Open your Bibles, if you would,
to Acts chapter 9. We'll continue our study in this
wonderful book, penned by Luke, but authored by the Holy Spirit
of God. He had this, the Holy Spirit
had Luke pen these words, and they've been preserved and kept,
and now here we have them today set before us. The name of the
message is raised from the dead. raised from the dead. Let's stand
up together and we'll read Acts chapter 9 verses 36 to 40. Let's stand up and read this
together. Acts chapter 9 verses 36 to 40. Now there was at Joppa a certain
disciple named Tabitha, which by interpretation is called Dorcas. This woman was full of good works
and alms deeds, which she did. And it came to pass in those
days that she was sick and died, whom when they had washed, they
laid her in the upper chamber. And for as much as Lydda was
nigh to Joppa, and the disciples had heard that Peter was there,
they sent unto him two men desiring him that he would not delay to
come to them. Then Peter arose and went with
them. When he was come, they brought
him to the upper chamber, and all the widows stood by him weeping,
and showing the coats and the garments which Dorcas made, while
she was with them. But Peter put them all forth
and kneeled down and prayed, and turning turning him to the
body, said, Tabitha, arise. And she opened her eyes, and
when she saw Peter, she sat up. I'm sorry, I'm tongue-tied today.
Oh, my. Praise be to God. Okay, we can
all sit down. Our study in Acts is by chapter
nine, and now we're at the latter part of chapter nine. We'll be
finishing chapter nine today. And it brings us, the Holy Spirit
brings us to this recorded event of the rising of Dorcas from
the dead. And she was a true disciple of
the Lord. It just means she was a follower of Christ. She was
born again. We're all disciples of the Lord,
all of us. We're not, there's no apostles,
but we're all disciples of the Lord. We're all his people. And
she came down with a certain illness and died. And the text
says she died. She was graveyard dead. But our
great God, as we just read, raised her from the dead. Peter, under
Peter's ministry. Why? For the glory of God. For
the glory of God. and the glory of God's sovereign
grace. Let's read verses 36 and 37 again. Now there was at Joppa
a certain disciple named Tabitha, which by interpretation is called
Dorcas. This woman was full of good works
and alms deeds, which she did. And it came to pass in those
days that she was sick and died, whom when they had washed, they
laid her in an upper chamber. Now Dorcas is set before us here
as an example of one who is faithful, trusting the Lord, resting in
Him, just as every believer does. We all trust and rest in Him.
And she was truly a woman who lived by faith. She lived by
faith. And it was evidenced, her faith
was evidenced by her works. Now remember, when we talk about
works as sovereign grace believers, Those works are just evidence
that God's done something in our life. They're in no way can
save us. Well, it says here, she was full of good works and
alms deeds, which she did. Now you start saying works and
a lot of people get, they get pretty worked up. And I understand
that because I preach a gospel that there is no works involved
by a man at all, except we done the sin in. Right? Turn if you would to Ephesians
chapter two. Do you know that that there are
works which you will do, that God's ordained. And this is after
we're saved. Remember, James said what the
faithful that works is dead, right? All these works are is
us serving Christ, trusting in Christ, resting in Christ, living
for Christ, right? Look at this in Ephesians chapter
2, and it has absolutely nothing to do with our salvation. And
this is brought forth very clearly. We're starting in verse 8. For
by grace are you saved. Period, right? That's it. We're
saved by grace. Through faith. That's God-given
faith. So one who's truly saved will
have faith. Faith in who? Faith in Christ.
faith in Christ. And that, neither yourselves,
it is a gift of God, so we can't muster it up, not of works, lest
any man should boast. So salvation is completely by
the grace and mercy of God. As Spurgeon wrote in his book,
it's all of grace. It's all of grace. But look,
look at verse 10. Now, for we are his workmanship
created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before
ordained that we should walk in them. That's just, that's
just being, being, being, serving God. Look into Christ. She was
making coats for poor Christians and for the poor and just giving
them away. She was a seamstress. So she
would make coats and just give them away. And when Peter comes
in, we saw in the text there, we saw in the text there that, where is it there? Look at verse
39. And all the widows stood by him
weeping and showing the coats and garments which Dorcas made
while she was with them. She made garments and coats and
gave them away. These were good works that God
had ordained for her to do. And she wasn't doing them to
gain merit and favor with God. No, no believer does that. Right? And she probably didn't even
consider it a good work. She probably just did it because
she wanted to do it. And remember when This is the
amazing thing. Remember those who Christ says,
depart from me? They said, we did all these wonderful
things for you. We cast out devils. We prophesied
for you. We did all this. And he says, depart from me.
