Well, many of our friends bring
greetings to you. We've just had a chat to Greg
before service, any one of you members, and Peter Many is particularly
anxious that he be remembered fondly to you all. So I've done
something of my duty, not all, but something of my duty for
these men, and there are others that we are in touch with. We are blessed to have a family
of believers around the world who encourage us in so many ways. I'd like you to turn with me
to Acts chapter 10. There is in Acts chapter 10 the
most remarkable sermon The Gentiles, as you know, were excluded in
many ways from the councils of God and from the worship of God,
as Ephesians 2 describes them, that they were aliens from the
commonwealth. of Israel, strangers from the
covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the
world, and they were without Christ. What a great description
of the Gentile world, and yet the Old Testament in those passages
that we looked at last week and many, many more, the Old Testament
anticipated this time of the coming of the Messiah and the
gathering in of the Gentiles and the Gentiles coming to worship
God. And here in Acts chapter 10,
we have the beginning of that ministry to the Gentiles, that
extraordinary outpouring of God's Spirit upon this world. And the
world that we live in, the world that we have been living in in
the last 2,000 years is so significantly shaped by these events that began
in Acts chapter 10. And yet the thing that is most
remarkable here, all of the Western world and almost all of the known
world is in one way or another impacted by this. And yet it
began, began with this sermon. We looked at the reasons why
Peter was the one called upon to preach this sermon and not
the apostle Paul, who was the apostle to the Gentiles. It was
to give apostolic validation to it, to show to the Jews especially
that the Gentiles have the Holy Spirit brought upon them. But
the thing that is remarkable to me, the thing that is remarkable
As you read this sermon, it is just such, and I don't want to
say the word ordinary, but it is such a simple, simple sermon. I was talking to Greg this morning
that in the days when we're in Bible college and people were
trained in preaching, if you got up and preached this sermon
of Peter's, you would be marked down big time. But it's a remarkable
sermon, but it's remarkable in its simplicity. I'd like us just
to read it. It begins in verse 34, Cornelius
and the others are all gathered to hear all the things that are
commanded thee of God. Then Peter opened his mouth and
said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons,
but in every nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness
is accepted with him. The word which God sent unto
the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ, He is
Lord of all. That word, I say, you know, which
was published throughout all Judea and began from Galilee
after the baptism which John preached. how God anointed Jesus
of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power, who went about
doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil,
for God was with him. And we are witnesses of all things
which he did, both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem,
whom they slew and hanged on a tree. Him God raised up the
third day and showed him openly and not to all the people, but
unto witnesses chosen before of God, even unto us who did
eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead. 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 the quick
and the dead. To him give all the prophets
witness that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall
receive remission of sins. And when Peter was speaking those
words, those words, the Holy Spirit fell on all them which
heard the word. It's remarkable, isn't it, when
you think of how simple that sermon was. When you go back
to Acts chapter 2 and you're there on the day of Pentecost
and you have that enormous crowd and you have all of the things
that caused there to be such heightened tension and emotion,
the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and his appearances,
the gathering of all the people for those great feasts, The stir
that was in Jerusalem about the events of the Lord Jesus Christ,
that air is filled with sort of tension and atmosphere and
you can imagine all of that. But this began in the house of
a Roman centurion. Completely oblivious was all
the world to this. The Roman Empire took no notice
of it whatsoever. The Jewish religious world took
no notice of it whatsoever. And yet, And yet this is the
sermon which marks the beginning of the gospel coming to us. That
gospel, that chain of events which has led us to be here in
Nowra on this day, this cold, windy day in June of 2018. An
unbroken chain of God fulfilling his promises and his word to
his people. Of course, The wonder of the Gospel is not
in the power of men, and in the persuasive power of men, and
in persuasive preaching. The wonder of the Gospel is in
the power of the Holy Spirit. The power of God. So I'd like
us to concentrate our thoughts today, if we can, on that remarkable
phrase that we looked at briefly last week, but I want to spend
more time on it today. The reason for all of the wonder
of the gospel and its success and its power in the lives of
people is in the heavens being opened. I'd like us to think
about that, the heavens being opened. Some of the great attributes
of our God, of course, is that he is omniscient. God never learns
anything, ever. Nothing ever takes him by surprise.
