Alas, and did my Savior bleed,
and did my Sovereign die? Would He devote that sacred head
for such a worm as I? Was it for crimes that I have
done He crowned upon the tree Amazing pity, grace unknown And
love beyond degree Well might the sun in darkness hide, And
shed his glories in. When Christ the mighty Maker
died, Poor man, the creatures sing. But drops of grief can
ne'er repay the debt of love I owe. Dear Lord, I give myself
away. Tis all that I can do. Bass seated. We'll sing hymn
number 168. Lord, I hear of showers of blessing
Thou art scattering, full and free Showers the thirsty land
refreshing Let some drops now fall on me Even me, even me,
let thy blessing fall. Pass me not, O tender Savior,
Let me love and cling to Thee. I am longing for Thy favor, Whilst
Thou calling, O call me. Even me, even me, let Thy blessing
fall on me. Pass me not, O mighty Spirit,
Thou canst make the blind to see. Witness, sir, of Jesus'
spirit, speak the word of power to me. Even me, even me, let
thy blessing fall on me. Love of God so pure and changeless,
blood of Christ so rich and free. Grace of God so strong and boundless,
magnify them all in thee. Even me, even me, let thy blessing
fall on me. Fast be not thy lost one bringing
Thine my heart, O Lord, to Thee While the streams of life are
springing Blessing others, O bless me Even me, even me, let thy
blessing fall on me. Acts chapter 10 for this evening. Continue our study in Acts. I'm going to read the first eight
verses. Of course, I'm going to deal with a lot more than
that. It's kind of the general outline of this and then I'll
preach again from it next week, God willing. But let me read the first eight
verses. There was a certain centurion, a certain man in Caesarea, 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. He saw in a vision,
evidently about the ninth hour of the day, an angel of God coming
into him 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 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 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 had declared all
these things unto him, he sent to Joppa." Oh, our great, blessed, glorious
God in heaven, holy, holy, holy is your name. No one else, no
one else can be called holy except you say that they're holy, but
you're holy in and of yourself. And all the holiness that anybody
has in this world, they derive it from you. They get it from
you. And Lord Jesus, we bless you
this evening. Thank you that you gave us the
strength, the will, the desire to meet. the will and desire
to hear what you have to say in your blessed word. And Lord,
no wonder the apostle said, who is sufficient for these things?
So Lord, I'm not sufficient. I'm not sufficient to deal with
it. We're not sufficient to hear
it without the Holy Spirit of God. Come down, Lord Jesus, meet
with us. And Lord, please be merciful
and gracious to our loved ones Sons, daughters, husbands and
wives, children and grandchildren, please be merciful. Oh, God,
have mercy. And, Lord, as my preacher brothers
stand to preach this evening, please be with them. And for
those that are listening because they're not able to come, we
ask for your great mercies be on them so they can come worship
with us. Meet with us tonight for Christ's sake. Amen. Amen. Hymn number 249. 249. Just as I am without one plea,
but that Thy blood was shed for me, Thou bidst me come to thee, O
Lamb of God, I come, I come. Just as I am and waiting not
to rid my soul Whose blood can quench this fire
O Lamb of God, I come, I come Just as I am, though tossed about
With many a conflict in your doubt, I'd ease, and fears would
be without. Just as I am, poor, wretched,
blind, sight-wretched, stealing of the mind. Yea, all I need be to find, oh, Just as I am, Thou wilt be saved,
Wilt welcome pardon, please relieve, Because Thy promise I believe
will end. back over here in Acts 10. I
want to talk about grace before grace. Grace before grace. And that's what happens here
in Cornelius and Simon Peter both. There's a thing that's
called prevenient grace. Prevenient grace. First time
I ever heard the word and explained what it meant was E.W. Johnson
was the first person I heard mention it. And what it means
is grace goes before to open, to prepare the heart and the
mind for the grace of God. It's preparing the soil for the
good seed. So grace goes to prepare for
grace to be received. for grace to be relieved. It
goes before to make one want grace, need grace, and get grace. It goes before. Now here's a
man, he was from Caesarea. He lived in Caesarea. And you
know, that was the seat of the Roman government in Israel at
the time. And, of course, it was named
Caesarea because of the Caesars, because of the Caesars. And Caesarea
is where the Roman governor lived, and Cornelius, this centurion,
they called them centurions because they had 100 men under them,
100 men under them. When I was in the military, a
company was 25 people. A squad was 8 to 10 people. And
so if you had four companies, you generally had a major or
a colonel over them, and that's what this fellow was. He was
somebody. In fact, he was the governor's,
that's why they called him the Italian Band, he was the governor's
bodyguard. Him and these hundred men were
the governor's bodyguard. And Simon Peter here again is
using his keys to open the door given to him by the Master to
open the door to the Gentiles. And God had to prepare Peter
just like He did Cornelius. And let me show you what I mean. Look over here in verse 28. Look
over here in verse 28. And He got to Cornelius' house
and this is what He said. He said, Under them you know
how that it is unlawful, thing for a man that is a Jew
to keep company or come unto one of another nation. But God
hath showed me that I should not call any man common or unclean."