I never knew you. You cursed. You workers of iniquity. I never knew you. But then over
in Matthew, I think it's in the 20s, there's the great white
throne there, and the believers are saying, when did we do these
things? When did we do these works? And that's the works that
God's ordained us to do. And he said, well, when your
brothers was in the hospital, you came and visited. When one
was in prison, you came and visited. When your brother was thirsty,
you gave him a cup of water. Because remember, we got to remember
this. He's the head and we're the body. Remember what Paul was persecuting
Christians? Saul, Saul, why persecutes thou
me? The Lord said. Saul in his mind
wasn't persecuting Christ, he was persecuting Christians. Well,
there's such an intimate connection between Christ and believers,
because he's the head and we're the body. And we know if we hit
our finger with a hammer, our head's gonna say, that hurts
really bad, right? So he was persecuting Christians. He was persecuting Christ's body.
So she set forth before us. She had a love for God and a
love for the Lord Jesus Christ, a love for the gospel, a love
for the saints of God. And, you know, she made it her
business in life to ordain the doctrine of God our Savior. Turn,
if you would, to Titus. Titus, chapter 2. To ordain the
doctrine of God our Savior. You know where to ordain the
doctrine of God our Savior? Oh, my. And Paul here is gonna exhort
Titus, and even us as believers here, to live for Christ, to live unto
Christ, to live unto Him. And there'll be five words of
counsel and instruction for people who work for other people. Oh my, look at this. Young man,
Titus chapter two, verses six to 10. Young man, likewise, exhort
to be sober-minded, In all, showing thyself a pattern of good works.
So, we're not to be hard to get along with. No, no. In doctrine, showing
uncorruptedness, gravity, and sincerity. We're to be sincere
with other people. Sound speech that cannot be condemned. He that is of the contrary part
may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you." So he's
saying, don't give people any grounds to say anything about
you, even though they will, but don't give them fuel for the
fire by cursing around them or by speaking in a way that we
normally wouldn't. exhort servants to be obedient
unto their masters, and to please them well in all
things, not answering again, not purloining, but showing all
good fidelity, look at this, that they may adorn the doctrine
of God, our Savior, in all things. So in fulfilling the part of
a good servant, or even a loyal employee, think of that. Think
of that in our jobs. You're able to adorn the gospel
that you believe, make the gospel attractive to others. You know,
just living our lives and being who we are, people will notice
a difference in us. Trust me, they're reading us
every day. They're waiting to find anything
they can get you on to slip on. I know that, I've experienced
that many times. Don't give them anything. Don't
give them any fuel for the fire. Let's read what falls in Titus
chapter 2, look at verses 11 to 14. For the grace of God that
bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men. It's proclaimed all
over. We proclaim, when I stand up
and preach the gospel, I proclaim it to you all, and it's being
proclaimed to everyone who goes out on the internet too, right?
Oh, yes. Teaching us that denying ungodliness
and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and
godly in this present world. Note in verse 11, the grace of
God. This is a sovereign, free, unchangeable, eternal grace to
sinners through Christ Jesus our Lord. All by the merits of
Christ. It's all by Him. Our salvation
is in Christ and Him alone, by His perfect sinatonic work alone. Right? And by nothing we do. And it's unmerited, isn't it?
It's unmerited. And his gospel of grace brings
forth salvation. So we preach to a lost and dying
world, salvation through Christ alone. It brings forgiveness of all
your sins. It brings a perfect righteousness
before us that's only found in Christ. My, oh my. I was listening to
somebody this week, and they said, you ever hear that commandment
there, love your neighbor as thyself? Do we do that? We fail miserably, don't we?
But praise God, Christ did it for us. Didn't he? He says, love God
with all your heart, mind, and soul. Do we ever do that? No, we don't do it. But praise
God, Christ did it for us. He did it all. He did it all. My, isn't it wonderful? So the standard for God is absolute
perfect righteousness to be in His presence, right? What does our Savior give us?
Absolute perfect righteousness to stand in the presence of God,
and it's the righteousness of Christ. It's wonderful. I'll tell you one, it's all supplied
in him, all by his free grace in the gospel of God's grace.
It teaches us to reject all idolatry, ungodliness, worldly desires
to live upright and temperately in a godly manner in this present
world. You know, I heard another preacher
say this too. You know, people accuse us with
what we believe, that it's all finished and that our salvation
is secure in Christ. They say, well, then you guys
can just go and do whatever you want. And this preacher said,
and I've never heard it either. He said, I've never heard a gospel
preacher say that. They accuse us of that, but I
have never, ever, have you ever heard, have you ever heard once
a gospel preacher say, well, you can go out and do whatever
you want. No. We don't want to do that, do
we? No. The love of Christ now constrains
us from sin. We desire to serve our King.
Brother Tom, did we desire to serve Christ before we were saved?
We had no desire, did we? Not at all. Not at all. Now, we desire to serve Him.
