Romans Chapter 2:5-12

As concerned as we should be, and we should be concerned with not doing certain behaviors and certain things. Absolutely. The Bible is very clear on that.

I hope I'm clear on that. But we should also be as concerned that we're doing the right things, that we're doing good things, that we're loving God and loving people. A life lesson here? Christianity is not only about keeping from doing bad deeds, but it is also about doing good deeds. Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David Magee. David is the senior pastor of the bridge in Kernersville, North Carolina. As we dive deeper into God's Word, our Bible study should lead into Bible doing. Find out why this is important today as Pastor David continues in the book of Romans chapter 2. 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 his teaching, Bible Doing. We're looking at the book of Romans and Paul is writing to the church at Rome.

He's not yet been to Rome. He's writing to encourage the believers there. And it's just an incredible book that not only has changed lives, but it's really changed human history. Martin Luther, for one, was incredibly impacted by the verses that are in this book. John Wycliffe as well and in many others. And so these are people who really started the Reformation hundreds of years ago. Now the awesome thing is it's the same Word of God, the same Spirit of God that changed their lives is available this morning to change your life.

So as we look at this, that's our open prayer. Romans chapter 2 verse 5. It says, But in accordance with your hardness and with your impendent heart, you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to each one according to his deeds. Eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality, but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness, indignation, and wrath, tribulation, and anguish on every soul of man who does evil of the Jew first and also of the Greek.

This chapter is very judicial in the sense that it almost has the feel of a courtroom if you want. And each one of us, we want to escape being charged with doing wrong. We don't want something laid at our feet that we've done.

And we've got different things that we do to kind of help us through this. One of the common things is to point out to somebody that's worse than you, you know, well, yeah, I've done this, but I haven't done that. Well, I may have done that, but I didn't do as many times as him or her. But it still never really cleanses us, does it?

You never get to that point where you talk about people long enough and talk about them bad enough where you actually feel cleansed or forgiven. See, and here's the thing. He's speaking in chapter 2 a lot to the Jewish people because the Jewish people started to take some pride in their religion and their religious activities. Okay, and before you sit here and go, oh, well, you know, those silly Jewish people, time out because it's also kind of an apt description of American Christianity if you think about it. There's people all over this country that take a certain spiritual pride in going to church or doing this and doing that. Now, obviously, I'm a pastor. I want to encourage you to go to church. But if just going to church is all you do, then friend, you're missing out on a lot.

You're missing out on a lot. Now, when you read through the Hebrew Scriptures, you see that these Jewish leaders actually killed many of the prophets. And obviously, some of the leaders were engaged in the execution of Jesus, not all of them.

You can see that in the Bible, not all of them. But it's interesting because, see, as we read chapter 1, and again, I just so love the balance of the Bible, not just the individual books but also the order the books fall in, but individual books. You read chapter 1, and, you know, if you're religious or grown up in a church or you don't struggle outwardly with some heavy things like chapter 1 talks about, you read chapter 1, oh, amen, Paul, you give it to them. Then you get to chapter 2.

Chapter 2 begins to point out that not only are the people in chapter 1 guilty, but we all stand guilty. Jesus told this story about the prodigal son. A lot of us may have heard that story before, but let me review for just a second. There was two brothers, and one of them decided he wanted his inheritance, and he wanted to go out and party and do whatever and live his own way. And he goes out, and he blows his money. He lives a hard life. He winds up. He's feeding pigs for a living, which, you know, in a Jewish setting and a Jewish son, pigs are unclean.

So that was a, you understand, that was a really dirty job. And he comes back home. And when he comes back home, his father says, oh, I'm so glad you're here. We're going to throw a party.

We'll kill a fatted calf. But then the other brother that stayed home has a serious issue with that. He says, I can't believe you're doing this. I've been here. I've been faithful. I never left you. He comes home.

You throw him a party. And I wonder, I wonder if the real prodigal son never left home. Why do you think Jesus told that story?

