Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to Acts chapter 10 and verse
36, particularly the latter part of the verse. Preaching peace
by Jesus Christ, he is Lord of all. The whole verse reads, the
word which God sent unto the children of Israel Preaching
peace by Jesus Christ, He is Lord of all. This time recorded in Acts chapter
10 is a very significant and important time in the Church
of God. Ten years before, at Pentecost,
the Holy Spirit had been given with power from heaven. Our Lord
had said to the disciples, tarry at Jerusalem until ye be endued
with power from on high. And the Holy Spirit had fallen
and those there had spoken and given praise and glory to God
in languages they had not learned and miraculously speaking in
languages that those present at Jerusalem at that time could
understand. And here now, ten years later,
God has seen fit to bring Peter to be the one again who had witnessed
that first at Pentecost to witness the same blessing through the
preaching of the word through Peter to the Gentiles, the Holy
Spirit being given. We read as Peter gave the account
in the next chapter when he was asked what he had done to the
disciples, the apostles at Jerusalem, Their conclusion was, in verse
18 of chapter 11, then hath God also to the Gentiles granted
repentance unto life. Now this is a very significant,
you might say a one-off occurrence that was attended by visions,
attended with a great demonstration of the Spirit in the same way
as at Pentecost with the miraculous gift of tongues. But nevertheless,
there are principles or lessons here that apply wherever the
Word is preached. And I want to just look at five
things that lead up to our text before we come to the text itself. We have the case with Cornelius
here, waiting upon the Lord in prayer. Already he feared the
Lord, already he gave alms, already he was a praying man. But he
was not a saved man, he was not a man that had yet had his sins
forgiven. but he was waiting upon the Lord
in prayer. And what an encouragement that
that is for us and for every seeker, everyone that desires
salvation, that we wait upon the Lord in prayer, that we continue
in prayer. The blessing that came to Cornelius
was a sudden one, but his part, was to watch unto prayer and
to seek those blessings that come from God through prayer. I will for this be inquired of
by the House of Israel to do it for them. May we be reminded
at this time of the vital need of prayer. We can easily let
it go, we can easily restrain it, We can have many oppositions
to prayer and we get so slow in prayer and so far off in prayer
our hearts not really going with the words we say. But may we
be this morning reminded of the vital need of continuing in prayer. We don't know how long it was.
Maybe it was the ten years since that first Pentecost that Cornelius
had been serving the Lord and waiting in this way. The Lord's
delays, they are not denials, and at his appointed time, as
in this case, he will come, he will appear. The second thing
that we find in the lead-up here that God prepared both the hearers
and the preacher for the word to be preached. Right to the
end of time we will have preachers and we will have hearers. And
those are blessed times when not only is the blessing like
here in this chapter, but we can also see as what was able
to be rehearsed here how a preacher and how a people came together. Peter could tell what had happened
to him to make him willing to go and preach the word to Cornelius. Cornelius was able to tell Peter
why he had sent for him and the people that were all there ready
to hear the word. Maybe they noticed that. Notice
What has brought a preacher, pastor amongst us? And notice
what has brought us as a hearer to hear the word. Some of us
can look back, at times the Lord has blessed us through the ministry,
but the minister that we've gone to hear may be a special service
and it was not the one we expected, the one that was expected to
take an ill, Another minister had taken their place. The Lord
had given them the word, and that word had been blessed to
us. And we've looked at how we have
came to want to go to that service, and how the Lord has not only
blessed us, but changed the minister and brought one to bring the
word to us. And that has made it a double
blessing, and we are to trace these things out. And you see
this here, how that preacher and hearers are brought together.