We desire to live godly. We desire to live for Christ.
As we saw, we're going to see in Sunday school in a couple
weeks, to live for Christ, right? That's our desire. We live for
Christ, but to die is gain. Oh my. It's amazing. It's amazing. And the grace of
God, the grace of God is mercy for us. is the strongest motive,
the grace of God and his mercy towards us, is the strongest
motive to obedience. You know that? Why are we obedient to what God
says? Why do we desire to be obedient to what God says? Because
of the grace of God in Christ, the mercy of God in Christ, his
free grace showing towards us in Christ. It's amazing. I'll tell you. I don't have to
tell you guys how to live. You already know how to live.
You already have in your heart, don't you, a desire to serve
Christ, just like I do. But we're sinners. Oh, my. We
can fall into our thoughts alone and then falling into a sin and
going, oh, man. Zane and I were talking just
about the struggles that men have. My oh my. It's incredible. But you know, we all suffer from
the same thing. We're all beset with the same
sins. If we all got together, men and women, we'd find out
that we all suffer. It's all common to us. Man, why can I sit in my chair
and be so nasty and thinking about how this person's doing
that, or that person's doing, oh, they shouldn't be doing that,
oh, they shouldn't be doing this. Well, yeah, I know, but don't forget
where you came from, Wayne. Oh, my. You can put your name
in there too, right? We can all put our names. Don't
forget where we came from. Don't forget the rock we're hewn
from. See, God's grace is overwhelming, isn't it? It's incredible, because
now we realize, by the grace and mercy of God, that all our
sins are forgiven. I mean, everyone in the past,
present, and future. And instead of giving us a motive
to go out and do whatever we want, now we want to be obedient to
Christ. You remember when the prison
doors flew all open in Philippi? What would be, if you and I were
in jail there, okay, with Paul and Silas, what would be the
first thing we'd wanna do? I'm outta here, man. Right? It's true, isn't it? But see, God restrained all those
people in that prison. God restrains us, beloved. Because what would we want to
do without the restraining hand of God? I'm going there. Don't think of that in your life
all the time. Something come in your mind,
God will restrain you from it. Something will be put in front
of you, God restrains you from it. It's wonderful, isn't it,
sister? It's wonderful. And He does that
all the time with us. Right? My, oh, my. And He's working in us, too.
Remember that. He's working in us. He's conforming us to the
image of Christ. That's what he's doing for us.
Let's read verses 13 and 14 of Titus chapter 2. Looking for
that blessed hope in the glorious appearing of the great God and
our Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, that he
might redeem us from what? All iniquity. Look at that little
word. I love these little hinge words. All. All means all there. All means all, beloved. Isn't
that wonderful? The ones we can't even forgive ourselves for. They're
all washed under the blood. And then we just say, praise
be to God. I got to rest in that. I got to just rest in that. I
got to trust in that. Oh, that he might redeem us. How? By the shedding of his precious
blood from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people,
zealous of good works. What's good works? To serve him. to serve him, to be obedient
to him. They don't affect our salvation. They don't gain us merit and
favor with God. I had someone one time. I was
talking to someone one time about the work stuff, because I came
out of all that reward stuff. You know, you do rewards and
God, you do good works and God rewards you as a Christian, okay? I came out of all that stuff
by the grace of God. When I realized, and God showed
me this in scripture, where God tells Abraham, I'm your exceeding
reward. I'm your reward. You don't need
any other reward, right? So I was talking to someone before
who believed in all that system. And they said, well, if you don't
believe that there's rewards, why do you serve God then? I about fell off my chair. Why
do I serve God then? Because he saved me? Because
I love him? Because he's redeemed my eternal
soul? Because I owe everything to him? See, we're not, Henry used to
say this, we're not mercenary believers. Mercenaries go and
fight to get paid, don't they? We don't serve in the Lord's
army to get paid. We've received much more than
we'd ever want or desire with our salvation in Christ, haven't
we? Oh, so we serve him out of gladness,
don't we? We serve him out of rejoicing. We serve him because
he's God. And because he's loved us with
an everlasting love. When we find that out, my oh
my. When we find out in John 17,
he prayed for us before he even went to the cross. My, oh my,
what a savior, what a redeemer. When we find out that the whole
reason he came here was motivated by his everlasting love for his
bride to save us from our sins, my, oh my. It's true though,
isn't it? It's wondrous, beloved. It's
wondrous. And it says, look at verse 13,
looking for that blessed hope. Oh my. Looking for that blessed
hope. That's what we as believers do.
We look for that blessed hope. Do you know Dorcas was looking
for Christ? All believers are looking for Christ's return.
Oh my. And if we don't see him at his
return, we're gonna be ushered up into glory and we're gonna
see him face to face. The instant we die, we'll be
in his presence. All because He redeemed us from
all our iniquity by the shedding of His precious, precious blood.
