The Hypocrisy Within: Understanding Romans Chapter 2

SPEAKER 01 : 0:05

Well, we might be a little unsure of where we are in the book of Romans with the interjection of the beautiful Christmas celebrations and the readings and also a few repeat programs. I apologize for those. Some will be pleased with the repeats because it gives them an opportunity to read. absorb what they heard the day before, but with others they want to get on and move on. So whichever it is, I hope you will bear with me on that. But we’re in Romans chapter 2. Let’s just get a little bit of background. Paul is revealing to his readers the broken and corrupt condition of paganism and the fallen world in the pagan world. That’s chapter 1. But then, by surprise, Paul basically says the same thing about the religious world in chapter 2, the pagan and religious world. So that’s where we are at the moment. He’s laying the groundwork for us to understand the need and the necessity of Jesus our Savior. Now, what kind of people is he talking about here in chapter 2? He says, you’re inexcusable, O man, whoever you are, who judge for whatever you judge another, you condemn yourself, for you who judge practice the same things. So these people are really hypocrites. They are people who declaim those who do these practices overtly, but inwardly and secretly, or maybe covertly, they do the same things. And they have developed a hardness of heart which does not lead them to any sense of humility or humbling of themselves before God. Because he says in verse 4, you see, by Paul’s criticisms you can discover what kind of a person he’s talking about. He says, Do you despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? Well, their perception of the long-suffering of God, where does it say, the goodness and forbearance of long-suffering of God, is not that God was long-suffering at all, but was quite pleased with the performance of these religious people. In fact, he says in verse 17, Indeed you who are called a Jew and rest on the law and make your boast in God, That’s half a sentence, but we’ll stop there. Interesting, you see. These people are resting, are finding their confidence in the law. These people are the refined people of the world, the people who confuse appreciation of the arts and fine music as spirituality. These people who don’t like to say it verbally, but do look down upon the rest of the world as somewhat inferior and rather naive, and who stay apart from them, thinking that their distance from them makes them more righteous, when in fact, of course, Jesus was involved with the broken and the fallen and loving them. So we have a group of people here who have a religion which is actually an idolatry. Now, how do I say that? Why do I say that? Idolatry is an alternative form of worship. Idolatry is the exaltation of a being, a created thing, a piece of wood, a piece of metal, or an animal, or a creeping thing, or even human beings, elevating those things to the level of the divine, where you expect that you will receive from those things and inanimate objects Blessings from God. Now, of course, it’s all a ruse, it’s all fake, because the fact is that the exalting of an idol to the level of the divine is actually a worship of the self. How so? Well, because they know in their inner hearts that there is no divinity in these pieces of wood and stone or whatever other object of worship we engage in. There is no quality of the divine. So what are we doing? well, that if we were truly worshipping God, it would humble us, wouldn’t it? It would make us realise how great God is, and how small we are, and how temporal and ephemeral, and how every day we need his support to survive, to breathe, and for our hearts to beat. Since we have rejected that God, we have by implication implied that we can exist quite well without him. And yet we don’t want to admit that, so we create idols which appear to give us some kind of humility before our idol. But in fact, our idol is simply an alternative to God whom we do not want to worship because it makes us dependents if we do. And no thank you, we do not want to be dependents. This is the pride of man. And so, you see, idolatry is a form of pride, but religious idolatry is the most sinister form of pride, because it makes us appear to be righteous when we are, in fact, utterly wicked. Now, this may seem very awful to hear me say this, but that’s the case that Paul is making, and the Scriptures are making. If we are to jump forward, let’s look at his words in Romans chapter 3, verse 9. He says, What then? Are we any better than they? That is, are we religious people any better than the pagans? Not at all, for we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin. Oh, my goodness! And then he quotes a whole bunch of verses. As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. There is none who understands. There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside. They have together become unprofitable. There is none who does good, no, not one. Their throat is an open tomb. With their tongue they practice deceit. The poison of asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. My goodness, that’s a whole list of verses from the Old Testament demonstrating that humanity is in a broken-down condition. But you wouldn’t think it if you were simply looking at the religiousness of the world. So I want to say to you something that is truly shocking if you ponder it carefully. Religion is not a search after God. Religion is a flight from God. Let me repeat that. Religion is not a search after God. Religion is a flight from God. Because, you see, humanity is in the state, both religious and pagan, described in Romans chapter 1, humanity is in the state of suppression of the truth. Why would human beings suppress the truth about God, who is loving and caring, who watches over us, who blesses us, who enriches us, who gives us life? Why would we suppress such a God? Because we have a broken-down conscience, a broken-down mind, which is inherited from Adam. And that broken-down mind is full of guilt and shame and fear. Remember that when Adam took the fruit… He saw that he was naked before Eve. In other words, he was ashamed, which stemmed from his guilt. There was nothing wrong intrinsically in his nakedness. It was simply that it reminded him of his inferior state of mind and heart now. He was guilty before God. And that led him to be afraid because then they hid from God. And that led them to become fake human beings because they clothed themselves with fig leaves to try to hide the reality of their brokenness. And so, you see, that is the condition in which religious people are as well as pagan people. Religious people are in flight from the true God because they have to keep suppressing him because they think that because they feel guilty and ashamed and afraid, God is out to kill them. And therefore, they put on the fake leaves, the fig leaves of religion. And thus the ceremonies and the rituals and the genuflections and all the religious attendance, as if we were holy people by being so, make us feel superior, superior to others, so that we look down upon those who have different views from us because they’ve never studied like us. or they simply don’t gather in the same prestigious circles and belong to various societies and institutions that make them feel rather prestigious and aficionados. They feel, these people who are religious and are confusing the arts and fine music with religion, they feel spiritual in a sort of naturalistic, humanistic way. Well, are you one of them? At heart, we all are. You say, I’m too broken down, Colin, to have that kind of finery. I’ll tell you this. You know what alcoholics calls certain people who are alcoholic and yet very, very proud? They are in a reaction formation. In other words, they feel, by their alcoholism, so broken down, so worthless, that they have to counter that feeling by argument and discussion and appearing more educated than others. That’s what’s called a reaction formation. Even the most broken individual… will appear to be the opposite of what he is in order to fake it before the world. We’re all fakes. We’re all frauds. And if you find that this is offensive language because you’re a Christian, I’m sorry, look back in the mirror, and I don’t mean the literal mirror, into the Word of God. We belong to Jesus Christ. That is the only way we are true to ourselves. He is our sacrifice for our sins. That is the only way to be honest and to say, I know I’m broken down, I know I’m a sinner, but I don’t have to pretend because Jesus is accounted to me as if I were righteous. we can look in the mirror of the Word of God and we can say, I come to heaven and to the Father’s home, not by my own bootstraps, but because Jesus has been and is being merciful to me on a daily basis. We go into the temple not looking down on others who are inferior to us, so we think, but we rather bow our heads and beat our breasts in a symbolic way and say, oh God, be merciful to me, a sinner. If you’ve accomplished anything great or anything significant in this world, give thanks to God because he accomplished it in and through you. Thank you. there. Thank you for listening, and please consider a donation. It’s listener-supported radio. You can make your donation online at faithquestradio.com, or you can send a donation to Faith Quest, P.O. Box 366, Littleton, Colorado, 80160. Thanks. I’ll see you next time. Cheerio, and God bless.