4/12/2020 Romans 2

1. Do you ignore the goodness of God in your life?

2. Why do you do what you do?
   

Romans 2:4 (KJV) Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?

• How often are good things in our life associated with the good that we have done

• Though God does reward righteousness behavior, the rewards are not required to be immediate, there is little in Scripture where the time for rewards is laid out, neither is the timing for punishment(longsuffering), there is mention of some types of Punishment being swift, but plenty of times when punishment is delayed to allow the sinner to repent.

• Why does God show us:

  • Riches of his Goodness

  • Forbearance

  • Long-suffering

• TO LEAD US TO REPENTANCE

• if you don’t recognize Gods work is your life you will never repent, saved or lost

• As Christians, we need to be careful assigning righteousness or wickedness to a person based entirely on what has happened in their life

  • Scriptural principles exist but don’t ignore the goodness of God In your life or the lives of others, he has chosen....

Romans 2:5-11 (KJV) 5 But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; 6 Who will render to every man according to his deeds: 7 To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life: 8 But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, 9 Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; 10 But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile: 11 For there is no respect of persons with God.

• This is one sentence

• The hardness of heart leads to the wrath of God in your life

• V8-9

  • As saved we will avoid the full wrath and judgment of God, but do want to be associated with

    • Contentious

    • Disobedience to the truth

    • Obedience to

      • unrighteousness

      • Indignation and wrath

• V10-11 scriptural principles apply to all of us saved or lost

Romans 2:14-15 (KJV) 14 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: 15 Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and [their] thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)

• God has given all a baseline understanding of what is right and wrong based on the law, the line no one ever told me does not really hold up

Romans 2:29 (KJV) But he [is] a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision [is that] of the heart, in the spirit, [and] not in the letter; whose praise [is] not of men, but of God.

• Repeatedly in scriptures, the inward is the focus of God’s attention

• I worry about saved who seeming focus is on the outward

  • Don’t get me wrong God wants us to pay attention to the outward

    • Thou shall not kill

    • Shalt not steal

    • Dress modestly

    • Shalt not bear false witness

  • But there are plenty of times when he addresses s,ins of the heart

    • Covetousness

    • Hatred towards a brother

    • Jesus spoke over and over again about cleaning the inside of the cup Matthew 23:25-26 (KJV) 25 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. 26 [Thou] blind Pharisee, cleanse first that [which is] within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.

    • He does not say they are wrong for addressing the outside, in fact in other places he tells the disciples that outwardly they are righteousness (Matthew 5:20 (KJV)For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed [the righteousness] of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.)

• This comparison of the inward and outward is a question of faith,

  • Do you trust that God will reward you for what you do privately or do you crave the notice of men

    • Matthew 6:4-6 (KJV) 4 That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly. 5 And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites [are]: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. 6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

  • I am not saying I have conquered those feelings, but I am asked by God all of the time why did you do that? Was is it for me and because I told you or did you do it so others would notice and praise you

  • If you want an interesting study look up reward in the Bible,

  • How often do you fall into the negative mention? I say you/I NOT, Susie or Johnny, because I am great at identifying this in others