So God had to do something for Cornelius by giving him a vision,
and He had to do something for Simon Peter, and you know where
these two men met? What God is, is He's preparing
these two men and a Jew and a Gentile, He's
going to bring them together, and they've got to be brought
together where all God's people meet in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the only place they can
meet. That's why the apostles said time and time again, Jew
or Gentile, whether you're a slave or you're a free man, male or
female, it makes no difference, We re all one in Christ, and
that s what he s talking about. So there had to be a preparation
for Cornelius to hear the gospel, and there had to be a preparation
in Simon Peter to go preach the gospel, and something had to
be done for both these people. And both of them, these men,
have VISIONS in preparing them. Cornelius has got to be prepared
for the message of Christ. Peter has to be prepared and
go preach the message to him. And you know, Paul talked about
the salvation of Jews, and God opened the doors to the Gentiles.
It was a MYSTERY to the Jews. But the Old Testament had much
to say about it. Christ had said about Him, He'd
be the LIGHT of the Gentiles. And also, you know, you go through
the Old Testament, you know who the first Gentile that God saved?
It was Rahab the harlot. She was a Gentile. She lived
in Jericho, and she believed she had heard of God, and she
said, Listen, if you'll save me, I'll save your people. There's
some spies, and she hid those spies that come to spy out, and
I'll tell you, she hid them, and you know what? God saved
her, and you know who she ended up marrying? Judah! She's in the genealogy of the
Lord Jesus Christ! You go to Matthew chapter 1 and
look at her genealogy and you'll see Rahab. And then there's Ruth,
the Moabitess. Moab came from his incestuous
relationship with his father, one of Lot's daughters with his
father. Moab was born. So this is way
far out, way, way far from God. But God sent Ruth, got her starving
to death, and Naomi said, I'm going back. She said, Well, I'll
go where you go. I'll worship what you worship.
I'll go where you go, and I'll believe your God, and your God
will be my God. And you know who she ended up
marrying? Boaz. And you know who Boaz was? The
father of Jesse. who was David's daddy, so Ruth
was David's grandmother. SHE'S in Christ's genealogy,
too! And then Moses' wife, she was an Ethiopian! She didn't
even believe in the blood atonement! God was fixing to really lay,
let the hammer down on Moses because he hadn't circumcised
his sons yet. And God said, listen, got to
get it done. And his wife got mad, said, oh,
you and your bloody religion. And so she didn't like, she didn't
like the bloody religion. And then you got the centurion.
