10, verse 36, Acts 10, 36. This will be our opening verse. Acts 10, 36. which God sent unto the children
of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ. He is Lord of all. Now in Acts 10 here, we're going
to read about two men. They both had a need. One had
need of hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ and the peace that
only Christ can give a sinner. And the other had need of learning
that God saves all kinds of men, that we can't judge or determine
looking on the outside who will believe the gospel, But the Lord
shows this other one that the Lord has a people that need to
hear this gospel and he's going to be sent to preach that gospel
and both are going to witness the power of God and the salvation
of his people. And the two men were Cornelius
and Peter. And Cornelius, he learned that
he had a need. Because if you look there in
Acts 10, verse 5, we see that an angel was sent from God to
speak to Cornelius, and he said, 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 so Cornelius does send three
men out to Joppa to go find Peter, to hear words of Peter, the scripture
says. So this Cornelius had something
yet lacking. He needed to hear something.
So on the next day, these men go out and they're on their way
to Joppa to find Peter. And Peter, we find, is about
to learn that he should call no man, common or unclean. And he's up on a housetop and
he's waiting for some food to be made, I guess, because he
becomes very hungry. And he's praying, and he falls
into a trance, and he sees something, as it were, like a sheep being
let down from heaven, and inside were all manner of four-footed
beasts and wild beasts and creeping things and fowls of the air.
And a voice comes to Peter in verse 15 and says, A voice spake
unto Peter, saying, What God hath cleansed, that call not
thou common. And to drive home the point to
Peter, it was done three times, so that Peter would understand,
or begin to understand, what is going on. So then the three
men, they come to the house there in Joppa, and they're looking
for Peter, and it says in verse 19, While Peter thought on the
vision, the Spirit said unto him, Behold, three men seek thee.
Arise therefore, and get thee down, and go with them, doubting
nothing, for I have sent them. And so we see that Peter obeys
the voice of the Lord, he listens to these men, and he goes with
them over to Cornelius' house to preach the gospel to Cornelius
and his household and all the friends that Cornelius had gathered
there to hear the words that Peter had to preach to them. The psalm of what Peter said
says that through the name of Jesus Christ that whosoever believeth
on him shall receive remission of sins. So what ought Cornelius
to do? Cornelius needed to hear this
gospel. He needed to hear the gospel
that the Lord might draw forth that faith which he had given
to Cornelius to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for the remission
of sins. So that Peter, having preached
this very word, we see in Acts 10.44, that while Peter yet spake
these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word,
because they heard them speak in tongues, because the Holy
Ghost had fallen upon them, and they were magnifying the Lord.
My title this morning is The Gentile, the Jew, and Peace by
Jesus Christ. And my prayer is that we'll see
that God puts no difference between men. As men, we judge other men,
we put differences between men, we look on the outward, if you
will, but all the Lord sees is that there are sinners that have
no part in Him, and there are sinners that need Him, that need
His grace, and they have a part in Him, and He must save them. When we look at others, we look
at black and white, we look at male and female, we look at educated
and uneducated, we look at poor and rich, and so we put differences,
all kinds of differences between men, but the Lord, He doesn't
put that same difference. He doesn't judge as men judge.
He judges in righteousness, and we need to hear the gospel, the
gospel of God's grace, because there's one salvation, there's
one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. That's
the only way that we have to the Father. So our three divisions
this morning will be Cornelius and Peter and peace by Jesus
Christ. Look in verse 1, Acts 10 verse
1. It says there was a certain man,
a certain man, meaning that God had determined before the foundation
of the world to save this man. 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 always. So we see from verse 1, he's
stationed there in Caesarea. He's of the Italian band, so
that he and his men would have been sent from Italy up to Caesarea
there, where the Jews were in Israel. And we see in verse 2
that he's a devout man. He feared God, as did all his
household. He gave much alms to the people
that were there. So this would be the Jews that
he's giving much alms to. He's doing good deeds to them.
