Romans Series: Chapter 2
Sunday, September 23, 2018
Peace to Live By Romans Series: Chapter 2 - Daniel Litton
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[Transcript may not match broadcasted sermon word for word, and contains extra material that was cut from the broadcast due to time constraints]
Turn in your Bibles, or tap in your Bible apps, to Romans chapter 2. Romans chapter 2. Paul has introduced his letter to the Romans upholding Jesus Christ, who saved the Roman believers of his time and who continues to save people in our time. Indeed, it reminds me of the famous verse in Hebrews, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8, ESV). What an encouragement! Paul was definitely happy to see the progress, the growing of the faith of the Romans. He longed to come and meet the church, but had not been able to up to the point of his writing of this letter. For sure, Paul had a lot to say about faith in the first chapter, and he compared righteous living with those who live without God, and what they practice. He contrasted what pleases God with what doesn’t.
And now we come to chapter 2. Today we are going to see Paul continue with his theme of discussing unbelievers. He is going to keep his focus on them, and he weighs the position and practicings of the unbeliever (those who do not count on Jesus Christ’s sacrifice to forgive them of all their sins, to make them clean), he will contrast them with the believer (the one who does count on Jesus). We will also see Paul get into an analysis of the person who lives without the Jewish law (the Gentile) versus those who do live under the law (or rather had lived under the law; the Law of the Old Testament which God gave to Moses). So, Paul is in compare and contrast mode here. I think we have got quite a lot to learn and relearn.
Verse 1: “Therefore you have no excuse, O man…” Now, what is the “Therefore” there for? Well, again this carries in from chapter 1, recall, the list of sins that the unbeliever practices in his or her life. Paul has begun to talk to those people. “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. We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. 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? 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? 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” (Romans 2:1-5, ESV).
The judger is declared guilty. Why is the judger declared guilty? The person who judges is guilty because he or she practices, we are told, the same things the person casts about condemnation on others. Wow. I think this is a message that is relevant today? Would you agree? We’ve seen so much of this in our culture, and especially recently, haven’t we? Surely we have. People have been so quick to condemn others, to expose their fellow man for wrongs actually done, and at the same time to try to seemingly expose people for wrongs that they didn’t really do, or of which have been exaggerated greatly. The judges have been passing judgment. The problem is that the one who judges, does that person do the same things? Does that person do similar things? Is that person righteous before God, and therefore, in a position to judge as God judges? Unfortunately, more often than not, the person doing the judging is only condemning themselves. Even if they don’t practice the same things externally, they practice them internally.
So, what does the judger and the one being judged have in common? They are both going to be judged by God. They have no way around his judgment. Why does God have the right to judge? God has the right to judge because he is perfect in his essence, displaying an unflawed character, and he is the One who created all and actually owns all. When you buy a house, when you purchase it with land, that house and the land in which the house sits upon is legally yours. You then have the right and ability to make the choices that pertain to that house. If you want to upgrade the kitchen, it’s your right to do that, and to do it however you desire. No one else has that right. A stranger cannot come into your house and decide how your kitchen is going to look. If you want to build a barn on the back of your hill on your land, that’s your choice. The land is yours. And someone else can’t put a barn there to use for themselves.
But why don’t people realize this? Why don’t they realize, again, they're not really in control. They’re not in control of their thoughts, what they say, and how they act, and they're not in control of their lives, when they are born, or when they die, or how tall or short they are, or what sex they are. There is a greater One who decides those physical characteristics. Now, we have seen in recent times among a very few, people trying to even have say over these characteristics. Transgender people are trying to play God. People vehemently argue for rights, things they want to choose to do. And yet, God has already made choices about them. He chose who a person would be, their ethnicity, sex, physical appearance. While homosexuality is trying to change who a person can be with, the transgender person is trying to take ultimate control and say, “I choose who I am, not God.”
People presume, on their own account, that because they do not see a higher power executing instant judgment, that they are free to behave how they want to behave. As Paul said, they “presume on the riches of his [God’s] kindness and forbearance and patience.” God is richly kind. God forbears—he waits to do what is rightfully his choice to do. God is patient. He is a hopeful God, “not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” as Peter tells us (2 Peter 3:9, ESV). If God wishes for something, that means people have a choice. One way we could look at this is that God has surrendered his right to people’s own, personal wills. Wait, can that be? Is that possible? God has surrendered is own will for the will of others?
