Why Even "Good People" Can't Escape God's Judgment — Romans 2

Added: 2026-05-24

[00:00:00]Hello and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick.

[00:00:04]An Oklahoma rancher and farmer, Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas.

[00:00:13]Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life.

[00:00:18]When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say time just seems to fly by.

[00:00:24]And now, here is Les Feldick.

[00:00:27]Okay, good to have everybody again, and we're just going to pick right up where we left off.

[00:00:31]Now we'll go into Romans chapter 2, verse 1, and we're going to take the second segment of humanity that God is building His case against, and we're going to slip away from the grossly immoral segment to the moral people, and they're just as guilty.

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[00:02:27]Now those of you here in the studio audience, as well as those of you who follow with us verse by verse, let's go to Romans chapter 2, and we're going to deal now with the moral man.

[00:02:37]Oh, he wouldn't dream of living like those people do, oh wouldn't he?

[00:02:41]Romans 2, verse 1, "...therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that what judgeth."

[00:02:52]See that?

[00:02:53]That's why I said in that first hour or last program we were going through, I won't look down my nose at these people.

[00:02:59]I feel that they are grossly in error, but I'm not judging them, because but for the grace of God, there go I.

[00:03:08]And that's what I've been telling my class people, if it weren't for the grace of God, you'd be where they are, because you see, every one of us have the potential for all of this, because we're out of Adam.

[00:03:21]We're all out of Adam, and it's only the grace of God, naturally under some parental teaching, parental inhibitions, which of course a lot of our young people today are not getting.

[00:03:34]But nevertheless, the potential is there in every human being to go to the same depths.

[00:03:41]Now he says, "...whosoever thou art that judgeth, for wherein thou judgeth another, you condemn yourself."

[00:03:51]Now the other nasty word for this is hypocrite, isn't it?

[00:03:56]Hypocrite.

[00:03:57]Oh that's what the hypocrite loves to do.

[00:03:59]He likes to point the finger at the other fellow, but he forgets that when he points two or three that way, one or two of them are pointing back.

[00:04:07]So every one of us have to be aware of the fact that if we're going to start judging someone, we'd better look here first.

[00:04:15]"...for thou that judgest, doest the same things."

[00:04:21]Oh, we wouldn't dream of doing it.

[00:04:23]Oh, maybe not overtly, but what about covertly?

[00:04:29]Or in the thinking processes?

[00:04:32]I think any one of us would hate to admit what we sometimes run through our mind.

[00:04:39]Don't tell me you don't, because then you're not a member of the human race, because it's there.

[00:04:45]And I've always told people, well you know what these little kids hear, they won't register.

[00:04:50]Oh no, it goes into that subconscious and it just lays there until just the right time, and then boom, it comes up into the conscience, and they remember it.

[00:05:00]Verse 2.

[00:05:01]"...but we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them who commit such things, even if it's only covertly.

[00:05:11]And thinkest thou this, O man, thou that judgest them who do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?"

[00:05:18]You see that?

[00:05:20]Even the good person who wouldn't dream of entering into a homosexual relationship, wouldn't dream of it.

[00:05:29]But mentally, in his thought processes, he's just as guilty.

[00:05:34]Now do you remember what Jesus did with the commandment, "...thou shalt not commit adultery"?

[00:05:37]Boy, He took it so far that none of us are clear of it.

[00:05:41]Even if you think it in your heart, you're just as guilty as the person that does it.

[00:05:45]Now that's hard for us to comprehend, but that's what the book says, it's what Jesus said.

[00:05:49]And so you move all the way through these verses, and it's dealing with this moral person, who says, Oh I wouldn't dream of doing those things.

[00:06:00]And in the same breath, he condemns those that do, but God is going to judge him just as much.

[00:06:08]I'm going to skip some of these, I'd like to get as far into chapter 3 as possible in this program.

[00:06:13]But let's go back to verse 5.

