Latest / HBCWestminster / 11.27.22 Romans 2:11-16 Pastor Nathan Anderson

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11.27.22 Romans 2:11-16 Pastor Nathan Anderson · HBCWestminster

• 0:00
  It is an absolute joy to bring the word to you guys this morning. Even though if you've read ahead in the book of Romans, you may know what's coming. And it's not one that many would consider a cheery or uplifting theme that we are about to enter into. In fact, in the church culture that we find ourselves in, there are a lot of pastors who actually will skip passages like this. Because they don't want to preach on judgment. They don't want to preach on the wrath of God.
• 0:31
  They want to only preach those happy ones that make people feel good, saying they only want to preach that which is uplifting, and they don't want to discourage people with passages that speak on judgment or wrath. Well, if you've been at Highland as we have started the book of Romans or have been here for any number of months or years, you know it is the word of God alone that we preach, and we do this by going through it verse by verse. We cannot...
• 1:03
  Pick and choose, sort through scripture only to find the passages which we like, which make us feel nice. We preach the whole counsel of God.
• 1:15
  One of our founding fathers and early presidents, Thomas Jefferson, is famous for as he would sit over his Bible and read it, do so with a razor and scissors in hand, and he would cut out the passages he liked and paste them into what became known as the Thomas Jefferson Bible. He made his own Bible. You can actually buy that Bible on Amazon. It's on display as well. He would cut out what he did not like or want to read.
• 1:43
  In church, God's word is living and active and powerful and useful for teaching, rebuking, and training in righteousness. If we were to skip that which was not convenient or did not tickle our ears, we would do as Thomas Jefferson did, revise it to a point that its essential message was no longer visible and would be lost. And so this morning, we will seek to preach the word in season and out of season. With that,
• 2:15
  reality and that promise, I do have to admit that I find the Lord's timing of when passages are preached here at this church sometimes to be funny. To bookend Thanksgiving with two messages on the wrath and judgment of God is a bit peculiar, but God's timing is perfect. Last week, as Pastor Sam brought the word, we saw Paul burst the Jewish bubble.
• 2:42
  of pridefully thinking that they were beyond God's judgment. They would not be judged as the Gentiles would be. Sam, as he preached, masterfully weaved into his message a reminder to us today that we are no different. As we read passages such as these, we must be mindful to consider how they apply to each one of us.
• 3:05
  Sam also reminded us that these verses are part of a larger argument that Paul has been building since we entered into the book of Romans, and you can see it on that first banner. Condemnation is the beginning of Romans. He is building this argument that all stand condemned and are under God's judgment and wrath. And so, it is with this cheery direction, allow me to...
• 3:34
  read our passage for this morning. If you would stand with me, we will read verses 11 through 16 this morning of Romans chapter 2, and then we will pray and get started. Romans 2 verse 11 says this,
• 4:03
  For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. For when Gentiles, who do not have the law by nature, do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them.
• 4:33
  On that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus. Allow us to pray.
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  come asking that you might, by your holy revealed word, impart to us a greater understanding of who you are and that through this we would come to a greater understanding of the great chasm between us and you of which we could not cross of our own accord. We earnestly desire for your word to reveal and instruct us this morning. We pray these things in your holy and great name.
• 5:41
  Amen. Amen. You can be seated. Well, I know that many of you in this room have kids or are having kids or have had kids in the past. Or you may be in some of that majority and be a kid yourself. The point is everybody knows kids exist. Everybody has been around kids and seen their perspective and their attitudes and the way that they act.
• 6:12
  and thus we're familiar with them. Kids are kind of fun and kind of funny, kind of peculiar. They often, I think, illustrate so well truths that we find in Scripture. There's one right there. I see a hand. Carl and I are blessed to have three kids of our own. We have two girls and a boy and enjoy them. They are a gift from the Lord, but occasionally,
• 6:48
  They may display their depravity within our family relationships and our home. That sometimes happens. Now, almost universally, and I think really you could say universally, kids bring up the topic of fairness, right? That's not fair. You'll hear often,
• 7:12
  within family relationships, especially in regards to conversations with your kids. Now, the topic of fairness or life being unfair comes up occasionally in our household, generally speaking within two contexts. The two contexts are chores or food, what somebody has or has not gotten yet. This may or may not reflect your home as well. Often as...
