The sermon titled 'No Partiality with God in Judgment' is based on Romans chapter 2 and focuses on the argument made by the Apostle Paul regarding the necessity of the gospel and the power of the gospel. The sermon addresses the judgment of both those who have heard the law and those who have not. It emphasizes that salvation is not by works, but works authenticate salvation. The sermon also highlights the role of the conscience in God's judgment and the significance of God judging the secrets of the heart.

Please open your Bibles to Romans chapter 2 and find verse 11. I'll be reading from verse 11 to verse 16. This is the inerrant, all-sufficient, sweeter-than-honey Word of God. Romans 2, 11. For there is no partiality with God.

For as many have sinned without law, will also perish without law. And as many as have sinned in the law will be judged by the law. For not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the hearer, but the doers of the law will be justified. For when Gentiles, when they do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves, their thoughts accusing or else excusing them in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel. Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you for teaching us how you've made the world and all of the people all over this globe, how you have revealed yourself, how you've extended your loving kindness to all men in various ways. We thank you Lord that we have your word to help us to understand these things. And So Lord I pray that you would give us such a sense of the beauty of your glory, the way you have ordered the world today. Amen. Please be seated.

So the Apostle Paul is engaged here in a long argument that goes all the way to almost the end of chapter 3 in Romans. He's really demonstrating the necessity of the gospel, the power of the gospel. He's explaining why he's not ashamed of the gospel. And he's not ashamed of the gospel, first of all, in the first chapter, because of what it has done in his own life. And he just explodes in one element of praise after another for what God has done in his life.

And then he says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel for it's the power of God and a salvation for all who believe, for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. So he's explaining why he's not ashamed of the gospel, but particularly why we must embrace the gospel. And so as you've been with us perhaps over the last few weeks, after condemning the outwardly rebellious, the immoral, the homosexual, you know, the heterosexual revolutions, the homosexual revolutions. After doing that, Paul turned in chapter 2 to the moral, to the religious, to the nice people, to the people who do good. And these are the self-righteous who are blind to actually the depth of sin and its grip in terms of original sin and the things that our sin nature causes us to do.

So now the apostle Paul in He turns to how God judges every person. And he is addressing two kinds of people. He's addressing those who've heard the law and those who have not ever heard the law. So that's the context. And they answer the question, you know, what about the judgment of those who've heard the law, but also what about those who've never?

For example, the person in the remote tribe who never had the opportunity to hear the gospel, what about them? So scripture is sufficient to tell us all that we need to know about answering that question. And so that's the question that's before us. Is it fair that God did not give the law to them? So these verses explain really the backdrop of how God made mankind, the way that he ordered every person's heart, making them in his image, and he explains all of this, but we can't forget what he's doing.

He's trying to explain the necessity of regeneration, the necessity of justification by faith. And when we get to the end of this argument in chapter three, he'll say all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And so all of mankind is rolled up in this condition of being exposed to the judgment of God and so that's his whole argument here. He has just spoken of these two problems. In verse 10, he talks about those who follow the Lord, who are regenerate, and he says, but they will receive glory and honor and peace to everyone who works what is good to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

He's talking about the outworking of regeneration, those who work what is good, but they work what is good because they've been regenerated. And then in verse 8, but indignation and wrath and tribulation and anguish on every soul of man who does evil. So he's framing this in the judgment of God. This is a text about the judgment of God and we have to be very clear about that. And it's obvious God is judge.

There will be a day of judgment. But what about those who never heard the gospel? Yes, there will be a day of judgment for all those who have not heard the gospel. And so what I have here are six Propositions that reveal the truth about every human being whether they've heard the law or not and these propositions Just roll out of the phrases of the text. So we'll start with the first one you know what What why?

Why is it that every human being is under the judgment of God who is unregenerate? And the first is that there is no partiality with God. There's no partiality with God. That's in verse 11. Judgment takes place on level ground.