He knows all things. He knows the thoughts. He knows
the thoughts of your mind before you think them. He knows the
intents of your thoughts, which is why I keep saying that let's
not ever play games with God. Let's go as Hesakiah does and
lay out our life, warts and all, before the throne of God. He's
omniscient. He knows all things. He's omnipotent. He has all power. He has power
over all this creation. It's His. The wind and the waves
obey Him. The raindrops fall as He directs
them to fall. Everything, the King's heart
is in the Lord's hands and He directs it wherever He wishes
for His glory and for the good of His people. God is omniscient,
God is omnipotent, and God is omnipresent. You cannot, you
cannot walk this globe and not be in the presence of God. He knows all things, He has all
power, He is ever present everywhere. And yet, as all of us would attest,
We want to, we need to be continually reminded of those things. But
also we need, we need in this particular way for the heavens
to be open, for us to know God. Even with all of those attributes,
for us to know God. God must come to us. He must come and particularly
and personally reveal himself to us. And I think there are
great parallels in the story of Cornelius. Cornelius was a
man who had great religious attributes. He'd been drawn from Rome to
Israel, to Palestine, to that nation, and he'd heard about
the God of the Jews and he'd become zealous, become zealous
in worship and zealous in prayer and zealous in giving and zealous
in sharing his faith. And yet, with all of that, Cornelius
was a man who needed to have the heavens open and for him
to see God. He is like Nicodemus. You remember
Nicodemus. Nicodemus was the teacher of
Israel. He was the brightest of the bright
that Israel had. He and Gamaliel were the greatest
of them. He was a ruler, the man of the
Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. And Nicodemus came
to the Lord Jesus Christ by night. Nicodemus was no doubt a moral
man, no doubt an incredibly intelligent man, no doubt a man much esteemed
for all sorts of attributes as well as his religious zeal. He
is a teacher. And not only was that, but Nicodemus
had some good words to say about the Lord Jesus Christ. In John
chapter 3 he says, Rabbi, we know that thou art
a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles
that thou doest except God be with him. So there he was, coming
out of the darkness to actually say some sweet things about the
Lord Jesus Christ, some true things about the Lord Jesus Christ.
But Nicodemus, like our friend Cornelius, needed to be born
again. And I love the Lord Jesus' words
to him. Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. And that born again is to be
born from above. You must have a heavenly birth
to see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus plays silly word games
with him. But then the Lord Jesus says,
verily, verily, in verse 5, I say unto thee, except a man be born
of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom
of God. You can't. see the kingdom of
God. You cannot enter the kingdom
of God. You must be born of water and
blood." And then he makes this remarkable statement, that which
is born of flesh is flesh. And that which is born of spirit
is spirit. And then he describes the activities
of the Holy Spirit. He goes, he blows wherever he
wishes, wherever he wills, wherever it listeth. And you hear the
sound thereof, and you cannot tell whence it cometh and whither
it goeth. So is everyone that is born of
the Spirit. To be born of the Spirit is to
be born from above. The Lord Jesus Christ is talking
to this man who has all this knowledge and all of these good
words to say about the Lord Jesus, and he was as blind as a bat.
In fact, the Lord Jesus, I am quite sure, was taking him to
that passage in Ezekiel 36, which was such a significant passage
for so many of us all those times ago. The water that he speaks
of is the blessing of the water, the washing of the water by the
Holy Spirit, the preaching of the gospel. He says in Ezekiel
36, 25, he speaks of this born again, this new heart, this being
born from above. He says in verse 24, I will take
you from among the heathen and gather you out of all countries
and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle, will I
sprinkle clean water upon you and ye shall be clean from all
your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse you.
A new heart Also will I give you, and a new spirit will I
put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your
flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit
within you. I will put my spirit within you. I will come and dwell with you. I will put my spirit within you
and cause you to walk in my statutes and ye shall keep my judgments
and do them. And you shall dwell in the land
that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and
I will be your God. I will also save you from all
your uncleannesses. There is a work from above. To be born from above is to have
the Spirit of God come upon you, come upon you through the preaching
of the gospel, to come upon you and to remind you of things and
to show you things that only God, who opens the heavens, can
show you. Then in verse 31, if you're still
there in Ezekiel 36, it says, then having all of that being
done to you, Having that been done, having
that salvation, that new heart, that new spirit, that spirit,
that walking, that keeping of God's judgement, then shall you
remember your own evil ways and your doings that were not good. Prior to this you thought you
had good ways, and you thought your doings were good, and shall
loathe yourselves in your own sight for all your iniquities
and for your abominations. Such is the work of the Spirit
of God in those that are born again. They are brought low. But he does it, if you look at
the bookends of this, you'll see that he does it for his namesake.
