The Nature of the Law

Transcript

GR 2209
06/09/2019
The Nature of the Law
Romans 2:12-16
Gil Rugh

Were looking into the Book of Romans, and we’re in chapter 2. I plan that we’ll probably have some time this evening to have a little bit of question and answer time after we look into Romans. You can keep that in mind as we work through our section, and remember the foundational point that Paul is dealing with in Romans is that which is most important to us. It is that which makes the Book of Romans such a focal point for us as believers. It is about the gospel of Jesus Christ. In chapter 1 verse 16, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek, referring to the non-Jew.

“For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; even as it is written” and he quotes from the prophet Habakkuk, “THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.” So if you want to understand the gospel in its detail and we as believers need to understand it, need to be clear, because if we get fuzzy on the gospel, everything else becomes confusion. We must be clear on what a person must do to be saved, this good news brings the power of God for salvation. It takes God’s power to save a lost person. The gospel is God’s power. There is something supernatural about it, and as we’ve heard in the testimony, it changes a life. Changes the inside, it makes us new. It brings God’s righteousness to us and he starts out by explaining the great need, that our situation is so serious, so hopeless, that only the power of God could save a lost sinful human being. That becomes the foundational issue. You can’t do it. The church can’t do it. Men can’t devise a plan of salvation, it takes God’s supernatural power. We cannot acquire righteousness by our own efforts, rather we need righteousness from God, and it’s given by faith. So that summary statement, the gospel is “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.”

This good news, and we start out demonstrating how serious man’s condition is, that we are truly hopeless, truly lost, and you know the foundations are eroding when you see any weakness on this very point that man is a sinner. That he is under condemnation for his sin and there is no remedy except the power of God, so he started out in verse 18, “the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men,” and we are in a condition of “suppressing the truth in our unrighteousness,” so you see the contrast. “The righteous man” at the end of verse 17 “will live by faith.” That’s how we acquire righteousness, and have it credited to our account, but our condition apart from that righteousness that God provides is, we are objects of His wrath. We are ungodly and unrighteous and we suppress the truth, and then we went through chapter 1 showing that all people everywhere have been exposed to the truth of God.

We call it natural revelation, general revelation, in that it’s generally available to all everywhere and anywhere in the world. It’s natural revelation because it is the creation revelation. What God has created reveals something of the very character and nature of God, but men reject that, and so chapter 1 deals primarily with what he refers to as the Greeks, the non-Jews, people who didn’t have the word of God, written. They still are accountable because God has revealed Himself, but they reject that revelation, they refuse to acknowledge it, they suppress it. They do all they can to keep it from being promoted, so God brings judgment and we’ve talked about what we see going on in the open display of sin is a manifestation of God’s wrath and judgment on the world that has rejected Him. The result of His judgment, they’re turned over to sin that they are committed to pursue, and it becomes more and more manifest, more and more evident, and that is so in our day, but now we have to deal with those who had the word of God.

The Jews had been given God’s revelation. Moses had recorded the first five books of our bible, call them the books of Moses, the Torah, God’s Law recorded there in Genesis, after Genesis, and Exodus beginning in chapter 19, so they had the written word of God. Then they had their Prophets and those who had written and recorded the Old Testament Scriptures, so they had the Old Testament Scriptures, the revelation of God. They weren’t just dependent on the creation, they had what we call God’s special revelation which is even clearer and fuller. God’s very words given to the Jews, so chapter 2 opened up, “therefore you have no excuse, every one of you who pass judgment.” That principal, when we pass judgment on what people are doing and recognize the wrongness of it, we establish the principal of judgment, and even in our fallen world. We’ll get into this a little bit more in a moment, but people recognize murder is wrong, and murder should bring judgment and consequences, just to use that as an example. And in passing judgment, we acknowledge that it is right for God to judge, because sin should be judged.

Now the Jews were great at judging the Gentiles, and they assumed and accepted the Gentiles are lost, because they don’t even have God’s word. They don’t have the worship system that God established for His people Israel, and the priestly system that provided a way with the sacrifices for a person to come before God and find forgiveness through faith in the God who provided the sacrifices, this priesthood and so on. He works his way into this, he doesn’t say in verse 1 now let me address the Jews who have the word of God. He builds his case because the Jews will naturally be defensive. They thought they were all right, so the principal of judgment is established. When you point out that someone else has done wrong, has sinned and deserves to be punished, you acknowledge the principal of judgment is right. Now do you think that you can judge other people doing the wrong thing and escape God’s judgment?

