Turn to Romans chapter 2 I Titled this message no excuse
for anyone No excuse when Paul Gets done With this chapter He leaves the the pagan and the
Jew, the religious man, the moralist, without an excuse. Now, keep
in mind, to really get a hold of what's being said here, keep
in mind what Paul said about the gospel in chapter one. He said, I'm not ashamed of the
gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to
everyone that believeth to the Jew first and also to the Greek,
for therein is the righteousness of God revealed. In the gospel
is the righteousness of God, the righteousness by which God
saves sinners. In that gospel, the righteousness
of God is revealed. So keep that in mind. Because
Paul is going to prove, as we saw last week in chapter 1 and
now in chapter 2, he's going to prove, he's going to show
that all stand in need of the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
Everyone. Everyone has come short of the
glory of God. Everyone stands in need of this
righteousness. He proved back in chapter 1 that
the Gentile world was totally lost and undone, depraved. And now he's gonna turn to the
religious man, the moralist, but especially the Jews. This
chapter, he's really dealing with the Jews. And he's gonna
show that they need this righteousness as well as the Gentiles need
it. I quoted this to you this morning. Our Lord said, except
your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes
and Pharisees, you cannot enter the kingdom of God. You've got
to have an exceeding righteousness that exceeds the best righteousness
that you can point to on this earth. And it's got to exceed
that. There is a righteousness that
exceeds that. And it's the righteousness of
the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the righteousness he produced
in his life and death by his obedience. We have that in Christ. I have in Christ, you have in
Christ, if you believe the gospel, what God demands. You have it. And Paul's gonna show now the
Jews that they need this righteousness also. I can just hear The Jew
saying to his wife, after hearing chapter one, see, I told you
they were no good. After hearing chapter one, we
looked at last week and Paul gives all this description of
the Gentile world. He's saying, I told you they
were no good. I told you they're a bunch of dogs. Well, just keep
listening. Just keep listening. And you'll
find yourself in the same mess. In the same mess. Just keep listening. In verse 1, Therefore thou art
inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judges. For wherein
thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself. For thou that judgest
does the same things. He said, you do the same things.
There's no difference. The moralists and the Jew here,
they boasted of keeping the law. The moralists boast of his morality. You know, there was a group here
years ago called the Moral Majority. And they boasted in that morality. The Jew boasted in his keeping
the law. But Paul says here, whosoever
thou art, whether you are a very moral person or whether you're
a Jew who trusts in his righteousness, in his keeping of the law, you,
he says, you are without defense. If you're gonna stand before
God on the basis of your righteousness, you are without defense. You
are guilty also. Turn over to Luke chapter 18. A very familiar story in Luke
18. And this is a good example of
what Paul's talking about in this chapter. In Luke 18, look
in verse 10. Two men went up into the temple
to pray, the one a Pharisee, the other a publican. The Pharisee
stood and prayed thus with himself. He was his own audience, boasting
and bragging on himself. You notice he doesn't say he
prayed thus with God, he prayed thus with himself. because self
is at the very center of everything he does. God, I thank thee that
I am not as other men are. You know, it's one thing if you
thank God for saving you from being what you used to be, that
you used to be an extortioner, unjust, adulterers, or even a
despublican. But he said, I'm glad I'm not
like them. I thank you I'm not like them. He's boasting on himself. He's
boasting on his righteousness. God, I thank Thee that I'm not
as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like
this publican over here. I'm not like him at all. And
he is boasting. He's popping his suspenders is
what he's doing. It's exactly what he's doing.
He's popping his suspenders. And he's popping them before
God. And he's saying, look at me. Look at me, how good I am. I'm not like these men. I fast
twice in the week. I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar
off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but
smote upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. That's all he could say. That's
all he had to say. That's all he needed to say.