Here's a, here's a centurion, there's a centurion in the scriptures. He had a servant that was sick.
he sent word to the Lord, he said, Lord, my servant lies sick
at the point of death, and so I, Lord, people spoke well of
him, I, Lord, started there. That centurion sent somebody
and said, Lord, my master said, I'm not worthy that you come
under my roof, I'm not worthy that you do anything, But he
said, all you got to do is just where you are right now, just
send the word, just send it. Send it by your will, by your
power, by your might, and my servant will be healed. You know
what our Lord said about him? He said, I've not seen so great
a faith, no, not in all of Israel. So those are all Gentiles. But
Peter said, it's not lawful. He says, Not lawful, not lawful. So you have these. Now, let's
look at Cornelius's preparation, and then we'll look at Simon
Peter's preparation. But here's the first thing, there's
a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, they named him, a
centurion of the Italian band. And look at his character. Now,
here's his character. First thing it says about he's
a devout man. I mean that word DEVOUT means
DEVOTED! He was DEVOTED! He was DEVOTED,
and listen to this, not only was He DEVOUT, and there's one
other man in Scripture said over when Simeon, he was called a
DEVOUT man, JUST man, and this was a DEVOUT man, and listen
to this else about him, he feared God! He feared God! You know for a Roman to fear
God was really It just didn't happen, they just didn't do it.
Now, he wasn't a Jewish proselyte. To become a Jewish proselyte,
you had to be circumcised, and then you could become a Jew and
be recognized as a Jew. But if he was just a Gentile,
and not just Cornelius, man, who feared God, they call him
God-fears, and they had to sit way back in the back of the synagogue. So he was faithful to go to the
synagogue. And oh my, they were called by the Jews, God-fearers,
because he believed that there was only one God, where the Romans
had MULTITUDES of gods, MULTITUDES of them. And then look what else
is said about him there in verse 4, which gave mult arms to the
people. Now, you remember last week I
was telling you about what arms means. It means that you show
pity, you show kindness, you show mercy, to people. So this man, that's what he would
do for the people, the Jewish people and all other people.
He would show kindness and pity and mercy towards folks less
fortunate than himself. And I tell you what, so he was
a gracious man, a kind man, and then look what else it says about
him, and prayed to God. How often did he pray to God?
Always. HE ONLY HAD ONE GOD HE PRAYED TO. JUST LIKE US, WE ONLY
HAD ONE GOD THAT WE PRAYED TO, AND WE PRAYED TO OUR LORD JESUS
CHRIST. AND I TELL YOU WHAT, AND HE SAID
ABOUT THE NINTH HOUR, HE PRAYED TO GOD ALL WAY, AND HE PRAYED
TO GOD AND THE JEWS HAD A SPOINT IN THEIR HOURS AND THEY HAD TOGETHER
TOGETHER, AND THEY'D ALL PRAY. AND THAT'S WHAT HE DID. HE PRAYED
THE NINTH HOUR, THAT'S THREE O'CLOCK IN THE AFTERNOON. And
so he prayed, he gave alms, he was devout, he feared God, gave
alms, kind, merciful, patient, pitiful, prayed to God always
at the time God told him to pray, and he had great, great influence
because it says there in verse 2, I feared God with all his
house. He influenced everybody in his
home, those that was in his house, his servants. his wife, and the
people that were around him. He had such influence that they
feared God with his whole house. So he was a very, very religious
man, very dedicated man, very religious man. There's lots of
devout people around. I've met free will Baptists that's
just very, very devout. They wouldn't miss a service
for nothing. I've heard them tell me, said,
I ain't missed, said, I don't, I go three times a week. And
there's folks that say, I never missed a Sunday school. I heard
a fellow say one time for 30-something years, he never missed a service. And I've seen folks that's devout.
I mean, you think these folks ain't devout that wear these
things over their head and wear them long robes? They're devout.
They're religious. They're so religious they'd kill
you if they got a half a chance. And then how about these folks
that wear their bonnets and their long dresses? And the men wear
the hats and the beards and the white shirts and the black pants?
