Acts chapter 10. This morning
we'll be looking at verse 34. Acts chapter 10 and verse 34. The title of the message this
morning is, No Respecter. No Respecter. Here we come in
Acts chapter 10 and verse 34, and the Scripture says, Then
Peter opened his mouth and said of a truth, I perceive that God
is no respecter of persons." Respecter of persons. Here we've
come to Peter's sermon. Now we've discussed in the last
few Sunday School times the man Cornelius and the vision that
he had had. And then we had discussed Peter
and the vision that he had had and how God by providence had
brought these two men together So as Peter would preach and
Cornelius and all those in his house would hear the gospel. And now we've come to the sermon.
We've come to the time that Peter is about to preach and he is
here opening his mouth. And the first words out of his
mouth in this sermon says that God, he said, I perceive, I perceive
that God is not a respecter of persons. We've seen how Cornelius,
when he was given that vision by the grace of God, he was given
the vision of the angel. And what did the angel tell him
to do? He said, you go and send for
a man named Peter. You go and sin for a man named
Peter, and he will declare unto you all things." When I heard
that again, when I read this again, the thought came to my
mind, the question came, why did the angel not tell him concerning
Christ? Why did the angel not tell him
the message of the gospel of Christ? That's the question I
had when I looked at that. I said, well, it would have been
a lot easier if God would have just sent the angel to testify. But he said, Peter. He said,
Peter, you go and get Peter. Why did he have to hear the message
from Peter? Well, I have two distinct reasons
why the angel did not tell him, and I would say could not tell
him. The gospel of God's grace. First,
because the angels, you see, they desire to look into the
things of God, the Scripture says. The things of grace concerning
how God saves men. They desire to look into those
things, but they cannot grasp them. They cannot understand
them. The things of the gospel. You
see, an angel has never sinned. An angel that has not fallen,
he is an holy angel. He doesn't know what it is to
be forgiven of sin. He doesn't know anything about
that. He desires to see these things, but he can't fully grasp
them. You see, he knows what it is to be kept, doesn't he? He understands. Could you get
that door for me, please? I'm sorry. He knows what it is
to be kept. You remember that there were
angels, that all of the angels were created by God, and yet
some of the angels were fallen angels. And yet some angels were
kept. These were what we would call
the elect angels of God. So they would know something
about what it is to be kept by the power of God. But they would
not know what it is to be regenerated by the power of God. They wouldn't
know anything about that. They wouldn't have no experience
of this. They were kept by the grace of
God and they marvel. Angels marvel. They are astonished
at how God would be so gracious to such fallen creatures as we
are. How that God would be gracious
to us. They cannot tell of it because they have no experience
of it. You see, God sends men because
men know what it is to be fallen. Men know what it is to be saved
by the grace of God. You see, we preach what we know
and have experienced. Angel couldn't do that. He couldn't
do that. And second of all, because this is the means by which God
has chosen. This is the means by which God
has chosen. God had not chosen by the means
of angels to preach the gospel to men. You see, the only reason
for the angel was to send him to get someone who knew the gospel
so he could preach it to him. You see, God has chosen this
means by which He will save sinners and feed His sheep. Go to 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians 1, you all know
this verse, but 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 17, the Apostle Paul
tells us this, For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach
the gospel, not with words of wisdom, lest the cross of Christ
should be of none effect. For the preaching of the cross
is to them that perish foolishness. But unto us which are saved,
it is the power of God. And go down to verse 21. For
after that, in wisdom, the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew
not God. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require
a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ
crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block, unto the Greeks foolishness,
but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ
the power of God and the wisdom of God. You see, to the natural
perishing man, the preaching of the gospel is foolishness. It is foolishness to the perishing
man. Men who are engaged, they don't
mind being engaged in lofty debate. If you want to have a debate,
you will pack the house. You see, they like that. That's
exciting. If you want to have an intellectual
group study, I imagine you can get quite a few of those. And if a man were to preach,
he surely must preach the law according to this generation.
