A Collection We Can Do Without
(Romans 2:1-11)
1. Sometimes the line between right and wrong is blurry; take this story:
SAN JOSE, Calif. (Reuters) All Tamar Sherman wanted to do was pet a dog and give it some water. Sherman’s act left her with a criminal record.
A few months ago, Sherman was walking near her South San Jose home and encountered a dog left outside in the cold while its owners were inside.
Sherman, a member of a national group called Dogs Deserve Better, decided to pet the dog on a few occassions and once gave it water. That didn’t please the dog’s owner.
"When I went out there to fill up the dog bowl, this woman was standing in my back yard," attorney Ron Berki told the San Jose Mercury News. "My response was, `Who ... are you?’ She told me, `I’m here to pet your dog.’"
For that, Sherman pleaded guilty this week to two misdemeanors — trespassing and prowling — and was sentenced to 75 hours of community service and a year of probation. She also was ordered to stay at least 100 yards away from Berki’s home.
"I just wanted to find out if a dog that seemed to be in distress was OK," Sherman told the paper. "I do not think my actions were a crime in comparison with abuse or neglect of +animals+."
Berki denies that his dog, Bailey, was abused or neglected, saying the dog sleeps inside with him every night.
"If Miss Sherman was so concerned about my dog, it would have been easy to come to my front door and speak to me directly," he said.
2. We can sympathize with both sides in such a story, and we are left with the thought that someone made a mountain out of a molehill. Or maybe that both parties are doing so.
3. If that is as bad as human nature got, we’d have a pretty decent world.
4. But the Bible is clear that we sin in ways that greatly offend God. All of us are guilty.
5. But some people take convincing. They think they are good enough to please God and that they are pretty good people.
6. This is nothing new. The human propensity to minimize our own wrongs while amplifying the wrongs of others is as ancient as mankind.
7. And today in the section of Romans we have come to, Paul addresses this very issue.
Main idea: Before we can appreciate the good news of the forgiveness of sin through repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, we must face the bad news that we are, by nature, lost sinners.
In today’s section, Paul is leading us to conclude that we are lost and in need of God’s mercy. He begins building his case, but where is he leading us? To several conclusions found later in Romans (remember, Romans was originally written to be read in one sitting). Here are several of those conclusions:
3:9-11, “What shall we conclude then? Are we any better? Not at all! We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin. As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one;
there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.”
3:22b-28, “There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished--he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.”
4:4-5, “Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness.”
To nudge us toward these conclusions, Paul shares several bedrock realities.
I. We Are Held Accountable to the Same ____Rules_________As Everyone Else (1)
1. Paul is acting the part of the prosecuting attorney. He has thus far argued his case against those who violate their consciences and urge others to adopt their depraved value system.
2. In today’s sermon, Paul is focusing upon the man or woman who has an excellent value system. And though he or she holds others accountable to those values, the person himself excuses himself from obeying them.
3.Messianic Jewish scholar David Stern put it this way: “You cannot take a stand outside of humanity, supposing you are special; you too must turn from yours sins.”
4. This is an easy trap to fall into…
(1) take King David….He gives into temptation and commits adultery with Bathseba; then he has her husband killed. A year later, when Nathan the prophet confronts David with a parable, David says, “A man who does such a thing deserves to be killed.” Then Nathan says, “You are the man.”
(2) In families, we often see this pattern; my child can do no wrong, but my son or daughter-in-law can do no right; we have an old saying: blood is thicker than water. We excuse our family members for the behavior we condemn in others.
(3) As Christians, we have to realize that we are vulnerable to the sins we condemn; this does not mean we should change our standards, but it does mean we need to humbly face this truth about ourselves: “the heart is deceitful, and desperately wicked.” It also means we need to learn to put ourselves in the shoes of others. When people say,” I don’t know how he could do such a thing,” maybe we should know. Maybe we are denying our own sinful bent.
Before we can appreciate the good news of the forgiveness of sin through repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, we must face the bad news that we are, by nature, lost sinners.
