You may turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Romans chapter 2. Romans chapter 2. And I will be reading the first five verses of Romans 2. Therefore, you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge. For in whatever you judge another, you condemn yourself, for you who judge practice the same things. But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things. And do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and long-suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart, you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. Let's pray. Let me thank you for the word that you've given us today, and every word of God is true, it's right, and the word, as Jesus said, not one jot or tittle will pass away until heaven and earth pass away. And so, Lord, we humbly submit to this word today. We ask that you would teach us and make us willing, Lord, to hear it, to heed it, to accept it, and to abide in it. In Jesus' name, amen. So if you remember, if you were here last week, the last lengthy section that we looked at in verses 18 through 32, Paul sums it up at the beginning in verse 18 of Romans 1. He sums up that section. He says, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. And you may remember that he spoke about that immorality, what it was like. There was this, first of all, was the fact that all men know that there is a God, and yet they reject the knowledge of God. And that in turn leads to idolatry, false worship, which in turn leads to perversion and immorality, particularly sexual immorality. And so the message of Romans 1 is that the world at large, which was mainly probably had in mind the Gentiles at that time, the greater world, were under the judgment of God, they deserved the wrath of God. Now, a Jew reading Romans 1 would have thought, that's right, Paul, you're right to condemn the Gentiles. They're wicked, they're perverse, and they've done all these horrible things. And they might've rejoiced that the Gentiles were getting what came to them. Many of the Jews despised the Gentile sinners, dogs as they would call them. And they might have been glad that they would be judged and spend eternity in hell. And yes, the Gentiles had rejected the knowledge of God. They engaged in idolatry. God, in fact, gave them over to perversion and immorality. So they did deserve The coming judgment. They do. Those who live like this today deserve the judgment of God. And they're without excuse because they know there is a God that they are accountable to, but they don't want to keep him in their thoughts. They don't want to thank him or glorify him. But you know, so the Jews, they had the knowledge of God. They had more of the teaching, more revelation from God. But likewise today, religious people, mainly Christian people, people who profess the Christian faith, we would agree today that the ungodly, secularists, the pagans, the homosexuals, they deserve the judgment that's coming to them. But you see, what we fail to consider is what Paul says next in these first five verses and the rest of chapter two. And that is that we're all guilty, that we all deserve God's judgment, and that we have to be on guard against the sin of hypocrisy, the sins of hypocrisy and self-righteousness. Many people would read Romans 1, and they might think, well, I know I'm not perfect, but at least I'm not like those people. We remember the little story that Jesus told about, you know, that a Pharisee and a publican, a tax collector, went up to pray in the temple and the Pharisee prayed. He says, with himself. He really wasn't praying to God. He was praying with himself. I thank you, Lord, that I'm not like other men. I'm not like that tax collector over there. And so he basically congratulated. Instead of asking God for forgiveness, he congratulated himself on his own righteousness. I'm a good person. I'm not like that guy over there. And the tax collector, you remember how he prayed. He didn't even look up to heaven. He was very humble, and he prayed, God be merciful to me, a sinner. Literally, it's the sinner. Well, in verses 1 to 5, God deals with this self-righteous, hypocritical attitude, this human pride, this tendency within each one of us just to be critical of everybody around us. It's easy to find fault with others. and to basically not look at our own sins and to see nothing but good in ourselves. We find fault in others, but not in ourselves. But there's a problem there. It's a serious problem. And someone said that the occupation with someone else's evil is the surest sign of being oneself away from God. When we judge others and fail to judge ourselves, it's a sign that we're not right with God. There's something wrong. And Paul says, you're inexcusable, oh man. He's speaking generally, but probably to the religious people, to the Jewish people in particular. You're inexcusable, whoever you are who judge. And to judge in this context means not merely to identify a sin, but to castigate, to do so with harshness and a desire for someone to get judgment for that sin. It's to be hyper-critical and unloving in our judgment of others, condemning with that judgment. So when we condemn others while excusing ourselves, Paul says we're really condemning ourselves. We're condemning ourselves in the process. And why so? Because we're no better than the ones we