It is Not the Hearers
Romans 2:12-16
September 16, 2007
Last Sunday morning, Paul pulled a fast one on the self-righteous.
After feeding their ego for a chapter, Paul turned in chapter 2, to knock the self-righteous off of their pillow of false assurance.
Romans 2:1 “Therefore you have no excuse, everyone of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.”
Sin is sin and judgment is absolutely impartial.
Only a deceived person would assume they won’t be judged.
Romans 2:3 “But do you suppose this, O man, when you pass judgment on those who practice such things and do the same yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God?”
And the reason is because God faithfully distributes judgment.
Romans 2:6 “who WILL RENDER TO EACH PERSON ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS:”
Then last Sunday night we began looking at Qualifications for Judgment.
(The truths taught here is not how to be saved, but rather how to be judged.)
If you want to be judged, then fail to keep God’s commands.
Judgment faithfully follows sin.
Yet as we noted, the self-righteous hypocrites deny this fact.
They hold on to faulty notions that they won’t be judged.
In Isaiah’s day they thought they could hide from judgment.
Isaiah 28:15 “Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death, And with Sheol we have made a pact. The overwhelming scourge will not reach us when it passes by, For we have made falsehood our refuge and we have concealed ourselves with deception.”
To that God responded.
Isaiah 28:17-18 “I will make justice the measuring line And righteousness the level; Then hail will sweep away the refuge of lies And the waters will overflow the secret place. “Your covenant with death will be canceled, And your pact with Sheol will not stand; When the overwhelming scourge passes through, Then you become its trampling place.”
Jeremiah’s day they thought God’s temple kept them safe from judgment.
And so Jeremiah said:
Jeremiah 7:4-7 “Do not trust in deceptive words, saying, ‘ This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.’ “For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly practice justice between a man and his neighbor, if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, nor walk after other gods to your own ruin, then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.”
In Zephaniah’s day, the people just thought God wouldn’t judge at all.
Zephaniah 1:12 “It will come about at that time That I will search Jerusalem with lamps, And I will punish the men Who are stagnant in spirit, Who say in their hearts, ‘The LORD will not do good or evil!’”
In John the Baptist’s day, they thought their ancestry would save them.
Matthew 3:7-9 “But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? “Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance; and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, ‘ We have Abraham for our father’; for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham.”
Paul was still battling that notion a little in chapter 2 when he said:
Romans 2:9-11 “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.”
But the point has been clearly made throughout the ages.
If you sin, you get judged.
It doesn’t benefit to think you can hide from judgment.
It doesn’t benefit to think going to church will help you.
It doesn’t benefit to assume God won’t do it.
It doesn’t benefit to have Christian parents.
Assigning false comfort to yourself through deceptive lies
Will not eliminate the reality of judgment.
And throughout the generations, men have learned the hard way.
In Isaiah’s day they thought they could hide.
They were found and the Northern Kingdom was destroyed by Assyria
In Jeremiah’s day they thought the temple would save them.
They watched Nebuchadnezzar burn the temple.
In Zephaniah’s day they thought God wouldn’t do it.
They found they were wrong as they were deported to Babylon
In John the Baptist’s day they thought their ancestry would save them.
And Jesus pronounced their condemnation before they ever died.
THEIR ASSUMPTIONS ALL PROVED TO BE FALSE
And yet men still provide themselves with faulty assumptions.
Following the sermons of the false prophets:
Jeremiah 6:14 “They have healed the brokenness of My people superficially, Saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ But there is no peace.”
Men still look for ways to justify themselves, and their sinful lifestyles.
This morning we see yet another dangerous deception
That leads men to a supposed self-justification.
KNOWLEDGE
Men who assume that because they know the truth,
That they will not be judged even though they live in sin.
IT IS A DANGEROUS AND DESTRUCTIVE FALSE ASSUMPTION.
Yet we still see it today, and we are partly to blame.
We have trained people to think you attain salvation through education.
We determine the readiness of a child,
but their understanding of the truth.
BUT IT SHOULD BE DETERMINED
BY THEIR WILLINGNESS TO SUBMIT.
If a child knows the answers we let them in.
THAT CAUSES PEOPLE TO BELIEVE THAT SALVATION
IS ACHIEVED THROUGH UNDERSTANDING.
THEN THOSE KIDS GROW UP AND TEACH THEIR KIDS THE SAME
We end up with churches full of educated people
Who aren’t following Jesus.
BUT GOD NEVER REQUIRED SMART PEOPLE,
NOR DID HE TELL US TO TRAIN OUR KIDS IN THAT MANNER.
Deuteronomy 6:4-9 “Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. “These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. “You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. “You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. “You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”
TRAIN YOUR CHILDREN TO LOVE GOD
(We got so consumed with the training that we forgot what we were training them.)
HOW DO YOU DO THAT?
1) BY EXAMPLE – “shall be on your heart”
2) BY DILIGENCE – “teach them diligently…when sit…walk…lie down…rise up”
3) BY PRIORITY – “bind them as frontals on your forehead…”
God doesn’t want us to train people to know the facts.
God wants people trained to know and love Him.
But somewhere we got off target.
