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| > Sermon Archive > Sermons by Author > Dr. Wes Bredenhof > Beware of hypocritical condemning | Previous Next Print |
| Order Of Worship (Liturgy) All songs are from the CanRC/FRCA Book of Praise Psalm 56:1,3,4 Psalm 75:3 (after the law of God) Psalm 9:1,4,5 Psalm 139:1,2,13 Hymn 69 Scripture reading: 2 Samuel 12:1-15 Text: Romans 2:1-5 |
Beloved congregation of Christ,
There are a few Bible verses that are well-known by many people, whether they’re Christians or not. One of the most well-known is Matthew 7:1. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “Judge not, that you be not judged.” People love that verse. Why? Because it says people shouldn’t judge. If I’m doing what I like to do, living the way I like to live, you have no right to judge me. Sometimes people will even add, “Only God can judge me.”
And yet the Bible elsewhere tells us that we must judge. For example, 1 Corinthians 5:12 says, “Is it not those inside the church who you are to judge?” In 1 Corinthians 10:15, Paul told the Corinthians to judge what he wrote to them. And there are other passages.
There’s that saying, “A text without context is a pretext” and this is a great illustration of that. What Jesus was against in Matthew 7 wasn’t judging as such, but judging hypocritically. That’s why he goes on to say, “Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?”
Our passage from Romans this morning is reinforcing the Lord’s teaching in the Sermon on the Mount. It’s about judging and it addresses a certain type of judging. It speaks against condemning others from a place of hypocrisy. So I’ve summarized the sermon with this theme: Beware of hypocritical condemning.
We’ll consider:
1. Human hypocritical judgment
2. Divine just judgment
As we get into chapter 2, the discussion shifts from being more general to being more particular. Chapter 1 established that human sinfulness is real, serious, and progressive. It’s a massive problem because those implicated in it are under God’s wrath. But one question that hasn’t received a lot of attention up to this point is whether the problem is universal.
Paul addresses that question by writing to a hypothetical Jewish audience. He knew from being Jewish himself that it was common for Jews to see themselves as righteous and Gentiles as unrighteous. Even if a Jewish person wasn’t completely morally perfect, their status as a Jewish person would make them immune to God’s judgment. Being Jewish was like a “get out of jail free” card.
There were probably members of the church in Rome who had a Jewish background. But even if there weren’t, what Paul writes here is relevant to everybody. It’s relevant to all of us too. I’d compare it to something I read once in a book on preaching. This author said that it was good from time to time to address certain groups in the congregation. So the preacher might say, “I want to especially speak to the men right now…” But the author said that when you do that, all the women are also going to perk up their ears and listen more carefully. They’ll probably take something away from it too. The same kind of thing is happening here – Paul is supposedly writing to a Jewish person, but the Roman Christians are listening in and they’re going to benefit from this as well, as are we.
So as we start into verse 1, Paul begins addressing this hypothetical Jewish man. This man makes judgments – issues condemnations of others because of their behaviour. However, he then turns around and is doing the exact same things.
The sorts of things in view here are what’s mentioned at the end of chapter 1. Things like envy, gossip, slander, pride, and disrespect for authority. These are things that are easy to see in others. It’s easy to judge and condemn others when you see these things. However, it’s much more difficult to see these things in yourself, isn’t it?
We read from 2 Samuel 12 and there we see a classic illustration of that reality. David hears this story from Nathan and he reacts with indignation. How dare that rich man steal the poor man’s little lamb! When it’s in someone else, David can see it and he condemns it. That’s when Nathan drops the boom on David: “You are the man!” David’s own words had condemned himself. He said the rich man deserved death – but David was the one who deserved death. Nathan not only exposed his initial sins, but also his hypocrisy and self-righteousness.
There are times in life when we do need to make judgments on certain things. For example, if you’re a young person and you’re single. If you meet someone from the opposite sex and they claim to be a Christian, if the relationship is going to move forward, you need to judge that claim. Is there evidence that he or she is really a Christian? After all, many people claim to be Christians, but their lives don’t show any evidence of a genuine commitment to Christ. They speak the same as the world, they act the same as the world, they’re basically the world pretending to be Christian. If you see that, you have to judge that. You have to say, “No, I can’t keep going with this relationship. It would leave me unequally yoked.”
