Judges Judged

I'm really thankful that we're spending time in Romans 1-4, and the beginning of Romans 5 in June and July this summer. We're calling the series "Good News" because that's what Paul calls the letter to the Romans: "God's good news for the world." There is good news about what God has done to make his righteousness freely available to all people who will simply receive it by faith, when we realize we don't have any righteousness of our own, but that God has provided righteousness for us in Jesus, and we reach out the empty hands of faith and just take it. Well, that is the best news that we could ever receive. That good news is for you and it's for all people.

And we're working our way through these first few chapters because Paul is explaining in greater detail, with greater thoroughness than he does anywhere else in his letters, just that message of the gospel. Paul told us in Romans 1 he'd really like to go to the city of Rome so he could speak to them face to face and deliver his lecture series, his sermon series in person. Since he can't, he's going to write down what he would say. This is what Paul breaks down for people in every city he travels to as we follow him through the book of Acts. So what a privilege for us to walk through the gospel together. It's important. If you've never received the gospel, you've never understood the good news, you've never taken it for yourself, this is the greatest gift that God could give you. It would be to hear about his good news.

But Paul also says that he's eager to preach the good news to the believers who are in Rome. And we need to hear it too. If we've received this good news, we need to go in deeper to what Christ has done for us. I love that song, "I love to tell the story." I love the line that says, "I love to tell the story for those who know it best / seem hungering and thirsting to hear it like the rest." We all need to hear this good news about how gracious God is.

But before we can appreciate that, we kind of have to appreciate some bad news about ourselves, that we need the righteousness that only God can give. And that brings us to Romans 2. And we're gonna look at verses 1-16. If Psalm 139 that we just sang about was the brighter, sunnier side of the believer saying, "God, you know it all, you see it all, and I'm not gonna hide from you," Romans 2 we might call the darker side of the truth that God sees everything and knows everything. Because if you're not in Christ, if you're not hidden in him by faith, that's about the scariest news that you could ever get.

Well, let's look at what the Lord has to say to us from Romans 2:1-16.

I was driving down the road the other day and heard an old, old country song, some of you might know it, "Harper Valley PTA." Anybody familiar? That will not be a special at Sharon Baptist Church any Sunday morning coming soon. But the song was written in like 1968. And it's this junior high girl relating this story about how one day her single mom gets a notice from the Harper Valley PTA. And they are all these kind of buttoned up, smug, self-righteous people. And they don't like the way that this girl's single mom is conducting herself. They say her skirts are too short. She's, you know, going on dates with men or whatever. I don't really know all the details of that situation. But the PTA decided that they don't like what they're seeing and they don't like what they're hearing. So they send this official letter home on official PTA stationary by the daughter to the mom that says, "you need to clean up your act. We don't like the way you dress. We don't like the way you act. We don't like your friends. And you need to change your ways and be a better example."

But what the Harper Valley PTA didn't know is that that single mom had all the goods on everybody on that PTA board. And it just so happens that the PTA was meeting that afternoon. And she decides to make an unannounced appearance. And she spills the tea on everybody there. She gives the rundown on how all of the things that they were accusing her of doing, they were actually doing in secret. And it's this really kind of funny, and also kind of scary picture of the judges finding the roles reversed, and the judges themselves receiving judgment and receiving condemnation.

And that's kind of what's happening in Romans 2 as we move out of Romans 1 into Romans 2. Paul has just finished a brutal analysis of the lost world, of the gentile world, the non-Jewish world, the irreligious world, of the world that worships idols and practices immorality. That's what Romans 1:18-32 is about. We looked at it two weeks ago right before Father's Day. Paul was explaining to us how unrighteous that world out there is, how they suppress the knowledge of this creator God that they are accountable to. They exchange the true God for a false God, for an idol. And in the process, their minds become darkened, their hearts become darkened, and they end up practicing all kinds of wickedness and turn God's righteous design for human life, right upside-down. It's like the total reversal of Genesis 1 and 2, God's blueprint for humanity.

