Hiding Behind Your Halo

Donald Gray Barnhouse, who taught his congregation in Philadelphia.

In 1953, he was preaching on the same text, and he paraphrased that verse. Do you really figure that you have an angle that will let you go against God and get away with it? You don't have a ghost of a chance. There is no escape ever, and this means you, the respectable person sitting in judgment upon another person and remaining unrepentant yourself. You see, Paul ends verse three with this serious warning.

Do you think that you will get away with it? Stand before God with your halo. Looking good on the outside doesn't mean that you're right with God. Many people live with the halo effect.

They go through life focusing on image rather than substance. But what if that outward morality is actually hiding something deeper? In today's message, we'll see how Paul shifts his focus in Romans 2, calling out those who judge others while ignoring their own guilt. If you've ever thought being a good person was enough, or if you've been hurt by self-righteous hypocrisy, Stephen's message will challenge and convict you.

Here's Stephen Davey with today's message from God's Word. So far throughout the first chapter of Romans, halos have never looked better. For the reader of chapter one, Paul has been exposing the pagan world and the immoral man and their sins and their perversion and their hatred for God and their love of evil and all of the good people and all of the upstanding people and all of the moral people and everybody with a halo is sort of on the sidelines reading that and saying, oh, go get them Paul. They deserve it.

Let them have it. But suddenly with a stroke of his inspired pen, Paul suddenly changes the focus. For instance, go back to chapter one, verse 22, professing to be wise, notice the pronouns, they became fools. Verse 24, therefore God gave them over. Verse 25, for they exchanged the truth of God for a lie. Verse 28, as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over. Go back again to the middle part of verse 20, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen being understood through what has been made so that they are without excuse. You see chapter one is all about them. It's all about those sinners and they need a savior. The reader is saying in his heart, you're absolutely right, Paul, and it's about time they got what was coming and they deserve all of the judgment they'll ever get.

Preach it. Suddenly, verse one of chapter two, there's a change. Therefore, you are without excuse. You. Now the word therefore is used by Paul typically in his writings to begin a conclusion. Here it's actually anticipatory.

You could read it for the following reasons. You, the good person. You, the one with the halo. You over there with your moral upstanding reputation. You are without excuse. I can almost imagine the church at Rome quieting down. You have to understand that the first three chapters in this letter are basically Paul's attempt by means of the Holy Spirit's inspiration to prove that the whole world is guilty.

Everybody. In chapter one, he begins with the immoral man. You're without excuse. In chapter three, he'll go to the religious man and prove you're without excuse. There is none righteous, none out one. In chapter two, now he begins to focus on the moral man and he will prove that they also are without excuse.

The provider, the person with a good reputation, the person in the community that's seen as an upstanding man or woman, the person you would never expect to see in jail. You'd more than likely see them in church. Paul is writing to all the people now with halos. The people who read chapter one about the perversions of the immoral man and the degradation of a depraved society. And they said to themselves something like, well, I may not be perfect, but after reading chapter one, I am not that bad.

I'm a pretty good person. Surely God appreciates the fact that I have the reputation I do and I'm in church and there's a lot of things that I do, but boy, I don't do that. And Paul says, oh no, you're guilty before the perfect judge as well.

And he'll prove it. You say, how can it be that they would be guilty? Well, look at verse one further. Therefore you are without excuse every one of you who passes judgment. For in that you judge another, you condemn yourself. Now most would put a period there.

There's not a period there. What God is condemning is not the fact that a person is judging another. What God is condemning is the fact that a person is judging another one for doing sin that he himself is doing in his own heart, maybe even acting out. Most people would read this verse and in a way to further tolerate even more sin and evil.

They would put a period there and they would read it this way. Therefore you are without excuse every man of you who passes judgment. Our society at large today, by the way, has read it that way. Those who have and the church, I'm afraid, has followed suit. If you judge anyone for anything, somebody will more than likely say to you, ah, don't judge lest you be judged.

Society at large has thrown away the moral standard and the imposition of that moral standard upon itself. So in order to understand verse one of chapter two, we have to understand what Paul is condemning. In 1 Corinthians 2 15, Paul wrote, he who is spiritual.

Now you read a phrase like that and you immediately perk up. Oh, he's going to tell us who is spiritual. We want to be spiritual, don't we? All right. He says, he who is spiritual judges all things.

That covers everything. Thinking critically, determining what is right from wrong, determining that which people seem to accept but which you don't believe is holy. Developing your own personal convictions. He says the believer judges all things. Now the Christian community today would say the person who is spiritual doesn't judge anything or anybody.

But Paul said the one who is spiritual judges everything. You say, but you know, that might tarnish our halos out there in the community. We make a good impression on people if we judge between that which is right and wrong with the fads and trends and activities within the church and without the church.

