Are You a Cause for Blasphemy - Romans 2:17-24

0:56Priests that commit shameful acts, or politicians that run on a platform that they voted against 10 years ago. People who have a profession with their mouth, but they don't have the piety to back it up. People who have a religion, but their religion has no practical reality or no real righteousness. They might even tell you to do something that they themselves don't do to keep some rules. Rule. We have a word for people like that, and the word feels gross even as we say it. And the word is hypocrites, right?

1:46Hypocrites, actors. Hypocrisy is shameful to everyone. It's shameful to us and the church. We can tell it when we see it, but it's also shameful to the world. Even the world looks at hypocrites and sees that something is wrong. Well, so far in the book of Romans, what we've seen is that the whole world is condemned because the whole world has sinned. They've refused to give God thanks, even though they knew by looking out on creation that he is God and that he is powerful. Then we get to chapter two, and it's not just the Gentile world that's condemned for their sins, but even the Jew is condemned for their sin. Even the Jew is under God's judgment, and God is not going to show partiality toward them in judgment. That's what we've been studying. Last time we looked at an objection to that, and the objection is the Jew who says, Well, what about the fact that we have the law?

2:50Doesn't having the law make us have partiality in God's judgment? Shouldn't that count for something? And Paul's answer last week was no. Hearing the law or having the law doesn't do anything. Because if you want to truly claim righteousness based on the law, you actually have to do the law. You have to obey it if you want to claim that righteousness and you don't. Well, today in our text, we're going to be in Romans 2, starting in verse 17. Today we're going to get to the next objection, and it's that, okay, okay, I understand that simply hearing the law doesn't make us have partiality and judgment, but what if I actually keep the law?

3:38In fact, what if I'm a teacher of the law? What then? Won't God show me partiality then? And of course, to us, that question sounds ridiculous, right? You know, did people actually believe that? Did people actually believe they could keep the whole law? Seems like, yes, people really believe that. You know, the rich young ruler certainly did. You remember what he told Jesus? Teacher, all of these I have kept from my youth. He says, I did it. You know, I've kept all these laws. What else do I need to get eternal life? The Pharisees certainly believe this. Jesus said, or Luke says that Jesus also told this parable. To some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt. So the Pharisees and the scribes, they thought that they were righteous. They trusted in themselves that they were righteous. And then Jesus goes on to tell them the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, the tax collector who begged God for mercy and the Pharisee who didn't, who trusted in himself for righteousness and was condemned. So maybe all of these, maybe the question of what if I actually keep the law, maybe that sounds ridiculous to us because we've actually read the gospels. We know the stories that there isn't anyone who is righteous. And we know the reality that even the most outwardly religious can be inwardly corrupt.

5:28In Matthew 23, Jesus resoundingly condemned hypocrisy like this. He had observed the Pharisees and the scribes for his whole life. And near the tail end of his ministry, he calls them out. And just like John the Baptist did. And he doesn't do it nicely. He's not gentle with it. Listen to this. This is in Matthew 23. Jesus said to the crowds, And to his disciples, the scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat. That's the place they taught from. They sit on Moses' seat, so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do.

6:15For they preach, but do not practice. That's how he opens up that little sermon. He says, Yes, they're the teachers of the law, so you actually need to listen to them, but don't you dare copy them, because they're teaching it, but they're not doing it. He goes on, They tie up heavy burdens hard to bear and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. They do all their deeds to be seen by others.

6:50Later, he says, Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces, for you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in. Woe to you, blind guides, who say, If anyone swears by the temple, it's nothing, but if anybody swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath. They're hypocrites. Later in the same passage, he says, Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you. Tithe, mint, and dill, and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel.

7:50They're pretending to be super righteous, even though they're not actually keeping the most important parts of the law. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside may also be clean. That's what a hypocrite does, is he cleans the outside for everybody to see, but leaves the inside rotten, as he puts on a show. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees. This is the last one. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

8:57He calls them out, right? He puts his finger on Exactly what is so corrupt about them, that outwardly they are immaculate so that they can get the praise of the people. But inwardly, they are just as sinful or even more sinful than everybody else. They're hiding these things as hypocrites. They were blind guides. They preach, but they do not practice. Well, in our text today, Paul is still addressing somebody who thinks that he should get partiality from God because of the law.

