Benefits and Drawbacks, Part 7

We should sing it again afterwards,
but just an excellent opening to the words before us this morning. Somewhere in my mid-20s, I can’t
remember where, back when I still enjoyed camping, some buddies
and I, nine of us, decided to hike to the top of Eagle’s Nest. I’m not sure if you’re familiar
with it, but it’s a We didn’t go to the very top. I’ll tell
you why in a moment. The goal was to hike up to Eagle’s
Nest and to camp there. There’s beautiful lakes and beautiful
trails. It is there just north of Dillon. Everything went great for the
first four or five hours. We had way too much gear and
everybody had to take lots of breaks. And as we neared the
top, we noticed these ominous looking clouds, and they were
of some concern, but not enough. And so we pressed on, and as
we got ever nearer the place where we had intended to camp,
the clouds indeed began to let loose. At first it was tiny drops,
and then huge drops, and lightning, and eight of us scattered up
the trail. One took a left turn. The rain
continued for several hours. We never did see our friend.
We began to get pretty concerned and decided finally to hike back
down. We hiked all the way back down
to the vehicles only to discover that he had left irritated that
we had ditched him. Well. That left eight of us to
pile into one small pickup truck and make our way back to Denver,
where we found our friend and addressed him severely. The reason
I’m telling you that is that while eight of us took the right
turn, it was the one that took the left turn that ended up lost
and frustrated. And as we course through chapter
two of the Book of Romans, I don’t want anybody to get lost. And
so, if we have to backtrack or take baby steps or re-explain,
that’s what we’ll do, because this is a minefield, really. It’s a formidable passage if
you don’t keep the context always in view. The passage that we’ll
consider this morning is really a perfect example of the living,
breathing nature of the Word of God. That it must be taken
in its context. You must take it all in and you
must interact with it. You must interpret scripture
by scripture. You must take the whole counsel
of God. If you would, I want to take
chapter two, just the portion that we have studied thus far
so that we can have it in context this morning, those verses that
would be considering a little more thoroughly versus 14 through
16. If you would jump all the way back to verse five, we’ll
take it a running start at verses 14 through 16. Where Paul wrote. To the Romans. and specifically
here to Jewish professing believers. But because of your stubbornness
and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself
in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of
God, who will render to every man according to his deeds To
those who, by perseverance and doing good, seek for glory and
honor and immortality, eternal life. But to those who are selfishly
ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey in righteousness,
wrath and indignation. There will be tribulation and
distress for every soul of man who does evil of the Jew first
and also of the Greek. The glory and honor and peace
to every man who does good to the Jew first and also to the
Greek. For there is no partiality with
God. For all who have sinned without
the law will also perish without the law and all who have sinned
under the law will be judged by the law. For not the hearers
of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law will
be justified. For when Gentiles who do not
have the law do instinctively the things of the law, these,
not having the law, are a law to themselves, in that they show
the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience
bearing witness, and their thoughts alternately accusing or else
defending them. On the day when, according to
my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ
Jesus, The living, breathing book. These scriptures and taken out
of context. We’ve seen that many, many verses
in this chapter would do serious damage to sound doctrine and
good theology. Look, for instance, at verse
seven. Those who, by perseverance and doing good, seek for glory
and honor and immortality, eternal life, is that how we’re saved?
Because that runs counter to what we teach, what we say, we
believe. What about verse 10? Glory and
honor and peace to every man who does good. Verse 13, which
verse we considered last week, not the hearers of the law are
just before God, but the doers of the law would be justified. As we talked about last week,
Paul is speaking there purely hypothetically. There are no
doers of the law, save the Lord Jesus Christ. There are no nobody
who does good. There isn’t anybody who really
seeks eternal life. By way of doing enough good works,
persevering in them in order to be saved, context is everything,
and it’s absolutely crucial in Romans chapter two. Taken out
of context, these verses would derail your theology. And so
this morning in verses 14 through 16, the same rule holds true.
