If you remember, the last time
Paul has been telling us whether that we are Jew or Gentile, we are all sinners and we are
all without excuse. He says that our sins are against
light. They are against the revelation
of God, not only in creation, but also in conscience. And they are against the very
goodness of God to us. And He has told us here what
the end will be for those who obey the truth and those who
obey not the truth. And when he comes down to this
eleventh verse, it's as if all to itself he makes this statement. He says, for there is no respect
of persons with God. There is no respect of persons
with God. Now, the amazing thing here is
that this is not the only place in Scripture where this truth
is stated. Let me read some to you. One from Deuteronomy 10 and verse
17. For the Lord your God is God
of gods and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty and a terrible,
which regardeth not persons nor taketh reward. He regards not the persons of
men. And here's another one. In 2
Chronicles chapter 19, in verse 7, he says, Wherefore now let
the fear of the Lord be upon you. Take heed and do it. For there is no iniquity with
the Lord our God, nor respect of persons, nor taking of gifts." Here's another one in the New
Testament in Colossians 3. But he that doeth wrong shall
receive for the wrong which he hath done, and there is no respect
of persons. Then the Apostle Peter, in 1
Peter 1, he says, Ye call on the Father, who without respect
of persons judgeth according to every man's work. This occurs again and again. But I suppose the greatest example
of it is to be found in what we find in Acts chapter 10. Turn back to Acts chapter 10 and look down with me here in
verse 34. At what the Apostle Peter says, it says, Then Peter opened his
mouth and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons. Now, this is an occasion here
where both Jew and Gentile are in the picture. And Peter here has been sent
of God, if you remember, to preach the gospel to Cornelius who is
a Gentile. And so he's now gathered at the
house of Cornelius, not only to preach the gospel to him,
but to all those other Gentiles that he has gathered there in
his house. And this is really a momentous
occasion, because the Bible says that up to this point, God has
shut the apostles' mouths to the Gentiles and sent them only
to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And now Peter is about to open
his mouth and preach, part of which is his statement in verse
34. But look back. In verse 28, it says that He said unto them,
You know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew
to keep company or come unto one of another nation. But God
hath showed me. that I should not call any man
common and unclean." Now, how did he come to that? Well, if
you look back and remember, I think it's in verse 15. He received this vision of the
Lord in which there was a sheet that was lowered down from heaven
in which There were things that no Jew would ever eat, could
not eat according to the law. And the Lord told him to arise
and kill and eat. And he said, Lord, nothing common
like that has ever touched my lips. I've never eaten anything
that is common or unclean. But look at verse 15. And the
voice spake unto him again the second time what God hath cleansed. He didn't say that these were
not unclean in themselves. He hadn't changed anything about
that. But he says, what God hath cleansed,
that call not thou common. It is neither common nor unclean
if God has cleansed it. And part of what Peter says when
he gets there to Cornelius' house is this confessing of just exactly
what God has just shown him and taught him unmistakably. And that is that with God there
is no respect of persons. He says, of a truth I perceive
that God is no respecter of persons. Now, I wonder how often in my
nearly 30 years that I have heard this verse
or this statement quoted out of its context as a kind of a
rebuttal or a challenge or a condemnation to the doctrines of God's free
and sovereign grace. Every once in a while, somebody
will ask me, why do you call the church sovereign grace? Well, there's just one reason
for that. And that is because that is the grace that we read
about in this book. In our day, when men and women
talk about grace, they're talking about a different kind of grace
than the grace of the Bible. Because the grace of the Bible
is the grace of God. And God is an absolute sovereign. And all that means is that as
God, He does what He pleases. He does it to whom He pleases. And the only confines in which
He operates have to do with His own being and His own Word. He will not act contrary to His
holy and just and righteous nature. And not only that, he will not
do contrary to what he says that he'll do. He has not done contrary
to what he says that he's done. And so one of the things that
this means is that God operates irrespective of what men and
women do or are in themselves. The Bible says that He has chosen
a people. And we believe in divine election. And God has chosen, as He says
in Ephesians 1, chosen a people in Christ before the world began
according to His own goodwill and pleasure without any respect
of their persons, without any looking at what they might do
or looking at what they were in themselves, He chose them
in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible says that He predestinated. He predestinated a people to
be conformed to the image of His Son. That word predestinate
means to mark off or to determine beforehand. And that's what God
did. And He did so without any respect
to the persons of men. He showed distinguishing mercy. And when Paul, or Peter here,
when he says that God is no respecter of persons, what does that mean?
