Dakota Community Church
March 1, 2009 pm
Romans – Chapter 2(b)
Revelations of Eternal Judgment
Read Romans 2
Our thoughts on the matter really are not important.
What then does God reveal concerning eternal judgment in Romans 2?
God’s judgment is:
1. According to truth
2. According to accumulating guilt
3. According to actions
4. Without bias
Romans 2:11-12
For God does not show favoritism.
All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law.
I hope you will not misunderstand what I am going to say. I am no preaching, and Heaven knows I do not pretend to be better than anyone else. I am only trying to call attention to a fact; the fact that this year, or this month, or, more likely, this very day, we have failed to practice ourselves the kind of behavior we expect from other people. There may be all sorts of excuses for us. That time you were so unfair to the children was when you were very tired. That slightly shady business about the money - the one you have almost forgotten - came when you were very hard-up. And what you promised to do for old So-and-so and have never done - well, you never would have promised if you had known how frightfully busy you were going to be. And as for your behavior to your wife (or husband) or sister (or brother) if I knew how irritating they could be, I would not wonder at it - and who the dickens am I, anyway? I am just the same. That is to say, I do not succeed in keeping the Law of Nature very well, and the moment anyone tells me I am not keeping it, there starts up in my mind a string of excuses as long as your arm. The question at the moment is not whether they are good excuses. The point is that they are one more proof of how deeply, whether we like it or not, we believe in the Law of Nature. If we do not believe in decent behavior, why should we be so anxious to make excuses for not having behaved decently? The truth is, we believe in decency so much - we feel the Rule of Law pressing on us so - that we cannot bear to face the fact that we are breaking it, and consequently we try to shift the responsibility. For you notice that it is only for our bad behavior that we find all these explanations. It is only our bad temper that we put down to being tired or worried or hungry; we put our good temper down to ourselves. – C.S. Lewis Mere Christianity
Life on a sin sickened planet is very much biased; there is very little fairness about it.
Where we are born and to whom is totally void of any level of fairness.
There is nothing worse than dealing with favoritism or bias against us.
Les qualified people move up the ranks because of politics or favoritism.
The boss’s son who is a complete incompetent winds up as everybody’s boss, no justice. (Forgans)
As men we are biased about other people’s attempts to be unbiased. Hockey referees for example.
We may have to deal with the unfairness of favoritism and bias throughout our live but not when it comes to God!
5. Not according to religious insight
Romans 2:13-15
For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.)
It is not enough to hear the law, to be aware of what is required, the law must be obeyed.
It is not enough to have heard the gospel either, it too must be obeyed.
Acts 4:11-12
He is “‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the capstone.’Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."
It is important to remember that God has no grandchildren.
You are not saved because you parents are saved and they had you baptized or brought you up in Church. Salvation comes by hearing the good news and placing faith in Christ our substitute.
James 2:19
You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.
6. Naked
Romans 2:16
This will take place on the day when God will judge men’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.
Judgment will be according to the secrets of men’s hearts.
Luke 8:16-18
"No one lights a lamp and hides it in a jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, he puts it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light. For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open. Therefore consider carefully how you listen. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has will be taken from him."
How horrible to appear unforgiven before the throne of God.
Acts 17:30-31
In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead."
Have you ever had a secret that you were terrified would be found out? I got caught stealing when I was about 15 and at the time my grandparents were in town for a visit!
7. Not moved by religious affiliations
God’s righteous judgment is not moved by religious affiliation.
Romans 2:17-29
Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; if you rely on the law and brag about your relationship to God; if you know his will and approve of what is superior because you are instructed by the law; if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth— you, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who brag about the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? As it is written: "God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you."
Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law, you have become as though you had not been circumcised. If those who are not circumcised keep the law’s requirements, will they not be regarded as though they were circumcised? The one who is not circumcised physically and yet obeys the law will condemn you who, even though you have the written code and circumcision, are a lawbreaker.
A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man’s praise is not from men, but from God.
John 8:42-47
Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now am here. I have not come on my own; but he sent me. Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God."
Remember that Paul is writing these things to awaken men from their false hopes about themselves to their true state – lost without a savior!
We can all understand how a man forgives offenses against himself. You tread on my toes and I forgive you, you steal my money and I forgive you. But what should we make of a man, himself unrobbed and untrodden on, who announced that he forgave you for treading on other men’s toes and stealing other men’s money? Asinine fatuity is the kindest description we should give of his conduct. Yet this is what Jesus did. He told people that their sins were forgiven, and never waited to consult all the other people whom their sins had undoubtedly injured. He unhesitatingly behaved as if He were the party chiefly offend, the person chiefly offended in all offenses. This makes sense only if He really was the God whose laws are broken and whose love is wounded in every sin. In the mouth of any speaker who is not God, these words would imply what I can only regard as a silliness and conceit unrivaled by any other character in history.
Yet (and this is the strange, significant thing) even His enemies, when they read the Gospels, do not usually get the impression of silliness and conceit. Still less do unprejudiced readers. Christ says that He is ‘humble and meek’ and we believe Him; not noticing that, if He were merely a man, humility and meekness are the very last characteristics we could attribute to some of His sayings. – C.S. Lewis – Mere Christianity
PowerPoint available (Free of charge) on request dcormie@mts.net