We also have here how that God clearly shows us the appointed
means of grace. Preaching, it hath pleased God
through the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Not an angel, but a saved sinner,
one that has been a witness personally of a risen saviour and of the
power of God and the blessing of God in their souls. And they
are the ones that are preached to sinners. So we have this set
before us here, all of course in Romans 10, he says that, How
shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? How shall
they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall
they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? As it is written, How beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace. That is
what we have here, preaching peace through Jesus Christ, and
bring glad tidings of good things. So may we never despise the preaching
of the Word. May we gather together, hear
the Word as often as we can, and may the Lord be in our assemblies
like he was in this assembly at Caesarea. But then we have as well how
God clearly shows the need of the Spirit's power in preaching. The Spirit descended here later
on as the Apostle went through preaching amongst the churches. He was able to write and say
to those of Macedonia the entrance that the Word had amongst them
that they turned to God from idols to serve the living and
true God. Paul says that our gospel came
not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy
Ghost, and in much assurance, as ye know what manner of men
we were among you for your sake. Paul acknowledges there, it wasn't
just the word preached, it was the Holy Spirit. And that is,
of course, the great thing of this time here in Acts 10. The Holy Spirit descends, and
it is through the Holy Spirit that there is repentance unto
life. Then hath God also to the Gentiles
granted repentance unto life, and it is through the power of
the Holy Spirit that this is given. We worship the true and
living God and we rely upon the power of God to bring salvation,
not just the word only. But the fifth thing to notice
here is that God is no respecter of persons. Peter, he rehearses
this to Cornelius. And whether a person is a Jew
or a Gentile, whether they are a child, whether they are a rich
person or a poor person, whether a man of great standing and authority,
a king or a prince, or whether they are someone that is of no
significance, it may be in society. The Lord does not respect anyone's
person. James, in his epistle, reproved
the churches. or showing partiality. When someone
comes in gay garments and obviously a very rich person, they're set
in a important place to hear the word. But when it is a poor
person in vile raiment, then they are set in a low place and
despised. And James, he says that he are
a judge of persons and we should not be that. And St Peter is
very clear in this, that all need salvation. All have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. And when the Lord will bring
salvation and preach the word, it is indiscriminately to all. In our places of worship, they
are open to all to attend. They're public places of worship. all round about to come. You
do not have to be a member, as it were, of a sect. You do not
have to be baptised to come and worship and to be in our assemblies. To partake of the Lord's Supper,
yes, to be baptised and to be able to give a profession of
faith. But to actually hear the word
preached, you can come, come and hear, the word preached in
our assemblies. Well these things then lead up
to the word of our text which is part of Peter's sermon. Peter in verse 34 opens his mouth
and he begins to preach. And the word then on my spirit
is this word, Preaching peace by Jesus Christ, he is Lord of
all. Three things to consider this
morning. Firstly, that just knowing the
word of the gospel does not bring peace. Secondly, Why peace can be preached
as coming by Jesus Christ. Now Dex says preaching peace
by Jesus Christ, why? Why can't that be preached as
coming by him? And then thirdly, the effect
of power attending the preaching. Power attended Peter's preaching,
what was? the effect. But firstly, just knowing the
word of the Gospel does not bring peace. We have in the verse following
our text, that word I say ye know, which was published throughout
all Judea and began from Galilee After the baptism which John
preached, they already knew it. Already knew it. You might be
gathering today and you think, well, I know the things of God. I know about the Lord Jesus Christ. The preacher's not going to tell
me anything new today. He's going to just rehearse things
I've been told many times before. Really, Peter, when he comes
to Cornelius, he tells him what he already knew. Now, it's not the first time
that we have a record of such things in the Word of God. John Baptist, when he was shut
up in prison, he sent his disciples to the Lord because He had heard
in prison the works of the Lord. The blind had their sight given
them. The lame, they were walking.
The deaf, they were hearing. The gospel was being preached. He heard these things in prison. But he sent and asked the Lord,
aren't thou he that should come? Or look we for another? And how
did the Lord respond? With John's disciples there,
he did those same things that John had heard. And then he sent them. He sent
them back to John and told them to tell him what they had seen. How then? The blind received
their sign, the deaf they heard, the lame they walked, the bore
had the gospel preached to them, and blessed is he who shall not
be offended in May. He told him nothing new. He sent
him no new tokens. But it was with authority. It
was the word from him. And that is the big difference. We cannot, we cannot learn God's
truths as schoolboys learn their task. You might be able to write
down all of the doctrines. You might know the doctrines
of Calvinism and be able to write them all down. You might be able
to rehearse all through the Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689. You might know all of these things. You might be able to argue them
and reason them out and yet be as ignorant of salvation and
of the peace of God and the pardon of your sins as a man that did
not know any of those things. This is so highlighted in this
passage. Peter acknowledges and testifies
that Cornelius, he knew these things. There's many, many in
our chapels. And we thank the Lord that they
do. They have been brought up under the sound of the truth
They know these things. And they sit in the pew from
week to week, knowing these things. But what they need is the power
of God. What they need is the Lord to
bring the salvation into their hearts, the peace of God into
their hearts. The question we may ask is, are
these people just coming in and out as a door on its hinges?
