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The River ChurchSermons

The NEED

The NEED of the Religious, Pt. 2

Chuck Lindsey · Sunday, 18 May 2025 · Romans 2:17-3:8 · 57:00 · 8,838 words

Romans S4 · 2:17-3:8 Grand Blanc

There is no public page for this message yet — the transcript below is the whole of it.

Religion and salvation are the focus of the sermon from Romans 2, which explains that even the religious person needs to be saved, because religion cannot save anyone. It describes religion as a system built on views of humanity, the spiritual, requirements, and incentives, which put the burden on the individual. The speaker emphasizes that sincere belief in any religion is not enough; only faith in Jesus Christ brings salvation. Listeners are invited to admit their need, turn away from trusting their religious works, and place their trust in Jesus.

What this sermon is about

Ranked by keyness against every other sermon in the corpus. Each one is a word this sermon actually said — nothing here was written by a model.

religion 69 cream 18 ice 17 save 89 flavor 12 outward 15 person 47 baptism 17 judaism 10 christianity 13 baptize 18 jewish 20

Topics

Salvation 14 Baptism 7 The Law 6 Grace 3 Sin 3 Prayer 2 Faith 2 Condemnation 1 Israel 1 Election & Predestination 1 Abraham 1

Scripture referenced 28

Verified against the transcript. A reference the recording does not support is never listed here.

Romans 2 0:57 Romans 2 1:02 Romans 2:17 12:07 Romans 2:17 12:58 Romans 2:18 16:40 Romans 4 17:31 Romans 2:19 20:14 Romans 2:19-20 20:21 Romans 2:21 27:23 Luke 11:46 30:12 Romans 2:25 33:13 Romans 2:25 36:46 Romans 2:25 38:07 Romans 2:26 38:54 Romans 2:27 40:19 Romans 2:28 41:13 Romans 2:29 45:38 Romans 3 46:48 Romans 3:1 46:50 Romans 3:2 47:21 Romans 3:2 48:29 Romans 3:3 49:32 Romans 3:4 50:17 Romans 3:4 51:17 Romans 3:5 51:41 Romans 3:6 52:21 Romans 6 53:04 Romans 3:8 53:27

Transcript

Every word, as spoken, with the second it was said. Each word links to its own entry in the index.

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Well, good morning to you.

I want to welcome you who are joining us online as well.

Today, we continue in the amazing book of Romans.

And so, if you have a Bible, I'm going to ask you to open it up to the book of Romans, chapter 2.

Chapter 2, we pick up where we left off last week.

And I've been excited all week to get into it.

What we're looking at today.

And this morning, we come to the need of a group of people that may not think that they are in need.

And it might surprise you to hear me say this, but today we're talking about how the religious person needs to be saved.

Even the very religious person needs to be saved.

We, of course, saw a couple of weeks ago that the godless, right?

The person that does not even acknowledge God at all.

Of course, needs to be saved.

We saw that a few weeks ago.

But then, last week, we saw that it is even the nice person, the moral person, the good person needs to be saved.

But this morning, we see that it's the religious.

Even the ultra-religious person needs to be saved.

And this is because religion cannot save.

Only Jesus can save.

Religion cannot save.

It has no power to do that.

It is only Jesus who can save.

And so, we're going to get there in just a moment.

But before we do that, let's pray and let's ask the Lord to speak today.

Lord, we come to you this morning and we humble ourselves before you and just admit our deep need for you.

I pray, Lord, that you would help us to understand your word.

I pray that the book of Romans would be unfolded before us, Lord, today in very real ways.

It would help us to understand you and your ways and who you are and what the gospel really is.

And I pray this morning, Lord, that we would hear from you.

Please, Lord, speak.

Please, Lord, give us ears to hear and hearts that are ready to receive.

We love you, Lord, and we thank you that you are here.

We look to you now.

It's in Jesus' name I pray.

Well, hey, all that really matters, right, is that I'm sincere.

I mean, as long as I have some belief.

In something, that should be enough, right?

I mean, it doesn't really matter what I believe in.

It doesn't really matter if I know God or how to define him.

As long as I am a spiritual person, as long as I have belief in something and I am sincere in that belief,

as long as I am genuine in that belief and humble in my belief, I should be okay.

Is that true?

It is not.

But it is the thinking of many people in this world in regards to,

Let's talk about religion for just a moment.

What is it?

I say a lot about this, but the word is something like a container, right?

We sort of put a lot of things into the container, into the drawer of religion.

We put all faith systems into this drawer.

Religion is sort of loosely defined by, like, belief in some system

that attempts to explain things beyond the physical realm.

Then you add to that some sort of, like, adherence to, like, values or requirements of that system.

And you have religion.

All religion has a few basic ingredients, right?

You take a bowl, you start throwing ingredients in.

There's four basic ingredients to all religions.

One, the first ingredient is there is a view of man, right?

There is some view of man in all religion, you know, either individually,

or mankind in the world.

And that is, essentially, man is either basically good or basically bad,

or man is weak, or man is powerful, or whatever, right?

