Well, good morning. If you would open your Bibles with me to Exodus chapter 33. There's an article I wrote in the bulletin about my goal being to see Christ glorified. It made me think of this passage. I wanted to read this passage to open our service.

As you're turning, I'll make a couple announcements. date we've got picked for our next men's lunch. So if all you men will put that on your calendar. And Sandra Dennison's had a pretty serious surgery. She's going to be in ICU for a few days. And she's asked we remember her in prayer. Chip and I were just talking about, I sure miss her and Roy. But so let's remember her as Lord brings her to your mind.

Exodus 33, I want to begin reading in verse 12. And Moses said unto the Lord, see thou sayest unto me, bring up this people, and thou hast not let me know whom thou wilt send with me. Yet thou hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace in my sight. Now therefore, I pray thee, if I found grace in thy sight, show me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight, and consider that this nation is thy people,

And he said, my presence should go with thee, and I will give thee rest. And he said unto him, if thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? Is it not in that thou goest with us? So shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth.

And the Lord said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken. For thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name. And he said, I beseech thee, show me thy glory. And he said, I'll make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee, and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and show mercy on whom I will show mercy.

And he said, thou canst not see my face, for there shall no man see me and live. And the Lord said, behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock. And it shall come to pass while my glory passeth by, that I'll put thee in a cleft of the rock and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by. And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts, but my face shall not be seen.

Thank God for his word. All right, let's stand together. Shawn leads us in singing our call to worship.

Approach my soul, the mercy seed.
Where God will hear our prayer,
There humbly fall before His feet,
For none can perish there.

Thy promise is my only plea,
With this I venture nigh,
Thou callest burdened souls to Thee,
And such, O Lord, am I.

O wondrous love to bleed and die,
to bear the cross and shame
that guilty sinners such as I
might plead thy gracious name.

The hearing ear, the seeing eye,
? The contrite heart bestow
? And bless us with thy precious word
? That we in grace may grow

Okay, if you would, turn in your hymnal to song number 129 at the cross. 129.

Alas, and did my Savior bleed,
and did my Sovereign die?
Would He devote that sacred head
for such a worm as I.

At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light

and the burden of my heart rolled away.
It was there by faith I received my sight,
and now I am happy all the day.

Was it for crimes that I have done?
He groaned upon the tree.
Amazing pity! grace unknown
and love beyond degree.

At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light and the burden of my heart rolled away. It was there by faith I received my sight, and now I am happy all the day.

Well might the sun in darkness hide, and shut his glories in. When Christ, the mighty Maker, died, for man the creature's sin,

At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light, and the burden of my heart rolled away. It was there by faith I received my sight, and now I am happy all the day.

But drops of grief can ne'er repay the debt of love I owe. Here, Lord, I give myself away. Tis all that I can do.

At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light, and the burden of my heart rolled away. It was there by faith I received my sight, And now I am happy all the day.

All right, if you would turn your Bibles to Acts chapter 10. Acts chapter 10. The pastor has asked us to read the first eight verses.

There was a certain man of Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the man called the Italian man, a devout man and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people and prayed to God always. He saw in a vision evidently about the ninth hour of the day an angel of God coming into him and saying in him, Cornelius, And when he looked on him, he was afraid and said, what is it, Lord? And he said unto him, thy prayers and thy alms are come up for a memorial before God. And now send men to Joppa and call for one Simon, whose surname is Peter. He lodges with one Simon a tanner, whose house is by the seaside. He shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do. And when the angel, which spake unto Cornelius, who was departed, he called to his household servants and avowed soldier of them that waited on him continuously. And when he had declared all these things unto them, he sent unto them to Joppa."

Let's pray. Our dear and most gracious, and most merciful Heavenly Father. We thank you, Lord, for these words in which we just now read. They're beautiful words. They're words in which we know are words of eternal life. And we know that we have no other means in which we can and will have faith but by these words.

