All right Romans chapter 2 we're gonna read the first 11 verses together and Then we'll pray and we will get into the first half of this chapter verse 1 follow along quietly as I read Therefore you have no excuse. Oh man every one of you who judges is For in passing judgment on one another, you condemn yourselves, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Do you suppose, O man, you who judge those who practice such things, and yet do them yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impotent heart, and penitent heart. You are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. He will render to each one according to his works. To those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek. But glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality. Let's pray. Our gracious heavenly fathers, we come before you this morning as we open up this text, which is packed full of meaning. that we would let it speak to our hearts, not because of anything I have done, Father, but because you have given these words to us through the Apostle Paul, that you've preserved them for thousands of years, and that the message that they communicate to us is something serious that we need to take to heart. I ask that you would, right now, remove the distractions of this room, that while we are in a different location for these students for chapel, that they would listen, that they'd be attentive and that they would learn something from your word this morning. It's in your name we pray, amen. All right, so verse one, the very first word is what? You can say it. Therefore. All right, here's a great rule of thumb. Anytime you're reading the Bible and you see the word therefore, all right, this is what I was taught in Bible college. You know what you do? You know what you do when you see the word therefore, Alexis? You look and see what it is therefore. When you see the word therefore, you have to look and see why the word is there. We have chapter 2, verse 1 starts with the word therefore. Hopefully you understand. If you don't, you can learn this this morning. When the Apostle Paul wrote this down to the church at Rome, he didn't say chapter 2, verse 1, therefore. He didn't do that. Paul wrote one letter in paragraphs to the church, and then years later, people went back and kind of divided it up. So, Shayla, what we have to understand is there's something we need to be looking at. But what is it we need to be looking at? Is there anything previous in chapter 2 we can look at? Chapter 2, verse 1, the very first word is, therefore. Is there anything else in chapter 2 that has led us to this point? Chapter 1. Was that Donovan? Oh, it's Caden? Okay. Sounded like Donovan. Alright, it's Chapter 1. So we have to go back to Chapter 1 for just a moment. So go ahead and turn back to Chapter 1. I'm going to begin in verse 28. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They're full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossip, slanders, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. They know Though they know God's righteous decree, that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them, but give approval to those who practice them. Therefore, you have no excuse." So who's the people Paul's writing to? Who is the you that has no excuse? You can just blurt it out. I'm not going to be able to comment. Who? Who's Paul's audience? Christians. Where? In Rome, apparently, and I'm sure you guys discussed it in the previous weeks looking at chapter 1, you have this long list of wicked people. And these people are doing so and they don't care about God's laws. They're just doing it. And Paul, riding to this church, tells these people, the Christians, that they have no excuse. He's not riding to the people that are completely ignoring God's laws. He's writing to the individual, and we're gonna look at it, who's watching people ignore God's laws. And he says, to them, you have no excuse. So let's see what he's talking about. We see why he's connecting this in the therefore. We understand, verse one, that there are no excuses. He says, you are without an excuse. You have no excuse, oh man. Who are these people? Every one of you who judges. Paul just went through and listed some wicked, vile, reputable sins that are just disgusting. And now he's writing to a church docile and saying, you people that are passing judgment on them have no excuse. Now that sounds kind of harsh. Because if we look back at chapter one with some of those things we just read, well, I'm not a slanderer, I'm not a hater of God, I'm not heartless, I'm not an inventor of evil, but yet Paul says, you're without an excuse because you cast judgment on them. He says, verse one, look at it with me, for in passing judgment on one another, you condemn yourself because you, the judge, practice the very same things. From Paul's perspective, the Christians at the Church of Rome are dealing with these things going on around them that are just absolute wickedness, and they're casting judgment, and he's like, hold on! When you judge them, you're just as guilty. Now why can Paul say that? Who really should be the judge, Jay? Who's the one who gets to stand and say, this is right, this is wrong, and I'm going to cast judgment on them? Who really gets to be the judge? God's the judge. Now, we're going to explain it a little bit more. And if you know this passage, maybe you've heard this one before. Matthew chapter 7, first five verses says, judge not that you be not judged. How many of you have heard that before? How many of you have heard it shortened to the Bible says judge not? You ever heard that? When Matthew writes it down, here's what he says, Judge not that you be not judged. Well, why, Matthew? For with the judgment you pronounce, you will be judged. With the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but you do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, let me take the speck out of your eye, when there is a log in 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. Here's why Paul says, you are without an excuse, George of Rome. Because you see these people who are acting wickedly, and you're