and as the offering plates come by you can grab your Bibles and turn to Romans chapter 2. while last week's message the subject matter may have been difficult to to talk about at least it is for many I feel like this message may be a more difficult one for most of us to receive and process and obey because just looking around most of us are church people now I don't know how you define church people but I Define church people as people who you'd see at church and I know it's a complicated definition but people you'd almost expect to see them you know you see them in town and you think that's a church person um and maybe you don't want to be seen that way and that's okay if you don't but by virtue of my vocation everybody sees me as a church person and I can't help it and even the ones that don't see me that way once they find out I am one their behavior are absolutely radically changes around me and I've I've talked about this before I'll golf by myself sometimes and they'll put me with the group and about whole six they ask me what I do for a living and their vocabulary dramatically changes you know um where before they were using all sorts of four-letter words now they they're they're uh their exclamations change to how God good God is and how they wish that he would help them sometimes but it's amazing the difference or you'll be sitting on an airplane and and and the person finds out who you are and there's two reactions either they just talk your ear off the rest of the way about what they believe and where they go to church or maybe it's not church what they believe and they just want to know from you or they don't ever talk to you again because they don't want to have anything to do with you and I've had both reactions and I'm fine with either one by the way I actually almost prefer the second so I can just take a nap but that's just me because uh I'm introverted but anyway church people and and conservative people in general which I'm making an assumption there maybe it's not correct but it's conservative people in general we we kind of uh agree on what is right and what is wrong and when I preach a sermon about what most of us would agree is wrong then you get a lot of amends and a lot of agreement and people are glad that someone finally got up and said hey these things are wrong we should stand for what is true and um and so there's a lot of agreement there and I think that the Apostle Paul knew that the people he was writing to would agree with them that the behaviors he had just described were wrong so the homosexuality is wrong whether it's men or women any unnatural sexual desires are wrong and adultery is wrong and but also quarreling and deceit and envy and murder malice in your heart gossiping and slandering Disobedience arrogance Pride boastfulness inventing all types of evil and applauding those who do evil all of these things are wrong and and people read that and they're like of course those things are wrong and so I think Paul kind of anticipates the fact that most people who read this letter aren't going to say you know what I totally disagree that those things are wrong most people at least for the past 2000 years when things were more sane than they are today most people would say I agree and we should get people to stop doing those things and I agree Paul those people are evil and uh Paul kind of anticipates that sentiment or that thought that would arise in people and he has the word for us as well because it's easy for us to see other people's sin and it's easy for us to identify wickedness outside of ourselves and when we do that our natural inclination our instinct is to to pass judgment on them now we know that Jesus said in Matthew chapter 7 verse 1 do not judge or else you will be judged and then he goes on to say that by the measure that you judge that is the measure that will be measured to you in his illustration is you shouldn't go to a person that has a speck in their eye and talk about the speck in their eye when you have a log in your own eye nor should you try to remove the speck from their eye while a log remains in your own eye and so we um he tells us about judgment and how we should judge and how we should not judge but it's easy to judge isn't it easy isn't it easy to find someone else's faults and to think poorly of them isn't easy to think how much better they should do and here's the thing your judgment is based on some standard of morality that you hold to and your standard of morality comes from somewhere else that is morals do not exist on their own worlds must have a standard that you're holding someone to whether it's yourself or someone else moral standards do not exist on their own there must be something you're judging the other person by and this is always true the the thing that is most commonly held up to judge one person or another is the law was the law of the United States or the laws of Texas or or some Global moral understanding the thing that you judge by is the law and the the ultimate law of the world is the law of God and God has given law and he's written out some of it and we know familiar laws like the Ten Commandments and we we know that the law became quite expansive and uh and and then in its influence it was oppressive as Jesus talked against those who use the law to oppress others in the New Testament but whether or not that's the case when you judge someone you're holding them accountable to a law and when you hold someone else accountable to the law it proves that you know the law you know it you know what's right you know what's wrong you know what is appropriate you know what is inappropriate you know what is going far enough and you know what is going too far when you judge someone else it proves that you have a an