When God goes about judging men by knowledge, by truth, by guilt, and by deeds, He will do so. absolutely without favoring anyone. based only on The subjective reality of their faith in Christ and the objective confirmation of that in their works. Welcome to Grace to You, the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur. I'm your host, Phil Johnson.
Scripture is clear. We will all stand before God someday, and on that day, it won't matter how many people called you great or how many people called you a fool, nor will it matter whether your bank account was large or small, or whether your funeral drew 10,000 people or no one at all. There is only one thing that will matter on that day, what God thinks of you. The question is, how can you be certain you will escape the wrath of a holy God? Bring that crucial question to John MacArthur's lesson today as he continues his sobering study called Without Excuse.
And now, here's John with the lesson. Let's look at the Word of God together in Romans chapter 2. We want to continue our examination of the principles of judgment as they appear in the first 16 verses of this chapter. And I want us to look at verse 11. For there is no respect of persons.
With God.
Now, what that verse is saying is that God is righteously impartial. He is not looking at the person. On the outside. He is looking at the conduct to see whether it represents righteousness or unrighteousness. The issue is not whether a person is poor or rich.
Whether a person is a Jew or Gentile. Whether a person is a church member or not, a man or a woman, educated or uneducated, wise or foolish. He's looking at the works. God's sentence will be strictly on the basis of character. And God will be impartial.
and cannot be bribed. He judges without respect of persons.
Now that phrase There is no respect of persons with God is a most interesting phrase. Respect of persons is basically one word. And the one word is a combination of the word face. Your face And the word to receive. And with God, he doesn't receive your face.
is what it really says. God is not in the business of receiving anybody's face, which means 1 Samuel 16:7. God does not judge on the basis of an outward appearance. But on the basis of the Heart. God is not going to judge on the basis of the surface.
God doesn't receive face. And the word, of course, later became the word for Partiality. God is not partial. Partiality is the fault of one who gives judgment with respect to the outward circumstances and not the inward merit. To have respect of a person's appearance.
is to rule in their favor. for what you see on the surface rather than what you know to be true in the heart. And only the vice of an evil judge would so violate justice. God cannot, God will not do that. In Acts 10, 34, Peter opens his mouth and says, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons.
That's Peter. In Acts Paul in Galatians Says essentially the same thing. In chapter 2, verse 6, God accepteth no man's person. In chapter 6 of Galatians and verse 7, be not deceived, God is not mocked. Whatever a man sows, that shall he also reap.
Whoever he is is the implication. He that sows to the flesh shall have the flesh reap corruption. He that sows to the Spirit shall the spirit reap everlasting life. Depends on what you do. And God will not pass by judgment because of who you are.
In Ephesians 6, 9, you masters do the same things unto your servants, forbearing threatening, knowing that your master also is in heaven, neither is there respect of persons with him. The same phrase is used in Colossians 3:25 and again in 1 Peter 1:17.
Now, that is the thesis of what I want you to understand in Romans chapter 2, so you can look at it again. A phrase repeated at least Five, six times in the New Testament. Is the key to our passage. God is no respecter of persons. Whoever you are.
He promises to judge. In the 16 verses that begin the second chapter are the principles by which God will judge.
Now we've said that in verse 1 is the principle of knowledge. God will judge men. who give evidence of knowing his law. The second principle in verses 2 and 3 is the principle of truth. God will judge according to the truth.
You cannot hide the truth from God. Thirdly, in verses four and five, God will judge according to real guilt. For men are guilty more than anything else. Of abusing the mercy and the grace and the goodness and the forbearance and the long-suffering of God. Then in verses 6 through 10.
We learned that God is going to judge men based upon their deeds. He will look at their deeds and by their deeds determine Whether in fact They have a right. to enter into eternal life. Or not. And when it comes to God's judgment, we come into the next element of.
Principles of judgment, and that is. God will judge. with impartiality. Verses 11 through Fifteen. Verse 11.
Sets the section in motion. It says there is no respect of persons with God. When God goes about judging men by knowledge, by truth, by guilt, and by deeds, He will do so. absolutely without favoring anyone. based only on The subjective reality of their faith in Christ and the objective confirmation of that in their works.
God is fair. He doesn't favor people. Nor does he Hold people responsible. When they didn't know as much as someone else knew. Who is more responsible?