Or do they realize that there is something missing? That they
need more than just a head knowledge? They need salvation, they need
pardon, forgiveness, they need the power of God. Here is Cornelius seeking by
prayer. And the Lord answers and he answers. We're sending the word, the same
word that he knew. But this time it is through the
ministry and it is with the power of the Holy Ghost. Those two
things together, the Lord's appointed means. You know it's not just a A matter
of saying, well, we'll write a whole lot of books on the doctrines
of grace and spread them all out. The Lord can use such things. He's not confined to that. You
might say, well, we've got the word of God. That's sufficient.
And the Lord can use the word of God on its own. But he has
determined that the word is to be preached. preached to such
assemblies as was Cornelius. And that is what he'll bless.
Like we read from Romans 10, a sent preacher, a gathered people,
the authority of God, the power of God, the Lord working through
his chosen and appointed means. How oft we're reminded in the
Word of God it is not man's choice, it's not man's appointing, how
he is to be, how God is to be worshipped. In the Old Testament,
the Ark of the Covenant was to be carried upon the shoulders
of the Levites, and when in David's day they brought up the Ark and
they imitated what the Philistines had done in putting
it on a cart. The Lord dealt hardly with them,
and Uzzah, who steadied the cart because the oxen shook it, was
slain before the Lord. And when David brings it up a
second time, it's done according to the Jew means. We don't devise
our own way. Yes, there are many things in
our worship how many hymns we have, how long the reading is,
how long the service is, the mix of hymns and reading, prayer
and preaching. Well, preaching is the mind thing,
so it is in our services, but those are not dictated through
the word. The actual ingredients are worship,
but the mind thing is the preaching of the word. So if you are hearing
the word this morning, we are gathering together so we know
these things. Yes, we may know them, but may
we know assuredly that we need more than just knowing it. Now
the depth of the fall is such, we are born in sin and shaped
in iniquity. We are far off from God. We are
spiritually dead. And without the Lord we can do
nothing. Some people would think, well,
man is not so dead. He can use his learning, his
intellect, to come to peace and knowledge and pardon and forgiveness. No, he can't. No, he can't. We need the authority and power
of God. We need that blessing to come
from God and no man can dictate to God. No man can say that it
must be so at this time or that time. The Lord is sovereign. The Lord's coming here was a
sovereign time. Many have no idea of the greatness
of God, the power of God, the need of what is a miracle that
the Lord should bless. The utterances of a poor sinner
in declaring the word of God to awaken a sinner, to bring
him to know the peace of God. The Lord says there is no peace
to the wicked. There is not. where there is
sin, where there is the working of evil, where there is no God
but idols, and the idols of heart and thoughts and affections by
sin defined, there is no peace, no peace outside of Christ. The Lord says, in me you shall have peace. In
the world you shall have tribulation. My peace I give unto you, not
as the world give I unto you. That is the important thing.
It's a peace not learned, not taken, but given. Given by God. And may all of us that know the
word of God You might say, why don't I have peace? Why don't
I have the Lord's blessing? I know all these things. What
can be done further? Well, the subject this morning
is what can be done further. The Lord's blessing upon the
preaching of these same truths that you and I have heard for
years. And those of us who really feel
how wicked our hearts are, and even when called by grace, how
we need the Lord to keep them alive. Lord's people daily know
their need of the power of God, His quickening influence, the
life of God. Now, Lord says, with the type
of the vine, except he abide in the vine, he cannot bring forth fruit. Though then firstly, just knowing
the word of the gospel does not bring peace. And I trust there
are those of us here and those listening that will know that
is true. You say, amen, that is so. I have proved it so. I want to look then secondly at
why, why peace can be preached as coming by Jesus Christ. We have in the word of our text,
the first part of it, the word which God sent unto the children
of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ. The promises of God were given
through the nation of Israel. Now given first to Adam, in the
Garden of Eden, is then rehearsed through Noah, through Abraham,
and through Abraham is through the nation of Israel. The Word
of God traces out the history of the world through the nation
of Israel. And it is vital that the Word
that we have in these Gospel days can clearly be traced through
to all that God has promised and set forth in the Old Testament
and through the nation of Israel. One thing that the Jews greatly
