Romans 1:32
Evidence of Ten Commandments in Men by Nature
Pastor Albert N. Martin expounds Romans 1:32 and 2:14-15, arguing that the Ten Commandments comprehensively summarize the obedience God requires of all humanity, not just Israel. He demonstrates that all people, by nature, possess an inescapable awareness of God's moral law, evidenced by conscience and the ability to discern right from wrong, even without written revelation. This inherent knowledge vindicates God's judgments throughout history and indicts those who deny personal moral responsibility or limit the Decalogue's authority to a specific historical period. The sermon concludes with a call for unbelievers to flee to Christ for refuge from the curse of the broken law.
Primary Texts
Topics
Outline 14 sections · 76 min
- Opening Prayer and Scripture Reading 0:03
- The Gospel's Necessity and the Law's Role 5:04
- Foundational Principle: Man's Obligation to Perfect Obedience 11:25
- Second Foundational Principle: The Ten Commandments as a Comprehensive Summary 13:27
- Confessional Basis: The Law Written on Adam's Heart 15:57
- Evidence from Romans 1:32: Gentiles' Knowledge of God's Ordinance 20:17
- Evidence from Romans 2:14-15: The Law Written in Hearts 32:50
- The Law Unto Themselves and the Work of the Law in Hearts 48:51
- Summary of Unquestionable Evidence 56:39
- Practical Use 1: Vindicating God's Judgments Before Sinai 58:02
- Practical Use 2: Vindicating God's Judgments on Nations 61:32
- Practical Use 3: Indicting Modern Excuses for Sin 63:50
- Practical Use 4: Indicting Limits on Decalogue's Authority 67:29
- Call to Repentance and Refuge in Christ 73:59
Key Quotes
“But the same man or woman who reads the same Bible with the same spiritual understanding also knows that the gospel will have no meaning apart from the holy, the inflexible, and the righteous law of God.”
“Man, as creature, created by God, is under an inescapable obligation to render perfect obedience to God.”
“The obedience which God requires of man is comprehensively summarized in the Ten Commandments.”
“God gave to Adam a law of universal obedience written in his heart.”
“That's what they know of the judicial ordinance of God. That's what they know of the righteous judgment of God, that the things that they are doing are wrong.”
“They're trying to get rid of the God who stands behind the law that is inescapably etched upon their very consciences.”
“Until we get back to this conviction, taught in the Scriptures, that the Ten Commandments are the revelation of the unchangeable will of God for all men in all places and all times, and that God will hold men accountable for that measure of the light of those commandments they have...”
“The carnal mind is enmity against God It is not subject to the law of God Neither indeed can it be And you need the grace of God to change your nature as well as the work of Christ to change your record”
Applications
All listeners
- Understand that the gospel has no meaning apart from the holy, inflexible, and righteous law of God, which reveals sin and guilt.
- Recognize that God's judgments upon men prior to the giving of the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai are vindicated by their inherent knowledge of the law.
- Understand that God's judgments upon nations who received His wrath prior to the revelation of His law at Sinai are vindicated by their inherent knowledge of the law.
- Reject the modern tendency to shift personal moral responsibility to genes, society, environment, or economic deprivation, recognizing that man is accountable due to the law written on his heart.
- Do not limit the authority of the Decalogue to the period from Sinai to the cross, but understand its overarching validity for all men in all places and all times.
- For those who have grown up with the Ten Commandments taught and the gospel preached, recognize the greater accountability and the severity of judgment if you remain under the curse of the broken law.
- Don't remain any longer under the curse of that broken law, but run to the Lord Jesus Christ for true refuge, who perfectly obeyed the law and fully discharged its obligations by His death.
- Acknowledge the perversity of our nature that seeks to run from the inescapable sense and knowledge that God made us, that we are His creatures, and that we owe Him perfect obedience.
A full transcript is available on the tab. 158 paragraphs, roughly 76 minutes.
Opening Prayer and Scripture Reading
The following sermon was delivered on Sunday evening, November 12, 1995, at the Trinity Baptist Church of Montville, New Jersey. Now though Pastor Smith is already, as part of our corporate intercession, prayed that God would bless the ministry of his word, let us once again seek the Lord, not out of vain repetition, but out, I trust, of a sense of our own present need of the grace and power of God, the scripture says a man can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven.
And let us pray that the Lord may be pleased to give what he knows we need. Let us pray together. Our Father, we have poured out in the language of this hymn, not only our expressions of thanks for the privilege of gathering to worship and to praise your holy name, but we have acknowledged our debt. We desire that we may hear you speaking from the sky.
And we know that if we are to hear your voice from above, we will hear it as we encounter your written word. And we therefore pray that as the scriptures will be opened and we will see them with our eyes, and they will be read and quoted and explained in our hearing, O God, grant that in the midst of this exercise we may hear your voice, voice of power, voice that will, as the two on the road to Emmaus, cause our hearts to burn within us,
and where necessary, cause our hearts to be bowed with pungent conviction, with a fresh sense of sin and undeservingness. O Lord, by your word, drive us afresh to see our utter dependence upon your grace and your provisions for sinners in the person and work of your dear Son and in the ministry of the Holy Spirit. We call upon you that you would aid both preacher and listener alike, as together we confess our utter inability to accomplish anything for the good of our souls, unless you,
as you are pleased to come and help us. Hear us then in this our cry of need, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Now there are two portions of the word of God that I want to read in your hearing.