God, be merciful to me, a sinner. There's your example. He says, so who are you? You are without excuse. You're
without a leg to stand on because you do the same thing. Thou that
judges. You stand in judgment. You're
the one who's judging the Gentiles. You're condemning them. And he's
not talking here, listen, he's not talking about the act of
judging because we do have to judge. You know, you go to court,
there's got to be a judgment, there's got to be a settlement.
But that's not what he's saying here. What he's saying here is
that you are judging one's character, you're looking down your nose.
This is what he's saying. When he says, Thou judgest, you're
looking down your nose. It's this holier-than-thou attitude. I'm not like this publican. You
know, it's one thing to say, I'm not an extortioner, I'm not
this and that, but that publican over there, I'm not like him
either. He's looking down his nose. That's the meaning of this
phrase here, thou judgest. You're judging down one's character.
It's censorship. It's just censorship. It's not
real judgment. It's a real censorship. It's
a holier-than-thou attitude. It's exactly what he's saying.
For wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself. It's
like looking in the mirror. for thou that judgest doest the
same things. Now, that doesn't mean you're
doing the same sins that that person is doing. You're not committing
the same sin, but here's what he's saying. Although, now listen,
although in the heart we do, because the Lord said to those
Pharisees, to look on a woman to lust after is to commit adultery.
He said it's to commit adultery. To hate your brother without
a cause, he said it's to commit murder. So you're just as guilty
in your thoughts as you are as they are in their actions. You're
just as guilty. But what he's saying here is
you are sinning against light just like they are. When he says,
thou doest the same thing. Well, back in chapter one, it
says that they can look at creation and it's in the heart of every
man. It's written in the heart of every man that comes into
this world, every man and woman that comes into this world. They
know by looking at creation that God is, there's a creator. He's a God of power and He's
a God of wisdom. And just by that light alone,
that ought to make you seek the Lord, that ought to make you
seek the Creator. And listen, if you seek the Creator, if you
really do, if you look at creation and you seek the Creator, guess
whose feet you're going to end up at? Jesus Christ, because
by Him, all things were created in heaven and in earth. So if
you by the light of nature seek the creator, you're gonna end
up eventually at the feet of Christ because he's the creator.
But you don't do it. But he's saying here that you,
you Jews, you're passing judgment on them and you are sinning against
light yourself. Because you do things that you
know is not right. You know that. You know better. And not only do you know that
consciously, because the law's written on their heart too, but
you have it in word. You have the word of God. You know better. The Gentiles,
they know better by the law written on the heart, and you know better
by the law written on the heart and written on stone. It was given to you. The word
of God was given to you. I thought about this when I was
going over this, looking at this, I thought, how many people have
been condemned by judge and jury who've done the same thing? How
many people you reckon have been sent to jail by judge and jury
who's done the same thing? And he's saying here to you,
you judge the Gentiles, you condemn them, and you do the same things.
Now, you may have done it outwardly, the Lord knows, but you sure
have done it inwardly. Every person has done an immoral,
every person has broken God's law. And to offend him one point
of the law, here's what they didn't understand. To offend
him one point of the law, you broke the whole law because God's
law is one law. He said, well, I just broke this
little commandment. Well, Adam broke one commandment
and God kicked him out of the garden because he broke the whole
law of God. The whole law of God is wrapped
up in one thing, obedience. It's obedience to God. Now, he says here in verse 2.
In verse 2, he says, now we know that God's judgment, we are sure
and we know that God's judgment is according to truth. We know
that. Now, man's judgment's not. Most
of the time, man's judgment is according to appearance, right?
That's why when you go to court, they want you to dress up. They
want you to put a suit on. I don't care what kind of stinking
criminal you are, they want you to put a suit on. Because it'll
go better with the jury. If you dress up a little bit
and comb your hair, cut your hair, shave and make... It's
appearance. It's appearance. We judge by
appearance. But he's saying here that God's judgment is according
to the facts. It's according to truth. God
never judges a man except by truth. This is exactly who you
are, this is exactly what you've done, and this is exactly the
thoughts you've had. Well, Judgment Day is going to
be a day of surprises. A day of surprises. And he says here, the conclusion
here in verse 3, And thinkest thou this, and that word thinkest
is reason. Here's your reasoning, Paul says.
