Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Last week we walked through the first 11 verses of chapter of Romans.

We experienced Paul and Jesus challenging us to the danger of hypocrisy.

We talked about the reality that God doesn’t play favorites, He judges according to the truth.

And we remembered that this passage is about the Judgement of God in a here and now judgement sense, not in an eternal sense.

God judges people according to light.

I have a friend who is a pastor and was born blind.

He is married to a woman who was born with a syndrome that causes you to be very short, I'm not sure of the exact term I apologize.

She is only around 3 feet tall.

One time Ashley and I stayed at their house prior to our wedding we were participating in.

This woman was a fastidious clean freak.

She kept everything in pristine condition that is everything that was below about 4 1/2 feet in the air.

Beyond that height she couldn't see it and neither could her husband who is my height.

When Ashley and I left the house we felt loved on and cared for and we respected our friends.

in a few spots in the house there was quite a bit of dust piled up in areas that we easily saw.

But we didn't judge her at all because she couldn't see it and neither could he.

They were both very responsible with the capabilities they could had and what they could see.

And they are a wonderful couple to this day.

It would make no sense for you to walk into their house and judge them based on how you might evaluate how Ashley and I keep our house.

They are a dramatically different couple.

And they're different because of what they could see.

Among other things :)

Paul is saying that God judges people according to what has been revealed to them.

According to what they can see.

Previously Paul has made a couple things clear.

This is the idea that God universally makes His presence known.

This means everyone from your neighbor down the street to a child born to an ancient tribe deep in the Amazon jungle will be responsible for what they see of God in the world around them.

But Paul is writing this to Jews who already had the revelations from God.

They already knew God.

Paul is about to burst a bubble of pride.

The jews had lived for over a thousand years as God’s people carrying God’s message for and too the world.

And yet Paul is about to say that a Gentile who doesn’t have a relationship with God could be judged less harshly than a Jew, part of God’s people.

Let’s read the passage together:

Paul is pointing out that the gentiles who respond in obedience to God's law are in a better place in their relationship with God than Jews who have had the law in their possessions but have not responded with the same level of obedience.

In short Paul is saying that the Jews who have received the law and great knowledge about God will be judged greatly for what they know.

And those who have received knowledge about God in different ways will also be judged for the knowledge that they have received.

To quote Spiderman's uncle with great power comes great responsibility.

The Jews had great power in the form of a relationship with and knowledge of God.

Therefore they had great responsibility.

In order to best understand this passage let's take a look at the Old Testament book of Amos.

The Prophet Amos teaches us about God’s judgement.

In this book God prophecies against Six Nations that surround Israel.

He specifically rebukes them for their actions.

And what's important here is these nations are not recipients of the law of God.

God hadn't specifically told them how they should and shouldn't live.

And yet God rebukes them for their actions.

The six nations and why God judges them in Amos

Aram (Damascus)—They brutally attacked Gilead.

(part of God’s people-Israel)

Phoenicia (Tyre)—They sold Israelites into slavery and broke a covenant.

Edom—(He descended from Esau)—attacked the descendents of Jacob with a sword.

Ammon—brutalized the women of Gilead

Moab—Desecrated body/burial of king of Edom.

So that’s the judgement of the different nations around Israel.

Check out how the Nation of Israel is judged.

God judges the nations around Israel for how they disobeyed the laws of decency and humane treatment of others.

God judges Israel for how they disobey the laws of God.

A current example of this might be the reality that you can be judged for breaking the laws of our community.

Nations and individuals can also be judged for “crimes against humanity.”

China has actually been indicted in a major United nations report for their humans rights abuses over the last week.

Should the gentiles have known better?

God makes his nature clear in the world around us.

Human, if we care to see can understand God’s nature from the world we live in.

Paul also argues that we have God’s law written on our hearts.

So the answer is “yes” the Gentiles should have known better.

They should have known how to act with humanity and decency towards other humans because God has revealed His nature to us.

"Conscience reveals to us a moral law whose source cannot be found in the natural world, thus pointing to a supernatural Lawgiver."-C.S. Lewis

Along a similar line CS lewis argued for the existence of God simply because of the inherent moral compass that we all share.

The argument that Paul is making here is that the gentiles had enough revelation from God to know better.

The argument that Amos made was that the nations around Israel should have known better how to live and interact as nations.

In short, God judges according to the light that men and women receive.

And God reveals an abundance of light.

This last verse challenges anyone who reads it:

God will judge the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.

God will judge us for what we inescapably know by Christ Jesus.

God will judge even the secrets in our hearts by Christ Jesus.

God will stack the sins of our life up and compare them to what we have done with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

It's been said that these 16 verses from verse one through 16 of chapter two of Romans are sort of a parenthesis.

I mean Paul finishes in verse 32 of chapter one talking about the sins of the gentiles.

And then in verse 17 of chapter two he dives into the sins of the Jewish.

And the Jews are not going to be happy about what Paul has to say here they're not going to be happy Paul is calling them to account.

because for goodness sakes they had been the people of God for more than 1500 years suffering for and serving God off and on of course but they were God's people.

And yet Paul comes to them with what he calls my gospel.

These 16 verses might be considered a sort of scale to show that God in his justice is blind as justice is often portrayed.

Paul wants to make the point with these 16 verses that God will judge with fairness and righteousness.

And so when Paul brings a rebuke to these to these Jews he does so in the context of his argument right here that God judges with truth he judges with our works and he judges with the light we have received.

Conclusion

God calls us to not just be people who know His laws and commands, he wants us to do them.

God calls us to live out the law He has written on our hearts.

God also calls us to bring His Gospel to a world He has already revealed Himself to.

years ago I went on a youth group trip to Cedar Point.

We stayed at this place the night before that did not have working air conditioning and it was hot!

I did not sleep at all that night.

And laying in my bed I thought to myself if there was some way that I could acquire a fan I would pay all the food money I had just to have a fan.

It's always easier to sell an idea or a product when there's a need.

One of the largest markets in the United States and frankly around the world is young families.

Because after you have a baby your life is full of needs and pains and no sleep period so you are willing to pay and do whatever it takes to survive and keep your kid alive.

That's why there's a thriving market for baby and young family products and books and more.

There's a market because there is a need.

There's also a thriving market for self help books and spiritual advisors because our world still knows they have a deep spiritual need.