We're going to resume in the book of Romans in chapter 2. I have focused so far on trying to make sure we understand some basic concepts like the word gospel and the word wrath and the word salvation so that we don't assume those things mean something they don't. But I want you to see the process. Paul was making a very organized theological argument laying out a process to people who are already believers so he could just as well be speaking to us. And he wants them to understand a theological process for a reason, because as he starts getting to the later chapters, it becomes very practically oriented in how it ought to transform their lives. And so he is laying out a process. And in laying out that process, there's a principle, he says, by way of summary. First of all, gospel, if I can write this right, is going to provide deliverance. Now, he doesn't explain all of the, how does that happen yet? That's just a summary in verse 16 of chapter one. The other thing, though, is God pours out wrath. And he outlines how that happens in about the last half of chapter one, how in real time, not just something, you know, in some distant future, but in real time, God pours out wrath on all ungodliness, which seems to be the context for what the deliverance will be. But the question, the process question is, how does God bring about deliverance from wrath. And so that's where he's headed. So that's what we want to see. But how do we get deliverance from wrath? That's the big question, where he's going. And the answer, of course, is going to be that God will make a legal declaration that somebody is righteous by faith. That's where he's going. And this is just a difficulty for people. The Jews assumed they were already righteous, which he'll deal with today in chapter 2. And most people just think they're okay because they figure there's somebody they're better than, and somehow that comparison justifies them before God. And it doesn't. But the process is where Paul wants to get. How do we get delivered from wrath? And the answer is going to be justification by faith. And this, for us, should be familiar ground, but it's scandalous. It's just a problem for people because that want salvation to be earned. And even among Christians, there is an urge to dump in a work salvation on the back end through various false doctrines that we've talked about at other times, and we'll get to some of that later. Now, given that wrath has poured out, Paul deals in the first five verses of Romans 2 with the moralist, I call him. We could also call him the hypocrite. And so there's always someone that looks at God's, you know, saying, I'm going to pour out wrath on this unrighteousness. And they're like, yeah, that's what you ought to do. Shame on those people. And Paul says, Romans 2, and starting in verse 1, he says, "...therefore thou art an inexcusable old man, whosoever thou art." This hypothetical guy that judges. And the reason is because if they judge, knowingly or unknowingly, they are judging hypocritically, he says, because they do the very things that they're judging, or at least they do other things that would put them under the same condemnation. So you're without excuse you person who judges, a hypothetical person, for wherein thou judgest another thou condemnest thyself. Alright? If you acknowledge that God has the right to pour out wrath on unrighteousness, guess what? Then you're under that same judgment because you do those same things. For thou that judgest doeth the same things. That's what he says. But this raises the question of judgment, because this hypothetical person, this moralist, is looking around, and he says, God's standard is right. It should fall on these terrible sinners. And it raises the question, by what standard does God judge? And so, Paul will transition after he deals with this moralist in verses 1 to 5. He transitions to this judgment. What is the standard of judgment? I mean, if God's pouring out wrath, If you ask the question, what's the standard? After all, I would like to be justified by works that would help my pride, and if I could be good enough, then I don't have to be under Anybody else a standard? I'm just sort of saved because I'm good enough. What's the standard? See, this guy is judging hypocritically this moralist. And in fact, Paul says in verse 5, after your hardness and impenitent heart, this guy looks around and says, it doesn't look like God smacked me around yet, so obviously I'm doing just fine. And Paul says, you're just storing up wrath. In other words, just your day is coming. And when it does, you're going to be judge for what you've done. And you're storing up wrath against a day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. And you say, well, see, now he's introduced this idea that God's a judge. What's the standard? That's the question, what's the standard? And verse 5 begins to tell us this. This helps us in the process because once you figure out what the standard is, It's like the, you know, when you go to the theme parks like Disney World, they have height requirements to get on the ride. And I can remember especially when we took