[00:06:19]"...but after thy hardness and impenitent heart, treasure stuffed unto thyself wrath..." See there's that word again, it has never happened yet, but it's coming.

[00:06:28]"...the wrath and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to every man according to his deeds, to them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory, and honor, and immortality, but unto them who are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey or live in unrighteousness."

[00:06:52]What's their future?

[00:06:53]The indignation of God, and His wrath.

[00:06:58]Now remember, God has never yet poured out His wrath.

[00:07:02]That's something that is still future, but when it comes, it's going to be beyond human comprehension.

[00:07:10]Well, come all the way down to verse 11.

[00:07:15]"...there is no respect of persons with God."

[00:07:19]In other words, God is not going to treat an American better than a Japanese, He's not going to treat a German better than a Russian, He's not going to treat a white person better than a black person.

[00:07:30]With God there is no difference, there is no respecting of persons.

[00:07:34]We're all sons of Adam.

[00:07:37]Verse 12, "...for as many as have sinned without law," in other words, outside the realm of Judaism, "...they shall perish without law."

[00:07:50]In other words, it's not going to excuse them, just because they weren't under the children of Israel.

[00:07:55]"...those who have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law."

[00:08:00]Well, we know what the law does.

[00:08:02]We'll see that in the next chapter.

[00:08:03]It condemns everybody, because every human being that's ever lived other than Christ Himself, has already broken the law, and so they're condemned.

[00:08:14]Verse 13, "...for not the hearers of the law are just, or justified before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified."

[00:08:25]Now we have to be careful, that's under the law.

[00:08:28]Go all the way back to Exodus chapter 19, and come down to verse 7.

[00:08:56]Here the children of Israel have just recently been brought out of Egypt, and they're all encamped around Mount Sinai.

[00:09:02]Moses has gone up into Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments and the Law from the Lord Himself.

[00:09:09]Verse 7, "...and Moses came, and called for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces all these words which the Lord commanded him."

[00:09:18]Now he's going to refer it to the children of Israel.

[00:09:22]Verse 7, "...and all the people answered together, and said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do."

[00:09:33]Now that's legalism, that's Law, and whatever the Law commanded Israel says, we'll do it.

[00:09:40]Well if it was done prompted by faith, that's what God wanted.

[00:09:43]But nevertheless remember that Law demanded doing on the part of its adherents.

[00:09:48]It had to be prompted by faith, of course, but they still had to do what God said to do.

[00:09:54]Now come back then to Romans chapter 2, and this is what Paul is talking about.

[00:09:59]That when the Jew was under the Law, he couldn't get by with faith plus nothing.

[00:10:03]He had to have faith plus doing something, whatever the Law demanded.

[00:10:09]Verse 14, "...for when the Gentiles, who have not the Law..." Now keep that in your computer, because in our next program we'll get into Romans chapter 3, and Paul is going to lay it out as plain as day, of what the Law does, and what it does not do.

[00:10:32]"...for when the Gentiles, who have not the Law, do by nature, or naturally the things contained in the Law, these having not the Law, are a law unto themselves."

[00:10:43]Now I have to read verse 15, which shows the work of the Law written where?

[00:10:50]In their heart.

[00:10:52]What's the next word?

[00:10:54]Conscience.

[00:10:55]"...their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts..." See that?

[00:11:02]Remember what I just said?

[00:11:03]They may not be guilty of it overtly, but they're going to be guilty of it covertly, especially in the thought processes.

[00:11:12]"...their thoughts the meanwhile accusing, or excusing."

[00:11:19]That's human nature.

[00:11:22]Now where does it all begin?

[00:11:23]Conscience.

[00:11:24]When God created Adam, what did He put in his breast, as it were?

[00:11:29]Conscience.

[00:11:30]And conscience was to precipitate confession, and that of course is what prompted Abel to bring the required sacrifice.

[00:11:40]His conscience convicted him, and he listened to it.

