God's judgment on an unrepentant heart

Main Proposition:

“God’s Judgment on an unrepentant heart”

Intro:

Statement of proposition:

God judges everybody on the same scale. Repentance of sin and faith in his son Jesus Christ. He does not care where you are from, what church you go to, who your family is. All he is going to do is judge you by: 1. Repentance and 2. Faith in his son on top of that God will always judge perfectly and righteously. First, the Jew and second the gentile (meaning everybody). Who are we to judge others? We are all sinful, fallen people. We can fool others and put on the Christianity hat on Sundays, when people are around, but only God can see into the heart, see when you are alone, your true self and he will judge accordingly he is never wrong.

Other texts that support

James 3:1

3 Do not become teachers in large numbers, my brothers, since you know that we who are teachers will incur a [a]stricter judgment.

Speaking about the unbelieving false teacher and their punishment

Not meant to deter true teachers, but the judgment that will come from God that is perfect.

Psalm 9:4,8

4 For You have maintained [a]my just cause;

You have sat on the throne [b]judging righteously.

8 And He will judge the world in righteousness;

He will execute judgment for the peoples fairly.

Why does this matter?

As we read through Romans 1 Paul is talking about the gentiles and What the people in chapter two are saying: “I agree with you 100% and Paul is telling them “No, you’re not. You think you are, but you are not and I am going to prove it to you.” How dare you talk to God’s chosen people that way!

Main Point #1: We have no right to judge others!

Statement: Why do we think we have the right to judge other people's sins when we are sinners as well?

2 Therefore you have no excuse, [a]you foolish person, everyone of you who passes judgment; for [b]in that matter in which you judge someone else, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.2 And we know that the judgment of God [c]rightly falls upon those who practice such things. 3 But do you suppose this, [d]you foolish person who passes judgment on those who practice such things, and yet does them as well, that you will escape the judgment of God?

Prove

“Therefore”; What he is about to say has a direct relationship to what he was just talking about.

We need to remind ourselves what was said in the first chapter.

God manifested his wrath against all ungodliness and unrighteousness.

Jews who think that they are exempt from God’s judgment because they have not indulged in the immoral excess that was described in chapter 1.

Practice the same things: In their condemnation of others they have forgotten about their own sins. Self righteousness exists because of two deadly errors:

1. Minimizing God’s moral standard usually by emphasizing externals

2. Underestimating the depth of one's own sinfulness

The Jews thought Paul’s statement was not true of them. It was true of the gentiles because they are gentiles, but not true of the Jew because they are Jews. Why? Because Jews are such special men?

The Jews argument: God gave us the law and the fact that he has given us the law means we are His people and that we are saved.

The Jews were guilty of the same things that Paul was referencing in Romans 1:18-32, but they don’t think the same rules apply to them.

Here we have a group of people that claim to be the people of God, claiming to have a special relationship with him, claiming to be different from everyone else on earth.

The most ungodly people, the people whose ideas of God are tragically wrong are those who have never felt that they are sinners, and who cannot see why Christ had to die.

When Paul was Saul of Tarsus he did not see this at all.

He thought he was blameless as regards to the law

It is so easy to see and point out the sin of others, but at the same time not see the sin in our own lives.

Even if it was pointed out to us we would make an excuse, explain it away or show that in some way or another in our case it is not the same thing.

God’s judgment is not like man’s judgment.

Man’s judgment is never true judgment. Why? Because it is not according to a great eternal standard of truth.

We look at sins such as “lust, coveting” and because we are not guilty of that we think that we are alright.

We need to grasp the judgment of God and emphasize this because if we do not grasp his teaching that the judgment of God is always according to the truth we will not believe in the doctrine of the wrath of God.

God has no varying standards

I am not saying all of this to beat you guys down. It is truly a blessing to have parents that are believers’ and God can definitely use that to bring God’ elect to Him, but  I just  want you to truly be able to self reflect and ask yourself the hard questions. How is YOUR relationship with God? Not the relationship your parents want for you, not your parents' conviction for you to know Christ, but your OWN relationship/convictions to know Christ.