We want to keep our halo, our good impression. Ladies and gentlemen, I believe the church today may have a halo, but it doesn't have a spine. According to the Word of God, for those with spiritual backbone, it's right to judge yourself as it relates to personal holiness. It's right to judge a sinning believer as it relates to their repentance or lack thereof. It's right to judge a teacher as it relates to their doctrine. And it is right to judge everything in light of scripture and what it says is right and wrong, evil and holy, unnecessary and excellent. Well, the question might be asked, well, when is it wrong to judge? Are you saying, Stephen, we're supposed to go out of here with our black robes and just start judging everything?

No. When is it wrong to judge? Let me give you a couple of them. Number one, when you don't know all the facts, more than likely that means you're not part of the problem and you're not part of the solution. You really don't know everything. You're not involved and that's where judging gives way to gossiping. In John 7, Jesus Christ validated the law and he said, the law does not judge a man until it first hears from him all of the facts.

It's wrong to judge. Secondly, when you pass judgment on what you consider someone's motive. In 1 Corinthians 4, Paul says, you know, there are some things that you cannot judge because you do not know a person's motive and so you leave it alone. He says, the time will come when the Lord will bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men's hearts. 1 Corinthians 4, 5. Finally, it's wrong to judge when it's merely an attempt to look better than the person you're judging.

We do that a lot, don't we? We make these statements attempting to make ourselves look better. In Matthew 7, the Lord said, do not judge lest you be judged and most people stop reading there and say, see, it was wrong to judge. We've just read some scripture that says it's right to judge so Christ isn't going to contradict other scripture.

Well, the answer is you just got to keep reading. Verse two, you might turn there, Matthew 7, two, for in the way you judge, you will be judged. That's the same thing Paul is saying in Romans 2.

And by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. And why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Now, the Lord pulls an illustration out of his construction background. He was a carpenter, you remember. The word for speck, karfass, is a splinter of wood.

The word for log is the word used in reference to a support beam or rafter in a home. Now, the interesting thing is in remembering then that a splinter and a rafter are made out of the same material. The only difference is the size. Both of these men here in this illustration then have the same problem. One is drowning in it, the other is dabbling in it. And the one with a rafter, the one that is deeply involved in that sin, he has a rafter as it were sticking out of his head. He sees a brother and he recognizes the symptoms and he sees the signs and he runs over to that man and he says, you got a splinter in your eye, I need to take it out.

He's knocking people over as he runs and he knocks this man 10 feet back and their humor is illustration. The Lord goes on to say these interesting words that are usually overlooked in verse five, you hypocrite. First, take the log out of your own eye and then you will see clearly enough to ignore the splinter in your brother's eye.

Excuse me. Then you will see clearly to take the splinter out of your brother's eye. He doesn't say get the log out of your eye and then ignore your brother's problem. He says, confess your own sin, clean up your own life and then with clear spiritual vision, help your brother clean up his. I think the entire issue of judging others for the wrong reasons and in the wrong way is a rather revealing issue about ourselves, isn't it? At least four things are revealed.

Let me give them to you. One, there's a natural tendency to condemn sin in others and minimize the same sin in our own lives. We just exaggerate what others do and minimize it when it's ours. You say, that man has a terrible temper. Me, my mother's Irish. That person is so stubborn. Oh, but I have convictions. That person steals things from work.

I just absentmindedly borrow things. That person is defensive. I'm just sensitive to what's right.

That guy's a liar. Well, we just stretch the truth here and there. We have an incredible ability to exaggerate the faults of others and minimize our own and it's an issue of pride, isn't it? It's an issue of an inflated attitude about ourselves. So we close ourselves in and we view ourselves only in the best of light and we sit there and we judge others, attempting to make ourselves look better, not knowing all the facts, judging motives or whatever it may be.

We're consumed with ourselves. How wise is the person who has a small view of themselves and is satisfied, satisfied with that. I love the story of Winston Churchill who was sitting on a platform, great auditor, waiting to speak to a huge crowd gathered to hear him. The chairman of the event leaned over and said, you must be so proud, Mr. Churchill, that all these people have come to hear you speak. Churchill gave a classic response. He said, as he leaned back over, whenever I'm tempted to be so excited about something like this, I always try to remember that if instead of giving a political speech I was instead being hanged by the neck, the crowd would be twice as large. We get caught up in ourselves and our judging shows itself in the way we condemn sin but accept it in our own lives.