[00:11:44]But you see, it's within the realm of human nature to spurn conscience.

[00:11:50]I mean, we can burn it, and we can get it to the place where it just is no longer active.

[00:11:56]And of course that's what so many people have to do.

[00:11:59]But it's there, and you can't ignore it.

[00:12:03]Then verse 16, an amazing verse.

[00:12:07]"...in the day when God shall judge the secrets..." That is, the secret activities of these moral people, as well as the open activity of the immoral.

[00:12:19]"...but there is coming a day when God will judge these things by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel."

[00:12:29]Now what's Paul's gospel again?

[00:12:32]That Christ died for all these sins.

[00:12:35]He died for the sins of every homosexual that has ever lived.

[00:12:39]He's died for the sins of these moral hypocrites.

[00:12:43]He's died for the sins of these religious people that we're going to see in the next series of verses.

[00:12:48]And consequently God is going to judge the human race based upon that.

[00:12:52]You wouldn't have to go where you're going, because Christ has already settled your account, if you would have just believed it.

[00:13:00]And so they will be.

[00:13:01]That just reminds me, I have a tape at home, and I don't remember who is on it, but the name of the tape is Our American Heritage, or Our Godly American Heritage, I think it is.

[00:13:12]And he expresses in that tape, and he reads from Supreme Court opinions of our early days of our nation, where those Supreme Court judges in their opinions quoted this book.

[00:13:28]Can you imagine that happening today?

[00:13:32]And in another place he points out how that our top government officials, presidents, and top cabinet people maintained that America could not survive, and it didn't just say the Bible.

[00:13:46]They said, unless America remains true to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

[00:13:52]I couldn't hardly believe that when I saw that.

[00:13:54]I could understand that men like Washington and some of those would say, we have to stand on this book.

[00:14:00]But many of them even narrowed it down that it has to be based upon the gospel of Jesus Christ.

[00:14:07]And again I read something just the other day, I think it was by Jefferson, and Jefferson of course was not what I would call a born again believer.

[00:14:15]I think Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin both were more or less the same bull to claw.

[00:14:19]But Jefferson still came back and said, unless this nation stands and operates under the Word of God, it is doomed to fall.

[00:14:29]And we're seeing it happen right before our eyes.

[00:14:32]Now then, we'll come on down to verse 17, and we're going to see the prosecuting attorney now move to the third segment of humanity, and that's the religious person.

[00:14:44]Now you know I have no time for the word religion by now.

[00:14:48]I think it's the most awful term in the human language.

[00:14:51]Religion prompts hatred, religion precipitates war, religion takes people down the dark path of legalism, religion is always man's attempt to somehow please God.

[00:15:08]Christianity is never a religion.

[00:15:11]Christianity is God reaching down in mercy and grace to a lost human race.

[00:15:17]Religion never does that.

[00:15:19]Paul uses it in a bad light when he says that he was saved out of the Jew's religion, because that's what he was.

[00:15:26]He was religious.

[00:15:27]But what was he?

[00:15:29]He hated the very name of Jesus of Nazareth as a religious person.

[00:15:34]Right now in these succeeding verses, this is what we're dealing with.

[00:15:37]A religious Jew in fact, because that of course was the primary religion that Paul had to deal with.

[00:15:43]And so verse 17, Paul says, "...Behold, thou art called a Jew, ye rest in the law, make us thy boast of God."

[00:15:52]Now most of you spent enough time in your Sunday school material about the Pharisees, and the Sadducees, and what have you.

[00:15:59]You know how they were.

[00:16:00]Oh, they were self-righteous, they were proud of their religious status.

[00:16:06]This is what Paul is now addressing.

[00:16:08]Verse 18, "...Ye know his will, and approve us the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law, the Mosaic law.

[00:16:19]So they should have known, and are confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, who hath the form of knowledge, and of the truth in the law."

[00:16:37]In other words, those Pharisees, those religious leaders of Israel, they had all that kind of knowledge.