Religion has a view of us as people.

The second ingredient that goes in the bowl is there is a view in each religion,

a view of the spiritual.

And this would include whether or not there is a God, how many gods,

what is God, what is divine, and what is not, right?

On and on.

On and on.

On and on.

You could go, but that's sort of the second ingredient in the bowl,

the view of the spiritual.

There's a third ingredient, and that is there is some level of requirement

within all religion, meaning there's some requirement for the followers

of that particular thing to be good, to do good, to control emotions,

or give this, or give that, or whatever it might be.

So that's the third ingredient.

And then the fourth ingredient is that there is some incentive to doing those things.

Right?

Heaven, or paradise, or reincarnation, or whatever it might be.

Those four basic components, ingredients are at the heart of all religions of the world.

But when we are talking about religion, this isn't like 31 flavors, right?

This isn't like going to the ice cream shop and sort of just picking out

whichever is your favorite flavor, and that it doesn't really matter

because it's all ice cream and it's all delicious, right?

It's not like, well, I like strawberry better than I like vanilla,

but man, if you've got cookies and cream, that's my jam, you know?

And so some person might go with Christianity.

It's like I just, you know, I chose chocolate.

And somebody else might go with Islam because they like vanilla.

As long as you're eating ice cream, everything is great.

Well, that is true with ice cream.

If you're eating ice cream, it's a good day, you know?

If you're eating ice cream twice in a day, it's an even better day, right?

Remember a friend of ours, we said we were going,

go for ice cream again, and they said twice in one day,

and what's the problem with that, you know?

That's a good thing.

There's nothing wrong with that, you know?

But like that's true in regards to ice cream, but like not for religion

because we're talking about things that are eternal and consequential

and really does matter at the end of the day.

And let me just say this.

There are lots of flavors, if you will.

There are lots of religions.

We were built with this understanding that there is,

God, we've talked about this over the last few weeks.

We have been built with this understanding.

And so there are lots of religions,

but there is only one way to be saved.

And it is actually not through religion.

It is through Jesus Christ and what he has done.

This is not my opinion.

This is what Jesus said.

He said, I am, singularly in Greek, I am the way.

The way what?

To be saved.

I am the truth, the only truth, the only way to know what is true.

And then Jesus said, I am the life, the way to have life both now,

but also eternal life.

He is singularly the only way.

And just in case we weren't sure about that, he then added,

and no one comes to the Father except through me.

Jesus, you are so narrow.

Listen, it's not just have a flavor of ice cream.

It's not just have a flavor of ice cream.

It's not just have a flavor of ice cream.

It's not just have a flavor of ice cream.

It's not just have a flavor of ice cream.

It's not just have a flavor of ice cream.

It's not just have a flavor of ice cream.

It's not just have a flavor of ice cream.

It's not just have a flavor of ice cream that you personally like.

It's believe in Jesus Christ and his work to be saved.

Your sincerity is not the issue.

You can be sincerely wrong.

I've been sincerely wrong many, many times in my life.

Now, please hear this.

Religion just kills everybody.

It really does.

It just kills everyone.

And the reason that it does, please hear this.

The reason religion kills everyone is because religion tells you it's up to you.

All religion, ultimately,

is you trying to save you.

That's what religion is.

If you do what that religion requires,

then you can be saved.

And no one can consistently do this.

And so, therefore, in all religions,

we have no idea whether we're actually saved or not.

It's always in question because we as people are not faithful.

We're not consistent.

We're not perfect in our obedience to these things.

Now, the other massive issue with all other religion,

and I'm not trying to be mean,

but all other religion is false.

And it can never save.

Again, I'm not trying to be mean,

but there isn't any point in acting like something can save you when it can't.

It's not helpful to anybody to say,

well, just be really sincere in what you believe,

and you're going to get there in the end.

That's not going to help anyone.

Just really believe in whatever it is that you believe,

and you're going to be okay.

That doesn't help anybody with anything.

I would rather be in truth than to be, you know,

sort of consoled in a lie.

So it seems narrow to say that there is only one way to be saved,

but I would argue it seems narrow,

but so are seatbelts, right?

They're going to keep you from going through the windshield, right?

How very narrow.

As we come to this section of all of this, right,

we come to the religious person who catches this.

They think.

That they are fine in the sincerity of their religion.

So let me be clear.

Paul is not talking to the person that is trusting Jesus Christ for salvation in this passage.

This is someone who is trusting in their religion.

They are trusting in their Catholicism.

They're trusting in the fact they've taken communion.

They've been baptized.

They've gone through, you know, catechisms or whatever it is, right?

This is the person who is trusting in Islam.

This is the person that is trusting in Buddhism.

This is the person who even is trusting in their adherence to Christianity without Christ.

So all this actually is,

is trusting in ourselves to save ourselves.

And here Paul is going to use the Jewish religion to show this.

It's called Judaism.

And he's going to make this point through Judaism.

But really you could use any religion.

And it would say the same thing that Paul is about to say here.

Okay?

So let's take a look.

Romans chapter 2 verse 17.