So, bound up in the statement there is no respect of persons with God is the fact that He doesn't favor certain people, and secondly, That he deals fairly with everyone according to the light or the knowledge they have had. And someone is going to say, well, does God judge everybody the same? No. No? And that's what we find beginning in verse 12.
God, without respect of persons, will judge. Verse 12.
Now watch this amazing verse. 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.
Now think with me. The fact is, there's no respect of persons with God. If you don't have the law, you'll be judged as one who didn't have the law. If you have the law, you'll be judged as one who had the law. God will be utterly, absolutely.
Fair. And the basic idea of the verse is that in the final eternal judgment, God will show his equity and God will show his impartiality by dealing with men according to the light they possess.
Now notice in verse 12 then they have two distinct groups of people. First of all, As many as have sinned without law. shall also perish without law. Take the little phrase without law. That's group one.
They don't have the law. Anamos. Without law, that's what it means. They don't have the law. What law?
The law of God. The Mosaic Law. This is a term to designate Gentiles who do not have the written scripture. What about them?
Well, what about them? Will God judge them? When they never had the law? Yes, but he'll judge them as those who never had the law.
Well, if they never heard the gospel, will he hold them responsible?
Well, let's find out. Back to verse 12. It says, the people without the law shall also. What's the next word? Perish.
Perish. Apollo means basically means to destroy, to put to death. It is used of eternal death. Matthew 10, 28, Luke 4, 34. It does not mean annihilation, even though it can be translated to destroy.
Annihilation is not what it means. It doesn't mean they go into an unconscious existence. Basically, the best way to understand that is when something is a polymy. It is ruined.
So that it no longer can serve its intended purpose. And all people were created for the glory of God and for fellowship with Him. And when they do not come to God, they are then apolymy. They are ruined as to that purpose and intention. This is no better place illustrated than in the book of Revelation.
In speaking of the doom of the Antichrist, We read this in Revelation 17:8. The beast that thou sawest was and is not, and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit and go into perdition. Same word as perisher. Form of eponymy.
So the beast is going into perishing. The beast is going into a polemy. A verse or two later, it says, the beast goes into perdition. Verse 11. So twice in the 17th chapter, it says, the beast goes to apolemy.
The beast goes into perdition or perishing or destruction.
Now if we want to find out What that is, all we have to do is go to chapter 19. And it says the beast Was cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. Revelation 19:20.
So perishing, Apollo being destroyed. Did not mean that that beast goes out of existence. It meant that he was sent into a living Judgment. Cast alive into the lake. a fire burning with brimstone.
And by the way, in Revelation 20, 10, we find he is still there as a conscious being 1,000 years later. And I only point that up because there have been people who say that this is teaching us that the unbelieving people who've never had the law simply go out of existence. That is not what it teaches. They are ruined as to their intended purpose. They are put to death, but it is a casting alive into the lake of fire, as graphically illustrated by the use of the same term in reference to the beast.
So God will condemn those who have never heard. And even without the scripture, they will perish. Their perishing, it says in verse 12, will be without law. What does that mean? It means it will be commensurate with them not having the scripture.
Which means that it will not be as severe. As it will be for those who had the scripture, but it is nonetheless. Perishing. It isn't less than hell. It is hell.
It is that those who had the law Do not receive Hell while the others receive less than hell. It is that they receive a greater help. than the hell the others receive. Why? Verse 12 again.
For as many as have sinned. without law. Even though they didn't have the law of God, they sinned. And the wages of sin is what? People say, will those people who never heard perish?
Yes. What does perishing mean? It means the same thing to them that it meant when it was said in Revelation of the Beast: they will be cast alive into a lake burning with fire and brimstone. Why? Because they've sinned.
You see, man does sin, even though he doesn't have the written law of God. Because he has in him a sin principle. And because he chooses a lifetime and a lifestyle of sinfulness. Specially revealed law, Scripture, is not the precondition of sin. Men sin without scripture.
They're guilty and they're perishing. And their punishment will be a perishing, a damnation. For they have sinned. Against God. But it will be a lesser judgment.
Then group two. Look at group 2 in verse 12. As many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law. What does it mean as many as have sinned in the law? This refers to those who received the special revelation, those who had the word of God, particularly Israel and anyone who's attached to them who knew the truth of God.
