through the Book of Acts. The Book of Acts has been pretty
amazing to see how the Lord is moving within the church and
the New Testament church. Today we're gonna be in Acts
chapter 10 again. Just turn there if you would.
The name of the message is Peter's Vision. Peter's Vision. We're going to read verses 7
to 16 together. So let's stand up and read Acts
chapter 10 verses 7 to 16. And this will actually be the
portion we'll be looking at as well. So let's stand up and read
this together. 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 had declared all
these things unto him, he sent them to Joppa on the morrow As
they went on their journey, and drew nigh unto the city, Peter
went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour. And
he became very hungry, and would have eaten. But while they were
made ready, he fell into a trance, and saw heaven opened, and a
certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet,
knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth. wherein
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 call
not thou common and this was done thrice and the vessel was
received up again into heaven oh my so we see in our text there
in verses 9 to 16 that our our text shifts from Cornelius Now
to Peter over in Joppa, so it shifts from Cornelius in Caesarea
to Peter in Joppa. Now when something's true, we
don't mind repeating it, do we? We don't want to repeat a lie,
but when something's true, we don't mind repeating it. Not
at all. In the gospel, for the gospel
preacher and the born-again blood-washed saint of God, when we hear the
gospel repeated each week, it's not grievous. Do you ever think
how amazing that is? That the gospel never gets old
to us? Never. I preach about the same
person every week, don't I? But it never gets old, does it?
It never gets old. You ever think when you get a
new house, it gets old, right? Eventually. My mom and dad lived
in the same house for 50 years. It got old. It was still our
home, but it was an older home because newer homes being made.
When you get a new car, oh, this is wonderful. Got a new car.
But eventually that car gets old too. You get a job. Go to a job. They're all excited.
I'm starting a new job. All excited. But eventually that
job gets old too. Right? But the gospel never gets
old. To the believer, to the born-again,
blood-washed believer, hearing the gospel preached every week
never, ever gets old. Because truth repeated, It's
truth repeated over and over and over again, isn't it? And
for us as believers, it tells us about the one who's our hope.
Christ is our hope, isn't he? You take Christ away, sister,
we don't have any hope, do we? Or brother, we have no hope at
all. You take Christ away from us, what do we have? Nothing. But in Christ, we have the forgiveness
of all our sins. In Christ, we're redeemed by
the blood of the lamb. In Christ, all our sins are forgiven. So much so that God says, I don't
remember him anymore. In Christ, we have his righteousness
imputed to us. As I said this morning in Sunday
school, the great exchange, right? Our filthy rags, our sinfulness
is placed upon Christ and his perfect righteousness is exchanged
to us. The great exchange. So we never grow tired of hearing
about our king, do we? We never grow tired about hearing
the one who shed his blood for us. We just don't get tired of
that. It's not grievous. If it is grievous
to someone, well then, that tells you a heart condition, doesn't
it? That tells you that there's a heart problem there. Oh my,
but we love to hear it. And God's preachers stand up
every week and proclaim multiple times the truth that salvation
for sinners is only found in Christ and Him alone. Nowhere
else. You can't find salvation anywhere else. Not by works of
righteousness, which we have done. No, it's all according
to His grace and mercy. If a sinner is to be saved, they
can only be saved in Christ and through Christ. That's why we
tell others, cast yourself upon Christ. Just look to Him. Just
look to Him. He's the only Savior of sinners.
Stop trying to justify yourself by something you do, and look
to Christ. My daughter asked me, is it that
easy? I said, yeah, just look to Christ. Those young men from
Canada came and said, man, that was so simple what you preached.
You just preached, told us just to look to Christ, nothing that
we can do. Yeah, exactly. He's the only hope. He's the
only hope. And He saved my soul. If He saved
yours, you know that, don't you? Oh, my. In Christ alone, salvation for
sinners is only found in Him and through Him. And it's a blessing
each week, isn't it? Isn't it a blessing that we desire
to come here? Now, sometimes the flesh says,
you don't really want to go, right? I've talked to y'all,
we all have the same thing. You know what Donnie said about,
you know what preaching out of season is? When your body's wore
down and you just don't feel like it. And yet you still go
and you still preach the gospel. In season and out of season. Right? You have a desire to hear the
gospel. And if I can't hear it, when
I don't preach it, I'm listening to it myself. See, I'm preaching to myself,
too, every time I preach, right? But I listen to all different
preachers, too, and I can't wait to hear the gospel. It's wonderful. See, it's not the man, is it?
