All right, we're gonna go ahead and get started this morning if you would find a hymnal at this time and turn to him number 19
There is a fountain
Him number 19
Him number 19 there is a fountain we'll go ahead and start there right on the first there
is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emanuel's veins.
And sinners plunge beneath that blood.
Go.
And dear Father, thank You for this day and this opportunity that we have to sing praises unto You
and to Your Son. I pray that we would be edified by the service Lord
and I pray that You would fill us with Your Spirit at this time as we
sing hymns and listen to the sermon of the Lord. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.
For our next hymn, if you would, turn to hymn number 27. In your hymnal hymn number 27, the old rugged cross.
We'll go ahead and start there right on the first on a hill far away
you this morning. This time we'll be going through some announcements. If you
don't have a bulletin you could raise your hand and Usher will bring you one.
On the front is our Bible memory verse of the week this week Galatians chapter
one verse number eight and on the inside is our service times listed there as
well as our soul winning times. All those soul winning times do meet here at the
church building.
The nursing home ministry schedule is listed there for the next couple weeks.
Also, we have on the bottom left our year-to-date statistics,
81 salvations for the year. Keep up the great work.
And the stat that I'm the most excited about is soul winners getting their first
ever salvation. Congrats to brother Matt had that yesterday. It's really exciting.
And I just I get thrilled when a new soul winner goes out.
and is becoming a part of the work of God, winning souls to Christ,
and that is a huge accomplishment. And I want every person in here to have that as a goal for
themselves, to win their first person to Christ. If they haven't done that, make 2025 the year that
you do that. Even teenagers and kids, you guys could do it too, you know, take soul winning
seriously. It's a great thing you could do for the Lord. On the right side, we do have our
Also upcoming events March 9th. We're going to have another men's preaching night for the evening service and potluck immediately after that
So please bring a dish to share for that evening March 15th
Is miss Whitney reads baby shower and there's a note on the back of the bulletin with more information if you're curious about that
April 19th, we're gonna have our Easter soul winning marathon in
Southwest or I'm sorry southeast okay sees where we're gonna meet at a park there
There'll be some more details for that coming up
May 16th through the 18th is the King James Conference at Sher Foundation Baptist Church
in Washington.
May 31st is a soul-winning marathon in Durant, Oklahoma with Steadfast Baptist Church.
June 28th, we're going to have a fellowship day at the Air Force Base Tinker Air Show.
August 27th through the 31st, the Fire Breathing Baptist Fellowship in Texas.
If you'd like to give online, there's a QR code there
with some information, as well as our prayer list on the back.
I know from Ms. Sean Furr, there's been an update
of some positive developments in the prayer that we have there,
listed for her son Trevor and granddaughter Hadley,
but just keep them in prayer if you would.
And if you have any prayer requests, do email us,
and we'd be happy to add that for you.
That's going to be it for announcements this morning.
We'll go ahead and go to our third song.
All right, for our third song, if you would,
take your hymnals at this time and turn to hymn number 39.
How beautiful heaven must be.
Hymn number 39.
We'll go ahead and start there right on the first.
We read of a place that's called Ha.
heaven it's made for the pure and the free these truths in God's word he have
given how beautiful heaven must be how beautiful heaven must be
plates are being passed around. Turn in your Bibles to Romans chapter number two, Romans chapter number two.
Romans chapter number two.
Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man,
whosoever thou art that judges, for when thou judges another,
thou condemnest thyself, for thou that judges do
us the same things.
But we are sure that the judgment of God
is according to truth against them which commit such things.
And thinkest thou this, O man, that judges them
which do such things.
and do us the same that thou shalt escape the judgment of God,
or despiseest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance
and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God
leadeth thee to repentance.
But after thy hardness and impotent heart,
treacherous up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath
and revelation of the righteous judgment of God,
who will render to every man according to his deeds
To them who by patient continuance and 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 of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile.
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.
For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.
For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in
the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves, which show the work of
the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts,
In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel,
behold, thou art called a Jew, and rest us in the law, and make us thy boast of God,
and knowest his will, and approve us the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law,
and art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness.
An instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes,
which has the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law.
Thou, therefore, which teaches another,
teaches thou not thyself.
Thou that preaches a man should not steal, does thou steal?
Thou that say as the man should not commit adultery,
does thou commit adultery?
Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law, this honor is thou God.
For the name of God is blaspheme among the Gentiles through you, as it is written for
circumcision, barely profitable, if thou keep the law. But if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision.
Therefore, if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision?
shall not uncircumcision, which is by nature, if it fulfill the law, judge thee
who by the letter and circumcision does transgress the law? For he is not a
Jew which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which was outward in
the flesh, but he is a Jew which is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the
not in the letter whose praise is not of men but of God. Let's pray. Grace, this
Lord thank you so much for this chapter. I pray to the Lord that you help us to set
aside the concerns and cares of the weak. Lord help us to focus on the preaching
of your word. I pray that you help us to keep distractions to a minimum. I pray that you feel
grass or Oz with your spirit. In Jesus' name we pray it. Amen. Amen. Well we're in
Romans chapter 2 this morning.
And I plan on preaching out of that chapter, but I do know that the Pope is in critical condition right now,
so if he dies during my sermon.
We might change the sermon this morning a little bit so someone you know watch the news for me and
just if the Pope dies mid-sermon just let me know we'll just stop what we're doing
we'll talk about the Pope for a little bit but we're in Romans chapter two and the Bible says
in verse number five is my mic working okay okay Romans two verse five the Bible says
but after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasure us up unto thy self wrath against
the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God who will render to every man
them who by patient continuance and 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 of man that doeth evil, of
the Jew first and also of the Gentile.
But glory, honor, and peace to every man that worked of good to the Jew first and also to the Gentile.
And verse 11 is what I want to focus on.
It says, for there is no respect of persons with God.
The title of my sermon is Respect of Persons.
Respect of Persons.
This is a very just wonderful attribute of God is the fact that he is not a respecter of.
persons I feel like a lot of people don't really understand what this means sometimes
I think I hear it being used in a incorrect way
But here in this chapter, the Apostle Paul is kind of explaining to the Jews that they're not special by virtue of being a Jew, right?
Because they have this attitude that God is going to deal with them a certain way, they have their own set of rules, they have their own system,
and that they're not really going to be judged the same way as the Gentiles.
But he's explaining to them like, look, those that are patient and well-doing, those that are seeking for glory and honor and immortality,
you know, those people are going to be blessed, but the people who obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, you know, those people are going to have tribulation.
and anguish to both the Jew and the Gentile.
So like God is going to judge people based off of their works,
not because of whatever special group they're a part of.
And you know, after studying the Bible,
I'll just give you what I believe the definition
of respective persons is,
and we can look through some different scriptures
and see if that is correct at the end of the sermon.
But this is my definition of respective persons.
