Now the primary thrust here is that God does not judge us on the basis of our profession. He does not judge us on the basis of our relationships. He does not judge the Jew on the basis of his Abrahamic heritage. He does not judge you on the basis of your identification with a church. He judges on the basis of the product of your life.
Welcome to Grace to You with the Bible teaching of John MacArthur. I'm your host, Phil Johnson. Think of the most upstanding person you know, your generous neighbor, your faithful friend, your self-sacrificing co-worker. Certainly you're going to have a much more favorable opinion of that person than, say, a violent gang member, or a repeat felon wanted for armed robbery, or a murderer locked away in a state penitentiary. But the question is, does God share those views?
Is He less likely to condemn your clean living neighbor than the hardened criminal? Bottom line, can anyone earn an exemption from God's judgment? For answers, John MacArthur takes you to Romans two, showing you that when it comes to sin, no one is without excuse. That's the title of John's study, and now here is John with today's lesson. Tonight, we continue our series in Paul's Epistle to the Romans, chapter 2.
Every time uh I come to the study of the Word of God. I concentrate on the reality. That this is in fact God's very message Yeah. That we're not dealing with some kind of second-hand commentary on what God thinks, but this is His own precious word. And the scripture claims for itself that every word of God is pure.
And that all scripture is given. to perfect. The man of God. And so as we approach the Word of God tonight, we hear God speak. to our own perfection.
We're looking at verses 1 through 16 of Romans chapter 2 and taking it slowly as we go through this section. and we've entitled the section, Principles of Judgment. Principles of Judgment. The New Testament says it is appointed unto men. wants to die.
And after this The judgment.
So that all of human history moves inexorably and unavoidably toward the final sentencing. Oh yeah. The writer of Hebrews warned then of a fearful judgment of fiery indignation which would devour God's adversaries. And he records in the 10th chapter of Hebrews these words, Vengeance belongs unto me. I will recompense, says the Lord.
And again the Lord shall judge his people. And then he says it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. God will judge, and God will judge all men, and if that's true, we need to know that. And so God has. constantly in the pages of scripture warned us.
But a question of great importance now faces us. If all men will face the judgment of God. What then will be the standard for that judgment? How is it that he is going to judge us? What criterion Will he use?
What are the elements of judgment? On what basis will men be condemned and sent to hell forever? And on what basis will men be sent to heaven forever?
Well, I believe the basis of judgment is given in the 16 verses of the first chapter, or the second chapter of Romans, rather. In these 16 verses, the Apostle Paul gives us six Principles for divine judgment. The six factors by which God judges men. Let me just remind you of the six, and then we'll pick it up where we left off last time. Number one: God judges on the basis of knowledge, secondly, on the basis of truth, thirdly, on the basis of guilt.
Fourthly, on the basis of deeds. Fifthly, on the basis of impartiality, and sixthly, on the basis of motives.
Now, keep in mind as we are looking at the second chapter of Romans that this chapter is not in isolation, but is a part of a very large picture in which Paul presents the gospel of Jesus Christ. Back in chapter 1, verse 16, he brought up the gospel of Jesus Christ. And then, beginning in verse 18, he starts to explain what it is. Gospel means good news, but before you can hear the good news, you have to hear the bad news. And so, for chapter one and two, and the first part of chapter three, the news is all bad.
Man is sinful. He is immoral. Even at his highest ethical point, he falls short of God's standard. And he is under the stain and the condemnation of sin.
So that when you come to chapter 3, verse 19, you read this. We know that whatever things the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by law, or by the law, is the knowledge of sin. In other words, the first three chapters are designed to stop every mouth.
So that there is nobody who can claim that he is exempt from God's judgment. There's no one who can claim that he doesn't need to be evaluated. By the divine standard. And so, from chapter 118 through 320, we have all bad news.
Now, that is really a setup, folks, as I'm sure you know if you study the book of Romans, because in chapter 3, verse 21, the news is good. And it begins to talk about how Christ saves man from his lostness.
Now, as we looked at chapter one, we saw basically a condemnation of pagan men, immoral men. And as we're looking at chapter 2, we are seeing more of an emphasis on the outwardly moral, religious, self-righteous man. But both come up in the same Into the same category at the end, both are condemned. Whether an immoral, pagan, debased lifestyle, such as chapter 1, verses 18 to 32, or an outwardly moral, religious, self-righteous lifestyle, such as in chapter 2, it all ends up the same way. Man is a sinner.
and condemned to judgment.
