Of Acts chapter ten. Acts. Chapter. Ten. And let's read. A few verses
here in Acts chapter ten for your. Information this is the
story of Cornelius, the man whom the Lord spoke to and told to
send word to Peter to come down and preach to him and his household. Cornelius was an Italian man,
centurion, and says he feared the Lord, gave alms, a generous
man, says he prayed to the Lord, called on the Lord always. And
the Lord spoke to him, answered his prayer, and told him to send
for a gospel preacher, Peter. Peter came to preach to him,
and this is just a portion of what Peter said. And one line
in particular just jumped out at me and blessed me greatly.
And let's read verses 36 through 38. Well, let's begin in verse 34
and read 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 possessed of the devil. For God was with him. It says,
in speaking of this Jesus of Nazareth, Peter said he went
about doing good. Now that phrase just struck me
and has stayed with me for a couple of weeks now. Speaking of the
Lord Jesus Christ, It says he went about doing good. Now, there's not much good in
this world, is there? There's just not. In the strictest
sense, our Lord said in Psalm 14, the Lord looked down upon
the children of men To see if there were any that did understand,
any that did seek after God. And he said, there's none that
doeth good. No, not one. And even the child of God, even
a believer, a saint, they're called saints, they lament themselves. And they say with the apostle,
I know that in me, that is, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. That's not just a phrase to quote. It's a lamentation. He said, for to will is present
with me, but how to perform that which is good, I don't know. I wish I could. But this man went about doing
good. Has it struck you yet? This man, everywhere he went,
at all times, in all places, to all people, Tammy, he did
good. He's a good man. And I tell you
why we can't be amazed at our flesh is so rotten. We're so
averse to that which is good. We have a hard time hearing this
and rejoicing. That's just how I'm confessing
for years when I wouldn't have maybe wouldn't have wanted to
hear. There's no way that God has such mercy upon us that this
man Jesus of Nazareth went about doing good. Well that's just
amazing. He must not be like us. You know he must not be like
a inmate. And you are fresh with no good
thing with the light that had a wheel though we don't know
he did he knew he could he did good always did good. I tell
you why he's not like us because this is God manifest in the flesh
not just a man. He is a man. He was a man. He's
a God man. God manifest in the flesh of
whom scripture said. Now this is how scriptures describes
him. good and upright is the law. I said something about what I
quoted that Psalm 14, where God looked down and says that none
doeth good. Not only that, but people hate do-gooders. Have
you ever used that term in derision of somebody? He's a do-gooder.
Have you? Have you? Be honest. I have. And I hate him. This man was
a do-gooder. And he did nothing but good.
He's a good man. He's a good man. Good and upright
is the Lord. Listen to this. Psalm 145. The
Lord is good to all. And his tender mercies are over
all his works. I didn't say the Lord loves everyone,
didn't say that. So the Lord is good to all. And
his tender mercies says he sends the rain spoke to a young man
who didn't believe the truth, he wanted to tell me how that
God loved every single person, and we looked at Matthew seven
together and which is. Peter or Luke, we read in Luke
six. paraphrase of that. But he said,
You see, the Lord says there, the Lord loves everyone. I said,
No, it didn't say that. It did not say that he loved
everyone. It says he sends rain on them. He didn't say he loved them all.
But he does love some of his enemies. Now, isn't it, don't
you think it's just utterly amazing that a man would love one of
his enemies? Now that's just utter grace and
utterly amazing. But he loved many. His enemy. But it said he's good to all. Lady that Nancy used to work
for said to her one time in bitterness. She said the Lord ain't done
nothing for me. Didn't you Nancy? What do you
think of that? The very breath she's breathing,
which is in God's hand, God gave her the health. She was a healthy
woman at the time, owned a business. Nancy was her hired slave. She
didn't make much. More payday someday, Tammy. Payday
someday. But the very breath that woman
was using was borrowed from God and she used it to cuss him with. That's a typical American talking
in it. A typical American. The Lord is good to all. That's
what Scripture says. Good to all. Well, Peter preaches,
and I've got to go on. Verse 36, Peter says, this is
the Word. Peter's preaching. The Word,
verse 36, God sent unto the children of Israel. The Word. You're holding
it, a copy of it. The Word. The Word Bible. Just means book, that's all it
means, the Greek word for biblia, biblia, book, means the book,
the book, the holy book, God's holy word. This is the word of
God. What God? Jehovah, the God of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the word which God sent to, it says,
Israel, Judea, the word. Israel that God sent. This is
what we hold a copy of, same work, to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob,
the elect nation. God's elect nation. But you know,
you know this, he's not a Jew, which is one out. You know that. God's true Israel
is spiritual. And all Israel will be saved.