Second, the second revelation of ourselves in judging others for the wrong reason is this, we are remarkably discerning about the sins of others and remarkably dense about our own. David is the classic illustration here, isn't he? You remember the story where he committed adultery with Bathsheba. She conceived and there was a problem on David's hand. He had to get rid of her husband to save the halo around his head and so he gave a special message to Joab and he said, Joab, when you go into battle, put Uriah on the front lines and then when the battle is the fiercest withdraw from him so he will be killed. David is falling fast. Joab fulfills that order and they get into battle and they withdraw from Uriah this dedicated soldier and he's killed and the note comes back from Joab's messenger to David. It's done and David brings Bathsheba into the palace and marries her, adds him to his list of wives and his halo stays intact and Nathan comes along. Nathan confronts David.

You've probably read the story. He tells him a story. He says, David, there's a poor shepherd in the kingdom. He had one little lamb. He nurtured that lamb.

It was like a pet to the family and there was a wealthy man in town and he had all kinds of lambs and that man had guests and he didn't want to take one of his lambs, as many, and he saw this poor shepherd who couldn't do anything about it and he took that one lamb, he killed that lamb and fed the guests with that one lamb from that poor shepherd's family and David, as it were, comes off of his throne and he says, we've got a sheep stealer in the kingdom. Put him to death. Nathan said, in effect, we've got a wife stealer in the kingdom. Same problem, different magnitude.

What do you want to do about him? We are so unbelievably discerning in seeing the sin in other people's lives and not seeing it ourselves and we are so righteous in our indignation. They did this and they said that and they went there and they decided this and I can't believe it all along. All the secrets we are hiding in our hearts. Third, the third revelation about judging those wrongly is that it proves we have an intuitive knowledge of a perfect standard for right and wrong. Would you notice what Paul said in Romans chapter two, verse two?

And we know, you ought to circle that word know, and we know, Mr. Moral Man, you know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things. He uses the same thought in chapter one, verse 21. Even though they, the immoral man, knew about God, they know about God.

There's an intuitive knowledge that there's a creator, but they refused to listen to that intuitive knowledge. Verse 32 of chapter one, although they know, there it is again, the ordinance of God that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them. Now in chapter two, Paul speaks of the moral man who has this intuitive knowledge of right and wrong, this standard by which he judges others. And they will tell you, no, there's no standard for right or wrong. It's just a cultural thing.

We just think in this culture that doing this is wrong and in another culture it might be right. There's an intuitive knowledge all around the world of this perfect standard of right and wrong. And you take that same man who reads in the newspaper of some rapist or child molester or murderer who is killed in some prison riot and that moral man will mutter under his breath, he had it coming. How could someone feel that he had it coming? How come anybody, believer or unbeliever, when they're violated?

No, it's wrong. Paul explains there's an intuitive knowledge of the judgment of God that falls upon those who practice such things. The fourth revelation is this, we condemn ourselves by applying a holy standard to other people, not keeping the same standard ourselves.

And that's his point in verse three. We condemn ourselves by applying a holy standard to other people and not keeping the same standard ourselves. He says, and do you suppose this, oh man, when you pass judgment upon those who practice such things and do the same things yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God.

He says to his reader, Mr. Moral man, you have put yourself in the place of a judge. You've condemned the sins of others. Have you forgotten that by applying that standard to somebody else, you are now responsible under that same standard?

That's his point. You have created and imposed on others a standard. Have you forgotten then that you will one day stand before the perfect judge and be accountable to that which you imposed on others? The moral man counters. He says, well, listen, let me get your Bible out and read it. Yeah, I'm looking at chapter one.

I'm reading all these biggies. I've sinned, but I'm not that bad. I haven't accomplished those things. I haven't murdered anybody, haven't raped anybody, haven't committed adultery. I'm not a thief.

I've never done those things. Oh, Jesus Christ said in Matthew chapter 5 21, your rabbis told you not to kill. They taught you the right thing. But I say to you that if you have hatred in your heart for another, that's as good as murder. You may not have put a knife in their back, but you may have wished they were dead. That's in the eyes of a perfect judge, guilt of murder. Your rabbis, he says, later in that same chapter have told you not to commit adultery.

You're trying to follow that standard. But I say to you that anybody who looks upon a woman with lust has committed adultery with her in his heart. You say, I've never stolen anything. Oh, your will belongs to God. Have you ever kept it from God? Then you're a thief.

You took something that belonged to him. We don't have time, but we could work our way through all 10 commandments and we would be guilty of them all. So Paul writes in verse three, do you suppose this, oh man, you can almost see him. Do you think, do you suppose that you, moral man, moral woman, will escape the judgment of God because you've got a halo?

Do you really think that? Donald Gray Barnhouse who taught his congregation in Philadelphia in 1953, he was preaching on the same text. I read his manuscript and he paraphrased that verse in a way that I'm sure shocked his Presbyterian congregation. He read it to them this way. Do you suppose this, you dummies?