It's the message. The message of salvation in and through Christ
alone. So it's a blessing for God's people to hear these truths
over and over and over again. Listen to what Paul wrote to
the Philippian church in Philippians chapter three. He said, finally,
my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you,
to me indeed, is not grievous, but it's safe for you. To preach Christ every week is
not grievous for me. I love it. And it's safe for
you. It's safe for you. Why would
it be safe? One might ask, well, what do
you mean? Why did Paul say, but it's safe for you? Well, Paul
rejoices to repeat the gospel of salvation in Christ alone
over and over and over again, because it's the one thing necessary
for the salvation of sinners. The one thing necessary. Remember
Martha and Mary? Remember the one sister got upset
because the other one was sitting at the feet of Christ? She was looking at the one thing
necessary for salvation. She's looking to Christ. She's
hearing Christ. My, oh my. Paul rejoices again to preach
the gospel over and over and over again. Faith cometh by hearing
and hearing by the Word of God, right? Think upon these three points
of why it's safe for us to hear the gospel preached again and
again and again. Number one, it keeps our hearts
and our minds and our thoughts on Christ. Right? Who, what, is the foundation
of our salvation. Who is the fountain of all grace.
It keeps our hearts, our minds, our thoughts upon Christ. Because
I'll tell you what, it doesn't take long for our minds to go,
oh, what's over? I want to see what's over here. How many times have you been
reading Scripture and you get distracted by something? Or you're listening to the sermon
at home, oh, that pause button's nice. You pause it, and half
an hour or 45 minutes goes by, and you're like, oh, man, I need
to finish that message. Or you're reading your Bible.
No, this happens to all of us. You're reading your Bible in
bed and you wake up and your face is in your Bible. Right? Happens to all of us,
doesn't it? Oh my. The spirit's willing, but the
flesh is weak. Number two, it keeps us from the errors of false
teachers. When we hear the gospel over and over and over again
of salvation in and through Christ alone, it makes it easy for us
as believers to identify the truth from error. We can listen
to people preach and know, well, that's not true what that fellow
said, right? We can know, but this only comes,
you gotta give God all the glory because it only comes through
the teaching of God the Holy Spirit. Otherwise, we don't know
nothing. Think of what, this is amazing. I'm amazed at this. Think of
what you know about Christ right now. Think about what you know
about him. Think about what he's taught
you. Did you know any of that before the Lord saved you? No. We had a God of our imagination,
didn't we? We had someone who we thought God was. And then
when he reveals himself to us, we go, that wasn't God. My, but
think of how the Lord has had us learn. So now we can identify,
is this man telling me the truth? Or is this man lying to me? Remember,
who gets the glory? That's how you can measure preaching.
Does God get all the glory and honor and praise? Or does man? Hmm. See, false religion will
exalt man over God and say, well, his will is superior to God's.
No, it's not. No, it's not. There's one will
that's totally free in all this universe. See, our will's bound
to our nature. So our will's bound, if we have
a dead nature, our will's bound to a dead nature. All we want
to do is sin. If we're born again, we have a new nature. Now we
fight sin, right? But God is unbound. The only true free will in this
whole universe and all that exists is God's will. He does whatever
he pleases, doesn't he? And then let's bring it home.
It pleased God to save you if you're a believer. Oh my. I was thinking about how undeserving
we are this week, how there's so many others better than me
and so many others better, all of us, better than us. And yet
here the Lord chose this sinner, me, and you, if you're a believer.
