WHEN WE LOOK AT OUR WORLD WE SEE PREJUDICE AGAINST INDIVIDUALS AS WELL AS NATIONS. WE FIND EXAMPLES OF PEOPLE BEING REJECTED BECAUSE OF WHERE THEY WERE BORN, WHO THEIR PARENTS ARE, WHERE THEY ATTENDED SCHOOL, THE SKIN COLOR, ETC.
a) Our world likes to generate a lot of news about how different people are.
b) The media thrives on race related stories.
c) When people become Christians, differences such as race are of little importance.
2) An inspired man in Acts 10 claimed God does not favor one race over another.
a) God has done much more than say He regards all people equally.
b) He has actually illustrated this point in several ways.
c) God says all men are equal because He has given only one law.
3) There are preachers who try to say that some parts of the New Testament do not apply to non-Christians.
4) Marriage and divorce is sometimes dealt with in this way.
5) We have had members of the church say that prior to becoming a Christian, marriages do not count.
6) A person may divorce and remarry as often as they like, but after baptism, then marriage counts.
a) That type of teaching is difficult to reconcile with many New Testament verses.
b) In places like 1 Cor. 6 Paul said people had been guilty of “adultery.”
c) Since adultery is sexual sin for the married, what standard did these non-Christians violate?
d) What marriage law did they break? Was it man’s standard or God’s standard?
7) Study the word “whosever” in the New Testament.
8) You should find that this term occurs about 60 times.
9) Time and time again God says “whosoever” (all people). The gospel is universal in scope.
10) God has just one law for all men until the end of time—the law expressed in the New Testament.
11) This law is called the “law of liberty” (Jas. 1:25) and the “law of Christ” (Gal. 6:2).
12) All are guilty of sin, and God is not going to show any type of favortim when dealing with sinners.
a) God is not going to let one person “get away with sin” and punish others.
b) This should be a very appealing fact to people.
13) Some might like to think that only “bad people” will be judged.
14) What did Jesus say in Jn. 5:28-29?
15) All will be judged by the Lord at the end of time, 2 Cor. 5:10.
16) God will not be partial about the future judgment. It will be an experience for all people.
17) Jesus also said (Jn. 12:48) that man will be judged by His word.
18) If God requires me to believe in His Son for salvation, this is true for everyone else?
19) If God requires me to believe but says others are not required to do that, He is a respector of persons.
20) God cannot require me to repent and not others.
21) He cannot require confession from me and not require that of others.
22) If God requires from me baptism for the forgiveness of sins, that is required of all others.
23) There is no respect of persons with God.
24) God CANNOT show favoritism to any person.
25) We either obey the one plan He has given or we do not.
26) Based on all that has been said, we can see why the Bible says there is only one church.
a) Jesus said He would build only one church (Mt. 16:18).
b) Eph. 1:22-23 says the church is Christ’s “body” and Eph. 4:4-5 says there is only “one body.”
c) Eph. 2:14 says the one church is for “Jew and Gentile.”
d) For us, Jew and Gentile may not sound all that important.
27) What if we changed Jew and Gentile to “black and white
28) What if we said “Caucasians and Hispanics?”
29) What if we said “males and females?” Only one divine church for all interested in salvation.
30) We will one day stand before a perfect judge who has a perfect standard. What will He say about us?
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