And we went through the book
of Acts. I believe was the first study we did when I moved to
Tennessee. If I remember right, it was a
long time ago. And this was one of my favorite passages then,
and it still is. And this man, Cornelius, he had
prayed to God and the angel came and said, the Lord has answered
your prayer. And we don't know what his prayer
was. He prayed to God in private,
and it doesn't record what he prayed for in the scripture,
but the answer to his prayer was the gospel and those that
he loved being saved by God's grace through the preaching of
that gospel. And so I suspect his prayer had
something to do, as with all of us, with God saving his loved
ones, having mercy on his family and friends. As they gathered
together in that house, God did just that. And I'll tell you
this, it included the preaching of the gospel, because if God's
gonna save your loved ones, that's how he's gonna do it, isn't it?
We know that, don't we? We know that. And so that angel
said, go send for old Simon Peter. Oh, impetuous, self-righteous,
proud, quick-tempered, did not his Lord Simon. God sent an angel, but when it
came down to preaching the gospel, he said, go get old Simon, that
old fisherman. And that's what they did. How
are these people going to be saved if they don't believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ? And how are they going to believe
on him unless somebody preaches him? And how is somebody going
to preach him unless God sends them? God's got to send them. So that's what happened in our
text. And God sent that angel. Now you may think, you know,
well, well, We can't really relate to that.
God don't send us angels. I wouldn't be too sure about
that. I'd be careful about that. Angels don't preach the gospel.
But the word angel means messenger. Messenger. God has sent some
unexpected messengers in the word of God. A donkey one time
told somebody the truth. If God gives somebody a message
and gives them the grace to preach it, I want to hear it. I don't
care who they are. This angel came and he didn't
preach the gospel to him. He said sin for Simon to do that
But I know this some have entertained angels unaware as the scripture
says so the Lord May or may not do that, but I'll
tell you this if he if he's got some sheep somewhere they're
gonna hear the gospel One way or another if there's angels
involved in that somehow or another then that's and so be it. I But
this angel, he was not a man, but he told Cornelius that God had seen his devotion,
his generosity. He was a devout man. That means
he was sincere. He may not have known a whole
lot because, you know, apparently there wasn't a whole lot of preaching
around where he was. God sent him a preacher. I don't
know how much he knew at the time before Simon came, but he
was devout. He was sincere in what light
he had. The Lord had blessed him with
sincerity and generosity. And he said sin for the apostle
Peter. And you might wonder, why didn't
the angel just tell? Think about that angel. He knew
God better than anybody. Perfectly. He was a powerful. He had no sin. You suspect sin limits us in
our preaching somehow? In our understanding of the gospel? But this angel, he had no sin.
He's powerful and mighty. And he's closer to God than we
are. He's in the very presence of
God all the time. And he has no desire except to
do the will of the one that sent him. but he couldn't preach the
gospel. He couldn't preach the gospel.
And I know one reason for that for sure. Listen to this, 2 Corinthians
4, 7, we have this treasure in earthen vessels for a reason. And the way I described Simon
a while ago, he had a lot of faults, didn't he? Yeah, just
like us. But listen, God did that. We
have this treasure in earthen vessels for this reason, that
the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. If an
angel came down here this morning and preached to you, you probably
wouldn't hear half of what he said because you'd be so enamored
with the angel. Bright, shining creature. Impressive
in every way. You'd be so distracted by the
fact people are Get all excited about angels
don't they talk about angels more than they do God But God
uses the means that he does so that he gets all the glory He
gets all of it An angel is better than a man in every way. I expect
except An angel has never experienced the grace of God towards sinners. Who is an object of God's grace,
has experienced the grace of God in Christ, that person is
the one that can tell other sinners about God and His grace, about
Christ and His precious blood, and preach the glorious gospel
of the grace of God. And who better to tell how God
saves a sinner than a sinner whom God has saved. And so old
Simon was sent forth. Remember what the Lord told that
old Gadarean demoniac. Say that five times real fast.
Gadarean demoniac. He said to him, go home to your
friends and tell them how great things the Lord has done for
thee and has had compassion on thee. How's an angel gonna do that?
