WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.339 We're doing something funny tonight and that's preaching our morning sermon 00:00:04.339 --> 00:00:08.419 series at night and that's because it's been a few weeks since we've been able 00:00:08.419 --> 00:00:11.460 to get back to Romans and it's gonna be a couple more weeks till we're able to 00:00:11.460 --> 00:00:15.759 get back to Romans and so we're just trying to get somewhat closer to the 00:00:15.759 --> 00:00:20.179 original schedule. So we're looking at Romans tonight so hopefully you've been 00:00:20.179 --> 00:00:25.260 around in the morning a little bit but that's okay if not. This is our sixth 00:00:25.260 --> 00:00:30.860 look at this letter of Paul to the church in the city of Rome and it's a 00:00:30.860 --> 00:00:36.539 city that's full of both Jewish and Gentile both Christians and non-Christians. 00:00:36.539 --> 00:00:42.299 The Jews had been expelled from Rome in the late 40s and now Paul is writing 00:00:42.299 --> 00:00:46.540 about a decade later when the Jews had really re-entered the city of Rome and 00:00:46.540 --> 00:00:52.020 so it's a church there that's full of both Jews and Gentiles from all sorts of 00:00:52.020 --> 00:00:57.940 ethnic and pagan backgrounds and so far we've seen the main message has really 00:00:57.940 --> 00:01:04.379 been all about God's revelation that God has made himself known to everybody 00:01:04.379 --> 00:01:10.379 and he's done that in two ways we saw in chapter 1. The first way is he's made 00:01:10.379 --> 00:01:16.900 himself known in wrath, in punishment, in judgment. We spent two weeks on that 00:01:16.900 --> 00:01:22.420 that because humans rebelled against God and violated God's justice we 00:01:22.420 --> 00:01:27.660 experienced the curse that the order of existence we live in is broken, that 00:01:27.660 --> 00:01:32.980 relationships are broken and then Derek talked about last time the wrath of God 00:01:32.980 --> 00:01:38.980 revealed and God giving people what they want, their desires. Derek said he gives 00:01:38.980 --> 00:01:44.380 us our independence and our independence is slavery. When people chase after 00:01:44.379 --> 00:01:49.060 desire, desire changes and changes and changes and sends snowballs and 00:01:49.060 --> 00:01:54.299 compounds and God as a form of wrath gives people over to their deepest desires 00:01:54.299 --> 00:01:59.579 when they choose against God. Those are the two ways that God's revealed his 00:01:59.579 --> 00:02:06.340 wrath but he's also revealed something else and that's the gospel, the good news, 00:02:06.340 --> 00:02:13.180 the message from the herald come over the hill saying that there is a person 00:02:13.180 --> 00:02:18.819 who can save from God's wrath that God did not leave us in our sins but came to 00:02:18.819 --> 00:02:24.740 redeem and love and that's chapter 1 that's what we've looked at and this 00:02:24.740 --> 00:02:30.340 week we come to chapter 2 and you know what it's more wrath, it's more 00:02:30.340 --> 00:02:34.780 judgment, it's more punishment, we are not we're not out of the woods into the 00:02:34.780 --> 00:02:39.300 nicer parts of the book of Romans yet. Romans 2 is all about you read it with 00:02:39.300 --> 00:02:43.580 Callum, it's all about judgment and justice, it's more about what's wrong, it's 00:02:43.580 --> 00:02:48.900 more about the fact that everything is not okay, that self-help and moral 00:02:48.900 --> 00:02:57.600 conformity and rule-following and good advice, it's not the solution and the 00:02:57.600 --> 00:03:04.580 main point this week is as much as things are not okay for the type of person 00:03:04.580 --> 00:03:11.700 we read about in Romans 1, the person who goes and worships God, a God through 00:03:11.700 --> 00:03:17.620 images of birds and reptiles and stone and wood and things, as much as it's not 00:03:17.620 --> 00:03:22.700 okay for that person, it's also not okay for traditionally religious people either, 00:03:22.700 --> 00:03:30.420 things aren't okay for the traditionally religious in Romans 2, that 00:03:30.420 --> 00:03:34.180 they're facing something that's the same as what we read about in Romans 1, 00:03:34.180 --> 00:03:37.540 so we're gonna look at three things, we're gonna look at the problem of 00:03:37.540 --> 00:03:42.420 religion, the problem with being religious, which is secondly found in the 00:03:42.420 --> 00:03:50.500 terrifying and beautiful law of God and thirdly that our only hope paradoxically 00:03:50.500 --> 00:04:00.219 is in Jesus Christ the judge. So first the problem with religion, verse one here 00:04:00.219 --> 00:04:06.979 you have no excuse, oh man, you have no excuse, oh man, now the thing you have to 00:04:06.979 --> 00:04:13.020 see or you have to find out is that both the you there when he talks addresses 00:04:13.020 --> 00:04:21.019 his reader you and man, obviously man, is in the singular, so this is not a plural 00:04:21.019 --> 00:04:25.939 you, so what Paul's done here is he's actually home down in on one person in 00:04:25.939 --> 00:04:32.060 the Roman church, someone maybe he knows or a circumstance that he's heard of, so 00:04:32.060 --> 00:04:37.740 when he says you have no excuse, he's