Paul talks now to the religious person.

He says,

So real quick, pause right there.

Paul is not talking about their nationality as a people.

He is talking about all that comes with this.

Okay?

So specifically he's talking about the religion of Judaism.

You'll see it in the language that he's using.

He uses as we go through it.

But Paul is speaking as a Jewish person.

He was a Jew.

And at one time he did trust in Judaism to save him.

And so in these verses he speaks with understanding.

He knows what it is to be steeped in religion and to think that religion saves you.

So he says this in verse 17 again.

Indeed, yes, I know you are called a Jew.

Or you are called.

Or you are called a Muslim.

Or you are called whatever it might be.

But watch this.

You rest.

The word means comfortably.

You are resting now on the law.

He's talking about the law of Moses.

And you make your boast in God.

The Jewish person took pride in being a Jew.

They rested comfortably in the law of God to save them.

Not that they kept the law of God, but that they had the law of God.

This would be like you resting comfortably that you are saved because you own a Bible.

Don't do that.

If you have a Bible, you are not saved because it's in your home.

But this is what it was.

And they boasted that they knew God.

And the way they saw it was that no one else did.

So this is kind of the attitude that Paul is dealing with here.

But we said this could apply to anyone who is trusting in any religion to save them.

You could say, indeed, you are called.

Muslim and you rest on the Quran to save you and you make your boast in a lot.

It is not going to save you.

You could say, indeed, you are called a latter day saint and you rest on the Book of Mormon

and doctrines and covenants in the Pearl of Great Price.

And you make your boast in one day being a God.

It will not save you.

All religion names its followers.

There's a name, right?

There's something.

All religion has a system, has a document, has something for instruction.

For salvation, all religion, watch this carefully.

It gives confidence to the people who follow it, that they are going to be okay.

That's the point.

That's the purpose.

And it is no different with Christ, except that with Christ, that is true.

So we said, Paul is talking here to the Jewish religious person who took pride in being called

a Jew, because for them, you got to understand this meant.

They were automatically saved.

That is how the Jewish person saw themselves.

In fact, that's how many Jewish people today see themselves.

They are God's chosen people.

And by birthright, they are automatically saved.

This is how they see themselves.

They took pride in this because they were God's people.

And so right here from the first words, the religious person does not see their need to

And this is the danger.

This is the danger.

This is the insidious danger of all religion.

It makes us think that we are not in need.

So as you sit here today, if you do not sense your need, I would say you need to really

go to God with that, right?

Because I feel my deep need for him to save me all the time.

If you're sitting very comfortably, I would say you should probably reevaluate that a

little bit, right?

Like go before God.

And so religion tells us we are okay.

We're fine.

We don't need anything.

And so religion says we have saved ourselves or that we are in the midst of saving ourselves.

And so you can hear this in the way that Paul talks about the religious person.

They have a lot of confidence.

Look what it says.

And Paul speaking on their behalf.

And you know his will, right?

No one else does.

You alone, you know his will.

And you know his will.

And you approve the things that are excellent, literally saying, we know what's good and

what is not being instructed out of the law.

Now, in the case of Judaism, these things were actually true.

Some of them, the Jewish people were categorically, right?

God's chosen people.

We know this, but it did not mean that they were saved like everyone else.

The Jewish person needed to be saved.

They were God's chosen people.

But it did not mean that they were automatically saved people.

And in fact, Paul, that's one of Paul's major points.

As we get to Romans chapter 4, Paul will show that the patriarch of all of Judaism, of the

Hebrew people, the patriarch of Abraham, Abraham had to be saved.

And if Abraham had to be saved, every Hebrew person from then on needed to be saved, right?

And so it's true that they had the law.

This was one of the ways.

That they were God's people.

God chose them to reveal himself.

God said, I'm going to pick a people and I'm going to make myself known to those people.

And he gave them his law.

He gave them the Old Testament, right?

Of the Bible.

He revealed himself through prophets and through the scriptures, and he made himself known

to them.

And these things are true.

They did have this, but they wrongly assumed that that meant that they were personally

That they did not need anything.

And so it's a lot like a kid that grows up with, you know, Christian parents, right?

The parents are saved, but the kid thinks that because they have, there's biblical values

in the home and, and it's a stable home and, and they have Bibles and, and, and God's work

in their lives, that somehow this means they are automatically saved.

They've sort of been grandfathered in.

And that is just not the case.

That is untrue.

You love the Lord.

Your kids need to be saved.

They will not be saved by you.

They must see their own need to be saved, right?

So everyone must see their own need.

My kids don't get a pass.

Your kids don't get a pass.

They must see their own need and come to Christ.

Well, in the case of the Jewish people, please hear this.

He did not choose them and then give them automatic salvation.

That's not what happened.

He chose one nation of people to redeem themselves.

He chose one nation of people to redeem themselves and to reveal himself to the rest of the world.

That's what God did.

And he revealed himself to them so that they would then go into all the world and make

him known.

Now, of course, that is what they did not do, right?

Instead, what they did is they sort of sat back and they sort of rested in.