Everyone was awake now. Do you really figure that you have an angle that will let you go against God and get away with it? You don't have a ghost of a chance. There is no escape. Do you understand?

No escape ever. And this means you, the respectable person sitting in judgment upon another person and remaining unrepentant yourself. You see, Paul ends verse three with this serious warning. Do you think that you will get away with it and stand before God with your halo?

You think again. The warning is echoed in the book of Hebrews where we read it is appointed unto man once to die and after that the what? The judgment, the judgment before a perfect judge. There will be no hiding behind halos then. There will be no need for good impressions.

Your first four minutes before that perfect judge will make no difference whatsoever. It's possible one commentator illustrated for a criminal to get away with crime in our day. It's possible to get away with it. One way would be for the crime to go undetected. That man on that news documentary last evening, the story was unveiled how he killed a woman who was carrying his child. He didn't want anybody to know and she was pressuring him to leave his wife and so he killed her and he put her body in a steel barrel and sealed it.

For 32 years, no one knew. An upstanding man in the community, business owner, but a murderer. It's possible to be undetected in your crime. It's also possible to be arrested but your lawyer finds some loophole in the system and you get away.

You committed that crime but the jury said not guilty. It's possible third to flee to another country. We're always reading about those being extradited to come back to stand trial.

It's possible to flee and go to another country and live it out. I love the story of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle who wrote the Sherlock Holmes mysteries. One day as a gag, he wrote a letter to about 12 of his friends. It was anonymous.

It simply said this, all is discovered. Ten of them fled the country. True story. Fourth, a man could be found guilty of that crime and go to prison but escape and live life on the run. Paul says in verse 3, do you think, do you suppose that you will somehow escape the judgment of God? Can't happen.

Why? God is omniscient. No sin will ever go undetected. He knows everything. Nothing will be hidden before his gaze. All will be seen.

In fact, in verse 16 of Romans chapter 2, it says on that day, God will judge the secrets of men. He is not only omniscient, he is omnipresent. That is, he is everywhere.

No sin can be denied. He was there when you stole that. He was there when you committed adultery or lusted. He watched you steal. He heard you lie and deceive. He saw the hatred in your heart. He knew the pride in your actions. He saw you.

He was there when you cheated. Ladies and gentlemen, the thing about this perfect judge is he is not only judge and jury, he is also the eyewitness. And he can take the stand and he can say, I saw everything.

What will you say? He saw it all. He is omniscient. He is omnipresent. He is also omnipotent. You cannot escape his judgment because he is all powerful. No one is smart enough or clever enough or strong enough to scale the heights of that prison house called hell. There was no escape. The moral man is without excuse. The moral man, upstanding in the community, a leader perhaps even in some church, baptized member, contributor, philanthroper, is guilty of sin.

None of that matters because God isn't into halos. There is no hope but one. Before the day of judgment arrives when your appointment will be to stand before God, before that day comes, there is only one hope for you and me. Settle out of court. Amen.

Settle out of court. Go and meet the judge in his chamber by the cross and fall upon him for mercy and say, I am guilty. I am the sinner.

Chapter 1 applies to me. Oh God, forgive me. The wages Paul will write as he summarizes of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. God isn't fooled by appearances. A polished reputation can't hide a sinful heart. Paul's message in Romans 2 is clear. Self-righteousness is just as dangerous as open rebellion. The only way to escape judgment is through Jesus Christ. That was Stephen Davey and this is wisdom for the heart.

Today's message was called hiding behind your halo. One of Stephen's greatest passions is equipping men and women from ministry which is why he founded Shepherds Theological Seminary. Graduates of STS are serving in churches and communities around the world, pastoring, planting churches, and making an impact for Christ. If you or someone you know is interested in graduate level theological training, STS offers a 100% paid scholarship for qualified men pursuing pastoral ministry. The program is full-time, completed in three years and requires in-person study at their campus in Cary, North Carolina. To learn more, visit wisdomonline.com. Even if you're not called to full-time ministry, STS offers classes to help you grow in your understanding of the Bible and theology.

You don't have to leave your job or relocate. Every course is available online. If you prefer in-person learning, STS has locations in Cary, North Carolina, Laramie, Wyoming, and Bryan, Texas.

Groups of students also gather in cities like Birmingham, Alabama, Lincoln, Nebraska to take courses together. The world needs faithful teachers of God's word and the STS faculty is ready to invest in you. Visit wisdomonline.org forward slash STS to explore your options today. I sure am glad you joined us. Stephen's going to continue through this series from Romans 2 called, The Perfect Judge in the Days Ahead. Join us next time here on Wisdom for the Heart.