God and the Hypocrite

[0:00] Romans chapter 2, this morning we are going to read the first five verses of chapter 2 as Paul continues in his critique, in his accusing humanity of sin.

[0:31] So you guys stand with me. The Apostle Paul writes in Romans chapter 2 verse 1, Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges.

[0:43] For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same thing. We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things.

[0:55] Do you suppose, O man, you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God? Do you presume on the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

[1:10] But because of your hard and impenitent heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.

[1:21] Thank you, Father, for this word. Help us now to receive it. We ask in Christ's name. Amen. We've spent the last five or six weeks in Romans chapter 1, verses 18 through 32, listening to the Apostle Paul's indictment of sinful humanity.

[1:44] And his focus has been primarily upon the Gentiles. Or if we were to, if you were to write this letter today, rather than a focus being on the Gentiles, we might say his focus is on people outside of the church, non-Christians, non-churchgoers there in chapter 1.

[2:00] People who are not directly connected to God's Word. People who are not directly connected to God's people in any real sense. And they live their lives in ways that are blatantly, openly, clearly contradictory to God's will.

[2:15] And the Apostle Paul has drawn them into the ring, and he has really been beating them up. I mean, he has been hitting them with punch after punch. He has been laying out not only their sins, but the consequences of their sins.

[2:30] He has been laying out God's response to sins. I mean, it has been a jab and a right hook and an uppercut. I mean, everything that Paul could throw at them here in Romans chapter 1 to just really get them to see their sins, to really show them for who they are, he's been doing that.

[2:47] And the danger, I think, in us spending so much time looking at those passages and really spending any time at all, and the danger that the Apostle Paul runs in writing this way, is that we as the readers, we as those who are studying this, we'll begin to sit as spectators, and we'll begin to cheer the Apostle Paul on.

[3:07] You tell them, Paul, you get those idolaters. Get those, tell those people, you're right, Paul, idolatry is wrong. We begin to cheer and say, finally, finally, the Apostle Paul, somebody's willing to address the issue of sexual immorality and homosexual behavior.

[3:23] And we think sometimes we hear a sermon on that, and we get a little bit excited that here's a preacher who will deal with it, here's somebody who will say it outright. We hear about God's wrath, and we think, that's right, His wrath is going to come, and people need to hear this, they need to know that.

[3:40] We begin to think that we are just sort of spectators, watching the match as it goes on. And then you come to chapter 2, verse 1. And it's as if Paul has already knocked out the other guy.

[3:53] The other guy's laying on the canvas, and we're cheering. And he turns, and he looks at us, and he says, it's your turn. Step into the ring.

[4:05] All of a sudden, the ushers come in, grab us under the arms, they throw us into the ring, and now we're standing there before the Apostle Paul. And he begins to batter us as well. Look, his first punch there lays us level with the other guy on the canvas.

[4:18] Look at what he says in verse 1. He says, therefore you, pointing the finger at us, therefore you have no excuse. Now that sounds familiar, because that's the exact same language that he uses in chapter 1, verse 20, where he says, so they, who's they?

[4:37] The idolaters, those who've rejected the knowledge that God has revealed about Himself in creation. He says, they are without excuse. It is the exact same word in chapter 1, verse 20, that we have in chapter 2, verse 1.

[4:52] But now it's no longer, they are without excuse. Now Paul looks at us, and he says, you're without excuse. You, you, you, you, oh man, you have no excuse.

[5:06] But more precisely, who is the you? We could say it's religious people, and that's true. We could say it's the Jew in Paul's context, and that's absolutely true.

[5:19] He makes that clear further down in the passage, particularly in verse 17. If you call yourself a Jew, rely on the law and boast in God. He makes it clear that he has the Jewish people of his day, particularly the highly religious, pharisaical Jews in mind.

[5:32] He targets them. But it's more specific even than that, and yet, in a sense, more broad than that. Because he has in mind those who would look upon those outside the religious establishment, those outside the religious enclave, and begin to judge them, though they are guilty of the same thing.

[5:55] Notice what he says. You have no excuse, oh man. Here's his first description. Every one of you who judges, the judges. And then he says, for in passing judgment on another, you condemn yourself.

[6:10] Because you, the judge, practice the very same thing. And then again, down in verse 5. Because of your, I'm sorry, not verse 5, but in verse 3. Do you suppose, oh man, you who judge those who practice such things, and yet do them yourself?

