Ruining the Reputation of God

What the world needs is Christians who cannot be bought, whose word is their bond, who put character above wealth, who possess opinions and a will, who are larger than their vocations, who will not lose their distinctiveness in a crowd, who will be as honest in small things as in great things, who do not believe that shrewdness and cunning are the best qualities for winning, who are not ashamed to stand for the truth when it is unpopular, and who say no with emphasis, although the rest of the world says yes. Paul warns against religious hypocrisy in Romans 2, exposing how outward devotion can mask inward rebellion. When believers don't live according to God's word, the result is more than just personal failure, it's a tarnished reputation for God. Today, Stephen challenges you to examine your life. Are you glorifying God through holy living? Or are your actions causing others to question his character? This lesson dives into the dangers of hypocrisy and offers practical steps to live with integrity. Here's Stephen to show you how your behavior impacts the name of God. In Romans chapter 2, beginning with verse 17, the apostle has revealed six reasons why the Jew felt eternally safe before God.

We have explored those. He believed that he was safe because he possessed a special name, Jew. He possessed a copy of the law. He was proud of his monotheism. He had insight into the will of God. He had the ability to discern between good and evil. And finally, he had been biblically catechized. He had been educated in Old Testament law.

All of that did not constitute, however, true safety. And I couldn't help but believe that there are many that would believe they are eternally safe because they also claim the special name of Christian. They possess a copy of the Bible, probably half a dozen copies or so.

They're proud to claim Elohim as their God instead of Allah or Krishna. They have an ability to discern between moral evil and good. They have received something of a Sunday school education, not only in the Old Testament, but in the New Testament as well. And yet, like the faithful Jew, they will one day discover it was not good enough to enter paradise.

The apostle Paul then, beginning in verse 19, gave four reasons why the faithful Jew felt entirely superior before men. They considered themselves, first of all, to be the spiritual supervisors of mankind. That is, they were guides to the blind. And Jesus would say in Matthew 15, 14 of them, you are blind guides of the blind.

And if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit. And thus they were leading people in their self-deception into failure and loss spiritually. Secondly, they considered themselves to be enlightened. They said, we have seen the light.

We know light from darkness follow us. Third, they felt superior because they considered themselves to be the standard of morality. They knew right from wrong. And finally, they considered themselves to be the spring of wisdom. The Jew believed that if the Gentile would simply be converted to Judaism and listened to their teaching, that they would be rescued from hell. How shocking it must have been and how devastating to have heard the words from Jesus Christ's own lips in Matthew 23 when he said to them, woe to you scribes and Pharisees.

You travel about on sea and land to make one convert. And when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves. How many people would consider themselves to be superior today to the rest of the world simply because they know the truth of the Bible? Like the Jew, they are concerned over the waywardness of the world. Like the Jew, they are concerned about the standards of morality.

They encourage people to join their church, to join in their teaching, perhaps to learn from them. But in reality, the converts to their churches only become more confirmed in spiritual pride and hypocrisy than before and even more entrenched on the road that leads to hell than ever before. They had become religious converts, but they are still unredeemed.

Religion has become for them, as for millions of others, the road that leads to hell. You say, how do I know if I've been deceived? How can I examine my faith to see if I am truly redeemed? Well, in the next few verses that we began to explore in our last session, Paul began asking five questions that ultimately revealed the reality of good soil and good seed, which then grows up and bears good fruit for God's glory.

And in our last discussion, we began with these questions that Paul was asking in a rather rhetorical fashion. In verse 21, he asks the moral, the faithful Jew, you therefore who teach another, do you not teach yourself? What this question reveals about the religious hypocrite, the person who is self-deceived into thinking that they are safe while they are in fact under judgment and in danger of eternal punishment is this, the religious man communicates truth without ever applying it to their own lives, that is without genuine personal application. In other words, to his audience, the faithful Jew knew the truth, taught the truth of the law, but had never applied the truth to their own lives. You could say it this way, the religious creeds did not produce righteous conduct.

What they said to others about what they believed did not matter in terms of how they behaved. Now the reaction of Paul's audience was anticipated. He anticipated the faithful Jew to sort of recoil back and sort of shudder and say, what do you mean? We are teaching others, but we have not learned it ourselves. We keep the law diligently. Have you not seen us in our praying and our fasting and our tithing? Look at all the things we don't do in an effort to live righteous lives. They had created 365 prohibitions, one a day that they didn't do in an attempt to be righteous before men. We keep them all and we are teachers of God's commandments. Like the young man who came to Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ would tell him in effect he needed to be born again, he was lost. In Matthew 19 he said, but wait a second, I have kept all of the commandments.