saying you singular masculine, some man, 00:04:37.740 --> 00:04:41.980 you man have no excuse and we know that's true because he keeps the singular 00:04:41.980 --> 00:04:46.980 the whole chapter pretty much and then it becomes plural again after this, but in 00:04:46.980 --> 00:04:51.540 verse 17 which was just beyond our passage, we know something about this guy, 00:04:51.540 --> 00:04:58.860 if you singular call yourself a Jew, so this man that he's talking to is Jewish, 00:04:58.860 --> 00:05:04.140 but the man the purpose for him singling this guy out is 00:05:04.140 --> 00:05:09.300 because whoever he is is because he stands in the place of any traditionally 00:05:09.300 --> 00:05:16.020 religious adherent, any traditionally religious person, why? Why is Paul 00:05:16.019 --> 00:05:23.659 focusing in on one guy who's a Jew who clearly from the chapter has grown up 00:05:23.659 --> 00:05:28.899 and as a devout Jew as a religious person, why is he focusing on him? And I 00:05:28.899 --> 00:05:34.219 think it's because and there are there are an endless amount of interpretations 00:05:34.219 --> 00:05:38.259 and some disagreements about some of the things in this passage, but some of the 00:05:38.259 --> 00:05:45.779 things we can be sure of is this, because chapter one sounds really pagan and if 00:05:45.779 --> 00:05:50.659 you were with us you might have caught on to this, just listen verse 23 of chapter 00:05:50.659 --> 00:05:57.099 one, God has revealed his wrath upon everyone who exchange the glory of God 00:05:57.099 --> 00:06:06.299 for images of birds and stones, right? Or and then what kind of sin did that lead 00:06:06.299 --> 00:06:10.779 to? What kind of a lifestyle did that lead to? Verse 28 and following, these 00:06:10.779 --> 00:06:19.500 people became haters of God, ruthless, murderers, disobedient to their parents, 00:06:19.500 --> 00:06:29.699 shameless sexual activity, evil. And so what Paul's doing here talking to this 00:06:29.699 --> 00:06:34.699 one guy, this very religious, traditionally religious adherent, a guy who 00:06:34.699 --> 00:06:42.579 grew up in the local body of belief in the community, reading the Bible his whole 00:06:42.579 --> 00:06:48.939 life probably, he's anticipating because he's looking at what Paul just said in 00:06:48.939 --> 00:06:53.219 Romans 1 and saying, you've said that the wrath of God is revealed against 00:06:53.219 --> 00:06:58.860 anybody who worships birds and stone or images of birds through stone and that 00:06:58.860 --> 00:07:06.060 their life looks like murders, haters of God, ruthless, evil, disobedient to their 00:07:06.060 --> 00:07:13.699 parents and you can imagine that a Jewish crowd in Rome is saying that's not me, 00:07:13.699 --> 00:07:18.460 much like many of us here would say the same thing, that that doesn't look like 00:07:18.460 --> 00:07:25.020 me, the issue is not that Paul's trying to prove to this guy that he's a sinner, 00:07:25.019 --> 00:07:29.299 he knows he's a sinner, he's not saying that, he's saying but what you've said 00:07:29.299 --> 00:07:33.379 about the wrath of God being revealed in chapter 1 and it looking like that, 00:07:33.379 --> 00:07:38.539 being given over into these sins, I don't look like that, I've never looked like 00:07:38.539 --> 00:07:41.620 that and most of the people I know in this local church community have never 00:07:41.620 --> 00:07:45.379 looked like that, but you said it's being revealed against everybody so what it 00:07:45.379 --> 00:07:51.180 seems like, and Paul's addressing this directly, is that God has been partial, 00:07:51.180 --> 00:07:57.620 to pass over in wrath, to not give a particular ethnic group or particular 00:07:57.620 --> 00:08:01.579 type of person, a particular type of religious adherent, the same type of 00:08:01.579 --> 00:08:05.460 wrath that he gives everybody else, he's passed over a particular type of people, 00:08:05.460 --> 00:08:12.340 he's shown partiality to one group of people and so what Paul's concerned with, 00:08:12.340 --> 00:08:18.060 you can see it in just the first verse, you have no excuse oh man, every one of 00:08:18.060 --> 00:08:22.500 you who judges, because in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, 00:08:22.500 --> 00:08:28.100 he's worried that the people in the local church in Rome, especially the Jews, 00:08:28.100 --> 00:08:35.659 especially the religious, will look at their pagan brother or sister that had 00:08:35.659 --> 00:08:44.539 looked like what Romans 1 looks like in the past and judge them and say how 00:08:44.539 --> 00:08:50.339 could you, how could you do that, how could you be like that, I could never, I 00:08:50.339 --> 00:08:56.419 could never do, yes I'm a sinner but that's not who I am and I could never be 00:08:56.419 --> 00:09:03.379 that and it separates, divides the church in Rome into the respectable and 00:09:03.379 --> 00:09:10.139 the fallen, perhaps redeemed but the respectable and the fallen, it's this 00:09:10.139 --> 00:09:16.699 type of division between two types of people, so he says in passing judgment 00:09:16.699 --> 00:09:23.500 you condemn yourself when you judge but why and the reason he says in passing 00:09:23.500 --> 