We have the truth.

We have the, you know, we have it all.

And, uh, and if you want it, come, come talk to us kind of thing.

Right?

So it's sort of how some churches are like, Hey, we have it.

If you want, come on in.

But we're not going to you, right?

Wrong attitude, wrong confidence.

So here they had a false confidence that they were, uh, saved.

So look at verse 19.

Paul uses what we would call sanctified sarcasm here.

Okay.

In verse 19 and 20, Paul says, here's how they see themselves.

Oh, and, and, and you are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind.

Oh, here, let me show you the way, right?

To those who are in darkness, you're an instructor of the foolish.

Everybody's just a fool, but I will instruct you a teacher of little babies.

Let me teach you right.

And having the form of knowledge and truth in the law.

So again, a little sanctified sarcasm here, but he does this because they saw themselves

as superior to everyone in every way.

And this is what religion will do for you.

This is all it'll really do for you.

It will.

It will make you an intolerable jerk, right?

That's all it will do for you because again, religion is me making it happen, right?

And so there's a lot of bragging in religion because when it's up to you to get it done,

to make it happen, then it becomes about the good that I have done or the, the things that

I have accomplished, the ways that I have been faithful.

Religion makes you insufferable as a person.

And Paul describes it here.

But notice the words there, a form of knowledge and truth in the law.

The word form there is a Greek word that refers to the outward appearance and it's in contrast

to the inward.

Okay.

So the idea here is Paul's Paul saying, you look like you are actually adhering to God's

You look like you know what to say.

You know what to do.

You go to church.

You're a part of things.

You've got a body.

You wear a cross necklace, right?

You've got some stuff.

You appear on the outside to be this, that you have real knowledge of who he is and that

you actually follow his law, his word, his will, his ways.

Paul says, but there's no truth in it.

It's only the outward.

The inward has not changed.

You have the outward appearance, but there's no truth in it.

And again, this is what religion does.

It's what religion, religion.

Religion makes people fakers.

That's all it does.

And so this is a good time at this moment to pause and ask ourselves, right?

If we are these people, are we the people who outwardly look the part?

I remember, you know, when my parents came to Christ, um, they were all in, they love

They were following him, serving him.

We, we lived at the church.

We, we set up a tent at the church.

We all lived at the church.

Um, it was amazing.

No, I'm just kidding.

We didn't live there, but it felt like we lived.

We went from godless, not ever at church to every time they opened the doors, it felt

like we were the ones there waiting, you know, like, is it open now?

Can we go?

And suddenly I'm at youth group and suddenly I'm going to camps and suddenly all these

things we had never been a part of before.

Here's the thing.

My parents knew the Lord and I started to learn the language of all of this without

knowing the Lord.

And there were people, I was teaching little kids in Sunday school.

I was teaching little kids in Sunday school.

I was teaching them and people would tell me how wonderful it was.

They could hear me teaching the little kids and they would say, oh, this is amazing.

And here's the thing.

I did not know the Lord.

I had an outward appearance.

I knew the right things to say the right things to do, but the deception was really deep.

I didn't even know.

I didn't know the Lord.

I had to come to know him to find out.

I didn't know him.

Does this make sense?

And so this is a serious thing, right?

So you can look the part, but here's what I have found.

Is that deep down religious people, they know they're not keeping up, but they have to make

you think that they are.

And so as I reflect back, I used to try to make people think that I actually was right.

I would say the right things at the right times around the right people.

Please hear this.

Christianity is not religion.

It is not outward.

It is inward.

It is grace.

We talked about it a couple of weeks ago.

It's God's work, not mine.

It's his effort, not yours.

It's his faithfulness.

Not your faithfulness.

God's faithfulness.

Oh, you are not faithful.

God is faithful.

You are not good.

But God is good.

It is his love for me.

Not my love for him.

His for me.

Religion is man focused.

It says, do this and you will live.

Christianity is Christ focused.

It says, I did this so that you can live.

Religion reaches up to God.

Christianity is God reaching down to us.

Religion makes us fakers, but God's grace makes us true worshipers.

The message of Christianity is not get it together, pull it together, do better, make it right.

That is not the message of Christianity.

The message of Christianity is to run to him in your brokenness and need.

Christianity, all we do is accept what he has given to us.

And then that begins to affect.

And then that begins to affect us and change us.

We don't earn it.

We don't work for it.

We don't deserve it.

We receive it.

It's a gift from God simply because he loves us.

And this, this is the only way to make us responders, willing worshipers.

That's what Christianity does.

Christianity, let me just make a statement here.

It is the only, uh, only thing.

And when we could say religion, even though it's not a religion, but Christianity is the only religion.

That makes willing, loving worshipers.

It's the only thing.

No other religion can create willing, loving worshipers.

Nothing else does it.

People who love him because of his goodness towards us.

We serve him not to get from him, but because he has already been so good to us.

And we could keep going on and on and on.

But this drastic difference, Christ and every other religion are incomplete and totally different.

Total contrast.

So Paul makes it clear that religion makes us self-confident people.

