Acts chapter 10. As I was reading over this yesterday,
in the latter part of this chapter, it just hit me, and I'm going
to give this the title, the message that the Holy Spirit uses to
save sinners. Let's pay attention to the message
that he used when he saved sinners, just like it was the same message
at Pentecost, the same message here. It says in verse 1 through 2, there
was a certain man named Cornelius. He was a man of authority. He
was a centurion. He had about a hundred men under
him. He was a Gentile. He was a Roman. It says he was a devout man.
He was very serious. This man was very serious about
the worship of God. Now, does this mean that all
who are serious in their worship are saved? Or know God? Or are worshiping God? No. No,
the Mohammedans are not. I don't care how serious they
are, they're wrong. They are wrong. He was a Here's
what I thought when I was reading this. He was a worshipper of
God according to the light he was given. He worshipped God,
the God of Israel. Not a God, but the God of Israel.
According to the light he was given. He was being saved. This is grace. He had grace preparing
him for grace is what he had. And it says he was a generous
man. He gave much alms. He prayed, it says, often. And these are marks of grace
at work. He was very serious about it. He was very generous. And he prayed often to God. And
in verse 3 it says, an angel visited him. God sent an angel
to this man. An angel visited him. and told
him that his prayers and alms had come up for memorial before
God, like incense filling the room. And the angel said to him,
sin for Peter. You notice the angel did not
preach the gospel to him. The angel was sent to Cornelius
to tell Cornelius this, sin for Peter. Sin for this man Simon,
whose name is Peter. And that's what he does in verse
four. He was he was a sin for Peter. God's going to give his
preacher a hearing. And while the men journeyed to
fetch Peter, God prepared Peter to preach to this man. God is
always at work. Between his people and the preacher,
God is always at work, just like Philip. He prepared Philip to
go down and preach to that eunuch, and that eunuch was prepared
to hear Philip. So he's going to prepare Peter, and you'll
see verses 9 through 16. I won't go through all those
verses, but Peter goes up on a housetop. He's probably going
up there to wait for them to fix supper or lunch, and he becomes
very hungry. And while he's up on that housetop
and they're fixing the food, he fell into a trance. God is
going to teach Peter a lesson. as well as teach Cornelius the
gospel. We should always be learning.
We should always be learning. I've never been a teacher as
far as in schools or anything, but I think when you quit learning,
you quit teaching. I don't know that you all know
that more than I do, but I think if you quit learning, you dry
up as a teacher. So he's going to teach Peter
a lesson here. You know, growth in grace is
not always It's not all at once, is it? It's a lifelong process. This matter of growing in grace
and learning and growing in knowledge of Christ is a lifelong process. So he shows Peter here, this
sheep that comes down from heaven, and it has all manner of four-footed
beasts and creeping things on it, unclean animals. If you'll
go back in Leviticus sometime, in Leviticus chapter 11, you'll
see these animals that they were not to eat. And as a Jew, he
was not to touch or eat any of these animals. And the Lord said,
Rise, Peter, kill and eat. And Peter, as bold as he is,
says, Not so, Lord. Not so, Lord. You know, his commandments
overrule everything else, doesn't it? If he says do something,
you do it. You don't say not so because
of this tradition or this ceremony. This ceremony is The Lord is
going to show his commandments a lot greater than this ceremony,
and this ceremony is done away with. But Peter says, Not so,
Lord, for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean. Peter had always adhered to that
ceremonial law that God gave him in Leviticus 11. He said,
You don't eat these type of animals that he's looking at on this
sheet. But that's over with now. What the Lord is showing him,
these ceremonies and this law of ceremonies, It's overwhelming. Christ is the fulfillment of
the law, the moral law and the ceremonial law. Christ has fulfilled
all of it. And Peter is yet, he's going
to learn this. He knows some of it, but he's, like us, it
takes a long time to learn these things. It takes a long time
sometimes to take off those grape clothes for us. He's the fulfillment
of it. And I want you to look over in
verse 15. And the voice spake unto him again the second time,
What God hath cleansed, That call not thou common. I've heard,
and I've probably said it myself, and I've heard people, I've heard
it said by, and I'm talking about people who believe the gospel
and say, well, we're wicked people. No, you're not. You're not a
wicked people if God's cleansed you. We have to really, and I'm
learning more of this as I get older, we have to really be careful. Solomon said the preacher chose
not acceptable words. Words mean something. They really
mean something. And I'm learning this as I stand
here and preach. I need to set my study and be
careful of how we say things. If I say, oh, we're so wicked,
no. What God has cleansed, don't call common. That's what he says. Don't do that. And those unclean
beasts, they represent us Gentiles. You'll see this here over in
verse 28. Look over in verse 28. And he said unto them, ye
know how that it is unlawful, it is an unlawful thing for a
man that is a Jew to keep company or come unto one of another nation.
