Sunday Sermon: God's Righteous Judgment (Romans 2:1-5)

You're listening to the preaching ministry of Gabriel Hughes, pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church in Casa Grande, Arizona. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday on this podcast, we feature teaching through a New Testament book, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and our Q &A on Friday.

Each Sunday we are pleased to present our sermon series. Here is Pastor Gabe.

Romans 1–2 and the Need for the Gospel

Well it is a privilege to be with you again in our series in the book of Romans. We continue to read about sin. We're in that convicting portion of this particular letter where Paul is bringing all men into condemnation.

When Martin Luther read the book of Romans and read it with fresh eyes, read it with a heart that was convicted over his sin, and realizing the power of the gospel was by faith alone in Jesus Christ, Luther wrote of the book of Romans that this letter is purest gospel.

But he went on to elaborate that in order for you to understand that what Paul unfolds here in the book of Romans is of a pure gospel message, it is necessary for us to hear and understand why we need the gospel.

The gospel is not glorious to us until we know why we need it. And this is that portion that Paul is laying out here those arguments for. Understanding that we are sinners in need of a Savior, so that when he gets to that part, when we get to chapter 3, it hits with a whole new punch.

Understanding that Christ is the pure gospel message that we must hear. So let's come to our scriptures today in Romans 2, beginning in verse 1. Reading verses 1 -5, in honor of the word of the King, would you please stand?

This is Romans 2, beginning in verse 1. Hear 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 and practice such things, 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.

You may be seated as we pray. Heavenly Father, we are your children. And adopted into your family by the precious blood of Jesus, we desire as your children to hear from our Heavenly Father today. May your Holy Spirit be upon our hearts to open our ears, our eyes, that we may understand those things that have been spoken to us by your Spirit, so that our hearts may be convicted, so that we may be cleansed before Christ, to whom we must confess, and through him alone we are forgiven.

I pray that none of us comes into this passage today with a haughty spirit. We sit here thinking about those people that we think need to hear this. I wish so-and-so was here today because he needed to hear this word today.

Maybe that's the case. But every single one of us needs to hear this word of Christ, that we may be convicted of heart and conform to your image. So work these things in us. May we not have hard and impenitent hearts that would block out that convicting message we all must hear.

Instead, give us that heart of flesh and cleanse us with the water of your Word, that we may be made holy in your sight. It's in Jesus' name we pray, and all God's people said, Amen. In Luke 18, Jesus tells the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector.

And in this particular parable, there is this Pharisee who comes into the temple to pray. Two men, Jesus says, one of whom a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stands all by himself, and he prayed this way, God, I thank you that I am not like other men.

I'm not like the extortioners. I'm not unjust. I'm not an adulterer. I'm not even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all I get. And he boasts of himself in the presence of God.

But the tax collector standing far off would not even lift his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. And Jesus said of these two men, I tell you, this man, the tax collector, went down to his house justified rather than the other.

For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted. So you have two men here, and the first, the Pharisee, compares himself to the world. He compares himself to other men.

I'm not like them. Look at how much better I am than they are. But the tax collector does not compare himself to the Pharisee next to him or any of the people outside the temple. He stands before a holy God and knows that compared to God, I am nothing.

I have nothing in myself to boast of. And so there in the throne room of grace, the tax collector beat his chest and said, be merciful to me, a sinner. And Jesus said, because of this man's penitent heart, he goes down to his house justified.

He is declared innocent before God rather than the man who boasted in his works and compared himself to others and saw himself by comparison as better than they. That must be good enough. But our comparison is not other people.

We are to consider ourselves as compared to God. And in so doing, we recognize how far short we fall and our need for a Savior. In these five verses that we're looking at here today in Romans 2, 1 through 5, notice that the word judge or judgment comes up seven times.

So what do you think that the theme of this particular passage is? We're reading of God's righteous judgment. But we are contrasting God's righteous judgment, notice that, with our own judgment. One of these judges is ridiculously consistent and righteous in his judgment.

And the other is inconsistent and hypocritical. I don't think I have to tell you which is which. Now, you might have also noticed in these verses that we read here, the address, oh man, which comes up twice in verses one and three.

