How to Escape God's Judgment

Scripture Reading

Bibles with me to the book of Romans. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans. Romans chapter 2. But for the sake of continuity, we're actually going to read from Romans chapter 1 beginning at verse 16 through Romans chapter 2 verse 16. Romans chapter 1 beginning at verse 16. Brothers and sisters, this is God's perfect word. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.

For it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes. For the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made. Even His eternal power in Godhead, so that they are without excuse.

Because although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Therefore, God also gave them over to the uncleanness and the loss of their hearts to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator. who is blessed forever, amen. For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature, likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lust for one another. Men with men committing what is shameful and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind to do things which are not fitting.

Being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness, they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful. who knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, may not only do the same, but also approve of those who practice them.

Therefore, you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge. For in whatever you judge another, you condemn yourself. For you who judge practice the same things. But we know that the judgment of God is according to the truth against those who practice such things.

And do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? who, in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart, you are treasuring up for yourself wrath and the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to each one according to his deeds eternal life to those who, by patient continuance in doing good, seek for glory, honor, and immortality. But to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obeying unrighteousness, indignation, and wrath, tribulation, and anguish on every soul of man who does evil of the Jew first and also of the Greek. But glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

For there is no partiality with God. 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 in the law, these, although they not having the law, are a law to themselves. who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their consciences 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.

Prayer for Illumination

Well, in the reading of God's word there, let's pray together. Father, You have given us Your Word, and it is true, and it is righteous altogether. Its truth doesn't depend upon our approval or how much we like it, but You are true. And so, Father, we pray that Your Holy Spirit would please help us Help us, Lord, to understand your word. Help us to be under it, that your spirit might do a heart surgery in us, showing us the corruption, the cancer of our souls, and giving us the only hope of Jesus. Lord, we pray that you would please help us. Lord, please, we need your spirit. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.

Sermon

There's a story of a man who was getting kind of impatient with his wife. He swore her hearing was going bad. So he couldn't convince her, couldn't convince her, couldn't convince her. So finally, they went to the doctor. As they went to the doctor, he said, my wife can't hear worth anything. And she said, I can hear just fine. So the doctor had a plan for how to figure this out. So he had the wife stand on one side of the examination room and the husband on the other side, 20 feet away. And the doctor said, just ask her one question.

And the old man said, what's for dinner tonight? And she didn't answer. Her back was towards him, and she didn't answer. He gets frustrated and looked at the doctor. He said, walk five feet forward. So he goes 15 feet away, and he asks the question again. What's for dinner? No answer. Go to 10 feet. So he walks to 10 feet. What's for dinner? No answer. The doctor says, why don't you stand right behind her? So he stands right behind her. What's for dinner? For the fourth time, Harry, we're having chicken. Sometimes it's really easy to look at other people and to diagnose what they've got wrong with them without realizing how much we got wrong with us.

And that's what the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to teach the church here in Romans chapter two. He goes through this whole part in Romans chapter one of all the sins of the non-Jewish Gentile people, right? Verses 18 through the end of the chapter, all these ways in which God has given over the nations to all their different sins. There's a long list of vices As you look at those who will not retain God in their knowledge, debased minds, doing things which are not fitting. You can imagine the good Jewish person who sat under good Torah law teaching their whole life going, yeah, yeah, that's right, those sinful people. Yeah, that's right, those sinful people. And Paul has set them up.

He changes. Radically, in chapter 2, he puts the readers on trial. Therefore, you are inexcusable. It's not the normal way that when we read, I often have to tell people, when you read this is actually the plural is talking about y'all, but here it's not that, it's individual.

Paul is setting up each individual Christian on the stand and they're sitting on the witness stand and they're on trial. And as he's just laid all the sins of the Gentiles in front of them, how God has given them over, and their suppression of the truth, and then all these things that they've done, and how they act, and who they are, he says, therefore you are inexcusable, oh man, whoever you are who judge. For in whatever you judge another, you condemn yourself. For you who judge practice the same things.

I hope you walk out of here this morning knowing that we cannot escape God's judgment by pointing our finger at somebody else. We can't point at other people's sins, but we have to face our own guilt and our desperate need to cling to Jesus Christ. It's human nature that we want to deflect And we like to look judgmentally at other people, but the Holy Spirit this morning is calling us to stop. Reflect on our own lives and our own hearts.

First Point

And so first I'd like for us to look at verses 1 through 5. You judge others, but do the same things. Verses 1 through 5. Therefore, you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge. For in whatever you judge another, you condemn yourself. For you who judge practice the same things. But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things. And do you think this, O man? You who judge those practicing such things and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God?

Or do you despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance, and long-suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart, you are treasuring up for yourself wrath and the day of wrath. and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.

It's really easy for us to be morally outraged at things. It's really easy for us to pick up our phone and look at the news feed or the scroll or turn on the TV and get really upset about everybody else's sin out there. How can our nation become such a morally corrupt, bankrupt place? How can they do these types of things in society? How can people be so violent? How can people be so sexually immoral? How can people be so crass with their tongues?

