Our Judgment; God’s Judgment

SCRIPTURE: Romans 2:1-5 (ESV)

DATE: 7-23-17

WELCOME

It’s good to be here with all of you today as we continue our series in the book of Romans.

SERMON INTRODUCTION

Gallup published new research in May titled “Americans Hold Record Liberal Views on Most Moral Issues.” Jeffrey Jones — who published the article — writes, “Americans continue to express an increasingly liberal outlook on what is morally acceptable, as their views on 10 of 19 moral issues…are the most left-leaning or permissive they have been to date. The percentages of U.S. adults who believe [that] birth control, divorce, sex between unmarried people, gay or lesbian relations, having a baby outside of marriage, doctor-assisted suicide, pornography, and polygamy are morally acceptable…have tied record highs or set new ones this year.”

So as of this year — 2017 — our American views on 10 moral issues are the most permissive to date.

Now this isn’t a sermon on politics, so let’s drop the whole right versus left argument for now. And before we go knocking the younger generation as the reason for this change in our nation’s morality — what surprised me is the age group that’s had the biggest influence on this shift towards permissive views. Which age group do you think has had the most influence in this shift? Those who are 55 and older according to a second gallup poll. 

The article concludes by saying that “Americans have adopted more permissive views on matters of morality than they held at the beginning of the 21st century.” So in just seventeen years our definition of morality has drastically changed in our country.

Now here’s the thing. Whether we’re talking about our nation’s morality, the morality of our city, or even the moral practices of people who are part of our church — one thing we have to be aware of is that it’s far easier to judge the behavior of others than it is to wrestle with why we — why you and I — why we approve and do the things we do. 

It’s easy to play judge and jury with others and their morality all while ignoring the hypocrisy in our lives as we do or approve the same behavior.

And here’s a promise for all of us from the Bible. And actually the word promise is a nice way to describe what I’m about to say — for some of us — this may feel more like a threat. But regardless, it’s a truth — as we’ll see — from God. Here’s the statement.

PROPOSITION

“Since we judge others for doing what we do, God’s judgment on us will certainly come true.” Since we judge others for doing what we do, God’s judgment on us will certainly come true. Doesn’t that have a nice rhyme to it? Now you’ll remember it.

Since we judge others for doing what we do, God’s judgment on us will certainly come true.

ANNOUNCE THE TEXT

If you have your Bible please turn with me to Romans chapter two. We’ll be looking at verses one through five together today.  

And, if you’re a guest with us, something we like to do at Gateway is let you ask questions. So if you have a question during the sermon, you can text your question to the number on the screens or you can submit it on the Gateway app.

SERIES INTRODUCTION

And while you’re finding Romans chapter two — you should know that we’re taking nine weeks to look at the first two chapters of Paul’s letter to the Christians in Rome. Paul hasn’t met many of these followers of Jesus — yet he loves them, prays for them, and is eager to visit them.

And after some introductory remarks — which we looked at a few weeks ago — Paul gets right to what’s wrong with the world and us. There’s a brokenness we all see — a brokenness we’ve all experienced — and Paul is laying out — he’s building his case — as to why things are so messed up in our world. 

And he goes on a bit of a rant that lasts from the last half of chapter one through most of chapter three. 

So we’re in the thick of what’s wrong with the world and us. We’re in the middle of Paul’s explanation as to why things are so hard, and unfair, and messed up in our world. 

And here are Paul’s words in Romans chapter two

And when you see a word in all caps, yellow, and underlined…say those words out loud with me. In verse one Paul writes…

“Therefore you have no EXCUSE, O man, every one of you who JUDGES. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very SAME things. 2 We know that the judgment of God rightly FALLS on those who practice such things.” (Romans 2:1-2 ESV)

Remember our rhyme for the day? Since we judge others for doing what we do, God’s judgment on us will certainly come true. 

You see the great hypocrisy of my life — and the great hypocrisy of your life — is that we all judge others for doing stuff that we do. Now some of you are already arguing with me in your head — “I don’t do that Josh” — but come on — admit it. You’re a hypocrite — and so am I.

Just one example. Have you ever said, “I can’t believe so and so lied about that?” Doesn’t matter what the lie is — “I can’t believe the president lied about that” — or “I can’t believe the CEO that got fired had lied about that” — or that one student who lied about cheating on the test — “I can’t believe they did that.” Why not? Have you ever lied before? Sure you have. Then why’s it so hard to believe that someone else could tell a lie? 