I can just hear someone now saying, “I thought you just said the world belongs to God, and that God is going to judge the world. If God is the absolute authority, then why does he judge me if I don’t want to live following his ways, and allows me to follow my own ways?” Well, as we just saw, God is forbearing. That’s an important word, and it’s absolutely necessary for Paul to have included that word here in the text. If he hadn’t, it could be interpreted quite differently. But because God forbears, that is, he waits, he puts off, the executing of his judgment in the hope that people will make the right (the correct) choice, that means everyone is answerable to him. God has permitted for people to be able to follow their own wills without him (which interestingly enough, is Satan’s will, who really is their enemy). I’ve heard people (and dare I say, Christians) defend freedom, stating people are free to do whatever they want to do. If true freedom exists without God, then you’re calling something good (you, not me), you’re saying something good exists outside of God. In that case, brothers and sisters, you would have God who is good, and then something which is good (under your rules) (the freedom to practice evil) which is outside of God. That’s impossible, though. You cannot have something good outside of God. You ever thought about that?
Let me take a little time here and sort of drive this point home. Turn over to Matthew chapter 13, and I want us to consider the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares. As many of you are aware, this is the passage of Scripture which saved me some 18 years ago. I am going to use the King James Version for this passage, because that’s the language I prefer when it comes to this section of Scripture:
“Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares? He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.” (Matthew 13:24-30, KJV)
Notice how Jesus notes God as saying, “Let both grow together” instead of “It is good for them to both grow together.” That is much different than what is commonly taught. He said to let them grow, and what does the rest of the verse say? “and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them.” If it was good for them to grow together, then it would not be good for God to execute judgment on them—to violate the goodness of their freedom. I believe those who have misunderstood this matter have done so inadvertently. I really don’t think the brothers who have advocated for ‘good’ freedom outside of God were trying to do anything wrong. This is the truth, nonetheless.
The person who continually sins over and over without paying attention to their conscience hardens his or her heart. That’s what our consciences are there for, to protect us against doing wrong. Now our consciences are partly inborn (that is, they come from God; more on this in a little while), and they are partly developed from our upbringing. Our consciences aren’t always right. Sometimes we feel guilty for doing things of which really aren’t sin. A Jewish man, for instance, may be raised that he should not eat bacon. But when he becomes a Christian, he learns he’s allowed to eat bacon. Nonetheless, because he was raised that he shouldn’t, that’s ingrained in his conscience. It may take some time for him to reprogram his conscience with his newfound truth. Remember, Peter had this problem. He told God he would not eat anything that was unclean. And remember what God said? He said, “And there came a voice to him: “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” But Peter said, “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.” And the voice came to him again a second time, “What God has made clean, do not call common” (Acts 10:13-15, ESV).
We must move on. Verse 6: “He [God] will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality. For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.” (Romans 2:6-12, ESV)
It seems reasonable to me that really we need to focus on ourselves when we are thinking about what good works we accomplish or don't accomplish. We can try to judge how others are doing, our brothers and sisters in Christ, whether we believe they are doing right or wrong. The reality is that we really don't know the motives of a person's heart a lot of times when it comes to good works. The good news is that God does. And the even better news is that God is going to reward those of us who believe in him based on what we have accomplished in our lives. God knows our motives, and he does not judge based on external appearances. We gain no traction with God by who we are (or think we are) in the world, or in the body of Christ, no matter how highly others think of us. What has Peter taught us in regard to this topic? Remember, he said, “And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile” (1 Peter 1:17, ESV). That's a bit uncomfortable. The pastor may end up with less than the deacon. It's all based on our own personal drives of the heart.
Paul said, “those who by patience…”, “those who by patience.” It seems to me that most of us by now have to realize that our walks in the Christian life, and our seeking to align our thoughts, or speech, and what we do with Christ’s character comes by patience. We all have to admit that we are not currently everything that we should be. And some of us understand we are really not at all what we are supposed to be. Our growth in conforming our character to that of Christ then comes little by little. That is at the essence of aligning our personalities, what we think about, how we spend our time, everything about us, so that it looks like, or would be approved by, Jesus Christ. And I’m not just talking about serving in ministry. There is much more to our lives then the time that we spend serving.
