WWUTT 1172 God's Patience is to Lead You to Repentance? (Romans 2:4-5)

The Danger of Continuing in Hidden Sin

If you're continuing to walk in sin, believing as long as nobody finds out about it, then you're going to be okay, you could be walking to your own destruction. God is being patient with you so that you'll repent when we understand the text.

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Here once again is Pastor Gabe Hughes.

Reading Romans 2:1-11 and the Judgment of God

Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study of Romans chapter 2, verses 1 through 11. I'll pick up where we left off yesterday, but starting out by reading this section again. The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Rome,.

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 in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, He will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who 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. So yesterday we were looking at mainly these first three verses where Paul was confronting the hypocrisy of man. The standard by which we judge people, we don't even measure up to that standard.

It doesn't even matter what the standard is. If it's your own standard, like your own subjective moral law that you impose on other people, the things that you think other people have to do in order to be right in your eyes, you don't even follow those things.

This law that you have unto yourself that you impose upon other people, you're just as guilty of it. And the illustration that I gave yesterday was from Francis Schaeffer who said, if we were born with a little tape recorder around our neck on the day of judgment, all God would have to do is hit play on that tape recorder.

And as we heard all of our moral judgments that we made against other people come out, we would realize we've done exactly the same thing that we were accusing other people of. God wouldn't even have to use his own law in order to sentence us on the day of judgment.

We can't even meet our own standard of judgment. Our judgment is not righteous. God's is. His judgment is just. And he will judge us by his law, whether we knew what that law was or not. If you go back to Romans chapter one, verse 32, we read, though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die.

They not only do them, but give approval to those who practice them. Now some might read that verse and say, well, how could they have known God's righteous decree? Not all of mankind knows God's righteous decree.

Well, I think you could interpret this a couple of different ways. There's a general sense in which that's implied because you had the law of God, even among the Gentiles, the law of God was proclaimed in the synagogues in every city throughout the Roman Empire.

So it wasn't like they were ignorant of the law that had been given to Israel through Moses. It had been proclaimed even in all of these cities. But I think even more generally, what's being said here in verse 32 is that there are things that come by general revelation that we know of God's righteous decree.

God's law is by special revelation. That's how that law came about. It was God speaking from Mount Sinai to the children of Israel who couldn't stand to hear the voice of God. So then Moses goes up on the mountain and he gets the laws of God to come down and deliver to the children of Israel.

All of this was by special revelation. But there are some things that we know about right and wrong from general revelation. You know, general revelation, meaning those things that occur naturally. You know right and wrong, though your standard of right and wrong naturally is messed up.

Your compass is in the wrong spot. You don't have anything fixed, an objective point to fix your moral compass to. And so therefore, it's all over the place, some more so than others. But you do have a general sense that some things are right and some things are wrong.

And sometimes you get some of those things right, which things are right and which things are wrong. That makes sense. Am I confused? You know, you know, even a broken clock is right twice a day. So there are certain things that we can know are right and wrong just from general revelation.

Let me give you an example of this. We should inherently, by our own natures, though we are, though we have a sinful nature, we should know through general revelation that it's wrong to kill people. Why should we just automatically know that?

Because you would say it's wrong for somebody else to kill you. Therefore you know it must be wrong to kill somebody else. You don't want to be destroyed. You don't want to have your life taken from you by somebody else.

So don't you dare do that to somebody else. You should be able to recognize that just from general revelation. And in fact, God has built that into nature, that that his law built into nature is that if someone takes a life, they deserve to have their life taken.

Consider the Noahic covenant that God made in Genesis chapter 9. The Lord says this, every moving thing that lives shall be your food. As I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. But you shall not eat flesh with its life that is its blood.

And for your lifeblood, I will require a reckoning. From every beast, I will require it. And from man, from his fellow man, I will require a reckoning for the life of man. Verse 6, whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed.

For God made man in his own image. And you be fruitful and multiply, increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it. So this is before the giving of the law at Mount Sinai, that God makes this covenant with Noah and he says, inherent in creation is an understanding that if someone takes the life of a man, he should have his life taken.

And even if a beast, even if an animal were to destroy a man, God says, I will require a reckoning from every beast. I will require it. And from man. So the concept of the death penalty of capital punishment is even inherent in nature.

We know that a person who is guilty of killing someone else, what they deserve is to die. See, we even have a general sense of of just punishment that if somebody like if somebody were to walk up to you and punch you in the mouth and you lose a tooth, well, you deserve to punch them in the mouth and they lose a tooth.

That's a general sense of just weights and measures. That's just generally how that occurs in nature. A civilization can come up with just laws just through general revelation without having to have the law of God.

But once again, our moral compass tends to be off because of our fallen nature and our sinfulness. And you've got greedy people and selfish people and those who are clamoring for power who will manipulate the law to their advantage.

