I'm going to read in Acts chapter
8, chapter 10, verses 34 through 48, and then we'll pick up where
we left off last time. In our account, verse 34, Then
Peter opened his mouth and said, Of a truth I perceive that God's
no respecter of persons, but in every nation he that feareth
him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him. The word
which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by
Jesus Christ, He is Lord of all that word. I say, you know, which
was published throughout all Judea and began from Galilee
and after the baptism, which John preached, how God anointed
Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy ghost and with power who went
about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the
devil for God was with him. 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. Him God raised up the
third day and showed him openly, not to all the people, but unto
witnesses chosen before of God, even to us who did eat and drink
with him after he rose from the dead. 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 living and the dead. To
him gave all the prophets witness that through His name, whosoever
believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins. 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 that on the
Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. For
they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God. Then answered
Peter, Can any man forbid Water that these should not be baptized
which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we And he commanded
them to be baptized in the name of the Lord then prayed They
him to tarry certain days thus is the reading of God's word
as we were working through our points our first point in our
Outline and in our PowerPoint. There's a PowerPoint up there.
You can pull it up It should be there that first point is
the kindness of God to centurions And we saw that this was a precursor
to the conversion of the Gentiles. This is the door that God is
opening to the Gentiles and he's using Peter for that. And we
spent considerable time last week addressing the unique character
or characteristics of what it meant to be a centurion. You
guys remember that? That when you go through the
Gospels, the centurion seems to be a person who is commendable,
He seems to be a person that can be instructed. He seems to
be a humble individual. He was privileged to be there
when Christ gave up the ghost, Matthew 27, 54. And in Matthew's
gospel, he acknowledged that this man was a righteous man.
And in Luke's gospel, he acknowledged that he was the son of God. And
so God had given the centurion revelation, insight into the
true character of Jesus Christ, I believe, in order to demonstrate
for you and me as Gentiles how that God had already anticipated
the pouring out of the Spirit of God in the life of Gentile
believers. But Gentile believers who would
adopt the disposition that the centurion possessed, The characteristics
of the centurion were rooted in their calling, their office.
Remember what we learned last week that a centurion was? He
was a ruler, a military ruler over how many people? 100 people. That's the word centurion. So
he was a ruler over a hundred people. And we saw in one of
the first evidential texts that Jesus said there was no one who
had demonstrated faith on the same level as this centurion. That was a remarkable commendation
of the highest order because what Jesus was saying was his
own Jewish brethren did not demonstrate faith at that level. He was even
saying his own disciples had not demonstrated faith at that
level. That must have been humbling for the disciples. Isn't this
interesting? You and I can be walking with
the Lord and we will discover that other people have characteristics
and virtues who may not actually be walking with the Lord that
are characteristics and virtues intrinsically more noble than
us. Isn't that interesting? And actually,
you're going to note that with Cornelius as well. And this is
a side note, but sometimes in God's preparatory work of bringing
people to the gospel, he will actually humble them and instill
in them virtues and qualities that will be only for one purpose,
to glorify God. So here's what I would say to
you. When you look at other people's lives and you see in them virtues
that are not in yours, don't envy them. Don't envy them. When you see in other people's
lives a level of patience that you don't have, Don't envy them. If you see in other people's
lives a level of prudence that you don't have or a sense of
practical abilities, what you and I don't want to do is envy
them. You don't want to envy someone for something that they
have that you don't. Because to do so is to fail to
understand why God sovereignly gives one person virtues in this
area and another person virtues in that area. For you and I to
adopt a view of jealousy or envy because a person may carry these
attributes or characteristics that are noble, that we don't
have, would be for you and I to think that the objective is for
people to be able to notice us or that we should be the central
point of blessing. Also, it would also mean this,
that we would probably be holding a faulty view of how God works
in the life of the Christian versus the life of the pagan.
So hurry up and settle this fact that we all live and move and
have our being in God. Every human being does. And when
you understand that the mandate that was given at the beginning,
this is biblical theology. For those of you who are studying
your Bibles with me in systematic theology class and biblical theology
class, that God created all human beings with the intrinsic qualities
of bearing his image. Is that true? And because of
that, every human being that operates out of the communicable
gifts that are given to us from God are glorifying God. If a
man is nice, if he's gentle, if he's kind, if he's if he's
patient, if he's someone can endure, if he's faithful, faithfulness
is a commodity that we don't see a whole lot in the world.
