Hypocrites vs. Heaven (Part C)

The longer you put off coming to Christ, the better at putting off coming to Christ you will be today if you harden not your heart.

The Bible lays these lessons out. It's not fooling around with you because the devil's not fooling around with you. Your flesh is not fooling around with you. Your own carnality, it will never die a natural death. You will not wake up one morning and say, huh, I'm not carnal anymore, unless you're in heaven.

Unless you wake up dead, then you got a chance. But for now, it's going to be this war of flesh versus the spirit. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Mechanicsville, Virginia. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the Book of Romans, so please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching.

Today on Cross-Reference Radio, Pastor Rick will continue teaching verse by verse in Chapter 2, the Book of Romans. How can someone have a Bible and behave so be such a blatant phony? Well, there are a lot of reasons why that does not excuse them.

It just may enlist us to contribute to the solution. And maybe you need to tell some pastor's child that are in their latter years, you know, part of your problem is you haven't become a new wineskin and you've been bursting wherever you go. Maybe that's part of the problem. Anyway, many Jews felt that their relationship to Abraham and the Mosaic law, the Old Testament, they felt because they were Jews, they were excused that they could look down on the Gentiles and still go out there on sins, the very sins they were hating on the Gentiles. We just saw this in the Gospels. The conniving, the lying, the murder of Jesus Christ by the religious leaders at the top of their pyramid. And yet they smugly just went on about their business afterward.

So, let's be real about this, it does happen and it happens often enough. Verse 2, but we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things. So, he's bringing them back. He says, come on, you know there's a judgment of God, there is a scripture and it's not a philosophy. Judgment is not a philosophy.

It is a fact. And just be on the right side, and it really isn't that hard to be on the right side of God's judgment because he's done all the heavy lifting on Calvary, on the cross. What is the first sin judged in the New Testament church? Not the New Testament, the New Testament church, when the church was birthed. It was lying. Lying was the first sin publicly judged. Lying to the Holy Spirit, to a pastor, and in church.

All three of those. Well, it caused the couple that lied, it caused them to leave the church and the planet. You say, man, that was a harsh judgment.

Yep, it was. That's the point. You know, God doesn't say deal with that, he says think about that. Zephaniah the prophet, you know these prophets, I love reading them because you know, who reads Zephaniah?

I do. And they have so many gems because it's God. He says Yahweh is righteous in her midst, in the midst of Israel and her Jerusalem. He's righteous. So we've got to remember that when we talk about judgment. God is righteous. He continues, he will do no unrighteousness.

Do you believe that? You know, some people are so bitter at God for allowing a disaster in their life that they can't get past it. And so the devil has a field day with that. You're just handing the devil, here's the recipe, here's my passcode to keep me a hypocrite or whatever it is. I'm going to hand this to you and it's wrapped in bitterness at God. The other guy got the job, I didn't get it.

The other guy this, the other person's marriage is wonderful, mine's not. And on and on and on it goes. Bottom line, we are to stand our ground for Christ. Our faith is our bean field and we are to stand and guard that bean field with the sword of God as though it were attached to our hand. And if you don't, the consequences can be uglier than what they ever should have been. You've got to believe this by faith. It's not just an intellectual decision or an emotional decision. It has to be an act of the will.

The heart has got to get its skin in the game and understand. That's the charge Satan had against Job. You put his skin in the game and he won't follow you anymore. Hurt him.

Let me get my hands on him and he'll curse you. And Satan was proven wrong. Because he's not. He's not omniscient. He's not all powerful. He is a created, fallen being.

He wasn't created that way, but he is that way now. Well, Zephaniah, Yahweh is righteous in her midst. He will do no unrighteousness. Every morning he brings his justice to light. You've got to look for that sometimes. He never fails.

Do you believe that? Love never fails. That's what Paul told the Corinthians. True agape love does not fail. People may fail. The love does not. What about the righteous judgment and justice of God? Does that fail? It says here, he never fails. Then he adds, but the unjust, they have no shame. They go about doing what they want to do. And this irritated the psalmist in Psalm 73.

You know, I see these people, their kids do well, they go to the best schools, got the best clothes, they eat the best food. Here I am doing the righteous thing and we're struggling over here. And then I went into the house of the Lord. And it all became clear. There's more to this life than this life. So keeping the major things, the major things, the flesh will flip that around so quickly on you, you won't know what happened. You will take a minor thing. You know, I'm not going back to that church anymore. Can you believe they didn't have skim milk?