You’re a liar. So it should not only believable that someone else can tell a lie — but we should be able to relate to them — because we all have a lifetime membership in the “liar’s club.”

So that’s what we’re talking about today. It’s not the judgment of someone’s behavior that’s wrong — it’s not wrong to recognize that a person lied — and I’m gonna to say that again so I’m really clear. 

Judging someone’s behavior is not wrong. What’s wrong is judging their behavior while you do the same thing. That’s hypocrisy. And to judge a behavior in someone else’s life while doing the same thing is what makes all of us terrible judges.

And maybe you’re here today and you’ve experienced this before. Maybe you were single and got pregnant and your world was out of control and you found yourself in a church of all places. You were looking for help — you were looking for hope — you were looking for what the Bible calls grace and love — and instead all you found was judgment by church people.

Now if you’re a church person you may be offended — but it happens. But here’s the crazy thing. One online dating site that targets Christians indicates that 89% of self-proclaimed Christians have premarital sex and 61% are willing to have casual sex without even being in love with the other person. So we Christians — we’re hypocrites if we judge someone for getting pregnant while not being married just because we do the deed and don’t get pregnant.

Again — all I’m saying is that we’re hypocrites if we judge others while we do the same thing we’re judging them for doing. It’s not that our judgment of their behavior is wrong — it’s that our behavior is no better than theirs — and that’s wrong. And we followers of Jesus should own that. We should acknowledge our hypocrisy and then ask God to change us so we give up our hypocritical behavior.

Now here’s the thing about God. He’s not a hypocrite — which makes Him the perfect Judge.

Now some people don’t like to think of God as a Judge — it kind of rains on their “God loves me just the way I am” parade — so they ignore what the Bible has to say about God’s judgment and that He will judge every person for what they do. They don’t like it — so they ignore it. Maybe that’s you.

But listen. We all know that there’s a need for judgment. We see this in our justice system. We’ll look at this next week, but we all hate it — it doesn’t matter if you consider yourself religious or not — but don’t you hate it when the guilty go unpunished and the innocent are found guilty? Don’t you hate that? I know that you do.

When the crook gets zero punishment for an obvious crime that everyone knows he did — we hate that — and we should. 

And when the innocent go to jail for a crime they didn’t commit — we hate that too. And we should.

Maybe you already know this — in 2015 we broke a record here in the US. We released one hundred and forty-nine prisoners who were found guilty of crimes they did not commit. Five of them were on death row for murders they did not commit. And on average they spent 15 years in prison — and remember — they were all innocent. 

Now doesn’t that make you angry? It should. What if the man on death row for fifteen years was your husband or father or son — and he was about to be punished for a crime he didn’t commit. 

So we hate it when the guilty are set free and when the innocent are punished. We all know there’s a right place — a necessary place — for impartial judgment — for perfect judgment. We know there’s a need for judgment.

We’re just terrible at playing the part of judge, because we’re all hypocrites who can’t clean up our own behavior. 

And that means we need Someone impartial — Someone who won’t confuse the guilty for the innocent — Someone who upholds the law, isn’t persuaded by bribery, and is so morally incorruptible that no temptation can buy their judgment. And the Christian faith says we find these characteristics in God. For He is the perfect impartial Judge.

And…

Since we judge others for doing what we do, God’s judgment on us will certainly come true. God’s necessary and perfect judgment will come true.

So here’s what we’re gonna to do. We’re going to look at what our hypocrisy looks like when we judge others for doing what we do — because I don’t think that any of us want to be hypocritical judges — none of us want to live in a world where we contribute to the guilty going free and the innocent being punished — where we find people guilty of doing things that we do.

So what does a hypocritical judge look like? First… MAIN POINT 1

“They suppose they will escape God’s judgment.” A hypocritical judge supposes they will escape God’s judgment. Look with me in verse three. Paul writes…

“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?” (Romans 2:3 ESV)

One characteristic of a hypocritical judge is they suppose they will escape God’s judgment. They think they can judge others for doing things they do with no consequence — but is that true?

Now we saw earlier that God’s judgment is necessary. You may not like it — you may want to disagree with it — but — ultimately — Divine judgment is necessary because we humans don’t practice perfect judgment. Yet we can imagine that perfect justice exists — that’s why we strive for it and that’s why we hate a justice system that’s unfair. 