You know you know how blessed you are if you know that. Very few professing Christians
know that. But. And you must be a true Jew. But God wrote this book the living
and true God revealing his mind. His will. His purpose. God wrote this book
this Jerry We don't understand. We don't appreciate what we have
to do. The word, he says, the word which God sent preaching
peace. By Jesus Christ, he's Lord of
all. Peter said, this is it, you know,
this is the whole book can be summed up in this message. This
is a message from God. God's Word. He wrote this whole
book from Genesis to Revelation. Here's the message. Peace by
Jesus Christ. It's called the Gospel of Peace. The Prince of Peace. Very soon,
at this time of year, when people get all religious and get all
sentimental and talk about a baby and so forth, and they'll go
through all these pageants and pageantry and plays and this
and that and the other and they will quote what the angel said.
Nevertheless it's a wonderful proclamation. When the angels
came to announce the birth of this, this, they didn't know rightly what
to call it, the holy thing. said there appeared a multitude
of the heavenly hosts. God sent a legion to announce
this. And they said, glory to God in
the highest. Here's the glory of God. When
Moses said, show me your glory, God said, all right. God said,
I'm going to make my goodness pass before you. I'm going to proclaim the name of
the Lord. So the angels carry a proclaiming glory to God in
the highest is the glory of God. The goodness of God personified.
And on earth. Peace. Goodwill toward men. Peace. Now when that was announced. Peace on earth. And when they
say it around There will not be. There was
not then, and there will not be now, peace on earth. Will there? As a matter of fact,
from the garden until now, and until this world ends, there
will be wars and rumors of war. From the beginning, the world
has been a place of great conflict, turmoil, violence, evil, corruption,
death and destruction until God himself finally, not in peace but in wrath and
anger, destroys, utterly destroys this planet. So there's anything but peace and everything and anything but
good will. Right. But now here's the announcement.
Peace by Jesus Christ. Peter said this is the word.
Peace by Jesus Christ in the world, you shall have tribulation,
but. Christ said. My peace. I give unto you peace. My peace, I leave with you. Peace by Jesus Christ. What does
that mean? Peace, and now the phrase that
caught my attention was he went about doing good. This is the
ultimate good. But peace by Jesus Christ means
peace with God. We quote these verses all the
time. We hear him all the time world and here these things at
all the religion than here these verses at all God's angry with
the wicked every day. John religion than here that
I don't even know that's in the Bible. If they do they're thinking
about somebody else. God who hates all workers of
the. God who destroyed an ungodly world back during the. days of
Noah and he said as in the days of Noah so shall it be the coming
of the Son of Man. When they shall say peace and
safety then what? Sudden destructions will come
upon them. God who will do it again who
will destroy this world again says peace. By Jesus Christ. How? Peace with God. How? Well all wrote and all the
gospels are the epistles are about this aren't it was all
about. Peace offering when able brought
that blood peace off. Blood. And it's just Christ made
peace by what the blood of his cross. By burying the sins of his people. Sins which God Almighty is angry
with. holy God, righteous Lord, loveth
righteousness, and hateth iniquity, hateth it. Yet Jesus Christ,
Scripture says, bore the sins of his people, his elect, in
his body on the tree, and made peace by the blood of his cross. How holy is God? We talk about
God being holy, and we don't really know, but this is the
best way we can Understand. How holy is God when
pure spotless cannot you know hates iniquity look at the cross. There's there's Christ made sin. And God poured out. His wrath
on us. Will God will God punish sin? Will God punish sin? Look at
the cross. What are the wages of sin? Scripture
says this, and people quote this all the time. Romans wrote, the
soul that sinneth must what? Surely die. How do you even know
that? Look at the cross. That's the son of God hanging
there. God's son. Hold it. If God laid on him, he was made. And God killed him. God killed
him. Please the Lord to bruise him. He made his soul an offering
for So Peter says this is what. We
have peace with God by Jesus Christ no other way. There's
no other way peace by Jesus Christ Jesus Christ is the mercy of
God and the peace of God peace with God God's not angry with
those that are in crime. There is therefore now now right
now no condemnation to them that are in the wall or disappear. No condemnation. No judgment,
no wrath, no record. They are under the love. Nothing
and no one shall separate them from the love of God, which is
where? In Christ Jesus. Peace with God. If we don't make
it, Christ made it for us. Peace. The wrath of God was poured
out on Christ. And we have peace, peace, and
we have peace within. Believers have peace within.