Verse 3, “do you suppose, O man, when you pass judgment on those who practice such things and you do those things, that you will escape the judgment of God?” The Jews, they lied, they deceived, they cheated, they did many of those things that the Gentiles are condemned for, but they thought, well, we have the Law, we’re the people of God, we have a religious system established by God, so were good. Verses 4 and 5, “do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness, tolerance patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?” You know, Peter picked up on this very theme as well, and as the people keep saying judgment doesn’t come, judgment doesn’t come, and in that sense they’re blind to the judgment that God is already pouring out. That manifests itself as men manifest their sinful pursuits more openly and clearly, and then He hasn’t broken in with that final judgment that we all will see.

Well Peter says, you know the reason He hasn’t, “God is patient, not willing that any should perish, but all should come to the knowledge of the truth,” and in that sense these are days of God’s patience, so “don’t think lightly,” verse 4 “of the riches of His kindness, patience tolerance.” The purpose of all this is God is giving men, women a chance to repent, recognize their sin their guilt and turn to Him, “but because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart,” that persistent refusal to accept what God says is true, to believe Him and what He says, and turn to Him for salvation. The alternative is “you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God,” as we’ve seen in our study of the Book of Revelation. Everything is building toward that ultimate and final judgment that will come in Revelation chapter 20 at the great white throne. When the final judgment and sentencing to hell of all those, who have not repented and placed their faith in the good news that God has provided in Jesus Christ for salvation. Verse 6 says “He’ll RENDER TO EVERY PERSON ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS.” Verse 11 said “there is no partiality with God.”

Now again, he’s building and he’s building then with verse 12 where we’re going to pick up, he talks about those who have the Law. So you see, he sort of established the foundational principal in chapter 1, and the Jews would all agree. The Gentiles deserve it and we agreed they are sinners and we’ve talked about the Jews thought the Gentiles were so sinful and dirty they wouldn’t go into their home and eat. Even having that kind of contact was defiling. We’re Jews, we’re the people of God, we’re the chosen nation, we have the word of God. We have God’s Law that set down the provision for a priesthood to represent us to God, to offer sacrifices on our behalf, and they began to trust the ritual, their racial identity and their possession of God’s word. They’re broadminded, there’s no partiality with God, and our works reveal our character. So all the judgments are according to works, not because anyone can earn their salvation, but Jesus said “it’s out of the heart that sin comes.”

That’s why you can’t clean it up as we saw baptism was expressed. Water baptism can’t wash away your sin because sin is a part of what is on the inside of you, “that heart which is deceitful and desperately wicked above all things.” Only God knows the depths of its wickedness, that’s why we come to His word and He gives His evaluation of us. Water baptism can’t wash away sins. Taking communion can’t change you spiritually. Coming to church can’t and doing good works can’t. It takes the power of God that is impacted in the innermost recesses of our being, when we accept and believe the truth we are sinners and Christ died to pay the penalty for our sin. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners so we have an impartial God who will render an impartial judgment, and our words, Jesus said we would be judged by our words. Why? Would that mean if I try to say only good things I will pass? No, Jesus said “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks,” so our words reveal something of what’s going on in us. Our actions reveal something of the condition of our heart.

All of that goes together and will reveal that we are not righteous in the sight of a holy God, so now He’s going to specifically direct it to the Jews, those who have the word of God, and lest we think today that you know people today are very different even in bible believing churches. There are people who sit and think because they were raised in a Christian family, because they come to a church where the bible is taught, because they have bibles, they’re confident their going to heaven. I mean it’s like the Jews there going through their system and they had the word of God and they would listen to it, but if they didn’t believe it, it didn’t help them, so verse 12 and note verse 6 “THEY WILL RENDER TO EVERYONE ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS.” Verse 11 “there is no partiality with God,” so we pick up with verse 12, “For all who have sinned without the Law will perish without the Law, that would be like the Gentiles. There the non-Jews, they didn’t have the Law and they’re sinners, but they can’t escape judgment. It won’t be enough, and nobody will claim that, well I didn’t have Your word.