This is applicable to absolutely everyone. Especially those who might be like that tax collector who wants to, or sorry, like the Pharisee who wants to sit there and justify themselves. And say, I'm better than other people.

Anyone should be able to relate to or hear the message as it is addressed to, oh man. However, in context, though Paul doesn't explicitly say it here, he's specifically confronting a certain Jewish bias.

Now, that man's identity, the one whom he addresses as oh man, will become evident as we go through the chapter. I only say that so that you understand the context of what's going on in chapters one through three.

But don't mark this section off here in chapter two as being just for Jews. For we are looking into the mirror of God's word, and you have already seen yourself. This morning, we're going to divide this passage up like this.

Verses one and two, we have the first oh man address. And in this address, Paul is presenting the problem. You in passing judge on another, you condemn yourself because you, the judge, practice the same things.

In verses three and four, we have the second oh man address presenting the puzzle. Do you think that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume on God's kindness instead of repenting? And then finally, verse five presents us with the potential outcome.

If you do not repent, you will perish under the wrath of God. So we have the problem, we have the puzzle, and we have the potential outcome. So let us look first here at the problem. We begin in verse one with what word?

Therefore. So this is hot off the heels of the verse that we just looked at last week, Romans 1 .32. Though they know God's righteous decree, that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them, but they give approval to those who practice them.

And notice that we talk here about who they are. As we were going through chapter one, how many times did you find yourself looking at them out there and how wicked they are? But we are all safe and good and cozy.

We're gospel cozy in here, are we not? Well, there's a problem going on in here too. There happens to be people out there, but there are also people in here. And the people in here are sinners too. There are numerous times where I, as a pastor, have had to confront somebody who has stopped attending church.

It might be a member of my own congregation whom I have to lovingly confront, or it could be another person that I encounter who says they're a Christian, but they don't go to church. And they might say something silly like, I'm a Christian, or I'm spiritual, but I'm not religious.

Something like that. And you probably know how this interaction goes because you've either encountered this person too, or you've been that person yourself. Why aren't you going to church? I ask. And what do you think that person says?

Well, they're all sinners. They're all hypocrites there. They say one thing and they do something else. And my response as I've grown older as a pastor has become, well, then you should feel right at home.

Like it or not, the church too is full of sinners. These sinners need you.

And you need them.

That we might help to be sanctified together and be made more like Christ. That's what God intends for His church. As you've heard me say before, sanctification is a community project. God intended it to be.

You cannot fulfill the one another instructions of our Savior without one another. The first pastor I was employed under said to me, I love ministry. The problem with it is it's full of people. Now I laughed about that.

And in my impetuous youth, I probably even repeated the joke, believing it to be witty. But I'd like to think that I've grown a bit wiser. And if I were under that pastor's employment today, I would respond to that statement different now than I would have then.

If I hear a pastor say that again, I'm going to say, then resign because people are the ministry. The great Anglican preacher J .C. Ryle said, Our Lord has many weak children in His family. Many dull pupils in His school.

Many raw soldiers in His army. Many lame sheep in His flock. Yet He bears with them all and He casts none of them away. Happy is that Christian who has learned to do likewise with his brethren. Several years ago, I drew a comic in which the character in the first frame said, there are two kinds of people in the world, hypocrites and the second frame shows him thinking.

And then in the last frame, he says, and I guess that just about covers it. You will find them out there. And you will find them in here. You will find hypocrites outside of yourself. And if you are honest, you will find a hypocrite within yourself also.

Therefore, you should relate rather well to the section that we are looking at today and feel quite convicted when the apostle turns his examination of those who are not listening to the word of God, to those who are listening to the word of God.

Therefore, you have no excuse. Oh 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 they practice. Now, this is just a fantastic preaching tactic of the apostle Paul.

He has spent Romans 1, 18 to 32 preaching about them out there. And he surely has the members of this Roman congregation nodding their heads and going, yes, them out there. Look at all the sin that they do.

Look at all the sin that they approve of. Of course, they deserve the wrath of God. But then right when Paul has them in that place, we get to this part in chapter two, and he turns it right back on the congregation.

Everything else in chapter one was them, they, their, all those. And now it's chapter two and says, but you, therefore you have no excuse. Oh man, it's as if, it's as if he has gone, hey, sir, you right there in the third row, fourth seat from the left.