going, oh, sinners! And you're not stopping to say, hold on. Wait, Kelton, what's wrong in my life? See, we do this all the time. I grew up in a Christian school much like this one. And here's what happens. The kid that gets kicked out, everyone casts judgment on him. Right? Don't we? Like, oh, you know what they did? Did you hear Ryder, you know, out of school suspended? Do you know why they're not here today? And we like to cast judgment on that, Romero. But what we don't like to do is, yeah, but you've been disobedient in class from day one. Your teacher just tolerates. Paul's perspective is, you're without an excuse. Because you see that someone's getting judged for their wickedness, yet you're doing nothing to fix yourself. He says, verse 1, you're without an excuse. Why? Because you're passing this judgment. And when you do that, he says, you condemn yourself. Because you're doing the exact same thing. See, as humans, we like to put labels on sin. The more gross it is, Mr. Howard, the more nasty it is. And so we like to think, well, this is a sin that's just really gross to me. And so that offends God more. But the truth is, Elias, the sin that God says is an abomination is just as offensive to Him, Mr. Neal, as it is the little white lie you tell your parents. See, here's what you need to understand. Sin is equal and sin is not equal. It's both. Standing before God, Matthew, every sin you commit makes you worthy of damnation and hell. One sin, lying to your parents about brushing your teeth last night, puts you in a category worthy of hell, Hannah. The same way that the person who takes someone else's life makes you worthy of hell. However, we like to label things. And sometimes in scripture you do see things that talk about a sin unto death. But the bottom line is, is all sin is equal in God's eyes, in the fact of it offends Him. He's just as offended by it, because He's given commands that we shouldn't lie, and He's given commands that we shouldn't kill. And if you know your Bible well enough, how many of you know the passage where Jesus, talking about the law, says that if you've offended in one part, you've offended the whole thing? It's the concept of, if you break the law in one place, you're guilty of it all. But we don't do that, right? No, not us. No, I just broke the law in this little area, and someone else landed over here. But that's not how God views it. Which is why Paul, saying, if you're going to judge, you need to be aware that you're condemning yourself. That's verse 1. Let's look at verse 2. Why? Why should I not be judging? Because we know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. The reason I don't need to judge is because God is the one who's going to deal with it. I'm not the God that established the law that they are offending. I'm just judging because I don't like it, or I do like it, or I just think it's not that big of a deal. instead of me stepping back and saying, okay, well, what's God's opinion on it? It's I'm putting my opinion on God's law, which makes me susceptible to it. So he says, you know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Do you suppose, verse three, do you think Church at Rome, do you think Berean Baptist Academy, that you, who judge those who practice such things, and yet do some of them yourself, do you think that you're going to escape judgment? The problem that Paul has is not that people are being judged. The problem he has is that these people are judging Elena, thinking, well, I'm way better than they are. And so since I'm not on the same level, Matthew, then I have to, you know, I can set myself apart. Because I'm just slightly disrespectful in the classroom, I'm nothing like the kid who was caught smoking out behind the building. Because I only got a detention, well, I'm nothing like the kid that got expelled last year. Because that's how we like to value things. We set up these different standards, and the fact of the matter is, young people, is that's not true in God's economy. And Paul's trying to get this church to realize, hold on, you need to realize Everything you do is going to bring judgment on your life. Just because you're not as bad as someone else doesn't mean that you get to skip out on the judgment, Stephanie. Judgment's still coming. And he's going to talk about that. He goes on to say, do you really think you're going to get out of it? Verse four says, or do you presume on the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? You know God. You know God is love. You know 1 John says that. You know God is forgiving and God is kind and gracious and merciful. He's not writing to people who don't believe in God. He's writing to people who are church members, people that go to Sunday school, people that read God's Word, people that are concerned about this thing called Christianity. And he says, you know the attributes of God. Do you really think, Amos, that you can just go and do whatever you want, and because God loves you, he's not gonna judge you? Stephen, we're deceiving ourselves if we think that because I'm a Christian, because I'm trusting in Christ, I'm not going to get judged like the wicked people are. In God's economy, that's not the case. In God's economy, He says both get judged. We read verse 3 and 4. Look at verse 5. But because of your hard and impenitent heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. Well, we kind of skipped over this, so let's look back at verse 4. He says, Do you presume on the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, that God is kind, that He is patient, that He will forbear, He will hold on, He'll wait? And you don't understand, Berean Baptist Academy, the reason God hasn't judged you yet is for that last phrase, Michael, in the verse. What's that last phrase in verse three? What's it say? Excuse me, verse four. What's the reason God is holding back judgment right now? One more time, Samuel. So you have time to repent. Now, Jacqueline, let that sink in for just a second. The reason you haven't felt an immense amount of judgment from God is because He's giving you time to repent of your sin. We don't live in that world, do we, students? We live in the