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Chapter two. That'll be Romans chapter two. We started a new series on Romans. We're four Sundays into it. So this is Romans chapter two. We're going to be looking at as we begin. Let's before we begin, let's bow our heads.
Our father, we thank you for this day. We thank you for thank you for bringing us here. We thank you for this time as we continue our worship by looking to your word. We pray that you'd bless this time.
May you speak to us in your text. May you be honored and glorified. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Sorry, no, you're not keeping me up. I did that for effect. My wife and I have been married for 28 years.
I know that's rookie level compared to some folks here. But as you can imagine, like any couple that's been together for any amount of time, there's many, many things we appreciate about each other. I can't imagine being without her.
My love for her is so much deeper and more so than than I ever could have imagined. But as you might guess, sometimes there's little things that annoy you. Sometimes. She has this way of yawning. It's making me think about that now.
Making me yawn now just thinking about it. But I saw her yawn the other day. I heard her yawn and and she made this weird little sound kind of like a musical ho ho ho ho at the end of it. And I remember thinking, man that annoys me.
But here's a catch. I found myself doing it the next day. And the funny thing is, I think I'm the one that taught her to do that. I think she does that because I do. It's kind of kind of what's that saying about me when I'm getting annoyed at something that I heard her do because I'm the one that did it first.
We're kind of guilty of that sometimes, aren't we? It's funny how we tend to have negative attitudes about things that, no worry, I really do love her. That's just an example. But we're kind of guilty of looking down our noses or being annoyed by little things that we see others do.
And we do them ourselves, don't we? Today the passage talks about this. Today the passage actually talks about, well, how arrogant we might be when we look at others doing the same things that we do. But, so before I jump into the text, the first point that I'm going to throw out here, as we look at Romans chapter 2, the book of Romans is the basics of the gospel.
But the first point is that it sure is easy to feel superior when we see the faults of others, isn't it? It really is. It's easy to feel superior when we see the faults of others. In chapter 1, last few weeks, we've seen chapter 1 of the book of Romans.
We see that Paul is writing to the church in Rome, and he's describing human beings as a whole. He's talking about how, well, they worshipped creation. They worshipped the created things instead of the Creator.
They put their own desires above God. He even went so far as to mention that, well, men were lusting after men. Women were lusting after women. And then he goes on and he says there's more. He talks about people were covetousness, meaning they were jealous.
Envy, murder, strife, deceit, gossip, slander. They're boastful. They hate God. He goes on and on and on, and it talks about, as a whole, it just paints this really, really poor view of mostly the Gentile world as a whole.
That's meaning the non-Jewish people. People reading this letter, they're the Jewish people. You can imagine, you know, the Jewish people considered themselves to be God's chosen people. They were God's chosen people.
They were the ones that descended from Abraham. If you remember, going back to Genesis chapter 12, God spoke to Abraham and said, you are my chosen man. I'm going to bless all nations through you. And they descended from him.
And they, boy, they were proud of it. Boy, were they. They were proud they could trace their heritage back to him and his son Isaac and his grandson Jacob. They called those three of them the great patriarchs.
The Jewish people knew or they thought that God loved them more than anybody else in the world. And they were intensely proud of their heritage and their status of being chosen by God. So imagine as they're reading this, this letter today, they're reading this and the charges that he's leveled in chapter one against the Gentiles.
And he's just rattling off their failings. And he's listing all the things that they have done wrong. And he's, imagine the smug attitudes they probably have when they're reading this. And let them have it, Paul.
They're thinking this. Just let them have it. And then we get to chapter two. Let's see how he starts out chapter two. Verse number one, he says, 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. Uh-oh.
Look again how it starts out. We go back to first verse. It says, if you notice, it says, therefore, you have no excuse, O man. The proud have no excuse. The proud have nothing to fall back on. They have nothing to defend themselves from.
With, rather. If you notice, it's pretty much the same thing he's going to say to the Jewish people now. He kind of alternates. He starts with the Gentiles and he goes to the Jews and he kind of goes back and forth on this.
And he says they're guilty of the same things that they felt so superior to the Gentiles for. If we go back and you remember what he said about the Gentiles in verse 20, it says, his invisible attributes, God's invisible attributes, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived.
Remember I talked about it last week, you go outside, you look up at the night sky, you know something created this world. And he goes on, he says, ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made, so they're without excuse.
