How good and how pleasant it
is for brethren to dwell together
in unity. Our Lord calls it good because
it glorifies him. It's good for us too, isn't it? Good for his sheep. Good for
so many reasons. God's glorified. His word is
set forth. And it's just enjoyable, too,
isn't it? Pleasant. How pleasant it is.
I'm just thankful to be here. I appreciate the invitation to be here. Acts
chapter 10 this morning. Now, this chapter is a long chapter,
but it's one of those chapters where you pretty much need to
see everything in it to understand the message. It has one message,
as all the scripture does. But all of this really is immediate
context in this chapter. This man named Cornelius had
been praying to God, and an angel comes and says, God's heard your
prayer. We don't know what his specific prayer was, but the
answer to it was a preacher. And the result of that preacher
coming was much of his family and friends were saved. So I
don't know if he was praying for their salvation or for a
preacher, but it kind of goes together, doesn't it? But this
man, Cornelius, let's read some of it in the beginning there.
There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion
of the band called the Italian Band, a devout man, and one that
feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people
and prayed to God all way. He saw in a vision, evidently
about the ninth hour of the day, an angel of God coming into him
and saying unto Cornelius, and saying unto him, Cornelius. And
when he looked on him, he was afraid and said, what is it,
Lord? And he said unto him, thy prayers and thine alms are come
up for a memorial before God. And now send men to Joppa and
call for one Simon, whose surname is Peter. he lodgeth with one
Simon a tanner, whose house is by the seaside, he shall tell
thee what thou oughtest to do. And when the angel which spake unto
Cornelius was departed, he called two of his household servants
and a devout soldier of them that waited on him continually.
And when he declared all things unto them, he sent them to Joppa. Now, evidently, this man, Cornelius,
was not well-educated in the things of God. We don't know
for sure that. But what we do know is he worshipped
God in the light that he had. He had some light from God, and
he worshipped him in it. And he was devout. And that word
means he was earnest about it. He was sincere about it. Where
the Lord gives a hunger and a thirst, He said, blessed are you, because
I'll fill that thirst. I'll fill that hunger. I'll feed
you. And this man apparently had that.
He desired to hear from God, because the answer to his prayer,
as I said, according to the angel of God, was to have the apostle
Peter come and preach the gospel to him and those that he loved.
And as I said also, his prayer may have had something to do,
he feared God and he wanted those that he loved to fear God too.
I believe that had something to do with it because that was
the result of it, wasn't it? God answered his prayer and the
answer involved his loved ones being saved. But that included
in that is the preaching. How are they going to be saved?
If they believe not, by grace are you saved through faith?
And how are they going to believe on him of whom they've not heard?
And how are they going to hear unless God sends a preacher? How is Peter going to preach
or anybody else unless God sends him? And that's what's happening here
in this text. And God sent an angel to him. You may think, well, boy, I can't
really relate to that. God doesn't send angels to us.
Are you sure about that? Are you sure? Keep in mind what's
important here in this text. An angel is just a messenger.
That's what the word means, a messenger from God. God sends all kinds
of messengers to his sheep. Some have entertained angels
unawares. Now this angel, this angel wasn't
a man, but he told Cornelius that God saw his devotion and
his generosity and he gave him something to do. He said, send
for the apostle Peter. And this has always been amazing
to me, not as it ought to be, but this is curious, isn't it? Here's an angel from heaven.
You think about that. An impressive creature. Here's
a creature that does nothing but God's will, only God's will,
always God's will, with all of whatever passes for a heart in
an angel that he had. With everything he has, he's
at God's beck and call. Powerful. Everything he said was perfect
too, don't you imagine? able to speak for God. In fact, when the angel spoke,
Cornelius said, what is it, Lord? He knew who had sent him. And
when his messengers speak, it's the Lord. That's what we ought
to be saying this morning. If one of his messengers speaks
to get up here, we should be saying, what is it, Lord? What
is it? But this is an angel from God.
Why didn't he just preach the gospel? to Cornelius and his
family. You ever thought about that?
Here's a man, an angel, a creature better than us in every way,
wouldn't you say? More qualified in every way,
except maybe one. I know one reason the angel didn't
preach the gospel to them. Second corinthians 4 7 we have
this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power
may be of god And not of us If an angel came down here we
would be too enamored with the angel wouldn't we we'd miss the
message And so God uses the means that
he does for his own glory Cornelius even thought too much of the
Apostle Peter, didn't he? Much less an angel. He was fixing
to worship Peter, and Peter said, no, let's you and me go in your
house, and we'll both worship the one who's worthy to be worshiped. Better than a man, though, an
angel in every way, but I suppose qualified more in every way,
except that a sinner. who is an object of God's grace,
has experienced the grace of God in Christ. Like no other
creature, even angels, who better to tell how God saves a sinner?
