Sunday Sermons: God's Righteous Decree (Romans 1:32)

WWUTT Podcast

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:15

You're listening to the preaching ministry of Gabriel Hughes, pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church in Casa Grande, Arizona.

00:23

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday on this podcast we feature teaching through a New Testament book, an

00:29

Old Testament book on Thursday and our Q &A on Friday. Each Sunday we are pleased to present our sermon series.

00:36

Here is Pastor Gabe. I'm going to take back something that I said last week.

00:42

I said we were wrapping up chapter one and that was not true. Felt like we kind of rushed the ending there with verse 32 yet to go.

00:51

So we're going to come back to verse 32 again today. If you would open up your Bible to Romans chapter one.

00:59

And in our reading this morning, I'll creep into chapter two a little bit. We'll still read verses one through five here as well.

01:06

It was the Puritan Samuel Rutherford who said, your heart is not the compass that Christ saileth by.

01:17

And so as we come to the text this morning, we desire to be guided by God's word and what he has said, conforming our thoughts, our hearts to his will.

01:29

So let us stand together in honor of the word of the king. This is Romans chapter one, beginning in verse 32.

01:34

And I'm going to read through chapter two, verse five. Hear the word of the

01:40

Lord. 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.

01:56

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.

02:10

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?

02:21

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?

02:33

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

02:43

God's righteous judgment will be revealed. You may be seated as we pray.

02:50

Heavenly Father, we come to our text today and desiring to be taught by you, desiring to be guided by your will and your word.

03:05

Would you direct us in that way that is good and righteous in your sight?

03:13

As we will consider in the sermon this morning, let there not be any hidden way in us.

03:19

Let there not be any hidden faults, either that we try to conceal from others or even that we conceal from ourselves.

03:27

Let us be aware and knowledgeable even of our own sins, that we may lay them before you to be cleansed of them and led in every good way that is pleasing and righteous unto

03:43

God our Savior. It is easy as we have gone through this text over the last several weeks looking at Romans chapter 1, to kind of apply these things to our world and see other people who do stuff like this, and we'll see even the most egregious and grossest sins that we might consider their guilty of, but I would never do such a thing.

04:06

Let us not become so self -righteous to ignore the problems that are in our own lives and are in our own hearts.

04:17

Help us to desire the way of Christ to such a degree that we want to put to death everything, every little thing that is earthly in us.

04:29

For there are no little sins in the eyes of God. May your

04:36

Spirit illuminate your truth to us today, we pray in Jesus' name, Amen. Amen. As we've been studying through Exodus in Sunday school, we read in chapter 5 how

04:48

Moses first appeared before Pharaoh and said, Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.

05:01

But Pharaoh responded, Who is Yahweh, that I should obey his voice and let

05:08

Israel go? I do not know Yahweh, and moreover I will not let

05:14

Israel go. Pharaoh's response sounds much like Satan's hissing in the garden.

05:21

Did God really say, Who is Yahweh, and who is he to tell me what to do?

05:28

And man and their rebellious hearts respond to God in much the same way today. We at one point, even we who are

05:35

Christians and followers of Christ, have at one point been in that state of rebellion against God. Who is

05:40

God to tell me what to do? Now it is true that Pharaoh may not have known the

05:46

Lord by that name Yahweh, but it would not be true to say that Pharaoh did not know

05:52

God at all. As we have been reading about here in Romans 1, what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them.

06:05

For His invisible attributes, namely His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made, so they are without excuse.

06:21

Over the past several weeks, we have considered how, according to Romans 1, there are many things people know about God, though they may not know

06:31

Yahweh personally. They know He exists, and not only that He is eternal and self -existing and omnipotent, but they have even seen

06:43

His wrath revealed from heaven. They know what is natural and unnatural, according to the

06:50

Creator's design. And today in verse 32, we read that the wicked even know

06:56

God's righteous decree, and those who do not keep what

07:02

God has commanded deserve to die. How could that be if they have never heard

07:11

God's word? Pharaoh himself surely did not have access to a Bible. The law as summarized in the

07:18

Ten Commandments had not even been given yet. So how could someone like Pharaoh have known

07:23

God's righteous decree and the penalty for not keeping it?