Verse 3:

There is no escaping God’s judgment

God’s judgment is perfect and just in every way

This should be one of the first things we talk about when evangelizing. We shouldn’t talk about the benefits of being a Christian it should be because we are under the wrath and judgment of God.

Man in sin believes in the depth of his being that he can escape and he puts up an argument and another and another. That’s what these Jews were doing.

Flowers in texts

Matthew 7:1-3

7 “Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. 3 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?

How easy is it to judge someone else yet try to bury your own sins? Nobody is innocent. We are all fallen people.

Here it says: God is going to judge you the same way that you are judging others and here is the thing when God judges us it is perfect judgment.

John 7:24

24 Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.”

While Jesus forbade harsh judgment that self righteous legalism promotes, He demanded the exercise of moral and theological discernment

James 1:17

17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.[a]

Emphasizes the perfect and inclusive graciousness of God

It is the standard of divine perfection

God is changeless and his judgment of us is all on the plane of perfection.

Illustrations

(Political system today)

Apply or Confront

I want to challenge you to have some self reflection over the next week. As we go throughout our week I want you to think on if you are judging others the way that Paul is describing in Romans 2:1-2. ALL of us are sinful. Why do you feel that you have the right to judge someone for their sin when you sin JUST as much as them? And when times like this pop up throughout the week Pray about it. Pray that the Lord will continue to soften your heart and pray for the people that you are judging. Pray that the Lord works in their heart and life.

Main Point #2:You must have a proper understanding of scripture

Statement: If we misunderstand God’s Word then we miss out on eternity with God.

4 Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and [e]restraint and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? 5 But [f]because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God,

Prove

Verse 4:

Another argument that man makes and thinks of to escape the judgment of God

The argument of the goodness of God.

Look back at the Jewish history and God was always good to His people, regardless of what they did.

What exactly is Paul addressing here? Every single day of their lives, unsaved people despise the riches of God’s goodness, restraint and patience which He displays towards them as he gives them ample opportunity to turn and trust Christ.

Sin is blinding: Because they had been blinded by sin they had completely misread the OT scriptures.

John 8:31-33: In verse one of chapter one Paul says “You must be a Slave of Christ” and here the Jews are saying: “They have never been in bondage to any man” well ... What about Egypt? And Babylon?

Do not let your misunderstanding of God be the difference in your eternal life.

Do not let your misperception of God’s goodness, and the belief in Jesus Christ be the reason your eternal life is in hell.

A man that goes on talking in this way about the goodness and the mercy of God, but at the same time continues to sin is a man who does not understand the goodness of God.

God’s goodness and kindness is supposed to lead you to repentance.

God is good because he does not strike us down immediately when we sin.

If God is as righteous, Holy, and just as you say he is then when I fall into sin God should immediately punish me.

First and foremost the Bible calls us to repent.

This involves action and….

Repentance does include the idea of not only a change in mind, but a change of a course of action, a change in the whole direction and habit of one’s life.

People look at repentance only in terms of actions. They think that a man stops getting drunk or being an adulterer or whatever else it may be, and begins to live in a different way, but that is the end of repentance, not the beginning. The beginning is this changed attitude towards God. It's thinking about God in terms of scriptural revelation and not in terms of our own ideas and philosophies.

The repentant man changes the view of himself.

We need to change our view on life.

Before we were converted our idea of life was what the world is enjoying today, but when a man repents, he has a different view of life in this world. He sees himself in the light of God and before God.

Verse 5:

Paul has told and shown us that they despise the goodness and restraint of God and now he’s going to tell us that they don't understand why they despise it. They don’t understand why they don’t repent, walk towards God, worship Him and believe in His son, instead they do the exact opposite.

The trouble with man in sin is the heart.

The trouble with man is not in intellect, it is in the heart.

We are more educated now than ever before in human history and how does the world look?

If you do not respond to God’s love, compassion and mercy it will harden your heart.

When a man does this, what exactly is happening to him? He is treasuring up for himself God’s wrath.

Think of a person that you know that is an unbeliever and here that person is misunderstanding and ignoring God’s goodness and forbearance and that person does not repent.

What is he ultimately doing? Storing up God’s wrath

God’s righteousness and goodness is like the Sun and our hearts are either like butter or clay. One melts and the other hardens.

