Turn back to Acts chapter 10. It's amazing when we read the
Word of God how we see God at work on both ends. On both ends. He's been at work
on Cornelius for a while. He was a devout man, one that
worshiped God. But he's going to learn the gospel.
He did walk in the light he was given. And then God's working
on Peter. He's going to bring him to preach
the gospel to Cornelius. And Peter is going to learn that
salvation has come to the Gentiles as well as the Jews. And that
God is no respecter of persons. And we are not to be prejudiced
in our preaching. I wish we could get rid of that.
I wish I could get rid of that. To never be prejudiced in any
preaching that I do anywhere. You know, we think we're not. And really, by the grace of God,
a whole lot of it's gone. But not all. You know, a lot
of self-righteousness has been taken out of us, but not all
of it. Not all pride is gone. There's still sin remaining in
us, and it crops its head up in different forms at different
times. And we regret it, but it's there. It's a part of us. Now, it says here in chapter
10, there was a certain man named Cornelius. I like the way the
Word of God speaks of certainties. A certain man, a certain woman. God does not say willy-nilly. It's like throwing chicken feet
out there and see who picks it up. God saves certain men and
certain women. He's on the trail of His sheep.
And here is a centurion whom the Lord is going to reveal
the gospel to more fully through the preaching of Peter. And I
never thought of this until Frank was reading this. He might have been there at the
cross. I thought, oh, Cornelius, because you see, the Lord said,
Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're
doing. They don't know what they do. And there was that centurion
that looked up and said, surely this is the Son of God. And there
were some other soldiers there that feared. This might be where
Cornelius learned something of the gospel, but he's going to
learn it fully now when Peter comes. But this man might have
been there. He might have been. This centurion
might have been. There's a lot of them there.
They gathered around to mock our Lord. They gathered around
to harass him and then to nail him to a cross. And it wouldn't
surprise me at all if this man wasn't one of them there that
the Lord prayed for. Father, forgive them. They don't
know what you're doing. But we know this. He's a centurion.
He's a man who has authority. And he's a Gentile. He's a Roman. And it says he's a devout man.
He was devoted to the worship of God, not a God, not gods. But this man was devoted to the
worship of God. And this man walked in the light
he was given. And our Lord teaches us, walk
in the light that you're given and you will be given more light.
Well, he is about to be given more light. And it's evident the Lord had
taught him something because he worshipped God. He was a devout
man. And it says here he was a generous
man. He gave alms. And it says he
gave alms to the people. He didn't just give alms to the
synagogue. This man gave alms to just, I think, people that
was in need, people he knew was in need. He helped them out.
He was a generous man. Which tells me the Lord had been
at work in his heart. These are marks of grace. You
see, Cornelius at this time was being saved. For by grace are
you saved, and another translation of that is, for by grace are
you being saved. We have been saved, we're being
saved, and we shall be saved. And Cornelius here was being
saved. The Lord was at work in his heart. Well, God sends an angel to him
here in verse 3. An angel visited him. And he
told him that his prayers and his alms had come up before God
as a memorial. That God had not forgotten his
prayers, his worship. They had not gone unnoticed. We feel like that at times. We
feel like our prayers don't really go anywhere, don't we? There
are times I do. We feel like our worship is not
what it ought to be. And it really never is what it
ought to be. But that angel said, God has taken notice of your
prayers and your almsgiving. They have come up before God.
And this angel was sent to tell him to send for Peter. You notice
this angel did not preach the gospel to him. He said, you sin for this sinner.