No one is actually seeking justice. They're seeking how these things can benefit themselves. That's just the way we are in our in our fallen nature. So, again, we should generally be able to understand just weights and measures, a justice in the sense of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth or a life for a life.

We can recognize that and observe that even in natural order. Now, in our sinfulness, though, what we want is we want everybody else to abide by that. But we don't think that we have to. So if somebody is guilty of something, we're going to tell them, hey, you have to pay up.

You're guilty of that. So you owe. Meanwhile, you're guilty of the same sin. But nobody knows that. So as long as nobody has uncovered that, well, you don't have to pay everybody else. I know your sin.

So you have to pay up. But nobody knows mine. So therefore, if they don't know my crime, I don't have to do the time. Right. So now you've made yourself a hypocritical judge, but you're not going to get away with it.

For as we read here in Romans 2, 6, he will render to each one according to his works. Consider the words of Jesus in Matthew, chapter seven, starting in verse one. Judge not that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce, you will be judged.

And with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, let me take the speck out of your eye when there is a log in your own eye?

You hypocrite. First, take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. Now, oftentimes this passage gets quoted and it doesn't go any further than the first two words.

It's like you see it all over social media. You've probably encountered people in person who have done this very thing. Matthew seven, one, judge not. That's it. And it doesn't seem to go any further than that.

But Jesus is not saying here that you're not supposed to judge. On the contrary, part of this instruction involves judging or admonishing, correcting a brother with goodwill, which is what that word admonish means.

Jesus is saying, don't judge hypocritically. If you're going to admonish your brother, well, make sure you've taken care of the sin in your own heart before you're coming after your brother with that pointing out all of his faults.

When you're guilty of the same things, you need to take care of the log that is in your eye. If you are both guilty of the same sin, it's way bigger in your view than whatever sin that he's guilty of.

You should be able to see your sins with way more clarity than you can see the sin in anybody else's anybody else's life. So your sin appears to you as like a log in your eye, whereas the sin in your brother, even if it's the same sin, it's as big as a speck because that's all you can make out of it.

You know your sin way more intimately than you know anybody else's sin. So take that before God, repent, come before the Lord, ask him to forgive you your sin, mourn over your sinfulness. Do not walk in it anymore.

Do not be enslaved to the passions of your flesh. We must correct one another. It's part of the instruction that's been given to the church. Colossians 3 16 encourage and admonish or teaching and admonishing one another with all wisdom.

And again, that word admonish means to correct with goodwill. You desire that your brother walk in righteousness. You don't want him to fall into sinful depravity anymore. You want him to be righteous.

And so therefore you must walk in righteousness that your intentions for your brother would be right. If you are pointing out sin in your brother or sister in the Lord that you yourself are guilty of, your intentions are not pure.

In fact, it could just be virtue signaling. You're just trying to make it look like to everybody else that, you know, right and wrong. And so if I diminish this other person for their wrong, then it looks like I look so much more righteous or I'm not guilty of this sin.

They need to be corrected. But hey, nobody knows about what I've done. So what sort of confession do I need to make? What sort of punishment do I need to endure, even though I'm guilty of the same thing?

So we need to we do need to admonish one another. And Jesus is even saying that here. You hypocrite. Verse five. First, take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.

And it will be for the goodwill of your brother, not with any selfish ambition and certainly not with an impure heart. So do not judge hypocritically. Judge with right judgment. That's even the words of Christ in John chapter seven.

Do not think that God will not find out your sin. We have in verse four. Do you presume this is I'm going back to Romans again now. Romans two four. 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. Why aren't you dead yet? Because God is leading you to repentance. He is waiting for you to see your sin and be convicted of heart over it and repent of it and do it no more.

If you were to perish now in the sin that you continue doing, you will be judged for that sin. Now, understand as I'm talking about this here, I'm talking about habitual sin of which you have not apologized.

You have not repented. You continue walking in it. You're not trying to turn from it. In fact, you're trying to hide it, which means you're walking in darkness. And you need to consider the seriousness of this as it's confronted in first John one five.

This is the message that we have heard from him and proclaim to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, his son cleanses us from all sin. You have in verse nine, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

If as I'm talking about this, you realize that you have unrepentant sin in your life that you need to you need to take care of, you need to get rid of. But what do I do? How do I take care of it? Seriously, here's my advice for you.

You need to tell somebody this. Yes, you do need to go before God. You do need to ask for his forgiveness. You need to repent of your sin and it needs to happen between you and the Lord first and foremost.

But you've got to tell somebody because otherwise you may continue to try to hide it as long as other people don't find out. In which case, the attitude of your heart is you're trying to please man rather than trying to please God.

