Hiding Behind Your Halo

Donna Gray Barkhouse, 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 a serious warning. Do you think that you will get away with. Stand before God with your head.

Jesus consistently condemned the Pharisees for their self-righteous attitude.

They thought that they were holy and that everyone else was not, even though they were senators. They look down on other people and consider themselves superior. It's really tempting to be judgmental of other people's sin while at the same time holding on to our own sin. The apostle Paul confronted that temptation in the book of romance. And that's our theme today here on Wisdom for the Heart.

Stephen Davy is taking us to a passage where we'll see that God takes our sin seriously and we should, too.

Today's lesson is entitled Hiding Behind Your Halo.

So far threw out the first chapter of Romans haloes 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, go get them, Paul. They deserve it.

Let him 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 for 24. Therefore, God gave them over first. Twenty five four. They exchanged the truth of God. Four alive was twenty eight, as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer. God gave them over. Go back again to the middle part of verse twenty. His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen being understood to 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 yet. Suddenly, verse one of chapter two. There's a change. Therefore, you are without excuse you.

The word, therefore, is used by Paul typically in his writings to begin a conclusion. Here, it's actually anticipatory. You can read it for the following reasons.

You the good person, you are the one with a halo. You over there with your moral, upstanding reputation.

You are without excuse. I can almost imagine the church in 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, inspiration to prove that the whole world is guilty. Everybody in chapter one, he begins with the immoral man without excuse. In Chapter three, he'll go to a religious man and prove you're without excuse. There is none righteous. No, not 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 the good reputation, the person in the 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 Halo's. 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 haven't a 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 first one further. Therefore, you are without excuse. Every one of you who passes judgment for and that you judge another, you condemn yourself.

Now, most would put a period there. There's not a period there. 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 who you are. 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. First Corinthians 215, Paul wrote, he who is spiritual. You read a phrase like that and you immediately. But 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. Now covers everything, thinking critically, determining what is right from wrong.

Determining that which people seem to accept that which you don't believe is wholly developing your own personal convictions. He says the believer judges all things that 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 judge is everything you say. But, you know, that might tarnish our halos out there in the community. And it make a good impression on people as 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 wholly unnecessary and excellent.

Well, the question might be asked, well, when is it wrong to judge? Are you saying, Steven, we're supposed to go to heaven 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 know everything. You're not involved. And that's where judging gives way to gossiping. And John, seven, Jesus Christ validated the law. 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 first strengthens for 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. First Corinthians four or five.

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 make these statements attempting to make ourselves look better in Matthew seven. 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, seven to four in the way you judge. You will be judge. That's the same thing Paul is saying in Romans two. 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.

The Lord pulls an illustration out of his construction background. He was a carpenter.

You remember the word for spec car foss's a splinter of wood. The word for log is the word used in reference to a support beam or a rafter in a home. Now, the interesting thing is in remembering then that a splinter in hereafter 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 the raft or the one that is deeply involved in that sin is a Rafter's.

And we're 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 are humorous 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.

Scuse 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 and we give them to you. One, there's a natural tendency to condemn sin and 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.

But that person is so stubborn.

Oh, but I have conviction. A person steals things from work. I just absent mindedly borrow a thing. The person is defensive. I'm just sensitive to what's right. The 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. And 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 why is is the person who has a small view of themselves and dissatisfied. Satisfied with that?

I love the story of Winston Churchill, Lewis sitting on a platform crate auditor waiting to speak to a huge crowd, gathered to hear 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 accepted in our own life.

Second, the second revelation of ourselves and 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 until he gave a special message to Joab. And he said, Joab, when you go into battle. Put your fire 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 no comes back from gibes messenger to David. It's done. And David brings Bathsheba into the palace and marries her, adds him to his his list of wives and his halo stays intact.

And Nathan comes along and Nathan confronts David. You've probably read the story and he tells him a story, says David. There's a poor shepherd in the kingdom. He had one little lamb. He nurtured that lamb 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 and couldn't do it any good. Bad. 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 isn't where it 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 and the king. 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. And 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 want to circle that word? No.

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 those they the immoral man knew about God.

They know about God. There's an intuitive knowledge that there is a creator, but they refuse 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.

And 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 might be right on it. 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 a 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 sayings. 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 and read it.

I'm looking at chapter one. I'm I'm reading all these biggies I've seen, but I'm not that bad.

I haven't accomplished those things. I've 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 five. Twenty one year 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. Guilty of murder.

Your rabbis, he says later in that same chapter, I've 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 lost has committed adultery with her in his heart. You see, I have never stolen anything. All 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 can work our way through all Ten 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, barn house, he 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 is 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 a 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 under a man wants to die.

And after that, the what judgment? A judgment. Before a perfect judge, there will be no hiding behind haloes.

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 to possibly 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 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 find 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 twelve of his friends. It was anonymous.

It simply said, this all is discovered. Ten of them fled the country.

True story.

Fourth man could be found guilty of that crime, go to prison, but escape and live life on the run.

Paul says in verse three, 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 two, 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 he was there when you committed adultery or lusted. He watched you steal. He heard you lie and deceive. He he saw the hatred in your heart. He knew the pride in your actions. He saw you. He was there when when you cheated. Ladies and gentlemen, the thing about this perfect judge is he is not only judge and jury, he is also the eye witness.

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 unlike prison. 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 Hill.

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.

Philanthropy or. As guilty of sin. None of that matters because God isn't into Halo's. There's no hope.

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.

And then settle out of court. Go and meet the judge in his chamber by the cross.

Fall upon him for mercy and say, I am guilty, I am the sinner. Chapter one applies to me. Oh, God forgive.

The wages fall will rise as he summarizes of Sandy's death.

But the gift of God is eternal life. Through Jesus Christ.

Thanks for having joined us today here on Wisdom for the Heart.

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