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He comes from him descending once more.
While the cry.
All every day.
I'm in a little young. I don't have a little God healing the sky.
Yeah.
Romans chapter 2 and verse one.
Therefore thou art inexcusable man, Whosoever thou art that judges, for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself.
Without that, judges doest the same thing.
But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things.
And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgeth them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God, or despises thou the richest of his goodness, and forbearance, and long-suffering? Not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth eat the repentance, but after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasures up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to every man according to his deeds.
00:10:04
To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honor, and immortality eternal life, but unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation, wrath, tribulation, and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil of the Jew 1St, and also of the Gentile. But glory, honor, and peace to every man that worketh good.
1St and also to the Gentile, for there is no respect of persons with God.
For as many as have sinned without law, shall also perish without law, and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law. For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. For when the Gentiles which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these having not the law, are a law unto themselves, which show the work of the law written in their hearts.
Their conscience also bearing witness and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another.
In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.
Behold, thou art called a Jew, and resteth it in the law, and maketh thy boast in God.
And knowest his will, and approveth the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law, and are confident that thou thyself are the guide of the blind, 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 of the law. In the law thou therefore, which teaches the mother, teaches thou not thyself. Thou that preaches the man should not steal.
Steal thou that saith, the man, should not commit adultery. Dost thou commit adultery, so that that a poor idol does not commit sacrilege? Thou that maketh thy boast in the law, through breaking the law, dishonour S God. For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written. For circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law, but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made Uncircumcision.
Therefore, if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision? And shall not uncircumcision, which is by nature, if it fulfill the law, judge thee, who by the letter and circumcision does transgress the law.
For he For he is not a Jew, which is 1 outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew, which is 1 inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God. Chapter 3. What advantage then hath a Jew, or what prophet is there of circumcision? Much every way, chiefly because.
That unto them were committed the oracles of God.
For what if some did not believe? Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? God forbid. Yeah, let God be true in every man a liar, as it is written, that thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged. But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous, Who taketh vengeance? I speak as a man, God forbid, for them. How shall God judge the world?
For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory, why yet am I also judged as a Sinner, and not rather, as we be slandest reported? And as some affirm, that we say, let us do evil, that good may come, whose damnation is just. What then Are we better than they know, and no wise? For we have before proved, both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin.
As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth. There is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone Out of the way. They are together, become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good, No, not one. Their throat is an open supplicor with their tongues. They have used deceit. The poison of ASPs is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood.
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Destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace Have they not known? There is No Fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that what things so ever the law say, it saith to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the Law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
I.
It's as if at the beginning of this chapter, the.
Apostle summons to the bar of God's justice. The Gentile moralists civilized part of the Gentile world, the one who has a code who judges.
And he brings him up to the bar and he says, now you're inexcusable.
Because in the very things that you judge others.
You do them yourself.
And isn't that true?
When man makes a Civil Code a moral code, he violates that very code. The judges on the bench, I've seen it many times, are violators of the very codes that they're upholding.
That's not an excuse for doing the wrong thing. Now don't misunderstand me, but it does say that when you set up a code.
And a judgment of others.
You're judging yourself too, and it really points out the utter sinfulness of man.
He that is without sin among you, let him first cast the stone. That's the principle, isn't it? They all went out one by one, beginning at the eldest of the last.
As no man condemned thee, no manlord.
And then he who was the only one that could have condemned, he said, Neither do I condemn thee. He came in grace, didn't he?
We're slow to learn that.
He abhorred sin, but he showed grace.
Thought was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself.
He wasn't here at that time, judging. He was here to manifest the God of love and grace. He will come back.
There are two things that should lead man to repentance. As we have read here in chapter 2, it's the goodness of God.
But in chapter 17 of Acts we have that he will come to judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he has ordained, and he has given proof of that when he raised him from the dead. You know, coming judgment and the goodness of God should.
By the Spirit of God, be effective in the hearts and consciences of men to lead them to repent.
It's good to bring out that too, especially to the young ones.
That.
Because we have forgiveness of all of our sins.
Judicially and eternally by the blood of Christ. That doesn't change the fact that in the Father's government of his family he will deal with us according to the way we live. If thou call on the Father, who, without respective persons, judges according to the work of each pass your time of sojourning here in fear first, Peter 117.
