Don't Judge Me [Part 3]

And because there was no one like that, in the fullness of time, in the plan of God, He sent a man to be exactly that. Exactly at the right time, Christ came and died for the ungodly. And he who knew no sin became our sin so that we who trust in Him would become His righteousness. Here's why we've got to talk about judgment. So we can understand grace. There was no one righteous, not a single one.

So Jesus, God, and man lived a life that we couldn't live. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I am Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series we call Oh Bologna, a study of Romans chapters one through three, as presented at Reynolda Church in North Carolina. Now, if you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program, we sure want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. It can be yours for your donation this month to Alan Wright Ministries. So as you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer. And you can contact us at PastorAlan.org. That's PastorAlan.org or call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. More on that later in the program. But now let's get started with today's teaching.

Here is Alan Wright. Once they start quarreling, they're quarreling about whether or not I actually broke the rule or the standard. And it's interesting that people who say they don't believe in a standard right and wrong, they have a standard. It's like breaking line in front of them and you'll find out. And what's interesting also is that people fear very, very strongly about it when they perceive that you're breaking the standard. They feel real strong about it. That's what's crazy about it is we've got this age in which people are saying, the culture is saying there's no right or wrong and yet everybody's more mad than they've ever been because you're wrong and I'm right. What is going on? It's Super Bowl Sunday and tonight we're going to watch 325 pound men, some of the strongest men on the planet, hurl their bodies into one another, crush one another, pull one another, push one another, tackle one another, throw them to the ground, do everything they can to bust them.

And that's all right. And at the end of the play, the ref blows the whistle and isn't it funny? Isn't it funny? If the whistle's been blown and the play's over, if one guy just barely shoves another guy, I mean wouldn't be enough to have killed a fly on his back, but he touched him. He's like, he touched me, he touched me. Teams are ready to fight each other over because you touched me. What are you talking about? You just about killed each other on the play and now he just barely touched you. Yeah, but now he broke the rule and I'm furious about that.

Weird. Why is there road rage? Someone's falling too close to you in another car and then you get mad and people do stupid things because they're like, you broke the standard. What standard?

My standard, the standard. But I thought there was no right and wrong. Well, I'd like to give the moral relativists a quiz. Just a complete unbeliever, never heard of Jesus or the Bible or 10 commandments and who believes that you cannot set an absolute standard of right and wrong.

I'd like to give them a little quiz. I think my first question would be, question number one, just tell me which is right and which is wrong. You see an elderly woman carrying a heavy grocery bag preparing to cross a busy street. Is it better to A, offer to help her carry the bag and support her as she travels across the street or is it better B, to shove her into oncoming traffic and steal her groceries? A or B? Question number two, which is better? After a terrible natural disaster, you visit a devastated location where houses are crumbled, merchant shops are broken and open and people are weeping over their losses. Is it better A, to join a mission team who's carrying water and food to the hurting people and donate your time and money to help them rebuild? Or B, to scoff and laugh at the wounded and rush from store to store looting and stealing their stuff?

Which is right? You see how silly it is? That's what Paul's saying. The fact that imperfect people sometimes do good things doesn't mean there's no reason that they shouldn't be judged. It's proof that they know right from wrong and they can't even live up to that standard. So now, why all this talk about judgment?

Why do we even have to talk about this? This is an epistle of grace. I can't wait to get to Romans 8. I'm gonna preach five or six messages from Romans 8. I may never come out of Romans 8. I might get stuck in Romans 8 and never come out. I might have to do five Sundays on there's no condemnation in Christ. We might get up to that point and say there's nothing can separate you from the love of Christ Jesus.

I might have to stay there for a month. I don't know. Then we get to that part.

I can't wait. But why do we gotta go through Romans 2 and talk about judgment? And every person, first the Jew, then the Gentile, everybody deserving of judgment.

I'll tell you why. Because of verse four. One of the most important verses in the Bible that deserves to be underlined, highlighted and memorized. Do you presume on the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience? Not knowing.

Saying, oh, please know this. God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance. It's in the present tense in the Greek.

It should be read. God's kindness is leading you to repentance. When did the younger son return home? When did the younger son return home? Was it because he finally felt so bad about himself?

Not really. It was when he said, I remember my father's house. There's food there. It was when he began to think that maybe, maybe, just maybe, maybe, maybe not positive, but maybe, maybe my dad won't totally reject me. Maybe he'd let me at least be a hired hand. He didn't have but a tiny seed, a small little speculative seed that maybe his father would be kind. And that kindness is what brought him home. He was ready to eat the barren corn cobs they were throwing to the pigs. And you remember there were figs on the trees and pomegranates on the table. He was thinking about possibly violating every Jewish norm and eating pig meat. And he remembered the lamb chops on his father's grill.