And yet we do the same things. How easy is it to get outraged at a politician's lies? And yet how many people will pad their own stories with exaggeration to make themselves look better? How many people will get furious when other people's kids are kicking and screaming in the grocery store aisle and yet don't care about how they disrespect Our government.

How many church members gossip about somebody else? And the gossip is, can you believe they're so immoral? All the while tearing down somebody else's reputation, violating the ninth commandment. How many of us will condemn the sexual immorality out there and yet ignore what Jesus said that even if you lust with a woman with your eye you've already committed adultery in your heart? How many of us harbor lustful thoughts and don't take seriously to cut off our right hand and walk in radical repentance? How many of us will rage against the greed of society and yet be stingy when people ask us for things?

It's easy to judge out there. while doing the same things in our own lives? Where will we run on the Judgment Day? When the books are opened, and all the secrets are made plain, all the thoughts and the intents of our hearts, all the corruption, all the evil, how can we escape His righteous judgment? This is where Paul, he's using a rhetorical device here where he's literally putting the person on the stand. He's saying, how in the world can you dare to judge the rest of the world when you're doing the same things?

Or do you despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance, and long-suffering? Not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance. Maybe God is patient with the world because he needs to be patient with us. Because God doesn't play favorites. Look with me at verses six through 11. Who will render to each one according to his deeds Eternal life to those who, by patient continuance and doing good, seek for glory, honor, and immortality. But to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness, indignation, wrath, tribulation, and anguish on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek, but glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek, for there is no partiality with God. God doesn't play favorites. He doesn't grade on a curve. His judgment is fair. And that should shake us to the core. There's a universal scope.

He talked about in Romans chapter 1, 16, Paul said that he was not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. It's a universal salvation for everyone who believes in Jesus Christ. But then did you notice in verse 9? Tribulation and anguish on every soul of man who does evil of the Jew first and also of the Greek. Same phrase. Universal salvation that's found only in Jesus Christ, but also, we've got to be honest about our human condition.

Judgment. God is fair. He's righteous. He doesn't give one person a pass. You know, your sin wasn't too bad. Don't worry about it. He doesn't minimize sin. God doesn't grade by where you were born, what family you were born into. God doesn't care if you were held to a different standard.

Well, I'm a pastor's kid. Okay. Well, I'm a missionary kid. Okay. Well, I was baptized in the RP Church. Okay. Do you sin? And there's a story of a woman who was baptized in a Presbyterian church when she hadn't shown up for church for years. The elders said, OK, we're going to remove you from the roles because you haven't shown up for years. And she sent the elders her baptism certificate. But I was baptized here.

OK, great. Why don't you come back? Rest in Christ. Rejoice in the Lord. There's all sorts of people who are presumed that somehow God will show them favor and ignore their lives. Because somehow they have credentials or paperwork or maybe they got really emotionally riled up at some rally or revival or whatever where you had this moment of emotional high and so you said a sinner's prayer and then you hold on to that one phrase the rest of your life. But I said this prayer. All the rest of your life you don't care about the evil that's still ruling over you.

Everyone faces the same righteous judgment. This is what the Lord has been pushing in this passage. He will judge with equity. And so verses 12 through 16. For as many as have sinned outside or without the 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 God's sight, but the doers of the law will be justified. For when Gentiles who do not have the law by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are 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. And the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel. Paul is showing here that there's no one who has excuse. He's not allowing the witness on the stand to escape saying, well, but I didn't have the law. I wasn't raised in the church. He says, hold on.

Every time you felt guilty because of something, you showed the law written in your heart. Every time you honored your parents, though you didn't have the fifth commandment, you didn't know that it was written in a table of stone, yet you honored your parents, you knew in your conscience that there was a moral standard. How much more so for us who have, even this morning, read the fourth commandment, recited it together.

And so my personal plea for you, this is me begging you, asking you, have you taken stock of your own soul? Have you taken inventory of your own life, your own thought, your own hearts? What are the things you ponder on? What are the things you love? As you go to the Ten Commandments and you see the law of God, do you look at it and go, got it, done it perfect? Or will you stop in a moment of clarity and be honest? And we break these.

See, the scary thing here, Who's the judge? Who's the real judge? It's not me, it's not some other elder. It's not the angels. Did you catch it in verse 16? In the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus. Christ. How will we be able to stand before Jesus Christ, the judge who will come again on that last great day? How will we stand there knowing that he sees what's even in our hearts How do we stand before a God who's omniscient? He knows everything. How could we dare possibly stand before such a one as this and say, I'm righteous, and I've done the good work to deserve the kingdom?

I told you I think Paul was setting them up starting at verse 28 I want to personalize this just a little bit and even as we did not like to retain God in our knowledge God gave us over to debased minds to do those things which are not fitting being filled with unrighteousness sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, envy.

We are filled with strife, murder, deceit, evil-mindedness. We are those who are given over to reputation, destruction, backbiting, and hating God. We are those who harbor violence, pride, boasting, and invent all sorts of evil things in our hearts. We are those who have disobeyed our parents. We lack discernment. We lack trustworthiness. We lack love. We lack forgiveness. And we lack mercy.

