Understanding the Danger of Relying on Morality for Salvation

Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church Podcast, where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.

My name is Pastor Josh, and I want to thank you for listening to this podcast.

I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen you in the word of God.

Now come along, let's look into the Bible and see what God has for us here today.

The people there in Rome, the Christians there in Rome, thought, and last week we saw him teaching about the effects of a godless society.

If an individual turns their back against God completely, what will that look like?

And he went on to list some of these egregious public sins that he listed as the reprobate mind and what that looks like.

But then we get to chapter two, and Paul is going to explain something a little bit further, because the temptation for an individual who read chapter one, who heard chapter one, would say, well, I'm not any of those.

I'm not any of those sins that were listed in chapter one.

I'm a good person.

I'm a moralist.

I actually hate those things that were listed in chapter one, so I'm good.

And so the temptation would be that I'm not part of that lifestyle.

I'm not part of that sin publicly.

So I don't need Jesus.

I've got my own morals.

And so the title of the sermon this morning is the Danger of Moralism.

The Danger of Moralism.

And some of you might say, well, I thought we were supposed to have good morals as Christians.

Well, we are, but it's understanding the motive behind the morals.

It's understanding why we obey God.

It's understanding why we are to live with morals in our life.

Because I'm going to tell you here this morning, Paul is going to explain in chapter two that it doesn't matter if you're moral, it doesn't matter if you're religious.

It doesn't matter if you hate those other things that were listed in chapter one.

That's not what gets you to heaven.

That's not what gives you salvation.

He's going to explain here that all of us are still in need of a savior.

Essentially what Paul is doing here in chapter one, chapter two, and chapter three.

He's trying to explain why we all need Jesus, why we all need forgiveness.

And so he addresses in chapter one the ones that are publicly in sin, the ones who have rejected God, the ones who have turned their backs against God and fully given over to the things of society.

But then now he is going to turn in chapter two and talk to those who seem to be moral, who seem to be religious, who seem to be good people.

And he's going to say, guess what?

Even if you are quote unquote, a good person, you still need Jesus because eventually he's going to get to chapter three and he's going to say, there is none good.

No, not one.

Well, how can there be none good?

Right?

I'm a good person.

I'm a good citizen.

I follow all the rules.

You could even be like the young lawyer, the young man that comes to Jesus and Jesus says, hey, you know what?

This is what you have to do.

You have to keep all the laws.

And he says, I've kept all the laws since I was a child.

Right?

There's pride wrapped up in that saying.

I've kept everything perfectly.

If we're all honest with ourselves, none of us have kept the law perfectly.

And, and so what we're going to do here in chapter two is we're going to look at the danger of moralism, the mistake of moralism, if the fact is, is that I'm trusting in my morals to get me some sort of forgiveness, some sort of satisfaction, some sort of eternal blessing.

Hey, you know what?

That is incomplete.

So verse number one of chapter two, he says this.

Therefore thou art inexcusable.

That word, inexcusable basically means with, without excuse.

I.

I don't have justification in myself.

Therefore thou art inexcusable.

O man, whosoever thou art that judges for wherein thou judges another, thou condemn thyself, for thou that judges doest the same things.

Now, if you read verse one, and you don't really dig deep into what he's saying here, you might be tempted to think that, hey, they're guilty because they're judging.

That's not exactly what he's saying here.

What he's actually saying here is this.

You that are judging these people that were listed in Romans chapter one, you look at those people that are publicly in sin, and if you look at them and go, hey, you know what?

They're bad because they do these sins.

You're guilty.

Why?

Because the end of verse one, he says you do the same things.

Say what?

No, no, I don't do those things that were listed in chapter one.

Well, he says, you know what?

If you condemn somebody else for what the law says, you know, the law, if you understand what's wrong before the eyes of God, then therefore, basically you're condemning yourself.

Now, when they use that word, their judge, what we could say is this condemnation, punishment, if I bring condemnation to somebody else.

I.

I'm guilty because I am guilty of the same things that that person is committing.

If you doubt that, we could go to Matthew, chapter five, Jesus on the Sermon on the Mountain basically explains that sin is not just things that we do, but also things that we think.

It's our intention, it's our heart.

So Jesus says, hey, you know what?

If you hate your brother, you've committed murder in your heart.

You look upon a woman to lust after her, you've committed adultery in your heart.

And so what we're seeing here in this case is that it's not wrong to make a judgment call.

It's not wrong to make a.

A decision in discernment, right?

So if.

If we had people in our neighborhood that were known for harming children and we say, well, you know what?

We're going to go ahead and just leave our children over at their house, that would not be good discernment, right?

It's okay for me to judge that situation and say, you know what?

I am going to protect my children with wisdom.

Wisdom that comes from God.

That's not the type of judgment that God is condemning here.

