A direct critique of religious hypocrisy. The false security being religious without relationship with Jesus.
This morning we want to continue in our study through the book of Romans And so if you have your Bibles with you this morning if you would turn with me to the book of Romans chapter 2.
Paul is writing the book of Romans for a couple reasons one to challenge the church which was in its infancy stages at this point in time to see the importance of the gospel. That there was no other means of salvation but the gospel. Addressing within this same book some of the things that are really contemporary to our culture today.
We saw that in chapter 1 the whole downward Vortex of rebellion and sin. How it manifests itself in the lives of people when they turn their back on the true and the living God. Even though God reveals himself in nature. He reveals himself in our in our moral compass that he gives us. We know what is right and wrong. He has revealed it in his word.
You are sitting here this morning you have had some exposure to the Word of God. If you’re not a believer in Jesus Christ. Yet we see that even at the time of Paul it’s been the case going all the way back to the Garden of Eden. Even though you see all of the relevance of God all around them. Back at the Garden of Eden you had Adam and Eve who saw God and walked with him and met really, Jesus face to face; yet, rebelled against him. Brought sin and rebellion into a world.
Today we live in an age where that as the psalmist said we need to remember to teach those that are young. The young people in our nation today. They have a foundation that isn’t a biblical foundation. Many of them even if they go to church don’t hear a firm biblical foundation. But it’s been Impacted by a worldview and a world culture. That’s in direct opposite opposition to the Lord and the scriptures tell us. The prince of the power of the air is the one who’s behind the spirit of the age and that is Satan.
John tells us that there are three great enemies that we have the world with its satanic spirit. Our flesh which is bent to sinning and rebellion against God and Satan himself. But the hope that we have is what Paul wants to share throughout the book of Romans we have a hope that transcends all the Rebellion and sin in the world and is greater than it all and that hope is found in Jesus Christ.
When God made a plan for each one of us to redeem us when he didn’t have to I Just want you to stop and think this morning the depth of God’s love the depth of God’s grace the depth of God’s mercy as we look at the text this morning. To see how many people totally ignore it, but yet it’s there. God could have judged Adam and Eve the minute they sinned and he would have been totally justified. But he didn’t why because you wouldn’t be here you were in Adam’s loins if you were would. Genetically you were there but the thing is you weren’t alive yet as you as a person.
God wanted you to have the opportunity to know him God wanted you to have the opportunity to choose him over wickedness. God wanted you to have the opportunity to call him Abba Father and experience the depth of his love and His grace and mercy.
Paul was saved by the mercy of Jesus Christ and the grace of God. He who by his own testimony and by in the book of Acts the historical account went about seeking to Imprison Christians and have them unalived. On his way to Damascus from Jerusalem that is the very thing that he was setting out to do when Jesus met him on the road and came face to face with him and Paul the great persecutor of the church became the one that would bring the gospel To the Gentiles
He’s writing this book to Romans the Christians in Rome have never met Paul. But they’re already experiencing false teachings that are coming into the Church of Rome. Now I want you to understand this book was written about probably 30 years after Jesus was crucified or in 50 to 60 AD. This morning I want us to begin to look at chapter 2 beginning at verse 17. One of the problems that Paul was facing Was the religious Jews?
Now this morning. I want us to look at this because this is still a problem in Judaism today. Where they reject Jesus even though they’re very religious. But they don’t follow the Bible. They don’t even follow the Tanakh, which is the old what we call the Old Testament, which is their law. Because they have no spirit for God. That is what Paul was facing and This morning. I want to show you it’s the same thing that Jesus faced when he was in Jerusalem shortly before his death. The Pharisees of which Paul had been one. Now let’s see what Paul says about these these Jewish people that are very very religious, but they don’t want to have anything to do with Jesus.
Romans 2:17-29
17 Behold, thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law, and makest thy boast of God, 18 and knowest his will, and approvest the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law; 19 and art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness, 20 an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which hast the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law. 21 Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal? 22 Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege? 23 thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonourest thou God? 24 For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written. 25 For circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law: but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision. 26 Therefore if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision? 27 And shall not uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfil the law, judge thee, who by the letter and circumcision dost transgress the law? 28 For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: 29 but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.
Let’s just bow and pray The only father to come before you this morning Lord.