But at the same time, you also have to then examine yourself. You claim to be a Christian, but is there genuine evidence that you are? Do you speak the same as the world, act the same? Are you basically the world, except you go to church on Sunday? I’m not usually a big fan of church signs, but I saw a good one recently: “If you were accused of being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?” That’s a good question to consider. You see, judgment is necessary, but you need to apply it to yourself too. Judgment should start with ourselves.
When it comes to condemnations, we should be even more careful. It’s one thing to say someone else is wrong in what they’re doing, but when we condemn, we’re going to the next step. The Bible teaches that if someone doesn’t turn from their sins and turn to Jesus Christ, they will remain under God’s wrath. We can say that as a general principle. We can say that as a general principle to anyone who is not a Christian. That isn’t condemning – that’s saying what God says in his Word.
Condemning is saying with confidence that a certain person is going to hell. We can’t say that we know that about anyone in particular. If you’d met Saul of Tarsus before he became known as Paul, you might have been tempted to say that there was a man for sure going to hell. But if you’d said that, you would’ve been proven wrong. God had other plans for him. Paul was one of God’s elect, but that didn’t become apparent until later after he was converted. So today too, you can’t look at any one particular person and claim you know their eternal destiny. God has a plan and you don’t know what that plan is, so you should watch what you say.
And if you’re practicing the same things you’re condemning other people for, well, that’s an even worse form of hypocrisy. You’re saying they deserve to go to hell, you may even be saying that they’re actually going to hell, but you’re doing the same stuff, so what about you? As Paul says, “You condemn yourself.” You damn yourself. This kind of hypocrisy is self-damnation. Therefore, it’s not only wicked, it’s irrational and self-defeating. You’re pointing that one finger at someone else and you’ve got three pointing right back at you.
The situation gets worse because it falls under the just judgment of God. Paul says in verse 2, “We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things.” God says those things from chapter 1 are wrong and he justly declares that all those who do them without repenting and turning to Christ will face his wrath.
According to verse 3, no one should imagine that they are an exception. Maybe you’ve heard of diplomatic immunity. If you’re a foreign diplomat serving in our country, you’re immune from prosecution here. The police and courts can’t do anything to you if you’re an ambassador or other senior diplomat, no matter what crime you’ve committed. You’ve got what they call diplomatic immunity. Well, there’s no comparable immunity under God’s government. No one can expect to escape prosecution. If you’re unrepentantly living in sin and then judging and condemning others over top, you are going to face the Judge and it’s not going to be good for you.
Verse 4 presents another possible approach to the situation. You could have someone who knows about what people regard as the more positive attributes of God. God is rich in kindness, forbearance, and patience. Therefore you’re safe. You can keep doing what you’re doing, no worries. There’ll be judgment for others, but not for you. But what that fails to reckon with is the purpose of God’s rich kindness. It’s like 2 Peter 3:9 says, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” God kindly and patiently gives people time to repent.
To repent here literally means to have a change of mind. When you repent, you have a change of mind about your sin, about yourself, and about God. When you repent, you stop thinking sin isn’t a big deal – instead you see it the way God does. Here you see the sin of hypocritical judgment and condemnation as the horrible thing it is. When you repent, you stop thinking of yourself as a righteous person who is a worthy judge of others – instead, you humbly recognize that you are as much a sinner as anyone else. Finally, when you repent, you have a change of mind about God. Before you repent, your idea of God might be something like Santa Claus. He’s know when you’ve been good or bad, but you’re going to get presents regardless. When you repent, you realize that God is holy and just and cannot overlook the kind of hypocritical judgment and condemnation we’re talking about here. He rightly judges it. This kind of repentance is where God’s patient kindness is intended to lead us. It’s not meant to leave us unrepentantly going on in our sin, instead it’s supposed to lead us to change.
When someone refuses to change, there are consequences. This is what verse 5 tells us. If someone has a hard and impenitent or unrepentant heart, they are storing up something for themselves. That Greek word for “storing up” is almost always used in a positive way. It usually refers to storing up something good for yourself, like storing up a crop, or storing up treasure. But not here. Here the hard and unrepentant heart is storing up wrath. Specifically, God’s wrath.
Many people are allergic to any talk of God’s wrath. People love God’s love. But they don’t want to hear about wrath because it confronts people about their sin and what it deserves – what they deserve as sinners. And yet the Bible consistently reveals that wrath is God’s just response to sin. No one in the Bible spoke more about God’s wrath than Jesus. For example, he speaks of it in Matthew 24 and 25. He speaks about the wicked servant at the end of Matthew 24, the wicked servant who thought his master was delayed, so he decided to eat and drink and get drunk. Christ says that the Master would “cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” In case you don’t know what that means, in Matthew 25 he speaks of those who are cursed, who will be told to depart “into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” It’s eternal punishment, according to Matthew 25:26. According to Jesus, hell is real, God’s wrath is real.