I can't believe anybody has skim milk. But I mean those petty things. I'm making up one, but there are real ones. I could throw those out, but I might hit somebody or get a family member. That's not my intention. Though I could enjoy it, right? No, I could not because there's nothing cute about it. And I've got my own things.

You've never seen them and that's just because. Anyway, coming back to, I finished my Zephaniah quote, to the true believer the Bible means everything. Jesus is the personification of truth. I am the way, the truth, and the life.

And there's more to him, not only the truth, there's more to him. And that's why we do the cross references again because we value scripture. But the unbeliever is too busy scoffing at scripture for it to penetrate. It's like the seed sown on the wayside.

They don't get into the soil where they can do what they're supposed to do because their heart is too hard and they like it that way. I believe many people want Jesus to be a fraud. Many people want the Bible to be wrong. They want to keep their lifestyle at any cost. And it's going to cost. And they can't afford it. And when they get to hell they're going to find out they're not dressed for it.

But it's too late. Well, he says, against those who practice such things. Well, God punishes evil and rewards good.

That's not how, I mean, not in the sense of salvation, but ultimately he does reward and he does punish. That's a basic fact. And there are those that practice without a care.

And then there are those that do and they want out. And we covered that in last, I believe last session, somewhere in chapter one. Last session I believe we made the distinction between practicing sin and participating in sin. There's a great distinction between the two. And it is the heart.

It comes down to the heart. Verse three, 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? Well, here is his first question. There are over 80 of them in this letter. Now, you know, I had that in my notes from years ago and I forgot to check it. But I'm sure it's right.

And if it's wrong, I don't want to hear it. No. I would like you to.

But it costs five dollars to submit to. So, the last one is in chapter 14, was the last question. But here's one of his questions. And so if you're listening to, if he were up on a platform giving a presentation and he's having this, you know, monologue or soliloquy, then you understand it.

Well, when you come to it in writing and he doesn't tell you what's going on, you might miss it. He says here, and do you think, O man, you who judge those practicing such things and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God? Well, the hypocrite must be telling himself that. What is the hypocrite? Well, they're wearing a mask. A hypocrite is an actor.

Not only more than a kabuki actor, it's men and women involved, not just men. And just because you can criticize others does not mean you're innocent. Nor does it mean you're right. Sometimes you can be right, but it doesn't mean you're innocent or better. And if you see sin in another, then you admit what sin is. If you can identify it in someone else, then you know what it is. So how can anyone honestly miss their own sins?

I don't think anybody can. I've come across people that have told me, I don't sin. And say they're Christians.

What a goitian knot their doctrine is. It's because they misunderstand what John talks about when he says Christians don't sin. They think that means we really don't sin. I can prove that in two seconds. That you sin.

Or better, just ask their spouse. Hey, he says he doesn't sin. What do you think about that?

And don't lie. That'll be a sin. So, verse 4. Or do you despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance, and long suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? So if you put 3 and 4 together, the question and then or do you not know, then you get a little better idea, an understanding of how this question format is working for him. So he says, or do you esteem the riches of his goodness, forbearance, and long suffering? Well, that's a question.

It has to be answered. Do you dismiss it? Well, he has a stronger word. Do you despise? Do you despise that God is good? Do you despise that he's patient and puts up with your junk? Yeah, but it's not about me. I'm angry because he's putting up with people I don't like.

There's no way to get around it. You're guilty. You disesteem God. That's how, what a beast does. You know, that's saying a bull in a china shop.

The bull has no value on the china. He's going to wreck the whole place, according to that illustration. Well, we're not animals. We are created in the image of God, and we have suffered a nasty fall through sin. Peter writes about those who stubbornly adhere to being the anti-Christ they want to be, 2 Peter 2, but these, like natural brute beasts, made to be caught and destroyed, speak evil of the things they do not understand, and will utterly perish in their own corruption. He's not saying yippee. He's pointing out to the Christians there are people like this. This is a real thing. There's no getting away from it.

What are we going to do about it? In 2 Peter, he's talking about the false prophets that have invaded the church, and he's telling the Christians to get them out so that we can be useful to Christ. Nearly 2,000 years ago, a Jew and a Gentile as a people joined hands at Calvary, and they crucified the Son of God. Who crucified Jesus? I did. Who crucified the Christ?