Who better to tell who it is that God saves and how he saves
them and why and the result than a sinner whom God has saved.
Remember what our Lord told that demoniac of Gadara to do. He
said, go home and tell your friends how great things the Lord has
done for thee and has had compassion on thee. What's an angel going
to say about that? An angel can't talk about that,
can he? Now that being said, our sufficiencies
of God We may have that one qualification, our experience of God's grace
is vital to the preaching of God's grace. But we'd be too
wretched to tell it if it wasn't for his grace. But see and marvel at the arrangement
of God here. Go get impetuous, denied me three
times, Too much of an idiot just to
simply obey God. Isn't that right? We're going
to read that in a minute. And I can call him an idiot because
I am one. I know what they look like. The Lord said, Peter, kill and
eat. And he said, not so, Lord. You
ever done that? But do you want to hear the glories
of Christ, the Redeemer of sinners? You want to hear what? About
the forgiveness of sin? Go get Old Cephas. Now God was preparing the apostle
for what he was about to experience. We get a glimpse in this chapter,
and again, I can't read the whole chapter, but I hope you're somewhat
familiar with it. He gave Peter, he gave a vision
to Cornelius, didn't he? And he gave one to Peter too.
And that sheep that came down from heaven with all manner of
beasts, which according to Jewish law were all unclean. And God
said, kill and eat. And Peter said, not so Lord.
I've never eaten anything unclean. If your religion, blinds you to the word of God. Here's God telling you what to
do. Here's the word of God himself. And you say, oh, I can't do that.
I'm too good to do that. I fear that happens a lot more
than we think it does. But God, he gave that vision
to him. And he was preparing him for
what was about to happen. And we don't know when it's happening.
Peter didn't have any idea why in the world he saw what he saw
in this vision. But later he looked back on it
and he said, OK, I get it now. Has that ever happened to you?
I kind of get it now. Oh, the Lord, he knows. He's
gracious to prepare us. I still don't know, in many situations,
why God did what he did, but you know, let's leave the providence
up to the one who knows the end from the beginning and who doeth
all things well. But we'll have to leave that
vision. I won't say any more about that other than to say
that Peter still had some things to learn, didn't he? The apostle
Peter, who'd been through so many things and learned so many
things from the Lord, heard teachings from his own mouth, He still
had a lot to learn and let's don't ever imagine that we don't
And this is basic in it. It just seemed like The Lord
gives you a clear word. You'd say yes master But we still
don't do it And one other thing look at verses 14 and 15 Peter said not so Lord for I've
never eaten anything that is common or unclean. And the voice
spake unto him again the second time, what God hath cleansed,
that call not thou common. Now the dream was about some
unclean animals, but God's teaching the apostle, Peter hears something
about people, isn't he? He's preparing him to preach
to some people who he considered to be unclean. This refers to
the Gentiles who were considered unclean by the Jews. But the
truth is, all of us are unclean until God cleanses us. And when
he does, we're not unclean anymore. And he's teaching him that here
too, isn't he? Don't call someone unclean that
I have cleansed. Now, I've heard people say, You
know, we like to, me included, we like to share our wisdom with
everybody. I've heard people say, you know,
you should never refer to a sinner as good. Don't ever say a sinner
is good. I've also heard preachers say
that we should never refer to a believer as evil. Haven't you
heard that? Oh no, we're perfect in Christ. Christ sees us wholly perfect,
and He does. God sees us in His Son, spotless,
without blame. So don't ever call a believer
evil. But here's the thing, God does both. He calls sinners good. He calls us evil, too. We need
to just understand the difference. That's what we need to be clear
on. God's love for Jacob didn't stop Him from calling Jacob a
worm, did it? Nor did lots wretchedness, deep
wretchedness, stop God from calling him a righteous man. Did it?
God's never been shy about reminding his people of what we are by
nature. And he also makes it clear in his book that people,
his people, his sheep, are without spot, without blemish, or any
such thing in Christ Jesus. We just need to understand, and
I pray we will more and more, that the difference is Christ.
That's what we need to understand. You call me what you want to,
but I'm his, and in him I'm perfect. The truth is we are perfect.
We are perfect. Don't call unclean what I've
cleansed, he said. And so may we be reminded of
that in Christ Jesus. He just reminds us what we are
in ourselves so that we'll praise him for his grace as we ought.
