If you're a guest here, as we go through the book of Romans, verse by verse, every week,
I want to try to help you to understand that everything that you read is connected to Romans
1, 16 and 17.
So we read it together at least once every Sunday.
And so while we're standing, you don't have to stand, I mean, while we're standing, could
you say this out loud with me?
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone
who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
For in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith.
As it is written, the righteous shall live by faith.
Just bow your heads in prayer.
Father, we give you thanks and praise that you have done the right thing and you have
moved with effective power in the person of your son to make human beings who trust and
believe in Jesus, to make them right with him.
We thank you, Father, for your kindness, forbearance, and patience towards us.
We ask, Father, that you would pour out your Holy Spirit upon us, to deliver us from all
presumption, from all presumption that we somehow are special, that we get a pass, that you cut
us slack, that we don't need Jesus and what he did for us on the cross.
Father, we ask that you would deliver us from all presumption and replace that presumption
with a deep humility before you and a deep hunger for what you have effectively and powerfully
done for us in the person of your son.
Father, pour out your Holy Spirit upon us.
We ask this in the name of Jesus, your son and our savior.
Amen.
Please be seated.
So, imagine for a moment that Islam is right and we're wrong and Allah is God.
That would suck, eh?
For a lot of us.
And so, we discover, we die and we go before, you know, we die and we're expecting to see
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit and all that, but instead we see Allah.
And if I understand the teaching correctly, I mean, maybe we have a friend here who's a
Muslim who's joined us, but we're all going to hell.
And that would suck.
And so, you know, if that was the case, I think I could very easily say, oh, come on,
Allah, give me a break, okay?
First of all, like, I was pretty sure that Jesus was the Son of God and that there's the
Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit and that I put my faith and trust in him.
And beyond that, like, I actually, you know, I lived, you know, by the standards of Canada,
I lived a fairly moral life.
And come on.
And then the second thing I'd say to him, I said, and come on, Allah, you got to give me
a break.
Like, how on earth could you expect me to learn seventh century Arabic so I could read
the Koran and figure out how I'm supposed to live?
Like, that's not a very fair way of judging.
I don't think Allah would be particularly impressed by that.
And off to hell I would go.
But inwardly, I would say, gosh, that's just not very fair of Allah that expect me to learn
seventh century Arabic so I could properly read the Koran and understand his demands.
Now, here's the thing.
That scenario is exactly how most people in Ottawa view Christianity.
Like, when we pose that mental examination of what it would be like if we die and we
discover that we're wrong and Allah is God and Islam has always been right, Muhammad was
the prophet, and how that would suck and it doesn't seem very fair, that's exactly how
our co-workers and our neighbors view the Christian faith and the Bible's claims.
So the question is, is God really unfair and unreasonable?
Does he expect us to live up to his particular commands and understand his word and to judge
it by us?
And just as we would think it was unfair of Allah, are our neighbors, do they have a really
good point that God is maybe being unfair?
Well, our Bible text that Ken read actually talks directly to this question in a profound
way, a very, very, very profound way.
So it would be a great help to me if you could get your Bibles out and turn to Romans chapter
two.
And once again, there's always Bibles at the front.
Don't mind if people are sitting around, you notice, you can just get up and get a Bible
at any point in time.
If you use your phones to follow the Bible, I just ask that you don't check your Facebook
profile or updates or anything like that, just try to stay focused.
But the Bible, in fact, addresses this.
How does it address it?
And it's Romans chapter two, verses one to, well, I'll read verses one to five and then
we'll circle back and I'll draw out to you what's going on in the text.
Therefore, you have no excuse.
If you want to listen later on to the sermon last week, you have a sense of what went on
just before this.
And sort of from that, Paul is moving into something that follows sort of logically from
it.
Therefore, you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges.
For in passing judgment on another, you condemn yourself because you, the judge,
practice the very same things.
Just pause there for a second.
What we're going to see here is that the Bible is not talking about hypocrisy.
It's not warning us against our hypocrisy.
The Bible, we're going to see it in a moment, the Bible is making a far different point than
mere hypocrisy.
Verse two, we know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things.
Do you suppose, O man, you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself,
that you will escape the judgment of God?
Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that
God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?
But because of your hard and impenitent heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself on the
day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.
Just before I get into my first point, you know what?
One of the things that just struck me this morning, not this morning, this week as I
was working on this sermon, you'll notice here it's a very, very different way that
we understand God's wrath is what the Bible says right here.
You are storing up wrath for yourself.
It doesn't say God is storing up wrath.
It says you are storing up wrath.
Maybe we'll talk about that in a moment, but it's a very thought-provoking idea, isn't it?
It sort of throws how a lot of us think about these things on its head and throws a whole
lot of what we think out the window.