[6:24] You see, Paul has now in his side, not only those who are guilty of living blatant sinful lifestyles, but now he has in mind those who look at those guilty of blatant sinful lifestyles, and judge them, and yet the truth of the matter is, in their own hearts, they're guilty of the same sorts of things.

[6:43] You judge, and yet you practice the very same thing. You guys remember in chapter 1, Paul not only critiques people who were guilty of sort of blatant overt sinfulness, but he also, at the very end in verse 32, he critiques those who were also guilty of approving those things.

[7:02] Look at verse 32 of chapter 1. Though they know God's decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them, but give approval to those who practice them.

[7:14] That's the same language that he's now using in chapter 2 to describe those who would say that they don't practice them. You judge those who practice such things, and yet you, same language, you practice those things, you do those things, you are active in that kind of behavior, he says.

[7:33] To which I think the average religious Jew in Paul's day and the average churchgoer today would respond by saying, no, I don't.

[7:44] I don't do those things. I've never had an idol. The Jews of Paul's day would say, we're not going down to these pagan temples. We don't offer sacrifices to Artemis.

[7:56] We don't offer sacrifices to Zeus or to any of the other gods that have temples that surround us in all these cities. We're not doing that, Paul. That's what you've accused them of, and now you say we practice the same thing. We're not embroiled in homosexual behavior, Paul.

[8:10] We don't do that. How can you say we practice the same sorts of things when it's clear that we don't? They would say that. And if I look at you today and I apply Paul's words to you and I say, you do the same things we've been talking about, I'm not guilty.

[8:30] I'm not an idolater. I'm not in the midst of sexual immorality. I'm not a murderer. I'm not the kinds of things that Paul's talking about. And yet Paul says, you are.

[8:41] We are. There's at least two ways, I think, in which that's true about us, in which we are guilty of the things he condemned, in which even the most religious are guilty of the things in chapter 1.

[8:54] One is that some of the sins that Paul lists are things that are common to us. So that we may be able to say we've never murdered anybody. We may be able to say we've never bowed down to a physical idol that we crafted or someone else crafted.

[9:07] We've never been to a pagan temple and offered some sort of ritual sacrifice. We might be able to say that, but those aren't the only things that he mentions in chapter 1. Look at the catalog that we saw last week of those 21 different sins.

[9:20] Not all of them are murder. Not all of them are these huge things that would stand out in our minds. Notice, look at some of them. He mentions covetousness.

[9:30] He mentions envy. He mentions deceit. He mentions gossip. He mentions those who are boastful, those who disobey their parents. Those are not the kinds of things that we generally think of as these criminal, awful, irreligious, pagan things.

[9:48] These are things that are common to us. These are things that we ourselves have done and continue to do at times. See, how many of us have not struggled with covetousness?

[10:02] Have we not all dealt with this on one level or another? Sure, you may attain a point in your walk with Christ where you don't look at your neighbor's sports car and covet his sports car anymore.

[10:13] You think it's nice or whatever or it looks cool, but you don't actually want the sports car anymore. Or maybe you reach a place of spiritual maturity where you no longer want the biggest house on the block or you no longer want to have a bigger house than your neighbor.

[10:28] But nevertheless, coveting is a rightfully deceitful sin that lives deep in our hearts. And it wells up in strange and unusual ways.

[10:41] Now, honestly, I've never thought of myself as the kind of person who wants to be rich. I mean, I decided to be a preacher when I was 16. Never came up with a backup plan.

[10:52] I have a bachelor's in religion and I have a master's in divinity. I have no backup plan, all right? If I fail as a preacher, I've got to do something that requires no higher education whatsoever because I don't have a backup plan.

[11:07] I never planned on getting rich. I never planned on being wealthy. And so it would be tempting of me to think, well, coveting is not an issue for me because I don't want to have really nice cars.

[11:17] Because I don't want to have, I mean, you drive by my house right now. Clearly, I'm not looking at having the best yard in the neighborhood. That's pretty obvious, all right? You know, those aren't the things that I'm looking at.

[11:28] So it'd be easy for me to deceive myself and think, well, I don't want all that. But you know, I don't, it's not the houses, it's not the cars, it's not the nice lawns. That's not the thing that I find welling up in me when I look at people who have more money.

