Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro

Dismiss children for children’s ministry.

Is Christ your hope in life and death?

Open with me to Romans 2 as we continue to march through the first two chapters of Romans.

A young nine year old boy went to his class on a Wednesday night at his local church.

It was a normal Wednesday night to him.

He had memorized his verses for his class to recite and knew who Jesus was from attending church for nine solid years.

He walked into his class recited his verses.

It was business as usual.

As he prepared to leave the class with his friend, his teacher asked have y’all been saved?

Shocked by the question and knowing he had not been baptized or had a moment in which he prayed a prayer or anything like that responded “no.”

His friend did likewise.

Then, his teacher read John 3:16 to him which he had learned and could quote from heart.

He knew that.

He believed that.

He then was talk he need to pray to be saved calling upon Jesus.

The teacher led him through the sinner’s prayer.

He recited every word.

He went to his mom in celebration exclaiming, “I got saved.”

He was baptized in the week’s to follow.

Yet, as time would progress, he didn’t have any life change.

He persisted in the same sins as did at 9.

He constantly would cling to that prayer he prayed as proof that he was saved even though he did not live like.

One summer, he got a new Bible.

It was awesome because it was an army Bible that had the logo on the cover.

He wanted to be in the army and had a Bible that reflected that desire.

As he read, he began to realize the reality of Christ’s life and what Christ had done.

And all of these thoughts and doubts entered his mind at age thirteen about how his life had not changed.

A prayer was his only assurance and it fell short, because his life was still rooted in sin.

He struggled and doubted his salvation because he was not saved.

That boy was me.

It was at age thirteen that I realized that I was not saved because my faith was in a prayer and not Christ Jesus.

Today’s passage resonates with me deeply.

We are prone to look to external happening or works as proof of our salvation when we should look to Christ alone.

Paul has strong words for such failure to recognize that Christ alone is our salvation.

Pray.

Main idea: God looks at the inward condition of the heart above outward signs.

As Paul continues to expound upon the desolate condition of mankind apart from Jesus Christ, he ensures that not one person is left out.

We saw the immoral pagan in chapter one.

Last week, we saw the sinful moralist that was entrenched in hypocrisy.

This week, Paul is certain to speak to both the Jew and the Gentile; however, the primary thrust of this passage is geared toward the Jew.

God justifies the doers of the law.

Paul gives us a couple of statements that seemingly start off the tone of this passage of Scripture.

Paul takes the Roman church to the law.

Specifically, Paul is speaking of the Mosaic Law that is contained within the first five books of the Old Testament known as the Pentateuch or Torah.

Remember, the Roman church consisted primarily of Gentile believers, and the church had began to experience some rising tension between the Jewish and Gentile believers.

So, Paul seeks to help them both understand their condition apart from faith in Christ Jesus.

Paul spoke about the judgment of God in the previous passage of Scripture toward the moralist.

In closing out that passage, Paul stated in verse 11

God is impartial in His judgment.

God does not look on the outward appearance or reputation of a person.

He looks at the works of a person either in Christ or apart from Christ.

Paul builds upon that reality in verse 12.

He points to the Gentile.

The Gentiles were those that were not Jewish.

They were outside of the covenant people, the Israelites.

The Israelites are God’s chosen people that had been given the Law of God in order for them to know God and His righteous standard.

However, the Gentiles were outside of the chosen people and were without the Law of God.

They did not have the law.

Therefore, Paul writes an equalizing statement here.

The Gentiles who are without the Law of God will perish without it.

The word perish in that verse speaks of eternal punishment or eternal condemnation.

Likewise, those that do have the Law, namely the Jews, will be judged by the law.

They had the Law of God as it had been given to them by God through Moses in the Old Testament.

They knew the law and would be judged by it.

Meaning, they knew God’s righteous standard that is contained in the 10 Commandments and other prescriptions recorded in the Pentateuch.

Because of this knowledge, God will judge or evaluate their obedience to the law.

Paul expounds further in verse 13

Paul makes the judgment of God very clear here.

The Jews who had the Law and were able to hear the Law in their synagogues weekly were not righteous before God simply by hearing the Law.

The only right standing before God could be found in those who were doers of the law.

In other words, only those that practiced what the Law demanded would be justified before God.

This is the only way in which they could be justified.

This was the only way in which they could stand before God without condemnation.

The word justified is a great Bible term that we cannot glaze over.

It means to be declared righteous.

In obedience to God’s Law, the sinner is declared righteous by God.

But understand, no one can be a doer of the law up to the point of garnering his or her own righteousness.

We must be declared righteous by God.

We cannot declare ourselves righteous.

Likewise, Paul’s statement of being doers of the Law rightly echoes what James said in his Bible letter.

Application: The call is for us to be doers of God’s Word.

Paul is making clear that the doers of the law will be justified or declared righteous before God.

Please understand also, we cannot do the Word or live in obedience to the Word apart from faith in Jesus Christ.

That is the point of the Law.

John MacArthur writes, “The doers of the Law, on the other hand, are those who come to God in repentance and faith realizing that His Law is impossible for them to keep apart from Him and that knowledge of it places them under greater obligation to obey it.”

The only way in which we can live in obedience to the Law and the Word is for us to repent and place our faith in Jesus Christ.

The law reveals our sinfulness against God.

Likewise, by simply knowing the Word of God, we do not earn ourselves justification or salvation.

Intellectual assent does not give us salvation.

It is personal descent to the point of repentance and faith in Christ that merits us salvation.

You see, the Jews were appealing to their hearing and possession of the Law as meritorious for salvation or right standing before God.

It is easy for us to think that our church attendance is meritorious for salvation.

We like to recount every worship service we have sat in where we hear the Word preached.

Or, every Sunday School class where we hear the teacher teach the Bible.

Understand that merely hearing the Word of God does not give salvation.

It is hearing the Word of God to the point of understanding that apart from Christ you cannot live according to the Word.

That is why James said that the hearer of the Word is like a man who looks in the mirror and as soon as he looks away he forgets who he is.

If we are only hearing the Word, we quickly forget who we are, sinners in need of salvation.

If we are doers of the Word, we will continually recognize our dependence upon Christ.