Qualifications for Judgmnet
Romans 2:7-11
September 9, 2007
This morning we heard one of those “upbeat” “feel good” type of sermons
That really warms the heart and soothes the ego.
Paul laid it on the line in regard to hypocrisy.
Hypocrites have a:
Denial of Punishment
Disdain for Pity
Debt to Pay
They are those who assume they will not be judged,
And would just as soon pity not be offered
To those who really deserve to be judged.
AND OF COURSE THAT TYPE OF PERSON IS GRAVE DANGER
But Paul is by no means finished proving that point to us.
In verse 6 Paul made a very pivotal statement.
“who WILL RENDER TO EACH PERSON ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS:”
He is quoting from the Old Testament
Psalms 62:12 “And lovingkindness is Yours, O Lord, For You recompense a man according to his work.”
Although you are saved by grace, you are judged by works,
And every work is recorded.
And some day, the judgment of God will be revealed.
Revelation 22:12-13 “Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done. “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”
Some day reward will be given for the works of man.
EVEN TO CHRISTIANS – (who will not stand before the final judgment)
1 Corinthians 3:12-15 “Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.”
That is the “Judgment seat of Christ”
BUT THAT IS NOT THE JUDGMENT PAUL IS REFERENCING HERE
The judgment Paul is speaking of is the eternal judgment of God.
A judgment which hypocrites are headed for.
(5) “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.”
And that is really the point that Paul begins to elaborate on here.
And it is a theme that he will carry through verse 16.
AND WE ARE CALLING THIS SECTION
“Qualifications for Judgment”
In our world of “How to’s” one might call this, “How to be judged”
We do need to do a little theological work here.
It is quite possible for a person to interpret this passage
Independently from the rest of Scripture and devise a theology
That is not what God intended.
NO PASSAGE STANDS ALONE
(Scripture must interpret Scripture)
JUSTIFICATION IS BY FAITH ALONE THROUGH GRACE ALONE
Ephesians 2:8-9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
Galatians 2:20-21 “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. “I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.”
Galatians 3:11 “Now that no one is justified by the Law before God is evident; for, “THE RIGHTEOUS MAN SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.”
THIS IS EVEN WHAT ROMANS TEACHES
Romans 2:28-29 “For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.”
Romans 3:19-20 “Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God; because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.”
Romans 4:1-3 “What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS CREDITED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.”
Romans 4:16 “For this reason it is by faith, in order that it may be in accordance with grace, so that the promise will be guaranteed to all the descendants, not only to those who are of the Law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all,”
Romans 5:1 “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,”
It is clear what the message of Romans is.
Therefore, we know what this passage DOES NOT mean.
THIS PASSAGE DOES NOT TEACH
THAT SALVATION COMES THROUGH BEING GOOD.
THIS PASSAGE ISN’T TALKING ABOUT SALVATION AT ALL.
This passage is not the qualifications for salvation;
This passage is about the qualifications for judgment.
UNLIKE SALVATION,
JUDGMENT IS DEALT ON THE BASIS OF WORKS
(This is what we study here)
So as we study this text, remember the point, and it will help you understand what Paul is saying.
There are two main points we glean from this text tonight.
#1 THE STANDARD FOR JUDGMENT
Romans 2:7-8
We learned this morning that judgment must have a standard.
When man judges, his judgment is flawed,
Because his standard is flawed.
God’s judgment is perfect because His standard is perfect.
Amos 7:7-9 “Thus He showed me, and behold, the Lord was standing by a vertical wall with a plumb line in His hand. The LORD said to me, “What do you see, Amos?” And I said, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said, “Behold I am about to put a plumb line In the midst of My people Israel. I will spare them no longer. “The high places of Isaac will be desolated And the sanctuaries of Israel laid waste. Then I will rise up against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.”
Isaiah 28:15-18 “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.” Therefore thus says the Lord GOD, “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a tested stone, A costly cornerstone for the foundation, firmly placed. He who believes in it will not be disturbed. “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.”