This is your reasoning, old man, that judges them which do such
things and does the same things, that thou shalt escape the judgment
of God. Your reasoning is, is because I try to obey the law,
I try to do what's right, and that I'm gonna escape these things?
I'm gonna escape judgment? Because most of the time you're
good, and every now and then you stumble, and you think you're
going to escape the judgment of God? I don't think so. That's
why he's saying that. He said, no, you're not either.
No, you're not. The conclusion is you will not
escape condemnation. Don't think that hearing and
giving agreement to the law will excuse you. It won't. It won't. And also this. Don't think that
your birthright, that your birth, they ran it back to Abraham.
They could run their ancestry back to Abraham. Don't think
that your birthright's gonna give you an exemption from condemnation. That's what they said. We be
not sinners. We are the children of Abraham. Well, you're also
the children of Adam first. Wonder why they don't go back
that far. No, they stop at Abraham. That's where they put the brakes
on. You go past Abraham, it's like, we gotta go back to Adam,
and now we're in trouble. Adam is the father of the whole
human race. We all go back to Adam. In Adam, listen, in Adam,
and this is what Paul's gonna show, he's gonna show here in
the book of Romans, in Adam all die. And the only way we are
justified before God is through the blood and righteousness of
his son, Jesus Christ. Jew and Gentile, that's why he
says Jew first, because God gave them the law, God dealt with
them, he gave them the types and the pictures, and then he
says they're Greeks, that's us, Gentiles. The Jew is the servant who knew
his Lord's will, remember that parable? He knew his Lord's will,
but he didn't do it. He said, he told him to go to
work, and he said, okay, I will, and he didn't. And then the other
son, he told him to go to work, and he said, no, I'm not going
to, but he did. The Jew was the one who knew his Lord's will,
and he said, I ain't going out there today. He said yes in front
of him, then when he got out the door, he just went his own
way. Or he says here, or despises,
or you do despise, is what he's saying. He's gonna tell them
now their treatment of God's goodness, and what it's gonna
lead to. Or despisest thou the riches
of God's goodness and forbearance? God has been forbearing with
you and long-suffering with you, and His goodness has been kind
to you, not realizing, not knowing that it's to lead you to repentance.
But you had a false sense of God's favor. You had a false
sense of God's favor. But after thy hardness and impenitent
heart treasures up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath,
against the righteous judgment of God, he's saying you have
taken the goodness of God, you've taken that in a wrong
direction. You have misunderstood the goodness
of God. The goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance. Instead,
you thought you had God's favor and the Gentile world out there
was lost and in darkness and going to perish, but it doesn't
matter about you. You're in the covenant and everything's all
right. No, you look down on the goodness of God, the kindness
and forbearance and long-suffering of God. Your treatment of those
things which ought to have led you to repentance was contempt. It was just contempt. Now, he
speaks here in verse 4 of the riches of God's goodness. God is rich in goodness. Isn't
the Lord good? Is He not good to us? I know this. I know this about
myself, and I know this about everyone, and everyone of God's
children know this. It's like pick a day, pick a
sin. God could destroy me. God could
take away everything I've got, just pick a day, pick a sin.
because that's just the way we are by nature. We still have
so much sin remaining in us. And yet God is good to us. God's good to us. He's good to
us. If we would realize the greatness
of God, we realize the goodness of God. You know, if you wrong
somebody that's, let's say you wrong some great man, somebody's
reputation, Well, that'd be wrong, wouldn't it? But how great is
God? How great is God? And yet, God's
still merciful to us. Here we are. Here we are. When you think of God's omniscience,
God knows all my sins. He knows all my sins. And yet,
He's still merciful. God knows my ungratefulness.
