In his sermon titled 'The Name of God is Blasphemed Among the Gentiles Through You,' Pastor Steve Hopkins examines Romans 2:17-24, focusing on the hypocrisy of those who claim to be God's people but fail to live according to His commandments. He draws a parallel between the Jews of Paul's time, who rested on their possession of the law rather than adhering to it, and modern-day Christians who may similarly profess faith without demonstrating it through their actions. Hopkins stresses the importance of genuine inward transformation over outward religious displays, emphasizing that true believers will be known by their relationship with Christ and their progressive conformity to His image. The sermon also highlights the role of the law as a guide to Christ, the dangers of spiritual pride, and the necessity of Christ's righteousness for justification. Additionally, Pastor Hopkins advocates for the inclusion of children in church gatherings, arguing that they can learn and participate meaningfully in worship. Ultimately, the message calls for introspection and a sincere commitment to living out one's faith authentically.

Welcome back to Burnet Bible Church. Join us this week as Pastor Hopkins continues his sermon series through the Book of Romans. Good afternoon. Let's turn in our Bibles to the Book of Romans once again, where we'll be picking up with Chapter 2, verse 17, and hopefully work our way through verse 24 today. But Before we stand for the reading of the Word of the Lord, I was just thinking when Colton came up and he was praying and had his baby with him, that's the way the churches used to operate.

That's what it used to be for 1900-something years of Christianity, right? We've got away from so many things that are just natural, normal, kind of Christian gathering, assembly life, you know, like the children being in the congregation. And I've told several pastors over the years that, you know, when they say, well, why do you have the children there? Don't they distract you? No, the children don't distract us at all.

And you don't know how much they're picking up on. We have to see little ones with pencils in their hands and they're coloring pictures of things they hear and they're listening and they're listening and they're making eye contact and that's where they're supposed to be. And you know, they say, well, what scriptural warrant do you have? Well, through the entire Old Testament, of course, there was scriptural warrant that we see, But in the New Testament, you know, the Apostle Paul said, read my epistles in all the churches. And then he said, when they go to read his epistles to the church at Ephesus in Colossae, he says things like, husbands love your wives, as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it etc etc wives submits to yourselves to your own husbands is under the Lord and then he says children but in the churches today those epistles cannot be read because the children aren't there The children are often rock and roll church or they're you know often down in the, as one pastor said, down in the basement watching vegetables on television, you know, veggie tales or whatever.

That's probably not anymore, that's a long time ago. But at the same time, you know, where the children are supposed to be there and they're not a distraction at all. And if I don't hear at least one baby crying on the recording when he goes up on sermon audio, I'm like offended, You know, what's going on? You guys are keeping your hands over their mouth? So let the little children come.

Okay, let's stand for the reading of the Word of the Lord, Romans chapter 2, beginning with verse 17. Behold, thou art called a Jew, and resteth in the law, and makest thy boast of God, and knowest his will, and approvest the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law, and art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, A light of them which are in darkness, An instructor of the foolish, A teacher of babes, Which hast the form of knowledge And of the truth in the law. Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself. Thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal. Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery.

Thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege? Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking of the law dishonest thou God? For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you as it is written. Let's pray. Father, our Father, high above all we bless your holy name.

All creation, oh God, manifests your wisdom and your power and your glory. How great you are, O God. The finite mind of man is not capable of comprehending, Lord, your greatness. And Lord, we worship you this day and we praise you for your immutability, your unchanging greatness, your unchanging power, your unchanging presence, your unchanging wisdom, your unchanging glory, and that you're our God and we're your people. And God, we ask this morning that you might be pleased to open up the understanding of your people as we open your Word by your Spirit, Lord, that you would convince us of the truth of your Word, convict us, oh Lord, where we need to be convicted, comfort where we need comfort, O God, and conform us more to the image of your blessed Son.

For we do ask it in the name of your Son, our Lord Jesus. Amen. Let's be seated. When we pray, and I hope we all do, through the petitions of the Lord's Prayer, or what's commonly referred to as the Lord's Prayer. The first petition that we are instructed by Jesus to pray is What?

