Bible Study Romans Part 52-Secrets of Men

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The letter to the Romans is one of the most important pieces of Christian doctrine you'll ever come across.

So much of what we believe in as Christians, so much of what we teach each other is contained in this letter.

God has blessed us with Paul's letter to the Romans.

We're still on verse 16 of the second chapter of this letter.

Paul is addressing his fellow Jews.

He's addressing the converts in Rome.

He has a few things to tell them.

And I also believe that he's addressing some of the Jews on the perimeter, some of those who are trying to make life miserable for the converted Jews as well as for Paul himself.

So let's go ahead and continue what we were doing.

Last time we were talking about that complete independent clause comprising both verses 12 and 16.

Let's go ahead and read those together.

Remember verses 13 through 15, which we are not reading, are a parenthetical statement containing secondary information.

We're going over the definition of this word, parenthetical, this phrase parenthetical statement.

We covered that last time.

If you're confused, just go to the previous lesson and listen in a little bit there.

Verses 13 through 15 are a parenthetical statement that contains information unnecessary to complete the thought introduced by verse 12 and completed with verse 16.

At the moment, we don't need the information, verses 15 through 15, 13 through 15, so we'll just concentrate on verses 12 and 16 and move from there.

Here we go, verse 12, and then we're going directly into 16.

I read out of the King James, please follow along in your own Bible.

For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law, and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law.

Verse 16.

Verse 12, verses 12 and 16.

It's an independent clause.

It concerns judgment.

Who it will happen to, when it will happen, what will be judged, and who will carry it out.

Last time we talked about the who of judgment, the one who will be doing the judging, it's Jesus, of course.

That's especially important for the Jews who have rejected him.

It's important for them to know who they've rejected.

Now, we'll briefly talk about the what will be judged part, this that Paul calls the secrets of men.

Now, this is not an unexpected term.

In fact, this whole section has been talking about what's in a man's heart as opposed to what's shown by his outward actions.

A man is not what he does, but what he believes.

And for many, what he believes may be unknown, may be secret to those around him.

But with God, there are no such things.

Nothing is secret to him.

What we think is hidden is wide open to God, and he judges it all.

That's Paul's entire point in this section.

But the rest of the Bible is just as clear on the matter.

1 Samuel 16, 7.

For the Lord seeth not as man seeth, for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.

Shall not God search this out?

For he knoweth the secrets of the heart.

For thou, even thou only knowest the hearts of all the children of men.

And listen to me.

If God is real, if God is real for you, you would better realize this.

You may be able to hide your true self from the world, but God reads us openly.

For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law, and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law.

In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.

Now you may not remember, but last time I said we were going to go over the details of verse 16 in reverse order.

So far, we've talked about the who of judgment.

We just went over the what of judgment.

So what's next?

The when of judgment.

Now I've not spent much time in these Romans lessons talking about this idea of the day of judgment, the day when mankind will be judged, because this is a topic that comes up again and again in Scripture.

Here it's just briefly referenced, while in many other places is explained more fully.

When we come to those sections, of course, we'll study the details of that ominous event.

But for now, just realize that there is such a day, and it will be one of those pivotal moments in the history of the universe.

And in case I didn't make it clear before, the day of judgment is for everyone, sinners and saints alike.

Saved and unsaved will go through one sort of judgment or another.

Now, the big difference is the judgment for sinners will be of a completely different nature than the judgment for the saints.

There will be two judgments.

The two together are what is meant by the day of the term day of judgment, judgment day, the day of the Lord, etc.

There will be two vastly distinct judgments.

One is called the judgment seat of Christ, and that's where the saved Christians will be judged.

The other is called the white throne judgment, where everyone else will be judged.

Now I'm a little concerned we're going to get off track and confuse some people, but let me say that these are not the only times that God judges.

He does judge our actions in life as well.

These are more of what I would call tactical judgments, judgments designed to deliver a specific result.

