And Romans chapter two, if you want to follow along, or rather a little bit longer than usual passage, but it's not too long, not too awful long. Starting in Romans chapter two, verse one, if you're following along there, please, listening online, Romans chapter two, glad to have you listening along. Therefore, thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest. For wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself. For thou that judgest, doest, and that's not a does, but that's a doest, the same things. But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things. And thinkest thou this, O man, that judges them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness, and forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasures up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. Who will render to every man according to his deeds? To them who by patient continuance and well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life. But unto them which are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey in righteousness, indignation, and wrath, and tribulation, and anguish, upon every soul a man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile. But glory, and honor, and peace to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile. For there is no respect of persons with God. For as many as have sinned without the law shall also perish without the law, and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law, for not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are alone to themselves, which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts, the meanwhile, accusing or else excusing one another. in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel. Everybody, a blessing to the reading of his word, let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we, a very powerful passage, a powerful book, perhaps the most difficult books of all the New Testament to grasp, sorry, epistles in the New Testament to grasp. May we learn together, or as we've just cleared chapter one, and seen all the immorality, all of the turning aside from you, Chapter 2, we find those who are on one sense saying it's bad, on the other sense they're doing the very same things. And so there's going to be a judgment. So Lord, may we, may our actions and our words line up together. And Lord, be with us this week. We have the opportunity to share this good news that you've given to us with someone else this week. May our church grow. May we maintain a spirit of unity. May those we're traveling even now perhaps watch over them and may our time together be instructive in jesus name i pray amen it was november the 26th 1922 and howard carter the archaeologist had found and discovered the the tomb of King Tut, Tukut and Taman, I can't, I had it, I can't add it, Tukan, Kukan, Tutankhamen, thank you, Tutankhamen. I worked on that and worked on it. Anyway, King Tut's tomb. The boy king who's only lived from nine years old to 19 years old, it was 1333 to 1323 BC, that's about maybe a century after Moses, approximately 50 years after Moses and so, Anyway, he got to the tomb, found the tomb, and so he found the first big sarcophagus and opened up, and there was another one under that, and he opened up the second, and then the third one, there was some gold leaf on it. He opened up the third sarcophagus and found that golden mask. coffin, if you would, that had the boy king underneath. Perhaps you've seen a documentary on it. And he's wrapped in gold cloth, that incredible gold mask. I think it's in some museum somewhere, perhaps Cairo, Egypt, I'm not sure. It is beautiful. And then he lifted that golden mask off and took off the golden cloth. And guess what was under that? A withered old corpse. And so what was on the outside was not what was on the inside. On the inside was just pretty much old flesh and bones that had withered a long time ago. But on the outside, my goodness, it's one of the most, of all Egyptian artifacts, it's the one thing in my mind's eye I can see. It's that beautiful golden mask of Tutankhamun. So in chapter two of Romans, we're gonna find out there's things that are on the outside, the exterior, the Jews thought they were pretty sharp on, and their outside was gonna be okay. Well, on the inside, it says here, look at 32 of one, who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. I'm pretty sure they're pretty happy with Paul's castigation of the wildlings in chapter one, all the immorality, all things going on, the worshiping of crickets and creeping things and crawlies, that's chapter one, verse 23. So there was the handling of the heathen in chapter one, now there's the handling of the hypocrites in chapter two. Quite unusual, we have a very similar motif we had this morning, that tonight is the handling of the hypocrites from Romans chapter two. He's very much aware that the people of Paul writing to the church at Rome would very much savor this talking about and the lowering the hammer on the Gentile people who were behaving so bad. Well, we're not like that. We don't do that in any way. And they were more indignant at the sins of others, but very indulgent. about the sins of themselves. And I think of America today, sometimes we as Christians, we're very indignant at the sins of other people across the world, and sometimes we're quite indulgent with our own sins. We sort of look the other way, and that's okay while other Christians are doing it. It's interesting, I have a couple of Adrianisms, but Adrian Rogers says, the devil would rather send a man to hell from the pew than from the gutter. If you're pretending you're the child of God, but you're not, you need to really get that settled and trust Christ. In chapter 2 verse 1, therefore thou art inexcusable. inexcusable. It is no longer they, but now it's going to be thou. I was thinking about the accident that I witnessed on Friday, and I'm afraid the man who hit