Title: What are you going to get?
Scripture: Romans 2:4-6
Romans 2:4-6
4 Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance?
5 But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed.
6 God "will give to each person according to what he has done."
Introduction:
Hey, what am I supposed to get out of this deal anyway? Why do I have to do this to get that? The world tells us to buy two and get one free. The world tells us to take advantage of the great explosive sale. The world wants us to turn into a bunch of materialistic seekers. Always on the lookout for our own selfish desires and wants. Always on the lookout for ways to build ourselves up and to put our friends and family down.
The world will tell you that a new alarm system will protect your car. The world will tell you that a gun or knife will solve all your problems. But, it doesn’t tell you what the circumstances of those actions will be. It doesn’t tell you what will happen to your insides when you purposefully seek to hurt someone or take advantage of someone.
God is the opposite of that. In Psalm 40, it tells us,
11 Do not withhold your mercy from me, O LORD; may your love and your truth always protect me.
May your love and your truth always protect me…
Those seem like peculiar or strange pieces of defense, don’t’ you think? I mean how can love protect someone? Wouldn’t a sword and a shield, or even strong arms be a better defense? Why say, may your love and your truth always protect me? Why not say may your omnipotent strength protect me?
Faith, hope and love, the Bible tells us. Paul says, in 1 Corinthians 13:13, “But the greatest of these is love.”
John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
God is love, and that love surrounds us and protects us. God is truth, and that truth surrounds us and protects us. These two, love and truth protect us and point out the evil in the world. These two, love and truth protect us and point out the sin in our lives. These two, love and truth protect us and condition our hearts in our pursuit of God.
Why so much talk about love and truth? Because our verses, Romans 2:4-6, are similar. Our main points concerning these verses are:
I. The Riches of His Kindness, Tolerance, and Patience.
II. The Effects of God’s Kindness
III. The Damning Effects of Stubbornness and an Unrepentant Heart
I. The Riches of His Kindness, Tolerance, and Patience
I recently saw on the news that the world has managed to add over 30,000 new millionaires. Why did they report that? Why don’t they ever report the opposite of that? Why don’t they report that this many people became poor and are unable to care for themselves and their families?
Why doesn’t the news ever tell you how many people lost their life savings last year because of selfish and evil people in the world?
It doesn’t tell you, because everyone believes that the world is getting better. Everyone believes that things are not as bad as they used to be.
Did you know that the majority of the world is in debt to someone? Companies are in debt to other companies. Banks are in debt to other banks. Countries are in debt to other countries. The old saying that, the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer has never before meant as much as it does today.
People want what they don’t really need and end up putting themselves into debt. People seek after dreams of riches in the material world around them. People seek after a better life on this earth, and are led astray by sin, selfishness, and Satan.
Jesus tells us in:
(Matthew 16:26) What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?
In the our verses today, Romans 2:4-6, verse 4 tells us:
4 Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience…
The riches are not found in this world, they are found in the kindness, tolerance and patience of God. Let’s look at His Kindness:
a. His Kindness
King David knew the riches of God’s kindness. He knew the benefits of God’s kindness.
In Psalm 18:50
(Psalms 18:50) He gives his king great victories; he shows unfailing kindness to his anointed, to David and his descendants forever.
Because of God’s kindness, Israel [King David] was given great victories. And, not only did he receive great victories because of God’s kindness, but, the magnitude and the extent of the kinds was incomprehensible. It was unfailing. This unfailing kindness was extended to King David and to his descendants forever.
(Isaiah 54:8) In a surge of anger I hid my face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you," says the LORD your Redeemer.
Riches, power, strength, wisdom, and blessing are found in God’s everlasting kindness. Riches, power, strength, wisdom, and blessing are found in God’s unfailing kindness.
