Tonight, we turn in our Bibles to Romans 2. And I remind you, we're still working through this section on sin. And the purpose of Romans 1 and 2 is to knock us flat out on the canvas, okay? And the purpose for that is that when we get to chapter 3, we are raised up and we see how glorious the Lord Jesus Christ has been. Tonight we'll consider the first five verses, four verses, five verses, and we'll read through verses 1 through 11 of Romans chapter 2. 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. Do 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. This is, beloved, the Word of the Lord. In 1 Timothy 1, the Apostle Paul said something that is really impactful for the Christian life and especially for what we're considering tonight in Romans 2. He said, really, it captures the heart of the text. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. I openly confess that Jesus came to save. He came to save sinners. And for me, He had to go all the way to the bottom of the barrel to get me out. That's me. That's what He had to do for me. I believe I was the absolute worst of them all. Amazing statement, isn't it? It's one of those statements that has a lot more behind it than we typically get in a first reading. Do the righteous say that? Should the righteous say that? I was aware of this as a teacher. My first teaching responsibility was at a continuation high school up in Visalia. And all of these kids in that continuation high school were rough. They had been kicked out of the public school system. Most of them were extremely violent. They were all in gangs. Parents were all in prison or on drugs. And I was constantly breaking up fights. And it was interesting to me because I always thought they were open to listen to me. I had many of them, rough kids, come up and ask me about my story. Even ask me about my Christianity and wanted to talk about that. They wanted to talk about those kind of things. They had been living an awful life. They were Romans 1. They were Romans 1. They were the bad ones of Romans 1. They were given over to all kinds of evil and sin and problems. And they had some kind of sense of that. They wanted out. They wanted out. Shortly after, I took my position at the Christian school. And I had such a good time there. It was such a wonderful opportunity meeting a lot of wonderful young Christian men and women. And being able to teach them. It was just a glorious experience. but I also had a difficult time reaching many of them. It was a strange kind of phenomenon. Most of them were in church every single Sunday. They had everything. Everything was given to them. And we dealt with all kinds of things in the Christian school from a lack of respect for authority, spiritual apathy. And there was no doubt in my mind that everything had been stamped Christian and the community felt really comfortable about that and that they weren't like the continuation school. I had come to the sober realization that many in the Christian community had lost sight of the fact that they were sinners and needed the righteousness of Jesus. I lived it. I saw it. And so in a short period of time I was plunged into two settings. On one setting I had the pagans and in another setting I had the religious. If you understand what I just described, you understand Romans 1 and 2. Romans 1 is addressing the pagans. Romans 2 is addressing the religious. The morally upright. The good people. It's an all-out assault tonight. Romans 2 is an all-out assault on what we call Phariseeism in our culture. If Jesus gave a diatribe, Jesus gave a prophetic set of woes in Matthew 23 against hypocrisy, that's what you have here in Romans 2 tonight dealing with the same kind of problem. This is an all-out assault on that kind of stuff. It's to show how bad sin is, and we dealt with that this morning. So this chapter is designed tonight to put everyone on an equal playing field, if you will. In other words, Romans 2 is like an economic earthquake. It's like a complete collapse of the economy in one day and in the stock market, and every rich man that was rich in this society was made equal with the park street bench beggar. That's Romans 2. It just leveled everyone out. Put them all on the same playing field. Romans 2 is saying, did you just hear about all those bad guys in chapter 1? Did you just hear about all those reprobates? Did you just hear about those homosexuals in chapter 1? Guess what? They're not okay. But, Romans 2, you're not either. It's a sobering message. I want you to remember tonight that in Romans 2, Paul is speaking to those under the law. I'm not talking tonight about those who are free in Jesus Christ. Remember the distinction in John 15? The two ways of speaking. Under law and under grace. And we talked about what happens to those who are under law. It's rough speech. It's condemning speech. It's going after self-righteousness, isn't it? And that tonight is Romans 2. It's looking at things under the law. Romans 1 and 2 together. And it's building to a climax. It's building to a climax in chapter 3, which asks the question, are we any better than those guys out there? And Paul no doubt has the Jews in mind. He's thinking a lot about the Jewish community. And he's saying, are we any better than they? and he comes to the great conclusion in chapter 3, we're not any better. In fact, the Jews, the righteous people, outwardly speaking, are proving to us and showing to us what being under the law looks like and it silences the mouth of everyone. It seals the mouth shut of everyone. And you see, tonight, when we feel the weight of that, we don't run around as Christians saying, well, Jesus