Romans 2:1-16 Jimmy Draper

In this chapter of Romans, the focus shifts to the Jews and their hypocrisy. The author emphasizes that God's judgment applies to everyone, regardless of their background. The chapter also discusses the importance of both sound doctrine and living a life that aligns with it. The Jews, being the first recipients of the gospel, hold a special place in salvation and judgment. However, God's judgment is impartial, and no one should judge others. Christians should be careful not to fall into the common sin of judging others, as motives are known only to God. Instead, they should strive for unity and avoid creating dissension within the church. The chapter highlights the need for humility and forgiveness. We are going to look at the second chapter of Romans, and next week Brother Jack will pick up with verse 17, and we are going to go through verse 16 this morning. The first chapter was largely referencing and dealing with Gentiles, and this chapter is focusing more directly on the Jews. Having said that, I am not sure what difference it makes, because whatever God says about sin and how he describes it and how he says we are going to have to face judgment over it, it applies to all of us. This is more narrowly directed to the Jews, and in this second chapter, this first half of this second chapter, we are confronted with the hypocrisy of the Jews themselves. It is very obvious what he is talking about, and we will get into that in a moment. He also, in this section, deals with the standards by which we will all be judged, and just reminding all of you that all of us are going to stand before the judgment. The judgment seat of Christ is the believer's judgment, which is not a judgment to determine whether or not we are going to heaven. That has already been determined when we got saved, but it is the judgment of works. So if God is going to judge us according to our works, then it means it is important what we do, right? And sound doctrine is not good by itself. Don't you remember I told you in John chapter 3, and in one other place at least in John's writings, he uses the phrase, doing the truth. Every translation may have it a different way, but he is talking about truth is not something you believe, it is something you do. We do the truth, and so we can say we believe. Sound doctrine is not enough for us to face judgment. We need to have a life that backs it up, and we will talk a little bit more about that. The reason I think that this first portion of this is to the Jews, because twice in verses 9 and 10, he speaks of first to the Jews. Interesting thing about the Jews, they were first in salvation, the gospel according to verse 16 here, the gospel was first for the Jews, and the early church, as we have noted in the last several weeks, was a Jewish church. Church in Rome began as a Jewish church, and the council of Jerusalem in Acts chapter 15 was to determine how Gentiles could be saved, because the Jews were thinking that some of them couldn't be saved without doing some of the Jewish rituals and traditions. So twice here he says in this first portion that it is first to the Jews, they are also first in judgment. So Jews first salvation, first to be judged, and they actually represent all of us, because we are all going to have to face judgment in one form or another. The Jews had a two-fold primacy, because they were first in salvation and first in judgment. But God is using this whole idea to show that his judgment is impartial, it doesn't matter who you are, God's judgment is absolutely impartial. This chapter introduces us to a typical Jew. Most commentaries would refer to him as the moral man. Let me just read the first five verses here, and we'll try to dive into it, and I'm embarrassed that I talked so long last week, because we all were late getting to church, so we'll try to correct that. I do think we got through our passage last week, but we were too long. By the way, when I preached at Cleaver, they told me I had twenty-seven minutes to preach. So the first service I preached, and there wasn't a clock. I mean, there ought to be a clock on the screen, they had screens, you know, where they put messages on the screens and there's no clock on them. So they put the clock up for the second service, and I was supposed to be through at twelve o'clock. Well, I looked up, and I'm whittling along, just wheeling along there preaching, and I looked up and it was ten minutes to twelve, and I thought, man, I've got ten whole minutes here, I can do all right. But when it hit twelve o'clock, they turned them off, and I didn't know they turned them off. I looked up there and there's no clock, and I thought, now what do I do? And then I did a real dumb thing, you know, I'm pretty good about doing that, you know. But I said, well, they must want me to quit, because they just turned the monitors off. I don't know, it just threw me off, because I was going to try to wind down, but I missed when I got to twelve, I guess, because they just turned the monitors off. Everything went dark. Oh, and then the funny thing was, I brought the microphone home. I told the guy, I said, look, if you have somebody put it on me, you need to have somebody take it off. So they ended up getting a package in the mail this week, trying to take care of it. Okay, all right, I was going to read this one. All right, let's start with verse one, chapter two. 