It was just as unlawful for him to do that as it was for him
to eat those unclean animals. But God has showed me, he's revealed
to me, that I should not call any man common or unclean. I don't care whether he's a Jew
or a Gentile, it doesn't matter. God's going to reveal the gospel
of Christ crucified to Cornelius, and he's going to reveal to Peter
that he's no respecter of persons. Now, in verse 32-33, Cornelius
tells the story to Peter about how the angel appeared to him
and told him to sin for him, and he would tell him words from
God. And he says here in verse 33,
immediately I sent for thee. Cornelius acted properly, didn't
he? He said immediately. He did as
he was told immediately. This proves that he was really
devoted to this. He was serious. He was not playing
religion. He was not playing religion.
He wanted to hear from God. And Peter had the message, and
so he immediately sent them after Peter. Then Peter comes in verse
34 in his speech and he says, Of a truth I perceive, I understand. God's revealed to me that God
is no respecter of persons. That the Jew is not greater than
the Gentile. That one race is not greater
than another race. A man is not greater than a woman.
He said God's no respecter of persons. God is sovereign in
the dispensing of his grace. That's what he is. He's sovereign
in it. Now let's get to the message
here. I want to get to this message. When Peter was speaking here
in verse 36, he said here, The word which God sent unto the
children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ, he is
Lord of all. Let me say this first. The message
that Peter preached, it struck me as I was reading this, was
so simple. It was so simple. You talk about
laboring to rest. We really need to also labor
to keep it simple. To keep the gospel simple. Not
trying to impress people. Not trying to impress this one
or that one, but to keep it as it's revealed. To keep it as
it is in the scriptures. Keep it simple. Peter did not
put on a display of eloquent speaking, he just simply And
it just struck me as I was reading this, he goes into this house
and a lot of people showed up. Cornelius wanted his friends
and his kinsmen to hear this gospel. He wanted them to hear
from God and he went out and got them to come in with him.
And Peter just talked out the gospel to them. I believe he
just talked out the gospel to them. And then I'll tell you
something else about this message. It was true. Everything he said
was true. He didn't exaggerate one thing.
It was true. Peter preached the truth. And
then thirdly, he preached Christ and Him crucified to these people.
That's what he preached. If we would see sinners saved,
we must preach the same Christ Peter preached. The same one.
We should really take notice. And I thought this. I had to
sit in my study. these past few days and really
give thought to this, we should really take notice of the messages
preached when God is pleased to save sinners. Take notice of those messages.
I guarantee you this, they're always full of Christ. Always. Christless servants have never
been used of God to save a sinner. Never. The Holy Spirit is never
present in Christless sermons. Never. The Scripture says, He
will take the things of mine and show them to you. Now let's
look at this message. I will give you about seven or
eight things and it won't take that long. We have here His person
in verse 36. He is Lord of all. He starts with this. He is Lord
This one I'm going to speak to you about. This Jesus of Nazareth. And they had heard of Him. Cornelius,
you know, they was only about 15, 20 miles from Jerusalem.
They had heard of Him. Cornelius had heard of Him, but
he was about to hear from Him. There's a difference. He's about
to hear from Him. And he says here, He's Lord of
all. He's not only Lord over His church. He's not only Lord
over the Jews. He's Lord over all Jew and Gentile. I look this word up. All. It means this. One of the meanings. To the utmost extent. He's Lord to the utmost extent. He is. Nothing is left that is
not put under Him. Look over in Hebrews chapter
2. Hebrews chapter 2. We just saw this not too long
ago. In Hebrews 2, verse 8, Thou hast put all things in subjection
under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection
under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now
we see not yet all things put under him. We don't see it all
yet, but we see Jesus, all things are put under him. Now look over
at 1 Corinthians. He's Lord of all. Everything's
in subjection to Him. In 1 Corinthians 15, in verse 24, Then come at the end when He
shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father, when
He shall have put down, when Christ shall have put down all
rule and all authority and power, for he must reign." When? Now. Now. He must reign until he hath put
all enemies under his feet. And the last enemy that shall
be destroyed is death. For he hath put all things under
his feet. All things are under his feet,
except the Father. Except him. But all things, everything,
is under his feet. This truth ought to give us great
comfort, shouldn't it? You see the turmoil that's going
on every day. Every day. But I'm telling you,
a believer can sit down and have great comfort in this. He is
Lord of all. That's a fact. That's a reality. We have no one who wants to save.