I think I know. Because a lot of times when God does something really dramatic in somebody's life, do you understand who stands up against that? It's people within the body, people within the church. Somebody gets saved maybe out of a, I don't know, whatever, drugs and alcohol, same sex relationship, all these things that God can do incredible work, pull us out of. And God does that work. And then who stands up? I don't know.

They're really saved. I don't know. I don't think we should kill the fatted calf.

I don't think we should party. And who are we acting like in that point? Acting like that son who doesn't look so good in that story.

See, and here's the thing. All of us, all of us, the unrighteous, the self-righteous, we all fall flat before the Lord. None of us can really stand before the Lord. You know, as a pastor, most of the time when we're sitting and talking to somebody that's messed up, they won't really debate whether they're messing up or not.

The struggles come when somebody will sit there and argue of whether they've really messed up, of whether they have made mistakes. That's called self-righteousness. And self-righteousness, to be honest, is probably a lot harder to deal with in a ministry capacity. Again, we talked about the fact there's people that think they have this ministry, the ministry of condemnation. That's not really a ministry. As a matter of fact, God calls our enemy, the adversary of our soul, the accuser of the brethren.

It's kind of an interesting title. But see, what happens is we all get very concerned with the sins of other people, don't we? This is the reality. We're more comfortable talking about the sins that other people or the sins of the world or what we see in the newspaper or on television. Than going to God and talking about our own personal sins. Why is that? Because when you talk about the sins of other people, you're not led to action.

You're not convicted. You're not convinced that you need to change. You're just, oh, those people are so messed up. And again, Jesus tells a very pointed story when he points out that there was two people in the temple and one of them said, oh, God, thank you, I'm not like him. And the other one said, God, I don't deserve your mercy, but I'm asking for it.

Which one describes you, Fred? Are you thinking, God, that you're not like this person or not like that person? Or do you understand that we all fall flat before a righteous God? So we should take a look at our lives.

And this is what chapter two is encouraging. Don't think you've arrived and no longer have problems. I don't know where we got to the point that we think the church is somewhere you go when you don't have any problems or any issues or you're not struggling with sin anymore. You only come to the church when you're perfect and you got it all worked out. You understand there's no perfect church?

And I've shared this before. I wonder what would happen if we put out a sign out there that said only perfect people allowed. What would happen? Would anybody come? I mean, besides me?

No, I'm kidding, I'm kidding, I'm kidding. You know, I think some people would show up. I think they would read the sign and go, oh, praise God, I finally found my church. There is no perfect church.

Do you understand that? A lot of people roam around, they church hop and church shop looking for the perfect church. There's no perfect church. There's no perfect pastor. If there was a perfect church, you couldn't go to it because you're not perfect.

The moment you showed up, you know, they'd look at, oh, it's going downhill now. He's not perfect and now we're no longer perfect. We no longer have the perfect church. So look at our lives. Look at our actions.

Why? To the Jew first and also to the Greek. Jesus said something about witnessing and making sure that the Jewish people heard about salvation first.

We saw in the book of Acts there was an ever-expanding circle. But to the Jewish person, there was a responsibility and accountability because they knew the Bible and they knew some of these things. And again, we can sit off and go, well, you know, they should have known better.

Time out. If you've grown up in America, you've grown up going to a church, guess what? That same responsibility, accountability is for you as well, because the more you know, according to the Bible, the more responsibility you have. 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. This is Pastor David McGee with Cross the Bridge. You know, I want to thank you for listening to Cross the Bridge.

I also want to tell you about an exciting website. The website is lostlovedones.org and it works very simply like this. You go to the website and you put the first names of up to 10 people that we begin praying that they get saved. Now it takes two things to get saved, presentation and prayer. And what we're offering is prayer. And also there's different tools there to help you present the gospel to them. So we're there with you, helping you with the presentation, helping you with the prayer. There's over 920 people that belong to the prayer team on Lost Loved Ones. And you can join the prayer team as well and help us to pray for others who don't yet know Jesus.

And together we can see a huge revival starting with your lost loved ones. Now back to today's teaching. Verse 10, but glory, honor and peace to everyone who works what is good. To the Jew first and also to the Greek. Glory and honor. Honor. You know, what happens in you when you hear that word honor?

