The Gathering Surf City

Alrighty, we are in.

Romans, chapter 2,

verses 1 to 5.

I have a lot to cover today because God
has really convicted me in large

ways through this passage.

And you're going to hear
it when I read it.

Here we go.

Chapter two,

verse one.

Therefore you are without excuse,

every man of you who
passes judgment.

For in that you judge another,

you condemn yourself.

For you who judge practice
the same things.

And we know that the judgment of God
rightly falls upon those who

practice such things.

And do you suppose this,

O man,

when you pass judgment upon those who
practice such things and do the

same yourself,

that you will escape the
judgment of God?

Or do you think lightly of the riches
of his kindness and forbearance and

patience, not knowing that the kindness
of God leads you to repentance,

but because of your stubbornness
and unrepentant heart,

you are storing up wrath for yourself
in the day of wrath and revelation

of the righteousness of the
righteous judgment of God.

Alright, let's pray.

God, I thank you for your word.

And I thank you,

God, that it doesn't matter how
many times you read it,

how many times you read a passage.

And each time that you open it up,

God, by your spirit,

you just continue to show us more.

And God,

sometimes the more you show us is this
magnifying glass into our own

lives, this.

This mirror we have to look in.

And so,

God, my prayer this morning is
that as we look at your word,

God, we'd see ourselves.

And we'd see ourselves
in such a way,

God, that you are given
not just permission,

but that God,

you have the opportunity to shape and
mold and refine who we are into the

image of your son,

Jesus.

And we pray it in Jesus name,

Amen. I'm horribly impatient.

Anybody with me?

Thank you.

Yes. Horribly impatient.

It's in my DNA.

You know how I know?

Because my son's impatient.

Eli's really impatient.

He's impatient like me times 10.

Okay.

And so when I was a kid,

I did this children's musical that
had this song in it that I had to

sing. And the song,

it was this snail character
in the musical.

And the song was have patience.

Have patience.

Don't be in such a hurry.

When you get impatient,

you only start to worry.

Remember, remember that
God is patient too.

And think of all the times when
others have to wait for you.

Thank you.

Yes, I learned that song somewhere
in about the fifth grade.

You'd think I'd apply it.

Horribly impatient.

This passage I titled
today's message,

no excuses.

Because that's where this
passage starts.

Therefore you are without excuse.

Now we know where we've been
in the book of Romans,

we've got the introduction of Paul.

Paul says,

I'm Paul,

I'm a slave.

I preach the gospel.

Why do I preach the gospel?

Because the gospel is the power of God
unto salvation to everyone who

believes. And I want to come see you
in Rome and I can't wait to get

there.

Because your faith is being proclaimed
all over the world.

And the gospel is a big deal because
it is the righteousness of God

revealed from faith to faith.

Just as it is written,

the righteous will live by faith because
God's wrath is going to be

revealed and poured out on all ungodliness
and godlessness and

unrighteousness. And guess what?

Sin is a problem.

And godlessness is a problem.

And ungodliness is a problem.

And unrighteousness is a problem.

But the answer to all that
problem is the gospel.

It's the good news.

It's the righteousness of
God that's been given,

imputed, handed over
to us as a gift.

Not something we earn,

not something that we
somehow deserve,

but it's God giving us something
simply because of his love.

And yet he lists out in chapter
one all this sinful stuff.

And I told you last week,

it's really easy for those of us who
sit in amongst pointed buildings

with nice comfortable chairs
to point at sin and go see.

And then all of a sudden
we get to chapter two.

It says,

therefore you are without excuse.

You are out.

Excuse about what?

What is it?

What is it that we are
without excuse about?

We're without excuse because of sin.

We're all sin.

We're going to get to chapter three,

which is going to point out that.

That there's none righteous.

No, not one.

For all have sinned and fall
short of the glory of God.

So none of us can stand in a righteous
place and point a finger at

unrighteousness. And that's what chapter
two starts dealing with.

