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The River ChurchSermons

The NEED

The NEED of the Religious, Pt. 1

Gary Wright · Sunday, 11 May 2025 · Romans 2:1-16 · 34:11 · 4,527 words

Romans S3 · 2:1-16 Burton

There is no public page for this message yet — the transcript below is the whole of it.

Paul's letter to the Romans teaches that everyone is guilty of sin and without excuse before God. The sermon explains that we often judge others while overlooking our own faults, and that God's patience is meant to lead us to repentance. True faith in Christ produces changed behavior and good works. The message asks listeners to examine their own hearts, turn from self-righteousness, and trust in Jesus, whose death and resurrection offer salvation from God's judgment.

What this sermon is about

Ranked by keyness against every other sermon in the corpus. Each one is a word this sermon actually said — nothing here was written by a model.

judge 28 law 32 apple 6 patience 9 judgment 13 perish 7 presume 5 kindness 9 finger 6 will 37 excuse 8 pagan 5

Topics

Judgment 5 The Law 4 Faith 3 The Wrath of God 2 Salvation 2 Condemnation 2 Obedience 1 Israel 1 Conscience 1 Prayer 1 The Gospel 1 Sin 1

Scripture referenced 24

Verified against the transcript. A reference the recording does not support is never listed here.

Romans 2:1 0:00 Romans 1 0:42 Romans 1 0:56 Romans 1 1:01 Romans 1 2:18 Romans 1:29 2:24 Romans 2 3:22 Romans 1 4:36 Romans 1:2-3 9:15 Romans 2 9:17 2 Peter 3 11:35 2 Peter 3:9 11:35 Romans 2:5 12:58 Romans 2 17:41 Romans 2:17-18 17:45 Romans 2:11 19:33 Romans 2:13 19:33 Romans 2:14-15 22:05 Romans 3:10 26:24 Romans 3:12 26:30 Romans 1 28:18 Romans 2:16 29:18 Romans 2:5 29:40 John 3:16-18 30:42

Transcript

Every word, as spoken, with the second it was said. Each word links to its own entry in the index.

So in Romans chapter 2, verse 1, let's read it first.

I'm going to read the first two verses.

Paul says,

Therefore you have no excuse, O man,

every one of you who judges for impassing judgment on another,

you condemn yourself because you, the judge, practice the same things.

We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things.

Okay?

So Paul starts his passage off and he uses the word therefore.

So anytime we see therefore in the Bible,

we have to go back to the previous thing that was being talked about.

We have to go back to chapter 1 here.

When I was in school, when my pastor or my leader, he said,

when you see the word therefore, you have to ask yourself,

what is therefore therefore?

It's therefore, so we go back and look at what Paul was talking about in chapter 1

and what he was talking about in chapter 1

is he was talking about the pagan world,

those who don't know anything about God.

He was saying, look, God is real and you know he's real

because you can see him in creation.

You can see his attributes, his divine nature,

and his eternal power in creation.

And you're without excuse.

So people will ask sometimes,

what if somebody who lives over in the jungle somewhere

don't know about Jesus?

They know about God because they can see him in his creation.

And they're going to be judged according to that.

And we will see that as we go along.

But also at the end of Romans, Paul says,

because these folks who have, they knew who God was,

this pagan world, but they rejected him.

They traded the truth for a lie.

And he took his hands off of them

and let them go deeper into sin.

He's like, you think that's the right way?

And it was just a spiral.

And we went through all these sins

and there's a list of them at the end of chapter 1.

I'm sorry, I don't have this up on the screen,

but in verse 29, Paul lists, he says,

because of your mind, your depraved mind,

that you've rejected God,

they were filled, and these people were filled with,

all manners of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice.

They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliceness.

They are gossip, slanderers, haters of God,

insolent, haughty, boastful, that means prideful,

inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,

foolish, faithful, heartless, ruthless.

That's a pretty rough list right there.

Happy Mother's Day.

Sorry, no, that was not very nice.

But Paul's saying, look, there's some bad news here.

The pagan world that don't know about God,

they're guilty of sin and they need Jesus.

They're guilty of sin.

And he goes on in chapter 2 and he builds on that thought.

And he's been talking about, in third person,

he's been talking them.

They don't know God.

And they, he's been talking third person,

but now his language is switching.

So in his letter, he's building this,

this case, right?

He's saying the pagan world didn't know God,

but now he's going to say this.