He must preach some kind of merit or favor or how to live, how
to be a better person. I'm sure that this is what this
generation deems that is reasonable and right for men to do, is to
preach how to be better people. And friends, when you listen
to that, if you ever hear that, it's not what they're saying
is wrong, it's what they're not saying. It's what they're not
preaching. You see, they deem the cross
of Christ to be foolish in their estimation. They assume everyone
knows about this and it is just rhetoric or foolish. It's redundant
for them to preach Christ and Him crucified over and over again. They see it as foolishness. Christ
said, but Paul said, this was my mission. This is what God
sends men to do. He sends men to preach the gospel
of Jesus Christ. To preach the cross of Christ
to them is absurd. They say, surely there's something
better than this. So they preach something else. But God has sent men to preach
Christ and Him crucified You see, many seek a sign. So the
Jews, they seek a sign. How many of this religious world
seek a sign that I'm telling the truth? They say, how do we
know you're telling the truth? Do you do miracles? Do you speak
in tongues? Do you do wonderful things? Do you get out there in the community? Debate people or do you have
any dealings with the universe? Show me a sign that you're telling
the truth. The only sign that we have is
the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he said, three days and three
nights in the heart of the earth, so shall the Son of Man be. And
that's exactly what happened to Christ. He died and He rose
again the third day. This is the testimony I have
that I'm telling the truth. The Word of God. The Word of
God. I preach God's Word. I say, let
God be true and every man a liar. That's the only sign I'm going
to give you. That's the only sign God gives us, is Christ. He's
the only thing worth preaching. Another thing other people seek
after wisdom. You see, they seek to be educated
people. They look at preaching as like
a school that they go to so that they might learn something. And
if you don't teach them something new, if you don't tickle their
fancy and tickle their ears with something new and exciting, they'll
go somewhere else. They'll go somewhere else. In 2 Timothy, a verse came to
me this morning, 2 Timothy chapter... Let me flip over there. 2 Timothy chapter 4, Paul says
to this young pastor, he says, verse 1, I charge you therefore
before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, you shall judge the quick
and the dead at His appearing and at His kingdom. Preach the
Word. Be instant. Be ready in season
and out of season. What does that mean? That means
be ready at all times. Be ready when it's convenient
and when it's not convenient. How many times have I, somebody
come and ask me a question, it's not been convenient for me. It
doesn't matter. My convenience doesn't matter.
I should be ready to preach the Word at any time. To reprove,
rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will
come when they shall not endure sound doctrine. But after their
own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching
ears, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and
shall be turned unto fables." You, my friends, are very sheltered. You are very sheltered in that
I don't know how much you converse with this religious world, But
friends, people would rather believe in aliens than to believe
God. They would rather believe that
God is some supernatural alien as to believe the Word of God. They would heave to themselves
fables rather than hear the preaching of the cross of Christ. Oh, to
them it's foolishness what we're doing. But unto us. See, there's a difference, there's
a contrast there. But unto us, who is he us? To sinners in need
of a Savior. To those who are spiritually
blind, imprisoned, deaf, and sick with sin. To those who are
cast down because of their evil hearts. To these, the gospel
of God's grace in Christ is music to their ears. You see, the gospel
is music to the sinner's ears. It's a glorious revelation. Can you imagine the joy of those
people that the Lord healed of those physical ailments? You
know, when blind Bartimaeus, when he could see, I imagine
that was a great joy. It's an even greater joy when
the Lord Jesus Christ opens the blind eyes of our souls. to see
Christ. It's much greater joy to hear
of that than of anything else. To all who have been called by
the Spirit of God to life and faith in Christ, we know that
this, the preaching of the gospel, is the power of God that saves
sinners. We know that the preaching of
the gospel is the power of God that keeps us in Christ. These things are necessary for
us because these are the things that God has ordained that we
should attend to. The preaching of the cross of
Christ. These men at Cornelius' house,
they were gathered together and they were eager to hear what
Peter had to say. They were eager to hear the message
of Jesus Christ and His person and work. Friends, when I study, Many times
I get so bogged down in the systematic theology and the things that
I read, I get so bogged down in those things that I at times,
it becomes dry. Why? Because I'm missing Christ. It's not about a system. It's
about a person. It's about Him. And without Him,
all things are dry and tasteless. How tedious and tasteless the
hours when Jesus no longer I see. Sweet birds, sweet prospects,
sweet flowers have all lost their sweetness to me. You can read
any book you want to. If you're not looking for Christ,
you'll find it dry and tasteless. You see, I come to preach in
person. I come to tell you of the man, Jesus Christ, who is
God incarnate, and that He died for sinners. And this is the
person and work that we proclaim here. This is the person, Jesus
Christ, that Peter is going to proclaim. He is going to proclaim
the person of God. And that's what he does in our
text. Look back in your text. He said, I perceive. Of a truth,
I perceive that God is not a respecter of persons." This is what he
opens his message with, and this is what caught my eye when I
was studying a respecter. What is a respecter of persons?