We know there's a God. We know that somebody, something created this world, but it's amazing how people refuse to believe in him. You can just imagine when, as they're reading this, they're thinking, wow, that's kind of unexpected.
What do you mean we're without excuse? You know, you're reading along and it says they, the Gentiles, have no excuse. They're guilty before God. And I can almost imagine the Jewish reader sitting there doing a fist pump saying, yeah, Paul, let them have it.
And then boom, you have no excuse either, you who judge. You can almost feel the mood shift. They didn't expect to be called hypocrites. They just weren't expecting that. Because it's easy to see the faults in others when we're blind to our own issues, isn't it?
I'll be the first to say, yeah, it is. It is. If you think about it, everybody, everybody knows this. Everybody's a parenting expert. Until what? Until they have kids. I'll be the first to say, boy, when I was a young, single, 20-year-old kid, I was an expert on how to parent.
I knew what was right to do. I knew what was wrong to do. And I was only so happy to tell somebody that. Then we had kids. We figured out, wow, they don't really give you a manual when you go home from the hospital, do they?
Or maybe you've heard an older person talk about how when their kids were young, when their kids were young, they never would have allowed them to get away with the things that kids do now. It applies to all sorts of situations, doesn't it?
It's really easy to be an expert to tell somebody else how to do something when you're not in the situation. It just is. But not only that, the issue here is that all those things that the Gentiles were doing that were talked about in chapter one, the Jewish people, the nation of Israel, were just as guilty of, if not better at doing those same things.
If you go back and you read the historical books in the Old Testament, you know, Genesis, Exodus, and you read about how they're coming out of Egypt and they brought with them idols, the foreign gods, when they went into the wilderness.
They committed idolatry. They lied. They cheated. They committed the same types of sins. They worshiped the creation instead of the creator. You remember the story when Moses takes them out and they make a stop, and Moses goes up on the mountain to get the Ten Commandments, and Moses takes a few extra days to come back down?
Remember what the Israelites did? Well, they made a golden calf and they started dancing around it. They were worshiping the creator, creation instead of the creator. All those sins on that long list, they were just as guilty of them.
Just like that person that loves to tell anybody else that'll listen how to parent their child or how to do this or how to do that, whatever, they thought they were the experts. The Jewish people thought they knew all about God.
They claimed they were his favorites, but they sure didn't live like it at times. They really didn't. It reminds me of a teaching of Jesus. You might remember this story. Matthew chapter 7. Jesus is teaching this, and he says, why do you see the speck that is in your own eye, but you don't notice the log?
Or, why do you see the speck that's in your brother's eye, rather, but you don't notice the log that's in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, let me take that speck out of your own eye when there's the log in your own eye?
You hypocrite. First, take the log out of your own eye. Then, you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. Graphic for our kind of cement it and bring it home, but what Jesus is saying is that we tend to look at other people.
We assume that somehow we're better than them, that we're good enough to please God, that they've got all sorts of faults. I mean, as a kid, I remember telling my parents, well, she did it. That's her fault.
My sister's fault. She started the fight. My dad always used to say, well, it takes two to fight. I hated that. If we're honest, it's really easy to do, isn't it? It's really easy to see the failings of others, but we just kind of gloss over our own.
We need to stop it. We need to recognize that, well, all of us are sinners in need of a Savior, every single one of us. God doesn't appreciate hypocrisy, and we should not be assuming that we're better than anybody else.
This is where it gets tough here. The second point that I'm going to make is presumption leads to greater guilt. Presumption leads to greater guilt. By presumption, I mean it's presuming. When we presume something, we just accept that it's true.
We presume it. We declare it to be true without any proof whatsoever. We just know it. We just grew up believing it. I grew up just knowing that Nebraska Cornhuskers were better than the Iowa Hawkeyes.
I just knew it. Yes, I know the last few years, that hasn't played out that well on the football field, but we presume something because, well, it just seems right. The Jewish people had been chosen by God way back when.
They had followed God, but they failed to follow God, too. They were judged by Him when they were made slaves in Egypt, and God rescued them from slavery. He used Moses to take them out into the wilderness.
They saw God in a very visible way. If you remember, as the nation of Israel were camped on four sides around the tabernacle, they saw Him as a pillar of fire by night and a cloud of smoke by day. They saw God in a very real way.
They saw God work in miraculous ways. Imagine walking across the seabed of the Red Sea and seeing the water stand up on the sides. They saw God work, but no matter how much they saw that, they failed Him.