So we have to do with a father just like a child. I I remember the story of two boys that were fighting and the father came out of his house and he took one of them and gave him a paddling. The neighbor came out and said I saw it all Sir, but it was the other boys fault and the father said that may be true but this is my son.
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And he's the one he dealt with. He had told him not to fight. And that's the way the father deals with us as his children doesn't. But that's an entirely different principle. That's the government of the father over his family. The other is the forgiveness that we get through the work of Christ on the cross.
Sovereign Grace.
You have it illustrated in David.
He was immediately forgiven, but the sword would not depart from his house. He had spoken his own judgment. He shall restore four holes. And he did. Four of his sons were taken. So these are solemn things, and our God is a consuming fire. Hebrews, you know, we better remember that.
Well, if we forget it, he has his ways of teaching us, causing us to remember it. But isn't it true? He has not always, as we have it in Psalm 103, rewarded us according to our deeds. If he did, where would we be?
But he may, and he will many times make us reap what we sow.
God than dealing with the Father.
Somebody might enlarge on that for the younger ones.
Sometimes when they speak of a God, we think of him as the Father, but if it could be enlarged on a bit, I think it would be a help.
Maybe you'd do that for his brother Barry.
Well, I'll just say this briefly that.
As the result of the finished work of Christ, God can't see sin on anyone of us.
We are as perfect, Hebrews 10/14 tells us. We are as perfect as Christ is in the sight of God, but as our Father.
Our father now, he sees everything that's going on and he deals with us as.
His children, and whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. So we're dealing when we're dealing with the father. It's a loving father, training us so that we're going to be able to enjoy more all the beauties, the loveliness of Christ.
Someone has said.
What is this? That it's good to know that God is our Father.
But we must remember that our Father is God too, because God cannot look upon sin. We have a marvelous relationship. God is my Father, but I must remember in my pathway that my Father is God too.
That brings in the holiness of thought, doesn't it?
Some would take the goodness and forbearance and long-suffering of God as a license to continue on, but I think these verses make it plain that while the goodness of God leads to repentance.
If you go on with an impenitent and hard heart, all you're doing is treasuring up wrath for yourself.
And that's a very solemn thing.
It isn't to be trifled with.
I've often enjoyed our brother Gordon commenting on a verse in the Psalms, and I don't want to misquote it if it's in the 32nd Psalm.
No, it's not. I thought it was.
At any rate, it indicates that because of his mercy, he's to be feared.
00:25:00
Not to be trifled with.
I think that's one of the things that men have done characteristically in our day is.
They speak about God being a loving and merciful and forbearing God, and they don't realize that in taking advantage of that with a hard and impenitent heart, all they're doing is treasuring upright against the day of judgment. It's a very solemn thing, and I think that's what Paul is bringing out in these verses that we're looking at, because there's going to be a day of wrath, there's going to be a day of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God.
And he's going to render to everyone according to his works. Verse 6.
And then we're going to need help on 7:00 and 8:00 because they are verses that have always given me.
Difficulty.
That is, I'm going to need help on it.
Well, we're on the subject of the goodness of God.
Is it not possible that sometimes that goodness manifests itself in trial trouble?
Well, I know of a man that the cheerful, happy Christian. He didn't get saved till he broke his back in the woods. He's paralyzed from the waist down. He didn't get saved until then. And there's others that are in prison for *** **** and it's has to they're in a they've had a hard life, and the way of transgressors is hard, but they've come to know the Lord.
Met a woman in the prison in Bermuda who said.
It's been good for me to be in here because I got saved in here driven A10 year sentence, the young woman.
So the goodness of God can put something across a path that brings a person to a place where they have to repent.
Is that still the goodness of God leading his repentance?
Is there anyone who qualifies in verse 7?
Before we get there.
In verse.
2.
We are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth.
We know that that's far from true when it comes to the judgment of our courts. Our courts often render judgments that are not according to truth. The judgment of God is according to truth.
And.
The fifth verse speaks of treasure, stuff unto thyself, wrath against the day of wrath and revelation.
Of the righteous judgment of God.
It's always righteous.
Can't be bought off.
No respecter of persons.
Umm, all of these things.
Come into play when it comes to the judgment of men.
Judgment of God without respect to persons according to truth, his righteous judgment.
Is he going to get away with that?