We shall come to them further on in the exposition of the word, but I want to read them in your hearing at the outset, and they are both found in the book of Romans, the book of Romans, first of all in chapter 1,
the concluding statement of that chapter, in which the apostle has been describing the spiritual and moral condition of the Gentiles in their putting down of what they know concerning God and in their being abandoned by God to every vile deed. He says of these Gentiles in verse 32, of chapter 1, who, knowing the ordinance or the righteous judgment of God, that they that practice such things are worthy of death, not only do the same,
but also consent or find pleasure with them that practice them. And then in chapter 2, verses 14 and 15, verses, which in their context, as we shall see, are a parenthetical statement, the apostle says, for when the Gentiles that have not the law do by nature the things of the law, these not having the law, are the law unto themselves in that they show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness,
their witness therewith, and their thoughts one with another, accusing or else excusing them.
The Gospel's Necessity and the Law's Role
A pathetic, frustrated, hand-wringing cry issues forth continually from many segments of our society. Some of the refrains of this cry sound like this. We are losing, we are losing all of our moral moorings. Or we are adrift on a turbulent sea of total confusion as to what is right and what, if anything, is wrong.
Another refrain is, why don't they do something in Washington? Surely some legislation can be passed that will address the horrible problems that are happening in Washington. We are losing all of our moral moorings. We are losing all of our moral moorings.
The problems of teenage illegitimacy, the frightening proliferation of violent crime, the total abandonment to insensitivity of one man against another. Why don't they do something there in Washington? And in response to these various refrains that constitute that pathetic, frustrated, hand-wringing cry of society, politicians, legislators, educators, law enforcement agencies, and a host of others put forth their proposals
to rectify the present impasse with respect to these things that cause them to wring their hands in despair. However, anyone who reads his Bible with his eyes opened by the Spirit of God knows that he is not alone. He is not alone. He is not alone.
He is not alone. He is not alone. He is not alone. He is not alone.
He is not alone. He is not alone. He is not alone. He is not alone.
He is not alone. He is not alone. He is not alone. He is not alone.
He is not alone. That the ultimate answer to these cries is to be found not in more legislation cranked out of Washington, not in more so-called education in the various areas of social and moral aberration, but the answer ultimately is to be found only in the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, which alone is the power of God unto salvation. But the same man or woman who reads the same Bible with the same spiritual understanding also knows that the gospel
will have no meaning apart from the holy, the inflexible, and the righteous law of God. He knows that no man will ever welcome the gospel as good news of God's sincere offer of mercy, of God's well-meant offer, and God's persuasion that men receive the offer of deliverance from the guilt and the power of sin by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that no one will take that offer seriously unless he has come to know something of the gospel. He has come to know something of the gospel. He has come to know
the reality of his guilt and his bondage to sin by means of the Spirit's application of the law of God in the theater of his conscience. One of the major reasons why the gospel has so little impact upon our present society is because we have a society by and large that is willfully ignorant of the inflexible, searching, and all-encompassing demands of the moral law of God. And it is for this reason, among many others, not the least of which,
that I have never preached a series on the Ten Commandments in all the years of my ministry that we have begun a series of studies in the Ten Commandments. And last Lord's Day, I indicated that the first task in opening up this series was to lay a proper foundation for our study of the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments, or what is commonly designated as the moral law of God. And I used the extended imagery of the foundation of a house. For the foundation with its slab and its deeper footings and with its walls
is to the house what these introductory studies are to our exposition and application of the Ten Commandments. It is the foundation of the house which both supports the superstructure of the house and determines in the main the contours and the dimensions of the house. And if we are to move safely into the superstructure of exposing our consciences to God's holy, God's perfect, God's spiritual law as summarized, as distilled in the Ten Commandments,
these foundational principles are crucial lest we make an unlawful use of God's law. And that was a problem while living apostles were yet giving direction to the unlawful use of God's law. And that was a problem to the unlawful use of God's law. And that was a problem to the unlawful use of God's law.
And that was a problem to the early churches so much so that Paul, among other reasons, had to leave Timothy in Ephesus while he went on to Macedonia. You read this in 1 Timothy 1.3 because there was an improper use being made of God's law. And the apostle knew that it was crucial for the health and well-being of the church at Ephesus that they make a lawful and not an unlawful use of the law.
Foundational Principle: Man's Obligation to Perfect Obedience
Now in pursuit of that announced goal, I then set before you one foundational statement. To use my extended analogy, we drove up with our concrete mixing truck and we dumped one five-yard load of concrete to begin to lay the slab of our foundation last week. And that aggregate was made of this statement. Man, as creature, created by God, is under an inescapable obligation to render perfect obedience to God.
Any study of the law is bound to fail if it does not begin and proceed and never deviate from that foundational principle. Man, as created by God is under an inescapable obligation to render perfect obedience to God. And then in the remainder of the morning time and into the evening I sought to establish that along three lines considering the ground of this obligation, the creator-creature relationship, the standard of this obligation,
the revealed will of God, and the role and mission of God. the ultimate expression of this obligation, the work of Christ, and the final day of judgment. Well, now the concrete truck is rolled up again this morning, and it has a fresh load of concrete to pour down into the foundation. And as last week, it will be comprised of one statement that I hope God helping me this morning and this evening to open up and complete next Lord's Day morning.
Second Foundational Principle: The Ten Commandments as a Comprehensive Summary
And the load that we dumped into the foundation this morning is this. The obedience which God requires of man is comprehensively summarized in the Ten Commandments. The obedience which God requires of man is comprehensively, comprehensively summarized in the Ten Commandments. Now, you see the progress we're making in laying our foundation.
We have established in our study last week that man, as created by God, is under an inescapable obligation to render to God perfect obedience. And in the unfolding of that, we saw that the standard, the standard of that obligation is the revealed will of God. Now we come to focus in on an aspect of how God has revealed His will. The obedience which God requires of man is comprehensively summarized in the Ten Commandments.