Every person in every culture, regardless of their knowledge of the law or not, have been placed on level ground because of the way that God has created every human heart. One commentator said that there is no partiality with God concerning race, place, or face, And his using that term face is actually faithful to the text, to this particular word partiality or impartiality. The Greek word that's used for impartiality is a word that means to receive face. And he's saying, and the word actually indicates that God does not receive face. In other words, he's not affected.

No performance influences the judge. No look on your face will persuade God because of your nature and what God has done to reveal Himself to you. That's what it means that God is impartial. He does not receive face. He does not look upon accomplishments.

He does not look on your attitude. He looks on perfect righteousness and justice according to his own law. And we already know this about every person, that every person has broken the law every person has broken every law of God that's why James says in James 2 10 for whoever shall keep the whole law yet stumble in one point is guilty of all because all of the laws are connected with thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart soul strength and mind because When a person breaks any one of the commandments They've actually broken all of them because all of them are connected with loving God with all of your heart. That's what the Bible teaches. So God's justice is impartial.

It does not receive face. It does not regard mankind in terms of his status or his deeds or anything like that. So he is impartial. That's the first proposition that reveal the truth about every human being. God is not only sovereign, God is full of mercy, God is patient, God is kind, God is omniscient, He knows everything.

You might make a judgment about someone, but you don't know everything. But God does know everything in the human heart. This is the danger that we have, which is probably why the apostle Paul said, do not judge things before the time, because we're not omniscient. God knows everything, and so therefore, he is impartial. He's the only impartial being.

We can try to be impartial. It's good to try to be impartial, But it's probably almost impossible for a fallen human being to be completely impartial on anything because we've been tainted by sin. So in the next phrase we learned that all people are judged with or without the law. This is verse 12, the first phrase in verse 12. For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without law.

So now He's talking about those who never heard the law. They are without law We've already learned from the Apostle Paul that there's enough in nature To convince every person that there is a God that he's powerful and that he's good. That's in chapter one. We covered that with some level of detail. You know, so, yes, God does judge the person who has not had the law of God.

And there are many ways that we should talk about this. I was very interested, I heard Sinclair Ferguson say in a sermon one time, if this really troubles you, then what are you doing about it? Does it really trouble you? But we also we know that that God does judge even those without the law. Now later on in this passage we'll cover it we'll see why.

But until we get there, the third proposition, that's true of about every person, is that those with the law will be judged by the law. That's the second half of verse 12. Those with the law will be judged with the law. I'll read the words. And as many as have sinned in the law will be judged by the law.

So God has given his law and those who know it will be judged by it. The law of God does penetrate deeply into the heart. Hebrews four says, the word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit and of joints and marrow, and is the discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart and there is no creature hidden from his sight but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account. So the law of God comes and it exposes our sin. We just sang a song, Your Perfect Law Exposes Me was the opening line of that song.

And It discerns the thoughts and the intentions of our hearts. The law shows us our sin, and the law shows us as a result of our need for a savior, because no one can keep the law perfectly. But those with the law will be judged by the law. In chapter 1 of Romans, verse 32, we're told that they know that the law will judge them. Who knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same, but they approve of those who practice them.

Here, one thing that we learn about the people who reject God is that they know that judgment is coming. But they do it anyway. And in order to satisfy, to pacify their conscience and their bad feelings for breaking the law of God, they bring other people in to do it because if you have other people who will join you it gives you a little bit of comfort that maybe you're a little bit okay comparatively. And in chapter 126 We also learned that the condemned did not like to think about God even though they knew he was God. Even as they they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind to do those things which are not fitting.

And I believe he's talking about the person who's heard the law and the person who hasn't. Being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness, they are whisperers, back-biters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, and unmerciful. So they knew the glory of God, but they swapped it for corruptible things. And in verse 18 in chapter one, we learn that they suppress the truth and unrighteousness. So there is a suppression of the truth among all men, whether they've heard the law or whether or not they have heard the law.

Now the fourth proposition for what's true about every human being is that the doers of the law are justified. The doers of the law are justified. That's in verse 13. For not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified. So now you have those who hear the law and those who do the law and of course there are other places in the Bible that you know that speak of this.