Therefore you are without excuse every
man among you who passes judgment.

For in that you judge another,

you condemn yourself.

For you who judge practice
the same thing.

So had a look at it.

Guess what?

We're really good at judging the behavior
that we don't engage in.

Right?

For instance,

I'm going to give you
a really simple one.

You ready?

Can't stand that,

folks. Cruise in the left hand lane.

Y'all have heard me say that before.

I can't stand it.

Drives me nuts.

There are certain names that come out
of my Mouth when people drive in

the left hand lane.

Now not,

not four letter words or
anything like that,

just things like.

Anyway, I'm not going to use them because
I don't drive in the left hand

lane.

My dad taught me as a truck driver.

He's a truck driver.

My daddy taught me the left hand lanes
for passing or people going faster

than everybody else.

And I thought I was impatient.

I'm just kidding.

You know what I found out though?

In churchianity and Christianity,

we're really good at judging anything
because we have the forgiveness

fallback, right?

Oh, I can point down my finger at somebody
else because I'm forgiven,

right? Easy.

Sitting in a house like this,

a room like this,

a pointed building like this
to point a finger because,

oh yes,

well, we've got grace,

we've got forgiveness,

we've got God's love.

And you need to come.

In spite of my judgment,

you need to come,

right?

We judge what we deem
to be unrighteous,

right? Unrighteousness.

But do we judge all unrighteousness,

Right? Or do we categorize it?

Right?

It's okay to do this,

but that.

You don't put milk and
sugar in oatmeal.

That's an abomination.

I mean,

that's really how just unthinking,

categorizing sin is all about.

Because I told you last week
or last couple of weeks,

sin is very simply defined
as missing the mark.

Now, now what is the mark?

It's an archery phrase
about the bull's eye.

What's the bullseye?

The bull's eye is the righteousness
of God which will be revealed from

faith to faith.

And anything outside the
bull's eye is sin.

And that's why we can get to chapter
three where it says,

and there is none righteous,

not even one,

for all have sinned and fall
short of the glory of God.

So when I look at this passage,

which, and I cut it off in the middle
of a sentence with chapter five

because of how we're going to go
through the book of Romans,

but therefore you are
without excuse.

Now then it gets into what
we're without excuse.

Guess what?

We know we're all sinners,

right? I mean,

if you're perfect here,

go ahead and raise your hand,

we'll all start doing like you.

No, see,

we're not.

We're not perfect,

we're not sinless,

we're not righteous,

right? So what is it that we're
without excuse about?

Because this is the thing
we know we're sinners,

we know,

we don't have an excuse,

though we'd like to
give them anyway.

We know.

Daddy taught me not to drive
in the left hand lane.

It's his fault,

right? No,

my point is,

is that we are without excuse.

But what is this no excuse,

a reference to?

It's a reference to our judgment
because we all judge.

And that's the caution that God's
giving us right here.

And when we get down in the passage,

especially when we get
down to verse four,

you're going to see why.

You see,

because judgment in any shape or form
leads to a very critical spirit.

Nobody does it the way
I would do it.

Nobody does it as good
as I could do it.

Why would you do it that way?

Why would you do it at that time?

Right.

We become very critical.

As a matter of fact,

it's almost like we put on critical glasses
and we start to see all the

things that we can be critical
of and point out.

Now, I'm not saying that there's not a
standard of righteousness that God

has called us to.

I'm not saying that we get to
just act any way we want to.

And you know,

it's funny that we live in a world that
loves the word judgment and yet

we're saying,

oh, you can't judge.

Well, you're right,

I can.

I'm not the judge.

But what does it say?

For in that you judge,

you condemn yourself.

And we know that the judgment of God
rightly falls on those who practice

such things.

Now, I want you to understand
what he's pointing at.

He's pointing at the sin he's already
listed in chapter one.

But he's also pointing at those
who would judge in his place.

Because that's what's happening when
we take a position of judgment.

