- Read Romans 2
Last week we sought to address the question, “What happened to America”, What happened to my country. I believe most of us can admit that the second part of Romans 1 is a pretty fair description of what America looks like today.
Look there again at Romans 1:28.
- Read Romans 1:28-32
I think that is a pretty fair description of our country, especially when you include the preceding paragraph. And I find comfort in the fact that all through that passage Paul says, “They”, did this and “they did that.” But then we get to chapter 2 and verse 1 and Paul changes from “they” to “You”.
We need to remember that when Paul wrote this letter, there were no chapter divisions. This letter wasn’t broken up into verses. It was one long letter, like people used to write to one another.
I think many of us can sit in the stands and cheer Paul on as he describes what those people are doing, and what’s coming for them.
Paul says, “They did all of this” so “You”, or he’s speaking to me, They did all of this, so you, Gene, are without excuse, because you sit and judge them. Gene, you have done the same things they are doing.
I think a lot of us good, moral, religious, people, are surprised to find that God does not think as highly of us as we sometimes think of ourselves.
Yeah, Gene, they have done all of this, so you are without excuse because you judge them.
And I start spitting, and stumbling over my words as I try to come up with excuses for my little mistakes. I say, “Lord, I’m NOT like them. And He answers, “Gene, how did I describe them in Romans 1:29? I called them gossips. Have you ever done that?” Well, yes, but . . .” “As a matter-of-fact, sometimes you still do. You just try to disguise it as a prayer request. How duplicitous is that? I called them slanderers. Have you ever done that? Well, Yes, but that’s different.” “I called them arrogant and boastful.” Have you ever been like that? Ah, yes Sir. Sometimes I still am.” “I said they disobeyed their parents. Were you ever like that?” “Yes Sir. Many times.” Then what makes you different than them?
I cannot say what you are like, I can only use myself as an example. As a practiced, self-righteous hypocrite, I find it a bit disconcerting when God holds a mirror up to me too closely. Why is it that we are so angered by other peoples’ sins, while excusing our own?
I. WHY WE IGNORE OUR OWN SINS
1. We are often blind to our own faults.
We live in an age when people claim that we need to be true to ourselves. True to yourself? What does that even mean?
> Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is more deceitful than anything else, and incurable—who can understand it?
No, I am often blind to my own faults, faults that others can see.
I stand before you as a drug-smuggler. Uncaught, unconvicted, but a drug smuggler none the less. Marc and Bindu are visiting Niagra Falls, which reminded me of this.
Several years ago, Gladys, Drew and I borrowed Jack and Orlia’s pop up camper. We went on a vacation up the east coast, and over to Niagra Falls, the creation museum and such. On our trip, we picked up 2 girls and a German Shepherd who were hitch-hiking. The inside of my truck was full, so they rode in the back. We gave them a blanket and such. They probably rode with us 500 miles or so before they got out.
A couple of days later we crossed the Canadian border to see Niagra Falls from the Canadian side. After we got back, I was cleaning up and rearranging things in the bed of the truck when I found a marijuana cigarette, a joint in the bed of the truck. I did like like many of you would have done.
Yelling, “DREW, what is this and where did it come from?” He came over, confused and perplexed. We finally remembered our hitch hikers and figured they must have dropped it, and in the dark they were unable to find it. And I, blindly, had carried that thing both ways across the Canadian border. Blind to the crime I was unknowingly committing.
How many of us have critical, judgmental spirits we do not see in ourselves? How many of us are proud, or gossips, and don’t even recognize those things in ourselves?
I am blind to my own faults.
2. We try to forget what we have done wrong
Do you remember when king David slept with his neighbor’s wife, got her pregnant, and then had her husband killed to cover his sin?
Well, David married the then widowed woman and went on with life as though nothing had happened. God was not happy. In 2 Samuel 12 we read.
