Classic Christianity – Book of Romans P11 (11-12-19)
Synopsis
Follow along in Romans 2, and let the Lord teach you through his word. Let Him teach you about your condition of spiritual death. Let him teach you about misplaced dependency. Become born again and learn to depend on Christ. That is where obedience comes from. We love because he first loved us. Consider the fact that God created all there is, and he created you. He knows how you were designed to function. So let us ask Him how we are to live. To live is Christ and to die is gain. Let us learn what that means.
The best illustration of how God designed us to live is what Jesus taught us in John 15, about the vine and the branches. Jesus also demonstrated love, walked in love. He showed us, as a man born into this world, how man is to function. Jesus only did what he saw his Father doing. He did exactly what His Father told him to do and what His Father told him to say and how to say. He became obedient to death, death on a cross, for you and me. That was the will of the Father, for you and me. And he received the command from the Father to be raised from the dead, so that as he lives forever, you too can live forever in Him. You can enter into that same relationship Jesus had with his Father, walking in total dependence, in the way God intended us to live.
Now, Paul addressed both the Gentile and the Jew. Turning his attention now to the Jew, he talks about their judgmental attitude, as those who boast in their understanding of the law. They think they are the embodiment of the law, and are a blind to the guide. But they were not abiding in Christ. They were not allowing Christ to live through them. They were not listening to His counsel. They were intent on crucifying the Lord of glory! They were leaning on their own understanding. They saw wrong in everyone else, but never looked at themselves and what was wrong in them.
Now, how hard it is for those who grew up in a wonderful home? If the greatest sin you see yourself ever doing is stealing a cookie as a little boy, do you see yourself as God sees you? Have you ever lusted in your heart at a woman? If you being wealthy, and God told you to sell everything you have and give to the poor, would you be able to do what God asked? So, what is really deep inside your heart that you do not see?
Or, how hard it is for those who pulled themselves up by their own bootstraps, and now sit in pride, as if they overcame by their own efforts? Do you now see yourself in need of God? Or, are you a self made man, with no need of anything?
Or are you religious, looking down on others, who have not arrived at your state of obedience, or so you think, in such self righteousness? What is your attitude toward someone who has been caught up in sin? Consider that God’s heart is a heart of mercy, a heart of grace. Do you see your need of God’s mercy and grace for you, when you have stumbled into sin?
Do you not see your state of spiritual death, and your need of life, Christ’s life? The law of Christ is love. Jesus fulfilled the law for us because we could not do it ourselves. He fulfilled it. How did he fulfill it? He walked in perfect love and love is the fulfillment of the law. He did not fulfill the law by not doing something. He fulfilled the law by doing something and what he did was walk in love.
Now, looking at Christ and his love for you, then do you see? If you are born again, in Christ Jesus, remember, we love because he first loved us. Let us never forget that, and how could we?
Galatians 6:1-3
1 Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. 2 Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. 3 If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves.
Transcript
Romans 2:1
You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.
Paul is addressing the Jews now. He told them the same thing Jesus said, “You hypocrites.”
Matthew 7:3-5
3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
You try to take the spec out of your neighbor when you got a log of your own. So before you take out the spec, take out the log. Paul in essence is saying the same thing. You have the law. You have the morality that was given to you by God. You say you are a law keeper but you are not. So who are you to pass judgment on the Gentiles, who do not have the law, acting sinful, when you yourself have the law, and you too are acting sinful? Kind of nails it, doesn’t it?
Romans 2:2
2 Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth.
When God judges, it is based on truth, not on circumstances, but based on truth. When God judges something, He judges according to truth. But you, mere man, pass judgment and do the same things.
Romans 2:3
3 So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment?
God, when He judges something, He judges because it is truth. He looks into the heart and judges it. We do not do it that way. We say you are doing something and you have not caught me doing something! Do you think you will escape something because you are hiding something you are doing under the skin?
Romans 2:4
4 Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness,
Are you absolutely forgetting about His kindness, because all you are bragging about is you and yours? You are bragging about how kind you are. Here is this word, tolerance, a new word. You think you are so tolerant of everybody and He says, “Have you shown contempt for God’s tolerance and kindness and patience?.”
Romans 2:4
4 Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?
Friends, what leads you to repentance? The kindness of God. In Titus, it is the grace of God that teaches us to say no to unrighteousness.
Titus 2:11-13
11 For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. 12 It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, 13 while we wait for the blessed hope – the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ,
It is grace, it is mercy, it is kindness that draws a person to the heart of God. It also draws a person to each other. When you have a person that is kind to you, forgiving of you, tolerant and patient, you are going to be drawn to them. When they are not, you are going to go away from them. It is that simple. When you are going to judge me, it is going to be hard to be your friend.
