No Perfect People Allowed
Notes
Transcript
We’re going to continue our sermon series “Called to Serve” this morning. We started our started in 1 Peter 2 where we learned all believers are called into a holy priesthood that offers spiritual sacrifices of our life and our service to the Lord. Then we learned in 1 Corinthians 12 we are all part of the body of Christ and that there are many parts. All of them are important and we should learn how God uniquely created us to fill an important role in the church. Next, we studied Galatians 6 and learned about the call to carry each other’s burdens. Last week we turned our attention from inside the church to outside the church when we studied the parable of the Good Samaritan and asked the question “Who is my neighbor?”
This week we’re going to continue our focus on serving people outside the church. I’ve found that it’s easy to be critical of people who don’t go to church. In fact, Christians can be very judgmental toward nonbelievers. Why is that?
Judging others makes you feel good, and I’m not sure I’ve gone a single day without this sin. I watch the news and condemn those “idiotic people” who do such things. Most reality TV shows are full of people I can judge as sinful, ignorant, stupid, arrogant, or childish.
I get in my car and drive and find a ton of crazy drivers who should have flunked their driving test. At the store, I complain to myself about the lack of organization that makes it impossible to find what I’m looking for, all the while being tortured with elevator music—who picks that music anyway?
I stand in the shortest line, which I judge is way too long because—”LOOK PEOPLE—it says ‘10 items or less,’ and 1 count more than that in three of your baskets—what’s wrong with you people?” And why can’t that teenage checker—what IS she wearing?—focus and work so we can get out of here?
Judging is our favorite pastime, if we’re honest—but we’re not! We’re great at judging the world around us by standards we would highly resent being held to! Judging makes us feel good because it puts us in a better light than others.
I’ve talked to people who don’t go to church and they usually the same complaint about the church. They think the church is full of hypocrites who judge other people for their sin, but do the same things themselves. Sometimes we try to defend our judgmental attitudes. We point to the Old Testament prophets and people like John the Baptist and say “I’m not being judgmental, I’m just telling the truth.” But the judgment game is a dangerous game to play.
My prayer is that we will see that everyone is in need of God’s grace. None of us are perfect, in fact we should have a rule that no perfect people are allowed! In other words, none of us should see ourselves as perfect or even close to it. Our mission is to reach people who are far from Jesus and bring them to Him. When we do that, it’s going to get messy. If we’re really doing our job, the church will be filled with lost, broken people. We can’t reach the lost with a judgmental attitude that looks down on people because of their sin.
Today, we’re going to look at Romans 2 and see that Paul warns against judging others. We’re going to see who Paul is talking to and we’ll learn what he means when he tells us not to judge.
1 Therefore, every one of you who judges is without excuse. For when you judge another, you condemn yourself, since you, the judge, do the same things.
2 Now we know that God’s judgment on those who do such things is based on the truth.
3 Do you think—anyone of you who judges those who do such things yet do the same—that you will escape God’s judgment?
4 Or do you despise the riches of his kindness, restraint, and patience, not recognizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?
5 Because of your hardened and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment is revealed.
6 He will repay each one according to his works:
7 eternal life to those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor, and immortality;
8 but wrath and anger to those who are self-seeking and disobey the truth while obeying unrighteousness.
9 There will be affliction and distress for every human being who does evil, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek;
10 but glory, honor, and peace for everyone who does what is good, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek.
11 For there is no favoritism with God.
Paul wrote this letter to believers in Rome. In the first chapter, he wrote about the gospel being God’s power for salvation to Jews and Gentiles.
The Jews can trace their ancestry back to the ancient Hebrews who were part of the nation of Israel and had been chosen by God to be his people. God made a covenant with Abraham that his descendents would be more than the stars in heaven and nations and kings would come from them.
The Gentiles were any people who were not Jews. Many Jews thought Gentiles were less than them because they didn’t follow the rules. And those who didn’t follow their rules were cast out, unwelcome “sinners.” They had a very “us-them” perception of the world.
They often boasted about how wonderful it was to be the chosen, compared to those “messed up” people out there who didn’t know the Lord. They looked down on and talked down to those who did not hold their beliefs. They thought they were right because “We have the truth!”
But Jesus scolded them because they wouldn’t lift a finger to help those on the outside. They had no genuine love for people different than themselves. Their main failure was the didn’t see that “chosen by God” never meant chosen because they were better, but chosen for a responsibility to show God to the world.
Next in verses 26 through 32, Paul talks about God’s wrath on all people because of their sinfulness. He describes their sin as homosexuality, greed, envy, murder, gossip, slander, being a God-hater, arrogance, pride, disobedience to parents, being unloving and unmerciful.