What he's saying is, is that when we condemn other people, when I look at someone else and go, well, I'm not committing that sin.

I'm not as bad as that person.

The question would be, is, hey, what happens if someone else turns around and starts looking at my life, inspecting my life?

Am I perfect?

And that's really what Paul is talking about here in Romans, chapter two.

He's basically saying, if you want to go by that standard, if you want to go by the standard of, hey, you know what?

I'm going to condemn other people because of their sin.

I have to be perfect.

I can have no mistakes in my life.

No sin in my life.

And so here in verse number one, he says, hey, you are inexcusable because you judge other people.

Wherein thou judges another, thou condemn thyself.

Meaning if I look at someone and say, that person is lying, so therefore they're condemned, I.

If I ever lie, I am guilty too.

If I look at someone else and say, well, their sin is a horrible sin, and then I look at my own life and say, well, you know what?

Yeah, I do have some flaws.

The truth is, is that I'm guilty just as they are guilty.

Now, I do need to be very clear here this morning.

Not every sin has the same earthly repercussions.

Right?

We understand that.

We understand that certain decisions that we make here on this Earth can have different repercussions, and some greater than others.

But ultimately, in the eyes of God, when we stand before eternal life, one sin makes us guilty of them all.

We know that the Bible says that if I've sinned in one area, I am now guilty in the eyes of God.

And so it says here at the end of verse number one, for thou that judges doeth the same things.

And so it would be easy to read verse one and say, the reason why these people are guilty is because they're judging other people.

No, the reason why they're guilty is because they do the same things.

They are in sin as well.

And so if you know the story in the book of Luke, Luke 18, where Jesus speaks to the Pharisee and the publican, the publican was the public sinner.

The publican was someone that everyone in society recognized as a sinner.

And so chapter one of Romans is essentially Paul speaking to the publican, the public sinner, the one that culture understands is a sinner.

But then, if we keep that same analogy and we go to chapter two, this is Paul talking to the Pharisee, someone who, from the outside looks religious, someone from the outside who looks moral.

Someone who.

Someone from the outside who looks like everything is in line.

He says, at the heart of all of this, you are still in need of a Savior.

Why?

Because you do the same things.

Look at verse number two with me.

He says, but we are sure or confident that the judgment of God is according to truth.

Now, why do we cringe sometimes when we hear about the judgment of God?

Because we liken the judgment of God to the judgment of man.

Now, where does my condemnation come from?

My condemnation to other people comes from my pride.

I'm better than you, so I'm going to condemn you.

But really, it's hypocritical.

Why?

Because I'm still in sin.

And so when I exercise judgment in my life, when I exercise condemnation in my life, it's a hypocritical condemnation because I deserve condemnation.

And so that's why we get upset when we look at the judgment of God, because we liken God's judgment to man's judgment.

And we also hypocrite, in many cases, think that, hey, maybe it's not fair that God judges people.

Why would it be fair that God judges a good person?

You ever heard that question?

Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people?

Theologically speaking, there is none good.

No, not one.

And so what we can see here in verse 2 is he says this we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth.

So the difference between the judgment of man and the judgment of God is that the judgment of God is coming from a place of absolute truth.

We know that the truth is the word of God.

We know the truth is the thing things of God.

And so what does it say here that God is acting in holiness?

God is right for judging sin.

God is right for extending judgment to those who are in rebellion.

I don't have the right to extend judgment upon someone because I am still in my flesh in rebellion.

I need a Savior, but the one who knew no sin.

The Bible says in Second Corinthians, Jesus is able to enact justice.

Why?

Because he is completely just.

He is completely holy.

And so if we get uncomfortable with the judgment of God, we have to understand that that discomfort is a discomfort in our sin and in our guilt.

God is allowed to judge.

God is allowed to condemn.

God is allowed to enact that punishment upon those that are in rebellion.

So what we can see here in this case, in chapter two, is this, that he is coming to this place of our need for a Savior.

God is judging in accordance to truth.

Now think about these two words.

They both start with the letter J.

Judgment and justification.

The Bible says in, in the case of salvation.

In the context of salvation, there's either one of two camps.

You're either in the camp of judgment from God because of our sin or justification because of our faith in Jesus Christ.

We are justified by faith.

Now what is justification?

We need to go through that.

Justification literally means a declaration of righteousness, meaning God is allowed in his holiness to come and offer a sacrifice in Jesus Christ.

And therefore it really allow for this understanding of salvation and faith and repentance.

He's allowed to justify us.

We are not allowed to justify ourselves.

Why?

Because we are moral, morally incapable of justifying ourselves.

But Jesus in His perfection is allowed to enact justice and, and justification.

And so if I come to Christ in faith, I am now justified.

I have not earned my way.

I have not become a more.

