No Partiality With God (Kannada)

We have been looking at that verse that God will honor those who honor him and the New Testament equivalent of that, that God will exalt those who humble themselves before him. The laws of God are the same for everybody. We must understand that.

If God honors somebody and remember this, when I say God honors somebody, that means he makes that person partake of his nature. Very few Christians understand this truth. I think more than 95% of believers think that if God uses a man, he is honoring him.

And ours is about the only church that preaches that God can use a man and send him to hell. That is written in Matthew chapter 7. You will almost never hear anybody preach about this. There are some groups that do not believe in the gifts of the spirit and in miracles.

They may preach this. They believe in this verse in Matthew 7, 22 and 23, that many will come to him in that day and say, Lord, we prophesied in your name, cast out demons, did miracles and I will say to them, depart from me, I never knew you. Lord, we prophesied in your name, cast out demons, did miracles and I will say to them, depart from me, I never knew you.

Now there are many people who are doing miracles. Because Satan has got the power to do miracles. The difference is, God does miracles to bless people and help them.

But Satan does miracles to harm people and to lead them astray. We read in the book of Job, how Satan could send fire from heaven to burn up Job's property. We read in the book of Job, how Satan could send fire from heaven to burn up Job's property.

He could send a storm to destroy houses and kill all of Job's children. It's a miraculous power. You cannot call fire and storm whenever you want.

But these are not just people who are doing it in Satan's name. Three times it says, in Jesus' name, in Jesus' name. Now, they cannot tell a lie to Jesus.

They stand before Jesus and say, Lord, you know, in your name we did miracles when we were on the earth. He will say, I never knew you, go to hell. Now people who don't believe in the gifts of the spirit say, yeah, that's okay.

But we are not in that category. We believe in the baptism in the Holy Spirit. We preach it.

We believe in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. And we believe there is power in Jesus' name to do all these things mentioned here. But we also believe that there are a lot of counterfeits to deceive people.

So, we must remember that just because a person does a miracle in Jesus' name does not mean God is honoring him. I have seen on Christian television so many of these people who pretend to do miracles in Jesus' name. I always ask myself, forget what he is doing.

Do I see in his behavior the spirit of Christ? Is there humility? Is there a freedom from the love of money? And generally, what I sense, is it the spirit of Christ or the spirit of the world? And most of all, I am not listening to his message. I am listening to his spirit. The message may be clear.

Because Jesus has said that in the same chapter earlier in verse 18, that these false prophets will come in sheep's clothing. So, they can deceive us. So, that is why it is important to bear in mind that the main mark of God honoring a person is that he gives him his nature.

Not that he does miracles in Jesus' name. I don't want to be in this group that does miracles in Jesus' name and finally to be cast out. I want to be in the other group of Paul and Peter who did miracles in Jesus' name and were approved by God.

See, Paul, Peter, John, all these apostles, they could also say, we prophesied in your name. We cast out demons in your name. We did miracles in your name.

But to them, the Lord doesn't say, depart from me. They say, well done, good and faithful servant, he says to them. These both groups did the same thing.

What was the difference in those apostles and this group? Because the apostles manifested the spirit of Christ. When they did a miracle, when they had meetings, they never took a collection from people. That is the number one thing which was different.

You don't see those type of meetings nowadays. Because Christendom is sunk in the love of money. And those apostles were servants of people.

They were not such important people that nobody can meet them. See, that's the other thing I ask myself when I hear of some great preacher. Does he have the spirit of Christ? Jesus was so simple that anybody could meet him.

Even the poorest person could go and sit and talk to him. But these people, you can't meet them. It is very difficult to meet them.

Many Christian leaders are like that. To me, that is not the spirit of Christ. But I have heard some people say, but I am so busy.

I say, are you busier than Jesus? Then something is wrong with you. Jesus had the most important ministry on the face of the earth. And yet anybody could meet him.

So unless you keep these things in your mind and compare every preacher you see with Jesus Christ, you will also be deceived like the 95% of believers. So, where we see that God has given his nature to somebody, the gift, the fruit of the Holy Spirit in his life, then you know that man must have honored God in his private life. That's why God gave him his nature.

That means, wherever you see somebody lifted up over sin and the devil, then you know that man must have humbled himself in secret. See, the laws of God are the same for everybody. And what God has done for other people, he can do for you and me.

There is a wonderful verse in Romans chapter 2. And the reason I am showing you this verse is for everyone here to believe that God can do it for you. You know, many of us have had the feeling when we sit and listen to some great man of God. We say, oh, I can never be like him.