You see, that was the prevailing thought of the Jew in this day. We are keeping all of it and if we have broken some things, we haven't broken the big ones. I am a pretty good person, so people today say the same thing to you and to me. Why do I need to be redeemed? Why do I need to be saved? I haven't done anything that bad. I haven't broken any of the big ones.

I would be safe. Now Paul then moves to specific things the Jews never thought of as they consider the depth of their hypocrisy before God, middle of verse 21. You who preach that one should not steal, do you steal? Now remember as I mentioned in our last study, Paul isn't saying outright you're a thief. He's asking a rhetorical question, expecting them in their hearts, having their consciences provoked to say yes, I am a thief. But he isn't calling them one. He's simply saying do you steal?

And he leaves it up to the Spirit of God to apply it to their heart. Perhaps someone in here is a thief. You're stealing the affections of someone's heart that does not belong to you. You're stealing credit for doing something that someone else did and you're receiving the praise. You are stealing from God by keeping your money and possessions to yourself. You're stealing your children from God by discouraging them from ever pursuing ministry for Christ in his church. Someone in here perhaps is stealing from their spouse the fidelity and devotion that belongs to them.

Are you a thief? The Pharisees of Christ's day had come up with a rather clever scheme and way to keep money to themselves that they should have been using for their aging parents who were now dependent upon them for care. They took that discretionary money and they designated it with the word Corban.

They called it Corban. That simply means devoted to God. Then they said to their parents, listen we'd love to help you and we know you have financial needs but all of our left over money is dedicated to God and we just felt like we ought to commit it to God and so we can't give it to you and surely you wouldn't want to take what belongs to God.

In effect they were stealing from their parents. Jesus' response to them in Mark 7 was you honor God with your lips but your heart is far from me. He saw to the core of the issue. You sound holy but in reality you're a hypocrite. You can talk it but you don't walk it. So the religious man first of all communicates truth without personal application. Secondly the religious man talks about integrity but does not live honestly. Third the religious man denigrates immorality without ever purifying his own heart. For Paul goes on in verse 22 to ask you who say that one should not commit adultery do you commit adultery.

In other words the merely religious person will talk about how terrible sexual sin is but he will never work on his own heart. Remember adultery is as much a matter of the heart as it is the flesh. The Lord said if you look at one and lust after them you've committed adultery with them already in your heart.

Matthew 5 28. Perhaps someone in here committed adultery this week by what they watched on the internet. Perhaps someone committed adultery by what they thought about someone they worked with this week. Perhaps someone committed adultery here by what they wished in their heart related to someone else. The one who would hear these challenges and is a believer would say in their heart that is me. And all how dependent I am on the blood of Christ to forgive the nature that I have which is so sinful. The one who is not a believer the religious hypocrite would seek to justify his own actions and he would say oh that's not me.

I might have seen some things I shouldn't have seen but what's so bad about that? I might have thought some things about someone that I shouldn't have thought about but that's the way God made us. My friend you are deceived by the enemy of your soul and your own flesh you are religious but you are unredeemed. One of the greatest evidences of true conversion is a passion for purity of heart and life.

Not perfection but passion. One of the greatest evidences of true conversion is repentance and confession. It is sorrow over sin where Paul himself the man that we probably could all somewhat agree was one of the most spiritual men living in his generation and he said oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death.

The things that I want to do I don't do the things I don't want to do I do. There was an admission and sense of confession and total dependence upon God who will deliver me from this body of death. The phrase takes us back in culture to the time when a man committed murder and if he killed someone who was a slave or a ill repute they would often crucify that murderer and they would attach to his body face to face cheek to cheek arm to arm leg to leg the one he had killed and the man would often die of insanity. That's what Paul is referring to who will deliver me from this body of death the evil thing that I have done who will rescue me. That's the mark of a believer. The fourth question Paul is asked strikes at the issue of materialism.

Timeless principle comes out of this vague text about stealing. You have poor idols he says but do you rob temples it's a first century practice of marketing stolen idols of gold and silver. They wouldn't touch it they wouldn't worship it in a sense they wouldn't go to the temple but they would market in the gold and silver and thus become defiled. So in other words the religious man talks about character but he chooses commerce. Whenever the choice between God and money comes around God always loses. One of the marks of the unbeliever is that whenever the choice has to be made between money or God business or faith career or character money business and career always win the contest.

It is commerce over character it is greed over godliness. These are the marks of the unbelievers self-centered life and heart. Now these are just the first four questions. How would you answer them?

Nobody in here knows the answers except you and God. Maybe those who live around you who watch you who live under the roof with you have an inkling of what your answer would be. The apostle Paul said that we're to examine ourselves to see if we're truly in the faith how would you answer these?