But here, Andrew, if you could put up the first point for me.
Here's the first point, and I'll explain what it is in the text.
God impartially judges me by the judgments I pass on others.
So one of the first things to see here, remember the question that is before us is, you know,
just as we would feel it would suck big time if it turns out that Allah is God and Muhammad
was his prophet, and all of a sudden we're judged on a 7th century Arabic text which we
can't even read.
In fact, most Muslims can't read 7th century Arabic.
I mean, and that sort of would be, seems really unfair.
So is the God of the Bible, is the Christian faith doing the same type of thing to all of us?
Well, the first thing to notice is verse 4, how it describes God.
The Bible here describes God, it says,
Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience,
not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?
The true and living God who's created all things and sustains all things and sovereignly is over
all things and will bring all things to their proper end is rich, rich in kindness,
rich in forbearance, and rich in patience.
You see, you know, it sometimes really bothers some Christians this idea that God has no needs,
that he has no environment, that God is unchanging.
But, and we can take those truths in a way that will lead us into a type of cold, heartless, arid deism.
But it's meant, those doctrines are meant to protect this wonderful truth that God is rich.
And in the original language, it's like an overabunding, unending richness.
That because God has no environment, has no needs, and is therefore completely and utterly unchanging,
we don't have to wake up tomorrow thinking that God is somehow now a different God.
That tomorrow, God wakes up and he ran out of coffee and he has a caffeine withdrawal headache,
and so he's going to be unbelievably grumpy.
We don't have to worry about that.
God is the kindest being that you will ever know.
He is the most patient and most forbearing.
And everything that he does, even his judgment, comes out of his kindness.
And that's the first, and we see his kindness in terms of verse 1.
Therefore, look at that again,
Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges,
for in passing judgment on another, you condemn yourself,
because you, the judge, practice the very same things.
And it's very, notice that phrase, passing judgment.
Like in Canada, who legally passes judgment?
The court.
Right?
The court.
And in Paul's time, there could be the courts,
but ultimately the emperor is the one who can override most of these things
at the time that Paul is writing.
And so, in a sense, what Paul is saying here is that in our average moral experience,
we regularly act as if we are the emperor of the earth,
of all of the known earth.
In fact, we act like we are Zeus or Venus or some god with a small g.
And there are times when we look down our nose at others and pass judgment.
We pass judgment on how they dress, how they eat, how they walk, how they exercise,
how they study, how they sleep, how they drive, as well as moral things.
Just the other day, I was driving along and I was behind a car.
And obviously, the guy had a bit of a, I don't know,
maybe his girlfriend or his kids or something put it on him,
and then he couldn't get it off.
But the bumper sticker said,
why is it that I'm the only person on the planet who knows how to drive?
And, you know, the fact of the matter is,
probably somebody had been sitting in the seat with him
and hearing how he talked about other people's driving,
and he was sitting like Zeus in judgment over all of us other drivers.
Meanwhile, we're thinking, one moment, I can drive better than him.
Right?
Isn't that what happens?
So, what this text is saying is completely and utterly shocking.
God says, I'm a kind God.
I am forbearing and I'm very patient.
And so what I'm going to do, George,
is something unbelievably self-effacing.
I am going to set aside my own character,
the fact I am the good, the true, and the beautiful.
I am love itself.
And I am not going to judge a single human being right now
by the proper standards that I would be well within my rights to do.
You know what I'm going to just do, George?
I'm going to take you.
And so I die, and I appear now before God's judgment seat,
and God says, George, you know, I'm so kind.
What I'm going to do is, you didn't realize this,
but throughout your life, I've tape recorded every time you, like Zeus,
have sat in judgment.
And I'm going to play them on the screen.
And so there's an audience watching,
and every one of those times that I, like Zeus,
have passed judgment on people.
It's all recorded.
And then God says to me,
so George, I'm not going to pass judgment on you
based on my standards.
You've acted like God.
I'm going to let you judge yourself.
No, no, no, no, no, no.
I'm not going to let you give you a pass.
We now have all of these judgments that you have made,
and now we're going to roll a second video.
And the second video is what you've actually done in your life,
not only what you've done and failed to do,
but also what you've thought in your head.
And every time you, by your action or your thought,
violate one of your own judgments,
I'm going to have an angel over here
bang a big drum really hard.
And before you know it,
as the screen starts to play,
the sound of the drum would be constant and unending
and get louder and louder and louder and louder.
And it would unmake me.
With God not doing a single thing in terms of his judgments,
just letting me,
when I thought I was like Zeus,
passing judgment on others,
just letting me judge myself by those same standards,
the drumming would be deafening
and would in and of itself unmake me.
