Please open your Bibles to Romans chapter 2. We'll be looking at verses 1 through 16 this morning on the topic of understanding the judgment of God. It is appointed unto man once to die and then the judgment. So this is something that we're all going to face. Don't you think it might be important to understand something about how God judges. Well, the Word of God speaks very clearly on this subject in a lot of places, and particularly in the passage we're looking at this morning. So let's pray and we'll get right into it. Father, we heard the song of looking full into the wonderful face of Jesus, and we thank you that you are so calling out to come to you, all you that labor in a haven laden, come to me and I'll give you rest. We thank you that you call us to the word of God, that the words you speak, they are spirit in their life. And Father, we thank you that it is by the Word of God that we have increased understanding of you and fellowship with you and direction for our lives. We pray that this be a time when the Spirit of God would take the Word of God right out of the pages and into the deep crevices of our hearts, the secret places, and apply it as only you can do. And we thank you for that in Jesus' name. Amen. We saw last week in Romans chapter 1, God's indictment upon the Gentiles, the non-Jewish people, that the wrath of God is right now being unveiled, verses 18 through 32. And in the midst of all of that, of a people who, in the reality of knowing who God is, having been shown who God is from creation in a lot of different ways, were not willing for God to be God. And we're not thankful. And so judgment begins to flow. The mind gets all twisted up and behavior gets radically bad over a period of time. When you look at verses 18 through 32, it's like reading the headlines. And at times, maybe like something of our own life. I doubt that there is any one of us who can read those verses without looking back to a time which that was like reading your mail. So, three times in that passage, basically he said, so you want to sin, okay. I'm releasing the restraints. I'm giving you over. You're going to experience the payday of reaping what you've sowed. So in Romans 2, we now move to an additional related topic of some of the principles by which God judges. Judgment Day is coming. Hebrews 9, 27, it is appointed unto man once to die, and then the judgment. The prophet Jeremiah said in 1710, I, the Lord, search the heart. I try the reins, I examine the mind, even to give to every man according to his ways, every man, woman, and child. Jesus said in Matthew 16, 27, for the Son of Man shall come, he's coming back, and then shall he reward every man according to his works. Well, you say, you know, my theology doesn't leave me to worry about that too much. Well, forget your theology. It's a point of the man who wants to die. And in case you're feeling smug as a Christian, remember that in 1 Peter chapter 4, beginning in verse 17, for the time has come that judgment must begin at the house of God. And if it first began with us, what shall be the end of them that obey not the gospel? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, what shall the ungodly and the sinner do? Now, before we get further, let's understand that when it comes to the doctrine of the judgment, Christian scholars, biblical scholars, Some take a view that there is a general judgment and that there'll be a dividing of, a great dividing of those on the left and those on the right and those on the left going to eternal punishment and those on the right going to eternal life. Many others believe that there will be separate and distinctive judgments, primarily, first of all, a judgment for two Christians called the judgment seat of Christ, and at a later time, a judgment of the lost the great white throne judgment. I believe that that is the accurate way to look at these scriptures. However, in Romans 2 that's not his concern. He's not dealing with different timings and different judgments. He's dealing with the principles by which he judges. So As we look at these verses in Romans 2, we will see some very important teaching about the way God judges. So look at verse 1 in Romans chapter 2. And it simply says, therefore, who are you? You are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are, that judges. For when you judge another, you condemn yourself. For you that judge, you're doing the same things. And so the first thing I would pull from this is that we need to be careful how we judge. It's pretty obvious. Now, we don't like to be judged. In fact, we would prefer not to even be judged by God. We don't keep that in the middle of our thinking. But so far as judging one another, we fail to realize that many times when we are judging others we are broadcasting our own guilt. I've met with a lot of couples over the years and I've found something is very consistent. Here is either the man or the wife and they're totally bent out of shape about a certain area that is going on in the husband's life or the wife's life, and they just cannot tolerate it, they cannot stand it. And as I get to know them better, I find out that they have the same problem. We very often really hate what is going on with the other person because it is a reflection of what's going on in our own life, for which we make excuses for, but we want to read the right act to them on their deal. So we need to be careful in judgment. Now there is a way to deal with this that is very significant and very powerful. Instead of judging others along this fashion, judge yourself. Judge yourself. In 1 Corinthians chapter 11, you'll remember that in preparation for the Lord's Supper, there were some problems going on. There was a lot of problems going on in that church, of course. But in that passage, 1 Corinthians 11, verse 28 through 32, he says, when you eat and drink the cup of the Lord unworthily, you'll be guilty of the body and the blood. Let a man examine himself. And he goes on down in verse 31. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord that we should not be condemned with the world. A similar teaching was earlier. They had great sin going on in that church. and they were not dealing with it. And Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, told them to judge this person that was living in open sin, even to the point of turning him over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the soul might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. And so he says in verse 11 of chapter 5, I've written it to you not to keep company, have open, continuous fellowship with someone who is called a brother, who is a fornicator, or a covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner. With such a one do not eat. For what have I to do in judging them that are without, who are not in the church? Do you not judge them that are within? But them that are without God judges. Therefore, put away from you that wicked person. Now again, this exposure, we love to judge those on the outside. That's one of the things that makes talk radio so popular. You can get on the phone and rattle, rattle, rattle about somebody. But we seldom judge ourselves. Well, if you would like to have a life with some contentment and some peace, and be not grieving the spirit and not quenching the spirit, get off the judgment seat. Stop being judge, jury, and prosecuting attorney against others. So what does the Bible tell us? First John 1.9, if we confess our neighbor's sin, Hello? Did I miss something? Oh, if we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us. James 5, 16, confess your faults one to another, pray for one another that ye may be healed. So Paul is warning primarily the religious element to whom he was writing in Rome and the religious element that is in America today, and that is in the pulpit and in the pew here, that might have a tendency to look down our nose at the people who are living these horrible lives as described in Romans chapter 1. Hey, you're judging them. You do the same thing. Confess your faults. Let's confess our faults. Let's confess our sins. And so this verse exposes us and calls us to honesty about ourselves. And you say, well, if I stop judging others, what am I going to do with all my spare time? Well, again, judge yourself. And get into the restoring ministry. You see from time to time real, genuine things in the lives of other believers that need to be dealt with. Galatians 6 1 go to them and you see a brother overtaken on the fault not overtaken in somebody who said somebody who's so so so and the third part of they said so and so did no you see you know a brother is overtaken on the fault go to him in a spirit of meekness considering yourself also and restore them If you have your Bibles, turn to 1 Timothy chapter 5, verse 19. I want to deal with something here that is extremely important and it's very pertinent to where we are today. In 1 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 19 through 20. 1 Timothy, 1 Timothy chapter 5, verse 19 through 20. And I'll preface that by Reminding us that over in the book of Acts, Apollos was a very gifted fellow going around preaching, but he didn't have the gospel right. And understandable in the time period in which he lived, he had not known about the resurrection. He was preaching an incomplete gospel. And so Priscilla and Aquila invited him over to Longhorns and made a mistake. And explained to him more fully the ways of the Lord And then he was restored and mightily used of the Lord henceforth. Just because a person is in the pulpit doesn't mean that they get everything right. Now there are those things that we pick about and that we'll disagree on until we get to heaven and the Lord will have to straighten us out. And when he does, as Brother Thomas told me, it will be you because for me to change, he has to change God's Word. So what can I say to that? I just dropped it. But we're not we're talking about real things that need to be dealt with. And but we're in first Timothy chapter 5 verse 19 and 20 in talking about the way to treat an elder pastor. Bishop. Against an elder received not an accusation, but before two or three hearsayers. No witnesses. witnesses. Them, that is those elders that sin, the word sin there is a word that means to miss the mark, and that would not just be morally but theologically. What kind of congregation would you be if I stood in this pulpit and said Jesus Christ did not, was never raised from the dead, and you just smile Because you love me so dearly, and you know I'm getting older, and I'm probably getting senile, and bless his heart. And there are young people here, and they don't know any difference. And because he's the preacher, and he's got this Bible open, it must be right. And you don't do anything about it. I don't get an invitation to Longhorns. That's a great responsibility. to help each other be theologically correct on things that matter. You want to know something that matters? The gospel matters. And there are millions of people who are being told in our time that there is a way to heaven other than through Jesus Christ. And they're being told that from pulpits. Some of the leading preachers of our day are missing the mark. Now I happen to know of a very famous one that as far back as 1980 a very godly pastor, Dr. Martin Lord Jones, spent three hours with this individual pleading with him not to have intimate fellowship with infidels, that is those who disbelieve the Bible. And his plea was rejected. And that man's ministry didn't get less in that arena. It got worse in that arena of opening up and just denying the gospel. Righteous judge, righteous judgment. Humbly but boldly warn of false doctrine and false teachers. Love your pastor enough to help him be theologically straight. We don't have to agree on some jots and tittles. We can have different opinions about exactly the timing and the details of the second coming of Christ. But if I get up here and tell you that he is not coming back, there's not a Bible-believing Christian anywhere in the world who would deny that Jesus Christ is coming back. You can't have this Bible and deny that. So if I