are condemning. So let me ask you a question this morning. Think of the most horrible sin in your mind that a person might commit or be guilty of today. Think of that kind of a person. Do you think that you deserve hell any less than that person? No. You, me, we all deserve the judgment of God as much as anyone else in this world. And so those who are guilty of condemning others and excusing themselves are doubly deserving of judgment. That's what John Calvin said. that we are even more deserving of judgment if we act this way. So in the time of Christ, as I mentioned, the Pharisees were in particular guilty of judging others while excusing themselves and patting themselves on the back. Matthew 23, 27, Jesus said, woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you're like whitewashed tombs, which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, But inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness." So we have to remember that God looks at the heart. And he's also looking at the heart in this area of being judgmental and condemning other sinners. And so when we think about our lives, we may look good on the outside. We may have a good reputation. And yet on the inside, we may be full of dead men's bones and uncleanness. So it's not the outward appearance. God looks on the heart, which is what we cannot do, by the way. We look at other sinners, and we judge them, and we have to be very careful. We cannot see into the heart. But God does look at the heart. He's looking at our hearts this morning. So Paul, remember, Before his conversion, he was a Pharisee. And he had once boasted in his self-righteousness, that he kept the law, and that he was, regarding righteousness, he was well above most of his brethren. But you know, self-righteous people do have that tendency to pride, to boasting in their righteousness, and putting others down, condemning others, blaming others, but overlooking their own sins. So self-righteousness Thinking that I am a good person, that I have become righteous by my own efforts, that is a grave sin. And Jesus condemned it really as much or more than any other sin. And self-righteousness is so horrible because it keeps us from seeing our need of the grace of God. keeps us from the grace of God. Well, the Bible tells us that we're saved by grace alone. Grace is a gift. It's the gift of God. It's not by works. That we grow spiritually only by the grace of God, by the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We are accepted as children of God. How? By our works? By our efforts? No, but only by grace. And are you going to persevere? Are you going to make it to heaven? How so? By the grace of the Lord. Well, Paul says this in Romans 7. He said, I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. So right there, you see, here's a man who understood who he was and what he was, that he was entirely dependent on God's grace before he thought something of himself. But after conversion, he realized that there was nothing good in him. So how does a person let's, you know, the fact that you have come to know Jesus Christ, which I hope that each and every person in this room today does know Christ personally. That does not change immediately your tendency, my tendency, to hypocrisy or self-righteousness. So how, as Christians, how do we overcome hypocrisy or self-righteousness? Well, in Matthew 7, Jesus describes hypocrisy. He says, why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, let me remove the speck from your eye, and look, a plank is in your own eye? What he's getting at is that the way to overcome hypocrisy is to examine yourself, is to look at your own life. Don't worry so much about the people around you. In fact, when you begin to examine your life, you'll be far less likely to judge others. In 1 Corinthians 11, 28, we find this admonition to self-examination in connection with partaking of the Lord's Supper. So it's very fitting that we talk about this topic of self-examination on a day which, first Sunday of the month, we always have the Lord's Supper. So, in 1 Corinthians 11, 28, Paul wrote, let a man examine himself and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. So there's a requirement to partaking in the Lord's Supper and that's to examine yourself and to look at what you really are. To look in the mirror. The mirror is God's law, which we read today. That's one of the metaphors that the Bible uses for the law of God. It's a mirror to look at yourself and to examine yourself by. And so when we examine ourselves, we ask God, the Holy Spirit, to show us the truth about ourselves. to show us the blemishes, to show us the shortcomings, to show us the failures to do what he's commanded us to do, to show us the transgression of the law that we have committed. And then, you see, we'll be in a right frame of mind to walk with the Lord, to commune with God. And because Jesus was himself humble and lowly of heart, and we'll be in that right frame of mind not only to walk with God and with Christ who is humble and lowly, but we'll be in a right frame of mind to show love and grace to the people in our lives. If we judge others and fail to examine ourselves, Paul says, it's inexcusable. Now he had just said in chapter one, those who live lifestyles of wickedness, idolatry, false worship, and immorality, that you're without