• 7:40
  The topic of unfairness comes up, I will hear, when I say, hey, you know, you need to go clean up the basement, please, of all the toys. Well, if I send one of the children to go do that, I often hear, but I didn't do that, Oren did that. I didn't do that, Jane did that. I didn't make that mess, Jane and Oren did that, or Lucy did that. That's never true of you, though, right? It's not fair. I shouldn't have to clean up something I didn't do. Usually,
• 8:11
  I will respond in one of two ways. The first one is if I'm cleaning alongside them, perhaps sweeping up something in the kitchen, I might say, you know, it's funny. I didn't spill the Cheerios, but here I am sweeping up the Cheerios. I didn't make the mess with the Legos, but here I am picking up the Legos. Also, I might say, and this is one of my favorite things, I use this with adults too when they bring up the conversation around awareness, you know, unfairness is a funny thing.
• 8:41
  We never seem to complain about it when it's in our favor. We only care about it when we feel like we're the ones getting slighted. And I might then follow up that statement with my kids to make an offer. I have an offer for you. I am willing to make life as fair as I possibly can. You can pay your portion of the food. You can pay your portion of the utilities. You can work as much as mom and dad do.
• 9:10
  I want to make this as fair as I can. That's my desire. Usually that is then met with, Dad, you know that's not what we mean. And then off they go to go do the chore that I asked them to do in the first place. It's funny, isn't it? We all want fairness when it feels as though we are the one being slighted. We all want equality when it means we might get the benefits of that.
• 9:41
  Our culture is clamoring for equality. They say it and speak it and preach it all the time. Equal rights. But our culture has rejected this call to equality when it comes to something specific like, let's say, draft requirements for emergency wartime. Suddenly, we no longer are interested in equality. Our culture says they want equal rights, but women are not required to register for the draft, should there be one.
• 10:12
  Still not required. I often say, everyone wants fairness until the check comes. Then we want grace. This morning, Paul, in Romans 2, verses 11 through 16, is going to show us what true equality is, where we are truly equal. As the bubble was burst last week, this week we see that in verse 11, God says in his word, he is a God who shows no partiality.
• 10:45
  There are three ways in which Paul will show us this to be true. We are equal in failure, equal in accountability, and equal on the scale. Verses 12 through 13 are our first point. 12 through 13, equal in failure. And verses 12 through 13 are really the bulk of this passage that we find ourselves in today.
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  really is a continuation of the statement Paul makes in Romans 1, verse 20, where he says that God has revealed himself to all. Through the very creation of the world, he's revealed himself. He has imprinted himself on the hearts and minds of everybody, and so no one is without excuse. Paul says in verse 12, What Paul is saying here is that even though the Gentiles
• 11:37
  did not have the written word as the Jews did. They have this general revelation of truth, of right and wrong, written on their hearts by God. Thus it is on this truth they will be judged. They will be judged as those who have sinned, who have fallen short of living up to the revealed truth God has imprinted on their hearts. They are without excuse. Now, lest the Jews begin to be puffed up once more, he includes them in this.
• 12:06
  verse 12, and says, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. And here in verse 12 and 13, I see a little bit of a transitionary moment in Paul's writing. As he began to write in Romans 1 and the beginning of Romans 2, he's saying to the Gentiles at first, right, you are all under the wrath and judgment of God. And then we saw last week, he now says, well, Jews, unless you forget, you are also
• 12:34
  failing to live up to God's word. And so you'll experience judgment and wrath. But here, he actually includes both of them. Both are equally failures in living up to what God has revealed to them. We see Jews and Gentiles presented as those who are equal in failures. Neither are walking according to what God has revealed to them.
• 12:57
  In verses 12 and 13, we see also that the grounds for this judgment is their works. What they have done or have failed to do to what God has revealed to them. That is the grounds for their coming judgment. We also see in verses 12 and 13, the rule or ruler used of how judgment will be applied would be according to their knowledge.