00:09:27.580 judgment you condemn yourself, he says something incredible here, do you suppose 00:09:27.580 --> 00:09:32.939 that in verse 3 you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them 00:09:32.939 --> 00:09:37.980 yourself that you will escape the judgment of God, so he's talking to the 00:09:37.980 --> 00:09:42.460 religious, he's talking to the the Bible reading Jew here who's standing as a 00:09:42.460 --> 00:09:47.340 symbol for traditional religion, for growing up in a religious community 00:09:47.340 --> 00:09:50.300 who's read his Bible the whole life, who's not done the things that we read 00:09:50.300 --> 00:09:54.060 about in Romans 1 and he's saying but when you look at another person and you 00:09:54.060 --> 00:09:58.259 judge and you say I could never be like that, I could never do that, don't you 00:09:58.259 --> 00:10:05.220 know that you do those things too and you say how Paul like how could you 00:10:05.220 --> 00:10:10.019 possibly say that like because clearly factually there's plenty of us who don't 00:10:10.019 --> 00:10:15.060 do those things right and this Jewish man that he's talking to probably never 00:10:15.060 --> 00:10:22.620 did those things, he was not a murderer, he was not a hater of God, never in his 00:10:22.620 --> 00:10:27.940 whole life, he read his Old Testament and loved Yahweh, the Yahweh he read about 00:10:27.940 --> 00:10:33.620 he was not evil in the way that Paul's describing in Romans 1, he was not 00:10:33.620 --> 00:10:38.060 disobedient to his parents, he knew the the decalogue, the Ten Commandments, that 00:10:38.060 --> 00:10:43.539 you shall honor your father and mother, he basically followed that and so how 00:10:43.539 --> 00:10:47.500 could Paul possibly say here to the religious, to the man who's not done 00:10:47.500 --> 00:10:53.860 these things but when you look out and you judge someone else in this community 00:10:53.860 --> 00:11:00.980 that has had that past, you condemn yourself because you do them too, how 00:11:00.980 --> 00:11:08.899 could he possibly say that? In other words verse 9 to 11 long before the late 00:11:08.899 --> 00:11:15.700 modern push for social justice and equality, God Paul's point here is that 00:11:15.700 --> 00:11:21.139 God and I Paul and preaching equality in the first century and that's that before 00:11:21.139 --> 00:11:28.180 God every single person the religious who has been relatively obedient their 00:11:28.179 --> 00:11:33.779 whole lives and the pagan on the flip side who looks like an absolute mess 00:11:33.779 --> 00:11:40.659 stands in the same position before God that God shows no partiality, he does 00:11:40.659 --> 00:11:46.099 not pass over no matter the ethnic group or the religious community one comes 00:11:46.099 --> 00:11:54.179 from is what he's saying here so how could Paul say to this Jew this Jewish 00:11:54.179 --> 00:12:00.099 man this religious man that he's done the very same things that's the question 00:12:00.099 --> 00:12:08.819 point two or yeah part two and the answer is because of the terrifying beauty of 00:12:08.819 --> 00:12:16.939 God's law so Paul starts to get into an answer to this in verse 12 when he starts 00:12:16.940 --> 00:12:24.620 to talk about the law and basically his answer is to this man is that that he's 00:12:24.620 --> 00:12:31.540 trying to get at is that the law the law of God has a deep beauty that goes well 00:12:31.540 --> 00:12:40.100 beyond anything that this religious man can see or has seen so he says for all 00:12:40.100 --> 00:12:43.580 who have sinned without the law will perish without the law all who have 00:12:43.580 --> 00:12:46.940 sinned under the law will be judged by the law it's not the hears of the law 00:12:46.940 --> 00:12:51.740 who are righteous before God but the doers of the law who will be justified 00:12:51.740 --> 00:12:57.740 what he's saying is whether you are traditionally religious and have read 00:12:57.740 --> 00:13:04.060 the Bible like this man had and read the the Ten Commandments the law of God and 00:13:04.060 --> 00:13:09.020 its shortened form or if you had never even heard of that you're in the exact 00:13:09.019 --> 00:13:13.819 exact same position before the law because every single person we learned 00:13:13.819 --> 00:13:19.740 about this in chapter 1 knows the work of the law by nature before they ever 00:13:19.740 --> 00:13:24.779 read anything like the Ten Commandments that's what he says that in verse 15 00:13:24.779 --> 00:13:30.059 every single human shows that the work of the law is written on their hearts how 00:13:30.059 --> 00:13:34.899 what's the work of the law it's simple it's when it's when you act poorly and 00:13:34.899 --> 00:13:39.939 wrongly and your conscience wells up inside and kicks you right in the gut 00:13:39.939 --> 00:13:47.860 and tells you I know that what I just did was wrong and it's intuitive and what 00:13:47.860 --> 00:13:51.500 he's saying here is that the law of God is intuitive to every single human being 00:13:51.500 --> 00:13:55.059 that's born that God gifts it to every single human being it's part of their 00:13:55.059 --> 00:13:59.139 identity every single human being is born with a conscience and that 00:13:59.139 --> 