the young man, he has really no excuse. He simply did not obey the traffic law and went right through the intersection hitting that young man and ending his life. What God is saying, without excuse, you do not talk about other people. It's time to examine ourselves, therefore thou are inexcusable. Again, I read an illustration, it said, I heard somewhere of a man who went to a psychiatrist's office. He had a scrambled egg on top of his head and a strip of bacon over each ear, and he told the doctor, I've come to ask you about my brother. And so sometimes it's everybody else that we want to examine instead of our own selves. It's time we stop thinking about them and start thinking about ourselves. I like this little poem, false and others I can see, but praise the Lord, there's none in me. And so I like that poem, although it's not true, but it is a very self-edifying poem to quote. It's about judgment, chapter two, verse one. wherein thou judgest another." Chapter 2, verse 2, there'll be judgment according to truth. Chapter 2, verse 3, the judgment of God. Chapter 2, verse 5, the righteous judgment of God. Chapter 2, verse 16, he shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ. So it's a lot about judging here. And so number one, if you're jotting down notes, number one, primary number one, the hypocrite's judgment is going to be according to truth. The hypocrite's judgment is gonna be according to truth. Thou art an excusable old man, whosoever thou art that judgest, for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself, for thou that judgest doest the same things. So what is a hypocrite? We talked about this this morning, but in the past, it'd be like, Now you have to sort of envision with me now. If you were playing a role, you'd put like a happy face on. And so when you did your happy face, you'd be talking like this, you'd talk about, and you'd have just maybe slots for eyes and there'd be a happy face on there and you'd be happy. And then the next part, you would over to this part and you were sad and you held up another sign that said, Sad. I'm just really sad. And so that's how they would act. And then you're supposed to be angry. So over here, a third sign, perhaps you'd put up, you've seen those faces. You've seen the little faces look like that with the top like that. And then put that up and you'd be a fierce face. My grand dogs have a bitey face. And so when they get going and they'll get and act like they're snarling and they'll like that their mouth are just like that or bite. We call it bitey face. That's not part of what we're talking about tonight. But that's but this these faces were. You were just, you were pretending to be something you weren't. You were disguising yourself, and you're act, now today, on movies, they don't do that in movie theaters today. You are supposed to be able to change your persona yourself, and act angry, or act happy, or act, whatever it is. Instead of putting the sign up, you are to do it yourself. So I guess we've progressed or digressed one way or the other, however you wanna look at it. So in the religious world, there are some who are hypocrites. They are actors. They are wearing disguises. Paul says the judgment is going to be according to truth. Now, aren't you glad about that? according to truth. So we know that God's truth and the truth about how people have behaved or misbehaved will one day, maybe not in this life, but one day they will be held accountable. And by the way, we also will be held accountable for how we did or did not serve the Lord. It's interesting today, about what, a couple decades ago they started reality TV. Remember that? That's been very popular, reality TV. I think before, it must have been hypocritical TV. I don't know, maybe that's what we're going back to. But reality TV, Abraham Lincoln said the very notable quote, you can fool all the people some of the time, you can fool some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time, and you cannot fool God any of the time. And so we may put on the persona that we do this or do that, but here Paul says, no, you can't do that. We are pretty much a pragmatic society. We don't ask, is it true, but does it work? Does it help? Does it make people feel good? Now, we have had that in America over the past bit. We've had the DEI mindset the past years that is becoming actually out of vogue. It's actually been under a lot of criticism this past week, DEI. We've been asking the last few years, is the characteristics of intersectionality. How many characteristics can you check off? And the more you can check off, the more we should be promoting you. How about promoting someone who simply can do the job well, has the experience, and promote them because they have worked a long time instead of... Why are we known for our our moral proclivities is the singular most important part about that's not that's not the most important should not be but we have signed on to that I'm glad we're sort of backpedaling from that companies are backpedaling from that but we find that this we are pragmatists so often Does it make a person feel good? Can I just sort of make them feel good about themselves? We need the truth. That's what we need. We need the truth, and we're going to be judged by truth. Now, we have a lot of information. Someone has said, if you took all the information from the creation of the world to 1845, it'd be an inch high. From 1845 to 1945, it'd be three inches high. From 1945 to 1975, it'd be as tall as the Washington Monuments, how much information we have. and now you can't even see the top. Matter of fact, we are doubling information every 13 months. Every 13 months, there's twice as much information as there was 13 months earlier. So we have a lot of book smarts, if you would, and we have a lot of spiritual ignorance. Remember, however, as knowledge doubles, truth never changes. Daniel said, in the last days, knowledge shall