excuse. But now he's saying something similar to those who profess belief in God. It's inexcusable for us who profess to know the Lord to fail to examine our own lives and condemn and judge everyone else around us. Well, what should we do instead? We should do what the psalmist taught in Psalm 139, the last two verses. We should examine ourselves. And we do this by asking God to show us because we don't always know really what's in our own hearts. He says, search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts, and see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. And then, having examined our hearts, we do so so that we can humble ourselves, confess our sins, turn from those sins, seek the forgiveness of God, and then we think about others. But we do so in a different attitude then. We start to look at others who also are, yes, sinners, but no necessarily worse than we are, who also need the grace of the gospel. And we begin to pray for them. And we might need to go to them and ask their forgiveness if we've sinned against them, or we just need to pray that God would forgive them and turn their hearts to Christ and to live in the midst of a sinful world and be gracious, show the grace of God to others. That doesn't mean that we never identify what sin is. You know, Paul does that. We talked about that last week. We're not going to act as if sin doesn't matter. We're going to call a spade a spade, if you will, but we're going to interact with people in a gracious and forgiving and kind way. The way that God in his goodness treats us. There's a children's song that Sinclair Ferguson mentioned that he sang when he was a child. He grew up in Scotland and they, you know, in Scotland and England they had, even in public school, they still are supposed to have religious teaching, that is, Christian teaching. But this little children's song, I'm not going to sing it because the tune is unfamiliar. I heard the song, I listened to it this week online. It says this, there are two verses. He did not come to judge the world. He did not come to blame. He did not only come to seek, it was to save he came. And when we call him Savior, and when we call him Savior, and when we call him Savior, then we call him by his name. The second verse says we do not have the right to judge, We are not here to blame. We're only called to bless and help and love in Jesus name. And when we love each other, and when we love each other, and when we love each other, then we glorify his name. So we're to be like Christ. He did not come to judge the world in his first coming. He will come to judge the world in his second coming. But in his first coming, he came to save. He didn't come to blame. He came to save. those who would call upon him as Savior. But moving on in verse two, Paul said, we know the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things. Well, God's standard is according to truth. He knows the truth, he judges with truth, and he never makes an error in judgment. He has all the facts. And so when he judges, it's always right. Now we, on the other hand, we're limited. We don't know everything. We don't know everything. When we see someone and their sin and error, we rush to judgment, but we don't know everything that's been going on in that person's life. Yes, they may be guilty of a sin or many sins, but we don't know all the, we don't know the motives of their hearts. We don't know the circumstances of their lives like we think we do. Yet God does. God himself does know all these things. Proverbs 16, 2, all the ways of the man are clean in his own eyes, but the motives are weighed by the Lord. So that's, again, something that is a verse like that is given to us to examine our own lives, not to judge others, knowing that God is looking at us and sees everything. But we can be wrong. We can be wrong about what others their motivations. We may misunderstand their motives and even what they've done. First Corinthians 4, 5 says, Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time and wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in the darkness and will expose the motives of men's hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God. So God judges truthfully. but we are not God, okay? See, that's the thing. When we become judges of other people, and we sit on our little throne of judgment, and we go around pointing the fingers at this person and that person, this group and that group, well, there may be some truth to what we are seeing and what we're saying, but we need to be careful not to put ourselves in the place of God. God alone is qualified to judge. Now, verse three says, He says this, he says, and do you think this, oh man, whoever you are, whoever we are, you who judge those who practice such things, and you doing the same, do you think you will escape the judgment of God? So Paul is saying, you know, you believe these persons are condemned, they're under the judgment of God, and yet you're practicing, doing, thinking, This saying the same sorts of things. Do you think you will escape God's judgment? No, you will not not by your own Maneuverings, you know you and I cannot escape God's judgment by a sleight of hand You know what magicians do right? They they trick you they do a sleight of hand and it may appear that they're making something disappear In this case, our