And Lord, it's a blessing, Lord, to have read what our pastor read to us about grace. We pray, Lord, that we find grace in this passage in which Our pastor is getting ready to preach to us. Help us, Lord, to find grace, find true grace, the true mercies of your grace in Christ. Let us find him in this passage of scripture, Lord. Give the words in which you have laid on our pastor's heart. Let him bring him to us in such a special way that our hearts all become cheerful in a way in which only you can send forward. And that's in power of spirit, spirit and truth.

Lord, what a blessing it is to have to be given true grace and made to know the grace in which we have been saved by. Help us, Lord, to find that grace this morning. We pray these things not only for ourselves, Lord, but we pray these things for if there be anyone among us here this morning that you have not yet called to this grace, we pray that this might be the hour which you would be gracious to do so.

And we pray also, Lord, for those in whom you have brought into these very, very difficult times, these troubled times in which you bring in to your people by the way of chastisement. This is a way in which you chasten your people that they should know and look to you, look to you in these infirmities, these afflictions in which they suffer. This is the means in which you use, Lord. So let us know, keep us. Let our loved ones know that, especially our families, Lord. Teach them, show them thy grace, true grace, true faith, and true understanding.

Now, all these things we pray, Lord. We pray these things in Christ's name, for his sake only. Amen.

Keep your Bibles open there to Acts chapter 10. That will be our text this morning. I titled the message, Cornelius, an object of grace. I'd like to start out by talking a little bit about Cornelius.

First of all, Cornelius is a very unlikely and undeserving object of grace, isn't he? It says there in verse one, there is a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band. This man, Cornelius, was a Gentile. And to the Jews, that's the worst thing you could be. One of the worst insults that they could think of to call you was that you're a Gentile. How they looked down on and despised the Gentile dogs. Just, oh, how they despised him. And worse yet, this man is a centurion. He's an officer in the army that's oppressing Israel at this time. The Jews would have despised him and thought if anybody deserved to be struck down by God, you know, it would be this man, a Gentile, who's oppressing the people of God.

But it's good for us to see that Cornelius, we know that at the end of the story, that he's an unlikely and undeserving object of grace. Because God is never gonna bestow grace on you and me until we see ourselves as a lost case. A hopeless case. There's no reason found in me anywhere that God would be gracious to me. Actually, everything that you see in me is a reason to bring God's wrath and fury upon me, isn't it? I'm not just a sinner. I'm the chief of sinners. I'm not just part of the rebellion. I'm an officer in this thing. I'm a leader of this rebellion against God. There can't be anyone more unlikely that God would save than me. Because there isn't anybody worse than me. I am more deserving of hell than anybody that I know. That's what every object of God's grace thinks about themselves. That was Cornelius.

Verse two says that Cornelius was a devout man. He was sincere in his religion. He was dedicated to it. He would do whatever it took in this religion. And based on the meaning of these words, sounds like he truly worshipped. He truly worshipped God. Because the third thing we see about Cornelius in verse two, is he feared God with all of his house. Now apparently from the different things that I've read, Cornelius, had converted to Judaism. Says he feared God. And you know, a lot of times in scripture, that's the description of someone that God has saved, isn't it? He's given them a heart that fears God. And that phrase means to fear, to dread. It means terror. And that's almost always the way that the word is used. And then sometimes it means reverence. Usually, when I read this word fear about a believer fearing God, I think about reverence. But that's not typically the way that the word is used.

The way this word is used makes it sound like Cornelius, he was afraid of offending God. He was afraid not to worship him the right way. He was afraid not to be devout to this matter of religion and worshiping God. And the way a lot of the old writers that I read make it sound like is Cornelius was a believer. He was like the Old Testament believers. He was trusting in the Messiah that was to come. He could see the Messiah in type and picture in the Old Testament prophecies and law and these kinds of things. But he did not know yet that the Messiah had already come. He did not know yet that Jesus of Nazareth is the Savior that the whole Old Testament is written about. But this man feared God. And the fourth thing we know about him is he was a generous man. Verse 2 says, which gave much alms to the people. This man gave to the needy. He had genuine compassion for the downtrodden and people who just needed a hand up. He had genuine compassion for them. and gave generously to help folks. And he did it in the right attitude and the right spirit. He wasn't doing it so everybody would recognize him. He gave generously. He gave in the right spirit and attitude.

