Surely, you‟ve heard someone say it, “I can not stand Christians, they are a bunch of hypocrites. They say one thing, they profess one thing and they live another way.” God says that,
“Hypocrites before Him are going to be without excuse.”
God‟s going to take care of the hypocrites, but what about you?
Where do you stand with God?
Will you be judged by God or will you be blessed by God?
In Romans, chapter 2 God is going to take a look at the other segment of the population. Let me read Romans, chapter 2 to you, not the whole chapter, but just the first verses.
So Romans, chapter 2, verse 1, he says,
“Therefore you are without excuse, each one of you or every man of you who passes judgment, for in that you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge
practices the same things.”
Now what is he saying here?
He's making this transition.
He has just shown us about these people that dishonor God, these people that end up in this reprobate lifestyle, these people that dishonor their bodies and degrade their bodies and end up with a reprobate mind, a mind that has no right, no wrong, and these people and how they just applaud others that do the same.
But then it‟s like Paul just turns around, it‟s like he‟s in the courtroom and that‟s what Romans really is.
It's a courtroom drama.
It's a gospel where he lays out the defense of the gospel of Jesus Christ and he answers every objection that comes against the gospel of Jesus Christ.
It‟s going to be a wonderful, wonderful adventure. And we‟re going to go a little bit faster as we go through.
But in chapter 2 he turns around and he says, okay, what about you, you? They‟re sitting there and saying those dirty rotten sinners, those people ought to be strung up, they ought to be hung, they ought to be this, they ought to be that. We ought to take the law into our own hands. We ought to you know, we ought to get those guys.
Then he turns around, he says okay,
but what about you, what about you?
Now some believe that he‟s talking to the Jew here. Others believe that he‟s talking about to anyone, anyone, Jew or Gentile that is sitting there saying these things are wrong and yet they in truth are participating in the same.
It‟s like going down the road and somebody passes you speeding like mad and you say, look at that guy, he‟s going over that speed limit, he‟s just a speed demon. I wish a cop would pick him up.
And then several days later, you look at your watch, you‟re late, you put four to the floor and you take off and you pass others, ah, you judged that other guy the other day, hypocrite.
So watch what he says. “Therefore, you are without excuse, every man of you who passes judgment, for in that you judge another …,” in that you sit there and you make yourself the judge and not God.
In other words, you sit as the judge and not God, “… you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice …,” Now practice means you do it more than once. It means that you do it over and over again. It‟s in the present tense. It‟s habitually. You‟re habitually doing these things.
You say, habitually doing these things?
Well let me just explain it this way; in Matthew, chapter 5, Jesus is talking about, “… you have heard that it was said, but I say to you …” This is in the famous Sermon on the Mount. And He says, “You have heard it said that you shall not murder …,” And then He says, “… but look, do you look at that person and call them a fool? Do you say that they‟re worthless, that they shouldn‟t be allowed to live?” He says, “You‟ve just murdered them in your heart.”
So when God wants righteousness and this is what I want you to understand and what I need to understand, it‟s not an external thing, but it‟s an internal thing that manifest itself externally. That‟s what He wants.
He wants a righteousness that starts inside
and manifests itself outwardly.
So He goes on to say in Matthew, chapter 5, “You who say you should not commit adultery …,” He says, “… do you look at a woman, do you look at that woman and keep on looking at her to commit adultery with her in your heart?”
In other words, are you undressing her?
Oh, you‟re going to go home to your wife. Oh, you‟re going to be faithful, physically, but internally, are you having sex with that woman in your mind? He says, I want you to know, “… if you are, you‟re guilty of adultery.”
Now He could be talking to the Jew here and He could be talking to the Jew because look at verse 17. He says, “But if you bear the name Jew and rely upon the Law and boasts in God …,” and so then He‟s going to talk the Jews about how you know His will and you approve these things. But then then you get involved in them. He says, “… then you‟re guilty.”
So whatever, just know this, that you may not be living this licentious lifestyle, you may not be immoral as described in Romans, chapter 1, you may not be committing adultery, you may not be involved in homosexuality, you may not be involved in lesbianism, you may not have this depraved mind where you are are filled with all unrighteousness and all these things, but if you are sitting there saying this is right and this is wrong and you don‟t live by it, then you‟re without excuse.
So what have we seen now?
We‟ve seen without excuse before, haven‟t we?
So we need to mark that.
Let‟s go back and look at Romans, chapter 1, verse 20. Now why could I pick it out that quickly? I couldn‟t remember where the verse was, but I could pick it out because I had it marked. So this is what I would suggest that you do: take a black pen, fine point, and just do a cloud around it, “so that they are without excuse.” Then
come over to chapter 2, verse 1 and do the same thing. “You are without excuse” and mark it that way.