Romans 2:5
5 But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart,
You are so judgmental about others, but you are not looking at yourself. You are not looking at what is going underneath the skin, where you and I live. All you can see is the errors out there. All you see is what others are doing, what is wrong out there. When you do see what is going out here, you are mad as a hen. You cannot take it. Self-righteous people cannot take criticism. So he says you are stubborn. You have an unrepentant heart. You know what he says.
Romans 2:5
5 But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed.
God knows what is going on underneath the skin. We can pretend to be so good on the outside but God sees the heart. When He sees the heart, we realize the only solution and hope that I have is in Him, for I sure do not have it in myself. Do you?
Romans 2:6-7
6 God will repay each person according to what they have done.”[Psalm 62:12; Proverbs 24:12] 7 To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life.
Who seeks God’s glory, God’s honor, and God’s immortality? No one. That is the point.
Romans 2:8-11
8 But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. 9 There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; 10 but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. 11 For God does not show favoritism.
Now folks, these are passages that you can look at, and unless you read the whole book, if you stop there, you can say “Oh, it looks like God is judging what we are doing. Those who by persistence, by doing good, seeking honor, glory and immortality, He will give me eternal life.” Do you know what the problem is folks? Who is seeking God’s glory? We are seeking to honor ourselves. That is what he is getting at. We will see, that in a minute, those who are self seeking, reject the truth, and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. Would that lead you to believe God will be judging you on what you are doing? Kind of leads you to believe that doesn’t it?
God does not show favoritism. What is he saying here? I am going to treat the Jew and the Gentile exactly alike. The Gentile does not have the law. The Jew has the law. I will treat them exactly alike. No difference at all. How did he treat us all alike? What is the consequence of sin? Death. Who did death come to? All Gentiles and all Jews.
Now look at what he is saying here.
Romans 2:12
12 All who sin apart from the law
Who is that? The Gentiles.
Romans 2:12
12 All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law,
Was a Gentile ever given the law, according to scripture? No. What are we doing with it then? Is that a good question? What are we doing with it then, if we are never given it? Who are the strongest proponents of the law? The Gentiles, aren’t we? We went over and stole up the old beat up clothes of Israel and put them over our new suit and said “I am looking good.” We have to understand, folks, the Gentiles were apart from the law. We never had it. The law was given to the Jews to keep them out of chaos when they left Egypt. When they left the desert, the dietary laws and the laws of the land, better known as the ten commandments, were to keep society out of chaos. The laws were given to the Jews. Now he is saying this.
Romans 2:12
12 All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law.
Both were under the death sentence.
Romans 2:13
13 For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous.
Now what does that say to you, if you are going to stop there? Where does righteousness come from? Where does it come from, according to this? Obedience to the law. Is that right or wrong? Is that right? But it says it. What is he saying it for? To bury us. Turn to Galatians 2.
Galatians 2:15-16
15 “We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles 16 know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.
Now turn over to Galatians 2:21.
Galatians 2:21
21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”
Galatians 3:11-12
11 Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because “the righteous will live by faith.” 12 The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, it says, “The person who does these things will live by them.”
If you are going to be under the law, you will have to live under the law, and under the law, the wages of sin is death. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. What was the curse of the law? Death.
Galatians 3:13-14
13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.” 14 He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.
So what is Paul saying over here? No one is going to be justified through the law.
Turn over to Romans 3:20. What I am doing this for is so that you can see. Do not stop reading. Do not read something like this and say, “Oh, there it is.” Keep reading so you can get an explanation of why it is there. It is there. Here is the reason why it is there. And we are going to point out the reason.
Romans 3:20
20 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.
What is the “therefore” there for. It is a conclusion of the matter.
What was the purpose of the law then? To make you conscious of sin. What was the purpose of making you conscious of sin? To let you know that you are a sinner. Are we all together? Are we all alive and well and awake? If I am made conscious of sin, it makes me conscious that I must therefore be a sinner. A sinner is dead. What does a dead person need? Life. That is the purpose of the law, to show me I am a sinner, and the consequence of sin is death, and a dead person needs life. There is only one person who can give life to the dead and that is Jesus. Life is through the resurrection of Jesus. Do you think Buddha can give you life? Do you think Mahammed can give you life? Do you think the pope can give you life? Do you think Martin Luther can bring you to life? No. Only Jesus can bring death to life. That is the “therefore” of this passage to show us that no man will ever be declared righteous in the sight of God by obedience to the law.
Romans 2:13
13 For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous.
So what is he saying this for? It is not those who hear the law who are righteous but those who obey the law who are declared righteous. What is he saying in that? Has anyone ever obeyed the law? Has anyone been declared righteous through obedience to the law? No. So what is he showing you? If you are under law, this is how you are going to be declared righteous under the law. Total obedience. James said it, did he not?