More moral person and reach a peak of morality that can reach heaven.

No, it's God is giving me his righteousness and he's allowing me to walk in that righteousness of Jesus Christ.

And so therefore we are either in the camp of judgment because of our sin, righteous judgment from God according to the truth, or we, we are in the justification of God in the act of faith and trusting in him and acting as if we are a child of God and we are a Child of God, if we come to him in faith.

And so chapter two, again you're going to hear a common theme is Paul explaining our need for a savior.

And so he says, but we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things.

And when he says such things here, what is he referencing?

He's referencing the sins that are listed in Romans chapter 1.

Sins that all of us to some degree have been guilty of in our lives.

He says God is righteous in his judgment in truth against those who commit such things.

Those sins missing the mark of the perfection of God.

Verse 3.

And thinkest thou this, O man that judges them which do such things?

He says, so think about this, you who are condemning other people, who think you're better than other people morally and does the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God.

He's asking a question.

And by the way, some of you that are teachers here know that some of the best ways of teaching would be asking questions, right?

So it's not just about telling people things, but it's making them think for themselves and come to a place of an answer to a question.

So Paul asks a question to the moral man, the one who is religious, the one who is condemning.

And he says, hey, you who are judging and do the same thing, do you think that you can escape the judgment of God?

Do you think that you can wiggle your way out?

Do you think that you can manipulate your way out?

And folks, I'm going to tell you, there's been times in my life, and I will speak of way of testimony that I feel like I can scheme up a plan, that I can wiggle my way out of my problems, that I can out think the circumstances that I'm in.

But what Jesus tells us in Scripture is that our ways, our wisdom is foolishness.

And so what we can see here in this case is that Paul is trying to explain there's no plan, there's no system of morals, there's no rule book, there's no religion that can get you out of the judgment of God.

It's ultimately, at the end of the day, your faith in Jesus Christ that brings you that justification.

And what we can see this morning is that there's a lot of people in this world that are going to church, that are in some sort of religious movement that are following some list of rules, that think that they can find satisfaction, that they can find salvation in their goodness.

And what Paul says is no, there's no way to escape God's Judgment outside of Jesus Christ.

Do you think that you can get out of it?

Do you think you're the exception to the rule?

Do you think that you can come up with a better plan?

He's asking a question and he's making them think.

He's saying, okay, do you think that you have a better way?

And many people believe they have a better way than faith in Jesus Christ.

The Pharisees did.

The Pharisees believed that they had a better way, and that was following God's law to the T.

But even at the end of the day, even though the Pharisees to the public were very religious, very moral, we know that their hearts were not pure.

Jesus said that.

He said, you're like whited sepulchers.

You look great on the outside, but on the inside you're rotting.

And so it doesn't necessarily matter who we convince on the outside.

Hey, look, that's a good person.

That person is really moral.

It really doesn't matter.

What matters is what's on our heart.

Now, the Bible does say that what's written on our heart will eventually come out publicly.

But we're really good as humans to kind of trick people and present our best self in front of people in public.

But at the end of the day, God knows our hearts.

And so it's not about, hey, just throwing out morals.

By the way, I think I need to be very clear about this this morning.

I'm not saying that we should throw out our morals and say, just live the way you want to live.

If your heart's right, everything's going to be okay.

Because if your heart's right, you will follow with a life of righteousness, a life of morality, not a life of perfection.

But we should be striving to live differently.

I don't want to sin anymore.

By the way, we're going to jump ahead a few times in this study.

Look at Romans chapter six with me.

Look at Romans chapter six with me.

Because to understand Paul's teaching, we have to have context.

Context is key.

And so I think that one of the elements of the teaching in Romans chapter two is this.

We must teach that there are calls to righteousness later on.

Because a lot of times if we teach against the morality, people will say, then, well, then I can live my life the way that I want to live it, because God's grace is just abundant and I can keep doing what I want to do, and he'll just keep forgiving me.

Well, Paul says later on in our spiritual maturity, Chapter six, verse one, what shall we say then, shall we continue in sin?

He's speaking to believers here.

He's speaking to people who have trusted in faith and received justification.

It says this, shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?

God forbid.

How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?

So what Paul says is this, basically, as believers, we no longer want to sin.

And when we do, we have forgiveness.

But the heart should not be, well, you know what?

I'm just.

I'm a failure all the time.

I'm just but a human.

Therefore I'm just going to embrace the sin that I want.

No, the Bible says that we die to that sin.

We strive for perfection.

We Are we going to reach perfection?

No.

But we continue to strive and we become more and more like Christ.

And so chapter two is not just saying, hey, you know what?

All morals are bad, throw them out the window.

But we don't trust in the morals for our salvation.

The morals come because of the salvation.

It's a changed heart.

It's a new heart that brings us to a place where we want the truth.