07:31

Let us consider this morning. Number one, God's righteous decree.

07:36

What is this decree? And how is it that those who do not keep it deserve to die?

07:42

Number two, we will also consider giving approval to disobeying this decree.

07:48

What does that mean? Recognizing that those who disobey and those who disapprove, or sorry, those who approve of the disobeying, are both guilty before God.

07:58

And then finally, number three, we'll give application, finding the practical implications of knowing what it is that we're reading here today in verse 32.

08:06

What is God's righteous decree and what are we to do with this awareness?

08:12

So first of all, let's consider the decree itself. We read once again that they know

08:18

God's righteous decree and that those who practice such things deserve to die.

08:24

Let's consider what the decree is and what are those things that people are practicing in disobedience to that decree.

08:31

Now that second part is actually easier to answer. Such things that are part of this statement are those sins that have been considered, that we've looked at here in Romans 1 over the last few weeks.

08:45

Everything that we've read so far in chapter 1. What is this rebellious practice?

08:51

Back up to verse 19, they suppress the truth. Verse 21, they did not give thanks to God.

09:02

Verse 23, they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

09:14

Verse 24, they dishonored their bodies among themselves. Verse 25, they exchanged the truth about God for the lie and they worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator.

09:31

Verse 26, they exchanged natural relations for unnatural lusts and activities.

09:39

Verse 27, women burned with passion for women and men burned with passion for men committing shameless acts.

09:47

And then verses 29 to 31 that we looked at last week, they were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice.

09:57

They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.

10:12

These are such things that the rebellious practice. So the question in context, what are such things, is easy to answer.

10:22

But what about God's righteous decree? It is said in the

10:28

King James Bible to be the judgment of God. It appears by what

10:34

Paul is saying here in verse 32 that the people know that there is a God, the one true God.

10:40

And not only that, but they know He has made good and righteous binding declarations.

10:47

And not only that, but those who do not keep this righteous decree deserve judgment by this one true and righteous

10:54

God. So hence, the King James renders it to be the judgment of God, not just the righteous decree, but that His judgment rightly falls on those who disobey it.

11:04

They are knowing the righteous judgment of God that those who commit such acts are deserving of death.

11:11

The New American Standard Bible translates it, they know the ordinance of God.

11:18

The legacy standard, they know the righteous requirement of God.

11:25

The Christian standard, although they know God's just sentence, that those who practice such things deserve to die.

11:34

They do them and give approval to those who practice them. All of these synonymous, though we see different ways of this being translated, it's all different ways of saying the same thing.

11:47

People know that God has righteously spoken, that He is good and therefore

11:53

His way is good. And any rebellion against that good way, well there's consequences for that.

12:00

There will be penalty for those who disobey. It is inherently ingrained in every human being that has been made in His image.

12:10

John Gill explains, quote, they know either the law of God, the law and light of nature, by which they might in some measure know the difference between good and evil, and what was right and wrong, or the judiciary sentence of God against sin.

12:32

You can talk to even the most ardent atheist and even they understand the difference between there being a good and being an evil.

12:40

R .C. Sproul was once asked, how do you convince an atheist of moral imperatives?

12:48

That there is such thing as truth and there is a binding good and a binding evil upon each and every person, and R .C.

12:55

Sproul answered, steal his wallet. If you take his wallet from a person who believes in moral relativism, well suddenly they become very morally direct, right?

13:07

You can't do that. That's wrong. According to what? A 19th century

13:14

Anglican commentary says the following, quote, in this concluding verse here in verse 32, the main point of the whole argument which began in verse 19 is repeated.

13:25

That all this sin that they do was in spite of better knowledge.

13:33

The original knowledge of God revealed set forth to the human race and as implied further in inward witness of conscience still remaining however stifled even in the most corrupt society.

13:51

Even those who are in most rebellion against God will not deny the presence of a good and an evil and a basis upon which all of mankind is determined either to be good or evil.

