Romans Chapter 2:1-4

See, I can sit up here all day and talk about hellfire and brimstone. But if that's all I say to you, you can't receive the gospel.

If I just leave you dangling over the fires of hell and say, okay, now don't you feel better? See, what have I done? Anything? Nothing.

I have to get to that point. The goodness of God or everything I've said is to no value. Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David Magee. David is the senior pastor of the bridge in Kernersville, North Carolina. Throughout scripture, we find that we are to walk in love and not so much in judgment and condemnation. Find out how we can do that today as Pastor David continues in the book of Romans, chapter two. But before we get into today's teaching, from beginning to end, the Bible shows the special nature of God's relationship with the nation of Israel.

But what does that have to do with you today? Romans chapter 11 tells us that God's covenant relationship with Israel has huge implications for you. To help you understand more, Pastor David wants to send you his teaching video recorded in the Holy Land called Israel, the Bible and You. This powerful resource will encourage and strengthen you as you learn how connected you are with God's chosen people. Israel, the Bible and You is our gift to thank you for your donation to help more people on this station and beyond cross the bridge from death to life. So visit crossthebridge.com to request your copy.

Again, that's crossthebridge.com. Now here's David Magee with part two of his teaching, Judgment. Romans chapter two, verse one. It says, Therefore you are inexcusable, old man, whoever you are who judge. For in whatever you judge another, you condemn yourself for you who judge practice the same things. Verse two, But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things. And do you think this, old man, you who judge those practicing such things and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God? Let's understand something. The Bible not only deals with our actions, but if you just deal with your actions, that leaves you.

Well, well, friend, you can be hypocritical if you're just dealing with your actions. We tend towards emphasizing the action. God says, You know, I want to go deeper than that.

I want to go to the heart. I want to deal with your attitudes. When Jesus talked about, Hey, you know, you're told not to kill somebody. But if you have hatred and anger towards somebody, it's like murder. Now, probably a lot of us in here have not committed murder, but is there anybody in here who's never been angry at somebody or been hateful towards somebody?

Probably not. Maybe you read that list and you go, well, I've never committed adultery. And yet Jesus says, if you've ever lusted somebody in your heart or in your mind, you've done as much as committed adultery.

Now with a show of hands, no, I'm kidding. Every one of us stands guilty at that point because Jesus is going to the heart and saying, look, have you had these attitudes? And when you start to look at your own heart and you start to look at the attitude, you go, man, not the person I should be, but I hope you can add friend. Praise the Lord.

I'm not the person I used to be. God's doing something in me and he continues to do it. Jesus spoke about this judgment issue in Matthew chapter 7 and he says this, he says, stop judging others and you will not be judged. I'm going to stop there because this is probably one of the most quoted verses in the Bible. They usually use the King James version, judge ye, judge not lest ye be judged or don't judge me.

It's kind of interesting that, you know, they kind of leave out other scriptural concepts, but let's read on. For others will treat you as you treat them. Whatever measure you use in judging others, it will be used to measure how you were judged and why worry about a spec in your friend's eye. When you have a log in your own, how can you think of saying, let me help you get rid of that spec in your eye. When you can't see past the log in your own eye, verse five is very important for context.

Say hypocrite first, get rid of the log from your own eye. Then perhaps you will see well enough to deal with a spec in your friend's eye. That's kind of interesting that that verse is in there. It's not quoted usually when people say, judge not lest ye be judged. But according to this passage, it says, Hey, if you've already dealt with an issue or an area of your life, now you've been set free to help somebody else with one of those issues. But while you're still struggling in that area, you're probably not in a position to really help somebody. In other words, if you're struggling with alcoholism and you're still drinking, you can't really minister to somebody that's drinking now, but once God has delivered, you know, you you've accepted God's deliverance and you're no longer drinking. Then you're in a very special place to minister to people that are still struggling in that area.

So there is a sense, spiritually speaking, that you can sense right and wrong, and then you can help somebody else be an overcomer in that area. But if you're still struggling in that area, friend, you're not in a position to speak to somebody else's life about that, that, that sin or that area, but let's understand. And there is a sense that, you know, the Bible talks about iron sharpening iron as, as we interact, as we have a relationship, there's friction caused. And as I'm up here teaching, I'm talking about these issues and, and, you know, we're being prepared to, for life's journey, we're being prepared if you will, for battle. And part of this, as we go through the scriptures is go, wow, you know what? I'm still, I'm still struggling in that area.

This is still an issue. And the word brings it up and we're preparing each other for battle and we can sense what is right and wrong. So understand when we're talking about this type of judgment, we're talking about condemnation, not discernment. This is important for us to realize because the next life lesson, the Bible plainly teaches us that we can know right and wrong and that with love, important statement, with love, we can teach others what is right and wrong. And while I should not condemn people, I can discern.