What I purpose to do this morning is to seek to prove from the Scriptures that from the Ten Commandments, the obedience which God requires of man is comprehensively summarized in the Ten Commandments. From the creation of Adam, down to this very hour, and from this hour until the day of judgment, that the Ten Commandments have been and are a comprehensive summary of the obedience which God requires of us, His creatures. Now, my efforts to prove this to you will follow out three basic categories, the first, this morning, the second, God willing tonight,
and the third, the Lord sparing us next Lord's Day morning. How do we know, on what grounds do I assert, that God has given to man a comprehensive summary of the obedience He requires of him and has embodied that in the Ten Commandments? Well, I answer. And this is Category 1 this morning.
Confessional Basis: The Law Written on Adam's Heart
The unquestionable evidence of the influence of the Ten Commandments in all men by nature. The unquestionable evidence of the influence of the Ten Commandments in all men by nature. Our 1689 Confession of Faith, taking its language from its mother, the, Westminster Standards reads in Chapter 19, on the Law of God, the opening words, ìGod gave to Adam a law of universal obedience written in his heart.î
And in the second paragraph, that thought is picked up and amplified as follows, ìThe same law that was first written in the heart of man continued to be…î a perfect rule of righteousness after the fall and was delivered by God upon Mount Sinai in the Ten Commandments. So our confession of faith comprised not by a bunch of young tyros who had just discovered their Bibles three days before they sat down and said, let's draft a confession, but represents the ripened biblical and theological thought
of some of the keenest minds and most godly men in the 17th century reflecting the conviction of the vast majority of God's people upon the earth at that time have asserted that God gave to Adam a law of universal obedience written in his heart. But what was the shape or form of that law? They go on to say in paragraph 2, The same law that was first written in the heart of man continued to be a perfect rule of righteousness after the fall
and was delivered by God on Mount Sinai in the Ten Commandments. In other words, they assert that there is a continuity of content. There is an organic relationship between that law which God wrote upon the earth and the earth itself. Upon the heart of Adam and that law which God spoke with his own mouth from Sinai and wrote with his own finger in tables of stone.
Now if these statements in our confession are an accurate reflection of the teaching of the Bible, then we should expect to find that from the Garden of Eden until the giving of the law at Sinai, there would be evidence. Evidence of men's awareness of the things commanded or forbidden in the Ten Commandments. And it would be a very fruitful study but would take us far beyond in time and in the extent to which I want to flesh out these matters
to go through those indications that are not at all lacking in the lives of the patriarchs. Showing a sensitivity. Showing a sensitivity to their obligations to worship only the one true and living God. To worship Him not under any form that they would make with their hands.
To take solemnly His name upon them and if swearing, speaking, taking an oath in His name, feeling the pressure of that and even many more indications that life was condemned. Conducted in terms of a cycle of six days of work and a day of sacred rest. Sensitivity to the obligations of the fifth commandment. Sensitivity to the sanctity of life and of marriage and of property and of truth and the sanctity of the heart.
Evidence from Romans 1:32: Gentiles' Knowledge of God's Ordinance
And there are books in my study that have in a fascinating way traced out those incidents and once you see them they are as plain as the nose upon your own face when you look in the mirror. However, I don't have time to do that and what I want to do is to leap with you over centuries. In fact, to a point in time 4,000 years at least from the time Adam and Eve were created and subsequently fell. Approximately 15,000 years.
Approximately 15,000 years. Approximately 15,000 years. 1,200 years from the time God spoke the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai and look with you at two portions of the Word of God from this epistle written approximately in that time reference, the epistle of Paul to the Romans. And there are two watershed passages which establish unquestionably the influence of the Word of God.
1 mission was to 2. too to 3. and 성 are also 1 mission 2. the soul 3.
the central 4. After it, a form is possible, but the hour of truth came and I had to be present. And so I would urge you this morning, it's not going to be easy going. But remember, the epistle to the Romans was not written to a college of theologians.
It was written to a church under the shadow of the imperial palace, a church comprised of common ordinary people, even of slaves. And the apostle Paul expected that by dint of concentrated mental endeavor, dependence upon the Holy Spirit, meditation and reflection, they could grasp the content of his letter. And so in the confidence that by the Spirit and by prayer and pains, we too can grasp what the apostle is saying. So we're going to consider these two.
Revital passages which demonstrate and submit to you that they put forth unquestionable evidence of the influence of the Ten Commandments upon all men by nature. The first, Romans 1 and verse 32. Who, knowing the ordinance of God, that they that practice such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but also, but also consent with them that practice them. Now this, as I've already indicated, is the concluding statement of a major section in Paul's epistle.
And to pick up the major threads of thought very quickly, remember what Paul has done. He has introduced the marvelous subject of the book in verses 16 and 17 of this chapter. I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek, for therein is revealed a righteousness of God from faith unto faith, as it is written, but the righteous shall live by faith. He has announced that there is a gospel,
which is God's instrument of power, unto salvation. And the key blessing held forth in that gospel is a righteousness of God. A right standing with God that is provided by God and is fully acceptable to God. It is that which constitutes the core of the blessings of the gospel.
The core of the blessings of the gospel is not how to be happy, happy, happy all the time, how to be fulfilled, fulfilled, and have a good self image. That's not the gospel. That's modern gibberish. The gospel is concerned with the righteousness of God, a right standing with God provided by God and acceptable to God and it is to be received by faith.
And thus though someone says, well what's the big deal? What makes that special? that such good news? Paul's answer is, it's good news if you understand the true condition of men. It'll be good news to both Jew and Greek if both Jew and Greek, Jew and Gentile
understand their true condition, their totally destitute state as apart from any possession of a righteousness that's acceptable to God. So he then begins in verse 18, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness. You better be concerned about getting a righteousness, and you better be sure it's one that comes from God and is acceptable to God, because God's wrath burns against all ungodliness and unrighteousness.