9:38He's already said just having the law doesn't get you partiality, but maybe there's still someone that thinks that they actually keep the law or they teach the law. And so don't they get partiality for that? Paul's answer for him is that if he's making this claim, there's a really good chance that he's a hypocrite, that he's not even looking at his own life. He's teaching these things, yes, but he's not examining his own life. And so today, Paul will defend his point. He will give an explanation by giving us four marks of a hypocrite. Four marks of a hypocrite. Their claims, their confidence, their conduct, and the consequence. The claims of the hypocrite, the confidence of the hypocrite. The conduct of the hypocrite and the consequence of their hypocrisy. As we go through this, I know this might seem like thousands of years away as we read this text, and people that are very different from us, the Pharisees or the teachers of the law, but I think that as we go through and we uncover a little bit of the culture and we uncover a little bit about what's going on here, I think we'll see that we can have the same exact kind of heart even today.

10:58Even as believers, we can slip into hypocrisy. So follow along as I read Romans 2, starting in verse 17. But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast in God and know His will and approve what is excellent because you are instructed from the law, and if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth.

11:34You then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the law, dishonor God by breaking the law. For as it is written, the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles. Because of you, pray with me. Father, as we come to this text and study it, I pray that you would lay open our hearts, that with meekness and humility we would come before your word, ready to be pierced, so that we can change.

12:23I pray that you would give us hearts that are eager to expose the secrets that are hidden in our own heart, that are willing to stop hiding our sin, but instead confess it and live in righteousness. Thank you for this passage, Father. Help us understand it. In Jesus' name, amen. So, the first mark of the hypocrite, if you look at your text, is the hypocrite's claims. This is how they identify themselves. Look at verse 17. But if you bear the name Jew, or if you call yourself a Jew, and rely upon the law, and boast in God, and know his will, and approve the things that are essential, being instructed out of the law. And he kind of leaves us hanging there for a little bit because he gives this big if statement that never actually has a then. So he's saying, if this. And what he's doing is he's just identifying who he's talking to. Okay, if this is you.

13:30Then later, I have some questions for you. And we'll get to those questions in a minute. But for now, he's identifying who he is talking to. And the items in this list, if you notice, they're not bad things, they're good things. This person is assuming that these things are true about himself. So let's look at these. There's five claims, and we're going to go through these quickly. So keep your finger on the text. The first one's in verse 17: If you bear the name Jew. So this would have been a source of pride for them. We are God's chosen people, which is true. They were God's chosen people, but I think that it had kind of morphed for at least this individual into this sinful source of pride, that they think they're just going to be able to be given partiality and do anything they want because they're a Jew. They're going to receive special favor. They're going to be looked over when it comes to their sin.

14:33Next, they rely upon the law. So they're leaning on the law. They're leaning on the teaching of the Old Testament. They rely on it. Next, they boast in God. They're bragging in God. They're exalting in the Lord. This is also a good thing. We hear about it in several places in Scripture, that this is something we're supposed to do. We're not supposed to boast in anything except. That we boast in God, like we sang this morning.

15:05You can write down Romans 5, 11, if you want an example of a place where we are told to boast in God. And usually it's translated, rejoice in God, but it's actually the same word, to boast in God, to praise him, not for our own glory, but for his glory, to praise that we know him and that he is our God. Verse 18, the next claim is that this person knows his will. They know what God wants. They've studied the things that pleases the Lord and they know his will. And that goes with the next one, and approve the things that are essential, or they discern what is important. They discern what is excellent.

15:50They know these things. Paul says in Philippians 1:9, and this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment. So as they're growing in love and growing in knowledge and growing in discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent. So Paul tells Christians that this is something we should be trying to do, increasing in our knowledge of the world, knowledge of the word, so that we can know his will and approve what's excellent, so that we can have that discernment. These are good things. We're supposed to grow in them. And finally, what is the source? Of this person knowing God's will, what trains their discernment? He says at the end of verse 18, being instructed out of the law.