We want to be like Christ.

We want to obey him.

It's not about having to obey him.

You understand that there are people in this world that teach, you have to do this and, and do this and do this, and then God will give you grace eventually.

No, the beauty is, is that when we trust in Jesus Christ as our Savior, we have abundant grace.

We are as much saved as we are the first day that we are saved.

Till 50 years later, that is salvation and that is beautiful.

But at the same time we have to be growing.

We can't stand still.

We can't be loving the things that we were saved from.

And so in chapter two, Paul says, do you think that you can escape the judgment of God by just being a good person?

Verse number four, or despises.

And he's saying, the person who rests in the morals and not in the relationship with Christ, they are despising the riches of God.

He says, or despises thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long suffering.

He's continuing to ask this question.

He says, are you going to despise, reject, disregard the riches of God, and by the way, forgiveness in Christ, grace, love, patience, all these things that are given to us from God are riches in him.

Read the whole book of Ephesians.

It's all about having spiritual riches.

And so some of you might have heard the phrase prosperity gospel.

I don't believe in the prosperity gospel as the Material prosperity, that if you love God, you're just going to get a bunch of money.

He might give you money or he might not.

But I do believe in a prosperity gospel when it comes to the spiritual elements.

We have prosperity in Christ.

And so what is he saying?

He says those who reject God, those that live in their own morals, are despising the riches of God.

So on the flip side of that, those that come to God in faith are receiving the riches of God, that are dwelling in the riches of God.

And so verse four, are you despising the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long suffering?

I like how he puts it here because he almost addressed the three areas of our life and forgiveness.

He talks about God's goodness to forgive the things of our past.

Thank God that when we come to Christ in salvation, he forgives us of our past.

I don't know about you, but I have a past.

I'm sure you have a past.

And it doesn't really matter when you got saved, whether you're 5 years old or 55 years old.

All of us have things that we did before we came to Christ.

In the beauty of God's goodness, He forgives us of those things.

But then the Bible does teach that he continues to have that forbearance.

Forbearance is that constant forgiveness, that constant spirit of forgiving.

You know what I believe that's talking about the sins of our presence, the sins that we're committing right now.

If I'm a Christian and I sin, God still forgives me in his grace.

He's forbearing in love.

Some of us that are married understand if we're walking in the truth, we are constantly needing to forbear our spouse in love.

Because we don't just forgive our spouse one time and say, that's the last time I'm forgiven you.

Everything else is going to be this, this long list of things you got to do to earn back my love.

No, that's not a healthy marriage.

Healthy marriage is forbearance over time.

That's our relationship with Christ, even though we are saved.

And he's overlooked the sins of our past, not overlooked them, because we, we aren't guilty of them.

We're guilty of them.

But the reason why God can can forgive us of that is because of what Jesus Christ did.

But even now, when you sin today, if you're a believer, the Bible says that you can find forgiveness in Him.

That's his forbearance.

And then we see that word there in The King James.

It's long suffering.

The way that we would use that phrase today in our culture would be patience.

This is the patience that God has for us in the future.

Some of us, some of you that are teachers, I was there at one point.

We have to have patience with our students.

Same thing goes for our Savior.

He has patience with us.

He understands our failures.

He understands our suffering, even though he doesn't condone them.

By the way, God doesn't sit up in heaven going, well, you know what?

It's okay that you're sinning.

I know that you know.

No, he.

He never condones our sin, but he understands that we are humans.

And he comes to the place of.

He doesn't see our good works or our bad works.

He comes to see the blood of Christ upon our account.

And he says, you know what?

There is still that forgiveness.

And he says, what's the purpose of this type of goodness?

What's the purpose of this type of grace?

It says here that someone who is living in that rebellion in moralism.

It says here at the end of chapter, chapter two.

Well, beginning of chapter two, end of verse four.

Not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth the to repentance.

The whole point of God extending his grace to us in our salvation and is that we come to a place of repentance in our life.

It's not so that we can keep on sinning.

It's to come to a place of repentance.

What is repentance?

We have to define these terms.

Repentance is a term about turning away from something.

So I turn away from my works, I turn away from my good.

I turn away from my effort, I turn away from my way of thinking, and I turn to something else.

So it's not just turning away from something, but it's a turning away from and a turning to.

That's repentance.

So why does God extend goodness to us?

So that we just keep sinning?

No, he doesn't extend goodness to us so that we can just say, well, we're really good people.

Look how moral Middletown Baptist Church is.

You know, we might get to a place where, you know what, all the churches around the country might come to us and ask us how we're so moral.

It's not what he's saying here.

The goodness of God that brings us to this place of understanding.

Our need for him is there to teach us repentance, humility, that we need him, that we're in desperate need of his presence in our life, of his grace in Our life.