00:14:04.139 conscience isn't perfect it's fallible but it it kicks you it's like a goat that 00:14:04.139 --> 00:14:07.939 you kick against your whole life and it it's constantly pricking you and showing 00:14:07.939 --> 00:14:12.340 you when you're guilty or giving you security and peace when you know you've 00:14:12.340 --> 00:14:16.220 done well and you're innocent and that it's universal for Jew and Gentile that 00:14:16.220 --> 00:14:20.259 everybody is working with the same thing whether it's been externally expressed 00:14:20.259 --> 00:14:25.259 as the Ten Commandments or something like that or internally expressed as 00:14:25.259 --> 00:14:32.299 guilt as a consciousness of guilt C.S. Lewis he famously calls it which this 00:14:32.299 --> 00:14:35.979 was somewhat controversial at the time but he calls it the towel borrowing from 00:14:35.979 --> 00:14:40.659 a Eastern Eastern term it's a funny term but what he what he's referring to is 00:14:40.659 --> 00:14:45.859 the fact that he looked across all the nations of the world all the people 00:14:45.859 --> 00:14:50.899 groups in history and said every single nation when they go to form their society 00:14:50.899 --> 00:14:56.299 and write their laws always produce something very similar to the Ten 00:14:56.299 --> 00:15:00.339 Commandments something within the ballpark of the Ten Commandments and 00:15:00.340 --> 00:15:05.379 that's because by not because Christianity or in the Old Testament 00:15:05.379 --> 00:15:09.139 the Jews borrowed these ideas from mother nations no it's because the law is 00:15:09.139 --> 00:15:13.540 written on every single human heart and so that's the first thing Paul is 00:15:13.540 --> 00:15:18.100 saying here to the guy that you have to know that you and the pagan the Gentile 00:15:18.100 --> 00:15:22.420 stand before the law just like you stand before God in the exact same place 00:15:22.420 --> 00:15:28.660 because you all have the law and what that means what that means and here's 00:15:28.659 --> 00:15:35.899 what's important what that means is that the law of God is something more than 00:15:35.899 --> 00:15:43.699 external rules it's something more than thou shalt not thou shalt not thou shalt 00:15:43.699 --> 00:15:48.779 not the law of God is something much more than that that it actually starts on 00:15:48.779 --> 00:15:55.299 the inside in the inner life before it works its way out in other words what 00:15:55.299 --> 00:16:00.620 Paul is trying to get this guy to see is that rule following rule following in 00:16:00.620 --> 00:16:05.699 an external way does not necessarily correspond to an inner life of 00:16:05.699 --> 00:16:14.500 righteousness that you can follow the law of God the Ten Commandments externally 00:16:14.500 --> 00:16:20.859 but that doesn't necessarily correspond to a beautiful life internally of love 00:16:20.860 --> 00:16:26.500 of true righteousness that there it can be a disparity between those two things 00:16:26.500 --> 00:16:40.019 in other words if Romans chapter 1 was about the prodigal son the reckless 00:16:40.019 --> 00:16:47.820 pagan hater of God that goes out and spends all his dad's money basically 00:16:47.820 --> 00:16:54.780 telling his dad I hate you his father then Romans too is though Paul preaching 00:16:54.780 --> 00:17:01.100 to the elder brother I mean you remember this you remember Luke 15 right and the 00:17:01.100 --> 00:17:08.059 story the prodigal son the first son the younger son he goes out and he spends 00:17:08.059 --> 00:17:14.740 all of his father's wealth he asked for his dad's money and in doing that he's 00:17:14.740 --> 00:17:20.099 essentially in that culture saying to his father I want you to die because the 00:17:20.099 --> 00:17:24.900 only way you can get your dad's money and property is is when he passes away and 00:17:24.900 --> 00:17:31.339 so the younger son says to his father you are dead to me and he goes out and he 00:17:31.339 --> 00:17:39.380 lives this absolutely reckless life and his life climaxes in the in the way of 00:17:39.380 --> 00:17:44.259 a pagan or a Gentile in the text because he goes and he not only doesn't eat the 00:17:44.259 --> 00:17:51.259 pork but he's forced to eat the food that pigs eat in the passage which is 00:17:51.259 --> 00:17:55.019 talking to a Jewish audience and saying that this guy is below the pigs the 00:17:55.019 --> 00:17:58.980 unclean animals he's gone as far as you can possibly go he's lost everything 00:17:58.980 --> 00:18:08.460 that's Romans 1 18 through 32 in in illustrative outline but he comes home 00:18:08.460 --> 00:18:14.740 and his father sees him on the horizon and his father pulls up his robe and runs 00:18:14.740 --> 00:18:22.420 out to him and the boy falls to his knees and said I was wrong can I be hired 00:18:22.420 --> 00:18:30.140 like a servant and he says you're not a servant you're my son to all the pagans 00:18:30.140 --> 00:18:36.700 out there metaphorically who have done whatever it is who look like Romans 1 00:18:36.700 --> 00:18:45.259 18 through 32 whatever you've done it doesn't matter the father runs out to 00:18:45.259 --> 00:18:50.620 you and he says come home you're not my son you're my son you're my daughter 00:18:50.620 --> 00:18:55.059 and he throws a feast and he throws a party and what you come to realize then 00:18:55.059 --> 00:18:58.299 at the very next verse is that this story is not about the prodigal son it's 00:18:58.299 --> 00:19:05.620 about the elder brother because the point of the story is that Jesus turns and 00:19:05.619 --> 00:19:11.619 says meanwhile the older brother was standing out in the field looking out at 00:19:11.619 --> 00:19:19.019 that party anger bursting up in his heart hatred for his father and his brother 00:19:19.019 --> 00:19:24.699 at this and he comes to his dad and the older brother defies a major cultural 00:19:24.699 --> 00:19:28.859 standard at the time by calling his dad out of the party out of a feast that the 00:19:28.859 --> 00:19:33.779 patriarch was hosting and his dad essentially says to him why are you so 00:19:33.779 --> 00:19:41.339 angry and he says you're so-called son he won't call him his brother he took 00:19:41.339 --> 00:19:45.660 everything and he's come back and you just simply throw him a party what about 00:19:45.660 --> 00:19:50.619 my rights what about what I've done I've stayed here I follow the rules I've been 00:19:50.619 --> 00:19:56.259 I've religiously adhered to your law inside this household the whole time 00:19:56.259 --> 00:20:02.940 he's been gone you see and the the key issue in the prodigal son story is that 00:20:02.940 --> 00:20:08.140 he's so upset because now that the younger brother has been accepted back 00:20:08.140 --> 00:20:15.180 into the household the older brother will lose another 22% of his deserved 00:20:15.180 --> 00:20:20.580 inheritance the split at the time is that the older brother gets two thirds of 00:20:20.580 --> 00:20:23.660 the inheritance the younger brother gets one third the younger brother's already 00:20:23.660 --> 00:20:28.900 taken his third but now he comes back and his dad accepting him means the 00:20:28.900 --> 00:20:35.700 older brother's gonna lose another 22% not 33 22 you can do the math later or 00:20:35.700 --> 00:20:44.780 I'll explain it to you it's complicated but it's 22 and so what the older 00:20:44.780 --> 00:20:50.180 brother is saying is what about what I deserve I have followed the rules you you 00:20:50.180 --> 00:20:58.740 owe me and the father stops him and says look everything that I have is yours if 00:20:58.740 --> 00:21:04.299 you want stuff I'll give you stuff just ask for it my property is your property 00:21:04.299 --> 00:21:12.140 it's not about that what what about your inner life you are so concerned with 00:21:12.140 --> 00:21:17.900 rule conformity that you don't actually love your brother who's come home what 00:21:17.900 --> 00:21:21.660 where's your inner life that's what he's asking asking him everything I have is 00:21:21.660 --> 00:21:25.339 your stop thinking about your property stop comparing where's your heart 00:21:25.339 --> 00:21:29.899 where's your heart and at the end of the passage in the story you're on the edge 00:21:29.899 --> 00:21:33.859 of your seat and you want to know what the older brother does because the father 00:21:33.859 --> 00:21:39.019 invites him to come into the party and Jesus leaves it he doesn't tell us 00:21:39.019 --> 00:21:46.139 whether the elder brother came in to the feast he just lets it go why well 00:21:46.139 --> 00:21:49.259 because he's speaking to the religious moralists he's speaking to the Jewish 00:21:49.259 --> 00:21:55.220 man of Romans too and saying yeah you followed all the rules externally but 00:21:55.220 --> 00:22:01.740 where's your heart where's your inner life do you love your brother or are you 00:22:01.740 --> 00:22:06.259 judging the guys next to you because of their former pat because of their past 00:22:06.259 --> 00:22:13.140 and dividing the church you see that the law is not merely about rule following 00:22:13.140 --> 00:22:18.660 it's about uncovering true beauty which is the beauty of a heart that loves God 00:22:18.660 --> 00:22:24.299 and loves neighbor that's not stuck on mere religious moral conformity but 00:22:24.299 --> 00:22:29.539 moral conformity is an outwork of a heart that truly loves righteousness and 00:22:29.539 --> 00:22:36.980 that's the difference which means the background to what Paul saying here is 00:22:36.980 --> 00:22:42.259 the Sermon on the Mount the Sermon on the Mount it it's a revolution and 00:22:42.259 --> 00:22:47.379 understanding the truth about what the law of God really is that the law of 00:22:47.379 --> 00:22:53.980 God is not merely external rules but there to uncover the beauty of a 00:22:53.980 --> 00:23:01.460 changed heart the religious man of Romans too the symbolic religious man of 00:23:01.460 --> 00:23:07.140 Romans too he he says I've never murdered I've never been a hater of God I've 00:23:07.140 --> 00:23:12.740 never done shameless sexual acts Jesus comes in Matthew 5 and 7 it says 5 to 00:23:12.740 --> 00:23:18.740 7 and says you've never murdered have you ever been angry have you ever wanted 00:23:18.740 --> 00:23:26.779 to you've never done shameless sexual acts are you married have you ever looked 00:23:26.779 --> 00:23:33.539 at another woman and lost it after her have you ever looked at another man it's 