And maybe the reason why we can imagine perfect justice — even though we fail to produce it — is because a Perfect Judge does exist. So deep down in us is a knowledge of Divine judgment — that God’s judgment exists. And what a hypocrite does is they suppose that they will escape God’s perfect judgment even though they judge others for doing the same things they do.

So what does it mean to suppose — that’s the word Paul uses in verse three. To suppose means to assume or to believe that something will happen without any proof or evidence. 

In the Army there’s a saying about assuming things — and I’m not gonna say the phrase because the military isn’t known for using G rated language. But if you know the phrase I’m talking about — if that phrase sums up what we believe about assuming things when it comes to planning military operations — and I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase used in your workplace — but if we believe it’s dumb to assume things of temporary importance — why in the world would we make assumptions about eternal matters like escaping the judgment of God? 

Yet that’s what hypocritical judges do. 

They suppose — they assume — that they will escape God’s judgment. They don’t have any evidence or proof of their escape — but they’re banking their eternity on it. 

And maybe this is you. You suppose that you will escape God’s judgment because…

  • You think He doesn’t exist.
  • Or because you pay your taxes.
  • Or because you always vote Republican.
  • Or because you never vote Republican.
  • Or because you attend church…every now and then.

I mean do you really think that paying your taxes or voting a certain way or attending church will guarantee that you escape God’s judgment? Is that all it takes? And if we’re putting together a list, can I add eating an excessive amount of Peanut Butter Cups as an option on how to escape God’s judgment — because that’s what I’d pick.

So if our escape doesn’t come from anything we do — how do you escape God’s judgment? Is there even any hope of escape?

Well there is hope of escape and His name is Jesus. And by believing in Him — and by trusting in what He’s promised to all who follow Him — promises of life, and hope, and joy, and peace — by following Jesus and His way of life you find escape from God’s judgment.

So a great question for all of us to ask ourselves is this: Do I believe and am I trusting Jesus? 

Not do I believe in Jesus — and that’s all — but am I trusting Him. Belief is important, but even demons believe in Jesus. What separates those who suppose from those who know is that you believe in and are trusting in Jesus for your escape. Escaping God’s judgment isn’t based on what you do — it’s based on what Jesus has done for you.

You don’t have to be someone who supposes that you will escape God’s judgment. True escape — guaranteed escape — is being offered to you today if you will believe and trust in Jesus.

Unfortunately — though — that’s only the first characteristic of a hypocritical judge. A second characteristic is that…

MAIN POINT 2

“They presume on God’s kindness.” They presume on God’s kindness. Look with me in verse four. Paul writes…

“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?” (Romans 2:4 ESV)

Another characteristic of a hypocritical judge is they presume on God’s kindness. They presume that God — who has been kind to them — will always be kind to them.

Maybe this is you. Maybe you presume that God will always be kind to you because He’s been kind to you in the past. 

He’s blessed you — even though you don’t deserve it — and sometimes that can make us believe that God’s kindness will never stop — including after we die.

And this is a very dangerous place to be — presuming on God’s kindness — because the reason God is being kind to you — and is putting up with your rebellion — and is being patient with you — is because of one reason. What’s the goal of God’s kindness, forbearance, and patience? 

That you would repent — that’s what we see in verse four. We’re not to presume on God’s kindness — instead we’re to repent because of God’s kindness.

So what is repentance? 

To repent means to make a turn in life. Where you turn from going in one direction and head in another. And the new direction you head in is the direction of following Jesus. 

So what does that mean — to follow Jesus? 

Well first, not everyone follows Jesus — right now you may or may not be following Him. 

But you know you’re following Him when you’re doing what He did, living how He lived, believing what He believed — that’s what it means to follow someone. You let them take the lead and you get in line and follow.

And when you repent you take a turn in life. You turn from heading in one direction and start going in another. For instance, the direction you’re turning from is your hypocrisy — judging others for doing what you do. And the direction you’re turning to is one of honesty and fairness — one of following Jesus. 

So to repent means you head in the direction Jesus is going. And to not repent means you ignore Jesus, you don’t follow Him, and you go off in another direction. You presume on His kindness.

Now here’s why all of this stuff about repenting and following Jesus should be important to you. In our last point we talked about assuming that we’ll escape God’s judgment. 