And so God's goodness is extended, extended to us in many different ways.

But the greatest way that I believe that God extends goodness to us is through his grace.

Grace is giving something to someone that they don't deserve.

God has given you grace.

That is his goodness.

His goodness is, I'm giving you something that you don't deserve.

Are you going to receive this gift today?

At the end of the service, we have our teachers going back there, and if you want, you can take a picture with your student and we're going to give you a gift.

Some of you are like, yeah, I knew I came for a reason.

I got a gift.

But you can reject that gift.

I don't want that gift.

I don't need that gift.

That's not for me.

You understand that just because a gift is offered to you, it doesn't mean that you are in possession of that gift.

It's offered.

And so the gift of grace is offered to all in this world.

And the true question is, Ephesians chapter two tells us, are you going to receive the gift in faith?

For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves.

It is a gift of God, not of works, not of morals, lest any man should boast.

So God's grace is found in God's goodness.

But we also know that through this process of understanding God's goodness, He gives us guidance.

God doesn't just save us and leave us alone.

He doesn't just say, hey, you know what?

Figure it out for yourself.

He as a teacher, a good teacher should guide a student along the path to truth.

You don't just.

Well, I mean, some teachers might do this.

Maybe at some point.

I've had a teacher like this.

They just throw the textbook at you and go read the textbook, okay?

That's where you're gonna find all the information.

Well, one would argue that that might not be the greatest teacher, but a good teacher would say, here, here's the truth, here's the text.

How can I guide you to that truth?

How can I guide you to understand this?

So.

So God saves us in his grace, but he guides us in his goodness as well.

And so we have this grace, we have this guidance in God's goodness, and we also have new goals.

Right?

The goals now have changed.

Before we came to Christ, we had our own goals.

But biblically speaking, now that you are a believer and you've experienced the goodness of God and the grace of God and the guidance of God, now we have the new goals that he has called us to accomplish in our life, and that is to love him with all of our hearts, with all of our souls, with all of our strength, with everything that's in us, and to love our neighbor as ourself, and then to go on to make disciples, to go on to proclaim the salt and light to the lost and dying world.

And so now we have new goals, which those goals have a purpose as well.

We're not doing it for the here and now.

We're not serving God to have people give us a claim here on this earth, even though it is right to give honor to whom honors do in the time that we have here.

The whole point of the Christian life is not to have the goal of this earth.

It's the goal of the kingdom, it's the goal of eternity.

It's the goal of everlasting life.

You know, and the truth is, as believers, so many times we are living in that here and now thinking, well, what is this going to benefit me today?

How is this going to benefit me today?

What's going to be the immediate kickback from this good decision?

Folks, I'm going to tell you, there's going to be decisions that you make in your life that you're not going to understand the good in it right now.

But it's because Jesus has told me to do so.

You might be in a workplace situation, you might be in a family situation, and you might say, well, it really doesn't benefit me to stand up for the truth here.

I might lose my job, I might harm my plans, I might offend somebody.

The truth is, is that there are going to be times in our life where we might not see the immediate impact of following Christ.

But I'm going to tell you that there's an eternal blessing in staying faithful to the things of God.

And so what he says here is this.

You have God's goodness.

Are you not understanding the riches of his goodness, of his patience, of his grace, of his guidance, as these new goals are coming in?

But then he goes on to verse number five, and he says this, but after thy hardness.

So he talks about the heart of the moralist, the one who thinks that he can do it himself.

He says this, verse 5, but after thy hardness and impenitent or unrepentant heart.

He says, the reason why you're trusting in yourself is not because you're a good person.

The reason this is not me saying this.

This is Paul.

And ultimately the Word of God says the reason why you follow these morals and think that you can reach it is because of your pride, because of your hard heartedness, because of your unrepentant spirit, because you think you can do it yourself.

And, and ultimately what it is, is it's not humility, it's the actual opposite of humility.

It's pride.

Look at what I can do, look what I can accomplish.

And so he says, the reason why you're here is because the hardness and unrepentant heart that you have and what are you doing?

He says, you are treasuring, you treasure it up unto thyself, wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.

So we contrast two different ways that you can invest in your life, you can invest in, as verse 4 said, the riches of his goodness, or you can invest into that prideful heart that you have.

And it says, but after thy hardness and unrepentant heart, you are treasuring up.

What though, what is the treasure?

What is the outcome of this pride, of this moralism?

Wrath.

You're treasuring up wrath.

That's what you're investing.

You're treasuring up the wrath of God against you.

Now on the flip side of things, what are you treasuring up when you rely on the riches of God, you're treasuring up the riches of his goodness, of his grace, of his guidance.

And so essentially what he's saying here is this.

You can invest into two categories.

