Bible Study Romans Part 45-Do You Despise God's Goodness?

Welcome to the program Study in the Chapel.

God's Word is supreme at Chapel Ministries.

We consider it absolutely essential to a proper relationship with God.

We study it, we love it, we rely on it every minute of every day.

The following program is an edited recording of the regular Bible studies we hold, and we decided to share these with you in the hope that you too will be able to find inspiration, encouragement, and ultimately salvation through discovering Christ in Scripture.

Our intention is to travel all the way through the Bible.

It will be a challenging journey, but one that will undoubtedly bring you to a decision.

Through this study, you will be faced with either believing or rejecting what God has said to us.

It is our intention to provide you with enough knowledge to make an informed decision about God and his word.

We strongly encourage you to listen intently and diligently, because though at the moment you may not realize it, these things are truly a matter of life and death.

In fact, these are matters of eternal life and eternal death.

Never treat what God has said lightly.

There is truly nothing more important to you.

Now join us as we seek God's will through his inspired word.

Help us to prepare our spirits for our everyday lives, helps us to become better Christians.

We are right now in the middle of Paul's letter to the Romans.

We're in chapter two, which is a very difficult chapter.

We're going to be spending a little bit more time on this because there's a lot to drag out.

There's been a lot of misunderstanding as to what Paul is saying.

There are a lot of things that we need to make sure you understand before we can move on.

So I'm asking you to please listen closely.

Though at times it sounds like it, we are not talking about salvation.

We are not talking about sanctification.

What we are talking about is what our actions actually do in our own lives, that God is indeed watching what we do for very important purposes.

Those of us that are saved will be judged one way, those that who those who are not saved will be judged another.

We'll talk more about that today, slightly, just a little bit, and then we'll talk at length in a later lesson.

I'll remind you of that later on.

So we are, as I said, in Paul's letter to the Romans.

We are in the second chapter.

We are really just beginning that second chapter.

We're only in verse four.

I'm going to read a couple of verses, and then you follow along in your own Bible.

I read out of the King James.

So there may seem to be a little bit of difference between what you're reading and what I'm reading, unless, of course, you use the King James, which I doubt.

I know a few of you do, but for the most part, everyone uses a more modern Bible.

Here we go.

If you're, by the way, get lost, look up at the screen.

That's where the verses are.

Romans 2, 4.

Despisest thou?

Do you have contempt, respect, a lack of appreciation for the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance.

Yes, true.

The Jewish people were specially favored.

This section of Paul's letter is directly addressed to the Jews in the church at Rome, the converted Jews in the church at Rome.

But we are to listen.

We are to pay attention, all of us, everyone that is interested in a relationship with God, we are to pay attention.

As I said, the Jewish people were favored by God.

Yes, the church is specially favored by God, but instead of driving us to presume upon him, his blessings of kindness and forbearance and long-suffering patience should bring us to change our minds as to the nature of our blessings.

All of what God has made available to us should lead us to repent, to change the way we think about ourselves.

We are favored for only one reason.

The Jews were favored for only one reason.

It's because God is good and patient and long-suffering.

There's nothing in us that brought his goodness into our lives.

If anything, we should have been eliminated long ago.

Had it not been for his kindness and forbearance and long-suffering patience, that's exactly what would have happened.

You know why?

Because we know that God judges according to truth.

The truth is we deserve death.

Dying because we're sinners is a judgment according to truth.

If God destroyed us, there would be no one in the universe who could level a charge of injustice against him for it.

Though he would have been justified to judge us for our sins, he found another way.

He found a way to retain his justice while at the same time judging our sins according to truth.

That is what the gospel tells us.

And we should see God's favor in our lives as cause to praise him and thank him and ultimately glorify him, but instead we neglect him.

If we truly see what he has saved us from, then we should spend every moment of our lives trying to show him our gratitude.

But that isn't how we treat God, is it?

That isn't how the Jews treated God in Paul's day.

That isn't how the church treats God in our own.

In fact, we must look into our own hearts and do some self-examination.

That really is the purpose of this chapter.

That's the purpose of me spending so much time here, is because I want us to look inside while at the same time gather up enough information so that when we do share the gospel with people, we can tell them about things.

We can tell them that God judges according to truth.

Do we show God love or neglect?

Do we express our thankfulness or our contempt, or worse, our apathy?

Those are important questions to ask.

Romans 2, 4 again, or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?

Now, although I've never met anyone like this, I'm told that out there there's a class of, I mean, I'll call them Christians, I guess, but if they really do exist, that would not be a good label for them.