How many times we said such a thing?
The answer is no.
No one gets away with anything. There is a judgment coming.
That will not allow that person to escape the eye of God.
You mentioned the.
Injustice often of human justice and I think of sometimes of the.
Here Spanish fellows in the jail, they'll get twice the sentence of a of an English speaking fellow.
For the same crime, same circumstances. And they feel it. They understand that there's a difference being made. One of the one. It's not just as simple matter. While he's Spanish, we're going to give it to him. That's not the thought. But they don't like to translate and they have to bring a translator into the court.
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There's a hundred other reasons why it happens. But human judgment is very faulty. Very faulty. Gods will never be. Gods is going to be righteous. It'll be exactly what it should be. And that ought to sober a person who's going on with a hard and impenitent heart.
There are no plea. Bargaining is there with God.
Verse.
Be the same as Ephesians 284 By grace are ye saved through faith, and that's not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. Is that the same thought that is here? The goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance.
I don't think it's the same thought. I think it's quite different. But by grace, are you saved? That's the principle upon which we're saved unmerited favor. But here it's God bestowing goodness upon us and not.
As Kind said just a little while ago, he does not dealt with us after our things he had.
We'd all be in a sorry condition, but he's dealt with us in his goodness and.
We can. We can think of how many times he has.
Preserve this say on the highway.
We've just barely escaped an accident.
And.
Say one is unsaved and he reflects on that he was preserved. It was the goodness of God that preserved him reflects on that and it leads him to repent of his sins because he might say if I died then I'd be lost, I'd go to hell and.
It can lead one to repentance, the goodness of God. How many times you look back in your life. You can see how close you came to death.
Before you were saved, and the goodness of God brought you through that.
That's just an example of.
So is it more mercy here in this verse and grace in Ephesians 2? Is that the difference?
Say that louder. Is it mercy here in our chapter and grace in Ephesians 2? Is that the difference?
Percy is sparing us what we deserve.
Grace is giving us what we don't deserve.
Mercy is great in the greatness of the need. Grace is great and the greatness of the giver.
And those are distinctions that I think we can enjoy.
The goodness of God. They both flow from the goodness of God. God is good and.
His goodness has provided all that is needed for our blessing and great blesser.
Even letting the sunrise upon the good and upon the bad, bestowing all things to mankind, man may realize God in his goodness is doing this to me. I'm not deserving it, you know. When they realize this, it makes them realize how differently they deserve to be treated and this goodness lead them to repent.
Of their position before God, their condition. You know, repentance is really.
Acknowledging what God says about the Sinner is true of Maine.
And taking God's side against myself and agreeing with him.
And but repentance alone has not saved anybody.
But nobody was ever safe without it. You need more than repentance. Repentance is only acknowledging your position before God. Repentance towards God and faith in the Lord Jesus is what we have to stress, especially now that the work of Calvary has been accomplished.
So repentance in a child you don't expect that to be as.
Deep as in one of us who is older and has practiced many wicked things. But even a child needs to realize that it deserves to be punished and that he needs or she needs a Savior. Repentance is absolutely necessary, although some theologians try to wipe out that word from the scriptures.
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The soldier was lying in a ditch in a trench and.
He thought of.
Something you had to go back for that he had left and in another place and so he got up and went back and when he came back.
That very spot where he had.
Been lying had been hit by a bomb, and it was the goodness of God that led him to make that move at that time, so that he wouldn't be destroyed. And it resulted in his reflection upon his state. And he repented of his sins and got saved. And that's an illustration of the goodness of God. You look at the Titanic, how many were killed in the Titanic? What about those that weren't killed?
Wouldn't it? Wouldn't they reflect and say that was the goodness of God I came through, that it should have led them to repentance?
Proper to say that if the Lord comes this afternoon, no one of the ones that are left behind will feel sorry and will have prayer meetings, because it's the goodness of God that leads in the day of grace to repentance, but that the Spirit will be gone then.
It'll just turn to Rage Against God.
Mountains to fall upon them when they realize in Revelation that they're under the judgment of God. That shows how the heart without touched by the Spirit of God will not acknowledge what they are and turn to God. We wouldn't have done it if God by his Spirit wouldn't have touched us.
The light of Christianity has shown in this world.
And I was thinking of these verses again.
