No Excuses - Part 2 (Romans 2:1-11, Deuteronomy 7:1-11, Deuteronomy 9:4-5)
Rev. David Huffman, July 14, 2024Part of the Series On Romans series, preached at a Sunday Morning service
No Excuses (Part 2)
In Amos 1, the nations surrounding Judah have judgment proclaimed upon them. "For three transgressions and for 4, " the judgment is proclaimed. The sum is 7, the symbol of completeness. Then Amos proclaims judgment upon Judah in the same format. Then, he proclaims the same pattern on Israel. This is the same pattern of judgment we see in Romans 1 and 2 against gentiles and then against the Jews. Having been created in the image of God, we know what is right, but we rebel. The judgment falls on all the gentile nations, particularly for sexual sin. Now in Chapter 2, the judgment seems to fall on one person. More than on just one person, the person is the representative of the unbelieving Jew. So, all the unbelieving Jews are falling under judgment. As with the gentile judgment, the Jewish judgment permits no excuses. The knowledge of God and His righteousness is plain enough. They should believe the gospel, but they don't. What Paul has in mind is how the Jews are accusing the gentiles of committing their particular sins and denying the reality of their own sins. The Jews bring judgment on themselves when they practice the very same things. God's judgment is according to truth, to what is actually done. The Jews thought that by being God's covenant people they have an excuse. The blessings of the Lord fall upon the Jews not because they are better; by God's lovingkindness they receive mercy, although unbelieving Jews committed the same sins as the gentiles. What do you do when you realize that you are living under God's judgment for these sins? Realize God's patience with you? Repent? Yes! Today is the day of salvation; turn to the Lord before it is too late, and you suffer everlasting judgment. Do not persist in a hard and impenitent heart. It is right for us to recognize sin in others and in ourselves. We all need to think upon our own salvation. We need to preach the gospel to each other. What is in our hearts? Belief or unrepentent sin? What is Paul's main goal here? If you are looking to anything within yourself to get you out of judgment, you are lost. Embrace the gospel. We all need to be crying out to the Lord in Christ. Trust anew in the gospel.
| Earlier: | Same day: | Later: |
|---|---|---|
| « Given Over | None | Judged According to Works? » |
Romans 2:1–11 (Listen)
2:1 Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. 2 We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. 3 Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? 4 Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? 5 But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.
6 He will render to each one according to his works: 7 to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; 8 but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. 9 There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, 10 but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. 11 For God shows no partiality.
(ESV)
Deuteronomy 7:1–11 (Listen)
7:1 “When the LORD your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and mightier than you, 2 and when the LORD your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them. 3 You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, 4 for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the LORD would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly. 5 But thus shall you deal with them: you shall break down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and chop down their Asherim and burn their carved images with fire.
6 “For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. 7 It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, 8 but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 9 Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations, 10 and repays to their face those who hate him, by destroying them. He will not be slack with one who hates him. He will repay him to his face. 11 You shall therefore be careful to do the commandment and the statutes and the rules that I command you today.
(ESV)
Deuteronomy 9:4–5 (Listen)
4 “Do not say in your heart, after the LORD your God has thrust them out before you, ‘It is because of my righteousness that the LORD has brought me in to possess this land,’ whereas it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is driving them out before you. 5 Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the LORD your God is driving them out from before you, and that he may confirm the word that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
(ESV)