I pray you just help us to understand this passage Help us to get directly to what Paul is trying to relate to us and help us to see Lord help us to see that people that claim to be Christians can fall into the same trap of Having having a mental Ascendancy, but never giving their heart to Christ Let’s speak to us through your word today. We pray in Jesus name. Amen
God gave the nation of Israel and called the nation of Israel is very special. They’re still special to him today We’ve been studying that and Daniel and Ezekiel and prior to that as we looked at other prophets of the Old Testament Jeremiah and Isaiah. And one of the things that you see is that God called them even though they were stiff-necked Hard-hearted people. God is still working in their hearts and lives. We support ministries one of them will be here next Sunday as I mentioned the friends of Israel ministry and Friends of Israel. Reports along with another ministry that we support one for Israel Both of them are telling us they’ve never seen a response to the gospel and to the message of Jesus Christ for salvation. That Jesus is a fulfillment of all the prophets and he is the Jewish Messiah He is the Messiah of the whole world and they’ve never seen a response to it like they have just recently I think it correlates exactly to what’s happening in the world as you look at the end times Antisemitism is rising wickedness is all around the world. You look at things that are in place now that we’re not in place when I was a young boy There can be a one world government.
There could be a one world economy. There can be a one world ruler tomorrow You’ve got data centers going up all around the United States all around the world One of these data centers can be used for good or they can be used for evil. One of the evil things that I believe that will be used for in the last days is it gives the opportunity to track every one of us and to know everything we do and to keep track of every purchase we make. Why am I saying this? Because things haven’t changed and the Apostle Paul is writing with a problem that was in Judaism that I see happening in the church as well. I want you to just keep your finger here because we’re going to come back to Chapter 2 but of Acts, but I also want you to turn back with me to Matthew chapter 23.
We’re saying him earlier today. Which talked about the light of the world is Jesus Many people in the church would say wow if I could just meet Jesus, but Jesus would just come to our church today Well, would you really want him to come because would you really understand? Who he is and what he demands? Why did he go to the cross? He went to the cross to redeem mankind from the rebellion of their heart. Where they desired to please men and please themselves more than God and they turn their back on God and yet Jesus before the foundations of the world. This says the father the son and the Holy Spirit met and they determined before The world that before anything about trade for Adam had ever sinned.
There’s going to be a means of redemption and that redemption will be Jesus coming the second person of eternity going and Laying his life down in the cross To pay the penalty for man’s sin, and there’s all kinds of heresies coming into the church about that, too Jesus came he says he shed his blood That all men could be saved. But it doesn’t say all men will be saved and out of that you have two heresies that have come into the church today you have those that believe that a God is preordained who will be saved and who will go to hell and Consequently man has no choice in the matter. That is not biblical On the second hand you have all those elements in the church today They’re for universalism, which they say everybody’s going to say because it says Jesus penalty Jesus paid the penalty for all mankind sin in the cross he did but there’s one caveat you have to accept the gift of salvation. He just doesn’t give it to you without acceptance. If I come to you today and I would offer you this example was given by a speaker that we heard up in at a prophecy conference in Winnipeg many years ago.
He said if I had a Rembrandt Portrait up here. I’ve seen one in a museum in Amsterdam they’re amazing fake pictures. They’re amazing paintings The picture I saw was only about like this in size But it was of a man and you literally thought that that guy could have jumped off that that picture and started walking on the floor.
It looks so real. That’s how great a painter this man was So if I had a Rembrandt.
If I had a Rembrandt painting up here and it was worth millions of dollars And I said I’m gonna give this to you and you said well, I only have $25.33. So here you take it. What would that do to my gift? Would it be a gift? I Gave you that which would be very precious a Rembrandt painting And I was giving it to you and you offered me nothing for it. How many people do that with Jesus? Jesus came to the cross the most precious thing that he could offer his life to lay down for your life and to pay the penalty for your sin and Then somehow we want to earn it Well, I got to do this. I got to keep that I got to do this.
Here’s a set of rules That’s what the Jews were doing even during the time of Jesus If you can imagine Jesus walking among us today He walked among the Jews in Jerusalem The Jewish leadership was there in chapter 23 Jesus is speaking about the Pharisees. The Jewish leadership the ones that should have known everything about the Messiah. They claim to have the knowledge of the prophets. They claim to know the law. They kept the law to the utmost They would literally take seeds of grain that they possessed and divide out a tenth. So it wasn’t more than a tenth they gave. It sure wasn’t less than a tenth they gave they made sure they gave exact amount. They dressed exactly the way the scripture said they should dress. But Jesus said they were like whitewashed tombs.
Let’s read what Jesus says about them It says:
Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples, 2 saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat: 3 all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.
