His Righteousness and Judgment
Romans chapter 2:1-4, 17-28
Good morning everyone.
I hope today as we look into God’s Word that He would speak to us.
His everlasting love and grace would take us from where we are to where we need to be.
His love would fill us to overflowing and His grace would remind us that nothing is impossible if God is in it.
Last week we looked at being justified in Jesus- That Jesus is enough! Amen!
He is all we need for salvation, provision, strength.
Jesus is enough
Jesus is the bridge and mediator between God and man.
Jesus is the hope.
This morning I want to look at Romans Chapter 2 where Paul talks about God’s righteousness and God’s judgment that awaits all who do not profess Christ as Lord of their life.
Book of Romans again takes a hard look into each of our lives.
Remember this-
Jesus convicts and draws us closer to Him
Satan condemns and tries to pull us away from the things of God.
So as we look at these passages if it is the Lord speaking, He will let you know what needs to be changed and draw you close to Himself.
If Satan condemns and you find yourself instead of drawing close to the Lord, you find yourself in rebellion and anger, then realize who is doing it and allow God to work you through it.
Prayer- Let’s pray
Let me set up the background for our text this morning-
At the end of chapter one of Romans, we see that God will judge all of mankind for their sins.
Chapter 2 God is explaining to us His righteous judgment and what that looks like for believers and unbelievers.
All of us will stand before the Lord and give an account of our lives.( more on that in a minute)
The unbeliever will stand before God without Christ and His blood will not cover their sins and they will by their choice be eternally lost in their sins.
Romans 3;23- “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God- only those who have received by grace the forgiveness of their sins will enjoy eternity with the Lord.
The believer will stand before God and the blood of Christ will cover their sins. God the Father will not see their sin, but will see as atonement His Son Jesus and His perfect sacrifice for our sins.
The believer will miss the separation from God that sin brings and we will be welcomed into the kingdom of God because of what Jesus has provided for us.
Believers will also stand before God for what we did with Jesus. It won’t be about salvation-
This will be where we are rewarded for our good deeds and actions that were done in the name of Jesus.
Romans chapter 2:1-4, 17-28 Read clearly and slowly
This is where the text comes in today- Paul addressing both the believer and unbeliever when it comes to the judgment of God.
Whenever we feel justified with our anger, we have to be careful.
We need to speak out against sin, but we have to have a humble heart and right motives.
We cannot lose what the Lord desires and that is all people to come to Christ as Lord.
Often the sins we come against are often the ones that we struggle with or were sins in our lives. (Example- gossipers being critical of those that gossip)
“You are just as bad and without excuse”
Why would Paul speak to the church about being without excuse as we look at being judgmental? Because being judgmental is a sin issue.
Not many people condemned Paul for idol worship, homosexuality, violent behavior- but when he said that “they were just as bad”- When he called them a sinner!
They were upset that he addressed the gossiper that was critical with other gossipers.
Those that appeared to have it all together were exposed as having the same problems and needing Jesus to forgive and heal.
We serve a patient God…Amen!
He holds back judgment…God holds back his judgment giving people time to repent.
Don’t mistake God’s grace in our life as approval when we are doing wrong.
It is harder for us to see the sin in our life than to see it in others life.
We are amazed at God’s patience with others than we are in God being patient with us.
Jesus is enough! ( last week) but those who call themselves Christians/ believers are held to the standard that they have given God permission to remove sin in our life.
Believers should desire to please God
When God offers grace/ believers are to be grateful because of what Jesus has done
We know that we cannot earn grace.
We cannot earn our salvation.
People are condemned not for what they do not know but for what they do with what they know.
People ask what about the people who never hear the gospel. How will they be judged?
The only answer I can see in scripture comes from this verse about judgment of what they know and moral laws set up by conscience that God has put in us and the moral laws that we ourselves have made.
All culture knows that you should not murder. If you kill each other or worse if you eat each other- you know that it is wrong. Because of built-in conscience God puts with right and wrong.
Paul tells us that we are without excuse when we are judgmental of others when we ourselves are doing the same things or that God has brought us out of.
When we have forgotten where we came from and pass judgment on others.
(3) When we are mere humans and we are putting ourselves in the seat of God and judging others.
How will we not receive judgment ourselves? When we forget the kindness, patience, tolerance that God had with us that brought us to repentance and changed us.
Matthew 7- “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way that you judge others, you will be judged, and with the same measure you use, it will be measured to you.”
When we are removing dust from others eyes and we have a plank in our eyes, the Lord will not be happy that we are judging others with a critical spirit.