So what is the blessed hope? Well, Christ is. Christ is the
object and ground of our hope, isn't He? Christ is our glory. We glorify Him in Him alone. And His appearing in one sense
is our blessed hope, for it's at His appearance that our full
redemption will come when we get a glorified body. That'll be amazing. Oh, and we also have a hope in
the blessedness of Christ, don't we? In what he's done for us.
He saved us from our sins. He did that which is impossible
for us to do. Oh, it's incredible. Let's go
back to Acts chapter nine now. So Dorcas was a true follower
of the Lord Jesus Christ. This dear lady had heard the
gospel and believed by the power of God, the Holy Spirit. She's
born again of the Holy Spirit of God. She was given faith to
believe. And she embraced Christ, didn't she? She embraced Christ
as her Lord and Savior. And she believed that the Lord
Jesus Christ was a true and living God by faith, who had created
all things. She believed that her creator,
the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the second person of
the Trinity, had humbled himself. and became a man. Think of that. He who had created all things
by the word of his power humbles himself and becomes a man that
he might die for us on Calvary's cross. And she believed all that. And she believed that Jesus was
her only righteousness, her only righteousness with God. She believed
that her works couldn't save her. Remember, she was a Jew. She came out of the Jewish religion.
All those traditions couldn't save her. And she believed that
she was redeemed by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Oh, God given her faith to look to Christ. And she could look
back in Exodus, and she could see when the Lord said, when
I see the blood, and she'd say, praise God, when he sees the
blood of Christ, he passes over me. And we can say that as believers,
can't we? When God sees the blood, oh, the precious, precious blood,
oh, the redeeming blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, he passes
over us, payment made already in full, redeemed by the blood
of the Lamb of God. Oh, my. And then we get the privilege
and the honor of being with him forever and seeing him face to
face. See, we won't hope anymore, because
then, remember what we saw today in Sunday school? Hope is what,
we hope for what we don't see. We won't hope in heaven, we're
going to see Him face to face. Like we do, Tom, like you and
I looking at you right now. Face to face like that, we're going
to see Christ. Oh my gosh. We can't really fathom it with
our little finite minds, can we? We really can't. But it's
our hope, Christ is our hope. Oh, it's wonderful. Wonderful. He's so merciful. He's so great
that God would do this for us. And she believed that she was
reconciled to God by the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. She
would look at all those Passover lambs that could never take away
sin, and she would see the dying Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. She would look to Him and see
Him dying He is the substance. Those were all shadows. Those
were all shadows. And then she was told that he
was raised for our justification, and she believed it by the grace
of God, just like every believer. We believe that, don't we? By
the faith God gave us. We've never seen Christ, and
yet he's our whole hope. Do you ever think of that? We've
never seen him, and yet he's all our hope for salvation. But
we know we're gonna see him, don't we? One day, when it's
at a point in time, oh, we're gonna see him, we're gonna see
him seated on the throne of glory. And think of this, her sight
or her faith is now made sight. It's been sight now for thousands
of years. She's been rejoicing in the presence
of Christ for thousands of years. Oh my, we will one day and we're
gonna join them. We're going to join that heavenly
choir, too, aren't we? It says, worthy is the Lamb, worthy is
he who is slain, and all to receive glory and honor and praise and
blessings. We're going to join that heavenly
choir, and it's all by the free grace and mercy of God shown
to us in Christ Jesus our Lord. And like all true disciples,
all followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, those good works that
Dorcas did were all done in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ
and for the glory of God alone. That's why we serve the Lord.
We serve for his glory, don't we? We use our talents and our
gifts all for his glory. Remember,
that all came from him anyways. It all came from him. We can't
boast in anything. I see some folks sometimes boasting
about what they know about scripture and what they know about this.
And I think how wonderful it is here. We're all just sinners
saved by grace. As Brother Neal said, pray in the God, the Holy
Spirit will reveal the truth to us. Show us, teach us then
things in scripture. Teach us what you want, Lord.
Because we won't learn otherwise, will we? No. But some folks get
so full of what they've learned and they get proud. I remember
I was talking to John Claude one time and he said, even grace
people get proud of grace. Proud that they're in grace.