We started treating salvation like a multiple choice test.
Completely overlooking:
The Insufficiency of the knowledge of the Pharisees.
The Insufficiency of the knowledge of the Rich Young Ruler
The Insufficiency of the knowledge of Judas
THE IDEA HAS NEVER BEEN KNOWLEDGE
JESUS WANTS YOU TO LOVE HIM
(obedience, perseverance, submission, faithfulness)
Luke 14:26-27 “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.”
John 14:15 “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”
But none the less, we began to train people
That salvation was through knowledge.
And the result is people who live in disobedience to Christ,
But because they know the facts about Christ,
They assume they won’t be judged.
The purpose of this text this morning is to prove that theory wrong.
And there are 4 things Paul shows us about knowledge in our text this morning.
#1 IN REGARD TO JUDGMENT: KNOWLEDGE IS INSIGNIFICANT
Romans 2:12
There is a growing population today (even in the church)
That seems to think the answer to judgment is knowledge.
But as Paul points out here.
When it comes to judgment, knowledge is insignificant.
“all who have sinned without the Law will also perish without the Law”
That statement seems to play right into the hands of those
Who are trusting in their Bible knowledge as proof of their salvation.
But if you will accurately read that verse,
You will see that the reason they are judged
Is not because they were uneducated, but because they were sinners.
The point there is that sin is punished.
A PERSON COULD PLEAD IGNORANCE – “I never read the Bible”
According to the statement here, that is INSIGNIFICANT.
Romans 1:20 “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.”
You may not have the Law, but you do have creation.
You sinned, and so you will be judged.
And perhaps that one seems obvious, but look at what Paul says next.
“and all who have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law;”
KNOWLEDGE WILL NOT HELP IN JUDGMENT
If you are guilty before God as an adulterer,
It will not help you in judgment to appeal to God
That you have memorized the 7th Commandment.
KNOWLEDGE DOES NOT NULLIFY SIN.
Yet it is amazing how many people in this world think
That it is their knowledge that makes them a Christian.
KNOWLEDGE IS NOT A FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT
KNOWLEDGE IS NOT A FRUIT OF SALVATION
Knowledge is Insignificant in the Judgment
Remember these guys?
Luke 13:24-27 “Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. “Once the head of the house gets up and shuts the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock on the door, saying, ‘ Lord, open up to us!’ then He will answer and say to you, ‘ I do not know where you are from.’ “Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets’; and He will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you are from; DEPART FROM ME, ALL YOU EVILDOERS.’”
They are appealing to their intellectual knowledge of Him.
MAY I REMIND YOU.
It doesn’t matter if you know all about Jesus,
If Jesus doesn’t know you.
Knowledge is absolutely insignificant in judgment.
#2 DURING JUDGMENT: KNOWLEDGE IS IMPOTENT
Romans 2:13
And this statement is really the crux of the passage.
“for it is not the hearers of the Law who are just before God,”
People think their knowledge makes them safer in judgment.
I quit asking the question when witnessing:
“Do you know Jesus?”
Because I found out just about everybody does.
“Yeah, I know Jesus. He died on the cross. I was baptized when I was a kid.”
PEOPLE IN HELL KNOW JESUS
But knowledge of Him is not what He wants.
JESUS IS NOT LOOKING FOR HISTORIANS OR BIOGRAPHERS. JESUS IS LOOKING FOR FOLLOWERS.
He is looking for those who will trust Him.
(i.e. obedience and perseverance)
“for it is not the hearers of the Law who are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified.”
CAN A VERSE SCREAM IT ANY LOUDER?
I don’t care that you know the answers…
I don’t care that you memorized the verse…
I don’t care that you know the facts about Jesus…
I WANT TO KNOW IF YOU ARE OBEYING HIM!!!
If you are not obeying Him, your knowledge
Is absolutely powerless to save you on the day of judgment.
James 1:19-25 “This you know, my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God. Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls. But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.”
HEARNIG IS IMPORTANT – “be quick to hear”
Romans 10:17 “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.”
BUT DO NOT STOP WITH SIMPLY HEARING
HEARING IS POWERLESS WITHOUT DOING.
That is why throughout the Scripture, obedience (not knowledge)
Is the verifiable trademark of Christianity.
Luke 6:46-49 “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? “Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and acts on them, I will show you whom he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock; and when a flood occurred, the torrent burst against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. “But the one who has heard and has not acted accordingly, is like a man who built a house on the ground without any foundation; and the torrent burst against it and immediately it collapsed, and the ruin of that house was great.”
1 John 2:3-6 “By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, ” I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.”
AND THIS IS PAUL’S POINT.
You may have knowledge, but on the day of judgment,
Your knowledge will be absolutely powerless to help you.
Because in judgment, knowledge is INSIGNIFICANT, and:
In the judgment, knowledge is IMPOTENT.
#3 DURING JUDGMENT: KNOWLEDGE IS INCONVENIENT
Romans 2:14-15
And this may be the harshest truth to swallow at all.
Paul is going to make the point of the inconvenience of knowledge,
And he will do so by showing how inconvenient it is
For those who have limited knowledge.
If it is inconvenient for them, how much more so for the highly educated?