One of the helpful tools available to the reader of Scripture, not
to mention to the exegete, is to ask, why did the writer say
this? Why on earth would he write this
verse? And why did he say it here? Why
is this verse here? Why did Paul write verses 14
through 16? The context, as we’ve seen, I
hope by now is clear. I don’t want to lose anybody.
I don’t want anybody taking the left trail. The context is clear. Paul is dealing with the Jews.
Remember, he dealt with the heathen, with the Gentiles in Romans chapter
one. He indicted them for their life
and for the way that they lived. And now he has turned his attention
to the Jewish people and he’s issuing them an indictment very
similar to the one already issued to the Gentiles in chapter one. He tells them in this great section
that begins in chapter two, verse one, and concludes in chapter
three, verse 20, he tells them that the Jews are likewise condemned,
they’re condemned. We enter into this first major
section on the Jew and the law in verse one, and that encompasses
the totality of chapter two in it. We’ve already seen the privileges
and the arrogance of the nation of Israel in verses one through
three. We saw the privileges and the
oversight, the things that they forgot to focus on in verse four. And for the last four or five
weeks, We’ve been focused on the privileges and the judgment
of the Jews, the judgment of the Jews. Well, that had to just
as we’ve seen in the past weeks, that had to just shock them.
The Jews weren’t supposed to sit to be judged, the Jews weren’t
supposed to go through the judgment that was for the Gentiles. But
Paul says, no. There is a judgment that is coming,
God is an impartial judge. And he lays that out in verses
five through eight, the principle of God’s impartial judgment,
as we have seen this morning. He declares it very clearly there.
He foreshadows it in the following verses. He states it explicitly
in verse 11. There is no partiality with God. In verses 12 through 13, which
versus we looked at last week, we saw the principle of impartial
judgment explained where Paul says everybody who was under
the law, the Jewish people, they’re going to be judged by the law.
But if you didn’t have the law, you’re still going to be judged.
All who have sinned outside of the law will be judged nonetheless. God is an impartial judge. The
reason Paul turns again to the Gentiles here is to head off
an obvious question, and this is why I say the scripture is
a living, breathing document. You must, in a sense, get into
Paul’s head. You have to at least sit at Paul’s
feet and understand what Paul’s doing. This is a dialogue that
he’s carrying on. This is this is reasoning that
is taking place. in a very live sense. Paul says,
look, he wants to head off a very obvious question. You can almost
hear the scoffing of the Jewish nation, can’t you? You can almost
hear the scoffing. It goes like this. Oh, Paul,
are you going to throw the law book at us? How unfair would
that make God to be? After all, the Gentiles don’t
even have the law, Paul. And God, how is He going to judge
them on that basis? No, no, no, no, no. We need a
new standard. The law cannot be used to judge
men. We can’t live up to the law. Not only Jewish people, but certainly
not the Gentiles. Doing so would be utterly unfair. along the lines of the reasoning
that Paul is preparing to answer. What Paul does is just masterful.
Paul takes this hypothetical challenge. Perhaps he had even
heard these either in the marketplace or in the schools. Perhaps in
the synagogue, discussed and bandied about, perhaps we know
that there was frustration with the law, with the attempt to
live according to the law, which incidentally was the exact design
by God of the law. It was to frustrate their intent.
When Jesus told the lawyer in the context of the Good Samaritan,
go and do likewise, he wanted him frustrated. He wanted him
to say, how am I supposed to go love every person I ever come
across perfectly every day, all the time, how? You’re not, you
can’t. You can’t live according to the
law, you can’t live a perfect life, you can’t earn your way
into heaven. What Paul does here is masterful.