And even more strange is He continued to bless them. See, Israel was conquered by Babylon and Assyria. They were taken into exile, but then He allowed them to return, and He brought them back. Did they glorify Him then?
Did they live for Him then? No, they grew complacent. They began to think that by virtue of just being born into the nation of Israel, that they were His people. It didn't matter if they were actually religious or not.
They just assumed that being born Jewish, they were His. They thought by the virtue of being descendants of Abraham, that they'd be able to skate on by. They seemed content to simply belong to Israel rather than to belong to God.
And look what's said about Him. We read on in chapter 2 here, verse number 3. It says, 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? You know what? So many people today are content to just live a semi-religious life, and they assume that's good enough.
We assume that because we grow up in a church, any church, that we're God's people. It's easy to understand, isn't it? I mean, we call this phenomenon something that's called cultural Christianity. Our culture is Christian.
America is kind of said to be Christian. Oftentimes, we just kind of grow up around religion, and we kind of get some of it in us. And we find ourselves going to church, well, because, well, that's what we do.
That's what you do on Sunday. It's in our culture. It's just who we are. Sadly, far too many people are just simply content to leave it at that. And the question is whether or not you know Jesus, not if you're part of a church.
The question is if we know Jesus, not whether we're baptized or not. The question is if we know Jesus, not whether or not we've lived a moral life or we've gone through the different milestones within the church of baptism and confession, confirmation, maybe.
The question is if we know Jesus, not whether or not we attend church regularly or give money or our grandpa was a deacon or a pastor or anything that we've said or done. The mistake that the Jewish people were making was to presume that God would not judge them because of their lineage, because they could trace their lineage back to Abraham and say, he was our father, even if they did not actually have any faith in God.
In the same way, so many people today presume that God won't judge them. Maybe you remember the story from Luke's gospel. I'm going to go to the New Testament again, or go to the Gospels again, rather.
Luke, chapter 18. We see Jesus speaking and he says, he also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt. Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus, God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. He goes on, he says, 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 beat his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other, for everyone who exalts himself will be stumbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.
Do you know what the, do you he was considering himself good, he was considering himself better than the tax collector. Well, in those days tax collectors were hated, kind of like the IRS agents today, but tax collectors were hated because they were Jewish people that were used by Rome to collect taxes from their own people.
They were viewed as turncoats, they were viewed as betrayers, as sort of a Judas of sorts. But do you notice what the Pharisee was saying? Everything that he said he was, he was exerting all the effort.
I fast twice, twice a week, I give tithes of all that I get. It's all about him. He was saying, it's all about me, look at all the things I've done, by golly, God is, God is lucky to have me. It's all about him.
The problem is that, well, if we're honest, we act just like that Pharisee at times. Have you ever found yourself thinking that you might be better than somebody else because you go to church? Be honest, think about this.
Have you ever thought about that? Have you ever found yourself thinking that perhaps God will love you more because of it? Or that you're better because you've seen the light and that you believe in Jesus?
Then it's up to you. You ever found yourself thinking that maybe you're of a higher social class or smarter or better looking or because you make more money than the person around you? Maybe it's tempting to think that because one can speak better or maybe they have more education that they're somehow better than those around them.
Maybe you think if you can quote the Bible better than somebody else that you're a better person somehow. Be honest, be honest. I think if we're honest, we've all found ourselves at some point thinking that.
It's human nature. It's human nature. Terry pointed something out to me today and we give a handout with the bulletin, The Power for Living. There's a story today about a woman that was sitting on a Greyhound bus next to somebody that was really dirty and smelly.
And it was a story about how she felt smug and superior because she was sitting next to this person. Think about it. We've all found ourselves thinking that at some point. We've all thought about, thank you God that I'm not like that.
We've all thought about it inwardly that thank you God for not making me that kind of thing, that kind of person. It's easy to do. If so, you're just like everybody else. If so, you're just an average human being.
You're prone to pride and judgmental attitudes. It's who we are. It's a product of the sin that we inherit from Adam. The fact is we all deserve judgment from God. Every one of us is guilty of sin. We need to recognize that his blessings, his patience, and his hesitation to punish us is not the same thing as approval.
Don't be so brazen to assume that God's not going to judge sinners or that because he's letting it go for a time that he's not going to judge the world. Verse number five, we read on it says, 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.
