Scripture Text is Romans 2

 

 

 

Paul turns his attention away from the Gentiles and to his own people. The people of Israel had tremendous spiritual privileges but did not live up to them. Paul shows that they too have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God:

 

 

 

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,  Romans 3:23

 

 

 

They need salvation as do the Gentiles.

 

 

 

I.                 NO EXCUSE: THE PROBLEM OF DUPLICITY

 

 

 

You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.  Now we know that God's judgment against those who do such things is based on truth.  So when you, a mere man, pass judgment on them

 

and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God's

 

judgment?  Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness leads you toward repentance? Romans 2:1 - 4

 

 

 

 

 

1.      Judgmental people reap judgment:

 

 

 

"Do not judge so that you will not be judged. "For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. "Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Matthew 7:1-3

 

 

 

2.      Mercy is the cure for a judgmental attitude

 

 

 

For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment. James 2:13

 

 

 

II. FACING WRATH ON THE DAY OF JUDGMENT

 

 

 

But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who WILL RENDER TO EACH PERSON ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS: to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life; but to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation. There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek, but glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For there is no partiality with God.  Romans 2: 5 - 11

 

 

 

1. God will judge all things at the final day (v. 5)

 

 

 

2. God will reward us according to how we lived (v. 6)

 

 

 

3. We are to seek glory, honor and immortality (v. 7):

 

That means we need to focus on our lives on the things that matter the most. God “will give eternal life.” Note that eternal life is a gift not something we earn. Paul is not saying we are saved by works but that our pursuit of the kingdom of God will be rewarded. God rewards us in this life with “glory,

 

honor and peace” (v. 10).

 

 

 

4. Evil has consequences (v. 9). Paul defines evil as

 

be self-seeking and rejecting the truth (that is Jesus Christ

 

himself). To follow evil means to plot, plan, and pursue). The

 

result is wrath, trouble and distress. While trouble comes to

 

all, evil brings a trouble of its own different from the natural

 

tribulations of life

 

 

 

"These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world." John 16:33

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

III. CONSCIENCE CONVICTS AS DOES THE LAW

 

 

 

All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God's sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.) This will take place on the day when God will judge men's secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares. Romans 2: 12 - 16

 

 

 

1. Paul distinguishes between those who have the

 

law of God and those who did not (v. 12). We are judged on

 

the basis of the knowledge of God and truth that we have.

 

 

 

2. The law of God is written on everyone’s

 

conscience and we are accountable to God for how we

 

respond to it (v. 14-15). Conscience is not absolute because

 

the human conscience can be deceived, undeveloped or

 

over-developed by legalism. Conscience needs to be

 

shaped by the influence of Scripture and the Holy Spirit.

 

 

 

IV. LIVING UP TO YOUR POSITION AND PRIVILEGE

 

 

 

Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; if you rely on the law and brag about your relationship to God; if you know his will and approve of what is superior because you are instructed by the law; if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth- you, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who brag about the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? As it is written: "God's name is blasphemed

 

among the Gentiles because of you." Romans 2: 17 - 24

 

1. Walk worthy of the calling

 

 

 

for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; Ephesians 4:12.

 

 

 

Discern the discrepancies between what we say we believe and how we live? Jesus commanded love, yet sometimes we make love less important than our personal creeds and private views.

 

 

 

 

 

V. SPIRITUALITY— A HEART ISSUE

 

 

 

Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law, you have become as though you had not been circumcised. If those who are not circumcised keep the law's requirements, will they not be regarded as though they were circumcised? The one who is not circumcised physically and yet obeys the law will condemn you who, even though you have the written code and circumcision, are a lawbreaker. A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is

 

circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man's praise is not from men, but from God.  Romans 2: 25 - 29

 

 

 

1.      Inward not outward: A person is not a Jew just outwardly. The word Jew comes from Judah meaning praise. A Jew is a person in covenant relationship with God, a person of praise. Outward circumcision is a symbol of an inward work of grace just as baptism is

 

 

 

having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. Colossians 2:12

 

 

 

God gives us a new heart in the miracle Christ called the new birth

 

 

 

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have become new. 