And the fifth thing we know about him is he's a man of prayer. It says at the end of verse two, he prayed to God always. This man took his place before God as a beggar. The word prayer here has to do with begging and making supplications. Cornelius took his place before God as a beggar, and he begged God. He made supplication to God. This man, if you're gonna pray that way, you can't feel self-sufficient, can you? He's praying to God, being a mercy beggar before God. He prayed always. This was not something that he just did on Sundays and Wednesdays or the Sabbath day or whatever. He prayed always. He lived a life of prayer.

Now, Oh, that's commendable. Really, somebody ought to be able to say that about all of us. These things are commendable traits, things that you ought to find in believers. You really should. But none of that was enough to save Cornelius. It wasn't enough. He still had to hear a preacher preach Christ to him, and he had to believe. Look at verse three. And he saw in a vision evidently, and that doesn't mean, well, evidently, we guess he saw a vision. No, he saw this vision very clearly. About the ninth hour of the day, an angel of God coming in to him and saying unto him, Cornelius. And when he looked on him, he was afraid and said, what is it, Lord? And he said unto him, thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God. Now send men to Joppa. and call for one Simon whose surname is Peter. He's lodging, he's staying with one Simon a Tanner whose house is by the seaside. You send for him, he shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do.

Now I think this is such a, so clear. The angel, I mean this is an angel of God. An angel that came from heaven who's before the throne of God Almighty. came and appeared to Cornelius. Now this angel, he knows God. He knows heaven. He knows what it looks like. He knows all these things, you know, about God. And he didn't dare preach Christ to Cornelius. He didn't do it. He could have told Cornelius a lot of things. And the only thing he did was tell him, you send over there to Joppa and call a preacher. to come preach Christ to you. He didn't preach Christ, he said you go find Peter to have him preach Christ to you.

See, in this matter of preaching, and this is the thing that's so, it's so overwhelming. God's preacher has got to be a sinful man. And that makes the burden so great, it keeps you crying out to God for his help and his strength and to fill your heart and to open your mouth. If we're gonna hear somebody preach Christ, and God's gonna use anybody to preach Christ, it's gonna be a sinful man preaching salvation in Christ. And that is exactly who I want preaching to be. I don't want somebody who's got it all figured out and he's so pious and so self-righteous and so much, you know, on a higher spiritual plane than me. I can't identify with that. I need a man preaching Christ to me who needs grace, who needs grace daily, who needs forgiveness of sin. He needs forgiveness of sin all the time. I want somebody preaching Christ to me who needs the obedience of Christ. He needs Christ to come and obey the law for him, because he can't do it for himself. He needs Christ to be his righteousness. I want a man preaching to me who knows enough of himself to know how desperately he needs the blood of Christ. I need to be washed in the blood of Christ. I need Christ, the Son of God, to shed his blood, to pay for my sin, because my sin is so great, the only way it can be paid for is by the blood of God. That's the man I want preaching to me.

I want a man preaching to me who knows the joy of experiencing God's grace. Not only do I need God's grace, I know the joy of experiencing it. I want that man to preach to me. I want him to have experienced the undeserved love of God and it thrills him and he wants to tell others about it so they can experience it too. That's the man I want preaching to me.

