Meddlin’
Romans 2
In chapter one, where we have been studying for the past two weeks, Paul preached a VERY STERN message against the Gentile heathens who did not believe God because they rejected the witness of creation and conscience.
God said they may not have the law… or the Gospel… but they had creation and conscience and those two things would stand as their judges… because they had sufficient light to believe in a wise creator who should be worshipped… but they did not worship that God instead worshipping their own idols.
Now, Romans 2 is not a transcript of a sermon that Paul preached in Rome… it is a letter. Had it been a sermon, the Jews would have been jumping up and down in the aisles, waving hands and shouting “Amen, Brother. Preach it Brother. You tell ‘em.” “Don’t hold back, alright now, that’s it.” It would have sounded like the last night of a charismatic camp meeting.
They would have been dancing on the pews, fainting in the aisles, and speaking in tongues.
Paul was singing their song… ringing their bell… preaching just what they loved… condemnation of the gentiles.
As a preacher you know when you hit a responsive chord with the people… they say “Amen” or maybe clap… [except in a SBC church]
Watch any black or charismatic preacher and he kind of preaches around trying to find a responsive place… and once he does… he camps out right there and rings that bell over and over.
Two excited women who were sitting together in the front pew of church with a fiery preacher. They were in the spirit and loving the message. They were shouting out and waving their hankies. They would use their paper fan to wave for Jesus and then to cool themselves off fearing they might just “get the vapors.” When this preacher condemned the sin of lust, these two ladies cried out at the top of their lungs... AMEN... BROTHER! So the preacher camped out and stomped the dickens out of those who lust. When the preacher moved on and condemned the sin of stealing, they yelled again....PREACH IT REVEREND! And he did… for 15 minutes. Then the preacher condemned the sin of lying.... and they jumped to their feet and screamed, RIGHT ON BROTHER.... TELL IT LIKE IT IS.....AMEN!
After another 30 minutes of raking liars over the coals and dangling them over the flames of hell the preacher condemned the sin of gossip. The two women sat down, got quiet looked in the other direction. The preacher, fearing he was losing his audience preached even harder against the unloving, unchristian tongues that were set on fire by Satan. Still the women were quiet. Finally the preacher stopped and asked… “Ladies don’t you like to hear good old-fashioned, fire and brimstone preachin’?” One of the women responded sarcastically… O yes Reverend, we love good strong preachin’but you done quit preaching and gone to meddlin'."
The Jews hated the gentiles… especially the wretched Romans because they were an occupying army… walking around defiling the promised land and particularly Jerusalem, the holy City and even THE TEMPLE the most holy spot on earth. When a self respecting Jew would say the word “gentile” they would spit to cleanse their mouth.
When Paul was nailing the gentiles in chapter one, the Jews were euphoric, on cloud nine, loving every word.
Paul knew it. He knew they would hear these words through the filter of hatred and nationalism.
See, they left the revival the first night… after chapter one… and came back for the second night ready to hear Paul preach the devil out of the gentiles.
Imagine their surprise when he read the text and started preaching about the sins of… THE JEWS.
I sure am glad to have ya’ll (Paul was a southern Jew) glad to have ya’ll back tonight. I know how much ya’ll enjoyed last night… “Amens” all around.
But ya’ll misunderstood my message. You thought I was blasting the heathen gentiles and condemning their sins. The truth is… everything I said last night about the gentiles was true of them… but it is also true of YOU.
What is the difference between preachin’ and meddlin”???… Preaching is when you step on the toes of those other people who need it, telling it like it is and pulling no punches--- preachin is when the preacher sticks the boney finger of condemnation in the sternum of other people and lays out their sins---preachin is when the preacher shines the light of God’s condemnation in the hearts of the sinners and exposes the filth and the stench inside------ meddlin’ is when the preacher takes that boney finger and sticks it in YOUR sternum and shines the light of scripture in YOUR heart and finds that same stench.
Last week, Paul and I were Preachin… we lambasted the heathen and the godless who have led our nation into the abyss of idolatry, ungodlessness and ruin.
And those good people among you said, “Amen Preacher… sic ‘em, preach the truth.”
But I stood at the front of the church and offered the invitation… and thought… they missed it! They did not hear God speaking to THEM… they thought I was talking about other people.
