Hear the Word of God. 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 longsuffering, 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, who will render to each one according to his deeds. Eternal life to those who, by patient continuance in doing good, seek for glory, honor, and immortality, but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness, indignation, and wrath. tribulation and anguish on every soul of man who does evil of the Jew first and also of the Greek, but glory, honor and peace to everyone who works what is good to the Jew first and also to the Greek, for there is no partiality with God. For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without law, and as many as have sinned in the law will be judged by the law. For not the heroes of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified. For when Gentiles who do not have the law by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts. their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts, accusing or else excusing them, in the day when God would judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel." Let's pray and ask God to bless His Word to us. Heavenly Father, we thank You for this portion of Your inspired, inerrant, infallible Word, and we pray, Lord, that Your Holy Spirit would bless it to our understanding and apply it to our hearts for Your glory. In Jesus' name, Amen. Of all the verses that non-Christians most frequently like to quote from the Bible is that one from the beginning of chapter 7 in Matthew in the Sermon on the Mount that says, judge not that you be not judged. And Christians hear that every time Christians say that something is wrong or that what somebody is doing is wrong. It's a part of the culture of our day and our society that the worst thing you can do is to say that something someone else does is wrong or bad. And so, we have a culture that is supposedly a non-judgmental culture. Well, the only thing you can really criticize, of course, is Christianity and Christians and the things that they do. All of the unloving things that Christians supposedly do, those are the things that elicit from non-Christians the angriest words is when Christians lovingly tell somebody that they need to repent of their sins. Now this morning as we begin to look at this passage and in the context of the idea of a Christian worldview and of culture around us, we looked at the last half of Romans chapter 1 and we saw that really there are dangers that we face in our culture. And particularly, we look at the idea that in our day there are a lot of echoes of the paganism of the Roman Empire. And there is a religious sense and idea, excuse me, they would not like that term, a spiritual sense and idea that is counter to Christianity, but suggests that we need to be in touch with the spiritual realm. Something that goes in the opposite direction of the secular humanism, which still has impact in our day, but a lessening impact. A kind of spirituality that denies Christianity denies God, denies absolutes of morality, a kind of spirituality that, though yes, it is a major part of our culture, is a cultural danger in our day. A danger for our kids, a danger sometimes for us, and a danger that may end up leading to the kind of persecution that in a sense some are calling for already when they say Christians are the problem and Christians should not have a voice in our society and culture. They must be, according to some, silenced. So if we look into chapter 2, we're going to see some more of this. And I particularly want to look first at some of the first four or five verses here. And I want to say that when it says you are inexcusable, old man, whoever you are who judge for in whatever you judge another, you condemn yourself for you who judge practice the same things. That is not saying Judge not that you be not judged. It's not even remotely parallel to it. It's going in a completely different direction. And it really fits more with the last verse of the first chapter, the previous verse, which says about people having done all the sins of verse 29 through 31, that who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same, but also approve of those who practice them. And here I'm wanting to begin to go in the direction of cultural opportunity. We talked about cultural danger this morning, but cultural opportunity. If you look at verse one, Who is inexcusable? The person who judges. And why are they? For in the things that they judge another, they condemn themselves for those who judge practice the same things. Here's the idea. It basically is one that addresses questions related to man's excuse before God. We saw in verse 18 of chapter 1 that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. And that wrath of God is something that elements, the liberal side of the church in our country has for a long time denied that it is something that's worthy of God at all, that there would be wrath of God. And people will disagree with that, but in particular, they disagree with the exclusiveness of Christianity, where Jesus claims to be the only way. and in Acts we read that there's no other name given under heaven by which men may be saved. And so this idea of the necessity of Christianity as the one way is again one of the great heresies that modern culture points to. And they say that Christians are wrong when they are exclusive that way. And here are reasons why People who aren't Christians get to heaven, they will say. The first one