But nonetheless, I hear of the type of person who regularly sins, but doesn't really worry about the impact those sins have on themselves or God for that matter.

I suppose verse four applies to that type of person too.

Again, I've never met anyone like this.

At least no one's ever admitted that they were living lives in such a way.

I half don't believe that they exist because I mean that's pretty low.

After all, it's one thing to accidentally sin out of carelessness or a lack of self-discipline or a poor understanding of what sin is.

That's happened to all of us at one time or another.

But when it does happen and we wake up to our error, we immediately run to God and ask for forgiveness.

We realize we've been nonchalant about our conduct, thoughtless about how it affects the relationship we have with God and ask him to help us get back on track.

That's usually how that goes.

But the type of sinner I've been told about just goes ahead and does whatever he wants because why not?

After all, he's forgiven.

And since he's been saved by grace, his conduct doesn't matter.

Again, I just can't believe someone like that exists, someone who's so callous and unthinking and self-centered as to take the gift of grace and wave it in God's face and use it to his own advantage.

Oh, I'm sure he doesn't see it as callous and unthinking and self-centered.

He probably thinks he's glorifying God with his sinful ways.

Hey, you know, when you think about it, I'm I'm just showing the world how powerful that sacrifice is.

I mean, I go after any manner of desire I want and come out the other end still a son of God.

Okay, I guess if you say there are people out there like that, but that just seems as pathetic and self-serving as anyone can be.

And does that sound like a love relationship to you, a mutually beneficial relationship?

Could someone really have received all they receive from God and treat him as if he's a jerk?

I mean, the only thing worse than someone who denies God exists and then goes on to break every law in the book is someone who says they do believe in God, believe in being saved by grace, believe that the Son of God died for their sins, and then go out and does the same as those unbelievers.

That sounds like what the Bible calls crucifying the Lord afresh, driving more nails into the dying Savior, knowingly heaping more suffering on the body of the innocent Lamb with every open sin.

May God have mercy on you.

Verse 5, but after thy hardness and impenitent heart, treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to every man according to his deeds.

Now I wonder how many of you have heard sermons on the letter to the Romans.

Quite a few, I would guess.

But I'm willing to also guess that for even those that do have some exposure to this letter, that this is the first time you've heard these verses taught on.

Am I right?

This is a very tough message, Paul is delivering.

Is any of it finding its way to you?

Most preachers and teachers are really uncomfortable talking about this stuff.

Well, John, isn't this a message for the unsaved?

I mean, I fully bought into this salvation by faith and not by works message.

Isn't that what Paul was teaching way back in the beginning of that first chapter, right?

He said the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth.

But you and Paul, frankly, keep talking about judgment.

I thought we Christians don't receive judgment.

This is why this letter, this is why this is in this letter, and this is why I've parked here for a while.

The tendency, especially in evangelical fundamental churches, is to think that because we're now saved, none of this applies to us.

I can kick back and wait till Paul gets to something that has relevance to me.

Judgment isn't coming against me.

I'm saved.

Just like those Jews thought that because they're Jews, the risk of judgment drops to zero.

Well, listen, as far as Christians are concerned, I get it.

The teaching we've received for the last 1,500 years or so has been misleading and incomplete and altogether unscriptural.

We've been told that the only kind of judgment that God meets out is a one-way trip to hell, that God sort of sits back until we die, and then and only then does he decide to do something with us.

Not so at all.

Not scriptural at all.

If you go through scripture, you will see God judging people throughout their living lives.

Listen, let me emphasize again, Paul is writing this letter to the Christians at Rome that we know of.

He never wrote a letter to the unsaved.

This message and every other message of Paul's found in the Bible was written to saved Christians, those who were not going to hell.

And yet, this entire section of a letter to Christians is talking about judgment.

And that coupled with the fact that Paul uses the word judgment throughout his correspondence, should tell you that there must be other forms of judgment.

And indeed they are.

Verses five and six again.

Actually, let me back up to verse three for the complete thought.

And thinkest thou this, O man, that judges them which do such things and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?

Paul is talking to Christians.

Yes, Jewish Christians, but Christians nonetheless.

Verse 4, or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long-suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth to repentance?

But after thy hardness and impenitent heart, treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to every man according to his deeds.

You'll not hear a sermon about this in your typical church service.

Your preachers and pastors are not going to talk about God judging you according to your deeds.