Judgments or actions
toward another person that are primarily influenced by that person's social status, prestige, familial relationship, or other
external characteristics so this is the opposite of judging someone based on their works based on
their merit or based on things that the Bible actually says but it's people that are having
respect to a certain person just because they hold a you know position or just because they
have money or something some sort of external characteristic or just the color of their skin
or just what gender they are right that would be someone being a respecter of persons but being a
that you treat everybody the same no matter what because that's kind of what
the world wants to teach is that all people should be treated the same no
matter what that's not biblical okay and I want to give you some statements this
morning number one
While you turn to James chapter 2, James chapter 2, number one, don't exalt or abase someone
based on their status, right?
So you're not going to just immediately think super highly of someone and to just exalt
someone in your mind just because of their wealth or something like that.
And you're not going to immediately just discard someone or think poorly of someone just because
they don't have money or status.
My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.
So Romans 2, we learn God is not a respecter of persons.
James 2, we learn just verbatim of the Bible says we should not have respect of persons.
This is not an attribute that is a godly attribute for Christians.
Now the Bible is going to define what does that mean to be a respecter of persons.
Verse 2 is going to give us an example.
For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in
Vile raiment, and you have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him
Sit thou here in a good place, and say to the poor, stand thou there, or sit under my footstool.
Are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts?
So, we get this example where, hey, you know, imagine two different people walk into your
assembly and into your church.
One is a rich man, he's got a gold ring, he's got really nice clothes, you know, he carries
himself well, and then you treat that person a certain way, not because you know anything
about that person, not because, hey, this is a brother in Christ, just simply based
on the external.
Just based on knowing nothing else about them other than this person has money, that must
That must mean we should treat them a certain way.
Then someone comes in and ragged clothing,
they're not as well to do,
they don't have as much money,
and then you immediately just start treating them like garbage
for no other sake other than they lack money,
or they lack the nice clothes,
or they lack the nice things.
This is becoming a judge of evil thoughts.
This is wrong judgment.
This is being a respecter of persons,
but this is not to say,
that you can never judge someone off of their clothing or their appearance.
But what this is saying is that your initial perception of someone,
when you don't know anything additional about them, you haven't learned any facts about them,
but you just see them and you immediately just made a judgment about that person.
Oh, this person's rich must mean they're a great person.
Or this person's poor must mean they're for sure a terrible person. Let's treat them like garbage.
No, there's oftentimes more details that you need to inquire of to learn about a person.
considering the cause of the poor.
See, it is true that you could see someone
that has really rugged clothing
and they look really disheveled
and it is because they're wicked
and it is because they're drunk
and it is because they're drug addicts
but you wouldn't want to just immediately see someone
who's poor and just assume that about them.
You'd want to actually find out the facts
before just making that unrighteous judgment about them.
Look at verse five.
He says, Hark in my beloved brethren, hath not God chosen the poor of this world, rich
in faith, and heirs of the kingdom, which he hath promised to them that love him.
See, it's kind of human nature just to want to be far away from the poor, discard the
poor, separate yourselves from them and view them as lesser.
But God's kind of reminding the listener here, like, hey, hasn't God chosen these people?
Hasn't God chosen these people to be a part of the kingdom of God?
And even when we just look at this world, when we go soul-winning,
I've said it before, where are the most receptive areas?
It's the poor or it's the middle class.
It's not the rich.
OK, it's not Nichols Hills.
It's not people living in eight million dollar houses.
Those people very rarely are going to give you the time of day.
And, you know, I was very ignorant when I started soul winning.
I didn't know this idea of poor, receptive, rich, unreceptive.
And so I just went to the area of Boise, Idaho that I liked,
which was the foothills where all the multi-million dollar mansions were.
And I think God just kind of threw me a bone because the first door I knocked on,
I got a guy saved.
But then after that, for the next six months.
I got no one saved.
I was just beating my head against the wall.
And that's how it often is with the rich.
So we don't want to just think like, oh yeah,
we know our church has to be in the rich area.
Oh, you know, let's go out and do our outreach programs
to all of the rich.
You know, that's the temptation and culture
of a lot of churches.
But the Bible's kind of reminding us here,
hey, I've chosen the poor.
Verse six, but you have despised the poor.
Do not rich men oppress you.
and draw you before the judgment seats.
Now the Bible's making kind of a generalization here,
but it is true that in general,
the most oppressive people of this world are the rich,
the Bill Gates, the Jews that run this world,
run the banks.
I mean, talk about oppression.
You know, my mortgage has been sold like three times already since buying my house because Jews just like to play this little game on the screen where there's moving money from one account to another and just making money off of interest.
And I just recently had my mortgage switched to another company and I'm like, okay, you know, I'll go online, make sure I'm getting everything set up and paid.
And then online it said, oh, you're not able to do auto pay.
And I'm like, okay, well, I'll just do an auto,
I'll do a manual payment real quick
so I can make sure I pay my bills.
Then the next day, without my consent,
they just set up auto pay
and just charged me two months mortgage in less than 48 hours.
And I call them and like, hey, man, I got a family.
Can you help me out?
Can you refund this?
Oh, that's gonna be a 15 day process.
You gotta call your bank.
I call the bank.
Hey, let's get this fixed.
Oh, that's gonna be a 15 day process.
It's like, is it not the rich of this world
that are the oppressors in general?
You know, it's real easy when you're some Jewish banker making billions of dollars and
moving money around on a screen, producing nothing for society, not producing a product,
not doing anything.
You know, it's real easy if you're not to care about the family that is not necessarily
living like them, right?
And so everything's okay, don't worry, it's all settled, but it's just, it's annoying
and it kind of goes to show like it's the rich of this world that are often oppressing
And so the Bible is reminding you, don't just immediately think so highly of someone because they're rich because a lot of people who are rich are wicked as hell.
And the most wicked people in this world are generally the rich.
Verse 7, do they not blaspheme that worthy name by which you are called?
And, again, to pick on the Jews here, they're usually the richest people, and it's a religion
that blasphemes Jesus Christ, that says that Jesus is not the Messiah, you know, they spit
on the ground when they hear the name of Jesus in Israel oftentimes.
They blaspheme the name of Christ.
If ye fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself, ye do well.
But if you have respect of persons, ye commit sin
and are convinced of the law as transgressors,
go to 1 Corinthians chapter five,
1 Corinthians chapter five.
So in James two, we kind of get an example
of what being a respecter of persons looks like.
You see someone, you don't know anything about them,
you just see their status,
you kind of see their external characteristics
and just without knowing much, without getting any facts,
you've just made a judgment about them
You're treating them differently by that judgment, right?
It's one thing to change the way you treat someone based off of facts
or based off of merits or works
because God judges every man according to his works, right?
But it's another thing when you don't actually know those things
and you change the way that you treat people.
Now, this is not saying though
that you treat everyone the same or that you don't judge at all
because this is the mantra in Christianity now is just don't judge.
Never judge. It's always wrong to judge.
But now I have written unto you not to keep company if any man that is called a brother, be a fornicator, or a covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner with such and one, no, not to eat.