Hallowed be thy name. It is the the earnest desire of Every true believer in Christ that the name of God be hallowed That is our our earnest desire We We pray that the name of God might be set apart as holy by all men everywhere, for He is holy. And His name should be set apart as holy by every man, by every woman, by every child, in all the world, and in every age. And we grieve, don't we? We grieve and we mourn.

When we look around us and we find that the name of God is not only not hallowed, that His name is not only not set apart as holy, I realize I'm using double negatives, but so far from being hallowed we hear His name widely profaned and even blasphemed. In the third commandment we read, Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for he will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. But the text before us, beginning with the last verse, teaches us that the name of God is not only profaned by those who use his name irreverently, look at the passage, But that his name is also blasphemed on account of the wicked and hypocritical lives of those who are understood to be his people. And when we come to the end of the message today, we're going to make application beyond the Jews, application to professing Christians today. But wicked and hypocritical lives of those who are understood to be the people of God, by them His name is also blasphemed on account of their lives.

Such were the Jews at the time of the writing of Paul's letter to the Romans. So in verse 17, Paul writes, Behold, thou art called a Jew. And the inference is you take pride, you who are called Jews, you take pride that you're called by that name. Because the Jews are are understood to be the people of God. Jehovah God.

Yahweh, the great I am. And notice Paul does not say you are a Jew. Look at the text. He says, but behold, thou art called a Jew. The apostle does not even grant them the title.

Of course, he's addressing those among the Jews who are living lives that by their lives and their conduct and the breaking of the law of God are causing the name of God to be blasphemed among the Gentiles who look at them as the people of God. You're the people of God, but you don't live like the people of God. And Further on, Paul was going to plunge the dagger of truth further into the hearts and consciences of their unbelief when he says in chapter 2 and verse 28, for he is not a Jew who is one outwardly." And then in verse 29, but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, distinguishing between those who hold to the outward forms of religion and who possess the law of God with those who are truly the people of God. Between those who have the letter of the law but do not keep it, and those who have the law of God written on their hearts by the Spirit of God." Paul is boldly proclaiming here the same thing that Stephen was saying, flip over to Acts chapter 7 to verse 53, he's saying basically the same thing that Stephen was saying just before he was stoned to death.

Just before the men of the city, Jews, picked up rocks and crushed him. Remember Stephen in confronting the hypocrisy of his Jewish brethren according to the flesh Indicted them as men who had quote received the law by the disposition of angels and yet had not kept it. And those are the last words you spoke before the rocks began to fly. They didn't like the indictment. You possess the law, but you don't keep it.

The law of God was entrusted to you, to the Jews, but you don't keep the law of God. You hold tightly to the written law, but you don't keep it. Paul is saying the same thing Stephen said. Behold, you are called a Jew And you rest in the law, not in keeping it, because you don't keep it, but you rest in the possession of it. You rest in the fact that the oracles of God were committed to your nation, and on this error you make your boast of God.

You boast of God, assuming yourselves to be the people of God and proudly presenting yourselves before all the world as his peculiar people because he entrusted you with his law. You received the law by the disposition of angels. You got the law of God was given to you from heaven And you make your boast in that, about God. Surely we're the people of God. Look what he gave us.

You understand what Paul is saying here? It's a heavy indictment upon his brethren according to the flesh. Every one of the nation of Israel is called a Jew. But the Jews rested, they laid their heads on their pillows at night in peace, resting on the fact that God handed off the law to their nation. They weren't resting any notion that they were keeping it, because though they presented themselves as keepers of the law, they, like the Gentiles, were violators of the law.

They knew it. Still their boast was in the possession of the written code. Not in the keeping of it because they didn't keep it, but because they were entrusted with it. And we read in the New Testament about them, you know, carrying around the Scriptures in little boxes on their foreheads. And we read in the epistles of the Apostle Paul that the Scriptures were read every Sabbath in their synagogues.

So they thought that possessing the Scriptures, carrying them about, even reading the Scriptures, even teaching the Scriptures, which we'll get to in a moment, justified them before God. But as we read back in verse 13 in our last session on Romans, not the hearers of the law are justified before God, but the keepers of the law are justified before God. And None of them had kept it perfectly as the law itself required in the Levitical Code. Leviticus 18 verse 5. The apostle is continuing with the indictment of his Jewish brethren in verse 18.

