The Heart of the Matter: A Sermon on Authenticity

Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church Podcast, where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.

My name is Pastor Josh and I want to thank you for listening to this podcast.

I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen you in the word of God.

Now, come along, let's look into the Bible and see what God has for us here today.

We're going to learn from the word of God here this morning.

You have your Bibles.

Turn with me to Romans Chapter two.

Romans Chapter two.

We're going to continue on in our sermon series looking at theology and how theology matters for us as a believer.

And here in Romans Chapter two, today we're going to be looking at a sermon entitled A Heart Matter.

A Heart Matter.

Now, what are we talking about when we talk about a heart matter?

We're talking about a matter not necessarily dealing with our external focus, because that's usually what we as humans do.

We look at the externals and we make a judgment call on that.

But in this case, we're looking at the heart.

And really what we know is that God is concerned with the heart.

We looked at this last week.

We looked at the fact that in verse number 11, it says, for there is no respect of persons with God, there's no partiality with God.

And so God is concerned not with necessarily our externals as much as he's concerned with our internals, what's going on in our heart.

And so we're starting in verse number 17, and we're seeing that Paul is building upon what he is talking about throughout all of chapter two and really most of chapter three.

And that is the universal need for a Savior.

And what we talked about last week was this idea that the truth bring us really, the truth brings us to a place of desperation.

It should bring us to a place of desperation.

And that desperation is this.

I cannot stand save myself.

I cannot do enough.

But that desperation is not where we're supposed to stay.

We're supposed to realize that we are desperate without Him.

But that brings us to that decision to trust in him for that confidence, to trust in him for salvation, to trust in him for his righteousness.

And so ultimately, it is God who gives us the confidence and not our own works.

But what we know is that in, in the case of Paul's message to the religious person is that there's always going to a response.

And Paul realizes that there's going to be response.

And so in verse number 17, he is going to give really a rebuttal to the religious response.

And the religious response is this, I don't need a savior because I'm religious.

I, I, I don't need someone to extend grace to me because I am a good person.

I go to church, I serve, I, I, I'm, I, I'm a good citizen.

And in this case, he says in verse number 17, behold, thou art called a Jew and resteth in the law, and make us thy boast of God.

And so what is Paul doing?

He's recognizing that there are going to be people that are religious that say, hey, I've already got what I need.

I don't need what you're preaching to me.

I don't need the gospel, I don't need Jesus, I don't need his grace.

And he says, what, what are you resting in?

You're resting in the law.

You're resting in your tradition.

You're resting in your genealogy.

And so for the Jewish man to boast was for him to boast in his genealogy.

I'm part of the chosen people.

They would, they would boast in the law.

God gave us the law, so we are better, we know what we are all about.

They would trust in their tradition, they would boast in their works.

And what Paul is going to essentially do here is explaining the emptiness, the vanity of trusting in the law, trusting in our works.

And so he says here in verse number 18, he says, and knowest his will.

You, you say that you know his will and approves the things that are more excellent being instructed out of the law.

So he says, you've been taught the law, and, and remember, the law is the Mosaic Law, the law that was given to the Jewish people so long ago, and they're trusting in that law to save them.

He says, so much so that you've been taught this since you were a child, verse 19.

And are confident that thou thyself, are a guide of the blind.

He says, you're so confident that you're willing to guide those that are in darkness, a light of them which are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which has the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law.

And so he's telling them that, hey, you think you have a good response to your sin, but your response is empty.

He says, you think that you can teach people the truth, but you yourself are missing the truth.

You have a form of knowledge.

You think you have knowledge, but again, you know the difference between knowledge and wisdom.

Knowledge is having a head, knowledge of something, knowing something intellectually.

But wisdom is the application of that knowledge.

And so he says, you have something intellectually which is religious, but there is a disconnect there.

Verse 21.

Thou, therefore, which teacheth another, teaches thou not thyself.

Meaning this you teach other people.

But have you taught yourself what it means to know God, to love God, to.

To obey him in the sense that he wants you to obey him?

Thou that preaches a man should not steal.

Dost thou steal?

What is he doing here?

He's calling them out for their hypocrisy.

He says, you know, you're teaching people don't steal.

But you yourself, you are thief.

You're stealing.

Verse number 22.

Thou that saith a man should not commit adultery, Dost thou commit adultery?

Now you say, what is he talking about here?

Well, we know that Jesus, when he came and gave the sermon on the mount in Matthew chapter five, he spoke to the idea that the law is not just about our action, but it's about our attitude.

And I want you to think about that here this morning.

For a believer, God is not just concerned with our actions and, and, you know, and stopping there.

A lot of people think, well, I didn't do that.

I didn't act upon what I was thinking about.

God is concerned not only with our actions, but also our attitudes, our motives.