• 13:29
  God shows no partiality. All have sinned, whether by omission or commission. Paul says, no matter your heritage, family history, or membership in a church, none of that saves you from this truth. Paul, though, also makes it very clear we will be judged according to what we know. And church, here, it is so very easy for us, I think, to look outside these walls
• 14:11
  Church, here we must pause for a moment. See, Paul says,
• 14:35
  Each person, not just the Jews of his generation, not just the Gentiles of his generation, will be judged according to what they have knowledge of. In James 4, verse 17, it says this, See, church, if we come here every week, we hear the word preached and taught, we read our Bibles every week and hear the word of God, read the word of God,
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  We are accountable to that. We are accountable to live in accordance with what we know, what we have been taught. That is the challenge that we have as Christians, to live in recognition of what we are learning. And we will give an account for what we have been taught. Church, the application of this first truth revealed in verses 12 and 13 is so, so vital. We must walk, live according to the truth which God has revealed and is revealing to us. In short, we must not sit in judgment of those who are lost.
• 15:39
  That is for God alone to do. Rather, we must live in recognition of what God has done and seek to live in accordance with his word by the power of his spirit. Paul tells the Jews and the Gentiles, you are equal in your failure. All failures to live up to what God has revealed to you. Gentiles, you may have a smaller revelation since you don't have the word of God, but you are still accountable. And in light of that prognosis,
• 16:12
  of equal failure, Paul follows by telling them they are equally accountable to God. They will give an account, verses 14 through 15. We'll begin to unpack that as we do and consider those verses and their topic and the context we find ourselves today. You know, the reality, the argument for what is truth has taken on somewhat of a very new form and yet a very familiar form all at the same time, right?
• 16:41
  There is this constant argument over what is truth. We hear these statements, speak your truth. Truth is relative, right? My truth, an ever-changing, shifting, personally defined truth is what is being called for. Listen to two quotes from figures, famous figures, one from present and one from a couple decades back, maybe a few decades back, I'm getting older. Oprah says this.
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  Speaking your truth is the most powerful tool we all have. Speaking your truth. Gandhi said it this way. Nobody in this world possesses absolute truth. Sounds a little bit like an absolute statement, but we'll let that slide. This is God's attribute alone. Relative truth is all that we know. Therefore, and his conclusion from this is this.
• 17:43
  We can only follow the truth as we see it. And he makes this statement. Such pursuit of truth cannot lead anyone astray. I ask myself this often as I look at this culture and quotes as such as these. What's so powerful about this thing known as truth? And why is the idea of relative truth so resonating within this generation?
• 18:17
  I believe it is in making truth relative that we feel as though we absolve ourselves from being accountable to a truth or a rule outside of ourselves. It is seeking to absolve ourselves of being accountable, and I think we see this everywhere we look in our culture today, right? We want to be not held accountable for what we do. The reality revealed by the Word of God is this, and we see this in verses 14 and 15 so clearly.
• 18:50
  In seeking to absolve oneself from accountability by seeking to redefine truth, humanity is actually simultaneously revealing a common understanding of right and wrong. This is known as common grace. Truth revealed to all by God, such as a man is a man and a woman is a woman and murder is wrong. It is through seeking to absolve self of these common grace truths that the conscience bears witness to the truth.
• 19:26
  my truth is true, then I don't have to fight for it. It happens. Yet we find we are constantly in battle. Paul says the conscience accuses even as it seeks to excuse. C.S. Lewis puts it this way in Mere Christianity. When quarrels develop between people, the thing to be determined, the thing to be decided upon is what is right and what is wrong.
• 19:52
  That's why there's a dispute, right? One person thinks they're right, the other person thinks they're wrong, and so we get into quarrels. The thing to be decided is what is right and wrong. Now, their perspectives may vary drastically, right, on how and why that's happening, but they want to decide who is right and who is wrong. This is true even in our culture who says, speak your truth, because in so doing, they are revealing a desire to understand and know a truth.
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  They desire to know truth. Paul says here in Romans 2 that in so doing they reveal that there is a right and wrong and they are thus held accountable. Their hearts and their conscience reveal this to be true. I think he states this very clearly in three different ways as he progresses through this. He states it as it is written on their hearts and it is revealed in their conscience. Second is the implication of the above and even though they try to absolve themselves,
• 20:54
  of this by trying to clear their conscience, they reveal the truth that sin is sin. No matter how they try to redefine it, no matter how they try to repackage it, sin is sin. No matter how hard they try to absolve themselves of it, sin is sin. Thirdly, we see that because of the two above realities, all thus stand guilty. All are held accountable. There are none who have an excuse.
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  And thus we see, despite Oprah and Gandhi's best attempts, God, through Paul's inspired writings, show us that truth is not relative and one can indeed be led astray by relative truth or my truth. If we do not allow the revealed word of God to be the definition of truth and reality, we will all fall. Truth is defined and revealed by God.