world of, well, nothing's happened, so I can just continue. We live in the world of, I guess I got away with it, so I can do it again. Right, Kaylin? Isn't that the world we live in? But instead, Paul says the reason he's holding off is because he's trying to give you time to repent. And if you delay the repentance, Ashley, if you do not repent, all you're doing is building up his wrath against you. Those of you that attend our church here, if you were with us last night, in the story of Exodus, the reason the Israelites have to spend so much time in Egypt is for one reason and one reason only, Joshua. That's because God is allowing the Amorites to store up iniquity. And they're just gonna keep sinning and sinning and sinning until God's like, look, all right, I've given you so much time, you're done, and I'm gonna wipe you out, and I'm gonna use my people to do it. The reason God gives us time, Grace, is to repent. He's not giving you time so that you think you got away with it. Satan's deception acts. Ashton, the reason Satan deceives you is because he wants you to think, oh, you know, the teacher did catch you. I guess you could do that again. Or hell, you know what? The classmates didn't get caught doing that, so I guess we're allowed to do that now? Now, you can pick whatever sin it is, young people. It could be something that would be gross and offensive or it can be something as simple as chewing gum in class. The concept is to disobey the law or the rules is sin. We're told that to him who knows to do good and doesn't do it, it's sin. If you know the right thing to do and you choose not to do it, Lucas, you're sinning. Sometimes the right thing is just keeping your mouth shut. Sometimes the right thing is raising your hand. Sometimes the right thing is telling authority when someone does something that they did, something they did that they should not. If you know what the right thing to do is and you don't do it, you're sinning, Neal. Instead, we do it as, well, I didn't do it, so, I mean, that's up to them to go address that with the teacher. No. If you know what you're supposed to do and you skip out on it, it's sin. And he says that the time that you have is to lead you to repent. But the reason you're not repenting, verse five, is because of your hard and impenitent heart, that you're storing a breath. Think about that for just a moment, high school, middle school. He's telling a church You have a hard heart. I don't think many of us would willingly raise our hand and say, yeah, I'm hard hearted. No one wants to admit that. But if you stop and think about, well, when's the last time I let God speak to me? When's the last time I listened to the Holy Spirit? And you can't think of a time? Or it's been a really long time? Maybe you're hardening your heart. He's telling Christians, you have hard hearts. Did you know you can have a hard heart as a Christian? And I'm assuming that many of you are Christians, you're in a Christian school. But I also understand that we have students that are not Christians. The first time you've ever heard a Bible open and spoken from has been this school year. And it is awesome that you are here. But you need to understand on both sides of the spectrum, whether you've heard this your whole life, or whether this is brand new to you, is that your sin makes you guilty before God. And the only way that sin can be resolved is that it is paid for. There are two options to pay for it. Option one, you get to spend an eternity in hell, burning in torment to pay for it. Or option two, you trust the payment of Christ on the cross. Those are the two payment options. Now God didn't have to send His Son, but He did. Why? Because of His kindness. Because of His patience. Because of His forbearance. He gave us that. It's grace, it's mercy, it's His love. But it's up to us to choose that. But we have individuals who say they believe that, but that's where it stopped. And they harden their heart. They sit in a Sunday school or in a church service every week or in youth group, and they hear the Bible opened, and they just ignore it. Do you realize, young people, that when you do that, you are building up the wrath or the judgment that God has? You're making the judgment on yourself worse than it has to be. But you can repent. And he says that that wrath will be revealed. Because the reality is, is that God is going to judge. Verse 6, he says, he, that is God, will render to each one according to his works. The fact of the matter is, young people, you're going to be judged. Now, you can be judged as a believer who has failed and who has hardened their heart, or you can be judged as an unbeliever who has never trusted in the sacrifice of Christ. But those are your options. You will be judged and it's for everything you do. You're not going to die and spend your eternity thinking, I really did too much for Christ. You won't do it. Instead, you're going to stand before Christ, bawling your eyes out, weeping, wishing you had done more. And you can make a choice now to spend the rest of your life listening and not hardening your heart to the things that God has to say, because He's going to judge. And it's based upon everything you do. Well, who's He going to judge? Verse 7. To those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, He will give eternal life. Well, if you're the person who spends time doing well, who spends time seeking glory for God, seeking honor for God, living your life for eternal life or immortality, the fact that I'm living for God because I know that brings eternal life, well then, to you, He's going to render the judgment of eternal life. And it's a good judgment. It's a consequence or it's a result that is pleasing to us. But then, verse eight, but for those who are self-seeking, or self-serving, or doing things for themselves, but for those who do not obey the truth, but they obey unrighteousness, well for them there will be wrath and fury. So here are your options from Paul, right here in chapter two. Option one, immortality, eternal life. Option two, wrath and fury. Which one would you like? Hopefully all of us are like, yeah, immortality please. Thanks. We'll