In the sermon 'Inexcusable' by Jason Dohm, Romans 2:1-11 is explored to highlight the universal human condition of self-righteous hypocrisy, where individuals condemn others for sins they commit themselves. The sermon uses the story of Nathan confronting David to illustrate this point. Dohm emphasizes that God's goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering are intended to lead individuals to repentance, yet many despise these attributes by failing to repent, thereby storing up wrath for themselves. The sermon explains that everyone is without excuse because God judges according to truth and one's own standards. It further clarifies that while salvation is not achieved through works, true repentance leads to a life characterized by good deeds, which are an effect of being saved. The sermon encourages the audience to reflect on their own spiritual condition and underscores the importance of having a soft and repentant heart. Ultimately, the sermon calls for humility, recognizing the need for a savior, and living in accordance with divine truth.

Good morning. Our sermon text for today is Romans 2 verses 1 through 11, which I'll be reading for us this morning. Therefore, you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself, for you who judge practice the same things. But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things. And do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God?

Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and long suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance. But in accordance with the hardness and your impenitent heart, you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to each one according to his deeds. Eternal life to those who by patient continuance and doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality, but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness, indignation, and wrath, tribulation, and anguish on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek. But glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good to the Jew first and also to the Greek for there is no partiality with God. The title of the sermon this morning is a single word lifted from the text.

Inexcusable. Then the Lord sent Nathan to David, and he came to him and said to him, There were two men in one city, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had exceedingly many flocks and herds. The poor man had nothing except one little yew lamb, which he had bought and nourished, and it grew up together with him and with his children. It ate of his own food and drank from his own cup and lay in his bosom.

It was like a daughter to him. And a traveler came to the rich man, who refused to take from his own flock and from his own herd to prepare for the one wayfaring man who came to him. But he took the poor man's lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him. So David's anger was greatly aroused against the man, and he said to Nathan, As the Lord lives, that man who has done this shall surely die. And he shall restore fourfold for the Lamb, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.

Then Nathan said to David, You are the man. Thus says the Lord God of Israel, I anointed you king over Israel and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your keeping and gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if that had been too little, I would have also given you much more. Why have you despised the commandment of the Lord to do evil in His sight?

You have killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword. You have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the people of Ammon. Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife." David is not the only one to be very gentle and lenient with his own sin and very precise and severe with the sin that he thought was the sin of another even though it was actually the same sin only his was worse. In fact this is a universal condition more or less. I don't mean that it's more or less universal.

It is universal. The only question is if you have it bad, or if you have it very bad or if you have it very very bad it is the universal condition. You've done what David did in being very gentle and lenient with your own sin while you were very precise and severe with the sin of another even when it was exactly the same sin. You've done that over and over and over again, and that renders you inexcusable. Could almost stop the sermon here.

That really is the point of the passage. Okay, Where are we in the flow of Romans? By the way, if you care, that was 2 Samuel 12, verses 1-10. In the flow of Romans, the section that we're in now started in chapter 1, verse 18, with the wrath of God being revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men and this section will end with chapter 3 verse 20 and this section can be summarized by this portion of chapter 3 verse 9, for we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin. Paul is going to take this section from chapter 1 verse 18 through chapter 3 verse 20 and put us all under sin.

All Jews under sin. All Gentiles under sin. All of humanity standing condemned before God and then He is ready to bring you to Christ. So that's where we are, that's what's happening in our text. Paul began by establishing the baseline that every member of mankind has sufficient knowledge to render us without excuse by virtue of what creation teaches about the Creator.

So here's the baseline. There's a minimum level of knowledge that you must have because you've been taught by observing the creation certain things that must be true about the creator. You might have more knowledge than that, but you don't have less knowledge than that. Less knowledge than that. And having that bare minimum of knowledge, you are rendered without excuse.

If you won't respond to that bare minimum of knowledge by glorifying this creator as God and being thankful to him, you have no excuse and God will give you up to the unclean cravings of your heart and to a mind that ceases to function correctly. So that light starts to look like darkness, and darkness starts to look like light to you. God gives you over to have what you wanted. And that is a terrible position to be in. So that's where we are.