And, according to Paul, there is a coming day of wrath. That’s the day when Christ returns. For Christians, they have nothing to fear from that day. It’ll be a day of joy. We will get to meet Christ face-to-face. But for those who aren’t Christians, who haven’t repented and believed in Christ, it is the day when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.
The last word there in verse 5 is important, “revealed.” When someone dies, their soul immediately goes to heaven or to hell. Either you experience God’s blessed presence or you experience his wrath against sin. So what’s the “day of wrath” about then? When Christ returns, “God’s righteous judgment will be revealed” – which means that it will then be made public. The judgment that God has already made regarding each individual will be made known to everyone. And if your heart has been hard and unrepentant, it is going to be a day of shame and public disgrace.
In courtrooms on this earth, when judges sentence guilty criminals they take into account what are known as aggravating circumstances. So, for example, if you committed a crime with a firearm, that’s an aggravating circumstance that will draw a harsher punishment. That’s actually a biblical principle. In Old Testament Israel, there were harsher punishments for evil things done with an uplifted hand versus those done in ignorance. This is the way God works in his righteous judgment as well. He considers aggravating circumstances.
In the original context of Romans 2 where Paul is writing to an imaginary Jewish person, you have to remember God’s covenant. God had a covenant relationship with the Jewish people. That relationship promised rich blessings. It was a good and precious thing to have God relating to you in that way. But if you spurned that relationship with a hard and impenitent heart, it was going to be worse for you on the day of wrath than it would be for Sodom and Gomorrah. That’s what Jesus said in Matthew 10.
Loved ones, the same is true now for us. We’re God’s covenant people. God has signed and sealed his covenant promises to us in our baptism. This is a good and beautiful thing. It calls for a response of faith and repentance. God’s covenant of grace urgently calls us to turn from all our sins and look to Christ for our righteousness. In particular this morning, God calls us to turn away from the sin of hypocritical condemnation. He calls us to examine ourselves for its presence in our lives and if we find it, we have to ask for his help to put it to death.
David is a good example for us in this. When he was confronted by the prophet Nathan, when he heard Nathan say, “You are the man!”, how did David react? He didn’t get defensive. He didn’t try to blame someone else. No, he took ownership of his sin. He confessed it, he repented of it, and he sought God’s forgiveness. In God’s rich kindness and grace, David was forgiven. When we’re humbly repentant like that, throwing ourselves on God’s grace in Christ, we’ll likewise be forgiven. This is true also when we deal with our sins of hypocritical condemnation. God’s grace in Christ will cover it.
But if we continue with a hard and impenitent heart, continue judging hypocritically with no repentance, we’re storing up wrath for ourselves. Covenant wrath. On the day of wrath, it will be worse for us than for Sodom and Gomorrah. We’d heard God’s Word, we knew what God wanted us to do, and yet we decided to keep going our own way. We’ll be held accountable for that. Loved ones, it’s far better for us if we listen to God’s Word, not only hearing it, but also putting it into practice. Putting repentance from hypocritical judgment into practice and asking for God’s forgiveness through Christ into practice.
So, brothers and sisters, yes, sometimes we have to make judgments. But let’s make them carefully, also humbly examining our own lives as we do so. When it comes to condemning, let’s go no further than where Scripture goes. Don’t be a judgmental person. Leave ultimate judgments to the Judge. That’s the way to honour him as our God. AMEN.
PRAYER
O Father in heaven,
You are the just and righteous Judge. We know that the day of your wrath is coming, the day when your righteous judgment will be revealed. We pray that for all of us here this morning, that day would not be one of fear or anxiety. Let it be for all of us a day of joy and comfort. To that end, we pray for your help in repenting from our sins, especially the sin of hypocritical judgment and condemnation. Help us with your Holy Spirit to be humble in how we regard other people. Help us to leave ultimate judgment in your hands. We pray that in Christ you would forgive us for all the times that we’ve been hypocritical in our judgments and condemnations. Father, please help us to walk in your ways, for your glory. Let your Word bear abundant fruit in our lives.
* As a matter of courtesy please advise Dr. Wes Bredenhof, if you plan to use this sermon in a worship service. Thank-you.
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