And then he proceeds to demonstrate the unrighteousness of men whose only book of the knowledge of God and of His will is what we would say is the book of nature. And he demonstrates that from natural revelation, from the creation without, they are able to discern certain things with respect to God, but they take that knowledge they have of God and they suppress it. They know that this God ought to be thanked, this God ought to be worshipped, they know that this God cannot be contained within any form of anything they make, but in spite
of it, Paul speaks of their being foolish, having their minds and their hearts darkened, being not given up by God. As they turn away from the worship of God and are guilty of gross impiety, then it's only a matter of time before they are given up by God to gross immorality. And in this passage, that structure is very clearly seen. In the opening verses, the emphasis falls upon their impiety. They are turning away from what they know God to be, and how
they ought to worship God and give thanks to God. And impiety then gives birth to the grossest forms of immorality. Verse 23. Verse 26 and following.
And in that very structure, there are echoes, you see, of the two tables of the law, as we often call them. The first table reflecting upon our duties to God, and the second, our duties to our fellow men. And as Paul unfolds the state of the Gentiles, he unfolds it as one of a tragic rejection and pressing down of what they know about God and what that knowledge they instinctively know demands of them with reference to God. And then God abandons them, and then the sins are listed. And it's interesting. One could
take the time with each one of the sins that are listed particularly in verses 28 and following and show how they relate to one or more of the Ten Commandments. But then as his concluding Having described their tragic impiety and their wretched immorality, he says in verse 32 about these people who, knowing the ordinance of God, now what do they know?
They know the righteous judgment or the judicial ordinance of God. They know, and the word for know is the intensified, they know thoroughly, you Greek students, epignosis, they thoroughly know the righteous ordinance of God or the judicious ordinance of God. Well, what does that involve? You say, that's just a bunch of verbal mush to me.
Well, look, he explains it. That they that practice such things are worthy of death. That's what they know of the judicial ordinance of God. That's what they know of the righteous judgment of God, that the things that they are doing are wrong.
And that the things they are doing are right. They are worthy of death. What they are doing is dead wrong, and what they are doing leads to death, even to the death of the fierce, righteous judgment of God poured out upon impenitent sinners. The God whom they know from creation, the God they refuse to glorify, worship, and thank.
The God whom they refuse to keep in their thinking, the God whose standards they defied in their actions, they know that he exercises a government with sanctions and with penalties. And what they know is that what they are doing is displeasing to God and makes them liable to death. But in spite of it, the text says they continue to do these very things. Things that they know are displeasing to God and will lead to the ultimate death of the fierce judgment of God in the day of judgment.
But they continue to do them. And then is the crowning statement of their moral perversity. Look what the text says. But they also consent.
And the word for consent does not mean mere consent or assent. It means to approve and take delight in. They approve and take delight with them that practice them. Knowing what they are doing is a violation of God's law.
Makes them liable to death. They not only go on practicing what they are doing, they delight to see others indulging in the very same sin. Now that's what the text says. But now, that raises...
It's a $64 question.
That they know that what they are doing is wrong. How is it that they know that what they are doing makes them worthy of death? And why is it that knowing this, they continue to practice these things and approve and take delight in others who practice the same things? Now you see, those questions aren't answered here at the end of chapter 1.
Evidence from Romans 2:14-15: The Law Written in Hearts
But they are answered in chapter 2, verses 14 and 15. That's our second key text. Though there is debate among some commentators as to whether Paul is dealing with moralists, Jews or Gentiles in chapter 2, verses 1 to 16, it's clear he begins to deal specifically with Jews in verse 17. But I share the conviction of many responsible commentators that he's dealing with Jews beginning with chapter 2 and verse 1.
Jews who delight in God. Delighted in their privileges. Who delighted in being those who heard the law of God. Preached and taught Sabbath by Sabbath, day after day in the synagogue.
And as he turns from showing that the Gentiles who have the revelation of God in nature have gone against the life that God has given, stand culpable and under the condemnation. Of God, he now turns to the Jews. And as he turns to deal with the Jews, one of the central points of his emphasis is this. You Jews must understand the principles of God's judgment in the last day.
If you begin to understand that, you won't feel comfortable that you're surrounded with privileges, that you have a knowledge of what's right and wrong and can sit and make moral judgments on others. You will recognize that it takes something. Far more than that, to find acceptance with God in the day of judgment. So you'll find the word judgment in that day again and again in these opening verses of chapter 2.
And he says, for example, in verse 2, We know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things. Here were these Jews standing in condemnation. On others, able to make moral judgments because they had the full light of God's written law. They had the Decalogue.
They had the book of the law. They could make moral judgments. But he said, all the while you're making judgments on others, you're indulging the same things yourself. He said, and we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against them who practice such things.
That's the first thing about the day of judgment. It'll be according to truth. Verse 6. Who will render to every man according?
To his works. Not whether he was born in the right family and surrounded with the right privileges and went to the right place at the right time to do the right things, determined even by God's law in the old covenant way of life and religion. No. He will render to every man according to his works.
His judgment will be according to truth. His judgment will be according to works. Verse 11. There is no respect of persons with God.
It will be. It will be totally impartial. God will not look to see if your last name has a Hebrew ring about it. God will be utterly indifferent as to what your standing may be amongst men.
It will be utterly, totally impartial. That's what he says in verse 11. And then in verse 12. And this is what leads us into our verses.
For as many as have sinned without the law shall also perish without the law. And as many have sinned. As sinned under the law shall be judged by the law. What's he saying here?
