Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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Please remain standing, and let's give
our attention to God's word in Romans Chapter
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Two, verses one through eleven.
Romans two, one through eleven, says
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God's word. Hear it now and
believe. Therefore, you have no excuse,
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Oh man, every one of you
who judges, for in passing judgment
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on another, you condemn yourself because
you, the judge, practice the very
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same things. We know that the
judgment of God rightly falls on those who
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practice such things. Do you suppose, Oh man, you who judge those
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who practice such things and yet do
them yourself, that you will escape the
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judgment of God? Or do you
presume, on the riches of his kindness
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and forbearance and patience, not knowing
that the that God's kindness is meant to
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lead you to repentance? But because
of your heart and impenite in heart,
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you are storing up wrath for yourself. On the day of Wrath, when
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God's righteous judgment will be revealed,
he will render to each one according to
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his works. To those who,
by patience and welldoing, seek for glory
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and honor and immortality, he will
give eternal life. But for those who
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are selfseeking and do not obey the
truth but obey unrighteousness, there will be
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wrath and fury, there will be
tribulation and distress for every human being who
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does evil, the Jew first and
also the Greek, but glory and honor
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and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek,
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for God shows no partiality. May
He bless his word to us.
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Please be seated. In order to
understand this section of Romans, you have
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to understand something about the sinner's heart, the sinful heart, or sinfulness within
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us, and that applies to both
Christians and Non Christians, to those who
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believe and those who don't believe.
Don't believe. The difference is that for
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the unbeliever, the one who hasn't
been washed and purified by the blood of
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Christ, that sinful nature is complete, it's total, there are no qualifications,
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no things to add on to a
phrase. Like those who are selfseeking
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and do not obey the truth but
obey righteousness, they will be wrath and
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fury. So, as Paul is
speaking to us, as God is speaking
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to us through his servant, there
are two people, two groups, simultaneously
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in his sight. For those that
do not live by faith in Jesus.
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There are entire selves are condemned because
they are completely and entirely sinful. There's
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no purity, there's no holiness,
because that is received through Jesus and they
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do not believe in Jesus. But
for Christians there is also a condemning that
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happens here from God, because in
us there is a sinful nature that still
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resides, what Paul calls the flesh
or the old man. In each of
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us there is sinfulness that still needs
to be put to death. Though we
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no longer are under the condemnation of
that sin because of Jesus's forgiveness of us
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on the cross, and though we're
no longer under the power of sin because
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Jesus has set us free from that, we all know that we still sin.
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If we say that we don't,
we deceive ourselves. And so was
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we think about this? We have
to think about that from both perspectives.
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In the first place, Paul seems
to be talking most directly to those who
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don't know God, who live their
lives entirely apart from faith and are condemned
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by those lives. But as Christians
who do walk by faith, who do
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live by faith, who have been
saved by Jesus. It applies to us
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as well, doesn't it? Because
that same nature still needs to be put
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to death completely and entirely. That
sinful nature deserves wrath. It's just that
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we don't receive it, not because
God ignores it, but because he's forgiven
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it. So that's why I've titled
this second sermon in this three part series.
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You are not good, part two, because you aren't good. There
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is something inside of you, something
that you already know and I probably don't
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have to spend much time convincing you
of, that isn't good. Sins that
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are embarrassing, shameful, sins that
don't belong to you, to any of
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us, whether you are a Christian
or not. Well, in the last
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passage, Paul spoke about one particular
kind of person. He's going to address
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another and then yet another next time, and in each of these he's kind
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of parading an example before us,
a clear example, so that we can
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see ourselves, we can see our
own hearts in them, be convicted by
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it and turn in repentance. The
first example Paul gave that I introduce to
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you last week, and that the
end of Romans one or these people that
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we might call very bad people,
grossly immoral people. These are people who
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do bad things, unnatural things,
things that they know they ought not to
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do. Paul lists various kinds of
sins in this category, everything from dishonoring
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parents to murder to homosexuality. Paul
ends that description by telling us at the
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very end of chapter one, though
they know God's righteous decree, that those
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who practice such things deserve to die. They not only do them but give
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approval to those who practice them.
So you have this first example, is
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this person who is entirely consumed by
their sin, so much that God allows
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them, in his wrath, to
to fall deeper and deeper into that sin
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in such a way that they not
only do that sin, but then they
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give approval to others who practice it. This is the nature of sin.