is, well, what about people that don't know God? They don't know about God. Paul has dealt with that in verses 19 and 20 and 21 of chapter one. When he says for since the creation of the world in verse 20, his invisible attributes are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead. And then it kind of kicks this in so that they are without excuse. That doesn't work. What about people that don't know that God is out there? It's a premise that doesn't work. It isn't true. It doesn't hold. It says they do know. Verse 21 says, because although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. professing to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man and birds and forfeited animals and creeping things. In verse 25, it says they exchanged the truth of God for the lie and worshiped and served the creature or the created thing rather than the creator. And then in verse 28, and even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over. Now, I don't know that Paul had any idea what some of the standard objections to Christianity would be in the 20th and 21st centuries. But he sets us up to answer those in the way that he goes through things in this section that I've called the bad news section of Romans. The section that deals with the idea of the wrath of God against ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. Because we ask, we'll have people say, Well, isn't there this excuse or that excuse? They may be unrighteous, they may be ungodly, but don't they have an excuse? The first one we've dealt with a little bit, what if they don't know God? And another one is, what if they don't know God's rules? If you don't know God's rules, can you be held accountable for breaking His laws? And that's what Paul is dealing with here in chapter 2. when he says if you judge other people. You just forfeited. Any claim to an excuse based on not knowing God's laws you've got in your mind some kind of sense of right and wrong that you're using when you judge other people and so once again. He says you have no excuse or in the words of chapter 2 verse 1. Therefore, you are inexcusable. Oh man, whoever you are who judge in that sense. No excuse. You can't get out of it. There's another excuse that sometimes given. And it's important, I guess worthwhile at least, to recognize some of these as we talk about this bad news section in chapters from the middle of chapter one to the middle of chapter three. And this one's about the Jews. Well, what about the Jews? Don't they have the covenant? And so, why do they need Jesus Christ? Because the whole thing is an objection to the need of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which Paul stated basically in chapter 1, verse 17, and drops and comes back to in the middle of chapter 3. And he gives you the bad news if you're not interested in the good news, which is what gospel means. And so, do the Jews need the gospel? And his answer is yes, that he's not a Jew who is one outwardly, verse 28 in chapter 2, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart and the spirit, not in the letter, whose praise is not from men, but from God. Chapter 3 verse 1. What advantage then as a Jew or what is the profit of circumcision? It's asking. Well then, then is there no benefit to the covenant that God made with the Jews and his answer in verse 2 much in every way, chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God, meaning the scriptures and he goes on to insist. that Jews, too, need the gospel because Jews, too, have broken God's law. And he talks about that in the last half of chapter 2 especially. And then concludes in verse 10 of chapter 3, or begins his conclusion going all the way through verse 20 in that chapter. As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. There's none who understands. And I'm stopping right there because I want to bring up right quick the one other excuse that people use all the time. Why God can't hold certain people accountable. What about those who are seeking God? Paul says, and he's quoting the Old Testament, this isn't just something that Paul invents, there's none who seeks after God. Now, yes, we have Jesus saying, seek and you shall find, and that's not a contradiction to this. The idea is that if anybody's seeking after God, it's because God has been at work to draw them to himself. And if, as is usually proposed, this is a person, you know, out in the middle of darkest Africa, which isn't so dark necessarily anymore, but that's the way it used to be posed when I was growing up. Basically, if God works in somebody's heart by his spirit to cause them to seek him, he's either in the process of sending a missionary to them or getting them out of where they are to where they can hear the gospel. That always comes. So basically there's no excuse and everybody is left under the wrath of God. So what do Christians do with this knowledge? In terms of our interaction with our culture. The temptation. Is to shut up. Right, but we look briefly this morning at the verses in Matthew chapter 5 where Jesus says you are the salt of the earth and goes on to say you're the light of the world. You can't hide, you don't hide the light under a bushel basket, right? But that's the temptation Christians face when we fear that people might not like us if we are very vociferous about the truth of Christianity and that Christ is the only way. And so, a lot of people will back off. In fact, a lot of churches have so completely backed off of any insistence that Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation. And that's a cultural danger in our day that we will back off of the Gospel. But I want to point out that while I was saying this, Paul is talking about largely the pagan culture of the Roman Empire, and warning that we may be facing a similar paganism in our day. While that's true, recognize that in a place like Acts 17, 6, it speaks, and a non-Christian here is doing the speaking of Christians who've turned the world upside down. Christians did make an impact in a Greco-Roman culture. That of their day, of Paul's day, they made a huge impact. And we see evidence of what you would call revival in response to the gospel in one place after another place in Paul's missionary journeys and in the spread of the gospel through others as well, including Rome. When Paul is writing this, the gospel had already been to Rome, though Paul had not. He wants to go to Rome, and it was already having an impact in Rome as it was in other places through the Roman Empire. And so what are the things that can encourage us to let our light shine before men rather than covering it up. What are the things that we can find in these passages that encourage us to not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our minds? Conformity is the easy way, but we're called not to be conformed. Here are some things that I would suggest that God used before, and can, and I think will in our day. There are things that we know about the non-Christian that he does not know that we know. And if we will simply act on the knowledge that God has given us, that will enable us to be faithful. Now, when I say opportunity for us in our culture, I'm not saying opportunity to avoid the possible coming persecution. That wasn't something that the Romans were offered, that Paul offered. That was not persecution that was escaped by Christians in Paul's day. There's no promise it will escape that. But if we can be faithful, then here's some things that we know about the non-Christian. From chapter 1, we saw that as much as he denies it, he actually knows that God is. That's what it's saying. Verse 21 in chapter 1, because although they knew God, they didn't glorify Him, but the premise is that they knew God. His invisible attributes in verse 20 are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made. Yes, they deny that they know it, but the Bible tells us something about them that they themselves deny about themselves. They would never credit you with knowing this about them, but it's true. A friend of mine, a pastor friend of mine who pastored in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, had been talking with a guy for a long time and witnessing to him and answering question after question and objection after objection. And finally, my friend said to him one day, they were in a locker room somewhere where they'd been, they'd played a game of tennis or something like that. And my friend said to his friend, He said, you've been blowing smoke too long. You're not really wanting to hear my answers. I know about you that you already know that God is. And he told me the guy almost literally, not quite, dropped his teeth. It was like he was pinned. It was true. The non-Christian knows that God exists. Moreover, They know right and wrong. I can't deal with all of this text and all of the verses that apply to it, but verse 14 says in chapter 2, when Gentiles who do not have the law in written form, By nature do the things in the law. These, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them." That's the basis of the judgments that they make when they judge other people. is that they've got an inner sense of God's law. Not only do they have a sense of right and wrong, that is in many ways a true sense, but in many other ways a distorted sense as they've worked at that, and as we've seen some of the things that we read at the end of chapter 1. But there's another thing that we can know about them too. One, they know that God is. Two, they know God's law. And three, they know they're guilty. Look once again at chapter 1, verse 32. Who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, these are these practitioners of sin, who knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things who are deserving of death, not only do the same, but also approve of those who practice them. They know that doing those things deserves condemnation from God. They do them anyway, but they know that. Here's something more that we can know about them. They can't deal with what they know. They can't face up to that. Really, if you know that the things you've been doing deserve for God to send you to hell, how do you deal with that? How do you face that? We Christians can face it only by saying, yes, it's true, I deserve that. But God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to pay for those sins so that His justice is satisfied, but I'm set free, and I'm counted not guilty even though I have been guilty. I am justified through faith. And Paul talks a lot about that in chapters 3 and 4 and 5. And yet, what do they do? It's at the end of verse 18 in chapter 1, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. R.C. Sproul, in commenting on this verse, said he liked to think of it, and it can be translated this way, repress the truth. It's a more psychological term, a psychological word. There's this knowledge back there that when it creeps in, they push it back down. They don't want to deal with that according