Penny, thank you very much indeed. Well, what a challenge that is going to be for us this morning. If you haven’t got a Bible, it would be helpful to have one. If you’re joining us online at home, chance to go and get a Bible, hit the pause and go and get a Bible, we’re going to have it open. That would be helpful. As we do the study together, I’ll point out a few verses on the the way through. But circumcision, the law of Moses, Jews and Gentiles? What on earth has that got to do with us in Linfield in 2024? Well, we’ll find out. Why don’t we pray? Yes. If you need a Bible, just raise a hand. And there we are. Thank you. Why don’t we pray as we begin our study together? Heavenly Father, we do thank you that we have your word. We thank you that we have Bibles in our own language that we can read and understand. We confess, Lord, that we find it hard to understand, though. So please, may your holy spirit himself give us understanding and show us what these words mean, what they mean for us to follow you today. We ask in Jesus name. Amen. Well, if you’re joining us for the first time today, you’re very welcome indeed. We’re. We’re working our way through, little bit by bit, through Paul’s letter to the Romans, to the Christians in Rome, a letter he wrote about 56, 57 AD. And Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome because he’s going to visit them and he wants them to help him on a mission trip he’s planning. Do you remember where to? Spain. Well done. So he wants to get the mission ready. Mission ready. So they’ll want to help him share the gospel with the pagans in Spain. Apologies to any Spaniards here this morning. Here we are, then. Now we’re in Romans, chapter two. And last week we looked at God’s diagnosis of this world that we live in. And following last week’s sermon, I had an email and I thought I’d share it with you. Dear Steve, I’ve just read the second half of Romans one. Such a refreshing description of the problem of sin and judgement. I agree. It is not only terrible when people behave badly, it’s also terrible when they approve of bad behaviour. You’ll be glad to know that by God’s grace, I am not like them. I look forward to our study of Romans chapter two. Yours sincerely. I should clarify, I wrote that email. I didn’t get that sent to me, and if I did, I wouldn’t read it out, I promise. But that is the tone of Romans chapter two, the issue of judgmentalism. And we live in a very judgmental age, don’t we? The big word today is supposed to be tolerance. But actually I think a case could be made that we’re more and more intolerant as a society. We’re very judgmental. How many times have you heard in the news of employees being disciplined or speakers losing their platform or individuals cancelled, as it’s called, online or in person because their views are deemed to be outdated or bigoted or harmful? And judgmentalism, it’s not just outside the doors of the church, is it? It’s inside God’s church as well. Alas, it’s in my heart and your heart because we are sinful people. So as we read God’s diagnosis of us last week, I wonder what your reaction was. It’s easy for us to be judgmental, perhaps as we think about particular sins that we read about last week. Whatever our personal views on it, we all have prejudices. Maybe we need to repent of those prejudices and the judgmentalism that is so ugly. So Romans chapter two is God’s word to the church today, to us, as it is to the christians in every age. Now, it’s quite a long chapter and we’re going to try and tackle the whole thing, but at quite a superficial level. So apologies. We will have to skate over one or two verses, but I’ve got two headings which I hope will help us, and they’re a little bit long, so I’ll read them out to you. Verses one to eleven. Whoever we are, God judges us by the same standards, so don’t condemn others. Whoever we are, God judges us by the same standards, so don’t condemn others. Verses twelve to 29 whoever we are, God saves us by the same gospel, so don’t rely on being religious. Whoever we are, God saves us by the same gospel, so don’t rely on being religious. Okay, let’s start with the first one. Whoever we are, God judges us by the same standards, so don’t condemn others. Jesus told a parable in Luke, chapter 18, and Luke gives the context. We’re going to look at it in a few weeks time. It says, to those who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else. Jesus told this parable and it’s the story of two men who go up to the temple to pray. One is a religious teacher, a pharisee, very moral outwardly, and the other is a tax collector at the bottom of the pile, in everybody’s eyes, immoral. Probably a thief. And the religious person went up to the temple and prayed, God, I thank you that I am not like other men, robbers, adulterers, evildoers, or even like this tax collector over here. And the tax collector in Jesus’ story wouldn’t even look up to heaven but beat