You sin for Peter, an old sinner saved by grace. And that's who's
going to tell the gospel to you. That's who's going to preach
the gospel to you. Someone who can enter into the
gospel, who can enter into the grace of God, who can enter into
the need of righteousness. One who has tasted that the Lord
is good, one who's tasted that is good. So he says, you sent
for Peter. God's going to give his preacher
a hearing, and he's going to give the sinner a preacher, and
he's going to enable him to hear the gospel. So while the men
were there going after Peter, when they went to fetch him,
God was at work preparing Peter to go. The Lord's always at work. You know, if our lives could
be written like this, like Cornelius' life, it would amaze us. It would
absolutely astound us to see how every step, every minute
detail was ordained, directed by God. We did not hear the gospel
by accident. We did not stumble upon the gospel. God brought us in face-to-face
with the gospel on purpose. And he purposed the time of it,
the place of it, and the preacher of it. It was God's purpose that
one day for me to walk into my parents' house and Dad say, that
man's preaching the gospel. And I sat down and I heard my
pastor, Henry Mahan, preach the gospel. I heard of the sovereignty
of God, the love of God, the righteousness of Christ. I heard
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what Cornelius is
going to He's going to hear of the Lord Jesus Christ. Peter
is going to preach Christ to this man. He's going to hear
the Lord Jesus Christ. And so they go after Peter and
God's at work on Peter. He's going to prepare him. And
so Peter goes up on the housetop. And while he's up there, he becomes
very hungry. And so while he waits for them to fix the food,
he falls into a trance. Peter didn't realize how prejudiced
he was. We don't realize how much sin
is still in us, do we? We don't realize it at all. We
learn as we go through life. We learn how sinful we are. But
I'll tell you what, ten more years from now, I'll learn that
I'm more sinful than I thought I was ten years ago. I'll learn
that I need Christ. I'll learn that I need Christ
more today knew ten years ago. I need him more now than I've
ever needed him. And ten years from now, I'll
need him more then than I ever needed him before. We see our
need of Christ as we grow older. And so he's going to teach Peter
here something. He's going to teach him a lesson. So Peter
sees a sheep let down from heaven with all manner of four-footed,
unclean animals, four-footed beasts, and as a Jew, He was
not to touch or eat any of these things. He was not to have anything
to do with these kind of animals. And the Lord said, rise, Peter,
kill and eat. And he said, not so, Lord. This
is Peter. This is Peter. He's the one the
Lord said he's going to go to the cross. No, you're not. Rise
and eat, Peter. No, no. No, I'm not going to
do that. Not so, Lord. I have never eaten
anything that's common or unclean. I've never associated with anything
like that. I think just living with ourselves,
we associate with that. Peter had always adhered to the
law, the ceremonial law, in his diet. But that's over with now. That's
over with, Peter. These clean and unclean beasts,
that's over with. But what the Lord is going to teach him, don't
you call common or unclean that which I have cleansed. If I cleanse
a Cornelius, don't you call him common or unclean. Don't you
look down on him, Peter. You see, these beasts, these
wild beasts, you know what they represented? Us. They represented us. And Peter
said, Oh, I've never eaten anything common or unclean. He said, Peter,
don't you call anything common or unclean that I have cleansed.
If God cleanses a Cornelius, he's every bit as cleansed and
every bit as saved and every bit as righteous as Peter and
Paul. Every bit. God's going to reveal the gospel
of Christ crucified to Cornelius, and Peter's going to learn that
God is no respecter of persons, that he has a people out of every
nation, kindred, tongue under heaven. We have our boundaries,
don't we? We have our borders. We have
guards. We pay to watch the borders down
around Mexico, trying to keep them from crossing over into
our land. God has no borders. He doesn't see an American any
different than He sees a Mexican or an African. He has made of
one blood all nations. All men, all women are His. Now,
if He wants to save someone from Africa, He will. If He wants
to save someone from Mexico, He will. He has no borders. He has no boundaries. He saves
men of all languages, tongues, and nations. And he's going to
teach this to Peter. Peter had a tough time dealing
with this. Over in Galatians, remember if he was sitting there
talking to the Gentiles? Then Paul came down and he got
up and separated. He didn't want them to see him
talking to those Gentiles. He had a tough time with this
now. He had a tough time with this thing of being prejudiced.
Looking down on us Gentiles. In Christ we're one. There is
no difference. Scripture teaches there's no
difference. We are one in Christ. And there's no difference. So
it says in verse 33 that immediately, he said, I sent for thee. Cornelius
acted properly. He did as he was told. This proves
his devotedness to God. When the angel appeared, he did
what he said to do. They'd argue with him. Well,
that's a mark of grace. That's a mark of faith. That
is a mark of sonship. to do what you're told to do
by your father, and he did it. And then in verse 34, Peter speaks
of a truth, I perceive that God is no respecter of persons. God
is sovereign in the dispensing of his grace. God saves whom
he will. That is one of the things that
struck me when I first heard the gospel. God is sovereign,
and God saves whom He will. He can save me, or He can pass
me by. He can save a Gentile, or He
can save a Jew. He can save a white man, or He
can save a black man. God is sovereign in the dispensing
of His grace, or it wouldn't be grace. It would not be grace
if He were not sovereign in it. And then listen here to the message.