And he did it in eternity when it wasn't based on anything we
do. And we remember all our sin. Not all of it, but you know what
I mean. We remember how we were. And
it makes us blush. My oh my. And there's some sins
that we've committed that only God knows. We don't even tell
anybody else about them. You ever think of that? But he knows. And praise God for the believer
in the Lord Jesus Christ is all under the blood. And we remember
them, and God says, I don't remember them anymore. Oh, my. No wonder Paul rejoiced to preach
the gospel. Remember what he did? He wasted
the church. He murdered the church. He tore people out of their homes. He blossomed God's name. He sought,
remember in that word we looked at when Paul consented? He did it with joy, it said in
the Greek, when Stephen died. He rejoiced
in Stephen's death. But he's looking back, no wonder
he writes, for by grace are we saved through faith and not of
ourselves. It's a gift of God, not of works,
lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus. Oh my. No wonder he wrote, but
the blood of Christ has brought us nigh unto God. My. Oh, number three, when the truth
is repeated, when the gospel is repeated, when truth is repeated,
it guards the believer against self-righteousness. We need to
be guarded against self-righteousness, don't we? I see you all nodding
your head. We do, you know. It can come upon a believer just
like that. But let us remember what Christ
has done for us. We're called the ungodly in scripture,
and now we're called saints. Unblameable in God's eyes because
of the blood of Christ and the righteousness of Christ. It's
marvelous. And you've often heard me say
and heard other gospel preachers say that when God is drawing
someone to Christ, And this is true of all the recipients of
God's grace. He prepares our heart. He prepares
our heart, beloved. Turn, if you would, to Luke chapter
eight. God prepares our heart. You know,
I worked for a construction fellow at West, Vicki and I did, and
I told you before that he'd buy a chunk of land. And the land
just had weeds on it and everything. Next thing you know, his sign
would go in there. The name was Willow Construction.
The sign would go in. Willow Construction. Well, we
thought, well, here comes another house, right? And so what would
happen? The dozer go in there, plow the
ground down, preparing the ground for the foundation. God must till the soil of our
hearts before he lays the foundation. He must be born again. And then
you're given faith to believe. So they laid that foundation
down. Then they'd frame it. Then the drywall guys would come
in, drywall the whole thing. Roofers put the roof on. Bricklayers
put the bricks on. Then in would come the laborers.
electrician, all those fellows. And then come with Vicki and
I cleaning it all up at the end. Oh my, till it's complete. See the picture, beloved? Where
his workmanship created in Christ Jesus. He has to toil the soil
of our heart before the seed falls into it. Who's the sower? Christ is the sower. He's the
sower, look at this. Luke chapter eight, oh. So he
prepares the heart of the one who he's ordained to preach,
because they're born again, such as Philip, and the Ethiopian
eunuch, Ananias, Solitaris, and Peter. But here we see this wonderful
truth brought forth in the parable of the sower, that our great
God prepares our hearts to receive the seed of faith. Look at verse
four to verse eight. And when much people were gathered
together and were come to him out of every city, he spake by
a parable. A sower went out to sow his seed.
As he sowed, some fell by the wayside and it was trodden down
and the fowls of the air devoured it. And some fell upon a rock. As soon as it was sprung up,
withered away because it lacked moisture. And some fell among
thorns, and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it. Another fell on good ground. Who made the good ground to differ? Who made the good ground to differ
from the stony ground? Who made the good ground to differ
from the thorny ground? My, oh, my. Who made the good
ground to differ from the wayside? Only God did, right? And that
land is prepared to receive the seed. How's it prepared? You
must be born again. Right? And look at this. Another
fell on good ground and sprang up and bear fruit a hundredfold.
And when he had said these things, he cried, he that hath the ears
to hear, let him hear. If you're a believer, the seed
fell on good ground because the Holy Spirit regenerated you. And the seed is faith, faith
in Christ. And it sprung up, beloved, because
God watered, God cared for it, right? Oh my. So marvel at how the good ground
is prepared, tilled ground. And we know that's by the Holy
Spirit of God into which the seed is cast. It's meant a renewed
heart. You have to be born again before
you believe. You can't believe without being
born again. You can't repent without being
born again. You must be born again, our Lord
said. It's necessary, isn't it, Brother Zane? It's absolutely
necessary in the Greek. Oh my. In the good ground in which the
seed is cast is a heart born again, renewed, made good by
sovereign grace. For every man's heart by nature
is evil. That's why we need a new heart,
that hungers and thirsts after righteousness. Now, just as these three men
Cornelius sent to Jabba were drawing near to the house of
Simon Tanner, it was about the sixth hour, and Peter had gone
to Simon's housetop to pray. And while he was praying, he
got hungry. He got hungry. He would have
went down and eaten again, But they were preparing the food,
it wasn't ready yet. And we see that Peter fell into
a trance. Let's read verses nine and 10.
