In this sermon, the preacher discusses the judgment of God as described in Romans 2:1-16. He emphasizes that everyone will be held accountable and without excuse before God's judgment. He points out that people often make excuses for their own actions but condemn others for the same behavior. The preacher also criticizes the court system for sometimes allowing loopholes and justifications to overshadow the truth. Overall, the sermon highlights the clear and logical description of God's judgment in these verses and challenges listeners to take responsibility for their actions.

Romans 2. Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest. For wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself, for thou that judgest doeth the same things. But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things. And thinkest thou this, O man, that judges them that do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long-suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? But after thy hardness, an impenitent heart treasures up unto thyself wrath against the day of judgment and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render unto every man according to his deeds. To them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honor in immortality, eternal life. And to them that are contentious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation, and wrath. Tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil, to the Jew first and also of the Gentile. But glory, honor, and peace to every man that worketh good, to the no respect of persons with God. For as many as have sinned without the law shall also perish without the law, and as many have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law. For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. For when the Gentiles which have not the law do by nature the things contained in the law, these having not the law are a law unto themselves, which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness in their thoughts, the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another. In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men's hearts, pardon me, of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel. Father we thank you for your word and we ask tonight that as we look at this section, Lord, dealing with judgment, Lord, that we would understand it, that Lord, we would realize what judgment is all about. And Father, as we look to your word that you would, in a world that seems to believe in nothing almost, let alone the judgment of God, Lord, that we would be very aware of this great truth. We ask it in Jesus name, Amen. You know there are, I suppose, who knows how many opinions and varying opinions all over the world that happen to men when they die, in the afterlife. Obviously there's a multitude of them. There's religious ones, there's just personal ones, there's some that think nothing of it, almost. There's many people that actually one day they do believe they'll die and then perhaps when, of they'll perhaps even stand before God. But even then they have all sorts of speculation about what that'll mean. But here there is no book that I know of in all the world, and I'm convinced there is no book in all the world that so clearly lays out the reality of eternal judgment and that this will happen. For the Bible does it and it does it over and over and over again. God tells us many, many times. He tells us where we came from, who created us, who we are answerable to, how we are to live, what went wrong with man, how it can be fixed and put right. And it tells us the eternal consequences of what we do about those things over and over and over again. And it lays out very clearly the eternal consequences of our own personal decisions and behavior for each and every man. Now I suppose at the same time there's also a lot of people that want to ridicule judgment. Many people actually, I'm sure we've all run into them, well one day when I run into the man upstairs and then they fill in the blank, almost just some sort of an arrogant casualness about their eternal destiny, you know, that one day well you know I'm just gonna, oh we'll explain it all, oh we'll have to sit down and have a chat, I'm sure we can work it out. And they actually seem to think this way about their eternal destiny. Many it seems think that way. And I don't know how much of that is a result of a lot of the secular thinking that comes through the sociologists and the psychologists and the philosophers that just kind of tend to say, you know, eat, drink and be married, tomorrow we'll die, there's no real issues in life. And a lot of people somehow or another think that if there is an afterlife it'll still be okay, it'll be no big deal to work it through. And maybe I've done some things wrong but at the same time even then I'm really not even all that responsible for my own actions anyway. There's a whole world out there that has played roles in my behavior and why I did what I did and when I did it and all the other sorts of things, so to single me out and to want to suggest to me that I have got some eternal consequence for my behavior when I was on a planet with billions of other people, all these other conditions, and then to want to hold me guilty is, I don't believe it. That's how a lot of people seem to think. But here in these 16 verses I just read, I believe this is the greatest description in all of writing on the judgment of God. As it lays it out very, very clearly, it covers it and deals with it from many, many different angles in a sense, I think we'll hopefully we'll see as we go through it. But as we do, perhaps you may want to take little thoughts and notes about the judgment of God, because here it is in these 16 verses. It begins there in verse 1 of chapter 2, Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man. Very first point there that Paul brings out about the judgment of God is he