Alright brethren, we're going
to get started in Romans. Romans chapter 2 verses 1 through
4 is our text. And what we'll see today is that
the religious man, a religious man because Paul now is addressing
the Jew. He's addressing the Jew and that
doesn't mean that it's not relevant to us today because we have self-righteous
modern-day Pharisees in our day. We still have those who are trusting
their works and thinking that God saves and is pleased with
and blesses the works of man and man's attempts to please
and justify or sanctify himself before God. But what we see here
is that the religious man is guilty. He's guilty of the same
condemnation and judgment that we saw in chapter one for the
idolatrous pagan, the pagan worshiper, the Gentile idolatrous pagan
worshiper. And that's because man, man of
righteous, sorry, a religious man, working for his own righteousness,
believing himself that men are saved by their own will, or their
works or their worth. That's how man is saved, believing
that. What we find is that he too is
also denying God as he is. We saw last week that they were
denying God, the God of this book, the God revealed in these
scriptures here, that he is righteous, that he's provided righteousness
through his son. They're denying that God too.
So the idolatrous pagan denies this God. and we also see that
the religious man denies this God because he's denying God's
righteousness. And so our title this morning
is, All Guilty of Denying God's Righteousness. All Guilty of
Denying God's Righteousness. We'll have two divisions. We'll
see the religious are guilty, and then we'll look at the judgment
according to truth. God's judgment according to truth.
These religious men, they judge. But they judge according to a
lie, and God judges according to truth. All right, so this
religious, the religious are guilty. Okay, so last week we
saw how the idolatrous pagan worshiper, he was guilty of denying
God as he is, guilty of denying the righteousness of God, that
he reveals righteousness, that he provides righteousness to
the sinner. And because he changed the image
of God, right, he couldn't change God, So he changed his image
of God. He changed his understanding
of God. He factored in what he wanted
to bring into this and decided, you know, I think God is this
way. I think this pleases God. I feel
this way about God today. And so he began to change how
it is that God is worshiped and honored and What pleases God,
he changed these things. He didn't go back to God humbly
and say, Lord, is this the truth? Is this what honors you and glorifies
you and pleases you? He didn't do that. He just went
with his feelings, his heart, whatever makes him happy. what
his heart is telling him to do. That's what man in his flesh
did. That's what the pagan idolater,
the worshiper of himself did. Because he wasn't honoring God
in this. He wasn't serving God or glorifying God in this. He
was honoring himself. He was creating a God that was
pleased with himself and his own works, and he sought, therefore,
to honor and glorify himself. And we find it was all according
to the works of his flesh, what pleased him, what interested
him, what made him happy, and what he thought honored and pleased
God, which was really honoring and pleasing his own flesh. And
that's why we read in Romans 1 24 and 25, Wherefore God also
gave them up to uncleanness, through the lusts of their own
hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves. These
are those that changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped
and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed
forever. Amen. And so, because of this,
we understand, seeing these truths which Paul is making clear to
us, we understand that the issue with man, the heart of the problem
and the issue with man is that he's denying God as he is. And because he changed God, God
also gave them up to do that which was interested, what they
wanted to do in their own flesh. God gave them up to that. And
that's why You know, today, what we see is that men from pulpits,
and even women from pulpits, what they're declaring is the
worth of man, the will of man, the works of man for salvation. They're changing the truth of
God into a lie. And so that's why we see God
giving up men more and more in this nation to their own perverted
lusts their own perverted desires, that which is darkness and filthy
and vile and polluted, God gives them up to that. Because man
keeps trying to say, well, I've got to fix this now, and so he
goes back to the law, and he starts hammering away at the
law, or he just tells you, God loves you, and it's according
to your will, you need to believe on Jesus now. So they change
everything. They switch everything up and
they preach a lie and so God gives up the people to their
own flesh. And that's why you see more and
more darkness and more and more filth and more and more perversion
coming out of men and women in our nation. It just gets worse.
