Okay everyone, we're going to
get started. Our text is Romans chapter 2. Romans chapter 2 and we'll be
looking at verses 4 through 11. Romans 2 verses 4 through 11. As we go through chapter 2, remember
that Paul is addressing the legal-minded religious person. What that means is they may not
be the most, they may not be looking specifically hardcore
to the law of Moses, but they trust in, they look at their
religion and their works in religion. And so the sort that Paul is
speaking of, they look at their providential favor. The providential
good fortune that they are experiencing. They look at the good things
that are happening to them and they count it. They say, oh,
God is being good to me because of my goodness, because of what
I'm doing. And he's pleased with me. with
my works, my religious works I'm doing, God is pleased with
these things and so they look at others and they say, well
that person's having all this trouble and they're having a
miserable life, it must be the result of their sin. They must
be doing something wrong, but I must be doing something right
because everything's going well for me. And Paul made it very
clear at the beginning of this chapter, chapter 2 verse 1, when
he said, you who think like that, you're inexcusable because in
reality you do the same things as the people that you're judging.
The people that you're looking at and judging and thinking they're
so awful and God's punishing them, but I must be good because
God isn't punishing me. He says you're guilty of the
same sin. And that sin that they were most
guilty of, that they specifically were committing, just like the
Gentile pagan idolater, was they were denying God as He is revealed
in these scriptures. They're denying Him. They don't
believe Him. They don't understand how God saves. They don't know
anything of His grace. They look at their works and
think, I'm doing something right. So they deny God for the same
thing. Our title is Treasuring Up. Treasuring Up. And we'll have two divisions.
First, we're going to look at the hardness that these people
had toward God's goodness. And we'll look at what that goodness
means. What is that goodness Paul speaks of? And then we'll
see the difference. That it's the Lord God who makes
the difference in his people. It's not our works that makes
the difference. It's God who makes the difference in his people.
Now last week we looked briefly at Romans 2 verse 4. And Paul
asks, despises thou the riches of his goodness, God's goodness,
and forbearance and long-suffering, not knowing that the goodness
of God leadeth thee to repentance? And as we just noted, the Jews,
they looked at themselves and they counted themselves righteous
because of the providential favor that they had with God. And they
could look back and say, well, I'm a child of Abraham. I'm a
descendant of Abraham. And that's why God has taken
care of me and is so good to me. And I have the law and the
ceremonies. And they were very pleased with
themselves in their keeping of the outward ceremonies and looking
to those things. And, of course, they considered
themselves morally superior to those Gentile dogs. They thought
they were just filthy animals. And they thought, well, I'm superior
to them. And they also thought themselves
superior to those in their own society that were descended from
Abraham but were whores and publicans and things like that. And so
they thought, I'm better. And if a tower should fall on
people and kill them, it's because they deserved it. They were sinners,
but not me. Not me. Christ told them, that's
not at all. You think you're righteous by
your works, but you're not less of a sinner than they are. You're
just as guilty. So these sorts, they have no understanding of
God. They don't know how to worship
him. And that's all of us by nature. We have these ideas,
we have these thoughts, we have these things that enter our mind
and we, you know, these opinions that we come up with and based
on something that we hear that we like or some experience that
we've had and we think, oh, this is, this is God and this is how
he's pleased. But we don't know anything. We're
like that Samaritan woman, right, at the well when she spoke to
Christ. And this was the extent of her righteousness, or her
religion at least, her knowledge, was she said, our fathers worshipped
in this mountain, and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place
where men ought to worship. That was her knowledge, that
was what she knew. And worshipping here as opposed
to there, and that one day Messiah's going to come and He'll tell
us what we need to know, but we're doing the best we can right
now. Everything's going good for us, all right? So many conclude,
therefore, that because God forbears wrong with them, well, they must
be in the right. Ultimately, they're justified
for their actions, and their means justify their ends and
things of that sort. They find a justification for
themselves. But this goodness that Paul speaks
of, this providential goodness is what he's talking about. This
is a providential goodness that they were experiencing as Jews. And the Lord takes that away. He says, don't think that just
because you're going through a good little season. You know,
seven years of plenty that everything's good and right. In Matthew 5.45,
the Lord said that God maketh his son to rise on the evil and
on the good. And he sendeth rain on the just
and on the unjust. We're not to look at providence.
We're not to look at the things that we see or experience and
say, oh, well then surely this is God and this is, he must be
pleased with me. I must be a good, relatively
good person. Good enough. Good enough person.