It paints a dark and terrible picture, doesn't it? You say, my, I don't like to hear all this pastor. This is a tough truth. You're just yelling at me today and calling me a sinner. Well, we all are sinners from birth.
But the problem is that no matter how religious a person is, no matter how outwardly perfect we are or pious, no matter how good we look on the outside, no matter how much we go through the motions and we check the boxes and we do this and that, God isn't concerned about those things.
He wants our hearts. He wants what's in here, not on the outside. He wants our faith. He wants our trust in him. The man that was justified, the tax collector that he told the story of, he trusted God.
He was humble and he had faith in God. The man or woman that lives a perfect religious life like that Pharisee that's praying five times a day, fasting twice a week, giving a tenth of their money or maybe 20 of their money, just because if they don't trust in Jesus, that man or woman is no better than the worst of the worst.
God will righteously judge all sinners someday. It's not something we like to think about, but it's what the Bible says. My third point today, the good news. The good news is that the answer is humble repentance and faith.
It's humble repentance and faith. We know the problem. Jew and Gentile alike are sinners. Men and women are sinners. We're all guilty of sin. We all deserve the wrath of God. So what do we do? What do we do?
There's no way I can possibly be good enough on my own. Well, the good news is that God answered that problem with the person of Jesus Christ. The answer is faith in Jesus. It's not just a change in behavior.
It's not just saying I'm going to be good for goodness sakes, but it's faith in him. It's trust in him. Jesus Christ died on the cross. He was punished. He was the sinless lamb that was punished that was sacrificed on my behalf.
He took all of our sin on himself. That's why he's called lamb of God is because in ancient Israel, they would literally kill a lamb as a sacrifice to take their sin. And he's called the lamb of God because he was punished in our place.
God punished him instead of us. God poured out all of his wrath on Jesus instead of me. And this is where the title of my sermon comes in. If you look at the title on the on the handout there, it's ironic.
It really is. And this is counterintuitive. This goes contrary to anything that we might think. It's ironic. And the irony is that those of us that think we are not sinners, those of us that think that we're good, that we're perfect, that we are living right, we're the worst ones off because we've got just enough religion to keep us from actually trusting in Jesus.
Those that recognize that we're not good, that we're not moral, that we're not sinless, well, they're the ones that recognize they need a savior. You think about it. No one wants to think that they're not good, moral, decent people.
We all want to believe that, right? But if we recognize that, no, we're not good in and of ourselves, that's when we cry out to our savior. That's when we recognize that we need somebody to help us. So the irony is that those that think they're good are the worst off.
And you've got two choices. You can try to please God on your own. That's your first choice. You can try to please God on your own and get to heaven on your own good merit, your own goodness, your own good behavior.
And good luck with that. I mean that. You're not, it's not going to happen. You're going to fail miserably. Or the second choice, just give up. Just give up. And by that, I mean give up and submit to Jesus.
Trust in him. Just recognize that his death on the cross pays for it all. Recognize that I'm never going to do enough to please God on my own. I'm never going to be good enough. I'm always, before I get home today, I'm probably going to commit some sin of thought or deed.
We all do. But Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for my sin. Everything I've ever done, everything I ever will do is placed on him. He died, the just or the unjust. When we repent, meaning that not just churning away from it, but when we repent, meaning that we have a change of mind, we go from trusting ourselves and our good behavior, we go to trusting him.
When we repent and we turn from that sinful life, we turn to him. When we trust in him, we're forgiven. We're forgiven. As always, I'd love to talk to you after church if you have any questions about it.
Grab me by the door. Usually hanging out my office for a little while after church, but I'll be around. But my final thought that I want to wrap up with today, the takeaway from this, it's printed on the bottom of the handout, is that God saves the humble one who trusts in Jesus, but he's going to punish those that presume to be good.
God saves the humble one who trusts in Jesus, but will punish those that presume to be good. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you for this day. We thank you for this time to worship together. We thank you that Jesus did die on the cross for us, that it's not up to us.
It's not up to our personal, our own personal righteousness or lack thereof. We thank you that it's not up to us to be good enough to earn heaven. We thank you that, well, we thank you that Jesus died on the cross for us.
Father, may we trust in what he did. May we trust in him. May we always, may we always remember that we are not good, but that Jesus was good for us. May we truly love others. May we truly not judge others for the same things that we do.
And may we serve you with all that we have.