So, our Lord God has revealed His righteousness. He's made
it known. He's revealed what true righteousness
is. And that revelation is in the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's revealed His Son. Jesus
Christ. But man shows his enmity of God. He shows his hatred of God. He
shows that he's still walking in the flesh because rather than
hear God and seek God, what true righteousness is, and seek to
please Him in true righteousness, He seeks to please himself and
he preaches up man and he preaches down God because he hates God
and he hates the gospel that God has declared to us and revealed
to us through these scriptures, through his prophets, through
the apostles that he raised up and said. Alright, now today
we look at the religious man who rejects God's righteousness
in favor of his own works. Just like that pagan idolater,
the religious who pretend to be holy and righteous before
God, they're doing the same thing. They're guilty of the same crime,
the same sin, the same iniquity as the pagan idolater. because
they too deny God as He is, as He's revealed Himself in these
scriptures, as He's shown us that it's through Christ and
only through Christ, only by God's grace do we know Him and
are made righteous and holy and accepted before God. So both
are wicked. Both do the same thing. So look
at verse 1. Romans 2 verse 1, Therefore thou
art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest. For wherein
thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself. For thou that judgest
doest the same things. The same things. Now what was
the Jew in that day? What was the Jew and the religious
man in our day, what are they judging? What are they judging,
right? Whosoever thou art that judgest,
for wherein thou judgest another. What are they doing? Well, they're
looking over at those Gentile idolaters, pagan idolaters that
we just saw in chapter one. They're looking at them and they're
saying, wow, they are in darkness. They are just giving up the filth
and perversion and all sorts of darkness. So they're looking
over there at their works, but the folly of the righteous person,
the folly of the righteous person is they say, but look at me.
They have all this trouble because they're so mixed up and polluted
and vile. They have all this trouble, but
I don't have these troubles. God's blessing me because I'm
seeking Him. I'm doing what's right. I'm going
to church like I'm supposed to. I'm reading my Bible like I'm
supposed to. I'm praying like I'm supposed to. And so God isn't
pouring out His wrath and judgment on me. I'm sidestepping that
because of my works of righteousness. Because of what I'm doing, I'm
sanctifying myself and keeping myself in the pleasure, in the
the approval of God. So they're trusting that their
works are why God is being kind to them and blessing them. They're
trusting their works. They're looking to their own
works. And so if you remember, in Israel's
history, when God would raise up judges and prophets, especially
the prophets, the people would get angry with them because they're
looking at their works and everything's going well. And the prophets
are saying, yeah, but you're doing on the outside what's right. but inward, you have no heart
for God. And they would be offended, and
get angry, and either kill them, or beat them, or drive them off,
or lock them up in prison, and smack them in their faces, because
they said, wait a minute, you're implying that I'm not right with
God, and yet all my works are testifying that everything's
okay, because God hasn't poured out his wrath on me yet. And
so they're trusting in those things, and that's why they got
angry with the prods. They got angry with them. So
that type of judgment of the Jew, the religious person, condemns
others for their sin, finds a way to justify themselves and their
works because they're not under that same wrath and seeing those
judgments being poured out upon them. And what are they doing?
They're honoring themselves. They're not honoring God. They're
not giving the glory and the praise to God. They're saying,
because of me, because of what I'm doing or not doing, God is
pleased with me. And they're honoring, they're
glorifying themselves. They think they've kept the law,
and that's why the wrath of God hasn't poured out upon them yet. And then there are some, though,
that get into trouble, and we know this. I know this, too. As a religious person in the
flesh, when we get into trouble, when suddenly things don't go
well, what do we do? We go back into our memory, and
we say, wait a minute, what did I do to deserve this now? And
then we try and identify what it is and we fix it, right? We
try to fix it and make it right so that God will now be happy
and pleased with us again. Because that's the flesh. That's
what the flesh does. The flesh doesn't rest in Christ. The flesh doesn't trust God.
We go right back to trying to fix it, to do it, to make it
right. in ourselves. And Paul says, thou condemnest
thyself for thou that judgest doest the same things. We that
are religious, we hear the law, we hear the prophets, we hear
the apostles, but the one thing we don't hear until God makes
the difference is we don't hear the righteousness of God. We
don't hear the grace and the mercy and the kindness of God
which He has revealed to us through His Son, giving us faith, enabling
us to see and behold the righteousness of God, and in whom we are perfect
and accepted and made right before God's throne. without fault. So it's all of the Lord. We're
to hear that. That's what God has shown us. He's shown us it's
not by your works of righteousness. It's by my grace poured out upon
the sinner, upon you whom I've loved from all eternity. I'm
blessing you in this unspeakable gift, Jesus Christ, my son. And
so he reveals that to us. He delivers us from the idolatry
of the pagan, Gentile idolater, and also all the filth and the
faults of the religious man who trusts in his own works, that
they're the things that are keeping him right before God's eyes. So both are will worshippers,
both are worshipping and honouring themselves and not honouring
God and doing what God has shown us through his son Jesus Christ.