He does it for his namesake, to humble his people, that only
born again people see that they are sinners. Only those who have
the very righteousness of God see that all of their righteousness
is nothing but filthy rags. Only those who have the fear
of God have no need to fear God. I love how he finishes this chapter,
and you know the next chapter is this glorious description
of the gospel coming to those dry bones and preaching and the
Spirit coming upon them. He says in verse 38, as the holy
flock, as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feast, so shall
the waste cities be filled with flocks of men. And they shall
know, they shall know, these are promises of God, that I am
the Lord. They shall know that I am the
Lord. There is this promise of this
spirit being poured out upon these people and this great army
in that valley of dry bones being raised to newness of life. This
gospel going out with power and effect throughout this world,
doing the mighty work that God the Holy Spirit has been entrusted
to do, to take the things of the Lord Jesus Christ and to
reveal them to you, the spirit of truth That great Comforter,
our Advocate, comes and shows us the Lord Jesus Christ and
shows us sins for what they really are. Only those who are forgiven
of their sins know anything of what sin is at all. Only those
who are forgiven of their sins and clothed in the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ know anything of the holiness of God.
So the heavens must be opened. The heavens had every reason
to be closed to this world. When we fell in our father, Adam,
we lost that communion and that fellowship that we had with God
in that paradise. We lost it. We lost the way of
God and we lost the truth of God and we lost the life of God. And from there on in, in the
scriptures, When the heavens are opened, so often the heavens
are opened and God reveals his judgment upon the nations of
this world, the judgment of God upon this world and its abominations
and this world and its idolatry, this world and its open rebellion
against God. The people in those days had
reason, as they do now, to fear that the heavens will be opened
in judgment. It says in Genesis 6 verse 11,
when God had just seen the abomination and the thoughts of the hearts
of men was only evil continually, the windows of heaven were opened,
when Noah and his family were put in the ark of the Lord Jesus
Christ and they were shut in by God. Then the windows of heaven
were opened and the earth was flooded. When man came out of
that ark, Knowing about the God of judgment, they then set about
in Genesis chapter 11 to build themselves a tower, a tower to
God, a tower to build themselves up, a tower where they could
reach heaven, a tower that was built both with the works of
men and put together with the propitiation, that pitch, that
tar that joined those bricks together is so typical of modern
religion, isn't it? It's a joining of the works of
man's hands to the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord
looked down from heaven, the heavens were opened and he saw,
the Lord looked down and he scattered those people. Solomon Gamora,
were those cities on the plains there where Lot dwelt with his
family. And the heavens were open and
fire from the Lord came down. And two angels came down and
they took those four people out, one in each hand, Lot and his
wife and his two daughters. And fire, once they'd been taken
out, fire fell down from heaven. And I was often thinking, the
Lord says for us to remember Lot's wife. Lot's wife must have
let go of the angel to look back clearly. She looked back longingly,
and she was turned into a pillar of salt. The Lord looked down from heaven
and saw and heard the groanings of his people in Egypt and he
says, I've come down, I've come down to deliver them. The heavens
were opened and that angel of death went through that land
of Egypt and the firstborn of every family and the firstborn
of the cattle throughout Israel and those Jews, those Israelites
walked out delivered by the hand of God. And they walked past a funeral,
and another funeral, and another dead carcass, and another dead
carcass, all their way out of the land of Egypt. The heavens
were open. And the heavens were opened in
so many remarkable ways in that Old Testament dispensation. The
heavens were opened, and for 40 years the heavens were opened
to feed the people of Israel with manna from heaven. The heavens
were there, revealed as that pillar of fire and that pillar
of cloud. fire and cloud that protected
the Israelites, that set a distance between the Israelites and the
Egyptians, that they couldn't come near them at all. Heaven
protecting its people. Heaven turning the Egyptians
into darkness and shining a light upon the people of God and then
opening the way through the Red Sea. Since the fall Heaven is
closed to lost sinners. You might recall when Adam and
Eve left the garden, there was a remarkable picture of the gospel
in Genesis chapter 4. It's one of the most beautiful
pictures of the gospel in the scriptures, isn't it? In Genesis
3, he clothed them, called them to himself and he made coats
of skins and he clothed them. He brought Adam and Eve to himself
in Genesis 3, sorry. Genesis 3.21, he brought them
to himself. It's a great picture of salvation.