Where do we get to run when the gavel is about to drop? Where do you go when your conscience testifies against you that you know that you're guilty of the things that the Bible shows? Where do you go? What hope do you have? Do you just minimize the sin and brush it away? Do you just go along with the psychological explanations of it, that this is just your religious trauma, and that these things are just moral, or they're not actually moral categories, but you can relativize it? Can you just contextualize your sins and transgressions and just blame it on the situation that you were in? Or will you, by the power of the Holy Spirit, look at your sin and see the death that it is?

Call it for what it is. But what will you do with it? God doesn't give us any area here to be like the Pharisee in Luke chapter 18 who goes to the temple and he prays, God, thank you that I'm not like that one. tax collector and a sinner. All the while the tax collector and the sinner won't even look up his eyes to heaven but is pleading with God to have mercy on him. So what do you do if the Spirit has pushed any of this conviction on you, any of this judgmentalism on you, any of this sin that we've seen at the end of Romans chapter 1, what do you do with that type of soul-crushing weight? You say, yeah, I do deserve that judgment. But, thank the Lord, I'm just preaching to you one little part of Romans.

And chapter and verse 16 isn't the end of the book. No, the conclusion of all of chapter one and two, we flipped over just a page or two, Romans chapter three, beginning at verse 21. But now, even though he's gone through and shown that there is none righteous, no not one, we even sing those words in the psalm today. Romans chapter 3 verse 21.

But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed. being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by his blood through faith to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance God has passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time his righteousness, that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith. in Jesus.

Do you see the answer to Romans chapter 1 is where do you go with that type of soul-crushing guilt? Where do you go with that weight of sin? You run to the cross as fast as you can. You go to Jesus. And you accept the guilty verdict on you for who you are and who I am as sinners. Unworthy of the kingdom. Unworthy of standing before a holy God.

But willing to accept that our only answer is that God purchased us by the blood of his own son, redeemed us from his own wrath, from the destruction that we deserve, and has saved us by his grace, has given mercy to those who would be considered outside of God's mercy.

Christ took your judgment chapter 3, verse 25, whom God set forth as a propitiation by his blood through faith. He has taken away your sin, but it's not just like Jesus has taken away your sin and so now you're just at a neutral level playing ground with God, but man, the second you sin again, you are in trouble. No. In Jesus Christ, there is forgiveness for sins and a reconciliation with God. No longer enemies, but friends. The wrath we have been storing up in this life, Jesus covers it. The judgment that we deserve full wrath of God coming upon those who practice disobedience and unrighteousness, Jesus drank down that cup.

So who will you be? Who will you be? Are you the type of person who will say, I don't have sin, I've not transgressed, If you do so, you're lying to yourself and even worse, you make God a liar. But if we confess our sins, He is faithful and He is just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us of all of our unrighteousness.

Christ gives you this righteousness. Verse 22, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe for there is no difference. We don't stand before the king of the universe in our own righteousness. But there's a righteousness that comes from outside of us, an alien righteousness. No, righteousness is that which Jesus himself earned in his perfect life. And he freely gives to us his own righteousness. We don't come to God in our filthy rags, we come to him in the perfect robes of Christ. Today's Easter.

The question is why in the world did Jesus have to rise from the dead? If it was just about Jesus pouring out his blood, covering us over in his blood, Friday would have been done. Good news there, but that's not the end of it. He was put to death for our sins, but he was raised again from the dead for our justification. Jesus rose again from the dead because our righteousness is alive. Jesus rose again from the dead. He defeated sin and death, and He ascended up to heaven, and He sits at the right hand of the Father, and He is perfectly righteous.

So when you come to Romans chapter 1 and 2, and you see your guilt, and you see your sin, don't look at yourself as the final story. Look to the God who has given you His Son in heaven. Fix your eyes on Jesus, because that's where your righteousness is. Look to Christ. Stop trusting in your own goodness. Cling to Him. The hearing test is over. It's not somebody else who's to blame. The diagnosis is in. And we're all spiritually deaf to our own sin. Too often we're too quick to judge everyone else's failures. God doesn't grade on a curve. He doesn't grade based upon your baptism certificate. You're not going to get into glory because you're a member of an RP church.

Closing Prayer

Only Jesus can save us. You cannot escape God's judgment by pointing at other people's sins. We must face our own guilt and desperately cling to Christ's righteousness. So stop pointing your finger at other people and their sins, and go run to Jesus. Cling to Jesus. Do not trust in your own good works, but trust in the finished work of Jesus. That's our hope. The object of the Christian faith is the person and work of Jesus. Look to Jesus. Let's pray. God, we are sinners.

Lord, some of us sin in very large and grievous and disturbing ways. and some in more respectable ways. But Lord, we can't look down our noses at others. So Father, we pray that your Spirit might give us humility to accept who you say we are and to receive the grace of Jesus Christ freely offered to us in the gospel. Lord, we thank you that you sent your son to save sinners of whom we are the worst. Father, please care for us. Let us receive Jesus Christ and rest in him alone for salvation. But also, Lord, we pray that you might please help us to live our lives full of thankfulness and for your glory. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.