God is the supremely righteous Judge:
He never shows partiality to people (vs. 11). John 3:16- whosoever!
His objective is for us to be obedient (vs. 12-16; 25-29).
He always sees our secrets (vs. 16).
GOD NEVER SHOWS PARTIALITY.
"There is no partiality with God." And to get the full context here, we need to go back to chapter 1.
Romans 1:18, "the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness."
Paul was talking about idol-worshiping Gentiles of the Roman Empire, and most Jews would have cheered Paul on at that point. They would have rejoiced over God's condemnation of the Gentiles, so the Holy Spirit turned Paul's attention in a new direction. And he began speaking to any self-righteous, hypocritical, judgmental people who would read this letter.
The Holy Spirit of God had begun to work from inside out instead of from outside in- He began letting us know that we need to be more worried of what is going on in us than being critical and judgmental of others. We definitely see fruit or no fruit but judging is way out of our pay grade.
Thank God that there is no partiality with Him! What if you had to be a Jew to be saved, or a woman, or a man, or really smart and good looking, or an excellent athlete? Thank God there is no partiality with Him!
But it's easy to understand why the Jews thought God was partial to them. After all, they are God's chosen people, and God did take strong measures to maintain the purity of the Jewish race.
II. HIS OBJECTIVE IS FOR US TO BE OBEDIENT.
God desires us to obey Him, and that's good.
This is also why God is so serious about sin. We see this truth in vs. 12-16.
“ For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without law, and as many as have sinned in the law will be judged by the law for not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified; for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things contained in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel.”
Paul reminds the Jews that it is not enough to have God's law and hear God's law.
GOD'S GOAL IS FOR US TO OBEY HIS LAW.
The law God gave to Moses was a code of conduct that had to be obeyed, many times under penalty of death.
And if the Gentiles, led by their conscience, did obey God's law, then that was also good in God's eyes. Paul made the same point down in vs. 25-29. There he said this about the circumcised Jews and uncircumcised Gentiles:
“For circumcision is indeed profitable if you keep the law; but if you are a breaker of the law, your circumcision has become un-circumcision. Therefore, if an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the law, will not his un-circumcision 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 one outwardly, nor is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God.”
Again, it is not enough to have God's law and hear God's law. God's goal is for us to obey His law. And as the righteous Judge, God's standard is total perfection, so He is always serious about sin.
III. God sees our secrets
Paul talks about "the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel."
We may try to hide and cover up our sins, but God sees all of our secrets.
Hebrews 4:13 says, "There is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account."
Why does God's Word tell us these things?
He wants to lead us away from hypocrisy. Another reason is because we have a natural tendency to cover up our sins.
Because He is perfectly righteous in love, mercy, and grace, God wants to save our souls.
2 Peter 3:9 “Lord is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance." God wants to save people's souls. How does He do it?
People often get religious pride and self-righteousness, and that's what the Jews were doing here. They were trusting in their own goodness and religious good works.
Illustration (SermonCentral)
An example of this spiritual sickness is from Warren Buffett. At age 90, he was one of the world's most successful investors. Mr. Buffett consistently ranks among the wealthiest people in the world. He was number 1 in 2008, number 2 in 2015, and as of last month he was number 7, with a net worth of 78.9 billion dollars. Back in 2006, Warren Buffett gave away more than 30 billion dollars to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. At the time he joked, "There is more than one way to get to heaven, but this is a great way." Will giving 30 billion dollars get you into Heaven? -- Not a chance. And we may be tempted to boast of our own spirituality, but our religious good works and respectability are never good enough to get us into Heaven.
The main reason why is because on some level, all of us fail to live up to God's standard of perfection. That's the point Paul is driving us to in this whole conversation.
Romans 3:9-12 Read from Bible
Bring this to a close-
Many people get away with crimes here on earth.
But God is the supremely righteous Judge. He sees all. He knows all. And you will never be able to get away from Him.
Your only hope is to go to God and receive the salvation He wants to give you through our crucified and risen Savior Jesus Christ.
I realize that there is a fine line from judgmental and seeing fruit or not in someone’s life.
God is the only righteous judge, we are to be standing on God’s word but also we are to be sensitive that we could be vessels that the Lord can use to speak to those around us.
Being judgmental is a negative word to describe those that rush to judgment.
I think the Lord wants us to error on the side of grace and let the Lord be judge and juror of people lives- we are to be a vessel that can be used to bring people to Christ.
Amen.
Prayer to close-