We're putting ourselves
in the place of God.

And he's going.

And I can hear us all standing before
the throne one day and going,

but God,

you told us,

right? And God goes,

yeah, but that's not your place.

I didn't assign that to you.

Right, Because God has announced
his judgment.

There's no need for us to judge.

And then I ask myself the question.

You remember last week
and this week,

both God has made me shine this
magnifying glass at myself,

this light,

this mirror.

Do we judge because we don't
trust God to judge?

Are we ever guilty of that?

Well, God didn't do
anything about it,

so I'm going to do it.

Really. You see,

God's judgment rightly falls upon
those who practice sin,

unrighteousness, that's
what it says.

If you back up to where it says,

the wrath of God is revealed from heaven
against all godlessness and

unrighteousness of people who by their
unrighteousness suppress the truth.

So we know that God judges.

God is the judge.

Okay, there you go.

Now when I look at that,

I go,

okay, God's judgment falls
on unrighteousness,

injustice, ungodliness.

It falls on sin.

But it also falls on the judgy.

All right,

I'm impatient.

Confession right there.

I gave it to you.

I'm impatient.

Am I judgy?

Yeah, absolutely.

Are you judgy?

Yeah. You are.

I mean,

think about it.

I just told you,

I don't like people driving
the left hand lane.

I'm judgy.

So I have to ask God.

God, forgive me for being judgy.

Forgive me for taking out my impatience
on another person.

Forgive me,

God, for what I don't see in myself.

Because the truth is God is the
judge and God has judged.

God's already judged all things because
God sits outside of time.

You know,

all the world,

all of creation is before God.

God has already rendered judgment,

okay?

He has judged.

He is judging.

He will judge,

okay? I can trust him with it.

Somebody does something unrighteous,

I don't have to go beat them,

right?

I don't have to.

I can trust God to do it,

right? Now,

I think some of the problem falls in
where we join in unrighteousness.

This is where we got to be careful.

We can't make excuses for our sin.

We can't make excuses.

That's what it says.

And do you suppose this,

O man or mankind,

when you pass judgment upon those who
practice such things and do the

same, that you will escape
the judgment of God?

Or do you think lightly of the riches
of his kindness and forbearance and

patience? And here's the thing.

I got a couple stories I'm going to tell
you that where God has convicted

me not of my judgment,

but actually of other
people's judgment.

And I'll explain that in a minute.

And then the last phrase
of verse four,

not knowing that the kindness of
God leads you to repentance,

kindness of God leads
you to repentance.

I knew of a church that split right
and the group that left.

I mean,

it's like.

And the story goes this way
and I wasn't there.

So I don't know how,

I don't know the exact facts.

I just know what I was told
after the fact was that,

you know,

one Sunday morning,

because of the division
in the congregation,

75 people,

they all came in,

sat down like this,

and 75 of them had prearranged that
a particular point in the worship

time. They were going
to get up and leave,

and they did.

And then the animosity between the two
groups in that congregation got so

bad that the group that got up and left
in their self perception began to

tell the group that stayed
behind that,

you know,

God said,

Jesus said,

he divide the sheep and the goats,

and y'all are the goats
and their youth.

Children began to do that.

I was like,

wow, okay,

which side am I on?

Right? Who do I side with in that?

How do I become that?

I told you all about the congregation
that I knew of,

and I wasn't there.

Where? In a business meeting,

One group was sitting on one side,

one group was sitting
on the other side,

and the moderator of the business
meeting was leading the business

meeting. But it wasn't going the
way the other group decided.

So the deacon got up on the platform
and one of them pulled a knife on

the other one in a puppet.

I invited him to come to our church.

Can I just tell you something
about division?

Division is a work of the devil.

Okay?

I've had people come to me and say,

do you know what so and so
did you need as pastor?

They'll say,

you need to do something about it.

And I go,

really? Is that my job?

Am I called to do that?

I actually have told people before,

I said,

I'm not doing anything about it.