We’ve already established, but you have the revelation of God in creation and there’s more than that we’ll see in a moment, but the creation itself. God said you suppressed that truth. You rejected it, you tried to keep it from being known, and you openly rebelled against it and encouraged other people to rebel against it as chapter 1 ended in verse 32. “You not only practice it, you encourage others in their rejection of it, so those who have sinned without the Law will perish without the Law. So far, the Jews would say, Amen, but then “all who have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law,” so now he says those who have the Law and live under the authority of the Law are the Jews. They would agree to that and they agreed with that. The Law, particularly the specifics of the Mosaic Law given and all the Old Testament, was the word from God. “All who have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law,” now this gets a little more to the heart.

Now he’s going to drive his point home. Note what he says in verse 13 “for it is not the hearers of the Law who are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified.” You can perish apart from the Law, you can perish having the Law, but all are in a situation of perishing no matter what they have or don’t have, so those who have the Law, that is an added revelation from God. More revelation brings more responsibility, but it does not assure salvation any more than having the revelation of creation means everybody who has the revelation of creation will be saved. It would only be by responding in faith and pursuing the truth that’s revealed there, but there’s enough revelation there to reveal what the natural response of fallen man is, I reject it. I’m closed to it so that revelation didn’t save anyone, but you know what? Having the written word of God, the Law of God, won’t save anyone. You say, well that seems to make sense.

How did the Jews get so far away from that, as through being the people that God chose to be a nation for Himself, a people to whom He gave His special revelation of His word? Think about it; there’s no other nation that was given the word of God. Any other nation who had it got it from the Jews. Jesus made clear during the earthly ministry, He talked to the Samaritan woman, salvation is of the Jews. You had to go to the Jews to hear what God said, so they had a special unique privilege and that brought a responsibility, so verse 12 “those who have sinned without the Law will perish without the Law. Those who have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law” and he doesn’t say will perish, because maybe there’s a response, but “it’s not hearing the Law that makes you just before God, but the doers of the Law will be just before God.” Now important to note, he’s not saying anyone would be justified. That where the doers of the Law would be justified, that word justified means to be declared righteous. God’s verdict is, there is no charge against you. I declare you righteous, but by hearing what God has said won’t result in you being declared righteous any more than having the revelation of creation means God will declare you righteous.

Having revelation does not save you. It has to be the response of faith to that revelation, so here he says, “the doers of the Law will be declared righteous,” but that’s not indicating that the Law was a way of salvation. As we work through this, but to jump ahead, come over to chapter 3, look at verse 20, “because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight,” so what he was saying back in chapter 2, the doers of the Law will be justified. It’s in the context, it’s not the hearers but the doers, but the problem is there are no doers. The Law revealed more clearly and fully the reality of man’s sin, but it didn’t save a person. All the Law could do was to reveal us to be sinners or the Jews in particular who had the Law, but the Law could not save a person because man was already a sinner. What did the Law have built into it? It had a priestly system, it had a sacrificial system, and an order of sacrifices to be offered again and again and again and again and again and again, and Hebrews mentions that’s what it did. They had to keep standing up and offering another sacrifice, another sacrifice and those sacrifices could never take away sin because they were animal sacrifices, and the very fact that you had to have those sacrifices, and you had to have the priest and ultimately represented in the high priest said what? These are imperfect people. These are sinners.

Well, sin has to be dealt with because “the wages of sin is death,” so by trying to keep the Law, by the works of the Law, what the Law required, no flesh could be declared righteous in the sight of God. All the Law does; “through the Law comes the knowledge of sin” and how sad this is, there are some religious people today who would call themselves perhaps Christians, and you say well how do you think you’re going to heaven? Well I try to keep the Ten Commandments. Are you missing something here? The Ten Commandments are part of the Law and in some ways summarize the Law. There are 613 commandments in the Law. We have a basic breakdown here but they’re part of the Law and God’s already declared “by the works of the Law no flesh will be declared righteous in His sight,” because all the Law does, is give you the knowledge of sin. You know we have the light of creation, light being the revelation of God, and the light gets turned up much brighter with the written revelation that God gave to the Jews which even makes sin more clear. Well that helps, but it doesn’t save anyone. It’s like you’ve got something wrong but the light’s not that bright but it reveals there’s something wrong and you’re revealed to be in trouble, so let’s turn the light up brighter and that reveals, yeah, your condition is really bad, but the light didn’t save you, it just revealed your condition. That’s what the light of creation did; it revealed man’s sin in his rejection of that. All the Law did was what,? Turn the light up brighter, make it clearer, so you don’t want to get confused as you move along here. As though verse 13 of chapter 2 is saying it’s not the hearers of the Law, who are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified, but what He’s going to establish as we move through this is, there is no one who keeps the Law.