What does that mean? That God is not a respecter of
persons. You hear that comedian, I got
no respect, no respect. You know, nobody likes him, he
thinks he's always downcast, nobody likes, nobody gives him
any respect. That's not what this is talking about. That's
not what this is talking about. No respecter of persons. It means
exactly what Peter had perceived here. Peter perceived at one
time that God respected only the Jews in salvation. that God
would only take the Jews, and the Gentiles were an outcast
people, and that God would not bring them in. But now, he is
seen by the grace of God to this man Cornelius. He is seen by
the grace of God in his vision concerning the unclean animals.
He sees that God is going to call and have mercy upon all
types of men, regardless of their personal race, or their personal
character, or their personal being. That's what it is. And so I want us to see this
aspect of not being a respecter of persons in two ways. In God's
justice, God is not a respecter of persons. And in God's mercy,
He is not a respecter of persons. First of all, in God's judgment,
justice, He is not a respecter of persons. In the justice of
God and before the strict law of God, all men stand on equal
ground. It matters not before the justice
of God if a man was born in a king's palace or a whore's house. It
doesn't matter. It doesn't matter before the
justice of God what this man has doing or is doing for God
or is not doing for God. It has no regard to his being
black or white or mixed or yellow. It doesn't matter if he's bond
or if he's free, if he's male or he's female, if he's Jew or
he's Greek. God's justice does not look at
the circumstances of a man or even the man's person. You see,
the justice of God is only in cares about one thing, and that
is, is a man righteous or is he guilty? That's it. That's it. God doesn't care where
we come from. That justice doesn't care where
we come from or who we are. It only matters. Are you righteous
or are you guilty? That's all God's justice demands.
That's all he's going to find out. It's all he wants to know.
God's holy and just law. It matters not before the justice
of God who the man is or what he's done. It just matters is
he holy and righteous. God's law is holy and just and
concerned not with the circumstances of a person. In our judicial
system, When a judge stands before a man and a man is guilty of
a crime, how does he determine how much of a sentence? Circumstance,
right? He says, well, this man, you
know, he didn't have a good education or he just didn't have a good
upbringing. And so what we're going to do
is we're going to tweak the system for him. And we're going to let
him go with a minor technicality and just give him probation.