tells us there the judgment of God is going to hold everybody inexcusable, absolutely without excuse. And as I said, we live in a world where there seems to be an explanation for everything. There seems to be some excuse for virtually everything that goes on somehow or another. Whatever it is, I'm not wrong. I know it appeared like I was wrong, and I know I actually did something that maybe even others and maybe in some other time I might say is wrong, but if you understood all the conditions that seem to work with it, there's a very good explanation, and it offers to me an excuse. You'll just look at the situation a little more clearly. You'll find you would have done it too, as if somehow or another this provides an excuse. We live in a world today where guilt is no longer guilt. What it is that somebody has done, it's guilt at worst with an explanation. If it is guilt, there's a logical explanation as to why it happened. There's a logical excuse for it all. You look at our court system today, and if there's anything that seems to make a mockery out of judgment, it's our court system today. It seems like virtually anybody that has got themself a good lawyer, that really understands the laws and the loopholes and how to present a case, you can set aside all the truth and all the evidence, and you can go down an entirely different avenue of explanation for the behavior that apparently happened. But it's all justifiable when you take in all of the facts as presented by attorneys so often today as it can be. And you see these cases sometimes where people just do all sorts of terrible things, and yet how many, it's so disgusting to see how many court cases they get in, and the next thing you know the jury starts hearing, you know, about so-and-so's life and their behavior and what happened to them and all of these other things, and you realize, well, I'd have probably done the same thing myself if I was in that. And somehow or another we provide an excuse for people, people that go out and kill other people in cold blood, people that did terrible, heinous crimes, and yet at the same time, even with all of the evidence there, many times there ends up to be an excuse that literally sets the person free. And the tragic thing is, is that I think that this also has a way of diluting a person there eternally. When you can work your way over, you know, through things over and over again, there's a lot of people that actually, I think, eternally think, you know, I've been able to get my way through all of life with an explanation and with an excuse. And they think they'll stand before God, and somehow or another when they get there, that God's form of justice is like man's, and that they will find an excuse. But here Paul tells us that thou art inexcusable, O man. He's gonna go on and lay out why that's true, but there's his first statement that he makes. Second thing essentially that he also lays out here in verse 1 as well, is that the judgment of God is irrepressible. And that is in the sense of what is happening here, that he says whenever you judge another person, don't you know you actually judge yourself? We have this tremendous capacity, Paul says, that when we do something, there is an explanation for it. There is an excuse for it. We provide one with the behavior almost for it. There's one that's so logical, and we are so capable of excusing ourself, but yet when we see another person do it, when another person has done it, there he says, whenever you judge another, wherefore thou judgest another, he says, thou condemnest thyself, for thou that judges doeth the same things. We watch somebody else do something. We watch the way that somebody else goes about something, the way that they can talk to people, the way they can treat their wife, the way they can drive down the road, and we look at that thing, that guy ought to be this, or that person ought to look at that, that is terrible human behavior. And then when we do it, well, my wife needed it. You know something, if you knew my wife, you know, or something, you'd do that too, you know, or something, or whatever else, on how immediately we have some explanation, we have some excuse, but here Paul says you can try to repress it all you want in your own thinking of saying you are without it, but at the same time when you've got the capacity to look at another human being and you see the same behavior with them, he said, now as soon as you judge it, you condemn yourself. So you do. Paul says there, he says, everybody understands judgment. We do because we do judge other people. We can be very objective with other people, or subjective with ourself, but objectivity is not a difficult thing of right and wrong. When we see it in another person, and we see it all the time, and we make all sorts of judgments, and there it is, it's real. He also goes on and he tells us that the judgment of God is absolutely righteous. For in verse 2 he says, for we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them all, them that commit such things. Here, you know, in life, I think many, many, many things happen that are not right. That's just one of the truths of just living on this planet, of living in a world that we live in, living where men try to regulate men, and regulate behavior, and watch behavior, and try to govern it, but at the same time, no matter what, there's an awfully lot of things, I think everybody knows, that are very, very unfair that happen. Very, very unfair things can happen to people because of their race, and on how a religion, or because of something about them, or and their nature, and how very clear injustices can can happen. And then oftentimes, a lot of things happen to people that somehow or another, there is no judgment for it. It never, it never seems to be taken care of. I'm told that the greater percentage of murders are never settled. We, you know, and we actually, you know, by the time they really do