And I tell you what else, the other reason, I want a sinful man to preach the gospel to me. I want a man that, now God saved him. He saved him by his grace. He's been born again. He's got that new man in him. But I want a man preaching to me who knows what it's like to fight the battle with the old man every day. I don't want to hear a man preach that's already won the victory over the old man and over sin and doesn't have to worry about that anymore. Again, I can't identify with that. That guy's up there so far up in his ivory tower, I can't even see him. I want a man who's down in the trenches, fighting with his old man every day, who knows what it's like, who knows how discouraging that can feel. I want that man to preach the gospel to me, because that man is a man who has to continually come to Christ. He's coming to Christ himself, and I hear him preach, I'm going with him. Aren't you? I want a man who's all the time being forced because he sees his own sin nature to depend on Christ. I'm gonna go depend on Christ with him. That's who I want to preach. And boy, Peter fits the bill, doesn't he? Peter fits the bill. Oh, God saved him by his grace. He's revealed himself to him. And Peter still acts like a numbskull a lot of the time. Well, we'll see some more of that next week. But that's the man. that I want preaching Christ to me.

And when that man comes, if he's sent of God to preach Christ to me, you know what he's gonna tell me? He's gonna tell me the same thing that's true, the same thing that's true about Cornelius. You may have done some commendable things, but there's not one thing you've ever done that's good enough to save you. Not one thing. You're not good enough. But Christ is. But Christ is.

Now I want to preach Christ to you. From these same descriptors of Cornelius, I want to preach Christ to you. You know, it seemed like Cornelius, first of all, was such an undeserving man. Oh, Christ is deserving. He is deserving. You and I are not deserving of God's grace or his favor in any way. We haven't done one thing that deserves God's blessing on us. We're not deserving. But the Lord Jesus Christ is. He's deserving in every way. He's deserving of God's, the pleasure of the father in his nature. His nature is holy. It's sinless. This is a person who deserves praise. His nature is holy. And the father praised him, didn't he? He praised him audibly from heaven. When he said, this is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. You hear him. He praised him in glory. When the Savior ascended back up on high, the Father gave him the seat of honor at his right hand on the throne of glory. The Father praises him for his holy nature. The angels who sang at his birth, how they sang of his holy nature. They sang in glory of his praises. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. His nature deserves praise. He's worthy because of his nature.

And he's worthy. He's deserving of God's favor. He's deserving of all praise and worship and faith because of what he did. This one who is holy became a man, took on him human flesh, And he had fully, completely accomplished the salvation of God's people that the Father sent him to accomplish. He completed it all. And when he got done, he worked out a perfect righteousness for his people. He obeyed the law perfectly. I mean, from an infant. You know, the scripture says of us, we come forth from the womb speaking lies. You know, we cry when there's nothing wrong with us, you know.

The Savior never did. You think of that, even from an infant and from a toddler going through the terrible twos. Not the Lord. Not the Lord. You think about, sorry, a rotten teenager. We've all been rotten teenagers. Not the Lord. Think about a rebellious young man. Not the Lord. Perfect in every way. He knew no sin. He did no sin. He wasn't acquainted with any sin. Yet he went to the cross and suffered and died for sin, for the sin of his people. He did that willingly. He did that because he loved his people. And that's the only way that they could be redeemed. And he suffered and died and rose again. And about 40 days later, he ascended back to the father and the father Highly exalted him, giving him a name which is above every name because he did what nobody else could do. He accomplished the salvation of God's elect. Those people that the Father chose to save before the foundation of the world, their salvation was fully and completely accomplished. And Christ went back to glory.

Oh, he deserved, he's worthy. The saints in heaven sing about How worthy He is. You're worthy, they say. You're worthy to receive all glory and praise and honor because you redeemed your people by your blood out of all the world, a people from all the world. You redeemed them by your blood. He's worthy.

In Christ's worth, He is deserving of all honor, all praise because of His worth. His worth, His personal worth is what makes Him able to pay our sin debt. We can't pay anything. We can't pay the first penny on our sin debt because we're worthless. But the worth, the value of Christ enables him to pay for all of the sin of all of God's elect. Now you depend on him. Quit trying to clean your act up before you come to God. Quit trying to clean your act up and make yourself more savable because no matter how much you clean up, you're still going to be worthless. You depend on Christ. He's worthy. He's worthy.

