Well, I invite you to turn tonight as we continue and again our study in the book of Romans to chapter 2, verses 1 through 4 tonight. So a shorter section I'm taking. The next section is such an important section also that deals with understanding, well, I won't get ahead of myself. So, the first four verses tonight of Romans chapter 2, and let's give our attention to the word of the Lord, beginning at verse 1, therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges, for in passing judgment on another, you condemn yourself, because you, the judge practice the very same things we know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things do you suppose oh man you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourselves that you will escape the judgment of God or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience not knowing that god's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance and there will end tonight the reading of god's word well tonight's sermon is really a direct application to the sermon on the mount this morning so we're really dealing with the same kind of theme and i know that these have been heavier sermons especially when you're looking at the problem of hypocrisy which is what this one particularly again is is dealing with so you get kind of a double dose of that today but again i want to encourage you that paul has a great goal in romans of what he is building to and he has a great goal tonight in what he is doing here really as jesus was doing in the sermon on the mount that addressed the heart and the need for the Lord to give us new washed hearts and to be, in Paul's language, justified by grace through faith alone. But it really comes down to this, that it is impossible apart from the grace of God tonight to accept the diagnosis that God has given of the human race and of the human heart. But it is precisely what Paul is attempting to accomplish here by the spirit in the way that he is laying out romans and in the way that he is addressing sin he is addressing it universally he's not just addressing one segment of the population he does something rather shocking in romans 2 that is a shift that really we didn't quite expect when we were going through romans in some sense it is a bit shocking the way that he turns now and does something that we did not expect him to do what he is aiming to do is drive everyone to you might say the question that comes out in the book of acts what was that question it's that sirs what must we do to be saved he wants that kind of response after going through the first section of romans he's aiming for that kind of response he wants to answer that great question but he has to do the law has to do its work first the diagnosis has to be heard first as we said last time the cure is only as radical as the disease and romans has this great goal at this point it is to begin to reach and and drive us toward a conclusion to the first section as we looked at in the heidelberg of the guilt section romans guilt section wants to take us to a conclusion but he's working there and tonight he takes us in a different direction to accomplish that it's not simply that the pagan world is guilty of all of these terrible sins it's not simply the pagan world the great challenge can be for followers of god the great challenge can be for them to see their own condition and their judgmental attitude if you will here toward the wicked is actually as actually what paul's going to show us is actually an exposure that they have no real sense themselves of their condition before god and that leads us to what will be the summary statement that he is going to make here at the end of this first section of Romans, which is the summary and giving the diagnosis that all alike are under sin. There is none who does good. No, not one. In terms of the righteousness that we need from God, we don't have the righteousness that can make it in terms of that demand for a holy and a perfect and a just life. And Paul knows that it's easy for us to see that problem in the world. Paul knows it's easy for me to stand on Broadway tonight and to look over at the apartments and to say, look at the druggies standing out there. Oh, I'm tired of them that's a big problem paul knows and to never consider the universal diagnosis that god has given in this regard there is none that does good no not one and that as paul addressing tonight can be very difficult for the righteous to see so what this chapter is designed to do is to put everyone on an equal playing field. It's leveling the field, if you will. Romans 2 is saying something shocking when we're looking at the diagnosis apart from being justified by faith alone and Christ alone. When we look at the diagnosis of everyone's position, positionally before God, it's as if he says, did you just read about all those bad homosexuals in chapter 1? Terrible, isn't it? awful what's going on. They're not okay. But you're not either. That's the shock of Romans 2. That's the shock of Romans 2. And one of the most important messages for the church. No one is okay. Apart from justification, by grace through faith alone, no one is okay. No matter how upright your life may be, no matter how moral you might be, no one's okay. That's the truth he's seeking to develop tonight in Romans chapter 3. Are we any better? In Romans chapter 2, are we any better? He asks that in chapter 3. Certainly not. All have turned aside. And he says this statement in the end of Romans 2 that in this diagnosis that levels the playing field the intention is that the mouth of the whole world would be stopped before god in its own righteousness now when we accept that diagnosis it's a very humbling thing isn't it to place us in the same need as everyone else in the same need and in the same place as the Romans 1 people. That the grace of God must come into our lives and to save us from this righteous revelation of wrath that has been revealed in chapter 1 that is a revelation that's happening all around us. So I want to look tonight at these first four verses considering judgment misapplied, hypocrisy exposed, and goodness misunderstood. And then we'll end on a few words from the Heidelberg, as I said, about the good mediator that we have. You'll remember in chapter 1, he outlined some of the difficult things that we had to weed through and to preach that is going on with the pagans all around us. He described their idolatry. He described all of these horrible things. Remember that what they do is that they suppress the truth in unrighteousness. and they do not worship God. They suppress the truth of creation. They literally push it down and they suppress the conscience of what's written