It just stirs my heart. Honor. I think we all, I think in a good way, desire honor. It's interesting, you know, one of those Ten Commandments, it talks about what? Honoring your mother and father. Doesn't it say obey your mother and father or respect your mother and father?

It goes way beyond that, gang. It says to honor them. To honor them.

That's a challenge I think to each and every one of us. Are you bringing honor to your mother and father? Do you honor them or do you think, well, it's just enough to respect them or just enough to obey them? No, the Bible says to honor.

What else does the Bible say about honor? 1 Timothy 5 verse 17 says this, Let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and doctrine. So there's another place, and we've got elders here, we've got incredible men of God. I am so blessed to have the men surrounding me that are elders and the deacons. And these elders, you know, occasionally somebody will come and say, well, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh. The Bible says receive not an accusation against an elder unless it's in the mouth of two or more witnesses.

Why is that? Because an elder has this place of honor. So what that's saying is you give the benefit of the doubt to the people in leadership first. And here's the thing, and let's use the New Living Translation to help us with these couple verses here. It says in the New Living Translation, There will be trouble and calamity for everyone who keeps on sinning, for the Jew first and also for the Gentile. But there will be glory and honor and peace from God for all those who do good, for the Jew first and also for the Gentile.

It's a great picture, and again, the balance of the two verses, because here's what happens. We think of, and I talk about this a lot. Most churches, most pastors, most teachings talk about the sins that you commit, and you shouldn't do this and you shouldn't do that. The Bible talks about that. I'm all for talking about that.

I'm all for teaching about that. Those are called sins of commission. But there's also another group of sins that's called sins of omission or sins that you, the Bible says if you know what to do, if you know to do right and don't do it, that's sin. So there's sins of commission, and then there's sins of omission. A lot of times we're really concerned about these sins of commission. Why? Because everybody sees them.

Those are the ones that people notice. But the Bible talks about in this verse, it says don't keep sinning, but if keep sinning, if that's the ultimate goal in Christianity, that leaves something falling short, doesn't it? And then Paul says in verse 10, but start doing good things.

Start doing good things. I talk about the chair sometimes. If Christianity is all about not doing certain things, and some of us grew up hearing that, right? Well, what are you Christian? Well, you're Christian, you don't do this, you don't do that, and you don't do this, that, and the other. And that's what we grew up with.

All right, so let me ask you a question. This chair is a good chair. This chair will never gossip. This chair will never smoke dope. This chair will never drink. This chair is always in church. Is this chair a Christian? No, it's not.

It's not. As a matter of fact, friend, I don't know if you've ever considered this, but the people who will forever be separated from God actually won't be separated from God for the things that they did, those sins of commission. It will be the grandest, greatest sin of omission that causes that eternal punishment.

What do I mean by that? It's the fact that they did not come to Jesus and did not ask him to forgive them of their sins that causes that punishment. I think we need to understand that, because as concerned as we should be, and we should be concerned with not doing certain behaviors and certain things, absolutely. The Bible is very clear on that.

I hope I'm clear on that. But we should also be as concerned that we're doing the right things, that we're doing good things, that we're loving God and loving people. A life lesson here? Christianity is not only about keeping from doing bad deeds, but it is also about doing good deeds. Christianity is not only about keeping from doing bad deeds, but it is also about doing good deeds. Obviously, the Bible has a lot to say about this, and even in that passage in Ephesians 2, 8, 9, it says you've been saved. You are His workmanship, created in Him for good works to do good things.

As much as I want to warn you about doing the bad things, I want to also encourage you towards doing these good things. Verse 11 says, For there is no partiality with God. There's no partiality with God. I'm reading in the New King James. I read in the King James and the New King James. I actually go through several different versions and then go back to the original languages, the Greek and the New Testament, Hebrew and the Old Testament.

But the New Living Translation, this is the way it reads here. It says, For God does not show favoritism. For God does not show favoritism.

I like this verse. No partiality, no favoritism. Do we show favoritism?

