You Are Not Good: Part II (Romans 2:1-11)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:01.280 --> 00:00:06.120 Please remain standing, and let's give our attention to God's word in Romans Chapter 2 00:00:06.160 --> 00:00:30.940 Two, verses one through eleven. Romans two, one through eleven, says 3 00:00:30.980 --> 00:00:38.170 God's word. Hear it now and believe. Therefore, you have no excuse, 4 00:00:38.409 --> 00:00:43.570 Oh man, every one of you who judges, for in passing judgment 5 00:00:43.729 --> 00:00:49.649 on another, you condemn yourself because you, the judge, practice the very 6 00:00:49.689 --> 00:00:55.200 same things. We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who 7 00:00:55.240 --> 00:01:00.240 practice such things. Do you suppose, Oh man, you who judge those 8 00:01:00.280 --> 00:01:04.430 who practice such things and yet do them yourself, that you will escape the 9 00:01:04.549 --> 00:01:10.189 judgment of God? Or do you presume, on the riches of his kindness 10 00:01:10.829 --> 00:01:17.310 and forbearance and patience, not knowing that the that God's kindness is meant to 11 00:01:17.390 --> 00:01:22.299 lead you to repentance? But because of your heart and impenite in heart, 12 00:01:22.500 --> 00:01:26.299 you are storing up wrath for yourself. On the day of Wrath, when 13 00:01:26.379 --> 00:01:30.420 God's righteous judgment will be revealed, he will render to each one according to 14 00:01:30.500 --> 00:01:34.730 his works. To those who, by patience and welldoing, seek for glory 15 00:01:34.849 --> 00:01:40.769 and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who 16 00:01:40.810 --> 00:01:47.129 are selfseeking and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness, there will be 17 00:01:47.239 --> 00:01:53.439 wrath and fury, there will be tribulation and distress for every human being who 18 00:01:53.439 --> 00:02:00.000 does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor 19 00:02:00.200 --> 00:02:05.790 and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek, 20 00:02:06.629 --> 00:02:10.789 for God shows no partiality. May He bless his word to us. 21 00:02:12.229 --> 00:02:30.969 Please be seated. In order to understand this section of Romans, you have 22 00:02:30.090 --> 00:02:37.689 to understand something about the sinner's heart, the sinful heart, or sinfulness within 23 00:02:37.770 --> 00:02:44.169 us, and that applies to both Christians and Non Christians, to those who 24 00:02:44.250 --> 00:02:49.000 believe and those who don't believe. Don't believe. The difference is that for 25 00:02:49.360 --> 00:02:53.400 the unbeliever, the one who hasn't been washed and purified by the blood of 26 00:02:53.439 --> 00:03:02.069 Christ, that sinful nature is complete, it's total, there are no qualifications, 27 00:03:02.310 --> 00:03:07.270 no things to add on to a phrase. Like those who are selfseeking 28 00:03:07.310 --> 00:03:13.219 and do not obey the truth but obey righteousness, they will be wrath and 29 00:03:13.419 --> 00:03:20.300 fury. So, as Paul is speaking to us, as God is speaking 30 00:03:20.340 --> 00:03:23.819 to us through his servant, there are two people, two groups, simultaneously 31 00:03:24.139 --> 00:03:30.210 in his sight. For those that do not live by faith in Jesus. 32 00:03:30.370 --> 00:03:38.969 There are entire selves are condemned because they are completely and entirely sinful. There's 33 00:03:38.050 --> 00:03:44.000 no purity, there's no holiness, because that is received through Jesus and they 34 00:03:44.039 --> 00:03:50.240 do not believe in Jesus. But for Christians there is also a condemning that 35 00:03:50.439 --> 00:03:55.870 happens here from God, because in us there is a sinful nature that still 36 00:03:55.909 --> 00:04:01.030 resides, what Paul calls the flesh or the old man. In each of 37 00:04:01.110 --> 00:04:06.550 us there is sinfulness that still needs to be put to death. Though we 38 00:04:06.949 --> 00:04:13.379 no longer are under the condemnation of that sin because of Jesus's forgiveness of us 39 00:04:13.460 --> 00:04:16.699 on the cross, and though we're no longer under the power of sin because 40 00:04:16.779 --> 00:04:21.980 Jesus has set us free from that, we all know that we still sin. 41 00:04:24.139 --> 00:04:30.329 If we say that we don't, we deceive ourselves. And so was 42 00:04:30.370 --> 00:04:33.250 we think about this? We have to think about that from both perspectives. 