Well, good morning to everyone. Quite the storm on the way down here this morning. It's not raining in Ironwood; it's a banana belt up there, you know. My wife said it looked like it was going to snow, and I said, not yet. Not ready for that. 

We're going to be continuing our study in Romans 2 this morning. It's the last Sunday of the month, and we have communion on the last Sunday. We've been working through the book of Romans for our communion services. And you'll remember last time we began our study in Romans 2. So we're in the midst of a section of the great doctrinal epistle which tells us the bad news of the condemnation of all men. 

Romans 1:18 to 3:20 is indeed bad news. It's the truth that every man born in Adam is born a sinner, and he manifests his nature outwardly through continual sinful living. Because he is unrighteous, because he is a sinner by nature, because he is in Adam, he is condemned, deserving of death, eternal death, in the lake of fire. Romans 3 tells us that there is none righteous, no, not one. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And man finds himself in this awful state, this hopeless state. And that's really the point of these chapters that we're working through. 

We saw in chapter 1 that man has rejected God. He's willfully suppressed the truth of God, who he is, his holy, righteous requirement for salvation. In response, man has designed religion. He has created his own corrupt gods like himself so that he might live up to a lesser standard and, in so doing, satisfy his need for worship. Man seeks to justify himself, to establish his own righteousness through religion, through works, through law. 

What we'll see in our text today and on into chapter 3 is that having religion, even having the law of God, the law that God gave, is not enough. If a man is to enter God's heaven by the law, then he must keep it perfectly. He must be entirely, completely, and perfectly righteous in every act. And the obvious truth is that no man is perfect. All have sinned. 

And thus the conclusion to this entire section we find in Romans 3:19 and 20, says, "Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, in order that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin." The purpose of the law of God is to shut every mouth, to find the whole world guilty before God, and to lead each man to faith in Jesus Christ. 

In Romans 1, we saw that the pagan man who designed religion after man, after four-footed animals and creeping things, this man did not have the law of God. He lived in idolatry and aberrant pagan worship. He's the sinner of our world, having rejected God and been given over—the drunkard, the thief, the sexually immoral. And this man is found to be deserving of judgment. 

But in Romans 2, we see a most interesting truth. There also exists in this world the self-righteous religious man, such as the Jew who has the Scriptures, who has the law of God, who's taken that law and twisted it for a purpose other than God intended. Rather than using the law as God intended to show us our guilt and our need for a Savior, this man has designed a system of works righteousness where he attempts through rites and rituals and works of the law to be good enough to get into God's heaven. 

This was true for the Jew of Paul's day, to which he writes. But it's also true in our day, for all of the denominations and churches that claim the name of Christ but teach righteousness through the law. And what we're going to see today in our text is that this man is just as guilty, even perhaps more so, for he has the law. He teaches the law. And still, he is guilty of breaking the law. This chapter shows us the condemnation of the religious man. 

Let's turn to Romans 2, please. And I want to read verses 2 to 4, and then we'll skip down to verse 12. "But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things. And do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?" 

Verse 12: "For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without law, and as many as have sinned in the law will be judged by the law. For not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified. For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them, in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel." 

Indeed, you are called a Jew, and rest on the law, and make your boast in God, and know His will, and approve the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the law, and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, having the form of knowledge and truth in the law. 

You, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that a man should not steal, do you steal? You who say, do not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who make your boast in the law, do you dishonor God through breaking the law? For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you, as it is written, "For circumcision is indeed profitable if you keep the law, but if you are a breaker of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision." 

Therefore, if an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision? And will not the physically uncircumcised, if he fulfills the law, judge you who even with your written code and circumcision are a transgressor of the law? For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit, not in the letter, whose praise is not from men, but from God. 

I've given you three points on your outline this morning we're going to highlight in this text. First, according to truth. Second, according to the law. And third, according to my gospel. 

Well, the hope of every religious man is that God will not judge according to truth. I was having coffee with a friend of mine the other day, a religious man, wholly devoted to his system. He provides me with a lot of illustrations, by the way. I was trying to witness to him, sitting in his lawn chair, having coffee. I said, well, this is nice, you know, sit down, I don't do this very often, you know. 

