In the sermon titled 'What to Make of Advantages,' Jason Dohm discusses the implications of possessing spiritual privileges and advantages, drawing from Romans chapter 2. He explains that Paul challenges the Jewish belief that their privileged status, including the knowledge of the law and the physical sign of circumcision, equates to immunity from God's judgment. Instead, these advantages increase their responsibility and vulnerability to condemnation if not matched by inward faith and obedience. The sermon emphasizes that God has given an inborn sense of right and wrong to all, and those with greater knowledge of the law are more accountable. True faith is characterized by an inward transformation, not merely outward observance. The sermon warns that failing to utilize spiritual advantages for genuine repentance and trust in Jesus Christ could result in greater condemnation. Dohm calls for self-examination, urging believers to ensure that their lives reflect the privileges and truths they have received.

Our sermon text this morning is Romans chapter 2 from 17 to the end of the chapter where Paul continues his beatdown. Indeed, you are called a Jew and rest on the law and make your boast in God and know His will and approve the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the law, and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, having the form of knowledge and truth in the law. You, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that a man should not steal, do you steal? You who say, do not commit adultery, do you commit adultery?

You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who make your boast in the law, do you dishonor God through breaking the law? For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you, as it is written. For circumcision is indeed profitable if you keep the law, but if you are a breaker of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. Therefore, if an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision?

And will not the physically uncircumcised, if he fulfills the law, judge you, who even with your written code and circumcision, are a transgressor of the law? For he is not a Jew who is won outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is won inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart in the Spirit not in the letter whose praise is not from men but from God. Oh Father open our hearts and ears speak to us even now we commit this time in Jesus name. Amen.

Title of the sermon this morning is What to Make of Advantages. And the point of the sermon is you better make something of your advantages, To receive privileges and blessings, be a partaker of advantages and then to do nothing with them is actually to increase your responsibility and your accountability and your guilt. So that really is the thrust of our passage. The thrust of last week's text was simply that sinners perish. You can classify sinners in some different ways.

You might live your whole life without the written law. Never had a Bible, may never have even heard of a Bible. Or you may have lived this life with and under the written law having access to a Bible from your earliest years. But regardless, no matter which of those categories you fall into, God gave you an inborn sense of right and wrong that you cannot get away from. So you might know more than the inborn sense of right and wrong, true and false, but it is impossible for you to know less than that.

So Paul is setting a baseline of the minimum that you know in order to prove that as a righteous judge in the end, he'll be good and right, and actually the only way that he can continue to be good and right and perfect will be to condemn those who know the minimum amount that anyone knows. This is really the case that he's building. So you might know more than that. You might have a Bible and have fuller knowledge, more precise knowledge, but you can't know less than that. And God saw to it by giving you this inborn sense of right, wrong, true, false.

This week's text, Paul zeroes in on those who do have the written law. So last week he just described it. He didn't call them Jews last week, but he was talking about describing people who have the written law and through most of history that has been the Jews. There were a few Gentiles at it, but not many. Mostly it was Jews.

So last week he was describing those who have the written law. This week he just goes ahead and calls them Jews. He's zeroing in on those who have the written law. And he labors to convince us that if we have been born into these advantages, the advantages don't make us less vulnerable to judgment and condemnation. The advantages actually make you more vulnerable to judgment and condemnation.

So I'll say now what I said to the men who gathered to pray before the service. The interpretive key is that this isn't about Jews, this is about you. Be so wrong to come and think that God gave this to Paul so that Jews would take heed. God gave this to Paul so that you and I would take heed. If there's anyone who's enjoyed more advantages than the Jewish race, it is people who have grown up in Christian homes under the new covenant, which was fuller than the Jews.

So, forget about the Jews. Think about yourself. God meant this text for us. Let's pray. God, I do pray that you would give us hearts of wisdom that you would make it impossible that we would come and go from this text and not see ourselves in it.

And the sweetness and goodness of the advantages that you poured out on us, but also all that comes with that, the dangers that come with these advantages. Please press these truths on our hearts in Jesus' name, Amen. Well, As usual, we're subdividing, so I'm going to begin by rereading verses 17 through 20 and talking about those verses. So hopefully your Bibles are still open to Romans chapter 2. Follow along as I reread verses 17 through 20.