He remembered the sound of laughter in the hallways of the mansion. He remembered something about his father's kindness. And that's when he said, I'm going back. That's what leads to repentance. Repentance in the New Testament means literally to change your mind. Oh, changing your mind will change your behavior. But the emphasis of the New Testament word of repentance is metanueo, change your way of thinking. That's what Jesus said. Change your way of thinking. The kingdom of God's at hand. The glory of God, the grace of God, the miracles of God, the salvation of God that you've always thought was in the future is now here. So change your way of thinking and embrace it. I'm here.

I love you. I'm with you. Repentance is not your weeping. It is not your doing penance. It's not you lashing yourself. It's not about you even rehearsing all of your sins.

All that might be included as an expression. Repentance is not you pledging to be better. It's not to arrange more accountability. It's not, that might be important, but that's not what repentance is. Repentance is the dawning of your soul. God is kind and would love to have you in his arms.

Changing your mind about that will change everything in your life. That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. We're excited to tell you about Pastor Alan's latest book, Seeing as Jesus Sees.

It's just been released and it's the giant secret of real transformation. The followers of Christ tend to focus on doing. So we've been told to ask what would Jesus do? But even our noblest efforts to be more like Jesus ultimately fail for the same reason that pledging to keep the law never works.

There's no gospel power in our self-striving. But what if the secret to personal transformation and victorious living isn't found in doing as much as in seeing? Anyone who has ever had an aha moment or has suddenly discovered the truth of a situation knows that fresh vision changes everything. In his eye-opening new book, Pastor Alan Wright invites readers into a new simple spiritual practice, a little breath prayer that can be prayed throughout the day. Jesus, how do you see this? It's a prayer that the Savior loves to answer because after all, Christ came to be the light of the world. Clear away confusion, win over the darkness, and open your heart to wonder and joy by getting your copy of the book right away. And when you make a gift to Alan Wright Ministries today, we'll send you Pastor Alan's new beautiful hardcover book. And as an additional thank you for your support, you'll also receive a free six-week Seeing as Jesus Sees companion video series from Pastor Alan, along with a study guide and a daily reading plan. Let Jesus take you by the hand and show you a whole new perspective for your life as you learn how to ask Christ for his eyes.

You'll start seeing as Jesus sees, and you're gonna love the view. The gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support.

When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. His teaching now continues.

Here once again is Alan Wright. So Paul's talking about the judgment of God, but he's not trying to lead people to Christ through the judgment of God. He's just leading us to Romans 8 so we can understand what's so beautiful about the kindness of God.

Because if you never knew that you should be judged by God, you'll never appreciate how kind he is to have died for you. In Luke chapter 15, it's interesting. There are three stories that Jesus tells, not just these two sons and the father, but there's the story of the first place, a lost lamb. And in this parable, a shepherd goes out, leaves his 99 and finds his one lost sheep and carries it back. And at verse 6 of chapter 15, when he comes home, Jesus says, he calls together his friends and his neighbors saying to them, Rejoice with me, for I found my sheep that was lost. Just so I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance. So what's a repentant sinner look like? A repentant sinner looks like a lost sheep that's been carried on the shoulders of a shepherd. The sheep hadn't come back and said, sorry, so sorry. I'll never wander again.

Never. Let me tell you everything I did wrong. Let me whip myself into it. I'll tell you what repentance is. Repentance is when an unbelievably kind shepherd goes over hill and dale and climbs mountains and looks and risks it all and finds a wayward sheep about to fall off a cliff, picks it up, puts it on his shoulder and brings it back home. And then that sheep goes, thank you, shepherd, about to fall off a cliff and starve to death. Repentance is the return of that which has been lost. And it comes by the power of the kindness of the shepherd and the sheep without the shepherd is under judgment. That means lost away from the shepherd, but through the kindness of the shepherd who risks it all, that's what repentance looked like.

And that's why the younger brother, though he had rehearsed a repentant speech, was not allowed to give it because the father's kindness overwhelmed it all. Here's what it means to repent. Believe that God loves you. Change your mind. Quit thinking you can save yourself. Realize that you fall off a cliff. You starve and die without him and spend forever without him except for his saving mercy. Believe in the love of God.

It'll change everything. I need to just very quickly address, I know the time's short, but I need to address this at verse six because it's first confusing. Remember this is the epistle of the gospel in its purest expression. And there is nobody who's articulated grace more powerfully or been a more powerful spokesman for salvation through grace by faith alone than the apostle Paul. But he says this at verse six, he will render to each one according to his works. Now those who by patience and well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality will give her eternal life. Those who are self-seeking do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness.

There'll be wrath and fury. You know, as a preacher of grace and people start awakening to grace and really understanding it and they'll get so excited about the grace of God and they finally feel free. They've been under a weight of religious self-condemnation for so long in their life. And then they'll come on a verse like this and they'll come to me and they'll go, oh no, it's all crumbling. Remember the way you interpret scriptures by scripture itself. You can't take one verse and say, oh, well, we're saved by works. You have to look at it in the context of the whole scripture. We know for sure that everything that Paul has to say in Romans is you're saved by grace.