So it's actually a command for you to see someone and say,
okay, this person calls themselves a brother,
but they're a fornicator, they're an idolater,
rail or extortion or all the different sins that he lists there.
You're supposed to judge that person.
You're supposed to say, hey, I'm not supposed to have fellowship with you.
I'm not supposed to keep company with you.
Verse 12 says, for what have I to do to judge them also,
that are without, right?
Without the church.
It's not our job to really be judging the world.
You know, we need to go preach the gospel to the world,
but within it says, do you not judge them that are within?
I mean, the apostle Paul is kind of like baffled here
that judgment has not been taken place in the house of God.
He's saying like, you should be judging within verse 13,
but them that are without God, judges,
therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.
So, you know, when it comes to fundamentalists, Baptists, we often would be criticized or
looked down on by the New Evangelical World, by the Rock and Roll Church, for practicing
church discipline.
And the reason that they would say that, I mean, they'd go to Matthew 7, they would
say judge not, they would never read the whole chapter, and they would just throw the blanket
statement out there that you're just never supposed to judge.
But here's the truth.
not that we should never judge.
See, here's what would be sinful.
If someone was coming to church
and they're really big tither
and they they bless the church financially,
but they were a drunkard.
And then the pastor gave them a pass.
But someone else who's in the church
who maybe isn't best friends with the pastor,
maybe the pastor doesn't even really like them
or get along with them on a personal level that much.
And they're a drunkard.
And then the pastor's like,
you're getting kicked out of church,
we're throwing you out.
But then this other guy is just ignored.
See, that is unrighteous judgment.
That is being a respecter of persons
and that absolutely should be called out.
But just this idea of never judging is insane.
And any idea, any system that you have where there's no judgment is just going to lead
to anarchy and just wickedness and crime.
I mean, how would you like that if we just had no judgment in our legal system?
I mean, how would you like, you know, how would you like that if a young lady went to
the judge and said, hey, judge, I was just sexually assaulted?
And then we're just like, well, don't judge.
I mean, that's just his lifestyle.
That's just his decision.
I mean, you can't judge his decision.
it's such a shame when we have pastors and churches getting up and really
defending sin and defending wickedness and protecting wicked sinners in their
congregation by not exercising church discipline and it just leads to a
destruction of the church. A little leaven leaven at the whole lump and you
know you have God's institution the local New Testament church we can destroy
that by refusing to have judgment.
You know, we need to have judgment of there's what's wrong and what's right and we need
to preach the right doctrine, right?
And we need to judge false doctrine and condemn it and stand against it and not just have
this, oh, no judgment mentality that's ridiculous.
Go to John, or I'm sorry, go to 1 Corinthians 11.
First Corinthians 11, but a verse that people will kind of take out a context to teach this idea that you could just never judge
And you can never judge based on how someone looks or something like that is
John 7 24 as you're turning to first Corinthians 11
John 7 24 Jesus said judge not according to the appearance but judge righteous judgment now
I say amen to what the Lord Jesus said here
I agree with that a hundred percent
But I am not conceding that what Jesus is teaching is what the liberal Christians are saying he's teaching
Because what they would say is oh you can never judge someone who has tattoos or by their hairstyle or by their appearance whatsoever
What Jesus is teaching here is not to just judge things on the surface level
Not to just judge things without doing diligent inquisition and actually getting the facts in the context of situations
Just don't judge things as how they seem on the surface because sometimes something can seem bad
But it's really not you want to actually make sure you do do diligence and look into the facts
That's what Jesus is teaching. Don't just judge off of your evil surmising of someone, right?
You know, I like to think about how all these door-dash drivers are going around
they're getting food from all sorts of places all over the city and it's like
oh you know I saw brother so-and-so in a place that sells alcohol he must have
been drinking alcohol it's like or maybe he was doing a door-dash you know like
we're not gonna judge according to the appearance here we need to know more
information and not just be like well I saw you in a place that serves alcohol
therefore you're a drug right that would be judging according to the
appearance and that would be unrighteous judgment we need more facts about that
physical appearance, and it's when God tells us that.
Look at 1st Corinthians 11, verse 13.
He says, judge in yourselves,
is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered?
Does not even nature itself teach you
that if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him.
So is it biblical for me to look at a man with long hair
and say, that's a shame?
That's a shameful haircut that guy has that's a shameful look and appearance that that guy has
Why because that's not just my opinion. That's just not my surmising. That is obvious
Facts that we could see about a person and the Bible says it's a shame. So it's at the end of the day
It's not even my opinion. It's not even my judgment
God is already judged and he said in fact nature itself even just teaches you this
You would not even need God to tell you this.
It's obvious, it's in our nature,
that if a man has long hair, it is a shame unto him.
It is a gross thing.
But verse 15 says,
But if a woman have long hair it is a glory to her for her hair is given her for a covering
So a woman with long hair, it's a glory to her. It's something that's beautiful
It's something that's cumbly that's fitting
You know our world is just getting so screwed up and there's all sorts of gender confusion and gender roles
Confusion and how people should dress that it's like it's getting to the point now that if I'm out in public
And I see a woman wearing a dress that's modest
with long hair, I automatically am thinking good of her.
I'm just thinking like, oh, I wonder if that woman is a Christian.
I wonder, you know, that's probably a nice lady right there
because of the fact that she's dressed a certain way.
Your parents does say things about your character.
I mean, I'm standing up here today with a clean haircut and a clean shave and a
suit and tie. It says something about me. What if I showed up today with a tattoo
on my face, you know, a tattoo in my forehead that says F the police and
tattered clothes and spiked up pink hair and gauges in my ears. Wouldn't that be
saying something about who I am? And would it be, would it just be insane? Would it
You know, you might want to stay away from that person because that's the way that they're dressed, right?
That's not just something that's immediately surface level.
That's something that they're exuding out.
They're making a statement by how they're dressed is what I'm saying, okay?
You know, certain t-shirts, you know, you're wearing the Communist hammer and sickle.
It's like, okay, you're making a statement.
We know what you're like.
Or how about the dudes walking around with their pants sagged to their ankles?
You know, they're saying something about themselves that they're a loser.
and I'm gonna judge them as such.
A man that sags their pants is a loser.
You know, we got to put it in us
to be able to read body language
and danger cues and stuff like that.
And you shouldn't just swallow this pill
of never judging anyone according to their appearance
because it can literally get you killed.
And, you know, you ladies, if you look at a guy and he kind of gives you the creeps,
you know, listen to that.
I'm not saying go around and start lying about him and saying things that are false
about him.
But if you're in public and there's a guy that's looking at you weird, just go the
other way.
Get away from him.
Get to safety.
Trust that.
Use judgment sometimes.
That's a good thing to do.
I remember one time I was working on the safety team at Sher Foundation and there was lots
of homeless people around the church.
It was like downtown Vancouver, just across the bridge from Portland, Oregon.
There's just tons of drug users.
I've seen people taking a piss against the church door in the evenings.
I've seen people shooting up heroin right outside of the church.