It says, on the morrow, as they went on their journey, that's
the three men, and drew nigh unto the city, Peter went up
upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour. And he became
very hungry. He would have eaten, but while
they made ready, he fell into a trance. Now the Hebrew word
for trance there is extatus. It's where we get our English
word ecstasy. Ecstasy. In other words, Paul was ecstatic
by what he saw. He was amazed. He was astonished
by what he saw. And well in this state of amazement,
Peter saw heaven opened and a certain vessel descending unto him as
it had been a great sheet, knit at four corners and let down
to the earth. Peter had never seen anything
like this. He'd never seen anything like this at all. So he was captivated
by what he saw, amazed by what he saw, filled with ecstasy,
with amazement. John Gill says it this way. He
was, as it were, out of the body and entirely in the spirit. All
the bodily organs and senses were shut up and sensible objects
removed from him. And he was wholly intent on what
was purposed to him in the vision, which filled him with wonder
and astonishment. He was astonished at what he
saw. Now let's read verses 11 and
12. And saw heaven opened and a certain
vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit
at the four corners and let down to the earth. And wherein all
manners, now look at that too, a certain vessel descending unto
him. We've seen that word multiple
times, haven't we? a certain man, a certain disciple, a certain centurion. Now this
sheet says it's a certain vessel descending onto him. As it had
been a great sheet knitted to the four corners and let down
to the earth, wherein all men are four-footed beasts of the
earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air.
Now, we see, again, the words, a certain vessel in our text
in verse 12. That vessel looked like a great
sheet, knit at the four corners and being let down gently from
heaven to earth. And we see that Peter saw all
manner of four-footed beasts of the earth, wild beasts and
creeping things from fouls of the earth, things that the Jewish
folks couldn't even eat, couldn't touch. All manner. Oh my! And that certain vessel there
represented God's elect. Think of this, chosen in Christ
before the foundation of the world. Washed clean by the precious
blood of Christ. It's pure white. It's washed
clean. And it's being let down gently. And it's knit at the four corners,
which points to God's loving spirit who calls saints from
all four points of the earth. North, south, east, and west. My oh my. It also signifies the hearts
of God's enlightened saints being knit together. Says it was knit. Our hearts are knit together
in love, beloved. by the Holy Spirit of God. We're
knit together in Christ, aren't we? We're one in Christ. He's
the head and we're the body. Our Lord tells us this, walk
worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness
and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love,
endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of
peace. There is one body. One body. See, man is what made
denominational differences. In the body of Christ, there's
one body. It's man that's separated. Jim
and I have been talking, my buddy across the road, and we saw it
in the study in the book of Acts. One accord. The New Testament
church was in one accord. Again, it's man that's caused
all this, different rifts. By saying, I don't really like
that doctrine, we're gonna go over here. Or I believe that, I believe
salvation's in baptism, but you all don't, so I'm gonna go over
here. Another group says, well, I believe we have to worship
on Saturday to be true worshipers of Christ. It's just man-made
doctrines. Damning doctrines. Damning doctrines. Someone believes they have to
be baptized to be saved. That's a damning doctrine. My, oh my. You know, we can worship
Christ every day of the week, right? And we do, don't we? Because
he's our Sabbath, right? If Christ is our Sabbath, we
can worship him Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,
Saturday, and Sunday. Yeah, a lot of people meet on
Wednesday nights like we do, but there's grace churches that
meet on Tuesday nights. There's a grace church that has
a Bible study every Friday night. You can worship him any day,
can't we? Because he's our king. And the scripture says in Hebrew
that He's our rest. So one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all
and in you all. So all true, born-again, blood-washed
believers are one in Christ. We may differ in denominations,
but if you're truly born-again and you're blood-washed, saying
to God, and your faith is resting in Christ and Him alone, Well,
the scripture says here, one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
one God, and one Father of all. Oh, my. Brother Henry, I was
listening to a sermon by Brother Henry this week. It was great.
And he was saying, you know, I have brethren that are of other
denominations, and, you know, we might not agree on eschatology
or might not agree on this issue, but we agree on the gospel. And
he says, that's what's most important. And man, that just spoke to my
heart, because that's true. It's we men who divide the body
of Christ. Now, we won't budge a bit on
our doctrine, will we? We won't compromise on what we
believe. No, we won't. But if someone believes the gospel
of God's grace, They're preaching the grace of God in Christ, and
they may differ from us on an end-time view or eschatological
view. I'm going to put my hand out
of fellowship and praise God that they're preaching the gospel.