If I'm talking to somebody and they go, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, I did that whole born again thing. I prayed that little prayer and they're not in fellowship. They're not attending a church like the Bible talks about. They're not tithing financially given to a church like the Bible talks about.

They're not serving others and serving God like the Bible talks about in that conversation. I can't say, well, absolutely you're still going to hell even though you're telling me you've been born again. But I can discern that there's not fruit in their life. Now that's not condemning them.

That's not saying that you're going to hell even though you asked Jesus to forgive you of your sins. But I can say, you know what? I discern there's not a lot of fruit in your life. Now that's not condemning. That's discerning. 1 Corinthians 2 15 says this, but he who is spiritual judges all things. He who is spiritual judges all things. Now that's not judgment in the sense of condemning. That's judging in the sense of discerning, judging in the sense of discerning.

And that's something that we need to do and should do. But what the passages point out is that, you know, according to the law, we are all condemned whether we're unrighteous or self-righteous. See, and that's the thing is God begins to work in our life.

There is a tendency to develop spiritual pride and we need to be careful in this area, friends, because everyone else, how, you know, how, how are we going to escape this so righteous of a judgment, this standard God has of perfection for us that none of us can meet. How do we escape? Because the usual ways of thinking that you can escape maybe get beyond the powers of extradition. You know, if you do something in this country, there's certain countries you can go to that they won't pull you back here. Well, that's not really going to work with God.

Is it? Well, maybe once we're incarcerated, maybe once we're in jail or we're in prison, we can escape. No, that one is not going to work either. Friend, there's only one real plan of escape. That's Jesus.

There's only one way out. When you realize that all of us stand condemned, there is only one way to be pardoned before the Lord. And he's given us that way.

He's given us his son so that we can be declared innocent and we can be set free. But if you reject that one from your choosing to be condemned, you know, it's interesting. There's certain people that, you know, we look at in history, you know, I've mentioned Hitler and Stalin recently. We look at those people and go, yeah, they should be judged.

Absolutely. They did wrong things and they should be judged, but not me or not my loved ones or not my friends. But the reality is, friend, is that if God judged them and didn't judge other people, then he would not be a righteous and fair judge. If he looked at those two guys and said, absolutely, you guys are guilty.

Everybody else can go free. God is no longer a righteous judge. Incredibly, God doesn't lower the standard or dismiss the charges. God sentences himself to pay for our sins. It's amazing.

It's amazing. You're listening to Pastor David McGee on Cross the Bridge. He'll be back with more powerful insight from God's Word in just a moment. But first, God's grace and mercy is greater than any of us could ever fathom. That's why he's been so faithful to the nation of Israel throughout the ages.

And he's not finished. He's promised to remain true to them to the end. We want to show you what God's faithfulness toward Israel says about his relationship with you by sending you Pastor David's teaching video, Israel, the Bible and You. In this exciting teaching recorded in the heart of the Holy Land, Pastor David unpacks important truths from God's relationships with Israel that impact your life today. Israel, the Bible and You is our gift to thank you for your donation to help more people on this station and beyond cross the bridge from death to life. So visit crossthebridge.com to request yours.

Again, that website is crossthebridge.com. Now back to today's teaching verse four. Or do you despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance and long suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? I love that verse. That verse changed the way I thought of the gospel and the good news, because it really is as a messenger of the gospel, as a proclaimer of the gospel, you Angeles.

Oh, the Greek word where we get our word for evangelism, fourth teller of good news. It is the goodness of God that leads people to repent, leads people to come to him. I know there's some ministries and some people that would argue this point, but they're really arguing with the word of God. Now, does this mean we should never say anybody has done anything wrong or we stand guilty before the Lord?

Absolutely not. And again, the beauty of the verse by verse teaching, we just came out of chapter one where all of us stood condemned coming into chapter two, where the self-righteous stand condemned. And there in the balance of it is Paul saying, but it's the goodness of God that leads us to repentance. See, I can sit up here all day and talk about hell fire and brimstone. I could do it. I could yell. I could point. I could scream.

I could go get on the street corner and yell out. Y'all all going to high. Y'all it's two syllables here in the state of North Carolina. I've been, I'm born and raised in here.

My family's been here 281 years. So I can say that if you're from out of state, you can't say that. Don't even, but if that's all I say to you, you can't receive the gospel. You can't receive the good news. If I just leave you dangling over the fires of hell and say, okay, now don't you feel better?