Yes, you, I saw you nodding along. You agree they deserve judgment.

Yes.

Then you have no excuse when you judge them because you practice the same things. Now I tried to point very generally down the center of the aisle and not,.

Yeah, right.

I know that was very particular.

I know, but that was, that was Paul.

You know, that's what he was doing here. But may you in whatever seat you are sitting in feel so likewise convicted. Now that man whom Paul points out and says, you, oh man, do the very same things. Surely he is sitting there going, what?

I don't practice those things. I'm not a homosexual like Paul described in chapter one. And yeah, maybe sure I've gossiped a little, but I mean, everybody does that. I'm not, it's not like I've gone out and murdered everyone.

And to that person, the response goes back to the Sermon on the Mount. Well, sure, maybe you're not a homosexual, but have you ever lusted after a woman who is not your wife? When you look at her, then you have an adulterous heart.

That's sexual immorality. That's lumped right in with homosexuality, which is also sexually immoral. And maybe you haven't murdered anyone, but have you ever hated someone or called them names? Jesus said, that's the same as having murder in your heart.

And you are guilty of the fires of hell. You have no excuse, oh man, because you, the judge practice the same things that you are judging. If you agree that those who do such things deserve to die, then find yourself condemned because you are guilty too.

And verse two, we know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. The matter is not how you look before man. The matter is how you look before God. And we're talking here about the judgment in the courtroom of God, not judgment in the courtroom of men.

Psalm 130 verses three through four say, if you, oh Lord, should mark iniquities, oh Lord, who could stand? But with you, there is forgiveness that you may be feared. Of course, Paul is setting the stage here for a glorious presentation of the gospel, but we're not there yet.

We've been through two months of sermons about sin, and we're going to be here at least until Easter. What a great time to get to the gospel message, right? But we're not there yet. So let's go on to the second part.

We've read here about the problem. The second part is the puzzle. Here in verses three and four, Paul presents two parts to this puzzle, and he presents these two parts with two questions. The first question is to help the hearer understand who deserves the judgment of God.

Like Paul is connecting the dots for you if you've not been able to do it yourself. The second question is to help the hearer understand who needs to repent. Once again, helping the hearer connect the dots.

Ultimately, as it will come later on, this is so the hearer will fear God and turn from sin to the Lord Jesus Christ. So the first question is this. Look at verse three. Do you suppose, O man, you who judges those who practice such things, and yet do them yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God?

Remember that from chapter one, verse 18, Paul has been laboring in his preaching to bring everyone to an awareness that all deserve the judgment of God. Everyone deserves it. And now he directs this toward the person who is sitting comfortably in his pew, thinking, I'm in here.

They're out there. I was raised in church. I know John 3 .16. I walked the aisle. I was sprinkled as a baby or baptized at summer camp when I was eight. I know the words to Amazing Grace. What do I have to fear of the judgment of God?

And Paul says, because you do the same things. The same things you've just condemned. The list of sins we read in chapter one.

You do them.

So what makes you think that you will escape the judgment of God? Sin is not a problem out there. Sin is a problem in here. It's in Mark 7 .21 -23 where Jesus said, For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness, a willing ignorance.

All these evil things come from within and they are what defiles a person. In the second part of this puzzle, Paul presents this second question. 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?

So putting these two pieces together, either you've been unaware that you deserve to die, you're just ignorant, and you've suppressed the truth with unrighteousness, just like the sinners out there do.

Or perhaps it's that you presume, you're hedging your bets that God is such a nice guy that he's going to let you off. But you've missed the intention behind his kindness toward you. It's not so that you can continue in your sin.

He's patient toward you so that you will repent. And notice the way that Paul talks about God's kindness and forbearance and patience. Do you presume on the riches, the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience?

What a treasure we have, those of us who are in Christ Jesus, to know the riches, the wealth, the abundance, the blessing that God has given to us in his kindness, in his patience toward us. It is something that we as a Christian should rejoice in every day.

When we hear in Lamentations 3, his mercies are new every morning. Great is his faithfulness. These are the riches of his goodness toward us. So we must therefore be careful not to presume on them. Meaning that, oh, we assume that God is just going to forgive me for this.