In those old English cathedrals with lots of bells,
according to Dorothy Sayers,
if you're up there when they're all going off,
it can actually kill you,
according to Dorothy Sayers.
It must be true.
That's the image here
of chapter 2, verse 1.
It's a profound image.
That's, you see,
why I said that God impartially judges me
by the judgments I pass on others.
It's why,
in verse 1,
it says,
therefore you have no excuse.
In fact,
if we just realize,
if you think about it for a second,
what it would be like for God
to just show,
I mean,
first of all,
wouldn't we just be,
I mean,
we're already dead,
but we would just be so mortified
that others would actually get to hear
the ways that we have been like Zeus
and what we've judged them over.
And then,
when they actually as well
see how we have violated
our own judgments
or not done our own judgments,
that we would want to cry out,
God,
unless you do something to rescue me,
I am undone.
Only you,
only you can act
to rescue me
from such a thing.
I can't rescue myself
from the fate
that I have imposed
and brought upon myself
that I have stored up
for myself.
Not knowing
that your kindness
was to give me time
to call out to you
and realize
what I've been doing
and how I've been living my life
and call out to you
to say,
only God,
only you,
only you can act
to rescue me
from such a situation.
Now,
some of us
might even just wonder
a little bit
about this whole judgment thing.
One of the things
with God
has been very kind
to us as a congregation
is that people
have left our congregation
to become missionaries.
In a sense,
it's part of our wider reach.
In fact,
some of the people
who have gone off
for missionaries,
I can't even tell you
where they've gone
because they're sort of
closed societies.
But,
we have somebody
preparing now
to go off,
hoping to go off,
within the next little while
to the mission field.
And we had Jeremy
who was with us last week
who for a season
is in Sarnia
but in the spring
he'll be going to Zambia.
And he was telling me
that when he was in Holland
for his 10 days
of intensive preparation
to go off
to the mission field
and Operation Mobilization
brought people
from all over the world
together
for 10 days of training
in rural Holland.
And part of the training
that they did
was to understand
the cultural context
of hearing
how people will hear
different things
in the Bible.
And one of the things
about how people
hear things
in the Bible
is that they're all
just used to
a social culture
where judgments
are passed on them
and consequences
come to them
by different type
of grounds
or criteria.
So, for instance,
like if one of us
was driving
after this service
or just even walking,
let's say we're driving,
and all of a sudden
a cop car
comes behind us
and the lights go on
and they pull us over
and if the cop
came to me
and it was a woman cop
and I said,
I'm sorry officer,
what have I done?
And she said,
I'm giving you a ticket
because you're a man.
I give tickets to men.
I think they all
deserve tickets.
I would be shocked.
Or if she said,
well you have gray hair,
I give tickets
to people with gray hair.
Or for one of you,
if you got a ticket
and they said to you,
well you're black
or you're Asian,
I give tickets to Asians.
Well, if we were smart,
we wouldn't get really mad at them.
We would take that ticket
and we couldn't wait
until we went to court.
Right?
For our day in court
to get that cop.
Because we,
without realizing it,
our culture
has been profoundly influenced
by the Bible
in terms of how
it understands judgment.
I want to bring out
not only how our culture,
even if we no longer
understand that it comes
from the Bible,
but how our culture
has been influenced
by judgment
and how it is
that we are to hear
this whole idea of judgment
and how it is different
from many people in the world
hearing this.
It's in verses 6 to 11.
If you would follow along
with me,
verses 6 to 11.
He,
that's God,
will render
to each one,
each person,
according to his
or her works.
We're going to explain
this in a moment.
To those who,
by patience
and well-doing,
seek for glory
and honor
and immortality,
God will give
eternal life.
But for those
who are self-seeking
and do not obey
the truth,
but obey unrighteousness,
there will be wrath
and fury.
There will be tribulation
and distress
for every human being
who does evil,
the Jew first
and also the Greek.
But glory and honor
and peace
for everyone
who does good,
the Jew first
and also the Greek.
For God
shows
no partiality.
And just at a literary
point of view,
this long section
in the original language
is what's called
a chiasm.
And this is a
grammar geek moment.
I hope I don't put you
to sleep with it.
But in this case,
unlike most texts
where the key thing
is in the middle
and this thing,
it's the frame
which is important.
Verse 6 and verse 11.
He will render
to each one
according to his works
for God shows
no partiality.
In fact, Andrew,
if you could put up
the second point,
here's how I put it.
God impartially judges me
by what I do
and why I do it.
And I always try
to put my points,
if I can remember
to do it,
I always try to put it
with I,
not to be self-centered
but so that if you
write it down
to remember it,
then you're writing
it down as I.
So the point isn't saying,
oh, George is like that.