You can invest in the goodness of God, which is going to reap eternal benefits, or you're going to invest in the things of your hardness and your unrepentant spirit that is going to eventually be manifested in wrath.

So which side are you going to invest into?

He says, so this is what you are storing up in contrast to the wisdom and the riches of God.

And he says that will be stored up in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.

He repeats the righteous judgment of God.

Now a lot of times we don't think about the judgment of God.

We're, we're taught the love of God, which we should be taught by the way, God is love.

One of the defining elements of God is his love.

But also the other side of God's defining element would be his holiness and his justice.

And for me to preach to you, only one side of that would be incomplete.

If I got up and only preached God's judgment today, all of us would leave this building thinking that we were, you know, second class citizens.

We're dirt, we don't really deserve anything.

God doesn't love us because it's all about judgment.

But then at the other side of things, I could preach to you only, Only God's love, just individually, that's it.

Nothing else in context, just God is love.

He loves you for everything that you do.

Just keep doing what you want to do.

Okay?

At that side, we would all leave very excited about ourselves, but we would leave incomplete in our understanding of who God is and how he interacts with us.

So it's teaching the love of God and the extension of love that does not condone sin.

But he loves us enough to give us an opportunity to have victory over sin.

But then on this side of things, I've got to teach you that there is judgment in rebellion to God.

And none of us want to be here.

None of us want to be here.

But again, he has the righteousness on his side.

And so righteousness leads to the truth.

And the truth is, is that God is going to judge those that are walking in rebellion.

Verse 6, who will render to every man according to his deeds.

Now that if you guys there, there are scary verses in the Bible, I don't know about you, but sometimes I'll read Bible verses and I'll go, whew, that's a scary one.

If I'm walking in sin, that's a scary one.

Matthew, chapter seven.

You want to be really scared, read Matthew, chapter seven, where it says that there's going to be people one day that are standing before Jesus and said, I taught, I cast out demons.

I prophesied in your name.

And Jesus says, depart from me, you worker of iniquity.

I just, I never knew you.

It's a scary verse.

But here's another scary verse that if you think about it in context and in its truth, this is scary.

It says this, who will render or give to every man according to his deeds.

If I'm judged by my deeds outside of the grace of God, outside of.

Outside of his forgiveness, I'm going to be judged in guilt.

I am guilty.

And so the Bible says here is that God will judge every man according to his deeds.

And in the concept of our works on this earth, none of us, none of us want to be judged by our works.

We want to be judged by the work of Jesus Christ.

And so here in this case, what we're seeing is, is that he's painting this picture of God's riches versus man's treasure.

He's painting this picture of our life with him and our life without him.

Verse 7.

To them who by patient continuance, in well doing seek for glory and honor and immorality, eternal life.

But unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation, wrath, tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil of the Jew first, and also the Gentile, you might say, what is he talking here?

Verse 7 is this.

If you can do what verse 7 says, you can be saved on your own.

So to them who by patient continuance, which means always, never stopping in well doing, seek for glory and honor and immorality and eternal life.

And so what is he saying here?

He's saying if we could be perfect, we could be saved.

But none of us could be perfect.

So most of us, if we're honest with ourselves, all of us, if we're honest with ourselves, would say that verse 8.

But unto them that are contentious, that self self seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil of the Jew first, and also the Gentile, he says, if we could be perfect, we could save ourselves, but we can't.

And so therefore we need a Savior.

Because all of us, if we're honest with ourselves, have fallen into that trap of, of contention and self seeking and don't obey the truth and, and do obey unrighteousness.

And that means that what we deserve is God's wrath and fury.

But the goodness of God is told to us later in Romans chapter 6.

Romans chapter 6, verse 23.

We're going to get there eventually and dig deeper into it.

And so the first part of the verse is this.

For the wages or the payment of sin is death.

That's what's being described here in Romans chapter two.

Judgment, death, separation.

This is what we deserve in our humanity, in our sin, in our failure.

None of us can earn righteousness.

So if I was to leave you with Romans chapter 6, verse 23, part A, you would say, for the wages of sin is death.

Oh man.

So I guess I'm resigned to that because all of us have sinned and all of us deserve that payment of death.

But there's a second part to it, but the gift of God.

We've already mentioned that word, gift, so you understand the context of that.

But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

It's through Jesus that we can find salvation.

It's through Jesus that we can find everlasting life.

It's through Jesus that We can find that hope, that love, that grace.

And so we come to the end of our passage this morning.

We're gonna just go down to verse number 11, Romans, chapter 2.

He says, all of that's gonna come down to the Jew first, but also to the Gentile.

That's the way that the Gospel was presented.

Go back to Romans, chapter 1, verse 16.

To the Jew first, but also to the Greek also to the Gentile.

So what is he saying here?

It says, nobody is without excuse.

This isn't just for the Jewish, this isn't just for the Gentile.