He drew them to himself and then They were clothed with the coat
of a lamb. They were clothed with the very
robe of the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. But before
they were clothed, they were stripped. They had to be stripped
of their fig leaves. They had to be stripped of their
own self-righteousness. They had to be clothed. That
first death after the fall of man is a death that typifies
and pictures the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, that clothing,
that covering of the nakedness and the shame. But then God shut
up the way into that, didn't he? In Genesis 3.24, he drove
out the man and he placed at the east of the Garden of Eden
cherubims and a flaming sword which turned every way to keep
the way of the tree of life. You can imagine two huge helicopter
blades just whirling in the arms of these cherubim, stopping the
way into the Tree of Life. They were to guard the way of
the Tree of Life, they were to protect the way to the Tree of
Life, that no man was going to get to the Tree of Life by any
of his own efforts whatsoever. Not by free will and not by works
were they going to get to the Tree of Life. They were going
to also ensure that if someone was getting to get to the Tree
of Life, if you were going to taste of that tree of life, that
tree of eternal life, someone from in there had to come to
you because you had no way of getting in. That's the glory
of the gospel, isn't it? The glory of the gospel is God
coming to people. At the time of love, he comes
to his people to gather those people, to gather, to call them
that are his. He says, as we looked in John
chapter 10 last week, he has these sheep. He says, other sheep
have I. He owns these sheep. They were
his in the eternal covenant of grace. They were the gift to
his father, this church. Imagine how precious a gift they
are to him. No wonder he calls them jewels. No wonder he calls them all my
delight. They were the father's gift to
the son, and with what delight did the son accept them as that
gift. And he took absolute and full
responsibility for them, and he said in that covenant of grace,
I'll do everything necessary to take them through that sword,
those flaming swords, and bring them to the tree of life. They
will be mine. They will be my people." And
so in this great outpouring of the Gospel, this great witness
In this world of the victory of the Lord Jesus Christ in his
resurrection, we see yet again and again, we see the heavens
open throughout these early chapters of Acts. We see the heavens open
and we see angels coming. Angels coming and speaking to
people. Angels coming and directing the
servants of God. Angels there to gather Stephen,
the heavens were opened, and Stephen saw the Lord Jesus Christ
in death. The saints of God will see him,
won't they? And as they stoned Stephen, calling
upon God, saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. He looked up steadfastly into
heaven. Wouldn't it be wonderful if God
could cause us to look steadfastly up into heaven? And he saw the
glory of God. If you steadfastly look into
heaven, if God gives you eyes of faith to see, you'll see the
glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God. And
Stephen said, and he declared to these people, Saul included,
he said, behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing
on the right hand of God, on the right hand of God, on the
hand of power. He sees him standing there, standing
ready to accept his servant home, standing ready to defend his
honour and the glory of his father's name. Saul heard those words. and they were dead to him. And
so are the words of God dead to people until, like Nicodemus,
they come with power. Until, like Cornelius, the gospel
is preached. Cornelius, as we saw last week,
was a man who has had much to commend himself to men. And I'm
sure, like Nicodemus, if they came back today, you would have
them preaching in a heartbeat, and they'd be leaders of denominations
and organisations in no time at all. And yet, like so many
in this religious world, countless multitudes in this religious
world, the heavens haven't been opened to them. They haven't
met God. They haven't met him in his glory. As we look through this remarkable
picture in Acts chapter 10, we see that the heavens are opened
Heavens are opened and people receive a particular presence,
don't they, for Cornelius. I'm going to keep calling him
Nicodemus, I'm so sorry. Translate for me. But for Cornelius
it was the angels. that came and spoke to him. In
fact, in chapter 10, he says that there was a shining, a man
stood before me in bright clothing, Acts chapter 10, verse 30. A
man stood, an angel stood in bright clothing. But Peter, Peter
saw, Peter heard a voice. Isn't that lovely? He heard a
voice. Whose voice did he hear? He says, Not so, Lord. He heard
the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is a particular call, isn't
there? That when the heavens are opened, there's a particular
presence. And there's a particular call.