God is impartial, but his judgment is not the same. There is a harsher judgment. Like for example, in James we learned that teachers will incur a harsher judgment, a stricter judgment. In Matthew chapter 11, I think we understand this nuance that to say that God is impartial doesn't mean that he gives out the same judgment. Here's what Jesus says, he says, but to what shall I say, to what shall I like in this generation?

It is like children sitting in the marketplace calling to their companions saying, we played the flute for you and you did not dance. We mourn to you and you did not lament. He's talking about people who hear the word of God, but it doesn't make them dance, it doesn't move their life, they don't, it doesn't make them obey. They're hearers of the law, but they're not doers of law. They don't dance to the law, that's the language, figurative language that he uses there.

And then he says in verse 20 in Matthew 11, Then he began to rebuke the cities. And he's making it very clear that there were works done in some cities and God revealed himself in some cities, but not others. He says, he began to rebuke the cities in which most of his mighty works had been done. These are people who had the law and they had the presence of Jesus. Because they did not repent, remember, they heard the piper but they didn't dance.

And he says, woe to you, Chorazin, woe to you, Bethsaida, for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. In other words, you have those who heard and those didn't hear. The ones who heard are actually having a restrictor judgment in this passage. And then he says this, And you Capernaum who are exalted to heaven will be brought down into Hades, for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day, but I say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you." So God is impartial, but he doesn't exercise the the extent of the intensity of his wrath in the same way.

But he's also saying here that it's not the hearers of the law that are just, but the doers of the law will be saved. Now if you've read your Bible you understand that justification is not by works. That's not what he's talking about. Rather salvation is validated by works. That's why James says, faith without works is dead.

The only people who will enter life and will be acquitted will be those who are the doers of the law. That's not the same thing as saying that you are saved by keeping the law. And What the apostle is saying here is that the doing of the law is the result of the acceptance of Jesus Christ, because no one is saved by keeping the law. And By the way, no one is saved without God changing their hearts. God changes the hearts and he gets all of the glory for our salvation because it's he who has predestined us before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.

Every conversion is a work of God acting upon the heart of the sinner and changing that sinner's heart. And those whom God wakes up, they repent, and they begin to do the works of righteousness. The power of sin is broken, and they now have the ability to actually do works of righteousness. So when you are acquitted, you change your ways. That's the meaning of this statement here, that obedience is not the means of salvation, but obedience is the proof of salvation or the result.

And so that's why James in James one says, but be doers of the word and not hearers only Deceiving yourselves for if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer He is like a man receive observing his natural face in a mirror for he observes himself goes away and Immediately forgets what kind of man he was but he who looks into the perfect law of Liberty and continues in it and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work doer of the work this one will be blessed in what he does. And so this is the whole doctrine of justification by faith that produces works, but it is not according to, it is according to deeds, but not because of deeds. And that language is found in chapter two in verse five, who will render to each one according to his deeds not because of his deeds but according to his deeds and there's a difference who will render to each according to his deeds eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek glory honor and immortality but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness indignation wrath tribulation and anguish and so forth so salvation is demonstrated by works It's not the hearers of the law but the doers of the law.

And then the fifth proposition that's true for every human being is that the Gentiles are judged by a law, verse 14 and 15. And this really is the heart of the argument or disclosure about, you know, what happens to those who never heard the law? And I'll just read it again verse 14 15 for when the Gentiles who do not have the law By nature do the things in the law These although not having the law are a law to themselves who show the work of the law written in their hearts." There's that word work again. Who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves, their thoughts accusing or else excusing them. Now I wanna work my way through these two verses and I want to pull out of them three reasons it's right for God to judge the Gentiles even though they never heard the law.

Three reasons why it's right. Because he gives those reasons here. And I'm gonna order those three reasons under three headings. The first is nature, the second is the work of the law, and the third is conscience. You'll, I'll go through these one by one.

