Romans chapter 2, we want to
pick up where we left off last week at verse 5. That after the
hardness, hardness, hardness of heart. And here is a fit description
of what we are in Adam. What we are in our own sinful
nature, hardness of heart. Impenitent heart. that is a heart
that is unbroken and unrepenting, hardness, impenitent. We treasure
up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath. All the hardness
of heart, all the unbelief, all the rebellion against God, it's
just storing up wrath upon wrath. And the judgment of God is a
Righteous, righteous, righteous judgment of God. Here we see
a fit description. This is God's description of
every unbroken, unrepentant heart. Man by nature will never truly
repent. It is only left to himself, because
repentance is like faith, is the gift of God. There's a very
good article on the back of the bulletin about repentance. The Lord Jesus Christ was exalted
to give repentance unto life. And that repentance is the gift
of God. But men and sinners left to themselves
We'll never repent because of the hardness of our heart. And that is a real issue, isn't
it? It's the issue of the heart. And we know that salvation is
a hard work. The real issue of our problem
is our nature, our heart, which is sinful, which is dead, which
is hardened against God. And we must know and understand
this, that the Lord looks not on the outward countenance, the
Lord looks on the heart. There is nothing that is not
naked and open before God. He looks upon the heart, which
includes the mind, the thoughts, the motive, and the ambitions
of the sinner. The Lord looks on the heart.
We quote often Jeremiah 17, where it says, the heart, the heart
is desperately wicked, desperately deceitful above all things, and
desperately wicked. Before the Lord sent the flood
in Noah's day, this was his testimony against all mankind. And God saw, God saw that the
wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination
of the thoughts of his heart was only evil and continually
evil. And that is the sad story of
man's fallen state. Hardness of heart, an unbroken
heart, an unbelieving heart, And we see here in this verse,
the rebellion and sin of the unbeliever will only gather up
and garner up wrath upon wrath, which will be manifest in the,
and this is the judgment of God, but I love this word here, the
righteous judgment of God. Now, everything God does is righteous. Everything God does is holy.
He cannot act contrary to His own nature. And His nature is
absolute righteousness, absolute holiness, and the standard of
His judgment is that of righteousness. The rebellion and sin of the
unbeliever will only gather up wrath upon wrath, which will
be manifest in the righteous judgment of God. Remember back in chapter 1, Verse
18, where it says, "...the wrath of God is revealed from heaven
against all ungodliness, all unrighteousness of men who hold
the truth in unrighteousness. Because God is holy, His wrath
and His condemnation are just and righteous. He that believeth
not The gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, the wrath of God, abides
upon Him. Someone has given a good definition
about God's righteous wrath, His holy wrath, and the definition
goes like this, His wrath is His holiness stirred into activity
against sin. We read in the book of Habakkuk,
God is too holy to look upon sin with favor. Wherever He finds sin, He must
judge it because God is holy. Even when he finds sin on the
Lord Jesus Christ, that God laid on him the sin of God's people,
what happened to Christ? The wrath of God. The wrath of
God fell upon him. But thanks being to God, the
blessings of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ He has delivered
us from the wrath to come because the Lord Jesus Christ suffered
in our room and in our stead. Look over in Romans chapter 5
verse 9. Romans chapter 5 verse 9, He
has delivered us from the wrath to come. Romans 5 verse 9, Much
more than being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved
from wrath through Him. And it's only because the Lord
Jesus Christ suffered once for our sin, the just for the unjust,
that he might bring us unto God. Now, a couple of scriptures I
want us to look at one more time over in 1 Thessalonians 1 Thessalonians
chapter 1 verse 9. 1 Thessalonians chapter 1 verse
9. For they themselves show of us
what manner of entering in we had unto you, how you turn to
God from idol to serve the living and true God, verse 10, and to
wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead,
even Jesus, which was delivered even Jesus who delivered us from
the wrath to come. He delivered us from the wrath
to come. Now, in the same book here, 1
Thessalonians chapter 5, look at verse 9. This is chapter 5, 1 Thessalonians
verse 9, chapter 5. For God hath not appointed us
to wrath, but to obtain salvation by the Lord Jesus Christ. He has appointed us and ordained
us to salvation through Christ. In Habakkuk chapter three, verse
two, in the prayer there of the prophet of God, he prayed this
way, Lord in wrath, remember mercy. Yep, the Lord our God
is only merciful unto us because of what the Lord Jesus Christ
has done for us. Now look at verse 6, back in
Romans 2, verse 6. Who will render to every man
according to his doing? The righteous judgment of God
will be meted out according to every man's doings. The righteous judgment of God