The message was very simple. And look how God used this to
save this man and his house. It was not a long message. If we have most of the message
here, it was relatively short. It was to the point. It was all
about the Lord Jesus Christ. And God saved that man and his
house. The message was so simple. Peter
didn't try to put on some kind of display of eloquence. He just
told the truth. Tell the truth. God will do the
saving. Just tell the truth. And then
it was a message that was true. It didn't make any of it up. It didn't flower it up. It was
true. And then he preached Christ and
Him crucified. If we will see sinners saved,
this is the message we too must preach. You know, I've learned
this. If you read through the Scriptures,
and when you read through the Scriptures, and you see where
Peter preached and Paul preached and God saved sinners, you reckon
we ought to preach the same message? You reckon we ought to preach
the same message that God blessed Paul and Peter to preach and
save sinners? I think we ought to copy it.
We ought to preach the same. We better preach the same message.
That Christ was sermon. has never saved anyone. I was trying to listen. What
is that guy's name? That young guy. He's got all
this great crowd. I can't think of his name now.
But anyway, I was listening to him here a few weeks ago. And
I was telling Jason, we were sitting there listening just
recently. I said, through his whole sermon, I've never heard
him speak the name of Christ. I said, I've never heard him
use the name of Christ, the blood, righteousness. It's always God
wants you to be happy. God wants you to be, I tell you,
if God wanted it, it'll be. God is not a God of wants. He's
a God who has a will, and it's sovereign, and he has a purpose,
and he's accomplishing that purpose. And he's not wanting you to do
something, but he's handing it because you won't let him. What
kind of God is that? I want a God that overtakes me.
I want a God that someone said violates my will with my full
consent. That's what I want. That's the
kind of God I want. But a Christless sermon saves
no one. God's not going to use it. The Holy Spirit is never
in a sermon where Christ is not preached. Christ is not honored.
It says in the Scriptures, He will take the things of mine
and what? Show them to you. Well, let's look at the message that
Peter preached here. Look at verse 36. He says here, The word which
God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus
Christ, He is Lord of all. He starts out with His Lordship. He does not start out so much
as the Savior, though He is, but He starts out with His Lordship.
Bow to His Lordship. You know, they've got everyone
out here trying to accept Him as their personal Savior who's never
bowed to His Lordship. He is Lord of all. He's not only
Lord over His church, but He's Lord over all. One of the meanings of the word
all is this. It means to the utmost extent. He is Lord to the utmost extent. He's Lord. Nothing is left that
is not put under him. There's nothing that exists that
is not under his absolute domain and power and authority. Nothing. Not even, and we can't comprehend
this, but not even a hair falling from my head. He said the hairs
of your head are all numbered. And that includes the ones that
fall out. They're all numbered. That's Lord, that's, that's,
that's, I'm telling you now, that's, that's being over all
things is right down to your hair. That's amazing. And this truth ought to give
us a lot of comfort. We don't have one who wants to save us.
We have one who has saved us. He's not trying to save, he's
saving us. I'm telling you, he's saving us. And then we have also
here, it says here that he was anointed by the Holy Ghost. He's Lord of all. He's Lord over
all. And this one is anointed by the
Holy Ghost. He is the Messiah. That's what
He's saying. He's the one appointed of God to save. He is the Savior. He's the Lord and He's the Savior
of sinners. That's who He is. And He's given
all power in heaven and earth, not just to heal, but to also
forgive sins. not just to heal but to also
forgive sins. He says there in verse 38, and
God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with
power. Power, yeah, he could cast out
the devils. He could heal the blind, the sick, the lame, the
deaf, but he also had power to forgive sins. How many times
did he say, thy sins be forgiven thee? I sinned, be forgiven thee."
And everything, even devils, had to obey his voice. This is
what Cornelius is hearing about our Lord, about his Lord, about
his Savior. Devils had to obey his voice. All he had to do was speak the
word and they would leave. He commanded them to leave, depart,
and they had to do it. Don't you know that whatever
it is I'm going through, you're going through, that I know this,
Lord, all you need to do is speak the Word and all will be well.
