Jews and the Law.
Notes
Transcript
Practice What you Preach
Practice What you Preach
Good morning my friends, I hope you are well today!
If there is anything I can tell you today as we start this message is this simple truth… He is faithful.
I say that because when I look at the texts of the Scriptures, we see it over and over again...
But not only there, we live and experience His faithfulness each day. We are alive today. He has revealed himself to us, Given us His word that we might hear and believe. He has saved us and given unto us eternal life.
He is faithful!
And being blessed so greatly by God, we are called to live for Him.
As such, our walk and our talk should match up, right?
Yes, our outward life should be a reflection of the inward that has taken place in us by His grace.
But at times it doesn’t in every person… Yet, God calls for us to practice what we preach.
So this morning we come back to the message of Romans, as Paul is still speaking to the Jews there. Lets open the first part of our text for today.
Lets read, Romans 2:17-20
17 But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast in God 18 and know his will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed from the law; 19 and if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, 20 an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth—
1. Blessings lead to Pride....
Let me remind you that the children of Israel, the Jews are an important people in relation to God.
In fact, they should be important to us, for through Isreal, God revealed Himself to the world., His love, Mercy and plan for the world.
And yet at times, even though they were called by God to be His people, they were not always faithful. And as Paul speaks to the Jewish community, he points out their failure.
Paul says If you call yourself a Jew, v. 17a… well of course they did. They were the descendants of Abraham, Issac and Jacob. They took great pride in the fact that God was the one who came and called them. He had called them out from among the nations...
So Paul says; You call your self a Jew and then next, they relied on the law… Most certainly they did, not only did God call them, He gave them the law through His servant Moses, whom God sent to them during their captivity in Egypt. To be Jewish meant that they held God’s law, that was central to their faith. Their life was found in the law.
And with that, Paul moves on saying: They boasted in their relationship to God. They thought that God was their God and their’s alone. After all they stood before him at My Sinai and ratified the covenant with God. They had become His people like their forefathers.
Paul said they were full of pride claiming they knew the will of God, thus knowing what was excellent since they had been instructed by the law of God that they held in their heart.
Wow, the Jews Paul said felt like they had it all, they were the children of God, the descendant of Abraham, they held a everlasting and wonderful relationship with God.
But it didn’t stop there…
All this pride convinced them that they were the bees knees… Because they were Jews, who had the law, who boasted in God Paul says this....
They thought of themselves as a guide to the blind, a light in the darkness, an instructor to the foolish and a teacher to the children..
Man, they thought a lot of themselves, Yet Sadly they would live in such a way, they missed the mark.
Jesus himself called them “blind guides” in Matthew 23. Instead of being a light to the nations, they hid their light and did not tell the world of the wondrous works and love that God possessed.
They did not call the world to come and know God like he commanded them too.
Their pride left them bound, and dead, instead of teaching others, they needed to be taught.
They had fell, just like the saying Pride goeth before the fall. Indeed they had fail, they needed God more than ever.
And here is a truth for us today, you and me...
That is the case with man! We always think we are doing pretty good until we stand in front of a holy God and see our weakness, our sin and our brokenness.
God blessings remind us to look back to him and give thanks, it never leads us to say, Look at how well I’m doing....
Because our best should remind us there is room for improvement in front of God. We’ve not mastered His book or His ways just yet..
So as we walk into this second thought, Paul called for them to Practice What they Preached...
2. Practice what you Preach.....
You know the Scriptures have a unique word for those who fail to practice what they preach, The Scriptures often refers to them as a hypocrite.
Now for a little reminder, what is a hypocrite, it is one who pretends to be who they are not..
In the old plays of past, there wasn’t makeup or special effects, actors simply had a mask on a little stick and they would hold it up to their face and play that part, and to assume the former character, they simply take it away. So they played the part of one or two people, pretending to be someone they were not..
In life, doing this as we live day to day is considered a negative practice. We don’t like it. We want people to be who they really are… And no one likes it when we do it....
And being a Hypocrite is a dangerous thing my friends, its not only noticed by others, it’s noticed by God.
Lets move on to our second portion of the text....
Lets look at Romans 2:21-24
21 you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? 22 You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? 23 You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law. 24 For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”
Now remember, from the previous section they boasted in their relationship with God, but I would remind you that what we say is not enough, our voice must be backed up by our actions.
In the New Testament, the word tells us that we shall know a tree by its fruit… The meaning is, the fruit tells us the type of tree. They had the tree, but really they didn’t have fruit ....
So Paul starts on them, reminding them again to consider their failures...
A. They claim to be an instructor to others, but Paul says don’t you teach yourself? And so when he asks that question, what Paul is really implying is this… Don't you practice what you preach… Don’t you abide by your own teachings?
And then Paul continues....
B. You tell people not to steal, Yet you steal yourselves.... You are not practicing what you preach… You take that what doesnt belong to you. You take the ancestral lands of others, you do not give to others… you are not doing well...
C. You command people, do not commit adultery. Yet you do it,Paul says, you don’t practice what you preach. Remember the woman caught in adultery that they brought before Jesus. They didn’t bring the man, Why… They were protecting him, but condemning her. They (One of them) were committing the act himself.