increase. You talk about, isn't there so much about the last days that we're just right there right now? I mean, the world's changing. We've got immorality. We've got people ready to sign on for someone to come on the world and be the Antichrist, to be the leader during the Tribulation. We've got a world that would, I think, jump on board with that. Israel needs to have protection. We've got people with the knowledge of the truth. We've got so much knowledge running around in the mind, but we don't listen to the truth. of the gospel. I think God is sort of, in America, sort of, just let him, you know, listen, I'm still in control, and you may do all these things, but you know, just a little bit of thing here, and I can just, all that work, and all that money that you build up, and I hate this, I mean, I'm sorry people have lost their, I really, really, really am, they've lost their homes, but God's, God is God and we're not. And if we just don't wake up, I wanna say is Earl Pitts, and I'm not signing on for Earl Pitts, but wake up America. We need to do that perhaps sometimes. I think that's what God does at times. Regarding truth, the Holy Spirit is the spirit of truth. God's building his church is the pillar and ground of truth. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. The Apostle John said, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. We need the truth. It's fallen in the streets, it says in the Old Testament. However, the hypocrite's judgment is going to be according to truth. Now, number one was the hypocrite's judgment according to truth, and there's three things we need to note about that. First of all, the outward appearance in their mind's eye is all that matters. For the hypocrite, the outward appearance is all that matters. If I can be seen... It's the red carpet at the Oscars mentality. I'm not signing on for that either. I'm just saying if we can be seen, and if I got all this covered, and I'm somebody, and I just look at my picture, I'm just gonna stop right here and just, yeah, picture, picture, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, yeah, and all the, that's the world's mindset, that we want to be seen. So the outward appearance is all that matters. Jesus said, if you wanna turn over to Matthew, please, we looked at it this morning, 23, again, Matthew 23, Same chapter you dialed in this morning for just a moment, 23, look at verse 25. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, sorry, woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, yes, for you may clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within are full of extortion and excess. I thought a modern day example would be this. You had your frosted flakes, and you left it in the bowl, and you got the middle out, but you left that crust all along the bowl. and that milk's sort of soured, and you put that bowl back in the cabinet for the next person to pull it down and to eat out of, or worse than that, you might put cat food in there. That would be even more terrible. I'm imagining I would get some wifely instruction if I put that bowl up in the cabinet with all the smelly, soiled cereal in there, crunching around the edges. Oh, it's time, we have company over, we'll pull that bowl out, let's give it to the company when they come over. I would really not, I'd probably get in trouble for that. So that's what they were doing. They had the outside of the cup clean, but not so on the inside, 26, same chapter. The blind Pharisee cleansed first that which is within the cup and the platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye are like unto whited supplicants, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones and all the uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. Bum, bum, bum, bum. He lowered the boom, didn't he, on them? Why? Because they needed the boom lowered to wake them up out of their spiritual arrogance. He thinks that all God sees is how he dresses on Sunday. That's a hypocrite. All God sees is how he sings and how he greets the people and, oh, how are you doing this morning? And just your outward, that's what he thinks. Go back to Romans 2.21, please. Paul's going to address that, I guess, next week, probably. Romans 2.21, Romans 2.21, it says for us here, thou therefore which teaches another, teachest thou not thyself? Thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal? Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? Thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege? You are saying, don't do that, but at the same time, he's saying, no, you're doing the very same thing. Well, Pastor, I'm not an adulterer. The Bible says in Matthew 5, Jesus said, that whosoever looketh on a woman into lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart. Well, Pastor, I'm not a murderer. John says, whosoever hates his brother is a murderer. You see, so many times we think the outward appearance is all that matters, and the hypocrite thinks that. One pastor said, if the hypocrite is a pretender, he does not have the courage to out and out serve the devil and does not have the true grace to really serve the Lord. He's a big actor. So his outward appearance, he thinks, is all that matters. Secondly, regarding number one, is the blessings of God do not indicate righteous with God. So what the hypocrite thinks is, man, I'm getting God's blessings. I'm doing pretty good. God's not judging me. Everything's doing fine. I'm sailing right along. Look at verse three of our text, two, three. And thinkest thou this, O man, that judges them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness, and forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? That's what the goodness of God should be doing, not saying, and I remember Adrianism, high, wide, and handsome. It's not, I mean, I can live however I want to live. And oh, see, I'm doing good. I've got the blessings galore. So I'm right with God. Matter of