He Knows

In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.

Romans 2:16

How many secrets do we have?  How many secrets have we been told about others over the years?  I would dare to say that the answer to both of those questions would likely be “a lot.”  We all have secrets that, for one reason or another, we don’t share with everyone else.  We tell things to our spouse or close friends that we wouldn’t want our co-workers or neighbors to know.  We might tell things to our co-workers or neighbors that we wouldn’t want everyone in the world to know.  But we all have secrets of some sort.

This verse tells us that the Lord is going to “judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ…”  That is a scary thought.  The things that we think are hidden from the world are going to be judged by Jesus Christ.  The things that we work so hard to keep hidden from others are known openly to the Lord.

We all know that God is everywhere and knows all things.  But when we really think about it, it maybe becomes a little more real.  God knows the things that we do when no one else is looking.  God even knows about all of our thoughts and attitudes.  Those times we mutter things under our breath – our words do not miss the ears of God.

Thinking about being judged on the things that we do is one thing.  We know that we are going to have to stand before God and answer for the things we have done.  But it is a hard thing to think about having to answer for our wrong thoughts and attitudes; for the things that we might think are our “secrets.”

One Day (Hymn)

One Day
J. Wilbur Chapman (1911)

One day when Heaven was filled with His praises,
One day when sin was as black as could be,
Jesus came forth to be born of a virgin,
Dwelt among men, my Example is He!

Refrain
Living, He loved me; dying, He saved me;
Buried, He carried my sins far away;
Rising, He justified freely forever;
One day He’s coming—O glorious day!

One day they led Him up Calvary’s mountain,
One day they nailed Him to die on the tree;
Suffering anguish, despised and rejected:
Bearing our sins, my Redeemer is He!

Refrain

One day they left Him alone in the garden,
One day He rested, from suffering free;
Angels came down o’er His tomb to keep vigil;
Hope of the hopeless, my Savior is He!

Refrain

One day the grave could conceal Him no longer,
One day the stone rolled away from the door;
Then He arose, over death He had conquered;
Now is ascended, my Lord evermore!

Refrain

One day the trumpet will sound for His coming,
One day the skies with His glories will shine;
Wonderful day, my beloved ones bringing;
Glorious Savior, this Jesus is mine!

Refrain

This song seems to encompass the whole Christian experience.  It starts with the birth of Jesus, goes through His death, burial and resurrection, and ends with His Second Coming.  Everything is pretty well summed up in the refrain: “Living, He loved me; dying, He saved me; Buried, He carried my sins far away; Rising, He justified freely forever; One day He’s coming—O glorious day!”  I couldn’t have said it better myself!

Saturday Psalm (2c)

Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth.  Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.  Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little.  Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.

Psalm 2:10-12

In this Psalm, we have seen the fact that the Lord laughs at those political leaders who try to reject Him.  He confounds their purposes and keeps them confused and in derision.  God is in control.  God is always in control and is in every way in control.  It is for these reasons that we come to these last three verses in the Psalm.

It is because the Lord is always in control that we are advised to “be wise now therefore…”  He gives us all the wisdom that we need and want in the Bible.  It is readily available to us.  He makes the rules, and we need wisdom to know what they are and how to follow them.

It is because the Lord is always in control that we are advised to “Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little.”  God is so powerful that He could crush us like a tiny ant.  We should be thankful every day for His mercy!

It is because the Lord is always in control that we are told that “Blessed are al they that put their trust in him.”  Considering that God is in control of everything, it makes sense that He is the One we should trust.  So many put their trust in man, who has no power at all over God.  God is the only One worthy of our trust, worship and devotion!

 

No Respect of Persons

Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile: For there is no respect of persons with God.

Romans 2:9-11

“For there is no respect of persons with God.”  That is a great statement of Biblical truth.  In so many areas, there is a respect of persons.  How many times have we seen a rich or famous man or woman get out of something just because they are rich or famous?  How many times have we heard about some politician breaking the law, only to get away with little or no punishment, just because of who he or she knows?