It's like,
this is for you
to take home, right?
So that you write down
in light of verses 6 to 11,
and God impartially judges me
by what I do
and why I do it.
And so we see here
that in many parts
of the world,
in many parts
of the world,
and I think Canada
is losing this
biblical heritage
of understanding
of justice.
You can get pulled over
by what caste,
you will be treated
different by what caste
you're in
or what tribe
you're part of
or what social class
that you are part of
or just how you look
and that's how judgment
is meted out to you.
That in many parts
of the world,
it does,
you know,
if you get pulled over
by a cop
and you say,
by the way,
did you know
that my cousin
is the governor?
They'd say,
oh, I'm really,
really sorry.
Really,
really sorry.
Really sorry.
Didn't mean to do that.
It depends,
in many parts
of the world,
in your circle
of relationships,
who your protector
or mentor
or boss
or company is,
it depends on your caste,
on your tribe,
on the color
of your skin
and that's how
you're judged.
And what the Bible
is saying here
is that if you
are from that background,
in the back of your mind,
you think that you
should be treated
a little bit differently
because of,
well,
because I'm university educated,
because I'm Canadian
or whatever.
A couple of years ago,
my wife and I
were coming home
and we were coming
down Sussex
and all of a sudden
all of the traffic
stopped.
And the traffic
all stopped
because a certain
very prominent
Canadian,
known for his
sort of
left of center views,
his daughter
was married.
and so
the important
poobahs
at the wedding
in the cathedral
to walk across
the street,
they weren't like
other people
who had to wait
for the light
to change.
They had police
there to stop
all the traffic
until they got across.
My Irish blood
was boiling.
Us Irish people
have a long history
of resenting
the English.
Sorry,
I had to get that out.
I will confess
it afterwards.
It's one of those
things I'm still
in therapy over
and seeking
healing over.
It's just that
in this Irish blood
and it just boils
at that.
But you see,
the green lights
don't apply to him
in that particular
case and his family
because
important Canadian
with important
Canadian guests.
Coach of the Senators
was one of the guys
at the time
was walking
across the street.
And so the Bible
here is saying
something which is
profoundly revolutionary
because you see
the fact of the matter
is that being treated
impartially
is not a natural fact.
In fact,
by nature,
by nature
we are not equal.
By nature,
some are old
and some are young.
Some are rich
and some are poor.
Some are strong
and some are weak.
Some are well-connected
and some have no connection.
Some have lots of skills.
Some have no skills.
And so by nature,
it's very obvious
that certain people
in certain groups
in my group
and not your group
should have some type
of special edge.
That there should be
some presumption
or bias towards us.
But the Bible here says
that is not what God is like.
It is so easy for us
to project onto God
our natural inclinations
and proclivities
and the way
that our culture works
and think that
that is what God is like
and then we don't like it
without realizing
that we're not actually
looking at God.
We're looking at ourselves.
But the God
who does exist,
verse 6,
He will render
to each one
according to His works.
And God shows
no partiality.
Doesn't matter
if you're prominent Canadian.
Doesn't matter
if you're poor Canadian.
Doesn't matter
what color you are,
what race you are,
what sexual orientation
you have.
God is completely
and utterly impartial.
And He's rich
in kindness
and forbearance
and patience
and there is no one
that you will ever meet
that is more kind
than Him.
Now some of you
might be saying,
George,
aren't you,
doesn't this text
contradict yourself?
That was,
whoa,
that was pretty good,
George.
But look,
aren't you going to try
to say that it's all
up to Jesus?
But here,
doesn't it seem to say
in verse 7,
to those who by practice,
by patience
and well-doing
seek for glory
and honor
and immortality,
He will give
eternal life.
George,
doesn't that sort of
contradict what,
like Romans 1,
16 to 17?
Gotcha.
No,
it doesn't contradict
it at all.
It's helping us
to understand
what the righteousness
of God means
and what salvation
means.
And I'll use it
to give a bit
of an illustration,
just around the
illustration of glory,
which usually has
with it a bit
of an image
of brightness
or light.
And the problem
is that human beings,
because we like
to act like Zeus,
and we're not even
aware of the fact
that we like to act
like Zeus
and stand in judgment
high above other people,
pointing our fingers,
and, you know,
we should just be so glad
that in Canada
all we can do
is point our fingers.
A very well-known
pacifist songwriter,
I think it was
in the 80s
or the 90s,
wrote a famous song,
If I Had a Rocket Launcher.
If I Had a Rocket Launcher,
some bleepity-bleepity-bleep
would die.
And all we can do
is point our fingers.
But we have this
deep-seated,
inbuilt sense
that somehow
we are a God
with a small g.