Let us never get proud. Let us always remain at the feet
of Christ and say it's only by his mercy and only by his grace
alone that I'm saved. Oh my, let's never look down
at others because we were right there. If they don't, well, they
don't understand, give them grace. Just keep presenting the truth
to them. And give them so much grace. Because God showed us
so much grace. So much mercy. Oh my. So Dorcas' faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ was evidenced by her works, her good works, her
alms deed, which means a giver of alms, for the glory of the
one who loved her and gave himself for her, which is the Lord Jesus
Christ. But we see in our text today
that Dorcas got sick and died. She got sick and died. We're
not told what the disease was. Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter at all. But she
died, and we see those who loved her took her body and washed
it and laid it in an upper chamber. We know this much about Dorcas,
like Aeneas, who we looked at last week. She was a follower
of Christ, a true saint of God. Therefore, she died in faith,
not in her sins. See, when a believer dies, we
don't die in our sins. We die in faith. When an unbeliever dies, they
die in their sins. They die as an unbeliever. But
praise God. Who's the only one who's made
us to differ? God and God alone, right? He's the only one. And this truth applies to all
God's chosen, born-again, blood-washed saints whose faith is in Christ
and Christ alone. We all must go through that door
marked death, every one of us. Unless we're here at the appearing
of the Lord, and in here usher us home. My, oh, my. But we're not dying our sins,
because you know why? Our sins are gone, gone, gone,
beloved. They're gone, washed under the
blood of Christ. Aren't you thankful? Aren't you
thankful that you're not coming to judgment because Christ paid
all the penalty due our sins? that the judgment of God fell
upon him in our room and place, that the holy one, the just one
died for we who are the ungodly, died for sinners, the perfect
one, sent by God to do this on a mission. And he was successful,
wasn't he? He never failed and he never
will. He never will. And how are our sins gone, gone,
gone? Well, by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, by
his perfect redeeming work on Calvary's cross in our room and
place. Now let's read these words in
Acts chapter 9, verses 38 and 39. And for as much as Lyda was
nigh to Joppa, and the disciples had heard that Peter was there,
they sent unto him two men, desiring him that he would not delay to
come to them. Then Peter arose and went with
them. When he was come, they brought him into the upper chamber,
and all the window, all the, I say windows there, it's not
windows, it's widows, stood by him weeping and showing the coats
and garments which Dorcas made while she was with them. Do you
know what city Joppa is today? Tel Aviv. Tel Aviv. Tel Aviv is built around
the old city. The old city's still in the middle.
It's built all around it. It's a port city. Pretty amazing,
eh? I didn't know that until yesterday.
I looked it up and went, oh wow, that's amazing. So I wanted to
see, where's Joppa now? That's Tel Aviv. But Joppa is
the same city where Jonah went when he boarded the ship and
tried to run from God. Remember him? I'm out of here. He didn't get away very far,
did he? Oh my, God raised up a big storm. They threw him over
the side. He was eaten by, or not eaten, not eaten. He was
swallowed by a whale. He was three days in the belly
of the whale. The whale, out he came. And could you imagine
him going in? He must have looked, he must
have been, oh my gosh, I don't even know how he would look with
all that stuff on him and everything. No wonder the folks went, oh
my goodness. But remember, the whole city
turned. I think it was the whole city
or a lot of them turned, turned to Christ. Oh, that's amazing. So Peter was in Lydda, which
again was six to eight miles away from Joppa, six to eight
miles away from Joppa. And remember, they didn't, like
I said last week, they didn't have an Uber or anything. They walked
everywhere, rode a camel or a horse, whatever they could get a hold
of, or rode in a cart. So it'd take a little bit of
time for him to get there, wouldn't it? You can walk a mile or three
miles. My boy, he walks three miles
down to the park near where you live, sister, and then back again. And he said that's a three-mile
run, a three-mile walk altogether. So that takes him about an hour
and a half. So I figure this probably took
him two or three hours to get there, two or three hours to
get there, if he walked. But two men came and asked Peter,
when he was in Lydda, come immediately to Joppa. And we see in verse
39 that when these two men got the message to Peter, look at
this, without delay he got up. Let's read verse 39 again. Then
Peter arose and went with them. Look at that, right away. He
didn't even hesitate, did he? Okay, that's where I'm supposed
to go. You remember all these events,
all of them were purposed by God, too. Remember this, too.
Dorcas' death was purposed by God. Peter being in Lyda, where
he healed Aeneas, was all purposed by God. And look at this, normally
he'd be in Jerusalem. It's like 35 miles away, even
further from Joppa. But normally he'd be in Jerusalem.
And by the providence of God, God had moved them all down here.