Paul writes, indeed you are called a Jew and rest on the law and make your boast in God and know His will and approve the things that are excellent being instructed out of the law and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, having the form of knowledge and truth in the law. In these verses, Paul gives us the Jews' sunny self-assessment. So if you're taking notes on the handout, filling in blanks, Sunny fills in the first blank, assessment fills in the second blank. The Jews, Sunny, self-assessment. What is a Sunny self-assessment?

It's to look at yourself and to conclude, all is well. Nothing wrong here, really nothing to be afraid of here, nothing to be worried about here. The sun is shining, your assessment of yourself is a sunny one, an optimistic one. Paul is exposing a common Jewish disposition. Paul should know.

Paul was a Jew's Jew, a Hebrew of the Hebrews. So Paul knows about what he's speaking of here. He's speaking of and exposing a common Jewish disposition, maybe the most common Jewish disposition, which is status equals immunity. This is really what Paul is attacking here. Let me unpack that.

The Jews enjoyed an advantaged status. It's beyond question, scripturally speaking, that that is true. The Jews enjoyed an advantaged status. They were given advantages, privileges, blessings that others were not given. And God did that.

God gave them those advantages, privileges, blessings. And There were proofs that they enjoyed an advantaged status in relationship to God. They had direct revelation. They had a written word that others did not have, and they had a sign that God looked on them with favor. The direct revelation made them more knowledgeable about God and about the things of God than any other nation on the face of the earth.

Listen to Deuteronomy 4. You're welcome to turn there if you want to, but otherwise you can just listen. Deuteronomy chapter 4, Moses speaks of this. Listen to Deuteronomy 4 verses 5 through 8. Moses says, surely I have taught you statutes and judgments just as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should act according to them in the land which you go to possess.

Therefore be careful to observe them, for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes and say, surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what great nation is there that has God so near to it as the Lord our God is to us for whatever reason we may call upon him. And what great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in all this law which I set before you today? Moses here is pointing to the advantage of having this direct revelation and how God's intent and purpose, one of God's intents and purposes, was that they would have the law and observe the law and in doing that the onlooking nations would say, wow there's no nation like that who God has drawn so near to, who he has given his perfect ways to and the way the nations would know is that they're walking in those ways. So Moses says be careful to observe.

God's given you this beautiful, perfect law. Now walk in it so that the nations will see, look at that nation, God is near them. God has given them privileges and blessings, there's no nation like this. And Circumcision was this sign that God had marked out Abraham's descendants to be his own people. That's what circumcision is.

You're mine, says God. I give you a mark that I have marked you out for myself and made promises to you. Circumcision wasn't because they had obeyed the law, it was a sign that promises had been made to them and it was all of grace. Abraham didn't work his way into the sign of circumcision. It was grace.

It was God's goodness to him that he had made promises to him and marking him out and his descendants out as being gods, marking them out for himself. In the common Jewish disposition, The conclusion that most of the Jews drew from the fact that they enjoyed this advantaged status Was that it equaled Immunity from condemnation So here's the equation according to the normal Jewish disposition. This advantaged status that no one can deny, God gave them, equals immunity from condemnation. This is what it means. This is the conclusion that is to be drawn from the fact that God has conferred on us and only us the advantages of direct revelation and the sign that he has marked us out to be his own.

So many or most of the Jews, seeing the proofs of this advantaged status, assume that while they might experience the fatherly displeasure of God, yes sometimes we aren't what we ought to be and so we experience God's fatherly displeasure, He's still our father, We're still different than the other people out there. In the end, all is well. This is their sunny self-assessment. So they rested in the law. We're at least making certain attempts to obey this law.

We're at least trying. They don't even have it. They make no attempts to act according to it out there. So they made their boast in God. God is our God.

God is the God of the Jews, not the gods of the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Moabites, and on and on. So they knew God's will. They studied the law and in learning from their studies of the law they were learning what the will of God was, so they approved the things that are excellent. Right on God, all these things are right. They were agreeing with God because they were instructed out of the law.

And being instructed out of the law, By the way, this word that is rendered instructed and instructed out of the law, if you look at the Greek lexicon, the transliteration of it looks like our word catechize. So you would say, oh, this means this is about catechizing in the law. And it's because the meanings are so similar. This learning from repetition and questions and answers. I drill you like I ask the question and you've learned to memorize the answer and through repetition you learn what the law means.