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. We know that God's judgment on those who do such things is based on truth. Do you really think any one of you judges those who do such things and yet do the same? Do you really think you will escape God's judgment? Or do you despise the riches of his kindness with strength and patience, not recognizing that God's kindness is intended to lead you to repentance? 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. Here is the moral man. Here is the man who is now passing judgment on everybody else. I know there are some people that do that all the time. Now, let me just stop and say, this is a very significant chapter for a lot of reasons, but this is the most common sin that Christians commit, judging other people. Now, let me tell you why that's unfortunate. One, God says don't do it. Two, because you can't know someone's motives. Now, just think what's going on with President Trump right now. The lawyers are saying he intended to do this. How do they know that? Nobody knows what he intended but him. You can't tell somebody's motives. Motives are hidden to us, but they're not hidden to God. God not only knows what we do, he knows why we did it. And so someone who judges is someone who stands, number one, in a presumptive position. You're better than everybody else. And because you're better than everybody else, then you have a right to say you're and you're, of course, better than they are, so you look down and you criticize. Hate to say it, but that's very common in the church. I've told you before, I've preached in over a thousand churches over the last 60 years. It's rare to find a happy church. I think I mentioned this last week, but in 1 Corinthians, I believe it's 6.19. It could be 3.19. I always loved those two mixed up because they say almost the same thing. But after saying that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, he says if anyone and you're the body of Christ. It's all in that context. He says anyone who destroys the body, the body of Christ, I'll destroy him. That's pretty scary. And when you... I know I'm preaching to the choir. You would never say anything critical, I know. Well, maybe. But, you know, God's really serious about people who create dissension. Who try to create chaos in church. And we just need to be careful. God's given us a sweet spirit here. We're not all alike. We're not all the same. We don't all do the same thing. We don't agree on everything. That's okay. Because we're one in Christ and we're fellowship where he is the focus and not us. But it's very common in scripture. For instance, in Luke chapter 6, beginning at verse 37, Jesus said, Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Be not condemned. Don't condemn, and you will not be condemned. But forgive, and you will be forgiven. And then it goes into giving. They'll be giving unto you a good measure. Fresh down, shaken together, running together. It will be poured in your lap for the measure with which you use. It will be measured back to you. So essentially it goes from judging people to talking about being generous. Good sermon in there somewhere, I would think. In chapter 18, we have really the picture of the guy that Paul's talking about. 18, beginning at verse 9. Jesus told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and looked down on everyone else. Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. The Pharisee was standing and praying like this about himself. God, I thank you that I'm not like other people, greedy, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, I give a tenth of everything I get. But the tax collector standing far off would not even raise his eyes to heaven but kept striking his chest and saying, God have mercy on me, a sinner. I tell you, Jesus said, this man went down to his house justified because everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted. This is a very big presence in the ministry of Jesus in the New Testament. And we just need to be reminded that we're not the judge. And we just need to be careful when we pray. Pastor mentioned people believe Facebook, sometimes more than they do the Bible. I've seen it this week with some correspondence I've had from people who ask questions about some things concerning a church and some of the things they've been accused of doing. It's all over social media and this person wrote, I read this and I wrote that, I wrote back and said, whoa, number one, I know the church, know the pastor, know the executive pastor, I've preached in the church. They have addressed all of the criticisms that have been given and they've all been proven to be false. I was on the credentials committee that had all the complaints about churches come through for two years, the one that's a permanent committee. We never had a complaint about that church. I said, what you have read on social media is not true. We need to be careful and we're all kind of guilty. I go online to get information sometimes and then I wonder, I wonder if it's really reliable. Especially I get nervous when the site says, if you'd like to add