Yes, you possess the law of God, and by that law you know His will. You know what God requires. Because in the law, his standard of righteousness is revealed. By the law, you know the difference between good and evil. You know the difference between right and wrong.

You know the difference between what God requires and what God forbids. You know the difference between that which God approves and that which God disapproves. And outwardly, as the indictment goes on, you approve of those requirements. Outwardly, you openly approve and applaud these requirements being instructed by the law of God. And on that you rest your vain confidence that you yourselves are the appointed guides of the blind.

We've given the law. We outwardly approve of the law. We are God's appointed people to guide those who are blind to the truth of God's Word. We're the lights in the world, the lights to all those who dwell in darkness and everyone dwells in darkness but us. And You see yourselves and present yourselves as instructors of the foolish.

We're wise, they're foolish, we have the law, we'll instruct them out of the law. You see yourselves as teachers of babes, you're mature, they're babies. You see yourselves as men qualified, super qualified to teach others the law when all you really possess is an outward display of the knowledge and truth contained in the law. An empty shell. John Gill comments here, the apostle would have it concluded that though the Jews had the law and in some sense knew it, yet inasmuch as they did not perform it, they could not be justified by it.

Again, for not the mere hearers of the law are justified in the sight of God, but the doers of the law shall be justified before God. And no one's kept the law of God, as the law of God requires it to be kept, to be justified before him, which is imperfection. Paul says you teach it, but you yourselves don't even keep it. He places the Jew under the same condemnation as the Gentiles they despised. He puts the Jew who has elevated himself above the Gentiles, we're their instructors, we're the instructors of the fools, We're the lights to those who are in darkness.

We're the instructors of the law. We have the law. We are entrusted with the law. We know what it says. We alone can tell you what it says.

Sounds like Roman Catholicism, doesn't it? And yet, They didn't keep the law of God. He'll have them under the same condemnation as the Gentiles they despised. Before we go forward here, I got a text from one of our members over the weekend who was dealing with a group that this person was involved with on the internet, and I guess a bunch of perfectionists got on there, guys who believe in perfectionism, that you can become perfect over time. And I wrangled with this one pastor.

I mean, oh boy. He was just pulling all kinds of Scripture out of context, and I mean, he was perfect, but he was sinning so horribly against me on that phone call. It was unbelievable. So one of the things they say is, you know, is that that you're born without sin, which is of course Pelagianism. You're born a blank slate and then you're influenced by your environment and you only sin because you are imitating the sins that you see in your parents or others or other children and what have you.

There's not a sin nature. That's what the perfectionists say. You were born without that sin nature. You're corrupted by your environment. So this person was saying, do you have any passages about that?

Of course I take them to David, you know. This guy was conceived in sin. Sin, my mother conceived me. Men come forth from the womb speaking lies, you know. And then of course anyone who's ever had children knows that children sin without having any imitation.

They hit when they've never been hit. They steal when they've never seen anybody steal, you know. They, they, they, when they got what they want in their hand, they're happy, even if they take it out of the hand of another child. You know, anyone, we raised 16, or in the process of raising 16 children, and every one of them had a sin nature. There's none of them that didn't have a sin nature.

And they all came forth from the womb speaking lies. You have to teach them how to lie, hit, steal, anything. They just, they do it. Because in the words of Sproul, we're not sinners because we sin, we sin because we're sinners. We have a sin nature from which spews forth all of our our corruptions in our nature.

But anyways I said take them to those. I said but you know what that won't convince them because I've been round and round and round and round. The only thing that has ever helped to shut the mouth, not open the eyes, because of course only God can open the eyes, and most of the times these guys are hardened in their sin of perfectionism. Their consciences are hardened. They view themselves as perfect, and you're not going to get through to them.