Right? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. In his Bible commentary from
this passage of scripture, John Gill said, the great sheet, which
seems to represent the church of God, whose original is from
heaven, from eternity, and consists of persons born from above, born
from above, who have their conversation in heaven. They were designed
for it, and especially as under the gospel dispensation, which
Peter had a vision of in this embalmatic way. So it represents
the church. I was reading one preacher and
he said that, and I'm always quick. That's one thing you can
count on with me. I'm always quick to check other commentators
to make sure that one guy's not saying this and no one else said
it. And when I saw Gil said the same thing, I went, oh, there
it is. It's wonderful. Do the same in your studies.
When you're reading commentators and they might say something
where you might go, huh? Check other commentators. Check
Gil, check Spurgeon, check Henry, check Poole. There's all kinds of guys you
can check that way. My oh my. I usually say this.
If I feel like the Lord's showing me something and he hasn't shown
anybody else, I just toss it aside. That's my own imagination at
work. And always look for Christ. Always
look, Spurgeon said, make a beeline for Christ. Make a beeline for
Christ. Oh my, even in our studies. And
the elect here are compared to a linen sheet for its purity,
its purity and its holiness through the blood and righteousness of
Christ. That's the only way we're pure, is through the blood and
righteousness of Christ. Think of that. Here we're sinners,
but yet we're unblameable in God's sight. Here we're sinners
saved by grace, and yet the Lord says, I see no spot in you. You're
beautiful. That's because we're covered
in the blood and we're clothed in the righteousness of Christ.
Oh, and with the grace of the Spirit. And the sheep for its
largeness represents all the people. All the elect of all
the ages, a number that no man can number. This is a great sheep
that's coming down. Now, on the earth, we may be
few at any given time compared to the population of the world,
but in heaven, it's a number no one can number. Oh, my. Isn't that wonderful? My, oh, my. And though the New
Testament church was small at first, yet the gospel being carried
among the Gentiles, we're going to start to see the church increase
even more. And look, here we are, a bunch
of Gentiles. Isn't that amazing? Oh my! Gospel's been carried
all around the world, hasn't it? So Peter was ecstatic by
what he saw. He was amazed at what he saw. And then he hears this voice,
look at verse 13. And there came a voice to him, Rise Peter, kill,
and eat. Remember where we read earlier,
Peter was hungry? He's very hungry. Can you imagine
being very hungry and seeing all these animals? And remember, they didn't go
to the butcher store all the time like we do, where the store
and all our meat is nicely packaged up. They hunted and fished. made their own food, like we
make our own food too, but it's all pre-packaged, right? My oh my. And so he's very hungry. And
this vessel was filled with that which, all manner of unclean
beasts. He did not know what they represented
at the time. until our Lord Jesus Christ revealed
to him the meaning of that vision. Now, Peter was a devote Jew.
He was a devote Jew who had been under a strict Jewish diet his
whole life. His whole life. That had been
imposed upon him by the Jewish mosaic economy. And think of
how patient Think of how patient our Lord is with us. Think of
how long-suffering our Lord is with us. Now, let us not be too
hard on Peter, because we all have a little Peter in us. Right? We do. Let us not be too... He's a... See, people exalt these Bible
characters like they're way up here. He's just a normal man
like you and I. He's a normal human being. He struggles just like everybody
else. He's born again, and yet he still struggles. And we're
gonna see Peter put his foot in his mouth again. And I often
think of how doubtful we can be sometimes. My oh my. And our Lord's patient with him.
He's patient with his born-again, blood-washed people who are of
the Jewish sect, isn't he? Because remember, the church
is made up of Jews and Gentiles. He's patient with both, isn't
he? But remember the Jews are making
a transition from Judaism to Christianity. And it's hard because
they were under all these laws. Think about it. You're being
taught all these things all your life saying this is the only
way to do it. And then everything gets upset. The apple cart gets
upset. You don't have to be circumcised
in the flesh. It's in the heart. You don't have to not eat these
unclean animals. There's nothing unclean anymore. Oh my. Peter, again, was one of the
apostles who would be teaching Gentiles in the future. He'd
be teaching others, Jews and Gentiles. God was preparing Peter. And think about this. Marvel
at this. Look back at your life and see
how God prepared you before you were even saved. I was a salesman. Very successful. Doesn't mean nothing though.