God says, “You shall be holy, as I am holy.” Woe, what we start out, failed. Why? Well, we need priests to intercede with us with God if we’re Jews, and we need sacrifice, and God’s holy and I’m not. Now I’m going to try to work my way to being holy by offering the required sacrifices continually, and it just….so what he is establishing here, making the point, just because you have the Law you’re not saved. How many people in the United States of America have a bible? Well the bible reveals the gospel, tells us about our sin, about Jesus Christ, about salvation is only by faith in Him and Him alone. How many of those people who have a bible, and if they go to church, they’re trying to earn their way to heaven, they’re trying to do it by keeping sacraments. You can tell because when you confront them about their sin and their lostness they’re quickly offended.

If they go further and say, “yes I’m a sinner, but I go to church, I go to Mass, I’ve been baptized, I do good works.” That’s not good enough, that won’t get—I don’t think I want to talk to you anymore. They’re upset, well think about it, we’ve got a liberal university. How welcome are you to go down there and say, “I’d like to come down and share the gospel. These are young people who are interested in truth and Jesus said ‘the word of God is truth’ so what more would you be interested in than God’s truth?” That’s not acceptable here so you see that’s all He’s saying. Having the Law won’t save you. Now the point here, look at verse 14. “When the Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively,” we’ll talk about that in a moment, “the things of the Law, these not having the Law are a law to themselves in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or defending them.” Now again we want to be careful and read the Scripture carefully; we talked about it’s the doers of the Law that will be justified.

Now he’s going to bring the Gentiles into the picture. “When the Gentiles who do not have the Law” because remember the Law wasn’t given to Gentiles, it was given to the Jews. “They do instinctively,” literally, as you have in your margin of your bible by nature, “the things of the Law. These not having the Law are a law to themselves.” This by nature, it’s something that comes from within. It’s explained in the next verse “in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts.” Man was created in the image of God, because of sin that image has been marred but it has not been removed, so man has a recognition and a standard within him. Now it’s not totally reliable because it’s corrupted by sin, and there is the suppression of that standard. We’ll say more about that in a moment but it is there.

For example, even in our, use our country where we have moved and moved and keep moving the boundary and promoting more and more open displays of sin, and encouraging it and trying to silence anyone who points out that it is sin but still, there is a recognition that murder is wrong and murder deserves punishment. Down to recent time when man’s open displays of his defiance of God and the manifestation of God’s wrath, all nations everywhere down through history have recognized marriage is between a man and a woman. I mean why? Because it was built into their nature because God created man as male and female and we recognized the distinction between them. Even the Romans in power during Paul’s day had laws on marriage and respect for marriage, and some of those Emperors had laws punishing those who did not give honor to marriage between a man and a woman. We have descended but where did that come from? Now we’re being told it’s more natural and just as natural to have two women or two men, but there was built in, by nature they recognized that.

Come back to chapter 1 verse 26 and 27 this very theme. In verse 26 as verse 25 “they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, for this reason,” verse 26, “God gave them over to degrading passions, for their women exchanged the natural.” There’s our word that we’re talking about in chapter 2 verse 14 where “they do instinctively” or as you have in the margin of your bible “by nature.” This is how God created us and so this is further revelation and manifestation to us in that we are made in His image.

It’s not only the creation out there, the very way He made us, we have this sense of right and wrong. Mistreating children, everybody, even as we are, become more degraded in our practices. We’d say yeah, any abuse of a child is horrendous and must be punished. It comes down to what the world is willing to acknowledge as sin keeps getting narrowed down and where will it stop? But there is that recognition. They do by nature, so not that Gentiles did everything the Law requires so when He says verse 14, “the Gentiles who do not have the Law do by nature the things of the Law. These, not having the Law, are a law to themselves,” so everywhere the nations of the world outside of Israel recognized right and wrong.

