Romans 2 beginning at verse 13,
the subject, natural revelation. For not the hearers of the law
are justified before God, but the doers of the law shall be
justified. For when the Gentiles who have
not the law do by nature the things contained in the law,
these having not the law are a law unto themselves. which 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, in the 15th verse again, the work of the law written
in their hearts, their conscience also bearing them witness. Now, this morning in our subject,
we turn our thoughts to that great subject that can be searched
out in the Scripture of how God is known and how God may be known. and to what extent God may be
known, the ways by which God reveals himself unto the human
family. Now, we shall find it both an
exceedingly deep and a weighty search and study, but also a
very profitable one when it comes into our heart. yet not so much
for the shallow-minded or the careless reader of the Scripture. Now concerning the knowledge
of God, it has been said by some that our God is both knowable
and unknowable. The theologians have said that
for some time. in that God, as to His being,
as to His nature, as to His mind, and unto His essence is, by any
creature, incomprehensible. In other words, He is past finding
out. There is none that can find out
the Almighty. Paul wrote in Romans 11, And
verse 33 and 34, how unsearchable is judgment and his ways past
finding out for who hath known the ways of the Lord. You remember
in the book of Job that Zophar cast the challenge out to his
friend Job in chapter 11 and verse 7. Can you by searching
find out God, he asked? Can you find out the Almighty? unto perfection," unquote. Now, no mind is there upon this
earth that can fully phantom the being, the excellencies,
the ways, or the attributes of our God. If it could be done,
He would not be God, and the one who could do it would be.
Now on the other hand, his past finding out we grant, but also
the scripture teach us that God is knowable. His past finding
out, all right, but our God is also knowable. He can be known to certain degrees. He can be known and he can be
believed on. However, any knowledge of God
requires revelation. Anything that we might know or
that we might learn about our God can only be known or only
be learned by revelation, as He can then only be known by
degree as He is pleased to reveal Himself unto man. They can only
know as much as God is pleased to reveal unto the human family. The Dutch writer Herman Bevinck
wrote in his book titled The Doctrine of God on page 41, quote,
religion and the knowledge of God can only have their origin
in revelation. If God does not reveal himself
to his creature, knowledge of him is unattainable Unquote. He must reveal himself in order
that we might know him. Knowledge of God comes only by
and through revelation. Had God not created the heaven
and the universe and all things in them, he could not be known
then beyond his immediate presence under in heaven, and the angels
which He created to serve about His throne and to praise Him
could know Him. Having conversed upon the porch
or the front steps, let us now open the door and, as it were,
enter into the house. where we may tarry a while, and
while there we might consider our present subject, which is
natural revelation, or the light of nature. And why so many who
are not Christians and do not attend church and do not read
their Bible, yet do they believe that there is a supreme being. And they acknowledge the existence
of the one they call God, and even in some way worship or found
worshiping, even though they are not Christian. Now concerning
natural revelation, I set before you a three-fold premise for
us to consider in the beginning. that it is a fact observable
in the people of the world. It is a fact that everywhere
you find people, you find them believing that there is a Supreme
Being. And then B, the fruit of natural
revelation is the belief that there is a Supreme Being one
that they might call God, one being greater than people, well,
the fact there is a God, a supreme being. And then thirdly, no matter
how strong this natural revelation may be, Still, it is not a saving
revelation unto them that observe it. It is not sufficient to the
saving of the soul, though you may hear me say later in the
course of our study that it is in a sense, in a manner, a forerunner
of saving revelation, in that it lays the foundation of subsequent
and fuller and even spiritual and saving revelations. But in natural revelation, or
the light of nature, there is no revelation of the means and
manner of the forgiveness of sin or of the way of salvation
is not to be found in it, no revelation of the gospel, no
good news proclaimed in the natural revelation that tells one how
to be free from their sin and to have fellowship with God. Now I want you to consider something,
and I ask you please do not take it the wrong way. But this natural
