•       Many have read through the first Chapter of Romans and clearly seen the wrath of a righteous God.  Even Paul says back in verse 18 of Chapter 1 that the “wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness…” but as we stepped through that first chapter, I hope you saw, or at least I was trying to show you, that the later half of Chapter 1 is all about God’s broken heart.

        •       You see, where we halted in our remembrance of verse 18 (above) is where most yield…and in so doing, they stop short.  Because what verse 18 says is that yes “God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness,” but look, don’t miss this, Paul finishes the precept by saying…, “of men!”

        •       You see the righteousness of God, the holiness of the Almighty roars as the Eternal Lion against the sin and evil of men…yet His heart, the heart of a Father, the heart of a Savior, breaks into pieces for those men and women that are taken captive by that sin…they are His children…His beloved, His creation…taken, abducted, kidnapped…stolen from Him by the exceedingly sinfulness of sin…and so His wrath that is spoken of is not him dashing people to pieces…man He loves them!  No its His wrath against the wretched evil of sin that rips them off and ultimately rips them away from His eternal presence…

        •       You see, upon the cross, experts say what actually would have caused Jesus’ physical death…was a broken heart.  When the soldier pierced His side, out of Him came flowing blood mingled with water…as His organs systematically shut down due to a condition known as hypovolemic shock, eventually causing cardiac rupture.  And so as God watched His only Son, Jesus Christ die upon that cruel cross in excruciating pain that no one forever and ever will ever understand…please understand His sorrow and torturous grief is the equivalent to His ferocious wrath against the sin that initiated the entire circumstance.

        •       And Paul says…God has shown us…from the cross, through creation, by even our own conscience…He has shown us His invisible attributes, He has given us His Word which is so very clear concerning sin…yet man in their indulgence and obedient worship of all that is evil, and especially the one creature that is evil embodied, men select self, which ironically ultimately involves folks losing themselves…and so Paul says in verse 20 of Chapter 1, “they are without excuse.”

        •       And that is the simple case man.  When we stand in front of the throne of God and the books are opened, what excuse will be found for the sin?  What excuse will be found acceptable to the Father who endured the slaughter of His Son to give you and I the opportunity of being made holy and righteous for all of eternity?  What excuse?

        •       “God knows my heart?”  “God, you and I had our own thing?”  “God, You understand, I couldn’t give up my girlfriend, my boyfriend, my investments, my reputation, my pleasure?”  Those excuses are an offense, man…to the One who withheld nothing from you…but many are foolish…professing to be wise…fools man…and have traded the truth for the lie…and God’s heart breaks…again, just as it did as He hung on the cross for the very sin which many and maybe even you continue in proudly…

        •       And Paul here has made this point quite clear in the later parts of Chapter 1…that all men and all women are without excuse in their failure to glorify God, when it comes down to it man, standing at the last judgment…we will have no exucse…and what’s interesting is that the self righteous Jews there in Rome would be quick to agree with Paul.  You know, surrounded by millions of slaves and thousands of false gods and goddesses, the Jews would read over this and immediately indict the gentiles…the pagans…just like what we do with our own sin…

        •       Man we read the Bible so many times or hear a sermon so often and we think, this is for them!  No!  It’s for you man, it’s for me!  And Paul jumps right into Chapter 2 correcting this repulsive hypocritical mindset…look at verse 1 of Chapter 2.

Romans Chapter 2 Verse 1

        •       That word there in the Greek for inexcusable is the same word, in the same tense that Paul used earlier in Chapter 1 verse 20.  It’s the word anapologētos and quite interesting…it does mean “without excuse” as its used there in Chapter 1 but here in the first verse of Chapter 2 we see another contextually correct application…they are “inexcusable.”  Or in other words, they are not defendable.  God has lost custody you see…He is not able to defend, He is not able to excuse…Why would Paul say this?  Because His heart IS to defend, His heart IS to excuse and God has done it all man…so that you and I could be both…

        •       But Paul says here, in your sin, without repentance, without the salvation that is to be found only in Christ Jesus…man you’ll stand before a holy and a just God…and He will weep as He will be unable to excuse…

        •       And so leaving the precept of the word and returning to the context of the application, Paul says here to the Jews, “you who are judging the pagan nature and homosexual culture of the gentiles…man…look into your heart…full of anger and bitterness over someone else’s sin…you are also guilty…you are also inexcusable!  Man this is body rocking!

        •       This word judge in the Greek is krino.  This is the one type of judgment that we are not to do…to judge in such a way to condemn…to judge with a sneer on one’s face and a finger angrily pointed at him, at her, at them…that is not the heart of God man…the heart of God is to judge sin first sacrificially, with a heart of love and restoration…which occurred at the cross and finally to judge sin by the removal of it, the abolishment of  it, which will occur at the White Throne Judgement seat of Christ.

        •       And so too we as ministers of His grace, we warn, we persuade, we reason with folks trapped in some sort of sin with a  heart that desires them to be right with the Lord, restored to fellowship with the Holy Spirit…and then ultimately when sin is chosen over the Savior, we withdraw…man.  A horrible outcome however one prescribed by the Bible because sin in a person’s life will continue until there is accountability. 

        •       Now while we are not to make judgments in condemnation, we are most definitely, certainly, absolutely, Biblically to make judgments for identification.  Jesus said in Matthew Chapter 7, “By their fruits you’ll know them,” and “beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing.”  How are we to know and beware lest we be actively making judgments?  Exactly.  That is precisely why Jesus said (commanded us) in John 7:24, “when you judge, judge righteously.”  And what does that look like?  Judge just as God judges, in accordance with His Word, in the Spirit of love and salvation.