fact, in the mindset, you remember New Testament time, they thought if you're wealthy, man, if you're wealthy, you've got God's blessings upon you, not so because some of the wealthiest people were the same people he's speaking to in Matthew 23. The blessings of God does not mean that you're simply right with God. The rain falls on the just and on the unjust. God gives you blessings, why? It says in verse four, to bring you to repentance. That's why God's patient with America today. has been patient. His patience has run out. I'm just about to say, his patience has almost run out with America. He's still gracious to us, but I tell you, we're reaping the world, and we've been reaping for quite some time. It's to bring us to repentance. Why are Americans unconcerned about the immoral climate of our nation? Perhaps it's because the stock market's doing well. Now, I know Friday was a bad day, but overall, the stock market's doing well. Cryptocurrency is through the roof. My goodness, you've got all these people, all these things going on. And so perhaps the absence of any severe problems, we don't live in California, so our houses haven't burned down, et cetera. So we're doing all right. So God's blessings are upon us. And so we don't really repent of anything. Truth is, the goodness of God should make us, need us to repentance. If you're being blessed now, yet remain in your sins, come to Christ, don't delay it. It's likely Sodom and Gomorrah were in a high economic status when the fire fell. Where in the world would you hear that? Well, right from the Bible, Ezekiel chapter 16. Listen, look what it says, Ezekiel 16, 48. When the fire fell, it says in Ezekiel 16, 48, as I live, saith the Lord God, Sodom thy sister hath not done, she nor her daughters as thou hast done thou and thy daughters. Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fullness of bread and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters. Abundance of idleness. We've got everything going on. We've got time to kill. What are we going to do with all the time we have? Let's start being more and more immoral, perhaps. So when the fire fell, the economy was going great. By the way, if you're placing your hope in the economy, I tell you, in a week's time, we could be bottomed out easily in America, and everything could change. One of those IMP bombs, whatever, MPB bombs that knocks out all the electricity and everything. We're back to the Amish age. And so they're going to be living, we're going to be going to them, how do you do this now? How do you chop wood? How do you do that? And how do you make your own, cook your own beans? Now, y'all know how to cook your own beans already, I'm not saying, but you know how to do that already. I won't be learning that part, but other parts perhaps. The fire fell, because why? Sodom and Gomorrah would not repent. The goodness of God did not lead them to repentance. So the third thing also, delayed judgment does not mean no judgment. Verse five, back to our text two, five. Romans, but after thy hardness and penitent heart treasures up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. What does that mean? Well, when God's good to you, when he blesses a nation and the nation hardened its heart, or when God blesses an individual and that individual hardens his heart, really, you're sort of treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath, to whom much is given, much is required. Remember this clearly, the clarity in scripture, if you have been given a lot and you've not responded, woe is you, more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah than some of the cities of Galilee that rejected Christ. Again, Dr. Rogers says, why doesn't God judge you right away? He says, I believe it's because he wants the sin to ripen. You see, you put it in the bank, and at the judgment, we will collect with compound interest. When you sin against God, your sin does not just end here. It goes on and on and on, and the ripples touch the shores of eternity. One day, there will be an accounting before God of the ages. Think about the father who rejects Christ, and that son rejects Christ because the father did, and then that grandson rejects Christ because likely the grandfather has not been the witness, and that great-grandson rejects... Do you see how the ripple effect? It's not just you. You are affecting. It's the people who come after. Is Paul still getting rewards for what he did? Yes! 2,000 years ago? Yes! As long as the church age continues, I think Paul will continue to garner rewards for writing these books and sharing the Gospel, and we read the Gospel. That's how it works. And so, when you're treasuring up wrath, what a terrible thing to be doing! The hardness of your heart, an impenitent heart, you're treasuring up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath. And think, in verse three, that you're going to escape. That's a technical word. It means, have you figured out a way to escape? You think that somehow you're gonna escape the judgment of God? You cannot do it. Harry Houdini was, of course, he was an escaped artist, probably the best I've ever heard of. And so he thought he would escape death. And so he told his wife, he said, prior to dying, if there's any way I will find it and there's a way out, I will come to you and I will make contact with you on the anniversary of my death and for 10 years, she lit a candle and sat by and his wherever his grave was or whatever it was and lit a candle and in a room certain room and had that candle burning I think all the entire time and on every anniversary she'd be there and he never showed up believe it or not he couldn't get out of death so finally after 10 years she blew out the candle and says good night Harry that was it you can't escape death death comes for us all Today, you may escape. You may be able to go speeding down the road this weekend, not get arrested for it, or not even get a