Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Romans. Tonight is study #11 of Romans 2, and we will read Romans 2:5-9:

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: To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life: But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile;

I will stop there. We have been spending some time in verse 5, looking first at the “day of wrath,” Judgment Day, and then the fact that God speaks of the day of wrath as also being a time of the “revelation of the righteous judgment of God.” It is the revealing of Christ as Judge, and the revealing of God’s judgment program, and these are the things we have been learning, and they are fully in accord with what Romans 2:5 is telling us. It had always been God’s plan to reveal the judgment, and the righteous nature of His judgment program.

In our last study, we were talking about this word “revelation” and how it is used, and how it was used in 1Corinthians 1:7 regarding the “coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The word “coming” is the same word as “revelation.” And God allowed the translators to translate it that way in order to show that it is synonymous with revelation of the day of wrath.

Then we saw the related word in Luke 17:30: “Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.” We then saw how the son of perdition was revealed. It was all being revealed in the Scriptures so that the Bible student, in the proper time and season, would learn these things. In the time of the Great Tribulation, we learned the identity of the man of sin: “Oh, it is Satan. He is the abomination of desolation. He is the antichrist.” And now in the Day of Judgment, we are learning that Christ is judging the world. Christ is the Word made flesh, and the Bible says, “The word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.” (John 12:48) And Christ is the Word. The Lord Jesus is carrying out the judgment because He is the Word, and the people of God follow. That is the picture in Revelation 19, and it is also the picture in Psalm 14:5-6:

Let the saints be joyful in glory: let them sing aloud upon their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a twoedged sword in their hand;

The reference to a twoedged sword is referring to the Word of God, as we know from Hebrews 4:12. And then with that twoedged sword, it says in Psalm 149:7-9:

To execute vengeance upon the heathen, and punishments upon the people; To bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron; To execute upon them the judgment written: this honour have all his saints. Praise ye JEHOVAH.

“…To execute upon them the judgment written.” Again, that is our role in the judgment process, as we judge the world with Christ, according to 1Corinthians 6:3: “Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world?” Our role is to do what the saints have always done, and that is to read the Bible diligently, study the Bible carefully, and learn as God’s Spirit directs and guides us into truth, understanding right doctrine. Then, once we are sure, we speak it. We declare it and share it with others, and in sharing it, we are executing the judgment written. We are carrying out the fulfillment of Revelation 16 regarding the seven messengers that are entrusted with the “seven vials of the seven last plagues of the wrath of God.” How did we get those vials? They were delivered to us through the understanding of the Scriptures. It is Christ coming in the clouds (the commandments of God) in judgment, and the seven messengers (which can be shown to be God’s elect) pour the vials out upon the world. We have no animosity or hatred toward anyone, and we take no delight in it, just as God says the He does not delight in the death of the wicked. Neither do the people of God. We take no delight in it. It is a very grievous, sorrowful thing, and Ecclesiastes 12 describes this period of time as the year in which there is “no pleasure.” There is no pleasure at all, as contrasted with the pleasure there was in our ministry of sharing the Gospel unto salvation because then we could tell people of the “good hope,” and we could encourage them: “Go to the Lord and cry for mercy.”

But now the only hope the Bible will allow is to point people back to the time prior to May 21, 2011 when it was still the day of salvation, and to say to them that God completed His salvation at that point, and nobody has been saved since then. Therefore, if you were not in the churches where nobody was being saved for the 23 years prior to May 21, 2011, there is hope. If you were outside the churches, this is the only thing the Bible allows, and that is that God possibly saved you before He shut the door of heaven. He would had to have saved you back then, and why you continued your life in an ungodly and sinful way, I do not know. It is all a kind of mystery, but I do know the Bible says that the “great catch of fish,” the great multitude saved out of Great Tribulation prior to May 21, 2011, were caught, but they were not immediately drawn. God indicates in John 21 that they could not draw them for the multitude of the fishes, but at a later point, Jesus said, “Bring of the fish which ye have now caught,” and then they were drawn.

And that is your hope – your only hope – if you are finding yourself troubled as you see the things going on in the world, and you are beginning to understand, at least intellectually, that the things happening in the world (the division, the chaos, and the troubling of the people of the world) fits in with a spiritual judgment. And the timeline fits in because it is “in those days after that tribulation,” and it is Judgment Day for the world. And now maybe you are disturbed and, perhaps, you heard EBible Fellowship teaching this years ago, and now you are coming back around, wondering if there is any hope. And the only hope is that God may have saved you but had delayed drawing you, according to His will. I do not understand it, but the Bible allows for this. Therefore you can go to God and pray, “Dear heavenly Father, having had mercy, have mercy.” You must recognize that it is not that God will save you today – He cannot and will not, because there is no salvation available, so the grounds for your pleas must be “having had mercy,” meaning at a past time prior to when the door was shut: “Having had mercy, have mercy. Could it be, O, Lord, that you did save me, and for your purposes, you had not yet drawn me? Here I am, coming to you in the Day of Judgment. O, Lord, I recognize this. I realize there is no more salvation, but I am coming to you, hoping that you had saved me, and may that salvation now become evident in my life? May you draw me to yourself and to your Word, and may I begin to Seek after your Word and wholeheartedly cleave to your Word, and separate myself from the world and come out from it. O, Father, could it be?” That is the only prayer God will listen to, and it must include acknowledgement of the time we are living in. Perhaps you are on of that great multitude and God will draw you.

