Judgment According to the Truth of God
Romans 2:1-4 · Mike Doyle · Feb 5, 2023
Romans (2022-25), No. 010
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926193095653

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning. So, you've heard my story about the borg wards, right? That the first church I ever went to, as a believer, that the pastor of the church started collecting these old German cars called the borg ward. And he'd restore them. They were little. They were about the size of a Toyota Corolla. And I noticed that some of the other elders in the church began to purchase these borg wards and restore them, and it dawned on me that the mark of spiritual maturity in this church was whether they had a borg ward or not. Well, we've got the same problem going here. Just because you have a Jeep or a four-wheel drive truck and park on the hill doesn't mean you're spiritual.

The other thing I want to mention is that my wife came in the pew and said, hey listen, I've got to go downstairs and turn on the oven. 1115. You know what that says to me? You better be done by 1115. So we better get going. So, what we're talking about through this whole series of verses is the proof of human depravity and the need for a Savior. We're not yet done talking about that.

There's another character of evil. contrasted and yet connected with the description of this last verse of chapter 1, which Jim read, and it's most offensive in the sight of God. And that verse is 132. And although they knew the ordinances of God, or the ordinance of God, and here's the ordinance, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, every human being knows that, that they not only do the same, but they give hearty approval to those who practice them. So we love this.

Men judge others and yet do the same thing and consequently they condemn themselves. So as we go into chapter 2 now, the first 16 verses of chapter 2, another class of human being is probably the best way to say it. They come into view And it's really the world of culture and refinement. Surely among the educated, the followers of various philosophic systems, will be found men who lead such righteous lives that they can come into the presence of God claiming His blessing on the ground of their own goodness.

That's a quote from Harry Ironside. although they knew. We are confronted with three terrible realities, and those realities are pretty simple. They have complete inner knowledge from God, this word know is epinosis, that their ways deserve and must have divine condemnation and judgment. Every man knows that.

Yet they persist in their practices despite the witness of their conscience. And they are in fellowship of evil with other evildoers. Some of the commenters I read, Coney Barrett said, not only practice them, but have fellow delight in those who do them. John Darby says, not only do the same, but they applaud those who do it with them.

Mayer said, what a description of this world of sinners, this race alienated from the life of God, at enmity with Him and at strife with one another, but all in a hellish unity of evil. What a phrase. I wish I could coin phrases like that. So, although they knew the ordinances of God, although they knew the ordinances of God.

Certainly, there are those who profess to look with disgust and abhorrence upon the vile lewdness of that ignorant rabble over there, but their private lives are aren't any holier or any cleaner than those whom they loudly condemn. I was listening to Macaulay about this, and he said, you know, it's like a guy standing there and going through those 21 or 27 sins we went through last week, and there's a guy standing right here behind him saying, yeah, I agree, oh yeah, that's them, and oh yeah, you need to condemn them. He does this swing around and says, how about you? Oops. So if you look at this word, hearty approval, it means to be pleased with or to consent with. Not only am I condemning them, but secretly I do it myself. Not only commit sins, but I delight in the fellowship with sinners." And none of us have thought we were really that bad, but we are in Adam.

So verse 1 tells us, therefore you have no excuse. Every one of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself. and you who judge practice the same things." So to say, we see what you're saying about them other guys and we agree. The problem is that when we say that, we expose ourselves. We condemn ourselves by condemning others because we do the same thing. You do not do identical actions But our conduct is the same. Our sin against light, the light that we have, the sin of the Jews was the same, but their sins were not.

The moralist, which is the second person we're talking about, the moralist is unable to talk himself off from the charge of failing to live up to the light he has. In other words, there's deception. If you remember back a couple weeks ago when we were talking about God turned them over, God turned them over. When He turns you over to a reprobate mind, this is one of the delusions that you suffer from. You're not able to take an objective look at your failing, the light that you have. The word judges here refers to severe criticism and judgment.

It refers to a derogatory appraisal of another's character. Even if I do the same thing, you're much worse than I am. You know the old image of condemnation like a ladder, that I'm up there pretty high and there's only a few guys above me, but there sure are a lot more below me. So I'm probably doing okay.