These men are called by name. The angel says, Cornelius. The
voice says, Peter. The voice of the Lord Jesus Christ
said, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? When the heavens
are opened, there's a particular presence and there's a particular
call. As the Lord Jesus Christ promised, he said in John chapter
10, verse three, he calls out his own sheep by name. When he
calls out his own sheep, there is a particular call to you,
and not to anyone else. A particular call that comes
from God to you, to your heart, to you personally, to you particularly. He calls out His own sheep by
name and He leadeth them out. He leads them out. When He calls
His own sheep by name, He leads them out. What does He lead them
out of? He leads them out of exactly
the same thing that he led Cornelius out of, and he led Saul out of,
and he's led everyone else out of ever since. When he calls
his own sheep by name, he leads them out. Turn over to Hebrews
13, and we'll see where he leads them out to. In Hebrews 13.12 it says, Wherefore
Jesus also that he might sanctify the people with his own blood
suffered without the gate. He suffered without the gate.
Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp. You see, he's not in the camp
anymore, bearing his reproach. Let us go forth with him outside
the camp. The bodies were burned outside
the camp. The camp, of course, is the camp that's mentioned
in verse 10, isn't it? We have an altar. We have an
altar. The Lord Jesus Christ is our
altar. We have an altar. We own an altar. The altar owns
us. Whereof they have no right to
eat which serve the tabernacle. If you serve in the old way of
the letter of the law, you have no right to eat at our altar. We go outside the camp. To go
outside the camp is to be called outside the camp of religion.
Called outside the camp of the religion of works righteousness.
The religion that esteems the flesh of men and speaks to the
flesh of men all the time. We go outside the camp. And what
do we do when we go outside the camp? We have no continuing city
here. We go to him. We seek a city
to come. By Him, therefore, verse 15,
by Him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God
continually. That is the fruit of our lips
giving thanks to His name, giving thanks to His name. What's His
name? In Hebrews 13, the name is the
God of peace. Go down to verse 20. Now the
God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus,
that great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting
covenant. That's the name of Him, isn't
it? His name is the God of peace. He is the risen Lord Jesus Christ. He is the great shepherd of the
sheep. He's the shepherd. He will shepherd
his sheep with wisdom and with righteousness, with justice.
He'll shepherd them with power, and he'll shepherd them through
the blood of the everlasting covenant. He'll remind them that
in eternity, He took their place and he took full responsibility
and he said to his father, I will bring them back to you wholly
unblameable, unapprovable in your sight. That's the eternal
covenant, the everlasting covenant. That covenant that Ezekiel was
talking about, that covenant that is full of those promises
that he'll put his spirit in people and he'll give them a
new heart and he'll take away that heart of stone that has
no feeling for the things of God and he'll give you a heart
of flesh, a heart of flesh that feels and lives and breathes
and grows. a heart of flesh that can worship
Him, that everlasting covenant He took responsibility for every
single one of those sheep. He said, I will take all responsibility
for all of their sins, and I will take all responsibility for all
of their holiness. That's why He's declared to be
our sanctification, our wisdom, and our righteousness. And when
the heavens are opened, the heavens are opened, He brings His people
out. He brings them out and He gathers
them together like a great shepherd would. He won't have them wandering
aimlessly. He will, He knows them all, and
He'll come and get them. And when the heavens are opened
in the ears of God's servants, as we looked at earlier, there's
a particular presence and there's a particular call, a call of
particular people, and there's a particular directive, isn't
it? Cornelius is told, you go and send for Peter. Peter is
told, you go with him. You go. And there's a particular
instruction. Cornelius receives a particular
instruction. In verse 6 of chapter 10, He
shall tell you what you oughtest to do. Now Nicodemus, no, Cornelius,
has been doing all sorts of wonderful things. He'd been giving alms,
he'd been gathering people together, he'd been witnessing to people,
he'd been praying and fasting, he'd done all of the Jewish religious
things, and he still has something he ought to do. He'll tell you
what you ought to do. Just so that you are left in
no doubt whatsoever what the ought to do is. That whoso in
verse 43 that through his name, whosoever
believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. You want to
know what the doing is? What is the work of God? The
work of God is that you believe in the name of his Son, the Lord
Jesus Christ. A particular instruction, he
shall tell you what you ought to do. A particular instruction
to Peter, as you arise in verse 20, you arise, you get thee down
and you go with them doubting nothing. You are called upon
Peter to go into the house of Gentiles, doubting nothing. Doubting nothing, why? For I
have sent them, verse 20, and there is a particular presence
and a particular call, a particular directive, a particular instruction
and a particular humbling as well. Cornelius met him. Verse 25 if you look there. As
Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him and fell down at his
feet, worshipping him. You can imagine what the Roman
authorities would have thought of this centurion falling down
at the feet of a Jewish, a Galilean fisherman. Now, Peter rebukes
him very quickly, doesn't he? He says, Peter took him up saying,
stand up, I myself also am a man. It is the same. Same that comes
to the hearts of God's people. There is a particular humbling
that comes from God that causes there to be a receptiveness.