So, Romans 1:18-32 is a searing analysis of how bad it is out there. And Paul's delivered this material enough times in enough cities that he knows that when he gets done with that speech, there's a group of people who are loving it. There's a group of people who are cheering. They've never said the word "amen" in their lives, but they find themselves shouting, "amen" to Paul and this takedown of the irreligious, immoral idol-worshiping Gentile world.

Who are these people who are getting so riled up by Romans 1? Well, Paul names them here in Romans 2:1 and again in Romans 2:3. They are "you who judge." The people Paul's addressing now in Romans 2 are those who agree with him that the world is really messed up, that society has gotten dark. And as they look around at all the examples of darkness and immorality and people running wild, these people are disgusted. They're not approving it. They're not cheering it on like the folks in the end of Romans 1 were doing. They're shocked when they watch the evening news or when they read the local newspaper because they are good, hard working people. They are salt-of-the-earth conservatives. I mean, they look to the past for wisdom and they want to hold on to it. They don't like all this change that they're seeing. They are taxpaying law-abiding citizens. They believe in clean moral living. These are "Okie(s) from Muskogee, (another country reference).

It's easy for these people to see how unrighteous the world out there is. It's easy for them to see how unrighteous their culture is. And they make judgments about it. They say, "man, that's terrible." "These people have got whatever it is that Paul says his God has prepared for them in judgment, they deserve it, they've got it coming to them and it can't get here fast enough." So at the end of Romans 1, these people, the Romans 2 audience, they are worked up into a lather, into a frenzy because they are loving what Paul has to say.

And at the beginning of Romans 2, Paul turns to them and says, "Ok, now it's your turn. We did the world out there in Romans 1. Now we're gonna talk to you here in Romans 2.

See, Paul has good news for the whole world. He calls it "my gospel" in verse 16. In chapter one, he called it "God's gospel" or "God's good news for the world." Paul's good news is that the holy, righteous God gives his righteousness to anyone who will receive it by faith alone. The holy, righteous God will qualify the unqualified to live before him in glory forever and ever through Jesus Christ. And that good news is for everybody. It's good news for everybody!

Why is it good news for everybody? Because nobody has their own righteousness. Nobody is qualified by the life they live, by the things they do or don't do. Nobody is qualified to be embraced by this perfectly righteous God for eternity. This includes the immoral idol worshipers of Romans 1, and it includes the straight-laced moral people on the Harper Valley PTA in Romans 2. None of them. The brand of their sin is very, very different, but the root of their sin is exactly the same. Neither of them wants the righteous God to be God in their lives. They want to be in the driver's seat. They want to be in control. They just show it in different ways. And that's why both groups of people need the righteousness only God can give!

The thing about it though is that those unrighteous folks in Romans 1, they can see their need a little bit clearer. It's just obvious right there in front of God and everybody. It's these folks in Romans 2, the moral kinds, they find it harder to see their need. And so Paul helps them. And he helps us to see that moral people need the grace of God in the gospel of Jesus Christ too. And the way that he shows us that is by talking about the rather uncomfortable subject of judgment. So Paul says, "y'all are really good at judging, you're very discerning, and you're very clear-thinking about judging the other people around you. Let's talk a little bit more about judging. Let's talk about the judging that God is going to do.

So, I want to look at this in three movements.

Look at how he starts in verse one: "Therefore, you have no excuse." So he's making his turn. He's changing his focus here. "Therefore, you have no excuse oh man, every one of you who judges." I think that we would all agree that we find it easy to see other people's sins and we find it easy to condemn other people's sins. We see why it's so bad, why it's so wrong, why it deserves to be corrected and deserves to be punished. As a matter of fact, if we're being really honest today, we really enjoy seeing other people's sins and condemning them. Why? Because it makes us feel better about ourselves. It reassures me that I'm ok if I'm not like you. It reassures us that we're all ok if we're a part of this group that's not like that group over there.