understanding of the law at least as it applies to someone else but but if you're willing to apply it to someone else it is necessarily true that that same law ought to apply to you that's what Jesus was saying when he said don't judge he wasn't saying don't determine what is right and wrong he's saying whatever standard you are aware of or right and wrong it doesn't just apply outside of you it also applies to you and most often is the case that you can see others glaring faults while you cannot discern your own obvious faults it may be even true that you can see very minor flaws in other people while being blind to very major flaws in yourself so Jesus says don't go and attempt to to straighten out someone else's shirt when your whole wardrobe is all wrinkled up don't pay attention to the fine details in someone else's life when your whole life is out of whack and so this idea of judgment the assumption that comes with it is you know right from wrong and you're holding others to that standard so Paul enters the discussion using the exact same words that Jesus used in Matthew 7 he enters this discussion to say a very similar thing Romans Chapter 2 beginning in verse one here's what he says therefore every one of you who judges is without excuse for when you judge another you condemn yourself since you the judge do the same things we have a word to Define this thing that Paul just described this word is called hypocrisy when you judge someone else for something that you yourself are guilty of so we look to those who have very uh flamboyant and fret uh flagrant I almost said fragrant I don't know if that's appropriate or not flamboyant and flagrant sexual sins and we say oh wow they're so wrong we look at people who obviously are liars obviously or coralers obviously have malice in their heart we talk about gossips we gossip about gossips we point out slanderers we talk about people who are proud and arrogant who boast we talk about all of these people while we have these same things going on in US but because maybe we say well yeah I do it but not nearly as boldly or as badly as they do it we minimize our own sin so that we can pass judgment on their sin but when we pass judgment on their sin we're demonstrating that we understand the law and that any violation of the law is wrong and so we become a hypocrite because we're willing to talk about what others do wrong while we ourselves also do wrong so verse 2 says we know that God's judgment on those who do such thing is based on the truth do you really think any one of you who judges those who do such things yet do the same that you will escape God's judgment so Paul says we know God's judgment against sin is based on the truth so now the Apostle here is setting in contrast our judgment with the Judgment of God so when you judge you judge based on some standards some law that you know to be true the the thing about human standards of Law and Justice is that they could be uh they could be flawed they could be misapplied they could be inaccurate the Judgment could be wrong or the Judgment could be too much or too little that the law could be um not appropriate or it could go too far or not go far enough when it comes to human standards and human laws and therefore when it comes to human judgment they could be wrong but when it comes to the Judgment of God it is based on truth there's no way for it to air God is truth and so his judgments are always right God doesn't misjudge anyone so if God says something is right then it's right and if God says something is wrong it is wrong because God is the standard of Truth by which everything is judged so God's judgments are always right so here's what Paul says God's judgment it's based on truth don't you think then that he will judge everyone the same see truth doesn't allow for for different judgments you can't judge differently one person versus another if there's just one truth so if it is wrong to lie then everyone who lies must be judged the same and all lies must be judged in the same way if it's wrong to be arrogant or prideful then all pride has to be judged the same then all the arrogant people have to be judged in the same way so it doesn't matter if you're old you don't get a pass or if you're young you don't get a pass so if you're white you don't get a pass or black or Latino there's no difference according to race or ethnicity or age or gender it's all the same it's all the same because there's one standard of Truth for every person and God judges according to that standard of Truth so even though you may think their sins way worse than mine God says every violation of the law is considered the same that is every violator of the law has absolutely violated the law and will be treated the same as every other law Violator now what we want to hesitate with is we don't want to say that God sees all sin exactly the same that is to say that the child that that says he ate his vegetables when he really didn't is not the same as a person who abandons his family out of his own selfish desires those sins are not the same they're not the same in the damage they cause they're not the same in the eyes of the law because in in God's law in the Old Testament there were different punishments for different offenses just like in your household I hope there are different punishments for different offenses I I hope as a parent that you don't punish everything the same so you know your kid wakes up in the morning and doesn't brush their teeth and they come and talk to you and and you can tell like you know day and brush their teeth I mean they're eight feet from you and you can tell and you're like hey did you brush your teeth and they say yes and you say well you know what that means you're grounded for a year no TV