So you're more worried about what other people think about the sin that you're hiding. Then you are concerned about what God thinks of it who already knows the sin that you're hiding. So in in a full measure of confession, you've got to tell somebody, as it says in James 5 16.

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Now, of course, James is talking there in the context of praying to be healed.

Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick and the Lord will raise him up.

And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. But you should not read that instruction there in James chapter five as if we're only talking about some sort of physical ailment. We're very much talking about some sort of spiritual ailment.

As a matter of fact, I can tell you the sickest that I've been in my life was because of sin that I was walking in. I still remember this in my late teens, early 20s and the sin that I was in that was causing me such such vexation in my spirit that it was affecting me in my body.

But I was continuing to suppress the truth with my unrighteousness. I didn't want to acknowledge that the guilt over my sin was the reason why I felt as sick as I did. I went to many doctors. They looked at me, even prescribed different medications for me, thinking that it would solve whatever problem was happening to me.

I was losing a massive amount of weight and I was already a skinny guy as it was to begin with. I was six feet tall and almost 135 pounds. That's how much weight I had lost over the anxiety that I was feeling because of the sin that I was walking in, not wanting anybody else to know about it.

Now, eventually what ended up happening was I stepped out of that sin and wasn't walking in it anymore. But it wasn't really a true confession. My health came back up, but I didn't really confess that before God or felt the conviction over it the way that I needed to.

I just wasn't in that sin anymore. And so because I wasn't walking in that sin, my anxiety went away and my health came back up. But the sins that we try to hide absolutely affect us physically as well.

So do not just think of this that we're reading about in James 5 as some sort of physical ailment, even though that appears to be the context more serious than any of our physical ailments are our spiritual ailments.

Even if you feel like you're at the peak of health, but you're walking in sin, you have a spiritual sickness that needs to be dealt with. So confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed.

Verses 19 and 20 there of James 5. My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover over a multitude of sins.

If you're continuing to walk in some kind of habitual sin, some kind of worldly earthly living that you think that you can just keep doing, and as long as you're hiding it, nobody else finds about it, then it's fine.

God knows and you are probably walking to your destruction if you don't repent of this and bring it before the Lord. And to be sure that you are getting the spiritual healing that you need, you got to tell somebody a pastor is certainly a trustworthy person to tell another brother or sister in the Lord.

Tell someone of your sin, confess it to them. If you're sitting against somebody else, you got to confess it to that person that you're sitting against and ask for their forgiveness because God is presently being patient with you, that you would come to conviction, that you would recognize your sin, that you would know your guilt, and that you would confess your sin and ask forgiveness and be cleansed from all unrighteousness.

Otherwise, you're presuming on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience. You're just taking advantage of God. He's being patient with you, but you're taking advantage of him, continuing to enjoy this sin, this fleshly indulgence, as long as nobody finds out about it.

But God is currently being kind to you, though you may not recognize it. His kindness is meant to lead you to repentance. However, if you continue in this way, you have a hard and impenitent heart. Impenitent, meaning you are not humble, not humble about your sin at all.

I can take care of this. God's wrath isn't going to come upon me. He loves me. He would never destroy me. That's pride. We must know that we are sinners and we do not deserve the mercy and grace and loving kindness of God.

Yes, he is loving. Yes, he is merciful. But you're playing with fire if you continue to walk in sin that you don't think God will judge. You are developing for yourself a hard, impenitent heart, contrary to the heart that we receive in Christ.

As it says in Ezekiel 36, I will remove your heart of stone and give you a soft heart that desires to walk in my statutes and obey my rules. As God says to the prophet Ezekiel, if your heart is hard toward the commandments of God and you are impenitent, pridefully thinking that God's judgment is not going to come upon you.

What's happening is you're storing up wrath for yourself for the day of wrath when God's judgment will be revealed. That goes all the way back to Romans 1 18. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who, by their unrighteousness, suppress the truth.

Do not love your sin more than you love the righteousness of God as revealed in his word, as revealed in his son. Let's conclude with prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for your goodness and your grace, and may we not take advantage of these things.

May we not take them for granted, but rather may we be convicted in heart, looking at your holiness that has been revealed to us through your word, that is most clearly seen through your son who was sent for us, keeping the law perfectly, dying for our sins, rising again from the grave, raised to heaven and seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

We look at Christ, we see the holiness of God, and may it convict us in our sin that we not walk in this sinfulness anymore, but we desire to walk as Jesus walked. In love for our Savior, we keep his commandments.

For he said in John 14 15, you will show me that you love me by keeping my commandments. Convict us of our sin. May we repent before you and receive your forgiveness and go and sin no more. Forgive us this day.

And may we preach the message of repentance to others as well, that they may know your gospel, the forgiveness that's given in Christ, and so live. In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen. You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. We hope you are a part of a church family committed to gospel teaching, and we thank you for including us in your Bible learning.

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