Bible Guys Classics: Romans 2 Part 1

Well, today God's going to be the judge.

Yeah, this is a big one. There's good news in

the middle of the bad news. But judgment's coming. And

so he's Chris and I'm Jeff, and we're the Bible guys.

So we know that you're not only a movie buff,

you're a big music person.

Yeah. I like music.

And who's your favorite singer?

A favorite singer good gravy. I don't know.

I can't even the one that everybody'd be most surprised

as one of your favorite singers.

Oh, well, that's an entirely different question. Well, for the

fall kickoff at our church, huh, we were creating trivia,

uh huh, And it was it was a race between

me and you, and we said, who listens to Taylor

Swift in the car?

That's right?

And nobody knew how to vote. Yeah, and it's like, Chris, yeah,

that's right.

I'm not sure that I know the lyrics to a

Taylor Swift song. So I recognize her voice when she

sings stuff like that, right, my daughter for little while

listen to Taylor, But I don't know like any lyrics

from Taylor Swift.

You know some, right, Well, there's only fifty million.

Yeah, but you know all of them, don't you.

No, I know the popular ones.

Well, we're going to find out. So, and then you've

memorized the Book of Lamentations in the Bible.

Right I have not?

You have not, Yes, I confess. So here's what I

decided to do is we're going to why I didn't.

I think Desiree did, but I'm going to take credit

for it. Thanks Desiree. We decided we're going to read

lyrics either from a Taylor Swift song or from the

Book of Lamentation. So you have to tell me Taylor

Swift or Lamentations.

Okay, So, just to server knows, we saw this like

two seconds ago, and he decided to read it to

me because I know some Taylor Swifts.

I don't know any Taylor Swift songs. All right, go ahead, Okay,

are you ready?

Yep?

Okay. So it says I remember it all the feeling

of hitting bottom.

I remember it all the feeling of hitting bottom. Gosh,

that could be it, that could be It doesn't sound

sophisticated enough to be Taylor Swift. I'm gonna say lamentations.

Oh wow, yeah, yeah, you're the Bible guy. Hey, you

are the Bible guy. Your instincts are good. Lamentations three

twenty Okay, how about this one? Walls of insincerity, shifting eyes,

and vacancy vanished when I saw your face.

Yeah, that's uh, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on.

Enchanted to meet you?

Okay, it's enchanted.

Yes, yes, that's what the song is called. Enchanted. Okay, Yeah,

it's like right, it's like the it's like the second

line of the song.

Yep, we've been to Helen back, we have nowhere to turn,

nowhere to go.

That definitely sounds like lamentations.

That is Lamentations three forty seven. Yes, Uh, did you

have to do this? I was thinking you could be trusted.

I can't even imagine that being in lamentations because that's

a direct conversation. So I'm gonna go with Taylor.

Swift and want to guess a song.

I don't know. I don't have no idea. Bad Blood, Oh,

bad blood? You know that song? Right now? We got

bad Blood?

Yeah kind of kind of yes, yeah, you know that song.

And we'll sing Hallelujah. We'll sing Hallelujah. Lamentations change by

Taylor Swift.

Oh wow, Okay, that was that was tricky.

I've forgotten what the good life is like.

I've forgotten what the good life is like. I'll say Taylor.

Swift Lamentations three seventeen. So I went three for three,

three for five. Yeah, yeah, I went.

Three for three, and then I went over to Yeah.

Yeah, that's great. That's a fun one. That's fun, very clever.

Thank you Desiree for coming up with that one. That's

a fun one to do. Uh yeah. And I could

see the wheels working too. It's just a little smoky

in the in the studio now, I mean.

All all you quoted was I sing hallelujah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I skipped most of the rest of it.

She gave me a whole sentence. I didn't read it.

I just read that part.

Oh that's because you thought you was gonna give away

now that the truth comes out.

Okay, So Desiree was kind, and she was she was

more accommodating than I am. But hey, don't mess with

the guy at the microphone. That's true.

That's true.

Okay. So hey, now he's going to really put it

out there for us. So sure, we got a laundry

list of sinful things that are are horrible that have

eternal consequences and are the result of us rejecting our creator. Right,

So sure he already gave that. But then you got

to remember there are no chapters and verses in Paul's letters.

He doesn't start and then stop, and start and stop.

This is all just one big long thought. So where

he ends that big long list yesterday, he continues with

you may think that you can condemn such people, but

you're just as bad. So this is Romans chapter two,

Verse one. You may think that you condemn such people,

but you are just as bad, and you have no

excuse when you say they are wicked and should be punished.

You're only condemning yourself, For you, who judge others, do

these very same things. And we know that God, in

his justice, will punish anyone who does such things. Since

you judge others for doing these things, why do you

think you can avoid God's judgment when you do the

same things. Don't you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and

patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you?