So I was trying to witness to him, and this is what he said to me. He said, all you have to do is find someone worse than you. This is the definition of religion, practically worked out. Religion believes, and most men believe or hope, that God judges on some sort of curve, that there's a relative judgment, and that if my good works outweigh my bad, then I'll be okay. Or that there's some quota for heaven, and that if I'm better than most people or at least some people, then I probably will make it in. 

Paul said it's not wise to compare ourselves with ourselves and among ourselves, yet this is really what works righteous religion demands. I'm not as bad as that guy, and therefore I must be okay. I mean, I haven't killed anybody. But the stunning fact that Paul brings to light in chapter 2 is this: God judges according to truth. 

Romans 2 says, "But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things." And what is the truth? The truth is that all men are sinners. All men fall short of God's perfect standard to enter His heaven. Even the most righteous men, the most dedicated religious men, fall short. 

In Matthew 5:20, Jesus said this amazing statement to a group of self-righteous Jews sitting on that hillside. He said, "I say to you that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven." We could say today, unless you are more righteous than Mother Teresa, you will not go to heaven. 

This indicates a couple of very profound truths. One is that the religious leaders, the most righteous among men, are not righteous enough to get into God's heaven. And two, that my mission to be righteous enough to enter heaven by my works is a futile pursuit. Jesus went on to conclude in that section in Matthew 5:48 saying, "You must be perfect as my Father in heaven is perfect in order to enter the kingdom of heaven." 

And the bottom line here is that God judges according to truth. The truth is that I, as all men born in Adam, am born a sinner and I have failed to keep the law of God. 

Turn over to Galatians 3 with me please. Galatians 3:15. There were some issues with a desire to be justified by keeping the law in Galatia. Paul had been there and had to withstand Peter to his face concerning this. The legalistic Jews had been there trying to cause division and undermine Paul. 

In verse 15 of chapter 3, Paul says, "Brethren, I speak in the manner of men, though it is only a man's covenant. Yet if it is confirmed, no one annuls or adds to it. Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He does not say and to seeds as of many, but as of one and to your seed who is Christ. And this I say, that the law which was four hundred and thirty years later cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ, that it should make the promise of no effect." 

For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of promise, but God gave it to Abraham by promise. What purpose then does the law serve? This is such an important question. It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come, to whom the promise was made. And it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator. Now a mediator does not mediate for one only, but God as one. 

Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not. For if there had been a law given, which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law. But the scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. 

But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore, the law was our tutor, our schoolmaster, our teacher, to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor, for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 

For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There's neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free, there's neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. If there could have been a law given, Paul says, which could have given life, then truly righteousness would have come by the law. But man cannot keep the law because he is a sinner by nature. 

Go back to chapter 2 in Galatians. I just want to emphasize this. Galatians 2:16. Every time I read Galatians 2:16, I think Paul must be saying, how else can I say this? How else can I make this clear? Listen to his words: "Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. Even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the law, for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified." 

I'm not sure what he's trying to say there, but apparently no flesh will be justified by keeping the law. Now in verse 17 he says, "But if while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves are also found sinners, is Christ therefore a minister of sin? Certainly not." 

For if I build again those things which I destroyed, speaking of the law, I make myself a transgressor. For I through the law died to the law, that I might live to God. I've been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. In the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain. 

Man cannot be justified. He cannot come into a right relationship with God by the law because he cannot keep the law perfectly, and this is precisely what the law requires. In Romans 7:5, Paul says, "For when we were in the flesh, when we were in Adam, sinners by nature, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death." 

Verse 6: "But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that, in order that, for the purpose that, we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter." He goes on to ask a couple of important questions. Is the law sin? Is the law what brought death to me? He says, "No, it was indwelling sin that was the problem, not the law. The law is holy and just and good." It's indwelling sin that's the problem. Every man has it—a principle, a law in him, that controls and dominates him in Adam, so that he cannot live a righteous and holy life. 

And in verse 22 of that chapter, Paul says, "For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man, but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members." The man in Adam is controlled and dominated in captivity to the law of sin in his members. But the man in Christ has been made free from the law of sin and death. He has died to sin; he has died to the law, and now lives by the power of the Spirit. 

In Romans 8, it says, "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do," here's the point, my friends, "the law could not do it because of indwelling sin, and that it was weak through the flesh, but the good news is God did." God sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. On account of sin, He condemned sin in the flesh that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. 