Paul does the same thing. Paul says, look, the law, the
law standard is perfect. There will be those judged according
to the law. But for those who do not have
the law, they, too, will be judged and justly so. Go with me again
to verse 14. Where Paul says. As he begins
to apply this principle of impartial judgment to the Gentiles, Paul
says, for when Gentiles who do not have the law do instinctively
the things of the law, these not having the law or a law to
themselves in that they show the work of the law written in
their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts
alternately accusing or else defending them. Now, the precise
relation of those particular verses has produced quite an
argument among the commentaries, I’m sure that it didn’t keep
you up this past week, but exactly where those verses fit in the
course of this discussion is really crucial. And I’ll show
you why in a second. If you look at verses 12 through
14, if you back up just a little bit, the tendency is to want
to make verse 14 explain or be the reason provided for the latter
part of verse 13, and that would really be a problem. Listen to
it. The doers of the law will be justified for when Gentiles
who do not have the law do instinctively the things of the law. In other
words, Paul is going with the argument. Doers of the law are
justified. OK, here’s how they do it. If
you attach verse 14 to verse 13 immediately proceeding, essentially,
you make that verse say what Scripture does not. That there
is a second way of salvation, namely justification by works. Strict adherence to the law grants
salvation, even if you never heard a word of the law, that’s
what it makes it say. It’s not the case. As one commentator
said, the fact that the Gentiles are a law under themselves has
nothing to do either as an illustration or confirmation with the general
proposition contained in verse 13. The heathen do the law, therefore,
they shall be justified. He’s saying they can’t possibly
fit there. It doesn’t. This is not the conclusion at
which the apostle is aiming. He is not teaching the method
of justification or arguing to prove that the Gentiles, as well
as the Jews, may be doers of the law. He is showing the principles
by which God will judge the world, Gentiles as well as Jews. Everybody still on the trail?
What he’s saying here with lots of big words is that, look, There
is one way of salvation and what Paul is in the midst of. He has
already indicted the Gentiles. He’s already indicted the heathen
world, saying they are all under sin. We are in the midst of doing
the same thing to the Jews so that once everyone is perceived
or understood as being under sin, then Paul can break out
the gospel. So where do you put verse 14?
If you attach verse 14, look down at the text again, if you
attach verse 14 as a second proof for verse 12 so that it’s parallel
to verse 13, then we have another explanation on how Gentiles could
be judged even without the law. There is not a second means of
salvation, but there is a second standard of judgment. The Jew
was judged because he had the law right in front of his eyes.
The Gentile didn’t have the law, not only not before his eyes.
He didn’t have it on his bookshelf at home. He didn’t have it on
a computer disk. He didn’t have the law. And yet
he could still be judged. And verses fourteen through sixteen
tell us exactly how. As one commentator said, those
who are without the written law, God will judge without any reference
to that law, this he confirms first by saying in verse thirteen
that the mere possession of the law is not enough. That part
was clear enough for the Jews. The mere possession of the law
was not enough, but secondly, in verse 14, that the Gentiles
have a law by which they may be judged. Well, you just said
they didn’t have the law, they don’t have the law, but there
is a law that they have that God has given by which they may
be judged. It cannot be considered the law
in the sense of the Jewish law distributed to them. But it is
God’s law. Nonetheless, it’s enough. It’s
enough for God to judge them justly and righteously, as we
know is his character. God will hold them to his holy
standard. Even though Gentiles. Are very
much without the law. In the sense of that specially
revealed law of God. They’re not completely without
the law. The law, in a very real sense,
has been made known to them through creation, through things that
are seen. People know what’s right and what’s wrong. And in
a very real sense, they’re not without the law. Go back to verse
14. Let’s get into the text a little
bit. Let’s look at this statement repeated twice that they don’t
have the law. The Jews have the law. The Gentiles
don’t have the law. Verse 14, for when Gentiles who
do not have the law. Later on in that passage, it
repeats it, not having the law, remember what Paul is doing here
is carrying on a conversation, a dialogue, remember? And he
anticipates this contention here, this question, the suggestion
that God is unfair. He’s even unjust. If if he proposes
to judge the Gentile world and it’s the Jew trying to slip out
of God’s grasp here, that God is unfair, that he’s unjust because
the Gentiles don’t even have this law. One suggested the question
might go something like this. If the Gentiles are without the
law, how can they ever been be regarded as having sinned? Remember,
Paul, even as we’ll get to in Romans later on, Paul says, look,
the law came alive and sin came alive. The more I knew of the
law, the more I knew of sin, the more I knew of myself. Isn’t the law absolutely crucial
to pointing up somebody as a sinner? Paul doesn’t try to cover over
the fact at all. Paul doesn’t try to hide the
fact. Well, they were in the community and they had heard.