[00:16:44]Then look at verse 21, "...Thou therefore who teachest another, teachest thou not thyself?

[00:16:53]That thou preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal?"

[00:16:58]Oh hey, what were the priests of Israel known for many times?

[00:17:02]Stealing from widows.

[00:17:05]And the disenchanted, the underprivileged.

[00:17:08]You bet they did.

[00:17:09]Oh, why do you suppose Jesus went through and overturned the tables of the money changers?

[00:17:16]Because it wasn�t even legitimate business.

[00:17:18]They were charging 10 prices for necessary sacrificial animals, that the poor people couldn�t go out some place and barter for and buy.

[00:17:26]And so they had to buy it at the temple.

[00:17:28]And they took advantage of them, charged them probably 10 times more than they would have had to.

[00:17:33]And that�s why Jesus got so angry, and turned over the money tables, and went.

[00:17:38]Well Paul�s alluding to the same thing.

[00:17:40]Oh, these self righteous Pharisees, these religious leaders, they had pomp, they were self righteous, but underneath they�d do anything they could get away with.

[00:17:51]Alright, read on.

[00:17:53]Verse 22, "...Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery?"

[00:18:00]Well man, all you have to do is go back to the Old Testament.

[00:18:02]What was the behavior of many of those priests?

[00:18:05]Hey, they were awful.

[00:18:07]The sons of Eli, even the people of Israel knew it.

[00:18:10]They said, they�re not godly like you are.

[00:18:13]And here again, Paul is referring back to those situations.

[00:18:17]Verse 23, "...Thou that makest the boast of the law through breaking the law, dishonorest thou God.

[00:18:23]For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written, for circumcision verily profiteth if you keep the law."

[00:18:42]In other words, absolutely it was profitable to be a Jew.

[00:18:46]They had the Word of God, as we�re going to see in just a moment.

[00:18:51]But oh, they ignored all that.

[00:18:53]They ignored their exalted position.

[00:18:58]Verse 27, "...And shall not uncircumcision, which is by nature, if it fulfill the law, judge thee, who by the letter and circumcision thus transgresseth the law."

[00:19:06]In other words, Paul is saying, you bring me a saved Gentile, and he�ll make you blush with shame.

[00:19:14]See, verse 28, "...for he is not a Jew, who is one outwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh, but the true spiritual person, and here Paul is calling him a Jew.

[00:19:38]A true spiritual person is one inwardly, and circumcision that really counts with God, is not of the flesh, it�s of the heart."

[00:19:52]That�s spiritual circumcision.

[00:19:55]Do you remember what I�ve always told you circumcision does?

[00:19:57]It cuts off that which is superfluous in the flesh.

[00:20:00]So what is superfluous in the Spirit?

[00:20:02]The old Adam.

[00:20:04]And so at salvation, our old Adam is cut off, and it becomes a heart circumcision.

[00:20:12]And it�s that of the heart in the Spirit, and not in the letter, keeping the Law, whose praise is not of men, but of God.

[00:20:19]Now let�s move in quickly in these closing minutes to chapter 3.

[00:20:23]This is the final condemnation.

[00:20:26]What advantage then hath the Jew, or what profit is there of circumcision, or being an adherent of Judaism?

[00:20:34]Well his answer is, much.

[00:20:36]Every way.

[00:20:38]Oh they had so much going for them.

[00:20:41]They had all the covenant promises, they had the Old Testament, they had the prophets, they had the Psalms, they had the temple, they had the priesthood.

[00:20:50]That was all going for them.

[00:20:52]But Paul says that still wasn�t the most important.

[00:20:54]The most important was that they had the oracles of God.

[00:20:59]Now I always make the point even when we go into the book of Acts, that Luke was not a Gentile.

[00:21:05]I�m convinced he had to be a Jew.

[00:21:07]If he wasn�t a full Jew, he was at least a half of one.

