Revering the Word
Romans 2 We are all sinners with a need for God’s kindness.
Good morning, everyone. This morning we are in chapter two of Romans and one of the things I want to begin with is the importance of whole Bible theology. That's something that I seek to provide as I teach through the Bible. And I think it's of critical importance that our theology is not based on a verse, that it's not based on a chapter. And in some cases, in fact, in many cases, not even one book of the Bible. Because if you want to try to prove a point in any regard, you could try to whip open a verse that might be looked at out of context, meaning you're not necessarily looking at author or audience, whether it's in the old covenant, whether it's in the new covenant. And you could just kind of try to find a verse to say what you or a person would want it to say. But rather, we need to understand how each part of the Bible fits into the whole. And the only way you can do that is really to know the whole Bible. And that's one of the, you know, I passionately believe this. And I think it's good and right for every serious Christian to study the whole Bible. That's one of the very reasons we have reguring the word. And why I'm doing this podcast is to help people have a whole Bible theology. I think probably one of the best books for getting a whole Bible theology would be the book of Romans. The book of Romans, as far as a book in the Bible, may very well be the best book in giving a whole Bible theology. You know, the Bible was made to Israel in the Old Testament and it was focused on that family and on the Jewish people. And it's really important to have a Jewish understanding of the Bible and then to see how Jesus came to usher in the gospel, the good news and welcome a whole new family to the Bible. That is anyone who will believe in him can be part of the family of God. And it's very important to have a new Testament understanding of the Bible. You know, a lot of people would open up an Old Testament passage and then maybe try to try to say, Oh, this, the God you're following, he did this or he did that. And they wouldn't even understand that we live in a different dispensation now. We live under a new covenant now that we have a new Testament. And that doesn't mean that the Old Testament is not good and right and that we can't learn a ton from it. But we definitely need to have a new Testament lens to the Bible because it's a new season in history. We're under a new covenant, a new agreement with God. And you know, one day, there's going to be a different season, a different dispensation, if you want to call it. The tribulation is coming. It's an awful time that's going to take on planet earth. And one day Jesus Christ is going to come back to rule and reign and those who have not believed in him are going to pay a heavy price and God's going to usher in a millennial kingdom where he is living again here on earth. So there's so much to understanding the whole Bible. And if you if a person doesn't, they can be misinformed. Well, also, even though I say that this Bible or excuse me, this book Romans is probably one of the most complete books, as far as understanding a whole Bible theology, not every chapter is. So what I want to share with you is that, you know, in chapter one, we and carrying on in chapter two and even into chapter three, Paul is making the case and establishing for us the bad news. He is letting us know that as human creatures and as we'll see, you know, later in the Bible to primarily in chapter five, that we all have inherited a problem. And that problem is with sin. And it came into the human race through Adam and Eve back in the garden. And ever since then, man has struggled with sin. And ever since then, God has had a means for working with man, although sinful to restore man. And ultimately now in this season, in this dispensation, the way that God is working today, the way to solve that sin problem is through faith in Jesus, because he came as the Lamb of God. God loved us so much that he sent his son to die. Hallelujah. And that is where we're headed. And I'm getting ahead of the Apostle Paul here, because I'm trying to instill a whole Bible theology. But the bad news of chapter one is that mankind, especially apart from God, but even in Christ, even as a believer, we still have a problem with sin. But when we don't turn to Jesus, we just are kind of let go to our sin and are the lust that is in us and are rebellion against God in us leads us to just continue in sin and to reject God. And that was talked about a great deal. And Paul, in chapter one, talked about the sin of homosexuality and so much more, and said that at the end, you know, and this we see this so much today, and although they knew the ordinance of God that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them. That's a sad and tragic thing that's happening today. It's one thing to struggle with sin. And that can be true of a Christian. But what we're supposed to do is acknowledge what is sin. And to when we sin, say, God, I'm sorry, I don't want to live that way. I don't want to do that. I don't want to act that way. Lord, help me, strengthen me. Thank you