The Gathering Surf City

Alrighty. We continue in the
book of Romans today,

but I'm supposed to tell you now that
we have had grace and we continue

to have grace.

It's just different.

You ready?

Surf City parking has allowed
grace for two weeks.

If you parked in Surf City parking without
a parking pass or permission,

then you got a warning.

That ended yesterday.

However, because these two blocks are
under a special dispensation.

Just kidding.

Town council allows
us to have parking.

They do not patrol these
two blocks until 12:30.

So just letting you know,

but coming up on Easter,

we're going to be doing
Easter in the park.

Going to do sunrise over
here at 12:30,

then we're going to
the park at 10:00.

And in the park,

you know,

if you've got Surf City
parking privileges,

we invite you to park on Rolling Avenue
because you don't get charged.

But everybody without,

we need them to park in the park,

so don't take those spaces.

Alrighty, just letting y'all
know ahead of time,

parking is going to be
fun for the next,

oh, about 20 weeks.

Just letting you know.

Alrighty. Romans,

chapter two,

verses 14 to 16.

We're only doing three verses a day.

Gives us an opportunity to sort of recap
a little and to understand what

it is that God has set before us with
regard to Gentiles and judgment and

kind of what we know.

If you're here,

I'm hoping you know it.

If you don't know it,

you will by the time we get done.

So here we go,

verse 14.

For when Gentiles who do not have the
law do instinctively the things of

the law,

these not having the law are a law to
themselves in that they show the

work of the law written on their
hearts or in their hearts,

their conscience,

bearing witness their thoughts and their
thoughts alternately accusing or

else defending them on the day when,

according to my gospel,

God will judge the secrets of
men through Christ Jesus.

Alright, let's pray and just ask God to
sort of let us know what he wants

us to see and hear this morning.

God, we praise you for your
word and the opportunity,

God, we have to study it.

God, I'm always grateful that you inspired
Paul particularly to write

these words that we might gain an understanding
and a better glimpse of

who you are.

That we might know God,

what the surrender means
and calls for.

When you say,

God, that we bow before you,

God help us to hear your word,

your voice this morning that
we might understand God,

what you long to see in us.

And we pray it in Jesus name.

Amen. All righty.

To have eternal,

everlasting, abundant life.

Right?

That's what we want.

We'd love to have that.

And as first John says,

to know that we have that,

to have that must have
something required,

right? Here's what we know.

We want that everlasting,

abundant life.

How do we get it?

Righteousness. God's righteousness.

And not your righteousness.

Not my righteousness.

God's righteousness.

I'm really going to offend
everybody this morning.

I just want you to know,

so I'm giving you ahead of time.

If we want and need the
peace with God,

the promise and hope of eternal
life and salvation,

guess what?

We want and need the righteousness
of God.

Only God can accomplish
his righteousness.

To have eternal life,

abundant life,

everlasting life.

All the words that we use for it,

to have peace with God,

which we're going to get
to over in chapter six.

This idea of being at peace
with our Creator,

you see,

requires righteousness.

And we can't accomplish righteousness
according to God's standard.

You can't do it.

All right?

So only God can accomplish
his righteousness.

Only God can give in part theologically
impute his righteousness to

anybody else.

All right?

He did that,

does that by means of
the good news story,

the gospel.

You know,

Paul says,

I am not ashamed of the Gospel because
it's the power of God unto

salvation to everyone who believes.

To the Jew first to the Greek.

Right? So we know that.

We covered that in chapter one.

This is recap.

Just so y'all know.

I mean,

somebody's sitting here going,

you already preached that.

Yeah, I did,

but we're recapping.

You just got to go with me,

all right?

He did that and does that by means
of the good news story.

And he says in it,

in the gospel,

the righteousness of God is revealed
from faith to faith,

just as it is written.

The just will live by faith.

Alright, we've been there,

we've been over this.

So let me just go ahead and
tell you what that means.

There is no plan or scheme or deal
that we can make with God.