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But there are other kinds of sinners
too, and that's another one that we
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are addressed to here in chapter two. Not every sinner, not everyone who
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sins, gives approval to sins,
as the first chapter mentioned. In other
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words, there are people who sin
but don't approve of it at all,
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at least when it comes to others. Paul points out this kind of person
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here at the beginning of Romans too, where in Romans one we have a
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person who practices such things, knows
that they deserve to die and then approves
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of others. Here the last part
changes. They know that those who do
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such things deserve to die and they
don't give approval to those who practice of
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these sins. In this passage,
Paul reminds us that there are some people
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who know the law, know that
those who break it deserve to die,
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and yet also make a point of
noting those around them who are doing and
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deserving just that. This is the
kind of person we call a hypocrite.
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So you might expect the point of
this passage to be about the sin of
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judging others, but it's not.
As all explain, though hypocrisy is never
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good, judging others can actually be
a good and necessary thing. So what
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is the point of the passage if
Paul's not saying that judging others is bad?
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Well, the point is this,
and this passage God reminds us that
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those who judge the sin of others
prove their ability to judge, and in
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that they show that they already know
what to expect in God's judgment. Of
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them. Well, to consider this, let's first swing back and consider this
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controversial and common topic. Is it
a sin to judge? A lot of
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people do think that judging others goes
against Christianity. A many people that think
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that to name Usin or to call
someone a sinner is really to step over
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a line that Jesus himself drew.
Yet, on the other hand, it's
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hard to imagine that Jesus would have
been happy with people excusing or ignoring sin.
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So what do we make of all
of this? Is Judging a sin?
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Well, the answer that question really
depends on what you mean by judging.
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If by judging you're referring to a
selfrighteous spirit, then yes, judging
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is a sin, Jesus said famously
in Matthew Seven. How can you say
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to your brother, let me take
that speck out of your eye, when
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there is a log in your own
eye, you hypocrite? Jesus says,
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take the flog out of your own
eye and then you'll see clearly enough to
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take the speck out of your brother's
eye. It's a sort of super ridiculous
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example, right the person straining at
GNAT's another way we put it, like
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see trying to pull out this tiny
little speck when a log is in their
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own eye. So if by judging
you mean this kind of self righteous attitude,
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then yes, Jesus does condemn it. Or if, by judging you
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refer to a spirit of condemnation,
a spirit of hardhearted refusal to forgive sin
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that has been committed, then yes, judging is a sin. Again,
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Jesus's words here from Luke's chapter six. Judge not and you will not be
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judged. Condemn not and you will
not be condemned. Forgive and you will
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be forgiven. So when people say
it's a sin to judge, usually they're
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referring to one of these two things. They either mean that we shouldn't be
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hypocrites or that we shouldn't be judge
mental unforgiving, and in this their right.
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This is exactly what Jesus is saying. But sometimes people want to take
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this a step further and a step
too far, and say that any kind
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of evaluation of others at all is
a sin. And that's not the case.
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If by Judge ging we mean evaluating
something properly and naming it as it
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is to be named, good for
good, evil for evil, then there's
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no sin in that that's, in
some ways, the essence of righteousness.
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Consider a judge, for example,
who has someone come before a him and
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he has to adjudicate, he has
to make a decision about what is right
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and what is wrong. Judges who
judge poorly are bad judges. We judge
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the judges, we make evaluations about
them, and rightly so, because judging
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is a good thing, it's an
important thing. It needs to be done
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well. So if a person is
to live in the world in a way
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that's pleasing to God, it's absolutely
critical that he or she knows how to
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separate the good from the bad,
the wise man from the fool, temptation
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from Opportunity. We must be able
to judge. We might also note that
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the Bible says, that says explicitly
that the we, particularly we as the
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church, are to judge. First
Corinthian six Paul commands the church in Corinth
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to make judgments, and he makes
that command on their Cape, based on
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their capability to do so. Listen
to these words. These are astounding.
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Do you not know that the saints
will judge the world? Do you not
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know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, in
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matters pertaining to this life. This
comes in instructions where Paul tells us that
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in our inner church conflicts we're not
supposed to take those into the courts,
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but deal with them here within our
church, within the means that God has
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given for judging. God wants his
church to be unified and pure, but
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in order for that to happen,
the church must be able to judge between
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right and wrong, and when wrong
is done, it needs to be dealt
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with properly. So Paul Instructs Titus
in Chapter Three, ten and eleven as
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a for a person who stirs up
division. After warning him once and then
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twice, have nothing more to do
with him, knowing that such a person
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is warped and sinful, he is
self condemned. So you see, then,
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it's not judging that's the problem.
Really, it's the manner in which
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we do it, and that's what
people mean usually when they say don't be
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so judgey, don't be judge.