Every saint, every believer, Christ said this to them, peace
I leave with you. I made peace with God. And now
you have full access. You can come as a son. You're
a son, you can cry Abba Father. He's not just your holy and righteous
just God, but he's your father. Abba. peace I leave with you
and my peace he said I give up. Stay with me. As if this isn't
good enough. But he says my peace I. Give
up the year. Someone might think that great
peace have they which love by law I work and nothing shall
offend Nancy, you must understand something
about that, because you're smiling. She's doing this. Oh, flesh and
blood didn't reveal that to you, but the Father did. Great peace. Peace that passes understanding. How can you have peace? How can
you die? You're leaving this world. You're
leaving everything that was dear to you. No, no, no. I'm going
to everything that's dear to me. How can you die when everything
is an unfinished life? No, it's just the beginning.
How can you die when all that you've worked for, you're going
to have to leave it behind? That's just dumb. I don't understand. No, that's the peace that passes
understanding. Peace. Scripture says the Lord
will bless his people with He said, in the world you shall
have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world, and
so do we by faith. And it says there, and we have
peace. One more thing about this peace.
We have peace with God. We have peace within. We have
peace among ourselves. Peace among ourselves. The Lord
is ordained peace in his kingdom. Over in Psalm 122, we looked
at this not long ago. Let me just read it to you. You
don't have to turn to this one. We looked at it. It says, Pray
for the peace of Jerusalem. It says, Peace be within thy
walls. There is peace in God's church. We have peace here. We have enjoyed
it for a long time, haven't we? Oh, we've had our little problem
but they've been just that little problem. That's how you know
it's his church. I was reading a brochure that
these older males sent me a brochure you're trying to get us to to
get a church directory you know. One of these things you pass
out advertisement. It's already advertised. And
anyway I was looking at the one the one they showed is an example
some so-called Baptist place in Virginia somewhere. You know
what it was you know it was all about what all who all what all. And you know that place had been
in existence for I think 80 years it started back in early 1900
and been existent for 80 years you know how many pastors they've
had. Thirty four pastors. At the lab. They must have all sorts of. Young lady was talking about
why just yesterday said we got to get rid of our pretty not
good enough. And you ought to get rid of it.
For sure. peace. I don't think you do like you
could have by now I don't think you did. Why I preach peace. I preach the prince of peace.
You know the prince of peace. He's in you and there's peace
here. Peace within the walls of Jerusalem.
Don't we enjoy wonderful peace? He's Lord of all, you see, that's
what Peter said, a mere parenthetical statement. He's Lord of all.
Boy, in the parentheses, God's word in parentheses says more
than man can say in a lifetime. He's Lord of all. Sovereign ruler, aren't you glad?
Doesn't that give you peace? This is your greatest source
of peace, people. In the world, you have tribulations.
Here's your greatest source of peace. You'll hear of wars and
rumors of war. Here's your greatest source of peace. They'll try
to kill you. Here's your greatest source of
peace. He's Lord of all. Not just in name. Not just in
title. And this is not just in word.