And then Cornelius was a devout man. And no doubt, he was devout, but he's not devout enough. Not devout enough. But Christ is. I want you to listen to some scriptures. We won't turn to them for time's sake, but listen to these scriptures. You see how devout, how devoted Christ was to this mission of the redemption of his people that the Father sent him to do. When he was just a boy, in Luke chapter two, verse 49, he said, wish ye not, I must be about my father's business. He was already, he knew what he was doing. He must be about his father's business. He was devout, wasn't he? In John four, verse 34, he told his disciples, my me, the thing that satisfies me is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish the work. That's what's gonna satisfy me.

He's so devout, nothing would satisfy him but doing his father's will and finishing the work of redemption for his people. In Luke 9 verse 51, knowing all things, knowing everything that would happen to him when he went to Jerusalem this last time, he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem. He would not be turned. not be turned left or right. He wouldn't be delayed. He wouldn't go slower to try to arrive at a different time after the Passover or something. He steadfastly set his faith to go to Jerusalem because that's where he's going to finish the work.

And when Peter rose up in opposition to it and said, Lord, don't go there. If you know they're going to kill you when you go there, don't go there. The Lord was so devout. He's so devoted to this matter of doing the will of his father, pleasing his father and finishing the work. He told one of the 12, one of those who was so close to him, one of those that he has loved from all of eternity, he told him, get thee behind me, Satan. I mean, this was Satan trying to get him to not go to the cross. And the Lord would let nothing, not even a beloved disciple, stop him from going.

He was so devout. And he went to the garden to pray. Before he went to Gethsemane, and he said, oh, my father, If it be possible, let this cup pass from me. If there's another way that you can save your people from your sin, let this cup of drinking your wrath, let this cup of drinking in the sin of my people and drinking the cup of your wrath, let it pass from me. If there's any other way your people could be saved, let it pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou will.

He was devout, devoted to doing the will of his father. He was determined to do his father's will, and this book is written to tell us he got the job done. It is finished. You're complete in him. There's so many scriptures you could quote on that. He came, he said, to seek and to save that which was lost. Did he miss any? No, he hadn't missed any, did he? He didn't miss any.

Now, if you look at Galatians chapter two, this, how devout Christ was, how devoted he was to doing the job that the Father sent him to do. Scripture calls it being saved by the faith of Christ. The faith of Christ. Not our faith in Christ, but the faith of Christ. Galatians two, verse 16. Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Christ, the faithfulness of Christ to obey the law for us, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law, for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

Look at verse 20. I'm crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I live by the faith of the Son of God. I'm not living on my faith in Christ. I live, I have life, eternal life because of the faithfulness of the Son of God to earn that life for me.

Look at chapter three, verse 22. But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise, the promise of redemption, the promise of eternal life, the promise of forgiveness by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. Salvation is accomplished and it's kept by the faith of Christ, by the faith of Christ.

Now there's no question, God gives all of his people faith in Christ. I can honestly tell you I believe the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe in him. I do. I believe in him. But I don't want anybody looking at my faith. I don't. And if you have genuine faith in Christ, you don't either. I don't want to be told that it's by my faith that I'm going to be saved, or by my faith I'm going to grow in grace, or by my faith I'm going to have any of these blessings. It's the faith of Christ. The faithfulness of Christ to do everything that it took to save his people, and it's the faith of Christ to gather them all together, and when it's time, bring them all to be with him in glory. It's the faith of Christ. That's the Savior that I need. That's the Savior that I can trust. You and I are so sinful, we're a lost cause. The only way we could be saved is by the faithfulness of the Son of God.