And Jesus tells a whole story about this kind of psychology of self-righteousness in Luke chapter 18, Jesus actually tells a lot of stories about this, but Luke 18 is the story of these two men who go to church to pray. One is a pharisee and one is a publican. And the pharisee knows all the rules, keeps all the rules. He comes into the church house. He's well known there. He's happy to be there. He goes to church every week and he starts his prayer, "God, I thank you that I'm not like other men. I thank you that I'm not an extortioner. I thank you that I'm not unjust. I thank you that I'm not an adulterer. I thank you that I'm not like that tax-collector over there. But instead, I tithe on everything that I earn. And I never miss church. And I always say my prayers." And he goes through this whole list of the good things he does do and the bad things that he doesn't do. Why? It reassures him that he's righteous before God as long as he can see someone else who is less righteous than him. It makes him feel better to say, "I'm not a part of that group over there." That lets me know that I'm OK before the Lord.

It's the same reason that all those people on the Harper Valley PTA board, even though they were a hot mess in their private lives, they still felt so good about writing that letter and criticizing that one lady. Why? It made them feel better about themselves! It made them feel more secure. And it made them feel more holy and more righteous. It's self-righteousness.

And judging is a strategy. It is a strategy to keep us from dealing personally with God about our own stuff. Do you understand that? We don't realize that's what we're doing, but that's what's happening in our hearts. It's a strategy to keep me from getting honest and clean before God, for myself. It's much easier for me to say, "I'm ok because I'm in this clean group. I'm not a part of that dirty group."

And Paul wants to expose that strategy here in Romans 2. And what he says to these moral people is, "look, judging others, judging the "Romans 1" type people may make you feel safe before God, but you're not safe before God. Why? Because as soon as I condemn someone else for doing something wrong, I immediately condemn myself. How is that? How does that work? Here's, here's how it works. Paul says, "when you condemn someone else for being wrong or doing wrong, you are acknowledging there is a standard that all people should be held to. And when they don't meet that standard, they should be punished." That's what I'm acknowledging when I judge anyone else for being wrong or for doing wrong. Paul says, "the problem is, you don't meet the standard yourself. You don't meet this standard of behavior, this standard of righteousness.

Now, that doesn't mean that you literally do the exact thing that you condemn someone else for doing. Sometimes that's the case, right?  Take Romans 1 for an example, you may not literally practice homosexuality secretly while you criticize others for practicing homosexuality openly. That may not be the case. Your sin may come out very differently than the person who's leading the LGBTQ++ parade. Your sin may come out through those other avenues that Paul mentions in Romans 1 in the same list, things like slander and haughtiness and envy and deception and covetousness. That may be how your sin comes out. And it is very different than the way that the Romans 1 type sinners are practicing their sin. Yet, it all belongs to the same human rebellion against God. It all belongs to the same human rebellion against its maker. It's all a part of distorting the image of God that he placed in us as human beings to reflect his character perfectly and beautifully. It's still a failure to meet his righteous standard or we're in the same condition.

But the moral person, Paul knows this from preaching the gospel many times, in many places. to many people, Paul knows that the moral person is so focused on the judgment that's coming for all those immoral people that he can't see his own need that judgment is also coming for him. Does that make sense to y'all?

It's sort of like the parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15. Everybody remembers the "prodigal" son. He even gets the title of the story. He's the son who goes out and blows all of his dad's inheritance and disgraces the family name by shacking up with prostitutes and partying and all this kind of stuff. And he comes back just totally broken and shattered. We all know that that's a sinner who needs the righteousness of God. But what about that older brother? He never left. He always got up at 5 a.m. He did every chore on his dad's list. He was always in bed at the right time. He kept all the rules. And yet you get to the end of the story and he is just as alienated from the father as the younger son. He is just as cold and distant and bitter and angry. He's just as separated from the father, even though he expressed it very, very differently.

