Hearers and Doers

Good morning and welcome to worship this morning. I have been anticipating this week, and I am excited that we have this opportunity to observe the Lord's day together and are privileged to dive into the Apostle Paul's letter to the Church in Rome.

Our primary passage will come from Romans chapter 2, and we will be considering one verse within the context of the entire passage this morning. That verse will act sort of the thesis for what Paul is getting at in this particular section of his letter.

That verse is Romans 2:13 "For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified." In other words, Paul says a great deal here in this section of the letter, but all of it is said to this one point.

"Hearing the Law does not make us righteous before God, but doers of the Law will be justified." In the context of what we are about to read, this verse speaks of the Jews and how they somehow thought they were better off than the gentiles where God was concerned. But as we will soon see, this can be applied to the developed and self-identified Church today.

And so, (pause) please stand with me for the reading of God's Word. Romans 2:

God's Righteous Judgment

2 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. 2 We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. 3 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? 4 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? 5 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.

6 He will render to each one according to his works: 7 to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; 8 but for those who are self-seeking[a] and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. 9 There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, 10 but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. 11 For God shows no partiality.

12 For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. 13 For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.

Let Us Pray!

Dear Heavenly Father, we come before you this day as an offering to you and your will. Please help us place our struggles, issues, and trouble behind us and keep you before us as you reveal your nature through your Holy Word. In Christ's name, we pray, Amen!

Almost immediately, we can see that Paul addresses some straightforward questions or issues possed to him.

2 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. 2 We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. 3 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?

Paul jumps straight to the point. Now, mind you, this is immediately after pointing out the ungodliness of the Pagan's in Rome outside the church body. And now, he turns his focus inward on the Church itself. He has heard that the Jewish brothers are condemning the non-Jewish brothers for not being circumcised and so forth.

Now I am sure that most everyone agreed on the moralistic views of Paul in chapter one. Even the pagans would agree in large part with his stance on ethical issues. But now that they are all going yep, that is insidious, Paul, who is not even present, I remind you, flips the script. Pretty much asking; how dare you? So, most everyone has been gut-checked, and Paul is just getting started.

One such example of a man who loved Christian philosophy without accepting the reality of the faith right away was a man by the name of Senneca the younger. A contemporary of Paul and the little brother of a Roman leader named Gallio is seen in Acts 18:12-18.

Maybe you remember the story as I mentioned it only a few weeks ago. Of how the Jewish Synagogue was trying to have Paul tried, and the Gallio refused. After he refused, the crowd turned against the synagogue leader Sosthenes, whom we read about in other letters as being present with Paul on the mission field.

So, Gallio is the big brother of Seneca the younger, and Seneca was a philosopher and adviser to the emperor at the time. Whom of all people was Nero! You know the guy that hated those pesky Christians. Seneca, the younger, developed sympathies for the Christians while it does not appear his big brother did the same. During the Apostle Paul's early journey, it is believed that while Seneca shared all the values of the Christians, he did not share in their faith.

It is most likely because of interactions with Paul that he eventually became regarded by several of the early church fathers as a believer and leader in the early Church under the apostles. So, a man such as Seneca would have, for the most part, agreed with Paul's statements in Chapter one; it is here, however, in chapter two, where Paul gets after the Church. The power of the Word of God does work, it is more than sentiment, and here we see the purpose of the word would be to bring genuine believers to repentance and nonbelieving sympathizers like Seneca running for the door not wanting anything to do with the power of such a message. And based upon the nature and purpose of Paul's letter to the Roman Church, I would say that this tact was undoubtedly deliberate.

So, Paul is calling them out, and after luring them in with the obviousness of sin in the world, he points back to their sin saying;

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. 2 We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. 3 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? 4 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? 5 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.

Pay attention to verse five there. "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." Now, remember Paul is speaking to the Christian here and not the lost.

Some would say that this is evidence that we can lose our salvation, but that is not a hermeneutically sound interpretation. What he is speaking of is the judgment of the saints. Paul is warning that we will all still stand before God, and in many cases, unfortunately, we will receive His wrath and not reward. Why? Because we as believers allowed our hearts to be hardened against the truth of God.

Look. Christian or not, if you think that you can continue to blaspheme God's name before the world by living like the devil, you need to understand that there is wrath you can and will contend with when our day of judgment comes.

Blaspheme, that is to say, the misrepresentation of God's name is what Paul is getting at here, and he makes that clear in verses 23 and 24. "You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law. 24 For, as it is written, "The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you."

What behavior was it that the Church in Rome displayed that Paul warned would ensure the wrath of God? What was this thing so awful and insidious that Paul says this is blasphemy? They judged and condemned their brothers based on nonessential religious practices that had nothing to do with being a blood-bought born-again child of God!

Yep, that is right! Paul says that because you pronounce yourself as one thing and behave as another, you are not only a hypocrite, you are a blasphemer of God’s Holy name!

What we do matters a whole lot more than what we think we know. You may think that you have all of the mysteries of scripture figured out. Perhaps, you think that you learned in Sunday school more than you ever could in seminary. Maybe, just maybe, you are that awesome. But, what you think you know cannot make you righteous or impress God, if you are not applying it through action.