How much extra time we have with all the modern conveniences available to us. It’s so easy to do the things nowadays that used to take people a great deal of time to perform. We can pop a frozen meal into a microwave and it is ready in four or five minutes. That same meal may have taken forty-five minutes to prepare some 50 years ago. Or, your laundry. You have a washer and a dryer. You just throw the clothes in there and wait some time and they’re done. It doesn’t even compare to how much time and effort people use to spend cleaning clothes. With all this excess time, how do you spend it? What do you spend your days doing when you are not carrying out your responsibilities? When you’re at home, having come home from work, what do you do? Do you spend time reading God’s Word? Do you spend time in prayer with God? Do you listen to sermons? Or do you just browse the Internet, or check Facebook, or watch YouTube for three hours straight? What are we doing with our time? How about spending two hours instead of three, and giving a hour to God? We have to start somewhere.
What will be our reward for our doing good? What does Paul say? “glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality.” All of us, whether we are a Jewish, or whether we are a Gentile, all of us have equal opportunity in the eyes of God to obtain the same thing. We may not have come into the world with the same advantages. We didn’t get to pick which family we were born into, whether we were raised by a mother and a father, or one or the other. We didn’t get to choose how much money we were raised on, or what our opportunities were growing up. That was all decided by forces outside our control. That also means it’s foolish to take pride in these things, for we didn’t really have any say in them. Nevertheless, though we didn’t get to choose a lot of things, we do get to choose how we want to live our lives as grown ups, what choices we make, what we focus our minds on, and how we will serve and help other people. We may not get to choose how we begin, or how we grow up, but, we do get to choose how we will live now and how we will finish life.
The writer of Hebrews said, now, I’m not going to turn there, but he said, “let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1, ESV). If we want to “by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality” that is what we are going to have to do. The only way we can have glory is to give God glory. As David said in Psalm 34:1, “I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth” (ESV). If we want honor, well what did Jesus say? “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all” (Mark 9:35, ESV). And in regard to immortality, David also tells us, “As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more. But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children’s children, to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments” (Psalm 103:15-18, ESV).
Are we a person who just hears what God says, observes it, and stores it in our minds, or are we a person who after hearing what God says tries to apply it to our daily living? This is why application of the Word of God is so important for us. We who teach the Word, who are Bible teachers, aren’t just responsible to give you a knowledge of the Scriptures. We are responsible to actually walk you through how you can apply it. Without any way to live out what we know, we become “a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal” as Paul told the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 13:1, ESV). It’s not enough to know how to play a guitar or play a piano. No, the person who does that has to know not only what the different notes are, and how to move his hands, and how to read music, the person has to know how to put all that together so that it is beautiful music to all who listen.
Now, moving on, Paul does a comparison here between how a Gentile lives versus how a Jew lives. He looks at the Gentile first: “For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus” (Romans 2:13-16, ESV).
When it comes down to it, God has written his rules, his standards, on every human heart. A person has an inborn capacity to know good from evil. That’s why people have “conflicting thoughts” which “accuse or even excuse them” in their actions, and of which will accuse them on their great judgment day. That is not enough, however. People are taught different things as they grow up, and they can deaden their conscience through continual sin practiced over and over. And people can have oversensitive consciences, thinking that everything they do is a sin. The mind alone is not a dependable means for knowing right from wrong. Unbelievers, do, as Paul said, have the understanding and ability to perform what God considers good actions, though, God doesn’t count them to their credit if they are not in right relationship with him.
Now for the Jewish side. Verse 17: “But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast in God and know his will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed from the law; and if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth— you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law. For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.” (Romans 2:17-24, ESV)
The Jews have the law, that is, the Law from God that was given to Moses on Mount Sinai. The Gentiles never got that Law. So, the Jews know what are the right things to do, how God requires an individual to conduct his life. Really, the knowledge and truth that comes from the Law of Moses puffs up the Jew. Because of his knowledge, he thinks he has achieved perfection. But going back to what Paul says in verse 13: “For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.” Becoming perfect in knowledge isn’t what God requires. Since the Jew knows, but often doesn’t practice then, this caused the name of God to be blasphemed among those who were not Jews. It didn’t help anyone come into right relationship with God. And so we are warned, and reminded in this passage, for us Christians that what we do is often just as important than what we say (the practice of our knowledge). People respond to God when show them what he is like versus just telling them what is like.