his chest and said, God, have mercy on me, the sinner. And in Jesus’ story, it was this man, the tax collector, that went home right with God, not the religious man. Now that is Romans chapter two, verse one. Paul says, therefore you have no excuse, o man. Every one of you who judges for in passing judgement on another, you condemn yourself because you, the judge, practise the very same things. Now we’re just paused and we’ve got to say, and be very clear, Paul is not telling us when he says don’t judge, he’s not telling us suspend moral judgement. He’s not saying that. He’s not saying we shouldn’t distinguish between right and wrong. We see that all over the Bible that we should. We see it on the lips of Jesus that we should. We see it on the lips of Paul. We’ve just read it in romans one and we’ll come back to it in Romans, chapter 16. Romans 16, verse nine. Paul is going to say to the Christians, be wise as to what is good and innocent, as to what is evil. There are right or wrong attitudes, there’s right or wrong behaviour. You need to exercise moral judgement and recognise the difference. And I want you to grow in what is good and I want you to avoid what is evil. When Paul warns us about judging, he’s not saying, don’t exercise moral judgement. Don’t pretend everything is all the same. He’s saying, don’t be judgmental, don’t condemn. And it seems to me that that is a distinction that feels like it’s too subtle for our cancel culture. So often our cancel culture finds it hard to distinguish between exercising moral judgement and being judgmental. Our cancel culture says, you can’t say something is wrong without being judgmental, but God says you can and you should. We love everyone because Christ loves everyone. We welcome everyone because Christ welcomes everyone. But we don’t agree with what everybody does at one and the same time. We mustn’t condone everything and we mustn’t condemn anyone. And if we have crossed over that line from exercising moral judgement to being judgmental, then we need to repent, we need to change our minds and ask forgiveness. Because Paul says, at whatever point we condemn the other. We’re condemning ourselves, we do the same things. Do we condemn the gossip? Oh, gossip’s terrible, horrible thing, isn’t it, when somebody gossips, but then we speak behind somebody’s back ourselves, do we condemn the person who lies? Oh, I hate lying. So destructive, isn’t it, in the life of the church? But then when we are telling a story, we twist it subtly to show ourselves in a better light. Do we condemn the person who’s really malicious but actually secretly in our hearts, we nurse the hope that they’ll get what’s coming to them. Jesus said, if you get angry with somebody in your heart, you have murdered them. Jesus said, you’re sexually immoral if you commit adultery in your heart, if you lust after somebody, it’s easy to condemn others and to do exactly the same thing in God’s eyes. And the fact that God hasn’t judged us yet isn’t a sign that that isn’t important. It’s so important that he’s given us time to repent. That’s verses four and five. And repentance means changing your mind, thinking differently, taking your thoughts into hand in your hands, and not just listening to what your thoughts are saying, but taking your thoughts by the scruff of the neck and changing them. In this context, yes, recognising sin as sin, but stop condemning the sinner, because Paul says, we are all sinners. We’re all sinners. Judging is God’s job. One of Jesus’ most famous parables. We call it the parable of the prodigal son. But actually there are two sons in the story. Do you remember it? There was a man who had two sons. And one day the younger son said to his father, father, give me my share of the inheritance. Doesn’t wait for his father to die. Give me my share of the inheritance. And he takes it and he goes off to a far land and he squanders it in wild living. Luke says, drinks, drugs, parties, I don’t know, it’s all gone. Until he finds himself in a desperate place and he rents himself out to a pig farmer and to a jewish person. That would have been an unthinkable thing, but it says he longed to fill his stomach with the pods the pigs were eating. But nobody would give him anything. So he comes to his senses. What am I doing here? Goes back to his father’s house. His father welcomes him home and kills the fat and calf and has a party. The prodigal son. Meanwhile, there’s another son, an older son who didn’t leave home. The dutiful son who worked for the family firm. The respectable son who everybody admired, who never set a foot wrong. And when he sees the younger son come home, he is outraged. All these years I’ve been slaving away from my father. He never once gave me a party. But when his son comes home, he kills the fattened calf. He’s outraged. And in this story, we see there are two ways of being estranged from God. You can be estranged from God by being very bad, and