Should We Judge Others—or Not?

I want to invite you to turn in your Bibles to Romans, Chapter 2. We are going to go to Chapter 2, and I simply want to draw out a few points, a few ideas. You will remember that we are studying this epistle to the Romans, and because of various commitments and things, several weeks have already gone by.

You may not even remember where the epistle to the Romans is in the Bible, but here we are again to pick it back up. You know, there have been many trips and many different commitments, but this is a timeless epistle; it has been blessing the people of God for two thousand years, and it is there waiting for us today to instruct us and provide principles for our life as the people of God.

I will be drawing out various passages as we make our way chronologically through this book and touching on the points those passages offer for our lives. We are going to read a few representative verses from this chapter; we are not going to read it all, so that we can begin our exploration this morning.

Chapter 2 of Romans. It says, “.... therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are, you who judge.”

I believe one of the key words there is inexcusable. We will see why in just a moment. Another word would also be ‘whoever.’

“.... whoever you are, you who judge, for in judging another you condemn yourself, because you who judge do the same things. But we know that the judgment of God against those who practice such things is according to truth.”

Let us go farther on, there to verse 5: “.... but because of your hardness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself for the day of wrath and of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will repay each one according to his works: eternal life to those who, by persevering in doing good, seek glory and honor and immortality, but wrath and anger to those who are contentious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness.”

Verse 11 says, “....for there is no partiality with God.”

And then look at verse 17; we are skipping through representative verses from this chapter. It says here, “..... behold, you bear the name Jew, and rest upon the law, and boast in God, and know His will, and, being instructed by the law, approve what is best, and are confident that you are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, an instructor of the ignorant, a teacher of children, having in the law the form of knowledge and truth. You, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that one must not steal, do you steal?”

Let us go farther on to verse 28. It says, “... for he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is performed outwardly in the flesh; rather, he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in spirit and not in letter, whose praise comes not from men but from God.”

May the Lord bless His blessed Word. Brothers and sisters, for many who read this chapter, for example, and some portions of the opening chapters of Romans, this kind of reading may seem very dry and highly specialized. Many of us read those chapters and do not really know very well what they are referring to, and we tend to become bored with them and skip over them. And that is where it is important to have some idea of the history and the religious and cultural context in which the apostle Paul writes this epistle—and, likewise, all of Scripture. To read certain passages of Scripture and understand them, we have to understand something about their historical and cultural context, and this is certainly one of those passages.

Sometimes we also have to understand what the purpose of the book is as a whole, what the central argument is that runs through all the material addressed by the book. Romans is a letter that depends heavily on inside knowledge: knowledge of the apostle’s intention, the context in which he writes, the audience for whom the letter was intended, and even Paul’s own personal standpoint and personal experience as a former Pharisee, as a member of a Jewish community, and as a member of a Christianity that is still trying to define itself in contrast to Judaism and trying to find its balance and identity under the direction of the Holy Spirit.

So all these things are here between the lines, within that chapter we have just read. We cannot understand it as well unless we remember what is in the previous chapter, Chapter 1. You will remember that weeks ago, when we dealt with Chapter 1, the apostle Paul first, like a lawyer arguing a case before a jury or a judge, begins to establish his case, part by part, building an entire framework of logical argument before his listeners or the audience in front of him.

In the first chapter, the apostle Paul launches a blistering condemnation against the non-Jewish world, the pagan world, the Greeks, the Romans—all that part of humanity that does not know God, the monotheistic God, the true God, Jehovah, the Jewish God—and that has become perverted through idolatry, making images of reptiles and animals, or of human beings as well, into God; and that has, in a sense, cheapened and debased the dignity and glory of God because it suits them better to do that. And they have rebelled against the moral teaching and moral demands of the God who created them. And as a consequence of their rebellion and their obstinacy in continuing to do whatever they want and creating whatever God they feel like creating, Paul then says that God gives them over to a mind—a reprobate mind, he says.

In the original Greek, reprobate means a rejected mind, a mind that, once it has been examined, receives a stamp saying ‘not acceptable’; a mind that has failed the examination, that has not passed the test, that has not passed quality control. A mind, we might say, that is deficient, a dysfunctional mind, a mind that does not reason correctly and coherently. That is God’s retribution against a humanity that persists in sinning and rebelling against the true God.