No, you may not be able to preach like him. That's not important. Never, never look at a person's ministry.

That's very dangerous. Because there are two dangers. One danger is that you can feel discouraged.

I can't be like him. But that's because you are looking at his ministry. And the other danger is you will try to imitate him.

That's also wrong. So never look at a person's ministry and say, I wish I could have that type of ministry. That can be a desire for honor.

Because you see him getting honor, you want to get that honor. What you should desire is, I wish I could live like he lives. I wish I could live like he lives.

I wish I could be so humble like him. I wish I could be loving and compassionate like him. I wish I could be so helpful to other people like he is.

And I wish I could love my enemies like he loves his enemies. And when you look at those qualities, you realize that we can all be like that if we want to. And we will discover in eternity that those are the main things.

So in Romans chapter 2, it says in verse 11, this very important verse, there is no partiality with God. That means that God treats all of his children the same. Now if you've got children, you must not show partiality to one over the other.

But there are many parents who do that. If they've got only one son and many daughters, they give special honor to that son. Or they will show partiality to the youngest child.

All this is wrong because that's unlike God. We must treat all our children the same. Because God treats all his children the same.

There is absolutely no difference in God's eyes between any of his children. You can't say you're a favorite child or not a favorite child. All God's children are his favorite children.

I believe that. I'm one of God's favorite children. But I don't believe that I'm more special than other of God's children.

I don't believe that God shows some special love to me which he won't show to others. Because if he did that, then this verse won't be true. This verse is true.

There is no partiality with God. Then why does he give more of his nature to some people? That's because he honors those who honor him. There is no partiality with God.

But if some person obeys the laws, he gets more of a benefit. Supposing you have four children and you tell all of them to study hard for the examination. And they are all your children.

Let's assume they've all got the same amount of intelligence. And one person gets 100% and another person gets 20%. Is that because you showed some partiality? No.

One person studied hard, the other person just fooled around and didn't do anything. You gave them all the same opportunities, sent them to the same school, they had the same teacher, but one person didn't follow the laws of hard work. Or let's take another example.

Supposing there are four believers who are farmers. All are believers. One man is very hard working.

He ploughs the ground, sows the seed, waters it. Another person is lazy and sows his seed very carelessly. In the harvest time, this hard working farmer gets a very good crop.

And this other fellow gets hardly anything. Is it because God is partial? No. One person followed the laws of God and the other person didn't.

See this verse in 2 Timothy 2. Verse 6. The hard working farmer has to receive his share of the crops first. Why should God give him the first prize? Because he is hard working. Before examination time, sometimes children come to me and say, Uncle Zach, will you please pray for me as I go for the exam.

I say, if you haven't studied hard, then any amount of praying I do is not going to help you. It's like a farmer doesn't sow any seeds in his field and he says, please pray that I'll have a good harvest. How will he get a good harvest if he hasn't sowed any seed? But a person who has sowed the seed, that man can say, please pray that I'll get a good harvest.

Sometimes we think that we can cover up our laziness by prayer. That doesn't work. If one of those sons of yours is lazy, he doesn't do well no matter how much you pray for him.

Because prayer does not cover up your laziness. Supposing some young person here, God has got his eye on you to give you a very powerful ministry of the word of God, say 15 years from now. You don't know that yet.

But God has got a plan for your life. But in the next 15 years, you don't study God's word. You play the fool and sit around gossiping and chit chatting like all the other believers.

15 years from now, you'll be a useless believer in the church just like many other useless believers in the church. Why? Because even though God had a plan for your life, he couldn't fulfill it. And 15 years from now, you can pray, oh God, give me a ministry.

How can you give your ministry when you've been so lazy? The hard working farmer has to be the first to get the crops. And after having said that, Paul says to Timothy, next verse, please think about what I'm saying, so the Lord will give you understanding in everything. So, I'm also saying that to you.

Think about this verse 6 and the Lord will give you understanding. There's no partiality with God, but the hard working farmer comes first. And that's why you see a difference among believers.

That's why some believers are more Christ-like and some believers are utterly selfish even after 20 years of being in the church. Some believers overcome their anger within a couple of years, some people don't overcome it even in 20 years. Is it because you know what the person who's defeated after 20 years will say? Oh brother, I have a terrific problem with anger.

My father had it, my mother had it, my grandfather had it. He's making excuses. He will live like that for a hundred years.

The other person also had the same problem. Maybe his grandfather also had the problem. But he did not make excuses.

He said, God, your power of your Holy Spirit is stronger than this. I can overcome it. Or here's another young man who's a slave to his dirty sexual lusts.