It's like those gentile idolaters who changed the truth of God
into a lie and worshipped and served the creature more than
the creator, or rather than the creator. So all are guilty before
God. right, whether you're a Gentile,
pagan idolater who's finding ways to make the lusts of our
flesh acceptable to God, right, to think that these things are
pleasing and to call darkness light and light darkness, or
with that self-righteous religious practitioner who's glorying in
our works and trusting in our own works rather than the glory
and the grace of God revealed in his son Jesus Christ. All
right, so therefore we understand how God is just to judge and
condemn all men under that. All men are guilty. All men have
denied God's righteousness until He makes it known, until He reveals
it to the sinner. He's got to reveal and give us
life and light in Christ. All right, so that brings us
to our next point, judgment according to truth. Now listen to God's
instruction. So Paul, the Lord has revealed
these truths to the Apostle Paul. He's revealed these truths to
us and Paul now says here in verses 2 and 3, but we are sure We are sure that the judgment
of God is according to truth against them which commit such
things. And thinkest thou this, O man,
that judgest them which do such things? And doest the same that
thou shalt escape the judgment of God? Do you really think that
your religious service and your special works under the name
of religion are going to speak well for you, that they're going
to deliver you in that day, you are denying the righteousness
of God. You're denying God as He is,
just like the pagan. Is God really going to excuse
you? You hate Christ just like the pagan idolater hates Christ.
To the religious man, he's saying this. To you that are trusting
in your works, he's showing you. All are guilty of the same thing.
Is God really going to excuse you because you read your Bible
and you go to church regularly and you have the correct doctrine?
Is that how God, is that what pleases God? Is that what he's
going to do, look to, to excuse us and to grant us entrance into
his kingdom? We know from the scriptures,
as Isaiah said in 64.6, he said, all our righteousnesses, he's
not speaking of our wicked deeds, he says all our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags, as filthy used menstrual cloths. That's
what that word is, rags. That's what God compares our
righteousnesses to. So it's not our righteousness,
it's the grace of God revealed in His Son, Jesus Christ. So
to believe such and to walk according to this belief that we're saved
by our works, what we do or don't do, that's to deny God as He
has revealed Himself to us in these scriptures. Now I want
to take you to 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter 1 and look at verses 15
through 17. It might seem odd that I would
choose this scripture after I've said what I've just said, but
1 Peter 1 verses 15 through 17, and we might come back to this
again next week if we continue in chapter 2, but Peter having
the same spirit as Paul. He says, But as he which hath
called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation,
because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy. And if ye
call on the Father, who without respect of persons, just like
we're looking at in Romans 1 and 2, Jew and Gentile, without respect
to who it is, he judgeth according to every man's work. past the
time of your sojourning here in fear. Now, I went to that
scripture because the Gentile idolater and the self-righteous
law-abiding, law-keeping Pharisee, they've got a serious problem.
They've got a serious problem with that verse because if it's
true what they're hearing, the way they hear it, if that's the
truth that they better get working and be holy and perfect in everything,
Who of us will stand in that day? Who of us are so righteous
and perfect that we can make ourselves holy as God is holy? None of us can boast that. None
of us can do that. So they've got a serious problem
if that's what the Lord is saying. But remember what Christ said. Accept your righteousness. except
your righteousnesses shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes
and Pharisees, you shall in no wise, in no case enter the kingdom
of heaven. Your righteousness has to be
more perfect than their righteousness, and they were more exacting than
we'll ever be. So what we see, what the Lord
is saying is that righteousness must be provided by God according
to His grace mercy and compassion for his people and must be provided
by God to the sinner, for the sinner, in the perfection of
another. It's got to be through the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's how God makes us holy. So when the believer hears that,
be ye holy for I am holy, they hear the promise of God who says,
I will and you shall. I will that my people be holy
and perfect before me without fault. Therefore you shall be
holy in the Lord Jesus Christ." That's the only way we do any
good work. It's by Christ's fruit in us, not us doing it for God
and to somehow contribute or add to our salvation. It's all
the work of Christ done for the sinner. through the grace and
the mercy and the compassion that God has for sinners, through
His Son, that unspeakable gift. which we could never earn, but
He's freely given it to us, freely provided to us salvation in His
Son Jesus Christ. All our sinners, every one of
us, have earned, justly earned, condemnation and judgment in
hell. That's the debt that we've acquired by our works. And yet
God declares to us freely I have provided salvation, freely I
have put away your sins by the shedding of the blood of my own
darling Son, Him who is righteous and perfect and pleases me well
in all things. and I gave Him up. I sacrificed
Him to put away your sin. That's what God our Father declares
to us in declaring His righteousness, His salvation through the Son
apart from us, apart from our works. That's our hope, brethren.