Now Paul makes a second accusation. If you hold others to a standard that you yourself are in violation of, and we've all done that, we just saw David do that in 2nd Samuel, but we've all done it, then you are without excuse. So I'm going to work very hard to personalize this to myself and to yourselves because this is our universal condition and that is what Paul is arguing here. He is making this second accusation. When you hold others to a standard that you yourself are in violation of, you are without excuse.

Let's pray as we come to the text. God, I pray that this text would be a tool in your hands to humble us, so that a salvation in your Son would be beautiful in our eyes, would be sweeter to our tastes than it ever has been before. That we would see ourselves more clearly maybe than we've ever seen ourselves before. Or at least see ourselves again in this light. And being under the shadow of your wing by being joined to your son would be sweet to us.

May it be so in Jesus' name, amen. Okay, as almost always we're subdividing the text, begin by rereading verses 1 through 3. So hopefully your Bibles are still open to Romans chapter 2. Follow along as I reread verses 1, 2, and 3. Alright.

Therefore, You are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge. For in whatever you judge another, you condemn yourself. For you who judge practice the same things. But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things. Do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God?

I about continued there, but I'm stopping there. Here we have Paul setting before you that you are without excuse. So We'll start with the personalizing right now. Church, friends, people listening, you are without excuse. Excuse fills in the blank if you're taking notes that way.

This is the universal principle that Paul sets before us. Whoever holds anyone else to a standard that they are in violation of themselves, God sees it and is perfectly right to judge and condemn that person. So whenever that happens, If you can say, I've never once done that, then you can tune out. I have nothing else for you today. If you can't say, never in my life have I ever held anyone else to a standard that I was in violation of myself, then this is for you, this is for us.

Consider this, the minute you hold anyone else to a standard, any standard, you have just recognized the goodness and validity of that standard. Otherwise, why are you saying that's bad? In a sense, you just caught yourself. You just busted yourself because You've just betrayed that you know that's bad, that's not right. You just admitted it in your judgment of the other person's conduct.

What do you say? But I don't violate that standard in the same way or to the same extent or for the same reason. I have a good reason, they don't have a good reason. Paul says this, tell it to the judge. Tell it to the judge.

The judge knows all. The judge always judges according to truth and he can see into all your thoughts and all your motivations so when you say, I don't violate that standard in the same way or to the same extent or for the same reason I have a good reason the judge knows. You can fool me, Fool your neighbor, your spouse, your co-workers. You can't fool this judge. He always judges according to truth.

He can always see all the way into your motivations and your thoughts. Jesus taught and teaches exactly the same thing. Turn to Matthew chapter 7. You've probably already thought of this cross reference, but we'll go here. Matthew chapter 7 verses 1 through 5, Jesus really is teaching on exactly the same topic and saying the same thing in a different, only a slightly different way.

Follow along as I read Matthew chapter 7 verses 1 through 5. Jesus says, Judge not that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged. And with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And Why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?

Or how can you say to your brother, let me remove the speck from your eye, and look, a plank is in your own eye. Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. It is clear that there is a time to help your brother with the speck in his eye. It is even more clear that when you have a plank in your own eye is not that time.

A plank is a board. A speck is just a dot. A board is made up of tens of thousands of dots. You have tens of thousands of the dots in your own eye, the board, the plank, it's not the time for you to help your brother with the dot in his eye, the speck in his eye. So Jesus is acknowledging this tendency, this reality, this weakness, this sin of going to your brother.

What's that speck in your eye? You have something so many times worse in your own eye. Now, let it be said that judge not, that you be not judged, is a favorite Bible verse of unbelievers and fake Christians. It's as if there were no other Bible verses. Because they want to be free from examination of the things that are in their life.

That are in their life. They want to dodge a critique of their own worldview, their own beliefs, their own conduct. Then Let it be said that Jesus is not teaching that we can never stand on the word of God or defend the truth or call sin sin. But that, my friends, is another sermon for another day. Jesus is teaching that to render a judgment on someone else is to invite your own measuring stick to be turned back on you.

Are we agreed? Jesus is teaching that. To render a judgment on someone else is to invite your own measuring stick. God hasn't even brought his own law in this case. He's brought your law.

Your own measuring stick turned back on you. When that measuring stick reveals that you fail your own test, then you stand condemned. Says who? Says you. You stand condemned as a self-righteous hypocrite.