Mental judging is a bad thing. Jesus
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says that himself. He says that
the way in which we are to judge
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is to be right. John Twenty
Four. Do not judge by appearances,
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but judge with right judgment. So, to conclude this question, is it
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right to judge? Again? The
answer depends on what you mean. You
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could say that Yes, judgment is
a good and necessary thing, but its
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manner must be done correctly, and
those who don't correctly judge either in their
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evaluation or in the way that they
go about it. I'm do sin.
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But judgment in itself is important because
it exposes sin for what it is.
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Forgiven sin is the work of Heaven, but hidden sin is the work of
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Hell. True and holy judgment in
accordance with the doctrines of God is not
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a sin. It exposes sin for
what it is. It names it,
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it's identifies it, it points it
out. Well, with that question about
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judging answered, we're now in a
good position to consider Paul's point. In
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Romans too, Paul is not saying
we shouldn't judge. He's pointing out that
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our judging is a basis, a
fair basis, for the judgment of God.
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The thing he's saying is that whenever
we judge the sins of others,
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we don't just expose their sin,
we expose our sin as well. That's
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why judging condemns us, because when
we name us in. When we put
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it out there and say you are
doing this because we're doing the same things,
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we find ourselves condemned. Of course, know how this works. Perhaps
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you've been caught in this parents,
perhaps of an experienced I'm, yelling at
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their children about being impatient and then
realizing only a moment later how impatient you
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are being. Or maybe you have
really gotten on somebody's case at work for
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not being on time about something,
and then you find only shortly later that
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you yourself have forgotten to take care
of something. These are in some ways
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smaller things, but there's big ones
as well, and most of us live
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in our lives as we pray,
live our lives as we prayed in our
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prayer earlier, in a way that
so quickly notices the sins of others and
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judges them by it. But then
we don't judge ourselves that way. We
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look at our outward goodness, the
sort of general way in which we desire
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to do well, and say,
yeah, I'm I'm doing great, I'm
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I'm doing well. Paul brings this
up before us so that we would know
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and remember that we're not doing well, that our ability to judge condemns us
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because it exposes our own sin.
You know the old phrase, every time
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you point a finger, you have
three pointing back at you. Maybe it's
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a little cliche, but it's pretty
true, isn't it? There are is
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in each of us, these sins
going on and that's what allows us to
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make these kinds of judgments. So
there's a tension, there's a tension in
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our hearts that Paul is sort of
putting his weight down on this sort of
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ouch spot right in there, that
ouch spot that knows this judging that we
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do and yet knows the sins we
also do. And Paul's pushing on it.
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God is pushing on it to make
us feel that a tension between what
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we know we ought to do and
what we do. We judge the sins
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of others, often rightly, yet
do we see the sins in ourselves?
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Well, Paul's not only pressing on
this point, but he adds a secondary
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point. He causes us, he
reminds us of something within God's Providence,
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within your daily Christian experience, that
it's meant to put that pressure on a
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little bit more, and it's actually
God's grace, his kindness, his forbearance.
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Let me explain, in addition to
pointing out this judging that we do,
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as we expose the sin of others
and expose our own sins. Paul
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also points something else out that happens
in life, though. We are sinning
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in these ways and know that all
those people out there deserve condemnation, yet
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we somehow go on in our daily
lives without being condemned. We have murderous
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hearts, lustful hearts, prideful hearts, we have selfish hearts and we know
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this. We know that all those
people deserve to die for all the things
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they're doing, and yet here we
are living, we who do them.
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And Paul says, there's a particular
reason for this. It's not just an
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accident that your life is going on
despite your sin. It happens because God
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is kind. He uses two other
words. He says he's kind, he's
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patient, he's forbearing. This is
really a remarkable thing and perhaps again to
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use the parent child relation, as
ship, as an example. You've known
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this or seen this kind of thing. Maybe you remember as a child doing
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something which you knew you ought not
to do, and maybe you also remembered
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that you're you knew that mom knew
that you ought not to do it,
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and you also knew that mom knew
that you did do the thing you ought
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not to do. And yet there
she is, not punishing you, but
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watching you, helping you, waiting
for you, and at every moment you're
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sort of wondering wins the Shoe gonna
drop? Wins the SPANKING gonna come?
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When am I going to get my
time out, because I know that she
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knows, and yet she doesn't do
anything. Well, there's two kinds of
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ways to read that situation. One
way is you ignore it and you try
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to pretend that everything's fine, but
of course that's just suppressing the truth that
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you know. The other way is
to disregard it and just along the lines
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of ignoring it and just chalk it
up to mom's forgetfulness or stupidity or not
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caring. Or maybe she's even approving
of your sin and you can continue on
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and doing it. Or maybe,
just maybe, mom is giving you a
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second chance, maybe she's forbearing your
sin, being patient and kind with you,
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letting the pressure kind of sit for
a little bit under her judgment without
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fully executing it, so that you
would go to her and say mom I'm
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sorry, so that she wouldn't have
to pour her wrath out on you a
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fully to teach you your lesson,
to give you what you deserve, however
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you want to put that, but
she's doing this so that you would come
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to a realization of your sin.
