[Romans 2.17_3.8] 2026.07.19 The Hypocrite and the Heart
[Romans 2.17_3.8] 2026.07.19 The Hypocrite and the Heart
The Hypocrite and the Heart
Big Idea: Don’t be hypocritical teachers whose falsehood breeds blasphemy; be people with Spirit-circumcised hearts, living out God’s word for his praise and glory.
1. Privilege without practice dishonours God's name (2:17–24)
2. God praises the changed heart, not the outward mark (2:25–29)
3. Our falseness cannot cancel God's faithfulness (3:1–8)
On Wednesday, we took KOGYouth out for an excursion to bowling.
However, there were times when one of the brothers got ahead by a lot and the other brothers started chanting, ‘for shame, for shame’, in order to distract their older brother.
However, the phrase ‘for shame, for shame’, has been used for over seven hundred years to describe someone who ought to be ashamed of their behaviour.
Last week, we saw that God’s fury is not just on those who behave badly, but even on those who call out others who behave badly.
Why is God furious even on those people whom our community thinks are good, people who appear to be morally superior?
Please open your Bible to Romans chapter two, beginning from verse seventeen.
We’re going to see three things:
1. Privilege without practice dishonours God's name (2:17–24)
2. God praises the changed heart, not the outward mark (2:25–29)
3. Our falseness cannot cancel God's faithfulness (3:1–8)
Let’s pray before we go deeper, “Father, by your Holy Spirit, please open our eyes that we might see even more of your righteousness, for Jesus’ sake, Amen.”
1. Privilege without practice dishonours God's name (2:17–24)
In Romans chapter one, we read about God’s fury against those who had intentionally turned away from him, who deliberately chose to live a life in outright defiance of God.
Last week, as we began Romans chapter two, we saw that those who judged others and thought of themselves as “good” were no better than the first group.
Open up with me to Romans chapter two beginning from verse 17: “Now if you call yourself a Jew, and rely on the law, and boast in God,” He was referring specifically to the Jews of his day.
While Paul’s original audience were these ancient Jews, there’s a strong warning for all of us here today, especially those of us who have been in Churches for a long time, that privilege without practice dishonours God’s name.
Paul began by saying that these Jews relied on the law and boasted in God.
And more than that, they knew God’s will; they knew what God wanted because God had shown his will to them in the Bible.
They were experts at what’s superior.
It’s like this painting by Caravaggio.
However, if you look at it more closely, you’ll see that while the young, rich boy on the left was looking at his card, the guy next to him was giving hints to his partner on the right, telling him what card he had.
The Jews believed that they had superior insight and knowledge, that they were not like the young man in the painting.
The Jews were convinced that they were guides to the blind, light to those in the darkness, instructor to the ignorant and teacher of the immature.
We would probably think that they thought too highly of themselves and that they needed a reality check.
Paul didn’t dispute any of these.
It was a tremendous privilege to be a Jew, to have the law of the living God, given to you in your native language.
But, knowing the law of God is not the same as practising the law of God.
Look with me at verse 21 “21 you then, who teach another, don’t you teach yourself? You who preach, “You must not steal”—do you steal?”
You might know the law of God so well that you can teach other people God’s laws, but do you teach others without teaching yourself?
Now imagine the young man absent-mindedly left all the coins behind.
The two thieves look at you and offer you some of the coins.
Or would you practise what you preach?
And so, Paul’s challenge to us still stands today, “You who preach, “You must not steal”—do you steal?”
Look with me at verse 22, ‘22 You who say, “You must not commit adultery”—do you commit adultery? You who detest idols, do you rob temples?’
Many of us know that God says it’s wrong to commit adultery, to be unfaithful to our spouse.
And yet, there are still many people who choose to be unfaithful and abandon their spouse and their families.
Finally, there are those who detest idols, false gods whom the real God told us not to worship, and yet, many of us still rob God’s temple.
Robbing God’s temple was a charge that God laid against his people in Malachi 3:8, when God said to his people through Malachi, ‘“Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing me!” “How do we rob you?” you ask. “By not making the payments of the tenth and the contributions.”’
God’s requirement from his people was to give a tenth of all that they had, plus other contributions, as part of their worship.
They were robbing God.
As Christians we detest idol worship.
But aren’t we committing the same sin we accuse others of, when we ourselves detest genuine worship of the real God by robbing God?
Verse 23, “You who boast in the law, do you dishonour God by breaking the law?”