And he prayed to God always. So that clearly this is a religious
man. He's probably a proselyte. He's
probably a proselyte. And he says, and that's 1030,
when he's speaking to Peter, telling him why he's called him
there, he says, four days ago I was fasting until this hour,
and at the ninth hour I prayed in my house. Now, the ninth hour
would be about 3 p.m., because the Jews, they count the time
of day based on when the sun rises so that nine hours from
about 6 a.m. would be 3 p.m. and this would
be the evening sacrifice so he's praying at a very specific time
3 p.m. he knows why he's praying at
this time because it's a religious And Acts 3.1 tells us that this
is the hour of prayer. This is when the apostles John
and Peter had gone up to the temple at one time, and it says
it was the hour of prayer. It's also the time when they
would sacrifice the evening sacrifice, and also the time When our Lord,
when He was crucified on the cross, cried out at that very
hour, at 3 p.m., if you will, He cried out saying, Eloi, Eloi,
lama sabachthani, which means, my God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? So, this man is a religious man. And he's done many religious
things, but he has, he yet lacks something. There's something
not right. He was warned of God. He was
warned of God that he had to send for Peter. And the reason
why I'm laboring this, because I don't really care about all
these little details, but what I want us to get, the point that
I want us to see here is that this man was a very religious
man. He did many good deeds. He did many good things. Many
things that if man were saved by his righteousness and keeping
the law, and if man could be saved by his good deeds and being
a good man and doing more good things than he did bad things,
if anyone could be saved that way, Cornelius would probably
fall into that bucket. But he needed to hear what Peter
had to say. The Lord made a point, you need
to send for Peter, you must hear these words. He was warned of
God to hear what Peter had to say. Brethren, if there's anyone
here who is looking to their own righteousness, and the heart
is so deceitful, the heart is so deceitful. I was saying to
Peggy last night just that, you know, there's a time, you know,
I knew the right things to say for so long. I knew the right
words to say. I wouldn't say this out loud, but When I began
to seek the Lord as a teenager, not in the true gospel, I was
under a false gospel and a false understanding, but I was coming
to the Lord and I had hope that now I could seek the Lord because
I had straightened up my life. I had done some religious things,
I put away a number of sins, and now I felt confident that
now I can seek the Lord because I had taken care of certain things. I had put away certain sins. And so now I was at liberty to
seek the Lord and call myself a Christian and to believe on
Jesus. And that's not the truth at all.
We've got to be shown that we're a vile, dead, no-good-for-nothing
sinner. That we need Christ. Christ must
make us clean. Christ must cleanse us of our
sins. We don't cleanse ourselves up
to a certain point and then God will have mercy on us. That's
works. That's believing in our own works and trusting in our
own works. So that whether we come believing completely in
our own works or we come believing a little bit in Christ and a
little bit in our good works, either way, both are wicked,
both are wrong, both won't lead us. Both won't have us stand
before God in righteousness and in peace and in full assurance. So, we've got to understand that
our acceptance with God is not based on our goodness, it's not
based on our doing much good works, it's not based on saying
the right things and doing the right things or going to the
right church or coming to church regularly or reading the Bible
and praying. That's not what makes peace between
us. and God. The only acceptance
that we have, the only peace that any sinner has with God
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the one who makes us righteous
before God. Christ alone makes atonement
for sin. He's the one who makes peace
between God and sinners. Otherwise, why did Cornelius
need to call Peter? Why would Cornelius need to call
for Peter and hear what Peter had to say? And the other point
is that the Lord didn't leave Peter. Now we know, looking back
now, we know that Cornelius was saved by the Lord Jesus Christ.
We know that Christ put away his sins because when he heard
the gospel, he believed. He trusted the Lord. He believed
what God had said concerning his son. But another point that
we see here is that God didn't leave Cornelius in the dark.