for the forgiveness you've given me through Christ. And now strengthen my resolve, God, because I don't want to live that way. Thank you for the forgiveness that you've saved me from the penalty of my sin, but God not empower me, please, to help me to rise above and live a new way. But when we, when we don't do that, when we're unwilling to acknowledge sin and give hearty approval to it and celebrate it, we're really going to a different level and we're not then repenting. And we're not then seeking God's guidance. We're saying I have my own truth. Now, in chapter one, though, I want to make sure that it's important and I acknowledge this is that although he spent an extra chapter focusing on the sin of homosexuality, he said that mankind, in particular, that's revolved against God, they're filled with unrighteousness and wickedness and greed and evil and full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice, gossip, slanders, haters of God, arrogant, boastful, insolent, evil, obedient to parents. I'm hoping that you would agree that you found yourself on that list. I know I have. I have done many of those things in my life. And even as a Christian, I have not been perfect, but I really do seek, I genuinely seek to do what's right and honor the Lord now. But I still need his grace and mercy because I still have that sin problem that Adam gave us. And I'm grateful for the solution of Jesus. But anyways, in chapter two, all that as a backdrop, because sometimes it could be seen that we're trying to be self righteous when we're condemning or saying to others, look at the sin that they're promoting. And we have to make sure we see ourselves as in great me as well. And that's the bad news is that we all are caught up into this net of sin. And in fact, I think that's going to come up maybe in the next chapter, but I want to take you to a passage because it in later in the book of Romans briefly, because it's part of the wisdom of God. It's really quite an amazing passage at the end of chapter 11. It says this. In verse 30, for just as you once were disobedient to God, but now have been shown mercy because of their disobedience. And he's really thrown into the Jews right now who aren't rejecting Jesus. So these also have now been disobedient Jews that because of the mercy shown to you, they also may be shown mercy. And one day, and since this time, many Jews have come to Jesus and more are going to, especially in the tribulation, but it says in verse 32, and this is really an important verse, it says, "For God has shut up all in disobedience so that he may show mercy to all, all the depth of the riches of both the wisdom and knowledge of God." What that's being said is, and if you look this up in the Greek, it's basically like if you threw a net into the ocean and you were collecting fish, you would catch all kinds of fish. It's not just like one kind of fish. You couldn't tell the net only take in this kind. It would just grab whatever was caught up in the net. And basically what the Bible is trying to indicate and what we're going to see in chapter two in the beginning of chapter three is that all of us has been caught up into this net. We've all been caught up into the net of our sin. We've all been disobedient to God in our lives, and that is designed so that we would all see our need and so that we would all turn to Jesus so that he may show mercy to all. Isn't that amazing? I stand here as one who's been shown mercy. I speak to you as one who was lost, who has become found, and realized that Jesus came to pay the price for my sin and your sin. But when we're rising up in pride and saying, "Give hearty approval to me to continue it," we're not coming to Jesus. We're not saying, "You know what? Jesus, thank you for dying for me. Thank you for forgiving me. And now I want to live to obey you." Remember the purpose of this letter was faith that leads to obedience. It's not just my own faith, my own beliefs, the way that I want it to be. It's yes, I'm a sinner. And I realized Jesus is the solution. And now that I've placed faith in him, I want to live to honor the one who died for me. That's the whole purpose of the book. But right now in chapter two, what it's going to say to us, and it's going to be incomplete, but the whole book of Romans will be complete. And what it's saying in chapter two, if you looked down in pride of the people that were referred to in chapter one, which we really shouldn't, although it talked about, again, homosexuality. It talked about a lot of sins that all of us have been caught up in. And it says, "Therefore, you have no excuse every one of you who passes judgment for in that which you judge another you condemn yourself for you who judge practice the same things." So what it's trying to say is if for some reason you were looking at pride in chapter one that somehow, oh, that's the way everyone else is, but I'm not that way. What Paul's trying to do in chapter two is gather you into the net. And you're already in the net, but he's trying to show you that you too, I too, Pastor J, have been caught up into the net. I have disobeyed God in my life. And therefore, finally, in chapter three, we'll get to the solution