God tells them, okay, that is what you want to do, so I am going to abandon you to your own reasoning and see what happens. And that mind, then, rejected by God, begins to think in a drunken, insane, distorted way, and it apparently makes sense, but it is like a computer that is working, yet when you enter two plus two, it tells you the answer is seven and produces incorrect results. It reasons in a crazed way, morally and in other respects, and then it begins to corrupt everything around it. Since the mind is the seat of human legislation, morality, ethics, art, and human philosophy, a perverted mind, a dysfunctional mind, will produce dysfunctional systems.

So what happens? Human beings degenerate more and more. Once man has moved away from God and God has left him to his own resources, what happens to man? Without the compass and the rightly guiding standard of God and His Word, he is like a child who enters the forest and becomes lost; and the more he tries to find the way, the deeper he goes into the forest and the more lost he becomes.

And that is why, in Chapter 1, the apostle Paul—look at verse 26 of Chapter 1; and again, we dealt with these things and did not manage to cover everything, but we are making progress. In verse 26 Paul says, for example, “.... for this reason...” —remember that he is speaking about the world that does not know God, the Greco-Roman world, with its perversions, its houses of sacred prostitution, its prostituted religions, its worship of the perverted gods of Greek mythology, and all of this; he is arguing against them first of all.

He says, “....x this reason”—verse 26—“God gave them over to shameful passions....” In other words, God abandoned them to passions, that is, to shameful fires, inclinations, and needs. That word is very important. It says, “....for even their women exchanged the natural use for that which is against nature,” para fusin, that is, contrary to, outside what is natural, outside what God constituted human beings to practice according to their physical form, according to their biological constitution.

That is very important because one of the clearest arguments against homosexuality is precisely this: look at the anatomy of the man and the anatomy of the woman, in their complementarity. Look at the animal kingdom as well, at the nature of biology, and you will see clearly that nature itself cries out that sexual relations are made to be between a man and a woman, between the male and the female, whether in the animal or the human world. In the animal kingdom, homosexuality is almost absolutely nonexistent. There are isolated cases like that... but there is nothing like what is happening in the human realm, where it is not only being practiced today but is being institutionalized.

So Paul says—and why does he point to the woman here first? And why does he point to homosexuality as the first example of man’s perversion? Because for Paul—there are many people who say, well, homosexuality is no worse than any other sin. That is true in an absolute sense of the word, in what we might call an ontological sense: any sin—even your stealing a piece of candy from the supermarket—is, in terms of violating God’s law, just as ontologically serious as killing a man, because it is a violation of divine law.

But do not tell me that stealing a piece of candy is of the same seriousness, in graphic terms, as killing a person. It is not, right? So in one sense, of course, committing adultery is just as much a sin as homosexuality, as drunkenness, as lying, as exploiting your neighbor. But there is something in the divine mind, something in the biblical mind, that rejects that sin as a graphic illustration of estrangement from God.

And even within homosexual behavior, there is something that Paul says is worse still, and it is that the woman, brothers and sisters, the female, the woman of the human race, possesses a modesty that is a little stronger than the man’s. The man, the male, is a much more sexualized being than the woman, for various reasons that would take a long time to explain. Psychology supports that fact.

The male has a stronger inclination toward the sexual, although that is being reprogrammed nowadays, let me tell you in passing. Women are becoming just as sexualized as men; that is a separate matter. I do not want to get myself into too much trouble right now. But naturally, the male tends to be less modest, less careful in his sexual behavior. Throughout history, throughout the centuries, the woman has always been regarded as more modest, more careful.

So Paul says, ‘even their women,’ speaking above all of the Greco-Roman world, of lesbianism. They have reached such a level of perversion that even the woman, with her natural modesty instituted by God, has abandoned it and has also entered into the cultivation of homosexual practice. In other words, it is a graphic illustration of the extent to which human beings can go when they decide to move away from God and begin to reason according to their own principles.

Today, in the twenty-first century, if you read about Greek culture and Greco-Roman culture, homosexuality is nothing new in human culture. Twenty centuries ago, the first 11 of the first 14 Roman emperors were homosexual; history attests to it. In Greek culture, Plato, Socrates, and other great philosophers spoke very highly of homosexuality as a very noble practice.