information to this, I wonder who's added stuff. We just need to be careful. There's so much good in the worst of us and so much bad in the best of us that it doesn't behoove any of us to talk about the rest of us. You never know. Rick Warren's gotten a lot of criticism here, Rick's a dear friend. He stirred quite a ruckus in California a number of years ago when they started to minister to Muslims. They invited Muslims in for special fellowships. Rumors got out over there that he had compromised the gospel and he was soft on Islam. I called him and said, what do you think about Rick's just really denying the Bible, doing this? I told him, I said, well, number one, I know Rick Warren. And I know that's not true. I called Rick and asked him and he said, that's definitely not true. We were reaching out, trying to establish relationships with Muslim people so we'd share the gospel with them. We just can't believe everything that somebody says. In fact, I'm not sure we can believe everything anybody says anymore, certainly not the media. It's just unbelievable. But he's talking here about a person who sits in a high position and presumes to know everything so he looks down on them and passes judgment on them. This is what the Jews did. The Jews called Gentiles dogs, Gentile dogs. They hated the Gentiles. And they were very arrogant about it. They assumed that the law would put them ahead of everybody else and they were justified by the law. Since I may forget it, I'm going to say it now. We're not justified by the law. We're justified by faith in Jesus Christ. The law doesn't justify anybody. And we need to focus on Christ and know that there's where our redemption lies. So here's the moral man who passes judgment on other people. He is without the righteousness of God. But what he says here is that he is inexcusable. Just as those who have not heard the gospel have enough of God that if they responded to God, if they responded to the light that they had, that God would give them more light. And so we know God is not unjust. We can't explain how he deals with all the people who haven't heard. That's his job and not ours. Our job is to share the gospel. But they said that everyone in creation that has a knowledge that there is a God and it's evidence by nature is inexcusable. Well, he says the same thing here. Now, anyone who sits in a spot and condemns everybody else, passes judgment on them, is inexcusable. The same word is used. So this now is talking about believers or presumed believers who would pass judgment on everyone else. And from this high, exalted position of superiority, they're going to pass judgment. So he starts off in this chapter by saying, Therefore. Now, typically, therefore refers to remember what was just said. Because of that, now this is going to happen. Well, this therefore is kind of mysterious. It doesn't necessarily apply directly to that. But it certainly ties together because he's talking about what has just been said in chapter 1. And now he's talking about a different aspect of it. Every one of you who judges is without excuse. When you judge another, you condemn yourself since you, the judge, do the same thing. The Jews saw themselves as righteous by the law. They kept the letter of the law. They kept all of the expectations of Judaism. And Paul drives home the truth that righteousness does not come by the law or the letter of the law, but it comes through Jesus Christ who alone can provide salvation and not mankind. There's no salvation in mankind. There's no salvation in the law itself. In verse 2, he says, We know that God's judgment on those who do thus think is based on the truth, so that they are without excuse. Interesting enough, the phrase without excuse there is really a legal term and it means literally, without reason, defense. You have no defense. And Paul uses the Gentiles in chapter 1. Now he uses it to refer to the Jews as anyone who judges others from a supposed superior position, which would be without justification. Nothing is more blinding than the idea that others are the only ones guilty of sin or moral fault. You know, I was saved before I started school. Never drank, never smoked, never had sex before we married, never got arrested. Believed that if my parents told me to do something, I would do it. Now, I was a mischievous child who did things my parents didn't know about. But, you know, I always thought, though, that they're just things that I wouldn't do. And I guess, without realizing it, I kind of preached a little bit of superiority for a number of years, thinking, now y'all listen. You know, you need to listen to what I'm telling you. But one day God showed me how dark my heart was and it broke my heart. I wept for a week because I realized that the greatest need in the world wasn't for Adolf Hitler to get saved, it was for me to get saved. And it took just as much grace to save me as it did to save Adolf Hitler. He didn't make it. And I realized that, you know, every one of us, listen, don't ever say that you'll never do something because you will. I got a call again this week. It happens every week. But I got a call from Green River, Wyoming. And several years ago, Carol Ann and I had been up there in a conference and preached in a church up there. Well, the