Most people in church would nod their heads and say, “Yeah, preach it brother, they all deserve your judgement!” Just like the Jews, we think “those kinds of people” deserve God’s wrath. We’ve got it right and they got it wrong. Paul sets the stage for those that think the are holier than thou to learn about their judgmental attitude.
Let’s talk about why it’s dangerous to be judgmental. First of all, it can give us a false sense of security.
1 Therefore, every one of you who judges is without excuse. For when you judge another, you condemn yourself, since you, the judge, do the same things.
2 Now we know that God’s judgment on those who do such things is based on the truth.
3 Do you think—anyone of you who judges those who do such things yet do the same—that you will escape God’s judgment?
4 Or do you despise the riches of his kindness, restraint, and patience, not recognizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?
After presenting a vivid description of human sin, Paul sets his sights on those of us who are tempted to be judgmental. Paul described human society at its worst in chapter one, and those of us who aren’t as bad as that are tempted to look down our nose at those terrible sinners. We think Paul is talking about really bad people and not good, moral, upstanding people like us. So Paul turns his attention those who see themselves as good.
1 Therefore, every one of you who judges is without excuse. For when you judge another, you condemn yourself, since you, the judge, do the same things.
Paul turns the tables and says that it’s not just everyone else who is being judged, it’s you too! It’s really important to define the word "judge" in verse 1. It’s the same word Jesus uses in
1 “Do not judge, so that you won’t be judged.
Paul is probably referring to Jesus’ teaching there . "Judge" is a legal word that means "to judge a person to be guilty and liable to punishment. Paul is using this word to describe setting ourselves up as a judge over another person.
Paul’s talking about a judgmental, arrogant, hypercritical attitude that thinks we’re better than the person we’re judging. Paul’s not talking about making moral judgments. In the last chapter Paul said that all humans are under God’s judgment. In chapter one Paul made the moral judgment that certain attitudes and actions are sinful. You see, the opposite of being judgmental isn’t tolerance of everything but it’s humility.
So this passage isn’t telling us to turn off our moral judgment. If you hire a new baby sitter and she shows up to your house with green hair, a pierced nose, and a six pack of beer in her hand, it’s not judgmental for you to decide not to leave your kids with her. If we see a person run a red light and plow into another car, it’s not judgmental of us to tell the police officer what we saw. It’s not judgmental to say having an affair or stealing is wrong. Paul’s talking about a judgmental, hypercritical attitude that makes us a judge over people.
Paul says when we’re judgmental we condemn ourselves, because we’re guilty of the same kinds of sins we condemn in others. It’s not the act of judgment that’s wrong, it’s just that we’re not very good at it because we’re as guilty of sin as anyone else is. Paul is saying we’re all guilty of the same things listed in the last chapter.
29 They are filled with all unrighteousness, evil, greed, and wickedness. They are full of envy, murder, quarrels, deceit, and malice. They are gossips,
30 slanderers, God-haters, arrogant, proud, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,
31 senseless, untrustworthy, unloving, and unmerciful.
When God judges people, He’s able to see all the facts. Verse 2 says His judgement is based on the truth.
2 Now we know that God’s judgment on those who do such things is based on the truth.
God can see every thought and every secret. He knows our the attitudes we have. God is the only one who can judge rightly because He is the only one who can. Even though God sees all of our sin, He is withholding His judgement because of grace. He is giving people the opportunity to be restored to God.
Paul says that no one will escape judgement. Just because God is withholding His judgement now, doesn’t mean it will never come.
3 Do you think—anyone of you who judges those who do such things yet do the same—that you will escape God’s judgment?
4 Or do you despise the riches of his kindness, restraint, and patience, not recognizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?
But some of us think God’s grace period means that he’s not concerned about our own sins. We figure if our gossip or pride really bothered God, he’d do something about it. So we treat God’s kindness as if it were unimportant, we set it aside as a sign of that God doesn’t care about our sins, rather than seeing it as God’s way to turn us back to Him.
The next reason it’s dangerous to judge is because it can blind us to our own problems.
5 Because of your hardened and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment is revealed.
6 He will repay each one according to his works:
7 eternal life to those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor, and immortality;
8 but wrath and anger to those who are self-seeking and disobey the truth while obeying unrighteousness.
9 There will be affliction and distress for every human being who does evil, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek;
10 but glory, honor, and peace for everyone who does what is good, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek.
