Romans 2:1-6 (KJV) Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things. 2 But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things. 3 And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? 4 Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? 5 But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; 6 Who will render to every man according to his deeds…

The Lost Have No Excuse

When we were in Romans chapter one the Apostle was addressing the Church of the Lord Jesus. We know this because he wrote:

Romans 1:7 To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Word Study: The Apostle addresses the “beloved of God”. The word “BELOVED” is the Greek agapētos, which certainly means “BELOVED”, but it means also “those well favored, those worthy of love”. The believer in Christ is worthy of love because he is a believer in Christ. Jesus Christ is God’s “BELOVED Son” (Matthew 3:17). God told the Prophet Isaiah of the Lord Jesus, saying:

Matthew 12:18 Behold my servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall shew judgment to the Gentiles.

When you receive Jesus as Lord and Savior you are “BELOVED” for His sake. You are “called to be SAINTS” because Christ’s sacrifice is reckoned to your life. As father Abraham believed on and received Christ, we do as well. Christ’s righteousness is “imputed to us, if we believe on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; Who was delivered for our offenses, and raised for our justification”.

But as we come to Romans chapter two, the Word of God does not address the Church, but the lost world. We read:

Romans 2:1 … Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man …

Romans 2:3 … And thinkest thou this, O man …

Word Study: It is not the “BELOVED” that is addressed, but “MAN”, the Greek anthrōpos which means “human being, whether male or female”. The Beloved of God, the Christian is to “let your light so shine before MEN (anthrōpos), that they (the lost) may see our good works, and glorify our Father Who is in Heaven” (Matthew 5:16).

Whereas agapētosor “Beloved” is used to address the Christian, the lost are called anthrōpos or “mankind”.

It is the lost who were addressed in Romans 1:18-32 who have clearly seen the evidence of God all around them, and yet have rejected that evidence in order to create their own idols. We have seen – especially during this election season – how people have judged, condemned, ridiculed, and tormented others so as to make themselves feel superior. Anthrōpos or humanity – the lost world – has no excuse for rejecting the Gospel. They judge one another. They judge the Beloved of God when they misstep. They judge people around them rather than judging themselves.

The very fact that people judge one another is proof of an internal, God ordained conscience.

What makes it so bad, the Apostle tells us, is that

Romans 2:1 … thou that judgest doest the same things.

The devil loves to lure people into the judging game. In the fall of Adam in the Garden, when man sinned and was questioned by God, rather than confess the sin man decided to judge others. Adam told God:

Genesis 3:12 (ESV) … “The woman whom You {God} gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.”

Adam judged God first, then the defective woman that God gave to him. This is what people – lost people (and Adam was lost at this moment) do when they themselves sin. They look for someone to blame. Adam blamed God and Eve. When asked, Eve said “The serpent deceived me, and I ate” (Genesis 3:13). Rather than repent, the lost look for someone to blame!

Looking for someone else to blame fixes none of the problems in your life. It is dangerous deflection!

People say “If God controls all things, then why is there so much evil in the world? Obviously God is either not good, or not all powerful!” People make statements like, “Since I’m a homosexual, or a child molester, or a whore-monger, God made me this way. Who is He to judge me, if He is the Creator?” The Bible tells us that God is indeed all mighty, all powerful, and all knowing. The Lord says:

Isaiah 45:7 (ESV) I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the Lord, who does all these things.

And again, in Isaiah 46:9-11 (ESV) … remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’ calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it.

God is God. He is all mighty. He is all knowing, and all loving. God’s purposes will ultimately come to pass, for God is ultimately in control. If that is true, why not blame God when things go in ways we don’t want or expect? Because God in creation made us in His image and in His likeness. God in creation gave us domination over the creatures of the earth, and even earth itself.

God has given us free will, the ability to choose good or evil, right or wrong. God is continually reaching out to the lost world, calling the sinner to REPENT and COME TO CHRIST as Lord and Savior.

As my commentary notes:

“When we blame God, we make ourselves His judge and jury. But mere human beings have no right to pass judgment on the Almighty. We are His creation; He is not ours: “Woe to those who quarrel with their Maker, those who are nothing but potsherds among the potsherds on the ground. Does the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you making?’ Does your work say, ‘The potter has no hands’? Woe to the one who says to a father, ‘What have you begotten?’ or to a mother, ‘What have you brought to birth?’” (Isaiah 45:9–10)”.

Romans 2:2 But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things.

God’s ways are always true and right. As God is love, His every action is designed to bring humanity to the best state it can be brought to. As we are NOT God, we need to understand that while we may blame God rather than repent, our blaming of the All Mighty will not change our judgment in the least bit. What is particularly ironic is that, though you may blame others and point them out to God, the final state of your own soul will ultimately be judged not on what someone else did or didn’t do. The final state of your soul is going to be based on what YOU did or didn’t do.

Romans 2:3 And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?