They're devout! They live right! And he was a
religious man. But he had to learn something,
he had to hear something. Look what he says, now here's
his vision in verse 3. He saw in a vision evidently
about the ninth hour, three o'clock in the afternoon, an angel of
God coming in to him and saying unto him, Cornelius, called him
by name. Cornelius! And oh, this is what
happened now. And he looked on him, and he was afraid. You know,
when folks now talk about having visions from God and God speaking
to them, they clap their hands and get folks all excited about
it and make them, oh my, I tell you, God had a vision from the
Lord, and everybody, whoa, yeah, carry on and all that, you know.
That's not what happened here. There was no whoop to do here.
When God appeared to him and when the Lord appeared to him,
he was afraid. You know why? When God reveals
Himself to someone, it causes fear, and it causes reverence
to God Himself. And this was a special vision
for a special time. And then look what he said, he
was afraid. You know, every place you find in the Scriptures where
men were confronted with God, the Scriptures tells us, Job,
he said, I abhor myself. and repent in dust and ashes.
John, the first time he saw the Lord Jesus Christ, he fell as
a dead man. Daniel sat a vision by the river
Chabar, and all of his strength left him, and his comeliness
turned into corruption. Isaiah saw him and said, woe
is me. Now folks talk about seeing the
Lord, and they just carry on like it's the greatest thing
since electric light. But oh no, that's not the way
people act and know God. That's not the way people do
that know the Lord. And then look what he said to
him there in verse four. And he was afraid and said, what
is it, Lord? I bet his voice was very, very
slow and very low. What is it, Lord? He didn't jump up and say, Lord,
what do you want me to do? He was on His face. What is it,
Lord? He's afraid! Oh, my! He said, listen to this, Thy
prayers and thine alms are come up for memorial before God. Now, I want to show you something,
and keep, keep, keep, saw Isaiah, excuse me, Acts 10, look in Isaiah
38. Look over here in Isaiah 38.
You know, how could this, How could he talk about his prayers
and alms come up as a memorial before God? Memorial, uh-huh. But look what it said here in
Isaiah 38, verse 5 verses. Hezekiah was sick unto death,
and Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amos, came unto him, and said
unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order, for
thou shalt die, and not live. Then Hezekiah turned his face
toward the wall, and prayed unto the LORD, and said, Lord, remember
now, O LORD, I beseech thee, I have walked before thee in
truth, walk with a perfect heart, and done that which is good in
thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore, wept
weeping with great weeping. Then came the word of the Lord
to Isaiah, saying, Go and say to Hezekiah, Thus saith the Lord,
the God of thy David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have
seen thy tears, and I'll add unto thy days fifteen years. I'm going to give you fifteen
years. God already told him, you're gonna die. He said, Lord,
remember, you didn't think God didn't know? How come that happened
like that? It's God which worketh in us
both to will and to do. God worked in them to pray like
that. God worked in them to do that. And let me show you in
Hebrews. Let me show you one in Hebrews chapter six. Now look
back over here in Hebrews chapter six. These are things that, that
God gives us very plain instruction in these things. You know, he started praying,
and God said, Oh, I've heard your prayer, and he hath faith
and patience, and here is the promise. But he said, God will
not forget, he's not unrighteous to forget your work of faith
and your labor of love. So how does this happen? created
us in Christ Jesus unto good works, which he hath ordained
before the world unto his glory. So I tell you, it's God which
worketh in us what to do. And then he was told, back over
here in Acts 10, and then he was told what to do in verses
5 and 6, And now send men to Joppa, and call for one Simon,
whose surname is Peter. He lodgeth with one Simon of
Tanner, whose house is by the seaside. He shall tell thee what
thou oughtest to do. And when the angel, which appeared
unspake unto Cornelius, was departed, he called two of his household
servants, a devout soldier of them that waited for him, and
when he had declared all these things unto him, he sent them
to Joppa. He said, You go over and get
Simon Peter. You go over and do it. Now that was his preparation. Now let's look quickly at Simon's
preparation. And on the morrow, the next day,
they hadn't got to Joppa yet. On the morrow, as they went on
their journey, got up the next day and started on their journey,
and drew nigh unto the city, Peter went up on the housetop
to pray about the sixth hour. This is noon. And he became very
hungry and would have eaten But while they made ready, he fell
into a trance. And oh my, what happened? He
saw heaven open, saw heaven open, and a certain vessel coming down,
descending, as it had been a sheet knit at the four corners and
let down on the whole earth. And wherein in that sheet were
all men, or four-footed beasts of the earth, wild beasts, and
creeping things, and fowls of the air. You can go to Leviticus
and find out what all those things they couldn't eat. And there
came a voice to him, Rise, Peter, kill and eat. But Peter said,
Not so, Lord, O no, not me, for I have never eaten anything that
is common or unclean. I've never done it. I've kept
the law. I've kept all the dietary laws.
