This morning, you can go ahead
if you want to. Turn to Acts 17. We're going
to begin reading at verse 16 here. But the title of my message
this morning is going to be God's Righteous Judgment. And it's
going to be coming from Romans 2, verses 1 and 2 and 3. 1 through
3. This morning we're going to talk
about the judgment of God and this judgment of God that even
by nature as we're born into this world, we kind of by nature
know that there's an angry God out there. We know by nature
that we're doing something wrong. We've sinned against God. So by nature, we go about to
try to establish the righteousness of our own automatically. It's
just something we do by nature, trying to appease this angry
God. And we're taught all our lives
that there's going to be a judgment one day. And what we're going
to do this morning is talk about the judgment of God. And we're
going to talk about that true standard of judgment that God
has. And I know that we'd all much rather know what that standard
of judgment is today, right now, than to find out in the end.
And so, as we begin this morning, in Acts 17, beginning in verse
16, it says, now, while Paul waited for them at Athens, What
we're talking about here will give you a little background.
Paul here had just come from Athens, come to Athens from Berea. As you remember from a sermon
by Randy here just delivered recently, where Paul was in Berea,
where he was received well until some of those Jews from Thessalonica
came over there and kind of stirred up the people there at Berea.
And so he left there and he came to Athens where he was right
now. And he was there and he sent
word to Silas and Timothy to come to him with all speed. So
when it says now while Paul waited for them at Athens, that's what
he's talking about. He was waiting on Timothy and
Silas to meet him there. Then it says his spirit was stirred
up, stirred in him. when he saw the city wholly given
to idolatry. Therefore disputed he in the
synagogue with the Jews and with the devout persons, and in the
market daily with them that met with him. Then certain philosophers
of the Epicureans and of the Stoics encountered him, and some
said, What will this babbler say? And some, he seemeth to
be a setter-forth of strange gods. because he preached to
us Jesus and his resurrection. And they took him and brought
him into Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine
whereof thou speakest is? For thou bringest certain strange
things to our ears. We would know, therefore, what
these things mean. For all the Athenians and strangers
which were there spent their time in nothing else but either
to tell The toll of all their philosophy in the different areas
are to hear some new things. So they spent all their life,
it seems like, just sitting around telling of each other's philosophy
about the different things and different gods that they worship.
So in verse 22, it says, Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars
Hill and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things
ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by, and beheld
your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, To the
unknown God. Whom therefore ye ignorantly
worship him, declare I unto you." Paul is about to tell them about
that unknown God that they worship. God that made the world, and
all the things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and
earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands, Neither is worship
with men's hand, as though he needed anything. Sin he giveth
to all life, and breath, and all things, and hath made of
one blood all nations of men, for to dwell on all the face
of the earth, and hath determined the time before appointed, and
the bounds of their habitation, that they should seek the Lord,
if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he
be not far from every one of us, for in him we live, we move,
and have our being, as certain also of your own poets have said,
for we are also his offspring. Forasmuch then as we are the
offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is
likened to gold, silver, or stone, or graven by art and man's device.
In the times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth
all men everywhere to repent." Beginning in verse 31 here, we're
going to begin seeing something about that true standard of judgment. It says in verse 31, Because
he hath appointed a day into which he will judge the world
in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, whereof
he hath given assurance unto all men, and that he hath raised
him from the dead. Now, that's God's standard of
judgment. Christ. Christ and his righteousness
alone is having to do with what Christ accomplished on this earth
as he fulfilled all the demands of God's law, even under death
as he shed his blood on that cross. And in the verses that
we just read in Acts 17, it's clear that God does have a standard
of judgment. And that standard of judgment
is Christ and His righteousness alone. Now, you just can't deny
that. Now, if you'll go ahead and turn
now also to Isaiah 45, verse 20. After seeing in Acts 17 how that
God does have a standard of judgment, and that standard of judgment
is Christ, each and every one of us who know the true and living
God should be so thankful for what God has done for us in the
person of His Son. We should be so thankful that
God has chosen a way to remain just and still justify an ungodly
sinner such as we are. We should be so thankful that
this holy God can still remain holy and just and save a wretched
sinner. Now, in Isaiah 45 verse 20, it
reads, Assemble yourselves and come, draw near together, Ye
that are escaped of the nations, they have no knowledge that set
up the wood of their graven image. And pray unto a God that cannot
save. Tell ye, and bring them near. Yea, let them take counsel
together. Who hath declared this from the
ancient time? Who hath told it from that time?