stumbled at with our Lord Jesus Christ, they thought that he
was undermining Moses, that he was not coming according to how
they understood their scriptures. Yet when the Lord met with the
two on the way to Emmaus after he'd risen from the dead, he
showed them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. When the Apostle Paul preached
to those at Berea, they were able to search the Scriptures
daily, whether these things were so. Paul's preaching accorded
with the Old Testament Scriptures of truth. And so why peace can
be preached as coming through the Lord Jesus Christ is that
he is the promised Messiah. He is the promised Lamb of God
through the scriptures. John Baptist, who's referred
to here in this portion, after the baptism, verse 37, after
the baptism which John preached, where John pointed out the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the
world. And the Jews knew full well the
meaning of the Lamb, the sacrificial Lamb, the Passover Lamb. So that's the first reason, is
that The Lord Jesus Christ is he that was promised. God sent him. And so we have the witness of
God in verse 38. How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth
with the Holy Ghost and with power. Here we have the Holy
Spirit given through the preaching of the word to sinners. But what Peter sets before us
here was that the Lord Jesus himself, he was anointed without
measure of the Holy Spirit. God testified, this is my beloved
son in whom I am well pleased. And our Lord said, the miracles
that I do, the signs that I do, they bear witness of me. And
the father gave witness that this was his beloved son. Again, it is vital that if peace
is to be preached, peace between God and man, God and sinners
reconciled, then it must be that he that was born of Mary, Jesus
of Nazareth, truly had the approbation and blessing of God, that God
truly owned him. When he was on the cross, those
that mocked him, they said that if he is the son of God, let
him come down from the cross, let God hear him. This, of course,
was Satan's temptation in the wilderness. If thou art the son
of God, do this, do that. It was absolutely vital and John
in his gospel emphasizes more than 85 times that Jesus is the
Son of God and peace is able to be preached through him because
he is the Son of God, the witness of God. But then we have His death set
forth. In verse 39, Peter says, We are
witnesses of all things which he did in the land of the Jews,
of these signs and evidences of who he was, but whom they
slew and hanged on a tree. The Lord's death is set forth. We sung in our hymn that he died
For our sins, not his own. He laid down his life, a ransom. He was that paschal lamb. When
I see the blood, I will pass over you. It is that he has suffered
the wrath of God, the penalty due to our sin. It is Christ
that died, yea, rather risen again. And so not only is his
death set forth, but in verse 39, his resurrection as well. Now verse 40, him God raised
up the third day and showed him openly. What is significant that
though he was openly shown, it was only two witnesses chosen
of God. And there's a lot bound up with
that, even in the gospel days. Their disciples, they said that,
how was it that he would manifest himself unto them and not unto
the world? And the reason was that the world
could not see the Holy Spirit. But it is through the Holy Spirit
that they should see Him. And those that have the Lord
Jesus Christ revealed to them by power of the Holy Spirit,
they see Him as He truly is, in all His glory, in all His
risen glory, in all the assurance that God has given to all men,
and that He had raised Him from the dead, a risen Saviour, And
those witnesses he had chosen of God, we may say every one,
that God has called by grace and blessed with saving faith
in him. The Lord hath chosen them to
see Christ. And to you which believe, he
is precious. And we see not yet all things
put unto him, but we see Jesus. And Jesus is seen by faith. and seen by the power of the
Holy Spirit. So it's through His resurrection,
God giving that approbation that the sacrifice was accepted, that
sin was put away. Also, peace can be, you might say must, be
preached as coming by Jesus Christ because of the authority to preach. In verse 42, and he commanded
us to preach unto the people and to testify that it is he
which was ordained of God to be the judge of quick and dead,
that is the living and the dead. And so we can, we must, Preach
peace through Jesus Christ because we have that authority to do
so. God has said he will send to
sinners peace, he will take away their condemnation, he will take
away the wrath of God, he will forgive them, he will pardon
them, he will receive them through his beloved Son. And that authority
God has given to preach And that is borne out then by
the scriptures of truth. In verse 43, to him give all
the prophets witness that through his name, whosoever believeth
in him should receive remission of sins. Yes, the gospel was
preached right through the prophets. They all pointed to him. Paul
says of our Lord, and the children of Israel through the wilderness.
They drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and
that rock was Christ. Moses says, Thy prophet shall
the Lord thy God raise up unto you of your brethren like unto
me, him shall ye hear. It is only through the Lord Jesus
Christ that there is forgiveness. Pardon. He is the Savior. He is the only way. I am the
way, the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. And so it is what the Lord Jesus
Christ has done. Why? Peace can be preached through
His name, must be preached through His name. The Lord will give
peace unto His people, and you are given through the preaching
of the cross, through a lifting up of the Lord Jesus Christ. In this way, by preaching before
this people, we have then in the third place the effect of
power attending the preaching. We already mentioned what Paul
said of the Thessalonians, and the effect was set forth there,
and it was this, that when the gospel came unto them in power,
And in the Holy Ghost, this was the effect, it came in much assurance,
ye became followers of us and of the Lord, having received
the word of, word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost. It had the effect so that they
turned to God from idols. Not only to God, but to serve
the living and true God. Not only to serve Him from here,
but also to wait for His Son from heaven. There's a looking
for eternal blessings, looking for the Lord's second coming,
looking for that internal inheritance. That was the effect to the Thessalonians. What is the effect when we look
at it in this passage? Well, we may say here, the effect
is peace. When the Holy Spirit comes and
applies that word, he gives peace unto the people of God. The Holy
Spirit shall receive of mine, our Lord said, and show it unto
me. One of the titles the Lord gave
of the Holy Spirit was comforter, the comforter, to comfort the
people of God, to bring peace to their troubled consciences
and minds. Dear friends, those of you that
are troubled by your sin, troubled by your wicked heart, troubled
by your inability to turn, to change, you feel day by day such
a hard heart, You can sit under sermons, you can hear precepts,
directions and guidance, but you break through them all and
you think, what shall do the deed? What shall make a change? And we are taught there is not
a whole lot of rules, however much we are to preach the precepts,
we are to be instructed in the ways of righteousness, we are
to be exhorted, we are to be warned. but what we need is the
power of God. The sweet application of the
word of the gospel, the peace-speaking blood of Christ applied to the
wounded conscience, that what the law could not do, and we
have proved that many a day, that the Lord Jesus Christ could
and would do by the power of God. He brings peace. He is Lord of all. What a difference
that makes. We have in our text, preaching
peace by Jesus Christ. He is Lord of all. When the Lord
is magnified in the sinner's heart, those on the mount, they
saw no man but Jesus only. Then all our idols go. Then all
self goes. then man is nothing and the Lord
is all. May we return to those blessed
times of spiritual youth, those of us who've known it, when the
Lord has been all and in all, when there's been not a divided
heart, but he has come and taken the whole heart, and we've served
him fully, loved him, but how oft there comes in those little
foxes that spoil the vines, idols besetting sins, the heart defiled
just like the children of Israel. But when the Lord comes again
with power and with authority, then he is Lord of all. And then
there is a magnifying of him. You have in verse 46, they heard
them speak with tongues and magnify God. That was one of the things
at Pentecost as well. They not only spoke with tongues,
but they magnified God. They praised his name. That was
their subject. What is our subject? What effect
does the preaching of the word have of us? Do we go from the
Lord's house and all we can speak of is the weather or ask each
other of our welfare and of our employments or relationships
or things like that? Or does the Word have such an
effect it remains with us, abides with us, it fills us, it remains
with us? May that be more so with us. We have in verse 35, the effect
as well is a fearing of the Lord, But in every nation, he that
feareth him, that will be one of the marks of the Holy Spirit,
the Spirit's work, the fear of the Lord. A childlike, filial
fear, my soul stands trembling while she sings the honours of
her God. There will be as well those fruits
of righteousness. From me is thy fruit found. And so we have in verse 35, and
worketh righteousness is accepted of him. We're not accepted because
of our own righteousness, nor our own works, but wherever the
peace of God is, the blessing of God is, wherever the Spirit's
work is, it will bring forth fruits of righteousness to God. It is His work. And so here we
have the preaching of the Gospel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ. He is Lord of all. And may we
often know that as the Gospel is preached, as the Word is preached,
we might see in the Lord Jesus Christ all the anger of God taken
away, all the wrath of God taken away, that we might have under
the power of God, all those things that offend and grieve in our
own souls taken away. And the Lord give the peace of
God that passeth all understanding to fill our hearts through Jesus
Christ. May we know from this word, it
is God that gives peace. He gives it through preaching.
He gives it as a sovereign gift from heaven. He conveys it with
power from heaven. It is his gift. It is the Lord
Jesus Christ's gift. My peace I give unto you. May that be true of us here this
morning, the Lord giving us of his peace. May the Lord add his
blessing. Amen.