You did. Sinners caused the need for that, because if he did not come and die on that cross, your sins would stay on you. It's sort of like what would have happened to Adam and Eve had they had that tree of life.

They would have lived forever in a sinful state, but God was having none of that. He put an angel there to keep them from that tree, and he's put the cross there for all of us made from a tree to come to him. And so that act of crucifixion, talking about the long-suffering and forbearance of God and his goodness, that act of crucifying Christ called for the unleashing of heaven's weaponized armies, the angels in heaven, to outpour the deserved wrath. Instead, we find Jesus restraining himself and telling Peter, that's not how we do it, Peter.

Put the sword away. And so for 2,000 years, the riches of his goodness, divine forbearance and long-suffering, and he has withheld the fury of his wrath. John said, and we beheld his glory as the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

Amen. And so what does God do instead of wiping everybody out? He offers them forgiveness through his son, and he deputizes his people, the church, to carry that message to lost people. He sticks out his nail-scarred hand, and he offers companionship, and the world scoffs and expects to be let off the hook on judgment. Because they may be successful in this life or independent in this life, they think they're going to be that way when they stand in the judgment seat.

A judgment seat that they don't even believe exists, many of them. And so people who abuse this feature of God's character, his patience, his long-suffering, his goodness, they are storing up for themselves wrath, as verse 5 will say. But before we get back to that, we finish here in verse 4, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance. Oh man, led me to repentance. When I realized that Jesus is everything that he says he is, and that he was kind enough to point it out to me himself, it was all goodness.

Couldn't stop weeping over it. And people who know their guilt, recoil, recoil, or waste the solution. One more time. The longer you put off coming to Christ, the better at putting off coming to Christ you will be. Today, if you harden not your heart.

The Bible lays these lessons out. It's not fooling around with you because the devil's not fooling around with you. Your flesh is not fooling around with you.

Your own carnality, it will never die a natural death. You will not wake up one morning and say, huh, I'm not carnal anymore. Unless you're in heaven. Unless you wake up dead.

Then you got a chance. But for now, it's going to be this war of flesh versus the spirit. And so the purpose behind God's display of goodness and forbearance, long-suffering, which means it hurts him too, is giving us space to repent.

That's why. Why doesn't God just commend it all? Because he knows there's still people to be had, to be saved. Repentance is a change in mindset about sin, about self, and about God altogether. That's what saving repentance is. You realize that you were wrong and you were on the wrong flight. The flight you were on was not predestined to heaven, it was predestined to hell. So you got off that flight. You got on the other one. And now you're predestined to go to heaven. That's repentance. Verse 5 now, but in accordance with your hardness, I got to speed up, don't I? We've got to get to chapter 11. Okay, New York mode, kicking in.

You'll have to slow down the CD. I'm kidding. But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart, you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. Stubbornness before God has never served man well. Not one time.

One of the great examples is Balaam. Balaam was determined to do wrong and God said, listen, I'm going to even make an animal talk if that's what it's going to take, Mr. Doolittle. And maybe that will stop you. And it did not. You would think something like that would register. I mean, what would you do if you were on your way to sin and your dog said, what are you doing?

I mean, it would just change everything. But Balaam was blind. He was drunk with, Balaam has got more gold than I can shake a stick at and I'm going to get me hands on it. And the we prophet went his way. Well, some resent being told man's way is never good enough for God. Man's way is never God's way. There is God's way and there is man's way and there's no mixing of the two.

There is male and there is female and there's no other category. So, we just got to get that. That's been a commercial from those of you who adhere to truth. Well, you are treasuring up for yourself wrath.

Notice the choice of words. You're stockpiling wrath. You're hoarding wrath.

You're treasuring it. That's the whole voice of God. And for, in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. It's an Old Testament expression. The day of wrath. Synonymous with the day of Yahweh. In the New Testament, it's applied to Christ. In 1 Corinthians 1 8 and Philippians 1 6, there's the day of Christ.

Same thing. Amos chapter 5, woe to you who desire the day of Yahweh. For what good is that day of Yahweh to you? It will be darkness and not light. It is not day. Is it not the day of the Lord's darkness and not light?

Is it not very dark and no brightness in it? So, there's Amos telling the guilty Jews in the northern kingdom who was into idolatry, you want the day of the Lord? You want to play these little prophet games?

Bible verse games? Let me tell you, it's not going to serve you well. The day of the Lord is the day of your judgment. And this, it's all dark.