Have not I the Lord? And there is no God else beside
me, or just God and a Saviour. There is none beside me. Look
unto me, and be ye saved all the ends of the earth, for I
am God, and there is none else. I have sworn by myself the word
is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, that unto
me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear. Surely shall
one say unto the Lord, Have I righteousness and strength? Even to him shall
men come, and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed.
and the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall
glory." Now, beginning in verse 24 here that we just read, it
says, "...surely shall one say unto the Lord, Have our righteousness
and strength." All of God's elect know that the righteousness that
they must have to stand before this holy God is Christ's righteousness
alone. It is Christ's righteousness
imputed alone that enables us to stand before God without God's
judgment is just and true. Sinners must have a perfect righteousness
to stand at judgment. And as I told you in the beginning,
we need to know what that standard of judgment is that God has.
And he's clear that it's Christ. It's that righteousness that
he worked out that you're going to be judged by in the end. And
as I said here, that the only way you're going to get it is
by imputation, the imputation of that righteousness that Christ
worked out and imputes to each and every one of those that God
chose from eternity. Now, as we look at verse 25 here,
it says, In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified
and shall glory. God's elect from the beginning
are the spiritual seed of Israel. and they are all justified by
Christ's person and work, even his shed blood. We glory this
morning due to what God has done for us in the person of his dear
Son. Now, in Galatians 6, verse 14
says, But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and
I unto the world. Now, as we begin chapter 2 here
in Romans, You can turn to Romans chapter 2, verse 1. An overview
of what this chapter contains, in general, it contains a vindication
or the justification, proof and evidence of the justice, the
fairness, the impartiality of God's judgment against men. This
chapter also is a denial of the several pleas that might be made
by the Gentiles who did not have the law in the old covenant,
and by the Jews who had it, and concludes by exposing the wickedness
of the Jews who had made their boast in the law, but through
breaking the law dishonored God. This chapter closes with showing
who the proper Jews are and who are the true circumcision in
the account and eyes of God. Now, in verse 1 of chapter 2
here, As we begin, it says, Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man,
whosoever thou art that judges. For wherein thou judgest another,
thou condemnest thyself. For thou that judgest doest the
same things. But we are sure that the judgment
of God is according to truth against them which commit such
things. And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them that
do such things, and doest the same that thou shalt escape the
judgment of God." Now, Paul in these verses here continues to
show our need of salvation by God's grace through Christ. Now, when we say grace, we mean
salvation cannot be conditioned on anything done by us or done
through us. This applies to all sinners,
even the best of men. The psalmist wrote, verily, every
man at his best state is altogether vanity. Psalms 39.5. As we look upon people, we notice
differences in this world. We see the difference between
the moral religionists that are sitting in churches today and
the atheists who openly deny God. We see the difference between
the murderer and the law-abiding citizen. that does everything
they can to keep the law and abide by all the laws of the
land. Here is the question, though,
because we do see the difference in these things that I just mentioned.
The question is, though, what is the difference between all
these in God's sight concerning salvation, righteousness and
eternal life? In the following Paul answers this question by
addressing the religious person who judges those who are openly
immoral and profane as described in Romans 1 in verse 18 through
32 that we went over a few weeks ago. Much of what he says applies
to the self-righteous Jews under the law of Moses who justified
themselves and condemned the Gentiles. Turn to Luke 18, verse
9. In Luke 18, verse 9, this is
Christ speaking, and He spake this parable unto certain which
trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others.
Two men went up into the temple and prayed, the one a Pharisee
and the other a The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself,
God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are, extortioners,
unjust, adulterers, and even as this publican, this tax collector
that we are talking about. I fast twice in the week, I give
tithe of all that I possess, and a publican standing afar
off would not lift up so much as his eyes until heaven. but
smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me, a sinner.