our little kids, you know, the roller coasters are invariably 48 inches. And they're three years old. They're ready to ride it. And I ain't ready to ride it because I don't like roller coasters. I'm scared of them. And thankfully, they ain't 48 inches. Right, because then I have an excuse to sit outside the roller coaster. But you understand, they don't meet the standard. It's that simple. And they can hoop and holler and stand on their tiptoes and reach their arms up in the air, and the people conducting the ride are still going to say, you don't meet the standard, 48 inches. The standard here might as well be 100 feet tall, because we ain't going to reach it. And that's the problem. Paul wants to say, wrath of God's pouring out on everybody. He's going to pick the person who says, not me, not me. And he says, yeah, you too. That's what he did in 1 through 5. And then he says, you know, there's a judgment of God. What's the standard? Because he needs us to understand that at least in and of ourselves, we can't meet the standard. So, look at the standard in verse 6. The first word is who. That's a pronoun for God. So, did you see the antecedent in the prior verse? The judgment of God. Who, right? Who were rendered to every man according to his deeds. That's a pretty strong statement. Now, a lot of folks read this as some people will be judged by their works, and they also, almost all commentators think he's talking to Jewish people in this section. He's not, but it means what it says. God's gonna render to everybody according to his deeds. Verse seven, to them who by patient continuance and well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life. God will award, this verse says, eternal life to those who, by patient endurance and so forth, and in looking with a view to immortality, you know, they're doing good. Now, there's a little, there's an interesting structure here on Paul, what he writes. It's a very Jewish thing to do. It's called a chiasm. But if you look at verse 7 and you look at verse 10, they speak to the same issue. And then the two verses in the middle, 8 and 9, speak to the same issue. But just understand this, he's laying out the principle of judgment. He's not even touching the question yet about whether anybody can do it. That's a different thing. The issue is, what's the standard, right? You've got to be 48 inches high, you ain't getting in the ride. And the fact is, you just can't make yourself 48 inches high. You can't. And you can't make yourself all these things that result in him awarding eternal life. Therein is the problem. But look what he says. We'll come back to this thing about eternal life in a moment, because I have something else to say about that. But unto them, in verse 8, who are contentious and do not obey the truth. This sounds like the people from Romans 1. They not only don't obey the truth, they want to put God out of their knowledge, all those things. He says to those people, what do they get? It says they obey unrighteousness. Remember that was Romans 1, 17 and 18. The wrath of God pours out on unrighteousness. all unrighteousness. These people, they're contentious. They don't obey the truth of God by implication. They obey unrighteousness. They do what they want to do. What do they get for their troubles? Indignation and wrath. That's the standard, indignation and wrath. And that's in real time. That happens now, and there will also be a day of wrath coming, sometimes we call the Tribulation Period that we read about in the book of Revelation and so forth, where again, people were judged by works, but this is the standard. Verse 9 says basically the same thing, tribulation and anguish. Okay, these are, it's not a future, eternal destiny question here. This is what happens to people when God drops the hammer. Every soul of man, that's just without exception, it's Jew and Gentile, everybody who does these things that do with evil, of the Jew first and also of the Gentile. And the question, of course, is who can meet this standard? Because there is someone who thinks they can, but that was why Paul started at the beginning of chapter 2 saying, the person who says they're doing pretty good, you're really not. You're just being hypocrite. Judging people. Look in chapter 3, just flip over for a moment. It's helpful to see where it's going because he's going to make it clear that at least in and of yourself, on your own, you're never going to meet this standard. Because it's a really high standard. In Romans 3, 9, he concludes in saying, What then? Are we better than they? That is, are Jews better than Gentiles? No, and no wise. For we have before proved, both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin. And that's really what Romans 1 and 2 is about. They have a propensity toward sin. In fact, elsewhere, Paul would say that we're, by nature, children of wrath. That is, by our nature, we do those things which brings about the wrath of God, in the Romans 1 sense. As it's written, he says here in Romans 3.10, there are none righteous, no, not one. And again, he's talking about a person who, apart from God, how would you characterize