This isn't just for the religious.

This isn't just for the rebel.

This is for everybody.

This principle is for everyone.

But glory, honor and peace to every man that worketh good to the Jew first and also to the Gentile, verse 11.

For there is no respect of persons with God.

What does that mean?

That means there is no partiality with God.

He doesn't look at the Jew and say, the Jew gets saved this way, but the Gentile get saved this way.

He doesn't say that the Gentile does this and doesn't have to do this and these people have to do this.

No, he says this.

And this is essentially summed up in what Paul is teaching.

There is only but one way to salvation, and that is through Christ.

God is not a respecter of persons.

He doesn't sit here and go, well, how much are you giving to the church?

Oh, you're giving that much?

Well, you have an easier way to get into heaven.

All you got to do is this, this and this, these three things.

Oh, you're not really given to the church?

Well, we're going to put about seven or eight different requirements in for you.

That would be a respecter of persons.

James talks all about this.

People can come into the church building and we can look at them and we can judge them from their looks and go.

They must have money, therefore we give them the good seats.

And then we see people that have needs and struggles and things of that nature.

And we go, well, you go and you become the.

The outsiders of the church.

You sit on the outskirts.

No.

What does the Bible say?

That God is not a respecter person, so we should not be.

So we don't preach a different gospel to different people.

It's the same gospel message.

Now, do we preach it sometimes with different contexts and different styles?

Sure.

If someone walked into this building and today's the first day they've ever been to church, I don't sit down with them and talk to them the same way that I talk to someone who grew up in a church but might be trusting in the wrong things.

So we have people that have grown up in church for decades, but they've been taught that you got to be a good person to be saved.

You gotta dress this way, you gotta talk this way, you gotta do this, you gotta do that, then you can find salvation.

No, you find salvation and then the morals come.

But the truth of the matter is, is that I'm gonna talk to that person differently than I would talk to someone who's never been to church.

But it's the same message.

There's no partiality.

You need Jesus.

And that's what Paul is saying here.

There is no respecter of persons in God.

And so what we can see here is this, what Paul is teaching is that the gospel is for the immoral and for what we would consider, societally speaking, as the moral.

Just because you're against the things that God is against, that doesn't mean you're saved.

Well, Pastor, I'm conservative in every way.

I believe that this is wrong.

I believe that what these people are doing is wrong.

Fantastic.

That's great.

But that doesn't save you.

The morality doesn't save you.

It's the relationship with Christ.

Christ that saved you.

So it's the motive behind the morals.

Why do I have this stance?

Because that just repulses me.

Because I don't like thieves.

Because they stay.

They broke into my house one time and stole things from me, and I just didn't like that.

The truth is, is that sometimes our morals are set in our own standard.

Like what I'm comfortable with.

That's what the Pharisees would do.

Because the Pharisees were fine with being moral until it contradicted with what they wanted and then they made loopholes around it.

So what do we do as Christians?

What do we do as cultural?

Now, I'm not saying Christians as biblical Christians, but what we would call cultural Christians.

Cultural Christians are okay with morals until it goes against what they want.

And they find loopholes around those morals.

You can find go on the Internet, you can find a Christian that is for every sin that's listed in scripture, you can find a person who's going to preach what you want it preached to.

To preach.

But at the end of the day, what do we do?

We go back to Christ.

There's.

There's morality there.

So it's not about the morals that save us.

What he's saying here is that the true understanding of God's righteous judgment is that we all deserve judgment.

Therefore we all need a Savior.

We all need Jesus Christ.

We all need his forgiveness.

You might say, well, that person over here has sinned, let's say 5,000 times.

I've only sinned 2,500 times, so I'm half again as good as that person.

No, no, we don't go by the standard of other people and say, well, I'm better than that person.

The standard is Christ.

None of us match that.

None of us match that.

We need Jesus.

And so this passage continues on to talk about all of these things that are wrapped up in that morality.

So we're going to talk later on in Romans chapter two about cautioning against hypocrisy, because it's very easy for us to fall into that trap of hypocrisy in our life to say one thing and do another thing.

Jesus talked about that on the Sermon on the Mount.

Jesus dealt with the Pharisees in that regard.

Jesus dealt with the publicans.

Though, by the way, it's not just the moralists that needs Jesus.

It's those people that are an open rebellion to God.

But regardless of it being open rebellion or internal rebellion, it's still rebellion.

And so we can have people that look the part, but they're still internally in rebellion against God because they're trusting in something else.

And so here this morning, if I could.

If I could point you to anything, it's not be a moralist person.

Just do whatever you want to do.

Don't follow the law of God.

The law of God is there to teach us where the heart of God is.

We are supposed to live righteous lives.

I'm not supposed to continue in sin.

That grace abounds.