Can't you see that His kindness is intended to turn

you away from your sin? But because you are stubborn

and refuse to turn from your sin, you're storing up

terrible punishment for yourself. For a day of anger is coming,

when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. He will judge

everyone according to what they've done. He will give eternal

life to those who keep on doing good, seeking after

the glory and honor immortality that God offers. But He

will pour out his anger and wrath on those who

live for themselves, who refuse to obey the truth and

instead live lives of wickedness. There will be trouble and

calamity for everyone who keeps on doing what is evil,

for the Jew first and also for the gentile. But

there will be glory and honor and peace from God

for all who do good, for the Jew first and

also for the gentile. For God does not show favoritism.

When the Gentiles sin, they'll be destroyed, even though they

never had God's written law. And the Jews who do

have God's law will be judged by that law when

they fail to obey it. For merely listening to the

law doesn't make us right with God. It's obeying the

law that makes us right in his sight. Even gentiles

who do not have God's written law, so that they

know His law when they instinctively obey it, even without

having heard it. They demonstrate that God's laws written in

their hearts for their own conscience and thoughts are either

accuse them or tell them they are doing right. And

this is the message. I proclaim that the day is

coming when God through Christ Jesus will judge everyone's secret life.

I like that last line, when God through Jesus, Christ

will judge everyone's secret life. And so at the very beginning,

we sort of opened up and I said, God's the judge, right.

And so here's how I view this passage is that

what he's trying to say is is really building up

to the idea that like, did you ever play Monopoly?

Yes?

So Monopoly is my favorite game. And so there's a

get out of jail free card, and the get out

of jail free card is very similar to Jesus. He

gives us a way to escape sin, to escape a

punishment of sin, and it doesn't cost us anything. It's free.

It's a free gift. The Book of Romans, Paul goes

on to talk about that being a free gift, and

what he's really trying to say is he's trying to say,

let me talk about what you're escaping from through Jesus,

because without Jesus there is no escape. Because sin has

a judge, and there's a righteous God who is a

righteous judge, and he judges harshly, and he's angry at sin. Right,

And by the way, God makes no apology for that.

In the Old Testament, you know, God says, God's a

jealous God. Now God's an angry God because he's angry

for our sin. God hates sin, he hates wickedness, he

hates all those things. Sin demands a penalty, Sin demand's death.

Like there is an absolute judge with a horrific sentence

that every single one of us are guilty of.

And God justly hates sin.

Yeah, just right.

So we look at it and go, oh, it was

just a little lie. Oh I stretch the truth. Oh

I just disobeyed my parents or whatever. But for God,

God knows the destructiveness of sin. It ruins societies. A

little bit winds up turning into a lot, and that's

what we always do, and it destroys so much as

a cancer. It's like, you know, if somebody broke into

your house and wanted to attack your daughters. You would

hate every part of that behavior, everything about it, right,

And it's not that you're full of hatred, it's you're

full of sin, so much love for your daughters. You

hate what the destruction that that behavior coming towards your

daughters is going to do. And it's the same way

that God views sin. It's not that he's full of hate.

He loves us so much and he sees the destruction

coming our way. It's going to destroy everything good in

our life if we let sin get a foothold. And

so that's why he hates sin. And for godly people,

we need to get a similar view. Not that we

hate sinners, but we hate the consequence and the fallout

from sin, and so we need to hate it as

much as God hates it.

Yeah. And by the way, that's not even brush past

chapter two, verse number one, because you know, there are

probably a lot of people in our past that we've

seen that get hung up on a lot of issues

of chapter of chapter one, and yet in chapter two,

to your point, it's the same thought, right, right, right,

He says, you may think you can contemn such people,

but you're just as bad. And you know, what's so

interesting is that, like you know, so, I've always I

heard this. So if you tell one lie, it makes

you a liar liar, And so whether you're a compulsive

liar or whether you've told one small fib you're just

as guilty, because the Bible says breaking some of the

law is like breaking the entire live.

I had a guy asked me one time. He said, well,

he said, have I sinned? Yes? Am I a sinner? No?

And I said, well, let me ask you this. If

you rob a bank, what are you? You're a bank robber? Right?

How many people do you have to kill to be

a murderer? Just one?

Just one? Right, it's the same one.

I've only robbed one bank, I said, So it's the

same there. So it's not we all want to justify ourselves.

We want to make ourselves better. There's other people we

know that are worse, but for sure, but we we

hate this idea you're worse than me. Well probably probably,

I'll admit that, because you know, Verse one tells me,

I can't think that I can condemn you because I'm

just as bad as you are. But so when he

says this, we read, when we read through that all

that list of all those sins yesterday, I'm telling you

our listeners heard certain ones and went or they heard

certain ones and went, yeah that's right, that's a terrible thing,

right right, and then kind of you know, well, yeah,

disobedient to parents, are insolent orreling, quarreling, Yeah that's about

you know, Well, I'm Scottish. I just have a bad attitude.

