Don't think you're getting out of it
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Introduction: It’s all about the Gospel | Romans 1:1-17
Doctrine of the Gospel |Romans 1:18-8:39
Divine Plan of the Gospel | Romans 9-11
Duty of the Gospel | Romans 12-14
Dedication of the Gospel | Romans 15-16
In the Introduction, Paul made it clear that this letter is all about the gospel. And, in the gospel, the power of God is revealed that brings salvation to everyone who believes. That power is what brings righteousness to everyone by faith. In fact, Righteousness is the key concept around which everything revolves. The Good News of God reveals how God will give us righteousness.
Why is that needed? As we saw in the first part of the Doctrine of the Gospel, in Romans 1:18-32, God’s wrath is being revealed about mankind because of our unrighteousness. We are unrighteous because even though God and his attributes are clearly seen in creation, we choose to not acknowledge Him, nor give Him thanks. Rather, we choose to worship created things. We place things of this world above God, giving them our affection and committing ourselves to those things, rather than the Lord. So, God’s wrath is being revealed.
How is it being revealed? By God giving us over to those things we desire. And it goes from bad to worse as we get what we want, and then want even more, and worse, or more perverse things.
We have foolish hearts and minds.
We have sinful desires.
God gave us over to shameful lusts.
God gave us over to depraved minds. Minds that do not make good judgments. As is seen today, as our culture can no longer distinguish between man and woman, right and wrong, natural and unnatural.
As Paul describes in Romans 1:29-32:
They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips,
slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents;
they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy.
Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
This is the unrighteous condition of mankind. Falling far short of the glory in which God made us in His image. For God created us to be holy, righteous, and loving as He is, but we have become unholy, unrighteous, and self-loving.
This is the reason this world is so messed up.
Some may ask,
“If God is so good and loving, why is there so much evil in this world?”
Our answer is found in Romans 1. Because mankind has chosen to abandon the Lord, God let us have what we wanted. He gave us over to our sinful desires, and wrong thinking. So people harm each other as we only think of oursevles.
Why would God do that? Because God wants us to see the consequences, and return to Him.
Today, we will pick up Paul’s line of reasoning in Chapter 2.
We are covering a large section, because I want us to see the main points Paul is making, and not lose track of the flow of thought.
So, keeping in mind how God gave over mankind to sinful desires, sinful lusts, and a depraved mind, leading to all sorts of evil, and people who approve of the evil, let us read Romans 2:1-4.
You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.
Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth.
So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment?
Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?
Don’t think you are getting out of it!
Don’t think you are getting out of it!
In this section, Paul is specifically addressing the Jewish religious people, who had the law, and thought they were so much better than others.
This is the danger that we as believers face. It is easy for us to read Romans 1, and think how awful our culture, and the cultures around the world, are, and how they are just getting worse. We can look at others around us with condemnation, and fail to see ourselves in the same boat.
We fail to see that even if we don’t do exactly what they are doing, we are still doing the same things. We are still guilty of not honoring God, or giving Him thanks. We are still guilty of gossip, slander, greed, envy, murder, fighting, deceit and malice. We have a propensity toward arrogance. And all too often, we approve of evil. This is the danger we fall into as we approve of things we are pressured to approve in our culture: Same-sex marriage is one example of that which we are pressured to approve, and sadly, many Christians today are giving approval, whether just giving a thumbs up on Facebook to those who come out as homosexual, or upon their marriage to one of the same sex, or giving approval to the evil of the world through what we watch on TV or in the theaters.
So, Paul is wise in pointing out to the righteous that we cannot walk around with our nose in the air, thinking we are so much better than the rest of the world. We do the same things.
We can forget God’s kindness, forbearance (putting up with), patience (while we take so long to realize the truth), not realizing that we are not so good in ourselves, but rather God’s kindness brings us to repentance, a change of mind where we recognize our wickedness, and listen to Him.
We cannot think we are better than others, getting out of God’s wrath of being given over to our sinful desires, sinful lusts, and wrong thinking.
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.
God “will repay each person according to what they have done.”
To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life.
But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger.
There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile;
but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.
For God does not show favoritism.
You are storing up wrath
You are storing up wrath
In Romans 1, we saw God’s wrath as something that is happening right now. God in his wrath, gives us over.
Now, Paul reveals another aspect of God’s wrath. While we continue to pursue our sinful desires—worshipping the things of this world: our possessions, our entertainment, our pleasure, our arrogance, our desire to exalt ourselves and put others down, we are building up God’s wrath more and more, and it will be fully revealed on the day of God’s wrath. This is when God’s judgment will be fully revealed.
The day of God’s wrath must be understood in the light of scripture. And, the scriptures to which Paul is referring would be the writings of the prophets in the Old Testament. The day of God’s wrath is the time period when God will come in judgment and pour out wrath on the evil people of this world.