Being instructed out of the law the Jews viewed themselves on the international scene as gods to the blind. The Gentiles, these other nations were blind and the Jews were the guides because they were instructed out of the law. The Jews viewed themselves on the international scene as instructors of the foolish. The Gentiles were the foolish, the Jews were the instructors because they had been instructed out of the law. The Jews viewed themselves on the international scene as teachers of babes.

The Gentiles were the babes, the untaught ones, and the Jews were the teachers because they had been instructed out of the law. Who had the advantages? The Jews had the advantages, the Gentiles did not. Then who should be teaching who? The Jews with their advantages should be teaching the Gentiles who didn't have the advantages.

Then who was better than who? It's a question that answers itself, at least in the Jewish mind. And they're not alone. End of story. What more is there to know?

The Jews said in the written law we have the embodiment of knowledge and truth. In our translation, New King James, it says the form of knowledge or truth. The ESV and the NASB and the NIV say the embodiment of truth. Both of them are fine. But I could say that.

I could hold up my Bible and with confidence saying, here I have the embodiment of knowledge and truth. What we most need to know is here in this book. What we need to know about the things that are important, eternal, is here in this book. This is the embodiment of knowledge and truth. The Jew would stand right beside you and say, amen, except for the New Testament.

The scriptures are the embodiment of knowledge and truth. They were right about that. Did Jesus have anything to say about this? Jesus had plenty to say about this. I'll give you just two examples, but we could multiply them if we had time or need.

I don't think we have need. These two should be plenty. Matthew 15 verse 14, Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees and in Matthew 15 verse 14 he says Let them alone, let the Pharisees alone. Excuse me, he's speaking of the Pharisees to his disciples. Let the Pharisees alone.

They are blind leaders of the blind. Even among Jews, the Pharisees weren't the ignorant Jews, they were the knowledgeable Jews. Jesus says they're the blind leaders of the blind. They're not the teachers of the blind, they're the blind leaders of the blind. Or John 5 verse 45, listen to John chapter 5 verse 45.

Here he is speaking to the Jews and he says, Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you, Moses, in whom you trust." Now, Moses at this point has been dead for thousands of years. He's not talking about the person of Moses. It's shorthand for the written law. There's one who accuses you that this man through whom the written law came, Moses, you're trusting in the written law, the written law will actually be the one to accuse you, not me.

I'm not needed as an accuser. The law stands against you. That's what Jesus said to the Jews. So this brings us to the next section in our text. Romans 2, now I'll reread 21-24, follow along.

Romans 2, 21-24. You therefore who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that a man should not steal, do you steal? You who say, do not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?

You who make your boast in the law, do you dishonor God through the breaking of the law? For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you as it is written. In this section we have five questions and a conclusion. If you're looking on your handout it says four questions. I printed the handout before I realized I can't count.

Five questions and a conclusion. Look back at verse 13. So Romans chapter 2 verse 13. This is just from last week's text. In the lead into our text, Paul had said, verse 13, for not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified.

So now in this section, Paul continues right down that track. Having outlined some of the privileges of being a Jew, Paul now examines whether or not the Jews were living up to their privileges. So this is the examination. You have enjoyed an advantaged status. Now have you lived up to your advantaged status?

Let's see if it matches up. And In this examination, Paul rolls out five rapid-fire questions, taking no time to develop the questions or give any answers. Just question, question, question, question, question. You teach others, do you teach yourself? You preach against stealing, do you steal?

You say to people, don't you ever commit adultery? Do you commit adultery? You despise idols, Do you rob temples? You boast in the law. Do you dishonor God through breaking it day after day after day?

Now understand, like we're witnessing some of the genius of Paul here. Understand the power of forcing the person being examined to examine himself or herself. What do I mean? It's one thing to come in direct, full frontal attack, and just make the accusation. It's another thing to just ask the question and be quiet.

And listen to the answer and then be quiet and just let the silence hang in the air to see whether there's anything else they'd like to say in their defense. So do this, accuse a Jew, you steal. What's going to be the response back? No, I don't. Accused you, You commit adultery.

What's the response you're going to give back? No, I don't. But ask. Do you steal? No?

Is there ever any sense in which there's sexual sin in your life? I mean, I don't commit adultery, not in the literal technical sense. The hemming and hawing says it all. What's hemming and hawing? It's the stuttering and stammering in the extended explanation that lets you know that they're not actually satisfied with their own answer.