We don't wake up
every morning saying,
isn't it remarkable
that I once again
awake in a world
where there is a creator
who sustains all things
who has made me.
That's not how we wake up
usually and how we think.
And so we inherently think
that we are like
a light source
and not like a mirror.
And so the glory
refers to us
getting better batteries.
We're shining our lens
so that we will
shine more brightly.
But the Bible
is realistic
without being cynical
and always knows
that as a created being,
I am never a flashlight.
I am only a mirror.
And so what that means,
you see,
is if we're in a world,
if we were to go
into a room,
I don't know if this room
would manage it,
but it might come close.
No, it wouldn't
because of light.
If we were able to have
a complete power outage
and we were to be
in this building
and every single door
was completely sealed
so that no light
could get in,
we wouldn't,
we tend to think of ourselves
as flashlights
that we would shine.
But we're not like that.
We're like mirrors.
And so whatever glory
pertains or comes to us
or from us
is only if we are
like a mirror
reflecting the glory
and the light of God.
So you see,
we read verse 7
and we say,
oh yeah,
well that's just all
about me becoming brighter.
That's about me
becoming more,
I don't know how
I can become immortal.
But what the text
is saying here,
it's actually,
all the way through the Bible,
whenever it talks about
to those who by patience
in well-doing
seek for glory
and honor
and immortality,
he will give eternal life.
But it's all,
it's referring
to when we call out to God
and ask God
to do what only he can do.
When we, in a sense,
finally give up
our posture
of being like this
and we say,
only God,
only you,
only you can rescue me
from this.
That at that point in time
we're no longer seeking
our own ambition
and our own exaltation,
but we are seeking God
to act
and then like a mirror,
a mirror with the back
which does not reflect
and when we look down
and when we look down,
we're closing ourselves
off from the light.
All we do is create shadows,
not brightness.
But all of a sudden
when we turn
to him alone
who can give eternal life,
then the light comes
and shines on us
who are a mirror
and it is reflected out.
And the honor we get
is not honor
because of anything
we've done or accomplished
but an honor
and a recognition
and a welcome
that comes from God
to us.
In fact,
in verse 8,
you'll notice
how it goes
to those who by patience
and well-doing
seek for glory
and honor
and immortality.
It's talking about
a change of our direction
to call out to God
to do what only he can do.
In verse 8,
it says,
but,
and that's a good word,
but,
in the original language,
it's a far,
there's no word,
almost to put it
in proper English
to really get the emphasis there,
you'd have to put the but,
all three letters
capitalized and bold
and underlined.
And that's what it does
in the original language.
But,
for those who are self-seeking,
and here's another
grammar geek moment,
this is a word
that up until the time
of the New Testament
was only used by Aristotle.
And it can be translated,
I don't know how
some of your versions
translate it.
It's a man
or a woman
who's given completely
and utterly over
to self-ambition
at the expense of others.
And some of you might say,
that's a hard way
to describe us,
but didn't we all
just agree for a moment
that every one of us
have a moral experience
of walking around
like Zeus?
And the fact of the matter is,
is that many of us,
we don't die to self
in serving,
but we serve
to assert ourselves,
to be able to boast
in ourselves,
even if it's just
to be able to
to congratulate ourselves,
to feel better
about ourselves,
that that's often
why we do
even things
which are apparently
generous and selfish,
that often it leads
to internal boasting
and internal
self-exaltation.
And so the Bible here
is pointing at
two fundamentally
different ways
to live.
God will judge them
impartially.
God will judge them
impartially.
And he goes
to the heart.
You see,
verses 7,
remember my point up there
is that God
impartially judges me
by what I do
and why I do it.
The Bible regularly
helps me to see
my heart,
my inner self
in the context
of the reality
of the living God.
Never with cynicism,
always with realism
and always with the hope
that we will see this
and say,
God, only you,
only you
can help me out of this.
Only you
can do what I cannot do.
You see,
it's at the level
of the heart
that it goes to.
Which way?
Zeus
or only God?
Zeus
and self-seeking
or only God?
Only God.
Only you
can do it.
God
impartially judges me
by what I do
and why I do it.
In the gospel text
this morning
that we just read
a couple of minutes ago,
Jesus,
if you go back
and look at it,
there's a whole series
of questions
that Jesus' enemies
ask him.
And he deals
with a question,
deals with a question,
and then he says,
now it's my turn
to ask a question.
Okay?
And in fact,
that's sort of
a little bit
what Paul is doing.
That's at the beginning
of the text,
O man,
O man.
And this week
in going deeper,
I have you,
if you want to look,
you go to 2 Samuel 12,
I think it is,
in the story of David
being confronted
by the prophet Nathaniel.
O man,
thou,
O man,
art the one.
