This morning, our message is going to be the
goodness of God and repentance, and it's coming from the book
of Romans, chapter 2. And this morning, we're going
to talk about going to verses 4 through 11, as Winston read
those verses. It is a big responsibility to
be able to get up before people to deliver a message concerning
God. This God that made the universe
and all the people that are in this world today, it's a big
responsibility when you get up and say things about this God.
that the God that we worship is a just God. He's going to
do right in all things as he judges sinners on this earth
today. He's going to judge them by that
standard that we had talked about a few weeks ago, which is Christ
and his righteousness alone. This is perfection. I'm sure
I have, and I'm sure most of you have, that you've talked
to people and you've talked to them about this gospel that we
believe here at Eagle Avenue Grace Church. And you mentioned
to them that God requires perfection. If you're going to be saved,
a sinner, that he requires perfection. That is, from the cradle to the
grave. The only way, and you tell them,
the only way you're going to get this righteousness, this
perfection that God requires, is by the blood and the righteousness
of Christ alone. It's not based on what you do
or don't do. It cannot be. It will fall short.
We're sinners. No matter how much we thrive
to do good, to improve our lives, We're not going to make it based
on anything we do. Or with the help of God, as a
lot of religions say. We're going to have to have a
righteousness that meets the requirements of God, the demands
of God. He's holy, way above any of us. I know in my former religion, I brought God down to my level
where I could do those things that would be pleasing to Him.
I brought Christ down to my level. But see, that's just not going
to make it at judgment. I mean, we can do those things
and compare ourselves among other men and look pretty good. I know
I did back then. You compare yourself with other
men. You either excuse or accuse those
things, accuse other people when it comes to these things. But
those things, this will not get it when it comes to stand before
a holy God and be judged by him. We must have a righteousness
and thank God that Christ came in time and worked out or righteousness
for his people, his sheep. And God, this holy God that we're
talking about, charges his elect, those he chose before the foundation
of this earth. He chose them, he gave them to
Christ. Christ substituted himself for these people. Came in time
and did all those things necessary. to save us. And this is the only
way that a sinner can be saved. It's based on, you must have
a righteousness to meet the demands of God's holy law and justice.
Now, as we begin our message this morning, we talked about
Romans 1, Romans chapter 2, verses 1 through 3 a few weeks ago.
and about what this second chapter of Romans is all about. And it has a lot to do with the vindication
or the justification or the proof and evidence of this justice
and fairness of God that I just got through talking about. These
Jews, they would excuse themselves. They knew they had been given
the old covenant, all these laws and pictures and types and all
these things that God had given them. They would excuse themselves
when it comes to them being judged as lost. But then they turned
to the Gentiles, and they said, well, we're OK, but those Gentiles
over there, we know God's not with them. And even though in
all of these things, the Jews at that time, they broke God's
law. They dishonored Him in every
way, all through their lives. And because of doing this, they condemned
themselves in this matter of judgment before God. And this
chapter closes out. showing that the proper Jews
are who they are and who the true circumcision are in the
eyes of God. Now, as we begin the message,
the goodness of God and repentance here, the following verses, Paul
answers common objectives men raised against the truth expressed
in Romans 2, 1 through 3. concerning God's righteous judgments
against sinners, both Jews and Gentiles. Whenever a sinner judges
another sinner to be condemned or lost because of sin, because
that sinner commits a sin, the one who judges condemns himself
under the law because he, too, is a sinner. All sin deserves
justice before God, which is eternal condemnation. The only
hope for a sinner is God's grace in and by the Lord Jesus Christ,
his righteousness alone. Christ substituted himself for
the sheep. He took on the condemnation that
we deserve. He died and paid the sin debt
of all his people, God's elect, those who trust Christ for all
their salvation. Christ drank damnation dry. Brother
Randy mentioned a couple of weeks ago, Brother Bill always uses. And this is what he did. He suffered
that condemnation. And on that cross, he paid all
the debt, all the debt that we owe. He did not leave anything
undone. He paid it all. He was judged
by God as he stood condemned by God. not for any sins that he committed.
He was perfect, without blame, but for the sins of God's elect,
his sheep, those sins that were charged to his account, imputed. All of the elect sins were imputed
and charged to Christ's account. Christ said, I lay down my life
for the sheep. Turn to the book of John, chapter
10, beginning at verse 14. This is Christ speaking, and
he says, I am the good shepherd, and I know my sheep, and I am
known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even
so know I the Father. And then he says, And I lay down
my life for the sheep, and of the sheep I have which is not
of this fold, speaking of the Jewish fold, them also I must
bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one
fold and one shepherd. Therefore does my Father love
me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it up again.