That they don't feel like it's beyond assault. That they know that there are charges that will stick, even though in a very literal, technical sense, they may not have done the crime. Turn to Psalm 50. Turn to Psalm 50. I speculate that Paul had Psalm 50 in mind because you have a lot of the same wording.

You have the teaching element that is in our text, you have the stealing element, theft, that you have in our text, you have the sexual sin, the adultery element that you have in our text. So my speculation, my educated guess is that Paul had this in mind and expected the Jews who would read this to also have Psalm 50 in mind. Nothing really depends on that, But it's hard to read Psalm 50 and think, oh wow, he probably had this in mind. That's what I think you come away thinking. So look at Psalm 50.

We'll be reading Psalm 50 verses 16 through 21. Psalm 50 verses 16 through 21. But to the wicked, God says, What right have you to declare my statutes? Or take my covenant in your mouth, seeing you hate instruction and cast my words behind you. When you saw a thief, you consented with him and have been a partaker with adulterers.

You give your mouth to evil and your tongue frames deceit. You sit and speak against your brother. You slander your own mother's son. These things you have done and I kept silent. You thought that I was altogether like you, but I will rebuke you and set them in order before your eyes." They were guilty of these things and because God didn't send immediate judgment because he was silent people concluded he's like us you concluded I was all together like you oh but I'll come and rebuke you I will come and set all of these things right.

Why are you instructing? Look again at verse 16. What right have you to declare my statutes, seeing you hate instruction? This Psalm 50 has teaching, it has stealing, it has adultery, and it's making exactly the same point. If you're doing these things that you're preaching against, you should stop the teaching.

You're not what you thought you were on the international scene, an instructor of babes, the unlearned. Let's take these one by one from our text. You teach others. Do you teach yourself? He's making the case that because they're doing the things they're preaching against, they haven't really taught themselves.

You preach against stealing. Do you steal? Well, I mean, define steal. You say to people, don't you ever commit adultery? Do you commit adultery?

Never, I would never. Is there any sense in what, is there ever any sexual sin in your life? Well, in a technical sense, I never. You despise idols. Do you rob temples?

The King James here renders it commit sacrilege. So there's a Greek word, King James says commit sacrilege instead of rob temples. So this Greek word has a narrow sense which is stealing the idols out of a temple, robbing temples. And many of the translations including our own takes this narrow sense. The King James took the broader sense which is do you commit sacrilege?

I think fits perfectly in the context here so I'm gonna act like we actually have King James in our laps on this one little spot. Can I do that? You who abhor idols, you despise false gods, but do you trample on the sacred things of the real God? Why would you rail against false gods if you won't render obedience to the true God and you trample on the sacred things? That's what Paul is saying here I think.

You boast in the law? Look, we have the law. God gave us the law. Look at our advantaged status. Surely it means immunity.

Do you dishonor God through breaking the law day after day after day after day? So those are the five questions. Now, Paul's conclusion. What is Paul's conclusion. Go ask the Gentiles.

Okay? You're Jews. You've enjoyed the advantages. Do you teach others? Do you steal?

Do you teach yourself? Do you steal? Do you commit adultery? Do you trample the sacred things? Do you dishonor God by breaking the law?

Gentiles, Tell us about the Jews. You've been watching. Have they lived up to their advantages or haven't they, Gentiles? What is their verdict? They're hypocrites.

They're wearing a mask. They say one thing, they do another, they preach against things that they do themselves. They have this outward shell, but you can see beyond this veneer, this outward mask, they're not what they claim to be. They're not Deuteronomy 4. Remember we went to Deuteronomy 4.

Who has a God like this people who has given them his incomparable ways, amazing ways that they are walking in. This transforming God who has claimed a people for himself and made them like none of the rest of us are. It's not the testimony of the Gentiles about the Jews. Instead they observe you Jews and poor contempt on your God. God's no different than our gods.

We can tell because they're not transformed. They're no different than us. He's actually quoting Isaiah 52 verse 5 here, which was about the people going into captivity, and in captivity the Gentiles blaspheming God. They go into captivity, these other peoples are exposed to the Jews and their God, and they just pour contempt on God. I get the irony here.

The people who boast in God are bringing contempt on God because they will not practice what they preach. God is our God. Oh yeah? Well then we don't want Him. You can have Him.