What are you saying? And the voice spake unto him
again the second time. And what God hath cleansed, call
that not common. This was done three times and
the vessel was received again up into heaven. Oh my, you can
go to Leviticus chapter 11 and find out all these. Peter told
the Lord about his law keeping. And God told him, said, whatever
I've cleaned, whatever I've cleansed, don't you call common or unclean
either. Unclean either. And this was
done three times. You know about everything that
happened to Simon Peter, it come in threes. Come in threes. He denied the Lord three times. The Lord asked him, lovest thou
me? Three times. And here he had
to have the same vision three times. It takes me three or four, it
takes me more than three times. Everything happened to him in
threes. And then in verse 17, look what it says here. Now,
while Peter was sitting there thinking about, doubting himself,
what in the world is this thing about? This vision had he seen,
what does it mean? Behold, the men which were sent
unto Cornelius made inquiry for Simon's house, and stood before
the gate. Now, he's up on the rooftop,
scratching his head, wondering what this means. What's all this
vision talking about? And called and asked whether
Simon, surnamed Peter, was lodged there. So he's still on the rooftop
now. They come to the door, knocked.
While Peter thought on the vision, the Spirit of God, look what
God said to him, Behold, there's three men downstairs looking
for you. There's three men looking for you. They want to talk to
you. And look what he said, Arise,
and therefore, and get thee down, and go with them. Didn't say
go down and find out what they want. Go with them, doubting
nothing. FOR I SENT THEM, THEY'RE HERE
BECAUSE I SENT THEM. AND OH, LOOK WHAT ELSE, THEN
PETER WENT DOWN TO THE MEN WHICH WERE SENT FROM HIM, CINEAS, AND
SAID, BEHOLD, I AM HE WHOM YOU SEEK. WHAT'S THE CAUSE WHEREFORE
YOU COME? AND OH, THEY REHEARSED IT, THEY
REHEARSED IT, AND THEN THEY SAID, OH, OUR Cornelius, our centurion,
a just man, and he rehearsed all the things. He's got a good
report among all the Jews, warned of God by an angel, and listen
to this. For thy house, now this is the
key right here, to hear words of thee. To hear words of thee. Hear what you've got to say.
Oh, gotta hear what you've got to say. And oh, my! And they told him, they rehearsed
everything that he said. You know, he's got a good report
among Jews. Centurions are mentioned in Scriptures
lots of times, lots of times. I done told you about the one,
said, Lord, just send your Word, just send your Word. And he did,
and his servant was made whole. And then there was that centurion
that was at the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. And when Christ,
he seen everything that happened on the cross, he said, truly,
TRULY this man WAS the Son of God. That's what he said after
he saw how he dealt with things on the cross. So you have centurions
mentioned in the scriptures. And then it says, it said there,
he said, warned of God. He said there in verse 22, and
among all the nations of the Jews was WARNED of God by an
holy angel to send to you. Warned him, warned him. Oh, they
gave him a good report, but with all of his devoutness, all his
prayers in all of his arms, he still had to hear the gospel. He still had to hear about Jesus
Christ. The Lord of Glory. And so Peter
went with them, they spent the night with them, they got up
the next morning in the wind. And look down here in 25. On the morrow, Cornelius has
waited for them, got all his kinfolks together. He had a prepared
people. Cornelius prepared, Simon Peter's
prepared, now he's got to have prepared people. Now look what
happens. And so he called all his family together, got all
these people waiting, and as Peter was coming in, Cornelius
went out and met him and fell down at his feet, now, oh my,
listen to this now, and worshipped him. You think he said he feared
God, and here he is worshipping a man! Falls down before a man
and worshipped him. But Peter took him up, saying,
Stand up, I myself am also a man. So there was a people ready to
hear. Peter arrived, and then as he talked with him, in verse
27, he talked with him, and found many that were come together.