Christ says, I tell you, this man went down to his house justified
rather than the other. For every one that exalted himself
shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. Also in Luke 16, verse 15, Christ
says, and he says unto them, You are they which justify yourselves
before men, but God knoweth your hearts, for that which is highly
esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God." Now, this
applies to any sinner who judges himself saved or righteous or
justified based on his works, any works that might be done
by that sinner. or even those works that he might
say God enabled him to do. It applies to all those, all
those that condemn based on their works also, those Jews that were
condemning those Gentiles. The grand conclusion to which
Paul will come to is that among men born of Adam there is none
righteous and that there is no difference that would distinguish
one sinner over another. as it relates to their ability
to deserve eternal salvation. Now, all of us by nature, even
based on our best efforts to obey God's law, deserve the wrath
of God. Now, this does not mean that
the elect of God are under His wrath and that we are vessels
of wrath fitted for destruction. But it does mean that we are
equally deserving of God's wrath. We are all in need of salvation.
by God's free, sovereign grace in Christ. Thank God that he
is elect, or vessels of mercy, rather than vessels of wrath. In Romans chapter 2 and verse
1, it says, Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever
thou art that judges. For wherein thou judgest another,
thou condemnest thyself. For thou that judgest doest the
same things. Are the ones Paul described in
Romans 1, 18-32 that we read a few weeks ago, are they lost
and deserving of God's wrath? Yes. Their behavior is detestable
and they are without excuse. Although one may be religious,
moral, sincere, and dedicated in the sight of men, the question
is this, what makes you think that you deserve better? We are
all equally deserving of God's wrath without excuse. This is a shocking statement
to man by nature, especially those moral religionists of our
day. As we call down the wrath of
God upon people who engage in the practices described in Romans
1 that we are talking about, we should know that based on
this standard we also condemn ourselves. when we judge them
lost based on these evil deeds that they were doing. Why? It is because we too are sinners.
There is only one standard of judgment for all, and that standard
of judgment again is because he hath appointed a day into
which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man
whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance unto
all and that he had raised him from the dead. That's God's true
standard of judgment. That perfection brought out by
Christ alone. We must have it. We must have
it. So the question is, how are you
going to get it? Are you going to try to work it out? And that
won't work. It has to be by imputation, I
think. Bill used to say that You must have a righteousness,
a perfect righteousness, to stand before this holy God. And the
question is, do you have it? If you do, where did you get
it from? Did you work it out? Did God enable you to do it?
Or did He impute it to you? Did He charge it to your account?
That's what we need to understand. That's what we need to know.
Now, when we look at others who are in open immorality, And I
want to say this. You know, as we look at this
world today that we're living in, it's in a sad shape with
all the open immorality that's out there. And as we look at
it, we should shun all these things just as much as we can. Stay away from it. We should not judge those individuals'
loss based on whether they're doing these things or not doing
these things. That's by works. That true standard of judgment
is perfection, and we need to see that the only way that we're
going to have that is by an imputed righteousness that Christ worked
out. Now, as I said this, it says people who engage in those
practices. When we look at others in open immorality and conclude
that they fall short of the righteousness needed to be saved, we must see
that even though we might be better in the eyes of men, we
need to understand that we too fall short of the righteousness
that God requires, which is Christ's righteousness alone. This is
God's perfect standard of judgment, and this is what we must have
to be eternally If we judge anyone to be lost and under the wrath
of God, we do so because we see that they have broken God's law
and that their character and conduct fall short of the perfection
of God's law. The Jews back here judge the
Gentiles to be lawbreakers. Paul tells them that by their
own judgment that they also condemn themselves. If you have ever
committed the least sin against God, you have no better hope
of salvation by your works than any other sinner. In James 2,
verse 10, it says, For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and
yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said,
Do not commit adultery, also said, Do not kill. Now, if thou
commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor
of the law. And you can put anything in what
I just said, any other thing, whether it be steal or whether
it be adultery or just anything. You may argue that you have never
done certain things that other sinners have done, but you are
still a sinner and all sin deserves eternal death. There is no salvation
apart from the grace of God in Christ and based on his shed
blood and righteousness imputed and revealed in this gospel that
we preach, believe, and have all our hope in. We should note
here that many people use this verse here along with Matthew
7 to forbid any and all judgment. This is not the case. Christ
commands us to judge all things but to judge them in the right
way. And the right way is based on God's standard revealed in
His Word. Now, in John 7, 24, it states,
Judge not according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment.