That Philippian jailer fell at Paul's feet. What must I do to
be saved? There is a particular humbling.
Peter had to accept that you doubt nothing. when all of his
history and all of his life's righteousness in so many ways
was about to be undone. He says, I've never eaten anything
unclean. I've never dwelt with these people.
I've never eaten in the presence of these Gentile dogs. I've never been there. all of his nation's history and
all of that religious activity. And you can see how deep it is
in the flesh of men, because in Antioch later on when Peter
comes to Antioch and Paul has to rebuke him to his face for
exactly going back to this very thing, isn't it? That he thought
somehow, he thought somehow that by eating with the Gentiles he
was defiled. that somehow by separating himself
from the Gentiles would make him in some way a little bit
more righteous and right with God. Paul says it's a denial
of the Gospel. He was denying the Gospel. Such
is the weakness of our flesh. But there is a humbling. Peter
had to be brought down. And there's a particular message.
We read Peter's sermon a little while ago, but there's a particular
message in verse 32. Send for the Joppa and call hither
for Simon, whose surname is Peter. He is lodged in the house of
one Simon, a tanner by the seaside, who, when he cometh, shall speak
unto thee. And then he says, immediately
therefore I sent to thee and thou hast done well that thou
art come. Now therefore are we all here
present before God to hear all things that are commanded thee
of God. There's a humbling, isn't it?
There is a particular message. And Peter, in that sermon, gives
a particular history. He just outlines simply the history
of the Lord Jesus Christ in the most simple ways. We'll look
at it in the weeks to come, but it is remarkable, isn't it, that
God has raised up this Jesus, this Jesus of Nazareth. He describes
him from where he comes from. He's anointed Jesus of Nazareth
with power and he talks about him just going about doing good
and healing all that were oppressed of the devil. He talks about
the witnesses. He talks about his death. He
talks about his resurrection. He talks about them being witnesses.
He talks about the command to preach. He just gives a simple
history. It is remarkable. It is remarkable
to me that in that sermon, in that sermon, with all of those
so simple things, was the cause of God the Holy Spirit coming
upon people. It is a great comfort to any
preacher to know that that was a message that sent the gospel
into this whole world. That simple message of the Lord
Jesus Christ and him crucified and him reigning and ruling and
him having a particular people in this world, and a particular
message that was sent out by a particular people. And there
is, as we saw earlier, there is, from that particular history,
there is a particular command, a particular response. He'll
tell you what you ought to do. What you ought to do is to believe. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the word of God. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that's not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. It's the gift of God. Faith is
the gift of God. Grace is the gift of God. the heavens were opened. When
the heavens are opened and God sends forth that rain from heaven,
that dew that falls on the grass, that refreshing word from God,
you see what happened. Verse 44, while Peter yet spake
these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard. There were particular people
that heard, weren't they? They of the circumcision which
believed were astonished. And as many as came with Peter
because that on the Gentiles also was poured out. The gift of the Holy Ghost was
poured out. It was poured out from heaven.