Hypocrite is the word that is used here. A two-face, that Greek word rendered hypocrite literally means one who is wearing a mask, a two-face, looking one way on the outside, but being something completely different on the other side of the mask. You self-righteous hypocrite, Jason. Look at the question Paul asks in verse 3 of our text. This is a slight paraphrase but it's not bad.

Do you think you can condemn someone else for something you yourself are guilty of and then escape condemnation from the all-knowing, all-seeing judge, God Himself? Do You think you can do that? You think you can condemn someone else for something that you're doing behind the mask? And that the all-seeing, all-knowing God won't take notice of that and render a guilty verdict on you? Notice, Paul doesn't even take the trouble to answer the question.

It's a rhetorical question. A rhetorical question is a question with an answer that's so obvious that there's no point in blurting out the answer because everybody knows it. What's the answer? Of course not! Of course you can't escape the judgment of an all-seeing, all-knowing judge when you're doing things behind the mask that you're condemning others of.

Now, let's apply. This section declares that I am without excuse. I've done this a thousand times. I've condemned people in my mind or worse in my comments to others or in my comment to the person that I'm condemning of things that really I either have been guilty of or am currently guilty of. I've done that a thousand times.

And it renders me without excuse. You are without excuse. You've done it too. Oh friends, allow your self-righteousness to be attacked today by this text. Allow your hypocrisy to be attacked today.

You'll be all the better for it, we'll be all the better for it. Verse 4. Oh, let's back up a second. I promised I wouldn't chase any rabbits here, I'll chase one. Especially in our environment, our homes, with our kids, we won't let them just express all that is in their hearts and chase all the inclinations that would prove to them that they are capable of doing all these things, but we restrain it.

These arguments that Paul is making, these accusations that Paul is making, it's important that we press these on our children so that they see that there is such a thing as cleaned up on the outside, but the reality is what's behind the mask. The mask isn't the reality. It's what's behind the mask. It's important that we allow our self-righteousness to be attacked. That when the text points to us that we don't deflect and we let the punches land.

We allow our hypocrisy to be attacked. And we're willing to humble ourselves and say, Scripture says that's true of me. And you know what? Paul's right. I've done that so many times.

That's true of me. Now to verse 4. Follow along as I reread verse 4. Chapter 2 verse 4. Paul writes, Or, Or do you despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance.

In this one verse we have the purpose of God's goodness, forbearance, and patience in your life. Patience or long suffering, you can use either word or synonym. The purpose of God's goodness, forbearance, and patience in your life. Verse begins with, or in other words, To hold someone to a standard that you yourself are in violation of, is to hold God's goodness, forbearance and long-suffering in your own life in contempt. To despise God's goodness, forbearance and long-suffering in your own life.

To count God's goodness, forbearance, and long-suffering in your own life as nothing, as a little thing. Matthew 18 contains the parable of the unforgiving servant. It's a parable of a servant who owns many lifetimes worth of wages to his master. And the debt comes due, and the master is going to sell him and his family into slavery. And the servant begs for mercy, and the master has mercy and forgives the whole debt.

A debt that would take many lifetimes of wages to pay off. So it's an unpayable debt. So then the servant goes out and his fellow servant owes him a few bucks and can't pay the few bucks. He's ready to choke it out of his fellow servant. He's ready to sell his fellow servant into slavery over it, to give him over to debtors prison because he can't pay his few dollars after he's been forgiven lifetime's worth of earning.

The fellow servants are troubled and they tell the master, and the master says, You wicked servant! And he hands them over. He hands this wicked servant over to the debtor's prison. The point is that the compassion of God in our own lives should ensure that we are compassionate towards fellow sinners. The logic hold?

The logic hold. The compassion of God in my life should ensure, because I owed many lifetimes worth of wages, and if that debt was forgiven to me that should ensure my compassion towards my fellow servant who owes me a few bucks. To try to extract the few bucks out of a fellow sinner is to despise the goodness and forbearance in the long suffering of God in your life. When you receive goodness that you don't deserve from God, that creates an expectation and an obligation that you won't then act exactly in the opposite way with fellow sinners. I know you're with me.

Doesn't it? You receive goodness from God. You didn't deserve it, but He gave it to you. Just free grace. That creates an expectation and an obligation that you won't then act in exactly the opposite way with fellow sinners and try to choke a few bucks out of them.