And so the Lord is saying, don't think like that, because the
Lord is sending his Son and Reign, just providential kindnesses
to his creation, to all. regardless of how wicked they
may be or good they think themselves to be. So what we find though is that all
men are guilty. The pagan idolater who's having
a rough time or even a good time and that religious person who's
having a rough time or a good time every one of us by nature
until God reveals himself every one of us is guilty of denying
God as he is we all need the grace and the mercy of God to
reveal himself to us all right and so when we think when we
look at our works and we think well I'm doing pretty good I'm
I'm righteous and I'm good and and everything's going well for
me I'm doing what I'm supposed to do I'm coming to church, I'm
hearing the preacher, and I read my Bible, or I put money in the
plate, or I say my prayers at night, whatever it is, when we
look to that and we have a confidence in that, that prohibits us from
even being able to hear what is being said in the gospel.
We don't hear the righteousness of God being preached because
whatever we hear we think, I'm in the right, and this is for
the other people. They need to be hearing this,
whatever's being said, but I know where I stand, and everything's
good with me. So, the goodness of God toward
his people isn't that things are going well for us. The goodness
of God toward his people is that he enables us to hear the gospel. Not only to have it preached
to us, but when we're here, he opens the ear. He enables us
to hear what's being said, and he speaks to us. Severally, as
each one has need of, same gospel going forth and the Lord knows
how to minister that word to our needs and our wants and what
we need to hear because we're being led and taught and guided
by his spirit. That's how he's teaching us,
not our works and looking to the law and studying and saying,
well let me work on this more today now. No, we're trusting
Lord your spirit, you're leading me, you're revealing yourself
to me, and if you don't, I'm in great trouble. I might fall
away. I'll be choked out by the weeds
and cares of this world, or fear persecution. But Lord, I need
you to keep me." So that's the goodness of God toward his people.
The other goodness in providence is just God being the creator
and he's providing for those on the earth and working his
will for the good of his people, the actual good. in grace for
his people. So we hear the gospel, we're
convinced by God in that gospel that I'm the sinner, we hear
that this is for me, I need to hear this, I need the Lord Jesus
Christ to save me. It's not for my righteousness,
but if I'm going to be with the Lord for all eternity, he's got
to do a work For me Lord, would you fall on me? Would you look
to me? Would you have mercy upon me
Lord? Alright, that's the cry of his
child. They're asking the Lord to have
mercy on them and not to pass them by. So we've got to see
our need and that's what the Lord said. He came for sinners,
not for the righteous. He came not to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. Some who know God, I mean some
who know doctrine I should say, some who have this doctrinal
knowledge and they've sat here and they've heard the things
that we preach, they've heard of election and predestination
and things like that, a lot of times Well, when there's no work
of grace and they're hearing that, they find a convenient
excuse to justify their unbelief. And they say, well, you say God's
the one who's got to give grace. And that's true. It is the Lord
who must give us grace. But that doesn't excuse us in
our hatred of God and not seeking Him and not crying out to Him
for mercy. That's a convenient excuse to
say, well, really what I want to do is what I want to do, and
I'm going to do it, and you've just given me a convenient excuse.
So, I don't believe because God hasn't given me faith. And there's
no heart, there's no desire there. And look what Paul says in Romans
2.5. He says, but after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest
up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation
of the righteous judgment of God. So we preach the gospel. We declare the truth of God because
we've got to hear it. And the Lord knows how to minister
that word to our heart and cause us to hear what we need to hear. But don't think to use God's
sovereignty and God's omnipotence and God's predestinating grace
as a justification for your unbelief. It's to cause us to see that
God is God. We're not God. And our will won't
seek Him. We won't choose Him. We won't
bow before the true and living God of our own will, of our volition,
by our flesh, by the seat of what we hold dear and look to
and trust in. the flesh meaning our works and
what we think is right and how we ought to please God and worship
Him. That's not, that's no excuse. We preach this. The purpose of
declaring the gospel is knowing that it's Christ who delivers
His people out of the prison of bondage and sin and death
that we're all in by nature. That's why we declare it's the
work of God so that Man doesn't come away thinking it's his boast,
something for him to glory in, that he's honoring himself and
that he's the one who saved himself. That's just another form of works
religion. And so we declare the truth knowing
that The Lord is going to take that word and prick the heart
of His people that are yet in death and in bondage and in sin,
and He's going to give light and reveal to them their need
of Christ so that they cry out to Him and beg Him for mercy. So if you do believe, if you
do cry out to the Lord and seek Him and say, Lord, remember me. Don't pass me by, Lord. Remember
me. Have mercy on me. And the Lord
gives you that faith and that hope and that rest in Christ.
You have only God to thank for that. And if you don't believe,
it's because naturally you hate God and you will not believe
Him, you will not seek Him, you have no heart or desire for Him,
so you have only yourself to blame. You can't turn to God
and say, well, you didn't give me faith. And it's because you
have nothing and the Lord is revealing that to you who hear
it and to you that believe He's showing I made the difference.
I made the difference. And so we worship and glorify
and rejoice in His grace and mercy to us. Alright, now Paul
says you're treasuring up unto yourself wrath against the day
of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. Now
that should catch our ears because he's talking about it like it's
a treasure, right? That it's some kind of a treasure.
And that's because people of this world, just us and our flesh,
men and women without any knowledge of God, no hope in God, are pursuing
whatever it is they count valuable. them, whatever it is that they
want. You've heard it said men are going to do what men want
to do. And it's not righteousness, it's not the truth of God, it's
unrighteousness. That's what men want to do, whether
it's just fulfilling the lust of their flesh in pursuing the
typical lust of the flesh that men desire and crave, or it's
unrighteousness in their pursuit of their own righteousness. and
working their own righteousness in their works. And either one,
both are unrighteousness. Both are working that which is
evil and wicked before God. And so Paul says you're treasuring
up wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous
judgment of God. So he's saying, you know, this
is the reward. This is what you want, and this
is what you're laying up for, doing what pleases you, and what
you think is most valuable. You're laying up a reward for
yourself, and God's going to pay you that reward in the end.
You stand before Him, God will give you the reward of all your
labors. And we know what the wage is
for our fleshly labors. It's death, right? The wages
of sin is death. And so, because we deny God as
He is, and don't worship him, all we're storing up for ourselves
is wrath, and more wrath, and more wrath, just heaping up that
pile of wrath. And our Lord said, when he was
speaking to the people in Matthew 6, verses 19 and 21, he said,
Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth. Don't seek the
things of the earth. Don't seek and pursue those things
because moth and rust doth corrupt and thieves they break through
and they steal. And so that's, you know, whether
it's literally moth and rust destroying it or thieves breaking
through and stealing. Or you see it and you understand
it spiritually that it's not profiting you. It's not going
to stand for you in the end. You're not going to have anything
good or valuable when you die pursuing the things of this world.
Because all these things are passing away. All these things
are to be destroyed with fire. But lay up for yourselves treasures
in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and where
thieves do not break through nor steal For where your treasure
is, there will your heart be also." And the Spirit of God
reveals to us what that true treasure is. It's the one thing
needful. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. And
so He reveals to us Christ. That's what He's showing us,
that our need is Christ. And He's the treasure. because
he's our peace and acceptance with God, the Father. With the
holiness of God, he's the one who makes us holy and righteous
before him. Now turn over to 2 Timothy 1. 2 Timothy 1 and go to verse 8. And we'll look at how Paul described
this treasure, because he speaks of, he doesn't use the word treasure
in this passage, but he speaks of his treasure, his hope. 2
Timothy 1 verse 8. So he's writing to Timothy and
he says, Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our
Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but be thou partaker of the afflictions
of the gospel according to the power of God. And so we understand
our Lord has called us to faith and he's called us to walk before
him by his Spirit looking to Him. That's what He's called
us to do and so in that calling He's teaching us how to walk
and there's times where we will be turned from what we would
have done if left to ourselves in the flesh. The Lord will turn
us and we'll make decisions and purposely not do certain things
because we think I shouldn't be doing that. And the Lord,
I don't think that's what the Lord would have me to do. And
he'll turn us, he'll direct our hearts away. And sometimes that
may be a sacrifice, something that we're giving up, right? Some of you left jobs and opportunities
to be where the gospel is. That's a sacrifice. You gave
up a certain earning potential if you will, and doing that and
coming here. But the Lord gave you that heart.
He said, this is most important. This is the one thing needful.
This is most needful for you. Go here. And he gave you that
heart and that faith to trust him and to go and to do it. The Lord worked that in you."