00:23:33.539 --> 00:23:40.220 not your husband and lust had desired more than your spouse the law is 00:23:40.220 --> 00:23:45.980 something much much deeper you see the mere rule conformity on the external in 00:23:45.980 --> 00:23:54.059 the external and that's why it's terrifying it's terrifying because you 00:23:54.059 --> 00:24:04.259 read the Sermon on the Mount and you say that's not me that's not me if this is 00:24:04.259 --> 00:24:10.940 what it means to enter into the kingdom I'm never getting in I'm not this person 00:24:10.940 --> 00:24:14.980 because every time Jesus brings up one of the issues the only answer that each of 00:24:14.980 --> 00:24:20.500 us can give is yes yes I've done that yes I've done that I am just like the pagan 00:24:20.500 --> 00:24:23.660 do you not know that as you judge them you condemn yourself that's what Paul 00:24:23.660 --> 00:24:26.900 saying look at the Sermon on the Mount you condemn yourself you've broken 00:24:26.900 --> 00:24:30.579 every one of the laws because it's about what's happening in your heart not 00:24:30.579 --> 00:24:38.339 what's happening on the on mere external appearance it's terrifying and at the 00:24:38.339 --> 00:24:43.299 same time you know it's beautiful because when you read the Sermon on the 00:24:43.299 --> 00:24:49.500 Mount you think this is exactly what I want my spouse to look like and my 00:24:49.500 --> 00:24:55.659 roommates and my parents and my brothers and sisters if only they looked 00:24:55.659 --> 00:24:59.460 like the person Jesus is talking about right here my life would be so much 00:24:59.460 --> 00:25:03.220 easier and you know you want everybody in your life around you to be like that 00:25:03.220 --> 00:25:05.940 to be just like what Jesus describes in the Sermon on the Mount and then when 00:25:05.940 --> 00:25:08.700 you read it you know that you can never be that person that you can never do it 00:25:08.700 --> 00:25:15.900 it's terrifying and it's beautiful at the same time you see it's both and so what 00:25:15.900 --> 00:25:24.380 Paul is saying here to the religious to the person who's grown up beware beware 00:25:24.380 --> 00:25:32.700 in other words it's so dangerous to think my heart is somehow less capable of 00:25:32.700 --> 00:25:41.140 certain sins than it is for those people that my heart is incapable of doing 00:25:41.140 --> 00:25:49.220 that you know criminal psychology has shown this repeatedly if you I got into 00:25:49.220 --> 00:25:52.819 a phase where I was really interested in criminal psychology last year watching 00:25:52.819 --> 00:25:59.940 tons of YouTube videos of interviews of deeply pathological criminals but one of 00:25:59.940 --> 00:26:03.980 the things I learned listening to them is that they often say that they were 00:26:03.980 --> 00:26:07.259 pretty ordinary people that found themselves doing things that they used 00:26:07.259 --> 00:26:10.820 to tell themselves they could never do that they would never be capable of 00:26:10.820 --> 00:26:18.299 Alexander Solzhenitsyn the Russian author he wrote a very famous book called 00:26:18.299 --> 00:26:24.980 the gulag archipelago which was about the Russian death camps the Russian 00:26:24.980 --> 00:26:32.900 work camps Solzhenitsyn was a Russian soldier and he was on the front lines of 00:26:32.900 --> 00:26:40.740 World War two when Germany invaded the Soviet Union and he wrote letters to his 00:26:40.740 --> 00:26:46.059 friends at the time when that happened as a soldier that said basically that 00:26:46.059 --> 00:26:53.339 Russia was ill-prepared had no idea what they were doing that the front line 00:26:53.339 --> 00:26:57.259 was a disaster that they basically set us up for slaughter that the Russian 00:26:57.259 --> 00:27:01.779 government had really let down the troops and because of that those letters 00:27:01.779 --> 00:27:09.099 were confiscated and he was thrown into a gulag a work camp death camp in 00:27:09.099 --> 00:27:14.220 Russia and he was there for many many years just to give you the figures I 00:27:14.220 --> 00:27:18.859 mean the deaths are estimated at on the high end up to 60 million in the Russian 00:27:18.859 --> 00:27:28.059 gulags between 1919 and 1959 under both Lenin and Stalin and he writes in this 00:27:28.059 --> 00:27:35.139 book that he tries to after years put himself in the position of the soldiers 00:27:35.139 --> 00:27:41.419 that are running the death camps and he says this after talking about how in 00:27:41.419 --> 00:27:45.939 the early days how much hatred he had for them he says if only it were also 00:27:45.940 --> 00:27:51.580 simple if only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil 00:27:51.580 --> 00:27:56.460 deeds and it were necessary only to separate the evil people from the rest 00:27:56.460 --> 00:28:02.860 of us and destroy them but I've learned that the line dividing good and evil 00:28:02.860 --> 00:28:07.340 cuts through the heart of every human being and who is willing to destroy a 00:28:07.340 --> 00:28:15.259 piece of his own heart he goes on in another place where he's talking about 00:28:15.259 --> 00:28:20.099 the same thing asking himself if I had the chance would I take the place of the 00:28:20.099 --> 00:28:26.460 soldier would I put the soldier into the death camp and me as the executioner 00:28:26.460 --> 00:28:30.980 this is what he says confronted by the pit into which we are about to toss 00:28:30.980 --> 00:28:37.019 those who have done us harm these soldiers we halt stricken dumb it is 00:28:37.019 --> 00:28:42.460 after only it is after all only because of the way things worked out that I that 00:28:42.460 --> 00:28:49.539 they were the executioner and I was not and in other words he's saying I can 00:28:49.539 --> 00:28:53.299 never believe that I'm not in that I'm incapable of falling into something 00:28:53.299 --> 00:28:58.340 like this the thing I see around me and this is true in the Bible too right 00:28:58.340 --> 00:29:03.860 because we can see this in the life of David the man after God's own heart the 00:29:03.860 --> 00:29:10.539 psalmist and then one morning he woke up and in a day he had become the 00:29:10.539 --> 00:29:17.379 adulterer and the murderer this was the man after God's own heart and what Paul 00:29:17.379 --> 00:29:22.899 is saying here is that the true law the true laws revealed in the life that's 00:29:22.899 --> 00:29:32.139 driven by a beautiful changed righteous heart which means that the external just 00:29:32.139 --> 00:29:35.619 because the external life is kept in check it doesn't necessarily mean that 00:29:35.619 --> 00:29:42.899 the internal life has been changed the human heart needs repentance the human 00:29:42.899 --> 00:29:47.099 heart needs repentance no matter what kind of background any of us may have 00:29:47.099 --> 00:29:53.419 now briefly and finally the only hope here the only hope because God is not 00:29:53.419 --> 00:30:02.459 partial to the religious or the pagan the only hope is paradoxically Jesus the 00:30:02.460 --> 00:30:08.500 judge that's what Paul says here Jesus the judge is the only hope and we see 00:30:08.500 --> 00:30:15.100 that if you look down on verse 16 Paul says to this man this religious man 00:30:15.100 --> 00:30:20.620 there's coming a day when according to the gospel God will judge the secrets of 00:30:20.620 --> 00:30:29.299 men by Jesus Christ so this man in the text is looking at what Paul said in 00:30:29.299 --> 00:30:34.539 verse one in Romans chapter one and he's saying you're saying the wrath of God 00:30:34.539 --> 00:30:40.460 has been revealed on all these people by giving them over into all these sorts of 00:30:40.460 --> 00:30:45.819 terrible things you've listed and that's not me so I don't see the wrath of God 00:30:45.819 --> 00:30:51.500 being revealed in my life and what Paul's saying to him in verse 16 is there is a 00:30:51.500 --> 00:30:57.980 revelation that you have not seen yet there is a revelation of God's wrath 00:30:57.980 --> 00:31:04.579 that you have not seen yet and it's that day when Jesus Christ will judge the 00:31:04.579 --> 00:31:09.660 secret life of men of men and women and so what he does is he throws him he says 00:31:09.660 --> 00:31:13.819 look you need to know this you're just simply thinking about what's external 00:31:13.819 --> 00:31:17.099 what you can see the wrath of God revealed all around you and your own 00:31:17.099 --> 00:31:20.660 moral conformity that everybody else can see but you need to think about what 00:31:20.660 --> 00:31:26.940 you can't see and what you can't see is that Jesus Christ has been appointed the 00:31:26.940 --> 00:31:35.220 judge at the end of time to judge the secret life of every human being their 00:31:35.220 --> 00:31:40.820 thoughts their deepest desires my thoughts my deepest desires your thoughts 00:31:40.820 --> 00:31:46.580 and deepest desires everything that goes on inside the majority of the time that 00:31:46.580 --> 00:31:51.980 you talk all day is internal dialogue and it's what it's that that he's drawing 00:31:51.980 --> 00:31:54.940 is it the man's attention to the religious man saying you need to know 00:31:54.940 --> 00:31:59.019 that the inner life is what's at stake here is what's coming up before the 00:31:59.019 --> 00:32:04.860 throne of God not just moral conformity in your local community and you need to 00:32:04.860 --> 00:32:09.420 wake up and see it and what what he's doing here is he's pointing him to the 00:32:09.420 --> 00:32:14.940 second coming of Christ when Jesus Christ becomes judge of all of humanity 00:32:14.940 --> 00:32:20.779 in order that he will turn back and look at the first coming you see in other 00:32:20.779 --> 00:32:24.900 words he's saying if you look at the end of time your only hope is to look back 00:32:24.900 --> 00:32:34.180 at the middle it's to look back at the middle we learn about Jesus the judge 00:32:34.180 --> 00:32:37.940 all through throughout the Gospels it's not something that we talk about very 00:32:37.940 --> 00:32:41.980 much Jesus Christ as judge but it is something very clear in the New 00:32:41.980 --> 00:32:48.420 Testament that he is by the power of his resurrection just a couple passages 00:32:48.420 --> 00:32:54.660 Matthew 11 and 28 God the Father gives all things or authority over to the Son 00:32:54.660 --> 00:33:00.019 as the judge John 3 at the very beginning of the book of John this is 00:33:00.019 --> 00:33:05.660 