So we find out that men are without excuse before God.
When they stand before God to be judged by God, they‟re without excuse number one: because,
Romans 1, “because they have the evidence of God within them. And they have the evidence of a God without.” So they‟re without excuse.
Here, they‟re without excuse
in chapter 2 because, “they say that things are wrong, they have an absolute.” They have drawn a line and they have said this is right and this is wrong and it shouldn‟t be done and they‟re sitting there and they‟re judging a man that‟s doing, or a woman that‟s doing what‟s wrong and yet if they do the same they‟re without excuse.
So, let‟s go on. He says, “And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things.” Now that‟s not the way it reads literally in the Greek. And I want to go back to the literal Greek and in the margin of the New American Standard Bible, which is the version that I use, they correct it.
And it says, literally is according to truth against. So this is the way it should read:
“And we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things.”
Now see, a hypocrite is like an actor.
And hypocrites can be very good actors. They can be Academy Award winners. I mean just an Academy Award performance. But they‟re putting on. And they‟re putting on a show because they want to impress people or because they want them to think differently of what they are. So to be a hypocrite means to be an actor. It means to play a part. And it‟s also used for wearing a mask.
In the Roman theater in the days when Paul wrote this, when they would go on stage, because the arenas were so huge and they didn‟t have the big screens that we have now, you know to bring the audience close to the main character on the stage.
They would many times take a mask and if it was sad, if the character was sad. They would have this sad face, the drooping mouth or they would have the smiling mouth and so they would take the mask and put I on with the white and the black and then the audience could tell hey this is sad, hey this happy. And so this was to wear a mask.
So he says, “We know that the judgment of God is according to truth.” So you can know this, God sees beyond the mask. God sees beyond the playacting. God sees beyond the impression that you‟re trying to make. He sees right inside to the thoughts and intents of our heart.
Now the reason I wanted to correct this about according to truth is because you‟re going to see this phrase and you‟re going to see that the judgment of God is according to three things. In chapter 2, “It is according to truth and it‟s against those who practice such things …,”
And he says, “… and do you suppose, O man, when you pass judgment upon those who practice such things and you do the same yourself that you will escape the judgment of God?”
Now remember in Romans, chapter 1 we saw the wrath of God. And remember how you marked it? Look at it. It‟s right in verse 18.
For the wrath of God is being revealed.
All right, so we marked it with a red line kind of like flames. Now we see judgment used and judge used in two different ways. We see man judging and then we see the judgment of God. All right now when we talk about the “judgment of God” we want to mark that.
And that judgment of God is a judgment that is like a purifying fire.
Okay. So let‟s mark it the same way that we marked “wrath” because he‟s talking about that ultimate judgment of God. So therefore, in verse 2, we would mark, “… and we know that the „judgment of God‟ …,” so mark judgment there, “… is according to truth.” Verse 3, “And do you suppose this O man, when you pass judgment …,” we‟re not going to mark that because that‟s man passing judgment, “… upon those who practice such things and do the same thing yourself that you will escape the judgment of God?” So we want to mark “judgment of God” there.
He says you‟re not going to escape the judgment of God.
Listen to me very very carefully.
There is no human being on the face of this earth that is going to escape the judgment of God, the condemnation of God, except those who have received Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
And I‟m talking about genuine Christianity. And I want you to know that sometimes, genuine Christians can act like hypocrites.
I‟ve been guilty of doing that myself, but I‟m so ashamed.
And the fact that I‟m ashamed shows me that I belong to the One who doesn‟t want me to behave that way and he‟s convicted me of that sin.
You know in Romans 2 when God points His finger and puts His finger on the nose of the hypocrite, I can‟t help but think of Luke.
So let‟s go to Luke 18 and let‟s take a look at this hypocrite because in Luke, chapter 18, Jesus wants men to understand how He feels about hypocrisy.
We know how you feel about hypocrisy. You don‟t like it, do you? I don‟t either. But I don‟t ever want to be a hypocrite and I know that there are times that I have been hypocritical. Not in the sense that I‟ve always said something and meant another thing, but just kind of you know, I wanted to give a good impression of myself. The flesh is that way, isn‟t it?
So Luke, chapter 18 and in verse 9, and it says,
“And He, Jesus, also told this parable to certain ones who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and viewed others with contempt.”
Now doesn‟t that set the scene?
All right.