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  No matter how hard we try to exclude ourselves from that reality, the more we try to quiet the conscience, the more we reveal we know we are rejecting truth. All are accountable to this reality. God shows no partiality. He shows no favoritism. All will be held accountable because we are all equal in our failure. This leads us to verse 16. Verse 16.
• 22:29
  If you guys feel as I did as I was studying this passage, as we get ready to jump into verse 16, you might be feeling really cheery and uplifted right now. That's obviously a joke. That's not how I felt as I was reading through this. I was like, okay, well, I study the word often. I'm feeling very, very accountable for my actions. This is great. I feel good. You see, we find ourselves at this point underneath this dark backdrop.
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  Equal failures, equally held accountable to the truth revealed to us, and now we see we are all put on equal scale for judgment. But it is in this final point, this final truth, I think I see and we should see both a terrifying reality as well as a comforting promise. Paul has made it clear that we are all without a hope.
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  without a way out of judgment. No matter who you are or what you have done or have not done, what you know or don't know, all are held accountable. All have failed. Now Paul explains by what weight, what measure we will be accountable to. What is the standard that God is going to hold us accountable to? Jesus. His perfect record. The standard of Christ.
• 23:54
  Verse 16 says, on that day, what day? The day of judgment when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by what? By Christ Jesus. You know, I think we both love and hate comparison, right? We think if we're honest with ourselves, right, there are times where we like being compared to others. The context of that is very different, right? I don't like being compared when I come out looking worse.
• 24:26
  I love being compared when I come out on top looking good. I'm going to share a very condemning story with you guys that proves that point. About 10 years ago now, Carlo was pregnant with Oren, our youngest. He was going to be our third, and because he was our third, we both felt that we needed to expand our passenger capacity in our vehicles. We had a Ford Focus at the time and decided we needed to buy...
• 24:58
  A minivan. So I set out on my task to go find a minivan that would fall in a category of best vehicle in terms of maintenance and all of those kinds of things, and I could afford. I settled on an 06 Honda Odyssey at that time. That was what I was looking for. Called up all the dealers, test drove every single one I possibly could, went around and test drove like...
• 25:21
  30 plus of them. Finally, one of these dealers called me back and said, hey, are you still looking for an 06 Honda Odyssey? I said, yes, I am. And he said, well, I have good news. We just got one traded in. Would you like to come in and take a look? And I said, sure, absolutely. I'd love to come take a look. And got there, pulled up, met the salesman, and he said, somebody's going to bring it around just so you know. Just so you know, it's in trade-in condition. We just got it this morning.
• 25:50
  So, if you can look beyond some things, then you might come to see you like it. And obviously we can negotiate stuff through the sale if you want to buy this. And I said, okay, I'll keep an open mind. Pull it around and immediately I see that there's dings in the front and rear bumpers. They've been backed into something. And then I open up the back and the back doors and look inside and there's just trash everywhere.
• 26:20
  Looks like a bomb went off inside. There's cups and cup holders, dirt on the ground. Look, and there's a seat back pocket that's been ripped off. And he's like, look, I told you it's in trading condition. All of these things are negotiable. We can fix everything. Just drive it and see if you like it. And I said, okay. So I drove it, and it actually drove really well, and we actually ended up buying that vehicle. I left the dealer several times in the course of the negotiation, but I can remember.
• 26:49
  thinking to myself as I was driving that, and I actually told Carla as we were talking about whether we would buy this vehicle, I can remember thinking, I can't believe, I cannot believe that people would allow their vehicle to be traded in in that kind of condition. What is wrong with people? Don't they care about the stuff they have? How could you let that happen? Well, as you can imagine, after buying said vehicle,
• 27:22
  The Lord has since humbled me greatly. I now know that those poor people who traded in that van may have spent hours cleaning that vehicle, left their home, carrying their precious children to trade in that car. Perhaps they were hungry on the way and they stopped at McDonald's and bought something. And as they ate that, they showed up and they said, okay kids, time to get out. We're going to go look at our... What did you guys do?
• 27:58
  How did this happen? See, I know this because while we owned that vehicle over the course of about 10 years, Carla and I proceeded to put dents in the front and back bumper. There may have been melted crayon in the back. There may have been stickers lined on the windows that needed Goo Gone to get off. Interior items may have been broken. All while we were simply driving to the grocery store.