That's exactly what Paul is doing here in Romans chapter 2 to the religious world of his day he is challenging them to answer the basic question are you spiritually alive and is there evidence to reveal that or are you living a lie and does the evidence reveal that? I remember the year before I gave my life to Christ as a senior in high school my eleventh grade year was a tumultuous year primarily because of the battle that was going on inside of me. I can remember wishing the invitation would end quickly but there were always at least thirty verses. I was terrified of the rapture afraid of being left behind. I had prayed a thousand times for God to save me. But God knew my heart I was only interested in fire insurance I had no desire for fellowship or forgiveness. I can remember as an eleventh grader for the most part staying out of trouble. Missionary kid I was sweeping the gym floor that afternoon my brothers and I worked a little bit of scholarship for this Christian school to help my parents pay the tuition.

It's quite a sacrifice for them to send us all there. Mr. Garrick was the superintendent he's now with the Lord we didn't see much of him we saw more of the principal and faculty than of him. He was also the associate pastor of a nearby church where I had spent my childhood a very formal non-denominational church that was rather austere and they didn't sing those hymns that the other church sang they sang the church is one foundation and a mighty fortress is our God and the other church I went to later taught me those other hymns that I would rather not sing at least at this point in my life. Mr. Garrick looked the part of his pastor and he was a big man tall I remember his large hands he always wore a serious look on his face and I never saw him laugh although I'm sure he did.

I was sweeping the gym floor that afternoon and I was alone pushing one of those long dust brooms and I was at about the half court circle when the back door opened and Mr. Garrick walked in we didn't have an appointment but he walked over to me where I stood rather frozen and he looked down at me and with kindness he said you may have others fooled but I know you're not genuine you put on a good front but I know you're living a lie. I remember my heart racing and so was my mind I I wondered what he knew I hadn't done anything they could suspend me for or punish me for I was a missionary kid who never missed church all my sins were legal but that wasn't his point he was talking about something far more serious than that he was discerning he had found me out and as abruptly as he came in he turned and walked out I can still remember his blue gray suit and his black wing tips clicking along the maple floor and he walked out he didn't offer counsel he didn't offer conversation he had simply delivered a message from God. It's the same message that Paul is delivering to the religious people of his day no they are not about to be suspended from the synagogue and they never missed a sacrifice all their sins were legal too but Paul was talking about something much deeper than that by God's Spirit he was penetrating their heart and he was exposing it for what it was.

My friend I may not know your name but I am here today to ask you are you living a lie or are you spiritually alive? With that exposure to his audience now completed Paul moves to the verdict in verse 23. You who boast in the law through your breaking the law do you dishonor God for the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you just as it is written. In other words the Jewish people had kept the Roman law but they were breaking the law of God they were doing it in a couple of ways they were disobeying his law through their ungodly attitudes and their ungodly actions. Ask the average person on the street about the Bible and they'll say it's a good book to own it's a nice thing to quote at weddings and funerals and family reunions but don't take it seriously and ladies and gentlemen here's the point here's Paul's point why should they take it seriously?

Why should the world feel any other way when the supposed believer doesn't seem to be all that obligated or interested in obeying it why wouldn't the world say it doesn't matter because it doesn't matter to them? His point to the religious Jew is the verdict of today he says in verse 23 you who boast in the law through your breaking the law do you dishonor God listen you boast in the fact that you have the law of God you boast that God's inspired record of right and wrong is yours you have it you own it but you break it you don't care about it you don't live it and you dishonor God. If you do not take your Bible seriously his point is the world will not take your God seriously and the real tragedy here in this text is not the failing credibility of the believer or the supposed believer but the credibility of God himself. Look again at verse 24 for the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles and that next phrase because of you. In other words not only is your reputation a mess you're also ruining the reputation of God.

The word blasphemetai is transliterated blaspheme the Greek word means to be evil spoken of to speak lightly profanely or impiously of God. Paul quotes here from Isaiah 52 5 when he says it is written well he's quoting from the prophet where God is speaking to the nation and saying now therefore what do I have here declares the Lord like a parent who walks in and says well what do we have here God says well what do we have here my name is continually blasphemed all day long. God speaks some believe Paul is quoting Ezekiel as God spoke there in chapter 36 verse 20 they blasphemed my holy name in that men said of them these are the people of Jehovah. In other words the Jews were living such sinful lives among the Gentiles that the Gentiles in effect were saying if this is the people of Jehovah then what kind of God must Jehovah be?