So we see first in our text that God judges according to truth. He rightly assesses the condition of the man in Adam and finds him guilty and deserving of death. Next, we see that the man who seeks to establish his own righteousness by law will be judged by that same law according to law. 

Look at verse 17 in Romans 2. "Indeed, you are called a Jew and rest on the law and make your boast in God and know His will and approve the things that are excellent being instructed out of the law, and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, having the form of knowledge and truth in the law." 

"You, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that a man should not steal, do you steal? You who say, do not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who make your boast in the law, do you dishonor God through breaking the law?" 

He says in verse 25 that circumcision is profitable if you keep the law, but if you break the law, this is of no profit to you. I remember several years ago, Jehovah's Witnesses came to our house. We were coming home from church, and we pulled up and I saw them coming up the street from the neighbors, and oh man. So I got my Bible and I went and let the dog out and had the dog standing under the pine tree there in the front yard waiting on them to come down the street. 

But the essence of what we talked about, how do I get to heaven? Well, you can't go to heaven. I said I understand I can't, but how do I get to the good place? Well, you have to keep the law. I said what law? Well, do not commit adultery. Do not, they kind of went through some things. So I just asked them this question: "How's that going for you?" How's it going for you? That's the question. If you're trying to justify yourself by the law, the perfect requirement, keeping the law, it's a futile pursuit. 

The Jews of Paul's day were trusting in three things to get them to heaven. And Paul systematically pulls these three legs of the stool out from under them as a means of righteousness in Romans chapter 2. First, they believed that they would enter heaven because they were physical sons of Abraham; that simply because of their lineage they were in. I've been a Baptist all my life. My dad was a Baptist; my grandfather was a Baptist, right? I mean, it's not as strict and peculiar as it is in the Jewish system, but it's true today as well. 

Second, they believed that because they possessed the law of God, had been given the law of God, just that they had it, that made them safe. And third, they trusted in their religious ritual, their identification with Israel, circumcision, and by surgery to get them into heaven. But Paul in this chapter exposes the futility of trusting in these things because the truth is that if a man seeks to justify himself by the law, then he will be judged by that perfect law of God. 

You can see Paul's seamless argument in our text. You who teach another, you know, don't steal, don't commit adultery, don't you do the same things? You who make your boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? The Jew, the religious man, sat in judgment of the sinner, the man of Romans 1. He agreed with Paul that the prostitute and the homosexual and the drunkard, they deserve to go to hell. But Paul strikes a blow to this man, showing that with the same law that he judges the Gentile sinners, so God will judge him, and he will be found guilty because he, too, is a breaker of the law. And being breakers of the law, he, too, will be judged. 

Jesus gives us a profound parable illustrating this truth. Turn over to Luke 18 with me, please, at verse 9. This is such a tremendous truth. Luke 18:9. "Also, He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others." It's exactly what we have going on in Romans 2 and in so much religion today. 

He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself." Listen to his prayer. "God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I possess." 

"And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner.' I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." 

Turn over to Luke 15 also. Luke 15:1. "Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to him to hear him. And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, 'This man receives sinners and eats with them.'" So he spoke this parable to them, saying, "What man of you, having 100 sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the 99 in the wilderness and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.' I say to you that likewise, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 just persons who need no repentance." 

The clear truth of the scriptures is that God has found all men to be sinners, that all have sinned and fall short of God's perfect standard of righteousness. There is no one righteous, no not one. It's not that the 99 do not need repentance. It's that they do not believe that they need repentance. They think they are righteous. They think they are good enough. It's the one who realizes that he's a sinner, that he deserves eternal death in the lake of fire for breaking God's law, the one who turns to faith in Jesus alone and what he has accomplished on the cross. 

In this one, there will be joy in heaven. Every man has a choice. He can be judged according to his own works, according to the law, his own righteousness, being in Adam. Or he can, through faith in Christ, be conveyed from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the son of his love. He can be moved from being in Adam to Christ through faith in Jesus alone. And being found in Christ, he will not be judged according to his own works, his own righteousness, but the work of Jesus on the cross, the righteousness of Christ, imputed to the one who believes. 

John 1:11 says, "He came to his own and his own did not receive him, but as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become the children of God, to those who believe in his name." Romans 4:2, "For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God." But not before God. "For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness." 