You can have him. Brings us to our last section, verses 25 through 27. Romans 2, starting in verse 25, for circumcision is indeed profitable if you keep the law, but if you are breakers of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. Therefore, if an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision? And will not the physically uncircumcised, if he fulfills the law, judge you who, even with your written code and circumcision, are a transgressor of the law.

We'll stop there today and take the last two verses of the chapter next week. In verses 25 through 27, Paul speaks of what really profits. If you're filling in blanks, profits fills in the blank. What really profits? Now what was circumcision?

A physical sign given to Abraham and his descendants that was intended to mark out this family and then they grew into a nation as God's special people. It's a physical mark that God marked these people out to be his own special people. The point was not you belong to this family and nation. The point was you belong to God. You're not being marked out as belonging to Abraham or belonging to the nation of Israel.

That was secondary. That just happened to also be true. You are marked out as belonging to God. You trust this God. You love this God.

You follow this God. This God is God to you. So it was intended, like we say of baptism, to be an outward sign of an inward reality. That's what God always meant for it to be. An outward sign of a reality that was true in the heart.

How do we know that? Listen to Jeremiah 9 verses 25 and 26. By the way, we could have picked three or four other places that talks about the circumcision of the heart. So that's what's here, but we could have gone elsewhere for it. Listen to Jeremiah 9, 25 and 26.

Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that I will punish all who are circumcised with the uncircumcised. Egypt, Judah, Edom, the people of Ammon, Moab, and all who are in the farthest corners who dwell in the wilderness, for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart." God says in Jeremiah 9, the day is coming when I will treat you just like all the nations without the physical sign. Because you don't have the inward reality so the physical sign is meaningless. I'll treat you just like Egypt and Ammon and Moab. And so it is possible to have the outward sign without the inward reality.

Is it possible to be baptized but not actually be a Christian? Of course it is to have the outward sign without the inward reality. Of course that's possible. And it is possible to have the inward reality without having the outward sign. Is it possible to be a Christian but who have never been baptized?

Of course it is. To be born again and really right with God through Christ, but yet never have gone into the waters of baptism? Yes, that's possible. Which is better? Which is better?

To have the outward sign with no inward reality or to have the inward reality without the outward sign? The outward sign. It's such an obvious question. What had the Jews overwhelmingly done? Meaning, many or most of the Jews Fit this.

They had turned circumcision into the point of trust. Like what are you trusting in? Circumcised. That's what you're trusting in? A little surgery when you're eight days old, you're trusting in that?

When you do that, you've embraced the framework of righteousness by law keeping. I did this and so I'm right. I can have a sunny self-assessment. I might experience the fatherly displeasure of God, but really all is well. Oh, no, no.

Like if you want to trust doing, it doesn't stop with a little surgery when you're eight days old. If you're going to trust doing, It has to be all doing all the time. No exceptions. If you break one point in the law, you've broken all the law. That's the book of James, I think chapter two.

Paul says that the physically uncircumcised person, no sign, no surgery, who obeys the law will judge the physically circumcised person who has the outward sign but who does not obey the law. Where did Paul get such a doctrine? He got it from Jesus. Turn to Matthew chapter 12. This one is probably worth turning to.

It's always worth turning to I guess. We'll be here long enough that it makes sense to turn to Matthew chapter 12. Matthew chapter 12. Paul got this from Jesus. Not surprisingly.

Matthew chapter 12 verses 41 and 42. So we're really near the end of the chapter. Matthew chapter 12 verses 41 and 42, Jesus says this to the Jews. The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it. Because they repented at the preaching of Jonah and indeed a greater than Jonah is here.

The queen of the south, the queen of Sheba, will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it. For she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and indeed a greater than Solomon is here." Jesus said this long before Paul said it. The point isn't that everyone in Nineveh was born again. Think everyone in Nineveh was born again? I'm guessing there were some people in Nineveh that were born again.

The point was, God gave, as far as is recorded in the book of Jonah, God gave Jonah eight prophetic words for Nineveh, yet forty days and Nineveh will be destroyed. How was it? Does it say they were all born again? But they repented so that God didn't wipe that city off the face of the earth 40 days later. The point is that they did something with their advantages.