Because otherwise we're never going to be holy if it comes
down to ours and our goodness and what we have to do. So that's
what he's saying there and if we go further in chapter 2 we'll
see that Paul says the exact same thing. That it's according
to him that through continuing trying to do that which is good
and right. He doesn't use trying, but according to that which is
right, who in patience does good works. Well, the only way that
we work anything good is, it's Christ in us. We do the things
that we do because it's been ordained by God of Christ in
us. We're His workmanship. We do
the things that we do because of the Lord Jesus Christ. So,
God faithfully reveals these truths to us, declaring to us
all our sinners. And it says in Titus 3, 4-6,
But after that the kindness and love of God our Savior toward
man appeared. not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us by the
washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost which he shed
on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Lord." So all the
goodness and the blessings that we have are of God through Jesus
Christ. The goodness of God is all his
blessings toward us. And He forbears with us long-suffering. He forbears with us, and the
time is long-suffering that He forbears with us. And He pours
out all these gracious promises and spiritual blessings upon
us through Jesus Christ. That's our hope. So, He tells
us this truth. He reveals these truths to us. Is anyone listening? Does anyone
care? Does anybody desire to be found
in Christ? Or are you still trusting in
your own works? That's what we're hearing. That
we hear the promise of God through Christ. Because the other promise
is to the wicked that they shall be judged. They're going to stand
before Him in judgment. Now Paul asks in Romans 2.4.
He says, or despises thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance
and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth
thee to repentance. All right, and I kind of already
said this, but God's goodness are him making known to us. He's making known to us the mystery
of godliness, the mystery of righteousness, the mystery of
Jesus Christ, of Christ and Him crucified and what He accomplished
successfully for His people. That's what God is revealing
to us. He's sending this gospel out
into a dark world. to recover, to redeem all his
lost sheep who were lost in the fall of Adam. He's redeemed us
by the shedding of his own blood and gathering us in. So that's
why God is forbearing with us. He's long-suffering for a long
time. He's forbearing with us, and
all that are hearing Him, even if you don't believe it now,
you don't know if God is having mercy on you. Seek Him. Beg Him. Plead with Him. Lord, put me
under the blood of Christ. Plunge me in that fountain of
His blood, because Lord, it ain't my works. I see I'm not good
enough. I'm not righteous enough. And
I hear what you're saying, Lord save me. Save me a sinner. Deliver me. We should be seeking
him for that deliverance. But the Jews' sin was that they
counted themselves righteous. Why? Because they were Abraham's
seed. Because they had the law, the
ceremonial law, and they practiced the ceremonial law. So they trusted
in that. And they felt like they were
morally superior to these Gentile dogs that are filthy and doing
wicked things. And that's what they were trusting
in. And it's very possible for people today who go by the name
of Christian to do the same things, to count themselves to be morally
superior and to judge other people who don't know and practice the
things that they practice. That's not how we're saved. We're
saved by God's grace and mercy. So God forbear long with them,
and they judged themselves, the religious, the self-righteous,
judged themselves to be fine because God was patient, long-suffering,
and didn't pour wrath out on them immediately. So they thought,
well, I guess everything's all right with me. I guess everything's
fine with me. But those blessings that they
had, they weren't meant to comfort them in their sin. The blessings
that any sinner has, the blessings that we have of God's patience
and us hearing that gospel is to turn us away from self, to
hear what God is saying, to hear the mystery of godliness revealed
in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's for us to hear our need,
see our need of Him and flee to Him and beg Him for mercy
and deliverance, for true faith and repentance from dead works,
because that's what we go to. That's what we do in our flesh,
all right? But instead, they despise God's
goodness, they despise His Christ, and the truth that God reveals
to us through the gospel, through the preaching of the gospel,
that it's Christ our righteousness. All right, now the believer,
for the believer, the goodness of God, we see these in the spiritual
blessings that God pours out upon us. The faith that we have
whereby we believe God and trust Him, that's a spiritual blessing.
