Good to have each one of you here tonight. And we'll be in Romans. We're working our way through Romans. We'll be in Romans 2, 12 to 16. Talking about the secrets of men and judgment and stuff. So this will be interesting. Let's go to the Lord in prayer and then we'll get started. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, as we come to you tonight, we thank you, dear Lord, for your Word. We thank you, dear Heavenly Father, for mercy and grace. We thank you, dear Lord, for the opportunity of being able to study your Word. And now, Father, we pray for the presence and power of the Holy Spirit upon this service. And Heavenly Father, we pray that you'd open the Word of God up to us. May our hearts be receptive to it. Dear Heavenly Father, open our understanding that we might understand through Scriptures. We ask it in Jesus' name and for His sake, amen. I want to start off by saying this passage of Scripture that we're going to look at tonight, I want you to think about this, the result, the result, all right? Not the process. Usually when we get into the scripture, we talk about the process of moving from this to that, all right? But the focus of this passage of scripture from 12 to 16 is the result. And I'll mention that as we work our way through it. Now, one of the things that I want to bring out before I ever get started here is in Romans 10, four, we read, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness, Romans 10, four. And so, then what's this about that we're reading here? What's this all about? And as it mentions the law, the law, the law. And then later on he mentions for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. And so it amounts to this. If you do anything for righteousness, for yourself, All right, like a lot of people try to work their way to heaven, and they think their righteous acts will get them to heaven. It's not. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. You see that? In other words, there's no thing you can do, nothing you can do for righteousness. all right, to receive righteousness, so on and so forth. And so, with that in mind, so we're gonna look at the result and not the process, and then we're gonna work our way through this. We're gonna look at the judge. We'll end up talking about the judge tonight, who is Christ. And so, with that thought in mind, We realize that people always have an excuse, don't they? They have an excuse. Well, I'll show you something about that. But let's start off here now with this Romans chapter two, verse 12. It says, for as many as have sinned without law, shall also perish without law, and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law. For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. And if you'll notice, he's talking about the result. The result, you see that? And so, now there's something interesting about this. First of all, What you find then, this statement, as many as have sinned, as many as have sinned. See that? It's listed twice in that one verse. In other words, what we find, it's universal. It's worldwide. As many as have sinned, as many as have sinned. See that? It's universal. It's worldwide. And then he says, you know, this have sinned. In other words, they're guilty of crimes against God. They're guilty of crimes against God. And now there's something else we'll see in this. We find that for as many as have sinned without law, in other words, Well, I'll explain to you in just a second. Shall also perish without law, and as many as have sinned in the law. In other words, the revealed law, all right? Because the law has been revealed to them, shall be judged by the law. And so either way it goes, what you're going to find here is that without law or with the law, you're going to be judged. That's it. And so without the law, your works cannot stand. And with the law, you can never fulfill righteousness. It's impossible for you to do that. You see, reveal is the key. Then it says, for not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. That's the result. And we find that who can fulfill the law? Nobody. Nobody, there's always something missing. You see that? And he talks about this, those are the ones that would be justified, right? The doers of it. And so it's just not having the law, it's the doing of it. And that's the focus. So when you do the law, the focus is you. That's the difference between law and grace. You see, when you do the law, you're the focus of it. That gives you bragging rights in heaven. Oh, look at what I done. Look what I managed to do. Look at how good I was. Look at what I did. And where grace says, look at what he did. Look at what God has done. God gave his son, look what his son has done. He gave himself for us. Go to verse 14 now. For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these having not the law, are a law unto themselves. There's the result. You see that? They become a law unto themselves. I noticed that when I lived over in West Kentucky, I've mentioned this to you often, that, you know, culturally, you go in different parts of the country and people say things. But I noticed over in West Kentucky, boy, they live by that saying, well, I think, right? I think and I feel. And Buddy, in many cases, their thinking and their feeling was their law. That's all it was to it, didn't make no difference what God said, what you said, what anybody said. Well, I think and I feel and that was it. And now watch this, it says, our law unto themselves. The result of thinking about the law, the result of you thinking about you fulfilling the law, the result of all of this is that you become a law unto yourself. They become a law unto themselves. And you and I know that by just talking to people every day. People want to justify themselves. They want to become a law unto themselves. They measure themselves by themselves. And so if they keep the law, then they feel good. If they fail in keeping the law, then they feel bad. It has nothing to do with God and Christ. It's all about them. You see, and so what we find then is a nature is opposed to Scripture. Verse 14, for when the Gentiles which have not the law do by nature, see that in verse 14? Do by nature the things contained in the law. Now, wait a minute. If you think about that for a second, First of all, like I mentioned in one of the devotions I sent out, was the fact that people try