And when you follow Jesus you don’t have to assume you’ll escape because He will lead you on the only path of escape. But the opposite is also true. To not follow Jesus means you’re headed straight to God’s judgment without a way of escape.

And God’s kindness towards you is meant to stir in you a desire to follow Jesus. The goal of God’s kindness is to give you a hunger to turn from the path you’re on so that you follow Jesus on the path He’s on. God is being kind to you so that you will repent and follow Jesus.

So think of what it means to repent and follow Jesus. It means not only that you experience God’s kindness now, but that you will experience God’s kindness forever. Why? Because by following Jesus, you repent of your sin, are forgiven by God, and are welcomed into His forever family.

And this means that you no longer have to presume on God’s kindness, but will have an assurance of God’s kindness towards you for all the days of your life — as Pastor Ben likes to say — in this life and in the life that is to come.

  • Do you want assurance in knowing that God will be kind to you all the days of your life? 
  • Do you want to avoid His judgment? 
  • Doesn’t your heart desire to be loved forever? 
  • Then turn from the path you’re on and follow Jesus on the path He’s on.

Don’t put off for another day what you know you should do today — repent and follow Jesus.

You don’t have to be someone who presumes on God’s kindness. Assurance that God will always be kind to you is being offered today.

Now we still haven’t looked at all of the characteristics of a hypocritical judge that are found in our verses. A final characteristic is that…

MAIN POINT 3

“They harden their heart.” They harden their heart. Look with me in verse five.

“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.” (Romans 2:5 ESV)

One characteristic of a hypocritical judge is they harden their heart — they harden their heart towards God. Let’s see if this is true for any of us.

We’ll begin by looking at the consequences of hardening our heart. There are two in verse five. One is straightforward and the other is by inference.

The straightforward consequence is that we store up wrath for ourselves when we harden our heart. Pastor Ben talked about God’s wrath a few weeks ago. He said that God’s wrath is, “God’s righteous anger.” Meaning God’s wrath is His perfectly right anger. 

God’s wrath is not sinful, or tainted with bias, or prejudice, or anything like what we usually think of when we think of anger. So it’s right, good, and just for God to be angry at those who unfairly judge others.

And if we don’t repent and follow Jesus we will experience the day of God’s wrath — which is a description of eternal punishment. A never-ending experience of God’s righteous and judicious anger towards those who refuse to repent and follow Jesus.

So the straightforward consequence of hardening our heart is that we will experience God’s wrath. The less obvious consequence is that if you harden your heart Heaven is not where you will spend eternity.

Now I know that it’s common today to think that everyone’s going to Heaven and it’s politically incorrect to say otherwise — but we must let the Divine Judge speak for Himself — and if we harden our heart we’re headed towards His wrath and the eternal day of His wrath. And this implies that we’re not headed towards the eternal day of God’s favor — which is Heaven. 

Not everyone is headed to Heaven. Those who refuse to repent and follow Jesus will not experience Heaven — instead they will experience God’s eternal wrath.

So two consequences for hardening your heart. You experience God’s wrath and you miss out on Heaven.

And being that these are pretty severe consequences… 

  • What does it mean to have a hard heart? 
  • What does a person with a hard heart look like? 
  • Might you be someone who has hardened your heart?

A hard hearted person is someone who persistently does not respond to God and His Word. And in the Bible we find non-religious people with hard hearts — like Pharaoh of Egypt — and we find religious people with hard hearts — like the Pharisees. 

And I’m sure that here today we have some non-religious folks — you’re not really into religious stuff — and you’ve hardened your heart towards God — you don’t respond to Him or His Word — neither have influence in your life.

But the non-religious person is fairly consistent. What they say they believe and how they live are in pretty good line with each other. 

But for the religious person with a hard heart — for the person who attends church regularly, serves, gives financially to a church, and so on — for the person who does all kinds of religious things — they’re the one more in danger of not recognizing the hardness of their heart.

Because they think these religious practices are earning God’s love when religious practices are meant to be the outworking — the evidence — of a person who’s experienced God’s love. So they do religious things, but the inward transformation of their heart — becoming more and more like Christ — becoming more patient and joyful, more selfless and hopeful — these kinds of inward changes aren’t taking place because your heart is hard towards God and His Word.

So if you want to know how to harden your heart — here’s what you do. Ignore God and His Word. 