get up here and deny that, please love me enough to try to get me to sit down and open the scripture and show me how I'm wrong. And if I don't repent, you may have to take some action. And in fact, the rebuking is to be done before all that others may fear. If I get up and preach serious false doctrine, if I get up here and preach or live an ungodly lifestyle, I or any elder, then you have a responsibility before God for the sake of others to give a rebuke. Romans chapter two. Verse 2 says, but we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things. So this is very plain again. God's judgment is according to truth. On Judgment Day, God is going to carry out righteous judgment. And in Romans 14, verse 10 through 12 or 13, And that's in the context specifically of the judgment seat of Christ for believers. But he says, we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. And that's also in the larger context of the Christians there were fussing each other about which meat to eat and what day to meet on. And these are not things about which you had to be right or else go to hell. And the Spirit of God did not have Paul to come down hard on either one. There he left room and said, you be persuaded in your own heart. There's some things like that. and we need to give each other grace. But the serious bottom line here is to remember that that's the Lord's servant, it's not your servant. And that we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ and give an account. Now look at verse 3, and thou thinkest And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and you do the same, that you shall escape the judgment of God? Another concept about the judgment of God is that there's no escape. That's rare, so far as earthly things. People escape judgment all the time. There are things that are hidden, uncovered. lawyers, crooked judges, loopholes, convicted, captured, escaped, or a parent, or a teacher, or a boss may fail to judge correctly, or they may misjudge, but no one escapes the righteous judgment of God. No one. No one. I don't have time to go into it this morning, but over in the back, if you have a Thompson Chain Reference Bible, turn in the back of your Bible to 803 and you'll have a whole list of people who did things and no matter what they did they did not escape the judgment of God. It's all through the Bible. Verse 4 and 5, or despise us out of the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering not knowing that the goodness of God leads to repentance but that after the hardness Thy hardness and impenitent heart treasures up to thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God." This principle is that there is a danger of despising the mercies of God and treasuring up wrath when we do not adhere to what God tells us. If you're outside of Christ this morning, I want to ask you a question. Have you considered how merciful God has been to you? The riches and the goodness and the forbearance and the longsuffering of God, all this goodness God has put on your plate to lead you to repentance. And that same principle would apply to a believer. God has been so good, he's been so kind, he's been so long-suffering, he's been so loving, and that should motivate us to repentance. But especially if you're not a believer this morning, you've never come to faith in Christ, have you considered the goodness of God toward you, and yet you've not repented, you've not believed, you've not publicly confessed in the waters of baptism, and yet this morning you're not in hell? How can you explain that? God's not under obligation to you. He's not your debtor. He owes you nothing. There is no reason why he should keep you out of hell one second longer. You're already under the wrath of God. Do not presume upon the mercies of God. Well, I'll do it tomorrow. I'll flee to Christ and cry for mercy tomorrow. Salvation is today, it's not tomorrow. Do not presume upon the mercies of God. One of the most sobering verses anywhere in the Old Testament is Proverbs 29.1. He that being often reproved, hardens his neck, shall be suddenly destroyed, and that without remedy. God has reproved you. God has exhorted you. God has given conviction. He has blessed you with His kindness, His love, and you still do not repent. He who is often reproved shall be suddenly destroyed, and that without remedy. Cut off. Isn't that what happened on the day of Noah and Lot? Noah was preaching for about 100 or more years. Righteousness. Judgment is coming. I'm sure that by 100 years of hearing that, they didn't pay him the time of day. Old Noah the nut. At least his neighbor who ran Lowe's got some income from the lumber. And there came a day when the door was shut. Sodom and Gomorrah. And the fire came, suddenly destroyed them all. Now we see also in these verses, in verse 4 through 6, that the judgment of God increases according to the accumulation of guilt. treasuring up, storing up wrath, cut off. The only solution is to flee to Christ. Some of you may have heard this if you ever sat under the ministry of Joe Carroll. You may have heard me share it, but he told of a time when he was a helper to some evangelists and they had a prayer room at the end of the service, those responding would go to the prayer room, and Mr. Carroll, at that point, was a personal worker. He would come in. So this 17-year-old girl came in, and Mr. Carroll said, well, young lady, why are you here? She says, well, I want to be saved. I'm not a Christian. Okay, fine, well, he began to expound more carefully the gospel to her and the need to repent and to believe and he says, now you need to talk to the Lord, you need to pray. Well, she just sat there. And he said, now young lady, you'll have to pray and you'll have to start by repenting of your sin. Or else you can never be saved. She turned to him and said, I'll have my sin, thank you. And she got up and walked out. Going home that day, the bus she was on wrecked. She was the only one killed. We never know. When that day of mercy ends, and judgment, cutting off. And say, are you trying to scare me? No, I'm just