for anyone who has been caught up into this net of sin. So he says in verse two of chapter two, and we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things. And we're all going to be judged by God for practicing things that are dishonoring him. But do you suppose this, oh man, when you pass judgment on those who practice such things and do the same yourself that you will escape the judgment of God? And I'm here to tell you, I would not, on my own, be able to escape the judgment of God. I need a solution. And but let me tell you, friend, brother, sister, you need a solution to, and although we're not going to see it in chapter two, the solution is coming hallelujah. Verse four, or do you think lightly of the riches of his kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? And you know, that that's a great verse. And man, I want to make sure that that's expressed not only in the word here, but in my teaching. Listen, the purpose of sometimes the condemning words that we share from God's word is to lead us to understand that we are sinners and that we have a need. And then when we see the kindness of God in forgiving us through Christ, that kindness of God forgiving any and all through faith in him leads us to repentance hallelujah. But first you have to know your sinner that you have a need and you have to acknowledge that. And then all of a sudden you can see hallelujah, the kindness of God. But this is what happens when you're unwilling to recognize that you have a need. But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God who will render each person according to his deeds. Listen, you got to recognize that you have a need. You can't be stubborn and unrepentant and say, oh, it's my truth is my truth. Your truth is your truth. No, you have to acknowledge that you're a sinner and that you have a need. We're all been caught up in this net. I'm no better or worse, but I'm the only thing that I have now is I have what Jesus has done for me through faith hallelujah. To those who by perseverance and doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality eternal life. So this is what I mean by incomplete. This book or this chapter talks about our good deeds and if we seek God's glory and seek to live for him and I'm kind of putting in my own words, then we will receive eternal life. But to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation. And that's what's coming on those who are unwilling to repent of their sin, who are unwilling to acknowledge their sin. And ultimately, those who are unwilling to acknowledge Jesus. Now, that's not really said in this chapter, because that's not really what Paul is after in this chapter. He's trying to just let us know we're all caught up in this net. So, it says in verse nine, there will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil. And we all have of the Jew first and also to the Greek. And when he says that, he's encompassing everybody because basically you're either Jew or your Gentile man Jew. And that's everybody. But glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good to the Jew first and also to the Greek for there is no partiality. And this would make it sound like those who do good are going to heaven. The problem with that is what kind of good, what's good, by the way, you know, you could make up your own definition of good, right? But ultimately, what we're going to see is what good is to have faith in Jesus and then live to please and honor him. And again, not a whole Bible theology in chapter two, because he's basically just letting us know that we're all sinners. So, verse 12, for all who have sinned without the law, now, what's that? That's the Old Testament law. And that was a different season and a different dispensation in Jews before Jesus came, tried to adhere to living to the Old Testament law, the laws of God, to please God. And that was what they were supposed to try to do. But it was supposed to come from faith. They wanted to follow the rules of God, the law of God by faith. But that was the dispensation they're under. Now, today, we don't try to follow Old Testament laws in order to get to have, instead, we follow Jesus and have faith in him. And we have to have an understanding of what is the good and right before God today, because it's not the Old Testament law, like they couldn't eat pork, they couldn't eat shrimp. They had a Saturday Sabbath where they would do no work. And lots of things have changed today in the New Testament understanding of the Bible that Jesus gave. And now we need to understand how to please God through a New Testament lens today. Well, the Jews couldn't do that. They didn't have a New Testament. So they were trying to follow the Old Testament law. But what he's saying here in verse 12 is for all who have sinned without the law, that's, that would be Gentiles, like, because we were never living under the law of the Old Testament. We never lived in that era. We've always lived like me today. We've always lived in the era after Jesus. But it says, 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. For it is not the hearers of the law who are just before God, but the doers of the law will be justified. And