But God was preparing me there to not have any fear about talking
to people and coming up to people. I wasn't a car salesman, not
at all. I was a computer salesman. No
one likes car salesmen, do they? No, I'm just kidding. They're
nice fellows. But so he was preparing me for the ministry, and I didn't
even know it. I had no idea. I was religious and lost, doing
my own thing. But all that time, he's preparing
me. And think about yourself in your
life, how he's prepared you. He prepared you to be where you're
at right now. It's amazing. It's absolutely
amazing. So God's preparing Peter to know that his elect Gentiles
were included in the body of Christ. Because the Jews thought
Christ only came for them. Right? So they come unto my own,
my own received me not. Because he was the promised Messiah
to Israel, wasn't he? But they didn't know that God
had a broader plan that included those Gentile dogs. Praise God. Oh my. So Jews and Gentiles who are
born again, blood-washed saints, are one with Christ because they've
been purchased by his blood. And this was the mystery that
Paul wrote about back in the book of Ephesians and in some
other epistles as well. And Peter, look at here, look
at Peter's response. Here we go. My, oh my. And we all got a little
Peter in us. Not so, Lord! Oh my goodness,
could you imagine saying that back to God? Not so, Lord. Right, now here
comes, look at how this statement is dripping with self-righteousness.
See, it's in all of us. It's in all of us, beloved, because
we're sinful. For I have never eaten anything
that is common or unclean. Sounds like a Pharisee there,
doesn't he? But you see, he's so steeped in Judaism. He's so
steeped in what he learned. But the Lord's gonna teach him,
isn't he? And Peter knew the strict dietary
law imposed upon the Jews came from God himself. What he did not know, but he
was about to be taught, was that Jesus Christ fulfilled all things
that were typified in the law of Moses. By the shedding of
his precious blood. He's the Lamb of God that takes
away the sins of the world. Right? He's taken away the sins
of his people, hasn't he? From all over the world. Every tribe, kindred, tongue
in nation. Everyone. And that includes all things.
Christ fulfilled the law. He fulfilled the Ten Commandments
in our room and place. He totally satisfied God's law
and justice in our room and place. Fully. So much so there's nothing
for us to do. We just look and live, and as
I said this morning, we desire to walk in Christ. We desire
to live a life pleasing to Christ now. Don't we? Oh my. And we've been taught, we who
are the blood washed saints of God, we've been taught by the
Holy Spirit of God, that it's true that Christ is the end of
the law for righteousness for all who believe. That's the wonderful
thing. For all who believe. You know there's a clause in
John 3.16, let's turn to John 3.16. Look at this. And if you're here and you don't
believe, or anyone who will listen to this, You won't be saved. There's no
salvation without believing upon Christ Jesus our Lord. Look at
this in John chapter three. There was a man of the Pharisees
named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. The same came to Jesus
by night and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher
come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest
except God be with him. Jesus answered and said unto
him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again,
he cannot see the kingdom of God. Bam! You must be born again,
right? Nicodemus saith unto him, How
can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second
time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, Verily,
verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of
the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which
is born of the flesh, is flesh and that which is born of the
spirit of spirit marvel not that i said unto you you must be born
again the wind bloweth where it listed
and now here is the sound thereof but cannot tell whence it cometh,
and whither it goeth. So is every one that is born
of the Spirit. Nicodemus answered and said, How can these things
be? Jesus answered and said unto
him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know. See,
gospel preachers, we speak what we know, right? and testify that
we have seen and you receive not our witness for i have told
you earthly things and you believe not how shall you believe if
i tell you of heavenly things now here comes the gospel people
say the gospel is in john 3 16 no it's in it's in 14 and 15
beloved it's in 14 and 15 look at this And no man hath ascended up to
heaven, but he that come down from heaven, even the Son of
Man, which is in heaven. So he's speaking of himself.
No man's come down from heaven except for him. And as Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the
Son of Man be lifted up. There he is on the cross. Look
and live. Look and live. Look at this.
That whosoever believeth in him should not perish. Do you believe
in Christ? You won't perish if you believe
in Christ. But if you die and depart this world unbelieving,
you will perish in your sins and spend eternity in hell forever. But look at this. That whosoever
believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life. That life's
in Christ, isn't it? Now look at this. For God so
loved the world, and he did. He loves his people. with an
everlasting, unchanging love that he gave his only begotten
son. And here's the clause. So you hear people say, well,
he died for everybody. Well, that's not what this scripture
says. Look what it says, that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Look
at that. For God sent not his Son into
the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him
might be saved. He that believeth on him is not
condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because
he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
And this is the condemnation, that light has come into the
world, and man loved darkness rather than life, because their
deeds were evil. For everyone that doeth evil
hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds
should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh
to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they
are wrought in God. My, oh my, what a Savior, what
a Redeemer is Jesus Christ our Lord. So now we see the Gospels
is going out to the Gentiles. Oh my. So here's Peter. He's hungry.