14:06

All of mankind having been made in God's image, though mankind is fallen and rebellious against God, we cannot escape the truth and reality of God, even who

14:16

He is and what He has said. His fingerprints are all over what

14:21

He has made, especially in the human beings that have been made in His likeness. Some of you are aware that we, and by we

14:31

I mean the Hughes family, had a water incident at our house this week in which my laptop computer, which was sitting on my desk, took a shower with water that rained down from the ceiling and was ruined.

14:44

The computer that I used this morning to print off my sermon is new.

14:50

I still have the old laptop and even though it is, at least at the present, non -functioning,

14:55

I haven't tried to turn it back on yet. I'm still hoping everything will dry out and be able to turn back on. It has evidence on the top of it of water damage, even on the outside.

15:06

Yet it still bears the marks, though it's a dysfunctional laptop, it bears the marks of having once been my functioning laptop that belonged to Gabe Hughes.

15:17

There's still a what sticker on the top. And a sticker of the logo of the school that one of my children attends.

15:25

It still bears the marks of being Gabe's laptop, though it is not Gabe's working laptop.

15:32

Now I've long used this illustration. If it were possible for a MacBook to gain sentience and become an independent thinker, as fast as AI is developing, we're probably not too far away from that.

15:44

But let's say such a sentient MacBook were to deny the existence of Steve Jobs, the man who was behind Apple computers.

15:55

This laptop denies that Steve Jobs ever even existed. Or that he was ever the creator of the

16:02

MacBook. We would consider that MacBook to be broken. It wouldn't be functioning properly.

16:10

We would think that MacBook is absurd. What good would it be that this computer has the ability to gain sentience if that intelligence results in denying a fundamental truth about itself?

16:25

That would be inherently self -destructive. There's no way a

16:31

MacBook could, in any true sense, deny the existence of Steve Jobs. The evidence of his existence is all over the

16:38

MacBook. There is both internal and external evidence of Jobs having been this computer's designer and programmer.

16:45

This MacBook has become worthless, to be declared broken, and is worthy of either being brought back to the shop and said,

16:53

I need a new one, or thrown into the trash heap. It is impossible for mankind to deny

17:01

God. And those who attempt to do so become, as said in Romans 3, worthless.

17:09

They become worthless. They weren't made that way, but they become that way by their sin and rebellion against God.

17:18

If what is known about God is clearly seen in all that has been made, even his eternal power and divine nature, that he is a good and righteous

17:27

God, then mankind can do nothing to erase the marks of his designer or the programming that we have been given.

17:35

He can rebel against what he has been made to do, which is to glorify

17:40

God, but he cannot erase it. And this is written about even in our own confession.

17:49

In chapter 4 of the Baptist Confession of Faith, of creation, paragraph 2, after God had made all other creatures, he created man, male and female, with reasonable and immortal souls, rendering them fit unto that life to God for which they were created, being made after the image of God in knowledge, righteousness and true holiness, having the law of God written on their hearts.

18:20

In chapter 19 of the Law of God, paragraph 5, the moral law does forever bind all, as well justified persons as others, to the obedience thereof, and that not only in regard to the matter contained in it, but also in respect to the authority of God the

18:39

Creator who gave it." A few weeks ago, a singer by the name of Kea Jones, formerly of the

18:50

Pussycat Dolls, shared her testimony at the Walk for Life West Coast in San Francisco.

18:56

Now, in case you're unfamiliar with this band, the Pussycat Dolls were a neo -burlesque, highly sexualized girl band that were around from the early 2000s to just a few years ago, when they finally were disbanded.

19:09

They've had multiple members over that period of time, and sold more than 50 million downloads and more than 30 million albums.

19:18

During Jones' time with the girl band, she had two abortions so that she could continue to be a pop star.

19:27

The first time she murdered one of her children, she was 16 years old. She said of that first time,

19:34

I felt as though someone had taken something that had always belonged in my body. I remember waking up and feeling like someone took my rib or my kidney, and it was never going to come back.

19:48

I don't know the date death of my first child, and I will never know the birth date of my first child.

19:57

There's no grave that I can go to, to mourn the death of my child.

20:03

She became pregnant again at the age of 19, and was told she needed to get rid of the baby if she wanted to stay in the band.