Literally, what does it mean? Well, that word has to do with
the visage, or the front, or the face, or the outward appearance. He does not accept. He does not deal with men. He does not bless men and women
based on what they appear to be. As a matter of fact, the Bible
says that Christ had no need that any man tell Him anything
because He knew the hearts of men and women. God does everything He does without
any regard to the thing that you and I can only see. That's why he tells us in that
very chapter, don't judge. Because you can only see the
outside. You can only see the appearance. And the thing with the Pharisees
were that they were play actors. That's what that word hypocrite
means. Play actors. One that sets up
a facade, you know. Like a person takes an old, run-down,
dilapidated building. I've seen it so many times in
this county. They'll take an old, run-down,
dilapidated building that's worth little or nothing, and they'll
go and they'll put a front on it. And boy, it'll look like a brand-new
building, but it's still that old, dilapidated, worn-out building. He said, God is no He does not
look on the outward professions and hypocrisy of men and women. And I don't know if you noticed
or not, but in the Old Testament, just like we find it there in
Romans chapter 2, it has to do with justice and judgment. That's at least half of what
that means. Let me read you some more verses
in Deuteronomy 1. And this is where God commands
the judges of Israel. He says, You shall not respect
persons in judgment, but you shall hear the small as well
as the great, Ye shall not be afraid of the face of man, for
the judgment is God's, and the cause that is too hard for you,
bring it unto me, and I will hear it." That's Moses commanding
these judges in Israel. You'll not judge different from
this man or that man based on their stature in life or their
wealth or their education or anything. You'll hear every man. That's what He commanded them.
Again in Deuteronomy, they're told, Thou shalt not rest judgment. What does that mean? Twist it?
Thou shalt not respect persons, neither take a gift, for a gift
doth blind the eyes of the wise and pervert the words of the
righteous. you're to deal a just judgment. Those judges were not to take
gifts from anybody because it would blind and cloud their judgment,
and they would show partiality. In Proverbs, he says, these things
also belong to the wise. It is not good to have respect
of persons in judgment. That's just exactly what Paul
has been saying. It doesn't matter if you're a
Jew or a Gentile. It doesn't matter if you're male
or female. It doesn't matter if you're here
or there, if you're black or white, if you're young or old,
rich or poor. It does not matter. God does
not base His judgment on that. because all are sinners." It means that God does not show
favor in judgment. He judges in a like, just judgment
regardless of the distinction. And it says that He cried out
to those very judges that were commanded in this way. He said,
how long Will you judge unjustly and accept the persons of the
wicked? That's what Paul has been saying.