And the Lord says to him, rise, Peter, kill and eat. And he says,
not so, Lord, for I've not eaten anything that's common or unclean. The law is not of faith. If you
be led of the spirit, you are not under the law. Look at verse 14 again, but Peter
said, not so, Lord, for I've never eaten anything that is
common or unclean. See, they couldn't get over,
and God's gonna teach them, the Gentiles are included in the salvation that Christ
brought out. My, I bet you when he said, God
so loved the world, that shocked Nicodemus. Because the world,
the Romans called the world their civilization, their empire. The
Jews called the world everybody who was outside of their own
nation. My oh my. God's got a people. That would have shocked Nicodemus.
God's got a people out there? Yep, and we're living proof of
it, aren't we sister? We're living proof, we who believe. Oh my. So here we see impulsive Peter
making another blunder, but let's not be judgmental of him. Who are we to put, who are we
to judge the Lord's saints? Who are we to judge God's people?
Scripture says this, I know and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus
that there is nothing unclean of itself, but to him that esteemeth
anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. Okay. Remember Paul with the meat offered to an idol?
Paul said, I can eat that meat offered to an idol. I can just
devour it. I can eat that thing, a prime rib steak, I can just
gobble it up. But if I have a brother or sister
over here who came out of idol worship, and they're gonna stumble
when they see me eating that steak, I'm not gonna eat it. Paul knew he had freedom that way. But he wouldn't use
his freedom to make someone else stumble. Let us consider that
too. We have liberty, but let us not
use our liberty as a stumbling block for someone else. My oh my. And few men are half
the man Peter was, but he's still a man, isn't he? He's still a
man, just like David was a man, just like Paul was a man, Elisha
and Elisha, they're just men. And these things are written
about them for our learning. For our learning, beloved. And
admonition. Even though we have a new nature
in us, created in Christ Jesus, created in us by the work of
God the Holy Spirit, we're born again, regenerated, the old nature
hasn't been eradicated, has it? We still got this body of flesh,
don't we? Oh yeah, we do. And though Christ lives in us
and reigns in our hearts as king, old man Adam still lives in us
and struggles hard to gain supremacy. Believers are new creatures in
Christ, but we're still just men and women, sons and daughters
of Adam, and sin still dwells in us. We're saved sinners, aren't we?
We're redeemed sinners. We're sanctified sinners. We're
forgiven sinners. But we're all still sinners. We're all still sinners. And
as it is with Peter, it's the same with every believer. Our
struggle with sin is both real and it's constant. It doesn't
let up. It doesn't let up, does it? But we find victory in Christ. We look to Him. That's where
we find our victory. He's conquered our sin, beloved.
He paid for it. It's wonderful. But we're all still very much
like Peter, aren't we? Though grace reigns in us, yet sin still
rages in us. There's a new man created in
us, but the old man's still there with the inclinations to do evil. It's not dead, is it? And we will, each of us, have
to struggle with the weakness of our old nature for as long
as we live in this world. But praise be to God, there's
victory coming. isn't it where we will never
struggle again with sin paul said to die is gain oh yes it
is never going to struggle with
sin again so let's look at this here p after peter said not so
lord for for i have not never eaten anything that is common
or unclean look look at the words verses 15 and 16 and the voice
spake unto him again the second time what god had cleansed that
call not thou Hold on. And the voice spake unto him
again the second time, what God hath cleansed, that call not
thou common. And this was done thrice, and
the vessel was received up again into heaven. Now take note how
the scripture interprets itself. And this should show us how important
it is to not take a verse of the scriptures out of context.
Not take it out of context. That's why I like to read the
context of the scriptures we're going to study. Because scripture interprets
scripture. And always be careful when you're
studying to consider the verses around a certain verse that you're
looking at. Always read in context. And our Lord Jesus Christ revealed
to Peter the meaning of what he saw coming down out of heaven.
And God the Holy Spirit gives his born again blood washed saints
the true meaning as well. Peter was going to be instructed
by God to go with these three men that are coming. Who are
they? They're Gentiles. All three of them are Gentiles.