no media give me your phone give me your car keys that's it for you because you are a liar hopefully not but but what if what if they say they were somewhere where they were not you know they come in at midnight you say where were you and say oh I was at a friend's house and then you call up that friend's parents and you say hey was my kid at your house like no absolutely not I don't even know what your kid looks like who is your kid again and goes in them and say they you weren't there their parent was there you weren't there where were you and you find out they were somewhere they definitely should not have been engaged in an activity they should not be doing they've just lied now here's the question are those lies the same they're both lies right but the penalty for the one should be greater than the other one of them you say get in there and brush your teeth what are you insane nobody wants to smell your funky breath that that's that's punishment enough you know for a kid brushing their teeth is already punishment just get them to do it that's enough the other one though Demands a different type of punishment God's the same he in his law there's different punishments for different crimes but are they both lies yes they are are they both wrong yes and so according to God's law has it been broken by each offense yes so we don't want to say all sins are exactly the same as far as their severity we want to refrain from doing that but is the the eventual effect or the actual effect of both exactly the same it is it is because all sin separates us from God so even if it's a minor sin it's just a little lie it didn't hurt anyone except for the people that had to smell your funky breath even if it's just a small one it still violates God's law and causes separation from God and so everyone's a sinner and by virtue of our sin we are all separated from gods presence removed from his glorious goodness and here's the thing because of our fallenness we make very poor judges and even when we know the law we know right from wrong and we can identify right and we can identify wrong and we can even speak and say these things are right and these things are wrong when we set up ourselves as the judge and jury of other people we were wrong it says don't you think that the ones who judge others while they do the same do you think they're going to escape judgment look it's a rhetorical question the answer is no they won't so here we see judging others misdeeds is not the same as obeying God so if you know enough right in order to identify wrong but you only identify the wrong in others it does not equate to obedience knowing right knowing wrong does not equate to obedience being able to call out wrong does not mean that you yourself are doing what is right there's a phrase that my seventh grade teacher he was actually a coach he used to say all the time he said no one ain't doing because you know you'd be playing basketball and and you'd be like all right on this play You're supposed to go here and then you run the play and you fail to go there and coach was like you're supposed to go there and you'd say I know and Coach flannel say no it ain't doing in other words no one didn't help you at all it didn't get your rear end where you're supposed to be then that ball was passed away you were supposed to be you weren't there because even though you knew you didn't do and and the same is true for us in a much more important way just because you know right from wrong and you can identify right and wrong does not mean you are doing right and so God's judgment comes on all wrong doers and knowing is not doing so we were able to judge others and we have the law we have a word from God we have we don't just we don't have to guess at what might be right or wrong God's told us what he expects from us and we know when we've violated the law and that judging others and even good full knowledge of the law does not equate to righteousness in fact it leads into more unrighteousness knowing what is right from wrong and failing to do it is actually another wrong we see that in the Book of James we see that implied here do you think that the ones who judge others but do it also you think they're going to escape judgment no they're going to be judged for something else so not only have they done wrong but now they've judged others for doing the wrong that they're doing so now you're you're a sinner in one way and in another way you're a sinner in that you lied and you're a hypocrite because you judge someone else for lying you're a sinner because you have wrong sexual desires but now you're also a sinner because you judge someone else's sexual desires so now you're you're doubly sinful because you sin and judge others sins you will not Escape judgment because you know what is right and you you can identify right from wrong and you can see when others fail this does not lead to Salvation it only it only leads to judgment so what well verse 4 he says or do you despise The Riches of his kindness that is the kindness of Jesus and do you despise his kindness his restraint and patience not recognizing that God's kindness is intended to lead you to repentance so now it goes to another level of wrong so we sin and then we judge others who do the same types of sin that we do and we're not evaluators good evaluators of truth because we're fallen so we can see the truth but we don't make good judges because we we are criminals and and so as a criminal we can't be a judge but there is a judge it's God he judges according to purpose truth but it's not us but because we are able to identify right and wrong we think we're good when we're not we do wrong we judge others who do wrong and here's the third thing that accumulates uh wrongdoing toward us