Okay, now what do I mean by that?

I talk to people about the gospel
sometime and I say,

you know what?

Jesus is the only way to God.

Jesus is the only way to heaven.

And I've had people say,

well, God and I have an agreement.

And I go,

no, you don't.

God and I got a thing.

No, you don't.

God has a thing.

And God has given us sort of the
parameters of the thing,

what it is he desires,

what it is that he has provided for the
plan of salvation he has put in

place. That's God's thing.

Not my thing.

Not your thing.

All right,

now you know exactly how it is I'm going
to offend everybody in the room

this morning.

Okay? Just so you know,

God is righteous,

God is judged.

Everyone will be judged.

Today. The title of the message is
simply Gentiles in Judgment.

Why did it.

Because next week is going
to be Jews in Judgment.

Okay? Everybody gets judged.

I preached judgment
three Sundays ago.

I preached judgment two Sundays ago.

I preached judgment last Sunday.

I warned you last week.

I was preaching judgment
again this Sunday.

And you came back anyway.

Okay, you had the option,

just so you know.

Now, those of you who are here first
time because friends invited you,

maybe not,

but I'm glad you're here.

Okay, see,

here's what it says.

And we'll go through this because I
want to break some of these things

down when we see the phrase for when
gentiles who do not have the law,

right? So gentiles.

I remember we saw where it says to the
Jew first and also to the Greek in

the translation I'm using this year.

That word Greek in the Greek
text doesn't say Greek,

doesn't say Gentile.

See, we read an English translation.

Go, oh,

no, it says Hellenists.

That's the word.

It's used in the Greek for the
Jews and the Hellenists.

So what does it say?

Basically, all it means is for
the Jews and the non Jews.

So it's referring to everybody's
Jewish gonna be judged.

Everybody not Jewish
is gonna be judged.

Here's what we have to know.

That includes everybody,

okay?

So you don't have to
break that down.

Try to understand what that means.

Because Paul's going to do
that as we make our way,

right? Because when
he says the Jews,

right, he's talking about those who
receive the message or the word of

God, the oracles of God.

We haven't gotten to
that statement yet,

but the Jewish people had this revelation
of God through the law,

through Abraham,

through the covenant,

through the sacrificial system.

And guess what?

They're going to be judged.

And we're going to read about
that in a minute.

Because what we looked at was the fact
that if they got the law and they

disobey the law and everybody
disobeys the law,

they're going to be judged.

Well, there you go.

I'm talking too fast.

I'm going to run out of oxygen.

Which means you guys are
all going to Pass away.

I'm just kidding.

I'll take it all up right here.

God is righteous.

God is judge.

All will be judged as we've made our
way from chapter one now into

chapter two.

Guess what?

The ungodly,

the ungodly.

Those in verse 1:28 says,

those who refused,

they refused to acknowledge God.

They refused to recognize
God as God,

assumed the sin of the garden
and made themselves God.

You see,

that's what happens amongst
the ungodly.

That's what happens with people.

We assume that we can
be our own God,

negotiate our own deal and have some
sort of plan or scheme with God.

No, God is God.

God is judge.

Everybody will be judged.

The Gentiles,

Greeks, Hellenists,

they will be judged too.

The Jews will be judged.

Christians are going to be judged.

Here you go,

though. There's going to be
a standard of judgment.

How will God judge?

Right?

That's what Romans happily
breaks down for us.

Okay, Romans shows us how God has provided
right in judgment for those to

be judged.

And I'm going to read it.

You ready?

Here we go.

All right,

so verses 14,

15, 16 is a sentence in English,

in Greek.

They don't punctuate in Greek.

So you got to look at the context for
when Gentiles who do not have the

law do instinctively the
things of the law.

These not having the law are a law to
themselves in that they show the

work of the law written
on their hearts,

their conscience bearing witness,

and their thoughts alternately accusing
or else defending them.

On the day when,

according to my gospel,

God will judge the secrets of
men through Christ Jesus.