to find happiness in a world that God has cursed. People try to find happiness in a world that is at enmity with God. And you're trying to find happiness in a world that is at war with God. Now, does that make any sense at all? No. But the devil loves it, all right? And your flesh loves it. But that's tied to what we would call natural insanity, right? Because you think or you feel like it's gonna make you happy and it never does. And so we find then, nature, when we think about nature, nature is going to be opposed to scripture, isn't it? That's why when you and I go to talk to somebody about thus saith the Lord, when they've been living thus saith me, boy, they get really bent out of shape about that, don't they? Why? It's because the focus is them. And they have no fear of God before their eyes. And so, what we find then, there is a process in this. And in verse 15, we're going to see some of this. And so now by nature, they do by nature the things contained in the law. Well, there's just some natural things, right? I mean, there's some moral things, right? I mean, you go to some places that's never heard anything and they have some natural laws that seem right, but that's all. Now watch this. Now go to verse 15, let's deal with this for a while. It says, which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscious also bearing witness. Now, write this down, make sure you write it down. There is a difference between written and revealed. There is a difference between written and revealed. We understand that the Word of God has been written, and a lot of people can read it. But unless the Holy Spirit reveals it to them, they'll never see it. If the Word of God is spiritual, and it must be spiritually discerned. Those men that was on the road to Emmaus, Jesus opened their understanding that they might understand scripture. Did they know some scripture? Yes. But did they understand what they were reading? No. And so it is with multitudes of lost people, religious lost people today. Those religious lost people today, they might read a Bible of some type, but do they have the understanding of it? No, they don't. And that's the thing that makes the difference. Now, several things I want you to notice here. When you look at verse 15, We gotta realize, as you go through the Bible, there's all kinds of statements. I was thinking of this in Proverbs 24, 12. It says, if thou sayeth, behold, we knew it not. A lot of people think ignorance of the word of God is a good excuse. But the Bible says in Proverbs 24, 12, if thou sayest, behold, we knew it not, doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it? And he that keepeth thy soul, doth not he know it? And shall not he render to every man according to his works? You might say, I didn't know it. And the Lord's looking at you like, mm-hmm, it's all around you and you didn't know it. Ecclesiastes 12.14, Ecclesiastes 12.14. For God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil. Wow. So everything is going to wind up at the judgment seat. Now go back up to Romans 2, 15. We show the work of the law written in their hearts. Now watch this, their conscience also bearing witness. Now that's interesting. The conscience bearing witness. Now, when you think about that, let me throw the rest of that in for you, then we'll talk about it. And their thoughts, the meanwhile, accusing or else excusing one another. Boy, that's happening today, isn't it? My goodness. You see what happens here. Now the Bible says to you and me, Titus 1.15, that the mind and the conscience is defiled. Titus 1.15, that the mind and the conscience is defiled. The mind and the conscience is defiled. So now what you've got, you've got people living around you, and their mind, how they think, how they see things mentally, is defiled. And their conscience, it says, the Bible says, their conscience is defiled. So you might say, well, don't they have any conscience about that? No, not at all, none. So we wonder why that we look at this, wow, we say, that's amazing. The law in their hearts and their conscience also bearing witness. So what kind of witness would their conscience bear to them? You see? What kind of witness would a defiled conscience reveal to somebody? and their thoughts, the meanwhile accusing or excusing one another. In other words, it's a defiled, perverted conscience, and it's a defiled mind. That's why it said meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another. Now, what's that? That's the result, isn't it? So when we look at this, we realize verse 12, Boy, verse 12 and 13, there's a result. Then we look at verse 14, there's a result. We look at verse 15, there's a result. You see that? And so we realize then, as we look at this, there is a difference between that which is written and that which is revealed. Okay? There's a huge difference between what's written and what's revealed when it comes to the mind. And so in their hearts, the law written in their hearts, in other words, there's some common sense, thou shalt not kill, they understand that. They have a few moral codes, but that ends it, doesn't it? We know people right now who are at the bottom of morality. I mean, they're at the bottom of it, period. I mean, they couldn't get any lower morally. But they might have some consciousness about stealing. In other words, their moral character is terrible. But you might say, what do you think about stealing? Oh, that's terrible. Wow. See, there's something written in the hearts but their conscious also bearing witness. Wow, we could spend a lot of time searching the scriptures looking at that, because some people, their conscious might say, yes, no, we realize up in Romans chapter one, what do we find there? Man, even these people knew that God didn't like what they were doing, but they didn't care. That's what it says in Romans one. They don't. You see that? A conscience can be so corrupt, so weak, that even though it recognizes wrong, it'll go ahead and do it anyway. Because they're not guided by a biblical conscience. And their thoughts, Their thoughts, now look at their thoughts. Their thoughts are what? They mean while accusing or else excusing one another. Now notice this. The result of this is human judgment and not God's judgment. See that? In other words, They are the ones that's either accusing or else excusing. In other words, if they see