What has an angel got to do, got to say about the compassion
that God has for sinners? Now that being said, our sufficiency
is of God. What we lack, that's what Paul
said. He said, Paul, I'm not anything,
Barnabas is not anything. God giveth the increase and our
sufficiency is of God. have experience that is vital
to the preaching of the gospel, you can't tell somebody about
a place you haven't been to. You can't describe somebody you
haven't met. You can't tell them about an
experience that you haven't experienced. But we'd be too wretched to tell
it right, if not for God's grace. It'd be so full of error like
everything else we do. If it wasn't for the grace of
God, you wouldn't hear anything worth hearing. Look at the way God has arranged
this. Simon denied the Lord Jesus Christ
three times. Three times. But you see after
that, the Lord asking Simon three times, do you love me? Do you love me? Feed my lambs. And here, This vision that he
gave son, he gave it to him three times, didn't he? He impressed
it upon him. You preach to who I tell you
to preach to. Isn't that a picture of all of it? If God called unclean
what we call unclean, nobody would be worthy to hear the gospel. Now, God prepared the apostle
Peter for what he was about to do before he even knew he was
going to do it. You reckon he's ever done that
for you? You say, why in the world am I going through this? Why did that happen? God may
be preparing you for something you don't even know you're going
to do yet. We just have to trust him, though. We have to trust
him. He's worthy of our trust. Look at verses 14 and 15 for
a second Peter said not so I'm not going
to eat these unclean beasts. I've never eaten anything that
is common or unclean But God said what I have cleansed Don't
call it common. Don't call it unclean He didn't
say Simon you're wrong. They're not unclean He said I've
cleaned them That's talking about the people he's about to preach
to. Before he ever preached to them.
Before they ever heard the gospel. They're already clean in the
sight of God. The Gentiles, he's talking to
these Gentiles. God said, don't call somebody
unclean that I have cleansed. He didn't say they're not unclean.
They've never been unclean. They're not unclean creatures.
They are, but I cleaned them. And you go preach to them. Now, we just, we need to understand
God's love for Jacob didn't stop God from calling him a worm.
He's a worm, but he said, you're my worm. You remember that? You'll
be all right if you're his worm. It's okay to be a worm. Lot was a wretch. The Lord called him a righteous
man. Righteous man. God's not remiss to remind his
people of what we are by nature. But he also makes it clear in
this glorious gospel that everybody he's cleaned is without spot
and without blemish before him. Before him. And we need to understand
and I pray the Lord will reveal to us more and more that the
difference is Christ. The difference. Now the truth
is that we're perfect, holy, righteous, just, and pure because
we are in Christ Jesus. God just reminds us what we are
in ourselves often in the scripture. So we'll appreciate what he's
done for us a little bit more than we do. So we know how to
praise him for his grace. Where our sin abounded, grace
did much more abound. Now you need to see how sin has
abounded You'll know how much more grace has about in Christ
Jesus And that's what he's saying here. They're clean Remember
when he washed the disciples feet he said you're clean every
wit You just while you're in this world now Your feet so We can't look at
this whole chapter clearly verse by verse, but I want to Show
a couple of things here in verse 30 in verses 30 through 33, where
there were Cornelius is telling Simon what he had experienced a few days before. He said, immediately
I sent for you when the angel told me to. And this was more
than the apostle could say. Think about this, God spoke to
Peter and Peter resisted at first. He said, not so Lord, not so. And here this man who, needed
to be preached to was immediately obedient. There's a lesson somewhere
in that. God was gonna teach Cornelius
and his loved ones in this whole thing, but God taught Simon something
too, didn't he? Before here, Simon didn't want
anything to do with the Gentiles. A little self-righteousness there,
but the Lord taught him something too. He still does it that way.
Now this scene here, the way the Holy Spirit describes this
scene, all these people had gathered together and they looked with
anticipation. He said, thou hast well done
that thou art come. Now therefore, are we all here
present before God? to hear all the things that are
commanded thee of God. We ought to always approach that
way when we know the gospel is going to be preached. Boy, it's
well done. The Lord has arranged this well,
hadn't he? I'm anxious to hear. I want to
hear what God has got to say. And the preacher opened his mouth. God had arranged all this. God
was in control of this whole thing. You see that. He sent
the angel to Cornelius. He sent a messenger to Simon. He said, Simon, I am the one
that sent these to you. You receive them and hear what
they tell you, do what they tell you. I sent them. He orchestrated
this whole thing and he always does that. When you're getting up in the
morning and you're like, well, I'm pretty tired today. I don't
know if I can go. Well, you're going to go anyway,
aren't you? If God has arranged it. If God has arranged it, you're
going to go. You're going to hear from God if he intends for
you to. I guarantee you that it's not going to be up to you.