But then Paul makes clear what we said about religion.

Religion makes us fakers.

Look at verse 21.

You, therefore, who teach another.

Watch this.

Here's the hypocrisy.

You who teach another, do you not teach yourself?

You who preach that a man should not steal.

Do you steal?

The implication in Greek is you're stealing and telling people not to.

You who say do not commit adultery.

Do you commit adultery?

You who abhor idolatry.

Are you robbing temples?

You who make your boast in the law.

Do you dishonor God through the breaking of the law?

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

So some of, let me just say this.

Some of the most religious people that I have ever known in my life.

And I mean by that, I mean they look the part.

Right?

They are the most religious people I've ever known.

They really, they look the part.

They sound.

They sound the part.

They are very judgy towards other people.

You know, the most religious people I've ever met are the most hypocritical people I've ever met.

It's really interesting.

People that are very, very legalistic.

I know this about them.

They are a disaster in their actual lives.

Every time when they're pointing out your stuff and laying on you burdens, they're only doing it because they're not keeping any of it.

Every single time.

They are a disaster.

They are the most hypocritical people.

I have ever met the people who act like they have it together.

They're doing it right.

They're pointing out everybody's problems.

They think they're spiritually superior disaster behind the scenes in their own lives.

They are not keeping anything.

They're telling other people to observe nothing.

And there is a reason for this.

This is an age old problem.

The people who are doing this, they're actually under a delusion.

They think that they are actually keeping the law by trying to push you to keep the law.

You understand what I'm saying?

By enforcing God's word on other people to do this, it's like in their minds, they genuinely believe.

I've seen this a million times.

They genuinely believe they are being faithful to God's word by forcing you to be faithful to God's word.

They're like police officers.

They're keeping the law, uphold the law by enforcing the law on you, even if they personally are not keeping the law.

Does this make sense?

And so,

Legalists become police officers, and they think they're upholding the entire justice system by pushing it on to you.

They believe they are faithfully keeping the teachings by enforcing it on others.

Jesus pointed this out.

He said it in Luke chapter 11, verse 46.

He said,

Woe to you, lawyers.

Now, don't get in your mind the idea of like modern day lawyer.

This is a person who upheld the Jewish law, right?

The law of Moses.

Those were the lawyers.

He says,

Woe to you, lawyers.

Lawyers or law keepers.

For you load men with burdens hard to bear.

And you yourselves do not even touch the burdens with one of your fingers.

I am going to crank on you what you need to do, and I will not even get near doing the same thing.

I'm just going to enforce it on you and make you miserable every day of your life that you're not keeping the law of God.

This is what people do.

Religious people will load you down with requirements.

So that as you try to keep those requirements, it's as though they are keeping them.

It is insane.

But it is a common problem.

Obviously, Jesus talked about it 2,000 years ago, right?

So common to us as people.

But it happens all the time.

All the time.

And how many times do we hear of pastors and quote unquote spiritual leaders who have taught others on what to do with greed, with sex, with addictions, with issues, right?

To only later be exposed as themselves not following the very things that they were teaching.

They told you how to deal with lust, but then didn't, you know, in your life, but then for themselves, lust ran rampant.

They told you how to deal with the love of money and how to be content, but then they themselves chase money and wealth and possessions.

Like how many times have we seen this thing play out?

You teach others.

Do you teach yourself?

The question always is, is how?

How can these people be in sin like that?

I hear this all the time.

How can they be in sin like this and keep saying the things that they are saying?

Here's your answer.

They assume that as they tell you to do it, somehow they are keeping it.

That is a tragic mistake.

Understand something.

When I say these things to you, I am judging myself at the same moment.

For me to say for you to do these things.

And for me to not do those things would bring condemnation down upon my head.

Every word I am told from Jesus is judged.

Every word.

And so you cannot tell others.

But listen, this doesn't just apply to pastors.

You cannot tell others what they ought to be doing and then yourself deny that very thing and think that you're keeping it because you have told others.

You cannot be a police officer within Christianity.

It does not work.

Judgment begins in our own hearts.

Paul exposes this in verse 25.

He says circumcision is indeed profitable if you keep the law.

But if you are a breaker of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.

So what is this?

What's happening here?

We have to understand a bit about Judaism for this to make sense.

Circumcision, of course, the removal of the foreskin of a male child at a young age.

But circumcision was not a thing.

It didn't even exist.

It wasn't even a thing until God told Abraham.

To do this as a symbol of following the Lord.

Right.

So this was something that God told Abraham that one of the primary signs that they as a people would follow the Lord was by circumcising themselves and then circumcising their children, specifically their sons, of course.

And all who would decide to follow the Lord God and his word, they would make this commitment.

They would have themselves.

They would.

They would circumcise themselves, but then they would they would take their male children.

And on the eighth day of that child's life, they would circumcise that male child.

Now, this was a physical thing, but it represented a spiritual thing.

It was supposed to be an inward thing represented outwardly.

The cutting away of the flesh was symbolic.

It was the cutting away of the old life.

It was the cutting away of the the worldliness of the the old ways.