16:44Being instructed out of the law. And so, just as we would hope, it is the law, it is the Old Testament that is giving them this wisdom and instruction and discernment. That's how this person is identifying themselves. They know that this is what God wants from them, to be instructed from the law, to know his will, to rely on the law and have discernment. And so, that's how they're identifying themselves. And so, Paul says, if this is you, listen. If this is you, if you think that you're doing this. And I don't think that this has kind of a, I don't think it has a sarcastic or accusatory tone. I think these are all good things. I don't think he's trying to give a gotcha and say, you know, you're so arrogant. Nobody can do this. You know, I think that instead, it's not that the hypocrite goes wrong in his exaggeration of what true righteousness is.

17:47Where the hypocrite goes wrong is that he assumes he is doing all those things. And he's not actually examining his own life. He's not changing his conduct to actually do those things. He's just. Assumes that this is what's true of him. So let's move on to the next mark of the hypocrite in verse 19 and 20, their confidence, the hypocrite's confidence. He continues on with that big if statement. If you are, and then verse 19, if you are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of the immature, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and of the truth. Okay, so it does seem to be getting bigger and stronger here. Now he's saying, okay, this is not just a righteous person that can discern God's will. Now this is somebody who is a light to the nations, right? He is somebody who is so righteous that he is teaching others how to be like him from the law.

18:58Verse 19, you are confident that you yourself are these things. This is a settled persuasion in this person, in this hypocrite. He is a guide to the blind. That's the first way that he sees himself. This is the first thing that he's sure that he is, a guide to the blind. And that already makes us think of Jesus' words, right, to the Pharisees, that they were blind gods. But here he's. Saying, okay, let's say you think you are a guide to the blind. You're leading the ignorant into truth. You're guiding them. Or next, you are a light to those in darkness. Again, these are things that they actually were supposed to be doing. I don't think that these are huge exaggerations of somebody who thinks too highly of them, or somebody who's being too arrogant or impossibly arrogant. I think these are things that the Jews were supposed to be doing. They were supposed to be a guide to the blind. They were supposed to be a light to those in darkness. They were supposed to be pulling in the Gentiles and introducing them to the God of the Old Testament.

20:12Even the servant, the Messiah, does this. Speaking of the servant in Isaiah, God says, I am the Lord. I have called you in righteousness. I will take you by the hand and keep you. I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison, those who sit in darkness. And so these first two are in the job description of one of the things that the servant, the Messiah, is coming to do. He's going to be a guide to the blind and a light to the nations. So these are righteous things.

20:51Zechariah tells of a time when these will actually be true of the Jews in the end times. He says, This, thus says the Lord of hosts, In those days, ten men from the nations of every tongue shall take hold of the robe of a Jew, saying, Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you. Okay, so these are things that in the heart of a Jew, they should want these things. It's not like he's saying that they're just being arrogant. They should want these things. The problem is, they can't just assume that they're doing it. Let's keep going. Verse 20. A corrector of the foolish, a teacher of the immature, a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of the immature. So something else respectable about this teacher that he is confident about himself is that he takes the childish, he takes the foolish and the immature, and he teaches them. He corrects them.

21:52This is a gracious act, except, again, ringing in the back of our minds are the words of Jesus. It says, the scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat, so do and observe what they tell you, but not the works they do, for they preach but do not practice. So it's good for these people. It's gracious for them to be a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of the immature. But will their conduct match? Look at the end of verse 20.

22:25Having in the law the embodiment of knowledge. And of the truth. So they have the right source for all of these things. The law is the embodiment of knowledge and of truth. So finally, we have had this super long if statement. If this is true about you, if you are sure to the Jew, if you are sure that this is describing you, that you are all of these things. Now Paul has some questions. He's got five questions for this person. Five questions to reveal their conduct, the next mark of the hypocrite, their conduct. Look at verse 21. You therefore who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that one should not steal, do you steal?

23:19You who say that you should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the law, through your breaking the law, do you dishonor God? So first he starts with a summary. And again, I don't think he is trying to necessarily just pound this guy in the ground and be mean to him. I think he's trying to, and you can read it differently than me if you'd like, but I think he's trying to really expose how foolish this hypocrite is being. Because this is who Paul was, right? He was a Pharisee, he was a hypocrite. Hypocrite.