died for sinners. When we feel the weight of this, we say Jesus died for sinners, and guess what? on the worst. That's the design of this. That's the drive of Romans 2. And that's where God wants us to be. Let's open this up tonight. You remember in chapter 1, He outlined some of the worst stuff that we have considered. He really unpacked for us the implications of idolatry. And He talked about these people doing all sorts of horrible things. And He talked about people suppressing the truth in unrighteousness and that they do not worship God. They're not thankful. And therefore, three times God gave them over. He gave them over to a progressive downfall into sin. And remember, we studied that. All kinds of awful things that were put there in Romans 1 for us. It was a pretty perverse list in Romans 1, wasn't it? And then in verse 29, that accumulation of lists, it's a brutal list, isn't it? I mean, they're full of gossip. They're full of envy. They're full of strife. I mean, it's just on and on and on and on and on. And you know, after that, I was feeling, wow, Paul must be done. He's got to be done after that. He laid it out for us. I mean, he really exposed all of that. And you know what? We could have expected tonight in Romans 2, but hey, praise God, you are not like that. It's a good thing you guys know better than that. That's how we could have approached it. Whew. Sure, you sin, but you know, overall, you're not like that. I certainly have never been involved, you say, in that kind of gross pattern that Ted Bundy was in. I've never been in that kind of gross pattern of the things mentioned. They're homosexual. That's so far off the radar for me. Such actions are awful. Such actions are evil. And we might expect Paul to say, yeah, you certainly have not lived up to the righteous standard, but it's true. You know, you have not resorted to that kind of perversity. And so after Romans 1 description, you know, I've seen this. You know, preach it, pastor. It's true. We have to. So glad you got those guys. So glad you got them. We've got to condemn those sick perversities, you know. Romans 2 is shocking. Remember, Paul doesn't even know these people. And he starts in verse 1 and he says, therefore, and remember you ask, why is there therefore, therefore? You are inexcusable. Oh man, every one of you who judges for in passing judgment on another, you condemn yourself. Why? Because you, the judge, practice the very same things. You might be amazed to find in that list there was a little sin called gossip. Gossip. Who is He talking to tonight? Well, it's correct that He was probably speaking of the Jews. Jesus was dealing with this and we'll look at that. And that is the focus in verse 17 and we'll go on and look at that. But in doing that, we need to remember that Paul was really looking at moral people of this life. The moral people who are comfortable and who we could say, they just haven't sunk into that kind of perversity. They have all these external privileges. Think of what he describes here. And we'll go on in chapter 9 and say for the Jews, the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law. They have all of these outward privileges and they're not like those people. You have to remember, the Jews would have no contact with the Gentiles. The Jews would have no contact with the Gentiles because of their defilement. You know what the Jewish prayer was? Every day, the male Jewish prayer was, I thank You, God, that You did not make me a Gentile, a woman, or a slave. three times a day he stood up and the Jew said I'm so thankful Lord you didn't make me as a pagan now we could be here tonight and say you know we thank you Lord that you have kept us from all of that and that would be absolutely proper as Christians that would be proper to say Lord thank you for your kindness. The question is, is what's behind it? Is it self-confidence? Or is it grace? I think one of the clearest expressions of this comes out in Matthew's Gospel. Remember what Jesus was dealing with. Matthew's Gospel has been known for being written to the Jews. And in Matthew 9, you remember the account that Jesus had healed a man, a paralytic who had been lowered before Him on a mat. And the Pharisees are all sitting around and they're seeing this and they're saying, remember what they said, this man blasphemes. Because Jesus not only healed the man, but He forgave the man. But what drove the Pharisees absolutely insane about Jesus was that He was approaching these people. He was touching these people. He was healing and forgiving these kind of people. And if you follow the scene in Matthew 9, which you really see how in your face Jesus was to the establishment, the religious community that was self-righteous. It was really interesting because in chapter 9, he then walks from there and he walks by the tax office and he sees Matthew, the tax collector, standing there and he tells Matthew, follow me. Now that may not seem like much to us, but you don't understand how awful tax collectors were viewed to the Jews. They were the most despised people, these publicani. And Matthew in front of them becomes a follower of Jesus and Jewish law absolutely forbid tax collectors from even entering the synagogue. They couldn't even enter worship. Levitical law called for these kinds of sinners to be totally cut off from the people. The Orthodox were completely forbidden to have any interaction with them. They couldn't journey with them. They couldn't talk to them. They couldn't do business with them. And they would be totally defiled if these people entered their homes. The tax collector was reckoned on par with the unclean animals