Oh, he had a house full, as they say, we had a house full. How
many is there this morning? Oh, our house is full. And oh my, and then he told them,
he said, you know how unlawful it is that for a man, that is
a Jew, a man that is a Jew, to keep company, just to walk down
the road with, or come unto one of another nation. But God has
showed me, and he understood clearly what this vision was
now, call not any man common or unclean. And he said, I came
to you without denying, and I want you to tell me why you sent for
me. So again Cornelius rehearses the whole thing about how God
came to him, and gave him the vision, and showed him everything
that was to be done. Go here to Joplin, send for Simon
Peter, he's lodged, and oh, my! And the last thing he said in
verse 32, he said, Send therefore to Joplin,
call here Simon, whose surname is Peter. HE IS LODGED IN THE
HOUSE OF SIMON THE TANNER BY THE SEASIDE, WHO WHEN HE COMETH
HE WILL SPEAK UNTO YOU, HE IS GOING TO SPEAK UNTO YOU. AND
IMMEDIATELY THEREFORE I SENT TO THEE, AND THOU HAST WELL DONE
THAT THOU ART COME. NOW THEREFORE EVERY ONE OF US
HERE ARE PRESENT, LISTEN TO THIS NOW, BEFORE GOD. WE ARE GATHERED
HERE BEFORE GOD. in the presence of God Almighty,
and here's that thing again, to hear all things that are commanded
of God, of thee, of God. So whatever God's got for you
to say to me, I'm here to listen. We're in the presence of God,
your sin of God, and God's got something for you to say, and
I'm here to hear it, and all these people are here to hear
it. Oh my, next week we'll deal with the message. That was just
the preparation. They had to be prepared, you
know. And ain't that the way it is?
Ain't that the way it is? God prepared us. God prepared
us. He had to come and prepare us.
Had to come and do something for us. Now He didn't give us
no visions. He didn't give us, we didn't
fall into no trances. But somebody came with a message. Sin of God. And God told him
what to say. And when we heard what God had
to say to us, we were like, oh, Cornelius, I'm here in the sight
of God. Go ahead and tell me what you
need to say. And every once in a while, God'll just, you'll
see what happens. But God does something. Oh, how
he does something nobody else can do. Oh, our Lord, our Lord and our
God, thank you for your precious word. Oh, it's so precious, so
powerful, so clear, so understanding. And Lord, we pray that you would
prepare hearts, prepare that good ground so that when the
seed is sown, it'll fall on good ground and it'll bring forth
fruit. And Lord, I pray that when I
come, I'm saying what the Lord said, commanded what you told
me to preach. And Lord, he'll start preaching
the Lord Jesus Christ. And Lord, make that to be the
heart of soul of our message, heart and soul of our faith,
that Christ is all and in all. And when we have him, we have
everything that God requires of us. And what God gives us,
he accepts. He gave us His blessed Son, He
gave us His righteousness, He gave us faith, gave us repentance. And Lord, You gave us all these
things, and then You made us accepted in the Beloved. Blessed
be Your holy name. Amen. Amen. He's the Savior of
my soul. Jesus, my Jesus. He's the Savior of my soul. He's the Savior of my soul. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. He's the Savior of my soul. He's the Savior of my soul. Well, good night and God bless
you. The Lord keep you. And Lord willing, we'll see you
Sunday morning. Oh my, oh my goodness. Oh. He got it, he got it. He asked to come before to get
everything ready. How many of them people stayed
with him for three years? And this fella here.