20:11

She said that shortly after, while she was still recovering from the abortion she just had, she was performing in concert and noticed two girls on the front row looking at her in admiration.

20:27

And the whole time, she was convicted over the sin that she had just committed that these girls knew nothing about, and the promiscuous sexual image that she and the rest of the

20:39

Pussycat Dolls were selling to these young and impressionable girls. The Lord used them to speak to me that day,

20:48

Jones said. The conviction hit me to my core.

20:55

She went on to explain how fame and riches did not fill the hole that was left in her heart from the two children that she knew she had killed.

21:08

There's nothing beautiful about this, she said. No matter how much money you may have, no matter how much fame you may receive, no matter how many records you may sell,

21:22

I have sold over 30 million albums worldwide, I have won a Grammy Award, but none of that will bring back my children."

21:38

Even though Jones suppressed the truth with unrighteousness, she could not escape the truth.

21:46

She knew she was killing her children. And no amount of feminism, of fame, or of fortune could hide the reality of what she was doing.

22:05

I've been personal friends with several atheists in my life, and it has, incidentally, always been a self -defeating label to call oneself an atheist.

22:15

You are putting there, right on the front of your ideology, an opinion about God. It is impossible to fully deny

22:23

God. Even to say, I deny God, is still a statement about God. And with every atheist that I have known, if you get down with them on a personal level and talk about things that they may not acknowledge or debate publicly, they'll totally admit to you that they believe that God exists.

22:40

They just don't believe in the Christian God. My closest friend in college, when

22:46

I was in junior college, was an atheist, and he would always say things like, if God exists, I'm going to ask him this, that, or the other.

22:52

Like, he gives thought to conversations that he wants to have with God. We had a very talented mutual friend who threw his life away on a combination of laziness and girls.

23:05

And my atheist friend turned to me one day and he said, why does God give such incredible talent to people who will just throw it away and not use it?

23:16

And I answered him, you're an atheist, what do you care? And he shrugged and said, just something

23:23

I was thinking about. In my friend's question, he was not only acknowledging the existence of God, but he was also recognizing that there is something morally wrong with a person having talent and ability and opportunity which they squander either out of laziness or in pursuit of the debased passions of the flesh.

23:49

They know God's righteous decree. They know that such a person deserves a judgment of some kind.

24:00

As everyone knows this. But as we go on to read in verse 32, they not only do those things which go against God's righteousness, but they give hearty approval to those who practice them.

24:15

So second part of this passage we look at today here, we've read of these sins throughout chapter one.

24:22

And as I said last week, going through that list of sins from verse 28 on, there are persons who don't do every sin on this list.

24:30

And there may even be more sins that they do that are not on this list. And remember that we read that they are inventors of evil.

24:37

They look for more ways to rebel against God. So the list, as thorough as it was, remember my 21 point sermon from last week, as many sins as are on that list, it's not comprehensive.

24:51

There may still be more sins that a person does that may not appear on that particular list.

24:57

Something funny happened to us yesterday at home. There was a point in the evening where everything was quiet in the

25:03

Hughes household and that could mean only one thing. Either the three -year -old is unconscious somewhere or he's getting into trouble.

25:13

And as he's not yet done anything to knock himself out, most likely the second possibility is true.

25:20

So Becky went on a search for Ezekiel and she found him in the bathroom. He was doing something over the toilet and sensing that his mother had come into the room, he positioned his body in such a way so that she would not see what it was that he was doing.

25:38

Now we have these little taffy candies that we will give to Zeke to reward him for his potty training.

25:45

Well he had opened several of those, but instead of eating them, perhaps he knew that he can't eat them because he hadn't done anything to deserve that reward.

25:55

So instead what he was doing was he was making taffy sculptures on the lid of the toilet.

26:04

Now we have never instituted a rule in our household that you cannot make taffy sculptures on the toilet lid.

26:12

But somehow he inherently knew, I'm not supposed to be doing this. And he tried to conceal his artwork, but knowing that this was a fool's errand, he shrewdly looked at his mother and then stepped to the side and he said,

26:29

I made this for you, surprise! Now Becky and I have this deal that we've made with each other, that whoever laughs at the absurdity of the disobedience of our children doesn't have to be the one to issue the punishment.