You can turn there with me, and you can see just a portion of this teaching in Matthew, chapter five.

Matthew, chapter five.

Jesus is teaching to those people there that had their confidence in the law.

They had their confidence in their tradition.

They had the confidence in their genealogy.

And in The Matthew chapter 5, verse number 19, he goes on to say, whosoever therefore, shall break one of these, one of least these commandments and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven.

But whosoever shall do and teach them the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

For I say unto you that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.

So what is Jesus teaching here in Matthew, chapter five, he says, unless you think that your righteousness is above the scribes and the Pharisees, you can't earn your way there.

It's not your righteousness.

And the truth is, is that they would have all understood there that there's no way that they could exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees.

Because the Pharisees were, by the letter, they.

They said, we're.

We're perfect.

We don't make any Mistakes.

We follow the law from the moment we're born all the way up.

And so what is he saying here?

He says, unless your righteousness is perfect, you can't enter into the kingdom of God.

Verse 21.

Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, thou shalt not kill.

And whoever shall kill shall be in the danger of judgment.

But I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment.

So what does he say here?

He says it's not just about actually killing somebody.

It's further.

It goes.

It goes deeper.

It's about the hate that you have in your heart.

And so he says, hey, you know what?

There's.

There's more to this.

There's more than just your action.

It's also your attitude.

Verse 23.

Therefore, if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and.

And there, remember, said, thy brother hath ought against thee.

Leave there thy gift before the altar and go thy way.

First be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.

So what is he saying here?

He says, it doesn't matter what you're doing for the Lord, if your heart's not in the right place, if you haven't reconciled with him, if you don't have that fellowship with the Lord, it doesn't matter what those externals are, because those are empty.

Because your heart is not there.

Your attitude is not there.

And so we know that all the way through Jesus teaching.

He says, it's more than just the externals.

It's about the heart.

And so if we go back to the book of Romans, we see specifically that that is what Paul is addressing here.

He says, you tell everyone, be perfect, but you yourself cannot be perfect.

You tell everyone, don't be a thief, but you are a thief.

You tell people, don't commit adultery, but in your heart, you're committing adultery.

So he goes further here In Romans, chapter 2, verse 22, he says, Thou, that of Horus idols.

You know you hate idols.

You teach against idol idolatry.

Does thou commit sacrilege?

Essentially, what's happening is they're committing idolatry in their own way, just in the.

In the way that they're comfortable with.

If you go back and know what Jesus was dealing with back at the time, right before he was put to the cross, he comes and he addresses these Pharisees and these religious people that were abusing the people within the temple.

They were.

They were using religion for financial gain.

And so what is Paul saying here?

He says you hate idolatry, but yet you commit idolatry and sacrilege and blasphemy with within your faith, within your religion.

Verse 23.

Thou that makes thy boast of the law through breaking the law dishonorous, Thou God.

What are they making their boast in?

They're making their boasts, their glory, their pride in the fact that they have the law, they possess the law, and that they keep the law.

Their boast is not in Christ.

Their boast is not in their faith in Jesus Christ.

Their boast is really in themselves.

It's in their cultural identity.

Hey, we're, we're the better people because we have the law.

What does that look like today?

That looks like this.

You know what?

I'm saved because I go to church.

I'm saved because I look the part.

I'm saved because I'm not as bad as those people.

I, I, I'm better, I'm religious, I'm good.

And what we see here is that sometimes what happens is that we boast in the wrong things.

We boast in the fact that, hey, you know what?

At least I'm not as bad as that person.

Remember that guy that was praying?

You had the publican and the Pharisee.

Remember what the Pharisees prayer was?

I'm glad I'm not like the publican.

I'm glad I'm not bad like him.

Truth is, is that what we see here in this passage of scripture is that all of us are guilty to some extent, all of us are guilty in our sin.

And so what we can understand is that their boast is in the wrong thing.

And so the only beneficial boast is found in Christ.

I want you to see that passage in Galatians.

Galatians, chapter six.

Turn over to Galatians, chapter six.

Paul is speaking about the only boast that we can have as a believer and that only boasts that only pride that we can have is in Christ and what he has done for us.

I want you to see that here in Galatians chapter six, because we, what was happening even in this case in, in, in Galatia at this time was that there were individuals that were trusting in their tradition.

They were trusting in circumcision.

You're going to see that word circumcision a lot in all of these passages that we're talking about.

So what does that mean?

Well, we know literally what circumcision means, but what happened was, is that at that time frame, the religious men, when they were circumcised, they believed that that was.

They marked and made them sane.

Okay?

It was that external thing that would happen that would identify them as being in the family of Abraham and then receive Abraham's blessing.

They thought that it was enough for just a religious act to happen.

And so what we're seeing here in Galatians chapter six is that Paul is going to teach that it's not about the physical circumcision that is going to save someone.