find the murder, and then they, it isn't all that common. There are murders that happen. People are robbed and beaten every day, unjustly, obviously. Terrible things happen. A little lady walking down the street, and somebody comes, grabs her purse, drags her down, she breaks an arm, you know, they steal her purse, and off they go. They never catch them. And somehow or another, there's a lot of things that happen where people, they can be accused falsely, they can be hated, they can be misunderstood, they can be victims of accidents and terrible things that happen, and there's no judgment. There's no justice. It isn't right what happens. And the list of this goes on and on and on. You don't have to be on this planet very long to look and realize that a lot of unjust things happen in life. Constantly, they go on. But here, Paul tells us, you'll never have to worry about that when you stand before God. When a human being there stands before God, it's going to be, that it'll be without excuse, it'll be irrepressible, and it'll be absolutely righteous. As God deals with the thing, you won't have the wrong information passed to him. You won't have somebody here with a false character report coming along there. There won't be any inaccuracies. There won't be any false statements. There won't be anything that is brought before God that'll be allowed that is wrong. There'll be absolutely no representation, misrepresentation at all of any fact when the greatest justice and righteousness that'll ever happen to anybody will be that which happens when a human being stands before God. The Bible tells us the Lord knows the hearts of men. He knows every word. He knows every thought. He knows everything spoken and unspoken. The Bible says all things are open and naked before the eyes of him with whom we have to do. God looks and he sees everything with every human being. It's very clear to him. I love the story back in second Kings where the king of Assyria is coming along there, or Syria to, you know, battle with the children of Israel, and every time they go to line themselves up, the children of Israel over there, and they're all prepared for it, and then they change their strategy, and they go around to do it another way, and then they're over here ready for this, and finally the king of Syria realized, oh, one of his generals, one of his men must be letting the information out there and getting it over to Israel, and so here he brings him in. He says, all right, which one of you guys? Somebody's letting the information out here. There's leaks here in our army here, and one of them speaks up. He says, no, there's no leak here. He says, there's a man in Israel. God tells him everything you're thinking in your own bedchamber. What you're just doing and thinking all by yourself, he knows it, and so when you even sit out with a strategy, it's already known over there, and that, in a sense, there when somebody comes and they'll stand before God, God's judgment will be absolutely righteous, and it's also completely inescapable. In verse 3, and thinkest thou this, O man, that the judgment, that judges them which do such things, and do us the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? Here Paul, as he looks there at the, you know, he says it's in, without excuse, it's inexcusable, it's irrepressible, it's absolutely righteous, and God's judgment is completely inescapable. Inescapable. Harry Houdini, who I'm sure most of you have heard of, of course, the great escape artist, you know, of generation or so ago, but somebody there that his great claim that he really wanted to have, that he left behind was, is that he was not simply going to be the greatest escape artist in history, he was going to escape death, and before he died he had this huge thing that he would constantly refer to, that if there was any way back, and any way outside of, you know, death, he was going to be the one to cheat it, and so wait, because he was coming back. Well, I haven't seen Harry, myself, and yet, but a lot of people actually think that they are going to somehow or another escape, you know, the judgment of God. And to my understanding, as I think about it, there's about essentially four different ways that a person can escape judgment, and one is, perhaps one of the more common ones, is that the crime, essentially, the offense goes undetected. You did something, but nobody detected it. It just was not discovered, you know, there, that actually what you did, yeah, that nobody came to figure it out, and you wonder how many things we've all done and had in our life where we did something, and your mom, your dad, never checked their wallet, you know, or whatever it is, I didn't do it myself, but I know other people that did stuff like that, but the, but it's something there on how that we, you know, where something can happen, or we did this, or we did that, don't, don't do this, and you did it, and nobody checked or found out that anything was wrong. Secondly, a person escapes the boundaries of jurisdiction. Right now, there's tens of thousands of people that have committed crimes, they've been judged, they've been found guilty, but somehow or another, before they're actually incarcerated, they skipped the country and went over to another country. They're living in other countries in the world right now, than countries that have no extradition treaties with other countries, and so somebody can be living off in another country, they're guilty, they were caught, it was proven, the judgment happened, but they got away before they got incarcerated, and there they live, because they have escaped the bounds of jurisdiction. Very common. And then there's also sometimes a gross failure in the legal system to properly try the case, and things that, you know, that somehow or another, you know, and we've seen some rather famous trials, I think, in the last few years, to where, you know, information got withheld