Listen to this verse. "Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt, but to him who does not work but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness." Did you notice that it's not the one who works but the one who believes? God justifies the ungodly, not the good man. It's not the good people who go to heaven, but God justifies the ungodly. His faith is accounted to him, imputed to him for righteousness. Jesus' righteousness is imputed to us when we place our faith in him, our whole trust in him alone. 

Listen to Paul's testimony, Philippians 3:8, "Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish that I may gain Christ." Listen to this: "And be found in him, not having my own righteousness which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith." 

God will judge according to truth. God will judge according to His perfect law standard. For the religious self-righteous man seeking to earn his own righteousness through law keeping, he will be judged by the same law with which he judges others. He will stand on the basis of his own works, and he will be found wanting. 

And last in our text, we see that God judges ultimately according to my gospel. I love the way Paul says that, according to my gospel. Verse 12 again: "For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without law, and as many as have sinned in the law will be judged by the law, for not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified." 

"For when Gentiles who do not have the law by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them. In the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel." 

There's a great dichotomy here for the men of this world, for there are only two types of men in the whole world. There are those who seek to establish their own righteousness by their works, by religion, good deeds, and there are those who have come to understand the bad news, that they are sinners before a holy and righteous judge who will judge according to truth, according to the law, and they've come to understand their desperate need for a Savior, coming to faith in Jesus Christ. 

And this is where the gospel divides. What does the gospel say? Jesus, the Son of God, died in our place for our sins, according to the scriptures; he was buried, and on the third day he rose again, according to the scriptures. And the gospel extends an invitation to take hold of this truth, to hold fast to it, to believe it and trust in it, and the Bible says when a man takes hold of this truth for himself and holds fast to it, he is saved. But the man who rejects Christ will also be judged by this gospel truth. 

Turn over to John 3:16 with me, please. We know this verse so well, but I want you to look at verses 17 and 18. John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved." Now look at verse 18: "He who believes in him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." 

Why is he condemned? Because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God, and in verse 36, it says, "He who believes in the Son has everlasting life, and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him." 

When Paul says that Jesus will judge all men according to my gospel, this is the question that the judgment brings: Do you believe Jesus? Have you turned from your own works and own religion and own self-righteousness and turned to Jesus alone in faith? Or are you still trying to establish your own righteousness? Have you rejected, spurned the righteousness of Christ? 

I'd like for you to look at Romans 9:30 with me please. Paul makes this so clear concerning the problem for Israel to those Jews to which he's writing in Romans 2. Romans 9:30: "What shall we say then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained a righteousness, even the righteousness of faith. But Israel pursuing the law of righteousness has not attained to the law of righteousness." 

Why? "Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone. As it is written, 'Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, and whoever believes on him will not be put to shame.'" 

"Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved, for I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own righteousness have not submitted to the righteousness of God, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes." 

Ultimately this will be the question concerning judgment: Have you believed Jesus? Have you placed your faith in him alone according to the gospel? And if I can say that, if we can say that our only hope is in Christ, our only trust is in the cross, our only righteousness is found in him, then my friends we can have assurance according to the gospel that we are saved forever, that we will spend eternity in heaven with our Savior and our Lord based on what he has done, not on what we have done. 

This is the gospel; this is the good news, and this is why we come together this morning, the last Sunday of the month, to celebrate this great truth, to do this in remembrance and thankfulness for all that Jesus accomplished in our salvation. We're here to proclaim his death until he comes, to rejoice and remember and to recognize the truth, the judgment according to the gospel, that we who have believed Jesus have received by imputation his righteousness, that we stand in grace through faith alone before God. 

This is his promise to us, and this is why we come together for communion this morning. Let's close in prayer. 

Father, we're so thankful for your word, your truth. We're so thankful that you make it so clear that it takes a willful suppression in order to deny the gospel truth. Thank you for Jesus, for his death in our place, for his burial and resurrection, and for the righteousness that we can have imputed to us through faith in him, your very righteousness, apart from the works of the law. Help us to clearly understand this, to take hold of it, to hold fast to it, and to preach it to everyone in our lives. We thank you for the cross; we thank you for this time to celebrate now, to have communion together, to remember what you've done for us. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.