24:03And he's exposing this in them. This first one is a summary one. You, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? He'll give examples of this in the next few questions. But he's just saying, generally, if you're the one who is teaching everybody, even the foolish, haven't you paused for just a minute to teach yourself? Have you forgotten to examine yourself? Yes, it's wonderful that you teach everybody according to the law, but do you actually do what you're teaching? Does your character line up in any way with what you preach? For example, verse 21, you who preach that one should not steal, do you steal?

24:49Do you steal? Examine yourself. How can you claim that knowing and teaching the law will grant you partiality if you go against the very things you teach, like stealing? Maybe these teachers assume they can steal for a righteous cause or something like that. Maybe they steal in more hidden ways. They're willing to condemn other people who steal in public ways and get caught, but maybe they steal in secret ways, like skimming off the top from the temple trade that's going on. That's lucrative.

25:31Or having false balances as they make trades with the merchants, something like that. Paul is challenging them to look at themselves, just like he had to look at himself. He knows that these kind of things go on behind the scenes. He was there. He knew that Pharisees, even after preaching, people shouldn't steal, that they stole themselves. The next one, verse 22, you who say that one should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You know, again, maybe this is actual adultery. Maybe these Pharisees are committing adultery. Maybe they're committing adultery of the heart, like Jesus talked about. Or something else that was popular for the righteous in that day was to use a system of divorce and remarriage to basically sanitize their adultery, to call it righteous. Whatever the case, he's saying, examine yourself, hypocrite. The very one who says that adultery is wrong, are you doing it? Are you committing adultery?

26:39The next one, you who abhor idols, do you rob temples? This one's a little harder for us to understand, right? Think of ski masks or something like that, of these Pharisees going out and robbing temples. I don't think that's what he's talking about. It's difficult to know what he's talking about. You know, in the Old Testament, we have. Have the book of Malachi that talks about how people holding back their tithes and offerings from the temple were stealing from God. So some people point to that. Or we know of priests stealing from the temple. Jesus said, it is written, my house shall be called a house of prayer, but you make it a den of robbers. So maybe it's something like that. But I think that since he's just mentioned idols, he said, you who abhor idols.

27:30I think it's more likely that they're displaying their hypocrisy by claiming to hate everything that has to do with idols, but they're willing to profit from what goes on there. I think they're willing to make money off the very same temples of idols that they're condemning in their communities. This would have been in line. God had a command for the people in Deuteronomy that when they're going and God is giving them victory over all the peoples and they're able to take their treasures, he says, the carved images of their gods you shall burn with fire. You shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them or take it for yourselves, lest you be ensnared by it, for it is an abomination to the Lord your God. And so I think it's that same kind of heart that, yeah, they're talking against the idols all day as they are in these Gentile communities across the world. But when a chance comes for them to actually get a little money, From what's going on there, they're happy to do it. They're hypocrites.

28:37Last one, the climax. Look at verse 23. You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law. I actually think this is phrased like another question: You who boast in the law, through your breaking the law, do you dishonor God? Do you dishonor God? It's a devastating truth, right? These people that are assuming these righteous things about themselves, they claim to love the law, they claim to lean on the law and keep it, they teach it, and yet they dishonor God Himself by breaking the law.

29:22That's the guilt of the hypocrite. When the watching world sees that they preach but do not practice, they dishonor God. You know, this devastating question: do you dishonor God by breaking the law? I think as Paul traveled around to these different communities and talked to the Jews, I think it probably gave one of two responses. I think it made some of them, it made their hair stand on end because they're. Furious with Paul, right? I am the teacher of the law in this community. Everybody looks up to me.

30:12I am the guide to the blind. How dare you say I dishonor God by not keeping his law? And then they stone him or throw him in prison or beat him up or something like that. But I think that there are others, the other response, that actually truly examined himself. And I think this is what Paul is going for. He's obviously not going for the first response, right? He's going for this other response of people who would be just like him, who would pause and truly examine the life that he's living as someone who claims to be a light to those in darkness to examine his own conduct.