revelation, this light of nature, if you will, whatever you prefer
to call it, is the lowest form of revelation that God has made
unto the human family. Or shall we say, the least degree
of revelation that God has made unto the human family. In that,
it will convince one that there is a God, yet not how to know
Him spiritually. nor does it reveal that God exists
in Trinity. There is no revelation of the
Trinity in this natural revelation. There is nothing there about
the incarnation and the death of our blessed Messiah. There
is no revelation of gospel righteousness or, again, of the deliverance
from sin in this natural revelation that we are talking about. But
to return to the thought of a minute ago, that this natural revelation
is the lowest or the least form of God's revelation in that it
is all that stands between apostasy and full-fledged atheism. If this light go out completely. How great would be the darkness
upon the mind and the heart and the conscience of such individual. Now in the passage back in Romans
chapter 1, Paul is dealing with Gentile paganism and its birth
and origin. And he tells us that it is a
result of the perversion, the abandonment, and the suppression
of the revelation that God made in His power in creation. So let's run through some of
Paul's points back in chapter 1, And verse 19, "...because
that which may be known of God is manifested in them, for God
hath showed it unto them." Now what Paul is doing here and forward
is showing why the wrath of God in Romans 1 and verse 18 is revealed
and the particular sin which brought forth this revelation
of God's wrath. You see the connection here in
verse 18 of chapter 1? The wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against those who hold the truth in unrighteousness. Now at first, and in our English
version, this seems like a contradiction from the Apostle, to hold the
truth and yet do so in unrighteousness. Now the way that it is translated
in the King James Version might give us the wrong impression. For Paul is not commending them
for what they are doing, for doing something good, that's
not it at all, something right, nor is he speaking of a right
thing done in a wrong way. The word hold is the key and
it does not mean to cling to or to fasten upon truth or to
contend for truth or uphold truth. but rather what Paul is saying
is that it is to suppress, it is to hinder, it is to restrain,
to hold under or to hold back, and to do so in unrighteousness,
to negate the effect of truth as much as lieth in their ability. And then we ask ourselves, what
is the truth here? that is in view, that is suppressed
or restrained or held under our back in unrighteousness by these
men. What is the truth that here is
suppressed? And he thinks that Murray is
right in his commentary writing on Romans chapter 1 And verse
18, quote, the truth derived from the observable handiwork
of God in the work of creation, unquote. That's what Paul is
talking about here. And we see it in that passage
in verse 20 of chapter 1, for the invisible things of him from
the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood
by the things that are made even as eternal power and Godhead
or divinity so that they are without excuse. Now what is clearly
seen, and seen since the creation of the world. Well, the answer
is, in verse 20, His eternal power and Godhead, or if you
prefer, divinity. Even in verse 21, they knew God
manifested in creation, but they did not glorify Him as God, and
neither were they thankful. They began to worship things
which were created rather than worship the creator. They worshiped made things rather
than the maker. Even creatures rather, or instead,
of God. And the condition Paul described
here is, as Meyer wrote in his commentary, quote, the result
of falling away from the known original revelation of the true
God in his works of creation, unquote. And still, here is a
point to ponder and I think profitable. That they, these people, these
pagans, in these things, watch this, hear me carefully, this
is important. In doing these things, in suppressing,
in beginning to worship created things, yet they did not fall
into full atheism." That's an important point as we carry along. They did not fall into full atheism,
but rather into idolatry. They exchanged the worship of
God for something depicted in images of some kind. some lifeless
image. Our images are different inferior
creatures, or even the bodies, the heavenly bodies that God
had created. Now, coming to our verses, in
Romans 2, verse 14 and 15, and the question, how are these verses
pertinent, how do they relate to the subject that Paul is speaking
of, which is set forth in a two-fold way just prior under the verses
that we are looking at this morning. Let's hear Romans 2 verse 9 and
verse 10. Romans the second chapter and
verse 9 and verse 10. But glory... No, wait a minute.