Look how far down he reached for this worm. It's where sin
abounded that grace did much more abound. But this is an important
lesson here. What God has cleansed is clean.
Clean. Now, We can't comment particularly
on every verse in this chapter, but look at verses 30 through
33 of these. In Cornelius. When Peter came and began to
speak to him, here's Cornelius' explanation as to why he sent
for him. And that's what Peter asked him, what intent have you
sent for me? And Cornelius said, four days ago I was fasting until
this hour, and at the ninth hour I prayed in my house. And behold,
a man stood before me in bright clothing and said, Cornelius,
thy prayer is heard, and thine alms are had in remembrance in
the sight of God. Send therefore to Joppa, And
call hither Simon, whose surname is Peter. He's lodged in the
house of one Simon a tanner by the seaside, who, when he cometh,
shall speak unto thee. Immediately, therefore, I sent
to thee, and thou hast well done that thou art come. Now, therefore,
we are all here present before God to hear all things that God,
that are commanded thee of God. He counts the experience that
he had in the past few days to the apostle. And then he said,
immediately I sent for you. When the angel told me to, that's
what we did. And this was more than the apostle
could say. You think about that? God spoke
to Peter and Peter resisted at first. Not so Lord. And here's a man that had walked
with the Lord. But this man Cornelius probably
knew very little. But when God sent a word to him,
he immediately obeyed it. There's a lesson for us in there
somewhere. God was gonna teach Cornelius
and his loved ones in this whole thing. But God taught the apostles some
things here too. And I pray When we preach we're
not preaching down are we bruce? Oh my And picture this scene how that
the holy spirit describes it all of these people had gathered
and it says they all look Look at verse 33 again Immediately
therefore I sent to you and now has well done that you're come
and now therefore we are all present here Before God, to hear
all things that are commanded thee of God, then Peter opened
his mouth. They're all sitting there in
anticipation of what he's gonna say, and the preacher opened
his mouth. Why do you suppose it even tells us that? If it
just told us what he said, we could assume that he had to open
his mouth in order to say it. But you see, we have that same
language in Matthew 5, 1. Seeing the multitudes, our Lord
Jesus Christ went up into a mountain. And when he was set, his disciples
came unto him, and he opened his mouth and taught them, saying,
blessed. Here the Son of God comes to
this wretched, sin-cursed earth. And the first word out of his
mouth, instead of condemnation and wrath that we deserve, is
blessed. Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. God opened his mouth. And when his true messengers
opened their mouth to speak, Brother Bruce is going to come
up here and open his mouth in a minute. You know who's going to be talking,
though? It's going to be God talking. If that's not true,
then let's just go to a ballgame or something. The king is speaking. Oh, that
that meant to us what it ought to mean. I know that I'm not worth listening
to. Don't you think I know that? I know that. I'm not worth five
minutes of your time unless I have a message from God. And here's that message. That
message is this message that Peter's fixing to preach. And
it's the message. After explaining why he was there
in verses 34 and 35, and you can read that later, he just
explained why he was there. He begins the message though
in verse 36, and you know what the first word, the first two
words out of his mouth, the word, the word, the word, the word
which God sent. I don't have anything to say
to you this morning much. We could talk about the weather
and things like that, but this is the word that God sent. Sent by God, we don't make up
something to say. People who are in the business
of motivating the flesh, they have to do that. They don't have
to make it up because it's not in this book. That's not what
this book's about. But we just, by God's grace, I pray rightly
divide the word of truth. That's our business. And I pray
God will make it so. And then he said, here's the
word that God sent. Peace. by Jesus Christ. Peace by the
blood of his cross. Peace. Is there anybody here
at war with God? Are you interested in the message
of peace? Are you aware that you're one
problem from which all of your other problems are born? Is that
you are enmity against God by nature? The message of God's
word is peace by Jesus Christ. But how can there be peace by
Jesus Christ? How in the world did he make
peace? Did he come to just make peace
on earth? No more war, you know, nobody fussing with one another
anymore. How did he make peace? Look at verse 39. 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. That's
how he made peace. He was slain. This is the song
of eternity, Revelation 5, 9, and they sung a new song saying,
thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof,
for thou was slain and has redeemed us to God by thy blood. Out of every kindred in tongue
and people and nation, The good news is that there is peace by
Jesus Christ and him slain. And notice the next phrase in
verse 36. Look at verse 36. The word which God sent unto
the children of Israel preaching peace by Jesus Christ, which
we know as we read ahead there is because he was slain. We have
peace by the blood. But here's the next phrase. He's
Lord of all. This is not sweet Jesus doing
the best he can and leaving it up to you. This is the Lord of
all that was slain for a purpose. This is the Christ of God who
came to pay the sin debt of his people, to bear their iniquities
and pay the penalty for them. He's Lord of all. Whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. A Jesus who ever
tried to do anything and couldn't. Can't save you. Jesus, whoever
wanted to save but couldn't, is no savior. But the Savior
is the Lord of all. Aren't you glad? He's mighty
to save. He's sovereign to save. He said,
Father, you've given me authority over all flesh that I should
save them, that I should give eternal life to as many as thou
hast given me. This is the one who said, I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy. Who did you think was
talking with that? That's the Lord Jesus Christ. I will have
mercy on whom I will. As the father quickeneth him
he will, so he has given authority to the son to give life to whomsoever
he will. This is the one that that leper
came to and said, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. And who said to that leper, I
will. I will. You think about that. Salvation
is in those two words. I will. I will. We say we will a lot, don't we?