But, look at the beginning of that sentence. “Do you show contempt for the riches…” Paul uses some strong words here. He doesn’t simply say, “Do you ignore the riches of God’s kindness,” but he uses the word contempt. He doesn’t ask, “Have you been received God’s kindness,” but he uses the opposite. He says that these people were not only ignoring God’s kindness, tolerance and patience, but they were showing contempt. They demonstrated a dislike, a scorn or hatred for God’s kindness.
As a Christian, I can never understand how or why I waited so long to become a Christian. As a believer in Christ, I understand what the Bible says about those that turn away from God, but, I never really understand why people not only choose to turn away from God, but to openly ridicule God. Since creation, people have openly disrespected God. Since creation, people have openly disapproved and scorned God publicly and privately.
Paul has asked the question, “do you show contempt for the riches of God’s kindness?”
What’s your answer to that? Did you know that not accepting and growing in God’s kindness, is, in a way, showing contempt for God’s kindness? Something to think about.
b. His Tolerance
Not only has God demonstrated an unfailing kindness to His people, but He has demonstrated an unbelievable amount of tolerance for His creation.
Tolerance means lenience or forbearance. It is a little like patience, but indicates that someone is being ‘tolerant’ of someone else doing something that annoys them. Which is a little harsher than patience.
Paul helps us out in Romans 3:25:
(Romans 3:25) God presented him [Jesus] 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-
Paul tells us in those verses, because in his forbearance, that God exercised ‘tolerance’ prior to the atonement of Jesus Christ on the cross.
And, what about you? Before you became a Christian, God exercised tolerance. I mean, the first time you sinned, God had every right to just hit you with a lightning bolt, or just whisk you away right then and there. Aren’t you glad that God is tolerant? Aren’t you glad that God tolerated the world just long enough to allow you to be won to Christ?
But, like kindness, there are those that not only reject God’s tolerance of their actions [sins], but show open contempt for the tolerance of God.
How did we respond to that tolerance? Did we run from it? Did we show contempt for it? Were we puzzled by it? How did we respond to that tolerance?
What about patience?
c. His Patience
How do we respond to God’s patience? The apostle Peter tells us very sternly:
(2 Peter 3:15) Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him.
God patiently waited for you to come to Him. God patiently waited for you to put your faith in Jesus, His Son. Aren’t you glad He did? Aren’t you glad that God patiently waited for you? How many times did you sin before you came to know God? How many times have you sinned since you have come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ?
Aren’t you glad that God is a patient God? But that’s not all. We are to take that kindness, that tolerance, that patience, and go into the uttermost part of the world. These are all part of the fruit of the Spirit!
However, there are some that will not only show contempt for God’s patience by not turning to Him, but there are some that will openly ridicule God for his patience. Further, because of His great patience, there are some that say that He is unable to do anything. What do they want Him to do? Do they want Him to reach out His mighty arm and strike them down?
But there are benefits, there are lasting, positive affects of God’s kindness in our lives.
II. The Effects of God’s Kindness
We’ve already mentioned some of the effects of God’s kindness. Here’s a great verse, from Jeremiah 31:3
(Jeremiah 31:3) The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: "I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.
“I have drawn you with loving-kindness!”
God is telling us that the best benefit of His kindness, His loving-kindness is the fact that it draws the Christian and the non-Christian to HIM! Isn’t that great? But there’s more!
God’s kindness not only draws, but it also leads us to repentance. God’s kindness leads us toward repentance. The compelling loving-kindness of God subtly persuades us to turn to His forgiveness in Christ.
He doesn’t coerce us, or pressure us, or intimidate us to seek His forgiveness. He doesn’t drive us into subjugation with forceful words or compelling speeches. God is simply patient, displaying loving-kindness that, again, subtly persuades us to turn to His forgiveness in Christ.
This is the greatest effect of God’s kindness, it leads you and I toward repentance. Yet, there are some that do not realize that. There are some that have hearts that have been hardened because of a suffering relationship between them and God. They’ve chosen to quit going to church, or they’ve chosen to quit reading the Bible. They don’t’ realize that their very actions are keeping them from repentance.