God, who knows all things, who knows the hearts of men, knows
that if we are judged in ourselves on the basis of whether we have
no sin or not, it won't matter who it is. They'll be found guilty. They'll
be found absolutely guilty. And when we stand, when men stand
in that day of judgment, it won't be a judgment based on their
age or sex or anything about them outwardly, he'll judge sin
for what it is which is the same in all people. He's no respecter
of persons in judgment, in his justice. You know, the symbol
If I'm not mistaken, the symbol, like for the Supreme Court and
for judges and the courts and all, is this, I can't think of
what she's called, but it's this woman who's holding a set of
scales, supposedly balanced, and she's blindfolded. But that's really not the case,
is it? It is with God. But instead of
being blindfolded, he has a clear, penetrating eye that views all
things the very depths of our hearts. But that being true, there is
another sense in which God is no respecter of persons. And that's our hope. That's our
hope. You see, as I guess you could
say the divine benefactor, or the giver of every good and perfect
gift, the God of all grace, He gives His favors and blessing
sovereignly distinguishing as He wills. He's no respecter of persons. As a matter of fact, if He were,
you and I would get nothing but hell. Because that's what we and our
persons deserve. As a matter of fact, what men
by nature fight against so much is their only real hope. They
say something like this when you say, God chose a people from
among Adam's race and blessed them with all spiritual blessings
before the world began in Christ. They say, well, I just don't
think that's fair. Well, if salvation is based on
fairness, nobody will be saved. Salvation is not based on fairness
in our eyes. Salvation is by the grace of
God. That means you can't deserve
it, you can't merit it, you can't earn it, you can't buy it, you
can't work for it. It's the gift of God. We say
God predestinated. He determined all things beforehand,
especially that this people would be conformed to His Son. They
say, well, I'm not buying into that. Don't you know the Bible
says God is no respecter of persons? That's just exactly what I'm
saying. But I'm not twisting it to try
to deny what is obvious and plain and a clear teaching of the Word
of God. You see, Peter, On the one hand, as a Jew, here
in Acts 10, and Cornelius, on the other hand, as a Gentile,
both of them are brought to acknowledge this very thing. Peter, who's been full of a little
bit of Jewish pride, he's been brought down. He said, of a truth
I perceive God's no respecter of persons. And here's old Cornelius,
he hears what he says. And he is a Gentile to whom no
prophet has ever been sent? To him who, as an earthly people,
never any of his ancestors have ever been counted publicly? And
he says, of a truth. God sent a Jew down here to preach
to me the gospel of Jesus Christ. Of a truth, I perceive. God's
no respecter of persons. You see, if God was a respecter
of persons, you and I would never have a blessing. You and I would
never have heard the gospel. Not only are we sinners, but
we're so obscure. We're like specks of sand on
the seashore that nobody would notice or certainly not count. God looked on His people before
the world began, and it says that He loved them with an everlasting
love. And there was nothing lovable
about them. As a matter of fact, they did
not even exist physically. But He loved them in Christ. He loved them in Christ. As a matter of fact, Moses, who
received all that instruction about how judges were to judge
and be no respecter of persons and such as that, on one occasion,
this man who had seen the miraculous, he'd seen all the plagues of
Egypt, He had seen God part the Red Sea. He had seen all different
kinds of things. And yet he is found asking the
Lord, saying, Lord, show me Thy glory. Do you know there are a lot of
people in this world They'd rather see water parked, or a river
turned into blood, or miraculous healing, or this and that and
the other. They'd rather see that, although it would not make
them believe one iota more. They would rather see that, though, than see the true glory of God. How's God going to respond to
that when Moses says, show me your glory? He said, this is it. I will be
gracious to whom I will be gracious. I will be merciful to whom I
will be merciful. What's he saying there? I am
not a respecter of persons. I love whom I want to love in
Christ. I bless who I want to bless in
Christ. I save who I want to save in
Christ. And it's never anything like
men present. God will be gracious to you,
they say, if you'll do this, that or the other. Or God will
save you if you'll do this or stop doing this. No. This is the glory of God. And it is His sovereign grace
and love and mercy in Christ. I will be gracious. to whom I
will be gracious." There's not anybody that deserves it. And
if I leave some to their own just rewards, I won't be the
less for it. But this is my glory. I'll be
merciful to whom I'll be merciful." Now we can just, as so many have,
we can just almost beat our heads against the Bible on that and
say, no, no, no, that can't be that way. But he says it's only by grace
that you're saved, not by your works. and even the faith by which you're
enabled to believe on Christ, that's my gift to you. He will be gracious, and He will
show mercy to whom He will, and it's obvious that He has. Those first two boys, that were