from the jury, and the way it happened, and even the whole country watched these, some of these cases on TV, and where it certainly seemed that justice was not happening, and the case was not properly tried, or evidence didn't get properly, you know, used or something, and something gets, it's inadmissible, or held out for one reason or another, but there's an awful lot of people that have never been brought to justice because of the fact that the legal process got twisted around to their advantage. And then the fourth way, I suppose somebody can escape judgment, is the criminal escapes from prison. They get them, they put them in prison, and then somehow or another he digs his way out, or sneaks out, and there he is, he's out. Now, that's essentially, I mean, that people, I suppose, are thinking that's what one of those four they're going to do with God. Somehow or another, I think people think that they're actually going to get there, maneuver a situation there, where it's, they're going to get before God, and he's going to sweet-talk them, God, in such a way, or somehow or another, that God isn't even going to detect what that human has done, and the things that have gone on, and they're going to, you know, going to get by it. Or somehow or another, they think there, that maybe they'll escape the bounds of jurisdiction. You know, I mean, I'm going to die, and I'm going to go off into somewhere out there, but before I'm called before God, I'm sneaking off to another planet, you know, or something. I'm, you know, I'm going to go where God has no jurisdiction. That's, I'm going to outrun him. I'm going to get away from him, somehow or another. But here the Bible tells us, and God, in these 16 verses, it is so conclusive, when you go from one to another. God has gone, gone to great labors here, in a sense, to want to lay out for us the extent and the reality of judgment. Maybe some people think that, you know, that I'm going to escape. All right, I'm a sinner, I'm a bad guy, I deserve the bottomless pit, but I think I can break out of the place. You know, or whatever, that they actually, people seem to think that they may do. I don't know, but that's what some people seem to think. Next thing you know, Paul goes on, he says, the judgment of God is very patient. For in verse 4, he says, Oh, or despises thou the riches of the goodness and the forbearance of long suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance. Al-Nadi, God is here, he tells us as well, he says, I want you to know my judgment. It's also, it's a patient justice and judgment, there as he looks at it. A lot of people think that because God already hasn't destroyed them, because God already hasn't done some terrible things, that maybe when they did their first real kind of notable sin that they knew was really wrong, and somehow nothing happened. Nothing seemed to be a result. God didn't seem to judge. And the next thing you know, oh God, maybe he doesn't care. He isn't interested in it, or he's just going to let the thing go on. I suppose if God was going to do something, he'd have done it by now, and so the next thing you know, it's easier to do again and again and again. We oftentimes think that something is wrong, and we wait almost for some judgment to come. We knew what we did, and we know the sky is going to fall on us. Some terrible thing is going to happen, and then when it doesn't, all of a sudden we take God's patience, his license to continue the behavior. Maybe it's okay. Maybe he doesn't really care after all. You know, sometimes God will let things go for many, many, many years. Maybe all the way through life. One of the things in the Old Testament that a king was instructed, a king were never to multiply wives or wealth or horses under themselves. And David, when he came along, he never multiplied horses, and he didn't multiply wealth, but he did wives. He had, you know, there was something there as he's kind of realizing he's, he's somebody, and one of the things about a lot of the Eastern kings is one of the ways that they would almost flaunt their leadership and their power, is they would take wives, concubines. Saul had done it before, and then David looked there, and hey, Saul did it. And so David took a couple, and then the next thing you know, he goes in, and he has a great battle, a great victory there as he takes the city of Jerusalem, the stronghold of Zion, the city of David. And then right after that, a few verses later, just so quietly, he says, and David took more wives and concubines unto himself. Nothing happens. And he goes on, and he goes on for years, just kind of adding and collecting a few here and there. You notice, hey, must be okay. Even though they all know nobody else did it, but kings, somehow or another, they could live by a little different structure, didn't get judged for it, until one day a traveler actually comes to town the way that Naaman calls him. Traveler comes to town. When David walks out on his porch one night, you know the story, of course, and there he looks, and he sees Bathsheba. And there as he takes her, but yet you look there, and you wonder, well, why is it wrong now? You didn't do anything here, you didn't do anything here, you didn't do anything here. And sometimes, as he says here, it's God's patience and his kindness that leads us to repentance. God's so often in his patience, in his kindness, he knows that we know that we all know it's wrong, and that there is a conviction going on, but when we continuously override the conviction, when we continuously go on, sooner or later, so often a stranger, a traveler, will come to town, and tragedy will happen. Peter tells us in 2nd Peter, he says, God is not slack concerning his promises. Some men count slackness, but his long-suffering towards us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Peter actually says, you know, a lot of people, they're going around saying, where is the promise