Right.

And so they were the people on earth.

They were the people on earth who circumcised their sons as a symbol of their commitment to following the Lord God.

Now, what Paul says here is that this physical act did not automatically save them, but they thought that it did.

They thought that because they were circumcised, they were saved.

It meant they were God's people.

And so it's very similar today to the idea of baptism.

Right.

Many people think that the physical act of baptism means that you are saved.

It does not.

You could be baptized a thousand times.

You could be baptized in the Jordan River by a guy named John.

It will not matter.

Baptism cannot save you.

But this is why the Catholic Church baptizes infants to guarantee their salvation if they were to die.

But it does not do that.

Being baptized or married within the Mormon temple is taught to to guarantee your salvation.

But it does not do that.

Religion acts religious acts, excuse me, can never save anyone.

It's only Jesus who saves.

These are meant to be outward expressions of something that has happened inwardly.

Circumcision was a physical act that most Jewish men had no say over.

Really.

Right.

I mean, at eight days old, you're not like volunteer, you know, to be circumcised.

You know, that's not how that went.

Right.

Their parents had them circumcised when they were eight days old.

But what this did is it actually made the Jewish person feel as though they were guaranteed.

Heaven because of this.

Paul says, no, no.

He says, and we could just replace and we'll do that.

OK, we'll just replace the word baptism for the word circumcision because it makes more sense to us with the word baptism in place.

So let's read verse 25.

Look, it says for instead of circumcision for baptism is indeed profitable.

It is if you keep the law.

What does this mean?

Being baptized is a wonderful thing.

Have you been baptized?

No, you should be.

If you're a follower of Jesus Christ, you should be baptized.

He told you.

You say, well, well, why?

Why should I do that?

Well, because he told you to.

And it's also like saying, hey, I am a follower of Jesus Christ in front of everybody.

I want everybody to know it.

It's a going on record.

It's like an adoption ceremony.

You've already been adopted.

Now we're just celebrating it.

Right.

You should be baptized.

But listen, as baptism is a wonderful thing.

If you are actually already a born again person, as long as baptism isn't seen as a way of being saved, that it somehow washes your sin away or anything.

Like that.

It cannot do those things.

Baptism in the name of Jesus Christ is a wonderful outward act that says, I am already a follower of Jesus Christ and I want everybody to know it.

But it means nothing if you only do it as a religious act and you don't actually love and follow the Lord Jesus.

It cannot save you.

Only Jesus can save you.

Are you noticing a theme?

Only Jesus can save us.

So Paul goes on.

He says,

But if you are a breaker of the law, your baptism has become like being unbaptized.

So it's just what we said.

Baptism means nothing if you have not felt the weight of your sin.

If you have not repented of your sin and turned to the Lord Jesus and believed in his saving work.

In other words, if you are not actually born again, being baptized is the same as you not being baptized.

It does not matter at all.

And many people have been baptized.

Uh, without repentance and without believing in Jesus's saving work alone.

And so they are, it's, it's the same as being unbaptized.

So Paul continues to explain.

Um, and again, we changed the word.

So verse 26, therefore, if an unbaptized man keeps the righteous requirement of the law,

will not his not being baptized be counted as, as though he was baptized, right?

So understand if an unbaptized person repents, follows the Lord, loves him,

even though they have not been baptized,

they live the very thing that that baptism is meant to portray.

And so in the same way, Paul said an uncircumcised person who is now following the Lord and loves the Lord

and wants to do what God wants.

They are demonstrating what circumcision was meant to demonstrate, right?

The cutting away of the old life and the following of, of, of the Lord.

But this is a monumental statement to a first century, uh, Jewish person to tell them that

uncircumcised people, um, which for them automatically meant you were headed to hell.

If you were uncircumcised, you were headed to hell.

In fact, if you wanted to be saved within Judaism, you had to come into Judaism.

You had to be circumcised.

You had to be baptized into Judaism.

You had to begin to follow the Mosaic law and all of this, right?

And so it was so hard for them to hear an argument like this,

that if a person kept the law of God from the heart, even though they weren't circumcised,

their life would display what it was originally intended to mean.

And so he continues verse 27.

He says, and will not the physically, uh, unbaptized, if he fulfills the law,

judge you who even with your written code and baptism, you are a transgressor of the law.

So the idea here of, of him judging you means that the Lord will point to them, right?

To those who did not have circumcision, to those who did not have the old Testament law

and all of that point to them and their faith.

As an example to the Jewish person or to the religious person who did not have this and say,

Why did you, why did you reject instead of trusting in some religious act such as baptism

or communion or having a picture of Jesus on your wall or whatever, a saint in your house?

Why did you trust that instead of me?

Right?

So verse 28 is the reason it says for, he is not a Jew or a Christian.

Who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision or baptism that which is outward in the flesh,

but he is a Jew or a Christian who is one inwardly and circumcision or baptism is that of the heart

in the spirit, not in the letter whose praise is not from men, but from God.

So please hear this religion is outward.

It's surface in religion.

There's no actual salvation.

There is only simulation.