Follow closely now. It will not only be a judgment according to truth, to works, without partiality, but it will be a judgment according to the standard men possess. It will be a judgment according to the standard men possess. And he describes that standard in two ways.
There are some who have sinned. They have broken the standards of God, but they did it without the law. What's he saying? If there's no law to be broken, there's no sin.
What he's saying is there are those who have sinned, but they have not had the benefits of the written commandments. They have not had the benefit of hearing the Ten Commandments read, expounded, commented upon. They have not had a scroll. They have not had a Bible with the Ten Commandments written on it.
They have not had a Bible with Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy chapter 5. Yet they have sinned in that state. Now notice, they shall also perish without the law. They've sinned, and because they've sinned, they've perished.
So any notion that if people don't hear the gospel and don't see the scriptures and don't hear them preach, somehow God will be merciful. No, no. Those who have sinned without the law shall perish, perish without the law. And as many as have sinned under the law, those who have sinned having God's law in their possession shall be judged by the law.
For not the hearers of the law. You see how he's getting at the Jews again who prided themselves that they were hearers of the law. Not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. Now the parenthetical statement, going back to this categorization, the category of those who do not have the law.
For when the Gentiles that have not the law do by nature the things of the law, these not having the law are the law unto themselves, in that they show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness therewith, and their thoughts one with another, accusing or else excusing them. Here in this parenthetical statement, Paul is going to explain more fully this category of those who have sinned without the law,
but yet they shall perish without the law. He's going to amplify that category of people. And as he does, it's important for us to grasp what he says. And this is the first thing he says, what he says about them.
They do by nature some of the very things required by the law. Look at the text. For when the Gentiles that have not the law, they don't possess the Decalogue, they don't possess the Ten Commandments, they do by nature the things of the law. Now he doesn't say they by nature perfectly keep the law.
He says they do the things of the law. They do some of the very things, the very things that are required by the law. They avoid some of the things condemned by the law. They comply with some of the very things required by the law.
So here's a group of Gentiles. You go into a community, into a village in some almost semi-stone age part of the world. And there are such places that still exist in this very hour. And you get to acquire, a knowledge of the language of the people.
And you begin to enter into the culture of the people. And you will see many things that are indicative of Romans chapter 1. To see what these people have done with the light of creation. How they suppressed it and kept it down.
And did not want to retain God in their knowledge. And many of the sins listed at the latter part of Romans chapter 1, you would see day after day in that setting. However, at the same time, you would find in that very moral cesspool that parents expected obedience of their children. And that parents were expected to care for and to protect their children.
And you would find that men were willing to kill if anyone dared cohabit with their wife or wives. If they had polygamy, they still regarded the sanctity of the mother. If they had marital commitment even if it was to more than one wife. And you would find that they looked very unkindly upon the wanton taking of another life in murder.
And if you were to come in to their little hut with nothing but four mud walls and a little fire in the corner and a hole in the top. And you were to take one of their crude pots or pans and to be a guilty of thievery, they would look unkindly upon it. They are sensitive to death. And due to their unkindness, they would look unkindly upon them.
They would look unkindly upon the haughty father, the son, and the mother, and have a fratricidal action. They are men without権 and the law. And yet there are men who are not willing to accept the sin. So, I want you to read with me this passage.
This is also an important passage. It's very difficult to understand. It's not easy to understand. It's a great question.
influence, education, or coercion. They do them by nature. And I was wrestling for an illustration for you kids. There's some things you did, I hope you still don't do them, by nature.
When you came out of mommy's tummy there in the hospital, it wasn't long before by nature you started hollering like a banshee, just like somebody was cutting your toes off with that little baby. The doctor didn't have to say, now, first lesson you must learn is how to cry. We want to know you're alive, and when we whack you on your behind and you cry, we know then your lungs are working well, so we've got to teach you how to cry. No, you didn't have to have any lessons in how to cry. When the doctor held you up by your feet and whacked you on your backside,
you filled the delivery room with a, you did that by nature, you see. Long after, before they got you all cleaned up and looking nice and wrapped you up and laid you on your mommy's tummy, a few moments later took you in for the next day into mommy's room. What were you doing? You were by nature looking around, either for a bottle or your mommy's breast. Nobody had to take you into a little nursery and give you three hours of
lessons on how to be hungry and what to do when you're hungry. By nature, you reached out for nourishment. And you made it very evident. Yes, you did. And by nature. By nature. Nobody had to teach you.
All those things you did how? By nature. You just did them naturally. You were just doing things that come from the very nature of a little human baby. You see what we mean by nature?
Now, it wasn't long, I hope, before there's some things you had to begin to learn, as please, thank you. And you might have said it in a way that only your mommy and daddy could know what you were saying, but you were giving back something that they understood was please and thank you. And you had to learn your alphabet. You just didn't wake up one morning and say, Mommy, you know what happened? I had a dream last night. I know the alphabet. A, B, C, D,
F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, L, O, L, O. No, no, you had to learn. A, B, C. You had to learn your alphabet. You had to learn how to tie your shoes. You had to learn, and I hope you've
learned how to tie your shoes. You had to learn how to tie your shoes. You had to learn how to tie your shoes. You had to learn how to say please, how to say thank you. You see, those are things you have to
learn. These other things you did by nature. Now, look what Paul says. He says, when the Gentiles that have not the law, they don't have the Ten Commandments in their codified form in writing, but they do by nature the things of the law. They find themselves naturally protecting their
young and expecting obedience from their children, naturally protecting the sanctity of the marital relationship, and being incensed when anyone would violate it through adultery and infidelity. They naturally sense the rightness of protecting one's own property and one's own life. You have a clear example of this in the book of Acts. Look at Acts chapter 20.