Even if even if you wanted to talk well could God have saved
somebody without them hearing the gospel I don't want to get
into that but Even if you did think that the scriptures are
abundantly clear that it pleases God to bring his children to
a knowledge of the truth Paul wrote to Timothy and he said
In 1 Timothy 2.3, For this is good and acceptable in the sight
of God our Savior, who will have all men, all kinds of men, to
be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there
is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time. So that we preach the gospel
it goes forth to all those that the Lord brings to hear that
gospel We don't know those who are his but they'll be testified
Those that are his shall be testified for they shall hear the gospel
and they shall believe The Lord Jesus Christ that in him and
in him alone does a sinner receive remission of sins all right,
so brethren It doesn't matter how religious we are, we have
a need of hearing of Christ. It doesn't matter how good we
think we are, how good you think someone else is, they need to
hear the Lord Jesus Christ and know this, that God is not going
to leave his children in darkness. So, Peter comes and he's preaching
this gospel. Oops, let's see here. So we need to know that the Lord
doesn't leave his people in darkness, and that regardless of how religious
we are, we must have the Lord Jesus Christ. My second point
is Peter. So Peter comes He's a preacher
of the gospel, but Peter has a need to learn that the Lord
has a people the Lord has a people Regardless of what we think regardless
of how we look on people on the outward The Lord has a people
to save and if you look there at Acts 10 verse 9 We see here that Peter's praying
on the morrow, as they went on their journey and drew nigh into
the city, Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the
sixth hour. And we know that he becomes hungry,
and he's gonna eat, and while he's thinking of these things,
while he's praying, the Lord lets down a sheet, and he sees
in that sheet, verse 12, all manner of four-footed beasts
of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls
of the air. And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter, kill and
eat. But Peter said, Not so, Lord,
for I have 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. And this was done three
times, done thrice, and the vessel was received up again into heaven. So that Peter had to learn that
Jesus wasn't the Savior of the Jews only. He wasn't just for
the people there in Jerusalem. He wasn't just the Savior of
those in Judea or even in Samaria, but that the Lord's words were
going to be brought home to him that the Lord has another people. In Acts, if you look in Acts
1, since you're there, you're pretty close, but in Acts 1,
verse 6, we see that this was a belief
or an understanding that the Jews had, and even the apostles
were looking and thinking that perhaps the Lord is only the
God of the Jews, and that His people are in Israel alone. But
it says in Acts 1 verse 6, When they therefore, this is the apostles,
were come together, they asked of Him, this is the Lord Jesus
Christ after His resurrection, they asked of Him saying, Lord,
will Thou at this time restore again the Kingdom to Israel?
So you see, they're looking for a kingdom to be restored to the
kingdom of Israel. And you remember how John and
James' mother came to the Lord and said, Lord, do this one thing
for me. Let my son sit on thy right hand and on thy left when
you come into your kingdom. So they're always looking for
this earthly establishment of the kingdom. And in verse 7,
Acts 1, 7 says, And he said unto them, It is not for you to know
the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in his own
power. But ye shall receive power. After
that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses
unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria,
and unto the uttermost part of the earth. So, after our Lord
ascended and the Spirit came upon them at Pentecost, they
began to be used of the Lord to preach the Gospel. It went
out to the Jews, it goes out into all of Jerusalem, it goes
out into Judea, up into Samaria, and now Peter's going to learn
that what the Lord meant when he said, Other sheep I have,
which are not of this fold, them also I must bring, and they shall
hear my voice. And there shall be one fold and
one shepherd. So that to prepare him for this
very hour, the Lord chose them, four-footed beasts and wild beasts
and creeping things and fowls of the air, that are repulsed
to him under the law. So Peter's still holding on to
the law. Peter's still looking, to some degree, at the law, and
the Lord's got to tear him from it. The Lord has to show him
that you have no part in the law. You're saved by the grace
of God through the Lord Jesus Christ, and those that the Lord
saves, He's not going to save them by the preaching of the
law. So, the Lord's going to send
them to those who He would look at as common and unclean. But He's going to hear what God
says, "...what God hath cleansed, that call not thou common." Alright? So, Peter's going to be sent
to these people that He would, as far as the outward is concerned,
He's going to look at them like beasts. Like just beasts and
unclean things that He would never dream of or imagine going
to them. But the Lord has a people, and
he's going to send that gospel to them. So he's going to send
his preacher to where the people need to hear the gospel, where
he has a people for himself, and they're going to preach that
gospel. As Paul said to the Thessalonians, We are bound to give thanks all
the way to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the Spirit So that whoever the Lord is going to set before
Peter, he's going to know this one, this is a beloved child
of God, and they need to hear the gospel, and so he's going
to preach that gospel. He acknowledges this when he's
talking to, back in our text in Acts 10, in verse 34, he acknowledges
this, he sees it now, he hears what Cornelius has called him
there for, and he's listening to Cornelius, and he says in
verse 34, 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. And that acceptance with God,
it's not because of Cornelius's good works. It's not because
Cornelius in himself is a righteous man, because then he wouldn't
have had to hear this gospel. But rather, his acceptance was
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And he was to hear what Christ
had done for his people in putting away their sins. And on that
basis, and that basis alone, are we accepted with God. So Peter preaches to them, and
we see that the result is at the end there in Acts 44, You
know, I wonder If Peter hadn't been prepared
by the Lord before these men came, you have to wonder, would
Peter have even gone at all to preach to them? When we're judging
by the outward things and you think, that person has no part
in the Lord, I don't think that person is going to hear them.