We have one who has the power and right to save. We have his life given here on
earth. He was anointed, it says, he
was anointed by the Holy Ghost. As a man, he had the Spirit without
measure. He was anointed of God to be
the Messiah. He was given all power in heaven
and earth, not just to heal, but also to forgive sins. Often he said this. Thy sins
be forgiven thee. He had the power to look at a
man or a woman and say, Thy sins be forgiven. And they were forgiven.
He was anointed of God to be the Savior. Everything, even
devils, obeyed His voice. He had the power. He was anointed
by the Spirit without measure. And even to this day, we can
say, Lord, speak the Word of life. speaks the word only. Oh, He's anointed with power
and authority and with the Holy Ghost. And then we have His work. It says in verse 38, He went
about doing good. He never did anything but good. Ever. Ever. He never thought anything but
good. His good is our righteousness. He went about, it says, doing
good. He went about, it says, healing
all that were oppressed by the devil, showing his power over
all principalities and powers. He cast him out with a word.
He said, come out of him. And it came out. Screaming and
kicking a lot of times, but it came out. As many as needed healing, He
healed. And then in verse 39, we have
His death. It says there in verse 39, it
says, And we are witnesses of all things which He did, both
in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they slew and
hanged on a tree. This Jesus, who was anointed
by the Holy Spirit, who is Lord of all to the utmost extent,
who went about doing good, was put to death. He was put to death,
and he was put to a most cursed death. They hung him on a tree. Cursed is everyone that hangeth
on a tree. His death was not a tragedy.
I tell you this, if no one were saved by his death, it'd be a
tragedy. If anyone for whom he dies perishes, that's a tragedy. His death was not a tragedy.
His death was full of purpose. He came on purpose to die, and
he accomplished that purpose. He accomplished the salvation
of everyone whom he died for. Scripture says, He said often
in the Gospels, that the Son of Man must suffer. And He must
suffer and die in order to put away sin by the sacrifice of
Himself. That is the only way my sins,
your sins, the sins of all of God's elect can be put away.
Repentance has never put away one sin. Faith does not put away
my sins. Christ put away my sins by the
sacrifice of Himself. That's how. The sin that He put
away belonged to a multitude of sinners. They were given to
Him by the Father. He didn't just put away sin.
He put away somebody's sin. The way I understood it before
I heard the gospel was that He died for sinners. He put away
sin. Now, if you'll accept Him, the
sin He put away belonged to somebody. And if He put that away, the
law has no claims on me now. If he puts my sins away, the
law has nothing against me. And we'll see this in a minute
because he's the judge, and it's the judge that dies. That's amazing. If the judge dies for you, you're
not going to prison. We'll get to that in a minute. The just must suffer for the
unjust that he might bring them to God. He must die a cursed
death Because that's the death that belonged to me. A cursed
death. Not just death, a cursed death.
We were under a curse. We were not under a voodoo curse.
We were under a law curse. The law said the soul that sinneth
shall surely die. Have you ever sinned? Oh, man. Yes, we have. Everything about
his death had to have a curse in it. Everything. Because everything
about me is cursed. It's amazing. Everything about
me by nature is cursed. So everything about his death,
as my substitute, had to have that curse in it. And it had
it. To the fullest extent, it had it. And his death, listen,
is the end of the power of sin. It's the end of the power of
Satan. It was also the fulfillment of the law for righteousness.
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. When He died,
everything was fulfilled. Everything. But it was not the
end of Him. It was the end of these things,
but not the end of Him. Because it says in verse 40,
Him, God raised up the third day. Oh, it was the end of the power
of sin, the reign of sin, the power of Satan. His death is
going to be the end of death, but it was not the end of him.
God raised him from the dead. That's what he tells Cornelius.
And that group of people sitting there, that group of Gentiles
sitting there, hearing the gospel for the first time under the
power of the Holy Spirit being preached. And he looks at them
and he says, God raised this man up. This man who was anointed
by the Holy Spirit, this man who went about doing good, God
raised, he's alive and well right now. We serve, there's a song
that says, we serve a risen Savior. We do. We do. And that's the one we worship.
We worship Him. Cornelius fell down at the feet
of Peter. to worship Him. And Peter said,
don't do that! Oh man, don't do that! Over in Revelation 19, John fell
down to worship. Look over here in Revelation
19. Let me read it to you. I'm not going to try to quote
it. I want you to read it. Revelation
19. Look in verse 10. Well, look in verse 9. And he
saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto
the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are
the true sayings of God. And I fell at his feet to worship
him. And he said unto me, See thou
do it not. I am thy fellow servant, and
of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God,
for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of the prophecy, but
worship God. And that's who Jesus Christ is, God, manifested in
the flesh. Worship Him. He deserves all. All the angels of God were commanded
to worship Him. And we worship Him. Peter says to Him, God raised
Him. You know what this means? This
means that God approved of Him and all that He represented.