And even after 20 years he's defeated. And he says, what to do brother, in my unconverted days I polluted my mind a lot and I'll never get victory over it. Because he makes excuses, in a hundred years he won't get victory.

But here's another person who polluted his mind more. He says, Lord, you can make my mind pure because you are Almighty God. And he experiences the victory.

Because he follows a certain law. The law is, according to your faith be it unto you. You believe your father and grandfather had anger so you won't get victory over it.

In your lifetime you won't get victory over it. You believe that because of 10 years you polluted your mind with pornography and all this rubbish you'll never get a pure mind. I tell you in a hundred years you won't get a pure mind.

Not because God can't give it to you. But because you make your God so small and your sin so big. God says, okay, if you make me so small in your life, I will remain like that in your life.

Why was it that Jesus could do so many wonderful things? Because he had tremendous faith in his father. You know, when they beat him and stripped him and put a crown of thorns on his head, he knew that he's going to be crucified. And he stands before Pilate and Pilate says, don't you know I have power to kill you or release you? What would you say there? Did Jesus say, oh please, please forgive me, I won't do that again? No.

He stands erect and says, you have no power over me except somebody above gives it to you. I want to be like that. I hope you want to be like that.

There was a dignity about Jesus. He didn't go begging anybody for favors. Do you believe that God wants you to walk like Jesus walked on this earth? You saw that verse I read in the morning, as Jesus is, so are we in this world.

If we don't believe that, we will not experience it in our life. If we think, no, no, no, no, we can't be like him. You will never be like him.

But here's another person whose life was much worse than yours. And he says, Lord, if your word says that I can walk like him, I can walk like him. And it's accomplished in his life.

So you must believe. Or you'll get nothing from the Lord. I told you there's no partiality with God.

Do you know that verse where it says God has given him a name which is above every other name? And exalted him above everything else in this universe. Yeah, you've all heard that verse. Can you tell me why God did that for Jesus? Most believers will say, because he was the son of God.

That's not true. You want to see the reason? Why God exalted Jesus above everyone else? It's in your Bible. And it's not because he was the son of God.

See Philippians chapter 2. Listen to this. Although verse 6, he existed in the form of God, he did not hold on to that, but emptied himself and came down. That's the first thing.

That though he was equal with God from all eternity, he gave it up and came to earth and became a man. For the sake of others, not for his own sake. He was willing to give up everything to help others.

And secondly, when he was on the earth, he humbled himself by being obedient even if obedience meant death. Therefore, verse 9, that is the reason God has exalted him highly above all. Why? Because it's a law.

Those who humble themselves will be exalted. So, why he was exalted above everybody else? Because he humbled himself beneath everybody else. That's why he had to be born in a stable, in a cow shed.

I've never heard of anybody born in a cow shed. He humbled himself and went down and became nothing. Nobody ever went down so much.

When he was the greatest leader of all, he washed his disciples' feet. You don't find Christian leaders doing that today. He washed their feet.

God was so happy. He said, I have to exalt him above everybody else. And that's why sin could have no power over Jesus.

That's why the devil was scared of him. Not because he was son of God, but because God was with him. Because he humbled himself.

Now remember, there's no partiality with God. What God did for Jesus, he will do for you. I believe that.

But how much will he do for me? That depends on how much I obey the laws of God. If I get offended with some small thing that happens, God is not going to do anything for me. Or if I want to take revenge on somebody because he harmed me in some way, then God is not going to do those things for me.

God follows his laws. He followed it for Jesus, he will follow it for me. So what I wanted to show you here was, that even Jesus was exalted only because he humbled himself.

The same law applied to him as it applies to you and me. So we see that if we look at Jesus' life, we can learn something that can be true in our life too. There was a Roman soldier who once came to Jesus.

And you see, this Roman soldier was a military man. And when he looked at Jesus, he saw that Jesus was also like a military man. Usually a military person can recognize another military person.

Because there is an authority about a military person. And the Roman centurion saw that in Jesus. But the difference was, the Roman centurion was in an earthly military and Jesus was in a heavenly one.

Now, see what he said to Jesus in Matthew chapter 8. He asked Jesus to come to his house. He asked Jesus to heal his servant. And Jesus said, OK, I will come to your home and heal him.

Matthew 8 verse 8. He says, Lord, you don't have to come to my home. In fact, I don't think I deserve for you to come to my home. I am a small man.

You are so great. If you stand here and 40 miles away, speak a word, my servant will be healed there. Why? Because he says, you know, I have got 100 soldiers under me.

If I tell one of those soldiers, go, he will go. He won't even wait one second. Have you seen in the military parades, they say about turn, they turn about immediately.