The lost person judging others is no more than another HYPOCRIT! You judge others. You judge God. But if you would look carefully at your life, you’d realize you do the exact same things you are accusing others of doing. I have heard people lambaste the Church, saying “I don’t go to Church because there are so many hypocrites there”. Dr. M.R. DeHaan of the Radio Bible Class Ministries says:

“The biggest hypocrite of all, however, is the man or woman who refuses to come to Christ because there are so many hypocrites in the church. Such a person is being inconsistent. Business is full of hypocrites, but that does not stop him from doing business. Society is full of them, but he does not decide to become a hermit. Hell is full of hypocrites, so if a person doesn’t like hypocrites he had better make sure he’s not going there.”

There’s no bigger hypocrite than the person who pretends that he doesn’t need Jesus.

The Lost Judge God Only When The Bad Happens

Have you ever noticed when good is happening, people thank their idols, be it “lucky stars” or “good karma”? But when the bad happens, they blame God.

There is a type of lost person the Bible calls “The Fool”, the Atheist who says “There is no God” (Psalm 14:1; 53:1). They are fools because they have standards of right and wrong, but ignore Him Who gave those standards.

Imagine If: acclaimed Richard Dawkins, a British Atheist (what God calls “the Fool”) was in Africa, and came across a tribe of cannibals who seized him and prepared to eat him. Dawkins would no doubt plead with the cannibals to spare his life, that “murder is wrong!”. The cannibals ask, “Why is it wrong for us to eat you?” Dawkins would no doubt say “Well, I’m a human!” As the cannibals sharpen their knives they say, “But you say there is no God, and that humans are just animals evolved from other animals. As that’s true, and we eat deer and antelope, why can’t we eat YOU?”

“If humans are just animals, and we eat animal meat – then why can’t we eat YOU?”

The fool, the Atheist would say “But it’s MURDER to kill a human?” But why is it murder to kill a human, and not murder to kill a pig, or a deer, or a beef? There is no logic to the fool, though I will tell you the difference. Animals often mate within their families. If we are animals, why is it wrong for us to do so? Animals steal meat other animals have killed, and eat their own kind. Animals eat rotted food, maggot infested food. Animals many times eat their food alive, kill the weakest in the pack, leave the elderly behind to die and be eaten. All this begs the question, are humans animals?

The Bible says NO!

God made humanity above the animals. Though I may kill an animal to eat its meat, I may not kill a human, who is NOT an animal. Though I may kill an animal to eat, I will not torture it to death, nor eat it while it screams. We know better. Dawkins is not an animal, and his very conscience tells him so. Most people are not as stupid as atheists like Richard Dawkins!

Illustration: Animals never thank God for their food. A young boy was invited over to eat at a friend’s home. When the meal was served, they all dug right in … all except the little guest. The head of the house asked, “Son, why aren’t you eating?” The little boy said, “At our home we never eat until we thank God for the food.” The father said, “We don’t believe in God, so we just eat.” The little boy replied, “I guess that’s all right. When I feed my dog, he never thanks me before he eats.” Those who move away from God become like the animals. We read:

Romans 2:4 Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?

Common Grace: If most of us would just stop and think for a moment, most of our lives have been GOOD. God has been good to us all. The theologians call the goodness of God to His creation “Common Grace”. God graciously provides good to all of His creation, saved or unsaved. Jesus spoke of this when He said:

Matthew 5:44-45 (ESV) But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

God blesses the good and the evil every day. He gives us the beauty of life, the wonderful blessings that we receive day by day. The lost usually do not thank the Lord for the food they have received, or the body that processes that food. The lost enjoy the wonders of sight and sound. The lost have so many blessings in life, and yet ignore the God Who makes these things possible.

God is so good!

When the lost get in a terrible traffic accident, and miraculously walk away, they say “wasn’t that LUCKY?”, as if fate had anything to do with it. The Bible says “The dice are cast into your lap, but it’s every decision is FROM THE LORD” (Proverbs 16:33). The All Mighty God controls everything – even the outcome of the cast dice. Every blessing is from God. The stepbrother of Jesus wrote:

James 1:17 (ESV) Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

It is God Who gives us life. We grow from fetus to baby in the womb, but it is God Who gives that spark of life. When John the Baptist began to lose converts – people who used to follow him who now chose to follow Jesus – John said:

John 3:27 (ESV) … A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven.

It was God Who gave John life. It was God Who called John into ministry. It was God Who sent the converts to follow John as he baptized in the wilderness of the Jordan. It was God Who fed John locusts and wild honey while he ministered. It is God Who has given us everything that we have, and He has put more good on our plates than He has put bad.

As the lost person curses God’s name, dragging His goodness in the dirt, God in His goodness allows that person to blaspheme and mock His holy Person one more day. Why would God do this? Because He is LOVE.

The Scripture says “{God is} … patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Peter 3:9, ESV).

God in His goodness allows the Atheist Richard Dawkins one more day to mock, and ridicule, and make money off of his foolishness and dark books. Why? To give him an opportunity to repent and come to salvation.

God allowed Atheist Christopher Hitchens to make statements like “I am not an atheist, but an Anti-theist, a term I’m trying to get into circulation … someone who is RELIEVED that there’s no evidence {that there is a God}”. God allowed this godless soul to live until, at 62 years old, he died of cancer induced complications leading to pneumonia. He is now in a burning hell for rejecting the the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus told us:

John 3:16-18 (ESV) For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

Ignoring the goodness of God and the Grace He offers through Jesus Christ, Hitchens stepped off into eternity mocking the One Who made him. He and others ignore the goodness of God. The hardened lost would have no authority over them, none whatsoever, lest it interfere with the idol that they have erected. But the goodness of God toward the lost eventually wears out.