See, what have I done? Anything, nothing sooner or later in that conversation, I have to come to the goodness of God that he loves us so much and he's willing to be merciful to us. And he extends his hand to fellowship and forgiveness to us.

I have to get to that point. The goodness of God or everything I've said is to no value. Now again, some people absolutely, you have to deal with this in question because every now and again, you'll come up with somebody, you'll be talking to somebody that will actually argue with you over whether they're a sinner or not.

And again, the large majority of those people are in church strangely enough, but it keeps coming back to the goodness of God. And I know, you know, as a, as a time, I was a backslidden lukewarm, and that's probably giving myself too much credit, believer that was doing my own thing, going my own way. You know, other believers were coming up to me and, you know, encouraging me with such scriptures as you remind me like a dog to his vomit, you know, because Proverbs talks about a fool, like a fool returns to his folly, a dog returns to his vomit.

If you have a dog, you understand the analogy. We got a video and no, I'm kidding. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

Okay. Release that mental image. But when people said that to me, you know what, to be honest, I could so just, yeah, whatever. I mean, that didn't really get to my heart. What did get to my heart was my grandmother, my grandmama, who loved the Lord. And she would come to me in the midst of, you know, just all this confusion and darkness and, and everybody else condemning me and saying these things. She'd come to me and say, you know what? I love you. And I am praying for you. And every time she'd say that, man, my heart would just go, and it would get to me.

Why? Because she was showing me goodness. She was showing me love. She was showing me mercy.

And it was as a backslider. It was a lot easier to deal with the condemnation of people than to deal with her love and goodness that she was showing. And even though she passed away, even in her passing, she wound up bringing me back to the Lord.

Why? Because of that goodness. Because of that goodness. Romans 2.4 in the New Living translation says this, don't you realize how kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you?

Or don't you care? Can't you see how kind He has been in giving you time to turn from your sins, from your sin? You know, when you begin to think about how God, how good God is, and how much He loves us, and how Jesus died for our sins, and about how God even loved you while you were being hateful to Him, about how when you were lost and wandering, God was following you, calling to you, inviting you to come back to Him. When you begin to understand and contemplate the goodness of God, friend, it just, it does something to you. That's why every time you witness, you should make sure that you include the goodness of God.

Now again, Paul sets the balance here. He's talked about the wrath. He's talked about the judgment.

And you know what? A lot of times that absolutely has to be included in the discussion. But a lot of times people actually understand they're already condemned.

They understand they're already guilty before God. And then you get to come in and share the good news. I've ministered in places, and there was one time in particular where I walked up to a situation. I said, hey, you know, he was talking to another believer, actually my wife, Nora.

And I said, hey, what's going on? The guy said, I don't want to go to hell. Now, I didn't need to go through his unrighteousness. I didn't have to minister to him about the wrath and the judgment of God. He already knew that he stood condemned. My role at that point was to talk about the goodness of God.

How because of what Jesus did on the cross, he could come to the Lord and be forgiven. And I think, to be honest, I think most people stand in that camp. Now we've talked about how we can walk them through. But again, most people know that life is hard and they're awash in their fear and they know they've done wrong things. They know they've messed up. They know that they're guilty. They're filled with shame. And they don't know how to deal with that. They don't know how to process it. They're carrying their guilt around.

They don't know what to do with it. Guilt's an interesting thing. Where does guilt come from?

Why do you feel bad when you do something wrong? It's a great question. And it's one that psychiatrists and psychologists that deny God, that deny the truths of the Bible have never answered.

Oh, I've seen their answers. They're just, they're nonsense. That we invented a guilt complex. I'm sorry. Why in the world would we invent a guilt complex to do something that we think that we want to do, engage in wrongdoing?

It really doesn't make any sense. And understand, you know, as God waits on you or waits on somebody else to repent, it's His goodness. Now, of course, we don't really think that God waits too long on us, right? We're grateful that He's waited so long on us. And we're grateful that He's waiting on some of us this morning. But we do sometimes think He waits too long for other people. And sometimes it tells in our prayers, doesn't it?

When I was a young Christian, I used to pray some of the silliest prayers. You know, I'd see somebody that I really wanted to get saved and they're struggling or whatever. And I'd pray, I'd say, God, you just go ahead and you judge them. God, you just judge them. It's okay with me.

You just judge them and send them down a hard road. I never prayed that prayer for me. Mercy for me, Lord mercy. Thank you for your mercies new every morning. Judge them, Lord. See, we want mercies for us, but judgment for others.

Lord, you just go ahead. You let them have it. They're sowing you let them reap. I don't want to reap all that I've sown. You know, that was one of those curses our parents gave us. You remember that? May your child be half as evil as you are.