Nature, the work of the law, and conscience. This is God's justification for the judgment of those who never heard the law. So the first reason is nature. The first reason it's right for God to judge the Gentiles even though they've not heard the law is that verse 14 says, the Gentiles do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law. These, although not having the law, are a law to themselves.

This is speaking of the moral sense that every man who's ever been born possesses. Every man by nature made in the image of God is a moral creature. You see that word nature? By nature. They have never heard Moses, they do not have the 10 commandments.

But here we learn that they receive a moral law by nature. This also helps us to understand something else that's wrongfully presented and that is morality is not only conditioning by the environment. Morality is not just simply conditioned by the environment. It's conditioned by the human heart that has a nature that God made in the soul of every man. It's not just culture that divides man's behavior.

And of course, we see this in the garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. When they sinned, they knew they had sinned, and they hid themselves. And God says, why are you hiding? And they were hiding because they had a law written on their hearts, as well as God's spoken word to them not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So mankind possesses a moral constitution.

It doesn't matter where you go, people believe in right and wrong. They might say they don't but you just try to cross them up for one second and they'll say you're wrong. So every man is born with a moral sense and Every person experiences some level of guilt. Every person knows when they're engaging in unlawful behavior. In almost every culture, it's not right to murder.

In almost every culture, it's not right to steal. There are some cultures whose consciences have been so seared that they've suppressed those things so desperately, but you cannot find a culture that is not a moral culture by definition. Because man is a moral being. I think this is one of the greatest proofs for Christianity, that all men are moral beings, and men cannot get away from their sense of morality. In Romans 5-12, we're told how this worked.

Therefore, just as through one man, sin entered the world and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because all sinned. In Romans 8-20, we learn that the whole creation was subjected to futility. And even though we are fallen, of course the image of God remains in every person who's ever been created. I think that's what James is driving at in James 3 9 when he says with our tongue we we bless our God and father and with it we curse men who have been made in the similitude of God. All have been made in the similitude of God.

All people bear the image of God which actually makes them very precious and we should treat them that way. So man's sinful nature is passed down from Adam to every person who has been born and that means that every person has a moral nature and there is a war, there is a moral war going on in every human being because morality is imprinted in the human heart. It is written on the heart. So, the first reason that it's right for God to judge the Gentiles is that even though they do not have the law of Moses, the Ten Commandments, every man has a moral nature and man will be judged by his moral nature. The second reason the work of the law, the second reason is the work of the law, second reason it's right for God to judge the Gentiles is that the work of the law condemns them.

The work of the law condemns them, that's in verse 15, who show the work of the law written in their hearts. Notice it's not the law itself, but the things that the law produces. And what people are like is that they produce a work. Every person produces work. They produce the work not to kill.

They produce the work not to steal. They produce the work not to kill. They produce the work not to steal. They produce the work not to commit adultery. And every society punishes these kinds of things.

This is the work of the law. It's the natural extension of the moral character. But man violates his own moral law. Man knows what's right, but he violates it and he stands condemned. Even though he's never heard the law of Moses, he doesn't need to.

He doesn't produce the work of the law. He doesn't produce the fruits of obedience to the law that's actually written in his heart. He's not consistent. He fails. And sometimes people's failure gets so harsh to their soul that they'll commit suicide because they just are failures and They they can't be what they want to be and So the work of the law condemns them, that they can't even work the works of the law written on their hearts.

So the third reason that it's right to judge the Gentiles is that their conscience accuses and excuses them. Everyone is born with a conscience. This is a tremendously complex doctrine in some ways, in other ways it's very, very clear and easy for the littlest child can understand it. Verse 15, their conscience also bearing witness and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else accusing them, excusing them. So notice here that the conscience of every person, the tribesman who's never heard the gospel is doing three things.

It is bearing witness, it is accusing, and it is excusing. Now notice there's also a social element, between themselves. There's, that's culture, and This is sort of a social conscience, if you might call it that. Social systems, law, cultural consensus, sort of the conscience of a people. I think what we've seen in our own nation is the degrading of the conscience of the American public.