It's about the circumcision of something else, the circumcision of the heart.

So look at Galatians, chapter 6, verse 11.

With me, he says, you see how large a letter I have written unto you with my own hand.

As many as desire to make a fair show or to make public in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised.

So there were people that were basically saying, to be saved, you must be circumcised only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ.

For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law.

So he says, even these people that have that physical change, that physical action happened in their life, they can't keep the law, but desire to have you circumcised that they may glory in your flesh.

But God forbid that I should glory or boast.

That word glory just means boast.

God forbid that I glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.

For in Christ neither circumcision availeth anything, nor.

Nor uncircumcision, but a new creature, a new creation.

And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them and mercy and upon the Israel of God.

And so what does he say here?

He says this.

The only thing that a person can boast in is their faith in Jesus Christ.

A Christian should not boast in their works.

A Christian should not boast in their tradition.

The Christian should not boast in their church.

The only thing that a Christian should boast in is, is in the power of Jesus Christ and the grace that he extends to us.

That is the point of everything that Paul is saying here.

He says, you can't do it on your own.

You can't be so righteous that you exceed all the Pharisees.

You can't do that.

And so ultimately here he's saying this.

Be consistent with what you believe.

Be consistent to what God says.

And so the focus is on action and attitude.

And the only beneficial boast is Jesus Christ.

So we go back to verse number 24 in Romans, chapter 2.

For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you as it is written.

What is he talking about here?

He's saying this.

You acting inconsistently, you as a hypocrite is a hindrance to the Gentiles who need to know the truth of Jesus Christ.

He says, you saying one thing and doing another, you trusting in your flesh, you trusting in the law, you trusting in your circumcision, you trusting in your works.

That is a detriment to reaching people for the cause of the gospel.

So for the name of God is blaspheme among the Gentiles, the unbelievers, through you as it is written.

So what we can see here is this.

How we act in our life matters.

Our testimony matters for those people who need Jesus Christ.

If I say one thing, if I say, well, you know what, I believe by the grace of God, that I'm saved by, but I trust in something else, what am I doing?

I'm basically harming my testimony, the testimony of the Lord and hindering people from seeing the truth of the true gospel.

If I say, hey, come to our church.

Our church is great.

Why is your church great?

Because we are the best in every single ministry.

We have the best programs, we have the best pastor, we have the best whatever.

We have this and that's.

And this.

We're essentially telling people something that is not true.

Because at the end of the day, what happens is this.

We.

We can build our sure foundation only on one thing, and that is the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We are hindering Christianity.

We are hindering the gospel message.

If we put our faith and trust in anything else outside of Jesus Christ.

Our boast is Jesus Christ, Our boast is the cross.

And so if we say, well, hey, come, come, be a believer in Jesus Christ, it'll make your life way better.

You'll have a bigger bank account.

We'll have perfect health.

Everything in your life will be the way you've always wanted it.

What are we doing?

We.

We're lying to them by boasting in something else.

Does God bless us sometimes, Financially?

Yes.

Does.

Does God heal?

Yes.

But at the end of the day, our boast cannot be in ourselves.

Our boast is in Jesus Christ.

And so he says, you are hindering, you are blaspheming the word of God.

And, and ultimately your testimony to the Gentiles is being harmed.

And so the way that we respond to God and his word affects our testimony to those who need salvation, hypocrisy is.

Is a reality.

Like, all of us, to some degree, are going to be hypocritical because none of us can keep our word completely.

But if the core tenets of what we believe is based in hypocrisy, then we are going to be a hindrance to people around us.

And so what happens here is, is essentially Paul, in a very nice way, but in a very firm way, is telling these people that their whole system is based in hypocrisy.

Their whole system is based in a failing direction.

And that is the direction of the law, the flesh, the tradition.

And so he's going to elaborate more on this, and he's going to essentially teach on the emptiness of externals.

And I want to be very careful when I.

When I teach on this, this morning, because I want you to understand that the things that we do for the Lord, they do matter.

Externals do matter.

But if the external is the focus and the internal is forgotten, then we're missing the point.

So.

So what do I mean by that?

I mean this.

If I brought out a can today, I didn't.

I didn't bring it.

I should have brought an object lesson.

And it's a can, and on the label it says corn.

Okay?

But then I crack it open, and inside of that there is, I don't know, sardines.

All right, the label on the outside said corn, but on the inside we know that that's not corn.

Okay.

And the truth is, is that the external label that we have on our outside, if that doesn't match what's on the inside, there's a big issue there.

And what can happen is very easily someone could mislabel a can or mislabel.

For example, what if I had a can of, you know, Diet Coke up here, and I said, someone who likes Diet Coke, and someone comes up and grabs the Diet Coke and they crack it open and they drink it and it's, you know, diesel fuel.