That's the whole context
to it.
So now it's sort of valid
for us to ask
a question
of our culture.
People who say,
well, you know,
this is what,
here's the question.
I mean,
like George,
isn't the Bible,
now that we sort of see
that God actually
is far more kind
and fair
than we could possibly imagine
in terms of how
he's going to deal with us
and judge with us
by using our own
Zeus-like moments
to judge us.
But here's the question.
Why is it that we have
any moral sense at all?
Like,
if evolution is correct
and if we are a result
of natural selection,
time and chance,
and before there was
any biological life,
it's just ultimately
a result of molecules
happening to come together
in such a way
that planets are formed
in such a way
and chemical compounds
are formed
and somehow or another
life just spontaneously
erupted out of all of that
and then there's
natural selection
and chance
and then we come like this.
Well,
why is it that
moral life exists at all?
Like,
what are the most
successful creatures
on the planet
according to evolution?
Cockroaches.
Alligators or dinosaurs.
Crocodiles or dinosaurs.
Lizards or dinosaurs.
Fortunately,
I have never met
an alligator face-to-face.
There was a really,
I don't read the comics
very often,
but there was a really funny,
I think it was in Bizarro,
there was a really funny
comic this week.
It's at veterinary office
and there's two people
who come in
and on the table
is a huge boa constrictor
with a big lumpy part
in the middle
and one person
says to the other person,
the doctor's still
examining your pet
and obviously
the doctor's the big,
big bump
in the middle
of the boa constrictor
who has a very happy smile
on its boa constrictor face.
But if you think about it
for a second,
alligators are completely
and utterly amoral.
Crocodiles,
amoral.
Lizards,
amoral.
Cockroaches,
amoral.
There's no trace
of moral thinking,
moral reasoning,
moral claims.
They never have
Zeus-like moments,
they just eat.
And after they eat,
they rest until
they can eat again.
They're completely
and utterly amoral.
Like,
why is it
that if we're just,
like,
why,
you know,
all of a sudden,
why is it,
I get to ask the question now,
like,
why is it that there's
any moral stuff at all?
Why is it that there's
no human culture or race?
I mean,
granted,
there's different moralities around,
but why is it that there's
no moral,
no race that has no,
that they look like human beings,
but they're really lizards.
They're really alligators.
And they're completely
and utterly amoral.
Why is that
if your account
for how everything exists
is true?
The Bible says
that your account
for how things exist
is not true.
The Bible gives an account
for why it is
that even when we have
different moralities,
the fact is
that they are morality.
Look at verses,
sort of in closing,
verses 12 and following.
For all who have sinned
without the law
will also perish
without the law,
and all who have sinned
under the law
will be judged by the law.
For it is not
the hearers of the law
who are righteous
before God,
but the doers of the law
will be justified.
Just pause there.
This is sort of
a little bit
of a rhetorical trap
that Paul is doing here
because later on
he's going to say
that nobody's actually
able to be justified
by what they've done.
His point,
he's setting up something
that we're going to look at
next week,
which just because
you hear moral laws
doesn't mean you are moral.
Just because you've spent time,
you know,
you're spending time
in an airplane hangar
doesn't make you
an airplane.
And spending time
in a church
listening to the Bible
doesn't necessarily
make you experience
any of these things
that are being experienced.
He's setting up
what he's going to talk
about more next week.
But verse 14,
for when Gentiles
or pagans
who do not have the law,
that's referring to
the first five books
of the Old Testament,
the First Testament,
by nature do what
the law requires,
they are a law
to themselves
even though they
do not have the law.
Here's the thing,
verse 13,
they show that
the work of the law
is written
on their hearts.
Let's just think
of that again.
They show that
the work of the law,
the Ten Commandments,
God's basic instructions
are written
on their hearts
while their conscience
also bears witness
and their conflicting thoughts
accuse or even excuse them
on that day
when according to my gospel
God judges the secrets of men
by Messiah Jesus.
Andrew, if you could put up
the third point.
So the first point
is that God impartially judges me
by the judgments
I pass on others.
The second is that
God impartially judges me
by what I do
and why I do it.
And the third one
is that my conscience
shows that the true God
speaks
and that I am not God.
My conscience
shows that the true God
speaks
and he exists.
He exists and he speaks
and that I am not God.
Well, how do you...
You see, on one hand,
this is all part
of the kindness of God.
That, you know,
last week I talked about
this image of God
gave them up
and there's an image
of common grace
that God restrains
our Zeus-like moments,
our Zeus-like character.
He restrains that.
That's why society can...
That's why places like Ottawa
can still be a pleasant
place to live
and why, you know,
all sorts of people,
they can love their children
and love dogs
and care for their animals
and be good bosses.