It's fact. He's Lord. I mean, He really
is. He's controlling this whole mess,
and it looks like a mess. That's what we call it, a mess,
and it looks like chaos, but it's not, Jeanette. As far as
man's concerned, it is, but God has ordered all things, and they're
sure. Aren't you glad he's Lord of
all? They give you peace, come what
may. He's Lord. This is Eli's piece
when both his boys were killed. He said, it's the Lord. This
was Job's piece when he lost all of his earthly possessions,
all his family, even his health, and was scraping the boil, sitting,
using a broken piece of pottery, scraping the boils in pain on
every square inch of his body in pain. And he said, the Lord
gave. It's the Lord. I don't understand
that. That's what the world would say.
I don't understand that. But God's people do. This is
that peace by Jesus Christ. By Jesus Christ. He's Lord of
all. Verse thirty-seven. He said that
word, you know, it was published throughout all Judea. It began
from Galilee. This is where it started. after
the baptism which John preached, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth
with the Holy Ghost and with power. God anointed Jesus of
Nazareth. This man, it was a man that walked
this planet. He came out of Nazareth, they
think, they thought. Born in Bethlehem. Began his
existence in Bethlehem. Well, no, not really. Not really. No, a child was born, yes. But
the son, now he was with the father from the beginning. Well,
we know you, you're Jesus, Joseph. No, no, no, no, no, no. You got
it all wrong. Mother, there's your mother.
No, he doesn't have a mother. He's a priest forever after the order
of Melchizedek. He has no father, no mother,
no beginning of day, no end of day. No. Yes, there's a baby
born. Thank God. Yes, there was a man. Made of a woman, born under the
law, made under the law, yes, thank God. He's more than a man. He's a God-man. God-man in the flesh. And how we know is when the Holy
Spirit came. He looked like a man, Ron. He
dressed like a man. And this is why nobody knew.
You're just a man, they said. That's what they said of him
was, you're just a man, you make yourself God. He said, they said,
I'm from above, you're from beneath. No, you can't, but you're just
a man, you make yourself God, Barbara. This is how backward
man's understanding is. Man's got it all wrong. He was
God and made himself a man. A body has self-preparedness. He became a man, but he did become
a man. And this is great comfort. Scripture
all the way through talks about his manhood, great comfort. Man lived by faith. Nancy, you
and I have talked about this before. What a blessing it is
to think of how our Lord lived by faith completely as a man. He depended on the Father to
do for him. Isn't that wonderful? What did
the Father do for him? He didn't have a place to lay
his head. Well, did he ever have to sleep in the rain? No! He lived by faith. He tells us
to do the same. A man, Jesus of Nazareth, God,
man of faith, anointed with the Holy Ghost, and this is how we
know the Holy Spirit at his baptism. told John and wrote to us that
when you see the spirit descending like a dove, this is him. He didn't surface until the 30th
year. What's he doing for 30 years?
Keeping the law. Mary, you, Sherry, Mary,
Sherry, at 30 years old, here he came. 30 years old he came
to Jerusalem where to go into the temple. Why? Because it's
written of him. The Lord whom you seek shall
suddenly come, 30 years old, to his temple. He's just a man. No, no, no, no, no. This is the
one of whom the Spirit of God is laid upon, Isaiah 61. The
Spirit of the Lord hath anointed me to do what? proclaim liberty to the captain,
the opening of the prison to the man, and so on and so forth. This is him who came. And the
Holy Spirit said this is him. This is him, declared to be the
Son of God by the Spirit, the Holy Spirit of holiness and the
resurrection from the dead. That's how you know. And look
at verse thirty-eight. Now it says, God anointed Jesus
of Nazareth. God Almighty said it out loud. The Holy Spirit descended on
him. Anointed him with power. How much power does Jesus Christ
have? You know, people all over say
things like this. He's done all he can do. Well,
they don't know that Jesus Christ of Scripture did it. The only reason we do is because
He's revealed himself to. But tell me you that know the
law or rather are known him how much power does Jesus Christ
have all power. He said all power authority is
given unto me in heaven. This is he who do it according
to his will in the armies of heaven but it doesn't stop there.
and among the inhabitants of the earth. This is he of whom
scripture says none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What
doest thou? This is he, this is the potter,
and we're the clay. Yeah, he's Lord, he really is.