You know, they knew neighbors that had the law. So, in a sense,
they had the law. They were Americans, right? Can’t you just hear it? Paul
doesn’t try to cover over or gloss over the fact. He acknowledges
that the Gentiles didn’t have the law. You’re right. At least
not the law delivered to the nation of Israel. They didn’t
have the Jewish law. They didn’t have the law of God.
They were not like the Jews, granted with a written moral
code called the law. You’re right. Even though the Gentiles didn’t
have that law as originally written on tablets of stone, bequeathed
to Moses, bequeathed to the nation of Israel, God gave them a standard. They have a standard. Paul had
already established, as one said, that the Gentiles have God’s
general or natural revelation, right? He had revealed himself
in creation. And they knew instinctively that
they were guilty and worthy of death. They knew about God. They
knew God’s standards. They didn’t have the totality
of the Mosaic law, but they knew God. Let me take you just in
your mind’s eye back to Romans one. In fact, I didn’t have to
take you in your mind’s eye. You’re only one page away. Romans chapter
one. Look, Romans chapter one, verse
18. In Romans chapter one, verse
18, Paul writes, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven
against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth
in unrighteousness. They weren’t reading their Bibles
and then covering over and closing their Bibles so that they could
suppress the truth. The truth was everywhere around
them. It was everywhere. And yet they
tried so hard to live so fast And so greatly against God’s
will and God’s way, they sought in everything in them to suppress
the truth. Well, they didn’t have the Bible,
they didn’t have the law, I know. Paul knows that. Look at verse
19. They tried to suppress the truth
in unrighteousness because that which is known about God is evident
within them. Paul says they had it deep down
inside. They knew that there was a God.
They knew that there was a standard. They knew that there was a law.
That which is known about God is evident within them, for God
made it evident to them. Well, then he did have the law.
No, he didn’t. When it says that God made it
evident to them, they didn’t have to have Genesis, Exodus,
Leviticus, Numbers, on and on. They didn’t have to have the
entire moral code. They just didn’t. Because God
was interfacing with them personally. God made it evident to them how,
for since the creation of the world is invisible attributes,
these eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen
being understood through what has been made so that they are
without excuse. That’s how God can judge the
heathen. That’s how God can judge the
world outside of the law of God, because he has revealed himself
directly to them. But the point that Paul’s making
through this whole thing is how much more culpable Is the nation
of Israel. For spurning very clearly given
law of God. How much more culpable. Go back
to verse 14 of chapter 2. And we have another one of these
conundrums. You saw it already, and we’ve already kind of commented
on it. For when Gentiles who do not have the law do instinctively
the things of the law, this bothers us. I know that. It doesn’t sit
well. It gives us the creeps even.
Gentiles do the law. What? Those words bother us because
they fit in with all the other passages that have bothered us
heretofore. We’ve looked at these before.
Doing God’s will, doing good, being justified by our works.
All of those things bother us. And there are a variety of attempts
to wiggle out of this that various authors attempted. Here’s one.
One said that some pagan Gentiles on the basis of this moral law
fulfill God’s God’s laws demands and merit his favor. that somewhere
out there in this great big world, some Gentiles, plural, sooner
or later, they just hit on all cylinders just right so that
they’re able to live a perfect life without ever having read
a single word of God’s law. Well, that’s just silly. No,
it’s not silly, it’s stupid. It’s not true. The Lord Jesus
Christ did it and no one else. There’s another one that said.
Maybe these words are to be understood only hypothetically to understand
underlying the essential quality before God of Jews and Gentiles,
and there is an element of truth to that, but I want to part there
to say that Paul’s just talking hypothetically like he has done
already. Another attempt said that should
they be understood as referring to a secret hidden faith known
only to God, mysteriously existing in pagans hearts. Well, that
fits with option number one. In the stupid category, Paul’s
intention, the fourth option was to refer to Gentile Christians.