It's not up to us. Aren't you glad? Listen to this in Matthew 5 1
it says and seeing the multitudes He went up into a mountain and
when he was set his disciples came unto him and he opened his
mouth That's talking about the Lord. That's what it said about
something. He opened his mouth and taught
them God opened his mouth And that's what's happening when
his true messengers speak it's a message from God the king is
speaking this morning And I pray that that will mean
to us what it ought to mean to us. I know that I'm not worth
listening to. I know that. And you know that too. I'm not
worth five minutes of your time unless I have a message from
God. And I just might this morning.
And here's the message. Let's look at it together. That
message is this message. It's the message. There's just
one message. After explaining why he was there
in verses 34 and 35, he begins the message in verse 36, the
word, the word which God sent. That's the only thing worth telling
is the word that God sent. This is not my opinion. This
is not an argument that I have come up with. to prove people
that disagree with me wrong. This is a message that God sent.
The word that God sent. We don't make something up to
say. We find out what God said and we say it. You see the difference? People who are in the business
of motivating the flesh, they have to do that. They have to
come up with some exciting way to say something like a cheerleader
or pep rally of some kind. We don't have to do that. We
just, by God's grace, and I pray that I never do anything else. We rightly divide the word. That's the first word, the word
that God sent, the word of truth. And then he said this, preaching
peace by Jesus Christ, peace by the blood of his cross. There's
peace to be had with God. That's what we need is peace
with God. Our natural mind, the carnal
mind is enmity against God. We need peace with God. Is there
anybody here at war with God this morning? You might be at
war with God and not even know it. Or maybe you do. Maybe you do. That's the problem that all of
your other problems spring from. you have a problem with God.
And every other problem you have, I don't care what it is, perceived
or real, all of them spring from that. You need peace with God. The message of God's word is
peace by Jesus Christ. How can there be peace by Jesus
Christ? Well, because he was slain. That's
the song that they sung in Revelation 5, 9. He was slain. The song
of eternity is worthy is the lamb for thou was slain. And
there's peace made by the blood of his cross. And notice that
next phrase there in verse 36 in parenthesis. He is Lord of
all. He made peace for everybody he
wanted to make peace for because he's the Lord. by Jesus Christ, him slain, he's
Lord of all, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved. Not whosoever just don't want
to suffer for their sins and calls on the Jesus of religion,
but whosoever bows before the Lord of glory and calls upon
his name, calls for mercy, will be saved. A Jesus who ever tried
to do anything and couldn't, can't do anything. A Jesus who ever wanted to save
but couldn't is not a Savior. But the Savior is Lord of all. This is the one who said, I will
have mercy. It's not a complicated doctrine
that you need to understand. The doctrine of God's sovereignty
is not a complicated thing that we need to go, we need to read
a bunch of big old books that people have written on it. And
you know, go through all these complicated doctrine. Listen
to what God said, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. And religion gets from that.
It's all about your free will. Where'd they get that from? It
wasn't complicated, was it? Was that complicated? I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy. Therefore, it is not of
him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that
shows mercy. Was that complicated? We ought
to be teaching our five-year-old children that. That's not a complicated
doctrine. That's just God is God, and he
does as he pleases. He saves whom he pleases, when
he pleases. He's Lord of all. Remember the
former things of old, for I am God and there is none else. I
am God and there is none like me, declaring the end from the
beginning. He told Sodom and these people
are clean before he ever cleaned them. He had done it in eternity,
hadn't he? The precious eternal blood of
Christ had already washed all of their sins away. Don't call
them unclean. They're mine. Declaring the end
from the beginning and from ancient times, the things that are not
yet done saying my counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure. Does that sound like somebody
that tries if you'll let him? Calling a ravenous bird from
the east, if my prophet is hungry, I'll feed him with a bird. The
man that executeth my counsel from a far country, my prophet,
is not where I want him to be. I'll bring him where I want him
to be. He was where I wanted him to be, but now I want him
here, and I bring him. Yeah, I have spoken it, I will
also bring it to pass. I have purposed it, I will also
do it. You know what you call that?