And as far as I can tell from scripture, God only does this tactical judging if he has to.

If our actions somehow cause a problem for his redemptive plan, he will act and sometimes quite drastically.

God does step in and does something to someone whose actions threaten his efforts to reconcile mankind.

But verse 16 is talking about the actual day of judgment where all will be judged one final time.

So let me go back to the two types of judgment that will most likely happen, the two judgments that will happen on that day of judgment.

First, let's look at the judgment seat of Christ.

In that judgment, the saved Christians will receive rewards for their actions.

And there are some who surmise that some rewards will be withheld, if that makes sense, from Christians who behaved poorly in life.

Remember, as a Christian, you are going to go to heaven.

If you've given your life to Christ, you will go to heaven.

But that doesn't mean your actions mean nothing.

If you were an unproductive Christian or a sinful Christian or a barely recognizable Christian, you know, one who did little to glorify the Father and his son, then you will not receive certain rewards.

Now, there aren't a whole lot of details on this issue of rewards, so we'll have to leave it there.

The authoritative verse for this topic is 2 Corinthians 5.10.

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

Now the other judgment that will occur on the day of judgment is called the White Throne Judgment.

This, listen to me, is a judgment seat you do not want to stand in front of.

If you're a saved Christian, you won't stand in front of this judgment seat.

If you spend your whole life and never give your life to Christ, then you will stand in front of this judgment.

Now let me cite the relevant passage.

I'll give a comment or two and then we'll move on.

As I said, this is not our topic, nor Paul's for that matter.

So the details are not terribly important to our discussion of Romans, but they are important to your overall Christian education, and we shouldn't pass up any opportunities to make ourselves smarter.

Revelation chapter 20, starting at verse 11.

Revelation 20 · chapter mention

And I saw a great white throne and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them.

And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works.

And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them, and they were judged every man according to their works, and death and hell were cast into the lake of fire.

This is the second death.

And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

And by the way, this is also when Satan, the beast, and the false prophet will also be judged and thrown into that selfsame lake of fire.

As I said, you do not want to go there.

What does all this have to do with Paul's letter to the Romans?

Well, let's read it again.

For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law, and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.

All of what we discussed is wrapped up in that verse, verse 16.

Judgment Day is what is being referred to when it says the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ.

Not only is Jesus the savior of the world, he's the judge of it.

And why not?

For all he went through, he's actually the perfect candidate.

No one knows the hearts and minds of mankind like he does.

You see, this is why it's so important for you to understand that not only is he God, but he's man.

That's the perfect perspective for judgment.

This is an amazing aspect of God's plan.

It's airtight.

There's no room for criticism, no place for complaints, no chance for, hey, yeah, but you see, if the father were to judge mankind, the case may be made for crying foul.

You see, someone may say, of course, the father is going to condemn us because he has no idea what it's like to be us.

He's never had to struggle like we do, he's never had to make hard choices like we have to make.

He doesn't suffer the pressure of living on a cursed earth.

And you know what?

It's a fair point.

And God must think so too.

So he assigned his son to become a man so that he could judge mankind because he knows all about the life of a human from the inside, as they say.

As the writer to the Hebrews puts it, he was touched with our infirmities.

He was in all points tempted, like as we are, yet without sin.

On that day, no sinner is going to be able to look at that man's thorn-crown scarred brow or those nail-pierced hands and feet, or that riven side, and complain he was getting something he didn't deserve.

I firmly believe that the first and perhaps greatest pain that every sinner that rejected the cross will receive will be the pain of regret.

They'll look at that blood-stained robe of the Lamb and realize that they had a chance to avoid standing in front of that white throne judgment.

They'll see with their own eyes the Savior they scorned and come to the crushing realization that they didn't have to perish.

I tell you, sometimes it overwhelms me and makes me want to praise the Son even more.

He has delivered me.

And another reason why you should not let your loved ones go without finding out about the gospel.

Just a couple more comments before we move on.