[00:21:09]Because the Scripture makes a point of the fact that only Jews wrote this book by inspiration of the Spirit.

[00:21:17]So much every way, chiefly because unto them were committed the oracles of God.

[00:21:23]Now I�d like to have you come all the way down to verse 5.

[00:21:28]But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say?

[00:21:33]Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance?

[00:21:37]Is God going to be unfair when He will one day pour out His wrath on Christ-rejecting men?

[00:21:42]No!

[00:21:44]Because you see, He�s paid in our last taping.

[00:21:49]Every human being that�s ever lived had his sin debt paid in full at the cross.

[00:21:56]Everybody, every person that�s ever lived so far as God is concerned, had reconciliation accomplished.

[00:22:04]And all they have to do is believe it, to appropriate it.

[00:22:08]So this is why God will have every right in the world to pour out His wrath.

[00:22:13]He�s done everything possible to make it as simple as possible, so that lost humanity can come back to Himself.

[00:22:21]So then verse 6.

[00:22:23]God forbid, for then how shall God judge the world?

[00:22:29]He�s going to have every right in the world to.

[00:22:31]Now verse 7.

[00:22:33]For if the truth of God had more abounded through my lie unto his glory, why yet am I also judged as a sinner?

[00:22:41]Even though he was a religious man, he was a religious zealot of Judaism, and yet God had to even tell Saul of Tarsus that he was a sinner.

[00:22:52]He was undone.

[00:22:53]Then verse 8.

[00:22:55]And not rather, as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm or claim that we say, let us do evil, that good may come.

[00:23:07]But their condemnation is just, he said to those who say that.

[00:23:11]Remember going back several weeks, I told you I just read a little commentary on Romans chapter 6 by a British theologian of a bygone day.

[00:23:22]He made the claim that if we do not teach and proclaim the Gospel of Grace as this book intends it to be taught, then we are going to be accused by some.

[00:23:35]Just like Paul says here that he was slanderously accused, they�re going to tell us, if that�s the way it is, then you�re telling me I can live as ungodly as I want so that I can check out the grace of God.

[00:23:48]No, that�s not what it means.

[00:23:50]It just simply means that no matter how deep a sinner goes, God�s grace is always greater, and that�s never licensed to see how far we can go.

[00:24:01]Now here�s where I want to at least end up the program.

[00:24:06]The final verdict.

[00:24:09]The prosecuting attorney has laid out all of his reasons.

[00:24:14]He has categorized the human race into these three areas.

[00:24:17]Now let�s look at what the Scripture says.

[00:24:20]Ephesians 2.9 What then?

[00:24:23]Are we Jews better than they Gentiles?

[00:24:28]No, in no wise.

[00:24:31]For we have before proved, both Jew and Gentile, they are all under sin.

[00:24:42]There is none righteous, there is none that seeketh after God.

[00:24:51]Do you see that?

[00:24:52]That is the final verdict.

[00:24:54]Now to carry it a little bit further, I�m going to skip a few verses, and we�ll pick it up again in the next program.

[00:24:59]You come on over to verse 22-23 of this same chapter, Romans 3.

[00:25:05]Here we�ll end.

[00:25:06]Romans 22.23a Even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all, and upon all them that believe, Jew and Gentile, black and white, rich or poor, there is no difference.

[00:25:29]Oh that flies in the face of so many people.

[00:25:32]But you see, I used the expression last night, that verse makes a level playing field.

[00:25:38]Nobody can say, well I�m at a better advantage.

[00:25:41]Nobody can say, well I�m at a lesser advantage, because the Scripture says there is no difference.

[00:25:52]Thank you for watching True The Bible with Les Feldick, a weekly Bible study.

[00:25:58]If you would like more information about the Les Feldick Ministries, a Bible study in your area, or about this program, write to Les Feldick Ministries, Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, Oklahoma, 74552.

[00:26:17]That�s Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, Oklahoma, 74552.

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