church I preached in up there is looking for a pastor and they're bringing a guy in view of a call next Sunday. And I was on his resume list to reference him. And he's Southwestern, Brother Jack, you probably know him. If I called his name, he's a PhD student in archaeology. Just got back from spending three years in Israel with his family, studying at the Hebrew University over there. And now he's going to preach in view of a call at the Hilltop Baptist Church in Green River, Wyoming. By the way, I asked her, I said, what's the temperature up there? She said, well, high temperature today is 71. I said, oh well, ours is 108. And pulpit committees always ask the same questions. I guess I'm on a lot of resumes. And I really appreciate when they call to check it out because I had one committee call me just about six weeks or two months ago about my recommendation of somebody. And I looked and I said, well, I still would not recommend him. When I wrote that letter eight years ago, it was a general letter that he had kept and I didn't know it was still circulating out there. I said, I'm sorry to tell you, I can't recommend you now. But anyway, I hate when committees call because they always ask, what I hate is, what are their strengths and weaknesses? And I've told you this, I'm going to tell you again because it's very important. I don't believe we have strengths and weaknesses. We have strengths and they are our weaknesses. Because if we're strong at something, we think we don't need any help with it. Oh, I can handle that. I'll never do that. I don't have to worry about that. Oh, yeah, you better. Our strengths because we get careless. We don't pay attention to them. And you ask any Christian leader who has stumbled and fallen through some sin of some kind or other, and if you ask them, they will all tell you, I never thought I'd do that. Well, let me tell you, you'll do anything in the right circumstances. Don't look so pious. I mean, you'll do anything in certain circumstances. So you need to... We get to presume the position of this moral man here looking down on everybody, look how great I am and how pitiful you are. We just don't go there. And the moment we begin to criticize someone, chances are if we get into it very far, we're questioning their motives and what they thought and why they did it. We don't know those things. So this is very common. It was addressed often in the ministry of Jesus. Here Paul is addressing again that we are without excuse if we sit up in a superior pose and try to pass judgment on other people. God's judgment is based on His righteousness and is described as truth. That means that God's judgment is always true. It is always right. It is always accurate. It's always established. His judgment is not based on appearance or imagination. Truth refers to facts about God. And if he did not spare his own son on the cross, can we even imagine he'll spare sinners who reject his son? Of course, that's what Paul is talking about. If God didn't stop the cross for Jesus because He had to die for the sins of the world, it wasn't for His sins He died. He died for our sins. How do you think you're going to stand judgment? If God is that much serious about holiness and righteousness, how do you think you're going to get away with it? How do you think you're going to sin and not have to live with the consequences? Do you really think? Any one of you who judges those who do these things, and you do the same thing, do you really think God is going to overlook that? I mean, it's unthinkable. And Paul just simply asked them, he said, do you really believe you can judge others while you do the same thing? The Jews meticulously observed their rituals and sacrifices and all their activities in the temple and all the expectations of Judaism, yet they were as ungodly as the ones they condemned. He said, do you really think that you're going to get away with that? I think at one time the scripture says, I can't tell you exactly where now, that what you said in Perfect shall be shouted from the rooftops. Paul did go into a little more detail, a little short paraphrase there in Galatians where he said, Don't be deceived. God is not mocked. So you're going to reap. You're going to suffer the consequences for whatever you do. You're not going to be the first one to get away with it. So it's a vivid reminder here. And by the way, the word do you think, that phrase, the word think, is the first word in the Greek language in that verse. And in the Greek language, the first word was usually the most important word in the whole sentence. So he put that there. This is extremely important. That word think there is a mathematical term. It means to count or to conclude or to consider. It's an imitation. Paul's giving them an imitation. Let's think about this. I said, let the reason together now. Though your sins be as scarlet, they'll be as white as snow. Let's think about this. And so he goes on in verse 5 to talk about their hardened and unrepentant heart. And your storing up wrath for the day of wrath. This is fascinating. The phrase storing up wrath is a fascinating phrase. It is actually, it's a word that is a very picturesque word that is connected with treasures. That's interesting. And so what he says