and the pigs. There's Jesus with those guys. Now after that, right after that in Matthew 9, So He heals the sinner. The worst is following Him. And then we read this, Then it happened that, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples. He's got piles of them now with Him. And the Pharisees are totally beside themselves. They have had it. They're done with Him. Stones are coming out. They are tired of this. They can't believe this. And then Jesus gives the most definitive statement, the most shocking statement, that the Jews could have ever heard. Remember what He said? When the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? Jesus said, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. But go learn what this means. I desire mercy and not sacrifice. For I did not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. That was a death blow to them. Can you feel the anger? Patients didn't go to doctors in those days. Doctors went to patients. It was the old model. This must have infuriated them. Jesus just said something like this. You're so healthy. You're doing so well. You don't need a physician. What kind of doctor then would go down to the healthy? I don't need to come to you. But as the great physician, guess who I've come for? I've come for these kind of people. Because they know their sickness. They know their burden. They feel their sin. They feel the sorrow of it. They feel the burden of it. It's destroying their life. And I'm coming with compassionate healing mercies for them. So you think your life's so together. And you're so righteous. you don't need me you don't need me now if you understand this stuff that happened in the gospels you understand Romans 2 what we have here tonight is Jesus dealing with the apostle Paul dealing with this problem of self-righteousness Who would Christ come to today? I don't like the whole approach that says, well, He would never come to the church. Of course He would come to the church. The question is, what is the church made up of? Would He be around a bunch of people who would tell you, hey, everything's so great with my life and who get mad when their lives are exposed because of sin and who get mad when they're called to repent and who get angry when they're confronted about unrighteousness in their life, would He come to people like that? Or would He come to the sick? I mean, you know the answer to that. His burden was to bind up who? The brokenhearted. That was David this morning. The message that the Pharisees wanted to hear was you guys are so good. You guys are doing so well with your life. I just want to encourage you a little bit. I want to make you feel good on your journeys for the week. I want to build you up. The Pharisees wanted. And Jesus was coming to kill them. Paul told us, remember, in the beginning of Romans, that the Gospel is the what? The Gospel is the dynamite of God. Imagine for a minute that you built a house here in Escondido. And you put a lot of money and a lot of sweat into that house. And there's a lot of tradition in that house. Oh man, you've raised all your kids in that house. You can go back to that house for years. You were born in that house. I met someone in Linden who died in the very bed that her mom died in and was born in. It was amazing. Imagine that house. Imagine someone wants to come in and build a glorious new house there. This is an old house. They're going to have to tear down your house. They're going to have to lay a whole new foundation. If you built that house, oh, you're going to have a hard time letting go of that house. It's going to be a fight. You're not going to want to let go of that house. Do you realize what God is doing tonight? He's taking down your house. You realize that the purpose of the Christian ministry is to take down your house of righteousness that you've built and that you've put sweat in and that you've worked hard in and that you've erected and the law comes and it crushes and it attacks that house and the Gospel says, I'm going to raise up a whole new house. You know how hard that is for us? Oh, that's hard. When you've got a lot of years into that house, that's a tough message. Romans is taking down your house. There are always those who think because they've been here a long time. They go to church. They've had a long standing place in the church. Their involvement, their service, their baptism, their profession. All of it says I'm not a reprobate like them out there. And you see they're trusting in that. And what made the Pharisees so angry about Jesus Christ, beloved, oh, what they hated about Jesus was that He tore down their whole system and their whole house as a house of cards and He knocked it right over to raise up a whole new structure. And He said to them, you guys are all a bunch of showmen and I see it. If you don't believe me, just read Matthew 23. I'll give you a sense of it here for a minute. first clean the inside of the cup and the plate and that the outside may also be clean. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness. So you ought also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. Not a crusade message, is it? he just tore down the whole house. And you see, this is so needed. And Paul is doing this in Romans 2 under the inspiration of the Spirit. He's saying, I see. God sees. You can't look in chapter 1 and say, they're so bad when you're doing the same things. And that's what he says here. You, old man, who judge. It's not that judgment is wrong. We always say, oh, don't judge. Oh, we make judgments as Christians. Don't let anyone tell you we don't make judgments as Christians. We make judgments as Christians according to the truth. But Paul is talking about something different. Those who are judging and practicing... I tell my kids this. Children, there are believers and there are make-believers, right? Simple way of saying it. And he's seeing the hypocrisy. And he's saying, you're practicing the same things. You're doing the same things. Do you think you'll escape? Now that's the heart of it tonight. That's the heart of the text. You may say, I'm not like those homosexuals of chapter 1, but Paul's saying here, but God sees everything you're doing. And so it goes hand in hand with what Jesus was saying constantly in the Gospels, are you looking at the speck over there and you're refusing to forgive and you're not looking at the plank in your own eye? Remember what Bundy said last time? I led a normal life except for this one small, very potent, destructive segment that I kept very secret and I kept it close to myself. He was Romans 1. And Paul turns around now to the Jews and he says, are you keeping a little segment close to yourself? God sees it. So now you understand the Sermon on the Mount when Jesus was preaching and He was saying, listen, this is not just about externally saying you don't murder. If you hate anyone in your heart, you're in danger of hellfire. It's not about externally saying I don't commit adultery. Are you lusting? I see it. I see it. Barnhouse was really strong on this passage. I just want to quote it. How he translated this passage. Do you figure that you will escape you? And he gives a paraphrase slang, which is entirely appropriate. 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? That means you, the respectable person sitting in judgment upon a fellow creature and remaining, here's the issue, unrepentant yourself. My father and I used to go around saying of people, that guy over there is strange. We'd always run into strange people. I said, boy, that guy's just different. Just different. You ever said that about someone? Just something's not right. Finally, I said to my dad one day, Dad, do you think maybe we're different? How many of us say, I'm the chief of sinners? I could go on and on. And you see, Paul tonight is laying before us. He's saying here something really powerful. Don't look at all this goodness God has given. And see, the righteous look at all the goodness sometimes. I'm talking about the unrepentant righteous. Remember, I'm making a distinction between those under law and under grace. I'm talking to those under law. And they look at all the outward blessings similar to the prosperity gospel movement and they say, ah, it's all evident. God's on my side. And Paul's saying, see all this blessing? It means that God is using it to call you to repentance. that's what it is. They thought, how could God be angry with me? I have so much. And Paul is saying, consider what these blessings obligate you to. All of this goodness, all of this patience, all of this forbearance should drop us to our knees. Remember, Paul was preaching in Acts. That's what he did. He looked at the pagans who were worshiping him and Barnabas as Zeus and Hermes. And he says, God, fill your hearts with food and gladness that you would repent. That you would seek His face. Now do you understand why this confrontation is so necessary in closing tonight? Do you understand why it's so necessary? Why we have to hear it? It's the most beneficial thing for your souls tonight. Do you understand why? Because of this phenomenon. A man stood up in the sanctuary one day and he prayed like this, Hey God, I thank You that I'm not like those other men. I'm not like them. I'm not an extortioner. I'm not unjust. I'm not an adulterer. I'm not even like that tax collector Matthew. I fast twice a week. I give of all that I get. And then there was somebody standing in the back beating the chest saying God be merciful to me and what did the Lord say that man went down to his house justified and you see that's what Paul's case is in Romans you need a whole nother righteousness you need a whole nother house you need a whole nother building. You need to be raised brand new and have the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ to your account so that you're covered. And he's doing this tonight to teach us and show us the danger we can so easily fall into. Reminding the Christian of that. But showing that everyone's guilty. And as Augustine used to say all the time, Lord, save me from that wicked man. Myself. Augustus Toplady used to say, writer of Rock of Ages, Oh, that such a wretch as I should ever be tempted to think highly of myself. I'm nothing but sin and weakness in whose flesh naturally dwells no good thing. When I've stopped fighting against that and I've understood that and I turn my eyes like David this morning to Christ. I'm set free. And I have a righteousness by which I can stand in the presence of this holy God and live. And I promise you, that's the most satisfying life you'll ever live. The other way is death. This is life. As James Boyce once said, the greatest thing is to know that Jesus is able to save you from your sins. The second most important thing to know is you require it. Amen. Oh Lord our God, we bow the head tonight and we don't claim any righteousness on our own. We stand solely by the righteousness and the merits of your Son. Forgive us that we've tried to build the house ourselves. You build the house. You've erected a glorious structure. We are recipients of the most wonderful grace, the most wonderful news we could ever receive. We praise You from the depths of our hearts tonight for Your goodness to us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.