Verse 8:00 and 9:00 But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation, and wrath, tribulation, and anguish upon every soul of men that doeth evil of the Jew, 1St and also the Gentile. Well, the light of Christianity has shown this world, and manifested all this. But then notice what it says in verse 10 but glory, honor, and peace to every man that doeth good.
To the Jew 1St, and also to the agenda to the Gentile. So God has given us this contrast here to see this is what the what Christianity has done. The light of Christianity is shown in this world to manifest all this. This is how we know it.
But could anybody do good left to himself? What did we read in the indictment? There's none that doeth good. No, not one. And.
I.
Like to think of Cornelius?
His prayers and arms had come before God. Why did they come before God? Because these deeds were the result and proof of a work of God having been accomplished in his soul. And we have to recognize that that was possible before Christianity. You know that God could touch the souls of men so that what they did was not.
You might say the energy of the flesh it was because of the Spirit of God having touched them and worked in their conscience and in their hearts, so that what they did could be recognized of God. But there's none that doeth good. No, not one is not setting aside what we have here, and it doesn't conflict.
Could we say then, Brother Heinz, that this is the question I was asking before that?
Verse 7 is absolutely true.
But it should just show us that there isn't anybody who does it.
So something else has to come in, doesn't it?
And that's the way I've understood it.
That no one goes on and patient continuance and good work and.
Accept God, move that in their own, in their hearts and and.
00:40:06
It just lets us know that God is a righteous God and he will judge according to their works. And here are the the two ways to be judged.
I don't know if I'm being clear, but I don't think there's anyone.
Who is a natural person? Based on the rest of what we read today, especially Chapter 3, I don't believe there's anyone who would qualify for life eternal on the basis of good works.
A good tree bringeth forth good fruit.
An evil tree bringeth forth evil fruit, and so the tree is known by its fruit.
This is not a way of getting saved. Doing good works, but those who are saved do good works.
We are created in Christ Jesus unto good works which got us before ordained that we should walk in them. He produces those good works in us. He gives us the desire to seek to please Him, those who seek for glory, honor and corrupt ability, eternal life. That's part of the Christian path. If you're not speaking it, if it means nothing to you, if it, if it's not what you're really striving for in your path.
Are you safe?
I was thinking when we read those verses in Malachi One verse 2.
The Lord. This is the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi. I have loved you, saith the Lord. Yet she say we're in heaven, loved us. Was not Esau Jacob's brother sayeth the Lord. Yet I loved Jacob and I hated Esau and laid his mountains and his heritage waste a lot.
Esau was a profane person. He had never been born again. He had no divine life whatsoever.
Did not value things of God Jacob with all his failures.
You and me, with all our failures, we do love the Lord. We do value the word of God.
We do seek for glory, honor, and incorruptibility because we have a divine nature. We've been born of God. We're sealed with the Spirit. The difference between us and them is not some small amount. It's an infinite gulf between the children of light and the children of darkness.
That was even the case between Jacob and his brother, you know. And why was there different? Not because of Jacob. God had touched him.
And he valued that which Esau despised. And so while there was much in the life of Jacob which was not of God, that which was of God was recognized, you know, And he valued the blessing, and he desired it. He was trying to get it by his own manipulations, instead of trusting God for it who had promised him. But he valued it.
And that was of God. If left to himself, he wouldn't have had that desire for these things. And with us, like with Jacob, there's the mix mixing up of that which is of faith and values, divine things, with that which is of the flesh, the way he went about to get it. But the fact that he went about to get it showed that he valued it, and that showed that he had divine life, and that's why God said he loved him.
I think it's very important to notice where God says I've loved, Jacob, have I loved and he saw, have I hated. He didn't say that in Genesis, did he? He said the elders shall serve the younger, but he did not say that until long after they had lived on the earth. And I think that stumbles people sometimes and leads them into the idea of what is sometimes called reprobation, which is the idea that God chooses some to be lost.
That's a monstrous idea. It doesn't take in the character of God at all. He never chose a person to be lost. But I'll tell you this, anybody who saved was chosen to be saved. And sometimes the case of Jacob and Esau is used in that way. And all I say is be careful as to when God said that. He said it in Malachi, right? Not in Genesis.
I think appearances, too, are so interesting in all of this.
As naturally speaking, as a natural man.
