Romans 2:1-4
The Goodness of God
Romans 2:1-4, “Therefore thou art inexcusable O man, whomsoever
thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself;
for thou that judgest doest the same things. But we are sure that the judgment of God is
according to truth against them which commit such things. And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest
them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the
judgment of God? Or despisest thou
the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing
the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?”
[The following is a
sermon given by Pastor J. Mark Martin of
The
first category we already talked about, the pagans, who lived like the devil.
And they, they’re going to hell. They
got a foot on a banana peel and it’s an icy road they’re walking on, they
are going to hell. And he describes their actions. At the end of chapter 1, it’s shocking as he
describes their ‘homosexuality and their wickedness and greed and malice and
envy and strife, gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful,
inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy,
unloving, unmerciful--and although they know the ordinance of God that those
who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same but
they give their hearty approval to everybody else to do it.’ And now the context of chapter 2, he turns to
the moral crowd who are looking down their noses and saying ‘These people
should go to hell, they’re immoral. They’re
not like us, we’re good people.’ Paul
now addresses that crowd in chapter 2. OK, what about moral people? Do they have a little closer, are they closer
to God than immoral people? Let’s see.
Chapter 2, verse 1, “Therefore
you are without excuse every man of you”--every moral man of you, is what
he’s talking about—“who passes judgment,
for in that you judge another, you condemn yourself, for you who judge practice
the same things.” ‘And we know
that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things.’ In other words, the moral crowd was saying,
“Yes! Those perverts, those criminals,
those no-goods, they should have the judgment of God on them, yeah!’ And the apostle Paul says, ‘Wait a minute!
You judgmental people, you. You are guilty of the same.’ Shock city, ‘No way!’ ‘Yes, you are!’ Jesus said this, he said, “You have heard it
said that thou shalt not commit adultery.”
That is the act of adultery, right? “But I say to you”--he’s talking to the men--“if
you lust in your heart towards another woman, you’ve already committed adultery”
in your heart. Well there goes the
moral man, right? Because you know,
a lot of guys, right up to the line, you know--“But we didn’t do
it.” Did everything but that…And Jesus,
you know, he hit it right on the head. It’s
not a legalistic thing of just the act of adultery. He says it’s a heart problem. He said if you’ve got that wrong desire in your
heart, man, you’ve already committed that sin. And he said in another example “You’ve heard
it said ‘Thou shalt not kill” or commit murder, is what that means. “But I tell you that if you have even hated
your brother, you’ve already committed murder.” [cf. Matthew 5] Oh brother, who of us hasn’t hated somebody?
Maybe not within the last five minutes, but who of us hasn’t hated
somebody once in awhile? Jesus says you’re a murderer and you can go
through the list of the Big Ten, you know, and every one of those, Jesus magnified.
He’s saying, “Look, moral people, you’re not so moral after all.”
Everybody’s heart is alike. You
cut us open, we’re all alike. “The
heart is deceitful above all things, desperately wicked, who can know it”
(Jeremiah 17:9). Can the Ethiopian
change the color of his skin, the prophet asks?
Could the leopard get rid of his spots?
No. Then neither can you who
are accustomed to doing evil do good. Just
after we are born the sinful nature of Satan’s wavelength enters into all
of us--no one is exempt. That is why
we need salvation, because of this sinful nature broadcast into all of our
minds [Satan is the prince of the power of the air—he supercharges the very
atmosphere of earth with his sinful, wrathful, lustful attitudes—and these
“broadcasts” infect all of our minds.] My
sin isn’t just because of the wrong things I do, my sin is my being.
You see I do sinful things because I am a sinner.
[The sinful nature is programmed into us by Satan’s invisible inaudible
yet powerful broadcasts.] Doing sinful
things didn’t make me a sinner, they proved I was a sinner.
We all have our blind spots, and moral people have their blind spots
too. Some people really think they
are much better than they are. Good
old Al Capone, the people who really knew him heard him say over and over
again about what a good guy he was. Now
Al Capone was a murderer, and he was a mobster, a killer.
He had no conscience whatsoever. And
yet this is what he had to say about himself. “I spent the best years of my life giving people
the lighter pleasures, helping them to have a good time, and all I get is
abuse, the existence of a hunted man.” That’s
what his friends said he said a lot. “All I get is abuse.” “All I do is try to give people a light time.”
Of course he meant lighting a match, and you’ve got gasoline all over
you, you know probably. But killer Capone, Old Dirty Al, you know, he
thought he was such a great guy. “And
why are these police and F.B.I. agents all over me all the time?” But it’s not just the picture we have of ourselves
that’s sometimes way off. It can be
of our condition, you know, it can be of our condition. And we can think we’re safe when we’re not at
all safe.