Our consciences are dulled, they are seared, particularly because of all the entertainment and the garbage that's in front of us all the time. And our consciences are seared. And this is this between themselves. But what we're learning here is that God has given every person a conscience. There are about 40 occurrences of the word conscience in the Bible.

But there are also some crossover words. The heart is also used to say a lot of the same things. The word soul can, in certain contexts, sounds like it's the conscience. The conscience is something that you know in your heart, and it is man's moral sense. I think it was Herman Boving who said, the conscience is the earthly reflection of the moral order of God.

It's a reflection of it. And it was reflected in Adam and it is reflected every day in every person's heart. Our consciences are always talking to us about different things. The conscience is reflected in the Ten Commandments. It's reflected in the whole teaching of the Bible.

The conscience is a little bit like a governor on a mini bike. A governor on a mini bike makes it so they can only go so fast. It can only go so far, as far as the governor sets it to go. And the conscience is like that in the heart of man. That's why man does not do everything he thinks he would do.

That's why man, though he is bad, he is not as bad as he could be, because God placed a constraining conscience in his heart, and he will not do everything he thinks about doing. Something will hold him back. Aren't you glad for that? Can you think of how many things God has rescued you from because you had an upwelling, a rebellion in your conscience that said no don't do that. Even you were taking one step toward it and then you took steps back.

God was rescuing you by your conscience and there there are several illustrations that that people use to describe the conscience. Some would say that it's the policeman of the soul. Others have called it the deputy of the soul. I think I read somebody who called it God's alarm system in the soul. The spiritual nervous system, the doorkeeper of the soul.

These are all things that people have tried to grasp to explain the meaning of the conscience. Here's Bovink again. The conscience is proof that communion with God has been broken, that there is a gap between God and us, between his law and our state. This is clearly evident when our conscience accuses us. But also when in a given case it excuses us, that is keeps silent that separation from God underlies it.

The human conscience is the subjective proof, in other words It's the proof in your heart of humanity's fall. A witness to human guilt before the face of God. Your conscience is given as a gift of God. But sometimes your conscience is scowling at you. Your conscience might be smiling at you.

Your conscience might be winking at you. Your conscience brings feelings up in you. Your conscience gives you opinions and emotional responses. And it makes judgment calls. But the conscience is a blessing when it is shaped by the word of God.

But the conscience is a horrible taskmaster when it's not. I don't know if any of you ever sang that song, Be Careful Little Hands What You Do. Be careful little hands what you do. There's a father up above who is looking down in love be careful little hands what you do we used to sing be careful little heart what you feel be careful little heart what you feel because all of your feelings are not right. Some feelings are actually sinful feelings.

You don't want to exalt the authority of your feelings, but the authority of the truth of God. So this is all about the conscience. There's so much to say about the conscience, but the conscience is not infallible. We read about Hymenaeus and Alexander and 1 Timothy, who rejected a good conscience and shipwrecked their faith. One must be very careful with his conscience.

For Hymenaeus and Alexander, it was the first step in apostasy. We learn in 1st Timothy one, five, and six that a person can stray from a good conscience. He says, now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith, from which some have strayed. Well, our text says that our conscience accuses us. It's like a check engine light, and it excuses us, and it's silent, or gives us affirmation for what we might do.

In Hebrews 10 22, we learn that the conscience can become an evil conscience. In 1 Timothy 4, 2, we can have a seared conscience, where our conscience no longer troubles us about the things that should trouble us, trouble us about the things that used to trouble us. But because we've continued to do them, It no longer troubles us like it used to and maybe we have gathered other people with us So it troubles us even less This matter of the seared conscience it's the Apostle uses a word That kind of it comes out of the whole idea of branding something, you know, you put your mark on a cow with a brand and you sear the skin, but then that skin no longer has feeling anymore. You know, That's true of burns and things like that. Your conscience becomes seared and insensitive like with a branding iron.