He is Lord of all. This is who we preach. And we don't whisper it in the
back hall. We declare it right up front
when we preach the gospel, right up front. He is Lord of all. If he wants to save you, he'll
save you. If he wants to damn you, he'll damn you. I would
bow. I would bow and I would ask him
for mercy. In the verse 37, that word I
say, you know, which was published throughout all Judea and began
from Galilee after the baptism, which John preached. This is
no new message. You know what I'm talking about.
It's not that people don't understand the gospel. They just don't like
the Christ of the gospel. They don't like him. They like
to have a free will. The biggest myth in the world,
the free will of man. This wasn't done in a corner.
Paul said to Agrippa, I know you believe what the prophets
have written. Those of you who are here and
have not been saved, you know exactly what I'm talking about
this morning. You know exactly what I'm talking about. It's
not complicated. It's simply a matter of bowing. Bowing, receiving the love of
the truth and bowing to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of all.
Verse 38, 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. We know
from the Lord's own testimony why God anointed his son with
power. He said, there, God anointed him with power. Listen to what
he said about that. These words spake Jesus and lifted
up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come, glorify
thy son, that thy son also may glorify thee, as thou hast given
him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to
as many as thou hast given him. This is life eternal that they
might know thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou
hast sent. Simon is identifying a person. That's what he's doing when he's
preaching the gospel to these people. That's what resulted
in their salvation. He's identifying a person. He's telling them who he is and
what he did. He is the anointed Christ of
God. God in human flesh. God the Son
came down here and dwelt among us, promised of old, and in these
last days, God has spoken unto us by Him, sent Him to accomplish
the Father's will. What's the Father's will? Goodwill
toward men. Glory to God in the highest.
Peace on earth and goodwill toward men. Verse 39, 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 the tree. All things which he did. What
did he do? They slew him and hanged him.
Sounds like something they did. No, it was something he did.
You see that there? All things that he did. When they slew him and hanged
him on a tree, that was the Son of God making his own soul an
offering for my sin. This is the reason that every
lamb and every bullock and every goat and every animal that was
ever slain in the Old Testament under the Old Covenant was slain,
to picture and set forth him who was slain at Calvary. We talked about that song of
the ages, thou wast slain. Thou wast slain, that's the song
of eternity. Worthy is the lamb that was slain.
He redeemed everybody for whom he died. Listen to this, every
priest, every Old Testament priest standeth daily ministering and
offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take
away sins, but this man. after he had offered one sacrifice
for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God, from henceforth
expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. See if this
sounds like he's trying to save people. He's going to save as many as
he can, but he just can't save everybody because they just won't
let him. Listen. For by one offering, he hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified. It doesn't sound like a whole
lot's in the air, does it? Verse 40, him God raised up the
third day and showed him openly, not to all people, but unto witnesses
chosen before of God, even to us who did eat and drink with
him after he rose from the dead. Who is he that condemneth? It
is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen. Again, who is
even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession
for us. And notice the word, again, in
verse 40, openly, openly, openly. Ignorance cannot be pleaded. Not when the gospel's preached.
You know, you can't plead ignorance, can you? These hearers that day
had likely never heard the gospel so concisely and plainly set
forth, but they knew what Peter was talking about, didn't they?
He said, you know, you know, this was openly done. Those to
whom he has revealed himself are witnesses. A witness is somebody
that's seen something and heard something, experienced something,
is able to tell. They testify of him What he did. What we've seen is Christ. What
we've heard is Christ. What we've experienced is Christ. And we testify of him. Paul said,
we preach Christ and him crucified. 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. What are we supposed to teach?