God’s standard is very easy to define:
PERFECT RIGHTEOUSNESS
Read the books of Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
God plainly paints that righteousness is what He wants,
And perfect righteousness is all He accepts.
And He is been saying this from the beginning.
Deuteronomy 28:1-2 “Now it shall be, if you diligently obey the LORD your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I command you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. “All these blessings will come upon you and overtake you if you obey the LORD your God:”
Deuteronomy 28:15-19 “But it shall come about, if you do not obey the LORD your God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes with which I charge you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you: “Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country. “Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. “Cursed shall be the offspring of your body and the produce of your ground, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock. “Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.”
DID YOU CATCH THE WORD “all”?
Is that not what Jesus reiterated?
Matthew 5:20 “For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Matthew 5:48 “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
And so this is the point.
ANYTHING LESS THAN PERFECT OBEDIENCE
TO THE WORD OF GOD BRINGS JUDGMENT.
And that is also Paul’s point here.
And what Paul does is contrast two people.
One is not deserving of punishment, the other is deserving of punishment.
So first, let’s look at the person who does not deserve punishment.
(7) “to those who by perseverance in doing good, seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life;”
Now please don’t sugar coat what Paul has just said. Because when Paul says, “perseverance in doing good”
He does not mean, “good most of the time” or “basically good”
EVERYONE OF US THINKS WE ARE BASICALLY GOOD
Paul is actually talking about perfect goodness.
Perfect obedience to the Word of God.
This is something mankind falls far short of.
Matthew 19:16-17 “And someone came to Him and said, “Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life?” And He said to him, “Why are you asking Me about what is good? There is only One who is good; but if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.”
But the first thing Paul mentions is:
THEIR DESCRIPTION
“perseverance in doing good”
The person who does not deserve judgment does what is good, all the time. They persevere in it.
THEIR MOTIVATION
“glory and honor and immortality”
Now it is not a bad thing to seek those things, and in light of the next man it appears that this person is seeking these things eternally, not temporally.
In fact, Jesus tells us to seek these things.
Matthew 6:19-21 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. “But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
The point is that these people are doing everything right,
For the sake of pleasing God and earning an eternal reward.
Not only are their actions right, but their heart is right as well.
THEIR REWARD
“eternal life”
To those who do good deeds, and do it for the right reasons, they don’t deserve judgment.
But let’s look at the flip side.
(8) “but to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation.”
Now let’s look at the same three attributes.
THEIR DESCRIPTION
“do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness,”
I have told you before, but in regard to pleasing God,
There is only one truly verifiable proof of salvation: obedience.
Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.”
Matthew 7:24-27 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. “And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. “Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. “The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell — and great was its fall.”
John 8:31 “So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine;”
John 3:36 “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”
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.”
But these people have no obedience.
“do not obey the truth”
We know that makes them worthy of judgment.
And as if that wasn’t enough.
THEIR MOTIVATION
“who are selfishly ambitious”
It’s bad enough that they do bad things, but even when they do good things, they do them for the wrong reasons.
This was the Pharisees we read about this morning.
Matthew 23:5-6 “But they do all their deeds to be noticed by men; for they broaden their phylacteries and lengthen the tassels of their garments. “They love the place of honor at banquets and the chief seats in the synagogues,”
It smells an awful lot like the false prophets we have spoken of.
2 Peter 2:12-16 “But these, like unreasoning animals, born as creatures of instinct to be captured and killed, reviling where they have no knowledge, will in the destruction of those creatures also be destroyed, suffering wrong as the wages of doing wrong. They count it a pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are stains and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, as they carouse with you, having eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, having a heart trained in greed, accursed children; forsaking the right way, they have gone astray, having followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; but he received a rebuke for his own transgression,for a mute donkey, speaking with a voice of a man, restrained the madness of the prophet.”