when we judge others for doing wrong that we also do we slap God in the face we pretend or we act as if God's kindness should come to us but not to others we say of course I deserve Mercy I deserve kindness and God's kindness is owed to me because I know all about him but these other reprobate Sinners they deserve judgment but do you despise The Riches of his kindness do you despise it for others do you only want it for yourself there's a sentiment in every person I see to myself sometimes where we think God owes us something I was uh re-watching a sermon that I've watched maybe a hundred times this week and it's about David Platt it's about uh how when we are confident in God and who he is that we can do death defying things for God but David plant's talking about how he's in he was in East Asia somewhere in a very hard place to be his life was literally on the line his life was in danger and he had been going from Village to Village sharing the gospel hoping not to be found out and he he and his team they were taking a break so he went off by himself and he said he sat out on this mountain pass somewhere and just looked out and opened his devotional book he was reading a book by Tozer and he just thought man God's lucky to have me on his team God's lucky to have me on his team he said he opened up Tozer and the words from Tozer basically said God don't need any of you who are we to pretend the god needs us that he's somehow beholden to us and David Platt said he was just so convicted then he was reminded of his place in the equation and God didn't owe us anything he's not so glad that we chose him God is a rescuer of hopeless people in the hope that we have is the hope that he has given to us and we didn't bring any of it to him at all he brought it all to us so we're not he's not lucky that we're on the team we're lucky to be on the team and if he ever uses this at all it's not because we're so good it's because he's so good and our usefulness is not based on our goodness it's based on his goodness and he is kind and he is patient and he is slow to anger and he's calling us he's calling all of us to repentance he's calling all of us to repentance so we have the treasures it says the riches of the kindness restraint that word for restraint is can be translated tolerant but it means he's slow he's slow to judgment his patience he's rich in kindness restraint and patience he's Rich he's he's got enough he's got more than enough of those things and those things are intended to lead us to repentance so rather than standing in Judgment of others as we're aware of right and wrong we should begin not by being ignorant of others wrongs but we should begin by repenting of our own wrongs the kindness of God the Restraint of God the patience of God is not a license for us to do whatever we want it is an invitation to follow Christ yeah there's many people who have been saved and so they know for sure their sins are taken care of and it's true if you've believed in Jesus your sins are forgiven you don't have to worry about them anymore they're Cast Away as far as the East is from the West they're thrown into the sea they won't be dug up anymore God doesn't hold grudges against you he doesn't come to you and say remember when you did if you ever feel guilty about a long ago sin that's the enemy that is not God bringing that back up you don't have to you don't have to worry about the weight of your sin because the weight of your sin has been carried by Jesus to the cross and has been put to death if you were in Christ you are forgiven your sin is gone but but many people use this idea that are sin because of our faith has been taken away we use it as a license to engage in more sin and we think that because my sin is Forgiven that my sin somehow is holier than other people's sin so that a Christian sin is better sin than a non-Christian sin because at least it's forgiven sin but all sin is violently disgusting to God you know what I mean violently discussing not just but it's bad he cannot be in its presence he can't it wretches his soul all sin and you want to know the soul-wretching nature of sin look at the cross every time we sin is like we're putting another nail in the hand of Jesus we're pressing Thorns into his scalp or stabbing him in the side and we are doing it with full knowledge that that's what it took to take away my sin we think that somehow the sins of Christian is Sanctified the sin of a Christian is worse it's he says when you do that you despise you despise The Riches of his kindness his restraint in his patience you're spitting in the face of a crucified savior not acting in ignorance but with full knowledge of the violent disgust that god holds towards sin but we think that because our sin is Forgiven that we then can sit in Judgment of other people's sin and that is absolutely false to The Riches of God's kindness is intended to lead us to repentance repentance means you turn away from what was and you turn towards something else in this case it's very obvious you turn away from sin which is your way and you turn toward righteousness which is God's way you turn away from sin which was your way and you turn toward righteousness which is God's way so that means you have God's heart and you you go with God's way toward sinners God's mercy toward us as Sinners who have believed in him who are now forgiven God's mercy should lead us to obedience and it should lead to a pursuit of God's way towards Sinners so what is God's way towards Sinners God's way towards Sinners is not to say your sin is okay your sin is violently disgusting to the soul of God but he's made a way for you to be delivered from the consequences the Eternal consequences of your sin he's made a way for you and his way is repentance