And these things, these constellations of behavior—the development of art and culture, the cultivation of the body, as we have it today, the practice of homosexuality, and the exaltation of the mind and reason independently of God—wherever those things are exalted, you will also see the growth of homosexuality. And do you know what else you are going to see? The deterioration of the culture and the nation that practices it, and their being overtaken by other, purer and stronger cultures that have not been degenerated and weakened by those immoral practices.

Muslim fundamentalism, with all its strength and vigor, which threatens to engulf the Western world and is being a thorn in the side of Western culture, is a repetition of that pattern. Cultures in decline are attacked and besieged by more virile, stronger cultures that still retain their vigor because they do not engage in the degenerating and debilitating practices of cultures that are more intellectually advanced.

And that is what is going to happen in this nation. That is why we resist these things, because we know their consequences; history suggests them. It is not merely a group of evangelical fanatics somewhere trying to spoil the fun for those poor homosexuals and prevent them from getting married. It is because we know that there are social, moral, and human structures which, when violated, lead to the destruction of a society. And it is love that leads us to say ‘no’ to a practice that destroys our children, destroys our family, and destroys the foundations of society.

So Paul is saying all of that, and Paul attacks—we are not going to go into much detail—because farther on he also attacks every kind of carnality. When man becomes perverted, he becomes totally perverted. And that is why verse 28 of Chapter 1 says:

“... since they did not approve of keeping God in mind, God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do things that are not fitting, being filled with all unrighteousness: fornication, wickedness, greed, malice, full of envy, murders, strife, deceit, and malignity...”

And a whole list of every sin imaginable emerges, including being disobedient to parents, arrogant, insulting, and so on. It is not only the homosexual; ultimately Paul says, look, when humanity begins to become perverted, all the works of the flesh begin to proliferate. It is springtime for the flesh, and every sin and every destructive attitude imaginable begins to proliferate and flourish in the community, in the culture.

We are not very far from that in the twenty-first century; that is one of the things that convinces me so deeply of the truthfulness of the Word of God. So there Paul concludes his attack on the culture that is estranged from God; its twenty-first-century equivalent today would be those who do not know God, who do not know Christ, who have rebelled against Him and have a rationalistic, secularized, humanistic mind that is rebellious against God. And here in the church we say, oh, glory to God, because I am not one of those people. I am an evangelical through and through, and I come to church every Sunday and give my tithes and behave myself, and so on and so forth. But do you know what? We cannot escape God’s judgment either—only through the grace of Jesus Christ, brothers and sisters.

And Paul’s idea is that he wants to place all humanity under God’s accusing finger, because when the Jews saw these things and looked at the Greeks and the Romans, the pagans and those who did not know God, they despised them and hated them. Brothers and sisters, hatred and contempt must never fill our hearts toward the person who does not know God. Never allow a sense of superiority or religiosity or personal righteousness to invade your heart.

The Word says that if anyone should sin, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness, watching yourself lest you also be tempted in the same way.

We must always say, only by the grace of God. And we must look at the sinner with extreme humility and with the fear that this could happen to me if it were not solely for the grace of Jesus Christ and the mercy of God. Let us be careful, because that is one of the lessons of this Chapter 2: how we point out sin. We must do it with fear and trembling, with extreme humility, looking first at ourselves and saying, Father, deliver me, because I know that I too could be there if it were not for Your grace and Your mercy.

That is the most important thing; that is what can heal us and protect us from the devil’s cynical attack. Because when you begin—and that is one of the elements of this Chapter 2—to point the finger of judgment—I will explain in a moment what judging means—you open yourself up to the devil’s cynical attack. The best way to free yourself from Satan’s attacks is always to denounce yourself first. And to be the first to say, I am a sinner who needs the grace of God, and if I did not have the grace of God, I would be in hell just like everyone else; but through the mercy of God and the blood of Christ, which washes and cleanses me, I can have access to the throne of God’s grace, because it is by grace that we are saved. And that is what Paul wants to lead his readers to understand: that we are all under God’s accusing finger, some for one thing and others for another.

So, when he finishes denouncing in an utterly clear and forceful way the pagan world that is rebellious against God, he now turns to the Jews. And that is why here in Chapter 2 he begins—it is not yet obvious that he is referring to them, but later it becomes evident that here in Chapter 2, in this part of his exposition, he is beginning to speak about those who are religious, those who believe they are better than everyone else.

