Tonight, we turn in our Bibles to the book of Romans, Romans chapter 2, and remember we're moving still in this guilt section, and we come in chapter 3, we'll see the grace and how wonderful that grace is against this backdrop of this very powerful chapter, chapter 2, and I have to say tonight that if you really misunderstand Romans chapter 2, it does lose the impact for what he is building to in chapter 3. So understanding exactly what's going on in Romans 2 is very important tonight. So let's consider Romans chapter 2 and we will read, the text will be verses 5 through verse 24. We'll begin at verse 1. Let's give our attention to the word of the Lord. 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. You suppose, O man, you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself 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? But because of your hard and impenitent heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. He will render to each one according to His works. To those who by patience and well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, He will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek. But glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek, for God shows no partiality. For all who have sinned without the law will perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it's not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be justified. For when Gentiles who do not have the law by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves even though they do not have the law, they show that the work of the law is written on their hearts while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my Gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus. But if you are called a Jew and rely on the law and boast in God and know His will and approve what is excellent because you are instructed from the law, and if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth, you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? You say that one must not commit adultery. Do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law, for as it is written, the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you. May the Lord bless tonight the hearing of His Word. One day, in the ministry of Christ, he walked into a synagogue, and there was a man with a withered hand. We read in Mark's Gospel that the Pharisees were standing there. They were observing this carefully. They were watching carefully to see if Jesus would heal on the Sabbath, If He would break their rules and interpretation of the Sabbath that they had leveled on the people. In front of them all, Jesus called this man forward. So you can imagine the scene. Everyone's watching with earnest. What's going to happen? And Jesus looks at all of them and He says, Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil? To save a life or to kill? They kept silent. We read at this point that Jesus turned at them and something very interesting happened. He looked at them with wrath. It's the same word in Romans 2. He was furious and he grieved at the hardness of their hearts. He healed this man on the Sabbath and of course we know that they went out, the Jews, plotting to destroy him. What a tragedy on the pages of the New Testament, isn't it? What a tragedy that we constantly come to in the New Testament. In the four Gospels, here was the one coming to bind up the brokenhearted. Here was the one coming to save those who were lost, heal the sick, bear their sorrows, and there stood the Jews, there stood the religious community condemning the whole thing. The shepherds of Israel condemning God's Son for delivering the weary. And the Gospels are showing us this all-out ugly fight between Jesus and the Pharisees. And it is ugly. It is a brawl. John, the first chapters, show us that with intensity. And you come to the question as you read the Gospels, what in the world happened among the Jews? It's a disturbing phenomenon. He wasn't out fighting with, if you will, the Romans 1 people. he wasn't out battling the homosexuals, was he? He wasn't out battling the violent. You have piles of these kind of people coming to Jesus to be forgiven. The Gentiles. And they were coming and they wanted deliverance from the burden of their sin. And Jesus is embracing them. He's touching them. He's forgiving them. And there stood the Jews off on the sides with stones in their hands. What happened? It's the greatest tragedy in the history of the world with that nation. You ever wondered why that nation still to this day sits with blinders over their eyes about Jesus and everyone hates them? They are left as a warning to where unbelief will land you. It's an astonishing thing. So many external privileges given to them and Paul is going to rehearse six of them tonight. He's going to say they were Jews, they had the law, they had the true God as their God they knew His will they discerned what was evil they were teachers of the word all but the fact that they did not see that these things should have led them to Jesus they took the law and it became for them a standard of their own righteousness before God never understanding the ultimate intention of the law of God And in establishing their own righteousness, they did not listen to what all the law and the prophets were constantly telling the people about what they needed and why the Messiah had to come. And as they beat everyone over the head with their interpretations of the law, they left everyone in misery and in bondage. And it was one nasty fighting