You're without excuse too.

He's telling the church in Rome,

you're without excuse too.

So, and he, actually the first thing he says is,

therefore you have no excuse, right?

And he's drawing back.

He says, you're just as guilty as they are.

And he says, oh man, that word, oh man, means every man.

Paul goes from, and these people were,

probably reading the first chapter,

these people are, that he's speaking to are Jewish people

who are religious, but they don't know,

they have never surrendered to Christ.

And moral people, people who think they're good

and that they don't need Christ.

And these people are listening to Paul in chapter 1

and saying, preach it, brother.

You're so right, this pagan world,

they're on their way to hell.

They need Jesus.

But now he's saying, you are without excuse as well.

That's exactly what he's saying.

And he goes from, they're like, what?

You're talking to us?

We're without excuse?

He's saying, you judge these people.

And by judge saying judging,

he's really not condemning judging.

He's saying, you think you're better than them in some way.

He's saying, you look at yourself as better,

but you are just as guilty.

I read this story about a dad this week.

The dad, he complained about the amount of TV

that his family was watching.

He was really bothered by it.

I would say he was mad about it.

He was like, and he thought, my kids watch so much TV,

they're not doing their homework.

And my wife, she watches so much TV,

she's neglecting her housework.

And he's like, I'm going to do something about this.

That TV is...

is out of here.

I'm getting rid of this cable

as soon as football season's done.

Right?

And that's exactly what Paul's talking about.

When we're pointing at someone else,

there's three fingers pointing back at us.

We look at ourselves, don't we?

Think of this.

We always, as humans,

think of ourselves as naturally better than others.

We're always complaining about what others are doing.

We...

we never look at ourselves,

maybe sometimes,

but we overlook the fact

that we're just as bad as them.

Maybe even worse in some of these ways.

But yet, we look at ourselves as better.

That's what's going on here in the church.

And honestly, this is a little off track,

but I believe Christians do this.

I believe Christians do this.

We come in this church,

and we look out at the world.

The world who needs Christ.

And we...

we are like,

man, they're so bad.

And we're pointing these three fingers.

I can't believe this is happening,

and these three fingers are pointing back at us.

We forget where we came from.

We were them.

And the only reason we are us

is because Christ died on the cross for us.

Right?

That is the only reason.

And we need to,

instead of pointing fingers,

we need to be out there,

they are telling them this good news.

I would love to say I'm not guilty of this,

but I know that I am.

I've actually, you know,

I've been going up to church camp,

or to kids camp and student camp,

And I know the kids.

And some of the kids are a pain in the butt.

I don't know how else to say that.

They are.

And, you know, and I know it

because I've had them up there before.

And I'm like, man,

do I really want to take this kid up there again

and do this?

I'm going to deal with all this for a whole week.

It's going to make my life miserable.

But then God puts his finger on me and says,

that kid is who you used to be.

And he is telling the truth.

We want to think of ourselves as good people,

but when we measure ourselves to God's standard,

we all fall short.

We do.

You may be here and say,

I'm a good person.

But when we measure it to God,

when we compare ourselves to God,

we are not.

Paul goes on in our passage

and he asks two questions.

And I'm going to read verses two and three

in chapter two.

He says,

do you suppose,

you who judge those who practice such things

and yet do them yourself,

that you will escape the judgment of God?

That's the first question.

Then he says,

or do you presume on the riches

of his kindness and forbearance and patience,

not knowing that God's kindness

is meant to lead you to repentance?

So do you think that you

who are practicing the same thing,

remember the list?

If you listen to the list,

I mean, I know when I read that list

that some of those things are me.

And I think if any of us truly look at that list

that Paul said,

we know that we're guilty there, right?

But Paul says,

or do you presume on the riches of his kindness

and forbearance,

or I'm sorry,

or do you presume on the riches of his kindness

or do you presume,

the word presume means to look down on God's kindness.

It means to look down on his kindness,

his forbearance,

and his patience.

They're like,

he's saying,

and the word forbearance means a temporary truce.

The word patience means to withhold vengeance

from an enemy.

So what he's saying here is,

he's asking here is,

are you looking down on God's kindness

and his patience?

The reason he's patient

is so you can look down on God's kindness

and you will come to a place of repentance.

That's exactly what he says.

God is patient.

He is not punishing them at that moment

because he wants us to come to a place of repentance.

I heard this very thing.