Why because I have Scottish blood in me. Oh yeah, okay,

so I just have a bad attitude because funny whatever,

and so so we find ways to scot right now,

why why all five of our listeners just quit listening.

Remember we said we had like eighty something people in

Ireland that listen. So all the Irish people are like,

go ahead from Scotts. But so we find reasons to

dismiss why our sin is an issue? Right, Oh, it's

just who I am or whatever. And what he's saying

is he's not saying that you yourself do the exact sin

that other people do. We all have our own proclivity

for our own you know, sin preferences. What he's saying

is the level of your sin is equal to the

level of other people's sins, right, and so you know,

you might be the one that is, you know, particularly

deceptive and malicious, and somebody else is you know, and

you just understand deception is just part of your job

and career. You can't get ahead and in my industry

without being deceptive, and so you excuse that, going, well,

it's just a nature of what I have to do.

But you're horrified by the backstabbers and the haters of

God and the insolent, right, and you're like, oh my goodness,

that's horrible. And what he's saying is, listen, if you're

on the list at all, you're on the list, right,

And that's what he's saying in these first verses there

is if you're a sinner, you're a sinner. Quit judging

other sinners at that point, right, right, So we have

to get to the point where we realize we are sinners.

And he's telling us here, listen, don't you see how

wonderfully kind and tolerant and patient God is with you? Yeah,

so he says God, which which by the.

Way, brings up like some subjects of like why would

God continue to bless sinful people? Right?

Right?

Like why do rich why do thieves continue to get

rich and they're allowed to enjoy the riches. You know why,

And it's because God blesses us in spite of our

sins on sort of all sorts of levels.

Right, It doesn't always require the favor of God. Sometimes

it's just that you've chosen to do something and it

benefited you, and doesn't it to be God's favor, But

it is God's tolerance.

Yeah, and in some cases God's mercy.

Yeah, that's right. But so then he says, can't you

see that his kindness is intended to turn you from

your sin? So you read a passage like this and

you go, oh, yeah, this is horrible. Quit reading this stuff,

and Paul saying, no, no, listen, I'm not telling you

this to make you feel horrible. Can't you see how

good God is that even though you are a sinner,

God loves you. That God's whole reason for telling you

that you're a sinner is kindness that's intended to turn

you from your sin. God knows, like I was saying,

that person breaking into your house trying to hurt yours,

you hate that behavior because you love your daughter so much.

God is telling you about the consequences of sin because

He loves you so much that when you finally realize

how bad sin is and you begin to get a

hint of it, like God understands it, then you get

to understand how good he is because he's turning us

away from it to a better life. And so Paul's

trying to establish, yes, you're a sinner, but man, God

only tells you that so you can have the good life.

That's what he's saying. It's it's good news. It's just

kind of wrapped in the like ugly wrapping paper here

for us in this first you know few chapters.

Yeah, I remember specifically one time where I was written

into a situation. I'm not sure if it's gonna be

a really good story. So i'll really sum it up

because I don't want to mention names or situations, but

I won't. But but the bottom line is is I

remember one time somebody was coming up to me and

they were being super super critical of something about me.

Then tell us names.

I'll tak the first. But this particular girl I was

actually I just finished speaking and actually it was actually

something that I was wearing. She didn't like what I

was wearing. I loved what I was wearing right, but

like she just thought it looked too country or whatever

it was. So she she just went like backstage and

you know, sort of like because you know, we always

give each other feedback and to be positive, right, and

she just sort of looked me up and down and

she went like she's like and by the way, and

I said what and she goes she like look up

and down, and she was trying to make a statement

like this really condemning statement about my clothes. And I

remember in my mind going like, okay, I have a

choice how to react here, like, you know, and I

could just say what is your deal or you know,

or be like what I like what I'm wearing, you know,

whatever it is. And I remember in that moment, I

just decided to just play like the most godly person

but not godly to scorn her or not trying to he.

Pulls a fire on her.

But I was just legitimately like, well, you know what,

I'm just going to give her total grace. And I

gave her the most authentic grace reaction. I just looked

at her, you know, and pretended like she didn't even

offend me, and just kept not going on and sort

of ignored it, and she really wanted to continue the conversation.

She wanted to bring it up, but because of my reaction,

she was like, oh, and so she moved on. But

you could just tell us eating at her to say like,

you need to change your shirt. Right. So here's what happens.