In 1 Timothy, in Titus 1.15, we learn about a defiled conscience. A defiled conscience is a polluted conscience. And maybe it's very much like a seared conscience. And what the apostle Paul is saying is that this is the kind of thing that happens to the conscience of the unbeliever. And it's a little bit like, you know, the couple in New York City, they're happily living in fornication, but of course they're recycling and they're not having babies so they don't ruin the planet and they're buying free trade coffee and they adopted a puppy, but they're fornicators.

That's a seared, defiled conscience, where their sense of right and wrong has just gone wacko. That's what happens to the conscience. We're seeing the wacko in our culture today. The value systems that are completely opposite are the result of seared and defiled and evil consciences. In 1st Corinthians 8 verses 7 through 10.

We learn about a weak conscience weak consciences hold false beliefs And of course we're told how to gain a good conscience. And there really are two ways. There are two wonderful helps that God gives all to have a good conscience. And the first is to shape your conscience by the word of God, by the word of truth. And what happens in life is that we're saved and our consciences were so messed up.

And then slowly the word of God begins to cleanse our thinking and helps us discern between sinful emotions and holy emotions. And over time, you know, our consciences are healed, but they'll never be healed completely. So we train our conscience by the word of God. You know, Hebrews 10 22 talks about a conscience sprinkled clean. Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

He's talking about the new birth. He's talking about your conscience cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ. He's talking about justification by faith. And it's by the new birth and the forgiveness of sins that's how we gain a good conscience. You know John in 1st John 1 9 he said if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

This is one of the most helpful things that God does with a conscience. He cleanses your conscience. You know things that were done in your past that you shouldn't have done that come back to haunt you, let them not haunt you. Let them not haunt you anymore. You've been cleansed.

God wants to cleanse your conscience and even your consciousness of some of those things. It's part of being set free by the love of God that's in Christ Jesus. I'll quote Bovink again, I'm so sorry. That conscience is good and pure, that is washed in the blood of Christ I'm gonna read it again That conscience is good and pure that is washed in the blood of Christ, that is sanctified through faith, and in which the Holy Spirit bears witness. So Only that Christian conscience is good, that feels bound solely and entirely to the divine will known to us from Revelation.

So God can cleanse an evil conscience, he can heal a seared conscience. But he gave us a conscience to both excuse and to accuse us. The most important thing for a Christian to do is to train his conscience so it accuses of the right things and excuses of the right things and that can actually be a challenge through life but it's God's journey it's the highway of holiness that he puts his people on to to heal them over time to take them from one place to another, he saves when you're dead in your trespasses and sins. You start out as a newborn man, a newborn woman, And then he works and he cleanses your conscience through the word of God. It's such a good thing, isn't it?

What a blessing it is to have God to come and cleanse an evil, seared conscience. Well, the sixth proposition for what is true for every human being is that God judged the secrets of the heart, verse 16. In the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel. Now here we encounter again the omniscience of God. God knows everything And this is an affirmation that whether a person knows the law or does not know the law, God judges the secrets of their hearts.

God is a just judge. And no one can hide from the judgment of God. No one can hide from the eye of God. In Revelation, we read his eyes are like a flame of fire. In other words, nothing escapes his sight.

Nothing is hidden from its heat. And the early church father Ambrose, he said, if you can't hide yourself from the sun, which God is a minister of light, how impossible it will be to hide yourself from him whose eyes are 10, 000 times brighter than the sun. God judges the secrets of the heart. You know Moses wrote in Psalm 90 verse 8, you have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your countenance. God sees all the secrets of the heart of those who did not have the law of God and those who did.

Romans 7, 24, Oh wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? Psalm 19, David, he cries out at the end of that psalm about the law of God. He says, who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults. Let them not have dominion over me.

And then he says, let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight, oh Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. Because God does judge the secrets of the heart. And the truth about fallen human beings is that there are many secret sins, concealed covetousness, secret hatred, hidden bitterness, private drunkenness, lust in the heart. Drunkenness, lust in the heart. There are so many ways that we sin and no one can see it, but God sees, He judges the secrets of the heart as it says in verse 16.