I don’t know how many times, in my own life, that my actions proved to be of great benefit and effectiveness in witnessing Jesus when added to my words. It’s like Paul said in 1 Corinthians, “in church I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue” (1 Corinthians 14:19, ESV). Whether it’s getting someone a cup of coffee, or giving them a book, or helping them with their work—it doesn’t matter how big it is or what level of kindness you give—that kindness will make what you have said in your witness to another to come alive. Us teachers cannot always govern with actions, but when we can add our actions to our words, then great things happen.
Finishing up. Verse 25: “For circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law. For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.” (Romans 2:25-29, ESV)
Let’s turn quickly back to Genesis 17. I want to take a look at the passage in which God made the covenant of circumcision with Abraham. Let’s go to verse 9:
“And God said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised. Every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house or bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring, both he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money, shall surely be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant. Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.” (Genesis 17:9-14, ESV)
Circumcision showed the need for each male child to remove sin (which was the foreskin that could allow disease) and thus be cleansed by having it removed. This was a physical, outward act that showed a person belonged to the lineage of Abraham (with whom God had made a covenant in Genesis 12). The sign is definitely similar to that of water baptism of the New Testament as that action displays a person physically belongs to Christ and has been saved from his or her sins. We know that it is the man who carries the seed of sin to the woman. That was why Jesus didn’t have a sin-nature even though he was born of a woman. The sin-nature comes from the man’s seed. And not only that, but the male sexual organ also represents the place where the vilests of sins could occur, thus also demonstrating the male’s need to be cleansed from sin.
The Jewish man thinks he is saved, approved by God, because he had been circumcised. But again, it’s not the Jewish physical ceremony that matters, but rather it’s the condition of the person’s heart. As we know, a Jew would have had to have kept the whole Old Testament Law if he wanted to be made righteous before God, without breaking any of it. And the same was true for the Gentile. If a Gentile had kept the whole Law, he would have been righteous (it would have been as if he were circumcised). Therefore, the man whom God praises is the man who has the right heart—who is trusting in Christ’s sacrifice on the cross and resurrection from the dead for the forgiveness of his sins. This is what we’re talking about. It’s this person that gains eternal life. And anyone can have that today by going to God and asking him for it.
-Daniel Litton
Turn in your Bibles, or tap in your Bible apps, to Romans chapter 2. Romans chapter 2. Paul has introduced his letter to the Romans upholding Jesus Christ, who saved the Roman believers of his time and who continues to save people in our time. Indeed, it reminds me of the famous verse in Hebrews, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8, ESV). What an encouragement! Paul was definitely happy to see the progress, the growing of the faith of the Romans. He longed to come and meet the church, but had not been able to up to the point of his writing of this letter. For sure, Paul had a lot to say about faith in the first chapter, and he compared righteous living with those who live without God, and what they practice. He contrasted what pleases God with what doesn’t.
And now we come to chapter 2. Today we are going to see Paul continue with his theme of discussing unbelievers. He is going to keep his focus on them, and he weighs the position and practicings of the unbeliever (those who do not count on Jesus Christ’s sacrifice to forgive them of all their sins, to make them clean), he will contrast them with the believer (the one who does count on Jesus). We will also see Paul get into an analysis of the person who lives without the Jewish law (the Gentile) versus those who do live under the law (or rather had lived under the law; the Law of the Old Testament which God gave to Moses). So, Paul is in compare and contrast mode here. I think we have got quite a lot to learn and relearn.
Verse 1: “Therefore you have no excuse, O man…” Now, what is the “Therefore” there for? Well, again this carries in from chapter 1, recall, the list of sins that the unbeliever practices in his or her life. Paul has begun to talk to those people. “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. We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. 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? 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? 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” (Romans 2:1-5, ESV).
The judger is declared guilty. Why is the judger declared guilty? The person who judges is guilty because he or she practices, we are told, the same things the person casts about condemnation on others. Wow. I think this is a message that is relevant today? Would you agree? We’ve seen so much of this in our culture, and especially recently, haven’t we? Surely we have. People have been so quick to condemn others, to expose their fellow man for wrongs actually done, and at the same time to try to seemingly expose people for wrongs that they didn’t really do, or of which have been exaggerated greatly. The judges have been passing judgment. The problem is that the one who judges, does that person do the same things? Does that person do similar things? Is that person righteous before God, and therefore, in a position to judge as God judges? Unfortunately, more often than not, the person doing the judging is only condemning themselves. Even if they don’t practice the same things externally, they practice them internally.