You know, when you look at certain family members or certain people
that you work with and you think, I don't think they're ever going
to hear the truth, I don't think they want to hear the truth,
or ah, the Lord would never save them. You know, and just drive,
basically you're just driving, you're judging them and driving
them out of the Kingdom of God. Or, if he had gone with them,
would he have changed the message? Before then, would he have thought,
well, this is a Gentile, is there something else I need to say
to these guys first? Did they need something different
than what the Jew needs? But the Lord had showed him,
thankfully showed him, so that when he went there, he didn't
alter or change the message. There's only one thing. He didn't say to them, you guys
need to get yourselves right with God before God's gonna receive
you, before God's gonna deal with you. You need to get yourself
right with God. He didn't say that. We find when
he does come there and he preaches, we find that he teaches the very
same thing that he spoke to the Jews. There was no difference
in his message. And that's important for us to
understand because when we're dealing with those who are outside
the church, one thing for us to understand is that the Lord
has a people, a beloved in the Lord that he loves, that he's
loved from before the foundation of the world. And there may be
a reason why you find yourself talking to this person. It doesn't
mean that you have to know all things and that you have to just
keep preaching to them and getting in their face about it. glorify
the Lord Jesus Christ when you're in their presence. Many people,
in our day, they chalk things up to luck or to fate. They're
always talking about, that was pretty lucky, that happened to
me, or fate was on my side, or whatever is popular for people
to say these days. Don't talk like that. Give thanks
to the Lord. Just say, well, I thank the Lord
for having mercy on me and my family. You don't even have to
say much more than that, because very few people use the term
the Lord. It's just not popular. Many people
might say, oh, thank God, and use it in a careless way like
that, but when you speak of the Lord, or of His Christ, the Lord
Jesus Christ, and you just, it's clear that the Lord, that you
love the Lord, that the Lord has worked, given you a heart
to love Him, and you glorify Him in just those simple things.
You don't know how the Lord's working on that person, and what
they're going through, that one day they may come to you to ask
you, You know, you seem like a religious person, or you seem
like you know about God, and they might talk to you and ask
you a question, because you just don't know, all because simply
in those little moments you gave glory to God. You gave glory
to the Lord who created you, who created the heavens and the
earth. And the other thing that we ought
to consider, brethren, is that whether we're here, you know,
when we're here in this body, whether you've been here for
30 years or 30 days, the Lord doesn't have a common and an
uncommon people. They're all his people. When
the Lord sends a pastor here, that pastor is going to be the
pastor of you whether you're here for 30 years or for 30 days.