Because God is gracious, right? We see later on in Romans 6, we're no longer under the law but under grace. So no matter what I do, God is just going to forgive me for my sin, right? Not recognizing the reason he hasn't struck you down and judged you in your sin yet is because he's patient toward you that you will repent and come back to the path of righteousness.

I can speak from experience on this. There have been times in my life where I found a sin I liked. And though I knew that I was wrong, I continued in it because, hey, the grace of God. This isn't really that bad, is it?

I can have my own little private pleasure, and as long as I'm not hurting anyone else, then what's the problem? But I tell you that when I come into that arrogance, one of the most harrowing passages for me is in Matthew chapter 7, where Jesus says the following, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven.

But the one who does the will of my father, who is in heaven, will enter. On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name? And we did many mighty works in your name.

And I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you worker of lawlessness. Would I dare to presume to think that just because I'm a preacher of the Word of God, that gives me license to sin and escape His judgment?

Would I stand before God and say, Lord, Lord, did I not preach many mighty sermons in your name? And because I had a hard and penitent heart, more in love with my sin than I was in love with Jesus, would I hear Him say to me, depart from me, you worker of iniquity.

I didn't know you.

Would I leave my children to learn on their own? Because, hey, I'm a pastor, so through some spiritual osmosis, my faith will filter into them, and they will be able to stand in the judgment on that day.

Should we presume that just because Reformed Baptist Church is on our side out front, that we're stamped for eternity and we can go on sinning? Because, hey, I've got that Baptist blood over the doorposts of my house, so that the angel of death will pass right over me.

Would I be so arrogant?

Would we?

Do you presume on the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that He's patient toward you? He's kind toward you because it's meant to lead you to repentance. My brother and my sister, if you honestly examine your heart and you find in there sin that you love, that you would bow to and sacrifice to because you've not yet smashed those idols in your heart and put to death what is earthly in you, understand that the only reason that you have not been judged yet is because God is kind to you, that you would repent.

That is the unspoken answer to this question that Paul is presented as two pieces to this puzzle. But I hope you understand that it can only be solved not by your works, but by the mercy and grace of Jesus Christ.

Listen to these words from 1 John 1, 8 through chapter 2, verse 2. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us. My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one.

He is the propitiation for our sins, meaning by His death on the cross, He satisfies God's wrath for us and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. Everyone is a sinner in need of a Savior.

And Jesus is that one Savior to anyone who calls on His name. You in here need Him as much as the people out there need Him. And just because you have heard the word doesn't make you better than them.

In fact, if you have heard the word but do not obey it, that makes you more guilty than they who have not heard this word and live their lives in disobedience. They're not innocent, but neither are you.

And you have no excuse. And we're going to unfold this concept more as we continue in chapter two. But at last, let's come to this final portion of our passage today, the potential outcome of this problem.

So in verse five, Paul 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. So now you, oh man, who's sitting in the third row from the back, fourth chair over, he's probably now moved to the back row if he's not standing out in the lobby, incidentally.

Nobody turn around and look. If you remain in your ignorance and you have not connected the dots and realize that those who practice such things deserve to die, or if you continue to presume that God is just a forgiving guy who will let you continue in this sin without judgment, do you know what has happened to you?

And do you know what will happen to you? What has happened to you is that your heart is hard. You've become comfortable in your sin. You don't even think it's a big deal anymore. You have, as Paul referred to, as Paul said to Timothy, referred to those who have a seared conscience.

You are impenitent, meaning that you do not feel any regret or remorse for your actions. You continue in your lust. You continue in your anger. You continue in your greed or your pride or your ingratitude.

You continue to give yourself over to intoxication, things that will dull and stupefy your mind, make you lose control even over your faculties and your thinking. You may even, you may even continue in your doubts, remaining in ignorance and not trusting in God.

And because of your hard heart, you are storing up wrath for the day of wrath when God's wrath will be poured out on all the ungodly and unrighteous whom Paul made reference to back in chapter one, verse 18.

The sinner in chapter one and the sinner in chapter two are under the same wrath. There is a day of judgment that is coming. And to say that day isn't coming, or maybe to go as far as say, hey, it won't happen in my lifetime.