Okay, that's going to be really problematic.

Why?

Because we represented on the outside something that is not true on the inside.

Jesus addressed this very same thing.

He says, you Pharisees, remember, He's talking to the people that were.

Were believing at the time.

They.

They were the religious people.

He says, you Pharisees are like whited sepulchers.

What did he mean by that?

He says, from the outside, your tombstone looks beautiful.

It's.

It's white.

It's.

It's pure, it's clean.

But on the inside, there's rotting flesh and bones, and it's just terrible.

And so what Paul is talking about here is the importance of not just having the externals right, but having the inside the heart.

Right?

Now, the externals will match the heart, but we can see there's a disconnect here.

And so what does he say in verse number 25?

He says for circumcision.

Now, when he's referencing circumcision, he's talking in part, but the whole, meaning this.

When they identify themselves as Jews, they were circumcised and they thought that that was enough.

So he's identifying the whole Jewish way of doing things here.

He says, for circumcision verily profited if thou keep the law.

He says it's great if you want to do all those traditions, but that's not what's going to save you.

You'd have to be perfect.

You.

You'd have to keep the law completely.

But if thou be a breaker of the law, which we know that everyone is, thy circumcision is made.

Uncircumcision, meaning this.

Those externals that you have that you think are saving you, if you sin, they mean nothing.

They fall short.

They're hopeless.

We can liken this maybe to something like baptism today.

Well.

Well, are you going to heaven?

Well, I'm baptized.

Well, that's great, but what do you believe?

Well, I'm baptized.

You see?

You see the disconnect there?

Well, I'm trusting in something that doesn't save me.

But it is a mark of salvation.

It is one of the demonstrations of obedience following salvation.

But that does not save me.

No external act will save me.

And so he says, hey, you can say that you're circumcised.

You can say you're baptized.

You can say you're a member of the church.

You can say that you're a Sunday school teacher.

But.

But really, it doesn't matter if you can't keep the law.

None of us can keep the law.

Verse 26.

Therefore, if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision, meaning this.

The person even who is not part of the Jewish tradition, the genealogy, the culture, the.

The religion.

Hey, even if that person could keep the law, maybe they.

They are better than you.

He says that person's saved because they can keep the law.

Now, he's making a point here.

No one can keep the law, but he's making a point.

The fact that the external doesn't matter.

Verse 27.

And so he says, and shall not the uncircumcision, which is by nature, if it fulfill the law, judge thee, who by the letter and circumcision does transgress the law?

So again, he's just amplifying that idea that, hey, look, it's not about the external.

It's about righteousness.

Verse 28.

For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh.

But he is a Jew.

And when he's referencing Jew here, he's talking about someone who is saved, okay?

Someone.

Someone who is part of the family of God.

And so he says, hey, it doesn't matter what the external looks like.

He says, for he is not a Jew, which is outwardly, neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly the heart, the heart matter.

He's talking about faith.

What do you believe in?

And so if I sat down 20 people here on the front pew.

Well, we probably couldn't fit 20 people on the front pew.

They'd have to be like children.

But either way, we sit people up on the front here and we say, okay, are you going to heaven?

Number one?

That's the first question we would ask.

Are you going to heaven?

Are you saved?

And if they answered yes, we would say, what do you believe is getting you to heaven?

What do you believe is bringing you salvation?

If they say anything outside of, I believe in Jesus Christ as my personal savior.

I believe that he died on the cross for my sins.

I believe that he rose again on the third day and conquered death through the resurrection.

I believe that he's ruling and reigning today.

And I believe that is what saves me, not my works.

That is the person that's going to heaven.

If someone says anything else, well, I'm a good person.

No, that's not what the Bible says.

I'm baptized.

That's not what the Bible says.

I'm a church member.

That's not what the Bible says.

It's what truthfully is in the heart.

And so he says here, but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly.

And circumcision.

So he says, there is a circumcision, but it's not of the flesh, but is that of the heart.

So.

So what is he speaking here?

He's speaking to this idea that it's what you believe.

It's where your faith is placed.

And so in the spirit.

Circumcision of the heart, in the Spirit, it's a spiritual thing.

And, and so, so much more.

Today, it's easy for us to put labels on things.

Well, he's a Christian because he looks this way, or he's a Christian because he, you know, walks the walk.

But at the end of the day, it doesn't matter what we do as much as what we believe.

And that's what he's getting to here.

He says, and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God.

So what's his point here?

What's.

What's he talking about?

He says, the person who lives for the externals, the emptiness of externals, where is that man's praise going to come from?

It says it's going to come from men, not from God.

God is not approving the person who is just living for the externals, for the praise of man.

We even know that Jesus mentions that earlier on in the Book of Matthew.

He says, the person who's living for the praise of man will get his praise.