He's devout. And then he feared God. I know Cornelius feared God, but not enough, did he? Not enough. And every believer fears God. We fear God, we reverence God, but we're just like Cornelius. Our faith, our fear is not good enough. It's not good enough to get the job done, but Christ is. And I'll give you just this little thing here to show you how our fear will not get the job done. Every person in this room is terrified of God punishing us for our sin. We know a little bit about what hell is like, and we're terrified of God punishing us for our sin. We're terrified of it. Not terrified enough to quit sinning. And every believer has reverence for God. Oh, I reverence Him, I do. Oh, just the reverence of His person. How carefully we take His name, and how carefully we talk about His gospel, how carefully we treat His word. We reverence God, but not enough to quit sinning. Not enough to love Him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love our neighbor as ourselves. Our fear's not good enough, is it? But Christ is because he feared his father. He reverenced his father perfectly. Everything that he did, everything, was to please his father because he feared him. He feared him. He reverenced him and wanted to please his father. And I'm so thankful because sinners cannot be saved without our savior fearing God.

Let me show you a good verse on that, Hebrews chapter five. Hebrews five. Beginning in verse seven. Who in the days of his flesh, we'd offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death. He was heard in that he feared. Now that, offering up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears, that's the time in Gethsemane's garden when he cried, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. He did that with strong crying. This was an earnest prayer of the Savior, but it wasn't possible. It wasn't possible that this cup pass from him if you and I would be saved. So he went to the cross to honor his father. He went to the cross in reverence for his father, it was his reverence that compelled him to go. And verse eight says, though he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered and being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him. Now it says, though he were a son, yet learned he obedience, that word learned is experienced. Our Savior experienced obedience. He experienced it. To be obedient even unto the death of the cross. He reverenced his father. He feared his father so perfectly that he obeyed him even to go to the cross. To suffer and die as a sacrifice for the sin of his people. To do everything for his people that it took to save them. To suffer every bit of God's wrath against all of our sin. His reverence for the Father compelled him to go do that, and in doing that, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all that obey him.

Unto all that obey the gospel command to quit trusting in yourself, to quit trusting in your works, to quit trusting in anything about you, to quit trusting in your devotion, to quit trusting in your fear, to quit trusting in anything that you've done, and trust Christ alone. He's the author of eternal salvation to everyone that obeys a gospel command. And who is it that will obey that command? It's everybody he died for. They're all going to obey him.

And then fourthly, we read that Cornelius was generous. He was a generous man. I'm sure he gave to to good causes for the homeless, and the hungry, and the battered women's shelter, and all these things. I bet his name is at the top of all these people going around fundraising. Cornelius is one of the top people that go see. He's so generous. But his generosity was not enough to impress God, was it? His generosity is not enough to make God's saving. But the Lord Jesus Christ he is. Christ our Savior is so generous. He freely forgives all of the sin of all of his people. And he does it by not just giving money, not just giving some of his possessions, but the giving of himself. He gave himself as a sacrifice for our sins that by his blood, he'd blot out all of the sin of his people. See, that's why God can forgive our sin because there's nothing to charge us with. The blood of Christ has blotted it out. And our Savior is so generous, he gave himself so that our sins could be forgiven. He's so generous in his mercy to people. His people, his mercy is never ending. His mercies are new every day.

And again, it's not just, God's mercy is not just by overlooking and saying, well, I won't punish you even though you're guilty. The reason God's merciful to sinners and doesn't give them what they deserve is because he gave Christ our Savior what we deserve. See, Christ gave, he was so generous, he gave of himself so that he could be merciful to his people. He is so generous in his mercy, in his grace, in his long-suffering with sinners. There is no sinner so great that God won't save them. Not one. Now, you can be too good so that God won't save you. But you can't be such a great sinner that God won't save you because he's rich in mercy. He's so generous in how he gives to his people. And that generosity is the only hope a great sinner has. That God has so much generosity that he would be merciful to a sinner like me. And all of that generosity is found in Christ.