All sorts of the craziest stuff you can imagine.
It's bad over there in the Northwest, okay?
And all the time, we would have people walk in in the middle of church that are high or on or that are high or drinking alcohol.
And the way that the safety team dealt with it is we walked up to them and just said like,
Hey, I could smell some alcohol on you and it's our policy.
We're not going to allow people in church that are drinking or under the influence of drugs.
It's like we weren't like a jerk to them or anything like that.
But we did it in a way where we weren't going to sit here and play games that they're going to be allowed in church.
They're not allowed in church because they're drunk, obviously, right?
Well, I remember one time.
This guy walks into church and you can tell he's just out of his mind.
And he walks through the door and I'm sitting where I can see the front door
and he's walking in like this.
Now, what does my body language tell you right now?
You're possibly in a dangerous situation, right?
You don't want to have this stupid idea that's like,
never judge anyone for any reason.
Who knows? Maybe he's just scratching his chest or something like that.
It's like, no, you need to judge in that situation or you could be dead in a second.
You need to go take care of that situation and have some judgment according to the appearance sometimes.
Not the surface level that Jesus is talking about, but I'm talking about
there's times where your physical appearance should be judged.
Your hair is one of those things.
Go to, if you would, Proverbs 7, let me give you another example of where you would judge according to someone's physical appearance.
Proverbs 7, verse 7,
And I beheld among the simple ones,
I discerned among the youths
a young man void of understanding.
So we're about to talk about a young man
that's just pretty ignorant and naive and simple.
What's he doing?
Verse 8,
Passing through the street near her corner
and he went the way to her house
in the twilight in the evening
in the black and dark night.
Verse 10,
And behold there met him a woman notice with the attire of and harlot and subtle of heart.
She is loud and stubborn. Her feet abide not in her house.
Notice that there is such a thing as the attire of and harlot.
What is a harlot? A prostitute, a whore, and a woman could be dressed in the attire of a prostitute.
And notice you're supposed to judge that because you're supposed to get away from that woman.
You're supposed to not even go by her way.
You're not supposed to go to her house.
You're supposed to judge and see the woman that's in the attire of an harlot and get away from her.
And you know this idea, oh never judge for any reason.
No, young men that are single and looking for a wife.
You should judge your potential future wife for how she's dressing.
And, you know, I would not recommend dating someone and getting married to someone who
goes around wearing the attire of and harlots.
Because often times when someone in their past has a lot of promiscuity and whoredom,
that doesn't necessarily change just because they get married.
Oftentimes, they bring that baggage into marriage, and those are the type of women that you get
married to and then commit adultery on you later in life.
You don't want to go through that pain and that trouble, so yes, that would be a time
where you'd want to judge someone by their physical appearance.
Like I said, out in public, I see a woman that's dressed modestly, wearing a dress,
has long hair.
I immediately think positively of that woman.
I'm thinking like, this is probably a sweet girl, this is probably a nice person.
Wearing the short shorts, everything's hanging out for everyone to see.
I think a certain way about her.
I say, wow, she's dressed like a whore.
Wow, she's dressed like a prostitute.
I bet you people are asking her how much she charges
by her appearance, right?
So we do communicate with the way that we dress.
Go to Colossians 3.
Colossians chapter 3.
Has the Pope died yet?
Are we still?
Okay, all right, we'll stick with the sermon then.
First Peter chapter 1 while you're turning to Colossians 3.
Verse 17 says,
And if you call on the Father,
who without respect of persons,
judge it according to every man's work.
Pass the time of your sojourning here in fear.
So notice God judges based on people's works,
based on how people live
and how they respond to his commandments.
And this is the way that we should judge as well.
You know, it's insane to me that we have companies and all these different corporations
that are implementing these DEI policies and these affirmative action policies where they're
just saying like, hey, nuts to your merit, nuts to judging according to your works, judging
according to your experience or your history, we're going to judge you based on your skin
color.
Back in the day, and here's how we're going to get rid of racism.
We're going to judge you according to your skin color.
What?
This makes no sense, but people do not understand this like they would say what I just said is so racist and hateful
It's like what I'm saying is that if you're gonna hire an FAA controller air traffic control guy or a pilot
You shouldn't be thinking like oh your woman awesome. That means we're gonna hire you right away
Oh, you're black. That means we're hiring you right away. It should be like how many flight hours do you have?
Hey, what certifications do you have?
Have you, do you have any safety violations with the FFA before?
Not just like, let's hire as many female pilots as possible.
And it's like, that's a scary idea.
Being in an airplane where it's just like, was this pilot hired
because they're really the best person for the job?
Or are they just fulfilling some sort of quota?
Because President Biden, during his administration,
he changed the policies of the FFA to hire based on diversity,
equity, and inclusion.
And it's like, if you have to change a policy to change
the hiring standards, it makes it sound like you deleted
some standards.
It made it sound like you're lowering some standards
if you're saying, whatever the standard was before,
now we're going to focus on if you're black.
Now we're going to focus on if you're a woman and stuff
like that.
That's insane.
And that's not how God judges.
And that's why the Bible says that we should pass the time of our sojourning here in fear because on one hand
it's good news that God judges us according to our works because there is no external
Attribute about us that's withholding us from doing anything great from God
It's not like you could say well, I'm white so I can't do something great for God or I'm black
So I can't do something great for God. No, it's equal playing field. It's an equal playing field spiritually
But here's where the fear comes in is that God is gonna judge me according to my works
That should actually cause you to fear and realize like,
hey, there is no special privilege because I'm white
or special privilege because you're a woman
or special privilege because you're black.
It's that God is gonna judge you according to your works.
So that could either be a huge blessing for you
if you wanna do some work
or that should make you afraid if you wanna be lazy
or if you wanna be sinful.
You know, that's what we need to take God's mentality
and bring that into the church.
family, the government, the corporations, and get back to judging people according to their
works. Colossians 3 verse 22 says, servants obey in all things your masters according to the flesh,
not with eye service as men pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God. And whatsoever
you do, do it heartily as to the Lord and not unto men, knowing that of the Lord you shall receive
But, he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done, and there is no respect of persons."
So again, it's a very simple truth.
If you do that which is sinful, if you do that which is wicked, God is going to render that unto you.
And if you do that which is good, and you're going to work, you're serving your boss,
you're doing your job not as eye service, you're not just working when people are looking and seeing if you're working.
You're not just doing stuff to try to kiss up or impress the boss.
At the end of the day, you're not even really there to please the boss, you're there to please God,
then God is going to render you also according to your works.
So it really is a decision.
from you of how God is going to treat you.
God is not gonna mistreat someone because they're rich.
God's not gonna mistreat someone
because they're a woman or black or any of those things.
God is not a respecter of persons.
He will have perfect judgment every time.
And you know, a lot of us in our lives,
we have to make judgments, we have to make decisions.
If you're a husband, you're a leader, if you're a parent, you're a leader.