on the heart of what they know to be right and wrong. And he says they were not thankful in that and so God's wrath has been revealed in that He has given people over to their wants and their desires. Therefore, because they pursued these things, God turned them over in this, in time, He talked about there. They were given over to sexual immorality and they were given over to fornication and all these terrible sins that were listed, adultery, all the things. When God looks down from heaven, He sees, and because they wanted this, He turned them over to it. What a scary thing. that list in verse 29 is is brutal it is an all-encompassing list they are full of envy murder strife deceit maliciousness their gossip slander slanders haters of god insolent haughty boastful inventors of evil disobedient to parents foolish faithless heartless ruthless now i would have expected paul to be done here he's kind of made the point right um that's an all-encompassing list i am really good as a pastor to point out there i'm really good at that i'm not so good at pointing here after he laid it out how easy it would be to say righteous judgment righteous judgment what a perverse path they're on but as if paul now turns around and looks the other way um you could put this in terms of gentile and jew here i'm not convinced that's totally what paul's doing he's speaking to the roman church here which was also full of gentiles but we could have read romans 1 and said praise god i am not like that and that's the issue now that paul's addressing he's he's addressing the righteous this is the challenge i think um in addressing um you might say i've had somebody come up and say to me before you know we're with generational christianity we're a lot like the jews and i think that was a interesting comment we really relate in cultural generational christianity to the jews more than the gentiles and um i was i was talking with dr godfrey um and i asked him he made a statement on a recent podcast and i said i need you to help me with this because i thought it was a profound statement and he said the first generation are lovers of god the second generation are lovers of money and the third generation are lovers of pleasure and that's the religious problem that's the religious problem that's can be a church problem in generational christianity and he got that from somewhere so he doesn't want to take credit for that but paul is concerned if you will about that second and third generation paul's concerned about those who've understood the love of god and the generations have moved away paul's concerned actually here most of all about teaching everyone about their condition before god because sometimes it's hard for the righteous to see that built into us is they're a real problem just think of it if we were asked you know I've told you about this before when I went out to the Modesto rescue mission and preached it was my first sort of formative when I was in seminary going out into the world and preaching and I preached at the rescue mission and I put the hand I said I want you to put your hand up if you believe you're a sinner and you want to be delivered from your sins there were drug addicts there was everyone sitting there and every single hand went up and i said do you know your sins i think the challenge would be the difficulty sometimes for us is we can talk so generally about sin what if i said tonight what sins have you done in your life that you need to be delivered from it gets a little more personal doesn't it sin can be dressed in general but when it gets personal religious people can easily fall back to this idea overall i am a good person a moral person a decent person a righteous person we aren't like that but overall i don't give my body to the kind of sins that took place in romans 1 i've not done that i certainly have not been involved in the gross sexual immorality mentioned there homosexuality my actions aren't certainly evil continually and we might expect at this point to say like we heard this morning well done you're in church every week you give to the poor you pray and you fast how does paul begin tonight now again we're looking at the general diagnosis and we're not looking at those who have been justified by faith yet you understand that we're looking at those who are not justified in their state before god all of humanity Therefore, verse 1, you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another, you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. That's a shocking statement. It's a big turn in the book already. Who's he talking to? well not the people of romans 1 who's he talking to who's writing to the romans now now think this is a pastoral letter i think this is precisely why people complained about paul saying things that are hard things that are difficult things that are challenging our beloved brother has written things that are hard to understand one of the most difficult may be this paul is is addressing so he can be pastoral he has to go after the diagnosis so that everyone understands it he's writing to romans many have thought he was specifically speaking of the jews who come in focus here but verse 17 in doing this he's really speaking about moral people religious people he says every man of you so it's it's all encompassing here so even even the christians in rome he's talking to here those in the covenant community those who had all the external privileges of the covenant he addresses this with the jews in chapter 9 they had the adoption the glory the covenants the giving of the law they had all these external things but he's worried about this same problem with the new covenant church having the all the external blessings and not understanding what it all is saying to them see and that's what he's attempting to accomplish here you have to remember if you're looking at it with a problem and you might say it this way this is a great effort to keep the christian church from doing the same thing that happened in judaism what happened in judaism well the jews would have no contact with the gentiles we've looked at that jews would put pray three times a day i thank you god that you did not make me a gentile a woman or a slave three times a day essentially their prayer was thank you god i'm not a pagan we could stand here tonight and thank god and we should that we're not living in darkness and that's right that is good that's not what he's totally addressing here what he's addressing is what jesus ran up against in the gospels on matthew's gospel remember it was known to be written for the jews as we're going through and in matthew it's the most jewish of the gospels it's written for all but it it addresses