So he says, therefore you are without excuse. That is a theme here in this Chapter: man’s inexcusable condition. One day many people will appear before the throne of Grace—or the throne of judgment—and will say, oh God, I did not know; my father abused me, or my mother did not give me enough affirmation, or a priest sexually abused me, and so on. And God will say to them, yes, but you also received the word from My people and from My message about how you could be healed and how you could go to My Son and receive healing, and you did not do it. And in Me there was grace to change your behavior, heal your wounds, and straighten out your mind, but you were unwilling.

On the day of judgment no one will have an excuse, brothers and sisters, no one, because there will be a jury and a judicial system far more powerful than the present system in the modern age, because that judicial system will have access not only to external actions but also to videos of the deepest and most intimate intentions of the heart, the most intimate thoughts, the smallest movements of the soul; man’s subconscious will be clearly displayed there.

That is why no one should dare to think that he can appear before the throne of God and get his way merely through his own arguments, because God’s system is so penetrating that only a pardon granted directly through the blood of Jesus can allow you to be justified before God. Otherwise, no matter how much good you did here on earth, no matter how uprightly you walked, there will always be sins that God can throw in your face and say, because of that you cannot enter My kingdom. And you will try to argue, but you will be unable to do so, because no one can prevail against God’s justice.

The Word says, so that You may be acknowledged as just in Your judgment and regarded as pure in Your words; against You, against You alone have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, says the psalmist in Psalm 51. For God will never be neutralized; no man will be acknowledged as righteous through his own righteousness, but only through the righteousness of Christ. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, says the Word of the Lord.

So Paul is building his case, and here in Chapter 2 he says, therefore you are without excuse, O man, whoever you are; there he is already beginning to build his case against the Jews. Whoever you are... you who judge. The Jewish people were a people who continually judged others. “...for in judging another you condemn yourself, because you who judge do the same things.”

Brothers and sisters, there is plenty of material there to instill fear and holy reverence in all of us so that we do not judge. Now I want to ask a question: what does it mean to judge? Because today it is thrown in our faces when we speak about the sin in these laws and all these things, and they tell us, you are judging, and the Bible says not to judge.

The Word has a very complex understanding of what it means to judge. And if you trace that word throughout the Bible, it is a very complex word. For there are cases in which we are indeed told that we may judge, and I can prove it to you.

Turn with me, for example, to First Corinthians, Chapter 5, verse 3, so that we may understand this when someone says that to you, because I am always hearing it from many evangelicals; and if we can at least clarify that today, we will have fulfilled our responsibility as preachers.

First Corinthians, Chapter 5, verse 3, says here, “...certainly”—this is the Apostle Paul, the same man who says in Chapter 2 that we must not judge, speaking about a case of immorality that had occurred in the Corinthian church and that he had denounced: a man who was living with his father’s wife, and Paul denounced him and action was taken. So now he writes to them, saying:

“...certainly I, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already, as though present, judged the one who has done such a thing. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, such a person is to be delivered to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that the spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord Jesus.”

Paul himself is saying, I have judged this case. Is he contradicting himself? No; what he is saying is, I have critically examined this case in the light of the Word, and I have objectively concluded that it violates the Word of the Lord, and I have made a declaration concerning it.

Let us turn to another passage right there in First Corinthians. Let us go to Chapter 6, which also speaks about lawsuits before unbelievers; that is another very illuminating passage regarding this matter of judging.

Chapter 6, verses 2 through 6, says here, speaking about the quarrels among the Christians in Corinth—and that is nothing new, brothers and sisters, just in case you were wondering. And Paul points out, you are fighting, you are taking one another to court, you are filing lawsuits against one another instead of washing your own dirty laundry among yourselves, right? And you are giving people a bad testimony.

Verse 2 says, “...or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge very small matters? Or do you not know that we will judge angels?”

And in verse 5 he says, “...I say this to your shame. What, then? Is there not even one wise man among you who can judge between his brothers? Instead, brother goes to court against brother, and this before unbelievers?”

He is saying, you can judge among yourselves. Why must you go to a secular judge who does not know the Word of the Lord? If one day you are going to judge even the angels themselves, can you not judge a dispute over a piece of land or whatever it might be when you have problems among Christians?