Acts chapter 20, verse 28, of this sense of doing by nature the things in the law and having a sense that if we don't do them, there is indeed judgment from God. And we'll have occasion to come back to this passage. You remember Paul and his companions were dumped up on an island after their ship was broken up, and they were amidst a bunch of barbarians. These were people who had no scrolls and no synagogue and had no revelation of the Old Testament.
Scriptures, and they kindled a fire and showed kindness. They were doing by nature the things of the law. They were showing kindness to these people. They were loving their neighbor as themselves, and their neighbor were these people from a totally alien culture with a totally alien language, but they were showing kindness. But when Paul, verse 3, had gathered a bundle of sticks and
laid them on the fire, a viper came out by reason of the heat of the fire. And the viper came out by reason of the heat and fastened on his hand. And when the barbarians saw the venomous creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, no doubt this man is a murderer. No doubt this man is a murderer, whom though he has escaped from the sea, justice has not allowed him to live. What were they
doing? They were doing the things of the law. They had a sense that to take another man's life unrighteously was sin. And would bring down the frown of the one they called, or the influence they called, justice. And that murder was
worthy of capital punishment. Now how in the world did they know that? They knew that by nature. See, this is what Paul is saying. Paul had seen this. Paul had observed this. This was not someone sitting down writing a theological
treatise on natural revelation. Here was Paul the missionary, Paul the passionate evangelist, concerned that all men would sense their need of Christ and of the gospel, their need of a righteousness from God. He's trying to persuade his listeners, his readers, that even those who've never seen the Ten Commandments in their written codified form, they do by nature some of the very things required by the law. Now I hope we've established that from the text.
The Law Unto Themselves and the Work of the Law in Hearts
Second thing he says in the text is this fact makes them the law unto themselves. Look at the passage again. This fact makes them the law unto themselves. For when the Gentiles who have not the law do by nature the things of the law, these not having the law are the law unto themselves.
Now what's he mean by that? Well, he certainly doesn't mean when we say, oh, that guy, he's a law to himself. We mean he's perfectly lawless. He simply lives according to his own whims and his own impulses and his own standards. He cares nothing for society, for anybody else. That's not what Paul is saying. He's saying this.
When they do by nature some of the very things required or forbidden in the law, this makes them the law unto themselves. In other words, he's saying that the law is implanted within them and the only way they can escape it is by escaping themselves. You can't escape yourself. You will be your companion for eternity somewhere in heaven or in hell, but you'll never escape yourself.
And so he's saying when the Gentiles who have not the law do by nature the things of the law, these not having the law, they... They themselves are the law to themselves.
They find the law outside of them when the rabbi reads from Exodus 20 or Deuteronomy 5, nor do they have the law outside of them when they open their Bible and read those passages. They themselves are the law to themselves. There is an inescapable inbred awareness of the standard of the law. But then that raises the question, how in the world did they get this way by nature?
And Paul then answers that in verse 15. In that they show the work of the law written in their hearts. How did they get this way by nature? Not by coming to some point in the upward escalating scale of the evolution.
The evolutionary process where they began to develop a consciousness of a divine being and a sensitivity to social responsibilities and began to work out a code of ethics. You see, fellas and girls, why the biblical doctrine of creation is so crucial. And why people against the clear testimony of their own conscience, the world without and the world within, and the very facts of how this world is put together. Men are willing to believe.
They believe in the lie of evolution. They're trying to get rid of the God who stands behind the law that is inescapably etched upon their very consciences.
This passage says they got that way by nature because they demonstrate the work of the law written in their hearts. Now this is a clear reference to the fact, that the same law written by the finger of God in stone at Sinai, that very law written on the heart of Adam, and though through sin has been marred and distorted and eroded many of the characters and shape of its letters, they still show, they demonstrate, would be a better rendering of the Greek word,
they demonstrate, they set forth the fact that there has been a work of the law written in their hearts. Now notice it doesn't say they show that the law is written in their hearts. That's something distinctive in the gracious work of salvation. God says, I'll put my law in their hearts, and in their inward parts will I write my statutes.
But they show the work of the Lord, the law written in their hearts. There is this remnant, there are these remains of what once was the perfect standard written upon the heart of Adam. And with the passing of time and with the tragedy of the influence of sin, much of that law is not accurately perceived by those who do not hear it preached in its clarifying, amplified, codified form as it's found in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5.
But these people who by nature are doing the things of the law, these people described in verse 32 of chapter 1, who know the righteous ordinance of God, that the things that they are doing are wrong and are worthy of death, where and how did they ever come to that knowledge? Certainly the devil didn't put it in him. And certainly, fellow sinners who are doing the same as they are doing didn't put it in them, no. It is an indication that in spite of their fallenness, they are still creatures in the image of God.
And part of that image is seen in that they show the work of the law written in their hearts. And what additional evidence is there that these things are true? Paul says, I'll give you two. Their conscience bearing witness, witness therewith.
Conscience comes alongside and when conscience sees this action of people doing the things of the law, and when they don't do them, conscience comes along and looking at that standard, conscience functions in every one of them. Conscience either condemns or excuses. Conscience gives the sense of approbation or the sense of condemnation. What I'm doing is right or wrong.
Conscience is the faculty of making moral judgments. And we know, Paul says, that they show, they demonstrate the work of the law written in their hearts. That's why they do the things of the law. Conscience comes along and bears its witness and bears its witness.
And as an expression of that witness, they know what it is to have that internal turmoil of accusing or excusing thoughts. They're thoughts, one with another, accusing or else excusing them. That stubborn little moral monitor within that passes judgment in the light of the standard to which he looks and says, you've kept the standard, you've violated the standard, and then along come the thoughts that either approve or disapprove of what we have done, what we have said, what we have thought.