of his coming? Ever since the fathers fell asleep, things remain as they were. And he says, for this, they're willing, you know, they're ignorant, willingly ignorant, and because a lot of things have changed, Peter goes on, and he says, but just because, Peter says, God hasn't done anything, God is not slack concerning his promises. He's just not willing that any should perish, but all should come to repentance. But the judgment of God, Peter says, will come, as a thief in the night. And, you know, and as Peter gets into it, the judgment will come. And just because God is patient, don't think that it's okay. It isn't. If it's wrong, it's wrong. Also in verse 5, another aspect of judgment, but after the hardness and impenitent heart, treacherous up unto thyself, wrath against the day of wrath, and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God. Now here, Paul tells us the judgment of God is also cumulative. That is something there where the sins, a person is treasuring up, they're adding to building, you know, the the list of sins against them. There is something there, when you stop to think of this, as the older you live, the more you got, you know, sort of a thing. And when you stop to think from God's righteous judgment, and there that when judgment is going to be carried out, God will look at an entire life, and it will have accumulated, accumulated, and accumulated, and accumulated. Many of the things that a person never even remembers themselves that they did. They so hardened themselves to their thoughts, and their behavior, and their actions, and their words, and their deeds. Their rebellion against God, their rebellion to a society, their hurting and wounding of other people, their attacks, their divisive nature, their hatred and bitterness, and all these things that people just live in sin, and carry it out. Day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, decade after decade. Here, Paul says, it adds up. It is cumulative there. It is something that the Lord, as he brings it there, the hardness and the impenitent heart, you treasure up unto thyself wrath, against the day of wrath. The judgment of God. It's an awesome, awesome thing to think about. And Revelation 20 verse 12 says, And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God. And the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged out of those things were written in the book according to their works. Here one day, to think there, as John looks there, and he says, I saw, hear all these that were brought before God, and the judgments of God, as there they were brought. Here there was all of their works were now brought before them. There was a record of all of this. It says, And the sea gave up the dead that were in it, and the death and hell delivered up the dead that were in them. And they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire, and this is the second death. Here as he looks there, but it's according to works, and they accumulate. When a person goes on through their life. Also notice here in verse 6, the judgment of God is individual. And he says, Who will render unto every man according to his deeds. In other words, nobody else's records are gonna get crossed up, you know, in there. You're not gonna have anybody else's file. Nobody's gonna have your file, sort of speak on this thing. It's going to be a perfect, individual, fair hearing. A person there according to their deeds. Imagine this. There is, you know, when John does say, I saw the dead great and small. All in this massive line, and one by one, according to their deeds, they're now brought before God. The great, you know, there's the Attila, the Huns, and the Genghis Khans. There's the great, and then there's, you know, Wilbur Peabody, you know, and who might have been a good guy. I don't remember him personally. But anyway, they, all the other, the small people, but each one, a just hearing. An individual hearing. There to come and to stand before God for an account of their life. Individual. I suppose, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, he once said, A man alone in his sin is truly alone. And there's times in this life that we're alone, and we feel alone, but I suppose the loneliest a person will ever be is when they find themselves standing before God, and there's the individual. Their life. Cumulative behavior, life, attitudes, all of it drawn out. It's also the judgment of God is separating. Separating. In verse 7, it says, To them who by patient, continuous, and well-doing, they seek for glory and honor and immortality, they'll have eternal life. But verse 10, But glory and honor and peace to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first and the Gentile. Here on one hand, God's judgment is actually going to separate. This great separation essentially is going to happen there, and that is, is that those that live their life, there were, through their life, there was honor. They sought for glory and honor and immortality. They longed for eternal life. They knew, you know, the message of the gospel. We'll look at this more in a few moments. In glory and honor, verse 10, And peace to every man that worketh good. To a person that has found what it is that pleases God, the person that finds what it is that God will look at somebody and say, That's good, what you have done. There, when that person, there's a separation under them, they'll have eternal life. They will find themselves brought into it. And you know, one of the interesting things to me, that I, that you see all these people kind of out there, that on one hand, they're very angry at the thought of judgment. They're, they're angry. They don't, I'm never gonna stand before God, and if I do, you know, I'll work it out, and there's not gonna be any real eternal judgment. There's not gonna be, you know, the history divided into two groups. There isn't gonna be people shuttled off into heaven and people