I'm sorry. It's verses 10 and verse 11. But glory, honor, peace
to every man that worketh good to the Jew first, also unto the
Greek, for there is no respect of persons with God, for as many
as have sinned without the law shall perish without the law,
and as many as have sinned in the law shall be justified by
the law. Now verse 11, is a governing
principle with the apostle for what is being advanced concerning
the case of the Jew and of the Gentile, that God does not respect
the person of any. This is emphasized in the Old
Testament and again in the New Testament. In the New, in such
places as Acts, chapter 10, Peter at the house of Cornelius, verse
34 and verse 35, here in Romans 2, 11, Ephesians 6 and verse
9, Colossians 3 and verse 25, James chapter 2, verse 1, and
again in verse 9. And in most of them, it concerns
the Jew and the Gentile, that God will not overlook in the
Jew what he condemns in the Gentile. And the apostle makes this distinction. And those having the law, that
is the Jew, and those having not the law, that is the Gentile,
they have no written revelation of the law like the Jews did. And that God is no respecter
of person is then proved in Romans 2 and verse 12 that we just read. And that upon the principle in
verse 13, that not all hearers of the law are justified, then
here is the question. How can those without the law
be reckoned and accounted sinners and guilty? How can they who
have no written or oral revelation of the law be reckoned as guilty
and be judged and condemned, that as many as sin without the
law will perish without the law? How can that be? For does not
Paul say, Where there is no law, there is no transgression. He says that right here in Romans
4 and verse 15. Again in Romans 5 and verse 13, is not imputed where there is
no law. And we read in 1 John chapter
3 and verse 4 that he defines sin as the transgression of the
law. Sin is the transgression of the
law. So if the Gentiles did not have
the law in the same sense as the Jews did, how then are they
judged and condemned as sinners? and how and why as many as sin
without the law perish without the law. That is, they both sin
and they perish without the law. Now in verse 14 and 15, it gives
us the answer and gives it clearly. They do by nature things of the
law, or things in the law. And in doing that, Paul said,
they are to themselves a law. And in verse 15, in so doing,
they show the work of the law written in the hearts of them. Now let us notice that Paul,
in verse 14, twice says the Gentiles have not the law. Twice he says
that in the one verse. Having not the law, do the things
in the law. Having not the law, are a law
unto themselves. How is this? Well, it is declared
in verse 15, the work of the law is written in their heart
and their actions of doing the things of the law, it being a
law unto themselves, they are manifesting that the works of
the law are written in their heart. And what's more, Paul
says, there is to this the witness of conscience. There is the agreement
of their conscience in this matter. Now their conscience is bearing
witness with, it is agreeing with, the work of the law written
there in their heart. And their thoughts, and some
prefer and some versions have reasonings, and their reasoning
acting out the work of the law written in their heart and the
testimony of conscience coming in beside it, they do something. They both accuse and excuse. through conscience and its agreement
with the work of the law written in their heart." In other words,
they make distinctions between right and wrong. They accuse
and excuse. They make that distinction. Now,
this point, this point, listen to this one carefully. I think
it is a good point. If you or anyone tell me that
they are a full-fledged atheist. That they say, there is no God. All things are the result of
the Big Bang Theory or of the process of evolution. I'm a full atheist and these
things I deny. Then I submit that you as an
atheist should not make any distinction between right and wrong. You should not talk about something
being right or something being wrong. There cannot be such a
thing if there is no God. What measure will you use if
you are an atheist? Any moral judgment betrays full
atheism, does it not? Who or what will decide what
is right and what is wrong if there is no God? And if religion
is simply the invention of men and the opiate for the masses,
as sometimes they say. And then I thought with that
question, well, what if the professing atheist should be kind of sharp
and should say to me in return, the measures of right and wrong
are defined by the laws of society and of the land. In other words,
he would argue that such things as theft and assault and murders
are against the law, therefore they are wrong, and therefore
they are punishable. We would ask that confessing