ticket for it. I'm not suggesting you should do that. You should not do that. And your sin may go undiscovered, even in this life. But I'm telling you, one day, one day, we'll be held accountable, even as Christians, for how we did or did not do, how we lived our lives, how we raised our children, as husbands, how we led our homes. not to be cast into hell, we understand that, not to be judged for our sins have been judged, but how we serve the Lord and what we put first and all of these works we think we're doing, there's gonna be a big fire lit. And what remains, what remains is what we did for the Lord of the right motive. The judgment of the hypocrite is according to truth. Last two points are much shorter, last two points. Number two, hypocrite's judgment is according to deeds, verse six. Hypocrite's judgment is according to deeds, who will render to every man according to his deeds. Now we're not saved by works, but we are saved on two good works, which God had before ordained that we should walk in them. That's why we are here. And some get the idea, Americans perhaps, Baptists perhaps, perhaps even independent Baptists, that we have a corner on the right rendering of all scriptures ever. And so we have sort of like a pass. Now we don't have to fulfill all the things, but you see, we got to buy because we've been doing so many things. It's not that at all. The Bible says in 11, for God has no respect to persons. It does not matter whether you are Jew or Gentile. In chapter three, Paul is going to simply say the entire world is guilty before God. One pastor during an interview was asked, do you think that a Jew without Jesus is lost? And he's thinking to himself, well, if I say, if I said, yes, I believe the Jew without Jesus has lost, number one, he'd be called a racist, and number two, a bigot. But if I say, no, I believe the Jew is saved, no matter what, then he has absolutely dishonored the Lord Jesus Christ who died for the sins of all people. So the pastor wisely said, friends, I believe that one of my own children without Jesus would be lost. And that sort of was a wonderful answer to that question. It's not a matter of race or face or place, it's a matter of grace, God's grace. For God's no respecter of persons, no one's lost because he's a Jew and no one's saved simply because he's a Gentile. all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. So many people have the idea that God's going to grave on a curve, and so they go to the gutter and they stretch themselves out in the gutter, and they're just a little bit taller than that person in the gutter. And so, man, I'm doing okay. God's going to grave on a curve, so I'm ahead of that person, and that one, that one, that one. So I'm a shoo-in. I'm a shoo-in for heaven. But God doesn't grave on the curve. He doesn't. They measured themselves by the pagans around them. Well, I'm just a little bit better. The Bible says, for whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point. Well, pastor, I've done pretty good. You say, well, I know none of us would say this, but pastor, I've only committed one sin. I've only broken one of the 10 commandments. Well, wonderful for you, but perhaps you, not that that would be true, I don't believe at all, but there's 10 links in the chain and only one of them though is crepe paper. and you're hanging over the fire, and then the fire starts going up the chain, and when it hits that crepe paper chain, you're, not the nine good links, but that one bad link, you're still, for whoso offends in one point is guilty of all. So it only takes but one sin to be guilty of all. So the hypocrite, well then, there's three types of deeds will be judged for his actions. judged for his sins, sins of omission, sins of commission. I think, I like what Dr. Rogers says, he thinks we judge more for the life they rejected than the sins they committed. And that's something to think about. And the reality is there are folks who will stand before Christ at the Great White Throne Judgment who never ever heard one time the true message of salvation. And there'll be others who'll be standing perhaps right beside them who went to church all their lives. Heard over and over, Jesus died for you. You must repent of your sin. Ask Him to your heart and life and let Him be your Savior. You must invite Him in. It's more than simply a head knowledge. It's a receiving of Him. He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son of God hath not life. It is so black and white, if you would, with God. Black and white. Jesus said to the third richest person in all of Jerusalem, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. The hypocrite will be judged by his actions, also by his attitude, starting in verse seven of our text, if you're still there, to them who by patient continuance and well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality. Eternal life. But unto them, why do I pause? I think that's where the pause will be to help me fit in there to understand what he's saying. But unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness and indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil. of the Jew first and also of the Gentile, but glory, honor, peace to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first and also to the Gentile. Attitudes. You go to church and you're contentious and you're angry and you're wanting to pick a fight with somebody, you're not gonna get anything out of the church. If you want to find fault with somebody, you can start right here with me, and there's plenty of things to find fault with. If you're looking for that, become the house of God simply to criticize. You're going to find that, but if you come to the house of God looking for God and have prepared your heart to hear from God, you will hear from God because where two or three are gathered together in his name, which we are here, and as you prepare your heart, the Holy Spirit can