Be religious or don’t be — it doesn’t matter — just put God on a shelf that you’ll take down if and when you need Him. But don’t allow Him and His Word into your life. And definitely don’t read the Bible. 

But if you do — read it purely for information and not for transformation. Read it to argue against — not to submit to. And just ignore the parts of the Bible that you don’t like — just tell yourself “they’re not for me anyway.” If you want a hard heart — that’s what you do.

But if you want a soft heart — listen to God and His Word. Be open to being changed because your life is not your own — you were bought with a price. And the Person who paid the price for your eternity has every right to tell you how to live, what to believe, and how to feel. And He’s told you all of these things in His Word — the Bible.

And though you will mess up and make mistakes and sin — the soft hearted person will repent and ask Jesus to forgive them for looking back to their old way of living — for taking a few steps back on the old path — because they know that Jesus will tenderly say, “I forgive you. Let’s keep going on my path. Follow Me.”

And don’t you love being around soft hearted people? Aren’t they a joy? And isn’t the opposite true of a hard hearted person? They’re such a drag and they seem to pull everyone down with them.

But the Good News of the Christian faith is that there’s hope for everyone — any of us can be softened by God’s Word and Spirit. The call to all of us — even right now — is to respond to God’s kindness and repent of our sins, as we follow Jesus with a soft heart on the path that leads to Eternal Life.

Since we judge others for doing what we do, God’s judgment on us will certainly come true.

  • God’s judgment will certainly come true on everyone who supposes they will escape His judgment. 
  • It will come true on everyone who presumes on His kindness. 
  • And it will come true on everyone who hardens their heart.

Now two final words of encouragement as we’ve been deep in the muck this morning.

CONCLUSION

The first word of encouragement is this.

When Jesus came to our world, He said that He came not to judge the world — not to condemn the world — but to save the world. That’s God’s rescue story in high definition. The Good News is that Jesus has come not to judge you, but to rescue you. 

That’s the first word of encouragement. Jesus came to rescue you — today can be your rescue day. 

The second word of encouragement is this. 

The day of wrath isn’t here yet. So there’s time — right now — to repent and believe and begin following Jesus. There’s time — right now — to be assured that you will escape God’s Day of judgment. Jesus wants to lead you on the path of escape.

But know that the Day of God’s wrath is coming. 

When Jesus comes again He will come to Judge — but that Day need not be a day you fear — it can be a day you look to with great confidence because of what Jesus has done for you.

So two words of encouragement. Jesus has come to rescue you and the Day of God’s wrath isn’t here yet. I hope that today you will receive God’s love — that today will be your rescue day.

How’s your heart towards God and His Word? Is it soft or hard? 

If you’ve been reminded today of God’s love for you — in spite of all of your hypocrisy — would you ask God to soften your heart as you follow Jesus? For a soft hearted person is someone who listens to God and His Word. They’re someone God can use to draw others to Him. If you’ve experienced God’s love — ask Him to continue softening your heart towards Him and His Word.

But if you’ve realized today that you’re not on the path of escape, will you repent — will you turn from the direction you’re headed in and begin following Jesus? 

For He’s patiently waiting for you. He’s being kind towards you. And He’s saying to you, “Today’s your day of rescue. Follow Me. And I will lead you on the only path of escape — the path that leads to eternal life.”

Let’s pray. 

PRAYER

Heavenly Father, I pray that all of us — myself included —  will listen and respond to what You’ve said to us through Your Word. For You are a fair Judge and Your judgment is coming soon — the Day is drawing near. 

Father I pray that we would believe Your Word to us:  That by following Jesus we’re given assurance that we will escape Your judgment and spend eternity with You.

Yet Father, there are some here today who do not have assurance. They have assumptions and presumptions and a hard heart. Father I ask that Your Spirit would soften their heart and give them life so they repent of their sin, believe in Your Son, and follow Him on the path that leads to eternal life.

Help all of us to put to death our hypocrisy. Help us to stop judging others for things that we’re just as enslaved to. Help us all to repent and walk with soft hearts as we follow Your Son Jesus.

In His name we pray. Amen.

BENEDICTION

Since we judge others for doing what we do, God’s judgment on us will certainly come true. Go leaving with confidence knowing that you will escape God’s judgment because you’ve responded to His kindness by repenting of your sins and by following His Son. Amen.

God loves you. I love you. You are sent.