43 00:04:33.850 --> 00:04:39.199 In the first place, Paul seems to be talking most directly to those who 44 00:04:39.240 --> 00:04:45.160 don't know God, who live their lives entirely apart from faith and are condemned 45 00:04:45.240 --> 00:04:48.639 by those lives. But as Christians who do walk by faith, who do 46 00:04:48.879 --> 00:04:53.509 live by faith, who have been saved by Jesus. It applies to us 47 00:04:53.550 --> 00:04:58.069 as well, doesn't it? Because that same nature still needs to be put 48 00:04:58.110 --> 00:05:04.509 to death completely and entirely. That sinful nature deserves wrath. It's just that 49 00:05:04.670 --> 00:05:11.300 we don't receive it, not because God ignores it, but because he's forgiven 50 00:05:11.339 --> 00:05:17.339 it. So that's why I've titled this second sermon in this three part series. 51 00:05:17.540 --> 00:05:24.850 You are not good, part two, because you aren't good. There 52 00:05:24.970 --> 00:05:30.810 is something inside of you, something that you already know and I probably don't 53 00:05:30.810 --> 00:05:35.399 have to spend much time convincing you of, that isn't good. Sins that 54 00:05:35.439 --> 00:05:41.120 are embarrassing, shameful, sins that don't belong to you, to any of 55 00:05:41.199 --> 00:05:46.920 us, whether you are a Christian or not. Well, in the last 56 00:05:46.959 --> 00:05:51.829 passage, Paul spoke about one particular kind of person. He's going to address 57 00:05:51.829 --> 00:05:56.230 another and then yet another next time, and in each of these he's kind 58 00:05:56.230 --> 00:06:01.029 of parading an example before us, a clear example, so that we can 59 00:06:01.110 --> 00:06:06.100 see ourselves, we can see our own hearts in them, be convicted by 60 00:06:06.220 --> 00:06:13.939 it and turn in repentance. The first example Paul gave that I introduce to 61 00:06:13.939 --> 00:06:16.139 you last week, and that the end of Romans one or these people that 62 00:06:16.259 --> 00:06:21.689 we might call very bad people, grossly immoral people. These are people who 63 00:06:21.689 --> 00:06:27.930 do bad things, unnatural things, things that they know they ought not to 64 00:06:28.209 --> 00:06:33.639 do. Paul lists various kinds of sins in this category, everything from dishonoring 65 00:06:33.759 --> 00:06:41.560 parents to murder to homosexuality. Paul ends that description by telling us at the 66 00:06:41.600 --> 00:06:46.149 very end of chapter one, though they know God's righteous decree, that those 67 00:06:46.230 --> 00:06:51.430 who practice such things deserve to die. They not only do them but give 68 00:06:51.470 --> 00:06:59.310 approval to those who practice them. So you have this first example, is 69 00:06:59.389 --> 00:07:04.579 this person who is entirely consumed by their sin, so much that God allows 70 00:07:04.660 --> 00:07:09.339 them, in his wrath, to to fall deeper and deeper into that sin 71 00:07:10.180 --> 00:07:13.019 in such a way that they not only do that sin, but then they 72 00:07:13.060 --> 00:07:16.610 give approval to others who practice it. This is the nature of sin. 73 00:07:18.129 --> 00:07:21.569 But there are other kinds of sinners too, and that's another one that we 74 00:07:21.610 --> 00:07:28.329 are addressed to here in chapter two. Not every sinner, not everyone who 75 00:07:28.449 --> 00:07:33.279 