But when you meet someone that's faithful, understand that that's
God working for his own purpose and it has nothing to do with
you. There could be a number of reasons for which God would
give a pagan, unregenerate, unsafe person qualities that we don't
have. I mean, I can name one. Can I
name one? To humble you and me as Christians.
That's right. To humble us. Because what we
will have a tendency to do, those of us who claim airship of Christ,
we will have a tendency to judge others just based on the fact
that we have airship. And we will now be inclined to
diminish the qualities that are in other people simply because
we don't have them. But to do so is to not only defraud
them, but to defraud God. For the Christian is called to
give honor where honor is due, to acknowledge that God giveth
us all things. If he if he pours his reign upon
the just and the unjust equally, will he not also work in people's
lives short of regeneration to use them in fashions with gifts
and qualities that actually gets God's purpose in the world done?
Will he not? Certainly he will but then with
the centurions in this so here's the thing from an evangelical
standpoint fix your heart that when you meet people who are
unsaved who don't know the Lord and yet possess gifts and qualities
and Accomplishments that are remarkable fix your heart to
be quick to bless them be quick to acknowledge that they have
these qualities and then don't run up on them and tell them
God gave you that and Because that's religious too. That's
religious too. When you and I see these virtues
in other people and we quickly acknowledge or readily acknowledge
that they're not in us, it's designed for us to get on our
knees and say, God, help me to be like that. Right? Otherwise, we're going to defraud
God and defraud man as well. So the centurions are commended,
they're instructed, they're humbled. And they are obviously called,
we looked at Acts 10, 1 through 4, 22, 25, 27, 1 through 3, and
go in your Bible to Acts 10, 1 through 4, where we are introduced
to Cornelius. And I just want to revisit the
introduction briefly before I go into our second and most critical
point around God's trajectory of the gospel toward the Gentiles
through Cornelius. Verse 1 through 4. There was
a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the
band called the Italian, a devout man, one that feared God with
all his house, which gave much alms to the people. That means
he was not stingy. That means he gave his resources,
his time. Remember what we learned in the
gospel, how that one centurion built a synagogue for the Jews
and they loved him much, the text said. It's interesting. He feared God. with all his house
which gave much alms to the people and he prayed to God every now
and then. Powerful, powerful, powerful.
Powerful, isn't it? Powerful. I'm going to talk about
that here in a moment. He saw in a vision evidently about the
ninth hour of the day, that would have been three o'clock, an angel
of God coming into him saying to him, Cornelius. And when he
looked on him, he was afraid and said, what is it, Lord? And
he said to him, your prayers and your alms are come up for
a memorial before God. Capture that. Crazy. Capture that. Capture how that
the angel was commissioned to first and foremost acknowledge
Cornelius by name. Then capture how that the angel
was quick to let him know that God heard his prayers. So see,
Cornelius was not dealing with simply an apparition or some
type of invasion or intrusion on the part of the parallel world
that we live in. He wasn't dealing with an extraterrestrial
being that was simply coming in to kind of frazzle his brain.
No, this was a messenger, a messenger with a message to Cornelius personally. This was a messenger who knew
Cornelius. It was a messenger who acknowledged
to Cornelius that what Cornelius had done in his arduous life
of piety was not without benefit. Capture that, because wouldn't
you want God to affirm your labor of love and work of faith toward
him? Capture that and capture it on this level. We are still
dealing with an unregenerate man. I'm going to affirm that
proposition here shortly. Like I stated last week, the,
uh, the qualities that are exhibited in verse one, two, and three
about his prayer life and his own giving and all of that are
what we call preparatory to the gospel. He was in a process of
conversion, but he had not been regenerate yet. He is what we
would call a proselyte Jew. He's a proselyte, but he's not
converted. And I'm going to tie the knots
here in a moment on that. It's important for you to know
that an individual can adopt a lot of religious behavior,
and that religious behavior in and of itself is valuable, as
we have been affirming, and they can have qualities and characteristics
in their personhood that are worth mimicking and modeling,
which we have affirmed also before, and yet not still be born again,
which I'm going to show you here shortly. It's very important
for you to know, but God answered his prayer because God had always
intended on saving him and his house anyway. And so verse four, when he had
looked up, he, he was afraid. He said, what is it? And he says
unto him, your prayers have been heard. Here is what I want you
to do. Last week, I finished up with
the proposition and tell a man, our woman, our people group,
actually hear the preaching of the gospel, they cannot be saved. I'm going to make that statement
again. Until a man or woman or people group actually hear the
preaching of the gospel, they cannot be saved. Until you are
brought into proximity of the preaching of the gospel of the
person and work of Christ, there is no salvation. Now that proposition
comes with its challenges, but the challenges are not on God's
part, they're on our part. Because when you draw out the
implications of salvation only comes through the preaching Then
you think about all of the people who have not heard the gospel
right? And you wonder about them. Well