If you have a position at work that is leadership position, you're a leader, and you constantly
have to make judgments and decisions about things, and you want to make sure that you're
never being a respecter of persons.
You should ask yourself questions like, hey, if my best friend had done this, how would
I feel about this person's actions?
to this person's actions or if there's this person that I don't really like that much,
if they had done this, what would my response have been? What would my feelings towards the
situation be? And then if those things are the same, then you could say, okay, I'm having
righteous judgment here. I'm making the right decision. But if you think like, well, if my friend
had said that, I probably would have just given them grace and given them a pass. Well, then the
and also give them a pass.
Or if your friend did something really wicked
and you're in a situation where you're judging that
and saying,
yeah, I like this person, but they're a fornicator.
Yeah, I like this person, but they're a drunkard.
And I would kick them out of church,
even if I like that person.
Then you do the same thing to the person
that you don't like very much.
You want to make sure that you're having the same judgment
based on their actions, based on their works.
Go to Leviticus chapter 19.
Leviticus chapter 19.
And number two this morning is that respecting persons leads to injustice.
Respecting persons leads to injustice.
We learn in James 2 that this is a sin.
This is something that is unrighteous and being a respecter of persons leads to people getting hurt and harmed.
Leviticus 19 verse 13 says,
Thou shalt not curse the death, nor put a stumbling block before the blind, but shall fear thy God, I am the Lord.
You shall do no unrighteousness in judgment.
Thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty, but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbor.
So, notice, when someone is in a position to judge, God instructs them to judge righteously
and not to give special privilege to someone who's rich, not to look down or give any
privilege to someone who's poor, but just to judge righteously, just to judge according
to the facts.
And, you know, sometimes this is an issue in our legal system and probably every legal
in the court of law over someone who's not, not based on if they're actually right or if they
actually are on the right side of the law, but just because they could just drag the court process
on forever and ever and ever and ever because they have a bunch of money. In fact, when I wasn't
directly involved in this lawsuit, I wasn't a party to this lawsuit, but I worked on a couple
of lawsuits a couple years ago. And I remember the opposing attorney threatening the person that I
This, uh, this attorney that we hired, this is kind of his strategy that he does.
He goes and he sues abortion clinics, which, here's the thing, I hate abortion clinics.
I think abortion should be a capital crime, so I'm not defending abortion.
But he was just telling us his strategy.
Our attorney, he goes and he sues abortion clinics knowing that they're not in violation
really of the lease, knowing that they're not really going to win the case, but they
until the opposing counsel just gives up because sometimes, you know, even if you're on the right
side of the law, there's just so many appeal processes and all these different things that
could happen to where if someone is just buku rich, they could just throw this at you forever and
drag it out, drag it out, drag it out until you just get tired of it and quit. And this person
basically said like this is what we're going to do to you.
They just said like, you know, we can go all day and there's going to come a point where you guys are going to quit
That's what this guy said to us. You guys are going to quit and they weren't saying like, oh, yeah
We're on the right side of the law. We're on the right side of the First Amendment
We're sure our case is solid. They just said like we have more money than you and we're gonna bleed you out and
That is that is unrighteousness when a legal system or a law system would have
Enable people to have such a huge advantage just on having a lot of money
You know at the end of the day should just come down to who's on the right side of the
law?
Who has the facts on their side?
Who did that which is right?
Who did wickedly and judge according to that?
Not just have this endless 10 year legal process where you're just spending millions
and millions of dollars on attorneys fees and all this garbage.
That is unrighteousness and it's respect of persons at the end of the day which leads
to injustice.
if you would, Second Chronicles 19, Second Chronicles 19.
Now, while you're turning there, Deuteronomy 16, 19 says,
thou shalt not rest judgment, 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 know if you are a person in authority or someone who is making decisions and judgments
You have to be very careful of flatterers
You have to be very careful of people buying you gifts
Showering you with money and all these carnal blessings
That's not coming out of a pure heart of love for you or friendship or something like that
But trying to buy you off
trying to buy favor with you to where if that person came down to it,
had to make a decision in the back of their mind. They're thinking, man,
this person did so much for me. Man, this person gave me a car.
Man, this person did this for me.
And then their judgment is skewed from that gift. You know,
this is why it's illegal for police officers to take bribes and judges to take
bribes as it should be obviously, right? But then you got institutions like
Congress where lobbying is just totally legal.
And in 2010, this law case Citizens United versus the FEC was a Supreme Court decision
allowing for businesses and unions to give unlimited funds to political campaigns.
So basically, you could just have these huge corporations, and they could just give unlimited
amount of money to these senators and representatives, and why are they giving them all this money?
It's not that a certain company just really loves Nancy Pelosi, guys.
They want to buy her favor and you have all these congressmen just taking all this money from APAC
Jewish organizations and just how about the the vaccine industry?
I mean the vaccine industry gives so much money in lobbying.
It's crazy.
The military industrial complex companies like Raytheon and Boeing and all these military
contractors give tons of money to senators and congressmen and it's like you got these
senators and congressmen with a $200,000 a year salary with net worth of over $200 million.
It's like how is stuff like that happening?
and it leads to a distortion in judgment.
It leads to having a group of people there
that don't have the people's best interests in mind
or the law or what the Constitution says,
but it's what their wallet needs at the end of the day.
You know, people like that
obviously should never be in positions of leadership.
Second Chronicles, 19.7, 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.
You know, it's something just to be thankful for and praise God for that our God at least is not a respecter of persons
And no one can buy off the Lord's judgments
No one can offer God all this money to change the way that he judges or see us in a different light
God is always going to judge perfectly. He's always gonna judge righteously and again on one hand
That's a great blessing for those that want to fear him and obey his commandments
But it's also scary for those who want to break his word
because he is going to judge you fairly as well.
He's not going to give us a pass
just because we're Anchor Baptist Church.
Oh, I'm a pastor.
Oh, we're soul winners.
So God's going to give us a different...
He's just going to give us a pass.
No, he's going to judge righteously.
That should cause us to fear him.
Proverbs 24.
Go to Proverbs chapter 24 verse 23.
Proverbs 24 verse 23.
Notice what it says these things also belong to the wise.
It is not good to have respect of persons in judgment.
So notice, having respective persons is an unwise thing to do.
It takes maturity and wisdom to exercise this skill of not having respective persons.
It comes from self-reflection, like we were talking about, and playing thought experiments
in your mind of, if this person was my friend, how would I react?
If I didn't like them that much, how would I react?
We have to do these things and get that wisdom to judge righteously.
As you're turning there, I'll read Proverbs 28 verse 21.
To have respect of persons is not good for a piece of bread that man will transgress.
And this is the danger that I'm saying leads to injustices and harm for other people,
is that if someone is a respecter of person, they will transgress the truth,
they will transgress the law, or God's word at the drop of a hat.
I mean, for a piece of bread.
that person will transgress.
You know, that would be the worst
person to be judging.
You know, us as Christians,
we should be setting the example
in every area of life,
including judgment.