There are a dichotomy of a person. They would tell you one thing, but then they do the exact opposite. They’d say you need to do this, but we’re doing that.
4 For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. 5 But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments,
This is the dress that they were to put on to show that who they were.
6 and love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues,
They wanted to be noticed. Look at these righteous men. Where the Word of God is taught they sit in the most prominent seats. People thought they must love God. They didn’t.
7 and greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi.
8 But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren. 9 And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven. 10 Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ. 11 But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant.
This is the exact opposite of what these people believed. You can see this type of thinking has penetrated even the church today. You have ministries where men are exalted. People say wow! Wow, have you ever heard him. If you ever listen to him we send money to him because he says that he will… Not to be exalted amongst men but rather to be a servant.
12 And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.
13 But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. 14 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation. 15 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.
They said they had the truth, but they taught lies. There are people today that say that oh, you don’t have to make a choice for Jesus. They say you don’t have to give your heart to Jesus. because God either has chosen you or hasn’t. There’s nothing you can do about it. Lies from the in pit of hell. Just like them, lies. They take you closer to hell with their lies than they can ever get you to heaven.
16 Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor!
17 Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold?
What they were doing is they looking at material wealth. The material things and they said that is what is important. Not the worship of God. Why was the temple there? The temple had been given to point to God as the one that is the true Redeemer. The one that is worthy of worship because he is the truth. He’s the creator sustainer and judge of the world. What they were doing is, oh Look at look at all the gold. It’s not the gold you to be concerned about it’s the Lord.
18 And, Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever sweareth by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty.
What is the gift that’s on the altar? The gift that’s on the altar even though when they were sacrificing animals at the time of Jesus. Because he hadn’t gone to the cross yet. It was all pointing to the ultimate gift, which was Jesus. John said, as Jesus came to the Jordan River to be baptized, John said behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world? That was the gift that was upon the altar and they ignored it.
Jesus was standing amongst them and we’re doing these things. They did everything they could to plot against him. To prevent him from speaking to the people. Because the people wanted to hear what he had to say. Remember you read in the Gospels and it says that the people would go and they would hear him talk. They would say we have never heard a man speak with such authority before. Well, why did he because he wrote this word John tells us that in his gospel.
He says the word was with God he called Jesus the word. He says by the word the whole all of creation was created by Jesus. Everything was created and brought into being by Jesus the word the word was given to men through the nation of Israel. Through these Pharisees who are to be the protectors of it. The ones who would tell the people about it. Yet they ignored it. They told lies.
Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift? 20 Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar, sweareth by it, and by all things thereon. 21 And whoso shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth therein. 22 And he that shall swear by heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, and by him that sitteth thereon
He’s telling them you need to understand this isn’t about you it’s about God. You think you’re so important?
23 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.
They’re all concerned about mints and spices making sure they gave the right amount, but they didn’t look at what was behind all of it. What’s behind the tithe love, faith, trust, mercy. They didn’t teach anything about that because they didn’t know God.
24 Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel. 25 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.
In other words, outside they have all the right garments. Outside they said all the right things, but in their hearts they were rebellious. I don’t know if you ever seen anybody that’s had a clean cup on the outside but it’s dirty on the inside and they offer you coffee. I had an aunt who had macular degeneration.
She did that to us. You looked inside the cup and it wasn’t clean because she couldn’t see it wasn’t clean. That’s what these guys they couldn’t see their hearts were so filthy. All they saw is they’d stand in front of a mirror and look at look at how great I look in my temple dress.
6 Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. 27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. 28 Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
You can go to cemeteries and you can see beautiful monuments that people have made to people. Some of it has spent you go down south where they can’t bury people in the ground because of the high water tables And you go down to Louisiana and they’ve got beautiful monuments built on the grounds and oftentimes they’ll have the the body would be placed within the monument that they built. But they’ll be beautiful sculptures Granite marble all kinds of things and a beautiful you go there You marvel at the at the artistry and the architecture of these headstones and sculptures But what?
You wouldn’t want to open it up. That’s what these people were. Even so, ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
29 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous,
30 and say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. 31 Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets.
32 Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. 33 Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?
Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets and wise men and scribes, and some of them ye shall kill and crucify, and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city. This was the apostle Paul before Jesus met him.
34 Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: 35 that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. 36 Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.
Wow! Jesus didn’t hold back much, did he? When he saw something, he called it.