Listen, if we did that, lawyers would cease to exist in no time. They would not be necessary if we allowed ourselves to be guided by the Word of the Lord. So what is Paul saying? Is he contradicting himself when he says that we must not judge? No, brothers and sisters. I believe that when the Bible says, “Do not judge,” it is referring to an attitude that criticizes superficially and self-righteously. I judge in the negative sense when I look at someone doing something and say, that wicked person—how wonderful that I am so different. I would never do that. Yet, on the other hand, I myself am often feeling the same thing, doing the same thing, or harboring something worse in my life.

That is why the Lord Jesus Christ said, why do you not first look at the beam in your own eye before judging the speck in your neighbor’s eye? In other words, the problem with judging in that negative way is often that we do it superficially, without thinking about our own frailty and our own sin. And there is a sense of superiority, of self-righteousness, of attacking the person, of accusation that makes no allowance for grace.

Take, for example, the case of the adulterous woman, whom these men wanted to stone; they were not identifying with the inner struggle she was experiencing. They wanted to kill her, but they were not thinking about their own sins. That is why the Lord told them, well, let the one who is without sin cast the first stone—those famous words.

In other words, when we see a situation or behavior that contradicts the Word of the Lord, He does not tell us, oh, simply live and let live, as people say today; do not distinguish between good and evil, and let everyone do whatever they please. That is what people out there want today. That is not what God says. God calls us to call evil evil and good good, but to do so in a way that allows for grace and self-examination—for me to look at myself first—a way that allows for mercy and humility and that is attuned to the other person’s struggle.

If I see a person, for example, sunk in drugs or alcoholism, instead of saying, ugh, look at that poor devil, that... I hope he never visits my church. I would never do that. He goes hungry because he wants to, because he feels like it, and he is shameless, and that is why he is involved in drugs. That kind of judgment is unbecoming of a Christian. The Christian sees evil, identifies it, and feels the fear of God, feels mercy, feels love for the sinner, but does not cease to point out that it is sin.

We Christians have nothing—that is, when I, for example, speak about homosexuality or all these things, it is not that I am obsessed with it. The Word of the Lord indicates that it is not from God, but we must love the sinner, and we must tell him, in Christ you can have salvation and healing. And we must also say, Father, guard me, and thank You that in Your mercy You have not exposed me to these things. Or I did not have a priest who abused me, or a fleeting encounter with a little boy when I was eight years old that left me trapped in the homosexual mindset, or things of that nature. In Your grace You saved me.

That is to say, sound, biblical judgment is complex judgment; it is judgment tempered by mercy, love, humility, self-examination, and grace, and against such judgment there is no law, brothers and sisters, says the Word.

If you can identify with that kind of healthy, gentle, humble, unassuming attitude, you are not judging in the negative sense of the word. You are simply distinguishing between good and evil. Am I making myself clear, brothers and sisters? I am trying to point out something that is quite complex but very important, so that today we do not allow ourselves to be emotionally bribed and emotionally manipulated by people who tell us, oh, you are judging, simply because we are calling something that is evil evil and something that is good good. That is all.

Let us make sure, however—and that was the problem with the Jewish people. The Jewish people had a sense of superiority, self-justification, entitlement, and contempt toward those who did not know the true God. They felt that they were the only ones. And Paul says, that is a lie; you are just as deserving of condemnation as the others who do not know God.

Here there is also a warning, brothers and sisters, against religious hypocrisy; this is very important. Let us guard ourselves against religious hypocrisy. The Lord has spoken to me so much about that in these days: we have to walk uprightly in the ways of the Lord.

If we are going to get into the business of talking about morality, we had better make sure that, as they say, we are not preaching morality in our underwear. Because you know what? The devil does not forgive; the devil has a discerning eye that penetrates to the depths, and he is a creditor who does not forgive a single debt and who is often waiting for precisely the right moment to collect from you for the greatest possible gain and advantage.

There is the sad case of this preacher who is very well known nationally, whose name I will not mention out of respect for him and his family. While he was preaching and doing so many things against homosexuality, and supposedly representing the evangelical people, he was found to have been involved in a five-year homosexual relationship with a male prostitute. He has done a great deal of harm in the nation, and the devil is profiting greatly from the carnality of the evangelical people.