Have you received goodness that you don't deserve from God? Goodness like what? Well, in Matthew 5 verse 45, Jesus says that God makes His Son rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. In Luke chapter 6, that's really a parallel passage that just expands on that. Luke chapter 6 verses 35 and 36, Jesus says, Love your enemies, for God is kind to the unthankful and evil.

Therefore be merciful just as your Father is merciful." God is kind to the unthankful and evil. Doesn't that describe you before Jesus in your life? Unthankful and evil, that was you. God says, then love your enemies. Be merciful because you've received mercy.

When you receive forbearance that you don't deserve from God, that creates an expectation and an obligation that you won't then act in exactly the opposite way with fellow sinners. What does it mean, forbearance? Romans 6-23 says, the wages of sin is death. Have you sinned? Yes.

Are you dead? No. That's forbearance. God could have paid you the wages on the spot for your sin, but He chose not to. He's giving you time and opportunity to repent.

He's not treating you as you deserved. R.C. Sproul calls sin cosmic treason. Have you ever thought of your sins against God as that way? Cosmic treason against the Almighty God who gave you your life.

That's forbearance. Not being treated as you deserve to be treated, but God in His mercy giving you more time, more opportunity to repent. When you receive long suffering that you don't deserve from God, that creates an expectation and an obligation that you won't then go treat fellow sinners in exactly the opposite way. Then Paul drives it home, saying this, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance. The goodness and forbearance and long-suffering of God has a grand design.

He is leading you to repentance. You ask yourself, Have I experienced the goodness and the forbearance and the long suffering, meaning it's been over a long period of time, not a short period of time, but a long period of time that he's been patient with me and hasn't given me what I deserve. So not only is he forbearing, not giving me what I deserve, but he's been that way for a long time. He's been long suffering. If that's true, that you can say, yes, I have experienced the goodness and forbearance and longsuffering of God, what's he been doing with that?

He's been leading you to repentance. He is drawing you with the cords of his kindness, drawing you along to turn away from your self-righteous hypocrisy. He's leading you to repentance. Repentance is just a word that means you change your mind, and it's a real change of mind so your life changes too. Consider 2 Peter 3.

In 2 Peter 3, Peter is talking about people who say, Oh, Jesus is never coming back. Everything just continues as it has since the days of our Father. Peter says this, in 2 Peter 3 verse 9, The Lord is not slack concerning His promise as some count slackness, but is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Oh, God hasn't noticed my sin. God hasn't brought calamity and disaster into my life because of my sin.

It must have gone unnoticed. No! There's a different interpretation that's the right interpretation. That the goodness of God and the forbearance of God and the long suffering of God has this purpose that give you time and opportunity to repent. Just a few verses later, this is still in 2nd Peter chapter 3, but now verse 15 he says, and consider that the long suffering of our Lord is salvation.

Him holding back on giving you what you deserve, some people actually do repent and are saved. Peter is teaching exactly the same truth in 2 Peter 3 that Paul was teaching in Romans chapter 2. That is what is so contemptible about showing contempt for God's goodness, forbearance, and long-suffering. It is designed to coax you to repent. But we abuse those things when we harden ourselves against God's goodness and His forbearance and His long-suffering.

Now think of how that reflects on our impulse to say, that's not fair. I didn't get all the privileges of that person over there or that group over there. Paul and Peter say, you had plenty of privileges. You experienced the goodness and the forbearance and the long suffering of God day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, decade after decade. And what did you do with the privileges that God did give you?

The privileges were never the problem. You were the problem. You were the problem. Last section, verses 5 through 11. Romans chapter 2, verses 5 through 11.

Paul writes, But In accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart, you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to each one according to his deeds. That's in quotes. Verse 7. Eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality. But to those who are self-seeking and who do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek.

But glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek, for there is no partiality with God." In these verses, Paul teaches this. One of these descriptions will describe your forever and ever. You're taking notes on the handout and filling in blanks. Forever and ever fill in the blanks. One of these descriptions will describe your forever and ever.

Could the stakes be higher than that? Paul starts by diagnosing the person who despises the goodness, forbearance, and long-suffering of God. Such people have hard, impenitent hearts." What is an impenitent heart? When was the last time you used that word? Yeah, me neither.