what he's saying is, you know, it was good and right to try to to follow what you knew. It was good and right to follow the law. But ultimately, that's not going to get you to have in today. For when Gentiles, people like us who weren't Jew before, who do not have the law, do instinctively the things of the law, these not having a law are a law to themselves. In that way, they show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscious bearing witness and their thoughts, alternately accusing or else defending them on the day when according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of the men through Jesus. So what is Paul trying to say there? And it's actually fairly complex. And we have a hard time, a normal Gentile living today who is not a Jew has a hard time understanding it because we never lived under the law before. But in this day, when this is being written, this was super significant because the Jews felt like they were right before God through their adherence to the Old Testament law. And what Paul is trying to say now is that that's not the way to get to heaven anymore. The way to get to heaven now is through faith in Jesus. And he's trying to what he's trying to show us is that when Gentiles followed the law in the Old Testament, when they tried to follow God's ways, even though they weren't a Jew, they did the best they could. But one of the things that we're going to see that the law is going to show us the Old Testament law is that we are sinners. The Old Testament law, all the rules to follow, what it revealed is that we couldn't keep it. We had a hard time living to all the standard of God. And God knows that we had a hard time living to that standard. And ultimately what's going to be revealed is that in this new season of the church today, we, Jew, Gentile, we couldn't live to God's standard. And we all were under sin. And really, we were all under penalty because we couldn't live up to God's standard. But God saw us in that condition and said, you know what I'm going to do? Knowing you just you haven't been able to do it. And the law is actually the Old Testament laws really just showed you you couldn't do it and how sinful you were. Here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to come up with a solution. My son's going to come. He's going to live perfectly to the law. And then he's going to die as the perfect one to take all the sin of all of y'all who couldn't live to it. And he's going to take the penalty upon himself in order to free you of the consequences of the fact that you couldn't live to the law. So God is making a way to forgive all of us who couldn't live to the law and to say, now I've forgiven you and now I want you to live a new way. I want you to live through the power of my son. I'm going to forgive you. I'm going to promise you eternal life. And now I want you to live with a New Testament Jesus understanding. And now you don't live to the law to please me. You live for Jesus to please me. But the way you get made right before me is through Jesus. Let's keep going in chapter two. But if you bear the name of Jew and rely upon the law and boast in God and know his will and approve the things that are essential being instructed out of law and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of the immature, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and of the truth, you therefore who teach another, do you not teach yourself? And he's really going to the Jews here in this section of this letter and saying, don't pride yourself up, Jew, that, you know, you think you did everything right. And now you're a guide to the blind and you think all these things that I've said about sinners and Gentiles. And you think you might be having a tendency to point your finger and look down at everyone else. And he's like, have you not preached to yourself? Don't you realize that you have been unable to follow the law? You're just like these people we're talking about in chapter one that have fallen into all kinds of evil and greed and malice and homosexuality and everything else. Because you should know you didn't follow the law perfectly either, Jew. What is he trying to do? Guys, this is what I've been trying to say. In this chapter, he's trying to share the bad news. We've all been caught up into the net. Doesn't matter whether you were a Jew or a Gentile. Doesn't matter whether you tried to follow the Old Testament to the T or whether you were born today and you live under the New Testament church and belief in Jesus Christ. What he's saying is, no matter when you were born, no matter what race you are, no matter what your lineage has been, no matter what you've done, no matter what you think you haven't done, all of us are sinners. We've all fall short of the glory of God. That's what he's trying to say today. He says, who teach, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that one shall not steal. Do you not steal? Hey, have you never stole anything in your life? I have. You who say that one should not commit adultery. Do you commit adultery? Did you know that Jesus said to lust after someone who's not your wife or your husband is committing adultery? Well, there