I want to tell you something that’s interesting today. Look at our nation today. What is the foundation of our nation? Well, the foundation of our nation, yeah, we had some masons that were part of the founding fathers.
We also had people that were deists that were founding fathers. But the vast majority of the people who were the founding fathers of America were Bible-believing Christians, and many of them were pastors. And when they gave us our Constitution, which is unique in all the world, one of the statements was made, This is given to you to preserve and to protect, but you cannot do it if you are not a godly Christian people.
They won’t stand. What are you seeing today? You go to cities and you see churches. Some of them are fairly empty, like ours.
Some of them are full, and there are mega-churches all over America today. But then start listening to the messages that are being brought by many of the pastors of these mega-churches, and what are they being taught? That which Paul said to Timothy, they will come and they will want their ears tickled. They’ll want a message that doesn’t convict.
They’ll want a message that doesn’t tell the truth. It doesn’t show where they’re really at. But it helps them to believe there’s something they’re not.
And so that would be America. Jesus himself, in the next chapter, as he’s talking to his disciples overlooking Jerusalem, and they’re asking, What is it going to be before you come to establish your kingdom? And that’s going to be the Millennial Kingdom, which we’re studying on Wednesday and Sunday afternoons and Wednesday nights in Ezekiel. And we’re studying the Millennial Kingdom when Jesus comes.
He says, What are going to be the signs of your coming? The Millennial Kingdom, where you’re going to come and rule and reign. Because many of them thought this was the day he was coming. And he’d come and he’d have the great non-kingdom if he wouldn’t have gone to the cross, because there wouldn’t have been even any Jewish.
David himself could not have stood before the Lord without Jesus going to the cross. Because all men are sinners that need to be saved by the grace of God and the blood of Christ. And so we see here that as he is standing before these men and talking to them and talking about them, one of the things that we see is something that’s very similar today.
They thought they were so religious. This morning I challenge you, God doesn’t want you to be a religious person. He wants you to be someone who is his child and in love with him.
If you feel like you cannot tell your family or your friends that you love Jesus, do you love him? Earlier in the service I prayed for people in Africa. Please pray for them. There have been more Christians killed in Africa by the Mohammedans or Islamic religion in the last couple of years than there have been in years before that.
They’re going to churches to behead children, women, men. They’ll take children and sit them in front of their parents and say, Renounce this Jesus or we’ll kill your children in front of you. And the parents have to make a choice.
Are they going to renounce Christ or are they going to allow their child to be killed? And these people say, I cannot deny him, he saved me. We don’t have those kind of choices that we make today. There are parts of the country that you can go where it’s bad to be a Christian in America today.
But if you go to your high school or to your college or to your neighborhood or to your work, they’re not going to kill you for saying, I’m a Christian. They’re not going to kill you for sharing the gospel. At least not yet.
And the thing is, do we love Jesus? That’s the whole point that Paul is making back in Romans chapter 2 to these Jewish people. They think that they’re very religious. Paul says, I was religious.
If there was anybody that was religious, it was me. I was a Hebrew of Hebrews, a Pharisee of Pharisees, of the tribe of Benjamin. He was studying under one of the best rabbinical teachers of his day, one of the two best teachers of his day.
Paul was studying under him. And Paul is being trained, in my opinion, to be part of the Sanhedrin, the leading group of people that would lead the nation of Israel. And Paul said, I gave it all up as dung when I found Christ.
You see, that’s how important it was to Paul. Paul went from somebody who was put on a pedestal by his peers who were not believers in Christ, to being one who was mocked, persecuted, put in prison, beaten, whipped, left for dead, and he said, I’d do it all over again because it’s that important a message. This last week was kind of a sobering week in Fargo.
We had people killed in Fargo that never thought they were going to die. A 46-year-old dad, or 49-year-old dad and grandpa, was driving his car south of town here. Saw that he was going well over 100 miles an hour, hit him, and killed him instantly.
I don’t think he, when he got in his car and was probably driving home, thought he was going to die. Over here, about two blocks away, one block down, one block over, at the corner of University and 13th Avenue, if you look at the house in the corner there, you will see that the whole corner of the house is burned. What happened there is somebody was coming down, I think they were coming down University Drive, going way too fast, lost control of their car, hit the side of the house, I believe that was in the middle of the night as well.
One person died in that accident and the other one is very seriously hurt. I don’t think they planned on dying that day either. You see, we know people that are going to die.
That’s how serious this is. We have a nation that is more concerned about politics than people’s souls. Now I want to tell you something.