Now, let's go back and look at these single elements that make up the six principles of judgment. Verse 1 reminds us that God will judge according to knowledge. Listen to it. Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man. Whosoever thou art that judgest, for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself, for thou that judgest doest the same things.
In other words, God is going to judge you on the basis of what you know. And the fact that you know enough to be judged is indicated by the fact that you judge other people. And if you judge others, then you must know the standard. He's speaking most particularly to the Jew who would sit in condemnation on the Gentile. And he would agree with verses 18 to 32 of chapter 1.
He would agree that the Gentile is to be condemned, only he would hold himself as apart from such condemnation and, in fact, Paul says he is equally condemned because if he can judge another, then he knows the standard, and knowing the standard, he does the very same things.
So, God will judge men according to their knowledge. And we went into detail on that. Secondly, God judges according to truth. But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth. Verse 2 says, Against them who commit such things.
And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them that do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? You see, the hypocrite's hope is that God will not judge on the basis of truth. He will judge on the basis of the surface delusion. But he will not. He will judge on the basis of the truth.
He will not Exonerate people for a form of godliness, for an outward appearance of godliness, he will judge on the basis of an inward reality. And no man can hide the truth of what is inside from God. In Job 8.13, it says, the hypocrite's hope shall perish. In Job 36, 13, it says, The hypocrites in heart heap up wrath.
So, God will judge by knowledge, as revealed in the ability we have to hold other people to a standard, and God will judge by truth, the real facts, not the facade. Thirdly, God will judge On the basis of guilt. We talked about that in verses 4 and 5. Despisest thou the riches of his goodness, and forbearance, and long-suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? But after thy hardness or hard and unconverted heart, treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.
And here, what he's saying is, you're guilty of despising. The goodness of God. God has been merciful and gracious. and kind and loving and patient. And instead of you following that goodness to repentance, your hard and unconverted heart in rejecting it has been piling up wrath which will be poured out on the day of judgment.
And you are guilty of the severest abuse. of God's grace.
Now fourthly and for tonight. God judges on the basis of deeds. He judges on the basis of deeds. Yeah. Verse 6, follow as I read.
who will render to every man according to his deeds. That's the key verse. He will render to every man according to his deeds. To them who, by patient continuance and well-doing, seek for glory and honor and incorruption. Or immortality, eternal life.
But unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness. Indignation and wrath. Tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek. But glory, honor, and peace to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For there is no respect of persons.
With God.
Now, look at verse 6. God will render to every man according to his deeds. And then In verse 7, To them who, by patient continuance and well-doing, seek for glory, honor, and immortality, eternal life. But unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation, and wrath. And then he repeats essentially similar thoughts and says it doesn't matter whether you're a Jew or a Greek, it's all going to come out the same because God has no respect of persons.
Now, this passage is very simple at first reading, but it has some very complex theological thought in it, so I hope the Lord will really lead us as we think these things through. We saw when we read Revelation 20 that God is going to judge men according to their works. It said it twice: according to their works, according to their works. And this is saying the very same thing. The basic truth is in verse 6: Men will be judged according to their deeds, their works.
Now, that is not a new concept. That is a concept that is all throughout the scripture. In Jeremiah 17:10, it says, I, the Lord, search the heart. I test the conscience, even to give every man according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings. In Isaiah 3, verses 10 and 11, it says, Say to the righteous that it shall be well with them, for they shall eat the fruit of their doings.
Woe unto the wicked, it shall be ill for him, for the reward of his hands shall be given him. The Old Testament then tells us that God will judge on the basis of The product. The works, the deeds. The life pattern. of an individual.
You say, well, that's really an Old Testament thought, isn't it? That's certainly not New Testament. No, it's equally New Testament. That God will judge men on the basis of their works. In Matthew chapter 16, and I want to show you some verses.
You don't need to turn to them, but you might want to jot them down. I want to show you some verses in the New Testament that emphasize the same truth. In Matthew 16, 27, it says, For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels. Speaking of that great time of judgment in the future. And then he shall reward every man according to his works.