They didn’t agree to everything that the Law said but some of the basic things in the Law they recognized so in that they were manifesting the remanence of God’s creating work. It’s a revelation that God has impressed, imprinted upon our very nature, and being His image. What He’s saying, they by nature do the things of the Law not everything, but some of those sins that we, you know we have to pass laws, because you know lying, you sign a contract there’s something binding, we see there are things that are right things that are wrong. Embezzling and stealing somebody else’s money is wrong, so we don’t need the Ten Commandments thou shalt not steal, but nations of the world who have never heard of the Ten Commandments or the Mosaic Law would also have rules on law, because instinctively we recognize these things are wrong. Again, don’t get the idea that the Gentiles were obeying the Mosaic Law that’s not what he’s saying, but by nature they do some of the things in the Law.

The principal of recognition of sin and guilt is there in everyone, so in that sense the Jews having the Law but not obeying it. Some of it was like the Gentiles who don’t have the Mosaic Law but they still do some of what the Law required of the Jews, so in that sense the Jews and the Gentiles are alike. Except the Jews have a greater guilt because they have the added revelation and clarity of that revelation but they still don’t do it, and so to pride themselves that we have the Law, like religious people today, you know I go to church, I have a bible, but progressively it becomes more and more dismantling of Scripture. Well we don’t believe the opening chapters of Genesis. We don’t believe what the bible says about a man or woman. We don’t believe what the bible says about sin and guilt, that would be awful that God would send people to hell, an eternal hell for temporal sins. No! Well they have the word of God but they don’t obey it. It doesn’t save them, so this is the Jews.

That’s important verse 14 that we by nature have the image of God. We are created in the image of God. Every human being born is in the image of God, so not only do we have the external revelation of God in creation, we have the internal impression upon us. Why, for the thousands of years of history, did nations recognize these things as wrong and make their own laws? We can read from you know Babylonian, the Hammurabi and those laws. They were impressed upon them and every country has them. The godless countries have laws and some of them we would say yeah, we agree with laws regarding stealing, laws regarding marriage. That’s all that point, verse 15 “in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts,” so you see it’s in the internal part of us, our heart our spirit our mind, the heart referring to the center of our being. Their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them, this is the principal. Our conscience acts on the standard it’s given. You know we all know, we talk about a guilty conscience. We did something we know we shouldn’t have done. Our conscience bothers us. What do we have? We have that standard, and within us there is that impression of the character of God built into us, so the conscience responds to that, our conscience either being witness and their thoughts either accusing or defending them.

We know we have that going on, an unbeliever who never studies the bible but he’s accused of a crime. My conscience is clear, I didn’t do it, and we know even little children, they do something they know they shouldn’t do, you’ll see them hiding. We all know what that is, so that’s the point, the conscience. You can have a good conscience in Scripture, a clear conscience. You can have a corrupted conscience, you can have a weak conscience, you can have a seared cauterized conscience. You know it’s there but there is a standard built in within a person and that’s what is so offensive when we saw in chapter 1, they want to “suppress the truth in unrighteousness.” You go and talk to a person about they’re a sinner, guilty before God, and you can get a reaction. They don’t like that. Well, you turn the light on and there’s something in them. They know that’s true, but they don’t want to hear it. They know that immorality is sin and wrong, and that’s why they don’t want anybody teaching it. They know the murder of that baby in the womb is wrong that’s why they don’t want any images presented of that. Man knows it and that just shows how sinful he is and how serious the judgment of God on that sin is.

They “become fools,” the bible says they cut themselves off from reality. Come live in my make-believe world, we’re in Alice and Wonderland, and if you point out this is not true, you are a bad person, a hater, we don’t want people like that here. We’re in the asylum, that’s what sin does. You can see the judgment and sentence of God, because of their rejection He turns them over to their sin and they become fools. You say, I never thought it would come to this. Those of you who are here have lived long enough to see. Did you ever think you would live in a world where they say, you don’t know what a male is, and a female? Did you ever think it would come to that? Who would have ever dreamed? There’s scientific proof of the difference between a male and a female, even if you never see the person just look at their chromosome pattern. Well that doesn’t count. If you don’t have sight, you could tell by Braille whether it’s a male or a female. What kind of loony world do we live in? That’s the punishment of God. That’s what He says; He turns them over to their sin that’s His sentence. Now you function as fools.