no wrong in being a sodomite, they'll excuse it. But if the sodomite is a thief, then they'll not talk about him or her being immoral. They'll talk about, well, he's a thief. You see, in other words, what they're going to do, they're going to either accuse or excuse the things that they judge in their mind. And that's why we look at some people and think, man, you know, what's they're saying about the pot shouldn't call the skillet black or something like that, you know? If you cook over a fire long enough, you'll know the story, the moral of that story, won't you? Because the pot turns black and everything else. And so we find then that in this, their thoughts, their meanwhile, accusing or else excusing one another. And so they base their life upon the opinions of one another. You see that? Now, biblically speaking, the one thing we cannot do is base our life upon somebody else's opinion. I might come to the pulpit with a message I know that's gonna make all of you mad. Well, am I supposed to adjust it to make you feel good about your life and sin? No, I just need to get up here and make you all mad. and try to get out the back door real quick or something. You see, that's the truth of it. But listen, if the Word of God leaves you to yourself, your thoughts, you will either accuse or excuse one another. And you see, that's where the problem comes in, because now you're faced with the Word of God. So your excuses are no longer valid because you're basing your excuse upon the people around you. And see, one of the problems with American Christianity especially is we want to base our Christianity on our peers. If my peers are doing this and this and this, that's gonna be my standard for Christianity. Well, years ago, that was not the standard for Christianity. You get outside of liberal America, you'll find out that peers are not the standard for your Christianity. There's people that still believe that the word of God is the standard for Christianity, not my peers. And so it goes back to that statement that what the parents allow in moderation, the children will do in excess, but yet what your peers do will cause you to live in rebellion to God. And the people around me have accepted this. Why shouldn't I accept this? You say, well, your peers are not your standard. the Word of God is. And that's the difference between biblical Christianity, all right, and popular Christianity. One is based upon the Word of God, and the other is based upon how the people around me feel about it. And so when I look into the Word of God, just like in Jude 3, contend for the faith that was once delivered unto the saints, then the thing that I've got to do is to make sure that I've got to go back in history and find out what was once delivered unto the saints. And then that's what I've got to stand on. Now, and when you get Matthew 24, and the disciples said, Lord, tell us when your coming is in the end of the world. The very first thing he says in the next verse is be not deceived. So that means this. You see, so what we find is, what was this? that we see. Well, like the doctrine of the church. There was only one church, it was a local visible body. That's it. And that's what people believed for the first 400 years. And then come along the Catholics, and then come along the Protestants. Remember now, Baptists are not Protestants. And Then all of a sudden, next thing you know, Baptist Church starts saying, well, we got two churches. All the saved are in the universal church, and then we got the local visible body. That's just crazy. I mean, if I had a pet dinosaur, if it was that stupid, I'd choke it. I mean, my goodness, that's insane. But see, but what happens in many of our churches today, that's exactly what they believe and preach. You see that? And so, what we find then, is you see, you find a corruption of things. Now watch this, go to verse 16 now. Here's the result, the result, verse 16. and the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel." Whoa. Now, in other words, there's going to be a scrutiny of human character. which is going to reveal the real principles that govern us. And there's gonna be a scrutiny of human character and conduct by Christ himself. A scrutiny of human character that reveals the real principles that govern us, and scrutiny of human character and conduct by Christ himself. Whoa. So, what we find, then, in this verse, we find two things. That the standard of judgment, the standard of judgment, there's two things. One, the life of Christ. Two, the Word of God. That's it. That's enough, isn't it? All right, now watch this. In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel. The secrets of men by Jesus Christ. The standard, that's the standard. Boy, those verses that tell you and me that we are in Christ, oh, we ought to rejoice in that, shouldn't we? We're in Christ. According to my gospel, Paul says, that's the word, that's the gospel that he preached. Now there's something we've got to do. to deal with this, because we see the result, the result, the result, the result. We get down to verse 16, and the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel, that's going to be a result, isn't it? All right. Well, in the notes that I put down, the judge, okay? We've got to take a moment and look at this if we're gonna understand this. Let's talk about the judge. Because if we're going to be, all right, God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, I think we ought to take a close look at the judge, don't you? Let's do this now. John 5, 22 and 23, we're going to talk about the judge. It says, for the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son. Wow. That all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. And he that honoreth not the Son honoreth not the Father which hath sent him. Wow. And so God the Father hath committed all judgment unto the Son. Just think about this. God the Father has committed all judgment unto the Son. Wow. That, ladies and gentlemen, ought to give you goosebumps. The Son. God, the Son. Think about that. How in the world would somebody deny Christ? Christ sitting on the throne, you standing buck naked before him and judgment. And you see the nail prints in his hands. You see the scars on his forehead where the crown of thorns have been. You sit there and look at the nail holes in his feet where he was nailed to the