Now, the person who is not living for the praise of man, the person who's living for Christ, he will receive his blessings in heaven for eternity.

And so for us, what we do sometimes as believers, or even what we do sometimes as cultural Christians, is we say, I'm going to do this because this person's going to notice this and they're going to think highly of me and they're going to praise me and they're going to call me a good Christian.

Folks, at the end of the day, we aren't looking for the praise of man.

Now will people recognize the love we have for the Lord?

Yes, but that is not our goal.

That's not the ultimate goal.

The ultimate goal, as we see here at the end of this verse, is not the praise of man, but ultimately the approval of God, the acceptance of God, and the fact that he has justified us and extended grace to us, and that's where we want to be.

And so at the end of the day, it's not our righteousness, because what we can see through this whole passage of Scripture is this.

Paul says, if you could keep the law, you could be saved.

But none of us can keep the law.

But you need righteousness to get to heaven.

So how is this going to work?

Well, the beauty of this is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

That's why we can only boast in the Gospel, because it's the only way to save us.

And so let's go to Second Corinthians, because how can we find this righteousness?

Second Corinthians, chapter five tells us how we can find this type of righteousness.

Some people don't like this teaching, but this is something called imputed righteousness, meaning this.

It is not my righteousness that I have now as a believer.

It's somebody else's righteousness given to me, imputed to me, passed down to me.

But I'm going to take you to a passage of scripture that I believe clearly teaches that as a Christian, yes, we can walk in righteousness, but it is not the righteousness of my own works.

It's not the righteousness of my circumcision, it's not the righteousness of my genealogy.

It's not because I'm third generation Christianity.

It's not because I've been in the church for 50 years, 100 years, it doesn't matter.

It matters who you're trusting in for your righteousness.

And so in Second Corinthians, chapter 5, we'll look at verse number 21 and it'll tell us very clearly who that righteousness comes from.

The righteousness comes from the one in verse 21.

For he hath made him to be sin for us.

Who is he talking about?

Well, if you go back, just one verse.

We're talking about Christ here.

For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin.

The reason why we can have righteousness is because there was one who walked this earth who was righteous.

The one who knew no sin, that is Jesus Christ, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

Second Corinthians, chapter 5 tells us that we are new creations.

Verse 17.

Therefore, if any man be in Christ, in Christ he is a new creature, a new creation.

Old things are passed away.

Behold, all things are become new.

And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ.

You see a theme here in Christ Jesus.

By Christ Jesus.

Through Christ Jesus.

It's only through him that we can have anything in our lives.

Every good gift comes down from God.

Specifically when it comes to our salvation, our righteousness, our, our eternal place with him in heaven.

And so what is Romans chapter 2 teaching in regards to theology?

We are in desperate, desperate need of Jesus Christ.

We are in desperate need of his work for us.

We cannot think that we can do it on our own.

And he just picks us up when we stumble.

We need him in every element of our life, every minute of our life.

There's a song I need the every hour.

Let's change that song and say we need him every Second of our day, every millisecond, because we.

We are in desperate need because of our sin, because of our brokenness.

Someone asked me recently, why did this person have to get sick?

Why did this person have to die?

Why did this person have to go through this struggle?

Folks, it is called the curse of sin.

This world is marred by rebellion and sin.

It is because of our rebellion that this brokenness is in this world.

But because Jesus loves us, he extended that gift of grace to us, and that is why we get excited.

That's why we should come to church on Sunday morning.

I'm not gonna ask all of you here today why you come to church.

That's not my interest as of right this very second, Okay?

I wouldn't have time to hear everyone's story, but why do I come to church?

Why do I serve Jesus?

Why do I tell people about him?

It's not because, well, you know what?

Jesus just makes my life better.

I.

I know that he does make our life better, but that would like.

That would be like me saying, you know, my wife makes me happy sometimes.

Okay?

It's.

It's an incomplete view of what God has done for us.

Jesus makes my life better.

Of course he does.

But he doesn't just make your life better.

The Bible says that he saved us from death.

He grabbed us from darkness on the way to destruction and emptiness and separation.

And he takes us and it says he moves us from darkness to marvelous light.

Folks, he did everything for us.

He gave us life.

He saved us from our sins.

And so, as a Christian, it is so easy to get into the rut of saying, well, yeah, I go to church.

I do this.

I dress the part, I look the part.

I serve in this ministry, folks.

I'm not saying that any of those things are wrong.

I think that's a great thing.

I think we should look differently as Christians.

I think we should be distinct in what we say and what we do and what we listen to.

I think that we should be separate from where we go in our lives.

I think we should be different, a unique individual.

When you were a Christian, you are different.

You are distinct.

But the distinction is not just me saying, well, I know that there's a list that Pastor Josh gives us that we can do and we can go.

No, it's about your heart.

It's always a heart matter.

God is always concerned with our heart.