[11:42] You know what I covet? I covet the time that their money allows them to have. I mean, do you ever, you know, you see people, especially Facebook is like, it's like a coveting engine.

[11:53] Like it just is designed to make covetousness well up in us. And so you look on there, and I was talking to my neighbor the other day about, I mean, people, things like some people are on vacation all year long.

[12:05] Like that's all they do. They're in Hawaii, and then they're on a cruise a few months later, and it's not that I necessarily, I mean, I'd like to go to Hawaii, you know, if anybody wants to send me. But it's not like I sit around all day dreaming of Hawaii.

[12:16] You know what I dream of? Just time. Like no children wrapped around me. And someone is entertaining. And I got a couple of days of that this weekend because my parents and in-laws were nice up to keep our kids, and we got away for a day and a half, and it was great.

[12:30] It was awesome. But I find myself coveting that, you know? Because you see people who, they don't ever clean their house. Somebody else cleans their house. They don't ever mow their yard.

[12:41] Somebody else always mows their yard. They don't ever do any maintenance. And you think, how much time does that allow them to have? You don't necessarily want the big house. You just want the paid-for maintenance that they've got on their big house, on your smaller house, because of all the time it would allow you to have.

[12:55] It's so easy to begin to covet those sorts of things. I find that welling up in my heart far more often than I ever find a desire for a bigger, nicer, more expensive thing.

[13:08] Because coveting is a seed buried deep within the human heart, and it will sprout anywhere where it finds fertile soil. Anywhere. You may covet the way someone else looks.

[13:19] You may covet the way someone else's children behave. You may covet the time that they have. You can covet all sorts of things. It wells up all the time within us. Now, we're guilty of some of these things.

[13:32] How about gossip? Now, we think oftentimes we're... Everybody gossips a little bit every once in a while, but gossip's not a major problem for us.

[13:43] But gossip is also deceptive. Gossip comes in strange forms. And probably the form, to me, that seems just... One of the oddest ways in which gossip seems to well up in the church is through the prayer request.

[13:57] Like, that's where... I've seen that happen, where someone says, Well, hey, you know, we really need to pray for so-and-so because X, Y, and Z are happening in the house. It's all going on. We really need to pray for them.

[14:08] And really, it's just an opportunity to share everything that you know that's happening in so-and-so's life and in their marriage and in their family. Here's the antidote to that. When you find yourself doing that, instead of saying, I really need to pray for so-and-so.

[14:21] Here's what's going on in their life. Why don't you just not say that and instead say, Hey, right now, let's pray for so-and-so. They're going through some stuff. And pray for them rather than talk about them.

[14:32] That would be a good remedy for that kind of thing. Gossip, though, finds its way into our lives because we want to kind of know what's going on with other people and then we want to tell other people what's going on with other people.

[14:44] I don't know what it is about the human heart and our sinful condition that causes us to delight in the difficulties of others, but it's not a good thing.

[14:55] And Paul says it's because of things like that that the wrath of God is coming on the world. Not just because of homosexuality. Not just because of idolatry. It's because of things like covetousness. Things like gossip that the wrath of God is coming on the world.

[15:10] We're guilty of some of these things. We are clearly, plainly, on the surface, without a lot of digging, just guilty of some of the things that he mentions. But there's another way in which we are guilty as charged, the same as the Gentiles here in chapter 1.

[15:26] And that is that while we may not actually do some of the sort of big sins that the Apostle Paul lists, we're still guilty oftentimes of violating the basic biblical principle that's being violated in that sin.

[15:41] Let me give you, I'll give you three examples. There's going to be two. Let's see here. Okay? Let me give you three examples. We know, of course, that Paul first begins here in chapter 1 to indict those who are guilty of idolatry.

[15:53] Take a look up. Verse 19, we'll start there. What can be known about God? Plain to them, because God has shown it to them, for his invisible attributes, name his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made.

[16:07] So they're without excuse. No excuse. God's revealed himself. And here's the sin. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened, claiming to be wise, exchange the glory of the immortal God for images.

[16:23] And we think, man, I'm glad. I don't have any images. And exchange the glory of God for images. But that's not how he started this indictment. It was just about overt idolatry.

[16:36] What he said was that they did not honor God as God or give thanks to him. And we're all guilty of that. None of us give to God the honor that he deserves as God.