Summary of Unquestionable Evidence
Now, I've attempted to work through the passage with you to capture its main thoughts. I hope you've grasped them. Paul says, there are some who do by nature the things required by the law. This fact makes them the law unto themselves.
And how did they get there? Yet this way, they show the work of the law written in their hearts. The additional evidence is the joint witness of conscience manifested in the accusing or the excusing thoughts. Seeking to summarize then from these two passages the unquestionable evidence of the influence of the Ten Commandments upon all been by nature, I trust you see it, I trust I've convinced your judgment, therefore, what we're trying to establish in our second load of concrete, that the obedience that God requires of man
is comprehensively summarized in the Ten Commandments. Now, this has been a hard patch of a half an hour of intense thinking, and you've followed, now you say, what practical use is there to know this? That's a good question. And I wrestled with it, long and hard.
Practical Use 1: Vindicating God's Judgments Before Sinai
And I'm sure my answers don't anywhere near exhaust what could be the answers. But as I seek to draw this to a practical conclusion this morning, let me attempt to answer that question. Of what practical use is it to know these things? Well, first of all, it vindicates the judgments of God upon men prior to the giving of the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai.
It vindicates the judgments of God upon men prior to the giving of the Ten Commandments. Did Cain and Abel have the Ten Commandments with their mother's milk when they were born? Not in written form. Why then did God come to Cain and deal with him so severely when he murdered his brother?
Because coming from the womb of Eve, Cain had the work of the law written in his heart. And he knew that to murder his brother, that to murder his brother was sin. Whom being the righteous ordinance of God nonetheless murdered him in high-handed, shameless cruelty. What about the whole race described in Genesis 6 and 7 when God says the imagination of the thoughts of their hearts are only evil continually, and I can abide it
no longer. Noah, build an ark. I'm going to blot out the whole human race. On what grounds did God deal so severely?
Had the Ten Commandments been given to them? No. But it was a race of men who were nonetheless made in the image of God and from their father, Adam. They had received in the generations that unfolded that moral consciousness that is rooted in God.
They were rooted in the fact that the remnants of that standard are there within every man's breath. And therefore, when God speaks of their violence, and when God speaks of their utter impiety and says, I have had it, I'm going to blot them out, God was not dealing with, quote, poor, ignorant people who didn't know what was right and what was wrong. They knew the righteous ordinance of God. That they who do such things are worthy of death.
And they knew it because in all men, by nature, that which is comprehensively summarized in the Ten Commandments was originally deposited in the cart and constitution of man in Adam. And though the fall, I say, has rubbed out some of the characters and blurred some of the words, there is nonetheless that realization within the breast of those whom God inundated with the flood that what they were doing was displeasing to Almighty God. Furthermore, it not only vindicates the judgments of God upon men
Practical Use 2: Vindicating God's Judgments on Nations
prior to the giving of the Ten Commandments at Sinai, it vindicates the judgments of God upon the nations who have received His wrath prior to the revelation of His law at Sinai. What about those nations that were driven out before the people of God? They didn't have the Ten Commandments. Israel did not go into Canaan and say, Now before we conquer you, we want to evangelize you.
And to evangelize you, we want to preach the law of God to you to show you how much you are sinners. And then when we've shown you how much you are sinners, we will tell you of our great and gracious power. Pardoning God. No.
The Scripture tells us in a passage like Leviticus 18.25, a passage where vile sexual sins of every form, such as we see being lived out in our very generation without shame, God mentions these sins and prohibits them to Israel. And He says in prohibiting them, verse 24 of Leviticus 18, Do not defile them, nor defile yourself in any of these things. For in all these things the nations are defiled, which I cast out from before you.
And the land is defiled, therefore I visit the iniquity upon it, and the land vomits out her inhabitants. What did God say? He said, I am casting them out for these vile abominations. Well, how could God deal so severely in judgment if they had no knowledge that they were sin?
They did know they were sin. When they left the natural use of the woman and burned in their lusts not only to men but to beasts, they were doing that which is against nature. Even as Paul indicts the Gentiles in Romans chapter 1. You see, when God deals so severely and speaks of the abominations of those nations, it's not as though He was judging them with excessive harshness because they didn't have the light of special revelation and they didn't have the Ten Commandments.
Practical Use 3: Indicting Modern Excuses for Sin
They knew the righteous ordinance of God and God judged them for their sin. Thirdly, it indicts those in our day. Hear me carefully now. This is where we come to crunch time.
It indicts those in our day who would shift personal moral responsibility to genes, society, environment, and economic deprivation. In our day, nobody's a sinner. They got the wrong genes. They're kinks in society.
There are wrinkles in the environment or there's wretched economic deprivation. Those are the great objects of blame. Someone goes out and in raw covetousness with total insensitivity holds a man up. When he scuffles with him, blows his brains out, everyone is ready to say, now let's check into his background.
Where was he born? What was his economic situation? Did his father beat him up? Did his mother love him?
What's behind all of that? He is not responsible. It's either his genes, society, environment, economic deprivation. No, no.