I am guilty again. You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the law through your break into the law? Do you dishonor God? The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you just as is written. And yeah, I could say the same thing I've been saying and I won't say it. So we're going to go into verse 25 now. For indeed, circumcision is a value if you practice the things of you practice the law. But if you are a transgressor of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. Now, this is going to come up again. But again, this would be foreign to a lot of people today. But very briefly, in the Old Testament, one of the ways that you would be part of the family of God is you would circumcise all the males. And circumcision was a sign that you were obeying God because God asked the males of Israel, Jews, to be circumcised. So as a parent, you'd say, Oh, well, I we believe in Yahweh God and we want our family to follow Yahweh God. So God asked us to circumcise the males. We're going to circumcise our children. And that's going to be a sign that we are part of the family of God. God set it up that way. I believe you can find that in Genesis chapter 17. It's called the law of circumcision. And that way you would show, yeah, God, I'm following you. But today, we circumcise for health reasons. But you could be circumcised or you could be uncircumcised today because it doesn't matter anymore. You're not trying, you don't have to become a Jew to get to Jesus. And you don't have to follow Old Testament law to get to Jesus. You have to follow what Jesus said about the law because there are things that are very much we still need to follow today. But we need to have a new Testament lens. So anyways, now he's saying he's still talking to Jews and saying, you know, they may have felt like, man, they may have prided up. Well, I'm a Jew, I'm circumcised. I'm part of the family of God. And he's trying to say, well, it doesn't even matter. You're still a sinner and you still need a solution too, even if you are of Jewish heritage and circumcised your family. So verse 26. So if this uncircumcised man, that'd be a Gentile who wouldn't have been circumcised in the Old Testament, because they weren't part of the family of God. So if the uncircumcised man keeps the requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision. And what the apostle Paul is saying here is that, you know, even in the Old Testament, really what it should have been about his faith, it should have been about believing in God, you shouldn't have just followed Old Testament laws to say, Oh, now I'm the family of God, or get circumcised and act like that's all you needed to do. Really, it was supposed to be a sign of your faith. And he's saying, you know what, what if someone even in the Old Testament was uncircumcised, but they sought to honor God, they really, God would be pleased with them seeking to honor him. And listen to what it says here. And he who is physically circumcised, so has the foreskin of their, you know, penis cut off. If he keeps the law, will he not judge you who through having the letter of the law and circumcision are a transgressor of the law? For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly nor a circumcision, that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly and circumcision, that which is of the heart by the spirit, not by the letter. It is praises not from men, but from God. And he's beginning to let us know a new way. And what he's trying to say is, and he's, you know, we have these chapter breaks, right, where, you know, we, we start and stop at a chapter, you know, the letter really wasn't written that way. It didn't have, well, now we're in chapter three, and like we're in some kind of new topic, you know, Paul would presume you're going to read this whole letter to get a whole theology from the whole book of Romans. We're going to stop for the sake of time at a chapter. But basically what he's saying is, at the end of this chapter, one is not a Jew now, even now, because he just circles, because of a physical cutting off of skin. But really, one is a part of the family of God by the heart, by the spirit, and not by the letter. And his praise is not from men, but from God. And he's beginning to indicate in chapter two, although he's not going to fully get there, that, you know, before you would have thought you were part of the family of God and a Jew by the law and circumcision, but I'm about to tell you that today it's really of the heart of faith, and it's really of the spirit through believing in Jesus Christ. And it's no longer by the letter of an Old Testament law, and it's no longer by circumcision. But the moral of the story today, what Paul said in chapter two, is that we, Jew, Gentile, all of us have been caught up into a net of disobedience. And soon we're going to learn that God made a way to have mercy on us all through Jesus Christ. And he's going to show us his kindness by having Jesus going across for us. I hope all of us who are listening will embrace Jesus, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, and then begin to live to honor, please him who died for us. God bless you all.