sins, gives approval to sins, as the first chapter mentioned. In other 76 00:07:33.360 --> 00:07:36.959 words, there are people who sin but don't approve of it at all, 77 00:07:38.000 --> 00:07:44.240 at least when it comes to others. Paul points out this kind of person 78 00:07:44.310 --> 00:07:47.389 here at the beginning of Romans too, where in Romans one we have a 79 00:07:47.509 --> 00:07:51.990 person who practices such things, knows that they deserve to die and then approves 80 00:07:53.029 --> 00:07:58.579 of others. Here the last part changes. They know that those who do 81 00:07:58.660 --> 00:08:03.660 such things deserve to die and they don't give approval to those who practice of 82 00:08:03.980 --> 00:08:07.740 these sins. In this passage, Paul reminds us that there are some people 83 00:08:07.740 --> 00:08:11.819 who know the law, know that those who break it deserve to die, 84 00:08:13.569 --> 00:08:16.730 and yet also make a point of noting those around them who are doing and 85 00:08:16.930 --> 00:08:22.649 deserving just that. This is the kind of person we call a hypocrite. 86 00:08:24.769 --> 00:08:28.480 So you might expect the point of this passage to be about the sin of 87 00:08:28.639 --> 00:08:35.639 judging others, but it's not. As all explain, though hypocrisy is never 88 00:08:35.799 --> 00:08:41.230 good, judging others can actually be a good and necessary thing. So what 89 00:08:41.429 --> 00:08:46.990 is the point of the passage if Paul's not saying that judging others is bad? 90 00:08:48.230 --> 00:08:52.190 Well, the point is this, and this passage God reminds us that 91 00:08:52.350 --> 00:08:58.220 those who judge the sin of others prove their ability to judge, and in 92 00:08:58.379 --> 00:09:03.340 that they show that they already know what to expect in God's judgment. Of 93 00:09:03.460 --> 00:09:09.700 them. Well, to consider this, let's first swing back and consider this 94 00:09:09.850 --> 00:09:16.730 controversial and common topic. Is it a sin to judge? A lot of 95 00:09:16.850 --> 00:09:22.809 people do think that judging others goes against Christianity. A many people that think 96 00:09:22.929 --> 00:09:26.720 that to name Usin or to call someone a sinner is really to step over 97 00:09:26.879 --> 00:09:31.399 a line that Jesus himself drew. Yet, on the other hand, it's 98 00:09:31.440 --> 00:09:37.200 hard to imagine that Jesus would have been happy with people excusing or ignoring sin. 99 00:09:39.309 --> 00:09:41.549 So what do we make of all of this? Is Judging a sin? 100 00:09:43.309 --> 00:09:46.549 Well, the answer that question really depends on what you mean by judging. 101 00:09:48.990 --> 00:09:54.620 If by judging you're referring to a selfrighteous spirit, then yes, judging 102 00:09:54.779 --> 00:10:01.460 is a sin, Jesus said famously in Matthew Seven. How can you say 103 00:10:01.460 --> 00:10:05.659 to your brother, let me take that speck out of your eye, when 104 00:10:07.059 --> 00:10:11.730 there is a log in your own eye, you hypocrite? Jesus says, 105 00:10:13.009 --> 00:10:16.169 take the flog out of your own eye and then you'll see clearly enough to 106 00:10:16.289 --> 00:10:22.000 take the speck out of your brother's eye. It's a sort of super ridiculous 107 00:10:22.080 --> 00:10:26.919 example, right the person straining at GNAT's another way we put it, like 108 00:10:28.320 --> 00:10:33.840 see trying to pull out this tiny little speck when a log is in their 109 00:10:33.879 --> 00:10:39.909 own eye. So if by judging you mean this kind of self righteous attitude, 110 00:10:39.990 --> 00:10:43.870 then yes, Jesus does condemn it. Or if, by judging you 111 00:10:45.110 --> 00:10:52.340 refer to a spirit of condemnation, a spirit of hardhearted refusal to forgive sin 112 00:10:52.460 --> 00:10:56.340 that has been committed, then yes, judging is a sin. Again, 113 00:10:56.379 --> 00:11:01.659 Jesus's words here from Luke's chapter six. Judge not and you will not be 114 00:11:01.779 --> 00:11:07.529 judged. Condemn not and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will 115 00:11:07.570 --> 00:11:13.409 be forgiven. So when people say it's a sin to judge, usually they're 116 00:11:13.409 --> 00:11:18.409 referring to one of these two things. They either mean that we shouldn't be 117 00:11:18.529 --> 00:11:24.080 hypocrites or that we shouldn't be judge mental unforgiving, and in this their right. 