That itself is sin. To deny that that day of judgment will come. Peter called such a person a scoffer in 2 Peter 3. Jesus referred to such a person as a wicked servant who is in league with the hypocrites in Matthew 24.

Paul warned of the day of judgment when he preached to the Greek pagans in Acts 17. Hebrews 9 .27 says that it is appointed for a man to die once and after that comes judgment. And you will come into that judgment if you do not repent.

You will have shown yourself to have not truly been a follower of Jesus. It's not that you would have lost your salvation. You never had it. You were still in love with the world. You were still in love with your sin.

Jesus even illustrated this in the parable of the sower. There's that one, the seed that falls among the rocks, and there's a plant that sprouts up for a time. And Jesus says, this is a person who hears the word and receives it with joy.

There's a period in his life he looks like a Christian. But he has no root in himself, Jesus said. And when the sun comes out and scorches that plant, it withers and dies. As I've heard Phil Johnson refer to this, it was a passing opinion.

He had an opinion about God for a while and then that opinion changed. And his opinion was more in love with his sin than it was in love with Christ. You weren't really saved by his grace if you do not live by his grace.

The evils that the nation of Israel fell into when we read about it in the Old Testament, that was written down for us as a warning so that we would not desire sin as they did, which Paul taught in 1 Corinthians 10.

It's also in the book of Hebrews. And I'm so grateful that in our Sunday School lesson this morning, that Alan had mentioned this in Hebrews 3, beginning in verse 12. Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.

But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.

As it is said, quoting from Psalm 95, Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses?

And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient?

So see that they were unable to enter because of their unbelief. Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear, lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. Should seem to have failed to reach it.

For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them because they were not united by faith with those who listened. For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said, As I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest.

Although his works were finished from before the foundation of the world. For he has somewhere spoken of that seventh day in this way, and God rested on the seventh day from all his works, and again in this passage he said, They shall not enter my rest.

Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, again he points to a certain day, today, saying through David, so long afterward, in the words already quoted, Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.

As Paul said to the Corinthians, Today is the day of salvation. And my friends, everything that has happened to you in this life has by God's providence brought you to this day to hear this word and hear his voice call you to repentance and cleansing in Christ.

And do not walk out of here believing that you can continue to walk in your sin unmarred. Because you know, as you've heard, and have probably even professed in your own faith, that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things.

Do not presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience. For you know that his kindness and his patience toward you is meant to lead you to repentance. So on the one hand of this potential outcome, you could not repent and you would come into judgment and God would be justified in his judgment of you.

But on the other hand, and this is the unspoken part of this potential outcome, at least as far as we have it here in chapter 2, on the other hand, you may be convicted of heart and repent. So instead of reading, because of your heart and impenitent heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed, you might understand it this way.

Because of your convicted and repentant heart, you have known the grace of God that you may not be destroyed on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. In 2 Thessalonians 1, verses 7 -10, Paul speaks of that day when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those that do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and away from the glory of his might when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints and to be marveled at among all who have believed because our testimony to you was believed.

So where will you be on that day? When Christ Jesus is revealed, when he comes back with his angels in flaming fire, will you be among those who will marvel at him on that day? Who will rejoice and praise him on that day?

Because of the gospel message that was proclaimed to you and you believed and walked in, or will you be among those who do not know God and did not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus, who will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might?

You are positioned here in Romans 2, 1 -5,.

As a judge.

And your judgment is being contrasted with God's judgment. We've been presented here in this passage with a problem. Paul has given to us a puzzle, and he's given to us the potential outcome of that problem and of that puzzle.

And will that potential outcome for you be, well done, good and faithful servant, for great is your reward? Or will it be, depart from me, you worker of iniquity, I never knew you. When we come before God, my friends, do not dare to compare yourself to other people and think I'm getting in because I'm better than they are.

None of us can boast in our righteousness. Instead, we come before God and we say, compared to you, Lord, I'm nothing. I am worthy of your judgment. I am worthy of your wrath. Be merciful to me, a sinner.

And the promise of Christ that we have is that you will go justified, declared innocent before God. Because of what Jesus Christ has done for us.