And yet He's still merciful. He's still merciful. When I see
the object of God's mercy, a sinful man like me, it makes me realize the goodness
of God to me and to His people. And then we see the goodness
of God toward the Jews, toward Israel. He was better to them
than any nation. He led them. He led them. He
fed them in the wilderness. He fed them with manna. All they
had to do was get up in the morning and go out and gather the manna.
It's like he fixed their breakfast for them every morning. And all
they had to do was go out and get it, that's all. Then it would
fly quail in and they would eat flesh and God fed them and water
out of the rock? Water out of the rock? My soul. And yet, and yet they never repented.
They never looked in the mirror and saw themselves. They never
looked in the mirror and saw who they are and who God is. They never recognized God's goodness
to them day by day. leading them, guiding them. Not
only that, God gave him his word. No nation on this earth had the
word of God like they had the word of God. It was given to
them, the types, the pictures, everything that spoke of Jesus
Christ, the Messiah was given to them. And he says here that
it was the goodness of God that was meant to lead you to repentance,
but you despised it. You despised it. I'll read you what Henry wrote
in his Bible commentary on this. He says, the Jews concluded from
their position as Abraham's seed, their prosperity under God's
goodness, and the delay of his judgment that they would escape
condemnation. These mercies and benefits which
should have turned them to God in true repentance and faith
served only to harden them in their presumption and false profession. I pray God I do, I pray God never
let me presume upon His goodness. Always to recognize day by day
the goodness of God to me in Christ. The goodness of God to
us right now this hour with the Bible open in our laps. Getting
to hear the gospel. We get to hear the gospel this
morning. We get to. We get to come here
this morning and open God's word. But he says here in verse 5,
here's what is really happening. Here's what's really happening.
By your impenitent heart, he says, you are storing up wrath
for the day of wrath. They believed that they were
storing up treasures in heaven by their merits. They believed
they were storing up treasures in heaven. Not knowing it was
wrath they were storing up for themselves. Wrath against the
day of wrath. Heaping up wrath upon wrath. When God finally executes His
righteous judgment, He's saying here, Paul's telling them, all
that stored up wrath will be emptied out on their self-righteousness. It's called payday. What's the
Scripture say? The wages of sin is death. God will only give us what we
earn outside of Christ. I'll show you this here in just
a second. Because he says there in verse 6, God will judge every
man according to his deeds. And it will be a just judgment. But it's not going to be the
same measure. It's not going to be the same measure for everyone.
Not the same. Listen. Turn over to Matthew
11. Let me show you this in Scripture. It's just not going to be like
one fell swoop, everybody cast into the pit. Let me show you
something. There are different degrees of
punishment. There are different degrees.
In Matthew chapter 11, let me find the place here. Look in
verse 20. Then began he, that is our Lord,
to upbraid the cities wherein most of his mighty works were
done, because they repented not. Woe unto thee, Chorazin! Woe
unto thee, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which
were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would
have repented long ago and sat clothed in ashes. When you read
that, let me ask you something, because this jumped out at me
some years ago when I read that. Because the Lord said, if the
mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have
repented. Why didn't they? Why weren't
the mighty works not done? Even so, Father, it seemed good
in thy sight. Our God is sovereign. And we're
going to see right here that where more light is given, more
responsibility. There's more responsibility.