Paul says, after your hard and impenetent heart, the word after is communicating the thought of according to, according to your hard and impenitent heart, in respect to your hard heart.

By acting in accordance with your hard and impenitent heart, you gather up for yourself wrath.

This means even though you're a Christian, your heart can harden.

It can be impenetent.

You can go about doing things that offend God, and you are treasuring up for yourself wrath.

Now, God isn't, for Christians, this isn't necessarily a punishment thing.

God is not going to punish you necessarily.

It doesn't go under the punishment category.

His judgments will come against you in order for God to preserve his redemptive plan.

If you get in the way of God's redemptive plan, if you make him look bad, he is going to judge you somehow.

Get you out of the way so that you do not cause problems for the kingdom.

By giving in to your hard heart, because you subject yourself or allow yourself to be controlled, to be subservient to that hard, unrepentant heart, you are accumulating the anger of God.

And just because you're saved, that doesn't mitigate that.

Just because you're a Jew does not save you from the anger of God when you deserve it.

As I said, this is true whether you're a saved Christian or not.

Judgment is coming.

Now, the judgments won't be the same.

I've said that, but it's coming whether or not you're a Christian, if you're not paying attention, if you pay only attention to your hard and impenitent heart.

Now, as I said, we'll get into the specifics of the different judgments in a later lesson, but I want to stay on track with Paul's message.

Here, the hard heart is a metaphor for a mind that's incapable of allowing anything but its own wicked desires to penetrate.

It's as impermeable as the rock of Gibraltar.

Truth of the goodness of God's word cannot get through.

The surface of your heart is solid against it.

Your stony heart is unwilling to listen to appeals for it to change.

You are totally resistant to repentance, and it's going to cost you.

So devoted that they are completely unwilling to listen to any of my points of disagreement with the religion of the first half of my life.

The one I shared at one time with those stubborn friends.

Listen, they're not bad people, quite the opposite.

You've heard me say over and over, one of the group of the nicest people on earth are Catholics.

They're actually lovely people, but that's not the issue.

But their only motivation in the discussions I have with them about the gospel is to hold on to their position at all costs, right or wrong.

Doesn't matter.

They will not move.

We've believed this way for generations.

My mother believes this way, my grandmother.

There's nothing I can say that will sway them, even if it makes sense.

Lovely people, but that will not save them from God's wrath.

There's but one way to a proper relationship with God, and that is through Christ.

The Jews thought it was the law.

The friends I went to church with think it's the church or the church leadership or confessing their sins or completing certain rituals at designated points in life.

And it doesn't matter how nice you are, it doesn't matter how moral you are.

My dear friends that I have these troubles with, they would do none of those awful sins listed in the letter earlier.

But that doesn't mean their hearts aren't hard and impenitent.

If you refuse, listen to me, if you refuse to adhere to God's truth, he considers your heart hard and impenetent.

Those lovely people have hard and impenetent hearts, no different than those people that did all those terrible things.

Their potential fate is the same.

Their candidacy for wrath is identical.

This is the whole problem Paul is trying to address.

Who you are, who you claim to be, is not important to God.

It's what you believe.

Don't make the mistake of thinking that when Paul mentions the hardness and impenitent heart, that he's only talking about murderers and rapists and drug dealers.

If you refuse to believe in the gospel, then you have a hard, impenitent heart.

Even if all you're doing is rejecting the gospel for some other religious system.

You don't have to have blood on your hands to be at risk for judgment.

If you refuse to change your mind about the source of your salvation, then you have an impenetent heart.

You have a mind that refuses to repent.

Repentance, as we've said many times on this program, is a matter of the mind.

To repent means to change your mind.

And if you refuse to do that, then you're unrepentant and impenitent.

And you don't want to be those things.

Why not?

Verse 5, but after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasures up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.

God has every right to judge you if you remain hard and impenitent.

And God will render to every man according to his deeds.

And listen, your deeds are not limited to helping old ladies across the street or not, or giving to the church or not, or showing up every Sunday for services or not.

Your deeds include how you live your everyday life.

What's your point?

What we do does matter to God.

Whether you're a Christian or not, whether you're a saved Jew or not, doesn't matter.

Every action, every decision, every thought is subject to the judgment of God.

Are you trying to scare me, John?

Are you trying to give me a complex?

I'm trying to wake you up so that you seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

That's what Paul is trying to do.

You may be moral, but do you regard God and his son and his word in your walk?

If not, God has no choice but to render to you according to your deeds.

You know, this sort of talk must have shocked the Jews of Paul's day, as I'm sure it's shocking some of you.

