God Is the Supremely Righteous Judge
God Is the Supremely Righteous Judge
The Book of Romans
Romans 2:11-29
Sermon by Rick Crandall
Grayson Baptist Church - April 3, 2016
(Revised September 10, 2020)
BACKGROUND:
*Please open your Bibles to Romans chapter 2, as we focus on the fact that God is the supremely righteous Judge.
*In Psalm 19:9-11, King David spoke of the judgments God has put in His Word, and there David said:
9. . . The judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.
10. More to be desired are they than gold, Yea, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.
11. Moreover by them Your servant is warned, And in keeping them there is great reward.
*God is the supremely righteous Judge. Psalm 98:7-9 says:
7. Let the sea roar, and all its fullness, The world and those who dwell in it;
8. Let the rivers clap their hands; Let the hills be joyful together before the LORD,
9. For He is coming to judge the earth. With righteousness He shall judge the world, And the peoples with equity.
*Paul affirmed this truth in 2 Timothy. This was Paul's very last letter, and he wrote it shortly before he was put to death for the cause of Christ.
*This letter has often been called Paul's last will and testament. And in 2 Timothy 4:6-8 Paul said, "I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which THE LORD, THE RIGHTEOUS JUDGE, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing."
*Years earlier, Paul had written his letter to the Christians in Rome, and one of the great truths he established is that God is the supremely righteous Judge. With this background in mind, let's read Romans 2:11-29.
MESSAGE:
*There must be thousands of good, godly judges in the United States today. But our judicial system has been deeply corrupted by ungodly judges. I don't know when the terrible decline began, but it got much worse after World War II. One of the worst decisions was Roe v. Wade on January 22, 1973. There the Supreme Court invented the right to kill a baby in the womb, and now over 61 million babies have been the victims of legalized abortion. (1)
*But Christians: Our God is the supremely righteous Judge. Aren't you glad? The Lord is never blind to the truth. He can't be bribed or bullied. He never acts out of meanness, spite or revenge. And He always makes the right decisions. This is the truth Paul highlights in tonight's Scripture.
1. SO, FIRST NOTICE THAT GOD NEVER SHOWS PARTIALITY TO PEOPLE.
*As Paul said in vs. 11: "There is no partiality with God." And to get the full context here, we need to go back to chapter 1.
*In Romans 1:18, Paul said that "the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness."
*Then Paul went into great detail about their foolish, ungodly ways, and he gave a long list of sins that people embrace when they reject the true and living God. Then in Romans 1:32, Paul summed up by saying those ungodly people "who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them."
*In those verses, Paul was mainly talking about idol-worshiping Gentiles of the Roman Empire, and most Jews would have cheered Paul on at that point. They would have rejoiced over God's condemnation of the Gentiles, so the Holy Spirit turned Paul's attention in a new direction. And he began speaking to any self-righteous, hypocritical, judgmental people who would read this letter.
*Starting in Romans 2:1, Paul said:
1. Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.
2. But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things.
*Then in vs. 6-11 Paul said that God:
6. . . "will render to each one according to his deeds'':
7. eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality;
8. but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath,
9. tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek;
10. but glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
11. For there is no partiality with God.
*Thank God that there is no partiality with Him! What if you had to be a Jew to be saved, or a woman, or a man, or really smart and good looking, or an excellent athlete? Thank God there is no partiality with Him!
*But it's easy to understand why the Jews thought God was partial to them. After all, they are God's chosen people, and God did take strong measures to maintain the purity of the Jewish race. In the beginning of the next chapter, Paul will discuss some of the privileges of being a Jew.
*And to help us understand what a deal this was, remember that in Acts 10 the Holy Spirit led the Peter to go share the gospel with Cornelius. Of course, Peter was a Jew, and Cornelius was a Gentile Roman soldier.
*Notice one of the first things Peter said when he got to Cornelius' house. It's in Acts 10:24-28:
24. And the following day they entered Caesarea. Now Cornelius was waiting for them, and had called together his relatives and close friends.
25. As Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshiped him.
26. But Peter lifted him up, saying, "Stand up; I myself am also a man.''
27. And as he talked with him, he went in and found many who had come together.
28. Then he said to them, "You know how unlawful it is for a Jewish man to keep company with or go to one of another nation. But God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean."
*Under Jewish law of that day, it was illegal for Peter to even go into Cornelius' house! So, it's easy to understand why the Jews thought God was partial to them.