so instead of standing in judgment over someone that says you're headed for hell and you leave it at that this is true right the sinner's destination their Eternal uh their path is leading them to hell they do not get off of that path they will go to where their path leads there's only two ways there's a narrow way it leads to eternal life it's through Jesus there's a wide way it leads to describe destruction many are on it you will end up where your path leads you unless you change paths you're going to end up where your path is leading you there's no other way instead of just saying hey you deserve hell look how ugly your sin and it's awful I I deem you worthy of Wrath standing in judge and instead of that instead of that we come alongside with a wealth of kindness restraint and patience to say I was I'm just like you your sin is wrong so is mine that sin is causing harm to your soul even if you don't feel it killing you and it will kill you forever if you don't repent God has made it clear that those who don't repent they will be away from him forever they will they will receive the just reward for the Deeds Done In the Flesh but but if you will believe you can have eternal life because God is is rich in kindness and mercy he calls all to himself see in both cases you can point out what is wrong one leads to death and one leads to life we don't have to be ignorant of what is right and what is wrong we don't have to be silent in the face of wickedness we must approach it in the same way that God does you see God is the one who is rightfully the judge and yet he's the one who is most merciful to sinners and we who are not rightfully the judge of anyone are the most willing for them to receive Wrath verse 5 says because of your hardened and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of Wrath when God's righteous judgment is revealed you say that sounds really judgy from Paul he just said don't judge don't judge you just repent and then he's judging us that's so mean of him to end there it would be it would be it would be a lot worse if he didn't tell us this is a scary scary scary sentence it says because of your hardened and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of Wrath we know that there are things being stored up in eternity we talk about it in church we say that you can store up Treasures in Heaven and we talk about when you when you do things in the name of Jesus for others that you are you're storing up Treasures for yourself in heaven and we love to talk about sowing up Treasures for yourself in heaven but I want to tell you that everybody's storing up something for themselves in heaven it's accumulating and it's waiting for you and you're either storing out Treasures for yourself that come through Christ to us it's Christ's treasure given to us even your ministry to someone else is because of Christ's love to you you're either storing up for yourself treasure in heaven through Christ or through yourself you're storing up Wrath and it's accumulating and he says because of your hardened and unrepentant heart this is a person who knows the law they know the truth they know right from wrong they've even heard of Jesus they have not repented and because they do not repent right wrath is accumulating for them in heaven and it will fall it will come you cannot avoid it I don't know what you think of God's Wrath I don't know how severe you think it will be what's approaching it says it will come on the day of Wrath now this day whenever Paul is writing to Believers he calls it something else when Paul is writing and he's writing to Believers here but when he's writing to people who are who are being faithful and and not needing a rebuke he calls this same day the day of the Lord or he calls it the day of salvation it's the same day so that for those who are in Christ this day of the Lord is the best day it's the day we look forward to it's the day where we cry out Lord Jesus come quickly we want it to come but for those who are outside of Christ those who have no relationship with Jesus those who are unrepentant in their heart this day as it comes is a day of Wrath and they dread it with every ounce of their being is coming it's coming one way or the other but it's coming now most of us in this room will not be alive when this day comes as far as I know because everybody that's come before didn't live to see it Bob Barker didn't live to see it got as close as he could to a hundred without going over Price is Right joke sorry may have been inappropriate I don't know up into this point everybody dies and everybody will die we all will see the Lord and we'll take our last breath in this life and we will breathe our first breath of eternal life our eyes will be awakened to the judge of the living and the dead in this day of the Lord will come for those who in the Lord Paul says to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord but this day will come in Wrath for those that don't know him who remain hardened in their hearts and unrepentant they will enter into wrath the Wrath that they have stored up for themselves so they won't go before God and say God I don't deserve it he'll point to this Storehouse of Wrath that they've accumulated for themselves through Disobedience and unrepentance and say I'm just giving you what you wanted I'm just giving you what you earned the wages of sin is death here's your paycheck forever you earned it I've been storing it up for you it's waiting for you this is yours every ounce of this wrath has your name on it it's rightfully yours because it says this is the righteous Judgment of God it won't give you anyone else's wrath but your own but you will receive all of it that's yours but those who are repentant those who trust in the