Well, if you call these Gentile Christians and you use that argument
through the entirety of Romans chapter two, you you essentially
got the argument that Paul’s making. You’re saying that Gentile
Christians, well, boy, they lived up to the standard of God’s law
perfectly. There is another option. The fifth option would be the
Gentiles do the law in a sense when they obey some principle
or some precept of God’s moral law, whether they have heard
and know the law of God or not. As one said, to do the things
of the law is indeed to do what the law prescribes. But whether
complete or partial obedience is intended depends on the context. The man who pays his debts, honors
his parents, is kind to the poor, does the things of the law. So,
in other words, what he’s saying is what Paul is saying is when
he says they do the law, he means sometimes. Rare as it is. Some pagan gets out of bed. begins
his day and on some point of God’s law obeys. Does that merit in heaven? That’s
not Paul’s point at all. He’s just saying the Gentiles,
they look up, they know that there’s a God in some way, shape
or form. They know that murder is wrong. They know that kindness to their
neighbor is a good thing. They know that loving their spouse
is a good and noble thing. They don’t have the law of God
before them, but they know it’s right and they do it. Should
that merit them heaven? Look further at the text. It
says the Gentiles, not only do they do it, they do it instinctively. The question is here, do the
Gentiles not have the law naturally or do they do the law naturally? That is instinctively. Well,
I mean, that’s In other words, were they born
simply without the law? We know that’s the case. And
yet, in a sense, God has given them the law. Or is it the fact
that they do the law just without having a book before them? And
I would take it in the latter sense that typically people,
not just some men, but all people show by their acts the fact that
they have a knowledge of right and wrong, even in heathen, I
mean, dark, Disturbed heathen societies, there is there is
some kind of order. There is some kind of moral code
by which they live. Stealing is stealing in any culture.
Murder is murder and wrong in any culture. As one said, by
nature, that is, without prompting or guidance coming from any written
code, therefore, in a sense, spontaneously a Gentile will
at times do certain things required by God’s law. So the Gentiles,
even though they didn’t have the law. By nature, they do the
things of the law, not all of them, not across the board, not
on every point, but they get up, they begin their day and
at some point of God’s law, they’re dead on. They’re dead on. As one pastor used to say, even
a broken clock is right twice a day, right? Even a broken clock
is right twice a day, and that’s about how it goes in the heathen
world. They don’t get it all right.
They don’t even come close. The contrast that’s set up here
when he says this nature, it’s what is derived from external
sources, i.e. the law, and what is what comes
that’s just kind of inscribed deep down within. The God impresses
upon us. That gives us this spontaneous,
natural impulse where we just we don’t even know why we’re
doing it. We’re just doing it because we believe it’s right. So the
apostle doesn’t say that they fulfill God’s law. But that certain
things in the pursuit of their daily lives, their jobs. The
way they treat their spouse and all of those other things on
some point, they honor the Lord in the way that they live. Look
back at the text, if you will, and now we’ll pick up the main
thought. All we’ve done is the details.
Look at the main thought. The main thought of verse 14
is for these are a law to themselves. These, that is, the Gentiles
are a law to themselves. It’s not that they have a different
standard, not that they have a higher standard. It’s that
they receive this standard completely differently and they have a law
code. They have a moral standard. These
are a law to themselves. These Gentiles who do not have
the law, they are the law to themselves. Paul here said one
boldly applies the term law to the condition which had just
described. He had just described as lawless.
Remember, he said they were without the law. Now he’s saying they
have the law. They have no law outside of themselves,
but the knowledge of God, which they do have, takes the place
of several, pardon me, of revealed law and may be called law for
them. It was the Gentile law, it was
the Gentile standard by which God would judge. And so in doing
the things that the law requires by nature, they became a law
to themselves and they began to essentially enculturate this
moral code. Sometimes they would even write
it down and then say murder is wrong. Running a stop sign is
wrong. They would come up with these
wrongs and rights. And almost every culture has
a standard that has some of these basic elements to it. Because
of what was implanted in their nature, by some means known only
to God himself, it confronts these individuals with the very
law of God. They themselves reveal God to
themselves. As one said, their moral nature,
with its voice of conscience commanding and forbidding, supplies
to their own ego the place of the revealed law possessed by
the Jews. Did you get that? that they are
on a completely different track. It’s the same law. It’s the same
standard, but it’s been communicated to them completely differently.