*Why did God keep the Jews separate from other nations? One of the main reasons why is because the other nations were infested with idolatry. In Exodus 23, the LORD spoke to His people about entering the Promised Land.
*And here is part of what the LORD said:
23. . . "My Angel will go before you and bring you in to the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites and the Hivites and the Jebusites; and I will cut them off.
24. You shall not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do according to their works; but you shall utterly overthrow them and completely break down their sacred pillars.
25. So you shall serve the LORD your God, and He will bless your bread and your water. And I will take sickness away from the midst of you.
31. And I will set your bounds from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the desert to the River. For I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you shall drive them out before you.
32. You shall make no covenant with them, nor with their gods.
33. They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against Me. For if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.''
*Sadly, many of the Jews were already infected with idolatry when they came out of Egypt. That's why they made a golden calf to worship when Moses was up on Mount Sinai with the LORD.
*Also remember the challenge that Joshua gave the Children of Israel after he had led them for 40 years in the Promised Land. In Joshua 24:14-15, their old leader said:
14. "Now therefore, fear the LORD, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the LORD!
15. And if it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.''
*The Jews would be plagued with idolatry for almost a thousand years, until they were carried away to Babylon. And that is one of the main reasons why God tried to keep the Jews separate from the other nations.
*But our God is the supremely righteous Judge, and there is no partiality with Him. That's why in Galatians 3:26-29, Paul says this to all Christians:
26. . .You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
27. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
28. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
29. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.
*As the righteous Judge, God never shows partiality to people.
2. ALSO NOTICE THAT HIS OBJECTIVE IS FOR US TO BE OBEDIENT.
*God is always trying to get us to obey Him, and that's good, because He always wants us to do the right thing.
*This is also why God is so serious about sin. We see this central truth in vs. 12-16. There Paul said:
12. For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without law, and as many as have sinned in the law will be judged by the law
13. (for not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified;
14. for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things contained in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves,
15. who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them)
16. in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel.
*Here Paul reminds the Jews that it is not enough to have God's law and hear God's law. GOD'S GOAL IS FOR US TO OBEY HIS LAW.
*God's law wasn't some kind of "good luck charm" or "get out of jail free card" for the Children of Israel. The law God gave to Moses was a code of conduct that had to be obeyed, many times under penalty of death.
*And if the Gentiles, led by their conscience, did obey God's law, then that was also good in God's eyes. Paul basically made the same point down in vs. 25-29. There he said this about the circumcised Jews and uncircumcised Gentiles:
25. For circumcision is indeed profitable if you keep the law; but if you are a breaker of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.
26. Therefore, if an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision?
27. And will not the physically uncircumcised, if he fulfills the law, judge you who, even with your written code and circumcision, are a transgressor of the law?
28. For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh;
29. but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God.
*Again, it is not enough to have God's law and hear God's law. God's goal is for us to obey His law. And as the righteous Judge, God's standard is total perfection, so He is always serious about sin. His objective is for us to be obedient.
3. ALSO NOTICE THAT THE RIGHTEOUS JUDGE SEES OUR SECRETS.
*In vs. 16, Paul talks about "the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel."
*We may try to hide and cover up our sins, but God sees all of our secrets. As Hebrews 4:13 says, "There is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account."
*Why does God's Word tell us these things? One big reason is because God wants to lead us away from hypocrisy. Another reason is because we have a natural tendency to cover up our sins.
*But God wants to help us repent and confess our sins to Him. Like many other people, King David had to learn this lesson the hard way. And in Psalm 32, David wrote:
3. When I kept silent, my bones grew old Through my groaning all the day long.
4. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was turned into the drought of summer. Selah
5. I acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,'' And You forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah
*As the righteous Judge, God sees our secrets.
4. BUT HE STILL WANTS TO SAVE OUR SOULS.
*Because He is perfectly righteous in love, mercy, and grace, God wants to save our souls. 2 Peter 3:9 tells us that the Lord "is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance." God wants to save people's souls. How does He do it?
[1] ONE WAY IS TO BLOCK OUR BOASTING.
*Many times people are tempted to be lifted up with pride and self-righteousness. And Paul again addressed this kind of spiritual blindness in his own people, the Jews. In vs. 17-24 Paul said:
17. Indeed you are called a Jew, and rest on the law, and make your boast in God,
18. and know His will, and approve the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the law,
19. and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness,
20. an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, having the form of knowledge and truth in the law.