118 00:11:24.720 --> 00:11:31.120 This is exactly what Jesus is saying. But sometimes people want to take 119 00:11:31.200 --> 00:11:35.029 this a step further and a step too far, and say that any kind 120 00:11:35.110 --> 00:11:39.870 of evaluation of others at all is a sin. And that's not the case. 121 00:11:39.909 --> 00:11:48.460 If by Judge ging we mean evaluating something properly and naming it as it 122 00:11:48.659 --> 00:11:52.059 is to be named, good for good, evil for evil, then there's 123 00:11:52.100 --> 00:11:56.899 no sin in that that's, in some ways, the essence of righteousness. 124 00:11:58.899 --> 00:12:05.490 Consider a judge, for example, who has someone come before a him and 125 00:12:05.649 --> 00:12:09.970 he has to adjudicate, he has to make a decision about what is right 126 00:12:11.129 --> 00:12:16.480 and what is wrong. Judges who judge poorly are bad judges. We judge 127 00:12:16.559 --> 00:12:24.000 the judges, we make evaluations about them, and rightly so, because judging 128 00:12:24.120 --> 00:12:26.360 is a good thing, it's an important thing. It needs to be done 129 00:12:26.399 --> 00:12:31.029 well. So if a person is to live in the world in a way 130 00:12:31.029 --> 00:12:37.070 that's pleasing to God, it's absolutely critical that he or she knows how to 131 00:12:37.110 --> 00:12:43.629 separate the good from the bad, the wise man from the fool, temptation 132 00:12:43.299 --> 00:12:48.899 from Opportunity. We must be able to judge. We might also note that 133 00:12:48.940 --> 00:12:54.379 the Bible says, that says explicitly that the we, particularly we as the 134 00:12:54.460 --> 00:13:01.090 church, are to judge. First Corinthian six Paul commands the church in Corinth 135 00:13:01.690 --> 00:13:05.970 to make judgments, and he makes that command on their Cape, based on 136 00:13:05.049 --> 00:13:09.169 their capability to do so. Listen to these words. These are astounding. 137 00:13:11.690 --> 00:13:15.960 Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? Do you not 138 00:13:16.200 --> 00:13:20.840 know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, in 139 00:13:20.960 --> 00:13:26.080 matters pertaining to this life. This comes in instructions where Paul tells us that 140 00:13:26.360 --> 00:13:30.389 in our inner church conflicts we're not supposed to take those into the courts, 141 00:13:30.470 --> 00:13:35.230 but deal with them here within our church, within the means that God has 142 00:13:35.309 --> 00:13:41.259 given for judging. God wants his church to be unified and pure, but 143 00:13:41.379 --> 00:13:46.379 in order for that to happen, the church must be able to judge between 144 00:13:46.500 --> 00:13:50.860 right and wrong, and when wrong is done, it needs to be dealt 145 00:13:50.899 --> 00:13:56.289 with properly. So Paul Instructs Titus in Chapter Three, ten and eleven as 146 00:13:56.370 --> 00:14:01.570 a for a person who stirs up division. After warning him once and then 147 00:14:01.649 --> 00:14:05.570 twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person 148 00:14:05.769 --> 00:14:11.720 is warped and sinful, he is self condemned. So you see, then, 149 00:14:11.759 --> 00:14:16.399 it's not judging that's the problem. Really, it's the manner in which 150 00:14:16.440 --> 00:14:20.960 we do it, and that's what people mean usually when they say don't be 151 00:14:20.120 --> 