Sovereign ruler over all, in control of all things. Power,
all power, all things given unto him, all things under his feet. He's not standing outside anybody's
heart or I'm sorry no no I'm not sorry. I'm not sorry I'm
thankful I'm glad he's seated on a throne. And the earth is
his footstool. And all things are doing according
to his sovereign will and purpose. He's Lord. Are you having a little
peace right now? In the world you should have
tribulation. Be a good chair. I'm sitting on it. That's certainly. And it says
here now, here's the line, here's the phrase he went about doing
good. He went about doing good. I quoted
it to you from Exodus 33, when the Lord said to Moses, I'm going
to make my goodness. Well, Jesus Christ can. He passed
before us, 33 years, a short, relatively short lifetime, but
oh, what he did in 33 years. Most of us will live 70, perhaps,
or maybe even 80, if by reason of God's given strength, what
good will we accomplish? Not much. But oh my, in 33 years, he went about doing good. Are
you with me? I hope you're with me. He went
about doing good. He is the goodness of God. He
came and he went about doing good. Temporal good. Temporal
good. Yes, he did. He did good. I don't
always look these words up. Most of the time the word is
good enough. And it is. This word is good. Kind of sounds
like God, doesn't it? God is good. Christ is the goodness
of God, but the word good means philanthropy. You've heard of
that and heard that word. He's a philanthropist. What that
means is he writes books and he does things to make millions
of dollars. And so that you'll call him a
philanthropist, you know. a do-gooder, a person that does
good for a benefactor. He'll make ten billion dollars
and give a billion up to charity and everybody will laud and praise
him for his philanthropy. Bull crap. This man gave it all. He that was rich, Scripture says,
gave it all. Now here, Robin Pendry is a philanthropist. A good man. He went about doing
good. Everywhere. Jesus Christ, the
greatest servant of good ever. Everywhere he went. If somebody
was hungry, he fell. If somebody was naked, he clothed
them. If somebody was sick, he healed
them. I can't tell you all the Scripture. I went about looking at this
healing. I will look through, and you can't believe throughout
the Gospels how often it says he healed them all. It says they
came, multitudes came. It says everyone, everyone, that had need of healing. Are you getting this? Every single
one. And it wasn't on national television
so people could... Everyone, those that came in
secret. He healed them all. He healed everyone that had need
of healing. Everyone that was hungry. Everyone
that was thirsty. Everyone that was sick. Everyone
that was naked. Every single one. There was a
scripture that says that Christ looked on the multitudes and
He had compassion on them. He said, they're hungry, give
them something to eat, the disciples. They're good men, as far as men
go. You know, and they said, send
them away. Send them away, let them buy
food. Our Lord said, no, we're going to give them something.
We're going to feed them all. It's a good man. Good man. Are you admiring him right now?
Says he'd come to be admired of all his saints. Have you ever
thought you'd like to be a rich man for a day and go about doing
good? Have you? Are you with me? Have
you ever thought you'd like to be a rich woman and go about
doing good? Deborah, what if all that money
in the bank that you hand out all day long was yours? What
if? So they could just come to your drive-thru and you say,
what do you need? Here you go. Would you like to
drive there today? Just today? Do you know how much good you
could do? This is why God said, God said, how hardly shall they
that have riches enter the kingdom of heaven. He said the gold and
the canker of the gold and the silver is going to rise up in
the judgment against this rich generation. Why? Because there's
people all over needy, poor and needy. Let me just give you one
example. Gabe has a student, a young girl,
young teenage girl. Maybe some of you, one of you
girls know this young girl. She's got a disfigured face. You've got a disfigured but he's
in middle school. You know what she suffers at
the hands of. Her. Classmates. Do you know how she's gone through
life I know somebody here does. Have she's gone through life
in shame and humility. You know right to show that. Do you know what some rich man
could do for her, just the interest on a couple of stocks and bonds
he has? He could change her life. Just one rich man. He could give
$50,000, say, go get the best plastic surgery you and put a
smile on her face. Huh? Just one. Just one. This man. This man. Went everywhere, John. If somebody
had a disfigured face, he removed it. This man. You come to him, a leper. The
leper said, he said, what do you need? He said, I want to
be clean. Be clean. Blind man. What do you need?