You know, we all need to have a pastor. And so, the Lord has
no common or unclean people. They're all one in Christ. And
be thankful and rejoice in how the Lord assembles and gathers
his people. Alright, let's look at our third
and final point. Peace by Jesus Christ. So, we've seen Peter, or we've
seen Cornelius. We've seen Peter. You know, Cornelius
needed to hear the Gospel. Peter needed to preach the Gospel
faithfully. the Lord Jesus Christ, he's prepared
of Christ. Now let's look at that blessed
word, peace by Jesus Christ. So Peter is standing there talking
to Cornelius, and he says, the word, in verse 36, the word which
God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus
Christ, He is Lord of all so that brethren when we're speaking
of these things, we don't just want to talk about Cornelius
and just talk about Peter but we want to preach the Lord Jesus
Christ because he's not a part of the gospel the Lord Jesus
Christ is the gospel and He is the good news, which every sinner
needs to hear. We must hear about the Lord Jesus
Christ. When the angels appeared to those
shepherds while they were watching their sheep, when the Lord was
born, they said, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth
peace, goodwill toward men. And this is This is beautiful
because by nature the carnal mind is enmity with God. If it
was dependent on us doing something to reach out to God, us doing
something to make God want to save us or be desirous to save
us, we'd be in all kinds of trouble because there's nothing good
about us. There's nothing that is going
to cause us to reach out to God and to be reconciled to God first.
We'll go after the God of our own imagination happily. We'll
always go after an idol and a false god and lies, but never do we
want to hear about the true and the living God because it just
cuts right across all that our flesh is. So that the truth is
We don't make peace with God. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
one that makes peace with us. You hear of men talking about,
well, you know, I made my peace with God, or, you know, you need
to make your peace with God. Well, man doesn't make his peace
with God. There's one who makes peace with
God, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. And He makes peace between
God and unholy, unjust sinners. The Lord Jesus Christ alone.
He's that blessed one, the peacemaker. He's the Son of God. Turn to
Ephesians 2, and we'll see this. As Paul is writing to the Ephesians,
in Ephesians 2 we see how Christ is the one who makes His people
one, regardless of where they come from, regardless of all
their backgrounds. He makes His people one, and He makes peace
between them and God. Ephesians 2, verse 10. For we
are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works,
which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Wherefore, remember, that ye, being in time past,
Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by that
which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands, so
that we, too, were once common and unclean things, we had no
righteousness of our own, we were ignorant of God's righteousness. in the world. We desperately need Him at all
times. Before we were saved, now that
we are saved, and being saved, and shall be saved, we always
need the Lord Jesus Christ. Because we didn't get here by
our wisdom, by our intelligence, or by our good works. That's
not why God saved us. That's not why He brought the
Gospel across our path. He did all the work from beginning
to end. He gets all the glory. Verse
13, but now in Christ Jesus, Ye who sometimes were far off
are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For He is our peace,
who hath made both one, that is, Jew and Gentile, and hath
broken down the middle wall of partition between us. Christ
having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments
contained in ordinances, for to make himself of twain one
new man, so making peace." us The Lord brings us together from
all different backgrounds, all different walks in life, and
yet He establishes peace between us and the joy and the gladness
that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. Only God can do that.
Only Christ can do that and make that kind of peace between us. and that he might reconcile both
unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby,
and came and preached peace to you which were far off, and to
them that were nigh. For through him we both have
access by one Spirit unto the Father. So that now therefore
ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens
with the saints and of the household of God, and are built upon the
foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself
being the chief cornerstone, in whom all the building, that
is the body of our Lord, the building that he has made, are
gathered together, in whom all the building fitly framed together
groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord. in whom ye also are
builded together for inhabitation of God through the Spirit." So
that we see, thankfully, Peter didn't preach another message.
Thankfully, there's not different messages in this word. We have
one word, one message that the Apostles preached then, that
is the same word that we must preach and declare this day. And if you go back to Acts 10,
we'll see this. Acts 10 and verse 37. We're going
to see how Peter preaches this very one, the peacemaker, the
Lord Jesus Christ. First, he declares what Christ
has accomplished. In verse 37, Acts 10.37, Peter says, that
word, I say ye 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. At that point, probably Cornelius
did hear a little something about this one Jesus. He probably did
hear. And in our day, there's a lot of people that have heard
a little something about the Lord Jesus Christ. They've heard
of these things. They've heard something of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then, he declares to him
what the Jews and the Gentiles united together against the Lord's
Holy Christ to do to him in crucifying Him. In crucifying Him, when
he says in 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 a tree. And then he declares how God
raised him from the dead and how he showed him openly to witnesses. In verse 40, him 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. And then he declares
that ministry of reconciliation which God gave to the apostles
and God has given to the church to preach to this very day, that
word of reconciliation, verse 42, and he commanded us to preach
unto the people and to testify that it is he which was ordained
of God to judge the quick and the dead. So that brethren, that
same word which was given to the apostles all the way back
2,000 years ago, and that same word which they looked unto,
the coming Christ, all the way back in the prophets before our
Savior even came, that same word continues to this day. We don't
need to update it, we don't need to change it and make it more
relevant. Sinners need the exact same gospel word preached to
them. That all men are sinners. That
there's nothing we can do to make ourselves righteous with
God. We cannot make peace with God
through our good works, through our religion, through our sacrifices
and doing things. We all need the Lord Jesus Christ.