community. Now that's Romans 2. To put it very simply tonight, Paul's whole purpose, remember from last time, is to level everyone, the pagans and the religious, and to show that they're going to receive the very same judgment. I don't think we understand how shocking a message this was to the religious community of the day. You mean us? Everything is so outwardly correct. Everything is so perfect. And inwardly, we're going to look at next time, it was devoid of the righteous life that God requires. It was devoid of a changed heart, wasn't it? And so he's building to something in chapter 3 where he's going to ask the question, are we any better than them? Are we any better than these Romans 1 sinners? And Paul says, not at all. And he works to the grand conclusion in chapter 3, which we're being set up for, the grand conclusion of this whole first section of Romans to say, look at Israel. God put them under the law. Remember that distinction tonight. God put them under the law to stop the mouth of the whole world in its own righteousness. In other words, He handed them the oracles. They had the oracles of God. And He put them under it to show everyone no one can fulfill it. And that is the most difficult thing for us to accept. Remember we talked about last time, our house needs to come down and we need a whole new house erected. And when you see this, you realize tonight that this is the most refreshing message that God could ever give. It's the most needful message because what He is desiring to do for you is to announce that there is a righteousness and a standard that has been met by a righteousness of Christ by which we are saved. Let's look at this tonight. In verse 1, Paul is reacting to the problem of the Jews. And we could transfer this right to all the moral people of our world, the upright people, the good-looking people in a sense of they have everything together of this life. They're not the bad people out there down at the Escondido Rescue Mission, are they? And he's looking at them because in chapter 1, they're looking at all those people, the homosexuals and they're judging them and they're saying, oh, look at how perverse their lifestyles are. And Paul said, yes, those lifestyles are very perverse. But he's reacting to the assumption behind that charge. We're righteous. And then Paul, last time I remember, said, but you're doing the same things. And that was a hard pill to swallow too, because he wasn't just saying they're not okay. He's saying you're not okay. You're doing the very same thing. So Romans 2, the heart of it is dealing with the problem of hypocrisy, isn't it? And it's leveling out everything. It's putting Donald Trump on the same playing field, if you will, as the Park Street bench beggar. How do you think Donald Trump would feel about that? Not going to like that. It's going to be a hard thing for him. And so in verses 5-11, he's driving to the point there's no partiality with God and so what he's doing is he's throwing the weight of this at them. He moves to the judgment day and what he says is shocking. Look at verse 5. But in accordance with your hardness, notice what he says, your impenitent heart, he uses the language here of they're heaping up for themselves wrath for the day of wrath and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God He's going to render to everyone according to His deeds. Now you have to remember tonight that the Pharisees had memorized something like 613 commandments. And they had them right here. They had memorized these and the common idea among the religious community, the common thought among the Pharisees was now see how this connects to today. It's this. If your general morality and your good life exceeds the bad things that you do, the judgment's going to go well for you. Now that's not so far off from what many Christians believe today, is it? That's a standard view of what a whole lot of Christians believe today. I sat with a man on his deathbed who was not a believer and I pleaded with him. And I gave the question, how are you, why do you think you know you're going to heaven and and the first thing he said to me was well chris my life has been moral i have lived a model life i i and he went through the list i paid my bills i never murdered i never did this i never did this i never did this i want everyone to think about what verse 11 just said there's this awful day of judgment coming on the world and paul is looking at the the moral people in chapter 2, and he says, notice what he says. God's keeping track. That's what he's saying. And he's going to render to everyone according to their deeds. And in verse 7, notice this. Follow the line of reasoning here. Look what he says as he goes on from 11, verse 11 and 12, and he goes on. He says eternal life, in verse 7, To those who by patient continuance in doing good, seek for glory, honor, and immortality. And you say, let's stop and consider that. I agree. Let me summarize what he just said. If God's glory is the aim of your heart, and if your life is a God-honoring one, and your life is lived with that kind of pursuit, a perfected pursuit, immortality and these sort of things, you will have eternal life. God will bless you with eternal life if there is complete, notice the language, continuance and persistence in these things. Now the word here for patience in your translations means constancy. If you are constantly doing this. And this whole section is telling you that your life must be persevered in these things. Now I want you to stand back from this for a