But I need to go back to the motivation.

Why do I want to do this?

Why do I want to raise my children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord?

Well, because I want them to be good citizens.

I do want them to be good citizens.

I really do.

I want them to.

I don't want them to get in trouble.

But at the same time, there's a bigger reason why I'm raising my children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord because God has told me to.

And he's told me that that's the only path to salvation, is leading my children to Christ and nothing else.

And so I hope that here this morning that we can understand the complete context of what Paul is trying to say.

Regardless of what walk of life that you are in we are all guilty before the eyes of God.

We need a savior.

Now, some of you are out there today.

You might not understand that I'm preaching in the context of salvation.

What is salvation?

The Bible says, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, for the wages of sin is death.

But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

There are many people in this room, I would venture to say most people in this room that have claimed and professed the name of Jesus Christ in faith.

And you are walking in the grace of God.

It doesn't mean you're going to be perfect.

So this morning, I'm not saying that you need to be re saved.

What I'm saying is, is that we need to be reminded of what we've been saved from and what we have been saved to in our lives.

But there might be a person in this room or multiple people in this room that have not come to that place of saving faith.

I encourage you this morning to say I need a savior.

It's not about joining a church.

It's not about becoming a person that's, you know, a monk, a monastery away from society.

The Bible's not called us to leave society.

The Bible has said that we are in the world, but we are not of the world.

Jesus didn't leave and like leave the people there in Jerusalem and Nazareth.

Jesus was there with them.

He ate with the sinners to bring them to Christ.

He didn't eat with the sinners to become a sinner.

He was with them, but he was not of them.

And that's how we are supposed to be as believers.

And so this morning, I want you to think about that.

I want you to think about that idea that God has no partiality, that there is one way to salvation.

Folks, I'll be the first to tell you that I'm not perfect.

But that's not a resignation over to my sin.

It's that every day I wake up and I want to die to that sin died with.

The Bible says crucify the flesh.

I want you to understand.

I don't want to go too far on this this morning, but I got to.

Do you understand what crucifixion is?

Crucifixion isn't just a cross that we hang around our neck.

Crucifixion was the most brutal death that anyone could face in that ancient world.

It was an executioner's method of killing people.

It was a gruesome process.

We must wake up every morning killing the flesh, dying in the flesh and yielding and living in the Spirit.

Folks, if we are not actively pleading with God when we wake up in the morning, to give us his grace and to understand his guidance, we are so easily slipping right into the flesh the moment we wake up.

I encourage you to think about that.

His mercies are new every morning.

Plead with him, say, lord, I want to be more like you.

I want to live in the spirit, Lord, give me the strength.

And then when we do fail, inevitably we will fail.

The Bible says in First John, chapter one, verse nine.

For if we confess our sins, confess just means to say the same thing, to acknowledge where I'm at and agree that this is wrong.

God, if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

That's a restoration of the fellowship with God.

And so there's beauty here.

The beauty is, is that God has forgiven us of our sins, past, present and future, but yet he has given us an opportunity to understand him and to grow closer to him and to walk in that truth.

So next week we're going to come back and we're going to look at more of the dangers of moralism.

But I hope that here this week you can understand the need, the universal need for a Savior.

And that Savior is Jesus Christ.

I'm going to ask everyone if you're able to.

To stand with me.

Every head bound, every head closed.

The music's gonna play here in a few moments and what I wanna do is give you an opportunity to respond here this morning.

There's nothing magical about the steps that are up here.

But what I will say is this.

There's an opportunity for you now to recognize your need for a savior.

Number one, for salvation, but number two, for what we call sanctification, spiritual growth.

I need my Savior the day I'm saved.

I need my savior 20 years after I'm saved.

I need, I need my Savior every aspect of my life because why I need his grace today.

I need his goodness today.

I need his forgiveness today.

There might be things that you're that are burdening you right now that are doing everything they possibly can to pull you away from the truth of God.

Folks fight against that.

That's the enemy trying to pull you away from the truth.

The Bible says that we must, we must recognize the need for Jesus in our life.

Not just for Sundays, not just for Wednesdays, but for every hour, every second of our lives.

24, 7, 365.

We need Jesus so here this morning.

If you need Jesus as your Savior, we've got some folks up here.

We can show you in the word of God in the Bible what it means to know him, to believe in him and find forgiveness in his goodness.

Lord, I thank you for this time of of the service.

Lord, I pray that you be in this time of invitation working hearts and lives.

Lead us to the truth.

Help us to rely on you in every way.

In Jesus name, amen.

As the music plays this morning, follow as the Lord leads it.

Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast.

I hope that this sermon has been a blessing blessing for you.

You would like to find out more information about our church or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org or find us on Facebook or YouTube.

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Thank you so much.

God bless.

Have a wonderful day.