31:01Our last, so we have the claims of the hypocrite. We have the confidence of the hypocrite. We have the true conduct of the hypocrite revealed through those questions. Finally, we have the consequence of their hypocrisy. He's going to quote Scripture to give the true consequence of their hypocrisy. Verse 23, you who boast in the law, through your breaking the law, do you dishonor God? Verse 24, For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.

31:41Just as it is written, just as it is written. The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you. This is a quote. Turn, if you will, to Isaiah 52. If you're still awake, Isaiah 52. This is a quote from a famous chapter, right? At the end of chapter 52 is when he starts talking about the Messiah and continues to talk about that suffering servant through chapter 53. But before that, in chapter 52, he is looking forward to a glorious time in their history. Chapter 52, verse 1. Awake, awake, put on your strength, O Zion. Put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city. For there shall no more come into you the uncircumcised and the unclean. Okay, so let's stop right there. He's saying, look forward to this glorious day when these troublesome other nations, they're not invading you anymore. They're not oppressing you anymore. Verse 2, shake yourself from the dust and arise. Be seated, O Jerusalem. Loose the bonds from your neck, O captive daughter of Zion. For thus says the Lord, you were sold for nothing, and you shall be redeemed without money. Verse 4. For thus says the Lord God, my people went down at first into Egypt to sojourn there, and the Assyrian oppressed them for nothing. Okay, so he's saying, These nations, first it is Egypt, now it's Assyria, they have oppressed you. You're going to be redeemed.

33:38But right now you are oppressed by Assyria, just like you were by Egypt. Verse 5. Now, therefore, what have I here, declares the Lord, seeing that my people are taken away for nothing. Their rulers wail, declares the Lord. And continually all the day my name is despised. That's where the quote comes from, is that since Israel has sinned, since the nation has repeatedly sinned over and over and over, these foreign nations are able to come under the sovereignty of God. They are able to come and take the people captive for nothing.

34:22And God says, because of that, because my people are in these foreign lands now instead of in their land, My name, God's name, is despised all day long. Listen to this one, another similar passage that has a similar quote. This is Ezekiel 36, verse 20. He says, But when they came to the nations, wherever they came, they profaned my holy name. This is the Jews. In that people said of them, These are the people of the Lord, and yet they had to go out of his land.

35:03But I had concern for my holy name, which the house of Israel has profaned among the nations to which they came. Okay, now turn back to Romans 2. I wanted to turn there because I think it colors the quote that he's giving. I think that Paul is talking to someone, a teacher of the law, who would have known these prophecies, right? That two separate prophets talk about how when Israel sins and God sends them into these foreign nations, he lets them be captured, that God's name is profaned because of that, because of the consequence of their sins. They see the Israelites being oppressed by the foreign nation.

35:50And God's word is, or God's name is despised. Well, when we come to Romans 2 and he gives this quotation, now you can. Can see, I think, that this is probably even more offensive than you realized at the beginning. Look again at verse 24. For as it is written, the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you. I think he's saying, Look, you're just like your fathers that sinned so much that I threw them into captivity into a foreign nation.

36:25You're just like them. And I think the Pharisees prided themselves on the fact that they, out of anybody in the whole world, they were not like that. They didn't sin like that. They're the ones who care so much about the law of God. They're the ones who hate the idols so much. There's no way that you can accuse them of despising God's word and neglecting his commandments and worshiping idols. And Paul is saying, you might think that about yourself, but really, you're just like them.

37:07I think this really would have hit home for the Pharisee who is ready to repent, who is ready to turn to Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, who realizes that even though he is a teacher of the law, he needs to repent and find forgiveness. The world sees right through this kind of Hypocrisy. The Gentile world saw it when the Jews suffered in captivity. They saw the consequences of their sin, and as a result, they were ready to blaspheme the God of the Jews.

37:51Are you a cause for blasphemy? Are you a hypocrite? The Jews were supposed to be a light to the nations. In Exodus, God tells them they are supposed to be a kingdom of priests, a holy nation. They're supposed to be this group of people that are set apart in the world that the world can see and learn from about the true God. And these teachers that Paul was addressing, they assumed that they were being a light to the nations. And they're not looking at their own character. Are you self-deceived like they were?