We're going to hear from the just judge of all that our sins do remain. How can this be? I think I need to click this tape. No excuse. To say that they're saying about them, and we agree, we're going to hear from the just judge of all that our sins remain. How can this in any way ever stop and even diminish the sentence of God? I think it is common amongst speculative people, moralists, and the like, in truth, and it's no small thing.

Like quote Denny again, do you not do identical actions but your conduct is the same, you're seen against the lights you have. So condemn, I talked about condemn. Oh yeah, I wanted to talk about this word condemn. Kata, karino. Kata means to judge. I'm sorry, karino means to judge and kata means down. It means to judge down, to condemn. So when you see that word, judging, it means that you're judging to condemn somebody. It isn't that you're just judging to see how something works out.

In the face of the Lord is against them that do evil, and the judging of others and what they themselves live in justifies their own righteousness and their own doom. And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things. We know is Oida.

Absolute knowledge. We know that. Vincent says that the judgment of God here is not only an act of judging but the contents of the judgment because God knows everything. That's one of the delusions I think that non-believers go through. and maybe some believers, but non-believers, God knows everything. He's omniscient. He knows the facts. He knows before they even happen. He has all knowledge in play at one time every second. I can say, well, right now God knows everything, and right now God knows everything, and right now...

And so when judgment comes, that's who I'm dealing with as a judge. There is no... limit on the contents of his judgment. The problem that I have is that I, as a man, I only know a few of the facts. I don't know very much. So I accumulate four or five facts, and so then I make a judgment. And my judgment is usually condemnatory, but I'm going to go face the one who knows everything. So when you have a darkened mind like that, you don't really realize who you're facing.

Then he says that God's judgment squares with the facts. So this is one of the delusions men experience by professing to be wise with a corrupt mind. They become fools. All you have to do is watch the news to see that that's true. You can say what you want. God's sentence is according to truth upon the things that we do. He will. He must. He must have reality. And my conscience knows it. I'm aware of it.

He will judge every human being based on the fact that they failed to live up to the light that they had. And it doesn't matter what the light is. They failed to live up to the light that it had. I'm somehow out of sync with my slides. Anyway, we'll keep going. So, verse two again. Let's see if this is right. No, I got ahead of myself.

So examples of delusions are I have never engaged in homosexual activity, therefore, I probably am going to avoid judgment. Or, I've never murdered anyone, so I'm probably going to be exempt from judgment. And God does degrade on the curve, doesn't he? or I've done more right things than evil things. Therefore, God will be fair and exempt me from condemnation."

You've never heard any of those before, have you? Daniel Webster made an interesting comment one time. He was asked, what's the greatest thought that ever entered your mind? You know what his answer was? My responsibility to my Maker. I don't even know if Daniel Webster was a believer or not, but he knew he had a responsibility to his Maker.

Everybody knows that. So, if you look at Newell's Romans, and I'm going to jump ahead on the verses a little bit, he lays out six principles of his estimate and judgment of man, in the following verses, what God is going to judge man based on. His judgment, as we see in verse 2, is going to be based on truth.

Number two, it's going to be according to guilt, Romans 2.5. Number three, it's going to be according to your works.

Romans 2.6, who will render to each person according to his deeds. Without respecter of persons, 2.11, for there is no partiality with God.

According to performance and not knowledge, Romans 2.13, for it is not the hearers of the law who are just before God, but the doers of the law will be justified. And six, God's judgment reaches the secrets of the heart, 2.16. On the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus. Wow.

I'm glad I'm not going to be one of those guys. because if I were still in Adam, I would be condemned in the very first word that came out of the Lord's mouth to the very last one. So he says to these moralists, do you suppose this, oh man, that you pass judgment on those who practice such things and do the same yourself that you will escape the judgment of God? Well, if you ask yourself, will God make known the principles of His actions so that men may know beforehand how He's going to decide? Well, Newell had an interesting paragraph about this. He says, absolutely He will. God will surely take pains to make known the great principles of what He will do so that men may know beforehand how He will decide and act.

Otherwise, men would imagine vain things about the true God and hold close their delusions of their own damnation. You know, a lot of times when you talk to a non-believer or someone who says, well, I know who God is, or I know Jesus, or I know whatever I know, the language that comes out of them you recognize that they do know what God intends to do, that they will be judged. And so I got to thinking about that, and on the third, 2-3 on the hungry hearts, I read this. It's not as though I had already attained, but I follow after, if that I may apprehend, that for which I also apprehended from Christ Jesus. I want you to pay attention to what the writer says here.

The heavenly husbandman, who's the father, develops a believer on the same principle that he does a tree. Planting, growth, consolidation, rest, then more growth. There are stages. We are shown our sin and need self. Then we hunger for freedom and life, Christ. This is a progression.

At first we consider the shocking revelation of self the greatest calamity. Later we realize that it is a pathway to the blessed revelation of our life in the Lord Jesus. Now why I thought this was important is because as a believer, we are not fooled by our own delusions about our sinfulness. God makes it very clear to us exactly what our Adam is all about, and that's a good thing. But the cool thing that he does is he expands us enough spiritually first So we can tolerate finding out who we really are.

The next paragraph, before we can take on the likeness of the Lord Jesus, we must see ourselves and know how we look. We must be brought into the place where we are not dismayed or cast down when we discover how little we are conformed to His image. It is only as we see our need that we can be supplied. Great principle.

It does us no good, but only discourages us if we see our failures and shortages and do not behold the beauty of Christ and apprehend and experience our sufficiency in Him. On the other hand, if we see only what we are in Him, and do not discern our own defects, and there are believers that try to live like this, if we do not see all that must be put off and that Christ must be put on in actual control and manifestation, we become self-satisfied and puffed up. We lose our invaluable need. And then he quotes out of Williams, I certainly do count everything as loss compared with the priceless privilege of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

What's wonderful about this is that how careful, how personal the Lord is with each one of us. He does not want us to be ignorant or deluded about what's really happening. I'm saved from Adam and here's who Adam really is. And I'm saved unto and in Christ Jesus and here's who He really is. And the more I know about me here, the more I appreciate who I am in Christ and the work that He's done. So, do you suppose, oh man, the you here is emphatic. He's talking about the moralist or the Jewish person.

And he says, suppose this. It means imagine this or reckon. It's the word logizimae that we see in Romans 6, 11. Reckon yourself dead unto sin. It's the same word. Is to take an inventory, estimate, conclude, or count. So he says, do you emphatically, man, Take into account this, oh man, when you pass judgment on those who practice such things. The moralist is focusing on the other guy's sin and he fails to even consider his own. So we have a challenge here. The challenge is, are you fooling yourself by thinking you'll escape judgment? Because I'm looking at you and how bad you are. The verse really does tell us that there's an inevitability of God's judgment, that He is judged and He will judge. And here's kind of a gym rat out of Matthew 7.

The next verse, verse 3, is, why do you look at the speck that's in your brother's eye, but you don't notice the log that's in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, let me take that speck out of your eye, and behold, the log is your own eye. You hypocrite. First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. Sometimes those logs are really tough to get out. They just are. So, I don't want to be fooled.

Have you ever thought about this? We live in a generation who believes there is no such thing as absolute or objective truth. Right? They think all truth is what they think it is. They don't understand that judgment from God will be based on absolute truth. There's a standard out there, and it's God's standard. And your decision about it has nothing to do with it. I was listening to Ron Merriman talk about this, and I think he was talking about subjective judgment in the 1970s. And he was complaining about the same thing. I wonder what he'd say today. It's really interesting.

This is one of the great deceptions of being turned over by God, like Romans 1.28, and just as they did not see fitting to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind. This is the problem with having a depraved mind. And do the things which are not proper. Or in 1.21 and 1.22, for even though they knew God, They didn't honor him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened, professing themselves to be wise. They became fools.

So the non-believing man doesn't see any need for God's mercy. He doesn't see any need for God's grace. Therefore, he loses the hope of salvation in Christ. Newell says we now enter on the greatest passage in all scripture as to the principles and the processes of God. in his estimate or judgment concerning creatures. Otherwise, men would imagine vain things about the true God and hug the delusions to their own damnation."

Think lightly. Despise. Think lightly. To have understanding, be wise to feel, to think, to direct one's mind to a thing, down, to think down. Vincent says, the indicative mood indicates a declaration with a question, do you despise? And with the answer implied, yeah, you do. He says, or do you think lightly? Do you despise?

And the truth is, yeah, I really do. Kindness and goodness really is the word kindness. Forbearance, tolerance is a holding back. It's a classical Greek, mostly of a truce of arms. It implies something temporary. which may pass away under new conditions, hence used in connection with the passing by of our sins before Christ. So, or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? Patience just means slowness in avenging wrongs. Roger's going to talk next week about that, starting in verse 5. It's really interesting how God holds back waiting. So patient. The goodness of God summarizes all three kindness, tolerance, patience in concrete.

It amounts to contempt of God's goodness if man does not know, or rather ignores, that it is His hand not to approve his sins, but to lead him to repentance. So, the same authority says, not knowing, in that you do not know, this very ignorance is contemptible, because you do know.

Nevertheless, I don't mean that faith exercised to the infinite work of Christ with this description of a man. Still, the Spirit of God never stops working. And a man can still exercise faith in the infinite work of Christ. And there may be as yet be a looking to Him, longing, and hopefully there is. And along with that, this expectation of good from Him according to God's Word.

One of the things, if you're like me and you got saved, I got saved at 35. One of the things that really was impressive to me was after all this time, God was still willing to save me. He was going to be good to me. He offered me grace. And I had nothing in return to offer Him other than my sins.

Patience, God leads to what? To repentance. A change of mind. Well, what did I change my mind about? I changed my mind about God's goodness. I, you know, I was really, especially growing up in Catholicism, you know, I broke every rule and did it more than once.

And I was going to get hammered and I knew it. That the bulldozer was going to run right over me and then put it in reverse and come right back over me again. And then I was going to purgatory. And I used to think, well, if I could make it to purgatory, maybe I'll make it to heaven. It shows you how dim my mind was. What did I find?

I found out that God's goodness was offered to me, His patience, His tolerance. And all He said was, you have to believe me. So Weiss' translation of this verse is really a good one. Or the wealth of his kindness and forbearance and long-suffering are you treating with contempt, being ignorant that the goodness of God is leading you to repentance.

So if I take a look at the Jeremiah 31, 19, in the New American Standard, for after I turned back, I repented. And after I was instructed, I smote my thigh. I was ashamed and also humiliated because I bore the reproach of my youth. So I thought, well, I'm going to go look at the New Living Translation and see what it says about that verse. I turned away from God, But then I was sorry.

I wanted to make very clear to us that repentance is not sorrow. Repentance is to have a change of mind, and how you feel about it has nothing to do with it whatsoever. I remember teaching the ladies in Parker the first time I ever did it, and I asked them, I said, we were talking about the word repentance, I said, how many of you think that if you're sorry for your sins, you get forgiven faster? Hold up your hands, and half of them held up, and I told them sorrow had nothing to do with it. Anyway, but I turned from God, And I was, cross out, sorry, I kicked myself for my stupidity. Love that. I was thoroughly ashamed of all I did in my younger days.

So repentance, a change of mind or a reversal of a decision, is the work of God in the soul on the moral side. God does that change. It's inseparable from the new nature. And it flows from the energy of the Spirit as faith in Jesus Christ does. In no other way than preparation of faith, but it is a company and a fruit of faith.

I can't say to you, come to the Lord Jesus Christ and repent of your sins. The fact that you came to Him and believed Him, repentance is built into that. You changed your mind. You changed your mind about all of this delusion that you were living under in terms of your judgment and what was going to happen when you were judged.

I'm so thankful for God's grace. We should all be thankful that we were delivered out of that darkness into the light of the Lord Jesus. Let's close. Dear Father, how we thank you for your grace. It's so overwhelming sometimes. We can't get our arms around it, but you are gracious, and you continue to be gracious, and you continue to cause us to grow in the knowledge and grace of your dear Son, the Lord Jesus. And be conformed to His image, and He is the one who is perfectly pleasing to you. And we pray in your Son's precious name, Amen.