WWUTT 1171 Who Are You to Judge? (Romans 2:1-3)

If God were to judge you just based on the judgments that you make of other people, you would still be guilty before God.

You can't even measure up to your own standard of judgment when we understand the text.

Thank you, Becky. If you listened to the outtakes on the Q &A episode on Friday, then you heard

Becky and I talking about doing a bonus Q &A episode for Monday. Well, that ended up not working out.

We were busier over the weekend than we thought we were going to be. But sometime this week, you will hear two

Q &A episodes. We're just going to leave it a surprise as to when that's going to happen.

In the meantime, we continue with our study of the Book of Romans. Chapter 2, we start today, beginning in verse 1.

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 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.

Now it's often thought that when we get to Romans chapter 2, the Apostle Paul shifts in his condemnation of mankind from the

Gentiles to the Jews. And that's true only in the sense that that distinction comes when we get to verse 12, not at the start of the chapter.

Here the Apostle Paul is addressing all of mankind, whether it's the Jew or the Greek. You might have noticed that in those last couple of verses that we read there.

Verses 9 and 10, 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 here, at least for these first 11 verses, the

Apostle Paul is addressing both. He brings all of mankind under condemnation in this section that we're looking at that goes from Romans 1, 18 through chapter 3, verse 20,

Jews and Greeks alike or Gentiles all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

But he doesn't zero in on how the Jews have come under the condemnation of God until we get to midway through chapter 2.

In the meantime, we're addressing all mankind, and that's clear from the very first verse. Therefore, you have no excuse,

O man. This is not talking to just Jews, and it's not even talking to just Gentiles.

It's talking to all of mankind. Every one of you who judges, Jew or Gentile alike, everybody judges one another.

You have people who are pagans, who are unbelievers, who are lost, who are a law unto themselves.

They judge people all the time. And then, of course, you have the Jews who had the law of God, and they were judging people by the law of God.

But in their judgments, they were guilty of the same things, for they had also broken the law of God.

They thought that they were better than other people because they had the law, not realizing that they were no righteous than anyone else, for they also had broken the law.

And worse for the Jew, because they knew God's righteous decree, as we had read at the end of chapter 1, they even knew the law of God, and yet did not obey it, but practiced unrighteousness themselves.

This is why it says in verse 9 that there will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the

Jew first, and also the Greek, because the Jew should have known better. They were entrusted with the oracles of God, as Paul lays out in chapter 3.

So for now, we're addressing all of mankind here. We were looking at mostly the

Gentiles and how they operated without the law of God in chapter 1, verses 18 through 32.

But we shouldn't just think of Gentiles as being those who indulged in sexual immorality and even homosexuality, trading the natural function for that which is unnatural, as Paul had talked about in Romans chapter 1.

Israel was guilty of this too. You've probably heard an argument made before that there are only eight occasions over the course of the

Bible where homosexuality is even mentioned. Have you ever heard that argument? It's not true.

First of all, every time marriage is mentioned in the Bible, we have the picture of how

God created marriage, that it's supposed to be between a man and a woman, and they are to be fruitful and multiply.

Any other kind of sexual relationship outside the marriage bed is sexual immorality.

That theme is consistent from Genesis through Revelation. So every time you see a picture of marriage in the

Bible, it speaks loudly against this sexual immorality that our culture has embraced, even normalizing homosexual relationships.

But even in the Bible, the subject of homosexuality comes up more than just the eight times that are often cited.

For example, I'm not going to go into all of them, but just to name this one, since it goes with what we're talking about here in Romans 2, in 1

Kings 14 and 15, we read about male cult prostitutes who were in the land of Israel, who did according to all the abominations of the nations that the

Lord drove out before the people of Israel. In Ezekiel chapter 16, one of the most explicit chapters of the

Bible, God condemns Israel because they are guilty of all of Sodom and Gomorrah abominations.

So Israel would not be able to point to Sodom and Gomorrah, which, by the way, was still smoking in those days.

The land in which Sodom and Gomorrah once stood, which God destroyed with fire.

There was still smoke rising from that area for at least three or four hundred years after Jesus.

So about three or four hundred years, three or four hundred AD, there was still smoke rising from that spot.

We've got historians that had written about the smoke of Sodom and Gomorrah that was still rising from that land.

Anyway, I've mentioned that before, but got to go on. Jude chapter one, it's only one chapter in Jude, verse seven, it says,

Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

They were destroyed by fire on the earth, completely wiped out and now undergoing punishment of eternal fire under the wrath of God.