Then fifth, we read about Cornelius. He was a man of prayer. And I have no doubt he prayed all the way, every day, at different times of the day, throughout his day. I mean, you might not stop and get down on your knees and bow and pray audibly throughout your day. But boy, throughout your day, you can stop and pray and say, thank you, Lord. We can just, as we go through our day, pray. Lord, be with me. Lord, forgive my sin. Lord, look at me only in Christ's sake. I mean, it's just, you know, you can pray at any time, anywhere.

Anybody want to hold your prayers up as an example for people to look at and pick at, pick apart? No, our prayers aren't good enough. No, the best prayer we've ever prayed, so full of self and so full of sin, it condemned the whole world to hell.

But our savior was a man of prayer. We read where he would go off, the disciples would go to sleep and he'd go to a mountain apart and he'd pray all night long. He'd pray to his father, he'd talk to his father. And we don't know what the Lord prayed in many of those situations. We just know he went and prayed. He prayed all night long.

But we do have some of his prayers recorded in scripture. And I read through them this week. You can look them up yourself and read through them if you want this afternoon. And if you read them, this is what you'll find. This is the predominant theme of all the Savior's prayers recorded in scripture. He prayed for the glory of the Father, that God would be glorified, and he prayed for his people. He prayed for the salvation of his people. And that prayer was answered.

One prayer that comes to mind. Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing. That's a prayer of forgiveness and salvation for His people. Great sinners, I mean great sinners, who are there crucifying the Lord, who are there reveling and mocking Him as He cries, as He dies. One of the Savior's prayers is, Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing. Doesn't that comfort your heart? I don't know what I'm doing half the time. Father, forgive them, they don't know what they're doing.

In John 17, how he prayed. He prayed for the glory of the Father. He prayed, glorify thou me with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. Father, get glory to yourself in this sacrifice, and use this sacrifice. Father, save all those people that you gave. I'm not praying for the world, but for those whom thou hast given me. And Father, I will, that all those whom thou hast given me be with me where I am. that they may behold my glory. Can you think of a greater blessing that Christ could pray for you than that? Oh my. He was a man of prayer, and his prayers were always answered.

And all these descriptions of Cornelius, you see, this is the Savior. These things, they're commendable in Cornelius, but they're not worth a hill of beans. But Christ is. And Cornelius heard this. He heard this angel say, you know, you send a Joppa, you find this man, you bring him. He'll tell you what you ought to do. He's gonna answer all your, by preaching Christ to you, he's gonna answer all of your questions. And Cornelius was immediately obedient. He called the servants, he told them what happened. He said, now you go get him. You bring this man here. We need to hear what he's got to say. We need to hear what he's preaching.

Now again, he was obedient, wasn't he? And that's good, and believers are obedient. We're obedient to obey the command of the gospel, to believe on Christ, but our obedience is not enough to save us. Our obedience is just kind of rebellion clothed in religiosity or something, I don't know what to say. I just don't want to talk about our obedience. But Christ's obedience made his people perfect.

Now, in conclusion, I wanna give you a couple things here. Number one is this. You hear this story, and we see Christ pictured in it. We have to conclude this, that salvation is by grace alone, without any of our works. Has to be, because none of our works are worth anything. All of our works are just sinful works. So salvation, if God's gonna save any of us, it's got to be by pure grace alone. God's just got to give us something that we don't deserve, that we haven't earned, but that Christ earned for us.

And I know this, like I said this earlier, God will save every object of His grace. This is what keeps me preaching. God's gonna save every object of his grace. I know he is. I know he is. He's gonna do it through the preaching of the gospel. God's gonna feed his sheep through the preaching of the gospel because they're objects of his grace. God's not gonna save you and let you go through the rest of this world starving to death. He's gonna feed you by his grace. He's gonna prepare our heart to hear the preacher and he's gonna prepare the preacher's heart to preach to us. That's what we'll see the Lord doing with Peter next week. He's preparing Peter's heart to go preach to Cornelius and his bunch of Gentile friends, maybe a bunch of Roman soldiers. He's preparing Peter's heart to go preach to them, and when God crosses their path with the gospel, they're gonna believe it. They're gonna believe it because salvation is by grace.

