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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.
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