And that's what Paul is unpacking in Romans 1 and Romans 2: your sin is going to be expressed in all kinds of different ways. But the problem is still the same. We're not righteous before God. We need something from him that we can't produce on our own. And so Paul says to this moral person in verses 4-5, "the reason why you're able to concentrate on the judgment that's coming for the big bad world and never think about your own judgment is because you have a hard, impenitent heart. That would be hard to swallow if you're a moral person. But what Paul says is, "look, the whole time that you're saying, 'man, I can't wait for God to judge all of these raunchy wretched people around me,' you don't realize that God at that moment is being kind and forbearing and patient with you! He's giving you every opportunity to repent. He's giving you every opportunity to soften your heart and humble yourself before the Lord Jesus. He's giving you every opportunity to see that you need righteousness just like everybody else does. And yet you are presuming on God's kindness, presuming on God's patience. You look at your life and say, 'well, I mean, God's not judging me right now. I'm clean and rule-keeping, and I go to church and all that stuff. I'm not experiencing God's judgment. So I'm just going to keep on doing what I'm doing and judging all these other people.'" Paul says, "no, that is a hard, impenitent heart. God's kindness to you in not judging you for your kind of sin right now is meant to lead you to repentance and to life."

And so Paul opens this section of Romans 2 with what I call, "the surprise of judgment," the surprise of judgment. And it can be so surprising for moral people to find out that they're under God's judgment just like everybody else. And they need God's patience and forbearance and salvation just as much as everybody else.

So one diagnostic question that you might ask yourself this morning is:
Do you have a deep sense in your heart right now that God is being patient with you?

That God is being forbearing with you. That if God gave you exactly what you deserve, exactly when you deserved it, you would be in the same shape as the lowest, dirtiest dog that you can think of in this world?

You need the patience, and the forbearance, and the kindness of God.
And does that thought of God's kindness to you and to me right now, does that soften our hearts and make us humble and tender before him so that we sing, "Lord, I need you every hour?"

It's the surprise of God's judgment.

Now, Paul wants to help this guy because the moral man's mind is just fixated on the judgment that his neighbor is going to receive. I found myself in a McDonald's in another town earlier this week. And I was there kind of doing some work while I was waiting on an appointment. And there was a man who I could tell came there every single day. And he was about retirement age. I'm not stereotyping anybody of retirement age, but this brother had lots of time. And he just kind of set up shop in this McDonald's booth. He ate his breakfast. And he engaged everybody who came in about how horrible the world is, about how bad this town has gotten, about how, you know, people are getting kidnapped on the streets, and there are drug deals going on on every corner, and just all this negative bad stuff that he sees on the news that he gets directly to his app, and, you know, the police don't do anything about it. Just this whole negative diatribe for everyone who would listen. This guy was fixated on what's wrong out there!

Now, look, he might be the sweetest Christian that I've ever met. But if I had to bet good money on something, (and I'm not recommending that), but if I did, I would bet it might be a little challenging to help that brother see his need for God's grace. Because his whole mindset is totally fixated on what's wrong out there and not what might be wrong in here before the Lord.

And Paul is dealing with that same problem in Romans 2:6-10. He wants to help this moral man, who in many ways is quite admirable, he wants to help him see that he's under God's judgment too. And so Paul describes God's judgment in these verses, and he does it a lot like the woodworking clamps in my shop. They've got this handle on it. And every time you turn it even a quarter of a turn, that jaw gets tighter and tighter and tighter. If you're not careful, you can split the wood you're working on because that clamp, it just clamps, clamps, clamps, clamps. And that's what verses 6-10 are like as Paul gets more detailed about the judgment that every individual is going to face. So that's where we begin.

