WWUTT 1173 He Will Render According to Your Works? (Romans 2:6-11)

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As it says in Romans 2 .6, God will render to each one according to his works.

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By your works you will demonstrate that you were either a follower of Jesus, or you were a follower of Satan, when we understand the text.

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This is when we understand the text studying God's word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ.

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Thank you for subscribing and if this has ministered to you, please let others know about our program. Here once again is

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Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you Becky. We've been studying in Romans 2 verses 1 -11 and we'll work on finishing that section here today.

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I'm going to read it again, as the Apostle Paul said in Philippians 3 .1, it's no trouble for me, and it's safe for you.

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The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Rome, Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges.

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For in passing judgment on another, you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things.

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We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things.

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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?

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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?

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But because of your hard and impenitent heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when

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God's righteous judgment will be revealed. He will render to each one according to his works.

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To those who by patience in well -doing seek for glory and honor and immortality,

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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.

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There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the

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Greek. But glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the

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Jew first and also the Greek, for God shows no partiality.

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I want to come back to that verse we concluded with yesterday, verse 5, where Paul says, because of your hard and impenitent heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when

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God's righteous judgment will be revealed. Now I compared that with chapter 1, verse 18, where it says, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

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Now there are definitely some similarities there, and I do believe that Paul was hearkening back to a previous statement that he made about the wrath of God being revealed from heaven.

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But the wrath of God that we see revealed, the evidence of God's wrath we see in general revelation, which, you know, for example, would be death.

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You see death, and that is the general revelation of God's wrath against the sinfulness of man.

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The fact that we're in a pandemic scare right now, which I think I read just today that a third of the world is in lockdown right now over the spread of, over the fear of the spread of coronavirus.

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This is an evidence of the wrath of God. This is a punishment against the sin of man.

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Anything that would happen like this, earthquakes, natural disasters of other kinds, giant storms, spreads of viruses, even evil rulers and tyrants who put many people to death, all of this is a demonstration of the wrath of God against mankind.

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We see even in the Old Testament when Israel would do evil and they would worship false gods. This is the chosen people of God whom he had called out of slavery in Egypt.

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And yet he would subject them to oppression by evil rulers to punish them for their sin.

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Mankind is sinful. This world has fallen. We have been told that we will experience tribulation, but we are to take heart and hold fast to Christ for he has overcome the world.

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There is a revelation of God's wrath upon the sinfulness and unrighteousness of mankind that we can see in general revelation.

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But contrast that statement that Paul made in Romans 1 .18 with what he says here in Romans 2 .5,

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because of your heart and impenitent heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself. So there is a slight difference between the kind of wrath that Paul had been talking about in Romans 1 .18

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and what he's mentioning here in Romans 2 .5. Some similarities, but there's also a contrast because wrath is being stored up.

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It hasn't yet been poured out upon you. The wrath of God's been revealed from heaven. You can see

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God's wrath poured out on the wicked every single day. As we read in Psalm 7 .11,

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God is a righteous judge who feels indignation every day. We see the evidence of that.

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You presently have not experienced the wrath and judgment of God. You're still alive, but you are storing up that wrath for yourself for the day of judgment when

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God's righteous judgment will be revealed. Now the day of wrath there may have a few possible applications.

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It may be the day of wrath when God judges the world, when Christ returns and he comes back in flaming fire with his mighty angels, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know

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God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's 2

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Thessalonians 1 .7 and 8, by the way. So it could be a reference to the judgment of God that's coming.

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It could also be a reference to the day you die. And if you die in unrepentant, habitual sin,

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I used that term yesterday, habitual sin, meaning sin you're just continuing to go after and you don't think you're going to be judged for, you think you can entertain these passions of your flesh and God's just going to forgive you for it.

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And there's there's really no, you know, it's no big deal over. I'm not hurting anybody with my sin. It's just kind of my own little private thing.

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God is going to God is a gracious God. He loves me. He would never destroy one of his own children.

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That's absolutely true. He would never destroy his own children. But you chasing after the sin that you refuse to repent of might actually be a display that you're not his child.

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And so do not presume, as Paul had said before, on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, continuing in this ignorance, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance.

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You have this moment now to turn from your sin. Don't walk in this anymore.

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Don't play with fire, because you will be scorched by God on that day when he comes back to be glorified in his saints and to be marveled at among all who have believed because of the testimony of Christ.

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That's 2 Thessalonians 1 10, because the gospel was proclaimed and you believed it. And so turn from your sin and followed in Christ.

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But again, let's say that this day of wrath that's being described here is the day that you die, in which case you would be facing the judgment of God.

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As it says in Hebrews, it is appointed for a man once to die. And after that comes judgment. So on the day of your death, that's going to be a fearful day because you go stand before God in judgment for the one who has been following in righteousness, who has that transformed heart in Christ.

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He has nothing to fear of that day of his death, because it's not a day of wrath.

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It's a day of deliverance. It's a day that he passes from this life into the next to be with to be with God forever.

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Yes, the general punishment upon man for his sins would come upon even the person who is the saint because the body dies.