The great day of the Lord is near— near and coming quickly. The cry on the day of the Lord is bitter; the Mighty Warrior shouts his battle cry.
That day will be a day of wrath— a day of distress and anguish, a day of trouble and ruin, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness—
a day of trumpet and battle cry against the fortified cities and against the corner towers.
“I will bring such distress on all people that they will grope about like those who are blind, because they have sinned against the Lord. Their blood will be poured out like dust and their entrails like dung.
Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to save them on the day of the Lord’s wrath.” In the fire of his jealousy the whole earth will be consumed, for he will make a sudden end of all who live on the earth.
“The day of the Lord is near for all nations. As you have done, it will be done to you; your deeds will return upon your own head.
In that day, called the tribulation and judgment in the New Testament, God’s wrath will be poured out on the people of the world.
God will repay people for what they have done.
Then we see a curious statement in verse 7-8.
To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life.
But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger.
This almost makes it sound like we can save ourselves by pursuing and doing good. Actually, this is true. If we were to persistently do good, honoring the Lord, thanking Him, and living in His righteousness and love, we would be given eternal life.
The key word there is persistence. As we hopefully already see, we are not persistent in doing good. We have sinful desires and actions flowing from those desires. And, if we are not aware already, Paul will bring this to a conclusion in a bit.
As a result, the judgment, the time of trouble for everyone who does evil, the religious and unreligious.
The word for trouble is the same work Jesus used in Matthew 24:21 :
For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again.
The tribulation.
After trying to show the religious Jews that they are under God’s wrath, he now turns to the Gentiles, or the nonreligious, those who did not have God’s revelation in the scriptures.
All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law.
For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous.
(Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law.
They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.)
This will take place on the day when God judges people’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.
You have a conscience
You have a conscience
Some may say that it isn’t fair. They did not grow up hearing God’s Word, or maybe they never had someone teach them about the Lord and His ways. How could God be wrathful against the ignorant?
However, the truth is that all mankind was made in God’s image. A part of that image was that He built into us a conscience.
That is why there is guilt and shame. That is why, even among those pursuing unnatural ways of life, there is a high instance of depression and suicide. They are working against an inner conscience, something in them that is saying something isn’t right. However, in our blindness, we often want to point out other things as that which isn’t right, and blame other things rather than our sinful choices for the prompting within us.
The Bible is clear that our conscience can be good and clear:
The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.
They must keep hold of the deep truths of the faith with a clear conscience.
It can be guilty:
let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.
It can be corrupted:
To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted.
It can become seared:
Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.
The point is that God has built into us a conscience, so that we have a sense we are doing things that are not right. However, over time, as we continue to do things that are wrong, our conscience can be corrupted. We don’t feel the pang that things are wrong when we should. In fact, as we do those wrong things over and over, and pursue them out of our own sinful desires and lusts, it can become seared.
Key making and the cigarette lighter.
In the same way, our consciences can become seared and we just don’t feel it anymore.
But, we all start with a conscience, and it tells us that we do things that are wrong. We know it. Certain things we don’t feel anymore, or we have corrupted our conscience to accept certain things. but in some way, our consciences do show us that we do what is wrong.
And this even happens to religious people.
After speaking about the nonreligious who are condemned even though they did not have God’s scriptures, Paul again addresses the religious Jews. Why?
Because, all too often, it is the religious person that has the hardest time accepting that they are sinful, and under God’s wrath.
We all believe we are good. So, Paul uses pointed questions from the law to prick their conscience.
Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; if you rely on the law and boast in God;
if you know his will and approve of what is superior because you are instructed by the law;
if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark,
an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of little children, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth—
you, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal?
You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?
You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law?
As it is written: “God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”
Do you...?
Do you...?
Steal?
Steal?
Steal - to take by stealth. Dishonesty. Stealing things, stealing credit, stealing from the government (pay under the table), steal from others by not revealing the whole truth, stealing honor from God
Dishonest dealings.
Commit Adultery?
Commit Adultery?
But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
Rob from temples?
Rob from temples?
Jews did not worship idols.
Jewish writings spoke of a Jew who made money by selling an idol to a Gentile. Do we gain from others for their evil behavior? I know that the cake baker did not want to promote homosexual marriage. I would go further and say it would be wrong for me to make money by promoting something that is wrong.
There is also another sense in Malachi 3.8:
“Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me. “But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’ “In tithes and offerings.
Robbing temples in this sense is robbing God of his honor and glory by not treating Him properly. by not giving Him what He is due. He does not need our money, but He is due our honor and thanks which is given through returning to Him the first portion of what He provides for us.
Do we worship other things more than God?
Break the law?
Break the law?
Paul already touched on Honoring God, stealing and adultery.
What about lying?
What about honoring parents?
What about murder?
Don’t think you are getting out of it!
Don’t think you are getting out of it!