just to help you sleep tonight leave that to God Now that requires faith to leave
it with God if God can number the hairs on your head Doesn't
he know how to take care of the creatures who live and move and
have their being in him? And I'm not doing an apologetic
to say that God has another way in heaven. He doesn't. There's
only one way. And what we're getting ready
to do now is nail down that one way. But your text is giving
you an example of how God works, what we call in theology, preveniently. He works beforehand laying foundations
for his people of which he safeguards them, supervises them, begins
to guide them and prepare them for their conversion. Safeguarding
them even in their unsafe state, supervising them and guiding
them to the position and the situation that's gonna affect
or ultimately bring about their salvation. This is all about
the glory of a sovereign God who knows how to keep his people
Pinned up until it's time to convert them. I Like the analogy
that Jesus uses in John chapter 10. I'll use that as an example
In John chapter 10, let's go there for a moment and then we'll
come back here Keep your hand at at Acts chapter 10 But in John
10 it opens up and our Lord is explaining why some people hear
the gospel and some don't He says over in verse one, verily,
verily, I say unto you, he that entereth not by the door into
the sheepfold, but climbs up some other way, the same as a
thief and a robber. That verse underscores what we
call the exclusivity of the gospel and the door of faith into the
kingdom of God through Christ as the only lawful door to enter
into the kingdom. And when people try to climb
into the kingdom other ways, by works, religion, or by piety,
or by mysticism, or by any other way, and mankind will always
seek another way into the kingdom other than the way of the gospel,
he's a thief or a robber. And basically what our Lord is
doing as he gives the analogy of the relationship between the
sheep and the shepherd, he is warning the sheep how to discern
and determine when men are preaching the gospel versus men who are
telling lies. He says in verse two, but he
that entered in by the door is the what? Of the sheep. So now
what is he talking about? He's talking about a holding
pen where sheep are held. A holding pen where sheep are
held and the sheep are held in a holding pen until the good
shepherd comes and enters into the door and leave the sheep
out. You guys got that? So what I've said years ago is
that the holding pen for God's people is the holding pen of
God's predestinating purpose to save us. The holding pin of
God's people is his predestinating purpose, his electing love, his
sovereign hand to hold you and I in check in life, even in our
unconverted state, until he comes through the door, calls our name
and leads us out of darkness into the marvelous light. We
are all in a sheep pen and that sheep pen is the world But it's
a world that is controlled by a God who is in control of everything. In other words, do you believe
this? Do you believe that before you had a being, God had you
in his mind? Now, we can say that's true for
everybody. But when we talk about God having you in his mind, we're
talking about theologically what we call predestination or for
knowledge. For those he foreknew, he also
called. Here foreknowledge is not prescience. It's not the idea of knowing
everything. That's omniscience. Biblical
foreknowledge means a specific knowledge of a particular individual
based upon a particular purpose. And God particularly knew you,
if you're one of his children, before you had a being in his
own mind and in his own purpose. And when he brought you into
the world through normal means of procreation, he allowed you
to live your life. You were born at the right time
by the right parents in the right place. And all the mess you went
through, all the trouble you were in. God knew every aspect
of that. And he knew exactly when he would
hunt you down and call you out. You know where you were? You
were in the sheep pen. You didn't know it, but God knew
it. Are you hearing what I'm saying? So when he uses the analogy
of the shepherd coming to climb up into the sheep pen any other
way, these are thieves and robbers who are seeking to take the sheep
and use them for their own greedy gain. When the true shepherd
comes, he comes through the front door. Now the front door is the
collaborative work of the shepherd with the porter. Now, the porter
here is the one who watches over the sheep in the sheep pen until
the shepherd comes. In this case, the porter is the
Holy Ghost. For the Spirit of God is the
one who actually gives life to all and controls all things on
the immediate level. When you understand the economical
workings of the three persons, the father's on his throne, the
son's the mediator, and the Holy Ghost is the immediator. You
guys got that the Holy Spirit is the one that's leading and
guiding and governing the lives of all men conscious and unconscious
Until at such time he opens the door and allows the good shepherd
to come in to call you by name And then you come out Every one
of us who have been born again. Remember the day when we heard
the shepherd's voice And we didn't understand what was going on
in that little dark pen with all of those nasty sheep who
were nasty and filthy just like us. We were complaining and barking
and making all kinds of noise. And then all of a sudden the
shepherd came through the front door and he called us by name and
we heard him. Here's what he says. He enters
in by the door as the sheep, uh, he that enters in by the
door as the shepherd of the sheep to him, the Porter opens to him,
the Porter opens and the sheep hear his voice. And he calls
his own sheep by what? That's what I just said. In Acts
chapter 10 verse 1, the Lord Jesus opened the door to the
life of Cornelius through his messenger, the angel, the celestial
messenger and said, Cornelius, this is what I want you to do.