Salvation is when he says I will. He is Lord of all. You remember
what Mary said to the wedding guests? Whatever he says to you,
do it. That's what I'm saying to you
this morning. You know why? Because he's Lord of all. He's
Lord of all. He asked by his prophet Isaiah
in Isaiah 46, nine, remember the former things of old, for
I'm God and there is none else. I am God, and there's none like
me, 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. I will do all my pleasure. What's your pleasure, Lord? Lord,
if you will, you can make me clean. I will. That's what pleases Him, to save
sinners. I'm mighty glad of that. I'll
do all my pleasure, calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that
executes my counsel from a far country. Yeah, I've spoken it.
I will also bring it to pass. I will. I have purposed it. I will also do it. He's Lord of all. That's who
we preach now. And then verse 37, he said, that word, I say,
you know, you know, you know what I'm saying this morning,
don't you? which was published throughout all Judea and began
from Galilee after the baptism which John preached. This is
no new message. This wasn't done in a corner.
Paul said to King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know
you do. Didn't he say that to him? I
know you do. You know exactly what I'm saying.
You understand it up here in your head. That's not the problem
with sinners. They don't know who God is and
who Jesus Christ. You can't hate somebody you don't
know. If you're an atheist, there's
no such thing as an atheist. You realize that, right? How
can you hate a God that doesn't exist? Those of you who are here who
have not been saved, who don't know the Lord Jesus Christ, you
know what I'm talking about. This isn't complicated. It's
not complicated. It's simply a matter of submission. It's a matter of who's God and
who's not. Will you bow to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of
all? He's Lord of all. And you know
what I'm saying. And we don't say that without
compassion now. When Paul spoke to Agrippa, you
remember what else he said? I would to God. I would to God that you were
just like me. Accept these bonds. 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. When it says he went about
doing good, it's not talking about like you might say that
about one of us. Oh, he does good. He does a lot
of good everywhere he goes. Everywhere he went, he did nothing
but good. That which is good. He made the universe and said
it's good. When he makes a new creature in Christ Jesus, it's
good. When he brings his family together, how good and how pleasant.
Everything he does he doeth all things well healing all them
that were oppressed of the devil. We know from the Lord's own testimony
Why God anointed his son with power? It says there in verse
38. He anointed Jesus of Nazareth
with the Holy Ghost and with power And then what did he do
he went about doing good he went about saving sinners and showing
how sinners are saved by all the miracles that he did and
And that's what he said in John 17, one of these words spake
Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, father, the
hours come glorify thy son, that thy son also may glorify thee
as thou has given him power over all flesh. He anointed him with
power to do good. What is that good? That he should
give eternal life to as many as thou has given him, not offer
it to everybody. Give it to those who were ordained
to eternal life. Give it to them. And this is life eternal. How
did he give it to us? He gave it to whoever he pleases,
to whom the father gave him. How does he give it to us? This
is life eternal, that they might know thee. He gave it to us by
opening our understanding. that we might understand his
book and see him in all of his glory, in his redemptive glory. The only true God and Jesus Christ
whom thou hast sent." You see what Peter's doing here in this
message? He's just simply identifying a person. Isn't that what he's
doing? Identifying a person here and
telling who he is and what he did. He's the anointed Christ
of God in human flesh, God Almighty, God the Son, promised of old,
and in these last days come to accomplish the Father will. And
that's what he's doing. What's that? Goodwill toward
men. Went about doing good, good and
healing for sinners. Who did Christ heal? Who did
he heal? Everybody that needed it. Isn't
that right? They came to him in droves, and
he never turned a single one away. What a spiritual lesson. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. And boy, if you come, he'll never
cast you out. Do you need him? Verse 39, and we're witnesses
of all these things which he did both in the land of the Jews
and in Jerusalem, whom they slew and hanged on a tree. This is
the reason that every lamb and every bullock and every goat
and every animal was ever slain in the Old Testament under the
Old Covenant. to picture, to set forth, to glorify him who
was slain at Calvary. There's the lamb. Paul said,
all of the blood of all those bullocks and goats and lambs
and everything that was there, he said, can never take away
sin. And then here comes John the Baptist that said, there's
the lamb that does though, right there. There's the one that does
take away sin. And we're witnesses of these
things. They slew him and hanged him on a tree. We saw how that his being slain
is the song of the ages, we read that, and thou was slain and
has redeemed us. He redeemed everyone for whom
he died. Hebrews 10, 11, every priest
standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same
sacrifices which can never take away sin, but this man, after
he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on
the right hand of God, something no other priest ever did when
he was ministering, because the work wasn't done by them. From
henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool,
for by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Verse 40, God raised up the third
day and showed him openly, not to all the people, but unto witnesses
chosen before God, even to us who did eat and drink with him
after he rose from the dead. God raised him up the third day.