Having the privilege of knowing God’s law carries the responsibility of practising God’s law.
When we don’t practise God’s law, God’s name is blasphemed.
Verse 24, “For, as it is written: The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”
Friends, like the Jews, we have been given a tremendous privilege.
We have even more reason than the Jews to boast in our God, for we know that God has sent his own Son Jesus Christ to rescue us from the dominion of darkness into the Kingdom of His Son.
There is no higher privilege than to be called a child of God, to be able to call God Abba, Father.
However, with that great privilege comes great responsibility.
It’s no good for us to teach people about the good news of Jesus if our lives don’t show it.
And when we do that, God’s name is blasphemed.
When we say, “You must love God with all your heart”, do we love God with all of our hearts?
And here’s one that I hear so often, “I wish I had more friends and more fellowship at Church”, are you a friend to others at Church?
Listen to verse 23 again, “You who boast in the law, do you dishonour God by breaking the law?”
I. Often on Sunday mornings, you will see me running from one place to another, talking to different people along the way, getting ready for the next thing on the programme.
However, I remember one time, must have been over thirty years ago, an older sister gave me a cup of water during morning tea.
She didn’t want to ask me anything, she didn’t need anything from me, she just wanted to give me a cup of water.
She was a sister who practised what the Bible taught.
II. Friends, we are a Church that has the wonderful privilege of teaching and preaching the Word of God every Sunday here at Church, as well as throughout the week in our Home Groups and KOG Bible studies, as well as to over 250 students in our local schools.
However, please, as well as knowing the word, live the word.
Start with small steps, like saying Hi to someone at Church and genuinely be interested in them.
Don’t be a hypocrite who tells people what it means to live as God’s people but fails to do so.
Such hypocrisy breeds blasphemy against God’s name.
2. God praises the changed heart, not the outward mark (2:25–29)
Paul then turns his attention to a physical mark that every true Jewish boy has.
Look with me at verse 25, “Circumcision benefits you if you observe the law, but if you are a lawbreaker, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.”
In the book of Genesis, God tells Abraham that as a sign of the covenant that he had made with Abraham, every male in Abraham’s household had to be circumcised.
Paul’s saying that if you have the sign of a person who belongs to God and obeys God but in reality you live as if you don’t belong to God and disobey God, then the sign is not good for you.
I don’t know about you, but when I buy electronic items, I often keep the boxes just in case something happens, and I need to return it.
Take this box here for instance.
While the boxes are nice, it’s what’s inside the boxes that counts, isn’t it?
The same goes for the Jew who’s been circumcised.
The mark of circumcision is like the box, but it’s what’s inside them that matters.
If they claim to be a Jew and yet live as if they’re not one, then the very sign of circumcision will become the sign of uncircumcision.
That is, the very sign that ought to show who they are on the inside shows that they’re a sham, a fake.
What if there’s someone who’s not a Jew but keeps the law’s requirements?
Does such a person exist?
Paul says that if this person does exist, then he would judge the Jew, for this person, a Gentile, has kept the commands of God but the Jew, who points his finger to others who don’t have the commands of God, didn’t keep the commands of God.
Look with me at verses 28-29, “For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, and true circumcision is not something visible in the flesh. 29 On the contrary, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart—by the Spirit, not the letter. That person’s praise is not from people but from God.”
It’s not the outward sign of circumcision that counts but the inward circumcision of the heart that counts.
The Bible is not talking about someone who has rough edges but is basically a good person on the inside.
The Bible talks about the circumcision of the heart.
A nice person may do and say nice things, but without the circumcision of the heart, they cannot follow God’s laws and so they remain outside of God’s kingdom.
A religious person, a Jewish person, may try their best to follow God’s laws, but without the circumcision of the heart, it’s impossible to follow God’s laws.
How do we circumcise our hearts?
Well, we don’t since we can’t.
Our hearts can only be circumcised by the Spirit.
Only God the Holy Spirit can spiritually operate on our hearts by taking out our hearts of stone and giving us a heart of flesh.
This is how we Gentiles, we who don’t have a prestigious Jewish heritage can keep the law’s requirements even when the religious Jew couldn’t.
We can keep the law’s requirements not because we’re clever, not because we’re good, not because we’re superior, but because Jesus has kept the law’s requirements on our behalf.
We could not keep God’s law even if we had tried our hardest, but Jesus, the Perfect Son of God, kept God’s laws perfectly.