take things, even this poor stammering preacher, and he can minister to your hearts and lives. You're gonna get what you're looking for. Perhaps you get nothing out of church because you put nothing into it. Perhaps. Perhaps. But I think you're here tonight because you want to get something out of church, and that's why you're here, I trust. The hypocrite thirds not only attitudes, actions, but advantages. In verse 11, tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first and also the Gentile, but glory and honor and peace to every man that worketh good to the Jew first and also the Gentile, for there is no respect of persons with God. Why does he say the Jew first? Because they have a greater responsibility. In chapter three, verse one, it goes right to the heart of the issue. Chapter three, verse one. It says for us here regarding the Jewish people, what advantage then hath the Jew or what prophet is there of circumcision much every way chiefly because that unto them were committed the oracles of God. So Jewish people have such a responsibility regarding the sayings, the truth, the word of God, the Tanakh, as they would call it. They have this great advantage because Christ is a Jew. Matter of fact, when the disciples first went out, did they not go to the Jewish people when they went out? Yes, to the house of Israel, et cetera. And now, praise the Lord, because the Jews rejected Christ, we have going to the Gentiles. Paul goes to the Gentiles. And we have the truth for us as well. unto whomsoever much is given, of him much is required." You say, well, pastor, we say, well, the Jewish people, God's sort of letting them off. God has not let the Jewish people off easy, my goodness. They're probably the most persecuted people of all time. And they're still, a majority of Jews today are still blinded and living in ignorance, but they're still God's people. still have this responsibility. So when you hear the gospel, even this evening, you're responsible to do with what you've heard. Pastors are responsible for what they preach to apply to their own lives first. And you have this advantage of hearing the gospel. Now, what are we going to do with all these things that we hear? Sad verse in Matthew 7, but many will say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied thy name? And thy name have cast out devils, and thy name have done many wonderful works. And then I will profess unto them, I never knew you depart from me, ye that work iniquity. How sad is that? All the people of the Roman church who've climbed on their knees, who've whipped themselves, who've done all these things, if they never truly trusted Christ alone for salvation, They're gonna stand there having mutilated, how about all, we talked about this morning, all the people of India, the people who, the guy who sat for 15 years looking at the sun and withered his body, blinded his eyes, all to make some kind of public statement about his spirituality. Very briefly then, only the judgment of the hypocrite is according to truth, according to deeds, it's thoroughly according to the gospel, verse 16. In the day when God shall judge the secret of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel. Now we know what the gospel is, 1 Corinthians 15, 1, 2, 3, and 4. For I delivered unto you, verse 3, first of all, that which I also received, how that Jesus died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. By the way, can I just say, as we talked about in Sunday school, it's all or none. It's all the scriptures or don't trust any. You can't pick and choose. Well, I believe in science and history. The Bible's not quite right all the time. No, it's all or none. All or none. It is all. And by the way, I've chosen to believe it's all. So if the gospel doesn't save you, it's going to judge you because it is the gospel of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. You have heard the gospel, and everybody sitting in the room this evening, you have heard the gospel, how that Jesus died on the cross for you and shed his blood, and it was gloriously raised from the dead, and you need to receive him as your own personal savior, and if you do not... Now it is on you. I pray that you, I trust you all have. If you have not, please get that settled. So the gospel is a saver, savior of life unto life, but it also is the sword of death unto death. If you do not trust Christ, and it's interesting, we talked about this morning again, Sunday school, how about the heaven? It's God's heaven. So people are all the time, well, I think I'm going to heaven. I'm going to sit in the clouds. Listen, there's only one heaven and it is God's heaven. And he has said how we're going to get there and what it's all about. And if you're not going to that one, you're not going to heaven. But that's so narrow. Yes. I know it's narrow and I'm okay with that because the same God That has this heaven that's his The same God who sent his son to die for me that I might share that with him Allah Confucius Anybody else you want to pick? None of them died None of them died for their people and you can go to their graves I can go to an empty tomb, but I can't go to his grave because we serve the risen savior. So judgment, the handling of the heathen chapter one, the handling of the hypocrite. So what I would say to you and I, may our yay be nay, and may our nay be nay, and may our lives be reflected of the gospel and the Christ who has saved our ornery souls. Let's pray. Lord, we do love you. But Lord, a way we're going to show that this week is by our lives, by our time we spend with you, by sharing that love with others. So Lord, we pray that we'll not be among the crowd that holds up a mask at times and pretends to be something we're not. They will know we are Christians. by our love and so Lord may we be loving and also Understanding and also may we have opportunities to share this truth of yours this week in Jesus name. I pray amen