20240825 Romans 2:12-16 What About Those Who Have Not Heard?

Welcome to Vertical Church

Acts 2:42 (LSB)

And they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers.

As a local church we seek to uphold the values of the NT church as seen in Acts 2:42 -

We are Trinitarian - while God is one in essence, He is three in person: God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit

We believe in the sovereignty of God - sovereign over all creation, sovereign over the affairs of men, sovereign over salvation

We believe in the authority of the Bible - Scripture alone is the Word of God

We are Biblical in our theology - we teach the Bible

We are Systematic in our theology - there is a divine unity in the Bible

We are Catholic - we believe that the Church is not a building or a denomination but a people - those who are truly in Christ and embrace the truths that were embraced and confessed by the New Testament Church, the apostolic church. When we say catholic we use the term in its original sense meaning “universal”—the whole church.

We are evangelical - we believe that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

We are a Vertical Church - we believe that all true worship and living is Vertical, God directed. We live for the glory of God alone.

Scripture Alone, Grace Alone, Faith Alone, Christ Alone, For the glory of God alone - join us on Sundays

Call to Worship - Psalm 7

Psalm 7 (LSB)

7 Let the congregation of the peoples encompass You, And over them return on high. 8 Yahweh judges the peoples; Give justice to me, O Yahweh, according to my righteousness and my integrity that is in me. 9 O let the evil of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous; For the righteous God tests the hearts and minds. 10 My shield is with God, Who saves the upright in heart. 11 God is a righteous judge, And a God who has indignation every day. 12 If a man does not repent, He will sharpen His sword; He has bent His bow and prepared it. 17 I will give thanks to Yahweh according to His righteousness And will sing praise to the name of Yahweh Most High.

Scripture Reading - Jeremiah 31:31-34

Jeremiah 31:31–32 LSB

31 “Behold, days are coming,” declares Yahweh, “when I will cut a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant which I cut with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, but I was a husband to them,” declares Yahweh.

Jeremiah 31:33–34 LSB

33 “But this is the covenant which I will cut with the house of Israel after those days,” declares Yahweh: “I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34 “And they will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know Yahweh,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares Yahweh, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

Introduction:

In Romans chapter 2 Paul attacks the false worship systems and religious systems of men

He attacks moralism: the belief that my goodness makes the gospel unnecessary.

And this raises the question that has possibly been asked more than any other question that is given as an objection to Christianity.

The question that everyone will eventually ask:

What about those who have never heard the gospel?

This is the question that Paul will deal with in this morning’s passage:

Romans 2:12–16 LSB

12 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. 13 For it is not the hearers of the Law who are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified. 14 For when Gentiles who do not have the Law naturally do the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, 15 in that they demonstrate the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them, 16 on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus.

(1) All unconverted people are under the wrath of God (Rom 1:18)

In Romans 1: The Gospel is the power of God for salvation

It is a gospel that saves us, not from our sin, but from the wrath of God

Creation reveals the power and existence of God

The unsaved person suppresses the truth of the gospel -

those who have rejected the gospel and those who have never heard the gospel.

Those we would consider good people and those we would consider evil people

Those who reject the gospel will create their own forms of worship and their own standards of righteousness.

All of which the Lord declares as unrighteousness and ungodliness

Romans 1:18 LSB

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,

“is revealed” is a present active verb, meaning from the beginning of time until now God’s wrath is presently and actively being revealed to everyone, everywhere

But if the wrath of God is revealed, what about the gospel since they have never heard about Jesus?

(2) All unconverted people are without excuse

Romans 1:19–20 LSB

19 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, both His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.

Notice that this verse is written to all people. Those who have heard and those who have not heard

Romans 2:12-15 makes two statements that are true about all people, those who have heard and those who have not heard the gospel

And he uses the Law of God to make his point

(3) All people will perish, all will be judged because all have sinned

Romans 2:12 LSB

12 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.

To sin is to miss the mark, to perish is to receive eternal destruction, eternal loss

You will be judged and you will come up short

You may know it this way - For all have sinned and fallen _______ short of the glory of God

(4) All people have the Law of God but they have fallen short

Romans 2:13–15 LSB

13 For it is not the hearers of the Law who are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified. 14 For when Gentiles who do not have the Law naturally do the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, 15 in that they demonstrate the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them,

For means that it is an explanation. 13 and 14 explain verse 12.

Those who do the law of God written on tablets (the Jews) and those who do the law written on hearts (the Gentiles) will both fall short

External or internal, they have the Law. And those who do the Law must keep it perfectly.

And furthermore, hearing the word is not enough, you must do it

Paul has already mentioned faith in chapter 1

Romans 1:5 LSB

5 through whom we received grace and apostleship for the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for the sake of His name,

Romans 1:17 LSB

17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “But the righteous will live by faith.”

In a church of Jews and Gentiles, in a church where there needed to be unity, Paul does something amazing: he unifies them based on their sinfulness, he unifies them based on their inability to be justified by doing the Law, both the written Law and the Law of the heart, and he unifies them by pointing to their need of the gospel and he does this by holding up those who have heard the Law and those who have not heard the Law and he tells them that they are both in the same boat.

And that boat is sinking . They fall short, they miss the mark. Which is the meaning of the Greek word for sin .

They need the gospel, the whole world needs the gospel. Apart form the gospel, no one can be saved

(5) A sober warning

Romans 2:16 (LSB)

on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus.

According to my gospel, the true gospel, the gospel Jesus gave to Paul

We are without excuse -

I don’t know the Bible, I wasn’t raised in church

I grew up in church, isn’t that enough?

My good deeds outweigh my bad deeds

I’m not as bad as the other people in my church

God will judge the secrets of men

We do not see the secrets - we see the external - and Paul shows us that even based one externals we fall short

1 Samuel 16:7 (LSB)

But Yahweh said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but Yahweh looks at the heart.”

There is a heart problem that only the gospel of God, the Spirit of God and the Savior of God can transform

Now may the good Shepherd, who laid down His life for His sheep, continue to be your faithful Shepherd who defends you from all evil, who delivers you from all fear, who protects you from your own folly, who carries you home at last with rejoicing. Amen.