It makes me think about how in
1 Corinthians 6 the Bible saying like,
don't go to law before the unjust.
You don't want to go before some lawyer
because here's what the unsaved world is like.
There are a bunch of liars and extortioners
and adulterers and drunkards.
You know, it's better to have
the least esteemed Christian.
who saved in the church judge you rather than going to the world because a lot of them are
respectors of persons. There's a lot of activist judges and DEI judges out there that if if you're
black they won't convict you know or if if you're white they will convict and there's been times
passed in our history where it was opposite and that's wicked too but you know what people
in positions of leadership must not respect persons.
Sometimes, I think people can even be a respecter of persons to themselves, where they have
one standard for themselves.
They judge themselves a certain way, but then other people, they don't.
And sometimes having a respect of persons can be really tightly linked with hypocrisy.
I'll show you that.
2 Samuel 12 verse 1.
And the Lord sent Nathan unto David, and he came unto him and said unto him, There were
The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing save one little you lamb
which he had bought and nourished up and it grew up together with him and with his children it did eat of his own
Meat and drink of his own cup and lay in his bosom and was unto him as a daughter. So this little poor man
He doesn't have a lot of assets.
He's got this one little U lamb,
which he treasures it like a pet.
It's kind of like my kids with one of our chickens.
Just one of those chickens is never getting slaughtered.
It's just, it's a pet.
That's kind of what this animal is here.
And it says in verse four,
and there came a traveler unto the rich man.
He spared to take of his own flock and of his own herd so he had plenty of animals
He had lots of animals
But he didn't take any from his own to dress for the wayfaring man that was come unto him
But he took the poor man's lamb
and dressed it for the man that was come to him.
So this is a very selfish act here,
where this rich man, he has all this abundance.
He's got all these flocks of animals,
and he's got a man traveling, coming unto him.
He's like, all right, I'm gonna cook for him.
I'm gonna give him some food.
But he doesn't take from any of the things that he has.
He steals, so he's being selfish and stealing
from the poor man, the lamb that he really cared about
that was special to him.
You know, this is just obvious.
I mean, you're reading the story.
It's like, yeah, one person's right here.
One's wrong.
This is wicked here. This is selfish. You're stealing.
And David, he recognizes that. He says,
And David's anger was greatly kindled against the man, rightly so.
He's saying, like, this is crazy.
And he said to Nathan,
As the Lord liveth,
The man that hath done this thing shall surely die.
Now, that might be a little extreme.
I don't know if he'd be put to death for stealing.
But, I mean, that's how angry David is.
He's saying, like,
Whoa, that's crazy. That's insane.
This guy needs to be killed, right?
He's judging pretty harshly in this situation.
And he shall restore the Lamb fourfold because he did this thing and because he had no pity.
So David's being harsh on this guy.
He's saying he should be put to death.
This guy needs to restore fourfold, which I don't know how you do that after you're killed.
I mean, David's just so pissed right here. He's not even making sense.
He's saying like, this guy has had no pity at all.
You know, he's just saying this guy's soulless. He has no conscience.
But, and Nathan said to David,
thou art the man.
Thus saith the Lord God of Israel.
I anointed the King over Israel, and I delivered the out of the hand of Saul, and David said
unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord.
And Nathan said unto David, the Lord also hath put away thy sin, thou shalt not die.
You know, I'm sure if you saw David's expression on his face during this interaction, he's
probably turned bright red.
He's probably very ashamed, very embarrassed.
And he was very repentant as well.
And you know, of course, he did the right thing here admitting that he was wrong and
changing.
But what I'm trying to show you in this story is that when you're judging, oftentimes people
Well, they don't even hold themselves to that standard.
They don't judge themselves harshly,
where it's like really in reality in the abstract,
if we just remove emotionalism from this,
and we say what's worse, a king committing adultery
with one of his soldier's wives,
and then having his soldier killed on purpose in combat
and stealing her, or a guy that takes someone's pet
and cooks it up and gives it to a guest.
It's like, they're not even close.
The value of someone's wife versus someone's pet.
I mean, it's not even close,
but yet David's ready for this guy to die
to restore four fold saying he has no conscience, no pity.
Yet he himself did something way worse.
And you know, one of the most important things
when it comes to not being a respecter of persons
is not being a respecter of yourself in judgment either.
to where it's like oh yeah you know I'm coming down hard on everyone I'm judging
everyone I'm condemning everyone but for me I give myself a pass for
everything I do
I want to go talk crap and be a gossip and be a backbiter about other people's small
problems while I hide my own major sins.
That's wicked.
That's being a respect of a person of yourself and you know what, you need to be like David
and just say like, look, I have sinned and ask God for forgiveness and move on, but don't
have that wicked judgment in the future.
when you yourself are not living that way.
You know, if someone else has a moat in their eye,
but you have a beam in your eye,
just shut up about it.
Yeah, you know, we could sit here and dissect the word of God,
and I could just point out every single little issue
of every single person,
and you could do the same to me,
but you know what, that doesn't make sense
if in an area I'm struggling with,
I'm just beating you up about.
That's wicked, that's unseemly, and vice versa, right?
And oftentimes it's the people, I've noticed, it's the people who have transgressed the
most, who have sinned the most grievous sins, who when they start just barely getting their
life on track, they just barely started going to church.
They just barely started becoming three to thrive.
They just barely started soul winning or whatever, that all of a sudden something changes and
now they're Mr. Holy Mount Man.
They are the man of God, you know, and they want to just judge everyone so harshly and
Why don't you take a look in the mirror?
Why don't you realize how much God has forgiven you for
and extend that mercy and grace towards other people?
That is how you should judge.
Go to Acts chapter 20.
Number three this morning.
Realize that God wants to use anyone who wants to serve him.
God wants to use anyone who wants to serve him.
Because again, we live in this victim mentality culture.
where, you know, I'll just use the African-American population as an example.
It's like, well, our ancestors were slaves, therefore, we are oppressed right now.
We have all these disadvantages right now.
You know, there's systemic racism right now.
Let me tell you, there is not systemic racism in the United States against black people.
That is a joke.
What benefit, what job, what opportunity is being withheld from someone because of their
skin color of the United States of America?
That's a joke. Okay, that that is done. Obviously, there's individual people in this world
that hate people because of their skin color and that unfortunately will never change and look that's really stupid and immature
You shouldn't just hate someone because of the way that their skin is that's not something they could control or think like oh
Because someone has a certain skin color that means that they're just inherently sinful or dumb or wicked or something like that
No, there's always going to be individual racists,
but there is no systemic racism in the United States.
It is a joke.
And people who have worked for government
will tell you it's quite the opposite.
It's quite like trying to give these communities above
and beyond what other communities get
and trying to funnel all the programs and the money
and the assistance to these underserved communities
and giving them extra blessings and extra privilege
when they're not really doing that to other neighborhoods.