D. You swear they you remain free of Idols… Yet Paul says you will take the plunder from Idolatrous temples, you will keep it or sell it for profit… knowing that it should have come to the temple of God, the plunder wasn’t theirs, but God.
And they condemned the wealth of Rome, the coins that bore the image of Caesar, they said were idolatrous, yet they stored up that wealth.
Paul says you didn’t practice what you preached by keeping the wealth.
It’s like the Sin of Ai in the book of Joshua.. They were to attack a city, all of its wealth was to be stored up for God. But one man kept some for himself. and it cost them as a nation...
And finally Paul says
E. The very law you boast in, you in turn dishonor God, your conduct disgraced the God they professed to worship. In all this, Paul says you do not practice what you preach....
And so here in verse 24 tells us what it lead too...
Their hypocritical conduct, it kept the nations from seeing and knowing God .
They were known as His people, but the way they lived, the way they treated their own people, the way they treated the nations .
While their sins didn’t lead them into captivity as it did in times past, but their actions led others, the Gentiles to dishonor the God they served.
My friends, one of the saddest things we can face as a child of God is doing something that harms, hurts the name of God and or His church.
Our lives are meant to glorify God,
I think about people who are caught in sin, no matter the action, what is done just doesn’t hurt them, it hurts their families, their church, and yes their God.
Sin always has far reaching consequences....
Practice what you preach my friends....
Now just one last thought today my friends...
3. Is Your Heart in It...
------ (Works of the Flesh are not Enough)
There is an old adage that says you get out of something what you put into it.
When I think of that, I want to ask you this question.... Do you give God your all? , is your heart in it?
Lets look at our text these last 4 verses.
25 For circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. 26 So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? 27 Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law. 28 For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. 29 But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.
The Jews were always passionate about demonstrating their obedience to the law, but they made a show of it. And in truth that revealed the condition of their heart.
Listen to this my friends, God is never for the demonstration of your faith or the empty practices of faith. He wants the all of you, and if He has you, then You will practice what you preach
The Jews broke the law in the Old Testament and because of such they ended up in captivity.
So in the New Testament we find a group of religious leaders that just wanted to be right, so they put everything into knowing what to do and how to keep the law.
But they forgot the heart. It’s the heart that God is looking for my friends.
So Paul throws up some examples… He says If a uncircumcised man keeps the law, if a Gentile keeps the law, aren’t they considered to be circumcised??
Think of it like this, if a Gentile keeps the law, doesn’t that make him a Jew… ?
He has kept the law, he has done physically what you’ve said a good jew does… doesn’t that make him a Jew?? Most certainly not!, they would say.
So by the same token, why are you Considered the people of God who do the law but don’t put any heart in it...
You want to know who a true believer, who a true follower of God is? Jesus said in Matthew 12:50
50 For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”
for who ever does the will of my Father,.. that person id the one who is truly the child of God, an heir to Him.
So Paul says very simply just doing the works of the flesh is not enough, to voice it, well it has no real value unless your Heart is there.
You see God is not looking for the mind, the intellect, or the body, We can do things for the sake of doing them, But are you doing them to know Him.
I love paul who says
10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,
No! God is looking for the heart of man.
Paul sums it up plainly in verse 28
28 For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical.
But one more component in addition to the heart that is necessary, And that is the Holy Spirit of God. Listen to Paul’s heart as we add verse 29 to that section again
So verses 28-29
28 For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. 29 But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.
A real Jew Paul says is one where the circumcision was authentic. What do I mean by that.. A real Jew Paul is teaching isn’t one who was only outward… those people were hyprocritics, they just played the part
No, to be Jewish was inward, it effected your heart, if it was inward.
Think of it like being in love. Your love isn’t defined only by what you do outwardly, those gifts, those dinners out, those other things that are an outward expression will end… you know why? Your heart is not invested
But when love is from the heart, it holds that person is awl, you would do anything and everything for that person. Because your heart is in it.
But here is the other fact, The heart is governed not by emotions, its governed by the Spirit of the living God.
You see it is the Spirit of God that touches our heart and takes that desire to love and honor God and helps empower it in real ways that are pleasing in His sight.
Those ways are authentic, and the world can see that...
I want you to think of a person like Billy Graham, here is a little boy who God saved while listening to Morticai Ham preach that revival in His Father’s dairy farm field.
We know that Billy grew in his faith and in the Lord. But they wasn’t just something he could do alone, The Holy Spirit helped him grow and understand the word.
Helped him understand and grow, knowing that in doing so, Billy could understand and better pursue God’s calling in His life. Following that calling is not possible just in the works of the flesh, you need God and His power to help.
As he lived and trusted God, God used him. empowered by His Spirit.
That is the power and strength of our God.
We better practice what we preach if we want to live and follow and Holy God.
We better practice what we preach if we truly want to find fulfillment and peace
We better practice what we preach if we want to see the world change and God glorified...
Do you live out your faith in a way that you practice what you preach.
Pray