Romans 2:13

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth and I�m trying to do this kind of double deal here today, that is record a radio show, but also have the live feed for the No Compromise Radio Facebook closed group.

Why This Show Is Called No Compromise Radio

What we try to do in No Compromise Radio, there�s three reasons why it�s named No Compromise Radio. Number one, because we talk about the Lord Jesus and can you imagine, He never compromised. There are a couple of different words for holy in the New Testament.

One is the one you normally think of, transcendent, different. There�s another one used in Hebrews chapter 7 and it essentially means that you�re pleasing to the Father. And of course, that describes the Lord Jesus.

He always does what�s pleasing to the Father. Not sometimes, not every other day, not 23 hours a day, but He always does that. So we talk about the Lord Jesus, we talk about His work at Calvary, right at the cross.

Not one of the attributes of God was compromised, justice upheld and also grace and everything else. And then lastly, in light of that, I don�t want to compromise. So we are No Compromise Radio. Well, that�s just on Tuesdays, but I am No Compromise Radio.

I am you. Remember that show? What�s Up Doc? With Barbra Streisand and Ryan O�Neill, maybe our family favorite show. I am you. Anyway, if you�d like to write me, you can. Mike at No Compromise Radio or Info at No Compromise Radio.

I was all proud of myself the other day. I had filmed a promo video for a big conference in New Zealand and I was asked to speak there, the IMPACT Conference, May 31st through June 2nd, I think are the dates.

Well, I just posted the video, the promo, I think it�s on Facebook there as well. I have the wrong dates. I said May 30th through June 3rd or something. I had the wrong dates. I tried to have the right eye contact when I was filming.

I think that was like take four or something like that and I sent the New Zealand folks the wrong video. So, we�re going to see if we can dub that in or something. You know, it�ll be special dispensational magic to try to dub in.

How do I do that? If I said, I think I said May 30th and so how do I say May 31st and then not have that diphthong, first. What else is going on here? I hope to announce the conference we�ll have at Bethlehem Bible Church later this fall so that�s going to be exciting.

We used to have lots of conferences here at the church and I don�t know, maybe the conference thing died off a little bit, excuse me, but now we�re going to try to revamp that. One of the things that we do at the church, Bethlehem Bible Church, that I love to do, is train other men to either study the Bible and or teach the Bible.

Training Men for Ministry Through 2 Timothy 2

That is to say, there�s a passage in 2 Timothy chapter 2 that talks about discipleship and of course you go to Titus chapter 2 if you�d like to look at it from the ladies� vantage point in terms of older ladies teaching younger ladies.

But here specifically, the one I want to talk about for a little bit today is 2 Timothy chapter 2. Paul said, �You then, my child of course this is a pastoral epistle, �You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace.

I think NAS says, �Be strong in grace� or something like that, but it�s to be strengthened by grace. It�s something that�s happening to you. So ESV does a good job here. �Be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me so it�s Paul to Timothy, �in the presence of many witnesses, in trust to faithful men.

So Timothy to faithful men will then also be able to teach others also. So you can just see this baton is being passed down. And then he uses, Paul uses language to stress the tenacity needed for this, the amount of effort that�s needed for this, the persistence that�s needed for this, the hard work that�s needed for this.

And he uses some illustrations. And here are the illustrations. �Share in the suffering as a good soldier. So he uses this military motif, a good soldier of Christ Jesus. �No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.

And we�re going to train up men for gospel ministry. Remember this is a spiritual thing, but there�s also spiritual war, therefore there�s spiritual warfare involved. And you have to be very, very diligent.

You�ve got to imagine military soldier. He uses another metaphor, another idea, �An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. And then he uses the final one, �It is the hardworking farmer who ought to have the first share of crops.

Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything. So Timothy, I�ve trained you. Timothy, now you train other people. And of course, this in the pastoral epistle is going to mean other pastors who have not been trained directly by Paul, but his writings, we�re to then train the next generation.

And that�s just the promulgation, the propagation, promulgation, promulgation. I am sometimes so mad at my Nebraska background. Actually, the shirt I�m wearing now, I got free when I spoke at Chapel, the Master�s University.

And I went to Master�s Elementary School, which is in Nebraska, has nothing to do with Master�s University, Master�s College, Master�s Seminary. It has nothing to do with that. So the Master�s Monarchs is the elementary school I went to.

First it was Laura Dodge, and then our little neighborhood was growing. And so we went to Master�s. We were the Master�s Monarchs. But then he says something here in verse 8, and this is my favorite imperative in all the Bible.

�Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as he preached in my gospel for which I am also suffering. In other words, it�s good when you think about training men to think about military motifs and athletic motifs and farming motifs.

I have never been in the military. I thought about it to be in the reserves, but I had to leave for six weeks for officer training school, never did it. But I read books. I have been an athlete, not a great one, but I know something about discipline and riding bicycles and all that stuff.