And several people congratulated me for “good preaching.”
Well… this week Paul and I are “meddlin’.”
In his very first word… Paul changes directions… “YOU”… he sets the direction and he bangs that drum over and over… 15 times in the first five verses he says YOU.
Not the heathen unbeliever… YOU the Jews
Not the ones who never heard…YOU who have heard straight from God
Not the ones in darkness... YOU with the light of the HOLY WORD
In the first sermon (chapter)… they were shouting and jumping pews
In the second one… you could have heard a pin drop
Paul said, “You love to hear sermons preached against the lowdown, unworthy sinners. You are quick to point out their sin and call it like it is. You pull no punches. You know the word of God and you know what it right and wrong and you love to blast others for their disobedience. You love to hang their dirty laundry out for all to see.”
BUT YOU ARE JUST AS GUILTY, just as DISOBEDIENT, just as WICKED, just as ODIOUS to God.
Now the place is completely quiet.
Then Paul asks them a rhetorical question: Are you really so warped in your thinking that you think you can be just as guilty of exactly the same sins… and somehow what was true for them… that God was going to judge and punish them…somehow it will not be true for you?
Do you really think God is somehow able to see their sins, and punish them… but He can’t see you covered with the same slop from the pig pen?
Is it because you think God is stupid and can be played for a fool?
Or do you think that you are so special that the slop and mud from the pig pen will not stick to you and you will not smell just as hideous?
Paul knew what they were thinking. They thought that just because they were Jews, just because the Jews were picked by God to bring knowledge of God to the rest of the world, just because Abraham was their forefather, just because of their birth… GOD WOULD NOT JUDGE THEM… EVEN THOUGH THEY WERE GUILTY. Like they had some special “Get out of trouble FREE” card.
Then in verse 4 you can hear the incredulity of Paul’s question… Is your mind so distorted that you would even “show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience,”
Paul meant that the Jews believed that because God was faithful to His promise to Abraham, because He held back his own hand of judgment, did not strike them dead or send pestilence or flood… that the Jews should take that as a sign that God was pleased with them.
Paul said, “NO…NO… for the love of God NO.”
The reason God has not released his army of angels on Israel is not because they are so good… but rather because they are so bad…
God knows that if the angels of judgment came now… the Jews would all perish… and He made a promise to save a remnant… and He is still trying to find a remnant.
His reticence, his delay is not intended as a commendation but rather a condemnation… “to bring YOU to repentance.”
I believe the Jews were shell shocked. Their nationalistic pride was prodding them to stand up and protest. But their conscience, trained by the scriptures... pushed them down in their seats.
They wanted to say exactly what Paul said in vv17f (on screen)
They proudly stood and proclaimed……You can’t talk to us like that… We are Jews, we are the sacred keepers of the Holy Law of Moses, we don’t worship idols because we worship Yahweh, the one true God… He has made us a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark, 20 an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of little children, because we have the law… the embodiment of knowledge and truth
But Paul countered with… Oh yeh… well if you are so wise that you teach other, why don’t you teach yourself… how is it that you yourselves are still doing the very things you teach against
You who preach against stealing, but you steal? 22 You who say that people should not commit adultery, but you commit adultery? 23 You who boast in the law, but you dishonor God by breaking the law?
But the Jews were not done yet… their self-delusion would not die that easily.
BUT WE HAVE CIRCUMCISION… Proof that we are God’s special people.
To which Paul responds…Circumcision, smirkumcism!
What is outward circumcision? A little snip that makes you sore for a few days then it is over. It is just a needless operation that makes you a weirdo.
Without an inner reality… it is meaningless … nothing… without any effect.
A man took his girlfriend to the boxing match. She had never been and he had to explain everything. Before the bell, the fighter, a Catholic, crossed himself. She asked what that was. He said, “a prayer” “Will it help?” she asked. The man responded… “if he can fight.”
Imagine that boxer had never boxed but believed because he had boxing shoes, and boxing gloves and a crucifix… that he was guaranteed a win.
Twenty seconds later… the referee is raising the hand of the challenger, and our rookie is out cold as a cucumber in the middle of the ring.
