rulers of Sodom, give ear to the instruction of our God,
you people of Gomorrah. What are your multiplied sacrifices
to me? And you can just hear them. Well,
God, you instituted these sacrifices. Says the Lord, I’ve had enough
of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed cattle, I take
no pleasure in the blood of bulls, lambs or goats. And the priests begin to scratch
their heads, right? What on earth? We’re doing what you perhaps
thumbing through their Bible to find the verse. Lord, you
told us to do this. When you come to appear before
me, who requires of you this trampling of my courts? Bring
your worthless offerings no longer. Incense is an abomination to
me. New moon and Sabbath, the calling
of assemblies. And then finally comes the explanation.
In verse 13, I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn assembly. It wasn’t the solemn assembly.
It wasn’t the offerings. It wasn’t the bulls. It wasn’t
any of that. It was the hypocrisy that went
with it. As we saw, Jesus confronted hypocrisy
in his day, didn’t he? Matthew chapter 21 says, but
what do you think? And he tells a simple story,
and it is such a masterful story because you’re so drawn in. You
want to just rebuke both boys, right? Take them and beat them.
But what do you think? A man had two sons. He came to
the first and said, son, go to work today in the vineyard. And
he answered, I will not. I mean, have you heard this before?
But afterward, he regretted it and went. And the man came to the second
and said the same thing, and he answered, I will. Have you
heard that, too? I will. But he did not go. And
Jesus says, which of the two did the will of his father? What
he was pointing at is. The hypocrisy of the Jewish nation. And so when Paul says that here. Do you really suppose? Are you
really drawing this conclusion, oh, man? that when you pass judgment
upon those who practice such things and all the while you’re
doing the same thing yourself, you really are you really drawing
the conclusion that somehow you’re going to be exempted? This word
translated here, suppose occurs here for the first time in Romans,
a very important word. Because it’s the same word that
is used where God reckoned Abraham’s faith as righteousness, where
God reckoned our faith as righteousness, very significant in all of Paul’s
letters, he uses it thirty three times, 20 here, almost almost
20 in Romans and outside of Paul’s words or epistles. Rather, the
words only used seven times. Regarding its meaning, it was
a word that was originally used with regard to finances and calculating,
thinking through things, tallying them up and arriving at a conclusion. costs, debts, value, all of those
kinds of things came into view. It was objective, passionless
deliberation. You’re just looking at the facts,
right? We’ve all met accountants, right? Check his pulse. It came to refer,
as one pastor said, to thinking which feeling and will are involved
ultimately. Cold, calculated reasoning. Paul says. Have you really drawn
from the facts as you’ve considered them this conclusion? What this verse really does is
just take the simple truth that was stated in verse two, that
God is a righteous judge. And apply it to the hypocritical
judge of other men from verse one. Do you really reason? Do you really consider yourself
to be a special case? Do you really think that just
because you’ve got some, at least for other people, high standard
that you’re going to escape the judgment of God? Do you really
think that? And it’s emphatic. He confronts
the Jew here with his sinfulness, as one said, with the impiety
of the supposition that the divine order of justice would be set
aside for his benefit. No, it wouldn’t. Do you suppose
this, oh man, when you pass judgment upon those who practice such
things and do the same thing yourself, you will escape the
judgment of God? One pastor said we may observe
when Puritans and pastors said we may observe here how prone
men are to abuse to their own destruction. Those external advantages
which God bestows upon them. God had separated the Jews from
the Gentiles to manifest Himself to them. And by doing so, He
had exalted them above the rest of the world to whom He had not
entrusted the same favor. The Jews were a privileged people.
The proper and legitimate use of this superiority would have
been to distinguish themselves from the Gentiles by a holy life.
But instead of this, Because of a fatal confidence which they
had placed in this advantage, they committed the same sins
of the Gentiles and plunged into the same excesses. And by this
means, what they considered as an advantage became a snare to
them, for in that which they judged others, they condemned
themselves. It was a haughty attitude. It
was a dreadful attitude. And Jesus, as I have already
said, confronted it more than once. In reviewing, I remember this
little story that Jesus tells in Luke 18. He told the parable
to some people who trusted in themselves, which is always a
dangerous proposition. It’s fascinating to me as you
look at the world, especially the world of advertising, is
believe in yourself, right, especially in the realm of athletics. Believe
in yourself. No, don’t do that. They trusted in themselves that
they were righteous and viewed others with contempt. That’s
who he’s telling the story to. Listen to this one. Two men went
up to the temple to pray. One, a Pharisee, the other, a
tax collector. So you got the scene. The holy
man and the rabble. The Pharisee stood and was praying
this to himself, God, This is amazing to me. Typically, when
men climb into the pulpit, how it changes how they enunciate
and pronounce simple little words. God, I thank you that I am not
like other people. Swindlers, unjust, adulterers,
or even like this tax collector. And he looked at the man with
disdain. I fast twice a week. I pay tithes of all I get. But the tax collector, standing
some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes
to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, God, be merciful
to me, a sinner. I tell you, this man went down
to his house justified rather than the other, for everyone
who exalts himself will be humbled. But he who humbles himself will
be exalted. See what Paul is saying to the
Jews is what Calvin rightly centered on when he said, if
others cannot escape your judgment, you’re running around the city
judging everyone else in your haughty attitude. If others cannot
escape your judgment, do you really suppose that you can escape
God’s? Of all the sin and sinfulness
that we know God will judge. Can we really reason that hypocrisy
falls off the list somehow? A.W. Tozer said it this way. He said
God’s justice stands forever against the sinner in utter severity.
The vague and tenuous hope that God is too kind to punish the
ungodly has become a deadly opiate for the consciences of millions.
It hushes their fears and allows them to practice all pleasant
forms of iniquity, while death draws every day nearer and the
command to repent. Goes unregarded. Paul says, do you really think
that? Do you really suppose that your high standard is going to
exempt you from the judgment of God? People were called. We’re called
to humility. We’re called to embrace the grace
of God, not as something that we got because of our goodness,
but because of something that we did not deserve. And our response
to other sinners that were just like us, If not for the grace
of God. The only proper response is one
of humility towards them as well, one of mercy, a prayer of mercy,
certainly not judgmentalism. Let’s humble ourselves before
our great God. Our merciful God. We do humble
ourselves in your presence. And we thank you for the masterful
job that Peter, that Paul did in pointing out and expressing
the sinfulness of the Gentile world and now having begun to
turn his attention to the to the Jewish world as well. He’s already begun to point the
finger at them. To show their utter need of the
Savior. Father, we thank you that in our own lives, for all
of us who know Christ, we know that that moment is behind us
when we came to learn of the Lord Jesus Christ and of our
desperate need for him. Oh, Lord God, if there are any
in our midst who are shaken to the core of the sound that there
is a day of reconciliation, there is a day of judgment. And if
they do not know Christ, they must face that alone. Lord, if
there are any in our midst. Draw them to yourself, bring
them to knees of repentance for their own sin. Father, reveal
to them Christ the Savior. Who paid the debt for sinners?
Be glorified. God in saving some even this
very day. It’s in Jesus’ name that we pray.
Amen.