And guess what? I'm not complaining about it because I believe that we're all created equal
on the side of God and that God's not a respecter of persons and I don't think like I'm at some
disadvantage because of who I was born at as, but guess what? Neither are you. No one
is at some sort of disadvantage with God when it comes to the color of your skin or your
gender or anything like that because God is not a respecter of persons. Look at Acts 20 verse 34.
Then Peter opened his mouth and said of a truth.
I perceive that God is no respecter of persons.
But in every nation,
he that feareth him and worketh righteousness
is accepted with him.
Every single nation the Bible says.
It's not like, oh, God is just ready to use an American today.
And God just really wants to use an American.
Or God just really wants to use a Russian.
God does not care about that whatsoever.
all the nations of the earth are as a drop in the bucket for God.
God does not care about your nationality.
What he cares about is those that fear him and work righteousness.
And those that fear him and work righteousness are accepted in the eyes of God no matter where you're from.
No matter what your skin color is, no matter what nation you are a part of.
And you want to know why certain nations have been exalted and have been blessed
and others are still third world countries.
It comes down to who's been fearing God and who's been working righteousness and who hasn't.
Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people, to any people.
Not sin is a reproach to whites, sin is a reproach to blacks.
No, sin is a reproach to any people, and by the way, righteousness exalts any nation.
And so you want to know why the United States of America has been exalted through history,
has been a great nation, it's because of fear of God.
It's because of respect of the King James Bible.
It's because of implementing the ideas and laws of God into our country.
And you want to know why?
Here we are in 2025 and many countries in Africa are still not figuring out how to have
and still not figuring out how to do farming right
and not figuring out how to have armies correctly
or anything like that,
it's because of either no Christianity or false Christianity.
Not because of the color of their skin.
You know, look at India.
Why is India such a crap hole?
Yes, it's a crap hole.
It's a terrible country.
It's a disgusting, dirty nation.
Why?
Because they don't have biblical Christianity.
because they are being debased because of false religion,
worshiping their billions of gods or whatever,
their false Eastern religion, that's why their nations cursed.
That's why different nations in Africa have been cursed of God.
That's why Israel is cursed of God,
because they reject Jesus Christ.
You got people today. You got the Jews. They think we're special. Oh, we're accepted with God
We're accepted with God more than other people because we're the Jews
Do you fear God and do you work righteousness because if not you're not accepted with him?
And any person, any Gentile that fears God and keeps his commandments is accepted with God.
You know, you got the Black Hebrew Israelites.
Oh, we're the true Jews.
You got to watch out for Edom. You got to watch out for these terrible white people.
You know, this whole Black Hebrew-Israelite religion just hates white people.
And I literally called one of these churches one time
and I just asked them,
could I even visit their church as a white person?
And they were so uncomfortable,
stuttering all over their words.
And he's just like, well, you know,
this is really more of a congregation for black people.
And I was like, well, you know,
I've never done my DNA testing.
I'm sure someday like 5,000 years ago,
I'm sure I didn't say this part.
I'm just thinking like, I've never done my DNA testing.
I don't know if I have any black in my DNA at all.
And he's just like, oh, you would know, you would know.
I'm just like, well, how would I know?
And I'm like, so can I come or not?
They're just like, no.
So it's like, could you imagine the news article
that would be posted if it was like,
such and such Baptist church tells black person
they can't visit their church.
But I literally had a church tell me
that I could not visit their church because I'm white.
You don't see people in uproar about that, right?
You don't see them freaking out about that.
But let me tell you, that's respective persons.
And you're not special because you're the black Hebrew Israelites.
You're not special because you're a Jew.
You're not special because you're an American.
You're not special because you're white or Russian or Chinese.
You're special if you're saved.
You're special if you fear God.
You're special if you keep His commandments.
That is who God accepts.
Go to 1 Samuel 17. 1 Samuel 17.
False religion just loves to glorify the carnal, loves to glorify the flesh.
But these things are not important in the eyes of God.
First Samuel 17 verse 41.
And the Philistine came on and drew near unto David.
And the man that bear the shield went before him.
And when the Philistine looked about and saw David,
he disdained him for he was but a youth and ruddy
and of a fair countenance.
So notice on the surface level here,
David did not seem like a formidable warrior
compared to Goliath.
He's young.
He's ruddy. He's probably like a little white redhead kid.
You know, he's of a fair countenance.
He's like a handsome young man.
You know, you don't look at David and think like this guy is a
Philistine Slayer.
I mean, this guy is going to be stacking four skins, literally.
Like, no, you're not thinking that about him,
but yet look what it says in verse 43.
And the Philistine said unto David, Am I a dog that thou comest to me with staves?
And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.
And the Philistine said to David, Come to me, and I will give thy flesh unto the fowls
of the air, and to the beasts of the field.
Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword and with a spear and with
a shield, but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of
Israel, whom thou hast defied."
See, even though David wasn't very formidable physically,
you want to know why he was accepted with God
and why he won this battle is because he was coming
to slay the Philistine in the name of God,
in the name of the Lord.
And it was God that was giving him his strength.
Verse 46 says,
This day, will the Lord deliver thee into my hand, and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee,
and will give the carcasses of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth.
Notice this, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.
And see who God wants to use and who God wants to bless and exalt is not, man, I just want
to use an American, man, I just want to use a Ruddy youth named David, man, I just want
to use some Russian, it's God wants to use someone who is interested in exalting the
name of God, who is in an interest of exalting the reputation and fame and honor of God.
That's who God wants to exalt.
I want to be used of God, I want to be exalted, well make it your interest to spread the name
of God throughout the community. Make it your interest to be a soul winner and God is going to
be giving you favor and blessing and be on your side. Go if you would to Revelation chapter one.
While you're turning there Amos 714 says then answered Amos and said to Amaziah
I was no prophet neither was I a prophet son
But I was in herd men a gatherer of sycamore fruit and the Lord took me and as I followed the flock and said unto me
Go prophesy unto my people Israel so notice Amos was not some rich man
He didn't come from some great pedigree. There was nothing special about him. He was just
a farmer, he's just working the fields, but yet he became one of God's prophets.
Why? Because he was interested in the truth. He was interested in preaching the word of God.
Same thing with the disciples of Jesus Christ. A lot of them are just fishermen,
just regular working class men. There's nothing like crazy impressive about them,
but it was because of the heart that they had. Number four this morning, and this is probably
the most important that I want you to understand is this. Favor positions, not people.
favor, positions, not people.
Let me show you that Revelation 1.6 says,
and hath made us kings and priests unto God
and his father to him be glory and dominion forever and ever.
Amen.
See, God has made those that are saved kings and priests
and Christians are special by virtue of being saved.
And when I see someone who's my brother and sister in Christ, I give them preference.
I give them more honor.
I give them more respect by the position that they hold of being a saved child of God.
And it's not that I would do injustice to someone else at the expense of a Christian,
but I'm always going to favor my brothers and sisters in Christ.
I'm always going to have more respect for them than for other people.
And I'll prove that to you more.
Go to Galatians chapter 6, Galatians chapter number 6.
I do view Christians as being more special than everyone else.