        •       And so Paul says, “hey folks, your condemnation of others is unjust, because while you condemn them of sin, you yourself are in sin worthy of condemnation.”  This idea of “don’t correct me, what about you?  Don’t rebuke my sin, what about their sin…” just heaping sin upon sin upon sin upon sin in that kind of attitude.  No, we are to accept rebuke, repent and turn from sin, and man worship the God who showed His love for us and (at the same time, with the same action), His wrathful rejection of all sorts, types and circumstance of unrighteousness…and we do that in accordance with His word, that is to judge rightfully…check out the next verse...

Romans Chapter 2 Verse 2

        •       The judgment of God is according to truth…Jesus said, “I am the Truth,” against those who practice, (the thought is “continue in”), such things…And so check it, the judgment of God, which is righteous and right…holy and just, is according to the truth man…Jesus Christ, the penalty that He endured…you see the broken heart of God the Father is equal to his unwavering wrath against sin…and so you see how we cannot play with this…we are indefensible, we are unable to be excused…and so we must as a Christian, as a father, a mother, a son, a daughter, a brother, a sister…as a church…we must and will always stand against unrighteousness and in so doing, we will stand with the Truth…Paul continues…

Romans Chapter 2 Verses 3-4

        •       Man how our own sin, or any sin for that matter, looks so nasty on others…while we ourselves justify sin…we all do it…we shouldn’t…but we’re the only ones behind our eyes and so we’re kinda bent on ourselves…partial to ourselves and just like us Paul says to these folks who are condemning while themselves performing the same sin, have mistaken God’s longsuffering for apathy, or approval and what happens is that we begin to lose sight of the fact that we ourselves are in need of repentance. 

        •       God cannot bless compromise.  Knowing what is right and you settle for less…that is compromise.  Compromise only leads to…compromise… 

        •       Folks, we begin to take our eyes off the cross, off of the price that was paid, and we dwell upon what we call “grace.”  Thinking it some sort of blank check for sinfulness.  When Biblical grace, as we saw in Chapter 1 verse 5 provokes us to apostleship and obedience.  When we think upon the love that God has poured out on us…there is no way we can go on offending Him…no way…and so Paul says here, “you’ve lost sight of His goodness, and in that you have forsaken repentance.”

        •       Man never do that.  Repentance is the principal gift of God to a fallen man.  “Matt, I thought that was salvation, I thought that the principal gift was Christ.”  I want you to think of it this way.  The Principal is Christ…He is the head, He is the Object, He is the Gift and the Giftor…and it is only by repentance, the willful laying down of our sin, rejecting our natural and self-ful ways, it is only by repentance that we come to Him…that we can know Him and receive His grace.

        •       A.W. Tozer once taught, “The promise of pardon and cleansing is always associated in the Scriptures with the command to repent. The widely used text in Isaiah, “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Isaiah 1:18), is organically united to the verses that precede it: “Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow” (Isaiah 1:16-17). What does this teach but radical reformation of life before there can be any expectation of pardon? To divorce the words from each other is to do violence to the Scriptures and to convict ourselves of deceitfully handling the truth.”

        •       Jesus said in Mark Chapter 1, “repent and believe.”  Notice the order.  Peter preached in Acts 3:19, “repent and be converted.”  Notice the order.  Man when we miss God’s goodness, we miss repentance…and in that we completely miss Jesus.  And Paul is saying here that a primary contributor to that air ball, is a condemning attitude…scripture is for us.  Each Biblical truth and its application is for each of us personally….

        •       You want the situation changed…YOU change.  You want him or her to change…YOU change…you want her to respect you more…repent of your selfish sin of demanding respect, you want him to love you more…repent of your egocentric sin of demanding love…and just serve God…have you forgotten what you’ve been saved from?  Have you forgotten what your eternal life cost?  I think you have…

        •       You’re wrecking yourself you see…he’s not wrecking you, she’s not wrecking you…I’m not wrecking you…you’re wrecking you…Paul says this in the next couple of verses…

Romans Chapter 2 Verses 5 – 6

        •       Keep in mind these folks think that they are just fine.  These are the folks that are condemning others of sin and so they know sin man…yet they themselves lack repentance.  Paul continues and now reveals to us a for real, practical pattern…

Romans Chapter 2 Verses 7 – 11

        •       Glory, honor and immortality to those who by patient continuance…do you know what that means?  Patient Continuance…it means its hard man!  It’s the word hypomonē in the Greek…literally defined as one who is not swerved from his or her deliberate purpose and loyalty to faith and honoring God by even the greatest trials and sufferings…man that means come turmoil or treasure, we will serve the Lord!  Put in work!  Building a home for the Lord within our own hearts.

        •       To them, glory unto God, honor unto the Most High and immortality, right now!!

        •       But to those who walk in their own way man…according to their sensual pleasure and “human nature,” justifying sin and rationalizing their own evil while even being offended by the sins of others…Paul says wrath…offense man…tribulation, troubles…and anguish…meaning in the Greek there, hopeless calamity…no end to it…

        •       But then Paul footstomps again, love God, remember His goodness and he repeats glory and honor but he adds, “peace.”  And there are no exceptions, no excuses…no homie hookup deals from on-high…because God does not have favorites…He doesn’t make deals and cut breaks…there’s no pulling out your “holidex” and looking up a patron saint or an angel and having them petition God for you…no it is what it is…and there is only one Way to God, one Mediator between God and man and that is the man Christ Jesus…no one comes to the Father except through me Jesus said…and so we either serve the Truth, or serve the lie…man it’s only one way or the other…