James 2:10
10 For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.
If you kept the whole law and violated at just one point, you violated all of it. What do you say to that? Watch my smoke. You said, “I have had it”. And God says, “now you got it.” When you know you had it, then you got it. Now you are ready for the resurrection. Many times you will find people who want to teach legalism and they will try to teach people from this passage. They will say, “See, it says it right there. You have to obey the law. It says it right there.” I will tell you something. Those who are teaching that are the biggest hypocrites in the world. No one has obeyed the law except Jesus.
Romans 2:12-13
12 All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. 13 For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous.
Jesus fulfilled the law for us because we could not do it ourselves. He fulfilled it. How did he fulfill it? He walked in perfect love and love is the fulfillment of the law. He did not fulfill the law by not doing something. He fulfilled the law by doing something and what he did was walk in law. These passages, many times people try to bury you with. When you have been in a legalistic church, you have been hit hard with these kind of passages. “It is not those who hear the law, so you got to obey it. Obedience!” Notice how they always say “obedience”, and always emphasize that “e” in there.
Who do you know who is obedient all the time to Jesus? Anybody know anybody like that? Does anybody know anybody who ever knew somebody like that? Now in saying that, is there a life, that we as children of God, should be living? What is that life that we should be living? A life of dependency. Jesus said, “I do not do anything unless the Father tells me to do it. I do not say anything unless the Father tells me to say it and how to say it. As the Father sent me so I send you.”
John 5:19
19 Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.”
John 8:28
28 So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me.”
John 7:16-17
16 Jesus answered, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from the one who sent me. 17 Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.”
How are we to live our Christian life, our being obedient to God? There is only one way to look at that. Look at what Jesus taught us in John 15.
John 15:1-8
1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
Look at Galatians 5:22-23, an explanation of the fruit Jesus is referring to.
Galatians 5:22-23
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
How is a branch obedient to the vine? By abiding. Is a branch obedient to the vine by our trying to grunt and groan in the orchard, saying “Come out fruit” in the energy of your flesh? Is that obedience? A branch obedient to the vine is one living in dependency upon the vine. That is why it is our love of God and not that we loved him but he loves us first, that results in the dependency on God that then results in the obedience to God.
1 John 4:10 (KJV)
10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
1 John 4:19
19 We love because he first loved us.
The emphasis is not on obedience but dependency because dependency brings about obedience. So he is saying to us here, that under the law, if you want to be righteous, you have to obey the whole law. Then you will be declared righteous. God will do that. Man says, “Hmm”. He said on another occasion that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees, you will never see the kingdom of God.
Matthew 5:20
20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.
“Isn’t that encouraging?”, as man would naturally think. Paul said there was not a man alive who ever lived up to to the law like I did. He said he was without blame. Now try to exceed that.
Philippians 3:4-9
If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.7 But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ – the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.
So he is saying to them that this is the demands of the law, but no man can keep it. He just gave another illustration, the illustration of the conscience.
Romans 2:14-15
14 (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15 They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.)
If they are doing what you are not doing, are they not in better shape than you are? This annihilates the self righteous, either the self righteous Jew or the self righteous Gentile today. It annihilates you. If you have these people out here that are not paying any attention to all this religious stuff, and they are living lives of law, and you have the law, and you say you are abiding, and you are not, are they not in better shape than what you are?
Romans 2:14-15
16 This will take place on the day when God judges people’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.
Notice that the apostle Paul is referring to this as my gospel. This was a gospel that was revealed to the apostle Paul by God, by direct revelation.
Galatians 1:11-12
11 I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin. 12 I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.
It was a gospel that came to Paul by direct revelation that he then shard with the apostles, and their hearts were opened up to what he shared and this is the message that spread all over that part of the world in Paul’s day.
Galatians 1:15-24
15 But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace, was pleased 16 to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, my immediate response was not to consult any human being. 17 I did not go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went into Arabia. Later I returned to Damascus.18 Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Cephas [that is, Peter] and stayed with him fifteen days. 19 I saw none of the other apostles – only James, the Lord’s brother. 20 I assure you before God that what I am writing you is no lie.
21 Then I went to Syria and Cilicia. 22 I was personally unknown to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. 23 They only heard the report: “The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” 24 And they praised God because of me.
Galatians 2:1-2
1 Then after fourteen years, I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas. I took Titus along also. 2 I went in response to a revelation and, meeting privately with those esteemed as leaders, I presented to them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles.
Galatians 2:6-7
6 As for those who were held in high esteem – whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not show favoritism – they added nothing to my message. 7 On the contrary, they recognized that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been to the circumcised. 8 For God, who was at work in Peter as an apostle to the circumcised, was also at work in me as an apostle to the Gentiles.