shuttled off into hell. That isn't, I don't believe in that, and, and, and the thought of people being forced, you know, almost into one group or the other, almost. They're furious. You ever notice that? You talk to people about hell, and they're, they're very upset about it. I don't believe in it, and this isn't good, and, but at the same time, all these complainers, you can look at every one of them, say, You know, you, you get to choose right now which group you're gonna be in. It's your choice. I mean, you can have heaven right now. You can have the promise of heaven, immortality, glory, and honor, and power, and dominion. You can have everything right now if you want to choose it, or if you choose not to, you can have judgment, and God is very wonderful to lay it all out. Here it is, and I want, God is saying, I want you to know, it, it's inescapable, it's irrepressible, it is going to happen, it is going to be absolutely righteous, you know, I will be totally thorough, I will be absolutely fair, there won't be anybody saying, But wait a minute, you forgot something, and it actually, I mean, we won't want him to remember much, you know, then, at all, you know, but the, but anybody that would be at this, at this judgment, but the thing is that there's a lot of people that they're very upset that eternity is, has this separating to it, and which only tells me that they must really love this life with all of its injustices, this corruption. You take good people and bad people, you people wanted to want to follow the Lord, and serve the Lord, and live before the Lord, but you mix them with people who don't. I don't believe in justice, I don't believe anything right, I don't care how I live, I mean, I'm a situational ethic person, I've got an excuse and an explanation for everything I do, I'm gonna do whatever it is I want to do, and if I want to hurt somebody, I'll have to hurt them, or I'll take this, or I'm gonna get it, and what do you want to do, spend eternity with everybody in the same situation? God says no, I won't do that to you. People, you know, that want to live a, quote unquote, hell of a life, I got one for you for eternity, essentially, but at any point, at any point, this is the amazing thing, at any point, something happens when a person realizes that they do not want that separating, and then the consequences of where they're going, to me, one of the most glorious things, you look at somebody like the thief on the cross, who had spent every breathing hour of his life, apparently, in rebellion, a man so wicked, so evil, so corrupt, that finally the world all gathered together and said, you're out of here, we are gonna give you the worst penalty we can give to anybody, you can't live here any longer, we don't know where you're going, but you're gonna die, and you're not gonna live here anymore, and here this guy, with his life completely a waste, in the last flickering moments of it, he looks over at Jesus, said, would you remember me, and he says, today, you'll be with me in paradise, think of that, I mean God's love is so great, that he'll change a guy's destination, right at the very fork, I mean, the guy's already heading down this road, and he'll grab his heel and pull him, hey, let's try this one, I was just waiting, man, I didn't, I knew you were down to three breaths, buddy, you know, or something, but that God's love, God's mercy for every one of us, an awesome thing, but yet, at the same time, know that it is separating, and it's also, God's judgment is fierce, for it says in verse 8, but unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, they'll have indignation, and wrath, tribulation, anguish, upon every soul of a man that doeth evil, to the Jew first, and also the Gentile, that's anybody, that lives, no matter how much God may have chosen them, and have a plan, and hope for them, at the same time, you live your life away, and outside of me, the wrath, the indignation, the tribulation, the anguish, upon every soul, God says, this is the, the issue of which people are going to have to deal with, and obviously, Jesus believed in hell, unbelievably so, he spoke of it more than he did heaven, and he believed in hell so much, that he died, Jesus believed in hell so much, that he died on the cross to save you and me from going there, there's no question, obviously, of what he thought of it, and the agony that he thought of it, that he decided, I'll take all the agony upon me, if I can save anybody else that wants to be with me, you know, in heaven, I'll do it, and he did, but the thing is, I, it, to me, the, I, the greatest torture, the greatest agony, I suppose, that could ever come upon a human soul, is, is that which ultimately hell ultimately surmises, somehow or another, there is no greater terror, anguish, tribulation, than the concept of hell, and some people just want to leave it in the realm of being a concept, but the Bible doesn't, Jesus didn't, God didn't, he said it's there, and it is real, and it is fierce, and also the judgment of God, in verse 11, tells us it's absolutely impartial, there is no respect to persons with God, here, there is something there, where a complete impartiality, God's promise, and that's incidentally, that's impressed on the hearts of a number of New Testament writers, Peter, in Acts chapter 10, it says, Peter opened his mouth, he says, of a truth I perceive, that God is no respecter of persons, Paul in Ephesians 6, 9 says, and ye masters do this, do the same things unto them, forbearing, threatening, knowing that your master also is in heaven, neither is there respect of persons with him, James 2, 9 says, but if ye have respect of persons, ye commit sin, and here there is something that God will be able to look at every human being, with absolutely perfect, righteous, and impartial judgment, you know, we, which, we're all partial somehow or another, we're, we're partial to our friends, we're partial to