Remember how I always said that all the providence of God has
to work together? When Joseph was thrown into the pit, there
just happened to be, not just happened to be, but there was
a trading guys going by, and they sold him into slavery. That
was all purposed by God. Remember Philip and the Evangelist,
or Philip and the eunuch? Remember when we studied that
and all that? He met him in the desert. So
Philip was in the exact place where that Ethiopian entourage
would come by. All by the providence of God,
beloved. All by the providence of God. So remember that as we're
reading this, that Peter was in Lyda all according to the
will and purpose of God. It was all planned and purposed. And this all was planned and
purposed when? Before time began. Yeah. all before time began. See, as I said in Sunday school,
we're saved on purpose. Isn't that wonderful? We're saved
on purpose. God's purpose. And because of
God's purpose. It'll make your heart lift up,
won't it? Oh, it's amazing. So we see in verse 39 that this
message came to Peter. Without delay, he arose and went
with him. He just took off. And this glorious miracle was
all ordained by our great God. All ordained by our great God
for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. And for the glory of
His sovereign, amazing grace. and also to confirm that Peter
was God's messenger who preached the truths of the gospel. And
when Peter was escorted to the upper chamber where the lifeless
body of Dorcas was, it'd been laid there, many widows were
there, and they were weeping and mourning. Their friend had
passed. Their sister had passed. Now,
when our brothers or sisters go to glory, We weep because
they're no longer with us. We would never want to bring
them back, would we? Because they're in glory. If they're
a believer, they're in glory. My oh my. But see, I always like
to say that when a loved one dies or when a brother or sister
dies, it's both bitter and sweet. It's bitter for us. because we're
left behind and we miss their presence and we miss their fellowship
and we miss just being face to face with them, right? But it's
sweet for them. But remember this, God's going
to turn our bitterness into sweetness when we see them once again. Isn't that amazing? When we can
stand with them and see Christ and look at Christ, look to Christ
in glory. It'll be marvelous. It'll be
marvelous. Oh, it'll be wonderful. And Peter again was escorted
up there. They were weeping and mourning the death of this dear
lady they had grown to love. They were telling Peter about
the good works of Dorcas, showing him the coats and garments that
she labored to make with her own hands. Now let's read Acts chapter 9
verses 40 to 42. But Peter put them all forth
and kneeled down and prayed, and turning him to the body,
said, Tabitha, arise. And she opened her eyes, And
when she saw Peter, she sat up. And he gave her his hand and
lifted her up. And when he had called the saints
and the widows, he presented her alive. And it was well known
throughout all Joppa, and many believed in the Lord. We read
in verse 40 there that Peter put them all forth and kneeled
down and prayed. He put them forth out of the
room. Listen to what John Gill said about this. He said, quote,
"'It may be as yet Peter had not the mind of God in this matter,
and therefore betook himself to prayer, in which he chose
to be private and alone, and turning him to the body, the
corpse of Dorcas, after he had prayed, and was well assured
that the power of Christ would be exerted in raising of it,'
said Tabitha Arise. Oh my, then we read in verse
40 that she opened her eyes. When she saw Peter, she sat up.
And verse 41, she gave him his hand. She gave her his hand and
lifted her up. And when she opened her eyes,
now, I'm not sure she even knew she was dead. We don't know. I'm not even gonna speculate.
You know, speculation gets us in trouble. So where the scripture's
silent, we best be silent. Saying we talked about that many
times, haven't we? Speculating. Oh, it gets you nothing but trouble.
People try to speculate what happened in the three hours of
darkness. God was rotting out our salvation. That's all we
need to know. Oh my. Christ was rotting out
our salvation, period. I don't need to know nothing
else, do you? So I don't know what had happened to Tabitha.
I know she's dead, but I'm not even gonna speculate where did
the spirit of Dorcas go when she died. I'm not even gonna
speculate on that. No, I'm not, I just, she may be in communion
with the Lord. I don't know, we don't know.
The scripture's silent, and where the word of God is silent, we
must also be silent. Right? That's a good thing to
take practice. Somebody asks you something about
the scripture and it's not clear in there, say, well, the scripture's
not, it's silent on that, I'm not going to say anything. We
know she died. Well. Yes, she did. Oh. And speculation, again, speculation
can lead into all kinds of trouble. That's what you got going on
nowadays too. People speculating what heaven's gonna be like.
Well, the Bible says, I have not seen nor you heard the things
that God had prepared for those that love him. How could we even
know? Oh my, right? See, man, we try to formulate
these things in our minds. Let me just tell you this. It's
going to be better than anything we've ever seen in this life
or ever heard in this life. It's going to be the most glorious
thing to be in glory with the Lord Jesus Christ. Right? The saints appear to be awful
happy in Revelation 5, don't they? Oh, they're praising the
name of our King. And we will too one day. So the
little bit he reveals to us, let us just take those and Praise
God. My. And we know this too, that Dorcas
was raised from the dead by the life-given power of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Peter was just an instrument. Right? Just like preachers, we're just
instruments used by God. He puts a message on our heart,
we preach, and the Lord uses it for his glory, to build a
saint up. Right? And you remember, when
I'm preparing, man, I'm getting built up as well, just like you.
Isn't that wonderful? It's amazing. God's just amazing.