Not based on what you see somebody do or not do, their works, but
judge righteous judgment based on Christ's righteousness alone,
that true standard of judgment that God revealed to us. Our
problem is, by nature, we will always judge self-righteously. And by our own sinful standard
rather than God's, this judgment is forbidden. In Romans 2, verse
2, it says, But we are sure that the judgment of God is according
to truth against them that commit such things. God's judgment is
according to truth and based on strict law and inflexible
justice. His law was no respecter of persons,
no matter what our backgrounds, our heritage, our claims. All
who are sinners, all who do not possess this righteousness that
we are talking about, that fully answers and satisfies all the
claims of God's law and justice, shall be eternally damned. All
who imagine that they shall be in heaven by their works are
self-righteous idolaters. Whenever God condemns sinners,
His judgment is always according to truth. It's fair and it's
just. He only gives such sinners what
they deserve. Thank God, however, that whenever
He justifies a sinner in Christ, His judgment is always according
to truth. It's fair and it's just. He only gives such justified
sinners what they deserve, not in themselves, but in Christ.
and because of Christ's death for them, and righteousness imputed
or charged to their account. Now, we as safe sinners never
deserve or earn salvation, but our hope is in and by our Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ, and his righteousness alone. It is by
grace. that we are saved. And verse
3 of Romans 2, as we close out this particular message, it says,
And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgeth them which do such
things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment
of God? God justifies only the righteous, and he condemns only
the unrighteous. It is God's law by which the
issue is determined, and God's law cannot pronounce any sinner
righteous based on that sinner's works in any way. It cannot pronounce
anyone righteous based on the fact that he is a natural descendant
of Abraham, or based on circumcision, or based on sincerity or zeal
in religion. The law cannot even pronounce
a sinner righteous based on faith or repentance. Nothing will answer
the demands of God's law and justice except perfect obedience
from the cradle to the grave and perfect sinless suffering
for the punishment due to sin. So how can we as sinners, even
the best of us, think that we can escape the judgment of God
when we see what God demands here? It is the height of self-righteousness
and human pride for any sinner to imagine he could escape the
wrath of God because he is better than or not as bad as another
sinner. Next, God's law must pronounce
us righteous. It must if we are to have eternal
life, if we are going to be able to escape the judgment of God.
God must be just when he justifies sinners. Notice three things
in verse 3 here. None can avoid being judged by
God according to truth. None can avoid being condemned
who are not righteous in God's sight. And none can prevent the
execution of the sentence God will pronounce in the end. Self-righteousness
blinds our minds to the proper standard of God's judgment and
places it with our own standards. This is where men, by nature,
fall out and take sides with Satan against God. We, by nature,
will attempt to be as gods. In Genesis 3, verse 5, it says,
For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your
eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good
and evil. And when it states you shall
be as gods, knowing good and evil, it means that we will go
about setting our own standard of right and wrong, good and
evil. But God makes it clear that it
is impossible for His law to pronounce any sinner righteous
based on anything other than the shed blood and imputed righteousness
of Christ. But by nature we'll do that.
By nature we know that we've sinned against this holy God
and we go about setting our own standard. as we go through this
life. One man's standard is different
from another man's standard. The reason you have hundreds
and hundreds of different religions out there today, they all have
different standards by which they judge, either excuse or
accuse each other. I will close with some of the
main thoughts that I begin to study with this morning. God's
judgment is true and it's right. God says in Exodus 34, 7, that
He will by no means clear the guilty. Now, if you're guilty,
He won't clear you. So we need to see behind the
world, can we become not guilty before God? And the only way
is looking to Christ in His righteousness alone. We need to know that that
sin debt that we all owe has been paid. been paid by Christ
at the cross when he shed his blood, even unto death, all the
debt we owe. Now, also he says in Ezekiel
18.4, Behold, all souls are mine. As the soul of the Father, so
also the soul of the Son is mine. The soul that sinneth, it shall
surely die. We as sinners must be just to
stand before this holy God. Not the God that most of the
world worships today because they don't see this holy God. But this is what we're talking
about this morning. We're trying to get this message out of the
gospel that tells them who this God is, who this unknown God
is that everybody is really worshiping today just like they did in Athens.
They don't know this God. I pray that everyone that hears
this message will flee to Christ this morning for refuge from
the wrath to come. God will surely condemn based
on anything done by you and through you. Do like the publican and
beg for mercy. As Bill said in the back, beat
on your breast and pray to God to have mercy. God will save
you for Christ's sake alone. But He will not save you based
on anything that you do or think that you're unable to do. That's
works religions. That's not grace. And Christ
and His righteousness alone is God's standard of judgment. That's
the true standard of judgment that we need to look at as we
look at God's righteous judgment, which is the name of our message
this morning. Thank you.