He wants us.

He wants a relationship with us.

And so what does Paul say here?

He says, but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly and a Circumcision is that of the heart.

How many of us are interested in saying, lord, I don't want to just give you part of me.

I want everything.

I want to give you everything.

Romans chapter 12 says, present your bodies a living sacrifice your bodies, everything.

God's not just interested in your spirit, in your mind.

He's interested in everything.

So we want to give our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is our reasonable service, meaning this.

It's only reasonable that we should give him everything because he gave us everything.

Folks, it's so easy for us to get into casual Christianity, just going through the motions.

Hey, I did my part this week.

I got my Baptist box.

I checked the box.

I was in church, okay?

Here's the thing.

Being in church is fantastic.

I want you to come to church.

I want more people to come to church.

I want us to be so full in this building that we have to build another building.

Okay?

That's amazing.

That's.

We want that.

But at the end of the day, just being in church is, as the Bible says, not enough.

We could have someone sit in church, and they could go home, and they could not change anything in their belief, and they would go home the same way that they came.

And so what do we do here?

We don't just look at people as a number.

We don't just say, look, we want more people.

We want more people.

God is concerned with the heart.

We want hearts to be turned to Christ.

We want to live in such a way as Middletown Baptist Church that people see a difference, a distinction, and say, how do you guys have that type of hope in this world today?

You know, you want to hear people complain, just go anywhere, okay?

Because there's a lot of problems in this world.

Turn on the news, okay?

If you guys don't know there's a lot of problems in this world.

And guess what?

There's a little secret.

There's always been problems in this world, and there always will be problems in this world until Jesus.

Jesus Christ makes it all right again.

But what I will say is this.

We as Christians could have a difference.

We can.

We can have hope in the midst of brokenness.

We can have clarity in the midst of confusion.

We can have confidence in a world of doubt.

And here in Romans, he says, you are blaspheming the name of God to the Gentiles when you live this life so caught up in the externals, the emptiness of externals.

So he says, instead of being a can that's labeled corn but has sardines inside of it.

Let's be who we say we are on the outside and most importantly, on the inside.

And so throughout all this passage of scripture, he says, there is a need for a savior.

Now, for some of us in this room, you might be tempted to have the response of the religious man in Romans, chapter two.

Hey, I'm good.

I've believed this stuff since I was a child.

Fantastic.

That's good.

We want that.

But at the end of the day, the temptation can always revert back to the externals.

The temptation can always revert back to becoming mechanical in what we're doing for Christ.

And so I'm not preaching against holiness.

I'm not preaching against having all of our ducks in a row and being Christians that are living for Christ and being different.

But what I am saying is, is that let's check our motives, let's check our attitude.

It's not just about our actions.

I can sit here today, hopefully in the grace of God, and not leave this room with a physical fight today.

I really feel confident in the fact that I'm probably not going to get in a fistfight by the end of this day.

Okay, some of you might say, okay, challenge on, Pastor, we're going to come after you.

Lord willing.

I believe that I'm not going to lose my temper before I leave here and actually come to blows with someone.

But there is probably a deeper temptation for me to leave, maybe bitter against somebody else, angry at their response, angry at their lack of response.

And the Bible says, hey, just because you left this building without going to blows, that doesn't mean that you're exempt from the fact that you have something in your heart that needs to be changed.

And so what I would challenge you is this.

It's not just about, hey, you know what?

I didn't lose.

I didn't.

I didn't yell at that person.

On the road today.

Some of you.

I.

I was driving over to New Jersey all last week, and there was a few times where I was really tempted to say some things.

But at the end of the day, it's not just about curbing our actions.

It's going back to the deeper understanding of the why.

Why do I always want to be at someone's throat every single time they come against me?

It might be because my heart is not in the place that God wants it to be.

Why do I have a hard time loving all these people?

I just want to love them, but they're always just getting me so frustrated.

Okay, the heart of the matter is this, why do I have a hard time loving and forgiving someone around me?

Well, because I'm so impatient.

They, they, maybe it's the idea that, hey, you know what?

Maybe, maybe the issue is not the people around me.

Maybe the issue is right here.

And so when we come back to Romans chapter two, Paul says, guys, you're missing the point.

It's not about but I, I, I'm Jewish, I'm circumcised.

We have the law.

We're good.

We're exempt.

We're exempt from all those things you're talking about, Paul.

We don't need Jesus, we don't need his grace.

We're good.

But at the end of the day, folks, we are in desperate need of his grace.

And Paul says, you're not exempt.

The Gentile is not exempt because of his ignorance.

Ignorance means, I just don't know, I've not been told.

He says, nobody's exempt because of ignorance.

Ignorance is no excuse to the judgment of God.

But at the same time, information is not an excuse either.

I've got all the information right here.

I've got the Bible memorized.