the first children born in this world. He was gracious to Abel, and
he left Cain to his own just deserts and rewarded him according
to his works, which were sin. He did it in Noah's day when
he saved Noah and his household and showed them mercy and destroyed
all the others in the world. And all that was is a picture
of how He has done the same way spiritually to those in the great
Noah, the Lord Jesus Christ. He has altered, He has blessed
in material blessing whom He would, in mental abilities, in
beauty, in health, in wealth, in a multitude of advantages,
in circumstance of birth, and on and on and on. Now, we have
a part, as a part of one of our documents as a nation, a statement that just is not
true. And that is that all men are
created equal. Now that's just not true. Some of us are born ugly, and
the rest of y'all are born pretty. Some have advantage from birth,
and some have to kind of fight and scrape all the way through. Some were born in the darkest
parts of Africa with no water, no running water, nothing of
convenience. And yet you and I were born in
a nation where all these things He gives as a free gift, not
because we deserve it. In 1 Samuel it says, The Lord
killeth and maketh alive. He brings down to the grave and
brings up. The Lord makes poor and makes
rich. He brings low and lifts up. He raises up the poor out of
the dust and lifts up the beggar from the dunghill to set them
among princes and to make them inherit the throne of glory with
the pillars of the earth of the Lord's. And He has set the world
upon them. He runs this show. And if He chose you and loved
you and put you in His darling Son, made His Son responsible
totally for all your salvation, for all your righteousness, and
saved you by the shedding of His blood, it wasn't any good
in you or me. Because He's no respecter of
persons. no respecter of persons. As a
matter of fact, he just said to Jacob and Esau, Jacob have
I loved and Esau have I hated. Somebody says, well, God couldn't
do that. He already has. As a sovereign God, In grace,
he can love whom he will in Christ. And as a holy and a just God,
he can hate sinners like Esau if they're left to themselves.
There's nothing in Esau for God to love him. And there's nothing in you and
me for him to love us, except that he loves his people. in
Christ. Paul says, for in Jesus Christ
neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision. He says again to the Colossians,
where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision,
barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all and in
all. Well, if God is no respecter
of persons in judgment, And He is no respecter of our
persons in grace. How can we be saved? Turn over to Ephesians 1 for
just a minute. Ephesians 1 is like going to
the candy store. There are so many different kinds
and so many different things here that are just sweet and
good. You can look at every verse and
it's everywhere. But look down here at verse 5. Now, Paul is writing here to
the church at Ephesus. He's writing to believers. And
yet, at the same time, he's being used of the Spirit of God to
write to believers in every age and day since then. He says, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according
to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of
His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved, in His Beloved Son. He has made us. He does not respect persons.
So if He dealt with us in our person, He'd have to judge us
accordingly and send us into outer darkness. But He, according
to His will and His grace, has made us accepted. He has made us acceptable to
Himself. As a matter of fact, What that
literally means here is this, He's graced us. Graced us. Now, the Lord commands His people
to live soberly, righteously in this world. To abstain from
evil, to abstain from even the presence of evil. We're to live to the glory of
His name. We are to live in obedience to
His Word. But that at no time and in no way enters in as any
part of the ground of our salvation. Because the one person He accepts is that person in whom He views
all His people. And that's Christ. See, if you and I are honest
tonight, even if we believe, if we truly believe on Christ,
we'd have to say that even now, though we may have improved our outward life a lot. We don't want to be judged based
on who we are. If the Lord regarded iniquity,
who can stand? Not me. But oh, if He's made us accepted
in the beloved. And it's not my acceptance of
Christ that saves, but rather the fact that He has made us
accepted in the Beloved. God has respect to the person
and work of His Son. And only His Son. Father, tonight we thank you
for your Word. Please teach us and give us understanding. Give us minds, hearts, wills
to receive the things of your grace in Christ. Lord, we have to give you all
the glory. We have to thank you and only
you for this salvation, this great salvation. We thank you that the Lord Jesus
has shed his blood that he might save us. That you've laid on him the iniquities
of your people. and that we are made the very
righteousness of God in Him, accepted in the Beloved. Make us more conscious of these
things, Lord, and enable us to lay hold of them more fully.
Believe them and see them more clearly. And as we go out of this place,
watch over us and keep us, preserve us until the day of Christ's
coming. We thank you and we pray in His
name. Amen.