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That's a demonstration of the corrupt, the corruption that this world has been subjected to because of mankind's sinful rebellion against God.

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We're still going to die. But for the man that hopes in Christ, the day of his death is a day of deliverance.

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He finally gets out of this world and gets to go and be with God in glory.

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But for the man who is not repented of his sin, who claims to be a follower of Jesus, but still walks in darkness, again, referencing 1

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John 1 that I quoted from yesterday, where it says the man who says that he walks in the light says that he has fellowship with God while he walks in darkness is a liar and the truth is not in him.

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That man has to fear the day of his death, for when he dies, he will stand in judgment before God, not being delivered from this world, but rather being turned over to an even worse condition than you were in when you were walking in unrepentant sin in this world.

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The other way that we may understand the day of wrath is the final judgment at the great white throne, which

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Jesus talks about in Matthew chapter 25. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate out one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

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The sheep will go on his right hand, the goats on his left. And the sheep will be those who walked in righteousness, who did the will of the father, and they will enter into the eternal kingdom that had been prepared for them by the father from before the foundation of the world.

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Those who are on Christ's left hand, the goats, they will be sent away into eternal punishment.

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And Jesus talks about all of this in the Olivet discourse at the end of the Olivet discourse in Matthew chapter 25.

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So there's the three ways we may understand that day of wrath that's being talked about here.

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You're storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.

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It is either the day of your death, or it is the day when Christ returns, or it is that day when all the nations will be judged at the great white throne of judgment.

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But we understand this verse six, he will render to each one according to his works.

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Jesus promises such in Revelation chapter two, in his address to the church in Thyatira.

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And the interesting thing about his warning here to this church, he makes a distinction between those who call themselves followers of Jesus and yet chase after the passions of their flesh and those who are followers of Christ and have not soiled their garments by going after the lusts of the flesh.

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Here is a Jesus addressing this church in Revelation two, starting in verse 18 to the angel of the church in Thyatira, right?

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The words of the son of God who has eyes like a flame of fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze.

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I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance and that your latter works exceed the first.

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But I have this against you. You tolerate that woman, Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.

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I gave her time to repent. Remember that we're reading that very thing here in Romans chapter two.

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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?

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Here regarding this false prophetess, Jesus is saying, I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality.

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This is Revelation to 22. Now, behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed and those who commit adultery with her.

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I will throw in a great tribulation unless they repent of her works and I will strike her children dead.

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Those who followed after in her way and all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart and I will give to each of you according to your works.

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Now, here's that distinction between those and the ones who did not soil their garments with her.

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Verse 24. But to the rest of you in Thyatira who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan, to you,

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I say, I do not lay on you any other burden, only hold fast what you have until I come.

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The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him, I will give authority over the nations and he will rule them with a rod of iron as when earth and pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my father.

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And I will give him the morning star. He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches.

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So know this, that Jesus is the one who searches mind and heart. And anytime we read this in the

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Old Testament, when there is a reference to the one who searches mind and heart, it's specifically Christ who is the one who knows the mind and heart of man.

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Psalm 7, 9. Oh, let the evil of the wicked come to an end. And may you establish the righteous, you who test the minds and hearts,

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O righteous God. Psalm 26, 2. Prove me, O Lord, and try me.

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Test my heart and my mind. When God was speaking with Jeremiah, he says,

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I, the Lord, search the heart and test the mind to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.

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That's Jeremiah 17, 10. And that's almost exactly word for word what Jesus says in the book of Revelation.

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So we know it's specifically the son of God in the Old Testament who is making such references for he is the one who is called he who searches mind and heart.

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So, again, Romans 2, 6. And this is so we would stand in fear of God and revere him as the great judge over all of creation.

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He will render to each one according to his works. To those, now verse 7, to those who by patience in well -doing, just like what

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Jesus was saying to the church in Thyatira in Revelation chapter 2, to those who by patience in well -doing seek for glory and honor and immortality.

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He will give eternal life. And as we just read, even more than that, he who keeps my works until the end,

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I will give him authority over all the nations and he will rule them with a rod of iron as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my father.

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Those who seek for glory and honor and immortality. And what are these things, by the way?

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Well, these are qualities of God. So it's not I'm following Jesus so that I can attain glory and honor and immortality.

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It's you are seeking godliness. You are seeking to revere

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God for who he is. And God will share with you this glorious inheritance.

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If you seek to praise and honor God with all that you are, you will receive as your reward eternal life.

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That's a gospel message there, folks. That's good news that in Jesus Christ, our sins are forgiven.

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And we who are mortal, we who are not worthy of glory will receive glory.

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We who are not honorable, as Paul is going to go on to talk about that in Romans chapter three, he's going to talk about how we've become worthless and we've all sought dishonor, chasing after the sins and passions of our flesh, rebelling against God.

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Though we are dishonorable, he will give us honor. Though we are mortal,

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God will give us immortality. If we seek after the things of God and we glorify him for who he is, we will receive eternal life.