And from now on, those who had put their trust in Jesus, are reckoned by God to have kept his law.
But as people saved by Jesus, God the Son, and as a people whose hearts have been transformed and are constantly transformed by the Holy Spirit, we will live our lives as those whose sins have been paid for, who live with love and thanks for our God who has wonderfully saved us by his power and grace.
As Titus 2:11-12 reminds us, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, 12 instructing us to deny godlessness and worldly lusts and to live in a sensible, righteous, and godly way in the present age,”
We live as a people who long for God’s praise, not men’s.
One of the saddest assessments I often hear from people who have been going to Church for many years is that they say that the younger Christians aren’t growing, that they are not mature.
However, as people who have been coming to Church for many years, they should’ve been the ones teaching and discipling the younger Christians, helping them grow instead of criticising them.
In fact, I’ve often seen more growth in younger Christians than some others who have been coming to Church for a while, because they often take their faith more seriously, humbly acknowledging that they still have much to learn.
Ironically, this desire to learn and grow is a sign of maturity.
Friends, the length of our stay at Church is no guarantee that our hearts have been transformed by the Holy Spirit.
A heart that hasn’t been circumcised by the Holy Spirit will long for praise from men and will be more concerned about the faults of others than their own faults.
And so, friends, let’s examine our hearts, and ask the Holy Spirit to continue to shape and transform us, every day.
Our falseness cannot cancel God's faithfulness (3:1–8)
If it’s all a matter of the heart, then what’s the point of having any external signs?
Paul anticipates this and affirms that our falseness cannot cancel God’s faithfulness.
Look with me at chapter 3, verses 1-2, “So what advantage does the Jew have? Or what is the benefit of circumcision? 2 Considerable in every way. First, they were entrusted with the very words of God.”
First and foremost, they’ve been entrusted with the very words of God.
It’s a privilege of the highest order.
However, as Paul had been arguing in the last chapter, having God’s word but not practising it is bad.
Having the privilege without the practice dishonours God’s name, living with the cover of circumcision without the circumcision of the heart won’t get any praise from God.
And so, what if the Jews were unfaithful?
Paul anticipates two types of objections about our falseness and God’s faithfulness.
Look with me at verse 3, “What then? If some were unfaithful, will their unfaithfulness nullify God’s faithfulness?”
Yes, God may be faithful and loving and just, but what if the people weren’t, as has been proven time and time again.
Yes, God had promised to give his people the Promised Land but because the people were so rebellious, so bad, that God punished them by allowing a foreign nation to take over them and exile them away from the Promised Land?
Wouldn’t God’s faithfulness fail because of the people’s unbelief?
It’s a little like this.
As some of you know, earlier this week, there was a national outage for Telstra.
However, when maintenance workers were working on an old server in Melbourne, it reset the date to 2006 and it triggered a national outage affecting up to 8.8 million customers and businesses.
God has a masterful, beautiful plan to save his people.
But what if there were some who were not faithful, what if there were some who did not believe?
Throughout history, there have been so many Jewish leaders, Christian leaders and Christian Churches, people who should’ve been faithful but weren’t, who have caused so much damage to God’s people and to God’s Church.
From a human point of view, it seems like though God might have been faithful, his effort, his faithfulness appears to have been nullified by man’s unfaithfulness.
Just as human error had caused millions of Telstra customers to be disconnected, wouldn’t the act of unfaithful men and unfaithful women cancel God’s faithfulness?
Paul replies with an emphatic, “Absolutely Not! Let God be true, even though everyone is a liar,” God’s faithfulness cannot be cancelled by man’s unfaithfulness.
Paul will look at this in more detail later on in Romans chapters 9-11, but for now, Paul says that though everyone is a liar, let God be true.
God’s faithfulness remains even when we’re utterly unfaithful.
For God’s faithfulness is seen not only in his salvation, but also in his righteous judgement.
Paul uses a quote from Psalm 51 to make a point, “as it is written:That you may be justified in your words and triumph when you judge.”
Psalm 51 was written by King David as a confession to God after David was told by God’s prophet that God knew that King David had committed adultery with Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah.
David didn’t make any excuse for himself.
David knew that he was guilty and so he confessed.
God was justified in passing his judgement on King David.
Despite our unfaithfulness, God’s faithfulness remains.
Paul then anticipates another objection that may be levelled against God.