is you're laying up treasures of wrath. Now let me tell you, East Texas A's what that means. When you sin and when you disregard the word of God and when you reject the principles of God and when you break the commands and the laws of God, when you reject the presence of God in your life, you are building up wrath. God's going to judge you and you're going to endure wrath, but you're building the wrath you're going to receive. You're laying up more wrath. The more you go without confessing, the more God's going to deal with you when his wrath finally falls. It's a terrible picture, this idea of storing up wrath. And we're doing it to ourselves. How many people have done things and thought nobody will ever know? Sure enough, everybody did know. You just can't sin and get away with no consequences. There is built in to God's holiness such utter rejection of sin that there's no way that you can get away with sin without paying consequences. It's like that ball I bounced last week. When you throw it to the ground, it's going to come back up. It doesn't have a choice. You don't have a choice. That ball is going to come back up. Your sin will find you out. That's one thing you can be sure of. Nothing is going to be secret or hidden. This idea of storing up, the quotation is from Psalm 62, 12, which speaks of paying something that is due or to repay something. Truth resisted hardens the heart. God's patience and goodness ignored and rejected God's kindness and goodness. That hardens the heart. You'll pay for that. You will be repaid in kind. You plant apples and seeds, you're going to get apples and not oranges. You will sow what you reap. A day of judgment and repayment. And remember the phrase I ran across last week that just kind of still twists around in my mind. The history of the world is the wrath of God. The world's in the mess it's in today, and we created it. Why did God let us? I don't know. God didn't have anything to do with it. God would certainly have had us produce a better society if we produced. You know, like many of you, I don't think that America is going to unravel fast enough to affect me. But I really am concerned for my grandkids and my great-grandkids. Think of the world they're growing up in. Think of what they're going to face. I cannot imagine I pastored 35 years. Never one time did I ever preach a sermon on transgenderism or dealing with the mutilation of the body so that someone who thinks they're a boy when they're a girl can function as a boy. I mean, just think what pastors are facing today with their responsibility to declare the truth. And the truth is, if Brother John preaches the truth, he'll be in jail one day. And he's going to preach it. You just can't get away with the sin that is taking place. And America is under the wrath of God. He's let us have what we want. And what a mess that is. Now, I won't comment further other than to say, the only hope is in the gospel. The hope doesn't lie in the Republican Party or the Democratic Party or the independents. Chuck Colton used to say, hope is not going to come on Air Force One. It's not going to come from the government. The only hope is in Jesus Christ. We can't pretend that we haven't sinned, but we don't have to live with the consequences of sin without the grace that God gives us to live with those consequences. Did you ever say, I wish I was God? There are some people I'd zap. I don't want to be God either because there are some people I'd zap. But God is patient. Did you notice that he talked about the patience and the persistence and the goodness and kindness of God in this passage? After all the rejection and all the furor about the wrath of God, he said, oh, but God is kind and patient and persistent. The gospel is still the answer. So we need to reflect on that now quickly. Beginning at verse 6. Isn't this interesting? I'm actually reading the text instead of just skimming over it and waving at it. I thought I might do that today. Here's verse 6. He will repair each one according to his works. I just mentioned that in a quote out of Psalm 62. Eternal life. Now we're looking at two different destinies. He's going to repay and as a result of the judgment of God, eternal life to those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor, and immortality. All that's wrapped up again in faith and grace. This is not saying that we're going to work for our salvation. But wrath and anger to those who are self-seeking and disobey the truth while obeying unrighteousness. He's going to repay each one according to his works. Everyone will come to judgment. Every word that we've spoken, everything we've done, every place we've been is recorded in God's books. Matthew 12.38 says, On the day of judgment, people have to account for every careless word they speak. For by your words you will be acquitted and by your words you will be condemned. Ecclesiastes 12.14 Eternal life to those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor, and immortality is the reference that he's speaking of here. God will bring every act of judgment including every hidden thing whether good or evil. And eternal life to those who come through faith and through the commitment and obedience to God. Now, we have two different destinies, but we have a