26:48

How do you punish a child when you're laughing about it at the same time? But in this particular instance, it was really, really difficult for either one of us to keep a straight face and punish our child for making taffy sculptures on the toilet lid.

27:05

Now if we were not to punish our children when they disobey, then what would be the message?

27:14

They would begin to get the impression that this behavior is okay. And then we as parents would also be guilty of their bad behavior.

27:28

We know it's bad behavior, but in not doing anything about it, we give approval to it and are now likewise guilty for the wrong that they do.

27:39

Last weekend when Voti was preaching at the conference that was up in Gilbert, I mentioned

27:45

I only was able to make like the last half hour of his final message in that particular conference.

27:51

But one of the things that he said in that closing half hour is there are many, many parents who abuse their children by not spanking them.

28:04

What do you hear from the culture? Spanking is abuse, right? Voti turning that on its head, according to what is said in Proverbs to us in fact.

28:14

He who spares the rod hates his son. And so to not punish for wrong is to give approval then for the wrong that they do.

28:27

Our culture is not only full of such unnatural evils as we've considered over the past few weeks, but it is even more full of the people who will give approval to those evils.

28:40

You think about the LGBTQ movement itself, there are only something like 3 or 4 % of people in the

28:47

United States that would even identify as LGBTQ, but way more who are approving of the behavior than those who actually participate in the behavior.

28:57

Every June, known to our depraved culture as Pride Month, hundreds of businesses and major brands will alter their logos and adorn them with the colors of our sodomite culture's pride flag.

29:09

Every brand name from clothing to snack foods to cell phone companies to professional sports teams.

29:17

You will remember that it was just this past Easter Sunday when then President Joe Biden declared that Sunday the

29:24

Trans Day of Visibility. He made the decree on Good Friday that the

29:31

White House and the United States government under his leadership would recognize and approve of men who dressed in drag and declared themselves to be women, or women who dressed as men and called themselves men.

29:44

Or parents who will dress up their little boys as little girls and proclaim them to be girls.

29:53

It is an inescapable biological fact that there are two sexes, male and female.

30:00

And that men will always be men and that women will always be women. I don't know if you've seen the

30:05

Mr. Rogers clip. This was over 40 years ago or something.

30:11

But every once in a while I'll still see this clip resurface and kind of float around on social media.

30:16

It's a song that Mr. Rogers is singing. He's doing a craft with children and as he's singing this song he says, boys will always be boys and girls will always be girls.

30:27

And boys will grow up to be daddies and only girls will grow up to be mommies.

30:35

Guy might get his show canceled if he were to do that on TV today. Believe it or not, even

30:41

Bill Nye the Science Guy, who is himself an avowed atheist, did an episode in which he talked about chromosomes.

30:49

And even he said there is only male and female and males will always be male and females will always be female.

30:57

What in the world changed over the years? The science didn't change, but rather the culture's opinion about the science is what changed.

31:07

And they suppressed the truth for a lie. Theologian Charles Ellicott notes, quote, they show that it is no mere momentary yielding to the force of temptation or of passion, but a radical perversion of conscience and reason by the fact that they not only practice such things themselves, but in cold blood commend and applaud those who practice them.

31:40

It is a scary thing to approve of the sins of others that will lead to their destruction.

31:50

And my friends, we cannot be caught up in the cultural drama in such a way to give approval to these things that God has promised that He will judge.

32:00

Now as we read about this here, especially this statement that Paul gives in Romans 132, he makes reference to these things as if this is obvious.

32:08

He doesn't quote any pagan writers like he did in Titus 1 to show that even the pagans know the citizens of Crete are liars, evil beasts, and lazy gluttons, remember that?

32:19

He just simply says it. And who could argue with it? Who in their heart of hearts could really contend with the fact that mankind does evil and mankind approves of evil?

32:32

And the guy who stands by and watches the evil with nodding approval is just as bad in his heart as the person who's doing the evil.

32:42

We even have laws in this country that if someone sees a crime being committed and does nothing about it, then they can be convicted as a participant in that crime.

32:53

Even our own laws reflect this inherent truth. Now if there is a law where there is a law, there is a lawgiver.