What did he tell us to teach? It is he. It is he that was ordained of
God to decide who lives and who dies. That's what it says. The judge,
he's the one that decides every case. Every case. It is he that decides the whole
matter. The matter is life and death. Quickened dead. John 5.21, for
as the father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them, even
so the son quickeneth whom he will. If you want to read some books
that thick, I've got some. But maybe just look at this one,
and hear the simple, plain declaration of Christ, the almighty, invincible
savior, the savior of sinners. His precious blood is powerful
to save, and he saves everybody whom he shed that precious blood
for, everybody. Even so, the Son quickeneth whom
He will, for the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all
judgment unto the Son, that all men should honor the Son. And
you look up that word, judgment, and see what it means. It's the
deciding of the case. That all men should honor the
Son, even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth not the Son
honoreth not the Father, which hath sent Him. Everybody that's
talking about God all around the world, If they have no interest
in or love for Jesus Christ, the Lord, they don't know who
God is. Verse 43, to Him give all the
prophets witness that through His name, whosoever believeth
in Him shall receive remission, cancellation, the putting away
of sin. Sins here, but sins and sin. What's the difference? Well sins
are what we do sin is what we are Remission of sins this has
always been God's message it is he It doesn't matter what
part of the scripture you go to, what story you tell, the
Passover, remember Exodus chapter 12 and all of the plagues that
God sent, and then finally the Passover lamb was slain, and
the firstborn in all of Egypt died that night, but the firstborn
of every one, in every house where the lamb was slain was
spared because of the blood of that lamb. What about what's
what's the Passover he said remember when you said your children are
gonna ask you what is this about? It's the Lord's Passover, what's
the Passover it is he It is he That's what Simon's talking about
when I see the blood. I will pass over you it is he
Unto us a child is born unto us a son is given who's that
it is he it's Christ His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor,
the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of what? Peace. Peace by Jesus Christ. It is
He. And these are all written that
you might believe, and that believing you might have life through His
name. Remission of sins is life. It's the wages of sin that's
death. Remission of sins is life. It's
not believing some things. It's believing on Him. He said
to His disciples, you believe in God, believe also in Me. Martha, you believe in the resurrection.
I am the resurrection. Thomas, you don't know the way.
I am the way. You see how every time that they
were thinking about anything, it's I am. I am. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. You search the scriptures, for
in them you think you have life. They are they which testify of
me. That's what Simon's talking about
here. It is he. This is the record that God has
given to us eternal life. And this life is in his son.
He that hath the son hath life, and he that hath not, the son
of God, That's not life. The gospel is so clear, isn't
it? It's so plain. This is the message of God's
book. It is He. And while Peter yet spake these
words, verse 44, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard
the word. Think about this for a second Simon is preaching the
gospel and as he did and we know that the Holy Ghost falling upon
you then meant That you receive these gifts of speaking in tongues
and things that he mentions here but that that didn't happen to
people except his people that that was That that's not salvation,
but receiving the Holy Ghost within you is salvation regeneration
life You've got to be born from above, born of the Spirit of
God, or you can't see or enter the kingdom of God. And so yes,
they received these gifts, but God saved them is what happened
too. More importantly, those gifts were just given to confirm
that what was being said came from God. Evidently it came from
God. Well, Peter yet spake these words. What words was he speaking? The
way he described it was the word. Remember that? The word that
God sent. And while he did, God did something. He didn't have to beg anybody
to do anything, did he? He just declared who Christ is
and what he did, and God saved people. That's how it'll happen
this morning, too, if he's pleased to do that. Isn't that wonderful? Isn't that wonderful? I'm not
gonna get anybody saved this morning, but God might just save
somebody. That's how it works. While the
gospel is preached, God the Holy Spirit comes and gives a new
birth, life within the sinner. You must be born of the Spirit,
not do something, not make a decision. And once you are born of the
Spirit, then look at verse 48, and he commanded them to be baptized. In the name of the Lord. In the
name of the one that saved him. That just sounds appropriate,
doesn't it? For the glory of the Lord that saved him. Then
prayed they him to Terry certain days. Isn't that beautiful? You think about that now. They
didn't know Simon from Adam. That angel came and said, sent
for Simon. I'm sure they had heard of him, maybe. Surely,
you know, some of the apostles' word had gotten around. Listen,
here comes this man and declares the gospel to them. All he did
was talk about Christ, didn't he? Everything he said was it
is he, the word that God sent. Here's what he did, remission
of sins, peace with God through his blood. And what did they
say to that? Don't leave. Don't go anywhere. Just stay here and tell us more. May God give us that hunger and
thirst after Him.