And then he goes on and says, you know, but through that you've
been made a partaker of the affliction of the gospel according to the
power of God, who hath saved us, verse 9, and hath called
us within holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. So all the works of salvation
are of the appointment of God. They're being worked out in us
by the Spirit of God for our good. Verse 10, but is now made
manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who
hath abolished death and hath brought life and immortality
to light through the gospel. That's because it's God who reveals
to us salvation. He's the one that makes known
to us what we need to know. That we're the sinner, unable
to work a righteousness, God is angry with the wicked every
day, but He's provided salvation in His Son, Jesus Christ. He
brings that to light. He makes that known to us that
are His, all according to His grace and goodness and kindness
toward His people. Where unto Paul says, verse 11,
I am appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher of the
Gentiles. This is why we preach. This is
what we're called to do. Verse 12, for the witch cause
I also suffer these things. I too am called to make sacrifices
in this life. That's what Paul is saying. Nevertheless,
I am not ashamed. I don't get discouraged by what
I'm giving up because what I'm giving up is dung. It says dung
in this world. It's not going to do anything
for me. It doesn't add anything of value
to me and being without it doesn't take anything of value from me.
Now listen, here's why I read this. For I know whom I have
believed and am persuaded. that he is able to keep that
which I have committed unto him against that day. And Paul is
saying, all that I could have had in this life, all that I
could have, I could have had a wife and a family and done
all these things he's saying, but I sacrificed all that to
serve and minister to my God and the family of God and his
people because I'm committing. Lord, keep all that is good and
a blessing and goodness for your people, you keep it. Just keep
it up there, just keep it in Christ. And he's committing it
to him, just trusting. I mean, that's trust, because
he's not saying that I, he has no doubt that Christ is the Son
of God and that he is God and that he is returning. That's
how confident he was that he gave up all that he could have
had in the flesh, saying, Lord, just keep it. I don't need any
of it right now. what I need to survive and have
strength to minister, but anything more than that, just give it
to someone else. I don't need it because I just
want Christ. And so he's committing everything. That's the treasure
that we're being told of here. That's the treasure we want.
Others that are pursuing and say, give me everything I can
get now, it's because they don't believe Christ, they don't believe
God, and they just want whatever they can get now because as far
as they're concerned, there's nothing else after this. And
so they do what they want to do. And so all they're treasuring
up, what they're committing to God is just sin, saying, Lord,
just put that on my account and I'll pay for it in eternity.
I'll just pay off whatever I have to pay in eternity forever. I'll just suffer in hell forever.
And that's what they're treasuring up and what they're doing. It's
to God, verse 6, Romans 2, 6, who will render to every man
according to his deeds. So I want to speak about this
for a little bit. So those that are not under the
grace of God, that should terrify them. Those who do not know the
grace of God, that verse should be a terror that God's going
to render according to my deeds. and what I've done in this flesh
or haven't done. But you who are in Christ, you've
nothing to fear. Because Christ has, He's the
one who's worked all those good deeds. He's done everything perfect
before God. And it's all on your account. It's all for your good. It's
all for you, for your righteousness. So that you are righteous before
God. You have obeyed God. Every deed
that God required, you've done in your representative and in
your substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the beauty. That's our glory and our hope
is the Lord Jesus Christ. So that brings us to verses seven
through 11 to see the difference. It's the difference that God
makes in his people. Because there's two people spoken
of here. One, the one people are viewed under grace. what
Christ has accomplished for them. The other people are viewed in
their own works, their own flesh, and what they have done, all
right? So let's first look at those who do not worship God
as he is, they who deny God as he's revealed in these scriptures.
What it is is they're trusting, as we saw, their own righteousness. And remember, Paul's addressing
that legal-minded Pharisee, that legal-minded Jew, or even today
in our day, that same legal-minded person who thinks, well, God
must be pleased with me because everything's going well for me
here. And I just keep getting and getting and getting and getting
with no thought of God as he's revealed himself. I just do what
I want to do. Alright, so Paul describes them
in verse 8. At the beginning there, Romans
2.8, he says, but unto them that are contentious. They're contentious. They know all the doctrine. They
know that they're godly and righteous. They've done what they need to
do because God's pleased with them. They have the law of Moses
or whatever rule they're looking to as their They're guiding their
law, you know, what the Pope says, or what the preacher says,
or what this religion says. They're doing it to the best
of their ability. And Paul says, you that are worshiping
God that way, you do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness. So all those religious works
that people look to and say, I'm a pretty good person, and
I don't wrong anybody, and I don't do anything bad. But Paul says
whatever it is that you're doing outside of Christ, it's unrighteousness. It's not righteous. You might
think it's good, other people might tell you it's good and
pat you on the back, but it's all unrighteousness because you
think that if there's a God, it's somehow pleasing Him and
He's okay with what you're doing. And so God calls it unrighteousness.