Those still got me quaking in my boots sometimes because I knew what a troubled lad I was. Mercy for me, Lord. And mercy for others.

Same goodness of God that wooed you, the same goodness of God that will woo them. Because, you know, you can talk about a lot of things, but I don't know if you've ever noticed this. When you start talking about somebody that's in pain and shame and guilt about the goodness of God, that's hard for them. That's when they start throwing up all their smokescreens. Well, what about people who haven't heard? What about these people? What about that? What about prophecies? What about the different versions of the Bible?

Why? Because they have no reply to the love and goodness of God. It draws us to the Lord, the goodness of God.

And this kind of blows away the, you know, a lot of us, especially if you grew up in church, you kind of, sometimes in churches, you can get the wrong picture of God. You can feel like God is some, I don't know, He's some big sniper in the sky. And you're on the path and He's just waiting. He's got you in the cross hairs, brother.

You just step out of line. Is that what the Bible says? Is that the picture that this verse paints of God?

The big sniper in the sky waiting for you to get out of line so he can take you out? Think about it. I thought about different times in the Bible.

I thought about Adam and Eve and what I would have done if I was God. And we can both rejoice that I'm not. Because I know what I was, Adam and Eve, you ate the fruit.

I told you not to eat the fruit the very day they ate it. You're out of here. Start again. Wipe you out.

Kill you. That whole Cain-Abel thing is going to fall apart anyway, so I'm just taking you out early. God comes to Noah and says, Noah, man, the world is messed up and here's what's going to happen.

You're going to build an ark. And then He waits 120 years over and over and over in the Bible we see this played out. Judas betrayed the Lord for 30 pieces of silver.

He shows up in the Garden of Gethsemane. Had I known, had I been there and been the Lord and Judas came up to me, that would have not been good. You know, I would have said, Peter, hand me your sword. I've got to talk to Judas for a minute. A little exhortation correction about to go on with our brother Judas. And have you ever thought about this, the Last Supper, when Jesus sits around and says, somebody's going to betray me? The disciples didn't know who it was.

Think about this, friend. How did they not know who it was? I know we all get this mental image of Judas, you know, that he was the guy in the dark sunglasses, the dark cape, who laughed with a weird, had a weird laugh. That would have made it easy to tell who Judas was, right? When Jesus said, somebody's going to betray me.

How about the guy in the dark cape sunglasses that has a weird laugh? But evidently he was one of the more religious of the group. Remember when the woman with the alabaster box breaks it and Judas says, oh, sounds great.

We could have given that to the poor. And then one of the writers of the gospel says, well, he said that because he was ripping off the treasure, but they didn't know. Jesus knew who it was, but he didn't treat Judas any differently than the other 11.

What a challenge. I know that in my life, I've treated people differently because what I thought they might do, Jesus knew and not only didn't treat him differently, but extended grace and mercy at every point. Even when he came to the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus says, friend, why have you come? Jesus knew why he was there. It was more of a, why did you do this?

Why did you choose this route? Instead of accepting my grace and my forgiveness, you can bring that into the present day, all the stuff that's going on with the world and all the hate and the war and all these things. And yet God is still being patient. God is merciful. God is gracious. God is good. Friend, do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven?

You can know right now. I want to lead you in a short, simple prayer, simply telling God you're sorry and asking him to help you to live for him. Now, God wants you to pray this prayer so much that he died to give you the opportunity and the ability to ask him to forgive you.

Please pray this prayer with me out loud right now. Dear Jesus, I believe you died for me that I could be forgiven. And I believe you were raised from the dead that I could have a new life and I've done wrong things. I have sinned and I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things. Please give me the power to live for you all of my days in Jesus name.

Amen. Friend, if you prayed that prayer, according to the Bible, you've been forgiven. You've been born again. So congratulations friend.

You just made the greatest decision that you will ever make. God bless you. If you prayed that prayer with David for the first time, we'd love to hear from you. You can call us toll free at 877-458-5508 to receive our first steps package with helpful resources to help you begin your walk with Christ. Before we go, we want to encourage you in your faith so that you can experience more of the grace and love of God for you. That's why we'd like to send you Pastor David's teaching video recorded in the heart of the Holy Land called Israel, the Bible and You. This encouraging look into the history of Israel and God's covenant faithfulness to his chosen people will help you take bold new steps in your relationship with God. Israel, the Bible and You is our gift to thank you for your donation to help more people on this station and beyond cross the bridge from death to life. So visit crossthebridge.com now to request your copy. And be sure to join us next time on Cross the Bridge with David McGee to hear more from the book of Romans. We'll see you then.