And this is one of the things that God has revealed regarding the revelation of His judgment program.

We also saw that in 2Thessalonians 1 it spoke of Judgment Day and the Lord Jesus being “revealed” from heaven. It is the same word. It is revelation from heaven, and this revealing is happening between the covers of the Bible. That is how God is actually judging at this time. It is in His Word. The Word is the judge. Christ is the Judge in Judgment Day.

We read in 1Peter 1:3-7:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:

There is our word again. The word “appearing” is the word for “revelation.” And notice the context in verse 7: “That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire…” Remember 1Corinthians 3. Let us quickly turn there, and this speaks of Christ as the foundation, and then it says in 1Corinthians 3:12-13:

Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.

This can only refer to Judgment Day, and that “day” will declare it. It will be revealed by fire. The fire will try every man’s work, and this is how the gold, silver precious stones are laud upon the foundation, and the wood, hay, stubble are destroyed. In Judgment Day, a spiritual fire has been lit in God’s anger, and everyone is exposed to it. Nobody escapes it, insofar as being raptured out of the world prior to it. Both the righteous and the wicked must go through it, and everyone is tried to see what your house is made of and what substance you are made of. And if your “house” stands, then, of course, God gets the glory because He is the Rock or the foundation, and if you endure, you are the “gold, silver, precious stones.” You have been tried by fire. You have been chastened, as every son must be chastened, and now you can be declared “sons of God” for evermore into eternity future.

It is the time of the trial of faith, and it is said, “That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.” And we might think through the use of the word “appearing” that He has come in bodily form, but it is the word “revelation” again. It is the same word used in Romans 2:5. It is the “revelation of Jesus Christ.” And when we put this together with how it is translated as “coming” in 1Corinthians 1:7, we can see it.

So, you see, if you just read the Bible without looking at the Greek and without studying the words using the Strong’s numbers, but just casually reading the verses, then you might get a certain image or picture in mind that you think the words are drawing and, yet, it is not an accurate portrayal. You have to look at the Greek word and then you see, “Oh, this is the word that was used regarding the ‘man of sin,’ being revealed, so it has to do with the revealing of a truth or a hidden thing that had been sealed in the Bible.” And now when it is revealed, that has to do with the “revelation.” So we are presently living on the earth at the time of Christ’s “appearing,” and we could say (based on this verse), that it is the time of His revelation.

We also learning long ago that we are being severely tried at this time. That is one of the reasons that 40 years comes into view with the span from 1994 to 2033, which is 40 inclusive years. The number “40” is the number of “testing,” and also the year 1994, a Jubilee Year, was the 40th jubilee since Christ’s birth. So there is the testing, testing, testing, which is one of the reasons why 8,000 days from May 21, 2011 goes to a date in 2033 to that is close to the Passover date, if not the very day. So that is something we have to keep in mind because the number “8,000” is “5 x 1600” or “5 x 40 x 40 x 40.” I am not saying that is going to be the day, but it is a contender, especially with the number “40,” the number of testing, and God is severely testing throughout this 40 years. God is trying His people.

This also fits in with 1Peter 4, where we find this word again. It says in 1Peter 4:12-13:

Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.

The word “revealed” is our word: “…when his glory shall be revealed.”

Again, Christ came first as Judge of the churches, followed by Judge of the world, and that is all part of the “revealing” of His glory. In this setting in 1Peter 4, God then begins to speak of judgment beginning at the house of God, and that began officially in 1994, the time when we could say our “fiery trial” commenced: “But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings.” And Christ also endured 40 years, did He not, from 7 B. C. to 33 A. D.? It was 40 calendar years, and He was also tempted of the devil 40 days, so the number “40” appears in Christ’s first coming, and it is the pattern for His second coming. He suffered during that first coming, and it says, “…ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.” Then it goes on to say in 1Peter 4:14-17:

If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men’s matters. Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf. For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

You see, we tend to think of theses verses that speak of suffering for Christ’s sake or of partaking of His suffering almost primarily as being linked to the judgment on the churches. It is almost as if it is in the bold print because it stands out, while the second part of verse 17 is more hidden: “…what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?” But it is describing the two-fold judgment of God, the two “tribulations.” There was judgment on the churches, followed by judgment on the world. There was Great Tribulation, followed by the recompense (repayment) of tribulation.

And the clue is the phrase, “that obey not the gospel.” Remember what we saw in 2Thessalonians 1:8:

In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:

This is clearly describing God’s judgment on the world or the nations. And in Romans 2, the chapter we are currently studying, if we go down a few verses from verse 5, it says in Romans 2:8-9:

But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile;

It is not worded exactly the same, but the “truth” is the same thing as the Gospel. The Gospel is the Bible and its beaching: “Thy word is truth.” So unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth, there will be tribulation to them: “Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile.” The judgment began at the house of God, followed by judgment on the Gentiles, judgment on the world. Can you see how that works?

Then it says in Romans 2:10:

But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile:

Here, we see God’s salvation program. First, during the New Testament era, the Holy Spirit was poured out in the churches, typified by the term “Jew.” The “Jew” first. God saved the firstfruits within the churches and congregations. Then, “also of the Gentile,” as God ended the church age and then there was a short period of spiritual famine, followed by the Latter Rain, not within the churches but out in the nations (Gentiles) of the world. And there will be “tribulation” to both, first to the churches, and then to the world.