When people get Dementia, Alzheimer’s, and those kinds, and they can no longer connect to reality, it’s a pitiful situation. Now you see God has turned man over to his sin, it’s pitiful, it’s a make believe, cut off from a reality world. That’s judgment, the Jews, they’ve cut themselves off, they’re parading themselves around saying yes, those Gentiles, they will be judged of God, sentenced to hell. They deserve it. They’ll crucify the Lord of glory, the author of life and yet think there fine. How confused man gets in his sin. The thoughts accusing and defending, man’s conscience acting on the standard God implanted in him, corrupted as it is by sin. We still know. You can ask. Do you believe murder is wrong, well yes? Do you believe child molestation is wrong, of course? Do you believe stealing somebody else’s possessions is wrong, ah yes I do? Where did you get that?

The sin has corrupted man, but it has not destroyed him. Man tries to suppress more and more and more and the judgment of God becomes clearer, and on that day, when according to My gospel God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus; a day of judgment has come. The judgment will be according to My gospel, now each person will be judged according to his works, but it’s the gospel, which is the power of God for salvation. So remember at the great white throne, we have the book of the works, but all they could do would be the foundation for determining where in hell people will be sentenced, but the book of life is there, the names of those who have come through faith in the truth concerning Christ. They will have eternal life because they’re credited with the righteousness of God, a righteousness they could not acquire by their own efforts that we should be declared by God when we’re presented in His sight. As Colossians says, “holy without blame without spot.” All charges wiped clean because of what Christ has done.

That’s where we’re building to, but first it’s like we have verse after verse, page after page establishing, because this Roman church comprised of Gentiles, but Jews who were influential had to understand the seriousness of sin and the lostness. I’m stressing this because this is where the church begins to get weak, and it get’s weak on sin, it gets weak on salvation. There is a movement within Evangelicalism that denies the substitutionary death of Christ. I’ve quoted to you those who say that Christ took our place is divine child abuse. How does a person like that get accepted in Evangelicalism? You’re eroding the foundations, you’re chipping away? We have to be clear, the judgment will take place according to the gospel, My gospel, the gospel Paul preached. God will judge the secrets of men, so it’s a judgment according to works, but Paul made clear when he wrote the Corinthians, He’ll judge the motives behind those works. So it’s not just what is done, it’s where that comes from, and man apart from God’s saving work cannot do anything to please Him and he’ll get to that more fully in chapter 3. Okay let’s have a word of prayer and then we’ll take time for a few questions.


Thank You Lord, for Your word. Lord we gather together as people who have declared our faith in Christ. Who possess Your word, a completed Scripture, not only the Scriptures of the Old Testament that the Jews had, but the Scriptures of the New Testament that You gave, and now we possess. But Lord we’re reminded that having this book, having this revelation does not save us. It’s not until we come to recognize and believe the truth of what You have said, and are convicted by the Spirit of our lost, hell deserving condition, and turn from our sin to Christ. Cast ourselves in faith upon the mercy and grace provided in Him that we experience a cleansing forgiveness so that You can indeed, declare us absolved of all guilt credited with Your righteousness. May we be firm and clear in this as we share it with others as well, in Christ’s name. Amen.

Okay let me get you started. We’re talking about the conscience and I had a question on a weak conscience. Why don’t you go to 1 Corinthians 8, I was going to take you through the verses on the conscience in the New Testament but then we wouldn’t have had time, so I thought we would leave that go for now, but in 1 Corinthians 8 Paul talks about a weak conscience. You can do a study, get a concordance look at the word conscience, and then you can break it down, the different kind of conscience, a good conscience, a convicting conscience and some of those things, but in 1 Corinthians chapter 8, verse 7. “Not all men have this knowledge. Some accustomed to the idol until now, eat food as if it were sacrificed to an idol. Their conscience being weak is defiled,” and you see the conscience acts on the standard given us, and some of those coming out of idols, and food sacrificed to idols were connected to that worship, and that food had been corrupted in that sacrifice before it connected them to that idol. Now, they have come to trust Christ, but you know, we talk about old habits and their conscience was conditioned by that standard given to them, that food sacrificed to idols connects you to that idol, so now even those believers in Christ. Then Paul says these more mature Christians rather recognize an idol is nothing.