11 For there is no favoritism with God.
When we ignore God’s grace and patience, it shows that we are stubborn and hard hearted. Judgement day is coming and when it comes, all of us will have to stand before God. God will judge us for what we’ve said and done. When judgement day comes, there is only two options: heaven or hell.
All of us have blind spots, and a judgmental attitude merely keeps these blind spots blind. It’s like the woman who’s raised in an alcoholic family and she swears that she’ll live differently. Yet develops a drug problem and drags her children through the same kind of experience she had growing up. But she’s blind to the fact that she’s repeated her father’s sin against her.
We all have blind spots. We even change the way we talk about our faults because we think we have an excuse. Other people lose their temper but we have righteous anger. Other people are jerks but we’re just having a bad day. Other people have a critical spirit, but we simply tell it like it is. Other people gossip, but we share prayer requests. Other people are pushy, but we’re goal oriented.
Roger Williams was one of the Puritans who came to America in the 17th century. Williams became convinced that the Puritan Christians were too sinful and not pure enough, so he left Massachusetts and became the founder of the Rhode Island colony. He became a Baptist and started the First Baptist Church of Providence, Rhode Island. But again he became convinced that the church had too many sinners, that it wasn’t pure enough, so he started a smaller, purer church. He was still convinced the people weren’t pure enough, so he started a church with his wife, a friend and himself. His judgmental attitude blinded him to his own sins, and in the end he ended up walking away from church.
The blind spots we have in the church are why so many unchurched people avoid the Christian church at all costs. Not because we struggle with sin as much in the church as people do outside the church, but because we’re often blind to the sins we struggle with. We’re blind because we’ve spent so much time focusing on other people’s sins that we can no longer see the ways our own lives dishonor God.
That’s one reason we’re told to help each other when we have a blind spot of sin and to confess our sins to each other.
1 Brothers and sisters, if someone is overtaken in any wrongdoing, you who are spiritual, restore such a person with a gentle spirit, watching out for yourselves so that you also won’t be tempted.
16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is very powerful in its effect.
The last reason it’s dangerous for us to judge people is because we put ourselves in the place of God. God and God alone is the judge, and when we set ourselves up as judges of other people we’re actually playing God. And guess what playing God is? It’s rejecting our creator and worshipping and serving the creation rather than the creator, the very indictment we saw against the entire human race back in chapter 1 (1:25).
When we play God we show favoritism. When we coach our kid’s little league team, we treat our kid a little differently than the others. We all struggle with favoritism. It’s part of the human condition. That’s why we have checks and balances in our society to protect people against unfair treatment. That’s all well and fine for teachers, coaches, bosses, and politicians. But when we play God and set ourselves up as judges over people’s lives, we’re in really dangerous territory.
Do you remember the story of the Good Samaritan from last week? An expert in the law of Moses asked Jesus what he needed to do to have eternal life. Jesus asked him what was written in the law.
27 He answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,” and “your neighbor as yourself.”
Stop and ask yourself as a Christ-follower: How much do I really love those who are not in the family of faith? How willing am I to adapt the comforts of my culture to create a conversation for those who don’t believe the same things I do? Am I comfortable if they hang out and question and doubt in our church or in my small group or ministry? Am I willing to admit where I have doubts or uncertainty as well as where I find confidence in Christ?
Do I think of myself as “better than” or “more together” than those who are not Christ-followers?* Are nonbelievers attracted to my friends and me just as the “sinners” of Jesus’ day were attracted to him? If the church is truly to be the Body of Christ representing Jesus to the world, what should we be doing to be more like him?
Notice that even though Jesus had all the answers, He still respected and valued the opinions and free will of others. He often asked questions to get people to search rather than just telling the answer. He taught in parables to get people who were truly seeking to be curious about spiritual things. Even though he preached truth with authority, he didn't try to force people to believe. He loved people, gave them what they needed and then was willing to let people disagree and walk away, even though it made Him sad.
Because of all the baggage and lack of trust in our world, people need to talk about faith and process it. Most people aren’t interested in a one way conversation. They need to question faith and wrestle with it. We need to meet them where they are.
If we want to be a place where people meet Jesus, we’ll have to become people who truly respect and value all people as worthy of the love and sacrifice Christ gave. It means being willing to respect their thoughts and opinions, making sure they know we value them, even if we differ in belief.
If we want to reach people for Christ, we need to think about the other person’s viewpoint and try to understand their position just as much as we want them to understand ours. We have to be open to the Holy Spirit leading us to become a place where people feel comfortable because there are no perfect people allowed.
I pray that all of us will not be judgmental toward the people in Coaling Alabama. I pray that we will be known as a place where anyone can come just as they are and find their Savior, Jesus.
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