That's not of this flesh. That was earned for us and given
to us by Christ. The hope we have, the love we
have, the joy we have, the peace we have, the patience we have,
those are all spiritual blessings. precious fruits, righteous fruit
worked in us by the Holy Spirit as a result of that blessed salvation
accomplished for His people in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
where all these fruits come from. It's in Christ. I'll just quote
Ephesians 1-3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessing. blessings. He's given us everything necessary
for life in godliness. He's provided everything for
life in godliness. Trust Him. Trust Him. you just
keep hungering and thirsting, just don't be cocky and arrogant
like the self-righteous Jew who thought they had it and were
all set and didn't need Christ and didn't need to hear his gospel
and just began to think lightly of these things and then they
either began to lust after and be enticed with the things of
the world and how to please their flesh or they forgot Christ and
they didn't understand Christ and they became darkened in their
understanding and began to work for righteousness and to try
and make themselves feel a sense of peace by their own works because
they forgot Christ. That's why we delight to hear
Christ because this flesh is all over the place. This flesh
is wicked. It goes here and then it goes there and it all comes
down to us and we forget the mystery of godliness revealed
in his son Jesus Christ. All right, so thankfully, because
of these blessings in Christ, God doesn't look to you, sinner. He doesn't look to me for a righteousness. That's a dark understanding when
we think that God's looking to us. He looks to His Son, Jesus
Christ, for all your acceptance. It's in His Son, Jesus Christ. Rejoice in that. Be thankful.
Every day we should be thankful for God's goodness. When you
think of God's goodness, you remember those are all the spiritual
blessings He's freely pouring out upon me and His Son. You
seek Him right there when you're cold and hard and dead in your
heart and you don't know what to say and you see, I haven't
thought about praying to the Lord for days. You know, and
you realize just how dead you are. That's where you begin,
just thanking Him for His goodness, His forbearance, His patience,
all for Christ's sake. Reminding you, bringing you back
to remember that so that you call upon Him and seek Him. But to the wicked, I ask, is
that what you despise? God's free grace? God's mercy
in His Son? Do you think lightly of Christ?
Do you not need Him? Well, if you need Him, If you
do see your need, if God has shown you your need, then confess
Him. Confess Him to God, cry out to
Him saying, Lord have mercy upon me through your Son Jesus Christ.
Confess Him before men. Be baptized, calling upon the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you believe and you haven't
been baptized as a believer, be baptized. Confess the Lord
Jesus Christ before men, giving Him the thanks and the praise
for what He's done for you, calling upon Him, Lord, keep me. keep
me. I see that my flesh is an idolater
and filthy. I see my flesh is the Pharisee
and I think everything's alright. I see it all. I'm just as guilty
no matter which way I turn. I can't produce a righteousness. but thank God for His unspeakable
gift, the Lord Jesus Christ, which has made us righteous and
accepted and stands us up before the throne of God without fault. Without fault, brethren. You
trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. You look to Him and rest in Him
and beg God that you not be moved from that very spot because that's
where we're kept and protected. There's a coming day of judgment,
so may the Lord keep us looking to His Son, Jesus Christ, alone.
Alright, let's pray. Our gracious Lord, we thank You,
Father, for Your grace and mercy for revealing to us, opening
our eyes to see the mystery of godliness revealed in the righteousness
of Your Son, Jesus Christ. Lord, help us to hear your word. Help us to look alone to the
Lord Jesus Christ. Help us not to be deceived and
go off after the flesh, whether it be in vile perversion or in
self-righteousness. Lord, deliver us, for we are
hopeless without the hope of Christ. Lord, we thank you for
your goodness. We thank you for the blessings,
the many blessings you've poured out upon us in Jesus Christ.
and that you've provided all things necessary for life and
godliness. It's all in Christ. Keep us there. Keep us rejoicing in Him and
having a thankful heart in Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior. We
pray this in His name. Amen.