“when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law…they show the work of the Law written in their hearts,
Now this does not mean they are saved.
But what Paul is referring to is, when a man
Who has absolutely no Bible knowledge at all,
Instinctively refrains from immoral behavior,
Then he reveals that although he does not have Bible knowledge, He does know right from wrong.
All across our world, there are lost moral people.
Lost people who do not cheat on their spouses.
Lost people who do not murder.
Lost people who do not steal.
Lost people who won’t have abortions.
They may not have the Law, but they know right from wrong.
It is the inner “instinctive” knowledge of the conscience.
And Paul says, this knowledge will be inconvenient for them
At the day of judgment.
“their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them,”
WHAT WILL JUDGE THESE PEOPLE?
Their conscience and their thoughts.
They will stand before God and say, “I’m not guilty, I didn’t know adultery was wrong.”
And then God will say, “Then why did you refrain from it for 20 years?” Your obedience proves you knew it was wrong.
Even to the man with seemingly no knowledge at all,
Even his limited knowledge is inconvenient.
NOW
If a man with limited knowledge is judged by his knowledge, what does that say for those of us with great knowledge?
Certainly our knowledge will not help us,
But will be considered most inconvenient.
AND I WANT YOU TO UNDERSTAND SOMETHING
Not only is knowledge not helpful in judgment,
Knowledge is harmful.
THE MORE YOU KNOW, THE STIFFER THE PUNISHMENT
Luke 12:43-48 “Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes. “Truly I say to you that he will put him in charge of all his possessions. “But if that slave says in his heart, ‘My master will be a long time in coming,’ and begins to beat the slaves, both men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk; the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces, and assign him a place with the unbelievers. “And that slave who knew his master’s will and did not get ready or act in accord with his will, will receive many lashes, but the one who did not know it, and committed deeds worthy of a flogging, will receive but few. From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more.”
Matthew 11:20-24 “Then He began to denounce the cities in which most of His miracles were done, because they did not repent. “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles had occurred in Tyre and Sidon which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. “Nevertheless I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon inthe day of judgment than for you. “And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You will descend to Hades; for if the miracles had occurred in Sodom which occurred in you, it would have remained to this day. “Nevertheless I say to you that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for you.”
THERE ARE DEGREES OF TORMENT IN HELL
AND IT IS DETERMINED BY YOUR AMOUNT OF KNOWLEDGE
And we do that with our kids.
The 2nd offense brings a far stiffer penalty.
SO IT IS WITH KNOWLEDGE.
People will find it most inconvenient on the day of judgment.
It will only prove their guilt, and prove they deserve punishment.
Better to enter hell an ignorant uneducated fool,
Than with a worn out Bible.
The Bible is not just to be read, but obeyed.
#4 DURING JUDGMENT: KNOWLEDGE IS INEXTRICABLE
Romans 2:16
Inextricable = cannot set himself free from, cannot deny
And this is the point.
Because knowledge will be so inconvenient during judgment,
No doubt many will do their best
To assure God they did not know all they know.
DO NOT OUR KIDS DO THIS?
“You knew better than that!”
“No I didn’t, I didn’t know better.”
Carrie will ask Zek “What are you doing?”
He will immediately say, “I don’t know.”
Soon – “What do you think I was doing?”
EVEN KIDS KNOW KNOWLEDGE HURTS YOU IN JUDGMENT
And once people figure this out,
The next step will be to hide what they know.
They will try to convince God
They really weren’t as educated as they pretended.
But that won’t work because:
“God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus.”
AND HERE IS THE POINT
On the day when men are judged.
Every sin will be revealed, every ounce of knowledge will be uncovered.
God will take your sin in one hand, your knowledge in the other.
Your sin will determine your guilt
Your knowledge will determine the severity of your punishment
And the point is that knowledge does not help in judgment.
TO EVERYONE WHO THINKS THEY ARE OK
BECAUSE THEY KNOW THE TRUTH ABOUT JESUS:
DO NOT BE DECEIVED.
God is not looking for theologians, God is looking for disciples.
When Jesus calls a person
He does not put a strain on the intellect,
He puts a strain on the heart.
Matthew 8:19-22 “Then a scribe came and said to Him, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.” Jesus said to him, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” Another of the disciples said to Him, “Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.” But Jesus said to him, “Follow Me, and allow the dead to bury their own dead.”
Matthew 16:24-27 “Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? “For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and WILL THEN REPAY EVERY MAN ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS.”
Matthew 19:21-22 “Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” But when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieving; for he was one who owned much property.”
Jesus didn’t ask any of those people to learn facts.
Jesus didn’t give any of them a multiple choice test.
JESUS ASKED EVERYONE OF THEM TO FULLY TRUST AND OBEY HIM.
In Isaiah’s day they thought they could hide from judgment…
In Jeremiah’s day they thought going to church would save them…
In Zephaniah’s day they thought God wouldn’t really do it…
In John the Baptist’s day they thought their ancestry could save them…
Today men think their knowledge will deliver them.
DON’T BE DECEIVED.
Only fully trusting Jesus can save man from the wrath of God.
Romans 5:8-9 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.”