Those who heard the prophets, those who read the law and the holy writings, those who had the special revelation. It refers to people today who sit in the church, people who know the truth, people who are in a Christian society or Christian environment. They will be judged according to greater light and greater privilege and greater liability. Jesus said in Matthew 11, how much greater will be the punishment of Chorazan and Bethsaida and Capernaum because in those places Jesus walked and lived and did his miracles. It'll be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah.
And for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment, than it will be for those cities. Why? Because they knew so much more. And the greater perishing will belong to them. They'll be judged by the law.
That refers to final judgment. They'll be judged in accord with full knowledge of God's law.
So God is very fair. He's very fair. The hottest hell is reserved for the people who knew the most. That is why, beloved, it is such a fearful thing to be an apostate. It is such a fearful thing to know the truth and constantly turn your back on it.
You would be better off eternally if you never knew. And to no one, turn your back. But God is fair. And he will judge those without law as without law, and those with law as without law. as with law.
Now immediately at this point, Paul knows the Jew is going to ask a question. He's going to say this.
Now wait a minute, Paul. We who have been the guardians of the law. We who have been the agents by which God has revealed the law? We who have written it and rewritten it and preserved it, we should have the higher honor, not the greater condemnation. We who have possessed the law should be protected from God's wrath.
And some people today would join and say, yeah, I've been going to church all my life. I've been trying to be religious. I bought a Bible. I'm trying to be religious. I mean, how can we be condemned?
We've been the religious ones, we've preserved the law.
Some are going to say, I've taught in seminary. I've taught in seminary all my career. I've prepared men to go out and serve in churches, of course, seminaries that don't believe the Bible. Churches that don't either. But what we've been religious, we've been connected to Christianity.
I mean, it's us. I mean, you know us. The religious folks. Paul replies in verse thirteen. For not the hearers of the law are just before God.
But the what? The doers of the law shall be justified.
Now, the word for hearers is not the usual word. It is not the normal word, a kuo, which is the normal word here, but it is. Acroatace. And it's used specifically of pupils who hear. because they're constantly in the educational process.
Vincent, I think, is a good translation of it. Those whose business is hearing. And that is exactly what the Jews did in the synagogues, didn't they? They heard and heard and heard and heard. It was read to them week after week after week after week after week.
It was explained to them, and they were literally professional hearers. But it is not to the ones who make it their business to do the hearing, it is to the ones who make it their business to do the doing. The justification comes. It is not performance, beloved. It is possession.
That's why James warns us, you see, in the same way. James says. But be ye doers of the word and not what? Here is only because if you are, you are deceiving your own selves. What a deceit.
God's law doesn't protect Hearers. From judgment. No, the more they hear, the deeper the judgment. I know some people are going to come to the judgment and they're going to say. God, if you, I mean, do you have a record of how many hours I listened to MacArthur?
That ought to be good for something. And my wife Wherever she is. Tapes I listened to those things all the time she played them. I mean, isn't that good for some? I mean, she even played Christian music and then she bought Bible tapes.
And some guy read the Bible all the time. And I used to have to sit in the kitchen while they had a Bible study in my living room.
Some of you fathers might have to say that about your children. Say, well, I mean, I heard it all. I was there. I did everything I could to make them comfortable. I didn't throw The tapes out.
I didn't kick my wife out. I mean, I went to church. Isn't that good for something? Yeah, greater condemnation.
Okay. See, God's law does not protect The more you know God's law, the more it intensifies the consequence, unless it is obeyed. And here is a terrible frustration because you can't obey it in your own strength. And so he literally backs them into a corner, you see. I mean you're casually hearing but you don't do it.
And so there is a A judicial verdict. Against you. But the one who does, verse 13, the doer of the law. Shall be justified. Not the hero.
So God requires perfect obedience. God requires a manifestation of righteousness. But no one can do that. That's the law. Is meant to drive us.
to a point of desperation. Where we turn to God. for the power to do what we otherwise couldn't do.
So the question the Jew might ask is answered. Doesn't do you a bit of good to have it unless you do it. It just intensifies your guilt. Because only the one who does it is justified and that's a judicial verdict there. Are you ready for the second question?
Here it comes.