different kind of life. We have earthly life, but there is eternal life. Those who seek to please God receive eternal life. And God is impartial. We're all going to face judgment, but the difference between the two is our faith in Jesus Christ. There's no answer anywhere else. And when we judge, we're passing judgment. We're assuming a position that is inappropriate for us. And in Acts 10, I remember Simon Peter said, Now I truly understand that God doesn't show favoritism, but in every nation the person who fears Him and does what is right is acceptable to Him. The word persistent here that Paul uses of those who obey in God pictures a soldier who gives everything in battle. I mean, he leaves it all... Athletes and coaches tell him, I want you to leave it all out there on the field. Just spend yourself. Well, this is a word that speaks of a soldier who fights to the end and disregards his own injuries. It refers to one who trusts in God and not in themselves. It's a new kind of life that is introduced that the Gospel brings. In fact, in writing this book that I just finished... By the way, I'm trying to figure out how to get the book to you all. It will go to press tomorrow. So we should have it here in a few weeks. And Eddie, we need to talk about how we do this. I really think we need to get people who want a copy. Number one, I don't want you to have a book you don't want. I learned on the mission field, don't give somebody something for nothing. Because if they don't pay for it, they won't appreciate it. So I'm not trying to pass something worthless off to you. But we might need to get people to just tell us, I want one for family or a family unit. And tell us, put your name down if you'll do that and get it to me next week. I'll inscribe it for you so you'll at least... I know the guy that wrote that. Okay. So anyway. So the new kind of life is entered. And also he introduces something in verse 8 there. But wrath and anger. The word anger there is not the same word that he used in the last chapter. That word did not mean like he suddenly got mad. It's not earthly anger. Something happens and we get angry about it. We get mad about it. But it's actually a different word. And it means that it comes from someone whose disposition or character or nature is already firmly established. And this is the way it always responds. This is just a natural response to this. In other words, God's never going to be soft on evil. His nature won't let him do that. His holiness cannot tolerate it. He even turned his face away from Jesus on the cross when Jesus said, Why have you forsaken me? He could not allow himself to even look upon that kind of sin. Jesus became sin for us. So everything God hated, everything God despised, was now his son. He couldn't stand it. God's holiness is going to always react properly. Verse 9 and 10 says, There will be affliction and distress for every human being who does evil, first to the Jew and also to the Greek, but glory, honor, and peace for everyone who does what is good, first to the Jew and also to the Greek. It says, Those who reject the truth will face affliction and distress. Well, affliction is a word which means acute suffering, pressure to the point of breaking. Distress is a word which means to be cramped for lack of space. It speaks of extreme affliction, severe trouble. That's what's going to happen to people who are without Christ, who have not received the grace of God. They're going to face severe affliction and distress. Those who seek to serve and please God, do things God's way, will receive peace and blessings. We come to verse 11, and he just simply says there's no favoritism with God. It's kind of interesting. When I was a young teenager, well, I take it back. I was a young man, but I was an old teenager. I was 19 years old when the Supreme Court came out with the decision about segregation. And I came to this verse. And the first sermon that I wrote was that God is no respecter of persons. I'm just 19 years old. I didn't have enough sense to comb my hair without brokering. You all remember brokering. A little dab will do you. A little dab will do you. That's the way it is. Now I have a little dab of gel that I put in there and it kind of makes everything stay in place. But anyway, that struck me deeply as a 19-year-old because I never was really aware how deep the racial divide was. I learned it when I was 17 years old and I went back to Jacksonville, Texas where I had gone through the 5th and 10th grade. And during my senior year in high school, well, actually the summer after I graduated from high school, they had me come back to one of the churches in Jacksonville and preach a youth revival. Now Jacksonville, when you go shopping, if you go to Central Market or one of these and you see tomatoes, sometimes they're safe from Jacksonville. It is the tomato capital of the world according to people who live in Jacksonville and we play football in the tomato bowl. So don't laugh. That's where we play football is in the tomato bowl. But during that week, we went down to the shed where they brought tomatoes in. It would probably be a produce, where they bring things to the markets that we have now. And so I was preaching. Well, actually we were singing. I was fixing to