33:04

And the righteous lawgiver of the universe has given his righteous decree so that we know even those who practice such unrighteous things deserve to die.

33:20

We inherently understand this as a statement Paul is going to make later that the wages of sin is death,

33:26

Romans 6 .23. We know that a dysfunctional laptop or MacBook is worthy of the trash heap.

33:35

Pharaoh knew that rebelling against God's righteous decree is worthy of death. But he hardened his heart against God, he tested

33:43

God, and the Lord poured out judgment on the land of Egypt with plague after plague after plague.

33:49

It was in the midst of the eighth plague, when Egypt was being devoured by locusts, that Pharaoh's own men went to him and said, let

33:59

Israel go so they can serve the Lord their God. Do you not understand that Egypt is ruined?

34:11

Even in the face of the obvious power and majesty of God, Pharaoh continued to harden his heart and rebel.

34:23

Now there may have been a natural law that Pharaoh understood and rebelled against.

34:28

There may have even been a true God whom he refused to worship. He knew existed but would not worship

34:35

Him. But as I said in the beginning, he did not personally know Yahweh, and he did not know by word the commands of God that had been given.

34:45

Nonetheless, as we will soon read when we get to Romans 2 .14 -16, For when

34:51

Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law.

35:04

They show that the work of God is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them.

35:14

On that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.

35:25

Men are without excuse. None will be able to stand before God on that day and say,

35:31

We did not know. As Alan had read previously from the book of Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar had known what

35:40

God had said, rebelled against it, so that he was cursed to wander in the wilderness for seven years acting like an animal.

35:51

But when reason came back to him, Nebuchadnezzar said, he was restored back to his position, and in that position now as a king, he glorified

36:01

God. And you'll notice in the words that were said there in Daniel 4, man cannot say to God, What have you done?

36:13

For we will all stand before Him in awe and in wonder of His glory and His majesty.

36:21

No one can say on that day we did not know. For the truth about God is plainly seen, and that He has given a righteous decree that is plainly known.

36:31

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.

36:42

So now then, number three, what applications might we make of this passage that we have read here today?

36:52

Did we just read this because Gabe rushed the ending last week so he had to do a sermon on verse 32?

36:59

Incidentally, I go to various... I have different websites that I go to and will look for sermons that pastors have preached on particular passages.

37:08

I mean, you can do the same thing with sermon audio. And I could not find a single sermon on Romans 1 .32.

37:18

Even on just that verse. It's often coupled, of course, with the rest of the sins that are listed there.

37:24

But then even when I would listen to those sermons, the pastor really didn't dwell much on what was stated there in verse 32.

37:30

And that's always been something that has truly shaken me to read that. They know

37:36

God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve to die. And I know that in myself,

37:41

I have even less of an excuse than they do. Because I was raised in being taught the truths of God by my parents.

37:51

And then they not only do those things, but they give approval to those who practice them. And how many times have

37:57

I, in trying to gain the approval of men, so that nobody would dislike me,

38:09

I gave approval to those sins that would make me popular with people. How many times have I done that in my life?

38:16

So what applications can we draw from this? First of all, we cannot give approval to sin.

38:25

Secondly, we cannot soften the warning of judgment.

38:33

And thirdly, we cannot forget the message of the gospel.

38:41

And so, first of all, we cannot give approval to sin. Now, in saying this, there are even two applications to that.

38:48

We can't give approval to the sin that the world and the culture loves, the people around us love.

38:56

We, as parents, can't let our children get comfortable in their sin and approve of that.

39:01

We can't approve of sins that might be embraced by a town council or decisions that are made in our own community.

39:08

We can't give approval to sins that are embraced in the Arizona state legislature.

39:14

We can't give approval to sins that will be embraced and approved of by our federal laws as well.

39:21

But we most definitely cannot give approval to sin in our own lives.

39:27

And it has to start there first. You remember what instruction

39:33

Jesus gave in Matthew chapter 7 in the Sermon on the Mount. You hypocrite! Why are you trying to remove the splinter from your brother's eye when there's a log in your own eye?

