Have You Been Rescued from the Wrath of God?
The Book of Romans
Romans 2:1-11
Sermon by Rick Crandall
Grayson Baptist Church - March 20, 2016
(Revised September 4, 2020)
BACKGROUND:
*Tonight, in Romans 2 we will explore how to be rescued from the wrath of God. But in order to do that, we need to go back to the launching point of Paul's great letter to the Romans.
*Some of us here are old enough to remember the big-news excitement of our space program from the mid-1960s to the early 1970s: John Glenn orbiting the earth, Neil Armstrong walking on the moon for the first time. All of those great space missions were launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida.
*That kind of excitement was rekindled last May 30th when the Crew Dragon Endeavour was launched into orbit. It was the first manned spaceflight from the United States since July 2011, and it was wonderful to watch. (1)
*Launches can be very important. And the launching point for Paul's letter to the Romans has to be Romans 1:15-18. There the Apostle declared:
15. So, as much as is in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also.
16. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.
17. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "The just shall live by faith.''
18. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.
*Then Paul went into great detail about the foolishness and wickedness that come from rejecting God. For example, in Romans 1:21-22, Paul said:
21. because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
22. Professing to be wise, they became fools.
*And in Romans 1:29-32, Paul said those ungodly people were:
29. being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers,
30. backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
31. undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful;
32. who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.
*There Paul focused mainly on the godless people of the Roman Empire. Now here in chapter 2, Paul turned his attention to religious people, and he was firstly addressing the Jews.
*William Barclay explained that in chapter 1, "Paul had painted a terrible, grim picture of the idol-worshiping people of the Roman Empire. Those people were under the condemnation of God, and the Jews thoroughly agreed with every word of that condemnation. But they never dreamed that they were under the same condemnation.
*God might be the judge of the pagans, but He was the special protector of the Jews. But here, Paul forcefully pointed out that Jews were just as much sinners as Gentiles, and that when the Jews condemned the Gentiles, they were was also condemning themselves. (2)
*Now, we must realize that Paul's warning was not just for the Jews who were trying to keep God's law. His warning is also for anyone who tries to live a moral life. I say that because the list of serious sins in Romans 1 can tempt people to have spiritual pride and self-righteousness.
*Paul wants us to know that everyone, from the best to the worst is in danger of the wrath of God. But thank the Lord, the Bible shows us how to be rescued from God's wrath! Please think about this as we read Romans 2:1-11.
MESSAGE:
*Hebrews 2:3 gives us the most important question in life: "How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him."
*This verse is referring to the great salvation we can have through the cross of Jesus Christ. And if you have received the risen Christ as your Lord and Savior, then you have been rescued from the wrath of God. Praise the Lord!
*Tonight's Scripture helps us understand what this means, because it highlights four spiritual changes people go through when they are rescued from the wrath of God.
1. THE FIRST IS WE RECOGNIZE OUR SINFULNESS.
*This is Paul's hard lesson for us in vs. 1-3:
1. Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.
2. But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things.
3. And do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things, and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God?
*It helps us to know that the word "judge" here is the same original word Jesus used in Matthew 7:1, when He said: "Judge not, that you be not judged." Timothy Peck explained that "Paul was talking about us having judgmental, arrogant, hyper-critical attitudes that make us out to be better than the person we're judging.
*At the same time, notice that Paul is not telling us to abandon moral judgments. In chapter 1, Paul just got through making many moral judgments about actions and attitudes that are sinful.
*You see, the opposite of being judgmental isn't thinking 'anything goes.' Right is still right, wrong is still wrong, and God wants us to know the difference. The opposite of being arrogantly judgmental isn't agreeing that anything goes. Instead, it's being humble and recognizing our own sinfulness, so Paul warns us not to have a self-righteous, arrogant attitude that sets us up as judges over other people." (3)
*And Paul gives us some great reasons to resist this kind of self-righteousness.
[1] FIRST: IT'S HIGHLY HYPOCRITICAL.
*Judging other people is highly hypocritical. That's what Paul was telling us in vs. 1 when he said, "Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things."
*In short: "You who judge others have done the very same kind of sinful things." When Paul wrote those words, he was looking at that long list of sins in chapter 1. And who among us has not struggled with some of these things? -- Greed, envy, quarreling, deception, gossip, slander, pride, being unloving, and being unmerciful. And what about being disobedient to parents? I don't think anybody has missed that one.
[2] WE MUST RESIST JUDGING OTHER PEOPLE, BECAUSE IT'S HIGHLY HYPOCRITICAL. AND BECAUSE IT'S ABOVE OUR ABILITY.
*That's what Paul was telling us in vs. 2, when he said, "But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things."
*God might be able to judge fairly. But we can't. I say that because only God can see into people's hearts. That's why down in vs. 16, Paul talks about "the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ. . ."
*Judging other people by outward appearance then is very foolish. Harry Ironside told a story that reminds us of this truth. It happened when a Bishop named Potter was sailing for Europe on one of the great ocean liners.