So, what does the judger and the one being judged have in common? They are both going to be judged by God. They have no way around his judgment. Why does God have the right to judge? God has the right to judge because he is perfect in his essence, displaying an unflawed character, and he is the One who created all and actually owns all. When you buy a house, when you purchase it with land, that house and the land in which the house sits upon is legally yours. You then have the right and ability to make the choices that pertain to that house. If you want to upgrade the kitchen, it’s your right to do that, and to do it however you desire. No one else has that right. A stranger cannot come into your house and decide how your kitchen is going to look. If you want to build a barn on the back of your hill on your land, that’s your choice. The land is yours. And someone else can’t put a barn there to use for themselves.
But why don’t people realize this? Why don’t they realize, again, they're not really in control. They’re not in control of their thoughts, what they say, and how they act, and they're not in control of their lives, when they are born, or when they die, or how tall or short they are, or what sex they are. There is a greater One who decides those physical characteristics. Now, we have seen in recent times among a very few, people trying to even have say over these characteristics. Transgender people are trying to play God. People vehemently argue for rights, things they want to choose to do. And yet, God has already made choices about them. He chose who a person would be, their ethnicity, sex, physical appearance. While homosexuality is trying to change who a person can be with, the transgender person is trying to take ultimate control and say, “I choose who I am, not God.”
People presume, on their own account, that because they do not see a higher power executing instant judgment, that they are free to behave how they want to behave. As Paul said, they “presume on the riches of his [God’s] kindness and forbearance and patience.” God is richly kind. God forbears—he waits to do what is rightfully his choice to do. God is patient. He is a hopeful God, “not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” as Peter tells us (2 Peter 3:9, ESV). If God wishes for something, that means people have a choice. One way we could look at this is that God has surrendered his right to people’s own, personal wills. Wait, can that be? Is that possible? God has surrendered is own will for the will of others?
I can just hear someone now saying, “I thought you just said the world belongs to God, and that God is going to judge the world. If God is the absolute authority, then why does he judge me if I don’t want to live following his ways, and allows me to follow my own ways?” Well, as we just saw, God is forbearing. That’s an important word, and it’s absolutely necessary for Paul to have included that word here in the text. If he hadn’t, it could be interpreted quite differently. But because God forbears, that is, he waits, he puts off, the executing of his judgment in the hope that people will make the right (the correct) choice, that means everyone is answerable to him. God has permitted for people to be able to follow their own wills without him (which interestingly enough, is Satan’s will, who really is their enemy). I’ve heard people (and dare I say, Christians) defend freedom, stating people are free to do whatever they want to do. If true freedom exists without God, then you’re calling something good (you, not me), you’re saying something good exists outside of God. In that case, brothers and sisters, you would have God who is good, and then something which is good (under your rules) (the freedom to practice evil) which is outside of God. That’s impossible, though. You cannot have something good outside of God. You ever thought about that?
Let me take a little time here and sort of drive this point home. Turn over to Matthew chapter 13, and I want us to consider the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares. As many of you are aware, this is the passage of Scripture which saved me some 18 years ago. I am going to use the King James Version for this passage, because that’s the language I prefer when it comes to this section of Scripture:
“Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares? He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.” (Matthew 13:24-30, KJV)
Notice how Jesus notes God as saying, “Let both grow together” instead of “It is good for them to both grow together.” That is much different than what is commonly taught. He said to let them grow, and what does the rest of the verse say? “and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them.” If it was good for them to grow together, then it would not be good for God to execute judgment on them—to violate the goodness of their freedom. I believe those who have misunderstood this matter have done so inadvertently. I really don’t think the brothers who have advocated for ‘good’ freedom outside of God were trying to do anything wrong. This is the truth, nonetheless.
