Happy Friday, everyone, and welcome back to the Aspastor John podcast with long-time

pastor and author, John Piper.

While we finish the week with a question from a listener named Nancy, and it's this,

Dear Pastor John, thank you for this podcast.

Here's my question for you, can an unbeliever please God, and if not, what are we to make

of the account of Cornelius in Acts chapter 10?

Can you explain this to me and thank you in advance?

Let me begin with a couple of passages of scripture that draw out our answer to Nancy's question

about whether unbelievers can please God, and then on the basis of that, we'll tackle

Cornelius.

This is Hebrews 116, without faith, it is impossible to please God.

For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those

who seek him, and then Romans 14, 23, whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.

So I infer from those two passages, we could add others, that there is a sense in which

everything that comes out of an unbelieving heart displeases the Lord, or to say it differently,

nothing that comes out of the heart of unbelief pleases the Lord.

Of course, this doesn't mean that unbelievers can't perform Acts which outwardly conform

to God's law.

They don't kill, they don't steal, they don't lie.

In other words, they conform outwardly to some of God's revealed will.

But what this shows is that it's not simply external conformity to prescribe deeds that

pleases the Lord, right?

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