But I say unto you in verse 22, but I say unto you, it shall
be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment
than for you. It will be more tolerable. It
doesn't say they're not going to face judgment. It'll be more
tolerable. Their punishment will be more tolerable. and thou Capernaum,"
listen, which are exalted unto heaven, shall be brought down
to hell. For if the mighty works which
have been done in thee, had those same works been done in Sodom
and Gomorrah, in Sodom, it would have remained till this day. It would have remained. If I
had done the same things there that I have done to you, they
would have repented. But I say to you that it shall
be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and the day of judgment
than for thee. Do you hear what he's saying? So what he's saying to these
Pharisees, these self-righteous moralists, do you hear what he's
saying? He said, it'll be more tolerable for the Sodomites in
judgment than it's going to be for you who despise the full
goodness of God and you reject the righteousness of Jesus Christ
and you go about to establish one of your own. It's going to
be more tolerable. God gives to every man exactly,
every man and woman, exactly what they deserve. No more, no
less. That's what he's saying. God's
gonna judge every man according to his deeds, but it's not gonna
be the same measure of punishment. The punishment will fit the crime,
is what he's saying. That's what it'll do. But now we'll go on down through
here and we'll see this, that the believer has already been
judged as we go along. The believer has been judged
in Jesus Christ. My judgment was passed upon Christ. He suffered for my sins. We will
not stand in that throng of unbelievers. because he's speaking here of
unbelievers. Then he says here in verse, let
go of verse seven. Let me get, yeah, verse six. Verse six, who will render to
every man according to his deeds to them who by patient continuance
and well-doing seek for glory, honor, and immortality. First
of all, this is speaking of the believer. This is the believer
in Christ. This is the believer who seeks
to do the Lord's will. He's seeking to do good. He's
seeking to do the Lord's will. And there's also something else
he's seeking. He's seeking the glory of Jesus Christ, not his
own. The Pharisee seeks his own glory.
God, I thank You I'm not like other men. He spake thus with
himself, to them who by patient continuance in the gospel, in
well-doing, seek for glory and honor. That's God's honor. Christ's glory and immortality. This is what the believer seeks
for, an eternal life. That's not just the length of
it. You're not just seeking to live forever because everybody's
going to. Everybody's going to live forever. Once you come into
this world, once you have life in this world, it's forever.
But he's speaking here of the quality of it. It's the life
of God. That's what the believer seeks
after. But unto them that are contentious,
they fight against the gospel. They deny the gospel. They do
not obey the truth. They don't obey it. But obey
unrighteousness, indignation, and wrath. It's going to be every
one of them. It's going to be on everyone. It doesn't matter.
Jew, Gentile, moralist, doesn't matter. It's gonna be on you. Tribulation and anguish upon
every soul of man that doth evil. What's the greatest evil there
is? Not to believe God. From that
evil comes all other evils. That evil, not to believe God,
unbelief. In it is the seed of every corruption,
of every evil there is, not to believe God. To hear the gospel
and reject it. To hear the gospel and turn your
back on it. That is to call God a liar. That's to say, I'm not
as bad as you say I am. And I don't need, I don't need
that savior. I don't need Jesus Christ. I
don't need his righteousness. That's what the Jews said. We
don't need him. We don't need his righteousness. We're good.
We're good. We got this. That was their attitude. But he says, tribulation and
anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil of the Jew first. It doesn't matter, you know,
heritage is not gonna get you out of trouble. It's not gonna
get you out of trouble. It's your relationship to Jesus
Christ that's gonna get you out of trouble. It's faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ. It's being covered in the blood
and righteousness of Jesus Christ. To the Jew first and also to
the Gentile. But glory, honor, and peace to
every man that worketh good And that work of good is a work of
God in you first before you can do anything good outwardly. It has to be inwardly first.
And that's the work of God. We are His workmanships created
in Christ Jesus unto good works. For there is no respect of persons
with God. They said, but we are Abraham's
seed. Where Abraham sat. And he's saying here, there's
no respect of persons with God. God respects. And the meaning
of this is God respects no man's face. You know, you don't go have more
favor with God because of this or because of that. Our favor
with God is in Christ. It's in Jesus Christ. And no place else. No place else. But Paul, and what we are seeing here,
is that all the Gentiles are under condemnation and all the
Jews and the moralists, apart from the righteousness of Jesus
Christ, are under condemnation. That we all, everyone, need the
righteousness of Jesus Christ. Trash yours. Trash yours. Just throw it in the trash, it's
no good. It's no good, it's poison. The hardest thing to do is throw
everything away and just cast yourself upon the Lord Jesus
Christ for time and eternity.