preach a sermon and this black man was standing over there and I said, Sir, why don't you come on and join us? He said, Not so bossy. I can't do that. In other words, he was saying, I'm not allowed to do that. That struck me. I didn't know that. I'd never been taught that blacks didn't have any privileges. Never thought about it. Living in a small town, I didn't know that we had bathrooms that was quiet only and I never saw all that. But I guess that experience kind of made me more sensitive when that desegregation... Now, by the way, I went to an integrated high school in Houston. We had African Americans. We had Hispanics. Had all kinds. And that was before the desegregation issue. That was in 1953, not 54 when the Supreme Court made that ruling. But we just need to know everybody is important to God. Whosoever will. Who does that include? All white people? All bald people? All bushy-haired people? All white people? Tall people? Short people? All white people? No. It means anybody. Gospel never was limited from the very beginning of time. The word nations is used over 600 times in the Old Testament. And when Saul of Tarsus was saved, God told Ananias, I go tell him. I need you to go tell him and let him get his sight back because I need to reveal to him what he's going to suffer because he's going to be my messenger to the nations. Gospel's always been intended for the nations. The Jews didn't like that. That's why you had a controversy in the early churches because the early churches were Jewish churches. Brother Jack and I, we felt we needed to set up Rome as a situation. It was a Jewish church. Jewish immigrants had come to Rome. But we just need to be reminded that everybody's significant in God's economy. Nobody's unimportant. People ask me, what do you think is the most important thing for a minister, pastor, whatever, to have? It's simple. Every Christian leader has to value people. Every one of us. And sadly, many Christian leaders don't value people. They see people as problems instead of possibilities. They see them as obstacles instead of opportunities. And they think everybody needs to be told what to do. It's not my job to tell you what to do. It's God's job to tell you what to do. And when you got saved, if you got saved, the Holy Spirit was planted in you and God said, just be a faithful participant in a relationship with me and pay attention and be obedient. That's what my book's all about. God never intended for us to figure things out. He put the Holy Spirit in us. And we've allowed other people who are more charismatic in nature to scare us away from the Holy Spirit. Listen, every advance of Christianity since the resurrection has been led by the Holy Spirit. Every one of them. I searched through over 40 books in writing this last book and found out even secular historians speak of the inner dynamic of the early church. And they'll say sometimes they call it the spirit of the Holy Spirit. One of the historians said, the Christianity produced a different kind of person. It's the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was leading. And the worst thing that ever happened to Christianity was when they linked arms with the Roman Empire in 325. Because at that point, the Holy Spirit was excluded and the government came in and took the place of the Holy Spirit and we've had nothing but nonstop difficulties ever since. And we're still having it today because we somehow have the idea that God needs us to do something that he didn't provide for us and that is just not true. He gave us all of himself. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. Not three gods, but three persons. One God. And they planted themselves. When the Holy Spirit is in you, God is in you and Jesus is in you. So the New Testament may speak of the Spirit of Jesus and the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit may give it different ways, but the Trinity never acts alone. What one does, they all do. What one says, they all do. Where one goes, they all go. They all sin. They're united together. And it's the Holy Spirit. And so what we need to understand is the judgment of God is going to be a true and accurate judgment and be what only God knows. And none of us are smart enough to know what God knows. So be careful. Here's verse 12 quickly and I'll quit. All who sin without the law will also perish without the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged with the law. And so all what he's saying is, if you happen to be under law, which is to be the Jews, you're going to perish under the law. If you are not under the law, you don't have the law accessible to you, God's not going to judge you for something you're not responsible for. The Gentiles are not under the Jewish law. They're under the law of God, but they're not under the old Jewish system. And so sinners are going to be punished not for whether or not they're condemned by the law, but whether or not they had access to it. And the truth is that you're going to be judged by the light you have. So be careful. The more knowledge you get about the will of God and the purposes of God and the character of God, the more accountable you are to do what God tells you to do. So the hearers of the law are not righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be justified. There's again the idea of doing the truth. By the way, hearing was the way most people heard the Gospel back in those days anyway. Nobody had pocket scrolls. Big heavy scrolls were in the synagogue. And most of them, they never got to read them. But Jesus obviously had been a good student of the scrolls because when he stood in Nazareth and read from Isaiah 61, he unscrolled it and went right to it. He knew where it was. But most of the people had heard the Gospel. So he said hearing the Gospel is not what saves you. That's the primary way you get information, but it's not enough. Doing the law is necessary. There's no justification for sin in the law. It doesn't reside in who you are. It's only in Jesus. And people are not made righteous because their doctrine is correct, because they've crossed every T and dotted every I in the correct way. None of it. Only through Jesus Christ is there justification. So, verse 14 and 15, so when the Gentiles who are not by nature have law, do what the law demands, they are law to themselves. In other words, even Gentiles are going to obey the law sometimes and they don't even know what it is. Well, why is that? He goes on to say because the law is written in their hearts. God has put something in human DNA that lets us understand things about him. And he says if you reject what you do know, you're not going to know anything else. So, the bottom line is if someone hadn't heard about Jesus, can they be saved? Well, the Bible says no. But I don't know what God's plan is. I mean, God's still God. He can still do what he chooses to do. My personal opinion is that people who respond to the life that they have, God will send more life to them. And that's what the modern mission effort is. It's to tell people who have seen things about God in nature, what they know enough about God to know that they need something else. And that's why Lydia and Cornelius in the New Testament were called God-fearers. They were people who sincerely were seeking God. Well, to those people, they're going to get the message. Now, we know God's not unjust. We know he's kind. We know he's patient. We know he's persistent. We know he's holy. We know all these things. And we can never predict what he's going to do. But we know he's going to be just. He's going to do the right thing. And his judgments will be true. So, it's because he says here that the work of the law is written on their hearts, speaking of people who do not have the law. And so, we leave it to God, but we know that there is a judgment coming. By the way, Paul mentions conscience. Paul does not establish conscience as intended for you to determine what to do by your conscience. Conscience is a reflection of what has happened. And your conscience will tell you whether something that has happened is right or wrong. Now, how you answer that question may tell you what you want to do. If you know it was wrong here, you may say, I don't want to do that. If you know it's right, you may want to do it. But conscience is never a guide. It always evaluates past action. And so, don't think of conscience as a little ingenious person within you. It'll tell you what to do. No, conscience will always lead you astray. It'll lead you in the wrong direction. And so, verse 16 concludes this section. On the day when God judges what people have kept secret, according to my gospel through Jesus Christ. We're talking about the final judgment here. Everyone must know that they will one day stand before the judgment of God. There will be no secrets kept. Everything will be correct. Judgment will reveal the hidden things they tried to disguise and to hide. But it will come. It will be accurate. It will be God's judgment. And we're all going to face it. So again, everything that we've talked about today rests upon the holiness and righteousness of God. His ways are holy. They're righteous. God is never going to be... He never has to say, oops. He never has to start over again. God is going to be God of it. He's going to be true to His word. And our part is to learn all we can. Build a good relationship with the Holy Spirit who lives in us. Talk to Him. Listen to Him. Be obedient. We're going to make it through just like the song said in the choir this morning. God's going to see us through. Well, God bless you. We'll pray. And we're actually going to get out at close to home time. Alright. Thank you, Father, for the word that you give to us. And just reminding us that we are accountable for what we do, what we say, what we think, how we evaluate. None of us are in a position to judge someone else for whatever they may do. So, God, don't let us waste our time doing what only You can do. And let us be reminded that everything that we do say or accomplish is going to be examined in the judgment that we face before You. Thank You that we don't stand before judgment about determining whether we're saved or not. And that's settled when we've trusted Christ and He planted the Holy Spirit in us. We still will be accountable for our works. And we thank You that we have the possibility of pursuing good works and doing good things guided by Your Spirit. May You continue to work through us to achieve Your goals. In Jesus' name, amen.