Perverting Privileges from God

About this sermon

Introduction: Paul is serving like a prosecuting attorney. He is armed with evidence from Heaven. He is arguing God’s case. And where his argument is leading, is to the demonstration of universal guilt. The whole world in Adam, the whole world outside of Jesus Christ, must see and acknowledge that it stands guilty before God. God is holy. Man is sinful. God is just. Man deserves judgment. God is impartial. Every man has the same need and must seek God on the same terms. Step by step mouths are being closed. Defenses are being destroyed. Imaginary strongholds are being torn down. Romans 3:9 (ESV) 9 What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, Romans 3:19 (ESV) 19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. And as Paul makes his case, his arguments are narrowing in on a type of person who feels safe when they are not. They feel justified when they are in fact guilty. They feel safe when they are in fact in great danger. And Paul knows this person very well because he once WAS that person. He zeroes in on the religious moralist. And now, in our verses, he actually names the moralist. We have already known who he is addressing, but Paul now makes it explicit. For the first time you find the word “Jew.” “BUT IF YOU CALL YOURSELF A JEW” The Jewish religious moralist. The Jew who takes refuge, in his or her mind, in the privileges that have been granted by God, instead of realizing that those privileges have imparted a tremendous accountability. And as he addresses the Jewish religious moralist, he hammers at what had become their characteristic sin — THEIR HYPOCRISY. HYPOCRISY. A play actor. A mask wearer. Someone who speaks from behind a false impression. The only way that a person can look into the face of the Law of God and feel justified, feel safe, feel secure, is either by being dishonest about the standard found in God’s law, or by being dishonest about their own performance. In the desire for safety, for security, for the belief that one is right with God, a justification develops for the gaping chasm between what one knows and proclaims, and what one PRACTICES. Instead of the law being heard in a way that drives a person to the mercy of God, the hypocrite, the mask wearer, claims to have kept the law. The hypocrite tries to sell the idea that he is in a position to judge the sins of others without any fear concerning his own, because he doesn’t stand in the same place as the person he condemns. But Paul will demonstrate, that he only stands in a different place in his imagination. In reality, he stands in the exact same place. HE IS A TRANSGRESSOR. As we look at what he describes here, we will see six things that characterized the Jewish religious hypocrite. But as we do, we must be honest with the ways in which these sins are found in our own lives. You don’t have to be Jewish, to have misplaced confidence. You don’t have to be Jewish, to be guilty of the hypocrisy that belongs to religious moralism. THE PRIVILEGES OF THE HYPOCRITE When we talk about religious hypocrites, we are almost always talking about the misunderstanding of, the misappropriation of, the misuse of REAL PRIVILEGES from God. They hypocrite often takes what SHOULD be real worship, what SHOULD result in a transformed life, and presents a shell of it. It’s like the husk without the seed. It is the perverting of privileges. It is taking graces from God and turning them into something else. It is taking what is meant to exalt God and minister to people and turning it into a platform for the exaltation of yourself. Hypocrisy perverts God’s gifts. In verse 17-20, you have two kind of privileges. Paul mentions what the Jew has received from God, and what the Jew had an opportunity TO BE in the hand of God. He mentions what the Jew received and what the Jew was meant to do with what God gave.