Please turn with me in your Bibles to Romans chapter 2 11 through 16.

For there is no partiality with God, for all who have sinned without the law will 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 just before God, but the doers of the law will be justified.

For when Gentiles who do not have the law do instinctively the things of the law, these not having the law are a law to themselves in that they

show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness,

and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them on the day when

according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus.

December 27 last year I preached this text. And I'll give you a two minute synopsis of that and then remind you of what

I promised I would do in that sermon.

Verse 11 says there's no partiality with God and the rest of the text is a support for that

because it looks like that's not true.

The reason it looks like it's not true is that in verse six

Paul had said he's going to render to everyone according to their deeds

and yet he only gives one people the book of the law

where all the deeds are described in all the ways of

dealings with God, the Jews and so how can it be impartial if only one little people in the

near east have the book and all over the world people are going to

get judged. How's that impartial? And he gives a two-stage answer. The first stage is,

it isn't the having of the book it's a doing of the book that will count the judgment

which doesn't help much because how can you know what to do if you don't have the book?

And his second answer is you've all got the book.

...