 

2 Corinthians 5: 17

 

 

 

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love. Galatians 5:6

 

 

 

2.      Work of God not man:

 

 

 

“The Lord will circumcise your hearts...so that you may love him.” Deuteronomy 30:6

 

 

 

 “Circumcision done by Christ.” Only Christ can say, “Your

 

sins are forgiven” Colossians 2:11

 

 

 

 

 

Circumcision is done by a surgeon. God is the surgeon of the soul. The cutting away of the flesh is symbol of cutting away the sin nature. Paul says

 

it comes by the Spirit not by the written code:

 

 

 

"Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. "I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.

 

Ezekiel 36:26 – 27

 

 

 

Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. "Do not be amazed that I said to you, `You must be born again. 

 

John 3:5-7

 

 

 

3.      Grace and faith - not works:

 

 

 

Is this blessing then on the circumcised, or on the uncircumcised also? For we say, "FAITH WAS CREDITED TO ABRAHAM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS." How then was it credited? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised; and he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while uncircumcised, so that he might be the father of all who believe without being circumcised, that righteousness might be credited to them,  Romans 4: 9 - 11

 

 

 

Circumcision was the sign of the covenant given to Abraham but it is not the covenant:

 

 

 

"And you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be the sign of the covenant between Me and you. Genesis 17:11

 

 

 

Abraham believed God before he was circumcised:

 

 

 

Then he believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness. Genesis 15:6

 

 

 

 Faith received the covenant promise just as we are to receive the promise

 

of eternal life. Baptism and discipleship follows as a sign of faith but not a part of salvation. The Judaizers diluted the gospel of its power by adding customs to grace; circumcision, dietary laws, Sabbath regulation. Some tried to force Titus to be circumcised because he was Greek. Paul’s answer was, “Stand fast in the liberty”:

 

 

 

It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.  Galatians 5:1

 

 

 

4. The significance of the eighth day. Eight is the biblical number of new beginnings. There are seven Old Testament covenants (Adam, Eden, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Palestinian and David). The new covenant is in Christ:

 

 

 

"Behold, days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them," declares the LORD. "But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares the LORD, "I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. "They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, `Know the LORD,' for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them," declares the LORD, "for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more." Jeremiah 31:31-34

 

 

 

5. The Old Testament witness:

 

 

 

a.      Challenge of Moses:

 

 

 

“Circumcise your hearts  and no longer be stiff-necked”.

 

Deuteronomy 10:16

 

 

 

Be yielded and obedient as opposed to the generation who stayed in the

 

desert.

 

 

 

3.      Challenge of Jeremiah:

 

 

 

“Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, circumcise your hearts”.

 

Jeremiah 4:4

 

 

 

“The whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart”:

 

 

 

"Behold, the days are coming," declares the LORD, "that I will punish all who are circumcised and yet uncircumcised-- Egypt and Judah, and Edom and the sons of Ammon, and Moab and all those inhabiting the desert who clip the hair on their temples; for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised of heart." Jeremiah 9: 25 - 26

 

 

 

4.      Challenge of Ezekiel:

 

 

 

“No one uncircumcised in heart or flesh is to enter my sanctuary”

 

Ezekiel 44:9).

 

 

 

The sanctuary of God was desecrated as it was in the days of Jesus when he cleansed the sanctuary. People were going through the motions of

 

religious observance but not seeking God.

 

 

 

5.      Challenge of Stephen:

 

 

 

"You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did.  Acts 7:51

 

 

 

Jeremiah also said of his people “their ears are closed” (literally, “uncircumcised”)

 

 

 

To whom shall I speak and give warning That they may hear? Behold, their ears are closed And they cannot listen. Behold, the word of the LORD has become a reproach to them; They have no delight in it.  Jeremiah 6:10

 

 

 

6. And lastly, Circumcision is a type of the new birth by which we have a new heart.

 

 

 

"Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. "I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.

 

Ezekiel 36: 26 - 27

 

 

 

Jesus answered and said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." Nicodemus said to Him, "How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he?" Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. "Do not be amazed that I said to you, `You must be born again.'

 

John 3: 3 - 7