our neighbors, we're partial to people we work with, and if there's people we like, we, we're partial to them, and we, we, even, we, we, objectivity oftentimes can go out the door, humanly, and we can be angry at people that we shouldn't be as well, but one of the things God is absolutely impartial, the judgment of God as well, in verse 12, it's according to light, for as many have sinned without the law shall perish without the law, and as many have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law, and here Paul just simply says, to the degree that somebody has been given the light is the degree that they'll be judged by, the Jews, they'll be judged according to the law of Moses, and, but at the same time, a person that doesn't know the law will be judged, Paul says, by the law, by the light that he has received, and then he goes on and he says, for in verse 13, he says, for not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law, and as he looks at it here, I mean, whatever it is that the light that somebody has, he then goes on to say, when the Gentiles who have not the law do by nature the things contained in the law, these having not the law are a law to themselves, in other words, somebody says, well, I didn't get the law, but at the same time, you know it, you know it, you weren't delivered the law, but when you already do the things that are contained in the law, therefore, you do know it, and, and so when people want to come along and say, you know, that God isn't just, I think one of the things they get so tired of hearing, you know, is, is God isn't loving, or God isn't just, and yet I pick up this Bible, and I don't know of any being that even in all of time and eternity comes so close to doing, I mean, it comes, everything possibly can to love and to forgive and to redeem, not willing that any should perish, but all should come to repentance, if there's anybody there that, that one day to realize, you know, that, that every human being, when they stand before them, they will stand before the being that loved them more than anybody loved them, that cared, that wanted them, that dreams of them, that desires them, that longs for them, that had patiently waited for them, that did everything possible in every avenue of behavior to turn that heart towards him, and yet people want to go, how could a God of love do this, or how could a God of love do that, and rather, I'm more like Charles Spurgeon, he says, the things that, that bother me about God aren't the things that I understand, aren't the things I don't understand, it's the things I do, I mean, he looked there, and he says, you know, a lot of times people don't understand a lot of things about judgment, or how God's gonna do it, but when I stopped to realize, God, you are so loving, you are so just, you are so fair, and, and to me, when somebody realizes there's no other place that anybody ought to want to stand, and then finally, there in verse 16, Paul tells us there that the, that the judgment of God is a revelation of secrets, for he says, in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel, in other words, here, you know, the, everything will be revealed, you know, there's a big deal these days on TV programs, and that, you know, that get DNA and go in unsolved mysteries, and with a lot of the things that they've got now in the court cases, to be able to go back and check and lift fingerprints, and go into the old evidence, and get DNA, and, and something that they couldn't solve, but now they can go back, and they can collect information, collect data, pull it together, and they're solving crimes, but here, Paul tells us, he says, you know, God, it will, this great revelation of secrets, ways that people live their entire life, that they thought was absolutely a secret, nobody knew, nobody heard, nobody, a lot of it was just contained under their own skin, what they thought, what they felt, how they lived, what made them tick inside, something that they thought their entire life was an absolute secret, but yet the Bible also tells us, Jeremiah tells us, the heart is wicked above all things, it's deceitful, deceitful, and unknowable to man, but not to God, God knows absolutely everything, it says about Jesus, he gave himself to no man for he knew the hearts of all men, he could look at every human being, and, you know, and he knew everything, he knew where you were, what you were thinking, where you'd been, what you'd done, what was going on, you know, the, it's, I love the story in, where is it, Luke, just gave me seven, when Jesus is brought to the house of Simon the Pharisee, and Simon is trying to get some way to catch him, and as he's trying to think, and he's thinking in his mind, oh, I gotta catch him, well, a woman comes in, questionable morality there, is a sinful woman, a prostitute, apparently comes in, she begins to wash his feet, and he thinks to himself, just, he just said he thought to himself, haha, if this man were a prophet, he would have known what manner of woman this is, and if he was a prophet, being a holy man, he wouldn't be having this woman do this, and the interesting thing, it says, the next verse, it says, and Jesus answered him, I mean, you're, you're just thinking, they're just, hi, how are you, Jesus, nice to have you over today, you know, and chatting along, carrying on this superficial conversation, while you're thinking to yourself, haha, I don't need to do anything, this guy's gonna ruin himself, everybody here knows what this woman is, he's like, he's a prophet, just let him carry on, and so he's thinking this, and Jesus answered him, Simon, I have somewhat to ask thee, he says, speak on, master, and then he goes on, you know, of course, you know, there's a man that he had two people that owed him much, and one of, you know, that it didn't, one of them owed him a certain amount of the other, and he says, and when he forgave the man, which one, which