God's been,

Jesus has been,

you know,

we've been reading

and you've been telling us for years

that Jesus is coming back.

Where is he?

So we will repent.

Look at the book of 2 Peter.

Peter verses 3, 9

or chapter 3, verse 9.

It explains this a little better.

It says,

the Lord is slow to fulfill his promise

of coming back.

As some count slowness,

but is patient toward you,

not wishing that any should perish,

but all should reach repentance.

One pastor asked this question.

Why have we not been reduced to a sender

by God's wrath,

riches of his kindness,

In other words,

God has been gracious with us.

God is patient.

He doesn't want any to perish.

At some point though,

God's patience will be done.

It's hard to say that.

At some point,

God's going to say,

this is it.

It's over.

My patience is done.

Judgment's here.

It'll be too late at that point.

It'll be too late to turn to Christ.

It'll be too late to repent.

And,

in verse 5,

Paul says,

but because of your heart,

and hard and impenitent heart,

you are storing up wrath for yourself

on the day of wrath

when God's judgment will be revealed.

He says we're storing up wrath.

Think of a bank.

We all put our money in the bank every week

and we're saving for something.

Maybe we're saving for a new car,

a new house, right?

We're storing that money up for something.

When we don't repent and turn to Christ,

we are storing up God's wrath

like it's in the bank.

And someday when his patience wears out,

God's going to take that out of the bank

and he's going to put it on us

if we haven't turned to Christ.

It's called the great white throne judgment.

If we haven't given our life to Christ,

we are going to be judged,

or we are going to be under God's wrath at that point.

Paul goes on in the next verses

and tells us

that we're going to be judged

according to our works.

And that sounds opposite of what the Bible says,

but we're going to talk about that.

He says,

he will render to each one according to his works.

To those who by patience and well-doing

seek for glory and honor and immortality,

he will give eternal life.

But for those who are self-seeking

and do not obey the truth,

but obey unrighteousness,

there will be wrath and fury.

There will be tribulation and distress

for every human being

who does evil.

The Jew first and also the Greek.

But the glory and honor and peace

for everyone who does good.

The Jew first, also the Greek.

And if you notice this,

Paul really repeats himself twice here.

He talks about those who are seeking,

those who are doing good.

Then he talks about those who are self-seeking

and not obeying.

And then he goes back

and then he does it in reverse order.

He says,

there will be wrath and fury

and tribulation and distress

for everyone who does evil.

But glory and honor and peace

to everyone who does good.

This is important.

He's saying it two times in a row.

Paul makes it sound here

like we have to work to be saved.

But if we read the rest of the scripture,

we know we can only be saved

by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

Right?

And I hope you understand that.

We can only be saved.

So we have to remember,

we have to look back at this passage one more time.

He uses the verb seek twice.

And I think it's important to look at this.

He says,

those who seek the glory and honor of immortality,

he will give eternal life.

Those who seek after God,

those who seek the truth will find it.

But then he says,

but those who are self-seeking

and do not obey the truth,

there will be wrath and fury.

So he's really saying

what the rest of the scriptures,

but we will be judged by our works.

When we go,

whether we go to the mercy seat

to be judged as Christians will be,

or we go to the great white throne judgment,

we are going to be judged by our works.

So what does Paul mean

that we're going to be judged?

The way we live our life

and the works we do

reflects if we truly know Christ,

if we are truly saved.

We are not saved because

we've changed our life.

We change because we know Jesus

and we have the Holy Spirit living inside of us.

Our works does not get us to heaven,

but we will be judged

because it reflects who we truly are on the inside,

whether we know Jesus or not.

That's why it says in James chapter two,

verse 17 and 18,

James says this,

also faith by itself,

if it does not have works,

Our faith causes action.

And if it doesn't,

we really don't have faith.

That's what he's saying.

But if someone will say,

you have faith and I have works,

show me your faith apart from your works

and I will show you my faith by my works.

When I read that verse,

I think of an apple tree.

When we see an apple tree

or we go to the orchard,

we don't pick oranges off of an apple tree, right?

Has anybody ever done that?

I hope not.

Well, actually, if you have,

I want to know about it.

I want to know where to go do that.

But an apple tree is going to produce apples.

That's how we know it's an apple tree.

That's what Paul's saying.

And James is saying,

our works will show who we are.

The good news is,

the good news of Jesus is more than a fact to be believed.

It is a life to be lived.

It's more than a fact to be believed.