It was poured out on them from heaven. The heavens opened. Peter saw the heavens opened. God's people see the heavens
opened, and we see the Lord Jesus Christ. we see heavens opened
and we see in Revelation chapter 3, we see heavens opened and
we see what's happening in heaven right now. I love listening and
contemplating the songs of heaven. It's good to practice, isn't
it? Practice the songs of heaven while you're here on earth. But
I love the fact that there is an opening in Revelation chapter
3 verse 7, the angel to the church and to the angel of the church
in Philadelphia write, these things sayeth he that is holy,
he that is true, he that hath the key of David, and I love
what this says, he that openeth and no man shutteth." When God
opens the windows of heaven and God pours out His Spirit on people,
He opens it and no man can shut it. Not even you. Not even you
can shut it. And He shuts and no man can open. I know thy works, behold, I have
set before thee an open door that no man can shut it, for
thou hast little strength and hast kept my word and hast not
denied my name. Behold, I will make them of the
synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews and are not, but
do lie. Behold, I will make them come
and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved
thee, because thou hast kept the word of my patience. I will also keep thee from the
hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try
them that dwell upon the earth. Behold, I come quickly. Hold fast, hold that fast which thou hast,
that no man take thy crown. Him that overcometh, I will make
a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more
out. And I will write upon him the
name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which
is the new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from God.
And I will write upon him my new name. He that hath ear, let
him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. And they sing,
they sing in heaven over the page in Revelation 5, and they
sang a new song, saying, Thou art worthy, verse 9, Thou art
worthy to take the book and open the seals thereof, for Thou wast
slain and hast redeemed us to God. Every time redemption is
mentioned in the Scriptures, it's a redemption that's perfect
and complete and finished. The Lord Jesus doesn't buy something
and not receive it. Thou hast redeemed us to God
by thy blood. His blood will never be shed
in vain. But the blood takes these people,
listen to what it says, what he says, out of every kindred
and tongue and people and nation. When heavens are opened, He comes
and He takes these people and has made us unto our God, kings
and priests, and we shall reign on the earth. When the heavens
are opened, we'll sing the songs of redemption. We'll sing the
songs of a successful Saviour. When the heavens are opened,
we'll see Him high and lifted up as Isaiah did in Isaiah 6. We'll see Him in His glory. We'll
see Him, if you turn over to Revelation 19, you'll see Him
When John saw heaven opened, Revelation 19.11, I saw heaven
opened and behold, a white horse and he that sat upon him was
called Faithful and True. And in righteousness doth he
judge and make war. If we see him by the eyes of
faith, we'll see him as faithful and true. We'll see him sitting,
sitting on this horse, reigning and ruling. His eyes were as
a flame of fire and on his head were many crowns. And he had
a name written that no man knew but he himself. And he was clothed
with a vesture dipped in blood. and His name is called the Word
of God. When the heavens are opened,
we'll see Him in His glory. And that verse 15, and out of
his mouth goes a sharp sword that with it he should spite
the nations and he shall rule them with a rod of iron. When
the heavens are open, do we see him ruling with a rod of iron?
Do we see him ruling and reigning over all things? Somehow we often
think that this world has got out of control and man and Satan
are ruling somehow. That's not what the scriptures
ever even hint. even hint, he rules them with a rod of iron.
He treadeth the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of
Almighty God, and he hath on his vesture and on his thigh
a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. We'll see
him, when the heavens are open, we'll see him upon a throne. We'll see him in the light that
he brings, the light of the gospel, of the glory of God. That's the
light that comes through the preaching of the gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ. The heavens are opened. There
is a light that comes from heaven. There is a light that shines
in the preaching of the gospel. In Acts 22, the apostle to the
Gentiles is commissioned. In Acts 22, 14, the God of our
fathers has chosen you. The beginning of the commission
is an election, a declaration of the elective purposes of God.