First of all, don't ask me how, but Jesus will officiate at both judgments, though it sounds almost too incredible to be true.

It feels right.

He earned it.

Next, I want to make sure that you realize that these judgments will involve all the souls who have ever lived.

In fact, this is how Jesus himself describes it.

John 5, starting at verse 25.

Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live.

For as the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself, and hath given him authority to execute judgment also because he is the Son of Man.

Marvel not at this, for the hour is coming into which all that are in the grave shall hear his voice and shall come forth.

They that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation.

So this judgment is literally for everyone.

Those already in the grave will arrive there somehow, and those that are still alive will also arrive there somehow.

And again, that goes for both judgment seats.

Now, one last thing.

There will be no hearing from family and victims to help the judge make his decision.

In fact, the decisions will have already been made by the time each person approaches the bench, as it were.

In fact, this is not like the places of judgment we're used to.

In our society, the places of judgment are where the facts are weighed and the appropriate decisions are determined.

Well, these final judgments, the ones Jesus will officiate in that great day, all they are is a public, for lack of a better term, a public declaration of the decisions that have already been made, in some cases long since having been made.

Now, why is that important to me?

Well, I'm hoping you'll see how truly final these final judgments are.

We're just not used to those sorts of things in our societies.

We always assume there's going to be a second chance or a reduced sentence or a pardon of some sort right around the corner.

Well, remember, this is judgment according to truth.

And judgment according to truth is absolute and unyielding.

Listen, please, don't play fast and loose with God.

Do not assume you have time to make a decision because you just might not.

The old school fundamentalists used to go around asking people, if you die tonight, do you think you'll go to heaven?

You've heard me kind of mock that over the years.

Well, I'm not mocking it at this time.

The intent of that question is to get the listener to face the real possibility that they may not live out the day.

That in this world full of risks, the chances are higher than you think they are for personal and final disaster.

Yeah, it's kind of a cheesy way of putting things, but stripped of its theatrics, there is real truth, harsh truth beneath.

Listen, everyone assumes Judgment Day is something to avoid thinking about, something to be afraid of, something hiding in the shadows ready to gobble you up.

Okay, it can be all those things, but it doesn't have to be.

For the faithful servants of Christ, judgment day is a day of celebration.

It's when we get our crowns.

My fundamentalist friends won't like what I'm about to say.

But the only part of Judgment Day we won't enjoy is either witnessing or at the least contemplating the millions of souls at that other judgment seat.

I know, I know we're not supposed to sympathize with those lousy Christ rejectors.

But if it were not for grace, I'd be among them.

And I hate to put it to you this way, but most of the people you know right now will be with those who will be wailing.

And gnashing their teeth.

In view of all of this, let's make sure we firm up in our minds our determination to get this word out.

Every one of us has to take inventory and see if we're doing enough to put the gospel in front of as many people as we can.

Are we helping out our pastor and not just on Sundays, but any day he needs us?

Are we faithful givers?

Are we living lives that reflect the Holy Spirit's influence?

When people see us, do they see Christ?

Do they wonder if you're a good Christian or not?

They shouldn't.

They should know by the things that you do and the way that you carry yourself that you belong to the Heavenly Father.

Do we take the opportunities the Spirit gives us to tell others about our Jesus?

Get involved so that Satan has fewer and fewer fellow lake of fire inmates by his side.

I know I said I'd be brief, but let's go ahead and move on.

Now, there's been a clear shift in the narrative.

What came before was a sort of dissertation on doctrine, some general facts, important facts, but of course general.

Now, as he does so very often, Paul begins to apply the facts.

Listen, Paul isn't a physics teacher or a history teacher, not even a philosophy teacher.

And I gotta tell you, the way he does things, it's hard to call him any sort of teacher.

If any man was a preacher, it's Paul.

A preacher is someone who takes a set of truths and he applies them to his audience.

He's always bridging the gaps between the facts and the people he's talking to.