That God sent them Jonah and Jonah's preaching was a privilege and an advantage. God could have just wiped them off the face of the earth. They would have deserved it. No one could have condemned him for doing it. But God sent a prophet to give them 40-day notice, and they did something with their advantage and disaster was averted.

Listen to this. If you don't listen to anything else I've said, listen to this. If you do nothing with your advantages, you would have been better off without them. If you do nothing with your advantages, this should be a terrifying thought to everyone in this room, If you do nothing with your advantages, this should be a terrifying thought to everyone in this room, if you do nothing with your advantages, you would have been better off without them. They only increase your responsibility.

If you do nothing without them, all they've done for you, because you did nothing with them, all they've done for you is increased your responsibility, increased your accountability, increased your guilt, increased your condemnation because though the men of Nineveh made something of their advantages, you made nothing of yours. Listen to Calvin. John Calvin says this, Those who dare to set up their own merits against the righteousness of God. So, what's required to be in right standing with God? The righteousness of God.

Nothing less than that will put you in right standing with God. Those who dare to set up their own merits against the righteousness of God glory more in outward observances than in real goodness. That's what you always find when people think, I'll make myself acceptable to God by nice conduct. They glory in outward observances and not in real goodness. Calvin continues, For no one who is seriously touched and moved by the fear of God will ever dare to raise up his eyes to heaven, since the more he strives after true righteousness, the clearer he sees how far he is from it.

What's Calvin saying here? It's brilliant and we need it. We need to hear it. He's saying that people circumcised in heart never trust physical circumcision. People circumcised in heart who have a new heart Find in their trying to be righteous how far they are from being righteous.

They would never trust the physical sign. Because in having a circumcised heart, God shows them how far they really are. So they would never trust in just the physical sign. The new heart recoils at the thought that they could make themselves righteous through conduct, because they see things rightly. In closing, I want to ask you to consider these three statements of truth.

One, Being the child of Christians is no substitute for being a child of God. God has no grandchildren. You're a child or you're nothing. You have direct dealings with God or you have nothing. Being the child of Christians has many advantages.

None of them are a substitute for being a child of God which is only through the blood of Jesus Christ, only and always through the blood of Jesus Christ. I'm a Jew, no one cares that you're a Jew. I have Christian parents, no one cares that you have Christian parents, least of all God in heaven. He has no grandchildren. You go to Him for mercy through His Son Jesus Christ or you are nothing to Him.

Believing God's truth is no substitute for believing in the God of truth. It's subtle but it's the difference between life and death. Believing God's truth. So you're instructed in the law. You approve of those things which are excellent.

You know the will of God. That was true of the Jews. That's what Paul's saying in our text. Believing God's truth is no substitute for believing in the God of truth. What does Jesus say in John 14, 6?

I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Believing propositions never saved anyone. Jesus saves people. Faith doesn't save people.

The object of faith, Jesus Christ, His person and His work, saves people. This is subtle, but no one is saved by believing the gospel. They are saved because Jesus Christ shed His blood. If you trust yourself to the work that he did, it's not intellectual assent to propositions. It is trusting in what Jesus did on the cross.

Will there be Will there be people who are lost, who believe the propositions, but never actually trusted his work? Yes. Yes. Yes, yes. Three, and finally, the outward things are no substitute for the inward things.

I go to church, obviously, you're here. Praise God, it's an advantage, it's a privilege, it's a blessing. I've been baptized. We're commanded to be baptized. Praise God, it's an advantage, it's a privilege, it's a blessing.

I take the Lord's Supper, praise God. It's a beautiful symbol of what brings us life. It's an advantage, it's a privilege, it's a blessing. None of those things save. They're all outward things that are no substitute for the inward things.

They all have value once the inward things are in place, but they have no value outside the inward things. You must be born again. So thank God for your advantages. They are blessings. They are kindly given.

Many people have lived and died without these advantages. The point of all this isn't to make you woot. Sorry you have the advantages because it increases your responsibility. But know this about your advantages. If they don't result in your repenting and trusting in Jesus, it would be better if you never had them at all.

They are kindly sent to you. All these advantages are kindly sent to you. God means for them to result in your repenting and trusting in Jesus. But if they don't, it would be better if you'd never had them at all. God, may these things result in our turning away from false hopes, from clinging to sin and turning to hoping in, trusting in the Lord Jesus.

May all of our advantages fulfill the purpose for which you've given us this privileged status.