The person who continually sins over and over without paying attention to their conscience hardens his or her heart. That’s what our consciences are there for, to protect us against doing wrong. Now our consciences are partly inborn (that is, they come from God; more on this in a little while), and they are partly developed from our upbringing. Our consciences aren’t always right. Sometimes we feel guilty for doing things of which really aren’t sin. A Jewish man, for instance, may be raised that he should not eat bacon. But when he becomes a Christian, he learns he’s allowed to eat bacon. Nonetheless, because he was raised that he shouldn’t, that’s ingrained in his conscience. It may take some time for him to reprogram his conscience with his newfound truth. Remember, Peter had this problem. He told God he would not eat anything that was unclean. And remember what God said? He said, “And there came a voice to him: “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” But Peter said, “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.” And the voice came to him again a second time, “What God has made clean, do not call common” (Acts 10:13-15, ESV).
We must move on. Verse 6: “He [God] will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality. For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.” (Romans 2:6-12, ESV)
It seems reasonable to me that really we need to focus on ourselves when we are thinking about what good works we accomplish or don't accomplish. We can try to judge how others are doing, our brothers and sisters in Christ, whether we believe they are doing right or wrong. The reality is that we really don't know the motives of a person's heart a lot of times when it comes to good works. The good news is that God does. And the even better news is that God is going to reward those of us who believe in him based on what we have accomplished in our lives. God knows our motives, and he does not judge based on external appearances. We gain no traction with God by who we are (or think we are) in the world, or in the body of Christ, no matter how highly others think of us. What has Peter taught us in regard to this topic? Remember, he said, “And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile” (1 Peter 1:17, ESV). That's a bit uncomfortable. The pastor may end up with less than the deacon. It's all based on our own personal drives of the heart.
Paul said, “those who by patience…”, “those who by patience.” It seems to me that most of us by now have to realize that our walks in the Christian life, and our seeking to align our thoughts, or speech, and what we do with Christ’s character comes by patience. We all have to admit that we are not currently everything that we should be. And some of us understand we are really not at all what we are supposed to be. Our growth in conforming our character to that of Christ then comes little by little. That is at the essence of aligning our personalities, what we think about, how we spend our time, everything about us, so that it looks like, or would be approved by, Jesus Christ. And I’m not just talking about serving in ministry. There is much more to our lives then the time that we spend serving.
How much extra time we have with all the modern conveniences available to us. It’s so easy to do the things nowadays that used to take people a great deal of time to perform. We can pop a frozen meal into a microwave and it is ready in four or five minutes. That same meal may have taken forty-five minutes to prepare some 50 years ago. Or, your laundry. You have a washer and a dryer. You just throw the clothes in there and wait some time and they’re done. It doesn’t even compare to how much time and effort people use to spend cleaning clothes. With all this excess time, how do you spend it? What do you spend your days doing when you are not carrying out your responsibilities? When you’re at home, having come home from work, what do you do? Do you spend time reading God’s Word? Do you spend time in prayer with God? Do you listen to sermons? Or do you just browse the Internet, or check Facebook, or watch YouTube for three hours straight? What are we doing with our time? How about spending two hours instead of three, and giving a hour to God? We have to start somewhere.
What will be our reward for our doing good? What does Paul say? “glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality.” All of us, whether we are a Jewish, or whether we are a Gentile, all of us have equal opportunity in the eyes of God to obtain the same thing. We may not have come into the world with the same advantages. We didn’t get to pick which family we were born into, whether we were raised by a mother and a father, or one or the other. We didn’t get to choose how much money we were raised on, or what our opportunities were growing up. That was all decided by forces outside our control. That also means it’s foolish to take pride in these things, for we didn’t really have any say in them. Nevertheless, though we didn’t get to choose a lot of things, we do get to choose how we want to live our lives as grown ups, what choices we make, what we focus our minds on, and how we will serve and help other people. We may not get to choose how we begin, or how we grow up, but, we do get to choose how we will live now and how we will finish life.
The writer of Hebrews said, now, I’m not going to turn there, but he said, “let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1, ESV). If we want to “by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality” that is what we are going to have to do. The only way we can have glory is to give God glory. As David said in Psalm 34:1, “I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth” (ESV). If we want honor, well what did Jesus say? “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all” (Mark 9:35, ESV). And in regard to immortality, David also tells us, “As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more. But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children’s children, to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments” (Psalm 103:15-18, ESV).