Don't you know who I am?

I'm the guy who prays the rosary every day.

I sprinkle holy water on myself every time I walk into church.

I faithfully prayed to the saints to help me to be a better person.

I do the stations of the cross every Lent.

I climb the Scala Sancta in Rome twice.

I even sponsor a poor African child through World Vision.

What more do you want from me?

God says, I want you to honor my son.

Well, I honor his mother every morning when I pray.

So surely that should be enough.

It feels like it's enough.

But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasure us up, that just means heap up, pile up.

We use the word treasure to mean something good.

Paul does not mean something good here.

This is a whole mess of trouble, as my southern relatives would put it.

But after thy hardness and impenitent heart, treasures up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to every man according to his deeds.

Now listen, I know these are not pleasant verses, and I know it seems like I'm lingering here, but there's so much to discuss.

So I guess I am lingering here.

I'm aware that we are risking losing our already tiny audience, but retaining people is not my calling.

Preaching the gospel is teaching all of God's word, which is the gospel, is my job.

God gave me that job.

And if I fail because I chose friendship with the world, I'd have a lot of explaining to do.

But you know, that's even not really all of it.

I'm not motivated by keeping myself out of trouble.

I'm not in this to preserve myself.

I've been given an important responsibility, and that's to communicate the difference between darkness and light.

Whether it feels like wrath yet or not, when you live your life in any way that sounds like what Paul's been talking about for the past several verses, and I'm not talking about just what happened at the end of chapter one.

I'm talking about how he's characterizing things here in the second chapter.

If you're living in any way like that, you are living in the dark.

And it doesn't matter if you're one of God's chosen people racially or spiritually.

Don't live your life with contempt for God's goodness and forbearance and long suffering.

Don't live this way because it's living in the dark.

Children of light do not live in the dark.

In fact, this is living in the dark with your back to the light.

You know, when in the physical world you find yourself in a dark room or some other dark space, the natural tendency is to find, is to seek out light.

But for some reason, in the spiritual realm, humans tend to ignore the light, sometimes even fight against it.

You see, probably so far being in spiritual darkness hasn't been all that costly to you.

In fact, it feels probably rather comfortable.

Well, that's because darkness hides truth.

And when darkness hides truth, we feel it's we're safe to make our own truth.

But Paul's warnings, indeed, the warnings found throughout Scripture tell us that though comfortable now, staying in darkness will bring wrath.

That's the message of the Bible.

God is attempting to rescue you from all of that.

And if you refuse to be rescued, you are going to a place you don't want to know anything about.

Listen to how Peter put it, 2 Peter 2, 4.

For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into the chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment.

If God didn't even spare the angels, what hope do you think you have?

Does that sound like somewhere you want to be?

Do you want to go to the same place that the angels that sin got cast into?

That's a rhetorical question because of course you don't.

You know, another name for the angels that sinned is demons.

You don't want to go where the demons are.

You don't want your neighbors to be demons for eternity.

Hard-hearted, impenitent hearts treasure up that kind of wrath.

No Christians won't get sent there.

Saved Christians won't get there, but that doesn't mean you're spared wrath.

Now we linger on these tough verses because listen, if you don't know you need rescuing from something, you won't accept your rescuer when he reaches his hand out to you.

The preachers of even only a couple of hundred years ago wouldn't recognize our churches today as churches.

In bygone days, they would agonize over the living souls of those in their congregation.

They would preach for hours about what awaits the sinner.

By and large, they would spend more time on the wrath than the grace of God because a full knowledge of wrath, without a full knowledge of wrath, the glory of God's grace is dull and unattractive.

If you spend your days wallowing at the trough with the pigs, the feast at the king's table has no appeal for you.

And with that clunky analogy, let's call it a night, we'll pick it up right there next time.

See you then.

We hope this study has blessed you.

God's word is a great treasure, and it's our belief that a thorough, purposeful study of it will bring all of God's children to an understanding of his eternal plan of redemption.

It is our prayer that this will be so for all of our listeners.

Please join us again soon.

New content is being added all the time, so make sure you check back often.

For more information on Chapel Ministries, including our YouTube channel and podcasts, please visit www.chapelontheweb.com.

And if God has laid it upon your heart to share materially with us, we encourage you to follow the links to our secure giving page.

Please note, Chapel Ministries is not an IRS registered nonprofit organization, and your donations to this program are not tax deductible.

It's our hope that you do not rely on taxing authorities to decide for you who is worthy of your generosity.