will reveal and make known who is in Christ and made righteous
in Him, and who will stand in their own deeds of flesh, and
before the law of God be justly condemned. All judgment, turn
back a few pages, all judgment is relative to the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's going to deal with every
man, every man in Christ. Turn to Acts 17. The Father judgeth
no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son. John 5,
22. Look at Acts 17, verse 30. The
time of this ignorance God winked at but now commended all men
everywhere to repent, Acts 17 31, because he hath appointed
a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by
that man. And that man is the Lord Jesus
Christ whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance
unto all men in that he raised him from the dead. Now those
who choose to stand upon the ground of their works, their
deeds, will justly be condemned, right? The wages of sin is death. Those who are blessed to believe
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and stand in Him will
be judged upon His doing, His dying. And that is the blessing
of the gospel. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord imputeth righteousness. Remember that? Verse over in
Romans chapter four, if you wanna turn over there. Romans chapter
4. Those who choose to stand upon
their deeds will be justly condemned. Those who are blessed to stand
in Christ and to believe the gospel, Romans chapter 4 verse
6, even as David also described it, the blessedness of the man
unto whom God imputeth. righteousness, without works,
saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and
whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. Now that's the blessed man. I
dare not stand upon the merit of my own deeds and works, or
by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified. But what
a blessing to be found in Christ. and be blessed with his righteousness
charged to your account. Now think about this. This is
the righteousness that God requires, absolute perfection, and that's
what is given in the gospel. The Lord Jesus Christ is our
righteousness. How good do you have to be to
stand before God justified? As good as God. That can only
be possible in Christ and Him crucified, standing in Him. Upon
His work of redemption, upon His righteousness, and upon His
faithfulness, we are justified freely by His grace through the
redeeming work of the Lord Jesus Christ, who will render to every
man according to what he has done. that is in himself or in
his substitute. Now, by his grace, we stand in
Christ alone. And God blesses us and rewards
us upon the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, look
at verse 7, 8, 9, and 10. And then we'll try to look at
verse 11. There are two groups of people that are mentioned
here in verses 7, 8, 9, and 10. But to them who by patience and continuance
in well-doing seek for glory, honor, immortality, and eternal
life." Who's that describing? The believers. Look at verse
10. Glory and honor and peace to every man that worketh good.
What is this working good? What is believing the gospel?
To the Jew or to the Gentile, There's no respect to person
with God. And then verse 8 and 9 deals
with the unbelievers. So let's look at these two verses. Two groups of sinners are described
here, those justified in Christ by His doing, and those condemned
in their works by their own doing. The believer is described in
verse 7 and in verse 10. We read in Acts chapter 13, by
him All that believe are justified from all things which could not
be justified by the law of Moses." Verse 7, "...to them who were
blessed of God to believe the gospel, who were given patience
and continuance, and this is talking about perseverance in
faith and well-doing, seeking for glory, honor, immortality,
and eternal life, who were seeking for peace with God through the
Lord Jesus Christ. Patience, continuance, and well-doing. What's he talking about here?
Perseverance. in the faith. The just shall
live by faith. Who are seeking, he mentions
five things here. Who are seeking, first of all,
they're seeking for glory. You see that? Seeking for glory. Now, whose glory are we talking
about here? Not talking about creature glory,
are we? Talking about the glory of God revealed in the gospel. We are seeking for His glory. Let not the wise man glory in
his wisdom. Let not the mighty man glory
in his might. But let him glory in this, that
he knows and understands that I am the Lord. We glory only
in Christ. He is made unto us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption, that according as it is written,
he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. By his grace, By
faith that is given to us, that's the gift of God, we seek for
His glory. The second thing he mentions
here is honor. Honor. We seek for His praise
and His honor. His honor. The Apostle put it
this way, God forbid us your glory, save in the Lord Jesus
Christ. We're seeking His honor. We're seeking His praise. Worthy
is the Lamb that was slain to receive all honor, glory, blessing,
and power both now and forever. That's why we come together and
meet together. We're seeking His glory, aren't
we? We're seeking His honor. And then the third thing he mentions
here in verse 7 is immortality. Immortality. Now this is referring
to a glorious resurrection we have in the Lord Jesus Christ.