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Great news. That is great news in the middle of a section of scripture where Paul is really laying out the evil, sinful depravity of man and how we're all worthy of judgment.

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And yet we still have the gospel, even in the midst of this theological argument that he's making, that if we seek after God and exalting him, then the qualities of God that make up him, he will share with us in glory.

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First John three, two, we will be made to be like him because we will see him as he is.

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This is the wonderful blessing of God that we receive in eternity, that we get to dwell with him in glory.

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And he makes us into something new so that we can dwell with him in glory because the way that we are now would not be worthy to exist with God forever in glory.

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Paul talks about that in first Corinthians 15. What we are now is not what we will be.

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We will be transformed. We're going to be something different. We will be something new for the the mortality cannot inherit immortality.

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So God makes us into something new and we receive eternal life. If in this life we seek after Christ and worship him.

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But for those who are self -seeking, verse eight, for those who seek their own good, their own glory, their own passions of their flesh, exalting themselves in this life and do not obey the obey the truth, but rather they obey unrighteousness.

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That means that they're enslaved to the passions of their flesh and they don't really want to give it up either.

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They like the way this sin makes them feel. It might cause them to grieve whenever they enter into it, but it's a worldly kind of grief, as Paul talks about in second

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Corinthians seven, that will eventually lead to their destruction. It's not a godly grief that leads to repentance.

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So, yeah, indulging in some of these sinful things they do may cause them to feel guilty, but it doesn't ever result in a change in that person's life.

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So they remain obedient to the unrighteous thing when they continue to do the unrighteous thing.

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They're still following after the passions of their flesh. And for that person who follows in unrighteousness instead of longing for righteousness and following in the way of Christ, those who obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.

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And you have that reference again, back to the day of wrath being revealed upon that person that walked in unrighteousness.

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There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the

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Jew first and also to the Greek. And I believe that I mentioned yesterday that to the Jew first, because they were the first to be given the oracles of God.

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So the day of judgment for them will be even worse than it will be for the Gentiles. But in verse 10, glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the

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Jew first and also to the Greek. And notice here that it says there will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil.

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I believe that that is even in the present, not just in the life that is to come, but even now there is tribulation and distress for everyone who does evil.

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As I mentioned yesterday from my own personal life, when I was walking in sin, I was experiencing tribulation and distress.

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I wanted to ignore that those things were consequences of my sin, and I continued to chase after the passions of my flesh.

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But I did experience tribulation and distress because of the evil that I was doing. People experience anxiety in their heart.

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They may not even know why they're experiencing this anxiety, but it's because they do not hope in Christ.

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Instead, they're going after the things of this world, which cannot really satisfy them. So there's tribulation and distress that they experience since their hope is not in Christ.

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But even for us who now hope in the Lord, we receive glory and honor and peace.

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We have the promise of eternal glory with God forever in his kingdom.

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We have this promise of honor, Jesus even stating here, I will give a place for you to sit with me on my throne as my father gave me a place to sit with him on his throne.

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And there is peace for everyone who does good. There is the peace of heart that we have just knowing that our sins are forgiven.

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We have peace with God. God is not vengeful toward us. We are not children of his wrath.

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But in Christ Jesus, we are children of his love and his affection.

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We're children of God. We are inheritors of his kingdom, and that gives us peace even in the midst of the tribulation and distress of this life.

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We're not shaken by it. It doesn't affect us. It doesn't touch us because our hope is

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Christ who has conquered all these things. He has conquered death itself. So we have nothing to fear of the grave.

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We have glory and honor and peace that can be experienced in the heart of a believer.

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Even in this life, everyone who does good, everyone who seeks after the righteousness of God, Jesus said in the

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Beatitudes, blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

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We can experience that kind of satisfaction. Even now, the Jew first and also to the

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Greek, verse 11, for God shows no partiality. Let me conclude by reading a little bit here to you from Proverbs chapter 16.

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I'm going to start in verse 1. The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the

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Lord. All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the

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Lord weighs the spirit. Commit your work to the Lord and your plans will be established.

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The Lord has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble.

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Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the Lord. Be assured he will not go unpunished.

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By steadfast love and faithfulness, iniquity is atoned for. And by the fear of the

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Lord, one turns away from evil. When a man's ways please the

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Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him. Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues with injustice.

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The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.

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Let us pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for the goodness you have shown to us. My goodness, any one of us could have perished a long time ago in our sin, and you would have been completely just for judging us in those moments that we walked in unrighteousness, in rebellion against our

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God. But you didn't leave us as objects of your wrath. You showed us mercy.

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And as we are going to read, continuing on here in Romans 5, verse 8,

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God showed his love for us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. So you have sent your

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Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sin. All who believe in him, we are forgiven our sins and we have eternal life with you.

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Let that be our hope and our peace in our hearts. And in these troubled times, we share the good news of the gospel with others so that they may know the forgiveness of sins and promise of eternal life with God.

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We ask these things in Jesus name. Amen. You've been listening to When We Understand the

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Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study.

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Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book. On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers.