Quote from Forum Archives on May 18, 2002, 3:49 pm

Posted by: jmichaelwalls <jmichaelwalls@...>

JUSTIFICATION AND ITS NEED AS SEEN IN THE GUILT OF THE MORALIST
Romans 2:1-16
Introduction: This portion of the book of Romans deals with the moralist.
This is a person or group of people who thinks that they are morally
superior to those around him or them. They would look at that list of
offenses or indictments against the heathen and say to themselves that
that is not they. One of the most classic examples of this is the parable
of the Pharisee and the publican. Luke 18:9-14
"And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that
they were righteous, and despised others: Two men went up into the temple
to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood
and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other
men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I
fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And the
publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto
heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a
sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than
the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he
that humbleth himself shall be exalted."
Before judging the Pharisee too harshly, many Christians have the same
mindset when dealing with the winos, whores and the homeless. It would
far better to have the Biblical attitude that Paul gives us in his letter
to the church in Corinth. "But by the grace of God, I am what I am." (1
Corinthians 15:10) Spiritual pride in the life of a Christian is just a
deadly a loose rattlesnake in a class of nursery of babies.
This portion of Scripture has a particular theme in it. It is found in
the word "judge" or "judgment". The two words are found eight times in
this passage. That makes this a very significant fact in this book. It is
a message that many would love to avoid knowing. That is the judgment of
God. Brother Forrester said that "judgment is God's strange work, he
loves to bless." Jonathan Edwards whose now famous sermon "Sinners in the
Hands of an Angry God" reading it in the monotone voice, people were
confronted with the fact that God will judge them one day. Hebrews 10:31
"It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."
Many of the Old Testament prophets in the last few books of the Old
Testament who are called the Minor Prophets have as a central theme the
judgment of God.
As a manner of introduction, I want to give twelve principles of judgment
that are found in these sixteen verses.
1. The moral man is rendered incurable before God, the righteous God.
2. God's judgment is according to the truth.
3. God's judgment is inescapable.
4. Men should not run from God but they should run to God.
5. There will be a final Day of Judgment for the ungodly.
6. God's judgment is perfectly righteous.
7. God's judgment is just- every man will get exactly what he deserves.
8. God punishes those who do evil and rewards those who do
good.
9. There is no partiality with God.
10. A person is judged according to the light he has.
11. Nothing is hidden or kept secret from this Judge.
12. Jesus Christ will be the final Judge before whom all men
shall stand.
Some of these principles seem vague and unclear and could seem
contradictory. I will make sure they will be crystal clear by the end of
this message.
In Romans 1:32 we found the heathen man approves and applauds sinful
conduct but in Romans 2:1 we find the moral man disapproves and judges
sinful conduct. So some will ask what is the problem? The Jews, as I said
last week, viewed themselves as moral and all the rest of the world as
heathen no matter how civilized they may be.
At the end of chapter one, we find man without the restraint of love for
God or the proper fear of God. Without those a man or a woman will go to
the limits in his reactions. But in chapter two, we see the tendency to
point the finger at someone else. It is easy to find someone who we
consider worse than we are and to ask God to concentrate on him and leave
us alone.
When I was a police officer, I wrote over four hundred traffic tickets.
This was the reaction that I would get from some of the people I would
stop. "Why don't you catch a real criminal?"
That finger pointing is a natural response. By the way, I did catch a
real criminal. Every violation of the law, regardless makes that person a
criminal.
Let begin our journey in this portion of Romans. I will try to answer the
following questions today.
1. On what basis does God judge man?
2. What is one of the worse sins in God's sight?
3. Does a man in a heathen land who has never heard the law have a
certain amount of light to which God can hold him accountable?
I. THE MORALIST IS JUDGED ACCORDING TO THE WORD. Vs. 1-5
"Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest:
for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that
judgest doest the same things. But we are sure that the judgment of God
is according to truth against them which commit such things. And thinkest
thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the
same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? Or despisest thou the
riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing
that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? But after thy
hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against
the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God"
John 17:17
"Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth."
God's Word is always true on every and I repeat every subject of faith
and practice. I saw a little change in an old saying the other day. The
old saying was "God said it and that settles it." The new way I saw it
was this way. "God said and that settles it and let's practice it."
The Jews were constantly passing judgment upon the other folks around
them. But God tells them that they are inexcusable. This is what Christ
taught in part of His Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 7:1-5
"Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye
shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to
you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye,
but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou
say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and,
behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the
beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out
the mote out of thy brother's eye."
Judgment on our part should start with us first. If we would judge
ourselves, it would leave very little time to judge others. But that does
not mean you should never judge. John 7:24
"Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment."
The moralist did not use the Word of God to make his judgments. He used
his own prejudiced and preconceived ideas, ideals and opinions. The Jews
had changed the three hundred and sixty-five commands of the law into
over fifteen hundred that made even harder to live by.
Let me give you three basic facts that fit this passage.
A. We are congenitally blind to many of our own faults. I want to say
that "we" includes me also. The problems come in that I am not aware of
them. One of the greatest lies that are taught to people is that they can
know themselves. That flies in the face of plain Bible teaching. Jeremiah
17:9-10
"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can
know it? I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every
man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings."
Remember what I told you what the words "deceitful" and "desperately
wicked" meant in the Hebrew. It means that my own heart is fraudulent and
incurable sick. Only God knows the real me. We all have areas that are
very hurtful and sinful that we are not really aware of them. Even though
we are born blind to our own faults, that in it does not erase our guilt.
B. We try to evade the fact that we are guilty many times of the very
things that we accuse others. We do this by conveniently forgetting what
we have done wrong. Somehow we think that maybe God has forgotten. We
assume that since this fades from our minds, that it will fade His also.
It is important that Christ as the Judge will not only judge our actions
but also our attitudes, thoughts and motives. We will be judged for our
bitterness, resentfulness, malice and hatred that may never manifest
itself outwardly. We are just as guilty if we had done the deed that we
imagined.
C. We try to evade the fact that we are guilty of the very things that we
accuse others of doing by simply renaming them. Instead saying we lied,
we tell folks we stretched the truth. Others steal but we borrow. We try
to smokescreen our sinfulness with statements of righteous indignations
such as "how can a loving God allow a tyrant like Bin Laden to arise to
mastermind the deaths of thousands of people in New York and Washington,
DC?" "Why does He allow these things to go on and on year after year?"
"Why doesn't God judge these men?"
The question that we ought to be asking is this: "Why didn't He judge me
yesterday, when I said that sharp, sarcastic word that plunged like an
arrow in a loved one's heart and hurt him badly?" Or maybe this: "Why
didn't he strike me dumb when I was gossiping on the telephone and
sharing a tidbit that makes someone look bad in someone else's eye?" Why
did God judge me for that? Good questions, are they not?
Paul gives another question in to play in verse four. Why do we act as we
do? Why is that we are so quick to judge others that we have no time to
judge ourselves. Have we forgotten that our sinful and hard hearts will
be put to judgment one day? If it were not for the Bible and salvation by
grace, we would probably be no better than the moralist would. Remember
God does not show favoritism. If anything, He is harder on His own
children than He is other people. He expects and demands better of them.
II. THE MORALIST IS JUDGED ACCORDING TO THEIR WORKS. Vs. 6-10
"Who will render to every man according to his deeds: To them who by
patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and
immortality, eternal life: But unto them that are contentious, and do not
obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath,
Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the
Jew first, and also of the Gentile; But glory, honour, and peace, to
every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile"
This section really deals with a basic issue. It is this: what do you
really want out of life? Or to enhance the issue, you should ask yourself
this question: What are you seeking?
God is fair in His judgment. He will render to every man according to His
deeds. Some people think they can sow wild oats all week and then come to
church on Sunday and pray for crop failure. I find two schools of thought
here.
A. The pursuit of the righteous
Vs. 7, 10
"To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and
honour and immortality, eternal life" "To them who by patient continuance
in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life:
Seeking glory is not self-glory but His glory. Seeking honor is not self
honor but that which is His honor. Seeking immorality that can only come
from God. Also eternal life only comes from the Lord. When we seek after
this, we are seeking after the good and godly, we will be rewarded
properly.
The pursuit of the ruinous
Vs. 8-9
"But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey
unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, Tribulation and anguish, upon
every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the
Gentile"
When we seek after the ruinous, we become contentious. We will not obey
the truth that we know is the Lord Jesus. We are more prone to give into
indignation, unrighteousness, and wrath. This is nothing less than evil
sin in our lives.
This is the path of the moralist. He looks at himself as morally superior
while he forgets that he will by judged according to his works.
I am reminded of a story told by Oliver Greene's brother in law. The
morning after Brother Greene had began a meeting; he was digging in red,
wet clay a trench around the tent so the rainwater would not get inside
of the tent. This man came up to Brother Greene in a clean white shirt.
He told Brother Greene that he strongly disagreed with Brother Greene in
the fact a person can sin after they are saved. "Why he had not sinned in
more than forty years!" Brother Greene stopped digging and took his hands
and rubbed up and down the guy's back with his dirty hands. The fellow
jumped back and asked what Brother Greene was doing. To which Brother
Greene replied, "If you have sinned in forty years, you must be an angel
and I was wanting to feel your wings." Needless to say that fellow left
in a huff and mad. This is exactly how the moralist does. When the
spotlight is placed on his sins and he is rewarded for them, he gets all
bothered and many times mad.
III. THE MORALIST WILL BE JUDGED BY WISDOM. Vs. 11-16
"For there is no respect of persons with God. For as many as have sinned
without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in
the law shall be judged by the law; (For not the hearers of the law are
just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. For when
the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained
in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: Which
shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also
bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else
excusing one another;) In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men
by Jesus Christ according to my gospel."
A wise man judges without partiality. No one is wiser than God is.
A. Nationality plays no part in judgment. Remember what I said earlier,
this section is written to and about many of the Jewish people who would
come into contact with Paul's writings. If the Jewish people are not
respected and refrained from being judged, then what chance has a man who
is an American have not to be judged. If anything, we will be held to a
higher standard of judgment. Luke 12:48
"But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be
beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall
be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will
ask the more."
B. Keeping of the Law is not a defense either. We know that no one and
repeat no one has ever been able to keep the Law except the Lord Jesus.
There are three things that accuse a man. They are found in this passage.
They are the Law of God, our conscience and our thoughts.
Let me give you six abilises for sin. These will not hold water either.
1. "We always have done it."
2. "Everybody else is doing it."
3. "We know when to quit."
4. "It depends how you look at it."
5. "A little bit doesn't hurt."
6. "You gotta make a living."
These are used by people that when they stand before Jesus Christ, the
righteous judge, either at the Judgment Seat of Christ (for believers) or
the White Throne Judgment (for sinners), they will not be pointing
fingers at others or able to use these excuses.
Conclusion: Let’s see we can find what we need to know with these
following questions and comments.
Why does tell us all this in this portion in Romans? Is it because He
wants us to be in despair?
Is it because he wants us to realize that, when you stand before Him,
there is no chance? We have no chance of standing in God’s sight on our
own merits.
Is anyone prepared to stand up, and say, "If God is going to deal with me
on this basis, I am prepared to meet him on these terms?" Without the
Lord, we don’t have a chance.
Did the Lord tell us this to torment? Of course not! He tells all this so
we will see the greatness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He provided the
way so we can have His righteousness. 2 Corinthians 5:21
"For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be
made the righteousness of God in him."
Today we have looked at a moralist. He is guilt because his keeping of
the Law or his morals do not hold up in light of the judgment of God.
There are some principles that should guide our lives. These principles
will not make you proud of your morality. They will enhance your
spirituality.
1. Is it right?
2. Will it glorify God?
3. Is it edifying?
4. Can I ask God to bless it and thank him for it?
5. Would I like the Lord to find me doing it when he returns?

Pastor Mike Walls
Freedom Baptist Church Smithfield, NC
All scriptures are King James Bible
Isa. 41:10