And there's a type
of common grace
that God always does
to restrain evil.
And by the same common grace
that God made us
human beings
in his image
and as he makes us
in his image,
in a sense,
he writes
the moral laws
upon our hearts.
And when we,
in our ancestors,
Adam and Eve,
rebelled against God
and said that we did not
want to be under God
as creatures,
but we wanted to be
like Zeus
and be able to pass judgment,
that what that did
is that God did not
remove his image from us,
but God's image within us,
it became twisted,
it became bent,
it became out of shape,
but it was not removed.
And so that moral impulse
is still there
and remnants of
what is truly true
and rightly right
is seen in every moral system,
no moral system
is so completely
and utterly absent
of any sense
of God's law
that it would look
not like a moral system
at all
as if we were talking
to an alligator
or a crocodile
and not another human being.
It's a mark
of God's kindness
that he has left
that within us,
that trace within us,
but that trace
is not sufficient.
Conscience shows,
in a sense,
as opposed to those
who believe
that everything came
as a result of time
and chance
and cannot account
for why we are not
lizards and alligators
and crocodiles
because that's vastly
more successful
for adapting
to our environment.
In fact,
it's a common joke
that after the nuclear
or biological hazard,
whatever it is
that's going to ruin the world,
the only things left
on the earth
will be cockroaches.
They're far better adapting
to situations
than human beings are.
And so that's why
I say that my conscience
shows that the true God
speaks,
he speaks within,
in the writing
of the moral,
what is good
and true
and beautiful
and love,
right in terms
of the center
who we are,
even though it's now
twisted and bent.
But at the same time,
our conscience shows
that we aren't Zeus.
We aren't Zeus.
Because, you know,
the fact of the matter
is that sometimes
I make my pronouncements
and judgments
as if I'm the best driver
in the world,
and sometimes I make
my pronouncements
and judgments
as if I am the most
selfless,
kind person in the world.
And other times
I make my judgments
as if I'm the smartest
person in the world.
And other times
I make my judgments
as if I'm the most
humble person in the world.
And everybody should be
as humble as I am.
I know that's an unbelievably
proud thing to say,
but I'm sure I'm not
the only one in the room
who's like this.
What are we?
I don't have one idol
in the throne of my heart,
so I have 20.
And they disagree.
And they accuse each other.
And we have,
sometimes we'll have
a sleepless night
that we weren't
assertive enough.
And other times
we have sleepless nights
because we weren't
humble enough.
And that's not
what God's like.
My very conscience
and moral experience
shows that there is
a God that does exist
who speaks
and that I am not God.
Only God.
God.
Andrew, could you put up
the final point?
Jesus is the just judge
who in mercy
dies to justify
all who humbly
call upon him.
Jesus is the just judge
who in mercy
dies to justify
all who humbly
call upon him.
The title of my sermon
this week is,
see, one of the things
that people mistake
about Christians
is they think
that Christians think
that they're better
than themselves.
And one of the reasons
people think that
is because a lot
of Christians do think
that they're better
than other people.
And that just means
not that they're Christians
but that we're being
bad Christians.
Because the fact
of the matter is
is that Christians
don't believe
that good people
go to heaven.
Christians believe,
if you're listening
to Romans 2,
that moralism
doesn't work.
Christians believe
that only bad people
go to the new heaven
and the new earth.
Only people who cry out
and say,
only God,
only you
can deal with this.
And this gets us
to the final thing
of the kindness
of God.
Remember I gave you
at the beginning
this early,
this analogy
that God just,
he brings us all together
before,
after death
and before whatever's
going to happen to us
and he just says,
okay George,
roll the George
as Zeus moments
on the screen.
And then,
okay,
angels,
roll the George
how he lived his life
and we'll just measure
it against George
as Zeus
and the drum goes,
boom,
every time George
doesn't live up
to his Zeus moments
and it's going,
before you know it,
it's going boom,
boom,
boom.
But it just can't be
one angel doing it,
it has to be lots
of angels doing it.
Sometimes,
it's just,
and it's deafening
and it's unmaking.
And God who is rich
in kindness
which has the fairest
possible way
for me to be judged,
the scriptures say
that he's even kinder
than that,
that he sets aside
his seat
on the judgment throne.
Jesus sets aside
and leaves his seat
on the judgment throne
and he goes
to the cross
and he says
in a sense
to George,
and to you,
this will
unmake you.
You will not
survive this.
I love you.