00:14:26.470 so judgey, don't be judge. Mental judging is a bad thing. Jesus 152 00:14:26.509 --> 00:14:31.070 says that himself. He says that the way in which we are to judge 153 00:14:31.110 --> 00:14:35.590 is to be right. John Twenty Four. Do not judge by appearances, 154 00:14:35.669 --> 00:14:41.820 but judge with right judgment. So, to conclude this question, is it 155 00:14:41.940 --> 00:14:45.860 right to judge? Again? The answer depends on what you mean. You 156 00:14:45.940 --> 00:14:50.500 could say that Yes, judgment is a good and necessary thing, but its 157 00:14:50.580 --> 00:14:54.850 manner must be done correctly, and those who don't correctly judge either in their 158 00:14:54.929 --> 00:14:58.409 evaluation or in the way that they go about it. I'm do sin. 159 00:15:01.330 --> 00:15:05.529 But judgment in itself is important because it exposes sin for what it is. 160 00:15:07.080 --> 00:15:11.960 Forgiven sin is the work of Heaven, but hidden sin is the work of 161 00:15:13.080 --> 00:15:18.360 Hell. True and holy judgment in accordance with the doctrines of God is not 162 00:15:18.399 --> 00:15:22.990 a sin. It exposes sin for what it is. It names it, 163 00:15:24.149 --> 00:15:30.389 it's identifies it, it points it out. Well, with that question about 164 00:15:30.429 --> 00:15:33.990 judging answered, we're now in a good position to consider Paul's point. In 165 00:15:35.110 --> 00:15:41.940 Romans too, Paul is not saying we shouldn't judge. He's pointing out that 166 00:15:41.100 --> 00:15:46.899 our judging is a basis, a fair basis, for the judgment of God. 167 00:15:48.299 --> 00:15:50.529 The thing he's saying is that whenever we judge the sins of others, 168 00:15:52.330 --> 00:15:58.970 we don't just expose their sin, we expose our sin as well. That's 169 00:15:58.009 --> 00:16:03.409 why judging condemns us, because when we name us in. When we put 170 00:16:03.409 --> 00:16:08.360 it out there and say you are doing this because we're doing the same things, 171 00:16:10.399 --> 00:16:15.799 we find ourselves condemned. Of course, know how this works. Perhaps 172 00:16:15.840 --> 00:16:21.470 you've been caught in this parents, perhaps of an experienced I'm, yelling at 173 00:16:21.509 --> 00:16:26.629 their children about being impatient and then realizing only a moment later how impatient you 174 00:16:26.750 --> 00:16:33.659 are being. Or maybe you have really gotten on somebody's case at work for 175 00:16:33.460 --> 00:16:38.340 not being on time about something, and then you find only shortly later that 176 00:16:38.460 --> 00:16:45.860 you yourself have forgotten to take care of something. These are in some ways 177 00:16:45.100 --> 00:16:48.889 smaller things, but there's big ones as well, and most of us live 178 00:16:49.009 --> 00:16:53.409 in our lives as we pray, live our lives as we prayed in our 179 00:16:53.529 --> 00:17:00.330 prayer earlier, in a way that so quickly notices the sins of others and 180 00:17:00.490 --> 00:17:04.440 judges them by it. But then we don't judge ourselves that way. We 181 00:17:04.599 --> 00:17:11.599 look at our outward goodness, the sort of general way in which we desire 182 00:17:11.799 --> 00:17:14.839 to do well, and say, yeah, I'm I'm doing great, I'm 183 00:17:15.119 --> 00:17:21.750 I'm doing well. Paul brings this up before us so that we would know 184 00:17:21.990 --> 00:17:26.670 and remember that we're not doing well, that our ability to judge condemns us 185 00:17:26.750 --> 00:17:32.980 because it exposes our own sin. You know the old phrase, every time 186 00:17:33.099 --> 00:17:37.420 you point a finger, you have three pointing back at you. Maybe it's 187 00:17:37.460 --> 00:17:41.660 a little cliche, but it's pretty true, isn't it? There are is 188 00:17:41.819 --> 00:17:47.210 in each of us, these sins going on and that's what allows us to 189 00:17:47.450 --> 00:17:52.650 make these