In these times, brothers and sisters, when humanity is becoming more and more immersed each day in the practice of perversion and sin, there is a very clear call to us—to me and to you—for the people of God to redouble our resolve to live holy lives that are pleasing before God. More than ever, we feel the fear of God in our hearts and say, Father, have mercy on us, deliver us from evil, and help us to walk uprightly before you.

That means, brothers and sisters, that transparency should be expected of God’s people now more than ever. We must continually call ourselves out and keep short accounts with God. If you sin, make sure that you immediately confess, repent, correct your life, and get back on the right path, because the enemy will be watching with his discerning eye, looking for a way in.

The Bible says that we must give no place to the devil; do not give him a foothold. Do not give the enemy so much as a fingernail, because the enemy grabs everything he can and exploits it for maximum advantage in our lives. We live in dangerous times, brothers and sisters, dangerous times. This is the evil day of which the apostle Paul speaks in Ephesians 6, and we must put on the whole armor of God, with tremendous humility and an unrelenting desire for integrity, and with an attitude of adhering as closely as possible to God’s will and the strict word of God, because that is the problem with the evangelical church today. We have taken it upon ourselves to denounce many things, but we are not taking care of our own house, and the devil is helping himself generously.

Do you not see the irony? Until recently, the major scandals here in the United States involved preachers and pastors committing adultery with women. Lately, it has been homosexuality. Is that a coincidence? No. It is that the demonic spirit that animates the world, the prince of this age, now knows how he must direct his attacks in order to neutralize the truth of God being preached by the people of God.

So we have to be very careful, brothers and sisters—I first of all—to walk uprightly before God. This is a message that God is clearly bringing to his people and that has been weighing heavily on my heart in these days.

And Paul is very clear here in that regard, isn’t he? Be careful about attacking those out there, the other part of the world that does not know God, while we do the same things or worse.

Look at what it says in verse 21 of chapter 2: “... You, then, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that one must not steal, do you steal? You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you commit sacrilege? You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? For, as it is written, the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”

I am struck by what it says later. It says, “... for God shows no partiality.” Brothers and sisters, let us not think that we can bribe God with our tithes, our praise, our coming to church, or our dressing nicely on Sundays. God shows no partiality; the soul that sins shall die. Whatever a person sows, that he will also reap, whether it is done inside the evangelical church or outside the evangelical church.

It is a clear warning. What moves me most about God, and often makes me afraid of him, is his absolutely upright, incorruptible character. He slaps even the most attractive one, the one he loves most. If he has to do it to that person, he does it.

And we have to stop talking, brothers and sisters—so much evangelical rhetoric, but so little lived experience. As I tell you, every one of us has to live out the message we preach; it encompasses us all, it involves us all. That is something that clearly emerges from these pages: it is simply a matter of living it out.

People have often spoken of the conflict between James and Paul concerning law or grace. Is salvation by works, or is it by grace? Well, it is both. Paul argues in the book of Romans that salvation is by grace, because no one can be saved by works, but only by grace. Yet at the same time he says: Do not think that because you are under grace, you can afford to violate God’s truth and behave in a way that contradicts God’s character. It is both. It is works in grace, do you understand? It is holiness. After you are under grace and are saved, God expects you to live a life that is pleasing to him, because you now have the resource of the Holy Spirit, who enables you to live a holy life.

Many people think, well, because I am under grace, I can live however I please. That is a lie of the devil—a diabolical lie. All the writers of Scripture reject that idea. There is grace that God gives so that we may attain eternal life, but God then demands that we live as people who have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus, that we live up to the gospel. That is very clear.

As he says, for example—and I will finish with this—in verse 29 of chapter 2: “But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit and not in the letter.”

What he is saying there, brothers and sisters, that aspect... there are two things here: the Jew depended on outward things, on rituals. In the same way, many evangelicals depend simply on coming to church, tithing, praising, jumping, speaking in tongues, and having their hair bun come loose while they are singing, and supposedly they have pleased God with that. And Paul says, that is not how it is; it is not about empty rituals. Holiness begins in the heart—the circumcision of the heart. The fact that you are circumcised outwardly, as the Jews were, does not mean that you are truly circumcised. You have to circumcise your heart, your mind, your emotions, your appetites. That is the true holiness that pleases the Lord.