And that's the word that must continue to go forth from His
church. And that's what His church continues
to do. Because that's how the Lord's
going to save. And the Lord, He prayed this very thing when
He said in John 17 verse 20, He said, Neither pray I for these
alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their
word. And that's why we have no other
word to preach. but the Lord Jesus Christ. And
we trust that that's exactly how God is going to save His
people. That's how He saves us and gives us forgiveness, and
cleanses us from our sin, all through the preaching of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Because that's who saves us. That's who washes
us. That's who makes us righteous before Holy God. as he says there in verse 43,
to him give all the prophets witness that through his name
whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. So, we all confess. When the Lord teaches you, you
know why you're saved. You know it's all of the Lord,
that He did the work. It's His obedient work. It's
what Christ has done, and not we, ourselves. And that's our
hope, and that's our confidence, and that's right where we stay,
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the scriptures teach that
in the law, without the shedding of blood, there's no remission
of sins. And those things in the law, they patterned heavenly
things. They were just a picture of things to come. And so Christ
himself is the one who shed his blood. He bore the sin of his
people. And he went about doing good.
While He was here on the earth, He went about doing good and
healing those and bearing their infirmities and bearing their
sicknesses and carrying them from them in the same way that
He had a body of flesh so that the Lord laid on Him the iniquity
of all His people. The sin of His people was laid
upon Him and He went to the cross before Holy, Righteous God. to
do that work which we could not do ourselves, and He put away
our sin, having the wrath of God poured out upon Him. And
that sin is now put away forever, so that all who hear this gospel
word, and believe that God has indeed slain His Son, the Lord
Jesus Christ, to put away the sin of His people who hear that
word, And believe Him and trust Him and don't look to their works,
but trust in Him. They have the remission of sins. Their sin is put away. So that
the Lord, He gives that to His people so that they confess Him,
they believe Him in the heart. But it doesn't stop there. If
you're the Lord's, you'll confess Him with the mouth. You may believe
Him in heart, but you'll confess Him with the mouth. And you'll
obey the Lord. You'll be baptized. You'll want
to be baptized. You'll want to confess Him publicly before this
world to say, that's my Lord. That's my salvation. He's all
that I need. And I trust Him for everything.
I'm not ashamed to be associated with Christ and to declare His
name. And we do that through baptism.
And the Lord says, those who are not ashamed of me to confess
my name, I'm not ashamed to confess them. I'll confess them before
my God and before the angels in heaven. I'll declare to them
that they are mine and that I died for them and put away their sin.
And we'll rejoice in that. That's what the Lord has done.
He's done that for his people. I pray, I hope that the Lord
will bless that to your hearts. Let's pray. Our gracious Lord,
Father, you know our frame, that we are weak, but men are but
flesh. And Lord, by nature, there's
an enmity in our heart, there's an enmity in our mind against
you. But Lord, we thank you that you
didn't leave it to us to work these things out. But Lord, you
sent your gospel forth. through faithful men, carrying
this word through thousands of years, Lord, to preach it, to
declare Christ, to declare the remission of sins through the
blood, shed blood of Jesus Christ. Lord, we pray that you would
bless your people, comfort them in Christ, and Lord, that you
would call out sinners. who don't hope in Christ, who
don't believe. Lord, that you have a people yet, too, to hear
the Gospel, and that you would cause them to hear the Gospel
and to believe on Christ, and to confess His name before men.
We pray in Jesus' name, our Lord and Savior. Amen.