Boy, it was cold yesterday, even colder today, lots of wind. And I�ve worked on a farm lots of summers in Nebraska, northern Nebraska, up by the border of South Dakota near Crofton, Nebraska. I worked on a farm.

It takes a lot of work, it takes a lot of dedication for military, for athletes, and for farming. But the ultimate example for Timothy is Christ. He said, �Remember Jesus Christ. So what we�re trying to do at the church is we have some discipleship training.

And a long time ago, I think it was because of Tommy Nelson and my discussion with Tommy Nelson who�s at Denton Bible Church, he said, �You know, there�s too much auditing in church. There�s too much where you go to Bible study after Bible study after Bible study and home group after home group after home group.

And of course, home group�s fine. Nice shirt, I know, Mrs. Smith. Thank you. It was free. That�s why I�m wearing it. It�s free. �Home group�s fine. Bible study�s fine. But you can audit those. In other words, you can just listen, right?

If you think about James 1, �Be hearers of the word. Don�t be hearers only. Don�t be auditors. �Akroytas� is the Greek word. But be doers of the word. So, there�s lots of auditing in the local church.

But with discipleship, there should be pass-fail. There should be, �Hey, great job. You did it by the grace of God. And you failed. Let�s learn from the mistakes. Therefore, at Bethlehem Bible Church, when I do my discipleship groups, and those range from introductory, how to study the Bible, how to pray, how to memorize verses, how to go visit someone in the hospital.

Those introductory ones are valuable. And there�s also one that I just started last Sunday here at the church, and it�s for preachers. It�s for men who want to learn how to understand the Bible. Hermeneutics, the art and science of biblical interpretation.

Exegesis, what does the text say? What is the divine author trying to communicate through the human author, i .e., via inspiration? And then exposition, homiletics, proclamation. How do you say what the text is?

How do you say something well? What you say is the most important thing, what the text says, but since that�s important, you should say it well. In other words, when it comes to discipleship, we have some pass-fail things.

And so the men have homework, and they have to memorize verses. This week they had to memorize a couple verses. They had to read a chapter in a book. They had to prepare a few things. They had to read the pastoral epistles a couple times, etc.

And when they are here in the class, which is going to be right behind me at this table right here, there�s my homework stuff for tomorrow to hand out, they will say, �Yes, I did it, or I didn�t do it.

And they�ll have to be on time. Now, lots of times people just say, �Well, if you�re punctual, it�s godly and everything else. It really doesn�t have anything to do with that. It has to do with, if you�re going to be a teacher, you better show up on time.

You better get there early. Something might go wrong, and something might go wrong with the fill-in-the-blank sermon outlines and the PowerPoint. So just get there early. And if these guys don�t make it here on time, and they have a legitimate excuse, fine.

There�s a lady on the side of the road. They helped. Great. Illegitimate excuse? Then they have to have bagels and doughnuts and coffee for the group the next week. This last week I said to a person, they walk in late, I mean day one, you walk in late to the pastor�s preaching discipleship, and I said, �Well, any good reason you�re late

And this particular man said, �Yes, I wanted to obey God by obeying the speed limit. I thought he was joking. I said, �So you�re blaming God�s Romans 13 kind of rule, government rule, for you being late

Anyway, we had to force it out of him that he was late because he just got up late. So if you�re going to teach, you better be on time. Well, with discipleship, we have pass-fail, and so when the guys do a good job, I say, �Hey, way to go.

It�s heavy on the encouragement, especially at the local church level. When I�m teaching doctoral students how to preach, then I�m a little less encouraging. I�m more, �Well, let�s fix this and let�s do that.

I�m thankful that you preach Christ-centered message, authorial intent, you understand context, everything else, but let�s work on what you do. You do that to your nose all the time, and stop that.

Discipleship you can fail or you can succeed, of course, by the grace of God. Well, I met with somebody this week who�s in that discipleship group, and they had the �aha� moment. And the �aha� moment is Romans 2 .13.

They were asking me about Romans 2 .13, and this is kind of the litmus test verse for �Do you understand the differences between law and gospel Do you understand what the law is supposed to do? And if you�d like to buy a commentary one day on Romans, and you have kind of a little litmus test, this is the verse you go to and look at.

Now, there are some exceptions, and some people have not interpreted this rightly, but the rest of their commentary has proved to be wonderful. But this is just a nice thing. For instance, for Bible translations, if I want to know if they�re liberal or not, I�ll turn it open to Isaiah 7 .14, and let�s see if it talks about a young maiden or a young virgin.

I will go to 2 Timothy 3 .16, and 2 Timothy 3 .16 in liberal translations, like the original RSV. The updated RSV, they changed it, and the NRSV, they changed it. But the old RSV, the old Revised Standard Perversion, they translated it instead of �All scripture which is God-breed, they�re all scripture that is inspired.