00:45:03
Whose company would you really choose to be in Jacob or Esau's when you take a look at them naturally speaking?
OK. I was thinking I would choose these. I would too. I would too. Because, you know, you look at, you look at Jacob and you say, you know what, a Wheeler, dealer and Schemer, you're not going to have anything to do with this guy, you know. But that's what you say God and grace did in in that man's life, I think in the first Samuel 16.
Man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart. Sorry, Norman.
Who's Jacob? That's right.
Talk about it. No, that's right. He qualified that he says as a natural. Yeah, I know, I know. And you know, a good hunter and all those things that that.
I like a good pot of lentils too, don't you? So it's but as a natural spiritual leader in his family.
What is it that attracts you to the other sex? You know, I think these are very practical.
Applications and you can discern. Even as a young person who has been touched by the grace of God, having desire for divine things, you can judge that you don't have to be very advanced in the knowledge of God. You can discern that, and you will very soon find out.
What company is suitable for you and what a companion you want for your life partner?
Gracefulness is deceitful.
Beauty is vain, but the woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.
It's very important to notice too, I believe that.
In verse.
Eight, it talks about obedience to the truth.
I think we tend to think that we're that believing the gospel is an opportunity. You can if you want.
Mr. Begg used to often say the stern face. God now commanded all men everywhere to repent.
What are you going to do about that? You're going to obey it?
The truth of God requires obedience, not just. Yeah, that's a good idea. I'm in favor of that. And lift your hand up and and say that no, it's an obedience to the truth. Obedience to the truth is such an important thing, and in Second Thessalonians, where it talks about judgment, it connects it with those who obeyed, not the gospel.
So it's a question of obeying the gospel, isn't it? Obeying the truth.
That from 5:00 to the end of verse 11 is all one sentence. And I wondered was it? Is it consistently one thought?
I believe so.
Would it be right to say then that?
The one who's accepted before God and does right. But that secret is not taken up in these verses themselves, but rather man and his responsibility. Having taken of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, therefore he judges. Therefore he knows what is right and wrong and just taking up on that responsibility and the secret of the man who does right is unfolded later in the book.
That's very good.
Secret of the Lord is with them that fear him.
And I think that's important, Steve, to see that we don't have to.
Resolve every.
We don't have to reconcile every scripture.
Every time we read a passage of Scripture, we know that it's reconciled. We know that it's true. And here in this passage, I believe there's something the Spirit of God is bringing out. Let's not take the edge off it, something very clear You do it, do practice good and.
00:50:02
Patient continuance and good works and seeking for glory and honor and incorruptibility. There's life eternal at the end of that life.
And otherwise you can see the consequences of it. It's terrible. It's awful to think of.
Now what? That grace comes in and brings in that.
Repentance and obedience to the truth and and patient continuance and well doing. That's another line of things. But it should not take the edge off of what we have here. And then the solemn end of it is there's no acceptance of persons with God.
He doesn't make exceptions for certain people.
I think it's.
Something that we all are amazed at as we see it in human justice, that there is very much an acceptance of persons, very much acceptance of persons, but not with God.
With the President of the United States, anybody had lied underoath he would end up in the jail. Can see it. Position a man is in makes a difference, at least in the eyes of man. But we find also in verse 12.
Court, as many as have sinned without law, shall also perish without law. So there's this unfortunate translation in First John that sin is transgression of the law. That's not true. Sin is lawlessness, and those who have sinned, not being like the Jew under the law, they perish because of their sin.
But those who under law sin, they're judged according to that, and they're more guilty because they have the word of God, you know, And really the law is by the law is the knowledge of sin. That's the only legitimate use of the law.
In our day, not to make it a rule for life. That's not the case for the Christian.
But by it is conviction of sin. If anybody wants to know that he is a Sinner, ask him Have you ever liked?
Well, they have to admit I have lied. Well then you prove to be a Sinner, so that is.
God's standard given to man in the flesh if he wanted to please God by his doing, but who could keep it in all point that was the minimum of.
What God could expect?
And Mansfield, Even the Lawgiver.
A promised life to those who would keep it, but transgressing in one they were guilted, guilty of it all, and they would perish. So how solemn it is to have grown up even in Christianity now with much more than the law, and then not taking heed to it. How more severe their judgment will be for those who turn aside and turn away from the truth that is presented and refused.