you can be estranged from God by being very good. But both are estranged from God. And Romans chapter one that we looked at last week is, well, that’s the younger son. Estrangement, immoral, unrighteous and Romans chapter two is the older son, estrangement, moral and self righteous. The Romans two person looks down on the Romans one person and thinks, I’m glad I’m not like other men, especially that person. And Paul says, you are. We all are. We are the same in God’s eyes. We are all under his judgement. Whoever we are, God judges us by the same standards, so don’t condemn others. Here’s our second heading. Whoever we are, God saves us by the same gospel. So don’t rely on being religious. Let’s look down at verse twelve. Paul says, for all who have sinned without the law. He’s talking about the Old Testament law of Moses. Those who haven’t had it are the Gentiles, the non Jews. All who’ve sinned without the law will perish without the law. All who sin under the law, the Jews will be judged by the law. Those who don’t have the law and sin will be judged. Those who do have the law and sin will be judged. The issue is, having the law doesn’t make you in a better place. Whoever we are, God saves us by the same gospel. Don’t rely on outward religion. I suppose if we were to put it in today’s language, the question is, isn’t do you have a Bible on your phone? Do you have a bible on your bookshelf or on your bedside table? The question is, is God’s word in our hearts? Is it part of our lives? Do we live it out? He says in verse 13, it’s not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, it’s the doers of the law who will be justified. Well, what does it mean to do to be a doer of God’s law? That’s a really important question, and it’s easy to get it wrong. And it’s important for us as we go through Romans to understand what the law was all about. Many of the religious leaders in Jesus’ day got it wrong, what the purpose of the law was. They treated it like a ladder to heaven. Keep all these commands and get close to God. But Jesus confronted them one day in John, chapter five, verse 39. And he said to the religious teachers, you search the scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the scriptures that bear witness about me. But you refuse to come to me that you may have life. He’s saying, you think that just having the Bible, just having the law, just reading it, makes you right with me. He said, no, it’s all about me. Come to me and have life. The law of Moses pointed people to the coming of Jesus the Messiah. And those who had faith understood that the law of Moses was like a multimedia presentation of Jesus, the great high priest who would make the perfect sacrifice for our sins, who would reconcile us to God and bring us into his presence. And the proper response to reading the law of Moses was to trust him, to put their trust in Jesus the Messiah. So many people didn’t do that. They misunderstood the law. But one man who did was a man called Philip. In John chapter one, verse 45, when he met Jesus, it says, philip found his friend Nathaniel and said to him, we have found the one that Moses wrote about in the law. We found the one that Moses wrote about in the law, Jesus of Nazareth. To treat the law as a list of commandments was like treating it like a ladder up to heaven. To miss the whole point, to obey the law really is to put your trust in the one. The law points to the Messiah. It’s not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God. It’s the doers of the law, those who trust in the Lord. Let’s put it in today’s context again. Merely having a Bible, well, it’s good, but it doesn’t do us any good. Merely reading the Bible doesn’t do you any good. We need to do what it says. And what does it say? It says, trust in Jesus. He’s the saviour. So I just want to pause and ask you if you’ve ever done that. Have you ever put your trust in Jesus, the one that the Bible talks about? Or do you just treat the Bible as a book to know? I find, I’ll be honest with you this morning. Sometimes I read my Bible and I come to the end of my Bible reading, and I close my Bible and I think what did I just read? I can see some nodding here. I’m glad it’s not just me. What did I just read? Why? Because I didn’t pray. I didn’t pray at the beginning. Lord, show me Jesus. Lord Jesus, speak to me through these words. I want to meet with you. No, I’ve just treated it as a book and I’ve done my Bible reading. Tick, let’s move on. No, it points to Jesus, and he’s the one we need to meet. He’s the one who offers himself to us every day. There we go. Look, time is almost gone. We’re going to do the rest of the chapter very quickly, so hold on to your hats. Paul is going to say the same thing now through the rest of Romans, chapter two. He’s going to make a contrast between having God’s word outside of us and having it really inside us in our hearts. Just having the outward religious