[16:52] None of us offer to God the amount of thanksgiving that we ought to, because every breath that we take, every step that we take, every morning that you wake up is because of grace.

[17:05] We don't deserve to be here right now. We didn't deserve to wake up this morning. Had I had a heart attack in the middle of the night last night and not woken up this morning, God would have been no less just than he is now because the fact that I didn't is only owing to his grace.

[17:19] That the sun keeps rising day after day is just sheer grace. How often we fail, even as followers of Christ, how often we fail to give honor and glory and thanks to him for even simple things.

[17:36] I mean, the Apostle Paul tells us to whatever we do, whether we eat or drink, to give glory to God. We're eating and drinking. That seems like such a mundane task.

[17:48] I don't even know how you do that. I mean, how do you glorify God while you drink a glass of orange juice? I mean, how does that happen? I don't even know. Like, what does he mean by that? Even in your eating and drinking, it means acknowledging that everything you have and every moment you experience comes to you from the hand of God's gracious hand, his merciful hand.

[18:06] And how often do we kind of float through life and we'll go through days, sometimes weeks at a time or even months at a time, we'll go through without acknowledging that, without giving thanks to that, without giving God the glory that he deserves for all of that mercy and grace that we've received?

[18:22] And we think we're okay because we don't have idols sitting around our houses? No. The principle, the root, the core of this is a failure to give to God the honor and the glory that he deserves.

[18:37] And you may just hold that all for yourself or you may give it out to other things, idols. So the main problem, you didn't give it to him. You violate the basic principle that makes idolatry so wrong and so easy.

[18:54] How about this issue that we covered a couple of weeks ago of homosexual behavior? How about that? We think to ourselves, many of us do, although I'm not naive.

[19:04] I know a lot of people within the church struggle with these issues. I know that. But we think often to ourselves, that's not an issue I have, thankfully.

[19:16] It's not a problem. I'm okay. It's not a big deal. But do you remember, think back a couple of weeks ago, we said that the root problem with homosexual behavior is that it's a violation of God's created order, the way that he designed things, male and female, for a man and a wife to be joined together.

[19:39] That's what's wrong with it. That's the issue with it. All right? But do you know that Jesus appeals to the same principles that the Apostle Paul appeals to when Paul's dealing with homosexuality goes back to Genesis 1 and 2?

[19:56] That's where he goes. Do you know when Jesus goes back to Genesis 1 and 2? Turn over to Matthew 19. I want you to turn there just so that you can see this. Because there are principles that lie behind these things that we find ourselves violating and we'll miss them.

[20:13] Matthew 19. We'll jump in in verse 3. It says, The Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause?

[20:29] He answered, Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female? The same words that Paul uses in Genesis 26 and 27 in Romans 1, male and female.

[20:40] And said, Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast his wife and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God is joined together, let not man separate.

[20:52] Jesus takes the same basic principle from Genesis 1 and 2. God created us male and female in order that we might be joined together covenantally as husband and wife and that ought to last and endure for the rest of the life of at least one of the spouses.

[21:14] That's the way God designed it. That's the way that he set it up. And Jesus says, Divorce is wrong not simply because it hurts people, not simply because it upsets the family, not simply because it disrupts children's lives.

[21:27] All those things are true. Things to be avoided. But Jesus says it's wrong because it violates God's intention in creating people, male and female, and creating marriage itself.

[21:39] That's what's the violation of. And yet, churches will easily stand up and condemn homosexual sin and all sorts of other sexual immoralities that we see out in the world and yet we will remain silent on the issue of divorce.

[21:53] We won't say anything. We just kind of let it pass. Somebody comes to you and confesses that they're struggling with this one area of sexual sin and we kind of act like, Oh my goodness, what do we do with that? Somebody comes to you and says, Yeah, you know, I'm done with divorce.

[22:07] You know, I'm going through a divorce right now or whatever. And we just kind of go, Oh, I'm sorry. I mean, I'm not saying that we ought, that the first reaction is the right reaction to either of those.

[22:18] We ought to say I'm sorry. We ought to pray with them. We ought to want to help them through whatever they're dealing with. But why are we so quick to condemn one sin and not another when the root cause of both of those sins is a violation of the same basic biblical principles?

[22:38] I mean, are we, are we guilty as charged? Yeah, we are guilty. We don't, we don't get off stock three because we over and over continue to violate the principles that lie behind the commands and condemnations of Romans chapter one.