Flowers in texts

Hebrews 3:12-13

12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 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.

Sin is going to tell you to ignore God and his mercy

We need to double down on God’s righteousness, repent of our sins and turn towards Christ.

We are not guaranteed a tomorrow. Only today through God’s common grace and patience towards us.

Matthew 5:45

Even to the evil, unjust, who blaspheme God, break his commandments. Yet God, in his richness and the riches of his goodness, causes the rain to fall upon their fields and their crops to grow and sends the sun and all its warmth.

John 8:31-32

31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Illustrations

Talk about my gym friend who thinks he is saved, but does not live a life that honors God. He misunderstands God’s word, grace, mercy and righteousness.

God has mercy on everybody that doesn’t mean you are in good standing with him.

Apply or Confront

Main Point #3: The integrity of the Judgment of God

Statement

Faith= Salvation + Works

6 who will repay each person according to his deeds: 7 to those who by perseverance in doing good seek glory, honor, and immortality, He will give eternal life; 8 but to those who are self-serving and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, He will give wrath and indignation.

Prove

Verse 6:

Between verses 6-10 Paul mentions 3 times “Judgment to all men”

This is the major point that Paul wants to drive home to these people

It is an individual judgment, every human that has ever existed, it is a personal judgment.

It is not a matter of nations being judged.

There are certain people that think that they will go to Heaven and are saved because they belong to a certain family. Here these Jews think that they are saved because of their history with God, the laws that God gave them.

How does judgment according to works fit with Paul’s theology?

It’s to show the Jews that God is impartial, that there will be no special favoritism for them.

The main purpose of this section is to determine that the Jews also fall short of God’s righteousness.

These verses are hypothetical: Eternal life would be given if one did good works and kept the law perfectly, but no one does the requisite good works, and thus all deserve judgment.

It also harmonizes with 3:19-20. No one can ever be justified by the works of law, since no one practices what the law commands.

Paul elsewhere teaches that works are necessary to enter the kingdom of God

1 Corinthians 6:9-11, 2 Corinthians 5:10, Galatians 5:21

Paul is speaking of the Christians who keep the law by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Because it is the result of repentance, such life isn’t earned; rather it is the fruit of one’s new life.

Verse 7:

Honor and immortality; General attitude, Are you seeking these things?

“Glory”: Everything that God represents and everything that God has done for His own people.

One word to describe this and that is perseverance.

It is a patient continuation

They are not people who make a sudden decision, and seem to be all out for God, making the rest of us feel that we have never been a Christian at all. It may last a month or two and then BOOM they drop it all.

Patient continuation does not mean just to start, it means to continue and go on.

They need patience because they live in a world that is dead against them

They are tried and tested against things that happen to them directly, things around them, things with their families, their office, the world.

States specifically that those who continue in good works will be granted “eternal life” which is described as “glory and honor and incorruptibility” and “glory and honor and peace”

Verse 8:

As we have seen in the first chapter: These people have a knowledge of God, his mercy, righteousness, goodness, patience and yet they still decide to say I am above His judgment… because I think I am special.

Self serving or selfishly ambitious

These people are only interested in serving themselves and doing what gives them satisfaction.

Willing to do whatever it takes to get ahead even at the expense of others.

The end result is God’s wrath.

Flowers in texts

1 Corinthians 1:30

30 And because of him[a] you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption,

The redeemed are not only given salvation by God’s wisdom rather than their own, but are also graciously given a measure of His divine wisdom, as well as his imputed righteousness.

John 5:44

44 How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?

What good is man made glory? What does that get you?

We all want satisfaction from peers. I get that, but at the end of the day what has more weight in your life? Glory from someone you don’t really know or God?

Galatians 6:9

9 And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.

We have to finish the race. We can’t be a lukewarm Christian for a few months or years and we are like I did my time. A true believer will never fall away from his/her faith.

Illustrations

(Parable of the sower)

Man's judgment in sports, scouting etc.

Apply or Confront

Apply to their lives

Do not compare your sin nature to others

Perseverance is key

Pray for the heart of a slave to Christ