kinds of judgments. So there's a tension, there's a tension in 190 00:17:52.809 --> 00:17:57.410 our hearts that Paul is sort of putting his weight down on this sort of 191 00:17:57.569 --> 00:18:03.079 ouch spot right in there, that ouch spot that knows this judging that we 192 00:18:03.200 --> 00:18:07.559 do and yet knows the sins we also do. And Paul's pushing on it. 193 00:18:08.519 --> 00:18:15.349 God is pushing on it to make us feel that a tension between what 194 00:18:15.470 --> 00:18:22.430 we know we ought to do and what we do. We judge the sins 195 00:18:22.470 --> 00:18:26.910 of others, often rightly, yet do we see the sins in ourselves? 196 00:18:27.900 --> 00:18:33.019 Well, Paul's not only pressing on this point, but he adds a secondary 197 00:18:33.099 --> 00:18:38.460 point. He causes us, he reminds us of something within God's Providence, 198 00:18:40.740 --> 00:18:45.049 within your daily Christian experience, that it's meant to put that pressure on a 199 00:18:45.130 --> 00:18:52.450 little bit more, and it's actually God's grace, his kindness, his forbearance. 200 00:18:55.170 --> 00:19:00.359 Let me explain, in addition to pointing out this judging that we do, 201 00:19:02.160 --> 00:19:04.279 as we expose the sin of others and expose our own sins. Paul 202 00:19:04.319 --> 00:19:10.750 also points something else out that happens in life, though. We are sinning 203 00:19:10.789 --> 00:19:15.230 in these ways and know that all those people out there deserve condemnation, yet 204 00:19:15.349 --> 00:19:25.380 we somehow go on in our daily lives without being condemned. We have murderous 205 00:19:25.420 --> 00:19:32.500 hearts, lustful hearts, prideful hearts, we have selfish hearts and we know 206 00:19:32.700 --> 00:19:36.660 this. We know that all those people deserve to die for all the things 207 00:19:36.700 --> 00:19:41.490 they're doing, and yet here we are living, we who do them. 208 00:19:42.049 --> 00:19:45.890 And Paul says, there's a particular reason for this. It's not just an 209 00:19:45.930 --> 00:19:52.769 accident that your life is going on despite your sin. It happens because God 210 00:19:52.000 --> 00:19:59.319 is kind. He uses two other words. He says he's kind, he's 211 00:19:59.359 --> 00:20:07.000 patient, he's forbearing. This is really a remarkable thing and perhaps again to 212 00:20:07.039 --> 00:20:11.109 use the parent child relation, as ship, as an example. You've known 213 00:20:11.349 --> 00:20:17.029 this or seen this kind of thing. Maybe you remember as a child doing 214 00:20:17.190 --> 00:20:22.339 something which you knew you ought not to do, and maybe you also remembered 215 00:20:22.420 --> 00:20:26.700 that you're you knew that mom knew that you ought not to do it, 216 00:20:26.339 --> 00:20:30.299 and you also knew that mom knew that you did do the thing you ought 217 00:20:30.339 --> 00:20:37.410 not to do. And yet there she is, not punishing you, but 218 00:20:37.569 --> 00:20:44.450 watching you, helping you, waiting for you, and at every moment you're 219 00:20:44.450 --> 00:20:49.880 sort of wondering wins the Shoe gonna drop? Wins the SPANKING gonna come? 220 00:20:51.000 --> 00:20:52.960 When am I going to get my time out, because I know that she 221 00:20:53.200 --> 00:21:02.039 knows, and yet she doesn't do anything. Well, there's two kinds of 222 00:21:02.119 --> 00:21:06.630 ways to read that situation. One way is you ignore it and you try 223 00:21:06.670 --> 00:21:11.230 to pretend that everything's fine, but of course that's just suppressing the truth that 224 00:21:11.349 --> 00:21:15.349 you know. The other way is to disregard it and just along the lines 225 00:21:15.390 --> 00:21:22.539 of ignoring it and just chalk it up to mom's forgetfulness or stupidity or not 226 00:21:22.859 --> 00:21:27.500 caring. Or maybe she's even approving of your sin and you can continue on 227 00:21:27.619 --> 00:21:34.809 and doing it. Or maybe, just maybe, mom is giving you a 228 00:21:36.009 --> 00:21:42.609 second chance, maybe she's forbearing your sin, being patient and kind with you, 229 00:21:44.410 --> 00:21:48.960 letting the pressure kind of sit for a little bit under her judgment without 230 00:21:49.200 --> 00:21:56.279 fully executing it, so that you would go to her and say mom I'm 231 00:21:56.400 --> 00:22:02.190 sorry, so that she wouldn't have to pour her wrath out on you a 232 00:22:02.430 --> 00:22:06.269 fully to teach you your lesson, to give you what you deserve, however 233 00:22:06.309 --> 00:22:10.630 you want to put that, but she's doing this so that you would come 234 00:22:10.910 --> 00:22:15.900 to a realization of your sin. That's what God does in our everyday lives. 235 00:22:17.700 --> 00:22:22.019 It's what Paul says. He's don't doing he's forbearing, he's being patient, 236 00:22:22.299 --> 00:22:26.940 he's being kind. So what are we going to do with that? 237 00:22:26.980 --> 00:22:32.970 Are we going to be presumptuous and presume on that and say great, he 238 00:22:33.130 --> 00:22:38.930 doesn't care, or are we going to feel that judgment even in his gracious 239 00:22:40.049 --> 00:22:48.279 waiting and kindness and turn and repentance? We experience this in our lives. 240 00:22:48.359 --> 00:22:52.880 There's so many examples of this in scripture. The Tower of Babil after the 241 00:22:52.920 --> 00:22:57.670 flood, David Sin Against Your Ryan Bathsheba, lot living and dwelling and Sodom 242 00:22:57.710 --> 00:23:06.029 and Gomrah offering his daughter's up to be brutally attacked and worse, and yet 243 00:23:06.710 --> 00:23:11.470 God rescuing him, bringing him out. This happens to us, doesn't it? 244 00:23:11.109 --> 00:23:15.900 How many times have you found yourself in a situation are he said, 245 00:23:15.500 --> 00:23:22.299 I know that God is gonna get me for this. Somehow, some way, 246 00:23:22.140 --> 00:23:26.210 I'm going to get caught, I'm going to fall all I'm going to 247 00:23:26.250 --> 00:23:37.009 feel some pain for this. And then you don't. How do you make 248 00:23:37.049 --> 00:23:42.000 sense of that? What choice do you make? Well, God tells us 249 00:23:42.039 --> 00:23:48.160 here that the choice is clear. You can be a fool and disregard it, 250 00:23:48.960 --> 00:23:53.880 ignore it, think that God either doesn't care or is actually approving of 251 00:23:55.079 --> 00:24:02.069 your unrighteousness, or you can be thankful that he hasn't condemned you on the 252 00:24:02.150 --> 00:24:07.910 spot. See His forbearance and his patience and his kindness for what it is, 253 00:24:07.950 --> 00:24:17.420 as something that's meant to lead you to repentance. And repent. That's 254 00:24:17.420 --> 00:24:25.250 our world today. Individuals, families, people's businesses, nations, churches committing 255 00:24:25.569 --> 00:24:30.690 gross and heinous sins against their fellow man and against God, and he gives 256 00:24:30.730 --> 00:24:37.970 them yet another day. In some cases he even continues to bless them to 257 00:24:37.130 --> 00:24:41.839 such a degree, to such a degree does he bless them, that people 258 00:24:41.920 --> 00:24:47.279 begin to think God is a bad judge, that he doesn't care. But 259 00:24:47.480 --> 00:24:51.000 Paul is telling us here that that's not the case, that God is just 260 00:24:51.559 --> 00:24:56.230 and that judgment is coming in is do for all our sins. But these 261 00:24:56.349 --> 00:25:04.630 blessings are not God's ignoring, but God's forbearing. So what will you do? 262 00:25:07.380 --> 00:25:12.380 Some will choose to disregard and they will find that their punishment is indeed 263 00:25:12.660 --> 00:25:19.779 just around the corner. Paul Promises. God himself promises in many times and 264 00:25:19.900 --> 00:25:26.089 in many places, and in this passage in