Paul said you can have your law and your prophets and your circumcisions and your celebrations… but if you can’t box… if you don’t keep the law… you are dead meat.
Then Paul levels the greatest charge of all… the most damning…
The gentiles, heathens who wouldn’t know the truth if it came up and bit them in the backside… so pathetically evil that they can’t even spell goodness… these heathens are making a laughing stock of your God… BECAUSE OF YOU.
Then Paul lays out the truth…
In verse 5f, Paul weeps for the Jews because they are blind… they do not even see what they are doing by continuing to do the very sins they condemn in others.
Paul says… you don’t even see that you are writing checks that you don’t have the funds to cover. You just keep writing yourself deeper and deeper into debt… stacking overdraft fee on top of overdraft fee.
But the end of the month is coming and the ledger will have to be reconciled… the books balanced… and YOU WILL HAVE TO PAY.
Those who have a positive balance will be paid in full… and those with a negative balance will have to pay in full.
And you think that because you know the banker, he will not charge you an overdraft fee.
The truth is… he is going to start with YOU
Twice Paul says… First to the Jew, then to the gentile
Then comes the most crushing news of all…for the Jews…
GOD DOES NOT PLAY FAVORITES
God will repay each person for what they have done
Some of you were here last week and you applauded the hard preaching against the godless slide of America into things like abortion and homosexuality and drugs and divorce. You were so glad to hear me tell it like it is about the homosexuals. BUT YOU MISSED THE SERMON
Because you thought it was a sermon about or to homosexuals
Today you have applauded this sermon that condemned the Jews for their spiritual blindness and their hypocritical sin
And you missed it again because you thought this was a sermon about first century Jews and their sin.
In both cases you failed to see the real target of the sermon… like Paul said in v1-5…YOU…YOU…YOU
I started out with Paul condemning the Jews because we are much more open to criticism when it is against other people.
But now I am going to stick the boney finger of condemnation in YOUR chest and tell it like it is… meddlin’
1st century Jews were just as guilty as the heathen because what they condemned in the Gentiles, they were guilty of too
Actually they were MORE GUILTY because the gentiles had less light… less truth and the Jews had MORE… they had the law and the prophets. They were equally guilty… but MORE accountable
21st century Christians are just as guilty as the first century Jews…MORE… because we have MORE LIGHT… we have the NT… we have the words and example of Jesus Christ… we have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us… WE HAVE MORE LIGHT AND WE ARE MORE ACCOUNTABLE
In the words of Jesus himself… But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked. Luke 12:48
Those with more light will be held to a higher standard!!!
WE ARE THOSE WITH MORE LIGHT
But we are just like the Jews… they thought because they had the Law, the circumcision, the temple, the blood of Abraham… they were somehow exempt from judgment and guaranteed acceptance by God
Christians today think just because we have the name Christian, just because we have been dunked, just because we walked some aisle and made some commitment that we will get a free pass when the judgment comes.
Or that our sins will be invisible to God
Or that God will wink at our sin
The truth is… judgment will START with US… be more severe with us… and be more shameful for us and cause Him more pain.
He expected MORE FROM US because He invested MORE IN US.
Today I would ask you the same questions Paul asked his listeners…
• Are you guilty of condemning others for sins when you and God know that you are just as guilty of sin
Maybe the very same sins you condemn… or maybe another
• Have you had an unforgiving spirit towards others because of their sin… but made excuses for your own
• Do you not realize that your sin… the same or different… are more grievous to God, bring tears to the eyes of Jesus… because you have more light, more knowledge
• Do you think that because you are basically good, mostly good, that God will just overlook a few “little” sins here and there
• Can you sit there today and honestly think that you have nothing in you that is wrong or needs to be confessed
• Will you stay there in that pew and let another sermon bounce off of you… another invitation pass unanswered, close your eyes to your sin and your ears to the pleading of the Holy Spirit
• Will you sit there and say This sermon was not for me… but it was a good one for someone else
OR… will you get out of that pew, come to the front, get down on your knees, pour out your heart and do business with God
Will you confess your sin… apologize for breaking Gods heart and bringing tears to the eyes of Jesus
Ask Him to forgive… and to give you the desire and the strength to live a life that is worthy of the price He paid and the expectations He has for you.