trying to help you to face reality. And by the way, I think the wrath of God is something to be afraid of. Now in verses 6 through 10, very interesting, it would seem At least when some read this, they feel like, well maybe, is this talking about salvation by works? No, but let's see if we can understand it. He's going to render to everyone according to his deeds. To them who by patience and continuance and well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, they receive eternal life. But to them that are contentious and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness, Why do they get? Indignation and wrath. Tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that does evil to the Jew and also to the Gentile, but glory and honor and peace to every man that worketh good to the Jew first and also to the Gentile, for there is no respecter of God with persons. Now, this is not salvation by works, and let's keep in mind that the primary focus of this passage, of this section, is not salvation. The focus here is God proving that all men are sinners. From verse 18 of chapter 1 through verse 20 of chapter 3, the whole thing is about God demonstrating that all men, all humans, are sinners. And he is unfolding how God judges in this section, not how God saves. So let's understand what these verses are not teaching. It is not saying that you can be right with God by means of rituals and the right denomination and I've been baptized and I've been this and I've been that. Neither is he giving hope to those who say, I'm good. I'm all right. I'm good as others. I'm an honest person. No, the conclusion of this entire section is that all have sinned. And if you'll read verse 10 through 20 in chapter 3, he doesn't leave any loopholes. It's very plain. No one can be saved by works or deeds in any sense. So what we have in these verses is a description of the lost person and a description of the saved person. Verse 8 and 9 describes a lost person, the man's natural state of death and lostness producing a lifestyle that is like minded and of course his destiny is wrath. The life of Christ produces a lifestyle and destiny which is like Jesus and is eternal life. So let me read you a quote, and I don't know who said this, but he said, the works of those who shall be condemned, their works shall be the evidence that they were and remained wicked, unrepentant sinners. The works of the believer will not be appealed to as a cause of their salvation, but the evidence of their salvation. That's the same teaching we have in Ephesians 2, 8, 9, and 10. For by grace you say through faith that none of yourselves is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus on two good works. Principle six in verse 11 is that his judgment is without respect of persons. So Romans 2 verse 11, there is no respect of persons with God. We live in such a world where there is respect according to your wealth, your education, social standing, racial background. Sometimes we're lenient, sometimes we're biased, sometimes we're prejudiced, harsh. But God looks down on all the sons of Adam with a constant, balanced, right judgment. 12 through 15 is the seventh and last principle that we want to focus on. And it's talking about the nature of the reality that in one shape, form, or another, everybody has sinned. Now, let's look at those verses because this is a place where people have gotten a little mixed up at times. For as many as have sinned without the law shall perish without the law, and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law. For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature things contained in the law, these having not the law are a law unto themselves, which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience, also bearing witness, and their thoughts, meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel. Look at verse 12. for as many as have sinned without the law. What about the heathen who don't have the law? What about the heathen who've never heard of Jesus? Are they lost? Why are they lost? Will they be in hell when they have never believed on Jesus of whom they have never heard? You ever think about that? Many people look at that and they back away from the whole counsel of the Bible. Dear Billy Graham said in 1978, I cannot play God anymore was the title of the article. I used to believe that the pagans in far off countries were lost going to hell if they did not have the gospel of Jesus Christ preached to them. I no longer believe that." He made a statement on Robert Schuller's program, and Schuller wanted to make sure he understood him correctly. He said, did I hear you saying that it is possible for Jesus Christ to come into human hearts and soul and life even if they have never been born, even if they've been born in darkness and have never had exposure to the Bible? Is that what you're saying? Yes, it is, because I believe that. I've met people in various parts of the world, and they've never seen a Bible, they've never heard about the Bible, they've never heard of Jesus, but they've believed in their hearts that there was a God, and they've tried to live a life that was quite apart from the surrounding community. And so, they're going to be in heaven because they earned it. Well, Romans 1 and 2 reveals two important facts about all people, and especially about those who've never heard the gospel. In chapter 1, verse 18 through 23, the whole world is already under the wrath of God. Already. Why is this true? Verse 18 through 21, they've already rejected revelation. First of all, let's back up. They already come into this world, they have a sin-fallen nature. We all sin in Adam. There is none righteous, no not one. All have sinned. We may not like that, but that's the way it is. If you have a qualm about that, you'll have to ask God. Don't ask me. I didn't write the Bible. But scripture is plain that people all around the world have rejected the revelation that God has given. They pressed it down, the evidence. And so there's no mystery. There is no dark spot on God's character that people who