their behavior? This is it. If there's none righteous, no, not one, apart from God, because he's going to talk about the solution later in Romans 3, then when he meets out this standard by works, and he says that those who by patient continuance and well-doing, they're going to get eternal life. Well, yeah, but you said there's none righteous, no, not one. That's the point. standards really high. This is the standard. I mean, if you could do all this, no one could meet the standard. And yet, those who are contentious, they don't obey the truth, they obey unrighteousness. Romans 3.10. They're unrighteous. Well, I mean, you see what happens? Everybody's meeting the two verses in the middle. Everybody's meeting the unrighteousness standard, and therefore has wrath coming on them. So, it's both that God pours out His wrath, without exception, on unrighteousness. And God's the judge at the end of the day, not you and not the moralist who says, I think I'm better than the other guy. God's the judge. You say, what's His standard? Righteousness. That's his standard. See, the wrath won't pour out on you if you're righteous. That's what the two verses that talk about awarding eternal life are talking about. God's standard of judgment won't pour out on you if you're righteous. But if you're unrighteous, it will. Okay? This is his standard. And it creates a problem that begs for a solution. Well, how would anybody escape God's wrath? That's where we started. The gospels, the power of God, right? for deliverance, for salvation, specifically from wrath, that's the implication of chapter 1, to everyone that believes. It's a summary statement that answers the question that is begged when you read the standard. When you read the standard, you say, wait a second, no one can meet this. deliver from wrath by believing, by believing. So, that's why he sets it up this way. Summary statements in verses 1, 16 and 17, and then he explains the problem. And again, we can kind of take it for granted because we preach salvation. here by faith and not by works. But that's not the mindset of the world. And it's not the natural mindset of humanity. Their natural mindset is to think that if there's any God out there, they're good enough because that's just how they think. And they'll even look to others and say, I'm better than him. I've had someone explain to me and talk about bad people that he's in jail with and he's in there for killing a young man that knocked on his door and he ate him. How can that person look at the guys in the cell next to him? I'm better than them. Really? Really? That's how people think. Everybody can find, you rarely meet someone who says, nope, nope, I'm that guy at the end of the pew. I'm the one that's just worse than everybody. No one ever says that. They think this way. So Paul has to lay this out. And then this bothers people. This bothers a lot of Christians, that you could be made righteous by faith alone. And so they had the need to say, well, it's not really just faith. There's got to be a commitment to really doing good. That's like saying, well, look, you're not 48 inches high yet. You can't get on the ride. But I'm going to let you on that ride if you'll commit to being 48 inches. OK. How am I going to do that? You can't do that. That's nonsense. But nevertheless, very common. So just there's his standard. But there's one other thing, though. How would this standard apply if, in fact, you had come to Christ by faith, right? Because then, if you read verse 7, to them who by patient continuance and well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life, it's an interesting thing. I want to read you something, and I think I want 1 Timothy, then I'll read you something from Titus, just a couple of verses. 1 Timothy chapter 6, I should have said the chapter, I'm sorry, yeah, chapter 6, and then verses, I think verse 12 is what I want. Paul writes to Timothy, he says, to fight the good fight of faith, this is a passage you've probably heard, then he says, fight the good passage, the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life. How can you lay hold on eternal life? Right? If eternal life is merely what is received in the transaction where you trust Christ, how can He possibly lay hold on that of which He already, it would seem, has? Right? Fight the good fight of faith is the answer, right? And it's not unlike what Paul would say to the Philippians when he says to work out your salvation. He's talking about the same salvation as this one, by the way, in Romans. Work out your salvation with what? fear and trembling. Right? You say, but I've already got salvation. You need to work it out in your life. He's not talking about justification. Now that you're justified, you can live a different life. And when you do, you can lay hold of eternal life. There's having eternal life as that transaction with Christ when you've trusted Him. And then there's laying hold of eternal life, which is a little different thing. Because how you live will affect your experience in the world to come. That reward stuff that we've talked about in other contexts and the BEMA. you can