minute. I know everyone ganders up and you're thinking, this just doesn't sound like anything I've really heard in the Christian gospel. And I would say, yeah. I want everyone to look at this from the perspective of a Pharisee. Now, we're all Pharisees by nature. But I want you to think a little bit about how a Pharisee would have heard this for a minute. And maybe that will help. A Pharisee hears that and he says, okay, well, as long as I'm good and the things that I'm doing are outweighing the bad, I'm okay. Now, let's follow Paul's reasoning here. Let me summarize this. God's keeping track. He knows every single one of your thoughts. Every single one of your words. every single one of your deeds that are sinful. And anyone who's sinning, in God's record book, is storing up, it's heaping up wrath for themselves. But you will receive eternal life if you do good. And you seek for glory, honor, and immortality. But if you're self-seeking, verse 8, and you don't obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, guess what's going to be the outcome? Indignation and wrath and tribulation. on every soul of man who does evil. On the Jew first and also to the Greek. Those who are contentious, those who are rebellious, those who've sinned, those who have unrighteousness in their life, that's what's going to happen. Now let me thrust this a little bit harder. The weight of eternal judgment is an awful thing to consider, isn't it? On that day, Revelation tells us that there's going to be books opened and there's this book of life and then there's this book and in this other book it says the dead will be judged according to their works by the things that are written in the books. On that day, those not found in the book of life will have this book put in front of them and it will be God's record book of every single thing that they ever did against His law. Every thought, every word, every deed is going to be brought out into the open. Now Paul tonight in Romans 2 wants us to think about that, to feel the weight of that. So here's the proposition. Dear, moral, upright, religious person, standing in judgment on everyone else, it's this. You can't escape what's coming. There is, if you pursue glory, honor, peace, to everyone who works, notice again what it says, what is good. But there's no partiality with God. If not, wrath and indignation. Now I could come up with a lot of false doctrines if I don't explain this tonight, right? And people have. Romans 2 tonight has been used for every major false teaching that attacks the Gospel to advance it. They try to say Paul is speaking to the Christians And so they want to read a Gospel framework into this. And they say, okay, this is the Christian life and this is what has to happen. And if not, you might not make it. And you've had major movements come around that have looked at Romans 2 and they've tried to say this, there's a justification by works. Now, I want you to think about something tonight. Paul hasn't even got to the Gospel yet, has he? We haven't even got and begun to unpack this righteousness that comes by faith, have we? He just mentioned it as the thesis, but he hasn't gotten there. He's doing something else right now. So he's building to that. He's building to this. And the whole train of his thought is to show what? His whole train of thought is that we need a different way of righteousness before this holy God. And you know what that is as a Christian. It's Christ's righteousness, isn't it? So I don't even want you to think about the Christian life in Romans 2. The Christian life has nothing to do with Romans 2. Sanctification, gospel, justification by faith alone is not in Romans 2. Nothing to do with it. Romans 2 has nothing to do with that. If you get this wrong, you mess it up. He is not saying do your best as Christians or else. What is the flow of his argument tonight? Notice what he says. If you do good, if you do good. Now how many times did he say that in that short section? He says it twice. Now what does he say in chapter 3? Well, if you looked over to chapter 3 and you looked at verse 12, I would have everyone say it out loud, but I won't do that to you tonight. What does it say in Romans 3, verse 12? No one does good. No, not one. Back up. Now, if you do good, if you do good and you seek for these things, then you'll have eternal life. Then you'll have eternal life. Did you see what he just did? This section has nothing to do with the Christian life. He is looking at people who want to be right before God by keeping the law, by doing a whole bunch of things before God. He's looking at them under the law. He's looking at them proud with the law. He's looking at the Pharisees beating everyone over the head by not doing everything just right. Good, moral, upright people. And he is saying, okay, if you want that, here's the standard. Do good. And you've got to persist in that. But if you don't persist in that, and I mean, I'm not talking about just giving your best effort here. I mean, in constancy, you will face wrath. You see what He just did? He just leveled everyone. So look at verse 12. As many have sinned without the law, that's the bad Gentiles, will perish without the law. But as many as have sinned in the law or under the law will be judged by the law. For not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified. You pause tonight and say, well, that just sounds so antithetical to Romans. No, it doesn't. Because the whole conclusion he's making in chapter 3 is, we conclude a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. So