And, there are others that have shown contempt for God’s kindness, tolerance and patience. They’ve chosen to go the other direction, away from God. They’ve shown contempt for the kindness displayed in God. Because of this contempt, they’ve interrupted their opportunity to understand that all of that nagging on their hearts was God urging them to repentance. They raised their noses at God’s kindness and thus cancel the opportunity to allow it to lead them to repentance. What’s left? Weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Look out into the world today. Look at some of the reality TV programming that is coming out. It is not kindness, tolerance and patience that draws people to this job or that TV program, or this hobby. What is it? It is cruelty, intolerance, and impatience.
III. The Damning Effects of Stubbornness and an Unrepentant Heart
Romans 2:5 But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed.
a. Stubbornness
Practically every instance of the word stubborn in the Bible, that I could find, appears in the negative sense. There are no good uses of the word. Meaning, that to have this trait or characteristic is something that we should not seek to have. To be stubborn means that we are not listening.
Look at Psalm 81:12,
(Psalms 81:12) So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices.
When we go back to the Old Testament and begin reading of Abraham, Isaac, Israel [Jacob], Joseph, Joshua, David, etc., we should notice in our reading a propensity, a tendency by the Jews to sin against God. There are some instances where sin was committed that the Israelites, because of a good leader or prophet that was following God, were led back to God and God forgave them of their sin. But, there are some instances, where the Israelites were stubborn. And what did God do?
(Psalms 81:12) So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices.
God gives them over to the stubborn hearts. We’ve learned when we show contempt for God’s kindness, we are not drawing close to God and are not led to repentance. When this happens, when we are not drawn close to God and are not led to repentance, then there are no blessings from God. When we are not drawn close to God and are not led to repentance, we are going in the opposite direction. We are going away from His fellowship, His blessings, His help, His sanctification.
But that’s not all. Not only do we miss out on all of that, our stubbornness increases! Because we’ve been given over to stubbornness, it consumes us. We become, if it is possible, even more stubborn and hardened than before.
As we become even more stubborn than before, we are actually storing this up in God. God is holding us accountable for this. What goes along with a stubborn heart? An unrepentant heart.
b. An Unrepentant Heart
What is an unrepentant heart? A heart that refuses to admit guilt. It is a heart that refuses to admit that, you know maybe I was wrong. An unrepentant heart is a care-less heart. A heart that, because it has not sought after God’s kindness, becomes self-righteous. It begins to rationalize everything that it does as being the right thing to do.
Can a Christian have or develop an unrepentant heart? I think so. There are Christians today that have trouble saying, maybe I was wrong, or, maybe I’m being hardheaded in that area.
An unrepentant heart is a heart that refuses to say anything unpleasant about itself.
How did we get that unrepentant heart? By being stubborn and not realizing that we should be emulating Christ. How did we get that unrepentant heart? By being stubborn and not realizing that we should be imitating Christ.
What does that unrepentant heart do for us? It, like the stubborn heart, is storing up wrath, God’s wrath against us.
c. The Judgment
The stubbornness and unrepentant heart has but one verdict possible: Guilty as charged.
Conclusion:
What have you done? How have you responded to God’s kindness? How have you responded to God’s invitation of abundant blessings and riches found in God’s kindness, tolerance and patience?
Romans 2:6 tells us:
6 God "will give to each person according to what he has done."
Think about that. God will give to each person according to what he has done. How much do you get? How much are you going to get?
The Christian life is not a life of works. But, the Christian life is a life in Christ which will lead us to do good works in and through Him. Therefore, now the statement:
6 God "will give to each person according to what he has done."
How much do you think you are going to get?
Your blessings in Christ and your riches in Christ are directly proportional to your faith in Christ.
No wonder the father of the possessed boy, in Mark 9:24, said
“I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”
6 God "will give to each person according to what he has done."
What have you done? What are you going to get? Start today and realize the riches in God’s kindness, tolerance and patience.