lay a hold of eternal life today, both to fully enjoy all its benefits today and to look forward to your eternal destiny. He says, follow after righteousness. This has to do with how you live once you're a believer. And that will control whether you take hold of eternal life or not. It makes some sense out of Paul saying, even though it's hypothetical, because no one, at least on their own, can do it, I think a Christian can do that. If I'm declared righteous, I can lay hold of eternal life. And there is a sense, because Christ will judge believers, and they will be awarded eternal life. Not in the sense that we usually think of it, but in the sense of the way in which we will enjoy how it is in the world to come, through rewards and inheritance and that sort of thing. He says, follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. That's in verse 11. Fight the good fight, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou were called and has professed a good profession of faith before many witnesses. Look in Titus 3 for a moment. That comes right after 2 Timothy. Titus 3 and verse 7. I'm going to read verse 6 for context, but it's verse 7 I want. Titus 3, 6, "...which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior." He got through telling them in verse 5, "...it's not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us." How? By the washing of regeneration, that's a ministry of the Holy Spirit when someone's trusted Christ or made a new creature. And the renewing of the Holy Ghost, which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ. So now you're a believer in verse 6. What happens in verse 7? That being justified, that happens at the moment of faith. A legal declaration that you're righteous. God looks at you and says, you're 48 inches. In fact, you're probably 49, right? It's done. Who else is going to say any differently? You may not look 48 inches every day. You ought to. You're a believer now. But even if you don't look like you're more than 48 inches, God's declared you are, and you're on the right. I mean, that's the idea. And so, he says to Titus that being justified, that's a completed event, by his grace, Ephesians 2.8 and 9 will say the same thing. by grace. And he says, don't make grace a hard word. Grace means a gift, essentially. It is sometimes called God's unmerited favor. It is actually God's favor without regard to your merit. Alright, that's the idea. His favor without regard to your merit. And so, you've been justified by grace. We should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. heirs, the idea of an inheritance, hope of eternal life. So, just to say, there's a lot of places that think of the Bible that speak of eternal life with sort of a future focus on it, so that when we read this standard Paul has of judgment in chapter 2, and he speaks of someone who is continuing in well-doing, and they essentially are awarded eternal life, there is some sense of that when Paul uses the idea of eternal life, not as just a synonym for you being a believer, but for the experience you'll have when you go to heaven, that kind of thing. Anyway, that's the standard. And at least in and of ourselves, we can't meet it. And so he says in verse 11, there's no respect of persons with God. This is important because they needed to know that everybody is under the same work standard, whether they're Jewish or Gentile, and everyone should read it and conclude, yeah, I'm going to have a problem with that standard. That's where he wants his reader to be. Well, he goes on and builds this out a little bit, as many as have sinned without the law, that's Gentiles, even though I'm always having somebody want to convince me that I'm under the law, People will write me letters from time to time. They get my name off the internet and the Bible college where I teach sometimes, they'll send me some letter that I've got to be under the law. And the letters are like 15 pages of argument trying to say I'm under the law. If I were under the law, Paul would not need to separate here people under the law and people in under the law. No one really thinks they're under the law that's Gentile because they don't ever bring an animal to church. Well, one person here brings animal to church, but no one here, no one, no one brings a cow or a sheep to church. We don't have an altar at the front. No one has to go up there and slice its throat and hold their hand on its head. So you understand, that's how I know that people, you know, no matter the labels they want to use in the day, they don't think they're under the law and they are dispensationalists. Because no one brings a sacrifice to the church. But nevertheless, you get that. So just understand, there's a clear separation in the Bible between Jew and Gentile. And at a moment in history, for a long time, God dealt with Jews under the law of Moses. And Paul speaks to the Jew and says, you're going to be judged by the law. Why? The law reflects the holiness of God. Then he speaks to the Gentiles, says, you're getting judged too, and I'm not going to hold you accountable to the law, but I am going to hold you accountable