The second service. She comes back and she goes, I

felt horrible at you know, she's I'm so sorry. She goes,

I just want to tell you, I just don't like

your shirt. She goes, And the way I went about

it was horrible, and I thought you were going to

come back at me, but you were so loving and

so kind. And she goes, and I just walked away,

and she goes to that entire second service. I thought,

I feel so bad, and you reacted so kindly to me,

and so and I just and so that's what reminded

me of reminds me of the fact then in spite

of our you know, bad reactions and bad behaviors, like

God's kindness and this mercy, you know, it's supposed to

compel us to go I can't believe you're so kind.

I can't believe. So maybe it was a decent story,

but I wanted to say more, but I couldn't anyway.

Well, I can see the parallels of you forgiving her,

you know, disliking your shirt, and God forgiving you know,

murderers and malicious behavior. It's very very similar.

Yeah, well guess what, Jeff, if you're on the list,

draw on the list, right.

That's exactly right, that's exactly right. This is what I

was doing, was minimizing her saying that. The reality is

it's the same God says. Listen, you've broken this law,

and so now you can't judge other people. Now God does,

and God is clear on this. So then it's not

a judgmental thing for you and me as pastors to

warn people that the bridge is out down the road.

We're not being judgmental or hateful when we say this

is what God says. This behavior has to stop. You

have to stop that behavior and go God's way. Don't

indulge in the flesh, don't go down this road. It's

going to ruin your life. Instead, choose to do the

right thing that's not judgmental, that is being loving. As

long as we don't do it in a mean spirited way.

We do it in a loving way, and we say

be cautious, be careful, don't go in that direction. We

love people enough to tell them what is true, what

is right, what is good, and what is bad. And

that is a part of the good news of the

Gospel is being able to identify what is the bad

side as well as the good side.

You know, it's easy actually when you look at it

from a thirty thousand foot view, if you sort of

back up, you know, and you sort of look at

the concept of sharing faith. You know, whether it's a

preacher who gets paid to share the good news, or

whether it's somebody typing in all caps, right, just trying

to trying to, you know, share their opinion about what

God says. There's two extremes, right, and then you have

people who don't type in all caps and they actually

share in the right way. And then you have preachers

who actually share in the wrong way.

That's right, you know what I mean.

Yeah, So you think about the complicated, you know, a

demeanor in which we have in trying to communicate the

truth because we're trying to communicate the truth from the

posture of a perfect God in an imperfect way. And

it's so funny, how I mean, really truly if we

were to somehow identify our brokenness by let's just say

like a color, you know, let's just say black and white,

like all of our bad intentions, all of our mixed emotions,

all of our brokenness, unhealthy tendencies, you know what I mean,

the shadow missions. I mean, we have so much just

sort of wound up and the complexity and the brokenness

of who we are. We try so hard to communicate,

you know, what a perfect God thinks, feels, how he acts,

how he responds his intentions. We're trying to communicate absolute

perfection through completely imperfect you know, imperfect ways. And so

a lot of times you'll hear a preacher preach fire

and brimstone in a way that feels judging, condemning. Uh.

And what he's really doing is he's actually preaching the

truth in a bad.

Way, right.

And so what he's not doing is he's not embracing

the entire character of God.

He's preaching it in a in a emphatic way that

you're receiving in a bad way. Yeah. So sometimes it

can be our own hearts that cause us to reject

the delivery.

Yeah, and perfection on the giver and the receiver.

And the receiver both, right, yes, And so I just think.

That it's it's easy to see how we can have

bad impressions of people, you know, because you know, the

Bible does tell us he as it's our job as

Christians to point out the sin and other people's lives

who we love and we're supposed to be in a

loving way. So, for instance, if my brother is, you know,

cheating on his wife, which you know he did not do,

but if he was, and I'm like, hey, man, I

think it's sort of my responsibility to step up and

just say, you know, Jim, you're a Christian, you love Jesus,

this isn't the right thing to do, and I'm calling

you out on it. I'm not just gonna sit by

and let this happen. That's what God calls us to do.

And so whether it's something extreme or something small, we

have that job.

And yet we just have to be humble enough to

admit that we're also sinners. Yes, right, So we have

to recognize if I'm admitting I'm a sinner and I'm

also trying to help my brother overcome his sin, then

it's not judgmental for me to help point out yours

while I'm acknowledging mine. Where it's judgmental is when I

act like I'm all high and mighty and perfect, and

you should be more like me. None of us should

be more like each other. We should all be more

like Christ. And that's really the goal. And so then

this grace, this law. My favorite verse, the best news

in this entire passage today is verse eleven that says,

because God does not show favoritism, so God doesn't have

his favorite people that he's gonna bless in his least

favorite people. He's saying, listen, everybody that will turn from

their sin and come to me, good news is available

to you. The Gospel is available to you. So that's

really what the rest of this book is going to

be about, is you know, God shows no favoritism.

So all right, well, that sounds like a great place

to end our thoughts, and we will see you next

time on the Bible, guys,