Same concept. according to his works. Even in 1 Corinthians 3, a familiar passage to all of us. We find in verse 8 that each of us shall receive his own reward according to his own labor.
Some of us have built upon a foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, and stubble. And every man's work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall test every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he's built upon it, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss. but he himself shall be saved yet as by fire.
In 2 Corinthians 5, verse 10, we read similarly, We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done, whether it be good or worthless. Even Galatians, that great epistle. Extolling grace says this, chapter 6, verse 7: Be not deceived, God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption, and he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap.
Life everlasting. And let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we what? Don't faint. And you find the same principle elsewhere in the New Testament. There is a place For works.
In judgment. Both of the unbeliever and the believer. In Romans 14, 12, it says, So then every one of us shall give account of himself. Yeah. There you go.
to the second chapter of Romans. Whether you're looking in the Old Testament or the New Testament, and those are just sample scriptures, you will find many, many scriptures that remind us that God will judge men on the basis of their deeds.
Now, the primary thrust here is that God does not judge us on the basis of our profession. He does not judge us on the basis of our relationships. He does not judge the Jew on the basis of his Abrahamic heritage. He does not judge you on the basis of your identification with a church. He judges on the basis of the product of your life.
The question will not be whether a man is a Jew or whether he is a Gentile, whether he is heathen, whether he is religious, whether he goes to church or doesn't go to church. The issue is: does his life manifest obedience to God? That's the issue. The actions of men, now mark it, form an infallible index to their character. That is what the scripture says again and again.
By their fruit you shall what? You shall know them. The life pattern. The life mode, if you will. The works and the deeds of life are an infallible index to character.
And so, this forms one of the unchanging standards by which God judges. In fact, you might say there are only two classes of people in the world. That's all, just two. My grandfather used to say, the saints and the ain't. There are only two classes of people in the world: those who obey God.
and those who do not obey God. None of us perfectly obeys God. But there are some people in the world who don't obey God at all. And there are others who seek to obey. Those are the two kinds of people.
So every man faces an impartial judge who has a comprehensive record of that man's deeds. And by that record will his eternal destiny be determined, says Paul. I read this week about a new Publishing. effort that's being made in the area of children's books. And through the marvel of computer printing, a company has designed a storybook series which can feature your own child.
All you have to do is send in your child's name. The names of your child's friends. Your child's school and the name of the teacher. And something about the child's life and what they like, and so forth and so on. And they will, through the computer, put your child into the whole story and send you a book about your child.
That's a fairy tale. That's a fantasy world. But God has a book about everybody's life that is absolutely on target. And by that record, Shall God judge.
Now Some of you are getting a little nervous. That's why you kind of laughed. You just had to let it out. You're saying MacArthur, you sound like a works righteousness person. And those of you who've been here for any time know that I'm not, so let me try to help you a little bit.
Somebody's going to say, well, salvation by works. I've been accused of teaching that before.
Somebody's going to say, you're talking about a work salvation. No, I'm not talking about that because the Bible doesn't teach that. The Bible doesn't teach that you can be saved by your works. The Bible teaches just the opposite. Not of works, lest any man should Boast.
Yeah. The Bible never teaches salvation by works. In Psalm 115, Verse 1, it says, Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory for thy mercy. In other words, for whatever we are, the glory is not ours, not unto us, not unto us, but unto your name. In the forty-eighth chapter of the prophet Isaiah.
We find another indication of the thought of the writer in the Old Testament in regard to this subject. In verse 11, for mine own sake, even for mine own sake will I do it. For how should my name be polluted, and I will not give my glory unto another? In other words, God says, I will do what I will do, I will save, and I will fulfill my promise for my sake. And I will not give it to someone else to do that, lest I give my glory to another.
So to maintain God's glory for himself in saving grace, there can be no works salvation. In Jeremiah 31, where you have the great statement of the new covenant, the days come, says the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. Which my covenant they broke, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD. But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the LORD. I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts, and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
In other words, God says, I'll do it. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, saith the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. The essence of that new covenant is that it is a covenant of mercy and grace extended to unworthy people. In the New Testament, we find the very same thing. Again, there can be no works salvation.
In 1 Timothy 1:15, Paul says, This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save what? Sinners.