So the Lord sent Nathan to David. When he arrived, he said to him: There were two men in a certain city, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had very large flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing except one small ewe lamb that he had bought. He raised her, and she grew up with him and with his children. From his meager food she would eat, from his cup she would drink, and in his arms she would sleep. She was like a daughter to him. Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man could not bring himself to take one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for his guest.
David was infuriated with the man and said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man who did this deserves to die! Because he has done this thing and shown no pity, he must pay four lambs for that lamb.”
David was angry that a man with many sheep stole the 1 sheep a poor man had. He completely forgot what he had just done, so -
Nathan replied to David, “You are the man! This is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I rescued you from Saul. I gave your master’s house to you and your master’s wives into your arms,[b] and I gave you the house of Israel and Judah, and if that was not enough, I would have given you even more. Why then have you despised the Lord’s command by doing what I consider[c] evil? You struck down Uriah the Hethite with the sword and took his wife as your own wife—you murdered him with the Ammonite’s sword. Now therefore, the sword will never leave your house because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hethite to be your own wife.’
Sometimes we forget the things we have done and so we think that perhaps God has as well.
3. We forget that God uses a different standard than we do.
[For example, let's consider our thought life. Much of this passage must be understood in the light of our Lord's revelation in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus says that God, who looks at the heart, sees what is going on in the inner attitude and judges on that basis; he doesn't judge as men judge, according to what is observable from the outward life. In the Sermon on the Mount we learn that if we hold a feeling of animosity and hatred against someone, if we are bitter and resentful and filled with malice toward an individual, then we are guilty of murder, just as though we had taken a knife and plunged it into that person's breast, or shot them with a gun. If we find ourselves lustfully longing to possess the body of another, if we play with this idea over and over in our mind, and treat ourselves to a fantasy of sex, we have committed fornication or adultery. If we find ourselves filled with pride, yet we put on the appearance of being humble and considerate of others, we are guilty of the worst of sins. Pride of heart destroys humanity.
We think these things will go unnoticed, but God sees them in our heart. He sees all the actions that we conveniently have forgotten. He sees it when we cut people down, or speak with spite and sharpness, and deliberately try to hurt them. He sees it when we are unfair in our business tactics, when we are arrogant toward someone we think is on a lower social level than ourselves. He sees it when we are stubborn and uncooperative in trying to work out a tense situation. All these things God takes note of. We, who condemn these things in others, find ourselves guilty of the same things. Isn't it remarkable that when others mistreat us we always think it is most serious and requires immediate correction. But when we mistreat others, we say to them. "You're making so much out of a little thing! Why it's so trivial and insignificant.”] - (Ray Stedman, Sinful Morality)
We ignore our own sins because we are often blind to our own sins. We ry to forget what we have done wrong. We forget that God uses a different standard than we do. 4th, we ignore our sins by renaming them.
4. We rename our sins
Other people lie and cheat; we simply stretch the truth a little. Others betray; we simply are protecting our rights. Others steal; we borrow. Others have prejudices; we have convictions. Others murder and kill; we exploit and ruin. We are simply being truthful. We cry, "Those people ought to be stoned!" Jesus says, "He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone," (John 8:7). Yes, we are all guilty of the same things we accuse others of doing.
II. HOW THE UNRIGHTEOUS RESPOND
When, by the power of the Holy Spirit, eyes are opened, or conviction comes, notice how the unrighteous respond.
1. They pour contempt on God’s Grace
- Read Romans 2:2-4
Yeah, I admit that I’m not as good as I should be. I admit that there’s room for improvement in my life, but God understands. His grace is sufficient.
Yeah, I know I’m not where I should be. I know I’m not walking with the Lord Like I should be. I know I’m not with God’s people like I should be, but God is gracious. He is merciful. He’ll understand.
These folks show contempt for God’s grace.
Yeah, I know that my salvation cost Jesus a lot, but I’m sure He understands that I’m only human. Nobody’s perfect.
