The Word Made Plain

Guest (Male): Welcome to the word made plain with senior pastor Tony Clark of Calvary Chapel Newport News in Virginia. Currently, pastor Tony is teaching through the book of Romans. Please open your Bible to Romans chapter 2 verses 6 through 13.

Tony Clark: Tribulation the Greek word is thilipsis, thilipsis and it means to exert extreme pressure. And the Greek word for anguish is thlipsis and it means a narrow place or distress. Metaphorically, it means to be confined or constricted or God's judgment will be sent to those who do not obey the truth in the form of extreme pressure that seem to confine and constrict you like a python snake to feel confined or that there is no way out to apply extreme pressure to get us to change. And many of us when we're in sin, God will constrict us, confine us into a corner, apply extreme pressure to us that we feel constricted and confined.

The purpose of that so we will change. So we will see that there is no way out of our condition and our predicament other than repenting to God. This is the purpose of that. And we and you talk to people, you know, it's just been tough lately. I just feel all this pressure is upon me. Oh. That's what we are talking about here. Extreme pressure. And this is what he is dealing with in these verses. He goes on to tell us that this will come upon notice every soul of man who does evil of the Jew first and also the Greek or the Gentiles.

Just like the gospel in Romans 1 verse 16 it says I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It's the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes to the Jew first and also the Greek. Here, just like the gospel came to the Jew first, so will God's judgment come first upon the self-righteous Jews who thought that they were exempt from God's judgment or his wrath. And Paul is saying, no, you aren't exempt. As a matter of fact, because of what you know about God and because he chose you, his judgment will come upon you first.

So just like us here in America, don't think we're exempt. We would not be exempt from God's judgment or his wrath. As a matter of fact, God will judge us harsher because of the light or the revelation of God and his word that we have been given in this country. God judges nations. You heard me say this for years. God judges nations with natural disasters in this life. This is why I've always taught you, pay attention to the weather pattern in America. God judges nations through natural disasters, natural calamities. Back in the day, they have changed it somehow.

Back in the day when some natural disaster came about, they the insurance company will call it acts of God. That's what they used to call it. Don't call it that anymore. Some don't, some may. But they used to be called acts of God because back in the day we understood this principle that I'm talking about here. God judges individuals in the next life. Oh, sure, we get our tribulation and trials and and consequences to our sins in this life, but ultimate judgment of the individual comes in the next life. I just got to ask, are you ready to meet with God?

Are you ready to meet God? I pray that you are and that I am trying to get you ready by teaching you God's word from Genesis to Revelation so that you will be without excuse or so that you can never say you know, if you attend church here at least, you can never say that you didn't know the ways of God because I have been committed to a little less than 30 years of teaching this church the word of God from Genesis to Revelation, all 1,189 chapters, all 31,102 verses of this book. And I'm committed as long as breath is in these lungs and blood is in these veins, I'm going to continue to get you ready to meet with God.

I'm not going to be up here playing around, fooling around and giving you sermonettes. I'm not going to be doing that. I'm going to give you the word what thus saith the Lord. Look at verses 10 and 11. It says, but glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good. Tell that person that you're in church here in the word for good to the Jew first and also to the Greek. He says, for there is no partiality with God. Now, God in his infinite goodness will make sure that those who are truly his children are given three things, glory, honor, and peace.

And once again, Paul points out the order of God's goodness notice to the Jew first and also the Greek, the end of verse 10 says. In other words, when we give when we seek glory, honor, and immortality from God in verse 7 or like verse 7 said, he will give us glory, honor, and peace like verse 10 says. Oh, I love that. In In verse 11, Paul points out that God doesn't have favorites. He doesn't show favoritism or partiality to anyone. And the Greek word for partiality is a prosopolepsia and it means to receive a face or to give consideration to a person because of who he is.

God doesn't do this. He doesn't show favoritism over Jew and Gentile, over American and Russian or over a race. God doesn't show personal favoritism to anyone. We got to understand that. This must have been a a shock to the Jews and the church of Rome to hear him say this because God chose them and they were favorite, they thought. We are the favorites of God, you know. God chose us. Well, how dare you say that about us or to us? Nor does God grade on a curve. God judges based upon those who continuance in doing good and seeking for glory, honor, and immortality from God like verse 7 said.