Jeremiah 10 he says, how silly is idol worship. You go you cut down a tree and part of that tree you use to make food, fire to cook your food, and from another part of the tree you make an idol and you fall down and worship. What kind of stupidity is that? That somehow the tree became God, you know it’s not, because you burnt part of it to keep warm or to make food, so some Christians say, well we know that an idol is nothing. First Corinthians 8 verse 4 “therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know there is no such thing as an idol in the world.” In other words, there’s no other God but God. An idol is just a piece of wood a piece of stone, an image set up or whatever and there is no God but one. You may have many gods called by people gods, but they’re nothing but not all men have this knowledge, because they’ve come out of that background and three times, here he’ll talk about being careful about a weak conscience, so it sometimes takes time to move from this.

To use an example, when we came here from the East Coast, I came out of a conservative background and we didn’t dance. If fact after my family was saved, I took a note to school. I was not allowed to be in dance classes and I remember my teacher telling me, you’re going to be a wallflower all your life and she was right, but dancing was wrong. You know when we came here to pastor this church there were people talking about their kids going to prom. I said to Marilyn, we’ve come to paganville, people in our church send their kids to the prom. What have we gotten ourselves into? Head back East. You know it takes time, and you realize now, what are the issues here. Some of these things--we didn’t have a pool table, because if you had a pool table in your house the next thing you’ll do is, you’ll go to the bar and play pool, and while you’re playing pool, then you’ll drink, and when you drink, then pretty soon you’ll end up on skid row.

You know these kinds of things men build up, but it takes time to break that, and you don’t have to push a person, so we know that this food offered to idols is still just good edible food and it hasn’t undergone any change but not everybody realizes that. It defiles their conscience. They think this is something God wouldn’t have them do. Now the standard they’re operating on is not correct but you don’t have to eat food offered to idols, there’s other food, so he warns those Christians who understand more, there further along that an idol is nothing. The food offered to that idol doesn’t change, it’s still good food, edible, and you could eat it, but don’t push these Christians. A weak conscience is a conscience of a person, who hasn’t matured as far, and you can always have personal convictions, but maturity recognizes that you don’t have to, and don’t have the right to impose those convictions on others, but these who have more strength. Why would you make an issue and encourage them to defile their conscience, because when you make a practice of doing what you believe is wrong then you put yourself in a position, sometimes you do things you shouldn’t do because as a Christian, you want to operate with a clear conscience, and you know other passages Paul makes clear.

If you think God doesn’t want you to do something, don’t do it. So, Jews coming out of Judaism don’t think they should eat a ham sandwich, don’t eat a ham sandwich, but be careful about saying nobody should eat a ham sandwich. And you Gentiles who didn’t have that background, be careful about pushing your Jewish Christian friends to have ham sandwiches. Grow up. Well, let God bring them along and that will come with their standard being adjusted more in light of the word, so a weak Christian is a Christian who hasn’t grown to that point, and we who have more maturity have liberty. Fine, when I’m with these Christians and they don’t think they should eat food to idols I’m not to go, and I’m not going to go to the marketplace and buy food that was sacrificed to idols, and then come over and have them sit down and eat. Then after they’ve eaten, you know what? That was food sacrificed to idols, see or make a point of it as though I’m pointing out their weakness and trying to encourage them. Don’t encourage people to violate their conscience. Say, that’s fine, if you’re not comfortable, doing that now don’t do it, and I won’t do it, and that’s fine.

I don’t drink alcohol. I don’t think the bible forbids alcohol. When I was in Bible College, they used to give an award, the Temperance League for the best sermon on “Why Drinking Alcohol Was Sin,” but I couldn’t do that because the bible doesn’t say its sin. That doesn’t mean its right for me and I have my own personal reasons for not doing it, one of them being, I think I might like it too much. Everybody has their own on that, but when I go out with people, and they’re going to have a glass of wine or that I’m fine with that, it doesn’t bother me a bit and they’re believers. But I think in my position, if it’s going to cause some people to—those kind of things, so that’s what the weak Christian is and a defiled conscience and what’s going to have to adjust is that inner standard.