But the only thing that's ever shut their mouths has been this, to tell them the law of God, see the law of God is supposed to be the schoolmaster that drives us to Christ, right? As the only hope of our salvation and only hope of our right standing before God. So the law of God commands us that we're to love the Lord our God with all our hearts, all our hearts, with all our soul, with all our strength, with all our minds, and that you have not done one day nor moment of your life." And I've seen the mouths shut. I've seen some where they just kind of stop right there. They go on to something else.

They don't want to deal with that. So there are none who have kept the law of God perfectly. The Apostle Paul is going to have the Jew under the same condemnation as the Gentiles they despised and then he's going to press it he's going to just press it you therefore Paul says which aspire to teach others you don't teach yourselves You teach others but you don't teach yourselves? You that preach, a man should not steal. Do you steal?

You know they did. These are God-breathed words from the pen of the apostle, the answer of which is asserted within the question. You that preach of man should not steal. Do you steal? Oh yeah, they were thieves.

Jesus told their leaders, you'll remember in Matthew 23, 14, woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you devour widows' houses, and for pretense make long prayers. And the inference is that they used their religious offices and their duties, like prayers, to gain the trust and affections and eventually the estates of widows. Women who had lost their protectors, who were now vulnerable to their schemes to gain their estates when they should have rather protected them. It's a heavy indictment. You say don't steal, so you steal.

You that say a man should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You know they did. That's why the Jews dropped the stones in their hands when they were about to execute The woman caught in adultery, remember? They didn't bring the man. And Jesus said, let him who is without sin inferring that particular sin.

He wasn't just saying, You stole something when you were a child, drop your rocks. No, he was inferring that particular sin. Let him who among you is without this sin in his past throw the first rock at her. And they began, of course, with the eldest and dropped their rocks and slithered away. You that abhor idols, do you commit sacrilege?

You know they did. Do you remember from the prophet Malachi, he charged the Jews of his days with sacrilege for polluting the altar by bringing lame, blind, sick animals for the sacrifice. You know what's going on. And Jesus cleansed the temple twice for the sacrilegious practices that were taking place in the temple. That was just a few years back before Paul's writing here.

The Jews made their boast in the law, but by their breaking of the law they showed their contempt for both God and His law. They made their boast in the law, but in not keeping it, they showed their contempt for both God and His law. And the result? The name of God was blasphemed by the Gentiles on account of their lives, on account of their behavior, on account of their conduct. Remember Jesus said the Pharisees, the Jewish leaders, they say, do this, do that.

He says, do what they say, but don't do as they do. Just to paraphrase. Because they say one thing and do another. The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you as it is written. There's a couple of passages from the Old Testament that apply, we won't go into those.

Calvin comments here on this passage, quote, all the reproaches cast on the people of Israel do fall in the name of God. Why? Because they are counted, that is regarded. And they are said to be the people of God. His name is, as it were, written on their foreheads.

It must hence be that God, whose name they assume is in a manner defamed by them through their wicked conduct. You're the people of God. In the eyes of everyone out there. You're the people of God But you don't live according to the law of God You don't live according to the things that you preach You don't practice what you preach And so God's name is blasphemed among the Gentiles through the Jews because they're talk the talk but they don't walk the walk. Now what about us?

What about the professors of Christ in our world today? What about the professors of Christ in our country today? Possibly in this very church house today. Does any of this apply to us today? Or does it only apply to the Jews of Paul's day?

Well this is just about those evil Jews back in Paul's day. There's no application to us today. Come on! Really? When unbelievers see you attending church, Or hear that you attend church, know that you attend church, or that you're the members of a church.

When unbelievers hear you talking about the things of God, I hope you do, probably. Or they hear you calling Jesus, Lord. They think, oh, that's a Christian. That's a Christian. That's one of the people of God.

But Jesus says in Matthew chapter 7 verse 21, On the day of judgment, not everyone who says unto me, Lord, Lord, is going to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. And then he had to add these words, but he had to do it with the will of my Father, which is in Heaven. Ouch. Yeah, it applies to us too. You might be thinking at this point, well that sounds like a work salvation.

Well, if you think that, you'd be wrong. Because if you go further on in that same passage in Matthew chapter 7, Jesus says to those whose lives manifested their hypocritical profession of Him, that their profession of Him as being their Lord was not a genuine profession. He said, I never knew you. That's relationship. I never knew you.