Israel would not have been able to point to the place where Sodom and Gomorrah once stood and said, look at all the sins that they're guilty of.

We're not guilty of those sins for which they deserve to be destroyed by fire.

Au contraire, Israel was exactly guilty of all of those sins, including the sin of homosexuality.

Now, God's wrath was not poured out upon them like it was Sodom and Gomorrah because of the covenant that God made with Abraham and then the covenant that God made with David and from Israel would come a savior who is the

Lord Jesus Christ. This is God in his own mercy and grace, faithful to what he had promised, even though what we deserved was to be wiped out, completely obliterated because of our sins against God.

Israel would not have been able to say that they were more righteous than anyone else. And you can't either.

And that's the point that's being made here in Romans chapter two, verse one. No one has any excuse.

You have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges because you cannot even measure up to your own standard of righteousness.

That's the argument that Paul is making for in passing judgment on another. You just end up condemning yourself because you, the judge, practice the very same things.

In verse two, we know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things.

And that was a statement that was made just a couple of verses ago. Romans one thirty two, 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, a whole lot of people here in this church in Rome may have been sitting there nodding their heads, may have been going like, yeah, all those guys, they know

God's righteous decree. They know that those who practice such abominable sins deserve to die.

But they do them and they give approval to those who practice them. So everybody sitting in that church is nodding their head.

But then Paul gets to this point in Romans two one, but none of you have any excuse because if you're passing judgment on them, you're condemning yourself for you have practiced the same thing.

Verse two, we know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things.

You know this, too. Don't be looking at them and nodding your heads at them. This is upon you also.

Do you suppose, oh man, that you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God?

Do you think that you've stored up any kind of righteousness for yourself just because you can point the finger at someone else and say, look at what they're guilty of and I'm not guilty of that?

You are condemning yourself because you are just as guilty. You cannot even meet your own standard of righteousness.

If we were to judge you based on the way that you judge everyone else, you wouldn't pass that test either.

Francis Schaefer gave this illustration. He said the following, if every little baby that was ever born anywhere in the world had a tape recorder hung around the baby's neck, and if this tape recorder only recorded the moral judgments with which this child as he grew bound other men, the moral precepts might be much lower than the biblical law, but they would still be moral judgments.

Eventually, each person comes to that great moment when he stands before God as judge.

Suppose then that God simply touched the tape recorder button and each man heard played out in his own words all those statements by which he had bound other men in moral judgment.

He could hear it going on for years. Thousands and thousands of moral judgments made against other men, not aesthetic judgments, but moral judgments.

Then God would simply say to the man, though he had never even heard the Bible, now, where do you stand in light of your own moral judgments?

The Bible points out that every voice would be stilled. All men would have to acknowledge that they have deliberately done those things which they knew to be wrong.

Nobody could deny it. We sin two kinds of sin. We sin one kind as though we trip off the curb and it overtakes us by surprise.

We sin a second kind of sin when we deliberately set ourselves up to fall, and no one can say he does not sin in the latter sense.

Paul's comment is not just theoretical and abstract, but addressed to the individual.

Oh man, any man without the Bible as well as the man with the

Bible. God is completely just. A man is judged and found wanting on the same basis on which he has tried to bind others.

That's from Francis Schaeffer's book, The Church at the End of the Twentieth Century, pages 49 and 50, in case you are interested in that particular work.

None of us can judge anybody else because we are all guilty of the same thing, and we know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things.

Do you suppose, oh man, you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself that you will escape the judgment of God?

Is not God the one who searches mind and heart and will give to every person according to their works?

Of course he is. Jesus even describes himself as such in the book of Revelation, and he is quoting words that the

Lord said to Jeremiah. So the word of the Lord to Jeremiah was the word of Christ that he then speaks to all the churches in the book of Revelation, and so we need to recognize that.

Jesus is the one who searches mind and heart. He knows exactly what we are thinking. He knows exactly what we are doing.

Making these moral judgments does not store up for us any kind of righteousness. On the contrary, it's storing up wrath for ourselves for the day of judgment.

So with that in mind, how is it that we can say to anybody else that they have sinned?

Well, it's why when we are evangelizing to somebody and we have to point out to them their sin so that they recognize their sin, that they have broken

God's law and they need a savior, we're not making that judgment of that person based on ourselves.

We're not the standard of judgment. We're showing them that they have sinned based on what

God's word says. So if our desire for a person is that they come to faith in Jesus Christ and so be saved, then we have to show them that they have sinned and they need a savior.