So the Gentiles became a law to themselves. They have their
own in their own nature, they have a rule, they have a code,
they have a standard, a knowledge of what is right, a sense of
obligation of what is good and right and noble. Now, if you
would, verse 15. All of this is sewn up under
that one little heading, the impartiality of God’s judgment
applied to the Gentiles. Look at verse 15. How do they
how do they present this law to themselves? Verse 15, in that
they show the work of the law written in their hearts when
they do what’s right. When they do what’s good, when
they prescribe or proscribe some activity or some deed as being
good and right for society in general, they show the work of
the law written in their hearts. As one said, the fact that they
do the works of the law and are a law to themselves demonstrates
the work of the law written in the hearts. They don’t have every
chapter and verse, but the law has done its work on their heart
to where they know right and wrong, the law of the Gentiles,
the law that the Gentiles did not have, the law by which men
will be condemned in the day of judgment, the same law brought
to bear upon them by a different method of revelation. Paul’s
argument is masterful and it’s simple all at the same time.
Now, he says that they show the work of the law, they give exhibition,
they demonstrate, they show proof. One of Paul’s favorite words,
he uses it frequently and in many different contexts and even
in many different ways. They demonstrate the work of
the law, not the law itself. They wouldn’t be able to quote
your chapter and verse. They wouldn’t be able to give
you a biblical illustration as to why they’re doing what they’re
doing. But the effects of the law in their heart, In those
who have it, the knowledge of God, the knowledge of right and
wrong is found in almost all human consciousness. In fact,
we consider a man an animal who has no moral code. He is literally
out of his mind and a rarity at that. Paul says, the law is
written upon their hearts, the work of the law. It becomes part
of the fabric of their being. This, too, Paul frequently touches
upon the works of the law, Romans 119, 121, 320. But he says they show the work
of the law written on their hearts, that’s the media. It’s not paper,
it’s not a computer disc anymore, it’s the law written upon their
hearts. What is known as the seed of
knowledge and will. When Paul wrote to the Corinthians
so affectionately in Second Corinthians three, two, do you remember he
said, you are our letter written on our hearts, known and read
by all men. In other words, there is where
the most precious thing resides and there is where God wrote
it. There is where God established his standard. And it was there
that the Gentile world operated. That was their orientation point.
And it is that by which they would be judged. There won’t
be any that can come to the throne of God one day and say, you never
told me, you never laid down this law code to me. Oh, yes,
I did. This thing was in the most precious
place. It’s written on the most enduring
of all mediums, the human heart. It’s written on that place where
the human is most likely to go and to turn. In fact, Jeremiah,
writing about the nation of Israel, used that same illustration.
Jeremiah 31 33 said this covenant, which I make with the house of
Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put my law within
them and on their heart. I will write it. I will be their
God and they shall be my people. As one pastor said throughout
history. There have been many unbelievers
who have been honest in business, respectful of their parents,
faithful to their wives and husbands, caring of their children, generous
to those in need, all of which good things God’s word commands.