I don't ever use it. Impenitent just means unrepentant. So I'm going to, from here on out in this sermon, I'm going to drop impenitent and say unrepentant because they mean the same thing. That's a word we use. People who despise the goodness, forbearance, and long-suffering of God have hard, unrepentant hearts.

When you will not respond to the goodness, forbearance, and long-suffering of God in your life, you are treasuring up for yourself wrath. You are continually heaping it up and storing it away for the future. Can you imagine doing that with the anger of God? Heap up, more anger God, more anger. I'm storing it up for the future.

Who in their right mind would do that? No one in their right mind would do that. We just don't think of it that way. On that day, on the day when God's righteous judgment will be revealed, and the many many days of forbearance and long suffering are past, God will render to each one according to his deeds." God is so forbearing and long-suffering. He's so quick to pass over what we deserve, and he does it for such a long period of time that it can seem like he'll do that forever.

That's not what scripture teaches. The scripture teaches that a day is coming when the forbearance and the long suffering will come to an end and then His righteous judgment will be revealed. The wrath of God against all ungodliness and all unrighteousness of men, which has been treasured up, which has been continually heaped up and saved for the future, that future will come and his wrath will be poured out in that day. God will render to each one according to his deeds. That's in quotes in the text.

He could be quoting Psalm 62 12. He could be quoting Proverbs 24 12. He could be quoting Jeremiah 17 10. He could be quoting Jeremiah 32 verse 19. It's everywhere.

This is what scripture says that a day is coming when God will render to each one according to his wishes, intentions, hopes, dreams. No, his deeds. Dreams. No, it's deeds. Not what you meant to do, intended to do, thought about doing, but what you did.

That is what the Bible teaches everywhere. But don't be confused thinking that this is teaching works righteousness in any way. It can sound like that on the surface, but it isn't that. This is Paul simply tracing out the two possible responses from verse four. This is all in the context of verse four.

God's goodness leading you to repentance. There are two responses to that. God, I will be led into repentance, or no, you're not leading me to turn. Some respond to the goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering of God by repenting from unbelief to belief, from self-righteous hypocrisy to trusting in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Others respond with hardness and unrepentance, responding out of hardness and unrepentance.

Those who repent continue patiently in doing good, seeking glory and honor and immortality, and they receive eternal life. Just understand that it is the effect of repentance, not the cause of salvation. Do you understand that? This is the difference between the gospel of Jesus Christ and legalism where you try to earn your way into favor with God which is impossible. So You have to get this right.

Those who repent continue patiently in doing good, seeking glory, honor, and immortality, and they receive eternal life. But this is the effect of repentance, not the cause of salvation. When you repent, that means certain things in your life. It means that the Holy Spirit indwells you and begins to produce His fruit in you. It can be no other way.

He is Almighty. And so you begin to continue patiently doing good. And in doing that, you are seeking glory, honor, and immortality, and you receive eternal life. That is the effect of repentance, not the cause of salvation. Listen to Ephesians 2 verses 8 through 10 to satisfy yourself that Paul isn't teaching workspace righteousness.

Just listen, or you can turn if you'd like. Ephesians 2 verses 8 through 10. It was a memory verse once upon a time too, so you'll recognize it as soon as I start it. Ephesians 2, 8 through 10, Paul writes, And that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

So there is a relationship of salvation to works, but it's not that works cause salvation, it's that salvation causes works because of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. You just have to get the cause right and the effect right. If you switch them, you end up with an error that will keep you out of heaven. The Bible puts them as they ought to be, which is faith produces fruit. God has created us in Christ Jesus for good works that we should walk in them.

That flows out of salvation by grace alone, through faith alone. The works come out of the new heart that is given to the believer. You might say, are we really supposed to be seeking glory, honor, and immortality? Is it okay to do that? That sounds pretty us-centered, like seeking glory for yourself, honor for yourself, immortality.

Here's my challenge. Go study 1st Corinthians 15. 1st Corinthians 15 is the chapter on the resurrection. The implications of if Jesus did rise from the dead versus if he didn't rise from the dead. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, if he didn't rise from the dead.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, if he didn't rise from the dead, we're wasting our time here. Eat, drink, and be merry. Tomorrow we die. But Paul says, then he thunders. He did rise from the dead.