sins. But it's a sleight of hand. It's a trick. See, the way we do this, our sleight of hand, is we use this hypocritical double standard. We have a high, a very high standard for everybody else. And a very low and easily attainable standard for ourselves. And we take that and we say, I'm pretty good. I'm going to heaven because I keep this really easy low standard upset for myself. But all these folks around me, I can condemn them and judge them because they don't live up to the perfect high and holy standard of God. Well, guess what? We're all subject to that same standard, the perfect and holy standard of God. And so the Jews in that day, They were guilty of a common error in their thinking. They thought this. Well, they're included in God's covenant. They're children of Abraham by birth. They are automatically saved. They're right with God because of that. They trusted in the outward signs, the outward rituals, the feasts that God gave the Jews, the covenant, and they trusted in circumcision. And they thought, well, if I'm circumcised and I observe the Passover every year and the other things I'm supposed to do, bring the sacrifices, then I'm safe. I don't have to worry about the judgment of God. And likewise, Christians today. can think, I grew up in the church, I have Christian parents, I was baptized, I come to church regularly, I'm a member of the church, I tithe, I take the Lord's Supper, and so on, then I must be safe, I must be protected from the judgment of God. Well, you know, thinking of the Lord's Supper, taking the Lord's Supper does not make you safe from the judgment of God. Paul said, he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. It would be safer, if you're uncertain where you stand with God, it would be safer for you not to take the Lord's Supper. Some serious things happened in the New Testament because people did not take the Lord's Supper in a right manner. Some serious temporal judgments fell. upon the Lord. But the thing is, we're not to be afraid. At the same time, we're not to fear coming to the Lord's table. There are some denominations, I've been told, that they make this matter of judgment and taking the Lord's Supper such a severe focus that people are afraid and very few come to the Lord's table. I think it's the opposite in most places today. Anybody and everybody can take the Lord's Supper. Nobody has to worry about a thing. But no, it is a serious matter, but we don't want to take that too far because if you examine yourself, if you humble yourself, confess your sins, confess your unworthiness, Right then, you're ready. You are ready to take the Lord and take the supper of the Lord in a worthy manner. If you ask the Lord to forgive you for being judgmental and condemning others and so on, if you're humble before God and admit your need of grace, that you're standing and your need is grace. that you are not self-righteous. You have no righteousness of yourself. If this is your attitude as you come to the table, then come. Come and don't hold back. It would be wrong if you didn't come to the Lord's table, if you come with this heart attitude and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. What does the Lord's Supper tell us? What does it teach us? It reminds us that our salvation was secured by the death of another. He stood in our place. He was our substitute. He died for the sins that we committed. We do deserve the judgment Christ took upon himself. We're all guilty before God. Paul's going to go on in Romans 3 and say, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. That's Jew and Gentile. That's all humanity. And so how do we escape the judgment of God? Well, Matthew, I mean, John 5, 24, Jesus gives the answer. He says, most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has everlasting life and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. So you hear the word, you hear the gospel and you believe. in the Lord Jesus. You believe in the one who sent Him. You will have everlasting life. Now, sometimes in trying to escape, you see, everyone wants to escape the judgment of God. Everyone wants eternal life, right? The rich young ruler came to Jesus once, you know, what must I do to inherit eternal life? That was the question. And ultimately, people may not, you know, voice that question so clearly as that young Ruler did but that's you know, how can I avoid judgment? How can I be safe? I may not even be sure there's a judgment But I'm you know, people are thinking about that in the back of their minds at least Well to escape God's judgment. Sometimes people do lots of things they Sometimes they appeal to the character of God. Well, God is so good God is so loving. In fact, he's too loving You would never punish me or others and send me to hell because he's good. He's kind. He's long suffering. But but wait a minute. In verse four, Paul brings up those very attributes of God. He says, Do you despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance and long suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? In other words, the goodness of God is not meant to make you feel relaxed and say, I don't have to worry about my sin because God is good. No. God is good. Therefore, I need to repent. He's so good. How can I keep going on in my sin? I need to turn from that sin. So the person who imagines that God