pass out on that whole wrath thing. No one enjoys wrath. No one enjoys fury or anger. No one does. The disconnect comes when we're not connecting what I'm doing now What you do as a 6th, 7th, 8th grader, what you've been doing as a high school student is storing up wrath and fury or blessing. We don't live in those terms. And I get it, it's difficult. easy for it to slip our minds when we have a thousand things going on. I would be lying to you if I said as a teenager I had it figured out, because I did not. But what you do have are faculty, and staff, and administration, and pastors connected to it that are just cheering you on, trying to say, this is where we failed in certain areas. This is where we succeeded. Here's what you should do if you want success. and success being measured by those who do well and seek His glory, His honor, and immortality, rather than building up for yourself wrath and fury. In verse 9 he says, There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also to the Greek. Verse 10, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. So everyone gets judged. Everyone has a consequence, whether it be a good consequence or a bad consequence, everyone gets it. God shows, verse 11, He shows no partiality. Now we don't necessarily use that. We would kind of use the idea of bias or prejudice. Alright, here's what we do, and unfortunately this is the case. In Christian circles, we like to view people, and maybe you've noticed it, hopefully it's not the case, it's not intended to be, but it kind of seems like the kids who attend our church all the time, and the kids who are staff kids, it kind of seems like they get treated different. How many of you would say you think you've noticed that? It's not necessarily that the staff treats them differently. What you see is actually a different relationship because they're known better. But you would see them like, oh, they're just the teacher's favorite. Right? How many of you would say that there is a class teacher's pet? That's still a thing. None of the high schoolers are raising their hands. Okay. How many of you would say you are the teacher's pet? All right. No one's raising their hand. They don't want to be judged. Wise choice, my friend. All right. See, young people, listen. We're almost done. I want you to think about this. Sometimes those scenarios do show up because of partiality. Sometimes students get different responses or things. Not necessarily appropriate, but sometimes you see those things. You see the same thing in our world with our justice system, where you see someone who they get arrested or whatever, and because they reveal information about someone else, they get shown a different treatment. Or a high-profile individual gets arrested, and it's like they get a fancy jail compared to someone who is just the common poor criminal. And you see those things. Our world is filled with judgment that shows itself in partiality, or treating different people differently. Are you with me? You understand our world does that. Everyone understand? Because if you understand that our world does that, it's critical to this next thing, which is, in God's economy, Daniela, no one's different. God doesn't show partiality. Here he references Jew and Greek, the chosen people of God versus Gentiles, people who weren't picked by God. I mean, if there were a way, Elias, to show partiality, wouldn't it be, God picked my people. He didn't pick yours, Jocelyn, sorry. I mean, if there were a way to show partiality, would that not be it, Brennan? But a Jew. A Pharisee of the Pharisees is riding this church saying, hey guys, God doesn't care where you're from. God doesn't care who your parents are. God doesn't care how much money you have. God doesn't care what your name is, what school you went to, what your grades were, what your GPA was, how many points you scored. God doesn't care. Here's what God cares about. Are you doing what He's told you to do, or are you self-seeking? That's what God cares about. Now think about that for just a moment. In God's economy, the person who grew up barely having any money, they didn't go on vacations, they barely had enough for clothing and food and basic needs, in God's economy can be greater than the person who grew up with everything and chose not to serve God. That's a pretty awesome thought, that God can take someone who didn't have what the world calls much and do a lot with them because they chose to seek God's glory, God's honor instead. So here's where we have to end this morning. Everyone is going to participate in the judgment. You, as an individual, whether that be someone who claims to be Christian or someone who does not, are going to be judged. And you're going to be judged based upon the things you've been doing and the things you will do in the future. And if you have any amount of time before you are judged, you need to understand you have it because He's trying to give you time to repent, Brian. He doesn't give you time because you got away with it. It's time to repent. Because the judgment's coming, and you can either store up for yourself immortality or wrath and fury. Which one are you choosing, young people? Because it is your choice. So choose wisely. Let's pray. Our gracious Heavenly Father, as we close out this chapel, I thank you for the opportunity to speak to these young people, for the attention that was paid for The ears that listen. Father, this is a message that hits close to home for all of us because we all tend to render judgments on things. But we don't stop to think about what we're doing in and of ourselves and also offends you. And that we need the reminder that we are to stop that we are to repent because you've given us time, that we're not to assume because you are kind, loving, and patient that you're not going to judge us, but that you will judge us and that we can choose what we are judged for. I ask that you would help these young people to make wise decisions as they move forward throughout the school year, throughout their day, that they would do the things that would seek your glory and your honor. I ask that you would dismiss us now of your blessing. Amen.