“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax gatherer …,”
Now listen, the Jews could not stand the tax gatherers. Why? Because they were like turncoats. They were collecting money for the Roman Empire who had oppressed the Jews and who ruled over the Jews.
“… And the Pharisee stood and was praying thus to himself, „God I thank Thee that I am not like other people, swindlers, unjust, adulterers or even like this tax gatherer.‟”
Now he‟s just named some of the things in Romans, chapter 1. And he‟s so thankful that he‟s not like this. And especially that he‟s not like that tax gatherer. He says,
“I fast twice a week. I pay tithes of all I get.”
What is he pointing to?
Listen, he‟s pointing to his external deeds, his external deeds. He says,
“But the tax gatherer standing at some distance away was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast saying, „God be merciful to a sinner like me.‟”
Now what was he doing? He was honoring God as God. He saw that God was righteous. He saw that he was a sinner. He knew the profile of God. He knew that God was merciful. And He says,
“I tell you …,”
Jesus is speaking now,
“… this man went down to his house justified …,”
justified means declared righteous,
“… rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled but he who humbles himself, shall be exalted.”
So the man that‟s sitting there passing judgment in Romans, chapter 2 is judging what he is doing and what he is doing wrong. So let‟s go back and see what God says. Verse 4, and it goes right with what we just saw in Luke. He says,
“Or do you think lightly of the riches of God‟s kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?”
I want to ask you a question.
Have you done something and you know that it‟s wrong and you really haven‟t gotten what you fully deserve?
Have you stopped to think about it?
Have to stopped to think that it is the kindness of God possibly that is leading you to repentance?
Now what is repentance? And repentance is a very important word. The word repentance means to have a change of mind. So what is he saying?
He‟s saying it‟s the kindness of God that leads you to repentance, that causes you to turn around, that causes you to turn around in gratitude and say, oh God I was wrong. Oh God forgive me. He says,
“But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you …,” now listen carefully, “… are storing up wrath for yourself …,”
He says,
“… in the day of wrath and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God ….”
Then he goes on to say,
“… who will render to every man according to his deeds.”
He‟s talking about a wrath of God that is yet to come.
We saw in Romans 1 that there is a wrath being poured out right now on men who do not honor God as God, who suppress the truth of God with their unrighteousness and with their ungodliness, there‟s a wrath being poured out.
But there is a wrath that is yet to come.
There is a judgment that is yet to come. And that judgment and that wrath culminates in the worst of all judgments and that‟s the lake of fire. Let me take you to it.
I want you to go in your Bibles to Revelation, chapter 20, because he‟s talking about a wrath that‟s going to come and remember a wrath where a man is going to be judged according to his deeds. So what we saw in verse 2 of Romans 2 was that the judgment of God was according to truth. Now in verse 6, we see that the judgment of God will be according to a persons deeds, who will render to a man according to his deeds.
All right, so in Revelation, chapter 20, it‟s talking about the final final judgment. The only people that are standing here are the lost, those that refuse to honor God, those that remained hypocrites all their lives, those that accepted the kindness of God but never turned around. They said, God owes it to me. I deserve this. I should have more, you know.
But they never were repentant.
They never had a change of mind.
They never turned around.
All right, so now they‟re standing at the great white throne judgment of God. Messiah has already come. Messiah has already reigned for a thousand years on the face of this earth.
And all the Jews that are living and that survive know who Messiah is. And the world also knows that to the world, they were just Jews, but to God they were His beloved. They were His beloved.
So all of this has happened now and they have recognized that that the Messiah‟s name is Yeshua. It is Jesus and He is the Messiah. Yeshua ha meshia, He is the Messiah. And so in verse 11 it says,
“And I saw the great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away and no place was found for them and I saw the dead, the small and the great standing before the throne.”
And who‟s on the throne? God‟s on the throne,
“And the books were opened.”
So all these books now are opened, okay, and they‟re opened before God. And it says,
“And the books were opened and another book was opened which is the Book of Life and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books according to their deeds.”
Have you seen that phrase before? Yes. You‟ve seen it in Romans, chapter 2, in verse 6 when it says that,
“God will render to every man according to his deeds.”
So now watch, let me read Romans 2, verse 5 and 6 again.
“Because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself …,” You‟re compounding wrath upon wrath upon wrath upon wrath, “… for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God who will render to every man according to his deeds.”
Now when the books are opened, one is a
Book of Life.
And I want you to understand the heart of God.
When you were born your name is written in the Book of Life.
But when you do not receive Jesus Christ, when you refuse to bow the knee and understand that that is the only Savior in the world, and that that is the only way for you to have eternal life then God
erases your name from the book of life.