And this is what it means for us. We'll rise from the dead. And you find there that in our resurrection, we receive glory and honor and immortality. The same words are there in 1 Corinthians 15. Here in our text in Romans chapter 2, Paul is describing the future state of the person who believes in Jesus, who repents and believes.

Listen to 1 Peter 1 verse 7. It's so interesting to see Paul and Peter using the same words to teach the same things. 1 Peter 1 verse 17. That the genuineness of your faith, being more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Yes, God is the center of heaven.

His glory is the center of it all. Yes, He will receive the most glory and honor in heaven, but we also will receive glory and be honored by Him in heaven. It's astounding. It's astounding in our resurrected bodies. Not as the center of things.

Now let's trace out those who won't repent in response to God's goodness, forbearance, and long-suffering. Verses 8 and 9. They are self-seeking. They do not obey the truth, but they do obey unrighteousness, and they receive indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish for their evil. Paul gives us these pairs of words.

Indignation and wrath, they mean almost the same thing. He gives us another pair of words. Tribulation and anguish, they mean very similar things. What is he doing here? To drive home the point, he uses repetition and intensification.

He uses words that mean very similar things, but the second one intensifying the first one to make sure that you don't miss what he's saying. Just as glory, honor, and immortality describes the eternal future state of the repentant, indignation, wrath, tribulation, and Anguish describes the eternal future state of the hardened and unrepentant. Finally, Paul says again twice actually that all of this is to the Jew first and also to the Greek. We saw this first in chapter 1 verse 16 related to the salvation to those who believe. Salvation to those who believe is to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

So what we're learning here in chapter two is it cuts both ways. The Messiah was promised first to the Jews, so trust in the Messiah and the promises of salvation and that is first to the Jews but also to the Greeks, to everyone who believes. But the other side of that is the responsibility that comes with the revelation. When God gives you light, He expects you to walk according to the light. With the revelation of God to the Jews came the responsibility to walk in the light that God gave them.

Listen to Jesus. That's good advice. Listen to Jesus in this particular text. Not prepare himself or do according to his will shall be beaten with many stripes. But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few.

For everyone to whom much is given from Him much will be required, and to whom much has been committed of Him they will ask the more." If you do things deserving of stripes, of the whipping, according to Jesus, If you knew better, if you had to have known better because you were taught better, you get many stripes. If you did something deserving of stripes but you had much more ignorance, much less knowledge, a few stripes. So it must be asked, which are you? Which are you? A lot of revelation, so a lot of responsibility, or not much revelation, so not much responsibility.

You were born in the land of Bibles. You sit in church and hear an hour long explanation of a text, week after week after week after week. It's wonderful in some ways and it's terrifying in others. Because with Revelation comes responsibility. And to not act on revelation is really to act on it.

What do I mean by that? Doing nothing is doing something. Doing nothing with the offer week after week of peace and pardon with God and to put that off in the future is to actually reject it. Only to receive it is to have it. Let's apply.

There's no getting around the indisputable fact that this text teaches two things. One, I am without Excuse. I have been the self-righteous hypocrite a thousand times, taken out the measuring stick on someone else, and then when it's turned on me, I fail my own test. I must have a savior. If this text is true, I must have a savior.

If this text is true, I must have a savior. If it's true that you're inexcusable when you hold other people to a standard, that then when it's turned back on you, you fail the test, You're without excuse, then I'm down to one hope that someone saves me out of that condition. You also are without excuse. You know that's true. Two, The state of my soul can be known.

Do I have a soft and repentant heart or a hard and unrepentant heart? Is my life characterized by patient continuance in doing good or by self-seeking. Disobedience to the truth but obedience to unrighteousness. These things tell the tale. Let's pray.

God I thank you for the grand design for setting these truths before us. You're leading us to repentance, You're wooing us to turn from self-righteous hypocrisy. You're laboring to make us feel our desperate need for a Savior, and I pray that we would feel it today. Those who are in Jesus would be happier in Jesus than we've ever been. Those who are outside of Jesus would be brought nose to nose with their true condition.

That they would follow the Apostle Paul's tracing out of these things to the end point. May it be so in Jesus' name, Amen.