And it was the Lord Jesus who opened the eyes of his blood-bought
daughter here. It was by his power that enabled
her to sit up. And Peter gave Dorcas his hand
and lifted her up from the bed. that she was lying on, but it
was the Holy Spirit working in both of them to do His will,
to do God's will. Do you ever think of that? Oh my, it was God's will that
she'd raised, and Peter just stuck his hand out. But that
was all by the will of God, wasn't it? You see, He's everything. He's everything. He's orchestrating
all this. It was our Lord's Spirit, the Spirit of the Lord Jesus
Christ, working in both of them, to will and to do of His good
pleasure. Because without Him, we can do absolutely nothing. Peter had no power to raise Dorcas
from the dead. It's God who raised her from
the dead. He's an instrument, right? Oh my. And those saints of God, they
were weeping. weeping widows they were waiting
and wondering with much much thought what happened what's
going on what's going on oh my what's going on up there let's read verses 40 to 42 again
but peter put forth put them all forth and kneeled down and
prayed, and turning him to the body, said, Tabitha, arise. And she opened her eyes. And
when she saw Peter, she sat up. And he gave her his hand and
lifted her up. And when he called the saints
and the widows, presented her alive. And it was known throughout
all Joppa, and many believed in the Lord. Oh my. So we see in the last part of
verse 41, Peter called the saints and the widows and presented
Dorcas alive. Could you imagine? Oh my, could you imagine the
awe? They had dressed her body for
burial. They'd washed her body and dressed
her for burial. They knew she died. And these saints of God, their
weeping and wailing was turned into joy. Do you know our weeping shall be
turned into joy? Do you know this place, this
world, is the only place where we weep? There'll be no weeping in heaven,
no sorrow ever again. Our weeping's gonna be turned
to joy, beloved. Think of this, when the Lord was drawn us to
him, we wept over our sin, didn't we? We wept over who we are.
Then our weeping was turned to joy when God gave us faith to
believe on him. And just like that, oh my, we trusted Christ Jesus
our Lord. It's amazing. Oh, it's amazing. So these saints
of God, the weeping widows were waiting and wondering with much,
much anxiety probably. Just like one's waiting on a
doctor's report. Just waiting on a doctor's report.
When a loved one's going through a major surgery, we're waiting.
Are they okay? Are they okay? The doctor comes
out and says, everything went well. And relief floods our souls,
doesn't it? Now, these true disciples of
the Lord, the true followers of the Lord, they had faith,
but at times our faith is weak, isn't it? Actually, a lot of
times our faith is weak. But in our weakness, he's strong,
isn't he? Oh my. They were not ignorant
of the power of the Lord Jesus Christ. All of them had experienced,
all those who were there, who were born again, they'd experienced
his life-giving power already. They'd already experienced it.
Raising them from spiritual death. Oh my. And some of them may have
been, some of them there may have experienced his physical
healing too. We don't know. When Christ was
alive, we don't know. We don't know. But still, seeing
one being erased from the dead would have been very hard for
them to, what? She's alive? Oh my. And can you imagine the
God-honoring excitement that came about? She's alive! She was dead and she's alive.
We were dead, weren't we? and trespasses and sins. And
praise God, we're alive now! And we, when we hear about the
Lord saving someone, I don't know if you heard, the Lord saved
Ethan. Ethan Patel. When I heard that, I was rejoicing! Praise God! The Lord saved that
young man! That's wonderful! We rejoice, don't we? Oh my! So there was God-honored excitement
that glorified God, right? That glorified God. When Peter presented Dorcas alive,
they got excited. They probably ran over and were
hugging her. You're alive, sister, you're
alive. Oh my. Then we read in verse,
look at verse 42. And it was known throughout all
Joppa and many believed on the Lord. Look at that. Now we see
the bigger picture, don't we? Of God's providence. Why did
Peter start coming on a preaching mission down and came to Lydon,
now he's in Joppa? All because of the providence
and will and purpose of God. Never leave sight of that. Look
at that. God moved him from Jerusalem
all down. Oh, he's in Lydon. Oh, you need
to go to Joppa. Okay. Oh my. And we know he preached
all the way down there, don't we? It's what we saw last week. Oh. And Joppa included many small
villages and communities. Much like, you know how you have
main Detroit and then you have the suburbs? Very much so like
that too. The main city and then smaller
towns and smaller suburbs. Now they're all pretty much into
one, aren't they? But you guys can remember a time
when there was a little separation between them. My oh my. And this glorious resurrection
of Dorcas from the dead would have spread like wildfire, like
a strong wind blowing, wouldn't it? What happens with a wildfire? When a strong wind comes up,
whoosh, off it goes, right? Just like what we've seen amongst
the Praetorian Guard in the Book of Philippians study. This gospel
spread like wildfire. And this miracle was made known
throughout all Joppa and praise be to God. Many believed in the
Lord. Look at that. Oh my. And notice Peter didn't
draw any attention to himself. He didn't write on his webpage.