I mean, we have to do that,

but it's a life to be lived.

Faith causes action, okay?

And that's what Paul's talking about.

Paul goes on and he says that

God will show no partiality.

That means there's not going to be any favoritism

when it comes to this judgment.

Verse 11 through verse 13, Paul says,

for God will show no partiality,

for all who have sinned without the law

will perish without the law.

And those who have sinned under the law

will be judged,

judged by the law.

For it is not the hearers of the law

who are righteous before God,

but the doers of the law

who will be justified.

He's talking about two different people here.

In the Old Testament,

the Jews were God's chosen people

and they weren't supposed to keep all this to themselves.

They were supposed to share it with the world,

but they hoarded it, right?

But these Jews, they received God's word.

they received the law.

So he's saying here, first of all,

just having the law.

If you're Jewish and you think you're righteous,

you think you're religious enough to make it on your own,

you're wrong because you're going to be judged by the law.

The law doesn't save you.

The law doesn't save you.

It's when you do the law that you're justified

and you do the law because you have Christ.

That's the only way you can do it, in my opinion.

That's the only way you can keep it.

Okay?

But then he says this,

and you may think this sounds unfair,

and I kind of do too,

but when we understand what Paul's talking about,

it'll make more sense.

He says,

for those who are without the law,

everyone who's not Jewish,

who didn't get the law,

that would be us, by the way.

That would be us.

All who have sinned will perish without the law.

God shows no favoritism.

Those who have the law will be judged according to the law.

Those who don't will be judged.

Without the law, they will perish.

And the word perish means separation from God.

And you may be thinking, can this be fair?

How can it be fair?

If we look at verses 14 and 15, we will understand how.

Paul says,

for when the Gentiles, that's everyone who's not a Jew,

who do not have the law,

by nature do what the law requires,

they are themselves,

they are a law to themselves,

even though,

they do not have the law.

They show that the work of the law

is written in their hearts

while their conscience also bears witness

and their conflicting thoughts

accuse or even excuse them.

Okay?

So Paul's saying that the Gentiles,

in this passage,

what he means by all of this

is that all of us were created

in the image of God

and God instilled it in us

to know the difference between

what's right and what's wrong.

That word, actually the word

conscience actually means

knowing the difference between

what's right and wrong.

My grandson's been coming to Awana all year.

I'm so thankful he comes with my wife and I.

But this last week,

well, let me tell you this about him.

He loves animals.

Like, every kind of animal.

Like, he can name all the dinosaurs.

He knows all the names.

It's incredible to me.

But he loves every kind of animal.

Well, when he was here the other night,

he found this ostrich in the playroom.

This little bitty plastic ostrich.

And he kept it with him the whole night.

And when we got ready to leave,

we were going out the door right there

and he didn't want to come out.

He had his hand in his pocket.

And I'm like,

he's got that ostrich in his pocket.

Sure enough, he walks out

and I said, what's in your pocket?

Pulls it out.

Sure enough, it's the ostrich.

I'm like, dude, we don't steal.

So I said, let me have it.

So I took it back in.

Listen, what I want you to see,

what I want you to see here is

he knew the difference between right and wrong.

He knew it.

He chose not to follow it,

but he knew it.

We didn't teach him that.

God put that inside of him.

And it's the same for all of us.

And Paul says they know the difference

between right and wrong

because they follow this law

that's written on their heart.

He says, he's not saying

that they follow it to the letter.

Like there's no way that somebody

can do that.

They can do what's right

100% of their life.

There's no way.

There's only one person who's ever done that

and that's Jesus, right?

Even this law that's written on our heart,

we cannot keep it 100%.

That's not what Paul's saying here.

He's saying they know the difference

between right and wrong

and they do right and wrong.

Sometimes they follow this law

and you know they know it

because they're following it.

Just like Lincoln.

He chose, he knew it was wrong

but he chose not to.

He chose not to follow it.

Chuck Swindell.

I always say that wrong.

Chuck Swindell.

He's a pastor.

He's an old pastor.

He's been around for years.

I love him and I would recommend

listening to some of his sermons.

He's a pretty good guy.

He tells good stories too.

But he says this,

even by this imperfect standard,

this law that's written on our heart

is what he's talking about.

No one lives righteously.

No one has ever perfectly obeyed

his or her conscience.

We may do good occasionally

but we don't do it.

We don't follow it to the letter.

And if we did,

Paul's argument here

that all are guilty

would be null and void.

