“God’s Impartial Judgment”

(Romans 2:1-16)

Series: Romans – United in the Gospel [on screen]

Rev. Matthew C. McCraw, EdD

First Baptist Church, Bartow, Florida

January 23, 2022

Introductory Comments:

Some of you may remember the biblical story of David sinning by taking Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, into his bed. Not only that, David had Uriah killed to try and cover his sin. This is how Nathan, the prophet, responded to David. Listen to 2 Samuel 12:1-9: 

1 So the Lord sent Nathan to David. When he arrived, he said to him:

There were two men in a certain city, one rich and the other poor. 2 The rich man had very large flocks and herds, 3 but the poor man had nothing except one small ewe lamb that he had bought. He raised her, and she grew up with him and with his children. From his meager food she would eat, from his cup she would drink, and in his arms she would sleep. She was like a daughter to him. 4 Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man could not bring himself to take one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for his guest.

5 David was infuriated with the man and said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man who did this deserves to die! 6 Because he has done this thing and shown no pity, he must pay four lambs for that lamb.”

7 Nathan replied to David, “You are the man! This is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I rescued you from Saul. 8 I gave your master’s house to you and your master’s wives into your arms, and I gave you the house of Israel and Judah, and if that was not enough, I would have given you even more. 9 Why then have you despised the Lord’s command by doing what I consider evil? You struck down Uriah the Hethite with the sword and took his wife as your own wife—you murdered him with the Ammonite’s sword. 

You see, sometimes we easily see the sins of others, but we don’t notice our own sin. In fact, if we hear of someone doing exactly what we did, as David did, we are quick to see the act as a sin because we didn’t do it. 

However, God is the holy, righteous, perfect Judge. He sees all and knows all. He sees the sin of all and judges the sin of all. Today’s sermon is entitled, “God’s Impartial Judgment” [on screen]

No matter who we are, where we are from, how religious we think we are, God sees our sin. 

Last week, we learned that God will show His wrath towards sin and sinners. He does not excuse sin, He judges sin.

This week, Paul is going to continue that message but he is going to change the focus a bit.  

Before we go any further, let’s pray together and ask God to speak to us. 

(prayer)

As I was studying this week’s passage, one Bible teacher pointed out something that I thought was very helpful. In last week’s passage, Paul is pointing to the sin of godless people throughout the span of time. People had rejected God and turned towards sin. In last week’s passage, Paul used the words “they” and “them.” However, today, Paul will use the word “you.” Pay attention to how Paul shifts the focus in today’s passage. 

So, let’s see three aspects of God’s impartial judgment in today’s passage. 

First, . . .

I. Religious people will be judged. (1-5) [on screen]

When we speak of religious people, we mean people who seem to follow God but may not actually follow God. In fact, these people often think they are quite godly and others may think they are quite godly. However, Paul is saying that religiosity doesn’t necessarily help you when it comes to standing before the impartial, holy, righteous God of the universe. 

Let’s look at what Paul says about this. Look at verses 1-5:

1 Therefore, every one of you who judges is without excuse. For when you judge another, you condemn yourself, since you, the judge, do the same things. 2 Now we know that God’s judgment on those who do such things is based on the