The second thing is this, and this is something I try to drive home all the time. Nobody has ever yet sought the Lord in vain, and nobody ever will. Look at Isaiah chapter 45. This is a promise of God. This is not just, you know, our doctrine that fits in the box, you know, that we've got it in. This is a promise of God. We ought not take it lightly. Isaiah 45 verse 19. I've not spoken in secret in a dark place of the earth, This gospel's not been spoken in secret. I know some people, they say, well, what about people in the world never heard the gospel? Well, I mean, I don't know. That's God's will for whatever reason. But here's how it applies to us here today. This gospel's not been preached in secret in your presence. God's brought you to hear it. He hasn't spoken in a dark place. He brought you here to hear it. I said not under the seat of Jacob seek ye me in vain. I, the Lord, speak righteousness. I declare things that are right. I didn't say, seek ye me in vain. Nobody's ever sought the Lord and didn't come away with mercy.

And here's what I tell you. I'm gonna tell you again. You pray and beg God to save you, not because you deserve it, not because you learned some doctrine. You beg God to save you for Christ's sake. You beg God to be merciful to you, not give you what you deserve. You pray and beg God, forgive my sin. Lord, I want to believe Christ and I can't. I can't make myself believe. Lord, please, I'm begging you, give me the faith to believe you. Give me the faith to believe Christ. You beg God and you keep begging until he answers. Just keep begging until he answers. The Lord taught us to pray that way in the story of the poor widow woman. You keep praying, you keep calling on God until he answers, and don't ever quit. Don't ever quit.

Look back in our text. Isn't this what happened to Cornelius, verse four? He looked on this angel and was afraid and said, what is it, Lord? And he said unto him, thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God. Cornelius didn't quit praying, and the Lord sent him a preacher, didn't he? He sent him a preacher to reveal Christ to him.

Now keep begging God. Keep begging him. If you feel like he's not answering, keep begging him. Why would a dirty, hungry, naked beggar ever quit begging a rich man? Why would he ever quit begging? Why would any of us, dirty, guilty, Filthy naked sinners ever quit begging God for mercy

don't quit You come to Christ You come to Christ believing Everything that he said about himself and everything that he said about you Sooner or later. You're gonna have mercy That's the promise of God. He said I say things that are right He's not he's not gonna go back on that promise God help us to live our lives as mercy beggars, mercy beggars.

All right, let's bow together. Our father, we pray that as Cornelius of old, that you would appear to us in the preaching of your word, the preaching of your son in mercy and in grace. Father, that you would reveal Christ to us, that you would not Just reveal the thoughts of men and the traditions of men and the outward form of religion. But Father, that you would reveal Christ to us. Father, show us your glory. Show us your glory in the sacrifice of Christ that enables you to be both merciful to sinners and just in doing it.

Father, we thank you for your word. we pray that you would apply your word to our hearts so that we leave here today and as we think about your word through the week, that we are just completely taken up with the Lord Jesus Christ in awe and wonder and thanksgiving for who he is and what he has accomplished for his people. Father, bless us and hear our prayers. For Christ's sake, we pray. Amen.

All right, Sean. Okay, if you would turn in your hymnal to song number 393 and stand as we sing,

Take My Life and Let It Be.

393. take my life and let it be consecrated lord to thee take my hands and At the impulse of thy love. At the impulse of thy love. Take my feet and let them be swift and beautiful for thee. Take my voice and let me sing. Always, only for my King. Always, only for my King. Take my lips and let them be. Filled with messages for thee. Take my silver and my gold. Not a mite would I withhold. Not a mite would I withhold. Take my love, my God, I pour at thy feet its treasure store. Take myself, and I will Ever only all for thee. Ever only all for thee.