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 openly
there, openly. Ignorance cannot be pleaded.
These hearers that day had likely never heard the gospel so concisely
and so plainly set forth as they did that day, but they knew what
Peter was talking about. They knew what he was talking
about. Those to whom he has revealed himself are witnesses. They testify
of him and what he did. What's our testimony? Well, Paul
described it this way, 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 quickened
death. What are we to teach? What are
we to testify? It is He. It is He. It is He. It is he that decides the whole
matter, the judge of quick and dead. You know who the judge
is? He's the one that renders the verdict. He's the one that
decides the case. He decides the whole matter and
the matter is life and death. John 5 21 for as the father raises
up the dead and quickeneth them even so the son quickens whom
he will For the father judges no man, but hath committed all
judgment under the son Do you see how him having all judgment
is connected there to him giving life to whom he will that's how
he judges the matter If he gives life to you and not to you The case has been decided right
there He's committed all judgment under
the son. Why in the world did he do that
that all men should honor the son? Even as they honor the father
and if you don't honor the son you don't honor the father Verse
43 to him give all the prophets witness that through his name,
whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sin. A sinner's
never been saved but one way. The prophets have been preaching
it. We're preaching it now. This has always been the same
message. God has spoken in diverse manners in times past and has
in these last days spoken unto us by his son, but he's always
spoken of his son. It's always been the same message.
What is it? It is he. It is he. The Passover. It is he. When I see the blood, I'll pass
over you. It's he. Under us, a child is born. Under
us, a son is given. It is he. His name shall be called
Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father,
the Prince of Peace. It is he. These are all written,
John said. You know why God wrote a book?
That you might believe. And if he wrote this book that
you might believe, you're gonna believe. And that believing,
you might have life through his name. Our text here says you
shall receive whosoever believeth shall receive remission of sins.
John put it that you should have life, same thing. Remission of
sins is life. It's not believing some things.
It's not believing in him that he exists, that somebody died
on a cross. It's not believing, it's not
taking a stand on issues. He said to his disciples, you
believe in God, believe also in me. Martha said, I believe that my
brother will rise in the resurrection. I believe in the resurrection.
Martha, I am the resurrection. Thomas, you don't know the way,
I am the way. You search the scriptures for
in them you think you have life. They are they which testify of
me. Come to me and you'll have life. First John 511, this is
the record that God has given us eternal life. Life's in His
Son. He that hath the Son hath life.
He that hath not the Son of God hath not life. This is the message
of God's book. It is He. And while Peter yet
spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all of them which heard
the word. Peter didn't beg anybody to do anything. He didn't sing
just as I am 18 times. While the gospel was preached,
while he was yet preaching it, the Spirit of God came down.
That's how that works. If God is pleased to bless the
message. You must be born of the Spirit,
not do something. You must be born from above.
And once you were born of the Spirit, then, verse 48, he commanded
them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Then prayed they
him to Terry certain days. I like that just last little
tidbit there, don't you? All he did, this man was a stranger
to them. They didn't know him from Adam.
All he did is come to them and preach them the simple truth
that Christ is salvation. And they said, don't leave. Don't leave. I pray that we have
that same excitement about the gospel. We're probably going
to kind of feel that way this weekend, aren't we? We're going
to hear Brother Bruce preach the truth to us again here in
a minute. We're going to say, let's just stay a while and hear
it again. Thank God for his gospel.