Oh, yeah. Sometimes we do. I think the worst example is when it happens in the church, in a sense. You've got, I don't know, I've seen weird things over the years. It was in one church, and they set a bucket and said, if anybody wants to give a dollar, come up and put it in the bucket. And then if anybody's got a five, if anybody's got a 10, I thought, man, what is that? We're going to try it next week. No, I'm kidding.

Here's another form I don't know if you've thought about. I am really flattered when somebody wants me to pray for them. It touches me, and I have a heart to pray for people. But I tell you something I kind of don't understand sometimes, because every now and again somebody will call, and I won't be available. I'll be doing something, and one of the assisting pastors will say, you know, somebody calls, hey, I want Pastor David to pray for me.

He's not available right now. I'd like to pray for you. No, I want Pastor David to pray for me.

No, no, you just won't do. Like, I don't know, like I've got a direct line to God or something. I mean, I do have a direct line to God. It's a phone on my desk. No, I'm kidding.

I'm kidding. But I do have a direct line to God. But the awesome thing is each and every one of you do. You've got a direct line to God.

And God's not going to show me favoritism. See, we kind of think, and of course I think people in ministry kind of reinforce this sometimes, you know, if you need me to pray for you, I'll pray for you. You know, I saw a guy on television, and we're involved in television ministries.

I openly confess that. But I saw a guy on television, he said, you know, if you send in like $25, he'll pray for you. And then he, no, he gets better. He said, sometimes when people send in $25, he prays them a $50 prayer. That is so weird. Why? Because it's really, hey, you need me to pray for you. Guys, I do pray for you.

I pray for you a lot. And sometimes I pray by faith, sometimes by name, by situation. But God doesn't show favoritism. God doesn't show favorites.

Isn't that awesome? You ever been in that situation, maybe, I don't know, maybe they were choosing a sports team. Maybe you weren't chosen.

Or maybe you were chosen last. I had two large brothers. I still have two large brothers.

They both played a lot of football, college ball, whatnot, you know. And I used to tag along with them and play football with them. And I was always, you know, like the smallest one. And sometimes I got chose last.

You know, and I always thought, what's favorites? God doesn't show favoritism. How encouraging that is. It all comes down to if you know Jesus as your Savior. 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. You know, that's, Romans chapter 1 and 2 kind of deal with the, and I'm sure you hear it sometimes. People go, what about the people who haven't heard? What about the people who've never heard the gospel?

And here's the thing. This verse is saying that's kind of a smokescreen. If you've ever sat with somebody and been trying to share the Lord with them or the fact that they need to ask Jesus to forgive them, and then they go, what about, whatever, pygmies in Africa or what about this other people group that haven't heard?

We've got ministries on six continents now. So I'm very concerned about the people in Africa. A lot of times that's a smokescreen, and that's not really the question. The question is the person that's hearing you talk about Jesus, hearing you talk about the Lord, hearing you make God's offer of grace and forgiveness, what will they do with that? Now, what about somebody who hasn't heard, but what about the people who have heard, including perhaps the person you're sharing with? So this verse speaks of that. I think a lot of times what people are saying is there's a flaw in the plan. Why is there anybody on earth who hasn't heard? There's a flaw in God's plan that he hasn't told everybody and holds everybody accountable for this knowledge. You know what? There's not a flaw in God's plan.

This is the perfect plan. If there's any flaw, it's that we haven't done all we can while we can to reach all we can. So somebody asked that question. That's more of an indictment of the church, not of God himself. God's told us to go tell everybody. When people say that, it's almost like, well, God's really guilty in this whole thing because not everybody's heard. No, no, no. Think about it.

2,000 years ago, Jesus died. Why really should there be anybody on earth who hasn't heard? There really shouldn't be, if you think about it.

With the internet, with the television, with all these things, there shouldn't be. So maybe there's something that as a church we're not doing or as individuals we're not doing. But again, the question isn't will God find those people guilty who haven't heard because that's an academic discussion that people who have heard try to make. And is that really the question?

That's not really the question. The question is you've heard, what will you do? Will you just turn and walk away from the grace of God and the love of God? Because according to this verse, anybody that hears the law, hears about salvation, will be held accountable. 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. 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.