Has chosen thee that thou should know his will and see the just
one. and should hear the voice of
his mouth." In Acts 26, Paul recounts his commissioning again,
and he recounts his meeting with the Lord Jesus Christ. And he
says, I am Jesus whom thou persecust. He says, Arise and stand on your
feet. For I have appeared unto thee
for this purpose. This is the purpose. Our God
has a purpose. when the heavens are opened to
send out this gospel to this world. I have appeared unto thee
for this purpose, to make thee a minister, to make thee a minister
and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen." You've
seen Him. You've seen Him high and lifted
up. You've seen Him reigning and
ruling, gloriously resurrected, a ruler. And of those things, you'll be
witness to those things in which I will appear unto thee, delivering
thee from the Gentiles, verse 17, to open their eyes, to turn
them from darkness to light. This is Cornelius' experience
and those in his house received, from the power of Satan unto
God, that they may receive the forgiveness of sins and inheritance
among them. Please look at it, it's an amazing
description of sanctification. Among them which are sanctified
by the faith that is in me. We're sanctified by the faithfulness
of our God. We see the Lord Jesus. We see
Him high and lifted up when the heavens are opened. We see Him
declared in the Gospel. We see Him reigning and ruling. We see Him in Gethsemane's garden,
on Calvary's tree. He bore all incarnate God could
bear with strength enough and none to spare. We see him on
his cross and when the light of God shines we see that the
cross, it takes our guilt away, it holds the fainting spirit
up, it cheers with hope the gloomy day and sweetens every bitter
cup. It makes the coward spirit brave,
and nerves the feeble arm for fight. It takes the terror from
the grave, and gills the dead of death with light. We see, when the heavens are
opened, we see the Son of God in our flesh, suffering on earth. When the heavens are opened,
we see the Son of God In our flesh, glorified in heaven, when
the heavens are opened, we see the Church of God viewed in her
relationship to this once suffering, now glorified, Emmanuel, our
God with us. And that's the picture of that
sheet, and we'll finish just looking one more time at this
sheet. This great sheet Great sheet
knit, you can imagine an upside down parachute, this great sheet
knit. And we looked a little bit at
it last week. But it means a linen cloth, this great linen cloth. In Revelation 19, the church
is described, and to her was granted that she should be arrayed
in fine linen, clean and white, for the fine linen is the righteousness
of the saints. So imagine the picture, there
is this scene that Peter looked in on and saw that it was unclean
and God says, don't you dare call anything unclean that I've
called clean. If I've cleansed it, it's clean.
What God says is right all the time. But there it is, it actually
comes down from heaven. Where did the church begin its
existence? It began its existence before
the foundation of the world, written in the Lamb's Book of
Life, named and known by God, and then it's let down from heaven,
it never loses its attachment from heaven, and it never gets
outside of being wrapped in that linen which is the righteousness
of the saints, the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. The
church originally comes from heaven and it's born down from
above. You must be born from above.
Jerusalem above is the mother of us all. It comes down It spends this time,
this short brief time on this place where God works in and
through himself, through his people, to declare his praises,
the glory of his grace, the wonder of redeeming love, the wonder
of sovereign power, the power of that blood that cleanses from
all sins. They are wrapped as one together. They are attached to heaven,
they are let down, and they are taken back to heaven. What a
glorious picture of the journey of God's children from eternity
to time to eternity. Never, ever unattached to heaven. He is the head. We are members
of his body. one with Him, let down from heaven. Such is
this church. And when it comes again in Revelation
21, and I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven
and the first earth were passed away and there were no more sea.
And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem coming down from
God out of heaven. And the first earth passed away,
and there was no more sea. And I, John, saw the holy city
of the New Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven, prepared
as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out
of heaven saying, behold, the tabernacle of God is with men,
and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people.
And God himself shall be with them and be their God. And God
shall wipe all away all tears from their eyes, and there shall
be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there
be any more pain, for the former things are passed away.' And
he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write for
these words, are true and faithful. And he said unto me, it is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega,
the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is
a thirst of the fountain of water of life freely. He that overcometh
shall inherit all things and I will be his God and he shall
be my son. The heavens are opened to reveal
the glory of God. The heavens are opened personally,
privately, individually. The heavens are opened in public
worship. The heavens are opened for the
gospel to spread throughout the world. The heavens are opened
to sustain the believers, to sustain the church and to sustain
the believers in this world. The resources of heaven and the
promises of heaven in the gospel proclaimed and believed can stand
all of the waves that wash over us in unbelief and doubt. May the heavens be opened for
you. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we do thank you that your dear and precious Son, our Lord Jesus
Christ, in response to those eternal covenant promises, Heavenly
Father, came to this earth as your servant and as our substitute,
and bled and died on Calvary's tree, and bore the curse and
bore all the wrath of God, because he was made sin for us, that
we might be made the very righteousness of God in him. Heavenly Father,
open heavens. doors for us yet again, that
we might see Him in something of His glory while we dwell here,
Heavenly Father. May we find in Him all of our
peace, all of our joy, all of our righteousness, all of our
sanctification. May He be made to us all in all. And Father, as we Take of these
elements that remind us of that broken body and his shed blood. Will you grant us the grace,
Heavenly Father, that we might remember him for his glory, Heavenly
Father. And in his name we pray. Amen.