to my holiness. And that's what he's saying here. So, is many, that's just an expression for anyone, that has sinned without the law. Well, everyone has sinned, and if they've done it without the law, a Gentile, they'll perish without the law. Now, he's going to explain in a minute why. God, why can you hold me accountable if I wasn't even a recipient of the law? You didn't come and tell me what to do. You told those Jewish people how to behave. You didn't tell me. God says, I get to you. As many have sinned in the law, that's Jewish people, they'll be judged by the law. And again, that's a high standard. Now understand, you could get to, you know, the Jewish person, especially the Pharisees, you see it reflected in the Gospels, they just felt like they kept the law. They felt like they were good enough. And when you read what Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, he says some interesting things. And I'm reading from Matthew 5, but the Sermon on the Mount is essentially Jesus' first message in Matthew's gospel. And it's lengthy. It goes through all of 5, 6, and 7. And it's his sort of inaugural address as he presents himself as the king of Israel. And what he does is sets aside Phariseeism. Among other things, he sets aside Phariseeism. They would talk about what the rabbis said. Well, Rabbi so-and-so thought this, and Rabbi so-and-so thought that. And Jesus comes and gets on top of a mountain. We call this the Sermon on the Mount for a reason. He's preached on a mountain. And basically remembering that Moses went up on a mountain and Jesus gave him the law. Jesus goes up on the mountain, ain't nobody got to give him the law, he just says it. He just speaks it. And so he's, it's a very strong statement how he sets up this, this message. And he says things, like in Matthew 5, 27, you've heard that it was said. That's how rabbis always talk. And even today, if you were to read rabbinical literature, if you were to do Jewish studies, reading about the Torah, They are not going to talk about the Torah and exegete it the way we think of. They're going to talk about what some rabbis said and thought. It's a tremendous thing when Jesus gets there and he says, you've heard it said, the rabbis and so forth and their traditions, but I say. And it comes to a head at the end of this where people said, this man spoke as one having authority, not like the rabbis. You can see that a couple of chapters later. In verse 28 of chapter 7, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine, for he taught as one having authority and not as the scribes, not as the rabbis. See? Now, but what does he teach? He takes their level of being good enough and says it ain't, because it was all outward. And that's not even to say that they really kept it all. But it's easy to say, well, I haven't killed anybody. I haven't committed adultery. And he's pointing to them and saying, well, Let's go think about that. You've heard it said by them of old time that thou shalt not commit adultery, but I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. That's Matthew 5, Sermon on the Mount. He'll do similar things with with other things. So, for example, in verse 33, again, you've heard that it's been said by them of old time that thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths. But I say unto you, swear not at all. And he's not prohibiting swearing, but they had taken an abuse of this was kinda like who could swear on the biggest Bible. That proves that you're telling the truth. And he says, why don't you just tell the truth all the time? Because what you're really saying is if you don't look behind my back to see if my fingers are crossed, then you can't believe me, what I say. And you need to quit crossing your fingers. Say, no, no, no, I have my fingers crossed this time. Just tell the truth all the time. What he's getting at is real righteousness and not just some outward showing. And so just understand when you read even him saying in Romans 2 that those who have sinned in the law should be judged by the law, it's not going to be the standard they think either. It's going to be Jesus' standard. And the minute he's going to tell you, and by the way, Jesus is going to be the one doing the judging. He's going to say that in a few verses. So, it's not Just, you know, did you keep the Ten Commandments? I don't think anyone's done that. That seems to be the witness of Scripture. Chapter 3, verse 10 again. But as the Jews understood commonly what the Ten Commandments required, Jesus said, that bar's a whole lot higher than you thought it was. It's true integrity, true fidelity, things like that. Well, so he says here, Jewish people will be judged by the law. And then there's a parenthetical in Romans 2. and it's an important one. But just, if you see the parentheses start in our translation in 13, and it ends in 15, and then verse 16 is where the text continues. So in verse 12 he says, you're going to be judged. 