First. he says:

#1- Judgment will be individual (v6).
He says, "he will render to each one." And that right there just stopped me this week because it tells me that on the judgment day, I won't be able to blend in with the crowd, right? I won't be able to say, "well, I'm a part of this good group over here and we're just gonna get kind of ushered into glory without too many searching questions being asked. No, Revelation 20 says a single file line forms in front of the throne. And we get called one by one, name by name, to give a personal account to the Lord. It's an individual assessment. Judgment will be individual. So I can't fall back on the fact that I'm not like those people out there. God's gonna say on that day, "well, we're not really talking about those people out there right now. I'm gonna have those conversations with them. We're talking about you right now." Judgment will be individual.

#2 - Judgment will have integrity (v6).
"He will render to each one according to his works." In other words, my judgment won't be based on my reputation: what people thought about me. It won't be based on my appearance: what seems to be true about me. It won't be based merely on my profession: what I say about myself. No, this will be a judgment of integrity. It will be based on the actual reality of my life. It will be based on the actual reality of your life.

Now, Paul is going to say many times in Romans that your good works can't justify you. You won't be able to stand on your good works to get into heaven to be righteous before God. But that does not mean that our works, our lives don't matter to God. It does not mean that. Our works, our lives reveal who we really are. Our works, our lives are the evidence of what we really believe. They are the proof that we really do love God and trust God, that we received the gospel, and that it is the power of God unto salvation in our lives. None of us is going to be perfect. Don't worry about that when we stand before the Lord. But there should be evidence there was a transformation in us through the powerful gospel of Jesus Christ.

Paul is going to say this many times. 2 Corinthians 5:10, "We all must stand before the judgment seat of Christ to give an account for the deeds done in the body, whether for good or for evil." Jesus says this kind of thing over and over again in the gospels. Think about his parables, about the sheep and the goats, the servants before their master. Each one is assessed not on their reputation, not on their appearance, not on their profession, but on the reality of what they did, the reality of their lives, because what they did reveals whether or not they really loved and trusted the king, the master.

So this judgment, it's gonna be individual, it's gonna have integrity.

#3 - Judgment will be internal (vv7-8).
Now, God says this in 1 Samuel 16, "Man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart." So, we're able to look at the outside and assess some things. Only God can look at the inside. And he's going to do that on the day of judgment. So he's not only going to assess what I did and what you did, but why I did it, and why you did it. God's going to look at the level of motivations. Paul calls it in verse 16, "the secrets of men."

I think about Hebrews 4:12, "The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword." I can't remember all the middle part, but then it says it's a "discerner of the secret thoughts and intentions of the heart, stuff that nobody else can see, stuff that I'm not even fully aware of, but God can see it. God is aware of it. That's what's going to be revealed on the day of judgment, in other words, who I really am at the bottom of my heart.

So verses 7-8 describe the two kinds of people, the two categories of people that are going to emerge on the other side of this assessment. Verse 7 is one group of people. These are people who sought the glory of God. They live for the honor that only God can give: "well done, good and faithful servant". They live for immortality with God. They just wanted to be with him in his presence. That's a saved person, not a sinless person, not a perfect person, not someone who's righteous in and of themselves, but someone who has been changed and renewed at the heart level by the power of God, someone whose heart has been changed from being fundamentally self-seeking (v8),  to being fundamentally, if imperfectly, God-seeking and others-oriented. This is a person who will live a life, verse 7 says, of patience and well-doing. Isn't that interesting? Patience and well-doing. In other words, the proof that they were changed at the heart level is endurance, long-haul love for God, obedience to God, trust in God. That's what the judgment of God is gonna reveal. If I live that life (v7) by the grace of God, if I live that life, it's gonna be revealed. Ok?