atheist again, from which came the motivation or the persuasion
that these things are wrong so as to inculcate them in the laws
of the land or society? What makes them wrong so that
laws are passed forbidding them and punishing them. Must we remind
them these things are those exact things that are forbidden by
the law of God. Murder, assault and adultery
and such things. These are patterned after the
Ten Commandments for the most part. So, let us look closer
at Paul's words found in Ephesians 2 and verse 14. That the Gentiles are, whenever
they do by nature the things of the law, and notice especially
the part, the two words, by nature. Let us not miss the connection
that is here. They do by nature. Do what? And the things of law. They do
by nature things of law. We find Paul uses this word at
least nine times in his epistle, that is the word law, nature
rather. It is the word theusis, I believe,
come from a root word theuo, which means to puff up or to
swell up, to germinate, to sprout, to grow, or to produce. So the term by nature refers
to germination or expansion. And it can be understood as meaning,
native disposition or constitution, natural production, a sort, lineal
descent. All of these can be the meaning
of this word. Then again, remember that it
is the same word Paul uses back in Romans 1 And verse 26, against
nature, when he is speaking of that. Galatians 2.15, he said,
we are Jews by nature. 1 Corinthians 11 and verse 14,
does not even nature itself teach you, that is, That if a man have
long hair, it is a shame unto him. And Ephesians 2 and verse
3, where Paul writes, we were by nature children of wrath,
or wrathful children. Now the point in Romans 2 and
14 is the Gentiles act by nature in doing things of the law. By nature as opposed to being
taught in some external fashion or schooled in them by someone. or it being imposed upon them
from without. It was not learned by instruction. It was not forced upon them by
civil magistrate. It was not gained from any manner
of religious instruction that they had received. Now, Gill
points out that there in some things, not all, but in some
things, In some things and to some degree, the light of nature
agrees with the moral law. Now understand, in some things
and to some degree, not fully, and not all. What Gill said was
this, quote, the dictates of natural reason, unquote. It's what he is speaking about.
That though by the fall man lost knowledge, man lost love of the
one true and living God, Yet he lost not the notion that there
is some supreme being to be recognized, even revered and served, whenever
one may go, wherever one may go. They will find belief in
some God, and they will find some manner of religion, wherever
one might go. Not so much in our day, but in
olden days, when the world was yet not influenced by the gospel
in Christianity. Wherever one has gone, they have
found some kind of religion, some kind of worship, some kind
of profession of a supreme being. At the same time, we must be
careful not to err at this or carry it too far. For example, number one, this
is in no sense to be regarded as a spark of divinity in every
member of the human race that only needs a little bit of fanning
in order that it might flame up. Secondly, along the same
line, it does not support the notion that people can, in their
own strength, or in their own ability, or by their own will,
fulfill the law of God, or please God, or come to know Christ,
or forsake their idols for Christianity. We must make those two distinctions. Now on the other hand, get this
point if you will, that is that the prevalence of idols and of
idolaters about the world does not prove Paul wrong here in
Romans chapter 2. Nor does the multiplicity of
gods that are confessed weaken his argument or take away his
doctrine. Yea, as Stephen Charnock wrote
in that great book of his, The Attributes and Existence of God,
that the idols and the gods of legions of people confess, actually
confirm what Paul says, unquote, the words of Charnock the Puritan. So think about that. Every single
dagon, every single bail. Every goddess Diana, every golden
cag confirms what Paul has said. Here's another nugget from the
pen of Sharnop. Quote, If there were not this
sentiment of a deity, no one would ever have fashioned an
image, worshipped it, prayed unto it, and asked help of it. Unquote. Then consider this. If a man had lost all consciousness
of the existence of God or of supreme being or deity in the
fall, if there was no work at all of the law written in the
hearts of man, and if not for that powerful faculty that we
call conscience, then the world should have been full of atheists. so that, not idolatry, but atheism
should have been the standard or the norm. But this is not
the case. We do not find men, all men,