13, 14, and 15 is a parenthetical. And then verse 16 says, in the day when God shall judge the secret of men by Jesus Christ. By Jesus Christ. And many places in the gospel said that. I mean, Jesus said it in John 5, 22. All judgment's been put into my hands. So, just understand that the one who was the lawgiver, who stood on the Sermon on the Mount, stood on that mountain and said, you've heard it said, but I'm telling you how it is, right? That's the one doing the judging. The parentheses is to explain his statement, so people will understand something. Verse 13 says, it's not the hearers of the law that are just before God, but the doers. Can you think of another place in the New Testament that says that? James, yeah, it's a familiar thing from James. It's not being a hearer of the law only, but a doer. A hearer is the idea that you understand what has been said from God's Word, but a doer is you're actually implementing the act, you're executing on it in life. And he says it's not the hearer of the law, that was the problem. A lot of the Jewish people, they knew what the law said. All that does is hold you accountable to it. But the doers of the law shall be justified. If you flip over to chapter three, just again to see where he's going and how this is sort of a process where he's getting us somewhere. In 319, Paul says, now we know that what things soever the law saith, it says to them who are under the law. That's Jewish people. You can't be any stronger. And yet I get 15 pages telling me why I'm under the law. The law reflects God's holiness. And much of the Ten Commandments, every one of the Ten Commandments except the one about keeping the Sabbath is stated again in the New Testament. There's no question that God's morality, His holiness in the law obligates me. But I'm not under the law in the sense that they were. The law wasn't just a set of rules. It was more or less a contract, a covenant, a treaty between God and these people, where it didn't just bind them to do certain things, it bound God to do certain things. They broke the contract. That's how it works. And he says, we know that the law speaks to those under the law, it speaks to Jewish people, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore, By the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight." See, the problem is, the law is there, and it's to those under the law, but at the end of the day, what the law does is show you that you are short of God's holiness. You're short of the 48 inches necessary to get on the ride. I mean, that's how it is. And therefore, by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified. See, he just said in chapter 2, it's not the hearers of the law, but the doers. Ain't nobody going to do well enough. to push their way through the pearly gates. The doers of the law, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. The law would show a Jewish person, if they were honest about it, I fall short. I fall short. That's it. And so just, you can see that. So it's not the hearers of the law, but the doers that shall be justified. And in Romans 3, 19 and 20, he talks about justification again. So this issue of justified is when you stand before the judge, What's the sentence? A judge can, yeah, the sentence is guilty unless the judge looks at you and says, I'm going to declare you righteous. Right? The guilt is the crime of being unholy, of being unrighteous. And he can declare you righteous, but the means of that, of course, will be Jesus, and he'll get there. But it's a legal kind of concept. Verse 14 speaks to the Gentiles. When the Gentiles, which have not the law, okay, law wasn't given to the Gentiles, but they do by nature the things contained in the law. These having not the law are law unto themselves. Now how is it they would do by nature? It's not that everybody has the law of Moses sort of in their brain implanted so that we just naturally know that everything God said was wrong in the Old Testament is in fact wrong. But we always come up with a standard. You can get into any group of people, any nation, no matter how godless, they'll have laws. Almost every one of them will have a law against stealing people's stuff. They just do. And some of the laws will match up with the Ten Commandments and the bigger law of God, and some won't, but they will have laws. Why? Why? Well, because intrinsically there's some sense of some things are right and some things are wrong, and they become a law unto themselves. They show the work of the law written in their hearts. There's at least some base sense of morality and standard, but they'll violate it. It's written in their hearts, their conscience, that's where it's at, their conscience. Believers and unbelievers have a conscience. The difference is the scripture would seem to say that a believer, there's a ministry of the Holy Spirit that will maybe convict in addition to just a conscience, but you can get a person who rejects Christ and they'll agree with you that murder is wrong. They have a conscience about that and they would feel guilty if they murdered. The conscience is here. It's written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness, their thoughts, the meanwhile, accusing or excusing one another. When they act, their conscience will maybe convict them or maybe not, say, this