The Horror Of The Hardened Heart

Romans 2:5 But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God…

Those who reject the clear evidence of God in the world around us, in our bodies, and who harden their hearts to His goodness – rather than put Christ in their eternal treasury they put the wrath of God into their eternal bank account.

Word Study: Whose fault is it that the lost will eventually incur the wrath of God? It is their fault. They will not repent. They hear the Gospel, and reject it time and time again. Our text speaks of their “hardness and impenitent heart”. The word translated “HARDNESS” is the Greek sklērotēs (pronounced sklay-rot’-ace), which means “calloused, stubborn, hardened”. When a person hears of Christ and senses the Holy Spirit of God encouraging them to repent, but hardens their heart because they do not want to turn their life over to God. They are “IMPENITENT”, they refuse to repent or turn to God.

Right after Jesus fed upwards of 4000 with seven loaves of bread and a few fish (He had previously done this same thing with 5000 Jews) (Mark 8:1-9), Jesus had His disciples go with Him to the district of Dalmanutha. The disciples got on the boat, but forgot to bring the seven baskets of leftover bread with them. Jesus told them,

“Beware of the LEAVEN of the Pharisees, and the LEAVEN of Herod” (Mark 8:15)

Rather than listen to Jesus, hearing the word “LEAVEN” – which is yeast used in bread production – they began to argue about the bread they left behind. I can hear them now. “Who forgot the bread? You idiot, how are we going to eat? It wasn’t my job to bring the bread, Peter. You’re the leader of this ragged band.”

Jesus looked at the disciples and said:

Mark 8:17-21 (ESV) … “Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? 18 Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember? 19 When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” They said to him, “Twelve.” 20 “And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” And they said to him, “Seven.” 21 And he said to them, “Do you not yet understand?”

Jesus was warning them to not become like the Pharisees, the religious crowd, or like Herod, the political crowd. These two groups were godless. They did what they did to be seen of men, but rejected the Christ Who is the Bread of Life (John 6:35). The Pharisees worshiped the Law of God, but rejected the Author of the Law, Jesus Christ the Son of God. The Herodians worshiped the Law of Politics, but rejected the Creator of nations and governments, the Lord Jesus Christ.

The disciples were hardening their hearts just as the godless Pharisees and Herodians were hardening their hearts. Oh, what a horrible thing the hardened heart is!

The hardened heart – like skin being rubbed by an abrasive – becomes deaf and dumb to the things of God. Those so afflicted forget that Jesus is the Bread of Life, that Jesus is both Savior and Lord. Those with a hardened heart forget that there is coming a Judgment Day. We read:

Romans 2:5-6 the righteous judgment of God; 6 Who will render to every man according to his deeds:

A Judgment Day is coming for every person who has ever walked the face of this earth. We are told that God will “render to every man according to his deeds”. It is certain that no person is saved by their good works. The Bible is clear that “there is NONE GOOD BUT ONE, that is, God” (Matthew 19:17). The Apostle will tell us in the next chapter,

Romans 3:12 (KJV) … there is NONE THAT DOETH GOOD, no, not one..

This is why God the Father sent His Son Jesus to this earth. Jesus took upon Himself humanity, being made “lower than the angels for the suffering of death” (Hebrews 2:9). As humans are made in the image of God, and as humans are universally born in a spiritually dead state, Jesus came to take our penalty upon Himself. The wondrous Gospel calls out to whosoever will, saying:

2 Corinthians 5:20-21 (ESV) … We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

When you receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, the Holy Spirit causes you to be “born again” (John 3:1, 3, 7; 1 Peter 1:3, 23). You are changed – and God does the changing. He calls you to walk with Him, “in Christ” (Romans 8:1-2), a child of the King. One day your WORKS will be judged, the WORKS you started doing as a supernatural result of coming to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

Romans 2:7 To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life

Those who are God’s children ACT like God’s children. They glorify Jesus and honor the Father with their lives. God’s children know that their works will be judged (which is another sermon), not for salvation, but for reward or loss (see Romans 14:10; 2 Corinthians 5:10).

Romans 2:8-9 But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, 9 Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile;

But to those who reject the truth which is Christ (John 14:6) and will not obey Him (for Beloved, He is BOTH Savior and Lord), these people are not born again. They will one day receive the reward for their evil works: the “INDIGNATION AND WRATH” of God. That will be horrible. Horrible. But it is a reality that will come.

Romans 2:10-11 But glory, honor, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile: 11 For there is no respect of persons with God.

Are you “born again”. Have you called upon Jesus Christ, giving your life over to Him? Or do you reject Him so that you can continue in your idolatrous lifestyle? Judgment day is coming, and we all shall be judged. Do not enter eternity – or even live one more day on this earth – without receiving the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior.

May God draw you to Him Who is the Bread of Life. Amen and Amen.