And his judgment will come upon those who do not obey the truth like verse 8 said. This is a word to all of us who are parents and grandparents. Don't show favoritism towards your children because it will create problems between the siblings. They will take that envy and jealousy that they have towards the one being favored towards the Joseph with the coat of many colors in the family and will and it will last throughout adulthood. You would have family gatherings and reunions and holidays and and I'm telling you, I'm telling you and you will hear them bring these things up, still bickering and and arguing and how yeah, you are always the favorite.

No wonder your child or your children are the favorites by mom and dad because you were the favorite growing up. And they're adults now with kids saying this kind of stuff. Now, I understand gravitating I do gravitating towards a child that has similar gifts, talents, and personality as you. But beware when you start to show favoritism. You will create a lot of drama in your home and you just always say, why y'all always fighting? And you don't even realize you kicked up all that mess. Kicked it up with showing favoritism. God doesn't do this. And I And I just wonder if the disobedience you're seeing in your other children is them just acting out to somehow get your attention because in their minds bad attention is just as bad as no attention.

Just wondering. Look at verses 12 and 13. It says, for as many as have sinned without the law will also perish without the law and as many as have sinned in the law will be judged by the law. For not the hearer of the law will be just in the sight of God, but the doer of the law will be justified. Now, Paul is writing in a style that he answers a question before they ask it. The questions seem to be asked by the Jews in the church. What about those Gentiles or non-Jews who were not given the law of Moses like we are?

As the Jews, we were given the law of Moses. What about those Gentiles? How How would God judge them? Well, Paul said in verse 12, those who have sinned without the law of Moses will perish without the law of Moses. Or people will be judged based upon the light of God they have been given. So stop worrying about these folks in in in jungles of Africa or the pygmies in Africa and folks in Amazon in the back jungles or some isolated island, they will be judged because God is a just God. They will be judged based upon the light of God they have been given.

And And we we already talked about in in Romans 1 verses 19 and 20 how God has revealed himself to the world in two ways. Number one, through a person's conscience and number two, through creation. And if that is all they have because we already talked about in in in in chapter two you know, in chapter two no, we we ain't got to it yet. I've already studied past it. That's why I said we talked about it. No, we haven't talked about it yet. But in chapter two, we're going to see that God has written the Ten Commandments on every man's conscience.

So people in the remote they can be on some island, they ain't seen outside of them thousand years. Who cares? God has written the Ten Commandments on every man's conscience. So he's giving them conscience and he's giving them creation. And God will judge them based upon the light or the revelation of himself that he's given them. So now you see why I said God will judge America harsher. Look at the light and revelation of God that we have been given in the history of this nation. So we will be judged harsher. I believe that verse 13 is a very important verse because we as individuals and as a church collectively can make the mistake in thinking that hearing the word of God only automatically implies doing the word.

Yes, we teach the Bible verse by verse, chapter by chapter, and book by book from Genesis to Revelation. Please don't be deceived into thinking because you come and hear God's word taught in person or online, it equates to you doing what it says. Please don't. James 1:22 says, be doers of the word and not hearers only, notice deceiving your own selves. Jesus is saying, if you think that you're right with God because you occasionally come or tune in online every now and then and hear God's word taught and not obey it, don't think that you're right with God.

You're deceived because you think Oh, see, you don't even need Satan who's the master deceiver to deceive you. No, the Bible says you're deceiving yourself. You're doing it yourself. This applies to us when we come and hear God's word taught and we leave here unchanged and we go back home to the lifestyles we left home living. James goes on to describe this person in James 1:23 and 24. He says, for if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he's like a man observing his natural face in the mirror for he observes himself and goes away and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.

In In other words, it's like waking up, going to the bathroom, seeing your hair messed up, sleeping your eyes and you see yourself and then walk away and forget how much of a hot mess you were in the mirror. That's the Tony Clark translation of these verses. This is what James and Paul are saying and we will pick it up in verse 14 God's will next time. Oh, I wish I could just go on, but we we got we got you know, other folks got to get in here and hear this word as well. Let Let me Let me wrap it up with this.

In In this message, no favorites, we saw how Paul told those self-righteous Jews in the church that God doesn't show favoritism. He will judge people based upon the light of God they have been given, whether that is the light of the law of Moses or the light of creation or the light of the of their conscience. Uh we saw how God will judge those who are a just a hearer of the word and not a doer of God's word. How would you judge your life if you were God? Would you look at your life and say, yes, I am a doer of God's word or no, I'm just a hearer of God's word.