II. There Is No _____Escape______from Judgment (2-3)
1. We can project our guilt on other people and hold them accountable to harsh standards, but the trick does not work with God.
(1) this deflecting sometimes surfaces in marriage counseling….I saw a comic that illustrates the problem…
(2) A Stanford University study revealed that people sitting within three feet of a television screen pay more attention to the program than those sitting farther away, and they are less objective about the program’s content. When you are "too close" to a situation, it is difficult to be objective about it….so we do not really see ourselves as we are…
(3) Dr. Resnak and the book, “The New Brain”…emotional areas in personal matters light up; when we are giving advice to others, just the reasoning areas are active in our brains…any decision involving us or our loved ones involves emotions…and therefore very difficult to be objective…
2.Everyone of us will give account of everything to the Lord
(1) the lost---Great white throne
(2) the believer---the judgment seat of Christ
3. When have you ever judged someone else and realized you were guilty of the same offense? Did it catch up to you?
I’ve told this story before…Sam had a meeting with his tabernacle model in Ohio…..lost control of audience, I scolded him……Intervarsity, I was guest speaker…go onto a tangent about election, then I lost control of the audience!
Before we can appreciate the good news of the forgiveness of sin through repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, we must face the bad news that we are, by nature, lost sinners.
III. Exploiting God’s ___Kindness_____ Is Foolish (4)
1. God’s patience is often perceived as permissiviveness…
2. Exodus 34:6-7 “And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, "The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished…”
3. 2 Peter 3:9 reads, “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”
4. What is repentance? A change of mind….direction… a turning away from something and a turning to something
Before we can appreciate the good news of the forgiveness of sin through repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, we must face the bad news that we are, by nature, lost sinners.
IV. If We Stubbornly Refuse to_Repent_, We Are Storing Up Wrath (5)
1. What keeps us from acknowledging and repenting of our sins?
(1) what is the difference between stubborness and conviction
pride/arrogance and openess to truth…convictions are open to examination
(2) stubborness toward God is a result of sin; our sinful natures predispose us against God…that’s why we need to be born again…God needs to zap us to life
2. What is the result of a stubborn refusal to come to know God? A COLLECTION WE CAN DO WITHOUT…
The Greek word, “Thesauri’dzo” means to store up, treasure up. We get the English word, “Thesaurus” which is a collection of synonyms; in like manner, we are “collecting” God’s wrath by sin. This is the wrath that was directed to Jesus in His death on the cross or the wrath that will be eternally projected toward us if we do not turn from our sins and turn to Christ (the “wrath and anger” of verse 9).
3. Remember Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol?” Marley had this long set of chains…and Scrooges was even longer, so Marley was sent to warn him…at the end, Scrooge repents and is free of his guilt.
Before we can appreciate the good news of the forgiveness of sin through repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, we must face the bad news that we are, by nature, lost sinners.
V. The Sincerity of Our Faith and Repentance Will Be _Judged_ By Our Works (6-11)
1. Salvation results when we turn from our sin and personally trust Jesus Christ. We must covenant individually with God. We are not saved by our works, but they rather REVEAL whether we are saved or not…
(1) joke: My doctor is a great guy; if you can’t afford the surgery, he’ll touch up the X-ray….
(2) Works are the X-ray; they reveal what is, they do not create it. You can do good works, from a human viewpoint, but not be right with God; you’ve just touched up the X-ray; good works do not produce salvation; salvation produces good works.
2. Please note: folks not in a relationship to God through Christ are not capable of doing good works in God’s sight, as Paul will lead us to see later in this letter
Romans 7:14-18, “We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out”
Romans 8:6-8, “The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.”
Before we can appreciate the good news of the forgiveness of sin through repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, we must face the bad news that we are, by nature, lost sinners.
CONCLUSION
1. Have you been found yet? Or are you still lost?
2. Are you continuing to add the collection of wrath you already have?
3. And if you are already saved, have you been provoking the Lord’s discipline? Are you walking in fellowship with Him?
4. Remember I John 1:9