won't judge him because he's a good God has presumed upon the goodness. of God. They've actually done what Paul says, despised the riches of His goodness and so on. You see, to despise something is to think lightly of it, is to take it lightly and say, oh, God's good, I don't have to worry. No, you have to, God's good, you have to repent. You should repent. You should want to repent because of God's goodness. Because when you repent and turn to God, He is good and He will forgive you. He will accept you. He will give you His salvation and help. If you imagine, if I imagine that God's given goodness and His grace gives me the freedom to go on living however I want to live, and it gives me the excuse to put off my commitment or recommitment to Him, then I have missed the purpose of that goodness. You see, God is good, and part of that goodness is patience. God has been very patient with each and every one of us. And yet, one day, that patience will run out. But the patience teaches us that today is the day to turn, to lead. us to repentance. And how is God's goodness seen in your life? Well, the fact that he hasn't taken your life and hasn't sent you to hell, the fact that you're here still in the land of the living with an opportunity to turn and get right with God today, that's goodness. Don't abuse that goodness, but turn today. You know, first, you know, God does care about your sins. He is going to deal with those sins. But if you turn to him today, he will deal with them in grace. All right, so think about the return of Jesus Christ. We know the Bible says that he's coming again. We don't know when that is, but we know it's certain. And when he comes, he is going to judge the world. But here's what Peter said in 2 Peter 3, verse 9. He said, the Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some count slowest, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any of us should perish, but that all of us should come to repentance. You see the same theme that Paul has in our passage today is the same one that Peter repeats, that the reason Jesus hasn't come back yet because he's long-suffering, he's patient, he's good, and that all of us should come to repentance. So don't let God's kindness, don't let his patience, lead to an excuse to keep on living for yourself and to keep on sinning against the Lord. Today while there's still time, today while there's still room, today while you have the opportunity, humble yourself, confess your sins and turn to Jesus Christ. Trust in him as your Lord and Savior and to repent It's a powerful word. It means to turn around. It means to change your mind, change your thinking, change your living. It means a total turnaround from a life of sin and doing what I want to humbling myself to a life of obedience and to doing what he wants. And then to do that over and over again every day of our lives, to repent and to humble ourselves and confess our sins. You know, many people look at, you know, they hear about the coming of Jesus and they laugh and they scoff and they mock. Where's the promise of his coming? Instead, we should take it to heart. He is coming. He is coming. Don't presume upon his goodness, his patience, but take advantage of that patience and turn today. Well, Jesus took our judgment, died in our place. That's what the Lord's Supper is teaching us. And when we trust in him, we won't come into judgment. So what about the person who refuses to repent? Well, that's who he addresses in verse five. In accordance with the hardness of your hearts and your impenitent heart, you're treasuring for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. So those who are guilty of sin, you won't turn from sin. Those who are guilty of condemning and judging others and will not repent of that sin, they become more and more hardened and sin and wrath begins to be stored up for that person. It's like a rolling snowball. You take a small snowball and you roll it and you roll it and eventually it becomes this huge thing. You accumulate that person who refuses to repent of their sins. You see, we all have a mountain load of sins. But if you come to Jesus and have them washed away and do that daily, you're not going to store up wrath. But the person who won't turn, it's just going to build and build and grow and grow until one day it will overwhelm them and they will endure eternal wrath. Well, today we come to the Lord's table and when we consider what these elements represent, the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, how thankful we ought to be. Westminster larger catechism puts it this way, and then I'll ask after this, I'll ask the elders to come forward. That believers are to take and eat the bread and drink the wine in thankful remembrance that the body of Christ was broken and given and his blood shed for them. His blood is shed for you. His body was given for you. Believers must affectionately meditate on his death and sufferings. and thereby stir up themselves to a vigorous exercise of their graces in judging themselves and sorrowing for sin, in earnest hungering and thirsting after Christ, feeding on him by faith, receiving of his fullness, trusting in his merits, rejoicing in his love, giving thanks for his grace. in renewing of their covenant with God and love to all the saints. I will ask the elders to come forward at this time.