Romans 2:1-5 Therefore you have no excuse, o man, every
one of you who judges. For in passing
judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the
very same things. We know that the
judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Do you suppose, o man—you who judge those who
practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment
of God?
The judgment of God, is that something we give much
thought too? We know that God is love and that He loves us very much … so much
so that He sent His only Son (JOHN 3:16) … That is pretty comforting, isn’t it?
God is a loving, compassionate and merciful God who sacrificed His Son on the
cross at Calvary as a substitute sin offering for me for you, for all of
mankind. God loves us more than we can possibly imagine. The depth of His love
is limitless. Anywhere you turn to Christian television or radio and hear a
sermon you won’t have to go far to find out about His love. However, coupled with that love is the God who is also holy, righteous and
just. He is perfect in His sense of justice. Nothing escapes His notice and we
being His creation can push His patience to the end. One of the adjectives
sometimes used to describe God is “longsuffering”; that word does not mean
limitless. We see situations in the Bible where God’s patience was finally
exhausted.
The first
instance in the Bible where we see God’s patience exhausted is in the Genesis
account of Noah. God’s creation actually grieved Him to the point of God
wanting to hit reset save for Noah and his family. Genesis
6:5-8 Sodom and Gomorrah is another example … These accounts provide us with another view of God’s being
many times we do not want to address. I know that I’d much rather talk about
His patience and His willingness to forgive or those times where He stayed His
hand in rendering judgment. But I wonder by our over focusing on those
attributes of God, do we somehow forget or even deny the idea of accountability
thinking that God will somehow look past the way you or I have lived our lives.
No not for
a moment … but what is there that we can do about it? I mean we don’t live that bad do we? There’s always someone living in a manner
that I would never think to do. I mean let’s think about it; let’s go back to
Romans but I want to go to chapter 1 and start in verse 18 – 25 … here we see
the argument that many make if only I could do what I wanted and we see here in
this passage that God has allowed just that … VERSE 24 a society to do what
they want because why let’s go to VERSE 28 – 32.
It’s
happening around us, it’s happening in the church come on … think about it, the
church is the place we should be able to come and have victory but what happens
when you hear about the stuff in the mega churches, the mini churches, the
local churches right here in these walls … a place where we come in and we talk
about “new
life," "new creation," "the power of God,"
"healing," "wisdom," "miracles," "the power
of prayer," ...why are we so weak? Why do so many "good Christian
people," turn out to be just like everyone else? Divorced. Depressed.
Broken. Messed up. Full of pain and secrets. Addicted, needy and phony. I
thought we were different. Aren’t we supposed to be different? So what do we do with that?
ROMANS 5: 8 …
Christ died for me even
when I was in my mess … even though He knew I would reject Him, even though He
knew I would disappoint Him, be disobedient, even after coming to the knowledge
of who He was I’d still be prone to wander but it is because of His love for me
and the fact that there is nothing I did to earn it and there’s nothing I can
do about it which cause me to be a broken man.
I stand before you today a broken man …
Brokenness … what comes
to mind when you think of brokenness?
Webster’s defines it in
various ways … ie. violently
separated into parts : shattered
damaged or altered by breaking: as
damaged or altered by breaking: as
having undergone or been subjected
to fracture <a broken leg>
being interrupted, or full of
obstacles
violated by transgression <a broken
promise>
Brokenness. This is
where God wants us to be. If you have pain in your life, could it be God
working brokenness? Have the circumstance you face have your full attention?
Don’t run, hide, grow, angry, or bitter, give up and in to Him. You’ll be glad
you did.
Brokenness hurts, it
doesn’t feel good, but until we are broken … at the end of ourselves and our
self reliance there is nothing God can do for us because it has to be His way;
it can’t be my way or a combination of His way and mine; complete and total
surrender … I must recognize God for who He is …
Job
did in Job 42:5
Isaiah
did in Isaiah 6:1-5
Paul
did in Romans
The good
news is that there is a way to escape the righteous judgment of God. That
escape is the free gift of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ who died on the
cross at Calvary. No matter what anyone else may tell you, there is no other
way to escape the terrible judgment of a Holy God except to realize my
brokenness and humble myself at the feet of Jesus. You cannot be good enough;
you cannot be contrite enough; you cannot be “religious” enough. Thank goodness
this is the case because there is no other way that I could get there myself.
But I know that I will have Someone standing beside me Who will be able to
testify that the price of my entry into the presence of God has already been
paid – it was paid almost two millennia ago on a hill outside of Jerusalem. My
God paid my price. He did it not because I deserved it but because I didn’t. He
died for me and paid that awful price because He knew that I couldn’t. He will
do the same for you if you will just let Him.