things and having the reality. Okay, so let’s look at verse 14. See if you can spot the inside outside language. Verse 14. For when the Gentiles, who do not have the law by nature, do what the law requires, and we know what that means. Now trust in Jesus. They’re a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law, they show that the work of the law is written on their hearts. He’s saying, the Gentiles, they never had the law of Moses that was given to the Jews. But when the Gentiles trust in Jesus, they show that God’s law is written inside them, on their hearts. They’ve been born again. God has given you new hearts and new desires. And that phrase written on their hearts, it’s an old Testament phrase. Comes from Jeremiah 31, verse three. God’s promise, I will put my law on their minds, and I will write it on their hearts. He’s saying, when the Gentiles put their trust in Jesus, God gives them a new heart with new desires. They instinctively want to obey the Lord. Even though they haven’t got the law of Moses as a book, it’s on their hearts. They have the reality. God has written it on their hearts by the Holy Spirit. That’s the Gentiles. What about the Jews? Well, Paul lists all the ways that they might be tempted to boast. After all, they have God’s law physically outside them. So he says, you say you know God’s will and are instructed by the law. That’s verse 18. You see yourself as a guide for the blind. Verse 19, a light for those in the dark. You’re an instructor of the foolish, verse 20. You teach little children, you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth. He says, you have all these things, why don’t you teach yourself? It’s not enough just to have the law. You’ve got to keep it. He says to the jew, and to keep it is to trust in Jesus, the one the law points to. We haven’t got a time to look at verses 21 to 22, but he’s saying, look, there’s lots of different ways of sinning. Just because you don’t sin one way, don’t be judgmental, because we’re all breaking the law in lots of ways. Whoever we are, God saves us by the same gospel. So don’t rely on being religious. The BBC won’t do you any good. Baptism, bible in the church, it won’t do you any good just having those things. Just having a baptism certificate, just having a Bible on your bookshelf, just being a member on the electoral role. Paul says, those things, they won’t do us any good on their own if they’re just outward things. That’s just religion. What we need is the reality inwardly in our hearts. Not just religion, but a relationship with Jesus Christ. Verse 28. For no one is a jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical, but a jew is one inwardly. And circumcision is a matter of the heart by the spirit, not by the letter. You might be a gentile and not have circumcision or the law, but if you trust in Jesus, you’re doing what the law says, you’ve got the reality. Or you might be outwardly a jew and have circumcision and have the law. But if you’re not trusting in Jesus, well, you’ve got the signs, but you haven’t yet reached the destination. Whether we’re gentiles or jewish descendants of Abraham, whether we have the law of Moses or not, what we all need, Paul is saying, is God’s work in our hearts by his holy spirit, new life, a new heart given to everybody who trusts in Jesus. And it doesn’t matter who you are, whether you’re the pharisee or the tax collector, whether you’re the runaway son or the stay at home moralist son. Whoever we are, God judges us by the same standards, so don’t judge others. Whoever we are, God saves us by the same gospel. So don’t rely on religion. Judgmentalism is a horrible thing, isn’t it? And our culture is full of it. And church can be full of it as well, but it shouldn’t be. Judgmentalism assumes that you’re on the high ground looking down on everybody else, but the gospel says you’re not. We’re not to suspend moral judgement, not to pretend there’s no difference between right and wrong and that God doesn’t care. But the gospel says we’re all sinners, we all need saving. As has often been said, the ground is level at the cross. Religious, irreligious, moral, immoral, law keeper, law breaker. We are all sinners and we all need saving. I wonder if we may just have a moment of quiet while we just make our own response to God’s word today. And then perhaps we’ll sing, maybe with our next song unannounced we’ll hear the music and we’ll just stand and sing together. Let’s just have a moment of quiet though as we pray his righteousness alone I show his saving grace. Proclaim, heavenly Father, please forgive us where we have been and where we are judgmental, where we have prejudices. Lord help us not to suspend this moral judgement between right and wrong. But lord, it may we not sit in judgement and condemnation of one another. Lord, we all need Jesus as our saviour and we thank you that he is. We depend upon him today. Jesus, the name high overall. Amen.