We're going to have a new body like unto His glorious body. The Apostle Paul put it this
way, in whom we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated
according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after
the counsel of His own will. God has predestinated a people
to be conformed to the image of Christ That's what predestination
is all about. God does not predestinate men
to hell. That's not taught in the Word
of God. Predestination has to do with those people being predetermined
to be conformed to the image of Christ. What sends men to
hell and eternal condemnation is their sin against God, their
rebellion against God. But He has predestinated the
people to immortality to be just like Christ. It says that over
here in Romans, turn over to Romans chapter 8 verse 29, For
whom He did foreknow, He did also predestinate to be conformed
to the image of His Son. You see that? Now every believer,
if he believes the Word of God, believes that verse. Say, well,
people say, well, I don't believe in predestination. If you believe
the Bible, you believe in Bible predestination. Or just, you
know, can you just take your knife and just cut that part
out? Say, well, I don't like that part. The word predestination
is in the word of God four times. And every time it has to do with
for whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of his son. Now, what believer doesn't want
to be just like Christ? Thank God He has predestinated
us to be just like Christ, that He might be the firstborn among
many brethren. Moreover, whom He did predestinate,
them He also called, and whom He called, them He also justified,
and whom He justified, them He also glorified. Now what shall
we say to these things? Well, I know what the rebel says.
The rebel says, well, that's not right. That's not fair. Who
are you to reply against God? If God before us, who can be
against us? So look back to the text now.
He's describing believers who by patience, who by faith, they
continue in the faith, they continue in Christ, seeking to honor and
glorify the Lord Jesus Christ, seeking immortality in Christ. And then he mentions here, fourthly,
eternal life, eternal life. You remember that scripture in
1 John 5, He that hath the Son hath life, eternal life. He that hath the Son, the Lord
Jesus Christ Himself is our salvation. You remember in John 17, He described
what eternal life is. And this is eternal life, that
they might know Thee, the only true God. This is eternal life,
that they might know Thee, the only true God. Jesus Christ,
He is salvation, and He is eternal life. Now, look down at verse
10. Also, he's describing those who
are blessed to seek Christ, who is made unto us, Glory and honor
and peace. Peace. We have peace with God. Turn to Romans 5 verse 1. We
have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now how can
a sinner make peace with God? He can't. It's impossible. But
how is peace made? The Lord Jesus Christ reconciled
us. He made peace for us with His
own blood. Romans 5. Therefore being justified
by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. I'm seeking peace with God but
only in Christ. You see what he's talking about
here? Glory and honor, immortality and eternal life to every man,
to every believer that worketh good. to work, that work is good. Now, what is this working good?