There you go.

Not a separate plan,

not a separate scheme or a deal
that we can make with God.

Jesus is the deal,

y'all. Okay?

Jesus is the deal.

Alright, so when we look
at this thing,

it says for Gentiles who
do not have the law,

do instinctively the
things of the law.

Now, what he's talking about right here
is there are some people that

don't murder.

You know why?

Because they know murder is wrong and
that actually agrees with the law,

right? So probably in this room now,

it's a bigger crowd than
8:00 this morning.

So I might not be truthful in this,

but more than likely in this room,

there's not a murderer.

Congratulations. Right?

So you didn't murder because you knew
it was wrong to murder and that

agrees with the law.

So you think,

oh, I've never murdered,

right?

I've never stolen even that piece of gum
in the candy store when you were

little. Just checking you,

you Measure,

Right. I've never done the Big Ten.

Well, what about the other 613?

Right?

You see?

So what he's saying is that just
because we do the right thing,

we suddenly issue this sort of directive
that we're righteous.

I'm a good person.

All right?

How you gonna get in heaven?

Well, I'm a good person.

I've heard that hundreds of times
over 40 years of ministry.

Who goes to heaven?

Good people go to heaven.

Really?

I remember the Fire and brimstone Baptist
preacher I knew as a child.

Good people gonna bust
hell wide open.

Sorry if that was offensive,

I apologize.

But I was quoting.

I was quoting somebody else,

okay?

God's authority is evident
and unescapable,

okay? That's the point
of today's message.

Now, I have a story to tell you.

And I know it's warm in here.

It's just because y'all are at 98.6 and
the room was at 72 before you got

here.

Just so you know.

Fourth grade.

You ready?

Some people like my story,

some people don't.

I just say them because I really need
an anchor in applying God's word in

my life.

And so I want to show
y'all this one,

alright? Fourth grade,

we had a class assignment.

And back when I was in
the fourth grade,

we had this.

The paper we wrote on had
a grainy texture to.

It wasn't like our.

Wasn't like this.

It was kind of grainy,

you know,

And. And it had a solid line and
a dotted line and a solid line.

How many of you remember that paper?

You're old too.

So here you go.

I love saying that.

Anyway, so I did my assignment on my
grainy paper and I was done because

I'm fast.

I'm really fast.

I did my assignment,

wrote my name at the top.

Bobby, put it on teacher's desk,

sat down,

read my Charlie Brown book.

Because, I mean,

it's free time.

You get your work done,

you got free time.

Yay. So I do my free time,

right?

Teacher's sitting there and going
through and checking off.

Everybody's turning in
their paperwork.

And she goes,

bobby, I don't have
a paper from you.

And I was like.

I was the third one.

I put my paper on your desk.

I turned it in,

it's there,

right? So making my case,

I said.

She said,

well, come up here.

So I went up there and so we're looking
through there and there's so and

so's name and so and so's name and so
and so's name and you flip one and

there's a paper that
I know is my paper,

but my name's not at the top.

There was a guy in my
class named Buddy.

Somehow, sleight of hand,

some degree of evil and mischief.

The middle three letters had been
erased and changed to udd.

And I was like,

Ms. Harmon,

that's my paper.

If you look close,

you can see where it was
erased and changed.

And sure enough,

she's. You're right.

Buddy, come up here.

Well, guess what?

At that point,

I became the authority,

the judge.

And there was no way
Buddy was escaping.

I began to make the pronouncement
not merely of judgment,

but of the sentence.

I wanted revenge.

And there was not any measure of grace
in my heart at that point.

Just so you know,

wasn't very gracious.

You said to me,

it's very easy for us to adopt a standard
in our own minds of right and

wrong, you see?

And that's what he's
saying right there.

Those who instinctively do
the things of the law.

Because there is the element of
right and wrong in our lives,

you know,

we think we're pretty good.

Call that moralism.

Of course I'm good enough
to get into heaven,

right? Moralism slides
into kind of a.