39:47

First remove the log that is in your eye, and then you'll be able to see to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

39:54

Now, what part of that passage is most often quoted? Matthew 7, 1.

40:01

Judge not! Who are you to judge? And we're even going to get that a little bit here in Romans 2 when we come to that portion of the passage next week.

40:13

So they want to try to stifle us from ever judging anybody at all because, hey, Jesus said judge not, so you can't judge.

40:20

But the irony there is that they're judging us whenever they throw that passage out there.

40:26

Hey, judge not while you're judging me by telling me to judge not. But when you go on to that instruction, when you go on in that instruction as Jesus gives it,

40:35

He says, first remove the log from your eye. Then remove the speck from your brother's eye.

40:42

So it's not a statement of we cannot judge at all, but it is a statement of do not judge hypocritically.

40:50

And if we are going to see the evils that happen in this culture and call them out and point to the gospel, there has to be a consistency in our message.

41:01

There must be a consistency even in our own hearts. For as we will see next week when we get to Romans 2, 1,

41:07

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 same things.

41:18

I did have somebody say to me once when I was making a condemnation of a certain sin, or it was rather a false doctrine in particular.

41:26

Somebody was speaking falsely, and I corrected it. And somebody spoke up and said, You know, the

41:31

Bible says that with the same measure that you judge, it will be used against you. And I said, That's fine. I'm not guilty of that heresy.

41:39

And they were totally appalled by that, like I had just declared something self -righteous. But even

41:45

Paul instructed Titus in Titus 2, Be consistent in your message, be sound in doctrine, so that everyone else will have nothing evil to say about us.

41:59

The very things we preach must be the things that we do. The gospel that we say that we believe and forgives of sin must be the gospel that we walk in.

42:09

The righteousness of Christ that we say that we've been clothed in must be demonstrated in our lives.

42:16

And we must take care of those sins in our lives first. There may be things that we're aware of you doing something, which in that case, the

42:27

Bible gives us instructions on how we confront sins in somebody else. Whether you've sinned against me, or maybe

42:32

I've seen you doing something that makes you guilty before God. Matthew 18, verses 15 -17 gives us an order in which we might confront a brother who is guilty of sin.

42:43

Those instructions come straight from Christ. But there may be other hidden things nobody is aware of.

42:49

We don't know that you commit those sins in the privacy of your own room or in the grudges that you harbor in your own thoughts and mind.

42:57

And you must be convicted and listen to that conviction of the

43:03

Spirit. Just as Jones saw two little girls on the front row looking back at her with admiration, and that was convicting to her heart.

43:12

It was something the Lord used to pull her away from her sin to Himself. Do not ignore the

43:20

Spirit when He convicts your heart in such ways. For Hebrews 12 tells us that God disciplines those

43:29

He loves. Jesus said to the church in Laodicea, in Revelation 3,

43:35

Those whom I love I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.

43:42

And as we will hear last week in Romans 2, 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?

43:55

But don't be the man that's described in verse 5. Because of your hard and impenitent heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when

44:05

God's righteous judgment will be revealed. Don't let that be you.

44:13

In Psalm 19, David said, Declare me innocent of hidden faults.

44:22

And in Psalm 139, he said, Search me and know me and try my thoughts.

44:31

David wanted every part of himself examined by the one who knows the heart and mind of every person.

44:39

Let there not be even sins that I'm unaware of. Bring them to the surface, that I may lay them before God and be cleansed of these things.

44:50

To be holy as God is holy. To desire the righteousness of Christ in every way in my person, that I may live upright before you.

45:05

So first of all, we cannot give approval to sin. We can't give approval to it when we see it in the culture, in friends and family, or otherwise.

45:14

But we most especially cannot give approval to it in our own lives. Colossians 3 .5,

45:22

Put to death what is earthly in you. Second, we cannot soften the warning of judgment.

45:36

There is judgment that will come against these things. As we read in verse 18, The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

45:49

God's judgment will be poured out on these things. Having just quoted from Colossians 3 .5, the very next verse says that the wrath of God comes against such things.

46:01

And there may be many preachers today who will be willing to stand before their congregations and say, For God so loved the world that He gave

46:08

His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him will not perish, but have everlasting life.