Verse 8 is the other category that will be revealed. But for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. Now the key here in this description is seeking self. These people are characterized when you get down to the bottom of their hearts, when you push past appearances, what makes them tick, what drives them is self, seeking self rather than seeking the glory of God. Now, look, you can be wildly immoral and seek self, and you can be very, very clean and moral and seek self. And I can't tell what's going on in anybody's heart, if they're seeking self or not. But God can. And God will on the day of judgment. Can y'all feel the woodworking clamps tightening up here? Can you feel the vice? I mean, every little quarter turn, it's getting a little bit tighter in here. And whereas I felt really, really good about myself at the beginning of Romans 2 because I wasn't a part of that nasty crowd out there, all of a sudden I'm starting to sweat it out a little bit. Because judgment is gonna be individual. It's gonna have integrity, it's gonna be internal.

#4 - Judgment will be impartial (vv9-10).
That's what Paul says right here. It underscores that Jew or Gentile are both going to get the same deal before the Lord. They're gonna be held to the same standard. There's going to be total fairness.

We're gonna talk about that more in just a minute. But before we move on, as we've talked about the search of God's judgment, I hope you feel a little searched by this. I do. It's uncomfortable. I feel much better when I can, like I said, blend in with a crowd of good clean moral people because that makes me feel like I'm ok. I'm fine. But when I think about who I am and where I stand before the Lord in all these searching categories, all of a sudden, I'm not thinking too highly of my own righteousness. I'm starting to think I need the righteousness of Jesus. Anybody else? I sure do.

So that moves to that third movement:

Now, God says he's going to judge everybody impartially, judge them all the same way, Jew or Gentile, it doesn't matter. But a moral Gentile who's hearing this section might say, "hang on a second, that's not fair. 'God's gonna judge us all by the same standard?' The Jews, they've got the rule book ahead of time. They've already got his law. They know what God expects. They know what God commands. It's not fair to hold me accountable for the things that only the Jews know about.

There's this old story about the crazy emperor Caligula who used to post laws where nobody could see them so that he could then be free to just punish people as he wanted to unfairly. That's the kind of charge that might be brought against God at this point. And Paul fields questions like this all the time in all these cities that he goes to. And Paul says, "look, you don't have to worry about that. You can relax. Whoever you are, God will judge you fairly. He will judge you by the standard that you had. So (verses 12 to 13), if you're a Jew who grew up going to Sabbath Day worship and hearing the scriptures and you know the law, he's gonna judge you by that standard. And notice he's not gonna judge you by how well you know the law, he'll judge you based on how well you did the law, if you obeyed it, if you kept it."

And we're gonna talk a lot more about these Jewish folks, and by extension, religious people like me next week, Lord willing. And how uncomfortable it is that I'm not judged by how much I know about the Bible, but what I do with the Bible. So Paul says, "look, if you're in that camp, that's gonna be your standard. We'll get to you next week."

Look at these other folks here in verses 14-16, as we bring this to a close. What about those who did not have the law, who didn't know any better? Paul says, "look, you're right. It would not be fair for God to judge the Gentiles by the law of Moses when they never saw it, never had it. So God won't judge them by the law of Moses. He'll judge them by the law that they did know. And that is the moral law that is written on the heart of every human being.

This is an amazing set of verses. I just need to touch on it really quick before we draw it to a close. This is really important. If you've never even seen a Bible, never been to Vacation Bible School, never been to Sunday School, if you've never been taught the Ten Commandments, you still have an innate sense of right and wrong, of fair and unfair. Nobody has to teach you that. Now, you don't live up to that standard of right and wrong yourself. You don't always hold yourself to that standard of right and wrong, but you sure hold everybody else to that standard, don't you? You expect everybody else to do right, and to walk straight, and to do the right thing. Many of you know non-Christians who are rigorously, viciously meticulous with other people and how they live and how good they ought to be, and how clean they ought to be. And they themselves don't care about keeping the law because it's written on the heart that there's a right and wrong.