If you have been one of those Christians that believe that because you cannot lose your salvation, that you can do whatever you want; then Paul and the word of God is calling you a blasphemer, and you will face God’s wrath. And Christian, before you lie to yourself by misusing scripture and convince yourself that you will not be judged because He will through your sins into the sea of forgetfulness, go and read using the proper hermeneutical applications we have been pointing out the past few months. Throwing sins into the sea of forgetfulness is no where in any Bible, despite the fact that somewhere along the way someone has decided to self translate Micah 7:19 by adding the words “of forgetfulness.”

Micah 7:19 ESV

19 He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.

In other words, because of His compassion, Jesus will tread them under His feet. Meaning, He defeated them on Calvary. And notice the subject changes from He to you? Micah says Jesus will have compassion and trample our iniquities underfoot, and God, “you will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.” There is absolutely nothing mentioned about a sea of forgetfulness. This is another modern English sentiment that has made its way into the American Christian’s vocabulary and it is a lie.

Why do I point this out? Because, you are not getting away with anything. God knows what you are doing. He doesn’t magically forget that you cursed out your neighbor, slept with your neighbor, got so drunk at an office Christmas party that others mocked your faith in Him because of it. All of these things, and things like it, will not only incur a future wrath at judgement, it has already incurred a present wrath according to Romans 1:18-32.

Looking back at chapter one we learned from verses 18 through 32 that God’s wrath is revealed in judgment, and that God has revealed His wrath in judgment against the sinful pagan world because the sinful pagan world is guilty of rejecting His revelation and then of descending into idolatry and into every kind of horrifying vice.  We went through all of that in chapter 1, and the apostle Paul painted for us a vivid picture of the character of the godless heathen system in its evil and debauchery.  He also has clearly shown us that the wrath of God is working already in the world through the compounded sinfulness of men who have been abandoned by God.  Men abandon God and God abandons men to the consequence of their own sin, and thus the wrath of God is at work. 

That is for the sinner separated from God. But what about the Sinner saved by grace? Well, we just covered that. You will not lose your salvation, but you will feel the wrath of God at judgement and answer for you sins.

But our primary and bigger picture to consider here is not whether we will answer for our sins and actions after getting saved. Of course we will! That is not the question at all as far as scripture is concerned. The question here is; how will we dwell for an eternity with him, knowing that we Christians in 2021, (who are really more like the Jews in the context of our passage here in Romans,) having the revelation of the Law in Jesus Christ, are guilty of blaspheming His Holy name and making a mockery out of Him before the world that Christ himself died to save?

How about it Christian? How about it my brothers and sisters? How will we live before Him knowing that while we are redeemed, we are also guilty? We are guilty of blaspheming His name in front of our spouses, our children, the guy at the pump next to us at the gas station. Like it or not we are all guilty. There are those of us that have some doozy accounts to answer for. How will we do that?

The truth is that whether we like it or not, we are going too all have our moment before God and we will face his righteous judgement. The nonbeliever, will be forever separated from the presence of God, and His people, to dwell in a place of destruction. The redeemed believer will answer for their account in life, and of this Scripture not tradition, tells us there is no escape!

So, let us consider Paul’s words again in the first part of this chapter:

English Standard Version Chapter 2

God’s Righteous Judgment

2 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. 2 We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. 3 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? 4 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? 5 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.

6 He will render to each one according to his works: 7 to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; 8 but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. 9 There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, 10 but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. 11 For God shows no partiality.

Let us pray!

Heavenly Father. I come before you this morning humbled. Your Word once again speaks conviction and life into your people. Let each of us act according to whose we really are. Should we be not of you, our response will reflect that, and if we are of you then our response will be humble and continuous repentance. For give us when we are ignorant, and help us as we learn to be more pleasing to you. Lord hear our prayers as we lift our broken lives up to you once more.

Now (pause)

With every head bowed and every eye closed, please consider this message today. For your life and your actions, God has redeemed the believer. But there is nothing in scripture that even suggest that he will not remember who you really are and what you have really done. The first time I heard this, I went out and researched it wanting desperately for it to be wrong, wanting so badly for this to be the lie, after all I liked that lie, I grew up hearing it, and yet, it was true. There is no mention of a Sea of Forgetfulness anywhere in Scripture and in fact the notion doesn’t popup in Church history until the past hundred years. God still sees me that was embarrassing and very inconvenient.

So, There I was, once again exposed before my Heavenly Father knowing that He truly sees me and knows exactly how broken I really am.

Isaiah 43:25 ESV

25 “I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.

that word for remember is the same word that would be used to say “think.” In other words. If you mus read the verse with no context then it must be translated as something more like; “I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not think of your sins again.” God sees you!

Why am I driving this home so? Because, some, if not all of you have been taught just I was about this imaginary Sea of Forgetfulness. Today, I want to share the same truth that Paul was sharing with the Church in Rome.

I do not care if you have been saved a week, or a century, the very real truth is that you and I still answer to our Savior, for everything we have done since the day that we became His adopted children. With that realization setting in, I also understand that there are those of you that need to, you must pray. The front is open. Come up and we will pray with you, but for some of you this is a time that you need to get real with God. You may be thinking preacher I am not embarrassed to you, I am embarrassed how I behaved before God and before his creation while bearing His name. After all, what kind of fool thinks that they can fool God? To that I say, pray. Pray like you have not in a long time, maybe ever. Seek God today, and walk humbly with him.

The alters are open.

Ladies...