*When he got on board, Bro. Potter found out that another passenger was supposed to share the cabin with him. After going to see his room, Potter went upstairs and asked if he could leave his gold watch and other valuables in the ship's safe.
*He said he didn't ordinarily do that, but he had been to his cabin and didn't like the looks of the man who was staying with him. "He doesn't look trustworthy," the Bishop said.
*The crewman replied, "That's all right, Bishop. The other man has already left his valuables up here for the same reason." (4)
[3] WE MUST RESIST JUDGING OTHER PEOPLE, BECAUSE IT'S ABOVE OUR ABILITY, AND BECAUSE IT'S DANGEROUSLY DECEPTIVE.
*This is one of the things Paul pointed out in vs. 3 when he asked, "And do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things, and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God?"
*When we judge other people, we can be deluded into thinking that we are good enough to earn our way into Heaven. We might think, "Well, I try to keep the Ten Commandments, and I've never murdered anybody. I know that I'm better than those hypocrites down at the church! And I'm a whole lot better than most people."
*Well, we may be better than other people, and we certainly ought to be. But that won't get us into Heaven! No. God's standard for right living is total perfection. And no one has ever lived up to that standard but Jesus Christ! For all of these reasons, we must humbly recognize our own sinfulness. It's one of the big changes we go through when we are rescued from the wrath of God.
2. BUT WE ALSO REPENT.
*We see this truth in vs. 4, where Paul asked this key question: "Do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?"
*All of God's goodness is gently leading us to repent. All of God's goodness is gently leading us to turn around in the way we think and speak and live. We all need to turn away from bad actions and attitudes. The first word Jesus preached in Matthew 4:17 was "Repent!" "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."
*Paul Decker tells us that "repentance means we have a necessary change of mind. Our views change. Our values and goals change. The way we live changes. Repentance means that we turn away from sin and turn to God." (5)
*Gordon MacDonald explained that "repentance is not basically a religious word. It comes from a culture where people were essentially nomadic and lived in a world with no maps or street signs. It is easy to get lost walking through the desert. You become aware that the countryside is strange. You finally say to yourself, 'I'm going in the wrong direction.' That's the first act of repentance. And the second act of repentance is to GO in a different direction." We start going in the right direction. (6)
*How does this crucial change of mind happen? It all has to do with the goodness of God. Paul said, "The goodness of God leads you to repentance," and it works in our hearts two ways. First, when we look into God's Word and see His infinite goodness, we begin to see how sinful we really are, and we long to turn away from the evil in our lives. But when we see God's goodness, we also are drawn to His merciful kindness, love, and compassion, so we repent.
*And we must repent. It's one of the spiritual changes we go through when we are rescued from the wrath of God.
3. WE ALSO BEGIN TO RELY ON GOD.
*We will never be rescued from the wrath of God until we begin to rely on God our Savior Jesus Christ. And the good news is that we can always rely on God!
[1] VERSES 2-5 HELP US SEE WHY, AND ONE REASON IS BECAUSE GOD IS RIGHTEOUS.
*Verse 2 tells us that the judgment of God is true. Verse 5 tells us that His judgment is righteous. And again in vs. 4, Paul tells us that the goodness of God leads us to repentance.
*Think about God's goodness. God is all good all the time. His goodness is perfect in every way. Psalm 33:5 tells us that the Lord, "loves righteousness and justice; The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord."
*His goodness is universal, and it is personal. The Lord cares about you as an individual. The Bible tells us that His eye is on the sparrow, and you can be sure that He is watching over you.
*God's goodness is personal, and it is eternal. It's something we can depend on today, tomorrow and forever! God will always do the right thing at the right time. Psalm 111:3 tells us that "His work is honorable and glorious, And His righteousness endures forever." Psalm 119:142 also declares that God's "righteousness is an everlasting righteousness." That's why in the 23rd Psalm David could say, "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever."
[2] CHURCH: WE CAN FULLY RELY ON GOD, BECAUSE HE IS RIGHTEOUS, AND BECAUSE HE IS RICH.
*Our God, the only true and living God, is rich beyond compare. Ultimately, everything belongs to Him. In Deuteronomy 10:14 Moses said, "Indeed heaven and the highest heavens belong to the LORD your God, also the earth with all that is in it."
*On February 13th, 2004, astronomers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics discovered a white dwarf star in the constellation Centaurus. This star has a diamond core that is 2,500 miles across!
*That diamond weighs 5 million trillion trillion pounds, and it measures about 10 billion trillion trillion carats. That's a 1 followed by 34 zeroes! That's more riches than we can comprehend, and that's just a speck of the material wealth that belongs to the Lord. But all of God's material wealth isn't a drop in the ocean compared to the spiritual riches He gives to everyone who trusts in Jesus Christ! (7)
*Here in vs. 4, we see the riches of God's goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering. "Forbearance" is God's kindness, and "longsuffering" is His patience. The Lord is rich in these good things, and much more.