So, he says, I know that. In the military, it's like that. Because, when my senior officer tells me to go, I go.

That's why this soldier listens to me. But if my senior officer tells me to go, and I say, well, sir, I will think about that. I will get thrown out of the military.

And then when I tell that soldier to go, he will laugh at me. Why does he listen to me immediately? Because I listen to my senior officer immediately. Now, he is saying that, I see that in you, Lord Jesus.

I don't understand you, but I sense that you are a man under authority also. I don't know who the person is, but I see in you, you are a person listening to some authority from somewhere. I don't know who it is.

He didn't know God. And that Roman soldier didn't know anything about the Bible. He didn't know anything about Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

But he looked at Jesus and said, I sense that this is a person who doesn't do things on his own. He is a military man. He is listening to some authority.

I don't know who it is. And therefore I know, if he speaks to something, it will go. Sickness, go.

It will go. It doesn't matter if it is 40 miles away. It makes no difference.

And Jesus said, verse 10, I have never seen such faith in Israel. See, most people in Israel say, please come to my house and pray for my child. You know, you remember Jairus.

He said to Jesus, please come to my house. My daughter is sick. He never told Jesus, stand here and tell my daughter's sickness to go.

He had faith, but he had faith that if Jesus actually comes and lays hands on the child, the child will be okay. But this man's faith was greater. You don't have to come to my home.

You don't have to lay hands on anybody. It doesn't matter if my home is 40 miles away. If you speak the word, it will go.

It was true in Jesus' life. How did he have such authority? It's not only sickness. We read another example where he cast out a demon.

There was a woman from Syrophoenicia. She came and said, my daughter at home is possessed with a demon. It's Matthew 15.

She said, please help me. It's Matthew 15 and verse 22. She didn't bring her daughter.

It's Matthew 15 and verse 22. She said, Lord, can you heal my daughter? Look at that faith. She didn't ask Jesus to come to her home.

She said, please heal my daughter. Where is your daughter? Did you bring her with you? No, I don't bring her. It is like the Roman soldier.

Where is your daughter? My house is about five, six kilometers away. Lord, you can heal her. And Jesus said, verse 28, your faith is great.

You believe that from six kilometers away, I can cast out a demon? Jesus had authority like that. You know why? Because he submitted to authority from above. You say, well, he had that authority because he was the son of God.

No, that's an easy way to escape from our responsibility. He had that authority because he submitted to authority. And we can have the same.

How much authority will you have? Tell me. As much as you submit to authority from above. Whatever the father told him, he did.

Are we like that? I'll give you an example. For 30 years, the father told Jesus, you sit at home and don't go for any ministry. Be at home.

Work in the carpenter shop. Don't preach and submit to Joseph and Mary. He did it.

Do you think that's easy? To obey everything that his mother told him to do? You ask all the young teenagers here, whether they listen to everything their mother tells them to do. Then you'll know how difficult it is. He never disobeyed even for one single time.

He obeyed completely. Not because his mother was so perfect. His mother made so many mistakes.

But that's not his business. His father in heaven told him, submit. He submitted.

And that's why after 30 years, his father from heaven said, I'm so happy with you. Now, I will support you so tremendously. You will have the same authority over everything.

You say, oh brother, I don't have any authority. That's because you don't submit to any authority in your life. We have children today growing up who don't honor their parents.

They think they know everything. They don't even know how to speak respectfully to older people. And we have people today who sit in churches and don't respect their elders or submit to them.

How can such people ever in their life be given any authority by God? Remember what the Roman soldier said, I am under authority, so I have authority. And he said, Jesus, I see the same in you. You know, you can have authority over many things in your life, if you submit to God's authority like that.

I have believed that in my life, that the devil can never enter my home if I submit to God completely. You know the number of believers who say, oh brother, the devil has come into my home and causing so much problem. How did he come into your home? You probably don't submit to God's authority yourself.

And no matter how much you rebuke the devil, he is not going to listen to you. There are people who say, oh brother, the devil has come right into our church and he is causing a lot of confusion. How did he come into your church? Because you don't submit to God's authority.

If you did, you would speak a word and 10 kilometers away the devil will run. That's how we are supposed to live. If you humble yourself, God will exalt you.

If you submit to his authority, you will have authority. And your age doesn't matter. Your experience doesn't matter.

You got to submit and humble yourself before what God says to you. It comes to little little things. I know times in my life when I am doing something important, which I think is important.