Does that save them? Not in the least. God’s standard
of justice is reflected in many secular judicial systems, stealing,
murder, various forms of immorality are considered wrong and made
illegal. The whole point of the law was to draw us to the end
of ourselves. No Jew had ever lived perfectly
according to the law of God, which they had before them, and
certainly no Gentile had ever lived a perfect life according
to The law impressed upon his heart, no Gentile. That’s what
the law was intended to do to bring us to the end of ourselves
to say, I can’t do it. I need help. I’m a sinner. I’m
in desperate need of God’s grace. Go back to the text, if you would,
how did this happen? How does this work? And most of us. saved out of
our Gentile heathen them. We know how it works. But Paul
wants to make it absolutely clear to the Jew how this system functioned,
this heart system that he’s already articulated, verse 14, for these
are a law to themselves in that they show the work of the law
written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness. and their thoughts alternately
accusing or else defending the conscience. You remember the
conscience, don’t you? Hopefully, you haven’t forgotten
the conscience or dulled the conscience. The conscience that
essentially the word conscience refers to a kind of inner reflection. It is to be conscious of an experience,
a good or bad experience. And so the the sentiment, the
feelings that come from that experience either sit poorly
with us or sit well with us. We are pleased by them. One said
the basic idea conveyed is that of knowledge shared with oneself,
painful knowledge shared with oneself of having done wrong
or a knowledge, not painful, but pleasant of one’s innocence. Another said it is that individual’s
inner sense of right and wrong, his moral consciousness viewed
in the act of pronouncing judgment upon himself, upon his thoughts,
upon his attitudes, words and deeds past, present or even contemplated. We know the conscience. We have
largely dulled it. In our fallen state, we knew
the standard of God, we knew that there was a God. But everything
we did, we sought to suppress that. Remember, we sought to
suppress it in the way that we live. We sought to do away with
God. We hated God. I don’t I didn’t
know you then, but I know it’s true because the Bible says that
you were at enmity with God. You were at war. You hated him.
And our conscience seethed within us and pointed us in the direction
of God. and told us what was right and
what was wrong, the conscience being the early warning system,
warning us of judgment, warning us of consequences, warning us
of a false way. And time after time, we covered
over our conscience. We hated that voice. Conscience said, one, is man’s
moral intuition. His moral self in the act of
passing judgment upon his own state, emotions and thoughts
upon his words and actions past, present or future. You talk about
a device that you wish you could shut off. It’s not the alarm
clock. It’s the conscience. The natural
man hates the conscience because he hates God. The conscience,
said one, entreats us to do what we believe is right. It restrains
us from doing what we believe is wrong. It is a human faculty
that judges our actions and thoughts by the light of the highest standard
we perceive. When we violate our conscience,
it condemns us, triggering feelings of shame, anguish, regret, anxiety,
disgrace, and even fear. In fact, Puritan Richard Sibbes
He used this image to describe the conscience. It’s a courtroom.
You walk into the courtroom and the conscience is playing all
the characters. The conscience is the recorder
noting evidence, all the evidence against us. The conscience is
also the prosecutor and presents the case against us. The conscience
is also the defense attorney. which tries in vain to defend
our innocence, the conscience is also the witness that testifies
against us and the conscience ultimately is the judge who says,
you know what? You’re guilty. You’re guilty
of sin. We know the conscience. So when
Paul uses this image, the Jews, too, knew the conscience. But
Paul says that little device that God built into every person,
every soul, That little device is enough. That’s a powerful
little device, God says, when it’s infused with the law of
God, when it’s infused with God’s standard, that little conscience
taking constantly echoing in the head. The conscience bearing
witness. And that explains. How this mechanism
functions, doesn’t it? Paul goes on, though, to say
their thoughts alternately accusing or defending them. Now, in the
Greek, there’s this there’s this open question. Is this a debate
that we have publicly? Is this what produces all the
strife that my conscience is offended by what you did? And
so then that creates this thing. And I come to you and tell you
what’s right. But we have no moral standard, not in in written
form. And so it creates this tension
between us. Or is it just this internal thing,
their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them? Is it
just an internal thing? Or, you know, the question comes
up and there’s really, I don’t believe enough there to come
up with an absolute answer to that question. It’s both in a
sense, and maybe that’s why Paul left it purposely vague. We do
have this internal struggle going on. We do have the conscience
constantly accusing us and then in the same breath defending
us. We do have these eruptions that
take place in the heathen world where somebody is offended by
something that someone did believing that it’s right or wrong and
the other person reacts to that. We have both. So it led one commentator
to say it this way, accusation or excusation, whether of ourselves
or of others, our activities, which evidence moral consciousness
and therefore point to our moral nature, the only rationale which
is the work of the law of God in the heart. Just the fact that
there is that tension between wrestling with right and wrong,
Paul says that’s proof. That’s proof that there is a
God that’s proof that God will be just in judging when he judges. He’ll judge the Jews according
to the law that they had in their hand. He’ll judge the Gentiles
according to the law that he had written upon their hearts.