At that point, he is now apprehended by the providence of God in a
more particular way, because now the providence of God is
going to put him on his camel, going where he will actually
hear the gospel. Do you guys understand what I'm
getting at now? So, so, so Cornelius is in a
process. He's drawing near to God and
God is drawing near to him. And God is now speaking to him.
Listen, you have one of God's angels talking to you. You highly
favor. If he doesn't kill you, you're highly favored. And we're in process now of receiving
the prize of salvation in a collaborative work. If we were to talk about
it on a practical level, this is the time where the Spirit
of God has started dealing with you in your life, where you were
living like hell and you were unconscious of any of God's influence
in your life. But at a certain point, God started
dealing with you, didn't he? And now, you know, you're really
struggling with how you're living, your circumstances, the events
circumscribing where you are, and you're starting to make movements
towards God in a much more intentional and radical way. In fact, God
may be even using human messengers bit by bit and by and by to speak
to you. Like he did with me. He would
send messengers to speak to me while I was in my mess. I used
to run from him. I'm just telling you how it was.
I did not want to hear him. I used to run from him and they'd
still catch up with me and be able to drop a word in running
until God finally locked me down. So, okay, now it's time to give
it up. That's how he works providentially to bring us to a certain place.
And so the angel is specifically speaking to Cornelius, bringing
him out into a place where he will be sealed in his calling. Listen to what the language says
over in verse nine. I'm gonna start at verse seven
and go through verse nine, then we'll go back to our text. Then
said Jesus again unto them, truly, truly, I say unto you, I am the
door of the sheep, right? So exiting through out of the
sheep pen of Providence, and and God's Supervisory work of
your life over your life into the the the freedom and liberty
of the gospel Requires you having a confrontation with the door
and that door to is Christ. I am the door of the sheep So
he goes from being the shepherd of the sheep to the door of the
sheep Do you believe that? Right. I'm the way the truth
in the life. No one comes into father, but
by me I'm the way can he be a door and a shepherd to he is. All
that ever came before me are thieves and robbers. But the
sheep did not hear them. That's an amazing mechanism that
God inserts in the life of every one of his sheep, even the lost
sheep, even the lost sheep, even God's lost sheep do not succumb
to heretics and false prophets altogether. Even God's lost sheep
are limited in their capacity to commit to and give themselves
over to fully false prophets and false teachers because they
are Christ's sheep. Now, while as you do not hear
the gospel in a clear, articulate, Christ present fashion, if you
got sheep and lost, you don't know that you're not hearing
the gospel. But the moment you hear the gospel,
you go, yes, master. Am I telling the truth? So so
this this allows for understanding why some people are presently
under the influence of false teachers and false prophets who
may very well be God's elect. But until the shepherd calls
them himself. They don't even know that they're
under false doctrine and false teaching. He's still keeping
them, though. There's a part of them that won't
allow them to commit wholesale. That's God's goodness in their
life. That's God's goodness. We would call it the gift of
discernment, but that would be giving too much credit to the
sheep because we're dumb. OK, I don't want to give you
that much credit because we can really mess up hanging out with
crooks, false prophets and false ministries. Come to discover
how hoodwinked we were. Remember, I share with you the
account of Balaam and the ass. Do y'all remember that? Balaam
is the false prophet. The ass is God's elect. I know that hurt, but just accept
it. I know it hurt. I know, I know. We were led by
the false prophet. He governed us as long as he
had control. But the moment we saw the angel
of the Lord, everything changed. We started entering into conflict.
with our former master because we saw the glory and the awesomeness
of our real master and he started hedging us in. Remember that? He hedged us in so much so that
we entered into warfare and battle with the false prophet who was
governing us until at last there was a separation between the
two. That's right. That's right. We are all by nature
dumbasses, but as long as we're God's dumbass, we're good. Listen to the language. I am the door, verse nine, by
me, if any men enter in, he shall be what? That's what we're getting
ready to see in our text. That's what we're getting ready
to see in our text. This process of Cornelius being brought in
because the door has been opened for him to hear the gospel and
the whole house. I am the door. By me, if any
man enter in, he shall be saved. He shall what? Go in and out
and find pasture. You know what this describes?
