This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome to our drive time devotions in Romans chapter 2 this week. Today the
third day of a look at this chapter, we're looking at Romans 2 verses 11 to 16.
You might remember that yesterday we talked about the fact that we, in order to
deal with our spirit of judgmentalism, need to trust God as the judge.

We talked about yesterday a couple of reasons we can trust God as the judge.
Number one, he knows the truth. And number two, God judges our actions.

Today we're going to talk about two other reasons you and I can trust God as the
judge. We can trust God as judge because God's judgment is fair. In Romans
chapter 2 verse 11, the Bible says, "For God does not show favoritism.

" God does not show favoritism. You might remember that Jesus talked about this
in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus in Matthew chapter 5 verse 45 talked about the
fact that God sends sun on the good and the bad.

He sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. In this world, good or
wicked, we all have many of the same opportunities and many of the same
struggles. Believer and unbeliever share many of the same blessings and many of
the same difficulties.

Romans 2 verses 12 to 13 says this about God's fair judgment of all. All who
sin, apart from the law, will also perish apart from the law. And all who sin
under the law will be judged by the law.

For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God's sight, but it's
those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. Now we need to dig in a
minute and take a close look at these verses. They say a lot about the law and
we're going to talk a lot about God's law these next few chapters of the book of
Romans.

God's law is simply God's written down laws, commandments, directions in the Old
Testament. The Bible tells us very clearly that we're all judged based on what
we know. And these verses remind us that we all know enough to trust God.

No one can say I'm ignorant. These verses say the Gentile, the non-Jew who
doesn't have the law will be judged. I can't say, "God, you shouldn't judge me
because that person over there had more light than I had.

" How much light does it take to show the way? If a person is lost in a dark
forest, pitch black, in the middle of the night, even a glimmer of light would
attract him if he desired to get out of that forest, if he desired to get out of
that darkness, and he'd move toward it with joy. So no one can say I'm ignorant.

God's not going to accept that as an excuse. But also these verses remind us
that no one can say I'm privileged. We all stand equal before God.

And verses 14 and 15 tell us how our consciences come into play when it comes to
this issue of judgment. Romans 2, 14, "Indeed, when Gentiles who do not have the
law do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even
though they do not have the law, since They show that the requirements of the
law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and
their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them. " Our conscience is an
interesting thing.

If you read the Bible carefully, our conscience is meant to be, I'd say it this
way, it's meant to be a goad and not a guide. That old phrase, "Let your
conscience be your guide," that just doesn't work. Because your conscience can't
always tell you the right thing to do.

But God has given us a conscience. And that conscience does give us a sense of
when we might be heading in the wrong direction. It gives us a sense of the fact
that what we're doing is evil.

It gives us enough light that leads us to find, that goads us to find the guide.
The idea of conscience in the Bible is the idea of awareness, a consciousness of
right and wrong. Paul is telling us in these chapters that we all have
responsibility before God.

In chapter one, he's shown us that we have responsibility because we've seen his
creation. And in chapter two, he's showing us that we have responsibility before
God because we all have a conscience. The fact that we judge others shows that
we have a conscience ourselves.

This idea of the conscience and the law, they go together. You might see it this
way. Our conscience and the law are like a double yellow line down the middle of
the road.

They show us what's right, but they don't keep us from crossing the line. They
don't keep us from having a terrible accident by crossing that line, a
destructive accident. But they do show us that that line is dangerous to cross.

These verses about God's judgment remind us to watch out for what I would call
claims of spiritual poverty. I didn't know, so I'm not responsible. Paul clearly
tells us that God has given us enough knowledge so that we are responsible for
what we do now.

But these verses also remind us, watch out for spiritual pride. Watch out for
the temptation of spiritual pride. That may be the most important thing that we
talk about today.

As much as we look down on the Pharisees of Jesus' day, there's one truth that
we need to be aware of. It's easy to be a Pharisee, and Pharisees don't know
they're Pharisees. Remember, the Pharisees were the law keepers who looked down
their spiritual noses at everyone else for not doing it as well as they did.

If you're a Christian, this temptation towards spiritual pride will be one of
the greatest temptations that you face. You might think your greatest temptation
would be jealousy or lust or bitterness or anger. Spiritual pride is worse.

Because spiritual pride cuts you off from the answer for all the rest of the
temptations. Spiritual pride is thinking, "I'm better than you because I know
Christ. " The truth is, I'm the same as you.

Why don't we get to know Christ together? Spiritual pride is when I lift myself
up by putting others down rather than pulling others up by lifting up Christ.
Spiritual pride makes us into legalists rather than evangelists.

And instead of being salt and light, we become salt in the wound. The solution
to spiritual pride is in Romans 2 verse 16. That verse says, "This will take
place, this judgment of God, on the day when God will judge men's secret through
Jesus Christ as my gospel declares.

" You see here a fourth truth about trusting God as the judge. We've talked
about the fact that we can trust God because God knows the truth. We can trust
God because God judges our actions.

We can trust God because God's judgment is fair. And here, we can trust God
because God judges through Jesus. The way that verse ends is amazing.

As my gospel declares, the word gospel means good news. Judgment is good news.
How could it be good news?

To some, this seems like the worst of news. It seems terrifying, but it's the
secret sins that destroy us. And the good news is that God deals with those
secret sins.

It is good news that those who seem to escape accountability for their sins will
receive it. God deals with even the secret sins. But there's even better news.

There's incredibly good news. It is good news that for those of us who know
Jesus Christ and have a relationship with him, those secret sins in our lives
that he knows because he's God, those secret sins will be forgiven because of
the love and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. What he has given to us is
immeasurable.

That is the good news. One day, there will be no more secrets and we'll know it.
No need to hide, only eternal and open fellowship with God.

But the truth is, today there are no secrets before God. We'd like to think that
there are, but we have no secrets before God. He knows our hearts.

They're like an open book to him. Some people react to that by holding God at
arm's length, pretending that he's not there. Who wants to be around someone who
knows all my secrets?

But Jesus Christ came into this world to give his life for those secret sins.
Jesus Christ came into this world to be your best friend. Jesus Christ came into
this world to be your savior.

As we end, let's talk to God together. And I invite you as you pray just to go
ask God for strength. Ask him for strength as you catch yourself judging this
next week.

Ask him for the strength to ask yourself the tough question, "What problem does
this attitude reveal in me? " You see, the very judgmentalism that could destroy
us, God can also use to grow us. If we'll think about what problem this attitude
reveals in me.

And as you pray, I invite you to get to know the truth and make a fresh
commitment to God's truth by saying to him, "Lord, help me to make your word a
daily part of my life. I want to trust you as judge. That means I need to get to
know you better.

So help me to make time with you, time with your word, time talking to you, a
daily part of who I am. I love you and I want to get to know you. In Jesus'
name, amen.

" As we get together, we're going to especially focus on God's kindness.