That's what God does in our everyday lives.
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It's what Paul says. He's don't
doing he's forbearing, he's being patient,
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he's being kind. So what are
we going to do with that?
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Are we going to be presumptuous and
presume on that and say great, he
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doesn't care, or are we going
to feel that judgment even in his gracious
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waiting and kindness and turn and repentance? We experience this in our lives.
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There's so many examples of this in
scripture. The Tower of Babil after the
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flood, David Sin Against Your Ryan
Bathsheba, lot living and dwelling and Sodom
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and Gomrah offering his daughter's up to
be brutally attacked and worse, and yet
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God rescuing him, bringing him out. This happens to us, doesn't it?
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How many times have you found yourself
in a situation are he said,
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I know that God is gonna get
me for this. Somehow, some way,
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I'm going to get caught, I'm
going to fall all I'm going to
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feel some pain for this. And
then you don't. How do you make
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sense of that? What choice do
you make? Well, God tells us
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here that the choice is clear.
You can be a fool and disregard it,
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ignore it, think that God either
doesn't care or is actually approving of
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your unrighteousness, or you can be
thankful that he hasn't condemned you on the
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spot. See His forbearance and his
patience and his kindness for what it is,
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as something that's meant to lead you
to repentance. And repent. That's
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our world today. Individuals, families, people's businesses, nations, churches committing
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gross and heinous sins against their fellow
man and against God, and he gives
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them yet another day. In some
cases he even continues to bless them to
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such a degree, to such a
degree does he bless them, that people
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begin to think God is a bad
judge, that he doesn't care. But
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Paul is telling us here that that's
not the case, that God is just
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and that judgment is coming in is
do for all our sins. But these
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blessings are not God's ignoring, but
God's forbearing. So what will you do?
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Some will choose to disregard and they
will find that their punishment is indeed
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just around the corner. Paul Promises. God himself promises in many times and
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in many places, and in this
passage in particular, that he will render
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to each according to his works.
Verse Nine. There will be tribulation and
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distress for every human being who does
evil, and that is why it's so
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important that we live by faith,
that we live trusting in the right,
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revealed righteousness of God, as he
said in Romans one, sixteen and Seventeen,
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and not in ourselves, because in
ourselves we either find one of two
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things that Paul's mentioned so far,
either such sinfulness that goes to the extent
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of approving of other sinners, or
a sinfulness that rightly judges other sinners but
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then condemns ourselves. Either way,
it's a no win situation. Either way
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we are held accountable for our sins. God exposes these things, though,
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so that we would turn in Pentance, so that we would see not what
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my hands have done, but yours
and yours alone, that we would turn
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to God and he is righteousness that
we would turn to Jesus, a savior
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who has died for us and given
us himself on the cross. There is,
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in a sense, a warrant out
for your arrest and the sheriff sitting
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right across the street. Turn yourselves
in, because he's gracious. God,
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the one who judges the world,
has already judged the sins of Christians in
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Jesus Christ. That's the amazing thing
about repentance. Repentance doesn't ignore sin and
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just try harder, nor does it
ignore grace and just keep on sinning.
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Repentance sort of grasps all the ugliness
in ourselves and all the beauty in Christ
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at the same time. Or to
put it another way, repentance is when
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we hand our sins to God and
then Simultaneously Receive His grace to ourselves.
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It's an act of faith, it's
an act of trust, believing that what
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Jesus has done is truly effectual,
that is, promises are real. What
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we here in the Gospel, then, is that Jesus, the son of
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God, has come into the world
to become man and that judgment for sin
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has passed on him. He would
be judged instead of US arrested, tried,
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crucified, not for what he'd done, but for we'd done. That
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judgment would be perfect and fair.
It would be death. It would be
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the full weight of sin and the
wrath of God, the wrath that the
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only son of God could bear and
come through even to Resurrection and glory.
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This is a message that doesn't sweep
sin under the rug, but it shows
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us how we can be saved.
When we see that, we can know
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that we do have forgiveness and we
can sing songs like we did earlier.
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In Thy Wrath and hot displeasure.
Chasten not, Thy Servant Lord. Let
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Thy mercy without measure, help and
peace to me, afford asking for a
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savior, trusting in God as our
Savior. That's what we do in repentance.
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That's what we do when we see
His mercy and turn to him for
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His grace. Let us pray