There's no salvation.

There's simulation.

Because it is only Jesus who saves.

So religion can be nothing more than man trying to simulate life, trying his best to keep the

rules and do the right things.

This cannot save.

True salvation is not outward.

It is an inward thing.

It is something that happens in the heart of a person, in their mind, in their heart.

It's something that nobody can push on you.

Nobody can orchestrate.

We can't get the lighting right and the environment and the music and the things and the right

And we can't get all of that right and make salvation happen.

It's something that occurs in the heart of a person and the outward and the external

and all the circumstances do not actually matter.

It's what happens inside between you, the real you and the Lord God himself.

It is not an outward thing.

It is an inward.

We inwardly begin to feel the sting of our sin, the pain of it.

And this causes us to actually go to Jesus in repentance and surrender, asking him to

give what we know we do not deserve.

And when we do, God gives life.

We are inwardly born again.

Spiritually, we become alive.

This is all inward.

It is not external.

Now it gets expressed outwardly.

Once the inward happens, it starts to happen outwardly, right?

Once this changes, everything else begins to change.

But religion tells you to change the outside that maybe something will happen inside.

That never works.

It's impossible.

And that's why it kills everybody.

Religion says conform, conform, be better, do better, get it right.

And maybe you'll be different.

Christ changes the inward and then the exterior begins.

So when I came to know Christ, it was entirely inward.

It was in the back bedroom of my grandmother's home in Southern California with nobody around.

The Bible and the Lord Jesus who wrote it.

But it manifested itself in outward ways through tears.

It manifested itself with me being on my face, pressed to the ground before God, feeling as though I don't deserve anything but God.

It manifested in an insatiable desire to read this book.

It manifested in obedience to God, not to earn his kindness towards me, but because of his kindness towards me.

And so, listen, let's just drive it home a little bit.

You are not saved because you come to church or you prayed a prayer or you were baptized or you've taken communion or any other outward thing.

If you are saved, it is only.

It is only because you have turned to Jesus Christ in repentance and for salvation.

It happened inwardly between you and him.

But now it is supposed to be manifesting itself in your life in very real ways.

And one of the most clear ways that true salvation manifests itself is that we begin to look to God for his praise and not to people for theirs.

Look what Paul says here in verse 29.

Whose praise is not from men, but from God.

The born-again person looks to God for his happiness with us, not to others for their happiness with us.

You see, again, religion makes you a faker.

And so if we have people fooled, then we are happy.

That's what religion does.

Salvation says it doesn't matter who I have fooled.

It doesn't matter if I've got everybody fooled.

I have not fooled God.

He sees everything.

And so here's the question, right?

Lord, are you happy?

Here's the question I've asked myself.

All week, Lord, are you happy?

Right?

At this point in the argument, Paul imagines someone saying, well, then what is the point of being baptized?

Or what is the point of growing up in a Christian home or of growing up going to church?

If everyone needs to be saved and no one is automatically saved, then does it really matter if we raise our kids in his ways or not?

And here he says it really does matter.

We'll quickly look at chapter three.

Look at the question he asks.

Verse one.

What advantage, then, has the Jew?

What's the point?

What advantage does my kid have growing up in a Christian home?

What is the profit of circumcision?

The Jewish person would ask at this point, what's the point of being a Jew if it means I still need to be saved?

What's the point of being circumcised if it still means I need to be saved?

And as I said, we could ask the same question.

What does it mean or what does it matter if I raise my kids in this or not?

And the answer is it matters greatly.

Paul says this, verse two.

Your kids, they benefit in every way growing up in your home with you and your spouse loving and following Jesus.

But it does not mean that our kids are saved automatically.

But it means that they will hear about him.

It means, right, that they will understand some things about him.

Whereas many people, and you may be one of them, many people grew up with zero talk of the Lord in their home.

How many of you?

That was your story.

You grew up with zero talk about the Lord in your home.

I just wanted to see that for a minute.

That's, yeah, that's incredible, right?

And for some of you, that's been a major disadvantage for you, right?

You wish that someone had talked about the Lord when you were a kid, right?

And began to share who he is with you.

Well, that's what Paul says here.

The Jewish person has been given more information.

It didn't auto-save them, but it did give them an advantage in terms of information.

And so Paul says here, verse two.

In every way, chiefly, here's the primary thing, because to them were committed the oracles of God.

Paul says that one of the major advantages that the Jewish person had was the scriptures, the Bible.

Here called the oracles of God, literally the very voice of God.

The Jewish people were given God's word, his very voice telling them who he is.

And this is one of the most significant ways that they had an advantage over other nations who were worshiping false gods.

They had the Bible.

And it's the same for you and your family.

Your family benefits from you loving him and sharing his word with them.

But then Paul anticipates someone saying, yeah, but so few Jewish people believe in Jesus.

Which would be like us saying, yeah, but many kids who grew up in Christian homes don't follow Christ.

So it's not a guarantee, is it?

No, it is not.

Look at verse three.

Paul says, for what if some do not believe?

Will their unbelief?

Make the faithfulness of God without effect?