So he is saying to us here that unless you are a very unusual person, you are not living a perfect life. Do any of you here think that you are perfect? If you do, I would like to interview your wife or your husband. Folks, when is the world ever going to get it into their heads that we who are judging one another that he is saying look, take the log out of your eye before you try to take the spec out of your neighbor’s eye. Really, this is true.
You just got people who are always judging, judging, judging. The only thing that you can conclude is that they must think they are perfect or they would not be judging. For if you realize that, “No. I am not perfect.” then what are we judging? What are the imperfect doing judging the imperfect? So he is saying to us, “see yourself as I see you”. As Paul said, quit thinking of yourself more highly than you ought.
Romans 12:3
3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.
Because when you are thinking of yourself as more highly than you ought, then you are never going to see that apart from Jesus, you would not be any place.
Some of the hardest people in the world to convince of this message are the ones who have really never done anything really bad, of what they think is bad. They are the hardest ones. Some of the hardest places in the United States is where I came from, Indiana. Iowa. People are just kind of nice people back then. They did not even have a key for a house. In the little town I grew up, there had never been a murder. With a population of 20,000 people, there has never been a murder. That was back in the old days, probably before guns. I am not sure. But people were nice. Basically honest. My dad was the lawyer. Most of the work he did was just word of mouth. When he said “I will do this, that was it. That was a contract, a handshake with your word. Nice people are the hardest ones in the world to convert because they do not need God, or so they think.
A person who does not see himself as a sinner does not need God, or so he thinks. He says, “Oh, I am basically a good person.” How many times have you heard this? “I am basically a good person”. He just beat up his wife and kicked the dog and murdered the cat, but he is basically a good person. We do not see that apart from Christ that we are nothing but an empty barrel. Apart from Jesus, we are just going through the motions. Are we not? What are you doing before you were saved? Going through the motions, were we not? There is no meaning and purpose to life. You are just going through the motions, practicing religion. That is about as empty as a pork barrel.
So Jesus, through the apostle Paul, is trying to get both the Jew and the Gentile to look at themselves. To the Gentile, he is saying, “Do you see how low you are capable of becoming? Do not sit there and judge it? You could do this too. Just given the opportunity, you can be doing everything we talked about.” To the Jew, he is saying “What are you doing judging people? You are doing the same thing.” It is getting to see yourselves.
Romans 2:17-19
17 Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; if you rely on the law and boast in God; 18 if you know his will and approve of what is superior because you are instructed by the law; 19 if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind,
That is what many people think they are, a guide to the blind. I am here to shape up the world. I am here to tell everybody what they are doing is wrong and shape them up. We try to shape up our children. We try to shape up our husbands. We try to shape up our wife. We try to shape up everybody. Do you know why? We are a bunch of control freaks. The battle for control. We want to control everything. We want to be like God, and we say “I am going to control. I want to control you so you will be like me so you will be nice.” (Actually, God only controls us if we let him. He created us with free will.)
Hmm. Hmm. That is funny. We want to control people! “I want everybody to be the way that I want them to be. I want them to treat me the way I want to be treated.” That is man. To me, it is a part of the indwelling sin that lives inside of us. It is that desire to control. I want to control the way you look. I want to control the way you drive. I want to control the way you do this. I want to control everything, because basically, I think I am God. Hmm. You just have not figured that out yet. He said you are convinced that you are a guide to the blind. You think you have the answer to everything. You think you are a light to those who are in darkness. You think you are a light.
Romans 2:19-20
a light for those who are in the dark, 20 an instructor of the foolish,
Everyone else is foolish except you, so you think. So you are an instructor, an instructor of everybody on how to live?
Romans 2:20
a teacher of little children, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth –
You know what? If you know the law, you have the embodiment of knowledge and truth. The only problem is you are not putting it into practice.
Romans 2:21
21 you, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal?
Do you cheat on your income tax? I would probably say it publicly, but I think I used to. IRS, stay away from me. My feeling. Every time there is the strangest thing. Every time I got ready to do income taxes, I will just give them a little bit, not a lot. Just something. Finally, I say “This is foolish. This is foolish. A clear conscience is certainly worth a lot more than a few bucks that you save.” So he says, “You, who preach against stealing, do you steal?”
Romans 2:22
22 You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery?
Matthew 5:27-28
27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
Again, think about this for a minute, folks. What did Jesus say about adultery? If you look at a woman with lust in your heart, you have already committed adultery. Am I right or wrong?
Matthew 5:29
29 If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.
He said if your left eye causes you to lust, do what with it? Pluck it out. Okay, to lust with your right eye, but not your left one? No, that is not what he is saying. Those who want to obey the law, if you really want to obey what Jesus said, you would be sitting there with sockets in your head and you would not be able to see. Now we read this and say, “that is the act”. Jesus says, “No. I go deeper than that. I am talking about your heart.”
Matthew 15:19
19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts – murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.