All scripture is inspired, rather, that�s how it should read. They had it read the way I just said it wrongly. All scripture which is inspired, all scripture that is inspired. In other words, there�s some scripture that�s not inspired, but the stuff that is, that�s profitable and it corrects and it reproves and trains for righteousness, etc.

Anyway, this is the litmus test. So, Romans 2 .13, it says, �For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be justified. So, what is he saying? So, I was meeting with my discipleship guy, and we were talking about it, and he was asking about the question.

And he was saying, well, it kind of seems like it�s a blur between law and gospel. It kind of seems like, he didn�t say this, but this is what he meant, �law-light. But is it? Romans 2 .13, �For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be justified.

What do we do with that? Is it true? Is it just, you know, a hopeful wish that we�ve got to do some stuff? Is this in the category of sanctification? Is this in the category of law given to show that you need a Savior?

Romans 2:13 and the Law-Gospel Distinction

So, if you think big picture of Romans, here�s how you would figure this out. How many chapters in Romans? Sixteen. How many chapters in Romans have doctrine? I hope you say sixteen. With Romans, what he�s doing, at the beginning, he�s going to try to tell you, you have no righteousness.

And if you really want one-word theme for the book of Romans, it�s righteousness. In the first two-and-a-half chapters, that is through 3A, that is 320, you�re going to be shown that there�s no righteousness.

Gentiles don�t have righteousness, chapter 1. You don�t have righteousness if you�re this moralistic Jew. No one�s got righteousness, and there�s a litany of verses given all outside of Torah. I know.

Josh just said, �The S. Lewis Johnson Romans 2 hypothetical justification. I know. You know, and here�s what happened there. This is just a little deviation. Lewis, when he got older, taught Romans 213 the right way, as the way I�m going to talk about it right now.

But I couldn�t find that, so the data that I had for S. Lewis Johnson�s Roman commentary and by the way, when I was talking about Romans commentaries earlier, I thought, �Oh, I�m going to shoot myself in the foot.

The Romans commentary was from data in 1980, and I think Lewis taught Romans, I don�t know, 40 times or something like that. I just talked to his son the other day. I got a call from Nashville, and first I thought it was Byron Yawn, and then it was Samuel Johnson, Lewis�s son, and we were talking about the Colossians commentary.

Hopefully that�ll be out in the fall, but anyway. I had data from 1980 for S. Lewis Johnson�s Roman commentary, and he had the hypothetical justification, the law-light stuff, and that�s all I had. So I couldn�t remember, I mean, out of the 1 ,000 or 2 ,000 S. Lewis Johnson sermons, which one had the other, and I just couldn�t make it happen, so I had to just believe it as is.

Anyway, he believes the right thing now, and he believed the right thing later on in his life. But what the author�s trying to do is to say, all right, there�s the law, and it�s going to show you you have no righteousness.

And then there�s, to use Galatians� language, Jesus, who was born of a woman, born under law, and then he earned righteousness for you, and that is given to you by imputation through the non-meritorious instrument of faith, chapter 3, 21 and following, see Abraham chapter 4, benefits of justification chapter 5, 1 Adam, 2 Adam at the end, etc.

And then, in chapter 6, we get to sanctification. People try to make chapter 2 sanctification when it has nothing to do with it. He�s trying to show you you can�t get into heaven unless you�re perfect.

So let�s even take a look at that. I know it can�t be done today because of Adam�s sin credited to our account, and then consequently. That�s the way you always talk about it. We have sin natures because something happened before.

Adam�s sin imputed. We�re talking about immediate imputation, not mediated imputation, but immediate imputation. Adam�s sin credited to our account. Then consequently, we�re sinful. We have sinful nature.

That�s how you should talk about it. One sin, first sin, Adam�s sin, federal head, public person, credited to our account, everybody�s account, Mary�s account, your account, my account, everybody but Jesus.

Remember, there�s that supernatural Holy Spirit hovering over, directing that pregnancy. So Jesus is sinless. But for everybody else, they get credit for Adam�s sin, and then consequently, their sinful nature.

So this is only hypothetical. It can�t happen because of that. But if you could obey, listen to the language of Romans 2. Immediate context will already tell you. He says in chapter 2, verse 1, the whole thing is going on in chapter 1 with the Gentiles and God gave them up, God gave them up, God gave them up, they didn�t acknowledge God anymore.

It�s temporal wrath. We�re not talking about eternal wrath yet. The wrath of God is revealed on these people on earth. Something worse is coming. And then it says in chapter 2, verse 1,. �Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges, for in passing judgment on another, you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things.