What will be referred to as we
keep going into legalism.

I've got the list of the rules
that can get you into heaven.

All right,

here comes the offense.

You ready?

I don't care what name tag you wear,

God's list of rules don't change.

Use whatever cultural system
of rules you want to serve.

Well, it's right because it's love.

See, I told you I was going
to offend somebody.

Politics. It's right because
it's on the right.

Yeah, that's not the right either.

It's right because nobody gets hurt.

That's not the right either.

Right. See what gets us into heaven?

Righteousness. Whose righteousness?

God's righteousness.

Not our righteousness,

not our list of rules.

Because moralism slides
into legalism.

Legalism means I got the
right list of rules.

That's when we finally get
the Jews getting judged.

That's when that comes up.

Because they have the law,

had the law,

right. And since they don't.

See, I'm getting way
ahead of myself.

Gentiles who are without the
law do right things.

They become a law to themselves.

Think they can earn their way in.

See, in Romans 1,

we talked about the unbelievers,

those who refuse to acknowledge God,

meaning those who refuse to
acknowledge God as God,

that God is God,

and I am not.

Okay? Then you got the
moralists thinking,

oh, well,

I'm good enough to get into heaven,

right? Then you got the
legalists who say,

I'm good enough because I've
got the right list,

right?

I've got the list.

See, I would pick on denominations
at this point,

but sure enough,

somebody throw.

No, you wouldn't throw anything.

But so I did this this
morning at 8:00.

So I'm going to do it now.

I've told you before,

man, I grew up Baptist.

We got a list,

right? I remember at 8 years old,

you know,

I asked,

how do I get baptized?

I wasn't asking about
how to get saved.

I was asking,

how did I get baptized,

right?

Well, you got to pray the prayer,

okay? So here's what I did.

Prayed the prayer,

right? I walked the aisle.

Now, nothing intrinsically bad about
any of what I'm telling you,

but if praying the prayer,

say the words,

walk the aisle,

do the water right,

and God,

do the water right,

See, okay,

if that's what you've
put your faith in,

something wrong,

it's a list,

right?

So we're going to get over into
the circumcision of the heart.

I know y'all are looking
forward to that Sunday,

but God said in Jeremiah there will be
a new covenant that I will write

on their hearts.

See there,

I'm telling you,

it's here.

Paul is making the case,

folks. All right?

Paul is letting us know to accomplish
the righteousness of God.

God's in charge of that,

not me,

not you,

not us,

not Baptists,

not Catholics,

not anything.

Because any list of rules in
legalism you have now,

here's where I'm offending
everybody.

You ready?

Any list of rules that you
have for legalism,

you got to do it.

Exactly. Except every list of rules of
legalism has an out as long as I

say those words.

It's a different set of words
from the first words.

But as long as I say those words or
as long as I sit in that box,

as long as I go talk
to those elders,

okay, God the judge.

God is the authority.

His authority is evident
and it's inescapable.

Gentiles who are without the law
think they can be good enough.

Legalists make a list,

Think they can be good enough.

Jews have a list that was given to
them and think they can be good

enough. What God is saying,

and I said this last week and said
it the week before a little bit,

is that God's looking here,

you surrendered yourself
to who he is.

See, I know everybody.

A lot of serious faces in the room.

Y'all are scaring me.

Might be because I'm scaring you.

See what I mean?

What is it God's looking for?

Here's the cool thing about this.

If you want to know what
God's looking for,

jump over to chapter four
and start reading.

I can't jump there because I'm going
to take care of everything in

between here and there.

But in chapter four,

we start talking about justification.

We're talking about not just
accomplishing a list or a.

We're talking about God imputing to
us a righteousness that we don't

deserve and can't earn.

There's no work you
can do to earn it.

Okay? Now,

I always offer the caveat.

You can't claim Jesus and
act like the devil,

okay? The way you act is testimony to
whether or not you actually claim

Jesus. Okay?

So God is talking about
a law of the heart,

but not the law that derives from
doing things instinctively.