I remember in college reading C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity. And he's trying to do evangelism with people during World War II. And he says, "look, even if you reject Christianity, you say it's outdated, it's not for you, that there's not even a God that you're gonna have to be judged by, that's some old idea, that's fine. But when you get on a crowded bus and you get a seat, right? And somebody else pushes you out of that seat and sits in it in your place. What's your reaction? Do you say, "Well, there's no God, there's no standard, so I guess it's just as good for him to shove me out of the seat as it is for me to stay in the seat. Is that what anybody says? No! You raise hell about it. You say, "That's not right! That's not fair! You're wrong! You ought to be arrested! I'm gonna get in a fight with you!" Because you have this innate sense of right and wrong, even if you don't acknowledge the God who put it in your heart. And so we can't escape it. We know that there's a right and there's a wrong, and we'll be held to that, even if we don't know the scriptures.

Francis Schafer was a 20th century evangelist and apologist. And he talked about this invisible tape recorder that we all go through life with hanging around our neck on a little lanyard recording everything that we say. And so, if we get to the day of judgment and we come before the Lord in judgment, and we say, "Lord, look, I didn't know the Bible. I didn't go to church. I didn't know all those rules. I didn't know what you expected. So you can't hold me to any of that stuff." God can look back at us and say, "That's fine. We won't talk about my Bible right now. We're just going to talk about what you said on this tape recorder every time you told someone what they ought to be, what they ought to do, and why they're wrong. We'll just play that, and we'll use your standard for other people. PLAY.

How do you like the idea of that? The point is whether you're judged by God's revealed standard in the scriptures or you're just judged by your own moral standard that you use with other people, in either case, we're not looking so hot. And we're not going to make it unless God provides a way of escape, unless God provides a righteousness for us through faith in Jesus Christ. And that's what this passage is meant to press into our hearts. Paul is just backing us into a corner. We're all kind of backed into the corner of that room because we're feeling the heat of judgment coming on us. That's how it's supposed to work.

Because listen y'all, I figured out I know how to double the size of our church! I can double attendance. I can double the budget. We'll have to double the size of the building and the parking lot. You know how I can do that? By preaching every single week, the judgment of God on the world out there. And everybody would go wild. And everybody would be lighting up Facebook and social media and say, "wow, Pastor Eric was really giving it to them today, wasn't he?" And everybody would love it! And I would be a hero! And they would carry me out of here on their shoulders like Rudy!

Because we love to get all worked up into a frenzy like it's Hannity and Colmes or something! We love to get worked up over how horrible the world is out there. Now, look, the world is pretty horrible out there. It's unrighteous. It needs a savior. That's no secret. We all sort of agree on that. You wouldn't be in here if you didn't. But we don't need to hear about how bad it is out there every single week because it would just leave us in our self-righteousness, not seeing our need for Jesus, not humble before the Lord. So that's why, like it or not, we've got to spend time in Romans 2 about how moral people who are hard working and do the things that God says to do, (that's really good), how we need God's righteousness too.

Because judgment is a one by one kind of deal. And it will have integrity, and it will be internal, and you're gonna want a savior at your side on that day. Y'all know what I'm saying?

And so if you're here today, and you're a Romans 1 type sinner, I've got good news for you. A Romans 1 type sinner is someone who practices sin openly and approves other people who practice sin openly. And if that's you, I've got good news for you: God wants to make you righteous through faith in Jesus Christ if you will repent of your sin and turn to him.

And if you're here and you're a Romans 2 type sinner, and you like to stand back from those who sin openly, while you sin secretly, and condemn those who sin openly, I've got good news for you. God wants to make you righteous through faith in Jesus Christ before him. If you will repent of your sin and put your trust in Him.

So I don't know which camp you're in, but I do know this, you're in one of those two camps. And what you need only Jesus has got, but he is so eager to give it to you. Wouldn't it be a beautiful thing if on the first day of Vacation Bible School, we obeyed the Bible and came with childlike faith to the God who fills the empty hands of needy sinners with his righteousness?

You can call on Jesus right now. Let's pray.

Sermon by Eric Smith
Senior Pastor, Sharon Baptist Church