I mean if you look at Romans 3.10?

3.12, sorry.

Romans 3.12 says,

all have turned aside,

talking about God.

Together they have become worthless.

No one does good.

Not even God.

If we could keep this moral law,

this right and wrong,

Paul's whole argument would be void.

That's not what he's saying.

Someone may obey their conscience

when it comes to murder

or when it comes to stealing from their neighbor.

But guess what else is written on our hearts?

Lying and obeying your parents.

How many have been guilt-free from that?

I bet you there's nobody in here

who could say they've obeyed their parents.

100% of the time.

If you can, I want to talk to you after.

I want to know how you did it.

Because I don't know how you do that.

And not only that,

in the next verse,

it says that we're going to be judged

by our secret thoughts.

We're going to be judged by our secrets.

Our motives of doing what we do.

If people could read our mind,

they would know how messed up we really are,

wouldn't they?

I know they would for me, right?

We all struggle with that.

What are our motives?

Why are we doing this good?

Is it for us or is it really for God?

No one lives up to their moral perceptions

of right and wrong,

let alone God's written law.

We're all guilty.

Paul shared in chapter 1,

the world knows God

because they can see His eternal power,

divine nature, and creation.

Now he's saying,

we know there's a God

because we know the difference

between right and wrong.

Those who have never heard the gospel

will be judged by that knowledge.

God's saying,

actually, He's saying here,

if you know the scripture,

your judgment is going to be harsher.

That's really what's going on here.

since God is judging by the truth,

His judgment is fair.

So whether we're being judged

by God's written law

or the law written on our heart,

we all fall short.

I already said that,

but it's important to repeat.

Romans 2.16 says,

on that day,

Paul's talking,

he's saying my gospel,

but he's really talking about

the gospel of Jesus.

God judges the secrets of men

by Christ Jesus.

On that day,

is the white throne judgment

or judgment day.

And it ties back to verse 5.

And if we learn anything

from this passage today,

it's that when we truly have faith in Jesus,

our life will reflect it.

If you have Jesus,

you have His spirit living in you

and your life is going to change.

It may not be the same,

not change all at once,

but there's going to be some change.

If there isn't,

there's some,

there should be some concern there.

Paul doesn't share the gospel

for another,

we have another whole chat,

almost another chapter and a half to go.

He's sharing the bad news.

The bad news is we're all sinners.

But I want to share with you this morning

that Jesus did come,

even though Paul didn't get there yet.

I want to read John 3.16 through 18

as we close out.

And you may know this verse.

Maybe not, I don't know.

But it says,

for God so loved the world

that He gave His only Son.

And whoever believes in Him

should not perish,

but have eternal life.

For God did not send His Son

into the world to condemn the world,

but in order that the world

might be saved through Him.

Whoever believes in Him

is not condemned,

but whoever does not believe

is condemned already

because he has not believed

in the name of the Son of God.

Jesus is not the one

who's going to condemn us.

We are already condemned

because of our sin.

That's what Paul's talking about

in everything we've talked about so far.

We're condemned.

But listen, God loves us.

And He sent His Son, Jesus.

And He died.

He shed His blood.

He took the wrath of God on Himself

for you and for me.

And all we need to do

is trust Him.

Here's the good news.

He didn't stay dead.

He rose three days later

and He's our advocate in heaven right now

if we believe.

Look, if we put our faith in Jesus,

if we believe that His death on the cross

paid the price for our sin,

and we believe that He rose from the dead,

we will be saved

and our actions will change.

And we're going to be judged

for what we did for Christ

instead of being judged

for this horrible thing

since spending eternity in hell.

Listen, if you're here this morning,

maybe you're a believer

and you are the one who thinks I'm better

and the three fingers are pointing at you.

Maybe you want to come

and have a conversation with the Lord this morning.

Maybe you need to ask for forgiveness.

Maybe you want God to help you

to change that in your life.

I want to invite you to come up and pray.

If you would like one of us to pray, we will.

Pray with you, we will.

But if you're here this morning

and you've never trusted Jesus as Savior,

I really want you to come up and pray.

I want you to consider what we've talked about today.

We think, God, Jesus hasn't came back.

I'm good.

I'm good.

I'm a good person.

But Paul gives a great argument here

in the contrary.

We are not.

We all need Christ.

And if this is you

and you want to talk to somebody,

please come and have a conversation with me

and let's talk this out.