And you can awaken their understanding to that by simply telling them what the word of God says.

You can say to them, have you ever told a lie before? And they'll say, well, yeah, sure. I've lied before.

What does that make you if you tell lies? They say, well, I'm a liar. Okay, have you ever stolen anything before?

Yes. What do you call a person who steals? They're called a thief. Have you ever looked at a person and lusted after them before?

Yes, I've done that before. Well, Jesus said in Matthew chapter five, that if you do that, it's the same as if you've committed adultery with them in your heart.

Have you ever hated anyone? Have you ever called somebody names because you were so angry at them?

Yeah, I've done that before. Okay. Jesus said in Matthew five, that you're guilty of the fire of hell. If you've done that before, have you ever taken the

Lord's name in vain? Yes, I've done that before. Well, that's blasphemy. That's a very serious sin.

The third commandment. Do not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. And God will judge those who misuse his name because he is so holy and righteous and good and above us in all of his ways.

He will not even allow his name to be misused or blasphemed. So what we've just gone through here is five of the 10 commandments.

You are a lying, thieving, adulterous, murderous, blasphemer at heart.

So just based on this standard, if you stand before God in judgment, do you think that he is going to send you to heaven or hell based on this standard?

And so now, because you've used the law of God, you have not judged a person based on your own standard of right and wrong.

You have just awakened them to a knowledge of their own sin based on what God's law is so that they may see that before God, they stand condemned and they need a savior who will save them from the judgment of God that is coming upon all those who have broken his good and righteous law.

So now in light of the law, they see the need for Christ who died for our sins. He kept the law perfectly.

He died on the cross for our sins as an atoning sacrifice. He rose again from the dead.

And whoever believes in Jesus will receive the righteousness of God by faith.

So you share the gospel of Jesus who died for us, who rose again. Whoever loves

Jesus, God loves and he will pour out his favor upon.

He looks at you not as that wretched sinner anymore who had broken the law of God, who had become an object of his wrath.

But he sees you with the same love and affection that he loves his own son. And so now you have a relationship with God.

You love God. You want God because of the new heart that you are given in Christ as one who no longer wants to go against the law of God.

You now have the law of God written on your heart that you may keep it and obey it out of your love for Christ.

John 14, 15. Whoever loves me will keep my commandments. Whoever loves me and keeps my word, my father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him.

Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine, but the father's who sent me.

That's John 14 verses 23 and 24. So if we love God, we're going to keep his commandments.

And we need a new heart that desires to keep the commandment of God. You use God's commandments to awake a person to a knowledge of their sin that they may see a savior,

Jesus Christ, and so love him and so be saved. And again, we do this with God's word, with his standard of judgment, not with our own.

We cannot pass judgment on another. And in fact, this can be part of your testimony as you share this with a person whom you are showing their sin and trying to share the gospel with them.

You can say, hey, I'm no less guilty than you are. I'm in the same boat as you are in.

I need a savior too. I have also broken God's law, but I have turned to Christ and I believe in him.

So I know that by faith in him, when I stand before God in judgment, I will not perish in my sin and not because of anything that I've done, but because of what

Christ has done for me. And by faith, I have received the blessings of his grace and I've become a fellow heir of the kingdom of God in him because of Jesus, not because of me.

I need that savior too. I came to see my own sin and I saw

Christ as the God who loved me and gave himself for me so that by faith in him,

I would not perish under his righteous wrath, but I have the love of God and everlasting life with him forever in glory.

So we don't pass judgment on another based on our standard of moral rightness, but we must look through the law of God and help others to see his law also that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

But we are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

And of course, that's the point that Paul is getting to as we continue to go through the book of Romans.

Let's conclude with prayer. Our heavenly father, we thank you for the salvation that you have given us in Christ.

And I pray that we praise you for this and love you for this so much that we just have to share it with somebody else because we know that they stand condemned before God without a savior who has died for them.

His atoning blood covers them and forgives them of all sin if they turn from their sin and believe in him.

So help us to understand that word with that love for this word so that we may share it with others and they may be saved, especially in these days.

We have no certainty of anything that is going on in the days of Corona, except to love

God and your son whom you sent for us. Disease may ravage and destroy the body, but our soul will live forever with God in glory if we have faith in Jesus.

Help us to love your word even more in these days. We pray this in Jesus name.

Amen. Thank you for listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. If you'd like to support this ministry, visit our website www .wutt

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