[22:55] One more. I'll give you one more because these seem to be the three big bad ones in Romans chapter one. You have idolatry, homosexuality, homosexual behavior, and then you have at the end of chapter one which I've already mentioned in the list of things you mentioned murder.

[23:11] It sort of stands out. Obviously, murder is worse than gossiping, right? Murder is worse than disobeying your parents. It's better to disobey your parents than to shoot them. That's true, guys. Good.

[23:21] If you disobey me, you're still going to get in trouble but I'd rather do that in cheating. So we know, well, murder is worse. It is. I'm not guilty of murder.

[23:31] I'm okay. But do you remember what Jesus says about murder? Anybody recall? Turn over to Matthew chapter five in the Sermon on the Mount. We could look at what he says about a number of sins.

[23:44] He even addresses divorce there for something similar to Matthew 19. We'll just look at this one. Start in verse 21. Jesus tells us, You have heard that it was said to those of old, You shall not murder and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.

[24:00] True? Paul basically says that in Romans 1. He affirms that. In commandment, this is basic. But then Jesus says, But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment.

[24:11] Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council. Whoever says you fool will be liable to the hell of fire. Jesus connects unwarranted anger against a brother to murder.

[24:27] He connects it to murder. Why? Because, at the core, murder and unwarranted violation and insulting another human being, both of those are an assault upon the image of God in them.

[24:44] That's after the flood. When God gives Noah these sort of new commandments and tells him not to murder, make sure people don't kill other people, he says, Because I have created man in my image. The whole issue with murder is that it is an attack upon the image of God.

[25:00] The issue here with anger and insulting other people is that it is an attack upon people that God made in his image. It doesn't matter how messed up they are. It doesn't matter what they do to you.

[25:11] It doesn't matter how bad you think they are. They're made in God's image. Don't insult them. Don't slander them. Don't attack them. I wouldn't kill anybody.

[25:22] I'm not guilty of murder. I don't know how many times have we assaulted the image of God and people around us. It just pleases God. It brings God wrath.

[25:34] So we're guilty because some of these sins we all have directly committed and because all of us have violated the basic principles that underlie and make these things wrong in the first place.

[25:49] So when Paul turns and he pulls us into the ring he does it for good reason. Because we are guilty of sin and not only guilty of sin but we've played the role of the scripture.

[26:05] We have judged others for all that they have done all the while. We are sad harboring some of the same desires and committed some of the same sins.

[26:18] And so we play the role of the hypocrite. In case you're wondering how God feels about hypocrite just listen. You don't have to turn. I just want you to listen to what Jesus says about hypocrite.

[26:32] It's in Matthew 22. Jesus says in verse 2 the scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' feet so practice and observe what they tell you but do not what they do for they preach but do not practice.

[26:44] And then he says to them woe to you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for you shut the kingdom of God in people's faces for you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.

[26:57] He says woe to you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites you travel across land and sea to make a single proselyte and when someone becomes a proselyte you make them twice as much a son of hell as you yourself. In verse 23 he says woe to you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for you tithe mint and dill and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law justice mercy and faithfulness.

[27:19] Verse 25 woe to you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for you clean the outside of the cup and the plate but inside they are full of greed and self indulgence. Verse 27 woe to you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for you are like whitewashed tombs which outwardly appear beautiful but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanly.

[27:37] Verse 29 woe to you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monument of the righteous saying if we had lived in the days of our fathers we would not have taken part with shedding their blood thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets.

[27:54] How does Jesus feel about hypocrisy?! He hates it! And Jesus only hates what his father hates. God hates hypocrisy.

[28:07] And Paul says that we are hypocrites. And God responds according to the apostle Paul God responds to hypocrisy In two ways.

[28:24] Back in Romans 2 I want you to notice first response that we see that God often makes to hypocrisy is judgment and condemnation. Verse 1 For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself.

[28:39] Now this is a play on words because the word condemn is based on the same root as the word judgment. You judge and you bring judgment upon yourself by doing that. Verse 2 We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things.

[28:55] Do you suppose O man you judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourselves that you will escape the judgment of God? The answer is no you won't escape the judgment of God. And then verse 5 Because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath to yourself on the day of wrath and God's righteous judgment will be the deal.