You know what?

God's going to take care of that.

And because I don't take.

Because I don't jump on that person
and beat them up over it,

God's going to let me be
a part of restoration.

Why? Because do you not know that
the kindness of God leads you to

repentance? You know why God didn't
just destroy the world?

Because of his patience to give
people the time to repent.

You know why at your first sin,

you didn't get the death
that you deserve,

or I get the death I deserve
because of God's patience,

because of God's love.

Then it goes on to say
in verse five,

but because of your stubbornness
and unrepentant heart,

you are storing up wrath for yourself
in the day of wrath,

revelation in the day of wrath,

and revelation of the righteous
judgment of God.

So last point today,

very simple.

Be careful of your pride,

Bobby. Be careful of your pride.

Be careful to be kind.

Because if I enter into
a spirit of judgment,

I enter into a spirit of a critical
spirit which hardens my own heart

toward other people,

you see,

which makes me judgey,

which makes me self righteous
more than God righteous,

which makes me unkind.

I've tried to think over the last few
days as I was scribbling notes on

my outline here,

did I ever experience in 40 something
years now of ministry,

of me standing on some kind of little
thing and pointing my finger down

at somebody and telling them how horrible
and sinful and everything that

they were.

Did anybody ever just go,

oh, thank you,

I want Jesus.

Or have they?

When I've said,

you know what?

God has something better for your life
and I want to love youe in this.

I don't agree with that
or that or that.

And I think the Bible speaks
very plainly to it.

But I'm just going to wrap my arms around
you and love you and then see

people respond to what?

The love of God,

the kindness of God,

you see,

because I mean,

that's what it says he says.

And do you suppose this old man,

when you pass judgment upon those who
practice such things and do the

same yourself,

you will escape the judgment of God?

Or do you think lightly of the riches
of his kindness and forbearance and

patience? Wow.

Do you know what God's given us?

Let's go back,

let's back up into Romans,

chapter one,

just briefly,

because Paul murdered people,

Paul murdered Christians.

Paul stood by and watched
Stephen get stoned.

When Jesus met Paul on
the road to Damascus,

what do you think Paul
expected Jesus to do?

Exactly, George,

you know,

you go,

who are you,

Lord? I'm Jesus,

whom you are persecuting,

man. If Paul has this realization all
of a sudden that I am killing Jesus

people, and now he's slung me to
the ground blind on the road to

Damascus, what can I expect from
Jesus in the next split second,

right? Don't you think?

And yet Paul says,

this is who God's called me to be.

Through him we've received
grace and apostleship.

All of the things that Paul writes about
himself is because God changed

who he was,

transformed him in an instant.

Right Now Paul's the one writing.

I mean,

God gives Paul a list,

right? I love reading this
list because it just,

it just kind of blows my mind away that
we can point at three or four

horrible sins in the world and because
they did not think it worthwhile

to acknowledge God.

You know,

the great sin of chapter one
is not acknowledging God,

not recognizing God as God,

not letting God be God.

And then chapter two goes into
not letting God Be judge.

Okay? Because they did not think it
worthwhile to acknowledge God.

God delivered them over to a corrupt
mind so that they do what is not

right.

They are filled with all
unrighteousness,

evil, greed,

wickedness. They are full of envy,

murder, quarrels,

deceit and malice.

They are gossips,

slanderers, God haters,

arrogant, proud,

boastful inventors of evil,

disobedient to parents.

That's the one parents like.

Senseless, untrustworthy,

unloving, unmerciful.

Although they know God's just sentence
that those who practice such

things deserve to die.

They not only do them,

but even applaud others
who practice them.

Therefore, every one of you who
judges is without excuse.

Wait a minute,

God, didn't you just give
me a list to judge?

Didn't you just tell me to
notice all the bad things?

I. You know,

I. Okay,

God, what do you want me
to do with it then?

What am I supposed to do with
the list of bad things?

How am I supposed to react to
all the list of bad things?