Now this is the question asked By the Gentile or the pagan or the one who didn't have the law. He's gonna say now wait a minute Now wait a minute. We never had the law. And if we never had the law, how in the world can we be condemned for not obeying it? Fair question?
Can you condemn somebody for not obeying the written word? I mean, after all, in Romans 4:15, it says, Where no law is, there is no transgression. And in Romans 5:13, it says, For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. And in Romans 7:7, what shall we say then? Is the law sin?
God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin but by the law.
So if there is no transgression when there's no law, and there's no knowledge of sin when there's no law, how can we be responsible when we don't have the written law? And a lot of people ask that question. Does God hold people responsible who have never heard the written law of God? Let's find out the answer. Verse 14.
For when the heathen or pagan, Gentiles, ethné. who have not the law. That is the written law now. Keep that in mind. The written law.
They don't have that. When they do by nature, The things contained in the law These having not the law are a law unto themselves. Who show the work of the law written in their hearts. Their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing. one another.
Now what is he saying? He's saying simply this. You do not Have to have the written law to be responsible. For you have a law. Within you.
Manifest in your behavior. Manifest in your conscience and manifest in your thinking patterns. Let's bow in prayer. Father, we know that someday the Light of divine judgment will throw its beams to illuminate the remotest universe. We know that at that point souls will Face the reality of judgment.
They will walk, as it were, down a hall of mirrors. where every act of their earthly life on all sides is seen and re-seen. And they'll be judged. Father We thank you that in Jesus Christ we never need to face that day. Because there is therefore now no judgment.
No condemning judgment. to them who are in Christ Jesus. You're listening to Grace to You, the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur. John's current study is called Without Excuse.
Well, friend, even though we're now into the fall season, north of the equator at least, it may still feel a bit like summer where you are. And for a lot of us, summer brings back memories of summer camp.
Well, you might be surprised to know that summer camps, Christian summer camps in particular, played a big role in John MacArthur's pastoral training before he came to Grace Church. Here's how John explained it. I grew up in a church. My dad was a pastor, and church camp was a staple part of life. I went to church camp from the earliest recollections that I have as a little elementary kid.
And I remember being overwhelmed at some of the messages that were given in camp. I remember the intensity of being preached at several times a day for a six or seven day period. And I remember that the Lord worked on my heart in that environment. And then as I got a little older, high school, college, I was involved in camp as well in my student years, and the Lord used many of those events to have a dramatic impact on my life under the preaching of the Word of God and thinking seriously about my own commitment to Christ. But my most intense experience with uh camp came after I graduated from seminary and uh I began to speak at At youth camps.
And I mean, when I say speak at youth camp, I might be at a youth camp for two and a half months in summer, speaking to a different group of young people every week through that summer period. I did that in summer camps for, I think, about nine years. Even into the early years of pastoring at Grace Church, I did a lot of youth camps. And that was a critical part of my training as a young man. And I found it a fertile area of ministry among young people because of the intensity of exposure to the Word of God and the opportunity to be counseled 24-7 in that kind of spiritual environment.
It's a healthy thing. Right, and friend, a great reminder there that whether you're young or old, at summer camp or sitting in a pew, biblical preaching has the power to transform you.
So let me encourage you, help yourself to the thousands of free Bible study tools at gty.org. That includes our sermon archive, more than 3,600 full-length messages by John MacArthur. Take advantage today of everything that's available there. You can call us at eight hundred fifty five Grace. or visit our website gty.org.
The MacArthur Study Bible also includes a helpful guide for getting the most out of your time studying God's Word. To order, call 8005 GRACE or go to gty.org. And again, be sure to check out the MacArthur Study Bible app. To download this all-in-one Bible study tool, visit gty.org slash apps. Again, that's gty.org slash apps.
And would you do us a favor? Let us know how grace to you has helped you grow spiritually. And if God has used John's teaching to bring someone you know to faith in Christ, we would especially love to hear about that. You can email us at letters at gty.org. or use regular mail.
That address is grace to you. Post Office Box 4000, Panorama City, California 91412. And thank you for mentioning this station's call letters anytime you get in touch.
Now for the entire Grace TU staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Watch Grace to You television this weekend on NRB TV. Check your local Christian station for air times. And be here tomorrow for another 30 minutes of Unleashing God's Truth one verse at a time on Grace to You.