Not to say I don't love everyone else.
Not to say that I don't spend my life trying to get other people saved
and loving them and doing good unto them.
But at the end of the day, I have more respect towards Christians.
Let me show you that. Galatians 6 verse 10 says,
As we therefore have opportunity,
let us do good unto all men,
especially unto them who are of the household of faith.
You see that?
So, we're supposed to do good unto all men, of course.
When we have opportunity to do good, let's do good, right?
Let's go preach the gospel.
Let's love the lost.
But especially, meaning we should give more preeminence.
We should give more honor to our brothers and sisters in Christ.
So if it comes down to it, it's like, there's only one of me.
I only have so much time.
If I have to choose between investing into or helping a brother or sister in Christ that
or some other random person,
sorry, I'm going to pick my brother in Christ.
I'm going to pick my sister in Christ every time.
That is a biblical concept.
So again, being a respecter of persons
doesn't mean that we can't give special honor
to a specific position,
to a specific title that someone has.
Go to Exodus chapter two, Exodus two,
and I'm going to show you that God does the exact same thing.
that God views his people as special and more exalted than the rest of the world.
Exodus 2, verse 23.
And it came to pass in the process of time that the king of Egypt died and the children
of Israel, that's God's people during this time, sighed by reason of the bondage and
they cried and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage and God heard their
groaning and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob.
Verse 25, notice, and God looked upon the children of Israel and God had respect unto
them.
So, this is not just my philosophy, my opinion.
I'm just following the example that God gave, is that when God looks at his people, he does
have respect unto them.
Now notice, it's not, well, he has respect for one person.
Oh, within Christians, God treats one different
than another based on their skin color, or gender,
or status, or anything like that.
No, but he does have favor,
and he does respect Christians in general.
And he does have favor to them above other people.
There's a couple more examples like this.
Let's talk about some.
Go to 1st Timothy 5, 1st Timothy 5.
You know, another example of this would be a pastor.
A pastor has a special title and has a special position that should be given more respect
based off of the title alone, based off of the position alone.
And this is again, this is not being a respecter of persons.
It's having respect to positions that God ordains.
First Timothy 5 verse 1, rebuke not an elder, but entreat him as a father.
case that applies to a pastor that does not necessarily apply to every other person.
See, the Bible does not say...
Don't rebuke anyone at any time the Bible is full of rebukes. There's talk
There's times where you should rebuke someone and that's actually an act of love towards them not suffering sin to be upon them
But the Bible saying you should not do that to a pastor
You should not sit there and just ream a pastor and scream and yell at them and rebuke them harshly
You're supposed to treat them as a father. You're supposed to give them respect and talk to them a certain way
There's a certain way that's talking to a pastor. That's just sin
That's just wrong.
Why?
By virtue of their skin color or their money?
No, by virtue of their position.
By virtue of them having that title.
Look at verse 17.
Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor.
especially they who labor in the word in doctrine.
So notice the elders, they have a certain privilege
where they're not supposed to be rebuked,
they're supposed to be treated with respect like a father.
Then on top of that, there's elders that rule well
and elders that rule well are given extra
where it says double honor and it says especially,
so now we're even going higher to a more group here,
it says especially they who labor in the word in doctrine.
For the scripture saith, thou shalt not muzzle the ox,
and treadeth out the corn, and the laborer is worthy of his reward.
Against an elder, receive not an accusation,
but before two or three witnesses."
So again, there's just a certain way that the Bible instructs people to treat pastors,
and yes, that is based on their position.
Just like I favor Christians for no other reason, other than that they are a Christian.
God favors his people for no other reason than their his people, right?
And you should have favor towards pastors.
You should treat them in a respectful way
and treat them the way that the Bible does say.
Go to first Peter chapter two.
We'll skip some of these verses,
but just for sake of time,
the title of husband is worthy of respect.
And you should respect ladies, your husband,
by virtue of him being your husband.
not by virtue of any other external characteristic
or money that he has or anything like that,
but just by him having that title,
he deserves respect and obedience.
You know, parents to children.
Children owe their parents obedience
by the fact that their parents are their parents,
and no other reason.
Even the government has this to an extent.
1 Peter 2, verse 13,
submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake,
whether it be to the king as supreme
or unto governors,
As unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well.
For so is the will of God, that with well-doing you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men.
So again, the government, it's been given authority by God, that is a real position that men hold in this world and we should obey the government.
Unless they're asking us to sin, we should obey the government and give them that respect of the position that they hold.
It is a God-ordained position, we should have respect to it.
Last verse we'll go to this morning is Matthew 18, Matthew chapter 18.
You know, another institution that we should just have respect for is the church.
You know, the church has real authority that you should respect.
1st 18 says, Verily I say unto you whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven
and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Again I say unto you that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they
shall ask it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.
So notice Jesus is teaching that God in heaven will back up the decision of the church, will
of its position as the church of God, right?
So we should give extra respect to positions.
That's not being a respecter of persons,
that's being a respecter of positions
or a respecter of titles.
And if God backs something up, I want to as well.
Just in closing, I just want to encourage everyone, if you're in a position of leadership
to try that thought experiment, ask yourself those questions.
If this person was my friend and they did this, how would I judge?
If this was my own son that did this, how would I judge?
How would I react?
You know, if I'm going to go talk to someone, how would I want to be treated if this was
me that made this mistake?
Then ask yourself, okay, if this was someone I didn't really like this much.
how would I judge in that situation and try to get these things to always match?
That's how you have righteous judgment. That's how you're not a respecter of persons.
You're not judging someone based on their external characteristics.
You're not just immediately seeing someone saying like,
oh, you have money, you're automatically good. Oh, you're poor, you're automatically bad.
Right? We want to have righteous judgment according to what the Bible says.
not this respect of persons that leads to injustice.
We as Christians need to set the example
of having righteous judgment.
Let's pray, Lord, thank you for your word
and thank you for the instruction found therein.
I just pray that you'd help us to stick close to the Word of God and to read the Bible very carefully
so that we can make righteous judgments in our lives.
I pray that you'd help none of us in here to be respecters of persons,
that you would just give us the wisdom we need to judge in various aspects of our life.
We love you, in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
In closing we'll go ahead and sing one last song if you would at this time take your hymnals and turn to hymn number
49
Meet me there
Him number 49 in your hymnals meet me there
We'll go ahead and start there right on the first.
On the happy golden shore, where the faithful par no more,
when the storms of life are o'er me, me there.
Where the night dissolves away into pure and perfect day,
I am going home to stay, me, me there.
the tree of life is blooming meet me there when the storms of life are on the happy golden shore
where the faithful part no more meet me there here our fondest hopes are vain
sparkling bright in the city of delight where our faith is lost inside meet me
there meet me there meet me there where the tree of life is blooming meet me
there when the storms of life
of angels ring and the blessed forever sing in the palace of the King meet me
there wearing sweet communion blend part with heart and friend with friend in a
world that never shall
Good singing this morning, with that you are dismissed.