All you need to do is command the waves in the sea to be still
and they will lay down. All power, all authority is in
His hands. And then it says here, who went
about doing good, He's the Lord. He's anointed of the Holy Ghost
and with power. And he went about doing good.
He never did anything but good. Everything he did, listen, it
wasn't just good by our standards. You know, we would look at it
and say, you know, that's a good thing. Healing the sick and feeding
the multitudes and doing what he did. You know that? No. The
good here that he went about doing was perfect. It was measured
by God's standard. Measured by God's standard. Who
went about doing perfect. Good. He never even thought of
anything but good. Not once. And listen. His good is my righteousness. He went about doing good. That's
our righteousness. His obedience is our righteousness. It's our righteousness. And he
went about, it says, healing all that were oppressed by the
devil. He was a friend of sinners. Friend of sinners. Nobody wanted to be around that
demoniac. They tried to chain him up. They tried every way
in the world to tame that man when he was out there in the
cave. No one wanted to go around him. They scared to death of
him. Our Lord walked right up to him. Our Lord walks up and this man
just comes and falls down at his feet. He healed him and then left.
Because there was a certain man there that he was after. He went about healing all that
world oppressed by the devil. And here's what happened to him,
Cornelius. This one who is the Lord, this
one who was anointed by the Holy Ghost, he's the Messiah. This
one who has all power, this one who went about doing good, this
one who healed all that world oppressed by the devil, for God
was with him. And we are witnesses of all these
things which he did, both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem,
whom they slew. Now he's preaching to him. He preached
to him his person. He's a Lord. And he's a man. He went about doing good. He
was a man approved of God. He was anointed by the Holy Ghost.
But they slew him. You wouldn't think you'd slay
such a person, would you? But they slew him, because this
is the substitute. This is our substitute right
here. Whom they slew and hanged on a tree. This Jesus, who was
anointed by the Holy Spirit, Lord of all, going about doing
good, was put to death. He was put to death. And he was
put to a cursed death. Cursed is everyone that hangs
on a tree. He didn't just die. They didn't
stone him, he was put to the most cursed death of that day. Cursed is everyone that hangs
on a tree. And his death was not a tragedy. If his death saves no one, it's
a tragedy. If anyone perishes for whom he
died, that's a tragedy. But his death was not a tragedy. It was not a tragedy. His death
was full of purpose. His death was the death of death. His death is our victory. It's our victory. He came to die on purpose, and
he did, and he accomplished. He said, it is finished. When
he cried on the cross, he cried, it is finished, and he gave up
to go. That's victory. That was a victory
cry. That was a victory cry. He must suffer and die in order
to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. There's no other
way for sin to be put away except by the sacrifice of the Son of
God. No other way except by the sacrifice
of this substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ. And the sin that
he put away belonged to a multitude of sinners that the Father gave
him. And he put it away by himself. He purged us from our sins by
himself. That's what it says on Hebrews
chapter 1. And he must die. He must die a death that has
a curse in it. He can't just die. He must die
the death that belongs to me. And the death that belongs to
me and the death that belongs to you. is one that has a curse
in it, a law curse. And he took that death, and he took it away from us.
Took it to himself, took it away from us, and now you and I have
nothing to fear. We have nothing to fear. But
he did not stay dead. Cornelius, he didn't stay dead. Him, verse 40, Him God raised
up the third day and showed Him openly. He didn't slip out of
the grave and ascend back to heaven secretly, quietly. No,
He was shown openly. We serve and worship a risen
Savior, not a dead one. He was crucified
and He died, but He's not dead. He is not dead. He is alive and
well and seated at God's right hand right now. He is not dead. He said, Cornelius, he's risen.