He showed them what was right and wrong. And to do that in
the day of judgment, look at verse 16. Where Paul says on
the day when, according to my gospel, And Paul wasn’t claiming
exclusive rights to the gospel, he was extolling the glorious
gospel, which he had was prepared to give his life. In the defense
of. According to my gospel, God will
judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus. Paul doesn’t give
an inch. Paul doesn’t back away from this
argument one iota to say, oh, you know what? All those people,
all those heathen on that island that have never heard. Yeah,
I get it. You know, it would be really
unfair, even unjust for God to judge. Paul doesn’t give into
that a bit. Paul says, look. God is the God
of the heathen. God is the God of the Gentiles
and God is the God of the Jew as well. And God has given you,
and as I said, how much more culpable Is the Jew, that is
his whole point. You won’t get out of judgment
this way, nation of Israel. You won’t get out of it this
way by trying to slip out the back door while God is focused
on some alleged misdeed in how he treated the Gentiles. It won’t
work. The question for us this morning, OK, so we’re in the
midst of it, we’re on the trail, right? We’re all still on the
trail. I’m just checking. We’re on this trail, we’re walking
through Romans chapter two, and remember what Paul’s doing. He’s
indicting the Jews. He is indicting the Jewish nation
and he’s doing so to lead up to the gospel. All have sinned
and fallen short of the glory of God and that without the grace
of God, without the grace of God that he has supplied in the
Lord Jesus Christ. We are all doomed, all of us
doomed. There’s none of us that can work
our way to heaven because there’s none of us that are good, none
of us that have done the right thing, all have sinned and fallen
short of the glory of God. You see what we don’t have here
in the midst of this forest that we’re walking through on this
trail as we track up the mountain. What we don’t have here before
us. Is the clear articulation of
the gospel, this is an element of it that all have sinned, I’ll tell you what we don’t have.
We don’t have Hebrews one. Hebrews one says, God, after
he spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions
and in many ways in these last days, he has spoken to us in
his son, whom he appointed heir of all things, to whom also he
made the world. Jesus Christ is obscured in these,
he’s not hidden. And Paul, when he breaks him
out, he will lay the Lord Jesus Christ before the whole world,
Gentile and Jew, as the only hope of salvation. The privilege
that we have. Is that knowing Christ, we’re
able to look back, we can imbibe these things, we can understand
these things, we can we can interact with this argument, we can see
where Paul was taking the Jewish people. We don’t want to get
off the trail. We don’t want to get off the
trail and think that somehow we could someday be saved by
our good works. If you don’t know the Lord Jesus
Christ, I absolutely grab somebody by the hand because I don’t want
you off the trail. I’d love to have you stay on
the trail and make it to Romans chapter three, where you hear
the gospel articulated. We can’t wait till then. Jesus
Christ is the only hope for salvation. It’s not by works. We need to place your faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ and in him alone. Let’s pray. Our merciful King, we humble
ourselves before you and we thank you for this noble servant, Paul,
who so passionately took the truth of God to the very people
that God had selected for his own. And he rebuked them. In an act of mercy. To help them
to understand that they, too, are sinners. Father, for all
of us in this room who have been led to that same truth to understand
that we are desperate, sinful people, Without any hope, if
we do not turn to Christ for forgiveness because of what he
accomplished on the cross. If we’re still hoping to save ourself by our deeds,
may we learn at the feet of this great servant. At the very feet
of God. That no one will be justified
by the works of the law. No one will be saved by the law. No one ever has. Lord Jesus, we thank you for
dying on the cross for us. And we thank you for leading
us to faith in Christ alone. It’s in Jesus name that we pray. Thank you.