Then, from that circumcision of the mind, from that mind renewed and transformed by the Word and by the Holy Spirit, good works will be born. And that is what pleases the Lord. It is not that God does not like... let this be clear: you should tithe, brothers and sisters; do not leave here thinking otherwise. But the Bible says that if all you do is tithe, while your heart and your actions do not reflect what that action implies, do not even get dressed, because you are not going anywhere. For God is neither deceived nor bribed by outward things.

And that is not only in the New Testament; it is also in the Old Testament. I will leave you with a reading here from Deuteronomy, because God has always reasoned in the same way. It is not as though God says a thousand years later, Ah, now I have more experience, so I am going to change my values. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

In Deuteronomy, back in the Old Testament, look at what it says in chapter 10, verse 12. It says: “... And now, Israel, what does the LORD ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, and to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the LORD and his statutes that I prescribe for you today, so that you may prosper?”

Verse 16: “... Circumcise, then, the foreskin of your heart, for the LORD our God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty, and awesome God, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribe.”

In other words, he cannot be bribed. Do not try to slip God a bribe, as the Mexicans say, because he will not accept it. The only thing is: “A contrite and humbled heart you will not despise, O God.” “You have not delighted in burnt offerings,” says the word of the Lord. The only thing that touches the heart of God is a fragile, tender heart, touched by the holiness of God, that knows and acknowledges. As David the psalmist says, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to the multitude of your mercies; blot out my sins and my offenses.”

It is very complex, brothers and sisters, to walk in the ways of the Lord, and at the same time it is also simple. Let us first give the Lord our heart and our mind. Let us live as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to the Lord. That is our true worship, says Romans 12, verse 1.

And let us always remember: let us look first at our own frailty, our humanity, our sin, our inherent capacity to offend God, and let us do everything possible to live lives that exemplify the high standard and nobility of the gospel. And when we look at sin in others, let us do so with mercy, with love, with fear and trembling.

People of God, God calls you, calls me, calls us to sanctify ourselves, to abandon a superficial evangelical life and to embrace the holiness fitting for a people redeemed by blood that cost so very, very, very much. Against that attitude, against that conduct, against that people, the devil and his demons will never be able to prevail.

The gates of hell will never prevail against a church that is broken, crucified, humbled before God, and eager to live up to the standard of God’s character.

May the Lord grant that today this call to coherence, to consistency in our conduct, may become powerful in our lives, and that the Lord may touch us with his holy fear.

Stand to your feet this morning, and let us humble ourselves before God. Let us acknowledge that we have all failed, we have all fallen short, we have all failed the test. There is a big F on my test that says, “You failed,” and only by my grace can you now enter my kingdom.

Walk lightly upon this earth, and be careful with the judgments you make and the assertions you make. And redouble your resolve to serve me, obey me, and walk according to my commandments, because I show no partiality. Sometimes I have to condemn, and it grieves my heart to do so, but I do it because I cannot violate my justice. But in your repentance, in your humility, in your acknowledgment of sin—that is where I want to move, heal you, and restore you to perfect fellowship with me.

So, Father, this morning we acknowledge that we have sinned against you; we have offended you, Lord. We have violated your law. We are no better than those who are out there. The only thing that commends us is the blood of Jesus and his name, which we have claimed on our behalf for the remission of our sins. Have mercy on us, O God.

According to the multitude of your mercies, blot out our transgressions; wash us more and more from our wickedness and cleanse us from our sin, for we acknowledge our sins. Our offense is always before us, Lord.

Praised be your name. Have mercy on this world, Father. Help us to be lights within this humanity that has lost its bearings, that has lost its way, Father. May we shine like a city set on a mountain, Father, through the way we conduct our lives and through the beauty that you cause to dwell among us, Lord, by means of the cleansing found in your Word, Father, and in the principles of your kingdom.

We worship you, Lord, this morning, and we bless you. Keep us from evil, Father. Keep us from evil, Lord. Your Word has promised: “A thousand shall fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand, but it shall not come near you.” We claim that word for our lives, our children, our family, our marriage, our ministry, Lord, and our church, in the name of Jesus. Do your work, Father, your strange work within humanity in the twenty-first century, Father. Begin here in Boston.

We worship you and bless you, Lord. We receive your Word, Father. We do not want to evade it or escape from it; we receive it head-on. Let it enter and penetrate and do its work in us. Thank you, Lord, in the name of Jesus. We worship you, Lord. Amen. Amen.