In other words, you moralistic Jew, you moralizer, you Jewish person, you know those pagans are bad, you know the people on Jerry Springer are bad. Well, if you know they�re bad, that means you know the difference between right and wrong.

How are you doing? Do you do right all the time? Do you always avoid the wrong thing? That�s what he�s after. He�s after people who say, �Well, at least I�m not like them. At least I�m not a homosexual.

Well, you might as well be, because if you don�t break the law there, you break it somewhere else. And here�s what he says in verse 6, �He will render to each one according to his works. So forget about the Gentiles.

What about you? He�s going to render to you according to your works. Have you perfectly loved God, if you want to summarize all the commandments? Have you perfectly loved your neighbor as yourself? So what does he go on to say?

Verse 7, it says this is important, �To those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. Hey, if you obey the law, why would God keep you out of heaven?

Why would he not say, �Good job right? And hypothetically, we�re thinking about the garden too and Adam on probation. Most theologians think that Adam was going to be on a probation period for not forever, but a certain time period, and then he would be glorified.

Well, you can argue that all you�d like in terms of the probation and the time period and everything else. Obviously, he failed as our representative, and so it�s all moot point now. But if you could perfectly obey, God would have no reason to send you off to hell.

For what? That would be unjust. He will give eternal life. But now the text goes on in chapter 2, verse 8,. �But those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.

There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, for the Jew first and also the Greek. But glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, to the Jew first and also the Greek.

God shows no partiality. For all who have sinned without the law also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law, for it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be justified.

Even in the scheme of Romans, you�ve got 16 chapters. This is not the sanctification chapter. This is not the blurring. This is where Rome goes. Rome blurs that. How much do you have to do to be justified?

Is this law light? Is this hypothetical justification? What�s going on? In one sense, Josh is right when he types on here, Romans 2, hypothetical justification, masterpiece. Now I know what he�s saying.

S. Lewis would teach that. Hypothetically, you could do this, but I want to say in my commentary, or his commentary doesn�t say that, all that to say. If you could do this, you could go to heaven. But you can�t, so you need a Savior, and that�s why the law is trying to, chapter 3, verse 19, �Shut your mouth.

Here�s what�s going on with the law. Here�s where it ends. �Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped. We give the law to people, the unbelievers, until they go, �You know what, you�re right.

I do sin. I haven�t loved God. I�ve done a lot of bad things. I used to compare myself to other people, and now I compare myself to the Word of God, to His law, to His person, to His character, to His nature, and I fall short, and I deserve to be damned.

That�s actually true. Their mouths are shut. You�re trying to make their mouths shut. Too often, I think, we automatically go straight to Jesus and His benefits when people don�t even really realize how sinful they are, and that�s why we have to figure this out.

Well, I met with this guy, we were talking about it, and you could see the light go on. �Oh, this is not sanctification. Calvin said, �If you interpret this as a blending of sanctification and justification, this is possible.

Just how much sanctification do you have to have? How much righteousness? How much doing do you have to have? You�re to be laughed at by children. That�s what Calvin said. This guy was sitting there at lunch, and I said, �We are outside.

It�s New England. It�s winter. There�s a little atrium. This is kind of a shop where you can buy specialty sandwiches and then buy little pieces of maple sugar candy. You can buy maple syrup. You can buy special balsamic olive oil.

You can buy special� there�s no such thing as balsamic olive oil, but if there was, you could just have two things in one decanter, and then you wouldn�t have to have two separate ones. But you can buy olive oil or you can buy balsamic vinegar and taste them and sample them.

We�re sitting outside in the atrium. I said, �Look around. I said, �You�re never going to forget this day as long as you live. The eyes of your mind are now open to understand that Romans 2 .13, he�s trying to tell you, �You know what?

You can�t do this. If you could, you could obey the law, you�d make it in. But this is why you need someone who does keep the law in your place. If you want to get to heaven by the covenant of works, you�ve got to make headway fast from the get-go, perfection from the get-go.

So instead, why don�t you trust in somebody who was under the covenant of works, Jesus, and who completed it, and who earned perfect righteousness for you, and then now, by grace, you freely receive it through faith.

Anyway, we had a great conversation. That�s Romans 2 .13. So we�re trying to train up men so they understand the Bible, they understand law and gospel, they understand these other things. And then Josh said here on Facebook Truth, �Good people go to heaven.

It�s like with the Pygmy in Africa thing, you know. If there was an innocent Pygmy in Africa, does he need to hear the gospel to go to heaven? No, because if there was an innocent Pygmy, they�d go to heaven because they were innocent, but they�re not.

So go preach the gospel. Anyway, we�re going to do another show in just a second. I think we�ll do another Facebook Live since we have a whopping five people watch. Wow! Five folks. This is incredible.

Incredibly! No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of God�s Word through verse by verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 10 .15 and in the evening at 6. We�re right on route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.