Now, this doesn't mean that you're perfect or sinless. It doesn't mean that. But when you judge your life, your own life, you're seeking to sin less and less. If this is not your heart, then you need to repent and get right with God before you leave here today. Don't be a forgetful hearer. Don't be a forgetful hearer where you leave here and forget how much of a hot mess you are spiritually as God showed you yourself in the mirror of his word. Don't be this way. Let's get right with God today. Let me close with this.

You know, someone social media friend reminded me of this, but I remember saying it for years. Look at your Christianity or your walk with God. Look at how much you pray, how much you read, how much you tell others about Christ, how much you seek to live like for the Lord. And let's say you were chosen to be the example of Christianity. And we were the follow you all week long. We watch what you watch. We listen to what you listen to. We go where you go. What state of the church this church you will have us in at the end of the week.

Will we be closer to the Lord? Will we further away? In a week's time, will we go to church? Will we not go? Would it be Sunday funday? And we just went wherever you would normally go. What state spiritually would this church be at at the end of a week, two weeks, a month? Let's say we did it for a month. Let's do a month at a time. This is where This is where my heart breaks. This is where the work that I do as far as teaching and feeding and trying to nurture the church is far from done because I just wonder if we were to follow you, what would we drink?

What would we be drinking? What would we be smoking? What would we shooting up? What prescriptions we going back to get filled? We really don't need filled, but we're hooked. And we don't we don't want to I just want to say evaluate, you know, evaluate our hearts because this is the this is the Christianity of America. Oh, I'm just talking about my country. I there a country then Christianity is a hot mess around the world. But I'm talking about our country, the one we in right now. And I just wonder what condition you will have us in.

How much reading will we do? Will we do any at all? Will Will we read a verse and then we Oh, will we not read a verse at all? Will we read some daily bread, some little devotional thing if that? And we call this Christianity. We call this our walk with God. We call this um I don't know what we call it, but it's not biblical Christianity. It's just It's just It's just a a religious thing. It's like being a part of the the Elks Club, but just with a little Bible mixed in. Uh Uh Uh the like on the Flintstone the Moose Lodge or something and you know, like the little rascal the you know, female woman haters club or something and we throw in a little But it's not it's not biblical Christianity.

It's just it's just this thing, this this religious thing, if I can call it religious. And I I just the last year and a half I just mourned. I mourned um Paul Paul said in 1 Corinthians, he said, my deep concern is for all the churches. And I used to read that and say, Paul, man, come on, dude. But I understand them now. I understand them. My deep concern is for the the church and and for us as a church. And I just I mourned over where we are and where watch this and where we're content to be.

I'm I mourn over that. I mourn over that. We are so okay with where we are right now. And And I already know many of you were here. You You feel a certain way now because God is showing you yourself in the mirror of his word. And many of you going to take heed, but there's there's a good group of good amount of you that's going to leave and be a forgetful here. You're going to get back and get in your car and go do you as my wife would say. You go and continue to do you, do your thing.

And I just And I just pray, I plead, I beg you to to get right with God. He didn't send his son just so we can do this thing we call Christianity. Jesus didn't die on the cross. Jesus didn't get scourged and beat by 600 soldiers just so we can do this version of of of Christianity. He didn't He didn't do that. That's not why he died and went through that so we can do this and think we could And no wonder we think that when somebody died, everybody goes to heaven. No wonder we think that because there's no difference between believer and unbeliever.

So we all got a little Jesus in us. We all go. And breaks it just breaks my heart. Breaks my heart where where the church is today. I mourn. The Bible says we're ambassadors for Christ as though Christ was pleading through us to be reconciled with God. And I'm trying to plead with you. Be reconciled with God. So that means I'm implying that many of you are not right with God, that you need to be reconciled. That's my job to plead. I'm an ambassador of Christ. I'm pleading with you, pleading with you that the version of Christianity that you claim you have far from biblical Christianity.

This is why I'm trying to teach you what thus saith the Lord. Father, we do thank you for your word. Lord, have mercy upon us as your people. I know you love us. You do. You send Jesus to die for us. And Lord, I just pray that you forgive us, have mercy upon us, Lord. Forgive us for living this kind of life. Lord, forgive us. We need you, Lord. We need a move of your spirit in our lives. We know that you are a forgiving God. Lord, forgive us. Forgive us for allowing ourselves to be in this condition with you.

Oh God, forgive us. And if there's anyone here who is not repented of their sin and accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior, just pray this short prayer after me. Just say, Lord Jesus, forgive me. I believe you died on the cross and was buried and rose again. Come into my heart. I make you my Lord and Savior. Help me to live for you from this moment forward by the power of your Holy Spirit in Jesus's name. Amen.

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