The same indictment came to David after sinning with Bathsheba and then ordering her husband to be put on the front line in the battle in its fiercest moment for the soldiers in that battle to withdraw leaving him to be killed it happened and we're aware of how Nathan came and said to him in 2 Samuel 12 7 thou art the man we're familiar with that verse we're not as familiar with verse 14 where Nathan says to him David by this deed you have given occasion to the enemies of God to blaspheme. In other words if you are a man of God then what kind of God must you have to do the things you do? The believer then has a way of effecting the reputation of God two ways one positively and one negatively positively in Matthew 5 16 Jesus Christ said live in a way that men may see your good works and glorify your father who is in heaven. In other words God's name can be honored and glorified by the way that you live but here in Romans 2 24 living a hypocritical life causes God's name to be blasphemed in other words the way we live we can actually have his name dishonored and blasphemed. So in other words the reputation of God depends upon the way we live?

Yes. Has it ever occurred to you in the daily actions of your life and attitudes and responses and decisions of your lifestyle that God's own reputation is at stake? May I ask you a question? What is the reputation of God in your world? I love this ad that appeared in the East African Standard newspaper in Nairobi it was put into a book by R. Kent Hughes that I read recently here's a man who came to faith in Christ and it is obvious the ad said this quote I Alan Herangui have dedicated my services to the Lord Jesus Christ I must put right all my wrongs if I owe you any debt or damage personally through my businesses of water pumps electrical and general sales and services please contact me at post office box 73137 Nairobi for a settlement no amount will be disputed God and his son Jesus Christ will be glorified. Isn't that great?

Haven't seen any ads like that in the Raleigh News and Disturber lately have you? What an incredibly effective testimony here something happened to this man and he had to let his world know he's a different man. Let me give you three statements that are true in every generation not only here in Rome but in this city. Number one the greatest attraction to Christianity is holy living the greatest attracting force to the fact that Jesus Christ is who he said he is is that we live like he lived the greatest evidence that this book is truly alive is that it lives in and through us. Two the greatest obstacle then to Christianity is hypocritical Christians if the first is true the second then would be true the world laughs and mocks at our Lord when they see those who claim the name of Christ live like the world perhaps you've heard somebody I've had people say to me the reason I don't go to church is because all those hypocrites now I usually don't let them get away with that I'll come back with something like well you know you're just the person that needs to be saved why well because if you don't want to spend an hour with them in church you don't want to spend forever with them in hell usually doesn't work by the way so don't go out and try the greatest obstacle to Christianity is those who claim to be Christians unfortunately and talk all about what we believe but the world is watching how we behave and the way we behave is so loud they cannot hear what we are saying. John Wahlberg the Chancellor Dallas Seminary once said at a graduation ceremony I am afraid for this graduating class I'm afraid that we are turning out too many graduates who have a great number of beliefs but not enough conviction final point in this summary statement would be this I've said it a number of different ways let me say it this way the Messiah is measured by the messenger God will be judged by you and by me his character will be defined by our character it's why holy living and evangelism are considered inseparable you see you could teach mathematics and live an immoral life and no student of yours would ever say you're not qualified to teach me the principles of mathematics by virtue of the way you live oh but if you said to that person I believe in Jesus Christ or thus saith the Lord of the Bible teaches this or I belong to God and yet live an ungodly life they will close their ears and mock your God the Messiah is measured by the messenger if there was ever a time for Christians to be different distinctive holy passionate for purity ethical honest self-controlled hard-working gracious it is now let me read you what Ted Engstrom said as he put it this way what the world needs as Christians who cannot be bought whose word is their bond who put character above wealth who possess opinions and a will who are larger than their vocations who will not lose their distinctiveness in a crowd who will be as honest in small things as in great things who will make no compromise with sin whose ambitions are not confined to their own selfish desires who will not say they do it because everybody else does it who are true to their friends through good report and evil report in adversity as well as in prosperity who do not believe that shrewdness and cunning are the best qualities for winning who are not ashamed or afraid to stand for the truth when it is unpopular and who say no with emphasis although the rest of the world says yes that was steven davie and this is wisdom for the heart today's message is called ruining the reputation of God do you have something on your heart that you'd like us to pray about we would be honored to lift your request before the Lord our prayer team prays by name for every request we receive bringing each concern before God with faith and care sharing your request is easy just visit wisdom online.org forward slash prayer fill out a short form and send us your request if you'd like you can also include your phone number and a member of our prayer team will call to pray with you sometimes hearing someone pray for you out loud can bring great encouragement and peace prayer is powerful whether you need prayer or feel called to pray for others we'd love for you to get involved visit wisdom online.org forward slash prayer today to submit a request or to join our global prayer team let's seek God together thanks for listening today please join Stephen again next time to discover more wisdom for the heart.