• 28:38
  or going on a family vacation. We would so diligently clean our vehicle before we would go on a family vacation, drive and come back and open things up and unpack all of our bags, only to be left with this absolute chaos inside. We didn't seek to abuse our family vehicle, nor did our kids. But young children, being the busy little people that they are,
• 29:10
  love to leave evidence of their existence. You see, I had compared myself to a family I didn't know and judged myself to be superior to them. How I would care for my family vehicle would obviously be better than them. We love to compare ourselves when we think we come out on top. What Paul has been setting up and leading us up to in verse 16 as he has drawn this picture of this dark
• 29:44
  almost depressing backdrop of judgment, all failing, all accountable, but here we see that this is all with a very important purpose. You see, the good news of salvation shines all the more brightly when it's set against the black backdrop of divine judgment.
• 30:09
  If we are to truly understand and appreciate the deliverance offered and purchased for all who believe in Christ Jesus, we must understand the truth, the reality of what we have been saved from. To put it as one pastor has said, in order to be saved, we must first understand that we need saving. Paul tells us that all will be judged, not according to any standard we come up with, not any truth that we desire to create. Rather, we will be judged according to the standard.
• 30:45
  of the righteousness and character of Christ. Not only this, but we will be judged by Christ. As I said at the beginning of this point, this is both a terrifying truth and an incredible promise. For we all know, I pray that we know, what Paul writes later in Romans 8, verse 1.
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  Christ Jesus. Church, the terrifying truth is this. We are all put on the same scale. We are all equally judged. There's no adjusting the weights. Christ sits on one side and we will be judged according to his perfect record. The wonderful news is this though. If you are in Christ, you'll be judged according to his perfect record.
• 31:55
  Terrifying news is also if you are not in Christ, you'll be judged according to his perfect record. I believe verse 11 and verse 16 bookend these verses 12 through 15 so importantly. It shows us God shows no partiality. All will be judged according to Christ and by Christ. See verse...
• 32:31
  12 through 15 were not written to give us a hope that in our humanity we could somehow gain a salvation by birthright or deeds. Rather, Paul writes these five verses to bring into vivid clarity what true equality is and looks like. That all mankind will be equally judged and deserving of judgment according to the perfect scale which is Christ Jesus. As I read through and studied this passage,
• 33:02
  Paul at times felt a little bit like Oprah Winfrey, that Oprah Winfrey meme, you know, you get a TV and you get a TV and you get a TV. Everybody gets a TV. You get judgment and you get judgment and you get judgment. Everybody gets judgment. But here, in verse 16, as we end, we can praise God that he is indeed a God who shows no partiality. Because if he was, if he was a God who showed partiality,
• 33:37
  there could be no certainty, no clarity by what standard we would all be held to. And thus, in knowing what standard we're all held to, we discover the way in which we can be saved and we can have certainty of our salvation. True equality, all deserving judgment. Doesn't matter what your history is, what you've done or haven't done, all deserve judgment. But here's the good news.
• 34:16
  He doesn't care what you've done. He doesn't care what your history is. He doesn't care what you've struggled with in the past. He doesn't care what parents you have, what history you have. He wants to offer to you Christ's perfect history, his perfect record, and he'll exchange it for your messy one. Church, that is amazing news. As we look at the promise of divine judgment, we also see the promise.
• 34:49
  of divine salvation. Equally judged, equally failing, equal on the scale, but praise God, he has provided a way in his son. Let's pray. Oh God, the weight of your scales are right. The scale is untainted. Our sin on one side, your righteousness and justness on the other. May we this morning feel and understand the true reality of this.
• 35:30
  We are all equal, equally weighed against the perfection of your son, Jesus Christ. And as such, apart from him and his finished work on the cross, we would sit under a judgment we wholeheartedly deserve and of which would absolutely crush us. But God, but God, because of your great love, gifted and imparted to us through your son's gift,
• 36:04
  finished work on the cross. God, I pray that we would understand what is the breadth, length, height, and depth of the love of Christ that surpasses all understanding. God, thank you. You are not a God who changes his mind. You are not a God who shows partiality. And because of that truth, because of that promise, we know we can be saved and have certainty of salvation through your Son, Jesus Christ. God, we pray these things in your name.
• 36:42
  Amen.