do you suppose, you know, he loved him the most, he says, well, I suppose the one that he forgave the most, and he says, that's rightly spoken, he says, do you see this woman, you see, he didn't see the woman, he just saw an image, he saw a reputation, he saw a hopeless person, he saw somebody out of the gutter, Jesus said, do you see this woman, he saw her, and he loved her, he says, her sins are many, but they're forgiven, and here as he looks there in his love, his capacity there to see somebody, and he, you know, and the wonderful thing is, is that for you and I to realize, am I corrupt terribly, am I selfish, miserably so, do I fail constantly, in secret, unknown to others, but on one hand to realize that I and you, we have a God that knows all of this, he knows absolutely everything, and yet, as David said in Psalm 139, you know, he says, you know, the old Lord thou hast searched me and has known me, thou knowest my downsittings and my uprisings, and you know, he says that you've gone before me, you know my thoughts before I think them, you know, but you've gone before, you're behind me, you are acquainted with all my ways, for there is not a word in my tongue, but lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether, whither shall I flee from thy presence, if I send to heaven, thou art there, but if I descend to hell, behold, thou art there, if I take the wings of the morning and dwell at the uttermost parts of the sea, even then shall thy hand lead me, and he goes on, he says, such knowledge is too wonderful for me, it is high, I cannot attain to it, later on, he goes on, and he says, oh, how precious also are thy thoughts towards me, yea, they are more than the nands, if I should number them, they are more than the sands of the sea, to think that God, knowing everything about you and me that he knows, he's got all the goods, all the secrets, but in the midst of those secrets, his thoughts are precious, he doesn't take those things to build a case to destroy us, he takes all those things to build a case to transform us, yes, I know you, I know your wickedness, I know you're hopeless, I know the sorrow, I know the emptiness, I know the failure, but I love you, and knowing all of this, I'm committed to helping you, committing, I'm committed to transforming you, and the wonderful thing is, is that to me, the only difference between a Christian and the most powerful, wonderful Christian you'll ever find in the world, and the most wicked of heathen, they both have a judgment, but the Christian is somebody who says, God, judge me now, as David later goes on, he says, search me and know me, try my thoughts, see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting, that we come and say, God, search me, know me, try me, test my heart, bring out all this stuff, because if ever I want to bring it out now, I don't want to bring it out at a judgment seat, I want it now, and to realize, the Lord looks at us, he says, I know all these things, but I love you, and I've forgiven you, and I'm here to help you, and so when we come, and we open our heart and say, wash me, and cleanse me, and forgive me, and therefore, when I come to the cross, what I'm all I'm doing is, I'm taking the judgment now, I really did well, we're all judged, it's just that I am judged now, I take and I'm pronounced guilty, I'm pronounced a sinner, I'm pronounced corrupt, I'm pronounced absolute failure, and then Jesus looks, and he says, and I will pay it for you, my blood is shed for you, for the remission of your sins, and Jesus said, you're clean through the word that I've spoken to you, so the judgment of God is very real, this isn't the funnest of sections of scripture, you kind of got to really, you know, but it's important, boy is it ever, we have a world out there that doesn't believe in it at all, and yet here, as Paul lays it out, as I said at the beginning, I believe this is the most powerful place in all of the writing that I know of, that lays out specifically the attributes of the judgment of God, and how he will do it, but the wonderful thing is, is that Paul is leading us through Romans, where when I realized that this is what it is all about, and yet God says, now Jesus Christ is going to take your place in every section of judgment, he'll take it all upon himself, so that you can be forgiven of all of it, rather wonderful isn't it, rather wonderful, when we can sit here tonight and realize we're no better than anybody else, but we've discovered somebody that is unbelievably better than all of us, and his love is so pure, he's taken our sin, and he's loved us. Father, we thank you for your word, and we ask, Lord, as we look at this very severe, sobering section of scripture, the judgment of God, Lord, we pray that as a child of God, we could run to you and say, Lord, judge me now, you do know the secrets, you do know my thoughts are far off, you do know where I'm going before I go, you know all of these things, and yet you love me, knowing everything, how precious are your thoughts, if I would number them, they are more than the sands of the sea, Lord, I would think anybody that knows what you know, what would be numbered more than the sands of the sea would be your anger, not your precious thoughts, but Lord, may we learn more and more of your grace and your love, your desire for us, and Lord, may we be ones, may we tonight, Lord, if there's any here that haven't received you, Jesus, may they not try to escape the judgment of God, or think they're gonna manipulate their way around it, or they're gonna show some excuses, may they just today come and say, how ridiculous, Jesus, I come and stand before you now, I am guilty, and I confess it, will you please forgive me, then, Lord, as when your love is poured out, in our hearts begin to well up with love for you, that we'll love you through time and eternity, we thank you and praise you for your goodness to us, in Jesus' name, amen.