to what Paul is saying here. And a part of how they do that is to accept some other deities, some other forms of worship, some other kinds of religion When people say, what about those who are who are doing their best? Maybe they know God's rules and they know God exists and they don't know how to get to him. So they're trying to get to him the best way they know. And, you know, that's totem poles or worshiping the sun or whatever. And Paul says they are doing it because they're exchanging the truth of God for a lie, the lie, and worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator. What Paul is saying is that false religions are substitutes, are their smokescreen things, ways to push down, psychological ways to push back and to push out the thoughts that they know that God is, and that He judges, and that they're guilty. They don't want that. You can't live with that in your conscious mind. And so, this is their way, their suppression mechanism. For others, it's atheism or agnosticism. But Paul has already told us that they aren't really atheists. But that's what they'll say to themselves, there's no God. If there's no God, nobody's going to judge me, right? Nobody's going to send me to hell. But they know they deserve that. But they suppress that knowledge. Or they suppress it by agnosticism. Well, I don't really know. You can't know about these things for sure. And so that's agnosticism. Saying, I don't know. But they do. They just don't want to deal with it. So, the Gospel has the answer to cultures and people involved in the cultures' biggest need. It's an answer to their problem before sin. before a holy God who exists and who judges. And Christianity's got the answer to that. That's why Paul comes right back to say and enlarge on the same thing he said in 117 when he comes to 321. After having declared that there's no excuse, none righteous, none who understands, Verse 11, none who seeks after God. That just doesn't happen. But the answer is righteousness from God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even righteousness from God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe. And Paul goes down then and starts unfolding the good news of the objective work of Jesus Christ. His death and His resurrection, the redemption that's in Him, the propitiation by His blood, the payment, the satisfaction to God of the penalty for sin that Christ does. And so, instead of being pessimistic and disturbed and worried because of the culture and its paganism in so many ways in our day, we should be encouraged that we have an answer to that and we have a response that we can make to that. It may be a response that for some of us might might lead to greater persecution as happened to the Christians of Paul's day and Paul himself. But the opportunity there is an opportunity for the Gospels. I want to suggest that when we look at the culture the wrong way, we do the wrong thing if we decide to jump into the, quote, culture wars and fight in the wrong way. One of the things, I'll just turn to Ephesians chapter 6 for a moment, beginning in verse 10, where Paul says, Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the devil, the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood. Our enemies aren't people who disagree with us. Our enemies are not the non-Christian people who are a part of the culture who want Christians silenced. They're not our true enemies. They're not the ones that we fight against in this war. But against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places, Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand." That's what we're called to do. We're called to let our light shine. We're called to be the salt of the earth and not deny our distinctiveness. We're called to stand, to stand against the devil, against false doctrines and stand for the truth. Paul lists items of that whole armor of God, starting in verse 14. I'm not going to go through that. But in verse 18, he says, praying always with all prayer and supplication. And it says, verse 19, about those prayers, And pray for me that utterance may be given to me that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the Gospel." That's what we need to do is to open our mouths to make known boldly the mysteries of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. His death. His resurrection. And that He really is the only way to salvation before a just and holy God. Let's pray. Our Father and our God, we do thank You for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That Gospel is so important that Paul spends two whole chapters on the bad news so that we can learn to appreciate the good news of the gospel, the good news of the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Oh Lord, help us not to compromise that gospel. Help us to boldly proclaim it in the opportunities that You give us. Help us to not cover over the light with a basket to not avoid the distinctiveness of being the salt of the earth, making a difference. Help us not to be salt that's lost its savor and it makes no difference. But Lord, we pray that you might even send in our day, in our world, a spiritual revival of truth, a work of Your Holy Spirit bringing people to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, it is Your Spirit, Jesus tells us in the Gospel of John, that convicts people of sin. Lord, we pray for a work of Your Spirit convicting people of their own sin convincing us of the gospel of Jesus Christ, we pray in His name. Amen.