Now you want to be careful. There are certain things that are wrong, they may have been living in immorality. Now I’ve shared with you, we had some young people that all professed to get saved as a group. They hadn’t been part of the church, somehow, they came to town and they were standing down in the front of the church. We didn’t have it expanded quite this much then and they are talking about the bible and what they are learning and a guy’s there with his girlfriend and he says yeah, when we woke up this morning we had devotions together. I said; back up rerun that again, when you woke up, where were you when you both woke up? Did you go to the kitchen and have devotions at the table? No, we were in bed so we just got the bible off the nightstand. We have to back up here. Now certain things are wrong. Now, I didn’t go how could you do, no you understand the bible says certain things are sin, and that has to stop, so you go through that. You know people come, so we want to be careful. Their conscience wasn’t bothering them because these things were so new to them, living together, doing that, well we just go on now, we’re Christians. No, so some things are wrong and have to be corrected other things will take time.

A question sometimes comes up in Revelation, I may have answered this, but it comes up periodically. In Revelation 21, the wall of the New Jerusalem has twelve foundation stones for the twelve apostles and the question comes, is Paul the twelfth or is Matthias the twelfth?

Remember in Acts, at the beginning of Acts, Judas is now dead and so they want to replace him, because the twelve formed a unique group. There’ll be other apostles but the twelve stands out. Come to 1 Corinthians 15. In I Corinthians 15 Paul’s talking about his own testimony and the appearance of Christ. In verse 3, “I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. He was buried, He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas,” (Cephas is Peter) “then to the twelve.” You see the twelve become a unique group, still identified by that title, the twelve, “and after that, He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at once. Most of them are still alive but some have died, then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles,” so He broadens that out from just the twelve. The twelve are that unique group then to all the apostles “and last of all as the one untimely born, He appeared to me,” so Paul presents himself outside the twelve.

All that to say I think then the twelve foundation stones who were the twelve apostles would be the twelve because that’s how they are identified in Scripture so it would be unusual to change that identification. Paul does not include himself, Christ appeared to the twelve, later He appeared to me as an apostle, but I’m the last of them, I’m born out of time. You know I’m a unique birth, I—it was a special appearance later. Those appearances that he’s recorded occurred before Christ’s ascension in the Book of Acts chapter 1 while He appears to Paul in Acts chapter 9, an untimely birth, but he disassociates and distinguishes himself from the twelve, so I would assume a reference where the twelve apostles, Matthias was a legitimate replacement. It was God’s intention that group remained and they will remain the foundation and the center of the church, and they’ll remain centered in Jerusalem, when others are scattered out, so the center of Christianity remained in Jerusalem. It waits for Paul then to carry it out and into the Gentile worlds, so all that to say I assume that the twelfth apostle is Matthias and he qualifies as making the twelve the twelve. Whereas Paul does not, so I would exclude him from the twelve although he’s a genuine apostle, and there were other apostles, because revelation was given. There are unique things going on as the New Testament is being revealed.

Okay, I’ll leave that at that, I’ve got a number of your questions that I’ll chip away at as we move along. We get to the end of Romans chapter 2 and I anticipate doing that next time. I want to focus on, there’s a major issue there some of you are aware of, one of two major passages that are involved in covenant theology are at the end of Romans 2, as Paul deals with the Jews and their place. I want to be sure that we’re clear on that understanding. I’ll share some quotes on the screen from a couple of writers to show how they handle that passage, and why we would not handle it that way, so you can read a little bit ahead in Romans 2 if you haven’t done that and we’ll be prepared for that.

Let’s pray together: Thank You Lord for a good day, Lord, it is a blessing, it is refreshing to come together as Your people in Your presence, to have the Spirit minister Your truth to us to share together in one another’s lives. To be refreshed by fellowship with like-minded believers, and now that we look ahead to the week before us, the various opportunities that will be ours to represent You wherever You send us wherever You put us. Pray for our testimony that we’d be lights out in a world of darkness that You would use the gospel as we share it in a variety of places with a variety of people. Prepare hearts to hear. Pray as we prepare for the ministry of vacation bible school that You’ll be preparing even the hearts of young children, all the workers, the teachers, those who will be involved in so many ways. Pray that it will be a week of blessing and a week where the Spirit works in young lives and perhaps opens the door into families where the gospel will make an impact. We’re blessed in so many ways and we count it a privilege to be used of You. We pray in Christ’s name, Amen.


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