All right, let's take our Bibles
and turn with me to the book of Proverbs chapter 29, Proverbs
29. Let's look at one verse of scripture. Verse 13. Proverbs 29, 13. and the deceitful man meet together. The Lord lighteneth both their
eyes. Sad to say, but as creatures
of the dust, all of us, we're all born with the ability only
to look on the outward appearance of things. We see things as we're
able to see things. We see things concerning others,
their appearance, their attitude, their social status. We look at the appearance of
things that we can perceive. and we surmise or we deduct or
we conclude something about that person that's based totally on
what we can see. We judge things the way we perceive
them to be. And James 2.1 absolutely, The
Spirit of God moved on James to write this. James 2.1, my
brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
Lord of glory, with respect of persons. Don't do it, and we do it. Commanded not to do it and we
do it. Now you're gonna look, you look on me and I look on
you, we all have attitudes and this, that and the other, but
listen, the bottom line is this, we're all gonna die and whatever
we have in this world, we're gonna leave it. It's gonna, it
just doesn't matter. When the rich man that fared
sumptuously every day, When he died, now here's an easy question. How much did he leave? All of it. Lazarus, in all of
the filth and the suffering and the poverty, when he left this
earth and was taken into the very bosom of Abraham, everything
that he suffered in this world, what did he leave? All of it. All of it. So what we have in this life, don't have any respect for that.
Don't set your heart on it. Oh, that's so easy to say. And our old flesh says, no, I'm
I'm still gonna, you know, I wanna hang on to this. Now our passage
today deals with something that sets forth the marvelous grace
of God, concerning his mercy. We just read, I will have mercy
on whom I'll have mercy. I'll have compassion on whom
I'll have compassion. It's not of him that willeth,
not of him that runneth, God that showeth mercy. And this
passage of scripture deals with something, it does not matter
what a man has attained in this life or hasn't attained in this
life. The only thing that matters is
what God says about him. That's the only thing that matters. The poor, and it means the destitute, the deceitful, that one that
is the usurer, the one that Actually, it means the one that crushes. They meet together. And the Lord
likeneth both their eyes. They stand, concerning the things
of God, they stand on equal ground. It don't matter. I don't care
how much you got in the bank. I don't care how much you don't
have in the bank. Concerning the things of God, it's not gonna
matter. Oh, what an abundance of gospel is set forth in that
passage of scripture. When it comes to mankind, man,
woman, Jew, Gentile, rich, poor, we're all born in trespasses
and sins. All of our righteousnesses are
as filthy rags There's none good, not one. Do any of us from the
womb seek God? No, no. Well, upon what basis
then do we really find any ground to show partiality one to the
other? I know we do it, I know we do
it. But we have no right to do it.
We have no commandment to do it. God, the scripture says,
according to Acts 1034, is no respecter of persons. You think it really matters?
God, whatever you have, he gave it to you. God's going to have
more respect to one man over another man because that man
acquired more land or more. God gave us gods. It's just not,
you're just borrowing this. I had a dear and precious friend
tell me the other day concerning, you know, we was talking about
the house that I live in. He said, you're going to leave
it one way or the other. They'll either carry you out,
or he said, you'll find another place, but he said, you ain't
staying here. You're not staying here. Oh, this wonderful truth
in this verse sets forth that when the Spirit of God is pleased
to shine upon a vessel of God's mercy and grace, that illuminating
power Break through all the barriers of darkness and sin and unbelief. It don't matter, it don't matter
where you live. You can live in the poorest shanty
that this world's ever seen, or you can live in the Taj Mahal.
But I'm telling you, when Almighty God comes in power, it's God
that's gotta remove a heart of stone and give you a new heart,
same as the other one. It don't matter, it don't matter. The poor and the deceitful man
meet together, and the Lord lighteneth both their eyes. Let me ask you
something. Now just think for just a second. was more needy. That lowlife,
conniving, thieving, stinking man that hung on the cross, who
spent his life stealing. He was a thief. He was a thief. That's how he made his living,
or whatever you'd call it. He made his sustenance stealing
from other people. He was a thief who needed more
grace, more mercy. Him? Well, that highly respected,
self-righteous Saul of Tarsus, who formerly viewed himself as
better than anybody. Saul didn't know anybody that
was as good as he was. Nobody. Born the right day, circumcised
the right day, born of a right family, all of his righteousness,
he kept the law, he was blameless. Can you imagine? Blameless? Now who deserved more? Neither
one of them deserved more. How much more grace did it take
to save one than the other? The poor and the usurer, the
deceitful, they meet together. God lighteneth both their eyes. How about that demoniac of Gadara? Now I'm talking about a man that
lives in the tombs, in the land of the Gadarenes. Nobody even
wanted to be around him. They better not be around him,
he'll kill you. I just imagine sitting around
here, wild eyed, and kind of looking around, crazy looking,
cutting himself with stones, He's crazy. He's a crazy man. He's got a legion of demons in
him. A legion of demons. Who needed
more, him or Peter? That hard working, he was a hard
worker. He was a fisherman and it was
hard work. And he was working with his daddy.
He had a family business and that man was honorable. That's
an honorable business. Who needed more, him or the Lord, or that demoniac, for
the Lord to save him? How about that money-hungry Zacchaeus
who cheated others, took their taxes, or that odious leper that
I talked about, came to the Lord. Lord, if you will, you can. You can make me clean. Who needed
more grace? Let me ask you this. Here's one
that amazes me. Who needed more grace? This Cajun
from South Louisiana that grew up in false religion. I never
heard the gospel. I never even heard it. I never
even, I didn't even hear the word, to my knowledge, I cannot
ever remember, Neil, hearing the word election or predestination
till I was in my late 20s. I never heard it. I didn't even
know it was in the Bible. Who needed more grace? Are you
that grew up in this church from an infant and heard Brother Scott
preach the unsearchable riches of the grace of God? You heard
the gospel. Week after week after week after
week. Who needed more grace? The poor and the deceitful man
meet together. The Lord lighteneth both their
eyes. Who needed more of the power
of God? Paul was moved in 2 Thessalonians
2.13 to say this. Second Thessalonians, I love
this passage of scripture. One of my favorite passages of
scripture. Second Thessalonians 2, 13, 14. We, but we are bound to give
thanks all way to God for you, brethren. Beloved of the Lord,
because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through
sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth. were
until he called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory
of our Lord Jesus Christ. You may have come up hearing
it all your life. I never heard it till I was 27
is the number that sticks in my mind. I think that's about
how old I am, 27 years old, first time I ever heard it. And it
was ridiculous to me then, first time I heard it. Not long after
I heard it, but it was the first time I heard it. But when God
was pleased, as he did by that infant that we looked at out
of Ezekiel 16, he said, when I passed by and I saw you, I
saw you. I saw you in your own blood.
Your navel wasn't cut. You weren't salted. Nobody cleaned
you up. but it was a time of love, and
I said unto you, live, live. Who needs more? We're all on
the same ground. It pleases God to draw us to
himself. He does the same to everyone,
the poor, the arrogant, the haughty, the high-minded, It's self-righteous. We're all in the same boat. He
sends the glorious gospel of free grace, and he gives life
from above. The Lord lighteneth. That is, he lights up, he causes
to shine both their eyes. Psalm 13, three says this. Consider and hear me, O Lord
my God, lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death. I pray God bless this message
to the hearts of his people for his glory and our good.