No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down myself. I have
power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. This
commandment have I received from my Father." Here in verse 4 that
we are about to read, the Apostle Paul anticipates and objection
against what he had just got through saying in verses 1 through
3 in Romans 2. And all of this taken from the
prosperity of the Jews, they might conclude that they were
not so wicked as Paul had represented them and that they should escape
the judgment of God. Otherwise, they would have been
punished by God in this life and not have prospered as they
did and not have received the blessings of God, the temporal
blessings that he give all of that nation as he gave them the
old covenant, all the laws, and kept them together as a nation. Here in Romans 4, it starts out. or despiseth thou the riches
of his goodness and forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing
that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?" Here in
verse 4, Paul is giving an answer to the unbelieving Jews who would
argue that if they deserve condemnation and death under the law for their
sins, then how could Paul explain the riches of his goodness, of
God's goodness, and the forbearance and longsuffering that he had
to warn throughout their history? God chose Israel, and he showed
them special favor. He preserved and gave them many
advantages over the Gentiles. God gave them the old covenant,
the sacrificial system, the priesthood, the law on tables of stone. All
of these things pictured and typified Christ, the Messiah
that would come. He kept them together as a nation.
This was the people of which the Messiah would be born. They
could easily see how the Gentiles deserved death for their sins,
but not themselves as the circumcised descendants of Abraham. Paul
answers this objection by telling them plainly that the goodness
and the forbearance and the longsuffering toward them as a nation under
the old covenant was not because of anything that they had done
or that they deserved or earned as far as earning his favor in
any way. They were rebellious, sinful
people, just like we are today. This proved that instead of appreciating
God's goodness toward them, they actually despised the richest
of His goodness. The only reason God preserved
them and blessed them temporally in spite of their sins was to
accomplish His purpose by sending Christ into the world to save
sinners. The unbelieving Jews were ignorant
of the purpose of God's goodness toward them. which in this verse
we just read speaks of the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance.
Anything we as undeserving sinners receive in this life of the goodness
of God is not intended to make us proud as if we deserve or
as if we earn his favor in any way. God sends the rain on the
just and he sends it on the unjust, Matthew 5.45. speaks of this,
for he maketh his son to rise on the evil and on the good,
and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. This goodness
and forbearance and longsuffering is intended to lead sinners to
seek his grace and mercy and repent of our pride and of our
self-righteousness." And you know what God's elect,
as far as God's goodness And what this is intended to do here,
as far as leading sinners to repentance, it accomplishes what
God intended it for to do. And that is, all of God's elect
does come to repentance, faith toward God and repentance from
ever thinking they could have been saved any other way but
by Christ and His righteousness alone. In verse 5, But after
the hardness, an impenitent heart treasures up unto thyself wrath
against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment
of God. Any sinner, Jew or Gentile, who
judges himself worthy of God's goodness and judges others to
be unworthy because of sin is in reality proving more and more
that he himself deserves nothing but God's wrath against sin. This will be revealed to all
in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of
God. This is when Christ returns to judge the world in righteousness.
There is a natural hardness of the heart to every son and daughter
of Adam, and there is an acquired habitual hardness which is increased
by sinning. We see this in our society today.
And there is a judicial one, which God for sin sometimes gives
persons up to. An impenitent heart is not only
a heart which does not repent, but it is a heart that cannot
repent due to its hardness. Now, men by such hardness and
impenitence treasure up unto themselves wrath. They are the
authors of their own destruction, by which is meant the wrath of
God. in opposition to the riches of his goodness despised by them,
and is in reserve for wicked men, and is laid up against,
and will be brought forth in the day of wrath, which the Scriptures
call the evil day. Amos 6 says, You that put far
away the evil day, and cause the seed of violence to come
near. It speaks of who will render
to every man according to his deeds. God is always just, and
he judges righteously according to truth. He will give all of
us exactly what we deserve. He will render to all who appear
at the judgment in unbelief without Christ the just punishment for
all their sins. They have no mediator, and they
have no blood. to present for forgiveness no
righteousness by which to stand complete and without blame. Now,
on the other hand, the saints of God who appear at the judgment
of Christ, having been washed by Christ's blood and clothed
with his righteousness, they will receive the just reward
of the merits of Christ's obedience unto death. We who appear before
God in Christ have already been judged for all our sins in Christ
on the cross when he came under God's wrath due to our sins being
charged to his account. God's judgment that will be declared
on our behalf and for our eternal blessedness as we stand in Christ,
not based on our righteousness, but based on the righteousness
of Christ alone. What a blessing! What a blessed
thought. Romans 7, to them who by patient
continuance and well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality
eternal life. Remember that God is always fair
and just, and I've said that quite a few times, and I'll continue
saying it. He's fair and he's just, and
he judges. He never condemns where condemnation
is not deserved, and he never justifies where justification
is not deserved. The truth is that in our case
as sinners, based on our best efforts, we deserve nothing but
condemnation. The only way that we can deserve
justification before God is in Christ, being in Christ, having
his righteousness alone accounted to us. I know that when lost
sinners hear the phrase, well-doing, they automatically go to work
By nature, every time we see anything in God's Word that talks
about our doing, we think that God is telling us to work our
way back into his favor. By nature, we're ignorant of
God's way of salvation, so what do we do? We go about to establish
righteousness of our own. We're ignorant of God's way of
salvation, and that's the only other thing we can do. We go
about to establish the righteousness. Every time we hear anything having
to do with doing, it's just going to happen. Turn to Romans 10,
beginning at verse 4. Romans 10, verse 1, beginning at verse 1.
Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that
they might be saved. For I bear them record. They
have a zeal of God. Now, these are religious people. just like we have today, just
like we were today. We were religious people. We
were in these churches, in these false religions, just going about
to establish the righteousness of our own, ignorant of how God
saved the sinner by Christ's righteousness alone, being imputed
to our account. I remember the first time I ever
heard the word imputed, sitting in a little class that we were
having there in false religion. And somebody said something about,
that's how God is going to justify you. going to be an imputed righteousness
to charge your account. They didn't believe it, but they
had heard it and read it somewhere else. And I remember in my mind,
I said, I know God's not going to save me based on unless I
do something. I got to do something. And I
think all of God's people have been in that position before.
I got to do something. And we'll fight that, that old
nature of fighting, but God has overcome it. And He does in His
people. But we have a zeal of God, but
not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's
righteousness, what are they doing? What are we doing by nature? Going about to establish their
own righteousness, having not submitted themselves unto the
righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believes. We understand
that Christ kept that law perfectly. He kept it perfectly, and God
has to make us willing in the day of his power to believe such
a thing and to stop going about to establish the righteousness
of our own, to rest in Christ's righteousness alone. These verses
here make it clear what each one of us will do by nature.
With our religious zeal, we will attempt to appease this angry
God. by going about to establish the righteousness of our own.
God says that we do this because why? We're ignorant of the only
way God saves a sinner. We're ignorant of God's righteousness.
We're ignorant of what Christ accomplished. If there were any
human beings who could keep the law as it relates to well-doing,
perfectly, without any taint of sin, that person would receive
honor and mortality and eternal life. The well-doing here goes
so much further, though. In Genesis 4, 7, it says, "...that
thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted." And we know what
that was talking about having to do with Cain and Abel. God here, as far as speaking
of when he told Cain this back in Genesis 4, he was speaking
of the well-doing that Abel had done. when he brought the right
sacrifice that God commanded him to bring. He had taught this to Adam. Adam had taught it to
his sons. And then his sons started getting
older, and they started bringing those sacrifices. And you're
all familiar with what happened with Cain and Abel. But you see,
Abel was looking for the Messiah, the Christ, that perfect Lamb
of God. who would come in time and work
out a righteousness that God would accept. When he brought
that sacrifice, that's what he was looking to. He was looking
to that perfect sacrifice, that perfect Lamb of God without spot
of blemish. Death is the just desert of sin. Any person who could genuinely
do good at all times according to God's standard of goodness
could merit eternal life. This type of person does not
exist among fallen, sinful humanity. Turn with me to Romans 3, verse
10. This is some verses that everybody
is familiar with. God says that, as it is written,
there is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth,
there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of
the way. They are together become unprofitable.
There is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is
an open sepulchre. With their tongues they have
used deceit. The poison of asp is under their
lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their
feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in
their ways, and the way of peace they have not known. There is
no fear of God. before their eyes, that reverential
respect for his character. Now, these verses here, I won't
read them all, but they should shut our mouth. This is what
God is saying. He's saying this is who we are
by nature here, and it should shut our mouths and cause us
to flee to a refuge, flee to Christ for our only hope. And after reading these verses,
don't you thank God that he has provided for us what we couldn't
provide for ourselves. He sent his only begotten son
to this earth to satisfy law and justice. As he substituted
himself in our stead, God's elect performed this well-doing that
we're talking about by looking to Christ who did perform all
things necessary for our salvation. God says, This is my beloved
Son, in whom I am well pleased. Christ is the author, Christ
is the finisher of our salvation. In verses 8 and 9, But unto them
that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey
unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish,
upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also
of the Gentile. The first part of this verse
deals with the persons who are contentious. Now, opposite from
verse 7, which speaks of those that please God, these verses
here, 8 and 9, is a description of the other sort of persons
to whom God will render according to their deeds. Who are of the
contention? Who contend for victory and not
truth, strive about words to no profit. They are quarrelsome. and so discord among men and
in churches, and do not obey the truth. Tribulation and anguish,
these are expressive of the second death, the torments of hell,
the worm that never dies, and the fire that is not quenched. And this will fall upon every
man, every soul of man, that doeth evil. And, of course, this
is the opposite of those that doeth well and doeth righteousness."