46:14

Absolutely. John 3 .16, message of the gospel. But they're not so keen on the verse that's 20 verses after that.

46:22

For those who have the Son have life, but those who do not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on them.

46:35

When the Apostle Paul preached at the Areopagus, a section of Acts 17 that I had opened a sermon with a few weeks ago.

46:42

When he preached to those Greeks there at the Areopagus, in the midst of the statues to their false gods, he said at the conclusion of that message that there is a day on which

46:55

God will judge the world in righteousness. However long it takes to read that sermon out of Acts 17, the way that Luke words it there, two or three minutes?

47:10

And yet in a two or three minute sermon, Paul still warns the unbelieving pagans of the judgment of God that is coming.

47:22

God will judge the world by the one whom He raised from the dead. And of course we know that it is

47:30

Jesus Christ who stands at the judgment, who sits on the judgment seat, before whom all the nations will be brought, as talked about in Matthew 25 and also in the book of Revelation.

47:42

And that judgment that is coming will require that God is going to separate the righteous from the unrighteous.

47:49

In order for Him to bring in this perfect kingdom in which there will not be any evil, nor will there be the effects of evil anymore, nor the consequences of evil, of sin, which is death,

48:00

He must remove the unrighteous and they will perish in judgment. Revelation 21 .5,

48:06

He who was seated on the throne said, Behold, I am making all things new.

48:12

Also He said, Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true. And He said to me,

48:18

It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.

48:28

The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.

48:33

But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.

48:52

This is repeated again in Revelation 22, verses 14 and 15. Blessed are those who wash their robes so that they might have the right to the tree of life, and that they might enter the city by the gates.

49:05

Outside are the dogs, and the sorcerers, and the sexually immoral, and murderers, and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

49:15

They will not inherit eternal life. When God brings

49:22

His perfect kingdom into fruition, it means the removal of those who practice unrighteousness and the fiery judgment of them who had rebelled against God.

49:36

That has to be present in our message. Because what we are putting forth as Christians is not just a more moral way to live.

49:47

We're not just trying to issue behavior modification upon our people or culture or society among whom we live.

49:58

We are telling them there is judgment that is coming for this rebellion that you have done against God, and the only way to be saved is to turn to Jesus Christ.

50:12

And that brings me to that third application. We cannot forget the message of the gospel.

50:21

We cannot give approval to sin, either in our lives or in the lives of others.

50:27

We cannot soften the warning of judgment. And third, we cannot forget the message of the gospel.

50:33

It's actually knowing of the judgment that is to come that makes the gospel so beautiful and so glorious.

50:41

God's wrath will be poured out on sinful man, and every one of us deserve that.

50:51

But Jesus Christ, when He died on the cross for our sins, took the wrath of God upon Himself.

51:00

He paid our penalty in our place. And all who believe in Him, not only are our sins imputed to Him, but His righteousness is given to us.

51:15

As I quoted a moment ago, Jesus speaking to the church at Laodicea was also to that church that He said, Buy from Me white garments, so that the shame of your nakedness may not be seen.

51:29

And if we have been cleansed of our sins and clothed in the righteousness of Christ, then my friends, we'll live in that righteousness.

51:39

It's not about modifying your behavior to make yourself more righteous before God because you won't ever get there.

51:47

You come to Christ, and He will modify you and make you glorious in His presence with joy.

51:57

We cannot forget that message of the gospel that delivers us from sin, that gives us

52:11

His righteousness, and promises to us fellowship with God and everlasting life with Him because of what

52:19

Christ has done for us. By His death on the cross, His resurrection from the grave, even

52:25

His ascension into heaven, and being seated at the right hand of God where He intercedes for us on our behalf.

52:30

You can come now before Christ and lay your sins down and you have the assurance of forgiveness that God will give because of Jesus.

55:49

You've been listening to the preaching of Pastor Gabriel Hughes, a presentation of Providence Reformed Baptist Church in Casa Grande, Arizona.

55:57

For more information about our church, visit our website at providencecasagrande .com On behalf of our church family, my name is

56:05

Becky, thanking you for listening. Join us again Monday for more Bible study, when we understand the text.