So what is he saying? I believe what Paul is saying here is that hypothetically, because God judges according to works, hypothetically, if there were someone who by patience and well-doing could seek for glory and honor and always do what is right and always obey the truth, always obey righteousness, there would be blessing and honor and glory and immortality if there could be a person like that. But everything he has to say in Romans 1-3 is there is no such person. If you could live perfectly righteous life, then great, be judged by works. Show up at heaven and you never disobeyed God one single time, never done one single thing wrong, never had bad thought, never had always had sought the Father's will, always worshiped Him.

Then great, show up. But there is no one like that. And because there was no one like that, in the fullness of time, in the plan of God, He sent a man to be exactly that. Exactly at the right time, Christ came and died for the ungodly. And he who knew no sin became our sin so that we who trust in Him would become His righteousness.

Here's why we've got to talk about judgment. It's that we can understand grace. There was no one righteous, not a single one.

So Jesus, God, and man lived a life that we couldn't live and then took the curse and paid the penalty. It means, beloved, that God does not wink at sin. He judges sin. He does not overlook your sin or mine in the least. If He did, He would not be just.

Justice simply means punishing what is bad and rewarding what is good. And that's exactly what God has done through a representative human, a great man who was God Himself. And He took and He placed the full penalty and payment for debt upon the one God-man, Jesus Christ. So when you trust in Christ, your sins are so forgiven that God doesn't even remember them. And on Judgment Day, He won't see them. There will not be a giant plasma screen TV replaying all the things you've done wrong because God's forgotten them.

He's wiped the slate totally clean. And it would be unjust for God to punish two people for the same crime. And He's already let the punishment fall upon Jesus. So when you're in Him, you have become His righteousness. And when you get to that Judgment Day, what He will see is Christ clothing you and you will be treated as though you had lived the meritorious life of Jesus. And therefore, you'll come in with fullness of blessing. The kingdom of God is at hand because Jesus has come as a perfect man, taken the penalty for humanity so that for anyone who trusts in Jesus Christ, as hard as it is to believe, it means now in God's eyes, justice is on your side.

It means God is just in not only not punishing you, but He's just in blessing your life. That's what it means to be in Christ. And that's the gospel.

We're excited to tell you about Pastor Alan's latest book, Seeing as Jesus Sees. Followers of Christ tend to focus on doing, so we've been told to ask, what would Jesus do? But even our noblest efforts to be more like Jesus ultimately fail for the same reason that pledging to keep the law never works.

There's no gospel power in our self-striving. But what if the secret to personal transformation and victorious living isn't found in doing as much as in seeing? Anyone who has ever had an aha moment or has suddenly discovered the truth of a situation knows that fresh vision changes everything. In his eye-opening new book, Pastor Alan Wright invites readers into a new, simple spiritual practice, a little breath prayer that can be prayed throughout the day. Jesus, how do you see this? It's a prayer that the Savior loves to answer because after all, Christ came to be the light of the world. Clear away confusion, win over the darkness and open your heart to wonder and joy by getting your copy of the book right away. And when you make a gift to Allen Wright Ministries today, we'll send you Pastor Alan's new beautiful hardcover book. And as an additional thank you for your support, you'll also receive a free six-week Seeing as Jesus Sees companion video series from Pastor Alan, along with a study guide and a daily reading plan. Let Jesus take you by the hand and show you a whole new perspective for your life as you learn how to ask Christ for his eyes.

You'll start seeing as Jesus sees and you're gonna love the view. The gospel is shared when you give to Allen Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support.

When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Allen Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, pastorallen.org. Back here in the studio to share Pastor Alan's parting good news thought for the day. I've been known to march to the beat of my own drum most of my life. And then I think about it.

My parents named me Daniel. God is my judge. So you can't judge me. So in the end, Paul is saying some astounding things in chapter two that would be shocking both the Jew and Gentile. But he is saying that God's a righteous judge and he'll punish wrongdoing and he will reward what is right and what is good.

But none of us can be perfectly obedient or right or good. And so God sent his son to be the perfect human and live perfectly righteous one man who was God in the flesh and anyone who trusts in him becomes the recipient of such a remarkable exchange and you receive his righteousness. And in that sense, because you have Christ, justice is now on your side.

Here's the takeaway. I think from this part of chapter two in Romans, God didn't wink at your sin and say, no big deal. He said, it's infinitely woeful and worthy of the bleeding slow suffocation of my only begotten son so that God the father could be just in punishing evil and yet be kind and expressing mercy to you. There's one judge, but that judge came to die in your place. And if you are with us today and you don't yet know Jesus, then you do need to know that God is a judge, but he's a judge who came to die for you. So say yes to his saving love.

Say yes to his sacrifice so that you too would be declared not guilty and that you would be able to say I'm an heir in my father's house. Thanks for listening today. Visit us online at PastorAlan.org or call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. If you only caught part of today's teaching, not only can you listen again online, but also get a daily email devotional that matches today's teaching delivered right to your email inbox free. Find out more about these and other resources at PastorAlan.org. That's PastorAlan.org. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Alan Wright Ministries.