He didn't have one, but if he had one, he wouldn't write. I
was cruising the website this week and said, 33,000 souls were
won to Christ by this man in two years. And I thought, there
you go again. We preachers, we just preach
the gospel. And to be honest, it's better
for us not to know what happened. We don't want to get proud. Praise
God. I love what Neil and you men
pray. God, use it for your glory as it goes out forth. Save your
lost sheep. Amen. That's why we're here. Right? Oh, it's wonderful. Peter didn't draw any attention
to himself. Now look at what, here's something interesting,
too. He preached Christ as Messiah. And he preached Jesus Christ
as the risen, exalted Lord and Savior of his people, who are
sinners by birth, nature, and choice, right? That's who we
are. And this miracle of raising Tabitha from the dead was performed
in that name. It was performed in the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Peter wouldn't want to draw any
attention to himself. He'd give all the glory to God. He'd give
all the glory to the Lord Jesus Christ. And look at this in Acts. Now, you might think Acts 9.43
is an insignificant verse. There's no insignificant verses
in the Bible. There's a little nugget in this
verse. Let's read this. And it came to pass that he tarried
many days in Joppa with one Simon a tanner. Now, we see here, he
abode many days in Joppa with a brother in Christ named Simon. And he was a tanner, meaning
that he worked with animal skins making leather. So he'd get an
animal and he'd butcher the animal and he would cut the skin off
and he would tan it and make things out of it, actually make
leather that he could sell to other people who could make garments
out of it. But do you know that for a law-keeping Jew at that
time, this is amazing, for a law-keeping Jew at that time, it was strictly
forbidden to associate with anyone who routinely worked with dead
animals. What a change God's brought in
Peter. And he's preparing him. He's preparing him, right, to
meet other people, to meet Gentiles, to meet, right? Because remember,
the Jews, in their law, they didn't mingle with, the only
time they ever mingled with Gentiles was maybe to buy products off
them and that's it. But they did not fellowship with them.
They did not, they wouldn't stay with them. Now, this is a fellow
here who's a Tanner. And he's in Joppa. Whether he's a Jew or not, we're
not told. He's obviously a brother in the
Lord, because Simon Peter's with him. And again, it was strictly
forbidden for anyone to associate with anyone who worked with dead
animals, if you were a law-keeping Jew. And according to the laws
of the time, I also found out, a tanner had to live at least
75 feet outside a village because of his ritual uncleanness, according
to Jewish custom. He was shunned. He's making a living, making
leather. And they've shunned him. And the trade of a tanner was
held in such supreme content that if a girl was betrothed
to a tanner without knowing that he followed that calling, the
marriage could be made void. If the tanner hadn't said, hey,
I'm a tanner, right? and a Jewish maid married him,
and he didn't tell her that, she could make void the marriage.
That's how despicable tanners were in the eyes of the Israelites. And yet they used the products,
didn't they? Oh my. Oh my. So think of this. What a change
God had wrought in Simon Peter. In Simon Peter. Now we're going
to see in the next chapter, right, that he goes to a man named Cornelius,
a centurion of the band called the Italian band, a Gentile.
He's going to get sent to him. And the Lord's going to show
him that there's nothing unclean. That he can eat whatever he wants. He can eat shrimp. He can eat
lobster. He can eat bacon. I'm glad we can eat bacon. But he can eat that. See, the
Jews couldn't do that. Oh my. My oh my. So what a change. Marvel at this.
This little verse. And what it shows, it shows us
a great change that God had made in Simon Peter. Because if he
was following the law, he was a law-keeping Jew, he wouldn't
go near that fella. My oh my. And it says he didn't
just spend one or two days, it says he spends many days with
Simon the Tanner, a brother in Christ. And you know what? He
lived by the seaside. I get to sit with my despised brother,
Simon, and we get to sit by the seaside. Isn't that wonderful? But the main thing to take from
this is how now Peter has been showing grace and mercy, and
now he's given grace and mercy. And he's been taught by God that
those law-keeping Jews are wrong. Because Christ is the end of
the law for righteousness. Now, we don't do anything contrary
to those laws, do we? We don't go out and break God's
commandments. We don't want to. But by nature,
we broke every one of them. But praise be to God again, who
fulfilled all those laws for us? The Lord Jesus Christ. Glory to his name. So we see
Peter's less concerned about Jewish traditions now. God's,
he's brought a change in him. And the ceremonial notions that
he had before did and believed in, now he's starting to set
them aside. And this is a work of God, beloved.
This is a work of God in Peter's heart. And he lays the groundwork
for what Peter will do in the next chapter when he goes to
visit. a centurion, a gentile, but he's
sent there by God. Oh, praise his mighty name. Praise
his mighty name. Brother Brian, can you close
us in prayer?