You see, God's law doesn't do that. God's law is strict. Every sin merits eternal damnation. Every sin. So whether a man committed
one lie or he committed ten billion lies, they both will have their
place in eternal damnation. Both of them. Before the strict
law and justice of God. Go to Romans chapter 2. Flip over to Romans chapter 2. Romans 2, verse 6, the Apostle
Paul says this, God, who will render to every man according
to his deeds, to them who by patient continuance in well-doing
seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life, But
unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but
obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish
upon every soul that doeth evil, of the Jew first and also to
the Gentile. But glory and honor and peace
to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first and also to
the Gentile. For there is no respect of persons
with God, For as many as have sinned without the law shall
also perish without the law. And as many as have sinned in
the law shall be judged by the law." Do you not see that? God
says that I don't care if you were a Jew and you had the Word
of God all of your life and you lived under the law. I don't
care if you had the law or you were a Greek in some foreign
pagan land. I don't care. It matters did
you obey the law that God had given you. You see, the Greeks
had the law in their hearts. Every one of us is born with
the law of God in our hearts. So we are without excuse before
God. As well as those people who had
the written law of God, they are without excuse. You see,
if a man is not righteous and he doesn't have the law, he'll
perish without the law. And if a man has the law, he'll
perish by the things in the law. You see, God is not a respecter
of persons in this matter of judgment. If anyone does not
obey the law of God continually, every thought, every word, every
deed, every action, God says you are guilty regardless of
who you are. You're guilty. God will righteously judge every
man according to his works, and all who are found righteous will
have life, and all who are found guilty will suffer hell. Justice of God, my friend, is
not bending. It's not bending and it's not
partial. All who will have eternal life
must be holy, even as God is holy. And anyone without holiness
must suffer under the wrath of God. Is this not the concern then
of every man? Should this not be the issue
of every man's heart? It should be, because God is
not a respecter of persons in judgment. He's not a respecter
of a person's judgment. Because we have all sinned and
there is none righteous, no, not one, there's none that understandeth,
there's none that seeketh after God, we are all together become
unprofitable, there's none that doeth good, no, not one. Scripture
says, if thou shouldest mark iniquity, Lord, who should stand?
Friends, God does mark iniquity. Shall not the judge of all the
earth do right? You see, every man that is guilty
knows that it is right for God to mark iniquity. We know that. We know it's right for Him to
do so. And yet natural man would rather
try to ignore it. Spoke with a man this last week,
and he was very angry concerning the preaching of the gospel and
how the church speaks of hell and how he speaks of judgment.
And he says, I refuse to believe it. And I said, refusing to believe
it doesn't make it go away. And I asked him a question, I
said, do you not know that there's judgment? And he said, yes, I
know, but I must get away from it. I put it in the back of my
mind and I try to get rid of it. And he does. He does by believing
something else. He tries to ease his conscience. But every man knows, and no man
will escape this. No man will escape this. God
is strict in His justice. No man shall escape the judgment
of God. He will call every soul into
account, both rich and poor, young and old, male and female,
will stand before the bar of God's justice with no respect
of our persons. but will strictly and righteously
judge all men. So then, who can stand before
God? The psalmist says, he that hath clean hands and a pure heart. Look at your heart. Is it pure? Are your hands innocent before
God? Is there any hope for us whose
righteousness are as filthy rags? Yes. Yes, there is. There is
because God is not a respecter of persons in mercy. He's not
a respecter of persons in judgment, but He's also not a respecter
of persons in mercy. You see, God who will judge all
the world in righteousness will not respect a man's person. He
also has determined to have mercy without respect of man's person.
Therefore, before the foundation of the world, before there was
ever sin, Before there was ever a man done any good or any evil,
God, according to the purpose of election, He chose a people
from the fallen race of Adam that He would save regardless
of who they were or what they've done. See, God did not look at
you who believe, you who are believers in Christ. God did
not look down the portals of time and find out what you would
do. He did not choose you based on
what you have done. But He was no respecter of persons. He chose you because He sovereignly
would do so. And there is no other reason.
There is no reason found in me that God would choose me. None. No reason other than He would. God is not a respecter of persons
in mercy. These are the elect of God. These
were given mercy not based on what they would do or what they
have done for God. They were chosen solely based
on the sovereign grace of God alone. If God chose His elect
based on something they would do or something in themselves, then He would
be a respecter of persons, wouldn't He? He would be respecting something
about you that would cause Him to choose you. He would be a
respecter of persons. You see, all who clamor about
free will and their sovereign free choice, they do so because
they think God should respect man's will. They think God should
heed to man's will. That God should choose them because
they sovereignly chose Him. That's what they think. That's
how they feel. They do not believe that salvation
is solely based on the blood and righteousness of Christ alone.