No matter how much these things may, as it were, stoke the fires of man's raging passions and may blow upon the coals of the wretched state of his heart, man is accountable whether he ever was sat on his mama's knee and taught the Ten Commandments, whether he ever sat in the church and heard them preached or not. Why? Because he has the work of the law written on his heart. And he has a conscience, however faintly, given those other influences that have acted like stifling influences
upon the voice of conscience, he nonetheless had a conscience that when he plotted to hold that man up, conscience spoke. And when he pulled the trigger and saw the man's brain splattered on the sidewalk, conscience spoke. Until we get back to this conviction, taught in the Scriptures, that the Ten Commandments are the revelation of the unchangeable will of God for all men in all places and all times, and that God will hold men accountable
for that measure of the light of those commandments they have, whether they have them in their written codified form read and preached or whether in the language of Romans 2 they sin without the law, that is, without the written, codified, external representation of that law. They are the law unto themselves and they have violated that which they know. And God will hold them accountable in the day of judgment when he judges the secrets of men's hearts, Paul says, according to his gospel. And then the fourth and final
Practical Use 4: Indicting Limits on Decalogue's Authority
practical conclusion is this. This indicts all those who would limit the authority of the Decalogue from the period of Sinai to the cross. There are those who think they magnify God and the grace of God in Christ by saying the Ten Commandments only have relevance for the nation of Israel while that nation existed. Prior to and subsequent to whatever standards of ethics and morality and right and wrong, the law as codified in the Ten Commandments does not apply to us.
Well, you see, if we grasp what I've tried to set out this morning, that the Ten Commandments are, or the obedience which God requires of man is comprehensively summarized in the Ten Commandments, then we realize that there is an overarching validity to God's holy law that goes beyond the completion of the work of Christ upon the cross, that precedes God speaking that law from Sinai and writing it with His own finger in stone. It indicts those who would limit the authority of the Decalogue
to Sinai to the cross. For then we must ask the question, if men are sinners, what law did they break? You see, they break the law of Christ, but I thought the law of Christ only applies to Christians. You see, when Paul is writing to the Romans, subsequent to the cross, subsequent to the outpouring of the Spirit, and his great theme is the gospel of the grace of God that holds out a righteousness from God received by faith, he labors in two and a half chapters the rest of chapter 1, all of chapter 2, and down to chapter 3 in verse 20
to bring the law upon all of humanity. When? In that very day, in that very generation, post-cross, post-Pentecost, post-new covenant life and privilege, he takes the law of God and seeks to demonstrate that all men in all circumstances are bound to render to God perfect obedience, and the revelation of the obedience they are to render is summarily comprehended and expressed in the Ten Commandments, and he brings those principles to bear so that all men may be brought
to the theater of their own conscience in the presence of God with the admission, guilty, hell-deserving, unworthy of anything but wrath and judgment. I have broken the law of the God who made me, of the God who will judge me according to truth, who will judge me according to works, who will judge me without partiality, who will judge me by the standard to which I've been exposed. And if that's true, what does it say to those of you who have grown up in this church, born by nature, disposed to do the things of the law, brought up in a home where you have had
the very Ten Commandments taught to you and you've worked through in your Sunday school classes your catechisms on the commandments, and add to that you have had the preaching of the gospel in the setting of its relationship to the law. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. You have been told from this pulpit again and again that Christ, the Savior of sinners, came and put Himself in our condition, perfectly obeyed the law in our human condition, and then went to the cross and bore the fury of God against our breaches of the law. What will your judgment be if God is ready to cast into hell
those who've never seen the Ten Commandments let alone ever heard one word of the gospel because they have violated that indication of the law written in their hearts of the work of the law written in their hearts if God is prepared to vindicate His own justice in their damnation what will He do to you? With all the light and all the privilege that you have had therefore I close with the entreaty don't remain any longer under the curse of that broken law but run to the one person
and the one place where there's true refuge and that's the Lord Jesus who perfectly obeyed that law and fully discharged all of the obligations to that law by His death upon the cross for all who will stand before God and say, Oh God, I have no righteousness that can commend myself to You and I'm going to stop trying to play games with my own constitution that what I know by myself by nature Your righteous ordinance that what I'm doing and what I'm thinking and what I'm desiring and the way I'm living is worthy of death You know it! That's what makes you so miserable
because you can't undo what you are you can't escape yourself Not only do you have the law without but the law within both saying the same thing God never made you to live according to your own standards to your own ends to do your own thing No, you were made for God You were made to know Him to love Him to serve Him to find delight in Him and in His ways But you say, I don't That's right Because you have a nature that's indisposed The carnal mind is enmity against God It is not subject to the law of God Neither indeed can it be And you need the grace of God to change your nature as well as the work of Christ to change your record
Call to Repentance and Refuge in Christ
But you go to Christ who is willing to give all that you need as a sinner only on the condition that you own that that's what you are a helpless, needy sinner who comes to get what Christ delights to give May God grant that you'll go to Him even this day Let us pray Our Father we acknowledge before You the perversity of our nature that we would seek to run from the inescapable the sense and the knowledge that You have made us
that we are Your creatures that we owe perfect obedience to You and we owe it to You in terms of what we know of Your will and we pray that Your Holy Spirit will take the things that we have sought to open up this morning and write them upon every heart O God, have mercy upon those who stand before You this morning guilty, condemned Give them no rest till they know they are accepted in the Beloved One Help Your people that their thinking on these matters will be grounded in the Scriptures that they may not be moved from the great principles of Your truth so crucial to the life of a believer
Guide us and help us and continue to bless us in our study together We plead in Jesus' name Amen
This transcript was generated by automated speech recognition and may contain errors. It is provided for study and reference only; the audio recording is the authoritative source.
Passages Expounded
Paul's concluding statement on Gentile depravity, highlighting their knowledge of God's righteous judgment despite their sin.
Paul's parenthetical explanation of how Gentiles, without the written law, demonstrate the 'work of the law written in their hearts' through their actions and conscience.
Texts Expounded
Also Referenced
More from the archive
If this spoke to you, hear also…
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The Enunciation of God's Changeless Standard #1
Romans 7:7-13
layers Living Together in the Father's House
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