I think that verse in First John is, I think Mr. Darby says, if I'm not mistaken, it's the only passage in the authorized version. He would not feel free to read in public because it gets at the fundamental of what sin is and so that's it's an important correction. Sin is lawlessness acting without reference to the will of God and.
There's judgment for those who sin without loss.
Because there can be sin without law, can't they?
And that's if we think that sin is only transgression of the law. We're liable to think there can be no sin if there's no law. But the Scripture very clearly says.
Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even upon those who had not sinned after the similitude of Adam Strand. They didn't have a direct law, but they sinned and death.
They acted in laws in a lawless way, and death followed upon it.
If that were so, it there was no sin until the law was given.
00:55:00
That's not so.
The legitimate use of the law today would be to convict of sin. Is adultery wrong? Thou shalt not commit adultery. Is murder wrong, thou shalt not kill. Is stealing wrong, thou shalt not steal. Is lying wrong. Thou shalt not bear False witness is lost wrong or shall not lust. There you have it. Is it wrong to disobey your parents?
5th Commandment says Honor thy father and thy mother.
That it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest live long on the earth so from that verse.
We can say, as one brother said, all of you, brethren and sisters that are old age, you must have obeyed your parents.
What about the Jew? Our time is running out. Can you hear about that?
They had the law, didn't they?
A more defined knowledge of good and evil in the Gentile.
Gentile was left to his conscience that verse 17 Tom.
I think the first verse of chapter 3.
Puts it in a focus. To what advantage then hath the Jew?
Or what profit is there of circumcision? Much every way, chiefly because that unto them were committed the oracles of God. They had the word of God, and they were far more responsible than even a civilized Gentile. But I think we can transfer that to ourselves in a practical way. We have the word of God, and we state it so often. We're very privileged. We have these meetings. We have the Spirit of God and for us to live.
Not according to the word is really a great violation, isn't it? Because we do know. We're responsible to know, because we have the word of God. I'm just making that application. But that was the Jew in his life. He had the word of God. He had the law to clearly define as Brother Chuck, which is bringing out what was a sin and what was not a sin.
I was riding on the train from Rome to the Fumacino airport, which is Rome's airport.
And I sat with a priest and we were talking, and he was very strongly telling me that the church gave us the kind of scripture and he insisted on it.
I do believe that he might have been a man with life, but that's beside the point. He was insisting on it. But verse two that Tom just referred to shows us that the Jews had the articles of God and they never accepted the Apocrypha. Never.
As part of scripture.
Now along comes Romanism and says yes, that's part of the word of God. No, that's not to the Jews who are committed the articles of God. What's the Apocrypha, the Maccabees and all those books that how many are there all together? You mean that the Catholics have included in their Old Testament, right. I I thought you'd have that number. I don't know the number but it's it's a number somewhere around 9 books. I believe that we're that our peer in a in Catholic bibles they call them the deuterocanonical books which means the 2nd canonical books.
We call them the Apocrypha because they're not genuine.
And the Jews had the right. That's a wonderful privilege. They had. God had committed to them the articles of God.
And they never had those books in the Canon of the Old Testament. That's the point was given to the Jew to establish the Canon of the Old Testament. It it is exactly like what we have in our Bible, not in the Catholic Bible. The Catholic Church has arrogated to itself authority to establish other books in the Canon of the Old Testament which they have no business deciding. In the 1St place this verse says it, the Jews decided that by the leading of the Spirit.
Their New Testament is the same as ours. So from that you could have argued from the New Testament with this priest and showed them how he was wrong.
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So they support the theory, which was not stricter, but what is also important for us and for the young people especially to get ahold of.
When we look at paganism, Judaism, and Christianity, then what was characteristic of paganism? Was the blind leading the blind. Judaism, if practiced as God intended it to be practiced, would have been the seeing leading the blind.
But they deteriorated to the point that the Lord had to put them on the level of the heathen blind, leaders of the blind. But what it is, what is the difference in Christianity? It is not the seeing leading the blind, but the seeing leading the seeing. Get ahold of that. You have the Spirit of God if you are Christian, and you have the capacity of recognizing truth when it is presented.
You are not blindly leading some teacher or some pastor. You are to follow as you see the truth from Scripture as it is presented. It's the seeing leading the seeing.
I think our time's up, isn't it?