*We know that the Lord is rich in salvation because Romans 10:12-13 says "the same Lord over all is RICH UNTO ALL WHO CALL UPON HIM. For 'whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.'''
*He is also rich in grace because Ephesians 1:7 says, "In Him (that is, in Jesus) we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the RICHES OF HIS GRACE."
*Ephesians 2:4-5 says, "God, who is RICH IN MERCY, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)."
*And 2 Corinthians 8:9 says, "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, THAT YOU THROUGH HIS POVERTY MIGHT BECOME RICH."
*Jesus left all the riches of Heaven to become a man. He left all the riches of Heaven for us. No one has ever given more than Jesus! He took all of the suffering for all of our sins when He died on the cross for us.
*That's why we can fully rely on our risen Savior, and we must. It's the biggest spiritual change we go through to be rescued from the wrath of God.
4. BUT THEN WE SHOULD REFLECT OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH CHRIST.
*I say that because real salvation will always make a difference in the way we live. We see this truth in vs. 6-11, where Paul tells us that God:
6. . . "will render to each one according to his deeds'':
7. eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality;
8. but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath,
9. tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek;
10. but glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
11. For there is no partiality with God.
*If you read this Scripture in isolation, you might get the wrong idea that we can be saved by our good works, but in the next chapter Paul makes the strongest case that no one can be saved by their good works. The reason why is because God's standard for good works is His own glorious perfection, and the only person who ever lived up to that standard was Jesus Christ. As for the rest of us, Romans 3:23 says "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."
*Our good works can never be the cause of our salvation, but they should always be the result of our salvation. Paul made this truth clear in Ephesians 2:8-10 where he tells Christians, "By grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them."
*Real salvation will always make a difference in the way we live. I'm not saying that we'll be perfect in this world. Paul never claimed to be perfect. In Romans 7, Paul talked about his personal struggle with sin. At the time, Paul was near the end of his third missionary journey, so he had been following Jesus for many years. But in Romans 7:19 Paul said, "The good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice."
*Later on in life, Paul described himself with these words in Philippians 3:12-14:
12. Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
13. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
14. I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
*Paul never claimed to be perfect, and we will never be perfect in this world. But real salvation will always make a difference in the way we live. If we are true Christians, we will be like the people here in vs. 7 and 10. We will be people who patiently keep doing whatever good we can for the glory of God.
*God wants our faith to show up in our works as well as our words. This is the best way we can make an everlasting difference in people's lives. And this is what Jesus was getting at in Matthew 5:13 when He told His followers "You are the salt of the earth."
*Melvin Shelton told about a youth meeting where the students were talking about this Scripture: "You are the salt of the earth." They talked about the meaning of this verse, and the leader asked them to talk about different uses of salt. There were several good answers: Salt gives flavor to food. Salt preserves food to keep it from spoiling. Then one girl said, "Salt makes you thirsty." And everybody got quiet as they began to ask themselves: "Have I ever made anyone thirsty for Jesus?" (8)
*That's the kind of people God wants us to be: People who reflect the reality of our relationship with Jesus Christ.
CONCLUSION:
*Have you been rescued from the wrath of God?
-Have you recognized your sinfulness before the perfectly righteous and Holy God?
-Have you recognized that you deserve the wrath of God?
-Have you repented? Has your mind been changed by the goodness, kindness, and patience of God?
-Are you willing to rely on God to forgive you through the sacrifice Jesus Christ made on the cross for your sins?
-Are you willing to receive the risen Christ as your own Lord and Savior?
-And is your life beginning to reflect the reality of your relationship with Jesus?
*As we go back to God in prayer, call on the Lord to save you and start making people thirsty for Jesus Christ.
(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crew_Dragon_Endeavour
(2) Adapted from "Barclay's Daily Bible Study Series - NT" by William Barclay - Revised Edition - Copyright 1975 - First published by the Saint Andrew - Press, Edinburgh, Scotland - The Westminster Press, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - "The Responsibility of Privilege" - Romans 2:1-11
(3) Adapted from SermonCentral sermon "The Dangers of Judging People" by Timothy Peck - Romans 2:1-16
(4) SermonCentral sermon "Judging Those Who Judge" by James May - Romans 2:1-11
(5) SermonCentral sermon "A Dream Come True" by Paul Decker - Matt 4:12-17 - 2/27/2000
(6) Adapted from SermonCentral sermon "REVIVAL" by Gerald Flury - 2 Chronicles 7:14
(7) Sources:
-https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/news/archive/pr0407.html
-"Who We Are - God's Special Treasure" by Ronald Wyncoop - Exo 19:5-6, Deut 14:2, 1 Pet 2:9 - 09/11/2005 - http://sermons.logos.com/#q=chosen/1000028&content=/submissions/44054&tab=paneTabResults&pane=resultsPane
(8) SermonCentral illustration contributed by Melvin Shelton