certain problems in among the jews and remember matthew nine when jesus had healed a man a paralytic and the pharisees were were sitting around and they were accusing jesus of blasphemy but one of the most troubling things for them was that he came into contact with one they thought was a notorious sinner and in the next scene jesus passes by matthew and he calls matthew the tax collector right in front of them calls matthew into one of his to be one of his band of of disciples to the jews the tax collectors were the romans one people jewish law barred tax collectors from the synagogue they couldn't even enter worship levitical law called for these kind of sinners to be cut off from the people they thought the orthodox were totally forbidden to have interaction with these kind of people they could not journey they couldn't talk to they couldn't do business they would be defiled if they entered their homes you see what developed in israel the sinner the tax collector was on par with unclean animals the publican was the worst pharisees see this and they said to his disciples why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners remember what he said those who are well have no need of a physician but those who are sick go learn what this means i desire mercy and not sacrifice For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. I want you to keep that in front of you. You think your life is so together and you're so righteous in God's law. Why do you need me? I didn't come for you then. I've come for people who understand what they need. a doctor goes to healthy people see what romans 2 is romans 2 is for the healthy people that's what he's trying to take down he's trying to address that issue it's like what machin said so many years ago the church has the seemingly impossible task to call the righteous to repentance now that's important tonight to understand this particular passage notice that that he moves here to the fundamental issue of this here is to confront the self-righteousness, but the way it's confronted, where we see the self-righteousness is in this. You who judge, you are inexcusable, every one of you who judges. Now that's important for tonight. There has been so much abuse in our day as if when people read these passages, as if our Lord was making judgment, saying that making judgment against sin is wrong and that Jesus and the apostles condemn making judgments. So we have thought because we are sinners, we can never make a judgment about sin. Paul is not saying that at all here. That is not what he's saying at all in this. Paul is saying that the believer never is not saying that the believer never makes judgments we make judgments all the time about what's right and wrong we have to observe what's right and wrong we have to tell others what's right and wrong that's that's part and parcel to the Christian life Jesus was clear about this do not judge with outward judgment but with righteous judgment or if you take Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount a little further this is exactly what Paul's talking about do not judge or you too will be judged for in the same way you judge others you will be judged and with the measure you use it it will be measured back to you why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye how can you say to your brother let me take the speck out of your eye when all the time there's a plank in your own eye you hypocrite first take the plank out of your own eye and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. This was judgment misapplied and its aim was all wrong. Every time we're called to address sin as Christians, in what ways do we do it? We're called to do it with humility. We're called to do it, but we're called to do it with humility and meekness, gentleness, Galatians 6. First considering ourselves right because when we confront somebody else about sin we can be overtaken in sin so there's a christian character in the way that that's done that is not what he's he's talking about here in this case what paul's talking about what jesus is talking about is the hypocritical judgment that looks at the sin of everyone else in disgust without ever considering that we're all alike under it. And where would we be without the grace of God? In Romans 1. And all the external privileges that we have, when we act like we're above them and righteous above them, we forget what this is all about. We forget who we are. I do think it's important to say that at the end, even though there's a progression shown in Romans 1, in that long list, I think Paul was very purposeful to put gossips. Very purposeful to put gossips. Who gossips? All of us. And that is equally worthy of the judgment of God. So notice he's addressing hypocrisy. You see, what Paul's doing is saying God's judgment is according to truth, notice here, against those who practice such things. And here's the heart of it. Do you think, oh man, you who judge those practicing such things, and here it is, here's the crucial, crucial tie. and doing the same practicing the same that you will escape the judgment of god that's the heart of what he's saying what he's saying is this you might say i don't like the homosexuals of chapter one i don't of course that is just awful gross sin but what are you doing what are you practicing God sees it all what sin are you doing in your life do you think you'll escape the weight of that that's the fundamental difference here it's the ongoing unrepentant practice of sin in our lives that he's going after. Not the humble, contrite heart that struggles against sin, as we've talked about, that fights sin, that's in the war against sin, that's in the battle, that does the things at times he doesn't want to do. That's not where, we're not in Romans 7 again. We are not there yet. We're not under grace yet in the book. He is helping us see the difference here of those who practice sin as those closer to God because, as he's going to say, they have the oracles of God. Think of Paul in 1 Timothy 1. What an example he is. I'm so thankful for Paul's life. A murderer had blood on his hands. I think he says something that captures the heart of this. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance that christ jesus came into the world to save sinners of who i am chief i am that's not romans 2 that's not romans 2 i openly confess that jesus came to save and when it comes to me when it comes to my life when it comes to what I have been when it comes to what I've done I'm at the bottom of the barrel and if God had let me go I would be Romans 1 I confess I'm the worst well there's something about that humility that makes christianity have the most effective witness in the world notice what he's about to say in romans 2 in verse 17 now you he does address jews here if you call yourself a jew if you rely on the law and boast in god if you know his will and approve of what is superior because you're instructed by the law verse 19 if you're convinced that you're a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in dark, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of little children, because you have the law and the embodiment of knowledge and truth, you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? As it is written, God's name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you. And this is why I think James warns about becoming a teacher, taking that seriously. It's this kind of hypocrisy that he's talking about of never considering our own sin. Barnhouse translates this in a very direct way and I think an effective way. A very loose paraphrase. And do you really figure that you will escape? You? You dummy! Do you really figure that you have doped out an angle that will let you go up against God and get away with it? You don't have a ghost of a chance. There's no escape. Do you understand? No escape ever. That's Barnhouse's loose paraphrase. Do you feel the weight of that? Without justification by faith. Without a mediator. That's the intent here. That's the intent here. And he goes on. This means you respectable person sitting in judgment upon another fellow creature. Here's the key to it. Here's the key to it all. He's absolutely right. And remaining unrepentant yourself. I told you the first section in Romans is tough. The final point is goodness misapplied. What does the Lord want us to consider? well notice verse 4 or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience not knowing that god's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance that's quite a verse um the jews thought for looking at it from their angle all of their prosperity and all of their happiness and all of their great achievements these sort of things were all an indication of God's blessing and that everything was good when Paul preached think about how he went out to the pagans and preached I never get over the verse in Acts yet God has not left himself without testimony he's shown his kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops and their seasons he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy and gladness. Why? To the pagans that you may repent. The attitude here is addressing what we have here is what this means is that God has given me so much. I have so much goodness. Look at how I've had it all my life. Think of what we enjoy. Put it in this context. I can look at it in my life. A Christian home, Christian church, Christian school. Paul could have said, you have Christian everything. But what has it meant for you? You see, have you presumed on all that? Have you presumed on all that? David said in Psalm 19, keep me from presumptuous sins. Well, we would say all this indicates, here's the mentality he's reacting to. All of this indicates that God must be more pleased with us than them. And Jesus said, well, you should think about that. He makes his rain to shine on who? The just and the unjust. Consider, Paul says, what all this blessing in your life means. God has been incredibly good to you. God has been good to you. He has fed you. He has given you all manner of good gifts. You have been received by baptism, initiated into the covenant. He has filled your hearts with food and gladness. That's my life. He always put me in the best places, best opportunities. Overwhelming has God been in his goodness? All of this goodness, all this patience, all this forbearance is meant to do what? Lead me and you to repentance. That's what he says. That's the point. Look at how good God has been. And what have I been like to him? and what did he do well he sent his son to die on a cross he's the mediator he knew we don't have a righteousness that could stand back to the heidelberg so what did he do he published a holy gospel to the ends of the earth and he did what we could never do in fulfilling righteousness he sent his son to take on a human nature and then as truly divine the son of God eternally he actually was able in that divinity to bear the wrath of God that is deserved for us and he bore that and he stood between and he's announced to the ends of the earth whoever will come to him will have eternal life and he's published good news to the ends of the earth and he's given us goodness upon goodness that we're here goodness upon goodness and goodness why is this confrontation so necessary well Paul will say it because in Romans 7 I know that in me that is my flesh nothing good dwells for i am the chief of sinners when we have accepted that when we've received that diagnosis when we've understood what he's aiming to do all alike are under sin pride is taken down we become humbled before him and guess what happens something wonderful repentance you know what it sounds like god be merciful to me a sinner and that's what he's aiming for you see that's what he's aiming for god makes an announcement in this book that is the best announcement to the ends of the earth having been justified by faith we have peace with god he's aiming for that but you see what could be the great problem for us never seeing that for us we're seeing we need that and so his goal is to put all of us under the same condemnation so we understand that's the guilty verdict and then gaze upon our savior who fulfills all righteousness for us and then we are lifted up in that strength we are held up by him we are forgiven justified washed, cleansed, once and for all, never to come back under the judgment of God. That's the good news of the gospel. Freed by the life of Christ who raises us up new. James Boyce once said, the greatest thing to know is that he is able to save you from your sins. The second most important thing for you to know is that you require it amen let's pray heavenly father thank you for helping us tonight thank you for giving us the straight news about our sin before you and the diagnosis before you and thank you for not leaving us here we confess oh lord that we are sinners in need of grace just like the romans 1 people and thank you for providing a righteousness by which we may escape and that we can have peace with god in this life may we be believing oh lord and trust you live by faith as that wonderful news of romans 1 16 for the gospel is the good news to the ends of the earth the power of god for salvation to all and for all who believe for in it the righteousness of god is revealed from faith to faith so may oh lord we live by faith in jesus name we pray amen