Let me take
your place
and let
that judgment
that you have
pronounced on yourself
in your Zeus-like moments,
your arrogance
and presumption,
let that fall
on me
in your step.
the judge
leaves
the judgment seat
that's properly
his
to set aside
his glory
and go upon
a cross
to take
the judgment
that I deserve
in
himself
in
my
place.
you can
look it up
afterwards,
but Romans 3
verse 26,
which we're going
to come to,
of course,
more in a few weeks,
but it speaks
directly to this
section.
It says,
it was to show
his righteousness
at the present
time
so that he
might be
just
and the
justifier
of the one
who has faith
in Jesus.
Jesus
is the
just
judge
who in
mercy
dies
to justify
all
who
humbly
call
upon
him.
Only
God,
only
God
can
act
with
effective
power
in a
way
which
is
right
and
just
to
make
ordinary
people
like
you
and
me
right
with
himself.
And
he
has
done
it
in
the
person
of
his
son
in
the
death
upon
the
cross.
This
I
proclaim
to
you.
Andrew,
could
you
put
Romans
1,
16,
and
17
up
again?
Could
you all
stand,
please?
Could
you read
this
with me?
Read
it
with
me.
For
I
am
not
ashamed
of
the
gospel.
For
it
is
the
power
of
God
for
salvation
to
everyone
who
believes,
to
the
Jew
first
and
also
to
the
Greek.
For
in
the
gospel
the
righteousness
of
God
is
revealed
from
faith
to
faith.
As
it
is
written,
the
righteous
shall
live
by
faith.
God
makes
us
right.
And
as
the
gospel
grips
us,
it
starts
to
free
us.
As
the
gospel
grips
us,
as
it
confronts
us
of
our
Zeus-like
moments,
that's a
tongue
twister,
our
Zeus-like
moments,
it
frees us
up,
not to
stand in
moral
judgment
on the
rest of
the
world
as if
we
are
Zeus,
but to
humbly
learn to
have our
consciences
healed
and
renewed,
and to
see the
moral
world and
the
moral
universe
not as
Zeus,
but as
yet another
human being,
another
ordinary
person like
those around
us,
who do
not live up
to the
moral law,
but desire
to know
who God
is through
what Jesus
has done
for us
on the
cross,
his kindness
and forbearance
and patience,
that he is the
good, the
true, the
beautiful,
not with
arrogance,
not with
presumption,
not like we
are Zeus,
but humbly
under what
Jesus has done
for us on
the cross.
As the
gospel grips
us,
it means that
we can
actually start
realizing that
God, knowing
the depths of
our pride and
arrogance and
our Zeus-like
moments, it
frees us up to
actually look at
ourselves for
the first time
and not look at
ourselves either
with depression or
with boasting,
but to start to
look at ourselves
as who we
really are and
who God has
showered his
love and his
mercy upon us.
And most of
all, it helps us
to understand that
as we go around
the city of
Ottawa and around
the world,
and while we
have an
obligation to
tell others
that there is
a God who
loves them,
who has died
upon the
cross to
save them,
our posture
is not that
we are better,
but that I
am one beggar
telling another
beggar who
doesn't realize
they're a beggar,
but I am one
beggar telling
another beggar
where to find
free bread,
the bread of
eternal life.
Friends,
there's no
better time than
today to get
off of Olympus,
to get off of
thinking you're
Zeus.
And I'm not
using any
formulaic prayers.
All you have to
say to God is
God, Romans 1,
16 to 17,
we're going to
say it one more
time and then
we're going to
pray, God,
that only you
can do it.
I need that.
I want that to
be the identity
and the path of
my life.
I want that to
grip me.
I want that to
grip me.
Say it with
me one more
time.
For I am not
ashamed of the
gospel, for it
is the power of
God for salvation
to everyone who
believes, to the
Jew first and
also to the
Greek.
For in the
gospel the
righteousness of
God is revealed
from faith to
faith.
As it is
written, the
righteous shall
live by faith.
Father, I ask
that thank you so
much for your
kindness and your
mercy to us.
Thank you for
your forbearance
and your
patience.
Father, deliver
us from all
presumption.
You know how
easy, Father, it
is for us to
slide into
presumption.
Father, you know
how easy it is to
trust in Jesus but
to still want to
have those Zeus
moments in our
lives and to
have idols in
our lives and to
boast in
ourselves or be
depressed that we
can't boast about
ourselves.
Father, you know
what it's like to
be us because your
son came and
walked amongst us
and suffered the
trials and
temptations that
we do only
without sin.
Father, make us
disciples of
Jesus, gripped
by the gospel
who live for
your glory.
May Romans 1,
16 to 17, Father,
that may that be
our identity, may
that be what the
ground of our
life is, may that
shape our life as
we learn and as
it shapes our
life, may we
live our lives not
for our glory but
for yours.
And this we ask in
Jesus' name.
Amen.
We're trazer to you
the Bible and 양Collarde