I was reading an article a while back by a teacher in the inner city of Orlando. She told the story of a young boy who wasn’t do well at school. After a while she started talking to him, trying to figure out what the problem was. She finally determined that the boy didn’t have a refrigerator at his house, so he was often hungry. She and some other teachers at the school chaired in together and bought the family a refrigerator, and delivered it to the boys home.
Things were ok for a couple of weeks, and then the boy missed school for a week. When he came back, she asked where he had been. He said his parents had sold the refrigerator and they used the money to take a trip to visit relatives.
What kind of thinking is that? And what kind of thinking is it that acknowledges the sacrifice, the grace and mercy of God and then says, Thank you, but I’ll take what you gave me and still live like the world. There will be no effort, no sacrifice on my part.”
They pour contempt on God’s grace.
2. They are storing up wrath.
- Romans 2:5-11
They are storing up wrath. C S Lewis says it like this.
“People often think of Christian morality as a kind of bargain in which God says, "If you keep a lot of rules, I'll reward you; and if you don't, I'll do the other thing." I do not think that's the best way of looking at it. I would much rather say that every time you make a choice, you are turning the central part of you, the part that chooses, into something a little different than what it was before. And, taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your life long you are slowly turning this central thing either into a heavenly creature or into a hellish creature; either into a creature that is in harmony with God and with other creatures and with itself, or else into one that is in a state of war and hatred with God and with its fellow creatures and with itself. To be the one kind of creature is heavenly, i.e., it is joy and peace and knowledge and power; to be the other means madness, horror, idiocy, rage, impotence, and eternal loneliness. Each of us, at each moment, is progressing to the one state or the other.”
Each day, with the choices we make, with the decisions we make, with the actions we make, with the way we decide to spend our time, we are either becoming more like Christ, or less like Him. We are either building more joy and fulness into our lives, or less.
Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Sow a thought and you reap an action; sow an act and you reap a habit; sow a habit and you reap a character; sow a character and you reap a destiny.”
Paul says it this way in Galatians 6
> Galatians 6:7-8 Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.
They are like this, but this is the issue I have with you.
III. HOW DO WE RESPOND?
1. Make a decision
- Read Romans 2:6-11
God has laid out 2 paths before you. The way of compromise and defeat, or the path of obedience and victory. Decide what kind of life you want in this life and in the life to come.
If you are happy with where and what you are, then do nothing, and you can drift into defeat.
If you do want to live the victorious, overcoming life, then after making a decision ask for help.
2. Ask for help.
> Psalm 139:23-24 Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
David asks the Lord for 2 things in this verse. He says,
a. Lord search me.
David realizes that he cannot understand everything in his heart. He us unaware of all of the areas of compromise in his life. He says, “Lord, You know my true motivations. You know what my heart is really like. You know what sin is lurking in the dark recesses of my heart. God, search me and make me aware of those things.
Second he asks the Lord to lead him.
b. Lord lead me.
David says, “When I become aware of the areas I’m failing at in my life, I want your help to clean those things right.
It reminds me of a song we used to sing at youth rallies years ago.
“ I don’t wanna be I don’t wanna be a casual Christian. I don’t wanna live, I don’t wanna live a luck warm life. So let me light up the night, with an ever-lasting light. I don’t wanna live a casual Christian life.
How do we respond? We make a decision. I’m either gonna walk the straight and narrow, or I’m gonna walk in the world, and those 2 paths are not parallel.
Make a decision.
Second, ask for help. Lord, show me, and help me.
Third, follow through.
3. Follow through
- Read Romans 2:17-29
Paul is speaking to the Jews and using circumcision as an illustration, he says, “It’s not enough that you mark the outside. It’s not enough that you change the outside. It is a heart change, what’s in your spirit that makes the difference.
Follow through with your commitment.
4. Enjoy fellowship with God
- Romans 2:29c
Can you imagine God praising you? Just as He did Job?
IV. CONCLUSION
The Road Not Taken
BY ROBERT FROST
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