God approved of this man. If God will have Him, How much
more should we have Him? If God will have this man to
sit at His right hand, how much more should we worship Him, and
have Him, and bow to Him, and follow Him, and commit everything
to Him? If God receives Him, how damnable
will those be who reject Him? Now you can see why hell is eternal. Oh, they reject Him whom God
sent. What does it say about the person
whom God accepts? You know what it says? He is perfect. This man is perfect. In every way. In every way. And He showed Himself, He says,
He showed Himself openly, not to all the people, But he showed
himself to witnesses chosen of God. God chose these people. And he revealed himself to, what,
about 500 people there at one time? But he didn't reveal himself
to that whole nation. But he did to these chosen witnesses. They ate with him. They drank
with him. Peter says, I'm one of them. I was one of the witnesses.
I was there with him. What I'm telling you is the truth.
This man is alive, this man is of God, this is the God-man,
this is the Messiah, and this is the judge. Look in verse 42. 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 the dead. Look over
in 2 Timothy chapter 4. 2 Timothy chapter 4. Let's let Scripture interpret
Scripture. 2 Timothy chapter 4 verse 1. Paul says to Timothy, I charge
thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall
judge, he's the one, he shall judge, who shall judge the quick
and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom. Now look over
in John chapter 5. Over in John chapter 5, in verse 26, in John 5, 26, For
as the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to
have life in himself, and hath given him authority to execute
judgment also, because he is the Son of Man. There is coming a day, the world doesn't take this seriously,
the world doesn't believe it, but there's coming a day in which
God will judge the secrets of men by that man, Jesus Christ. He is judged, and I tell you
this, He is judged now. He's judged now. All things have been delivered
into his hands now to do with, as he will, as he judges fit,
and right, even now. He's the judge. And then, here's another part of that message.
This is the seventh point. We've got one more after this.
Salvation by him. In verse 43. give all the prophets witness,
to him gives this whole book witness, that through his name,
his name, his person, whosoever believeth in him shall receive
remission, forgiveness of sins. If God ever teaches you and me,
and he asks, what sin is, oh this will mean something, remission
of sin will mean something. This one who is the judge of
all has the power to forgive and to save. Here is comfort. Here's comfort. The one who forgives
me, being judge of all, is also the one who died for my sins,
that he might forgive me and satisfy justice. This judge,
I thought about this last night. This judge knows the full extent
of the law. The judge should know that, shouldn't
he? You don't want a man on the bench that doesn't know the law. You're in trouble. You think
you're in trouble when you got there. You're in more trouble
if this guy doesn't know what he's doing. This judge knows the full extent
of the law. This judge knows the full measure
of my transgressions. He knows the full measures of
my sins. He knows every jot and tittle
that I have offended against His law. He knows that. And when He died, when this one
died, He satisfied every one of those points. He satisfied
every jot and tittle of the law that was against me. If the lawgiver and the law upholder. If he died for you, who's going
to condemn you? If the judge died for you, you
have nothing to worry about. Because he knows that law. He
knows that law like the old cliche, like the back of his hand. He
knows the spirituality of it. A lot of those Jews knew the
letter. Paul knew the letter at one time when he was Saul
of Tarsus. He knew the letter of it. But this one knows the
spiritualness of it. And that's what he's satisfied.
And then the results in verse 44, and I'll quit. While Peter
yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them
which heard the word. No begging. No altar call going
on here, is there? While he preached the Word, while
he preached Christ crucified, while he was preaching, the Holy
Spirit fell on those people. God saved them. God saved them. This is the message. Oh, I want
to learn this. I want to learn this. I want
to learn it now. This is the message that the Holy Spirit
uses to save sinners. The message that is full of Christ.
He'll take the things of mine, show them to you. And I wrote
this down and underlined it for me. We who preach, and this is
for me. You others can listen in. We
who preach need to take heed to this. I need to take heed
to this. Every time I study all week to preach, this is the measure. I wrote it in the bulletin by
Spurgeon. The best sermon is that which
is fullest of Christ. That's the best sermon. And then
look here in verse 47, and they were baptized. Gentiles were
added to the church. And Peter was surprised. Those
Jews, the middle wall of partition was broken down. They understood. They're starting to understand
it. Later on, Peter had a little problem there in Galatians, but
as I say, growth and grace It's not all at once. It takes time.
And they were baptized. That is a confession. I want
to be, I'm His. I want to be identified with
Him and His people. And they didn't want, verse 48,
And He commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Then
prayed they Him to stay around a while. Don't be so quick to
leave, Peter. Stay around. Tell us some more
about Him. Tell us more. My responsibility. Yours as you
stand here. Tell you more of Him. I put on here, hang on to that
man who preaches Christ. Hang on to him for dear life. Okay, Mike.