He's risen. God raised him. This means that
God approved of him. And it means that God approves
of all whom he represented. God approved him. And if God
will have him, how much more should I have him? If God accepts
him, how much more should I receive him and bow to him? How much
more? What does it say about a person
if God accepts him? I'll tell you what it says about
him. It says he must be absolutely perfect if God accepts him. And it says he showed him openly,
not to all the people, but to chosen. Oh, my soul, has He shown Him
to you? Have I seen Him? He showed Him
openly, not to all the people, but to chosen witnesses. Not
to all, but to witnesses chosen before of God, even to us who
did eat and drink with Him after He rose from the dead. And now,
listen, not only did he show himself to them, but he revealed
himself to us. If you believe the gospel, God
revealed him to you. He revealed him to you. He revealed him in
you. Chosen witnesses. That's what you are. Chosen witnesses. And then, listen. And he commanded
us to preach unto the people and to testify that it is he
which was ordained of God to be the judge of the quick and
dead." He's the judge. He's the judge. There's coming a day in which
God will judge the secrets of men by that man, Jesus Christ. People don't think much of him
now. But one day he will read the
secret thoughts of every human being that's ever walked on this
earth, and they'll be judged by that man, Jesus Christ. And
he is the judge, and listen, he's the judge now. He's the
judge, he's the mediator now. All things have been delivered
into his hands now to do with as he will, as he judges fit. He's the judge. All flesh is
in his hands to give eternal life to as many as the Father
gave him." He's the judge. He's the judge. It says there
in verse 43, "...to him give all the prophets witness," this
whole book is about him, "...that through his name whosoever believes
in him shall have remission of sins." Cornelius, he's the Lord. He's anointed. He's the Messiah. He went about doing good. He's
our righteousness. He was slain. They slew him,
hung him on a tree. He's our sacrifice. His blood
is the blood of atonement. That's what he's preaching to
Cornelius. He's the judge. And it's through him that we
have remission of sins. This one who is the judge of
all has the power, now get this, he has the power to forgive and
save. Here's the cover. The one who
forgives me is the judge of all. He's the judge of all. The one
who forgives me is also the one who died for me, and he's my
judge. Now you tell me who's going to
condemn me. If the judge is for me, if the judge died for me,
if the judge took my place, if the judge honored and satisfied
his own law, I have nothing to worry about. There is therefore no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. No. This judge knows the full
extent of the law and my transgression against the law. He knows every
jot and tittle of the law that I have broken, and he has satisfied
it. Where I have failed, he has satisfied. The judge has done this. Can you imagine? Can you imagine? You see a judge sitting on the
bench with his black robe on. And here's a criminal, I mean
a notorious criminal. You. Me. Notorious criminal. Wretch! Paul said, oh wretched
man that I am. A wretch! And the judge stands
up. And takes that man's place. Takes his place. Takes his guilt. Allows himself to be made what
that man is. Then dies the death that man
deserves. Rises from the grave. Puts the black coat back on.
Sets on the bench. He said, you're not guilty. No condemnation. The law satisfied. Justice satisfied. And the judge
is the one who satisfied it. That's good news. Cornelius,
this is the gospel. Cornelius worshipped God. He
was a devout man. He worshipped God. He walked
in the light that God gave him. And then God sent him a preacher
and gave him more light. Gave him more light. And I'm
sure his devotedness and his almsgiving went up. It went up. You know it did. If the lawgiver and upholder
died for you, no one can condemn you. Here's the end result. While Peter, verse 44, while
Peter, he hath spake these words, not a lot of them are there,
but they're all about him. All about him. You know, if this,
if this is all that he had to say right here, then that didn't
take you five minutes, ten minutes. But truth doesn't take long to
tell. I mean, you've got to, you know, a lie takes a while
to spin. Now, truth does not take long to tell. So while Peter
yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which
heard the word. And they of the circumcision
which believed were astonished as many as came with Peter, because
on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost,
the same that was poured out on them." No difference, no difference. There's no begging for someone
to do something here. The preacher preached. God gave him the message. The
people heard and the Spirit of God saved. No begging for someone
to do something. It was just they heard the gospel
in the power of the Holy Spirit of God. They heard. And this is the message that
the Holy Spirit uses to save sinners. Look in verse 47. Can any man
forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received
the Holy Ghost as well as we? They were baptized. They followed
the Lord in baptism. Believe in baptism. No difference. And he commanded them to be baptized
in the name of the Lord. Then prayed they him, stay with
us, tarry a certain days and tell us some more. Tell us some
more. I tell you, God sends you a man. I say tarry with me. Tell me
some more. Stay around a while and tell
me some more. That's a rare thing. It is a rare thing for God to
send a preacher. There's not many around. There's
not many around. There's a lot of religion around,
a lot of church buildings around, a lot of congregations around,
but there are very, very few men who preach the gospel of
God's grace. And they said, Peter, carry a
while. We need to hear some more of
this. We need to hear some more of it. And he did. I'm sure he
did.