I want to see. See. I'm hungry. Be filled. Huh? This man. went about doing good. Is there any wonder, Dan, that
God looked down from heaven and said, I'm well pleased with this
man, well pleased, for he'll talk
about righteousness. It's all a show, this man. He didn't do it for show, he
did it for good. Everywhere he went, he went about
doing good. Is it striking you now? No? Oh, my, my. He slept little. He slept very
little. He served much. He ate very little. He fed a
lot of people. He walked long distances to do
good. Every now and then he'd travel
a long distance for one person. For one person. He took nothing. He took nothing. You know, I said, well, we, our
Lord is our great substitute for this cause. He came into
the world. We've already looked at that, haven't we? Our Lord,
Lord, our peace. Christ in Him crucified. poor centers. We might be rich
toward God. Righteous. But our Lord is is
he really is our great example. What does all this do to you
other than make you shame yourself. But what does it do to make you
want to be like him. You know they say that we say the imitation. It's the sincerest form of flattery. We talk about the Lord. Oh, I
love the Lord. Do you now? Oh, do you? Well, here's what our Lord said,
and I'll close. The Lord said, Be ye followers
of that which is good. He said, and Tammy, here's the
difference in what we preach. And some of what is preached
in the name of gospel. OK. He said, do good unto all men. All men. Especially, though,
the household of faith. They are your favorites. They're
God's favorites. That's where you start. Do good
unto all men, isn't it? Did you read with me in Luke
chapter six where the Lord said that do good under them that
hate. What he did. It says that we are created.
Everybody all grace people know Ephesians two eight well you
know these are two ten. It was created in Christ Jesus
unto what. Good. Works of good. Works of good. That's why Barnard
used to say this, and Calvinists, you know, hyper-Calvinists hated
Barnard, Armenians hated him. But he used to say this about,
he said, a Christian. He said, salvation. is God almighty
reproducing the character of Jesus Christ and human. That's
a wonderful description. As he. Created in Christ Jesus
unto works of the good that works that God has to do more with
pain that we should walk in he that do it good third John eleven
third John eleven said he that do it good is of God. I want to be a do-gooder. I do, do you? You love Christ, you do. Oh my,
I want to be a do-gooder. But the true good, and we've
said this before at the outset, the true good, the greatest good
of all, that which is lasting good. You know, everyone our
Lord healed physically. got sick of something or died
of something that didn't last. Everyone that he fed, they got
hungry again. They did. But the greatest good, the most
needful good, the lasting good is the eternal good. Look at
our text in Acts 10. It says in verse 13, Healing all that was possessed
of the devil. Who's that? That's all of us. We tend to
think of, you know, we live in this modern world and religion
is so ridiculous and they talk of the devil and the world mocks
them, but Christ, this is Bible. It talks about demon possession. You know what the Lord, the healing,
the miracle he did more than anything else? was casting out
that. What he did more than anything
yet right there when it says he healed his healed all that
were. And that's every one of us by
nature of all said this to young Timothy said that if God heard
that you will give them not make them acknowledge the truth who
were held captive by Satan and his will. But God will deliver
them who are held captive. And that's us by nature, unless,
until this man comes to us through the preaching of the gospel and
says this prayer. There's, you know, there's a
possession of religion, a possession of drug, a possession of, a demon
possession of all things, avarice and lust and covetousness and,
you know, it's all sin, Satan, the world, it's all the same.
It's the holy and unholy trinity and men are held captive by it. Only one that sets free, this
man. And he went about doing just
that. And I'm looking at a room almost full, wish it was, of
people, persons, whose Lord has done some good for them. And they weren't worth
anything until now. They weren't worth a thing. Now you can do some good. God
said so. You can do some good. The greatest
good is to make Him Okay, now the gate, come and lead. Let's sing hymn number 333 and
stand together. Let's sing the first, third,
and sixth verses. May the mind of Christ my Savior
live in me from day to day, by His love and power controlling
all I do and say. Third verse. May the peace of
God, my Father, rule my life in everything that I may become
to comfort sick and sorrow me. Sixth verse. May His beauty rest
upon me as I seek the lost to win And may they forgive the
channel seeing only Him