And he mentions their conscience
bearing witness,

right?

There's something innate in us that
tells us what right and wrong is.

Okay? Now here's the funny thing.

Culture can change that.

Did y'all know that?

Do you know culture can change your
ideas of right and wrong?

I mentioned this earlier because
I was listening to.

I always at the end of the week,

I listen to some preachers who are preaching
the same text just to kind

of see where they went with it.

Right?

Here's what's funny about it.

Jeff is listening to the same guy.

I didn't know that until
this morning.

It's a guy that does a very good
exegesis of scripture.

And he mentioned Peace Child,

Don Richardson.

And I knew some of.

I went to school with some
of Don Richardson's kids,

friends and stuff.

Anyway, talks about Peace Child.

You know,

there is a tribal culture in Irian Jawa
that believes the more sneaky,

corrupt and conniving you can be,

the better you are.

Culture can change what you believe
to be right and wrong if you

surrender yourself to the culture.

Okay, be careful.

God is the one who establishes
righteousness.

God does plant an eternality in our
heart of knowing that difference

between right and wrong.

And yet God reveals himself to his creation
as creative and powerful,

omnipotent. And God requires a
response to his revelation.

We're going to get.

In the next few verses,

we're going to get to the
place where it says,

well, what good is it
to being a Jew?

Paul says,

oh, it's great,

because at least God gave
them their List.

Right.

See, I like today's passage.

It's only three verses.

So see,

right now I can get done early,

but you ain't getting out yet.

Because to wrap this up,

here's what I want you to take
home with you today.

God is God and we are not.

The deception of the garden was Satan
himself in the form of a split

tongue snake,

said, you can be your own God.

So anytime we would assume that kind
of position of righteousness,

we set ourselves up as God.

God's God.

God's authority is evident.

God's authority is inescapable.

Inescapable, unescapable,

whatever. Okay?

It all starts with Jesus,

folks.

If you don't know Jesus
this morning,

that is your single greatest
need right this moment.

Okay? If you don't know Jesus,

you need Jesus.

I'd love to introduce you to him,

but there's too many of you.

Somebody in this room can
introduce you to Jesus.

Ask him.

Show me Jesus.

Teach me Jesus.

Help me know Jesus.

Okay, maybe you're a Christian
and maybe you've got some,

what was my list?

Some of the ungodliness,

some of the moral legalism,

and maybe you got some religiosity or
some churchianity or some of all

that stuff that,

that corrupts the simplicity
of the gospel.

Okay? God is the only one that can
provide God's righteousness to

unrighteous people.

And he tells us he did it through
the good news story,

through Jesus,

we are called to bow,

surrender and worship him.

Okay, we're going to sing a song,

gives you an opportunity to
respond to God somehow.

You can.

If you don't know Jesus,

you can just surrender yourself
to Jesus right where you are.

If you want to talk to
somebody about it,

grab somebody and talk to them,

alright? Make sure they know
what they're talking about.

But anyway,

I'll be standing down front if you
want to pray about something.

We've got some prayer concerns and some
requests that have been issued.

Had one texted a few minutes ago.

You just do what God's telling
you to do in this moment,

alright? Pray with me.

God. I want to thank you
for today and God,

that you have accomplished
great things.

God, your word teaches us
and we need to study it.

We need to study it a lot.

We need to understand that Paul
is laying out an argument,

making a case for our justification and
resultingly our sanctification.

That is this salvation,

redemption, God,

that you have provided through the shed
blood of Jesus Christ and God.

You've poured it out and reached out
and called us And God help us to

respond to you.

God, I thank you for every
person in the room.

We all walk in wearing different kinds
of identities and tags and things.

And yet,

God, we just simply need
to be team Jesus.

We need to bow,

surrender. So God,

I pray that you'd speak to
Hearts this morning.

Let them know God your love for them
and God that you have made a place

and a way for them to
be on team Jesus.

And we pray it in Jesus name,

Amen.