Okay. Of whom I am chief. Nevertheless, for this cause I obtained mercy. And Ephesians 2:8 and 9 sums it up. For by grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
Now listen to me. Very careful that you understand this. We're building to a very important truth. Yeah. We will be judged by our works.
This is Romans 6. And we'll get into the specifics in a moment. But we cannot be saved by our works. You say if that's the case then, how do works fit in? Or do they fit in?
Well, though we cannot be saved by works, works are a very important part of our life. In Philippians chapter 2, verse 12. Wherefore, my beloved, as you've always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. He says you must show some works.
You must work out. on the outside the salvation that you've received on the inside. In Ephesians 2 it says this. Right after verse 9, not of works lest any man should boast, it says, We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works. which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
Now what are these verses saying and there are a myriad other ones in the New Testament? They're saying this. You cannot be saved by works, but you will be saved unto works, right? In other words, if you are truly saved, you will be His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that you walk in them. Therefore, God, when God judges, can look at a man, and if he sees the works, he knows that the salvation has been accomplished.
It is not that you're saved by works, it is that you're saved unto good works. A person's deeds, a person's works reveal whether he has been saved. And they are the absolute infallible indicator.
So, an unbeliever will be judged by his. Works, his deeds, and they will reveal his unbelief. They will reveal the absence of God in his life because all of his works will be unrighteous. And even when he tries to be righteous, it'll turn out to be filthy rags.
So, all God has to do is look at the works. If He sees works that are manifestations of righteousness, He knows there is a regenerated person. If he sees no such manifestation of righteousness, he knows there is an unregenerate person. Therefore. Judgment in the end can be rendered on the basis of works.
The believer, the one who by faith has been given the power of God to produce righteous works, will be clearly indicated by those works of righteousness.
So, the deeds then of a person, what you do in your life. is a fair indicator of where you stand with God.
Now, as we approach verses 6 to 10, and then close with just a thought about verse 11. I want you to understand one very important thing. Paul is not talking about salvation here, so get that out of your mind. Or you'll be confused. He doesn't talk about salvation until chapter 3, verse 21.
He is simply dealing with one of the elements of judgment. He doesn't say how the righteous people got righteous, or he doesn't say why the unrighteous people were unrighteous. He just says you can judge them by their works. A true Christian is known by his righteous deeds. A non-Christian is known by the absence of righteous deeds.
Now, what does that say to you? Simplify. If there's nothing in your life to indicate righteousness, Then there's no righteousness there. For if any man be in Christ, He is a what? New creation.
Old things are passed away and behold, all things have... become new. If there's no manifestation, there can be no salvation. There may be periods of time when we walk in disobedience and the flesh, but there cannot be a life that is barren of righteous deeds. That can still claim to be.
Redeemed. And notice there's no neutrality either. Jesus said, He that is not with me is against me. He that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad. Matthew 12.30.
You're listening to Grace to You, the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur. John's current study is helping form your conscience by showing you that, apart from Christ, we all fall short of God's perfect standard of righteousness. John's series is called Without Excuse. And now, friend, to make sure your conscience aligns with God's Word, I want to recommend the book The Vanishing Conscience. This is something of a classic by John MacArthur.
It shreds the world's false notions of guilt and sin, which have infiltrated even the church, and it drives you to the purifying hope that's found only in Christ. To order the vanishing conscience, contact us today. our number here, eight hundred fifty five GRACE, and our website, gty.org. The Vanishing Conscience will show you how to fight habitual sins, how to overcome temptation, and how to maintain a pure thought life. It's also an ideal gift for someone you're discipling.
The Vanishing Conscience costs $11 and shipping is free. Again to order, call 855 Grace or go to gty.org. And thank you for letting us know how God is using grace to you in your life. That encourages us more than you know.
So when you have a moment, write to us at RACETOUPO BOX4000. Panorama City, California, 91412. or you can send an email to letters at gty.org. That's our email address one more time, letters at gty.org.
Now for the entire Grace to U staff, I'm Phoenson. Thanks for joining us today and watch Grace TU Television this weekend on NRB TV or check your local Christian station or watch anytime at gty.org and then be here Monday as John MacArthur continues his sobering study without excuse. Showing you that apart from Christ, no one will escape God's judgment. It's another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time on grace to you.