particular, that he will render 265 00:25:26.210 --> 00:25:33.089 to each according to his works. Verse Nine. There will be tribulation and 266 00:25:33.250 --> 00:25:40.559 distress for every human being who does evil, and that is why it's so 267 00:25:40.920 --> 00:25:45.799 important that we live by faith, that we live trusting in the right, 268 00:25:47.000 --> 00:25:52.269 revealed righteousness of God, as he said in Romans one, sixteen and Seventeen, 269 00:25:52.390 --> 00:25:56.789 and not in ourselves, because in ourselves we either find one of two 270 00:25:56.829 --> 00:26:02.549 things that Paul's mentioned so far, either such sinfulness that goes to the extent 271 00:26:02.670 --> 00:26:07.099 of approving of other sinners, or a sinfulness that rightly judges other sinners but 272 00:26:07.140 --> 00:26:12.500 then condemns ourselves. Either way, it's a no win situation. Either way 273 00:26:12.619 --> 00:26:18.289 we are held accountable for our sins. God exposes these things, though, 274 00:26:19.329 --> 00:26:26.049 so that we would turn in Pentance, so that we would see not what 275 00:26:26.289 --> 00:26:32.170 my hands have done, but yours and yours alone, that we would turn 276 00:26:32.250 --> 00:26:36.119 to God and he is righteousness that we would turn to Jesus, a savior 277 00:26:36.200 --> 00:26:44.880 who has died for us and given us himself on the cross. There is, 278 00:26:45.960 --> 00:26:51.069 in a sense, a warrant out for your arrest and the sheriff sitting 279 00:26:51.069 --> 00:26:59.069 right across the street. Turn yourselves in, because he's gracious. God, 280 00:27:00.549 --> 00:27:07.180 the one who judges the world, has already judged the sins of Christians in 281 00:27:07.259 --> 00:27:15.930 Jesus Christ. That's the amazing thing about repentance. Repentance doesn't ignore sin and 282 00:27:17.089 --> 00:27:22.049 just try harder, nor does it ignore grace and just keep on sinning. 283 00:27:22.089 --> 00:27:30.279 Repentance sort of grasps all the ugliness in ourselves and all the beauty in Christ 284 00:27:30.279 --> 00:27:33.799 at the same time. Or to put it another way, repentance is when 285 00:27:34.160 --> 00:27:40.640 we hand our sins to God and then Simultaneously Receive His grace to ourselves. 286 00:27:40.720 --> 00:27:45.670 It's an act of faith, it's an act of trust, believing that what 287 00:27:45.789 --> 00:27:56.430 Jesus has done is truly effectual, that is, promises are real. What 288 00:27:56.589 --> 00:27:59.220 we here in the Gospel, then, is that Jesus, the son of 289 00:27:59.299 --> 00:28:04.140 God, has come into the world to become man and that judgment for sin 290 00:28:06.019 --> 00:28:11.420 has passed on him. He would be judged instead of US arrested, tried, 291 00:28:11.859 --> 00:28:17.690 crucified, not for what he'd done, but for we'd done. That 292 00:28:17.849 --> 00:28:19.930 judgment would be perfect and fair. It would be death. It would be 293 00:28:19.970 --> 00:28:25.089 the full weight of sin and the wrath of God, the wrath that the 294 00:28:25.250 --> 00:28:30.480 only son of God could bear and come through even to Resurrection and glory. 295 00:28:32.960 --> 00:28:37.720 This is a message that doesn't sweep sin under the rug, but it shows 296 00:28:37.759 --> 00:28:44.109 us how we can be saved. When we see that, we can know 297 00:28:44.349 --> 00:28:48.430 that we do have forgiveness and we can sing songs like we did earlier. 298 00:28:48.589 --> 00:28:53.829 In Thy Wrath and hot displeasure. Chasten not, Thy Servant Lord. Let 299 00:28:53.950 --> 00:29:02.500 Thy mercy without measure, help and peace to me, afford asking for a 300 00:29:02.619 --> 00:29:07.819 savior, trusting in God as our Savior. That's what we do in repentance. 301 00:29:08.619 --> 00:29:12.809 That's what we do when we see His mercy and turn to him for 302 00:29:12.970 --> 00:29:15.289 His grace. Let us pray