Are we a person who just hears what God says, observes it, and stores it in our minds, or are we a person who after hearing what God says tries to apply it to our daily living? This is why application of the Word of God is so important for us. We who teach the Word, who are Bible teachers, aren’t just responsible to give you a knowledge of the Scriptures. We are responsible to actually walk you through how you can apply it. Without any way to live out what we know, we become “a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal” as Paul told the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 13:1, ESV). It’s not enough to know how to play a guitar or play a piano. No, the person who does that has to know not only what the different notes are, and how to move his hands, and how to read music, the person has to know how to put all that together so that it is beautiful music to all who listen.
Now, moving on, Paul does a comparison here between how a Gentile lives versus how a Jew lives. He looks at the Gentile first: “For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus” (Romans 2:13-16, ESV).
When it comes down to it, God has written his rules, his standards, on every human heart. A person has an inborn capacity to know good from evil. That’s why people have “conflicting thoughts” which “accuse or even excuse them” in their actions, and of which will accuse them on their great judgment day. That is not enough, however. People are taught different things as they grow up, and they can deaden their conscience through continual sin practiced over and over. And people can have oversensitive consciences, thinking that everything they do is a sin. The mind alone is not a dependable means for knowing right from wrong. Unbelievers, do, as Paul said, have the understanding and ability to perform what God considers good actions, though, God doesn’t count them to their credit if they are not in right relationship with him.
Now for the Jewish side. Verse 17: “But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast in God and know his will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed from the law; and if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth— you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law. For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.” (Romans 2:17-24, ESV)
The Jews have the law, that is, the Law from God that was given to Moses on Mount Sinai. The Gentiles never got that Law. So, the Jews know what are the right things to do, how God requires an individual to conduct his life. Really, the knowledge and truth that comes from the Law of Moses puffs up the Jew. Because of his knowledge, he thinks he has achieved perfection. But going back to what Paul says in verse 13: “For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.” Becoming perfect in knowledge isn’t what God requires. Since the Jew knows, but often doesn’t practice then, this caused the name of God to be blasphemed among those who were not Jews. It didn’t help anyone come into right relationship with God. And so we are warned, and reminded in this passage, for us Christians that what we do is often just as important than what we say (the practice of our knowledge). People respond to God when show them what he is like versus just telling them what is like.
I don’t know how many times, in my own life, that my actions proved to be of great benefit and effectiveness in witnessing Jesus when added to my words. It’s like Paul said in 1 Corinthians, “in church I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue” (1 Corinthians 14:19, ESV). Whether it’s getting someone a cup of coffee, or giving them a book, or helping them with their work—it doesn’t matter how big it is or what level of kindness you give—that kindness will make what you have said in your witness to another to come alive. Us teachers cannot always govern with actions, but when we can add our actions to our words, then great things happen.
Finishing up. Verse 25: “For circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law. For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.” (Romans 2:25-29, ESV)
Let’s turn quickly back to Genesis 17. I want to take a look at the passage in which God made the covenant of circumcision with Abraham. Let’s go to verse 9:
“And God said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised. Every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house or bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring, both he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money, shall surely be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant. Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.” (Genesis 17:9-14, ESV)
Circumcision showed the need for each male child to remove sin (which was the foreskin that could allow disease) and thus be cleansed by having it removed. This was a physical, outward act that showed a person belonged to the lineage of Abraham (with whom God had made a covenant in Genesis 12). The sign is definitely similar to that of water baptism of the New Testament as that action displays a person physically belongs to Christ and has been saved from his or her sins. We know that it is the man who carries the seed of sin to the woman. That was why Jesus didn’t have a sin-nature even though he was born of a woman. The sin-nature comes from the man’s seed. And not only that, but the male sexual organ also represents the place where the vilests of sins could occur, thus also demonstrating the male’s need to be cleansed from sin.
The Jewish man thinks he is saved, approved by God, because he had been circumcised. But again, it’s not the Jewish physical ceremony that matters, but rather it’s the condition of the person’s heart. As we know, a Jew would have had to have kept the whole Old Testament Law if he wanted to be made righteous before God, without breaking any of it. And the same was true for the Gentile. If a Gentile had kept the whole Law, he would have been righteous (it would have been as if he were circumcised). Therefore, the man whom God praises is the man who has the right heart—who is trusting in Christ’s sacrifice on the cross and resurrection from the dead for the forgiveness of his sins. This is what we’re talking about. It’s this person that gains eternal life. And anyone can have that today by going to God and asking him for it.
-Daniel Litton