is right, this is wrong. And he's just saying that it's the doers of the law, and at least in some limited sense, there's the righteousness of God, an awareness of it in the conscience of every human being, so that they too will in this life violate that standard. And the judgment comes in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men. Why the secrets of men? It isn't just what you did, it's what you thought. That's the whole bit. That's that part of why I went to the Sermon on the Mount. It's a much higher level. It's the secrets of men because no one has any word, thought, or action that they can hide, that say, well, this won't be judged because God's not aware of it. He wasn't looking when I said that or when I did that. It's all there. Behold thou art called a Jew. And rest is in the law. Now he speaks to the Jew very specifically, and because of the Phariseeism of his day that taught that every Jewish person was in the kingdom. And so he needs to speak to them directly and say, you're relying on the law, and you're making your boast of God. Why? We're children of Abraham. You can see that in John 8. They just sort of thought their being in the kingdom was automatic. He continues and says in verse 18, "...and knowest His will." They know His will because these people know the Old Testament. They've got the Scriptures, and God delivered most of the Old Testament to Jewish people. And they've got it, and so they know what He said. Now, again, doer of the law and hearer of the law aren't the same thing. But they know what He said. "...and approvest the things that are more excellent being instructed out of the law." and are confident that thou thyself are a guide to the blind, that speaks of teaching people who lack understanding, blind people, it's people who would, it's a metaphor, for teaching the truth to people and guiding them, a light to them which are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babies, which has a form of knowledge and of the truth and the law. Now, he says a form of knowledge. He'll come back to this in chapter 10. 9, 10, and 11, Paul deals just with the Jewish nation, and he'll make an interesting statement. He says, I bear witness that the Jewish people have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. A zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. So, they have a form of knowledge. In other words, they're not completely ignorant of God. These aren't atheists. They do know something of the law of Moses, and they have the prophets, and they know something of this, and they're teaching the Word of God to other people. Take Nicodemus in John 3. He's a teacher of Israel. He's a leading rabbi of the day, if not the leading teaching rabbi. He heads a rabbinical school. He's on the Sanhedrin. And he comes to Jesus, and Jesus kind of rebukes him and says, you don't know that you can't enter the kingdom unless you're born again? Shame on you. I mean, haven't you read the Bible? Of course he had. He didn't get it. Not all of it. I mean, he didn't understand that. But just understand, he speaks to the Jewish person because they really had on the whole believed they were good enough, that it's sort of a, you know, either they're automatically in or they're just good enough. And he says, Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? Thou that preachest a man should not steal? Do you steal? You would see Jesus interact with these people, and he would talk to Pharisees who always tibed. They even went through their spice rack get the rosemary and pour just a little of it in there and the mint and the cumin and take your 10% off the top of that bottle. And they were meticulous. And Jesus says, yeah, but you don't take care of your parents when they're elderly. And so, you haven't kept the law. I mean, that's what he does. So, just understand what he, you know, that's who he's dealing with. And, you know, he talks about the adultery. That's like right exactly where Jesus was dealing with. You abhor idols? Do you commit sacrilege? A lot of ways to do that. You can talk high and mighty. Why don't I have some little trinket in my in my house, but you can make something in idol, and he speaks to that. Thou that makest thy boast of the law, Jewish people, thou breaking the law dishonorest thou God. For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you. And we'll stop there. But this is similar to what he was saying at the beginning of the chapter to the moralist. You can't you know, rest on pride that you're just keeping the law, and especially because you're Jewish, but it had been ingrained to them. Understand, people get largely influenced by spiritual leadership, especially in Israel, because they were set up, or God ordained a priesthood, and a high priest, and that's what they were being taught. And if you deal with someone that's come in a religion, they've been raised in a religion kind of culturally and been taught something, it's very difficult to help them sort of see a way out of that. And that's what Paul's dealing with. They've been told their whole life it's that way. And here's Paul saying it ain't that way.