I never knew you. And then he says, depart from me. How many times we hear Mr. Stubblefield stand in this pulpit and say, those are the most horrifying words anyone will ever hear. Some people are sinners and they know they're on their way to hell.

Some people are believers, they know they're on the way to heaven, they're just absolutely sure they're on the way to heaven, and then there's those who are gonna stand before God on the day of judgment, and they're gonna think they're believers, they're gonna think they were in. The golden gates are gonna swing wide open, and Jesus is gonna say, I never knew you, depart from me in everlasting fire, prepare for the devil and his angels. I never knew you. That's relationship. It's the same thing as saying I never had a relationship with you.

Those who are in union with Jesus Christ by the grace of God through faith in His person and His work are known of God. They're known of God. They are in relationship with God through God's Son Jesus Christ. They are in union with God through God's Son Jesus Christ. They are in a relationship with Him and their lives reflected.

Not perfectly, but progressively as they're conformed over time more and more to His image. The question for us today is do you know Jesus? Are you known of Him? You know Jesus? Does He know you?

Are you known of Him? Remember, He's going to look at some and say, thought they were believers. I never knew you. I never knew you. I never knew you.

I never had a relationship with you. Are you known of Him? Do you know Him? Brothers and sisters, He is not a Christian who is one outwardly, he is a Christian who is one inwardly. Same thing that the Apostle said to the Jews.

He's not a Jew who is one outwardly, he is a Jew who is one inwardly. Having a Bible just as the Jews had the law of God and knowing what it says and Even teaching others its content is not going to appease God on that day when the secrets of the hearts of men are revealed I had a Bible You trusted me with the Word of God I Taught others the word. I saw myself as qualified to do so! We need an inward work of God upon our hearts. An inward work upon our hearts that raises us from the state of death in trespasses and sins in which we were all born to a state of life eternal in Christ.

You must be born again. When God does that work by His Spirit bringing us to repentance and faith in His Son, we are clothed instantly in the perfect righteousness of his son. You want perfection? It's in Jesus Christ alone. Only his righteousness will avail on the day of judgment.

I've been saying it now for a couple of weeks, right? Only a perfect righteousness will avail on that day. We keep coming to the same conclusion. God demands perfection. God demands a perfect obedience to His law and no mere man born has ever achieved that.

But his son did. But Jesus did. We need a righteous covering to stand before God on that day when the secrets of our hearts are made manifest. You don't think that? Sit and ponder that for a little while, one afternoon.

You need the righteous covering of Christ on that day when the secrets of your heart, When the hidden things of darkness are brought to light in your life You need a righteous covering. I need a righteous covering and Jesus alone provides that That righteousness and that covering through Jesus perfect obedience to the law and by the satisfaction He made on the cross and suffering and dying for our sins, all who repent and believe on His name are forever covered." It's good news, isn't it? It's good news. Forever covered. Clothed instantly in His righteousness.

Justified instantly in the sight of God. Declared just in the sight of God on account of the righteousness of another, alien righteousness as Martin Luther called it, Christ's righteousness, imputed to us the moment that we believe on His name, declared to our accounts the moment we are trusting in Jesus alone for our justification and right standing before God. We are justified in the sight of God clothed in the righteousness of God's Son and sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise unto the day of redemption. It's good news. Jesus suffered and bled and died in the place of sinners and he rose from the dead on the third day.

You believe that? You believe that? I hope you do. Let's pray. Father, your Word is truth and we thank you for it.

And we thank you for your law, for we understand from your word that it is the schoolmaster that drives us to Christ as the only hope for our salvation. God, we thank you for the Word that has been preached today, that has been spoken today, that has been read today. And as we prepare now to share in the Lord's table, in this table set apart from all others, help us, O God, to look to Jesus once again, in Jesus alone, in whom is all our hope, and fill our hearts, O God, with joy and believing, and fill our hearts with thankfulness, O God, for your amazing grace that saved wretches like us. For we do ask it in the name of your son our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.