And Paul spoke of these a little later, as we'll see in Romans
10, verses 3 and 4, he spoke of people like this, saying,
they being ignorant of God's righteousness are going about
to establish their own righteousness. They've not submitted themselves
unto the righteousness of God, because Christ is the end of
the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Only
in Christ does that law that we claim to live by and worship
God by, only in Christ does all that cease and end and it's finished. It's got nothing more to say
to us and we don't live to that anymore. We now live by faith,
by the righteousness of faith which is the Lord Jesus Christ,
alright? Now because they obey unrighteousness, Paul tells us
that since that's their deeds, that it's unrighteous deeds,
God's going to pour out indignation and wrath, verse 9, tribulation
and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew
first and also of the Gentile. Look at verse 11. For there is
no respect of persons with God." So all for whom Christ is insufficient
to save, that is all who look to Christ and hear that and say,
now, that's not enough. I'm going to look to my own works.
I'm going to do it my way. And some people will even pepper
in a little bit of Jesus, you know, and their works plus Christ. But what they're saying is, I
don't Christ is insufficient. He's not good enough for me.
I'm going to do it my way. And the Lord isn't going to accept
that. And so they're heaping up for
themselves all that wealth of damnation and condemnation and
tribulation and anguish and wrath, right? All right, but now to
the weak and the poor and the base ones and those that are
despised and rejected of men, you who look to Christ, who say,
it's not my works, it's not my will, it's not my way, but God's
made known. what is his way. He's made known
to us the door. He's made known to us our acceptance
with God. He's the one who's provided him
who is the righteousness of his people. To us who see that, who
God's revealed that, they are the true circumcision, Paul says,
which worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and
have no confidence in the flesh. We're not trusting in that, not
looking to our works. And Paul describes them in verse
7, Romans 2 verse 7. He says, to them who by patient
continuance in well doing. Patient continuance and well-doing.
Well, what is that? We know what that is. It's the
revelation of the Spirit who's made known to us Jesus Christ. That's our entrance to God. And
He's the one who's done well. He's the one who's made us accepted
with God. He fulfilled all righteousness. So that the debt of righteousness
that we owe to God, it's filled to the full. Nothing left to
be owed to God. God is pleased and satisfied. And so we continue in Christ,
believing Him by the revelation of the Spirit of God, who makes
this known to us, who shows us that Christ is sufficient to
save to the uttermost, and He's made us righteous with God. So,
by His life in us, He's born in us that fruit, the fruit of
patience. where we patiently continue in
Christ, trusting Him, not our own works and what we've done.
So that in patience we continue in this well-doing, continuing
in Christ our righteousness. And so it's in the Lord that
we continue those good works which He's ordained for us. And so then Paul affirms. We seek for glory and honor and
immortality and eternal life, which we know from the scriptures
is that according as it's written, he that glorieth let him glory
in the Lord. That's our glory. We're seeking
glory. Well, we know where glory is. It's in Christ. And we glorify
him and honor him and worship him for that work perfectly.
And then Paul affirms to us in verses 10 and 11, But glory,
honor, and peace to every man that worketh good to the Jew
first and also to the Gentile. For there is no respect of persons
with God, so that we see that God hath concluded all under
sin. The pagan idolater, the self-righteous
one who thinks that they're something, God says, you're all under sin. And so God provided salvation
in his son, Jesus Christ. Look to him. He's righteousness. Everything else, everything that
isn't Christ is unrighteousness. Don't look to those things because
looking to that is just building up a debt of death, a debt of
wrath, a debt of death against which is going to be poured out
upon you because you don't believe. But all those who Look to Christ
alone and trust Him alone. They have their inheritance,
which is that peace and joy forevermore in the Lord Jesus Christ when
He returns. So I pray the Lord will bless
that to your heart and cause you to rest in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Just rest in Him. All right,
let's pray. Our gracious Lord, we thank you,
Father, for your grace, your salvation by grace, that it's
not according to our works. Lord, help us not to look to
our flesh, help us not to look to our feelings and what we're
doing or not doing, but keep us looking to Christ. Lead us
and guide us by your Spirit. Cause us to walk in the way that
you have ordained for us to walk, bringing forth those fruits of
your Spirit in the new man which you've created, by your grace
and mercy, that you would bring forth those fruits, gladly rejoicing
in Christ our Savior, our Husband. And Lord, turn those that would
hear this word, that are yet working unrighteousness, turn
them, Lord, cause them to to hunger and thirst for righteousness
which can only be satisfied by the Lord Jesus Christ. It's in
his name we pray and give thanks. Amen.