over in atheism. For even when the Gentiles were
without Christ, when they were aliens from the commonwealth
of Israel, when they were strangers from the covenants, and when
they were without God in the world, as Paul says in Ephesians
2 and verse 12. Even then, in Galatians chapter
4 and verse 8, they were not atheists, they were idolaters. They were doing service, that
is, they were enslaved unto them which by nature were no gods
at all, so that they did not turn from atheism unto God, but
from vanities, Acts 14 and 15. Vanity, meaningless, empty, worthless
vain. Even there in Acts 14 and verse
11, they thought the gods had come down to dwell among them
when they saw the miracles that Paul had done. Herman Bevinck
again wrote, quote, conscience. rather conscious, theoretical
atheism in the absolute sense of the word is very rare." And
one major component of this is the faculty of the conscience
with which God has endowed the creature, its presence in and
its work. It is a conviction and a persuasion
of mine, that very strongly, that you cannot understand human
behavior until you understand the act and the power of the
conscience. You can't understand the behavior
of the human family, why some are like they are and others
are like they are, why some are religious, though not saved,
without understanding the conscience. what Stephen Charnock called,
quote, the operations and reflection of conscience, unquote. Here's
what Charnock wrote, quote, man witnesses to a God in the operation
and reflection of conscience, unquote. The way conscience acts,
the way conscience reflects, the way conscience works within
us and impresses us one way or another. Now let me say something
else, that conscience is very hard to stifle altogether. It is easier to bribe it. and to manipulate it and train
it in a certain way than it is to stifle it altogether. In some cases, according to Paul,
the conscience is and can be seared. And let me tell you,
this is a dangerous and conniving person. who may really truly
have a seared conscience. Now this natural revelation serves
multiple ends, and we look at some quickly in the end. It has
its benefits, and they are several, and they are beneficial, I'll
use the word, to the human family. First of all, without it, if
there were If there were no work of the
law written in the heart of men, if there were no notion of an
invisible, a superior being, the world would lose all order
and would be much, much worse than it is now. It would become a public stew
if this writing were raised out. and conscience were absolutely
seared in awe. It would be a hell upon earth. It's bad now, we think, and certainly
it is. But how much worse it would be
if these works of God were raised out. Secondly, this law written
in the heart and this work of conscience leaves the sons of
men without excuse, according to Paul in Romans chapter 1. For God has given a strong witness
of himself inside of men. Two ways God has given a strong
witness of himself. and make a sermon in itself.
A. In creation. Psalms 19. Have you read that? What the Psalmist said about
it. Psalms 19, 1 through 6. Again, Romans 1, 19 and 20 that
we read this morning. That here is a universal witness. It speaks a universal language
wherever men are. creation is speaking unto them. And secondly, that is conscience. It acts, one old-timer said,
as a deputy of God in the souls of men. It arrests us in some
of our most evil ways, not in all, but it certainly, these
two things, Creation and conscience are mighty, providential, and
beneficial to the things of God. Then I'll quote Anthony Burgess,
an old-time writer, I think from the Puritan era, who made this
statement. that there might be a ground
of conversion." This serves that purpose well. Not that men rise
up out of this revelation by themselves. But only they who
believe in a God and in God are the ones. He that cometh to God
must believe that he is, that he is a rewarder of those that
diligently seek him. And so when God increases, when
God brightens the revelation so that it becomes then a saving
revelation, that Christ is revealed, revealed in our hearts and to
our hearts and to our faith and revealed in the gospel, then
we're enabled to espouse Him as that greater revelation is
made. All through history, God turned
up the revelation. He turned it brighter and brighter
and brighter from that first promise in Genesis 3 and 15. Then He gave the law. Then He
gave the types and the shadows and the prophet, the tabernacle
and the wilderness and types. And He sharpened along the way
the revelation until there came the revelation of God in Jesus
Christ who came and revealed the Father But thank God for
this work that we've looked at this morning, and I think we
can see it evident, taught in the Scripture, and evident in
people and the world around about us.