[29:13] God responds to hypocrisy the same way that he responds to every other sin. He responds with anger indignation wrath and ultimately judgment. that's how he deals with hypocrites many times.

[29:31] But there's another response. Notice what he says in verse 4. Do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forgiveness and patience not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

[29:52] I said earlier that every breath we take every time the sun rises that's the grace of God and that's exactly what Paul is talking about here. You presuming on the riches of his kindness I mean imagine the immensity of God's kindness toward us that day after day your lungs keep working day after day your heart keeps beating that takes an abundance of mercy and kindness I should presume on that about his forbearance patience you would think just from reading chapter 1 that God would respond to sin simply with destroying sin is it time for that the day of wrath the day of God's judgment it's not the only response there is great forbearance there is great patience in God he flows to anger he bears with us why says that his kindness leads you towards repentance because

[31:12] God rightly justly and fairly often responds to our sin and in particular the sin of apostasy by pouring out his wrath and the day will come when he will pour it out in full measure but he does not pour his wrath out on those who return he does not pour his wrath out on those who turn from their sins to Jesus and by faith grasp the hold of Christ and his cross and enjoy all the benefits won by Christ for them God does not pour out his wrath upon the penitent because the penitent grab hold of Jesus but there are no other ways in which he responds it's either kindness and mercy that continue forever because he turns from sin and grab hold of Christ or it is wrath stored up eventually poured out on the day of judgment there is no other option of day of

[32:20] God and Paul says don't presume that this will last forever if you don't repent and trust in Christ it will come to an end abruptly someday you will stop breathing your heart will stop beating and you'll come face to face with a just judge who does not in that moment deal kindly with him not on that day and not in that moment God I want to encourage you I want to encourage you to keep in I want first of all to say that we need to always always remember that we only stand by grace and grace alone that not only our breathing not only our living and continuing from day to day is based upon God's common grace that he gives out to humanity but our standing before God our confidence that on judgment day we will not receive wrath but we will continue to receive kindness and mercy all of that is dependent upon grace and if for any moment we begin to think that that depends on something we contribute something that we do we are no longer standing upon grace and we will falter and fall we must remember we stand upon grace and all good things that we receive come because of grace we must never ever ever attempt to build our own foundation we have to continually stand upon grace if you're standing upon a foundation of your own making of your own building

[34:01] I'm a good God I go to church sometimes I've read my Bible a few times I don't do some of those flagrant sins that he mentioned that's a foundation of your own building and it will not hold up but if you stand upon the grace of God in Christ it will endure forever so we need to stand upon grace and then those of us who are standing upon grace need to be people who extend grace to others don't play the role of the hypocrite the difference between the hypocrite and the genuine Christian is not necessarily initially a difference between who commits the greatest sin it's not because at the moment of your conversion you are still technically as big a sinner as you were two minutes before your conversion and the Holy Spirit begins to sanctify you and work those things out that's true

[35:04] Martin Luther used to say that we are at the same time justified and sinned in other words we stand before God still sinners in reality but in his sight righteous and justified so the difference between a Christian and a hypocrite is not the amount of sin they commit the difference between a Christian and a hypocrite is that a hypocrite stands upon a foundation that they have built and because they have built it they expect everyone else to build something just like it the Christian says I'm grace and so I will look at everyone around me and extend to them the same kind of grace that has been extended to me I will not I will not look down upon those parents who I think are terrible parents that if they would just do things the way that we do them in our house their kids wouldn't act the way that their kids do

[36:10] I wouldn't stand in judgment of them I would stand upon grace and acknowledge that maybe it is at times that my kids aren't going crazy like their kids because God is good to me and maybe he knew I couldn't handle it and I would pull out my hair if I had kids with that personality maybe and we recognize that even the things that we do right as parents come to us by God's mercy and we begin to send grace and not be judgmental of other people who don't have kids like ours or parent like we do Or we see the person who is just!

[36:45] deep and rather than just look on them with disdain rather than shake our heads at them just acknowledging that we are selfish in it with a warped mind just as theirs is and we don't stand before Christ or before the Father as pure because we are pure we stand before him pure in his eyes because Christ is pure we have turned from sin and trust it in him and we remember that and see that we begin to extend grace to others if you're standing on grace you will extend grace if you're standing upon your own foundation you will insist that everyone else be as good a builder as you are and that's not what people should believe!

[37:40] in Jesus are to do! I