what's Paul doing here? He says, That's why it's so important tonight to distinguish He's not speaking to those under grace. Remember that distinction I've been trying to make the whole time? But under the law. And boy, that's rough. If you mess this up, I would leave all of you tonight really scared. And I would say, you know, go home and do your best this week. And if you're not doing good, those fruits aren't there. judgment might happen to you. Paul doesn't just say that. Paul says it will. Paul's whole point tonight is to show what? All are under sin. And he is leveling upon everyone the impossibility of obtaining eternal life in the way that the Jews tried to obtain it through the righteousness that is by the law. Now, Paul's going to say that in Romans 10. He says, okay, there's two righteousnesses. There's the righteousness that comes by the law and there's the righteousness that comes by faith. Romans 2 is the righteousness that comes by the law. Here's the terms of it. What is the term? The terms of the righteousness that comes by the law. What is it? Do it and you'll live. Or Heidelberg says that. Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything in the book of the law. The man who does these things shall live by them. And if you don't, cursed are you. Everything. Now here's the Jew. He's standing back from the law and he's dissected it. He thinks he's doing well with it. He's studied it. And Paul is saying, listen, this is not just to be looked at. This is not just to hear. See the problem? you can't just sit and listen to it. The law requires that you do it. So the hearers of the law are not going to be justified, but the doers of the law will be justified. You've got to hold and you've got to keep the full demands of the law. Now, to seal the deal tonight and show you this is exactly what's going on here, did you notice in verse 7 what's offered if they keep it? Now we know, Paul says in Romans 3, he's making the point no one can keep it. But if it were possible, hypothetically so, what does he say? You will have eternal life. Now, that's not salvation, is it? There's a difference. Salvation has nothing to do with Romans 2 because they don't see sin. This has to do with eternal life. Paul is speaking to those who are content with their moral lives. And he's saying, you want to be under it? Here it is. If you want eternal life, here's the standard. Now this is not so uncommon to you tonight. You know what? Jesus dealt with this. And the Gospels are showing us this. Remember when the rich young ruler came to Jesus? What did he come? He comes running up to our Lord and he's respectful and he's an amazing guy. And everyone looks at the rich young ruler and says, oh, he's every evangelist's dream. And I say, no, he's not. He is no evangelist's dream. He is no pastor's dream. He's your worst nightmare. Why? Because he comes up to Jesus and what does he say? He says, does he say this? Dear sir, what must I do to be saved? That's the question that came out in Acts. And in Acts, they were asking because they felt the weight of what? Sin and the crushing weight of the law. The rich young ruler comes up and he has two verbs and he says, what shall I do that I may inherit salvation, eternal life? That's Romans 2. That's Romans 2. And so this man wants to say to Jesus, listen, you tell me what I need to do. I'll get it done. And so Jesus gives the law, doesn't he? And Jesus starts thrusting the law upon him and the rich young ruler says, ah, I've done that. And Jesus says, really? Go sell all that you have and give to the poor. Then come follow me, and you'll have treasure in heaven. And at that, he went away sad. He couldn't do it. Turn to Luke 10. We'll look at this briefly. You know this account. And it's really an amazing account in light of this. And if you notice in verse 25, you know this story well. This is the parable of the Good Samaritan. And remember how Jesus dealt with this man who walked up to Him and gave the same question? Jesus was getting this question everywhere among the religious community. And here's what happened in verse 25. And behold, a lawyer stood up and put him to the test saying, Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said to him, What's written in the law? How do you read it? He answered, You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all of your soul and with all of your strength and with all of your mind and your neighbor as yourself. And he said to him, Good, you've answered it correctly. Do this and you'll live. Now that's an amazing statement, isn't it? If you love God and neighbor perfectly, if you do that, you'll live. Now notice what it says in the very next verse, and I believe Paul had this on his mind in Romans 2, but he, desiring to justify himself, said, and who is my neighbor? And Jesus goes on to tell the parable of the Good Samaritan. And we look at the Good Samaritan as a nice little parable with redeemed eyes. But put yourself again in the shoes of a Jew. This man gets beaten to a pulp. He's lying on the side of the road and there goes a priest, walks right on by. There goes a Levi, walks right on by. And this filthy Samaritan who doesn't understand the law like the Jews understand the law comes by and bandages this guy up and helps him and saves him. And the Jews hated Samaritans. and you see Paul is making this point tonight it says in verse 14 let me put this together when the Gentiles don't have the law those bad ones out there they don't have your written law they're not