This respect of persons is not a new phenomenon.  It has been going on since the fall of man.  People have looked down on other people and have shown favoritism to some people for thousands of years.  People have been shown favoritism for things ranging from riches to family connections to race to hair color.

But the Lord Jesus is not like that.  He judges righteous judgment.  With Him, “there is no respect of persons.”  Each and every one of us, regardless of race, gender, nationality, hair color, wealth, power, prestige, position, or anything else will have to stand before the Lord Jesus and give account of himself.

That is a comforting thought and a scary thought at the same time.  When we stand before the Lord, we will have nothing to hide behind.  We will answer for what we have done with what He gave us.  Period.

God is no respecter of persons.  That means had better be doing right!

Take Your Pick

Who will render to every man according to his deeds

Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; But glory, and honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile.

Romans 2:6, 9-10

God tells us in verse 6 that He is going to “render to every man according to his deeds.”  He is going to reward us according to what we have done with our lives and our time.  Verses 7-10 go on to give us a detailed account of what those rewards will be.  We are going to concentrate on verses 9 and 10 today.

In verse 9, we find the “rewards” of the man that “doeth evil.”  That man is going to get “rewarded” with tribulation and anguish.  If you spend your life doing evil, you will find only tribulation and anguish at the end.  That is not a pleasant thought.

In verse 10, we find the rewards of the man that “worketh good.”  That man is going to get rewarded with glory, honour, and peace.  Those things sound much better than the things listed in verse 9!  We all want to get to the end of our lives and find glory, honour and peace and here we are told exactly how to get them: we need to do good.

We can also notice a more subtle difference between the two.  In verse 9, we see the rewards of the man that “doeth evil.”  In verse 10, we see the rewards of the man that “worketh good.”  I think there is a lesson for us here.  Doing evil is natural for man.  We don’t even have to try to do evil.  Doing good, on the other hand, is sometimes work.  In fact, it is often work.  We naturally do evil, but have to work at doing good.  The question for today is this: are we working at doing good or are we simply doing evil?

Our Deeds

Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?  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; Who will render to every man according to his deeds

Romans 2:4-6

This passage says that God will “render to every man according to his deeds.”  When a Christian stands before the Lord, he is going to have to answer for what he has done.  This passage is not speaking of salvation.  For the Christian, that is settled.  When it comes to our sins and our salvation, we are judged not by our own righteousness, but by the perfect, substitutionary righteousness of Jesus Christ.  But we do still have to stand before the Lord and, according to this passage and others, answer for our “deeds.”

What are “our deeds?”  Our deeds are simply the things that we do.  We are going to be judged for and answer for what we have done with the lives that God gave us.  What have we done with the opportunities that God has given us?  Have we helped the people who God has put in our lives?  Have we lived according to His Word?  What are our deeds?  What are we doing?

It is a fearful thing to think about standing in front of the Lord and answering for anything.  But it is especially fearful to think about standing in front of the Lord and answering for the many wrong deeds that we have done.  It is a fearful thing to think about answering for all of the wasted time and opportunity that we have had.

If God is going to “render to every man according to his deeds,” we need to make sure that our deeds are right and good.  And we need to do that every single day!

Treasures of Wrath

Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and lonsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?  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; Who will render to every man according to his deeds

Romans 2:4-6

Treasures are usually good things.  As children (and maybe as adults), we have probably all had some kind of daydream of finding some form of treasure.  But this passage talks about a different kind of treasure.  After talking about the goodness and forbearance and longsuffering of the Lord leading us to repentance in verse 4, verse 5 gives us the other side of the coin.

“But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath…”  If we despise the goodness and mercy of God and refuse to change our ways and repent, then we find ourselves going this direction and treasuring up wrath.  I have dreamed about finding and getting many treasures, but the wrath of God is definitely not one of them.  But that is exactly what we are doing when we harden our hearts and refuse to repent.  When we reject God’s goodness and mercy, we begin to accumulate His wrath.

That is a scary thought.  None us wants to fall under the wrath of God.  None of us wants to receive wrath instead of reward at the judgment seat of Christ.  None of us wants to treasure up wrath.