judgment that the light has come into the world this is judgment at the 00:33:05.660 --> 00:33:10.380 incarnation the incarnation is Jesus the light coming in the world and judging 00:33:10.380 --> 00:33:14.700 the world by the very presence of Jesus saying this world is not what it ought 00:33:14.700 --> 00:33:19.460 to be we are not what we ought to be we stand condemned but the very next the 00:33:19.460 --> 00:33:24.580 very verse before it this is judgment the light has come into this darkness 00:33:24.579 --> 00:33:29.740 of a world that we live in but in the first coming the light did not come to 00:33:29.740 --> 00:33:36.419 condemn but to save you see Paul's pointing this religious man to the end 00:33:36.419 --> 00:33:40.939 of time where Jesus will judge the thoughts of every human to say but 00:33:40.939 --> 00:33:46.740 there is hope and that's because Jesus the judge came the first time not to 00:33:46.740 --> 00:33:52.899 condemn but to save for the Jew and for the Gentile for the pagan for the 00:33:52.900 --> 00:33:57.500 religious no matter what you've done and no matter how good you've been on the 00:33:57.500 --> 00:34:02.700 surface for anybody the hope is in the middle of history and what's the hope 00:34:02.700 --> 00:34:09.300 and the hope is this well Athanasius the great church father he put it this way 00:34:09.300 --> 00:34:16.780 the judge of all things has been judged because of you so that you may be 00:34:16.780 --> 00:34:27.820 exalted Jesus Christ the judge of heaven and earth became the one judged so that 00:34:27.820 --> 00:34:32.420 we might not be judged at the end of time you see Jesus Christ is the judge 00:34:32.420 --> 00:34:40.460 that became judged for us so that we might not be judged at the end of time 00:34:40.460 --> 00:34:44.900 and that's what Paul is saying is the only hope for the religious and the 00:34:44.900 --> 00:34:52.340 pagan the judge that was judged for us he says do you not know that God has been 00:34:52.340 --> 00:35:01.460 so kind to you to give you time to repent repent if you do if we do if we 00:35:01.460 --> 00:35:06.220 repent of what's wrong in the inner life not just the outer then we will not 00:35:06.220 --> 00:35:14.860 face a judge but a brother at the end of time which is close with this what 00:35:14.860 --> 00:35:19.980 I've said this before when I preached on Luke 15 so you might have heard it but 00:35:19.980 --> 00:35:25.940 what should the elder brother and the prodigal son story have done when his 00:35:25.940 --> 00:35:34.140 little brother told his father I hate you and ran off with the inheritance what 00:35:34.140 --> 00:35:40.059 should what should the elder brother the true elder brother have done says that 00:35:40.059 --> 00:35:49.139 the prodigal went off into the far country the true elder brother he wouldn't 00:35:49.139 --> 00:35:52.539 have stayed behind soaking up all the goods that he possibly could from his 00:35:52.539 --> 00:35:58.900 dad he would have gone out into the far country into the wilderness into the 00:35:58.900 --> 00:36:04.219 mess into the pigsty that his brother had found himself in and he would have 00:36:04.219 --> 00:36:12.019 captured him and brought him home you see and that's exactly what Jesus Christ 00:36:12.019 --> 00:36:18.739 the judge the true elder brother did for us in the middle of history and in that 00:36:18.739 --> 00:36:24.379 way everybody's everybody's a prodigal whether you're religious or not Jesus 00:36:24.379 --> 00:36:28.899 Christ the elder brother he went out into the far country and he judged himself 00:36:28.899 --> 00:36:34.139 he became the judge so that we might not be at the end of history and that's 00:36:34.139 --> 00:36:38.420 the only hope I'll just leave you with this question 52 of the Heidelberg 00:36:38.420 --> 00:36:43.219 Catechism we don't do this very often catechism stuff but this is a catechism 00:36:43.219 --> 00:36:49.579 that was written during the time of the Reformation and it nails Romans too how 00:36:49.579 --> 00:36:57.940 does Christ return to judge the living and the dead comfort you is the question 00:36:57.940 --> 00:37:05.179 answer in all distress and persecution with uplifted head I confidently await 00:37:05.179 --> 00:37:12.179 the very judge who has already offered himself to the judgment of God in my 00:37:12.179 --> 00:37:21.460 place and removed the whole curse from me let's pray our Lord Jesus we give 00:37:21.460 --> 00:37:25.740 thanks to you for giving yourself up to the judgment we deserve so that we might 00:37:25.739 --> 00:37:32.139 not be judged and we confess to you whether we've grown up as good citizens 00:37:32.139 --> 00:37:39.939 religious people or reckless spin-thrift prodigals we confess that the 00:37:39.939 --> 00:37:44.179 beauty of the heart the righteousness of the heart is the question and the 00:37:44.179 --> 00:37:50.739 problem we need new hearts we repent oh Lord give us hearts of repentance break 00:37:50.739 --> 00:37:54.579 our hearts of stone give us hearts of flesh no matter where we come from no 00:37:54.579 --> 00:37:58.860 matter what we've done no matter where we are now we ask for this in Christ's name 00:37:58.860 --> 00:38:27.059 Amen