Does the unbelief of the majority of the Jewish people, they reject Jesus.

You know this, right?

As their Messiah, as their savior.

Does this make, does their unbelief make all of this untrue?

Of course not.

In the same way, though, let's bring it to you.

Does your child not following Christ make all of this untrue?

No, of course not.

It shows it's not automatic and that every person needs to see the need for themselves.

To be saved.

So the question of whether our unbelief makes it untrue is answered.

Look at verse four.

Indeed, let God be true.

But every man a liar, as it is written, that you may be justified in your words and may overcome when you are judged.

Please hear this.

You and I do not make all of this true.

We don't make it true.

It already is true.

Whether we believe it or not.

You don't make two plus two true to equal four.

By believing that, you don't make that true.

It already is true.

It already is, whether you believe it or not.

And so the vast majority of people not believing that this is true.

And that's what Jesus said.

Many.

It does not make it false.

It does not make it untrue.

It makes them false.

It makes them untrue.

And every man is lying, saying that this is unbelievable.

We already saw that in the two previous chapters.

We showed it last week.

They all know this is true, but they suppress it.

And so verse four means that.

As man stands before God one day, man will be revealed to have been the one in error, not God.

Man will be shown to have been in love with evil and not God.

Man will be proven to be an idol worshiper and a worshiper of himself and not God.

And so Paul brings up one last question, and it's a good one.

Look at verse five.

But if our unrighteousness or unbelief demonstrates the righteousness or the trueness of God,

what shall we say?

Is God unjust who inflicts wrath?

Paul says, I speak as a man.

Here's the argument, and it's a dumb argument.

It's basically this.

If I don't believe in God, and that actually proves that God is true,

it's like I'm helping out God, right?

I'm helping prove that he is true.

So why does he judge me for not believing when I'm helping him out?

Does this make sense?

I told you it was stupid, but this was the argument.

And so Paul essentially says, that's dumb.

Look at verse six.

For then how will God judge the world?

For if the truth of God is increased through my lie to his glory,

why am I still being judged?

Judged as a sinner.

And why not say, let us do evil, that good may come,

as we are slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say.

It's dumb.

Under this logic, God wouldn't judge anyone,

because every evil person would be showing how good God is, by contrast, right?

My evil shows how good God is.

Every unbelieving person would be proving the existence of God by denying him.

Every liar would prove that God is true, by contrast, on and on.

Everybody just helping God out.

And he's going to come back to this argument, by the way, in chapter six.

That argument is, if God is so good and shows grace to sinners,

shouldn't I sin so that God can show grace, and then I give God glory?

Isn't that amazing?

I'll just keep sinning, and then God, that gives God opportunity to show grace,

and it just glorifies God as being wonderful.

We're so stupid as people.

So dumb.

But Paul closes the argument down by saying at the end there of verse eight,

their condemnation is just.

Meaning the people who say,

things like this, they are condemned.

They are not saved people.

We've said it over and over.

Saved people are not trying to get away with sin.

We want to please him with our lives.

Condemned, unsaved, unrighteous people are the only ones asking questions like this.

Can I sin and bring God glory for being forgiving?

Stop being stupid.

Get saved, right?

That's what I would say to that.

But notice, before we close, this is what they were saying.

Let us do evil, that good may come.

Paul, he was slandered.

I don't know if you noticed that.

He was maligned and lied about.

It says, as some say, that we are saying.

So take courage if people are slandering you for righteousness sake.

But this is also, it's very important you hear this.

This is also the result of preaching grace correctly.

If you preach grace correctly, if you tell someone about grace,

and it sounds like they can sin,

and God is going to forgive them and stay committed to them and faithful to them,

even if they have sinned or blown it or made a mistake,

you're actually preaching grace correctly.

You're not giving anybody a license to sin.

Evil people will use the grace of God as a license to sin.

But that is not what happens in the life of the born-again person.

For me to tell you that God will never turn away from you,

to tell you that he cannot love you less,

whether you are faithful or not,

whether you are faithful this week or not next week or whatever it is,

that is the actual message of grace.

And the born-again person says,

I want to follow the Lord more closely.

I want him to have my entire life.

The unsaved person says,

Woo-hoo, it doesn't matter.

I can do anything I want.

And their condemnation is just.

They are unsaved people.

And so this is the truth of these things.

And so true, to be a true Christian,

it causes us to respond to God with worship and thankfulness,

and thankfulness to him.

And so let me ask you the million-dollar question here in church today.

Are you the person that Paul has been talking about?

Outward form of these things,

but not actually the real thing.

If so, confess that to God now.

Turn to him in your need.

Lord, we love you.

We thank you.

You are merciful and kind.

We thank you for your love and for your grace.

But I pray for any person here today that does not know you,

that they would turn to you.

Lord, if you have revealed today that we are only,

only outwardly these things and not real,

I pray that, Lord, you would help them to turn to you

in this moment for salvation.

We thank you, Lord, that you will save

as we humble ourselves before you.

We love you and thank you.

It's in Jesus' name we pray.