Jude 11-13 “Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain, and for pay they have rushed headlong into the error of Balaam, and perished in the rebellion of Korah. These are the men who are hidden reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam; wandering stars, for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever.”
Philippians 1:15-17 “Some, to be sure, are preaching Christ even from envy and strife, but some also from good will; the latter do it out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel; the former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition rather than from pure motives, thinking to cause me distress in my imprisonment.”
It is how Paul described himself when he was lost.
Galatians 1:13-14 “For you have heard of my former manner of life in Judaism, how I used to persecute the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it; and I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen, being more extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions.”
And Paul’s point here is that those types of people are worthy of judgment.
THEIR REWARD
“wrath and indignation”
“wrath” translates THUMOS
“indignation” translates ORGE
It is the worst of both worlds.
Violent passion for a long time.
And the standard is whether or not you are good by God’s perfect righteous standard.
IF NOT, YOU DESERVE JUDGMENT
That is the standard for judgment.
#2 THE SURETY OF JUDGMENT
Romans 2:9-11
We have said that God has a standard,
But for some reason, people quickly overlook the standard.
Mankind still has an ability to assume that God won’t do it.
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!’”
Tell that to Jeremiah.
He penned the book of Lamentations while sitting amidst the rubble of what used to be the temple of God.
Listen to what he said.
Lamentations 2:8 “The LORD determined to destroy The wall of the daughter of Zion. He has stretched out a line, He has not restrained His hand from destroying, And He has caused rampart and wall to lament; They have languished together.”
According to Jeremiah, God’s judgment is also sure.
And that is what Paul reminds us of here.
(9-10) “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.”
And it doesn’t matter who you are…
Where you grew up…
Who your daddy is…
Or the color of your skin…
Judgment is sure, I don’t care who you are.
And that is concreted in verse 11
“For there is no partiality with God”
Deuteronomy 10:17 “For the LORD your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God who does not show partiality nor take a bribe.”
Acts 10:34-35 “Opening his mouth, Peter said: “I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality, but in every nation the man who fears Him and does what is right is welcome to Him.”
Even Peter assumed that God favored the Jews.
He was wrong.
There has never been a partial bone in God’s body.
Ask Moses about not getting to go into the promised land.
Ask Israel about how God let Assyria wipe them out.
Ask Judah about how God let Babylon wipe them out.
As my wife pointed out to me over lunch.
This lack of partiality included the day when His Son became deserving of punishment.
Isaiah 53:10 “But the LORD was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.”
God is not motivated by flattery…
God is not motivated by promises…
God is not motivated by emotional pleas…
God is not motivated by tears and pleading…
GOD IS MOTIVATED BY RIGHTEOUSNESS,
IT IS THE ONLY THING THAT MATTERS AT THE JUDGMENT.
And that is the point Paul is making here.
DON’T REST ON SOME SUPERFICIAL CHURCH ACTIVITY…
DON’T REST ON YOUR NATIONALITY…
DON’T REST ON WHO YOUR PARENTS ARE…
I’ve always found it interesting the number of people
Who assume they are saved
Because they grew up in a Christian home.
Listen to what John said.
John 1:12-13 “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”
The only way to be saved is to give your heart to Jesus Christ.
To trust His righteousness alone to save yourself.
And John there gives us three ways you don’t get saved.
1) Genetically – “not of blood”
2) Works – “nor of the flesh”
3) Desire – “nor of the will of man”
You have to scrap everything and start over.
“You must be born again”
ADMIT YOUR PUNISHMENT
HUMBLE YOURSELF AND SEEK PITY
GIVE YOUR HEART TO JESUS
When you do, His righteousness gets credited to your account, And you instantly become pleasing to God.
Romans 8:1-4 “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”
And there it is.
IF YOU WANT TO KNOW HOW TO BE JUDGED
Either do evil, or do good for the wrong reason.
IF YOU WANT TO KNOW HOW TO BE SAVED
Give your heart to Jesus Christ.
He will save you 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.”