You will never get the people to govern you properly unless they have their souls saved and are governed by the love and the law of God. But you don’t hear people calling for repentance. As a matter of fact, I’ve met pastors and I’ve met people that said, oh, repentance is works.
You can’t call people to repentance. Well, then Jesus was giving a false gospel. John was giving a false gospel.
The prophets were giving false messages. Why? Because they called people to repent and believe. Repent means turn from to.
Today we want to soft-scope it. And we don’t want to call people that you have to make a decision, are you going to follow Christ or are you going to follow the world? Do you want to please men or do you want to please God? We need men and women that will stand up and say, I want to serve God first. And I know it may cost me something because Jesus said it would, but guess what? This is preparation for eternity.
You’re being prepared right now, if you’re a believer here this morning, you’re being prepared right now for what God’s going to allow you to do for Him in eternity. Jesus gave examples of that. The men that were left with the talents, and the one that only received one talent went and buried it in the ground, and the master was really upset with him, and he came back.
He said, what did you do that for? I’m going to take that and give it to the man who’s got the ten. The other two men took their talents and used them, and God blessed them. The master blessed them.
What was the point of that whole thing? Just a parable to make people think about money? No, it was a parable for how you’re going to live your life. That’s what it was about. How are you going to live your life? Are you going to take your life and bury it in the sand? Because I know that God is a strong God, and I don’t want to do something wrong, so I’m just going to bury my life in the sand.
I’m not going to do anything for Him. I’m not going to use any of the spiritual gifts He’s given. I’m not going to take the opportunities He’s laid before me.
One day, It says you’re going to have to stand before the beam of the seat of Christ and receive your reward. Read that account in Corinthians. You’re standing before the beam of the seat of Christ, and it says, Some will receive crowns of righteousness for the things that they have accomplished.
And they’ll take those crowns, and they’ll cast them back at Jesus’ feet. Why? Because they’re acknowledging, It wasn’t me. It was You through me.
But it also says there’s going to be some that will gain heaven, but they will gain heaven literally by the skin of their teeth. There will be no crowns, because they were like the person who went and buried the talent in the ground and did nothing with it. God has given you talent.
God has given you a mind. I want to tell you just some things, and we’re way past, so I’ve got to get this done. But I want to give you something in closing, especially young people, but all of you.
You live in a world that doesn’t want you to critically think. You live in a world that doesn’t want you to read. You live in a world that wants to steal from you all the things that God has put out there to enable you to be used by Him powerfully.
And a world that wants you to please men. It would rather have you sit and text on your phone all day long than ever pick up a book and read. Than ever talk to somebody in person.
I mean, I’ve seen college or high school people sitting next to each other at the mall, texting each other instead of turning and talking to one another. Why is that so destructive? You can sense some urgency and empathy in some of my voice this morning when I talked to you. But if I was texting, would it be the same urgency and empathy? The answer is no.
You can’t see my face, you can’t hear my voice, you can’t hear the words. And then they tell you to believe. Simply believe, because I’m the authority.
My Bible tells me there’s one authority, and that’s God. And I need to compare everything anybody says to this word. And if it’s a lie, I’ll just give you one quick example.
During COVID, we were all told, wear masks, stay six feet away. Dr. Burke was the biggest one promoting that. She even came to North Dakota, went to the grocery stores in Bismarck, yelled at people because they weren’t wearing masks, condemned them for not being six feet apart.
Know what Dr. Burke said a year and a half ago? Well, we knew all along that masks didn’t do anything and six feet apart has no scientific basis at all. She was the expert, telling us lies. Did you do your own research? Did you critically think? Did you take it, or did you challenge them? This morning, the words that I share with you, you better take them home and critically think about them.
And say, what he said, is it true or isn’t it true, is what Paul tells us in Romans chapter 2, true or isn’t it true? And then begin to believe the truth. Because the truth will set you free, and this world wants to keep you enslaved to lies. Let’s just close in prayer.
Father, I thank you so much for the opportunity we had to study your word this morning, to lift our praises before you in song, and Father, to read your word and to lift our prayer requests before you. Be with each person that leaves here this morning. May they think upon your word.
May they seek you. May they seek to be guided by you. And may they listen to the words of the Apostle Paul in the book of Romans, where he tells us, as the theme of this book, the most important thing that we can do with our lives is share the gospel of Christ.
But we need to know the gospel, and we need to have experienced the gospel, in order to share the gospel. So Lord, help us to go out and do that. This we ask in Jesus’ name, Amen..