name of Jesus will look in their account and their wrath account is empty the rat the day is stored up for themselves is gone the check that was to be written to them is zero how could that be how could there be nothing that they owe to the account of Wrath that's because someone else has paid it it's because someone else has taken it look we're all storing up wrath for ourselves it's accumulating in eternity it's waiting to fall and it will fall unless unless unless it's taken by someone else and there's only one who can take it there's only one who can pay off your account he's done enough to pay every account for every person who's ever lived his name is Jesus and though you've stored up for yourself wrath that is due to you when the day of Wrath comes if you were in Christ they'll look in your account of Wrath and there will be nothing there and in its place it will be righteousness there will be a wealth treasure the treasures Jesus when you look in your account and you see Jesus Jesus you see that my wrath bill is paid but it's not just enough to pay my debt of Wrath it's enough to give me this glorious Eternal existence I get to enjoy Jesus forever God's Wrath is accumulating for the unrighteous and his righteousness has overcome wrath for those who believe in him so which one are you what's your account look like look there's a lot of us who are in Christ who are not demonstrating repentance Paul didn't write this to the Romans and then this stopped happening this has happened we were very good judges of the unrighteous but this isn't it this isn't calling us to be better judges of unrighteousness all of chapter one is teaching us about the unrighteousness of the world and how they suppress the knowledge of God and they rebelled against God and they worship created things and we need to know it to identify it and we need to know it and identify it in US so that we might repent from it so that we can be delivered from the Wrath to come and enter into Eternal rest and then having done that we need to call others to repentance they must know of sin but they also must know of Hope now the gospel sounds like judgment to the world I'm not telling you to change the gospel message it sounds judgy to the world it's a stumbling block but if the if you only go far as so far as to say here's what's wrong you have not done what is right you must say here's what's wrong and here's what it's caused in you and here's the answer here's the answer it's not enough to tell people that they're storing up wrath for themselves you must tell them that someone someone has done enough to take it away from them you sit in judgment if you only tell half the story use it in judgment if you don't ever tell the story you see a lot of us will say I don't have a judgmental attitude at all I'm not judging anyone but having identified their sin have you told them about the hope they have to be delivered from it you say I'm not sitting in Judgment of them if you don't tell them about Jesus you are deciding for them that they are worthy of hell you've made up your mind that their sin they're going to get what they deserve and that's fine with you is that fine with you is that fine with me if you don't tell them about the hope that they have in Christ that they could have in Christ you've sentenced them to hell now God can save them because he's so good he can use somebody beside you to do it and hopefully he will if you fail to do it wouldn't you rather that that word of Hope came from you wouldn't you rather the demonstration of God's kindness came through you know we who have believed have a great task in front of us the world is set against us and it feels like we will definitely fail because we have so little power so little authority in this world but do you believe that the gospel is the power of God to Salvation for those who believe it was first for the Jew announced for everybody do you believe it that the power of the Gospel can overcome any Earthly power if you believe it wow I don't really share it this is not intended to make you feel guilty though a mind at first this is an invitation this is an invitation it is not something bad in God that leads to repentance is something good and while we've talked a lot about God's Wrath and God's Wrath should be a hindrance see the thing that leads to repentance it is God's kindness it's God's kindness you've failed if you've failed your whole life if you've never told anyone you've believed in Jesus you've never told anyone about Jesus just know God is kind enough he's patient enough he's he is restraining enough he he welcomes you to himself again he wants you to turn he wants you to follow him he wants you to have his heart and his mind and his hands and his feet he wants you to live for him you are you were loved so instead of seeing God's kindness as a license to do whatever you want let us see God's kindness properly he he welcomes us home when we wandered far he welcomes us home so so if you've been far come home and if you've never if you've never repented if you've never believed maybe today would be the day that you wouldn't let's pray God thank you for loving us thank you for the truth of your judgment thank you for your kindness that leads to repentance thank you for your Wrath that you don't waver from the truth but God help us to be faithful not just to know what is right but to do it not just to have experience the the joy of repentance and Faith but to share it with others God I pray that our church would be a light in this community not just clamoring about what is wrong in the world but proclaiming a solution to the problem goodness the kindness the patience of our God thank you for loving us help us to be more like Jesus we pray this in Jesus name amen listen