have never heard of Jesus will go to hell. They're already deserving. This is very sober, but it's very true, according to the Bible. Without Jesus ever coming to the earth, the whole race was already having the whole race had already earned the just wages of sin. Jesus did not come to an earth that had people who had not earned the wages of sin and some who had. He came to an earth where all were already under the wrath of God. Paul reminded the Christians of Ephesus that in prior to your salvation you also were children of wrath. And the second important fact here in verse 12 is that God has not placed the Ten Commandments in the hands of everybody, but he has put the work of law in every heart, written in the heart, in the conscience. There's a sense of right and wrong. It's true in every culture. There's guilt. There's reasonings. There's debate among themselves about what is right and what is wrong. And they've all sinned against their conscience, these verses tell us. And so the bottom line is this, the Jews of Paul's day, with the law, having the law, boasting in the law, they'd all sinned under the wrath of God. And today, you may have been brought up in a Baptist family, a Catholic family, a whatever family, a Muslim family, whatever family. No matter what family you were brought up in, You still were a sinner under the wrath of God. Coming short, the Gentiles, not having the Ten Commandments, not having the first five books of the Old Testament, sinned. They pressed down the revelation of God. They refused to obey the work of the law, and it's the same today. So what shall we say? How shall we respond to this biblical revelation. Well, in such a setting as the Bible gives, do you accept the biblical revelation that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God and all are under the wrath of God and all deserve nothing but hell? And if God were only righteous and just, there'd be no mark of blackness or nothing negative on his character because people got justice. Would you ever leave a courtroom in America where you knew for certain that the judge gave justice? You might have wanted mercy for a loved one, but he gave justice? You couldn't complain. Justice is a good thing. It would be a very horrible thing if God was unjust. If God did one thing for one person and another for another, he likes a person in this country, he doesn't like this one, he likes your color of skin, he likes that you're blonde, he doesn't like that you're a brunette, whatever. None of that. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. All are under the wrath of God. And the wonder, the astounding wonder of all of this is that, oh Lord God, how could anybody possibly be saved? Wow. God, in his mercy and grace, we read the whole book, will ultimately save a numberless multitude out of every kindred, tongue, tribe, and people. What a marvel. And there are some who have heard, and there are some who have not heard. In the end, they are among the lost. Is God unrighteous because he gives justice? God forbid. Let me just go ahead and put this out here because I want you to understand the counsel of God's Word. Does the Bible ever teach that God predestined anybody to be lost? No. You don't predestine someone to be lost who's already lost. In a letter given to Christians, Ephesians, we are told that these Christians were people who had been given grace, had been given faith. By grace through faith are you saved. That not of yourselves is the gift of God. Does that mean that others are out there crying out, oh Lord God, I want to be saved. But God, you didn't choose me and you predestined me to hell. Well, first of all, there's no one who seeks God. There's no one that is standing at heaven's door, beating on it, wanting to bow down and worship God. Oh, there might be people who don't want to go to hell, but they have no desire to worship God apart from grace. New Testament never speaks of anyone being predestined to hell. Here's the reality with or without the law, all have sinned and all who die in the sin they love. will receive justice. Here's the big question. How is it that a sinner like you or I found grace in the eyes of the Lord? Amazing grace. Amazing grace. And lost persons sitting here in Gallatin, Tennessee, I want to ask you a question. Why has God so favored you He's not only given you a witness from creation. He's not only given you a written work of law in your hearts where you know right from wrong. You have Bibles, already access to them. You have Sunday school. You have gospel preaching. You have gospel tracts. Flee to Christ before it's everlasting too late. You're going to stand before God one day in judgment. The only preparation, the only sufficient preparation is in simple childlike faith to flee to Christ. Oh Lord God, be merciful to me a sinner. And God says, God's word says, all who come to him, he will in no wise cast out. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Oh Christian, how can we not leave this place with a profound wonder and awe at the mercy and grace of God? How can we possibly leave this place and still hold on to some sin in our life that's going to not only put a damage in our fellowship with the Lord, but it's going to give an ungodly witness to someone else. In view of the mercies of God, the Holy Spirit beseeches you and beseeches me that we present our bodies a living sacrifice, which is reasonable worship. Oh, what glorious salvation. Oh, what a fearful moment it is. You do not have the promise of your next heartbeat. Today is a day of salvation and lost sinner. Flee to Christ before it is everlasting too late. Father, we thank you that all of your judgments and the methods and the details of your judgment are just and they're good and they're holy and they're righteous. And even in your justice, there is mercy. For judgment has not been passed out to any of us sitting here at this moment. Oh Father, in the wonder and the awe and the gratitude, but also in the somberness of this truth, May we worship you, may we bow at your feet. For it's in Christ's name we pray, amen.