38:44You might not have confidence in the same things that they had confidence in. That's something culturally that's going to be a big difference between you and them. But you certainly have confidence in something, right? If you're a believer in Christ today, then you're going to be a. You have confidence in his righteousness, that he paid our price, and therefore we can stand before the throne of God blameless. But if not, you have confidence in other things, in your own righteousness.

39:16Are you confident that since you go to church every Sunday, that God will show you favor and judgment? Are you confident that since you raised three obedient children, that God will show you partiality and judgment? Are you confident that since you voted for the right party, that God will show you partiality and judgment? Are you confident that since you are a hard-working man, that God will show you partiality and judgment? He won't. Surely you missed a Sunday somewhere, right? Surely your children sin sometimes.

40:02Surely you missed an election at some point, or you've been lazy before. You know, knowing and even obeying some things that God teaches us, that's not a pathway to partiality and judgment. You can't earn his favor and judgment. You can't earn a positive sentence in God's judgment. Your only option, just like we studied last week, Your only option is to repent and trust in him because your conscience is going to testify against you on the day of judgment.

40:42But, believers, we've spent a long time to get here, and I just want to encourage you to think of: okay, how do we apply this text? We just spent 40 minutes talking about a Jew, a Pharisee from a long time ago, a hypocrite. But how do we fight against this self-deception in our own lives? They thought that they were in good shape. They were tricking themselves. And so, how do we fight against that hypocrisy in our own lives? Do we just get anxious about it and worry all the time that we're being a hypocrite? How do we attack this tendency that we hate so much when we see it in others? How do we see it in ourselves?

41:30Because we probably do it a lot, right? We can even be a hypocrite about being a hypocrite. We can point at others and say, you hypocrite, but not be willing to admit the times when we've shown hypocrisy. So, how do we avoid this? Or how do we avoid it in our teenage children? You know, maybe your son or your daughter is starting to get to a point where they're very proud of the fact that they go to a church that loves the Word of God. And maybe you've seen that come out when they're around their friends. How do you avoid this tendency towards hypocrisy in our own hearts? What's the cure for hypocrisy? I think the only answer is to be broken over your sin.

42:21It's the only answer, right? To ask God for mercy, but then continually give thanks to God that His mercies are new every morning, that you don't deserve a thing, that you are a sinner, and yet He's had grace on you, grace toward you. If you humble yourself with a contrite heart, then the heart of a hypocrite won't be able to take root inside of you because you know that if anyone is a sinner, it's you. How could you point out at others and be blind about your own sin if you're keeping in mind that you are the chief of sinners and that you need to be broken before God? In Isaiah 5, he gives woe after woe. About the wicked.

43:32God gives him a message where he is crying out against the wicked, woe to you, woe to you. But then in Isaiah 6, he cries out and says, woe is me, right? I am a man of unclean lips. It's the opposite of the heart of a hypocrite when you can look at yourself and see that you are the sinner. So be broken over your sin. The Jew in our text today assumed all these righteous things about himself, but he failed to actually examine his conduct. So unbeliever, if you're a non-Christian in this room, don't let that be true of you. Don't assume that you're good. Instead, examine yourself and see that you do need a Savior, and the only one is Jesus Christ. Christian, don't let that hypocrisy be true of you. Examine yourself and be grateful that you've received mercy and be broken over your sin.

44:39And then work, as God works in you, to put a reality behind your religion, to practice what you preach, and to cultivate true piety that backs up your profession. Pray with me. Father, we pray that you would always. Keep us sensitive to our own sin, that you'd always keep us mindful of the fact that we deserve only your wrath and your judgment. And yet, in your grace, we can find mercy because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

45:23Since he died on the cross, we can come and find grace, be adopted as your children, and someday stand before your throne with joy instead of fear. I pray, Lord, that you would help us remember that gospel message and let it humble our hearts. Help us remember that it wasn't us who earned partiality and judgment, it wasn't us who did enough good things, but instead, it was all you that took the initiative to save us while we were sinners. I pray that you would help us remember that and avoid the pitfall of the hypocrite who assumes all these righteous things about himself but refuses to actually examine himself, who's more than willing to teach others their faults, but unwilling to address his own faults.

46:36Help us, Father. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Now you have at least one New Year's resolution. Don't be a hypocrite, you're dismissed.