Fortunately, it is easy to avoid.  We need to live in verse 4 and not verse 5.  We need to recognize God’s goodness and repent.  We need to do our best to walk with the Lord and stay close to Him.  Then we will avoid treasuring up wrath, which none us want to do!

Despising His Goodness

Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?

Romans 2:4

The Bibles tells us in this verse that “the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance.”  It also poses the hard question “…despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering?”  Both of those statements are excellent food for thought.

I think we can all agree that God has been good to us.  Just the fact that I am able to write this and you are able to read it means that God has been good to us.  And I’m sure that His blessings and goodness go far beyond that.  We have all sinned against Him.  We have all been worthy of His wrath and punishment.  And yet He is still good to us.  He continues to help us, even when we do not always do the things that please Him.  Psalm 130:3 says “If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand.”  If God immediately gave us the punishment we deserve every time we sinned, there would be none of us left on the Earth.

As the verse says, He gives us riches of goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering.  And when you think about each of those things, we know that He has given us all three and given us all three in abundance.  The reason He gives us all of those things in abundance?  “…the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance.”

When we recognize God’s goodness, mercy and longsuffering in our lives, it causes us to look more closely at ourselves and see just how far short we fall.  When we see how good God is, we see how bad we are.  When we understand His mercy, we understand the things in ourselves that He must have mercy on.  Those things lead us to repent.  They lead us to change our hearts, change our attitudes and change our directions.

Let us never despise His goodness!

On Jordan’s Stormy Banks I Stand (Hymn)

On Jordan’s Stormy Banks I Stand
Samuel Stennett (1787)

On Jordan’s stormy banks I stand,
And cast a wishful eye
To Canaan’s fair and happy land,
Where my possessions lie.

Refrain
I am bound for the promised land,
I am bound for the promised land;
Oh who will come and go with me?
I am bound for the promised land.

O the transporting, rapturous scene,
That rises to my sight!
Sweet fields arrayed in living green,
And rivers of delight!

Refrain

There generous fruits that never fail,
On trees immortal grow;
There rocks and hills, and brooks and vales,
With milk and honey flow.

Refrain

O’er all those wide extended plains
Shines one eternal day;
There God the Son forever reigns,
And scatters night away.

Refrain

No chilling winds or poisonous breath
Can reach that healthful shore;
Sickness and sorrow, pain and death,
Are felt and feared no more.

Refrain

When I shall reach that happy place,
I’ll be forever blest,
For I shall see my Father’s face,
And in His bosom rest.

Refrain

Filled with delight my raptured soul
Would here no longer stay;
Though Jordan’s waves around me roll,
Fearless I’d launch away.

Refrain

This is one of my favorite hymns about Heaven and thinking about going there.  I will leave you with the words of my favorite verse and no further comment (as none is needed): No chilling winds or poisonous breath can reach that healthful shore; Sickness and sorrow, pain and death, are felt and feared no more.

Judging Time

And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?  Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?

Romans 2:3-4

These are two interesting verses.  Verse four asks this question: “Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering: not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?”  But that verse is given to us in the context of verses 1-3, which talk about men judging each other.

One of the reasons that we are not supposed to go around judging and condemning each other is that the Lord may not be done with that person (or us).  We often want to judge people because we see them sinning and are angry that the Lord seemingly hasn’t judged them yet.  But the Bible speaks here of the “riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering…”  God is good and longsuffering even when we (and others) don’t deserve it.  And He is good and longsuffering because “the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance.”

One of the many reasons we shouldn’t go around condemning people is this: they just might turn around, repent and get things right in their lives.  God is good to others and He is good to us.  There have been times in my life that I definitely deserved judgment and condemnation.  But I am thankful for God’s goodness, mercy and longsuffering.  I should also be thankful for God’s goodness, mercy and longsuffering in the lives of those around me.

We never know what is going on in someone’s heart or mind.  We should pray for them, help them and encourage them.  We should also let God do the judging.