And the Lord says, leave that and spend a little time talking to me or reading my word. I say, well, just wait a few minutes Lord, 10 minutes and then I will come. And after 10 minutes, when I turn to the Lord, I can't find him.

And it will be a long time before I find him again. Because when he called me, I was busy with something else. Have you ever heard the Lord say that to you? You tell him, wait.

You can't say wait to God if he is your God. Supposing you are working in an office and your boss calls you, come here. And you tell him, wait, I will come after 10 minutes.

How long do you think you will remain in that office? He will tell you, you can wait forever. You don't have to come back. But we fear our bosses in our office.

We don't fear God so much. And that is the reason why we have a powerless generation of believers today who have no spiritual authority. Many people pray, Lord, give me an anointing in my life.

Why did Jesus get an anointing in his life? Was it because he is the son of God? No. See Hebrews chapter 1 verse 9. Here we read why God anointed him. Hebrews chapter 1 verse 9. Speaking about Jesus, verse 8, of the son he says, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever.

You know the father calls his son God. He is O God. Your throne is forever and ever.

You know there are a lot of people who don't believe that Jesus is God. I say, if the father calls his son God, why can't you call him God? Anyway, in the next verse it says, you have loved righteousness and hated iniquity, therefore God has anointed you. More than your friends, we are his friends.

How did he get a greater anointing than us? Not because he is the son of God. Because he loved righteousness more than us. And hated sin more than us.

You know how we always give this excuse, he is the son of God, so he is anointed. That is to escape out of our own responsibility. Now you take this verse.

Why does God give more of an anointing to some people? Now remember, not anointing to do miracles. Anointing to become like Jesus and anointing to bring other people into that likeness of Jesus. Why does he give it more to some people? Because they love righteousness more than you.

Because they hate sin more than you. There is no partiality with God. He exalted Jesus because he humbled himself.

He anointed him because he loved righteousness more than others. And not only anointed, it says it is the oil of gladness. An oil of gladness in his life.

That means such joy. How is it Jesus had so much joy? Because he loved righteousness and hated sin. The devil says, I can make you happy if you sin.

God says if you want real happiness, you better hate sin. Because the devil's happiness is only for short periods. The happiness God gives is forever.

Ok, I want to show you one more example. Hebrews chapter 5. Why did God hear Jesus' prayers always? We say because he was the son of God. No.

See I am trying to remove from your mind this excuse you always give, he was the son of God. Therefore God did this, this, this, this. I say no.

He will do the same for you. He followed certain laws which you are not following. That's the reason.

Ok, we know that many of our prayers never get answered. You have to admit that. How many things you have prayed for, God said no or he didn't even tell you anything.

How is it Jesus' prayers were heard? There must be a reason. And I want to find out that secret because I want my prayers to be heard. Hebrews 5.7. In the days of his flesh, he offered up prayer supplications, loud crying and tears to him who was able to save him from death and he was hurt because of his godly fear.

Now I see two or three things about the way Jesus prayed there. One is he prayed earnestly. Even if he didn't make a loud noise, in his heart there was a cry.

And often there were tears in his eyes. Have you ever prayed with tears coming down your eyes? Jesus wasn't praying for money or protection or any such thing. He was praying with tears, Father I want to please you in everything.

I don't even want the smell of spiritual death to be anywhere near me. The subject of his prayer is to be saved from spiritual death. Let me ask all of you sitting here.

When was the last time you prayed with tears? Oh Father save me from any spiritual death in my life. And earnestly, his prayers were heard because he had a godly fear. He had a fear of ever doing anything sinful in thought or word or deed.

God said I will always listen to your prayers. There is no partiality with God. If you pray like this, it doesn't matter who you are.

God will hear you also. There is no problem God cannot solve. Some of you have so many problems.

You know God can solve it? But you have to pray like this. What he did for Jesus he will do for you. So from today, if you stop saying God did this, this, this for Jesus because he was son of God.

I used to think like that also. In those days I was defeated, depressed, no anointing, prayers not heard, no authority, no exaltation over sin and the devil. But one day I discovered, no Jesus was like me.

What God did for Jesus he will do for me. If I follow the same laws, then my life began to change. Not in one day, slowly, because I discovered the secret that there is no partiality with God.

What God did for Jesus he will do for us. I have to humble myself like him. I have to sacrifice to bless others like him.

I have to pray like him. I have to hate sin like him. I have to love righteousness like him.

Same for you. Let's pray. While our heads are bowed in prayer, I think you would have understood a little more now what it means to honor God.

God will honor you if you honor him. Heavenly Father, help us to honor you in every area of our life and not to follow the example of the backslidden Christianity we see around us. We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.