They do believe that God needs their help. That God needs their
will to save them. He loves them, but He can't do
anything for them until they choose Him. This is a lie that
has damned the souls of millions in our generation. This is a blasphemous heresy
against the Word of God. I was speaking to a friend of
mine and he got so mad at me the other day
because I would not say he was a Christian. I said, as long as you believe
that your will has anything to do with your salvation, you are
lost and in your sins. And friends, when you tell men
that, they will be mad at you. This was a friend, but he was
angry. He was angry. But friends, I
will not compromise the gospel of Jesus Christ, not for friend
or foe. God is not a respecter of persons.
He chooses whom He wills to choose. And the rest He passes by. God could have chosen no one. Isn't that right? When Adam sinned,
could not God have let Adam go and not come down to Adam? God
could have let him go on in darkness and all of his posterity, go
on wearing fig leaves of religion all their lives and not one of
us be saved. Let me ask you this. If God had
not saved anyone, would He be any less loving? Would God be
any less just? Would He be any less holy if
He saved no one? No. No, God is the same. God is not unjust. Yet men in
ignorance of the Scriptures say that God, for God to choose one
and to pass by another, that He's unrighteous. And I tell you what, I would
agree with them if God was a respecter of persons. If every man was
saying, oh God, please save me, please save me. And God would
say, no, I'm not saving you. I'm not saving you. But look
at that guy. He's doing pretty good. I'm going
to save him. You see, God would be a respecter of persons and
He would be unjust. He would be unjust. If God would have mercy at the
expense of His justice, wouldn't He be unjust? If God would save me because
of who I am, at the expense of His justice, He would be unjust.
But God is not unjust. I look at it like this, if I
were a judge and I had two people before me, you've got this one
man dressed in a suit and a tie, and you've got this other man,
he's a scum of the earth, and both men are guilty of the same
violation. If I would look at that man in
the suit and say, hey, that's a pretty good guy, I'm going
to let him go, and I'm going to charge the other guy, what
did I do? I looked at something about the man, and I've made
a judgment. I would be a respecter of persons. This is what God has done for
His people. Both of them were guilty. Both of them were guilty. Now if I went down and I had
compassion on one, I felt in my heart compassion for one of
them based on nothing they've done. And I would pronounce them
as a judge guilty and then I would disrobe myself and I would go
down and I would pay their fine. Pay the fine of that man. You
see, if I pay the fine of one and didn't pay the fine of the
other, am I unjust? No, it was my money. It was my
compassion. Same way with God. God will have
mercy on whom He will have mercy. And the rest, He will let them
go. He'll let them go on in their
sins. See, God is not a respecter of
persons in mercy. We were chosen before the world
began. and not based on ourselves or
our goodness. And yet we were born dead in
trespasses and sins, like all other men under the children
of wrath, even as others. So then God sent His Son to pay
the ransom price for all that He would choose. And God, even now, is not a respecter
of persons. You know, there's all who come
to Christ empty of self-righteousness and free will and works religion.
Any man comes empty of Christ, empty of themselves, and comes
to Christ by faith. God says, I'll have mercy on
that man. I'll have mercy on that man.
Regardless of where you've been and what you've done, Isn't that
amazing? That God doesn't look at us and
say, well, you're not good enough. Because you didn't do this or
do that, or you weren't this person, or you weren't born in
the right family. God doesn't respect those things. He only
looks and gives mercy to people who come to Him by Christ. That's
the only hope any man has. That's the only hope any of us
have. If the things were run the way
Peter thought was run and said God was only saving the Jews,
what about everybody else? Praise God He's not a respecter
of persons. Praise God that He saves all
types of men. Regardless of who we are or where
we've been, all who come to God by Christ shall be saved. We have such a great God. And friends, God, those who come to God by
Christ, you see through Christ we have satisfied that strict
justice of God. When God saw sin on His Son,
did He bend His justice? No. He poured out all of His
wrath on His Son. And all those that come to God
by Christ, I come righteously before God
because my sins have been paid. Praise God, He is not a respecter
of persons. We're dismissed.