One's a soldier, a Roman soldier. They're all Gentiles. And Peter's going to be instructed
by God to go with them, these three men who were sent by Cornelius,
remember, to go and get Peter. The angel told him to do that,
didn't he? Peter's going to be going into
a house of a Gentile. That's forbidden. That's forbidden
by Jewish law. to even enter into the house
of a Gentile. Oh my. For a Jew to go into any
Gentile house was absolutely forbidden. And where's God going
to send them? To the house of Cornelius. One who feared God. Oh my. And our Lord says to Peter,
what God hath cleansed, that call not common. Don't call him
a Gentile dog, he's your brother in Christ. Oh my. God's flipping that whole
mosaic and calling it right over on top of itself, isn't he? Oh my. What God hath cleansed, that
call not common. Praise be to God for the cleansing
of the Gentiles, Gentile believers, by the precious, precious blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ, which we see here revealed to Peter. And we will see as we continue
in our study in this chapter, Peter tells Cornelius and those
in his household what God had revealed to him in that vision. Look at verse 15 and 16 again.
And the voice spake unto him again the second time, what God
hath cleansed that call not thou common. We're precious in the
eyes of the Lord. We who are his people are precious
in his eyes. We're objects of his eternal
love. were called vessels of honor
only because God's made it so. Oh my. This was done thrice and the
vessel was received up again into heaven. Our text says this
was done thrice. That is what God had cleansed,
that call not common, being repeated three times or the vessel being
lowered down from heaven three times. Or it may be both. I'm
not gonna even speculate. The people argue about that.
Even the commentators are arguing about that. I'm not gonna get,
it says, it says what it says. This was done thrice. And the
vessel was received up again into heaven. Okay, I believe
that. Do you? Yeah. We're not gonna
speculate, are we? Oh my. We do know one thing.
God's in control of every situation, isn't he? He's absolutely sovereign
of every situation at any given moment, and his timing is always
perfect. And it's interesting that at the same time that this
was done three times as we read, that there's three Gentiles coming
to see him. I'm not going to read into anything.
It's just interesting, isn't it? Now let's read verses 17 to 20.
Now while Peter doubted in himself what this vision which he had
seen should mean, behold, the men which were sent from Cornelius
had made inquiry for Simon's house and stood before the gate,
and called and asked whether Simon, which was surnamed Peter,
were lodged there. While Peter thought on the vision,
the Spirit said unto him, Behold, three men ask thee. He hadn't
even heard that yet, had he? The Spirit tells him. Behold,
three men seek thee, and arise therefore, and get thee down,
and go with them, doubting nothing, for I have sent them. Oh, my. Peter doubted we saw in his mind
what the vision meant. But the Lord Jesus Christ told
him that he was going to go with these three men, and he was to
doubt nothing. May God give us the grace to
do that. to doubt nothing, to just walk in him, trust in him. I know we battle with the flesh.
I'm not gonna set standards that we can't even keep, but may God
give us the grace if he's pleased. Oh my. He assured Peter that
he, the Lord Jesus Christ, had sent them. Next week, we're gonna
find out why. Peter was sent to preach the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what our Lord had
called him to do. And he's now gonna be sent to
the Gentiles to preach the gospel. Preaching the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ to Gentiles, I can tell you, never even entered
into the mind of Peter. He's a Jew. And all of a sudden, you're to
go with these three men. Gentiles, you're to go into the
house of Cornelius. That which is forbidden by Jewish
law, you're to go in there and you're to preach the gospel. My, oh, my. See, we always need
to be ready to give an answer for the hope that lies within
us, all of us, right? Someone asks, what's your hope?
Christ alone, the sovereign grace and mercy of God and Christ alone.
So he's gonna be sent to the Gentiles, to Cornelius to preach
the gospel. And it had never entered his
mind until he sent to the house of Cornelius. So marvel, beloved
God, at how these events have unfolded right before our eyes.
Remember, Peter's sent first on a little mission, goes through
towns and villages preaching the gospel. Then he goes to Lyla,
and the paralytic man is healed. Then he goes to Joppa, and he
raises Dorcas from the dead. And now he's going to go to Caesarea,
to a Gentile's house. a Roman centurion named Cornelius. And right before our eyes, all
this has unfolded as we've studied this scripture. And know this,
that our lives are unfolding before us all according to God's
will and purpose. We're right where he wants us. And he has us in his hands, and
he says, I'll never leave you nor forsake you. Praise his mighty, mighty name.
What a great God we serve. Brother Neil, can you close us
in prayer?