cross. And he died for you. How in the world are you going to get away from that? Well, God the Father has committed all judgment unto the Son, Jesus Christ. His judgment of you is going to be true and accurate. There he sits. As the substitute, look at the judge in Acts 10, 42. And he commanded us to preach unto the people and to testify that he, watch this now, that it is he which was ordained of God to be the judge of quick and dead. the living and the dead. So now in John five, the father committed all judgment to the son. Acts 10 42 commanded us to preach unto the people and to testify that it is he which was ordained of God to be the judge of quick and dead. Do you realize Jesus Christ had been ordained of God the Father to be the all-consuming judge of all humanity. That When you look at that and realize that he commanded us to preach unto the people and to testify that it is he which was ordained of God to be the judge. I want you to know something. Can you imagine the accuracy of his judgment? The accuracy of his judgment. I don't know about you, but when you read this, just think about this. If you're saved, if you're saved, he recognizes everything about a life that's faithful. But he also knows everybody that's not saved. He's judging the quick and the dead, the living and the dead. Wow. That goes so deep. Act 1731, because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained. Whoa. Whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. Wow. Because he hath appointed a day. Ladies and gentlemen, God the Father has appointed a day. It's appointed unto man, wants to die, then cometh the judgment. God the Father says I've appointed a day. So there's two appointments that ought to cause every human that's got any sensitivity at all to reality to be terrified. Two appointments. One, there's an appointment of death. is appointed unto man wants to die. Two, because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness. There's a day appointed when judgments going to happen. Wow. By that man whom he hath ordained, that's Jesus Christ, whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, and that he hath raised them from the dead. I want you to know something. The secrets of man is going to be revealed. At the top up here, we look at Romans 2, 12 to 16, we find the result, result, result, result. It's always focusing on man, isn't it? See, that's always man, but I want you to know something. That's going to be judged one day. That truth is going to come out. Who did you follow? Who had the biggest influence in your life? Was it Jesus Christ or your peers? Was it Jesus Christ or somebody else, some other human? No, Christ needs to be preeminent in everything. 2nd Timothy 4, 1, I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead and his appearing and his kingdom. Ladies and gentlemen, there is coming a day when Jesus Christ is going to judge the quick and the dead. God the Father hath ordained the Son to be the preeminent judge of all humanity from Adam and Eve to the last person that'll ever be existing on earth. God the Son is going to be the preeminent judge. There's two appointments. Now watch this. And I'm gonna bring something to your attention now. I wanna grab Romans 2, 12 to 16 one more time. And remember now, as we look at this, we see the result, the result, the result, right? So here's what I want to do with you now. Realizing that the judge is Jesus Christ. That God the Father hath ordained the Son to be the judge. And he's going to judge in righteousness. According to righteousness. Well, we must, he's gonna judge the world in righteousness. We that are saved, we're in Christ. The Bible says all of our righteousness is as a filthy rags. The Bible says all of our righteousness is in Christ Jesus our Lord. You see that? So we, have a good reason to praise the Savior, don't we? If he's going to judge the world in righteousness, you that are saved, that are in Christ, Christ will be judging you according to his own righteousness. Now you talk about eternal security, you talk about something wonderful. That's it. So now quickly watch this now. I'm going to go over this real quick, but I want to show you something. Verse 12 and 13. Romans 2, 12 and 13, for as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law. And as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law. Verse 13, for not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. That's the result. But no man can reach that result. Can they? It's impossible. Verse 14, for when the Gentiles which have not the law do by nature the things contained in the law, these having not the law are a law unto themselves. That's the result. When people strive to do the law, themselves. I need to do this, live like that. And you set a worldly standard rather than a Christian biblical standard, then what you're going to do, you become a law unto yourself. That is why In the next verse, which showed the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness, their thoughts, the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another, that's the result. The reason you can do that, the reason you can accuse or excuse one another is because your standard is not Christ. Your standard is one another. And so, man, we can either accuse or excuse one another. Why? Because either you meet my standard, or you don't. Or I don't meet your standard, or I do. Or this side over here will meet your standard, or they don't. And this side over here will meet their standard, or you don't. You see how it works? Christ is our righteousness. Christ is our standard, not one another. Verse 16, in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel. Oh, so scrutiny of human character and conduct is gonna happen. Oh my goodness, it's going to happen. So where are we going to be? You see, ladies and gentlemen, one thing for sure, judgment's going to take place. And guess what? The standard is not going to be the people around us. The standard's not going to be our peers. Nothing like that. It's not going to happen. And so with that thought in mind, realize this. What's the standard? The standard is Jesus Christ. And that's it. And that's the end of it. And so with that thought, remember, Paul deals with the result, not the process. Never forget this, ladies and gentlemen. Jesus Christ is the judge. And that's it. Gather around, let's pray.