None of it's good. But they scoffed at him nonetheless. Anyway, verse 6, who will render to each one according to his deeds? So, judgment is up close and it is personal. But for the Christian, to him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. Part of that joy is, okay, we want to hear well done, good and faithful servant.

But it's also going to be, yeah, you were not a doofus. You figured it out. I know, there are those who are too depraved to figure it out.

Look, I don't agree with that. I don't know, it's nowhere in the Bible that tells me you're too depraved to receive an invitation by God. God says, whoever wills, you come. I believe that.

And I'm going with that one. Anyway, verse 7, eternal life to those who by patient continuance and doing good seek for glory, honor and immortality. Of course, he's not giving the recipe for salvation. He's giving a description of what happens once salvation is received. Christians are scheduled, when they come to Christ, you are scheduled to have this patient continuance in doing good, seeking glory, honor and immortality. God's approval and God's reward.

That's what he's talking about. Eternal life expresses not only a duration of time, but the quality of that time. Eternal life, as I said, we're just going to live forever.

You're still going to have debt and you're still going to have to get your hair cut and your fingernails going to still be having to need clipping. That's not the eternal life Christ is offering. He's saying, this is going to be a hoot and you want to be there. And I've put so much into this to get people into heaven who scoff at me, who mock me, who turn on me, who delay it. I tell you, knowing what I know now, if I was an unbeliever and someone said, you have a chance to be right with Christ, I would be running up to take what must I do to be saved. Verse 8, but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness.

And then there's that pause. Here's the answer. Indignation and wrath. Well, what's Christ supposed to do?

Give him a Cadillac? Let's not make a mockery of a righteous and pure God. He's not going to wink at sin. He's not going to trivialize it. Verse 9, tribulation and anguish on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek. Well, he's laying out the consequences.

Of course, I can take another hour on all this. He names the Jew first because the light came to them first as a people. But he doesn't want to make the unbelievers, the Gentiles feel left out, so them too. What difference does it make if it's a split second between the judgment?

It's going to be. However, verse 10, the good news, but glory, honor and peace to everyone who works what is good to the Jew first and also to the Greeks. So Paul is keeping in front of them. There's a behavior expected of you as a Christian. Don't for a moment think a mere confession of faith is sufficient to live the life of faith. You know, the thief on the cross, he got away with, you know, I'm saved, I'm going to heaven.

Act out those things. And the Lord looked at him and said, good, you're not a doofus, but the other guy. Anyway, he did not do that.

But it comes out that way. So, back to verse 10, where he says, to the Jew first and also the Greek. Infatic to the Jew first, here two times, Jesus said to the woman, you worship what you do not know, we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. And that statement wiped out every other religion on earth. That statement says, you either come through Christ or I'm not going to accept that religion, which we'll get into next session, remembering that God is just in his judgments and he's going to let us see that.

You won't have to say, well, he's just and you just got to live with it. God says, I'm just and I'm going to point it out to you. So, anyway, verse 11 now, for there is no partiality with God. As I've been mentioning, many Jews were elevating their ethnicity over obedience. And there are Christians that do the same thing. They elevate their supposed confession of faith above obedience.

Obedience is a real thing. Ethnicity never damned any soul. There'll be no one in hell.

Well, you're only here because, you know, you're Irish or you're only here because you're Polish or you're. There'll be none of that. If you're in hell, it's because you would not side with God.

That's the only reason why. Now, that has a lot of little areas in it that need to be addressed. But no one's going to be blocked out of hell because of racism. That's racism is something Satan has manufactured. So I want to close with this. Second Timothy two.

Nevertheless, the solid foundation of God stands having this seal. The Lord knows those who are his and let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity. Now, what is repulsive about any of that? What is unfair about any of that?

Absolutely nothing. Thanks for joining us for today's teaching on Cross Reference Radio. This is the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia.

We're currently going through the book of Romans. If you're in need of hearing this message again or want to listen to others like it, head over to cross reference radio dot com. We encourage you to subscribe to our podcast, too, so you'll never miss another edition. Just go to your favorite podcast app to subscribe on our Web site. You'll be able to learn a little more about the ministry of Cross Reference Radio. So make a note of it. Cross reference radio dot com. That's all we have time for today. But thanks so much for listening. Pastor Rick, we'll be back next time in the book of Romans here on Cross Reference Radio.