getting the law preached to them by nature they do what the law requires they're a law to themselves even though they don't have the law they show that the work of the law is written on their hearts while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Jesus Christ. Here's what he just said. You want to be made righteous by the law? If you do it, you'll live. But you're not even close. And you refuse these Gentiles as sinners. You're not even having any contact with these bad Gentiles because you view yourself as so much better and hold yourself with so much higher esteem. They don't even have the law. And guess what, dear Jews? They're doing the works of the law written on the conscience. What does that mean? They have sufficient light themselves to discern between what is right and wrong. And at times, they show it. They're not without a standard. God's written that law, natural law, on their heart. And they're accountable. But you see, you're a Jew. And notice what he says. You boast in the law. You know His will. You approve what's excellent. You're instructed from the law. You say you're a guide to the blind. You're a light to those in darkness. An instructor of foolish. A teacher of children. Having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth, you know what Paul's doing, right? How are you doing? In v. 21-24, what does he say? you who teach, do you teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say don't commit adultery, do you? You who abhor idols, do you? Indictment? Verse 24. Here's the conclusion. You guys blaspheme the name of God. Do you feel the weight of that tonight on them? you haven't just... I don't know what they must have thought when they heard that. You blaspheme of all things he could have concluded with. And he asked the question. Remember, Paul was shocked that a church would leave the message of the righteousness that comes by faith. And then he asked the question to that church, you who want to be under the law, do you hear it? It's not saying try hard. The law is saying perfect obedience is God's standard. And you see Paul is building the chapter 3 where he's going to say by the deeds of the law, no flesh is justified. You can't do it. And now you understand tonight as we close, why Jesus was so angry with the religious community. Why He was so angry with the Pharisees. Here were all these needy people out there who needed to be saved. Who needed deliverance from the wrath to come. And here are all the externally righteous folk who were raising up all sorts of giant barriers with the law to the Gospel. And they had all sorts of stuff down. they had superimposed all their rules on the people and they were holding the people with heavy yokes and Jesus was coming to free them from the burdens and the weight of the law they couldn't keep and here was the community trying to establish its own righteousness and hold the world under that. And that's why Jesus looked at the Pharisees and said, you guys strain out gnats and you swallow camels. I see it all. And you see, the goal here tonight, the reason He's leveled to this degree is so that everyone would throw up the arms and say, Lord, I need a righteousness that You supply. Not inward. Remember David this morning? I can't go inward. I've got to go external to me. I need a light. I need a perfect righteousness. I need the righteousness of Your Son. And that's the good news of the Gospel. If you want to establish it any other way, oh, that road is so hard, it's so hard, it says to you tonight, here's the standard. Keep it perfectly. And if not, everything that you're doing wrong is being recorded. That's the covenant of works. But the righteousness that comes by faith speaks in a whole different way. Paul's going to say in Romans 10. Don't say in your heart, how can I go get this and bring this to me? The righteousness of faith speaks this way. What does it say? Whoever confesses in their mouth and believes in their heart the Lord Jesus Christ is raised from the dead, they will be saved. By the announcing of the preaching of the Gospel as we receive that by faith, we're delivered. I close with this. Two men went up to the temple to pray. You know this. One a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee standing by himself prayed thus. By himself, by the way. God, I thank You. I'm not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get. But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven. But he beat his breath saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. I tell you, notice how Jesus concludes. This man went down to his house. Isn't it interesting he would use the word? Justified. Rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted. Amen. Oh Lord our God, we are grateful tonight and so thankful that You care to bring it in to us. And we know fully that this is a hard message for us as we celebrate the theme of the Reformation and we think about Reformation Day. This is the great truth that broke through after all that darkness came this light. And it's so hard for us to accept. We fight against this. We want to achieve it in our own good, moral, upstanding lives and we just can't. We fully confess tonight we're sinners and that we need Your mercy and that we need the imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ to our accounts for us ever to stand before Your holy justice. Thank You for supplying that need and turning our face this day to Your beloved Son. Let us always hear Him. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thank you.