Go hug somebody's neck.

Because the Bible also teaches
us that they are deceived.

So I want to love people into
the kingdom of God.

Why? Because God's kindness
lead you to repentance.

But there is a stubbornness and an unrepentant
heart out there that will

experience the wrath of God and the day
of wrath and revelation of God's

righteousness.

Why is God patient?

Now this is where I started.

Remember was the first thing I said?

I am impatient.

I want what I want what I want it.

I want it the way I want it.

I get to the habit of.

I want the world to
revolve around me.

Thank you very much.

Appreciate y'all all showing
up this morning.

Just kidding.

See my point?

God is patient unto repentance.

God is kind unto repentance.

Okay, I want y'all to.

We're going to do a little exercise
just because I got time.

I didn't want to spend a these
five verses because.

And like I said,

I cut it off in the middle of a verse
of a sentence according to how the.

When it says his judgment is revealed
because verse 6 says he will repay

each one according to his works.

I couldn't get into that today.

We'll get there.

Okay, that's next week.

So if you don't show up next week,

I'll understand.

I wanted us to realize
something right here.

Okay? We have been gifted something.

Let's talk about our gifted.

We've been gifted the righteousness
of God because for in it,

the gospel,

the righteousness of God is revealed
from faith to faith.

For just as it is written,

the just shall live by faith,

the righteous shall live by faith.

We have been gifted something,

right? And I told y'all
the story before.

I was a little bit short
kid in school,

I never got picked first for
any team in my life.

But it's interesting how we in the
family of faith will think,

you know what,

God, you did a pretty good job
getting me on your team,

right?

We kind of have that tendency.

God loved me.

And I'm going to say it this way.

God loved me so much that he gifted
me a righteousness and a life.

How could I not gift to another one,

another person,

a world,

God's love through me.

Why can't I love people around me?

I'll be honest.

Started out with impatience.

I'm telling you,

God's patience,

patient by loving me with his love,

called me to give it away.

I'm not.

I recognize it all the time.

Recognize it all the time.

So what did I say last week
about how the list of sin,

how God called me to respond
to the list of sin,

right? Bobby,

get on your face because you're right
there in the middle of it.

God forgive me,

Forgive me for being judgy,

forgive me for being impatient,

forgive me for being unreasonable.

I got a lot of funny examples of it,

but I won't share those.

Because when I consider
what God gave me,

Jesus bled and died in my place.

God thank you for a love
I can't repay.

But God,

I can give it away.

Okay, if you don't know Jesus,

we want you to know Jesus.

Maybe in your life you know Jesus,

but you're just like me,

right? You do the same things.

It's really funny to hear yalls
response to impatience.

I got a feeling we're the
majority in here,

just so you know.

Got a feeling some of y'all don't
like left handed drivers.

Whoever. Amen back there.

I don't know who it was.

But anyway,

God knows who you are,

folks. God is refining us.

And God's greatest,

in my opinion.

God by his spirit takes this
word and makes it alive.

And as he makes it alive,

he makes it personal.

Pray with me,

God. Thank you,

God, thank you that you know me,

God, you know how foul I am.

God, you know the dark
places of my soul.

And God,

you continue to push light
into those places.

You continue to pour
love into who I am.

God, you continue to give me a grace
and a mercy that I never have

deserved. And God you never said I had
to repay you you never said that I

had to do something to earn that but
you did say God that I've got to

give it away so God help me to give
it away God help me to find the

people the person that one that's farthest
out there God that needs to

know that you love them that you know
them that you know who they are you

know where they are and
that through me,

through one of the folks in this room
you are reaching out in love to

them doesn't guarantee a good response
doesn't guarantee an accepting

response but God I don't have to worry
about the response I only have to

worry about what you've given to me to
give away so God help me to give

it away thank you for your love thank
you that you loved me when I was

unlovable and I'm still unlovable God
help me to love others with your

love and I pray it in
Jesus name Amen.