Those that doeth well and doeth righteousness are those that
look to Christ for all of salvation. God says the soul that sins shall
die, Ezekiel 18.4. This will be the judgment of
every sinner unless satisfaction is made for his sins by the blood
of Christ. All of this will come on the
Jew first and also on the Gentile, regardless of what nation they
belong. Once again, the evil spoken of
in verse 9 is anything done by the sinner that opposes, the
only way that God will save a sinner, which is by the blood and the
righteousness of Christ alone. We have to understand that the
true God must and will punish all who are not righteous according
to his law. This applies to the Jew first
because Jews were the first to receive the revelation of God's
law. It also applies to the Gentiles because they too are sinners
under the light of God and the light that God has given them.
Unless satisfaction for our sins has been accomplished by the
blood of Christ, there is no hope for any of us. Thank God
that we know that satisfaction was accomplished. I believe now
is a good time probably to talk about dissatisfaction to the
justice of God. In most of religion today, men
speak of what Christ accomplished not as a satisfaction, but as
something that Christ did in order to make sinners savable.
They speak of Christ doing his part, but now it's all up to
you. They say, won't you just accept
what he did and he'll save you. Everything that they say concerning
what Christ did is usually in an offer to a sinner. They say
that he shed his blood on the cross for payment for the sins
of everyone without exception. And now you must make that decision
to reach out and to accept it in order for all that Christ
did to be effectual. That means that it accomplished
something. what it was intended to accomplish.
Do you see how dishonoring this is to Christ? Do you see that
this is not the Christ of the Bible? This is not grace, but
works on the sinner's part, and it makes Christ work on the cross
only a pedestal for self-righteous sinners to stand up on and to
boast of what they do for God. Folks, this is not satisfaction.
This is no salvation at all. when Christ, when they say Christ
died for everybody without exception, and then now you just got to
do your part. See, what he accomplished and the blood he shed really
don't make the difference, because a multitude wind up in hell for
whom Christ died. Unless you reach out and do your
part, you're the one that really salvation depends on, not Christ
but. And this is what's taught in
most of religion today. And this is not the gospel, this
is not the God of the Bible, and this is not the Christ that
died and shed his blood. Verse 10, but glory, honor, and
peace to every man that worketh good to the Jew first and to
the Gentile. The first part of verse 10 speaks
of glory, honor, and peace, which are so many words for the everlasting
happiness of the saints. 1 Peter 5 verse 4 states, And
when the chief shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown
of glory that fadeth not away. The same principle applies to
every man that worketh good, Jew or Gentile. Paul is showing in all of this
that he is a just God. He never punishes where it is
not deserved. and he always rewards where it
is deserved. Both Jew and Gentile are sinners
and deserve death, hell, and condemnation without Christ.
All who do not have a righteousness that meets God's standard of
judgment, which is Christ and his righteousness alone, will
suffer eternal death. But on the other hand, glory,
honor, and peace to every man, whether you are Jew or whether
you are Gentile. Whether you're white, or whether
you're black, or whether you're Hispanic, God is no respect to
a person. All those who look to Christ
for all their salvation and final glory. Now in verse 11 here, for there
is no respect to persons with God. There's an article in the
Bulletin here by John Gill that if you all get an opportunity
to take a look at that, he says some good things concerning God
being no respecter of persons. It will not come into consideration
at the day of judgment of what nation men are, from what parents
they are descended, nor what age and sex persons are, nor
in what state and condition they have lived in this world, nor
will it be asked to what sect they have belonged, by what denomination
they have been called, and whether they have conformed to such and
such externals in religion today, but only if they have a righteousness
that meets the demands of God's holy law and justice. And according as they appear
under these circumstances, judgment will proceed. God is no respecter
of persons. He is totally impartial. and
only respects that which honors and glorifies himself. All the
things about ourselves and our works that we by nature are so
proud of mean nothing to God. God's wrath abides upon all sinners,
both Jew and Gentile, who stand before him without the shed blood
and imputed righteousness of Christ. Without Christ, sinners
will stand justly condemned. God's mercy is upon all sinners,
both Jew and Gentile, who stand before him in Christ as they
have been cleansed by the blood of Christ and justified by his
righteousness alone. I pray God that as sinners look
at these things here that we've talked about this morning, It
will cause him to flee to Christ. He is a just God. He's just when
he saves a sinner. And we know that the only way
he's going to save a sinner is by the blood and righteousness
of Christ alone. And as God imputes that to the
sinner's account.