There's no hiding from God. And Solomon tells us that the secrets, secret sins will be revealed. Ecclesiastes 12, 14. For God will bring every work into judgment and every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evil. So like Solomon said in Ecclesiastes, he said that there is no one living who is righteous, but God judges the secrets of the heart.

Okay, I want to come with some applications. So you've seen these six propositions. Scripture is sufficient to understand how God judges both those who have the law and those who do not have the law. Hey, the first thing here is the doctrine. Salvation is not by works, but works authenticate salvation.

And frankly, I think this points to one of the great tragedies of modern evangelicalism, where you have people who have no real heart to obey God, but they say they accepted Jesus Christ at a crusade, or they prayed a prayer, but they've not been regenerated, they've not been born again. Their lives have not been changed, the power of sin has not been broken. And they can survive in churches for years while their pastors pander to them about their worldly lifestyle. And perhaps some will find themselves at the judgment seat and they will curse their pastors for not telling them that man, that justification works. And if it's not working, then it hasn't been justification.

So this is the doctrine here. You notice the word work in this text bears witness to that faith without works is dead. And then just the necessity of regeneration. Jesus said, he said, unless you are born again you cannot see the kingdom of God. This is the doctrine of regeneration.

It's the doctrine of becoming a new person in Jesus Christ. You know, somebody, a woman came up to George Whitefield who was constantly preaching, you must be born again. She said, why are you always preaching, you must be born again? And he said, ma'am, because you must be born again. And that's implied here in this passage that Jesus Christ came to save sinners.

Another thing I just want to say before we leave this section of Scripture, the conscience really is a demonstration of the love of God. It's God's protection. It's one way that He keeps your soul. It's one way that he keeps you from sinning against your friend, against your wife, against your church. Your conscience is a good thing if it's formed by the word of God.

And then, and then finally, what does this have to do? Particularly with many of you who've had children? We have a lot of little children here. I was really struck by this this week. Last Friday, I'll just say Debra and I had a grandson born, our 25th grandchild.

And I was thinking about this new eternal soul in the arms of one of my children. And I was so thankful that this eternal soul is in the arms of one of my children. But I thought about, I've been meditating on this whole matter of the conscience. He's made in the image of God. This little boy who's just a few days old has a conscience.

He has a law, a moral sensibility written on his heart. And now his parents have a great responsibility to shape the conscience of that little child. And God gives parents very clear instructions for how to shape the conscience of a child. To teach them the word of God when they sit in the house, when they walk by the way, when they lie down, when they rise up. To be like David, I will set no unclean thing before my eyes.

To shape the conscience of a little child is one of the greatest duties and privileges anyone will ever have. And you know, there are actually more children in this room than there are adults. And I just didn't want to let the moment pass without just encouraging you. Shape the consciences of these eternal souls on the sweeter than honey Word of God. Bring them up in the training and the admonition of the Lord.

Like Psalm 78 says, show them the great deeds of God, his work, his strength. Show him his love. Show them, show them the grace and the mercy and the patience of God. Show them that God saves sinners. Show them that God heals broken hearts.

Show them that God is sovereign over everything. Show them that God is good. Show them that the kingdom of heaven is the most wonderful kingdom. Show them that Holiness is happiness. Bring them up.

God has given them to you. Don't do anything to dull their conscience. Don't do anything to sear their conscience. Don't do anything to defile their conscience. Bring them up in the training and the admonition of the Lord.

So What's true about mankind and about those who have and haven't heard the law? First, there's no partiality with God. Second, those without the law will be judged by law. Third, those with the law will be judged by that law. Four, the doers of the law are justified.

Five, the Gentiles are judged by what is written in their hearts. And number six, God judges the secrets of the heart. Well, as a local church, let's be a people who shape our consciences on the word of God alone. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word, for how penetrating and how real it is, how true to life it is, how it tells the story of the way that life really is in the world.

And I thank you for teaching it to us today, amen. Thanks for watching!