Sunday, September 25, 2016

GOD IS NO RESPECTER OF PERSONS

It took ten chapters into the Book of Acts, for Peter to realize that Christ's command to go and make disciples of all nations, meant that the Church would be made up of both Jews and Gentiles who would call Jesus Lord (Mt. 28:19; Rom. 10:8-13)!  Luke wrote:  "Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons."  The fact that the Church began on the Jewish "Feast" of Pentecost, should have been a clue, because Pentecost was the only "Feast" that involved leaven; the priest was to wave two leavened loaves of bread (Lev. 23:15-23).  Leaven represents sin in the Scriptures, and the two loaves of bread picture less-than-perfect believers from both the Jews and the Gentiles!

Another way Peter should have known that God is no respecter of persons, is that He, being described as "a consuming fire," or "a refining fire" (Mal. 3:2-3), warns Jews, Gentiles, and the Church, that He will cleanse, or purify, by fire:
*  A warning to the Jews:  Deut. 4:23-24 - "Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which he made with you, and make you a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, which the LORD thy God hath forbidden thee.  For the LORD thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God."
*  A warning to Israel's Gentile enemies:  Deut. 9:1-3 - "Hear, O Israel: Thou art to pass over Jordan this day, to go in to possess nations greater and mightier than thyself, cities great and fenced up to heaven, a people great and tall, the children of the Anakims, whom thou knowest, and of whom thou hast heard say, Who can stand before the children of Anak!  Understand therefore this day, that the LORD thy God is He Who goeth over before thee; as a consuming fire He shall destroy them, and He shall bring them down before thy face: so shalt thou drive them out, and destroy them quickly, as the LORD hath said unto thee."

And finally, a warning to the Church:  Heb. 12:23-29 - "To the general assembly and Church of the Firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.  See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh.  For if they escaped not who refused Him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from Him that speaketh from heaven:  Whose voice then shook the earth:  but now He hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.  And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.  Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:  For our God is a consuming fire."

GOD IS GOING TO EITHER CLEANSE YOU WITH HIS REFINER'S FIRE,
OR HE IS GOING TO SENTENCE YOU TO THE LAKE OF FIRE!

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