He reveals the relationship between what's true and how it applies to his students.

And in this case, he takes those facts and he applies them to the Roman Jews.

Paul has turned his gaze directly toward his own.

Verse 17.

Behold, thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law, and makest thy boast of God, and knowest his will, and approvest the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law, and art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness.

Paul is telling his fellow Jews that they are guilty of spiritual arrogance, which is the worst kind of arrogance.

He's getting them to face their own hypocrisy.

This has been his aim since the very beginning.

Behold, thou art called a Jew and restest in the law and makest thy boast of God.

Now, one of the drawbacks of my personal insistence, my personal insistence on using the King James is the very often clunky language.

In my Bible, verse 17 starts out, Behold thou art called a Jew.

Well, even though the word behold is very common in my Bible, it's not so common in everyday speech.

At least it isn't anymore.

And it may not even be the best choice, no matter what century you call home.

Many of your modern versions of Romans 2.17 read instead of behold, but if, but if you call yourself a Jew, and I find that much more easy to understand.

If you call yourself a Jew, if you rely on the law and boast in God, etc.

His inference is that if they claim to be a certain way, their conduct should reflect such a claim.

Now let me bring this a little closer to us.

If you call yourself a lifeguard, then you should be able to swim.

If you call yourself an art lover, you should know who Cezanne is.

If you call yourself a vegan, you shouldn't be ordering Pizza Hut meat lovers pizza with a side of wings.

If you call yourself a Jew and rest us in the law, more accurately, rest upon or on the law, for the Jew, this is what made him special.

To them, relying on the law was the justification for their arrogance.

They didn't deny being arrogant, of course not.

Why should they?

They had the law, and because of that, they thanked God that were, they thanked God that they were not as other men, other men who couldn't rest in the law.

The very foundation of their worth was the fact that the law was their possession.

God said they were worthy because he gave them the law and no one else.

That's exactly how they viewed it.

To them, the law was proof that they were at peace with God.

And so they took that notion so far that they almost viewed the content of the law as irrelevant.

The giving of it was the only difference maker to them.

God recognized them as so special that he decided to give them the key to eternal life.

That was their attitude.

Their sense of eternal security stood on their access to the very mind of God in written form, namely the Mosaic law.

Now remember, Paul is pointing this attitude out to them.

He's been accurate so far.

In fact, all of what he said in this verse, they'd agree with.

Yeah, Paul, we're the sons of Abram through Isaac.

We're Jews and we have the law.

And because of that, because we have the law, we're special.

And makest thou boast of God and knowest his will?

You say you know the Almighty Himself.

You're literally on a first name basis with him, and you know what makes him tick.

You and God are really close.

That's your claim.

Right again, Paul.

You're you're really good at reading people.

I'm impressed.

No one worships the one true God except us.

All of our dumb neighbors and really the rest of the world worship images of wood and stone.

Their gods are puny and impersonal.

Our God, the one that belongs to us, is the creator, the one and only true God.

What else about us Jews would you like to proclaim?

Paul, you've nailed it so far.

Isn't this typical of the arrogant?

They don't even recognize that their hypocrisy is being called out.

They think they're being praised, but the hammer is about to come down, but not quite yet.

Paul is still setting them up.

You approvest of the things that are most excellent being instructed in the law.

In the original, this reads more like you can tell the difference in things.

In other words, you've been given an ability to distinguish between right and wrong because of the fact that you have been given the law.

You can rightly and properly weigh the righteousness of things.

You can see where he's going with all this, can't you?

He started out this section by telling them that they are without excuse.

And now he's showing them why they're without excuse.

Although he's taking a bit of a sarcastic tone, all of these things he's saying are true.

Again, surely the Jews in the audience think Paul is being complimentary, but in fact, as I said, he's setting them up to see that despite all of these advantages, they still fail miserably before the Lord.

Still so much more to say, but I think we've been at it quite a while today.

Let's pick it up right there next time.

See you then.

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