21. You, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that a man should not steal, do you steal?
22. You who say, "Do not commit adultery,'' do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?
23. You who make your boast in the law, do you dishonor God through breaking the law?
24. For "The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,'' as it is written.
*People often get lifted-up with religious pride and self-righteousness, and that's what the Jews were doing here. They were trusting in their own goodness and religious good works.
*Another example of this spiritual sickness is from Warren Buffett. At age 90, he is one of the world's most successful investors. Mr. Buffett consistently ranks among the wealthiest people in the world. He was number 1 in 2008, number 2 in 2015, and as of last month he was number 7, with a net worth of 78.9 billion dollars.
*Back in 2006, Warren Buffett gave away more than 30 billion dollars to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. At the time he joked, "There is more than one way to get to heaven, but this is a great way." (2)
*Will giving 30 billion dollars get you into Heaven? -- Not a chance. And we may be tempted to boast of our own spirituality, but our religious good works and respectability are never good enough to get us into Heaven.
*The main reason why is because on some level, all of us fail to live up to God's standard of perfection. That's the point Paul is driving us to in this whole conversation. And in Romans 3:9-12, we will hear Paul say:
9. What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin.
10. As it is written: "There is none righteous, no, not one;
11. there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God.
12. They have all gone out of the way; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one.''
*The truth in Romans 3:23 is that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." So as the righteous Judge, God blocks our boasting.
[2] BUT THANK GOD, HE ALSO GIVES US THE GOSPEL!
*God brings people to the point of seeing their guilt, so they will run to Him for the salvation everyone desperately needs.
*And over the next 4 chapters God's Word will tell us a lot about His salvation. But it all goes back to Paul's key statement in Romans 1:16: "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek."
*Think how desperate people are without the gospel of Jesus Christ. In January of 2015, Daniel and Heather Felton went on a Disney Pacific cruise to Mexico. And that young couple from Louisville, KY did something I don't think I ever would have done: They took their 13-month-old baby along for the trip.
*Guess what: Between the different time zones and all the excitement, little Katherine couldn't get to sleep. They were up most of the night, and as their ship sailed near Mexico, Mom and dad thought: "We're on this big ship. Nobody's awake but us, and there's all this room on deck," so they went outside.
*Mom later told a TV reporter, "We were taking pictures of her, and then we both kind of heard something. We were the only people out on the deck. It was early enough that we didn't see anybody else, and we heard it a second time. I ran out toward the edge of the boat, and I looked down, and someone's going right by, yelling for help!"
*Heather ran and found some crew members. She told them about the life-or-death situation. Seconds later a loudspeaker announced: 'Mr. MOB.'" (That's code for man overboard.) The ship turned around as soon as possible. And the Disney crew was able to rescue the man who had been in the ocean for 5 hours! That 22-year-old was a passenger who had fallen off another cruise liner! (3)
*Think of the infinite odds against that man out in the ocean being heard and seen and rescued. Think how desperate he was to be saved from the sea! There is no doubt that God was watching over that man, and I hope he sees it.
*What a rescue! What a great story of salvation! But Christians: We have a much greater story of salvation! Because of our sin, we were far more hopeless than the man lost at sea. We were completely helpless and hopeless without Jesus, because the first part of Romans 6:23 says "the wages of sin is death," and that is talking about everlasting death.
*We were helpless and hopeless without Jesus. But here's the rest of our story: It begins in John 3:16 with the gracious love of God: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."
*Without Christ we were completely hopeless, because again in Romans 6:23, "The wages of sin is death. . ." But thank God that verse goes on to say that "the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
CONCLUSION:
*Many people get away with crimes here on earth. But God is the supremely righteous Judge. He sees all. He knows all. And you will never be able to get away from Him. Your only hope is to go to God and receive the salvation He wants to give you through our crucified and risen Savior Jesus Christ.
*Put your trust in the Lord as we go back to God in prayer.
(1) Sources:
-National Right to Life - http://www.nrlc.org/uploads/factsheets/FS01AbortionintheUS.pdf
-American Life League - https://www.all.org/learn/abortion/abortion-statistics/
(2) Sources:
-"Cultural Commentary, Denison Forum on Truth and Culture," 1192016 - Source: In Other Words - March 2016 #2 - Produced by Dr. Raymond McHenry - www.iows.net
-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Buffett
(3) "13-Month-Old Baby Keeps Parents Awake on Cruise Ship, Causing Them to Venture on Deck -- Some Will Believe It Was Fate" - Jan. 16, 2015 - by Dave Urbanski