It's not our good deeds. The only way we can work good
is by believing the gospel of Christ. And it is given to the
Jew first, and also to the Gentile, but with God there is no respecter
of persons. Now, in verses eight and nine,
I don't want to overlook this, To every man who worketh good
is God who worketh in you, both to will and to do of his good
pleasure. Now in verses eight and nine,
the unbeliever is described, but unto them that are contentious,
but unto them that are contentious, who do not obey the truth. They do not obey the truth. You
know why? Because they hold the truth in
unrighteousness. Remember Romans 1.18. But in
them that are contentious who do not obey the truth, but obey
unrighteousness, rebellion against God, what is the fruit of rebellion
and contentious against God? Indignation, the righteous indignation
of God, the judgment of God, and the wrath of God. Look at
verse 9. Here's what you have to look
forward to. Nothing but tribulation, nothing but anguish, upon every
soul of man that doeth evil." It doesn't matter whether he's
a Jew or whether he is a Gentile. Now, if you will find 2 Thessalonians
this time, 2 Thessalonians chapter 1, 2 Thessalonians chapter 1,
look at verse 7, 2 Thessalonians 1, 7, To you who are troubled, rest
with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven,
with His mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them
that know not God, that obey not the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction
from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power. The unbeliever has nothing to
look forward to but anguish, wrath, and judgment, and that
eternally so. Now, there is no respect to persons
with God, Jew or Gentile. Now, you see verse 11, Romans
2 verse 11. God is no respecter of person. Being a Jew or a Gentile will
not gain God's favor or remove His wrath. Now the Jews thought
they had a lock on God because they said, well, Abraham is our
father. The Lord told them, you are of
your father the devil. They thought because they were
natural descendants of Abraham that they were guaranteed salvation. Salvation is in Christ, not being
a natural descendant of Abraham that brought no blessing other
than the fact the Jews had great advantage in that they had the
law of God, they had the prophets of God, but we've studied their
history. haven't we, in 1st and 2nd Kings? It's a history of rebellion after
rebellion after rebellion against God. With God in salvation, salvation
is not based upon respect of person. By the deed of the law shall
no flesh be justified. Now, oftentimes this statement
is given in scripture over in Acts chapter 10 when Peter went
and preached to the house of a Gentile named Cornelius. And
Cornelius was given faith to believe the gospel, and Peter
declared, well, God has no respect for a person. It doesn't matter
whether you're a Jew or a Gentile, if you believe the gospel, and
we know that's the gift of God, with God, there is no respect
to person. Now, this statement is often
used as an argument against those who believe in unconditional
election. Now, I've had this given to me
many, many times. When you tell people that God
from eternity chose a people unto salvation, right away they
come back with this argument, well, God has no respect for
persons. You're exactly right. Election is not based upon any
respective person. Election is unconditional. It
doesn't matter whether we're young, old, black, white, Jew,
or Gentile. Election is according to God's
eternal decree and purpose. He makes the choice. And it's not a choice based upon
seeing who the person would be. or what the person would do.
God chooses no man unto salvation based upon his character, based
upon his nationality, or based upon his works, or, now listen
carefully, or based upon his foreseen faith. Now often people
will use this argument over in 1 Peter 1-2 as an argument against
God's unconditional eternal election of grace. They say, and they
quote this scripture in 1 Peter 1-2, well, there is an elect
according to the foreknowledge of God. So here's what the argument
of those who refuse to believe God's truth. They say, well,
we believe in election, but we believe that God elected a people
according to his foreknowledge, seeing what they would do or
whether they would not do, whether they would believe the gospel
or whether they would not believe the gospel. Okay, that makes
election based upon your faith, not God's eternal decree. You
see what I'm saying? Election, according to God's
foreknowledge, God's foreknowledge is based upon His what? Based
upon His ability to see what the creature would do? Oh no.
God's foreknowledge is based upon his foreordination. God
knows all things because God has decreed all things. So in
respect of election, it is true, God is no respecter of person. He has chosen "...in eternity
a people unto salvation according to His own will and purpose."
And it is true. In the election of grace, there
is no respect of person. Election is unconditional. Turn
to Romans 9, I'll show you that. Romans 9. Verse 11, for the children being
not yet born, neither having done any good or any evil, that
the purpose of God according to election might stand, not
of works, but of human call. God did the choosing, before
we did any evil or any good, that the purpose of God, according
to election, might stand not of works, but of him that calleth. It was said in her, the elder
shall serve the younger, as it is written, Jacob have I loved,
Esau have I hated. Now, why did he hate one and
love the other? Because it pleased God to do
so. And we have to leave it right there. We have to leave it right
there. The amazing thing about Jacob
have I loved and Esau have I hated, the amazing thing about that
is how God could love Jacob. People get all upset about God
hating Esau. Well, the glory and the majesty
of God's glorious gospel is how he could love Jacob. Jacob's
very name means cheat and supplanter. The only way God could love Jacob
is in Christ. You see, Christ be the first
elect, we are chosen in Him before we had done any good or evil. So next time someone, when you're
explaining to them or declaring unto them, God chose a people
from eternity, and when they say to you, well, God has no
respect for a person, that makes salvation an election based upon
respect for a person. No, it doesn't. It's an unconditional
election. With God, there is no respective
person.