I, I, I, I, I know, I, I already know what pastor's going to say when he goes to that passage of Scripture.

I know what he's going to say.

That doesn't mean that information saves.

The only thing that saves is a true relationship of being in Christ.

In Christ is a new creation, the righteousness through him.

And so as we get into Romans chapter three, we're going to see some things that are going to be more difficult for us to understand.

We're going to see passages of scripture like this.

There is none righteous.

No, not one.

The Bible says in the book of James that the word of God is like a mirror and it reveals to us whatever is there.

And I know sometimes as a believer, there are some passages, there are some sermons that are more palatable than others.

So for example, if I get up here and I tell you God loves you, you can do anything.

You are strong, you are capable, you are a conqueror.

Everyone is like, ready to go and take on and run through a wall for the cause of the gospel and, and rightfully so.

Those are all true things.

But then we get to passages of Scripture that say that in and of myself, I, I am not righteous.

There is none righteous.

No, not one.

We're going to go on to see In Romans chapter 3, verse 23, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

So like I said, the word of God is Like a mirror.

Now, when.

When I am looking into a mirror, it depends on what I look like, if I'm happy or not, right?

So sometimes I'm going to look in the mirror, and there's certain periods of my life where I don't want to see myself because I really don't want to see what I look like at that point.

You ever look in the mirror and say, that's not what I look like.

I don't look that old anymore.

That's definitely not me.

I'm aging, okay?

And everyone can see that sometimes.

But the fact is, is that we can avoid that mirror all we want, okay?

That mirror's on the wall.

We can walk by it every morning.

And we can just be in denial and say, you know what?

If I don't look at the mirror, I don't look the way that everyone's telling me I look good.

I'm still young.

I'm still good.

And we keep avoiding the mirror.

We keep avoiding the mirror.

And the Bible says that, hey, you know what?

There are going to be people that are going to recoil from the truth because they don't want to see the truth.

I don't really want to see what I'm like.

And the truth is, is that the Bible tells us very clearly that if we just look into the perfect law of liberty and turn away and don't change anything, it's like someone who looks into a mirror and sees the problem, but just says, I'm not worried about it.

I'm just going to keep going forward.

And so we're going to get into some very difficult passages here In Romans, we're going to look at the doctrine of sinology.

Now, none of you are going to remember that, or maybe you will.

You don't need to remember that.

All you need to know is, what is sin?

Sin is missing the mark.

Sin is who we are in our own flesh.

But then the Bible says that there is justification, there is transformation.

And so I'm not here to beat you down and say you're worthless.

What I'm here to tell you is that we need Jesus Christ not just for salvation.

We do need him for salvation, but we need him for sanctification.

We need him for our spiritual growth.

We need him for confidence today.

We need him to show love to people around us.

We need him to show him show people forgiveness.

What does the Bible say?

How do you forgive?

Well, Pastor, I can't forgive.

That person's been wrong to me.

Every time the Bible speaks of forgiveness, it speaks of Understanding what Christ has done for you.

So if you have a hard time forgiving somebody, go back to what Christ has forgiven you from.

It's a lot easier to put it into perspective that way.

Pastor.

I can't really love that person.

They're, they're very difficult.

Think about how difficult you were in your sin.

Romans chapter 5 is going to tell us.

But God demonstrated or commended his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Are you struggling in an area of your life?

Are you struggling with patience?

Are you struggling with grace?

Are you struggling with mercy?

Are you struggling with, with bitterness?

Go to the fact that Jesus Christ has already demonstrated for you the perfect example of all of these things.

And it helps us understand it a little bit more.

It helps us get to a place where we can love people that are not kind to us.

We can't forgive people that have done something wrong to us.

We can show patience with someone who is not giving us a reason to be patient because God is perfectly long suffering.

God is perfectly forgiving.

And what Paul is saying here is he says, understand who God is and what he has done so that you can walk in his righteousness and not in your own righteousness.

Folks, we're all going to have, we all have a fuse.

Some of, some of our fuses in our flesh, some of our fuses are longer than others.

Some of us have shorter fuses, okay?

But that fuse will eventually run out at some point with someone or something.

All of us have a line that we, when it crosses, we go.

And what I'm saying here today is like, hey, don't just pray for a longer fuse.

Pray for the Lord to come in and extinguish that heart issue.

The heart issue.

And folks, I'm going to tell you here today, my patients gets tested.

Some of you know, I've got a 10 year old, 7 year old and now a 17 month old.

And they test my patience.

They test my patience.

But at the end of the day, what we do, I don't just say, lord, I'm just gonna avoid them, okay?

I'm just gonna avoid every.

I'll just, I just stay away from them, okay?

You can't do that.

It's not an option.

I mean, it is an option, but it wouldn't be a good option for me as a father.

Sometimes that's what our prayer is.