Look with me in verse 5, “But if our unrighteousness highlights God’s righteousness, what are we to say? I am using a human argument: Is God unrighteous to inflict wrath?”
The argument goes like this: if our unrighteousness highlights God’s righteousness, then it makes God look good, right?
And if it makes God look good, then why are we being punished for it?
And so, why do we get punished for being unrighteous when it’s impossible for us to be holy and righteous like God, ever?
To this, Paul replies, again, very emphatically in verse 6, “Absolutely not! Otherwise, how will God judge the world?”
God will judge the world one day.
There isn’t a third option; it’s either heaven or hell for everyone who has ever lived.
Those who remained unrighteous will be sentenced and those who had been made righteous by Jesus will be welcomed home.
Though our unrighteousness does highlight God’s righteousness, it does not excuse us from being accountable for our own unrighteousness.
In verse 8, Paul anticipates that someone might make a similar objection about the truth of God and the lie of men, “But if by my lie God’s truth abounds to his glory, why am I also still being judged as a sinner?”
If even our unrighteousness and our lies can be used to highlight God’s righteousness and truth, then should God really judge us at all?
If not, then does it really matter how we live?
Look with me at verse 8, “And why not say, just as some people slanderously claim we say, “Let us do what is evil so that good may come”? Their condemnation is deserved!”
Some people have so twisted Paul’s teaching that they are saying that Paul says that people should actually do evil so that good may come.
That’s not what Paul’s been saying and that’s not what the Bible’s teaching.
The actions we make matter, the decisions we make matter.
Don’t fall for a twisted version of God’s grace that excuses your sinful actions.
However, as part of God’s grace to us, he transforms our hearts so that we will trust and obey him.
Being saved by God doesn’t give you permission to sin against God.
In fact, it’s the opposite.
Being saved by God means that you’re thankful for what God has done and that you will not jump back into sin, even as you’re tempted to do so every hour of every day.
On Tuesday night, we’re beginning to try a new structure for our prayer meetings.
Recently, we started using the ACTS method.
ACTS stands for Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication.
Last Tuesday, a few of us spent time talking about sins that we would like to confess.
It is good to confess our sins to one another and ask God to forgive.
The confession of sin, as well as finding our forgiveness in Christ, is vital to help us come to trust in God’s faithfulness despite our unfaithfulness and to ask God to keep us from going back into sin.
Friends, don’t make excuses for your sins.
Confess them before the Lord.
Where possible, confess them to a mature brother or sister and ask them to pray for you.
The act of confessing and forgiving is a beautiful way for Christians to express how in Christ, the demand of the law has been fulfilled and how we, as people whose hearts the Spirit has transformed, can live for the praise of God’s glory.
Why is God furious at what we as a community think of as ‘good’ people?
It’s because if these good people are like the Jews described in here, who saw themselves as a light to the blind, teaching others good things, even the good things of God, but they themselves have not been circumcised in the heart, then they are still outside of God’s kingdom.
What God wants from us instead is to be a people with a heart circumcised by the Holy Spirit.
He longs to see a people who long to keep the requirements of the law, not by their power but by the Spirit’s power.
He longs to see a people who would confess their sins rather than make excuses for them.
For these are the very people who themselves long to see God, who live out God’s word for his glory and praise.
Don’t be hypocritical teachers whose falsehood breeds blasphemy; be people with Spirit-circumcised hearts, living out God’s word for his praise and glory.
Here are three questions for us to think about this week:
Three Questions
1. Where do I find my comfort and assurance — Bible knowledge, years of Church service, Christian achievements — rather than trusting in and obeying Christ himself?
2. Does the watching world see in our life together as a Church a reason to honour God's name, or to disparage it?
3. When my sin is exposed, do I argue like the objector or confess like King David — trusting the God who stays faithful?
Friends, Don’t be hypocritical teachers whose falsehood breeds blasphemy; be people with Spirit-circumcised hearts, living out God’s word for his praise and glory.
Let’s pray, “Father, thank you for your faithfulness. Thank you that you are true and your words remain true, even though every man and every woman is a liar. Father, please forgive us for our unbelief. Please forgive us for not putting our trust in you. Please forgive us for our hypocrisy, teaching love when we don’t love, teaching the dangers of sin when we practise those very same sins. Father, be merciful and by your Holy Spirit, transform our hearts. Break our hearts if it means you will reform them to long and love Jesus, and his people. We pray this for his sake, Amen.”