Sometimes our prayer is, lord, just remove me from all these people or these things that get me upset about everything.

Instead of trying to avoid our issues, let's Ask God to intervene and give us the strength to overcome those struggles that we face in our life.

And so, Romans, chapter two.

If we could summarize it in any way, it's this.

A need for the Savior, a need for his grace, for salvation, and for sanctification.

And we end with verse 29.

I want to just reiterate this verse, and then we'll be done.

But he is a Jew.

He is a believer who is one inwardly.

And circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit and not in the letter.

He says, it's not in what you have written down.

It's not in your profession of faith when it comes to your church documents.

Our church has all the right theology.

That means everyone who walks in the building is saved.

He says, no, it's a matter of the Spirit, in the individual, whose praise is not of men.

It's not about people thinking that you are religious.

Everybody thought that the Pharisees were.

Were religious.

Everyone thought the Pharisees were.

If anybody was saved, it was the Pharisees and their culture.

Okay, sometimes we.

Sometimes the movies today and the TV shows portray the Pharisees as these evil people that no one liked.

The Pharisees were.

Everyone.

Everyone wanted to be like the Pharisees.

Everyone wanted to please the Pharisees because the Pharisees were the cream of the crop.

They were the top.

And so what we can see here is this.

He says, it's not about the praise of man.

If I'm doing something for people to say, wow, he's a good Christian, I'm doing it for the wrong reasons.

He says, it's of the Lord.

I do it for the Lord.

Not as man pleaser, as the Bible says, but as I need to please my Savior.

And so I say all that to say this as.

As we conclude.

Where is our hearts?

Where is our hearts in service?

Where is our hearts in worship?

Where is our heart in.

In sacrifice?

Where is our heart in the gospel?

Where is our heart when it comes to loving other people?

Is our heart based in what they're doing for me, what I'm getting out of this?

Or is my heart based in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ?

The one who knew no sin, the one who knew no sin, the one who was completely righteous, the one who did not deserve the punishment of the cross, he took that sin upon him.

He bore the weight of my sin, the wrath that I deserve.

And he took that because he loved me.

And then that righteousness, if I believe in him in faith, is extended to me.

That's why I can serve, that's why I can sacrifice.

That's why I can give.

That's why I can, as a believer, trust in the hope of Jesus Christ and not in the hope of myself.

And so think about that this morning.

The dangers of the religious response, our only beneficial boast in Jesus Christ and the emptiness of externals.

May it be a circumcision of the heart by the Spirit, not in letter, not in the praise of men, but of God.

I'm going to ask if you're able to stand with me this morning, every head bowed, every eye closed as the music plays.

This is your time to respond this morning and the invitation is clear.

It's a heart matter.

It's not about where you're at physically.

Today there were people that walked with Jesus physically.

They had no question that Jesus existed.

He was standing right in front of them.

But their heart was not in the right place.

So it's not a matter of, hey, I'm in church, I'm a good person, I'm baptized.

It's not that.

It's a matter of the heart.

Where is your heart?

Where is your belief?

Where is your confidence placed?

This morning I'm going to tell you, it's not enough just to be religious adjacent.

I lived 16 years of my life in a Christian school, in a Baptist church.

And I realized at the end of those 16 years that that did not save me.

I realized that I was broken because I was trusting in the fact that my dad's a Christian, my grandpa's a deacon, I'm saved, I must be saved.

Folks, it's not about our genealogy.

The Jewish people trusted, hey, I'm from Abraham, I'm definitely saved.

And the fact is, is that it's not a matter of where you're from, it's not a matter of where you are.

It's a matter of where your heart is placed and where your faith is placed.

And so here this morning, first question, do you believe in him as your personal savior?

Is that where your faith is?

If so, are you living your life that way?

Are you demonstrating faith by action?

Are you living in confidence?

And knowing that it's not about my externals, it's not about the praise of man, it's about where my heart is.

Everything else will follow, oh, I'll be a great testimony if my heart's for Jesus Christ.

And so here this morning, maybe it's just the fact that you have been placing your motives in the wrong areas.

Come get a ray with Jesus this morning.

Turn it over to him.

Get yourself on that trajectory of the truth.

Lord, I pray that you'd be in this time of invitation working hearts and lives.

We thank you for your truth here this morning.

I pray that you address not just our actions but our attitudes.

Lord, help us to understand that it's only through you that we can have any boast.

So Lord, I thank you for your love and grace.

In Jesus name, amen.

As the music plays follows the Lord leads here this morning it thank you.

Again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast.

I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.

You would like to find out more.

Information about our church or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org or find us on Facebook or YouTube.

You can also email me directly at Josh massaro@middletown baptistchurch.com if you've enjoyed this podcast.

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Thank you so much.

God Bless.

Have a wonderful day.