It describes liberty and it describes resources, liberty and resources,
an endless supply of nourishment, which the soul needs to have
a sense of comfort and security. Remember, the analogy is that
we're sheep and sheep have to be fed and sheep have to be led. And sheep have to be exercised.
They can't stay pinned up all the time. So the life of the
believer is a journey from here to glory. And in our journey,
the master is leading us and he promises to provide for us
by and by all through our journey. And he has. Has he not? He has. He's a faithful shepherd. You can attach to this verse
Psalm 23. Let's go back to chapter 10 and do a little bit more work
now. So Cornelius and his house precursor to the opening of the
door to the Gentiles point number two the election calling and
conversion of Cornelius the centurion this is where we left off last
week and I said that it's possible for an individual to become an
awakened sinner to his need of God and yet not actually be in
a actual state of true conversion he can be awakened because often
God does it in stages where he begins to deal with you providentially
circumstantially And most of us can affirm that, that over
the course of our life, we became increasingly aware of God and
our need for God. And in God's providential acts,
he would impress upon us a need to get right with him. And there
would be this time wherein we might have even struggled and
labored under a sense of religion to stop doing this and stop doing
that and start changing this and start changing that because
we knew we weren't right. Can I get a witness? Right. And
so that's all the hand of God to in preparation to bring you
to the place where you now will receive the gospel because you
have come to discover that salvation could never be by works of righteousness,
which we do. So he'll give you over to lengthy
periods of self-help, self-motivation, increased learning, increased
knowledge. I'm gonna learn every religion
in the world. If one of them is right, then I'll get in. It's
kind of a Mars Hill experience of Acts 17. Or he may just give
you over to asceticism of works, false piety. and you're going
hither and yon trying to find God, but you're working and he'll
allow you to do that until you come to a place of despair. Well,
Cornelius is in a pious mode of prayer and the text says he's
praying every day. You know what it says? So, so, so let's, let's, let's
draw an inference out of that for a moment. All right, let's,
let's, let's derive an inference out of it. What, what's going
on in your life and mind when we're praying every day? Trouble! I love the way God works. I wish
I had time. I can sidetrack, but I'm gonna just actually tag
this one. God uses trouble to bring you
to your knees, to start talking to the God you don't know. God
uses trouble to bring you to your knees, to get you to start
talking to the God you don't know, but who knows you. Are you hearing? This is how
God works You're never gonna talk to God in that first conversation
with him apart from being on your knees God only talks to
people on their knees You're not you're not standing up talking
to God. I'm sorry He resists the problem He only gives grace
to the humble That's the parable of the Pharisee and the publican
So God will break you down with trouble and have you calling
on him. This is why Cornelius is calling every day. Because
on the inside, even though he has adopted a system of religion
called Judaism, he's still empty. Still very, very empty. Part of him knows Judaism has
a form of the truth, as Paul said in Romans chapter two, you
have a form of the truth in the law, but you don't have the substance.
That's religion, that's church. It's church, it's tithing and
baptisms and speaking in tongue and tarrying and fasting. Remember that? Laboring because
you want God. Screaming at the top of your
lungs trying to get God, like God's death. And then you finally settled
down and realize that if God doesn't come get you, right where
you are, nothing's going to work. So what God does is bring you
and I to a point of surrender. Surrender. That's right. Surrender. That's where you meet God at
and surrender. So point B, serving the religious
party, but not yet what? Right, and so the two texts I
use is Matthew 7, 22 through 24, where Jesus meets all these
religious folks on the last day who said, Lord, didn't we do
mighty miracles? Didn't we cast out devils? Didn't
we perform mighty works in your name? And Jesus said, but I never
knew you. There you go. Titus 3, 5, not by works of righteousness,
which we have done. If you think you're going to
marshal up to God on the last day with a big old truck full
of your good works, all you're going to be is rejected and on
your way to hell. Do you hear me? Very important
for us to know that. Point number three under this
proposition, the election, calling and conversion of Cornelius to
the the centurion is chosen under salvation and therefore what?
All right. So now what I'm dealing with
is the linear work by which the spirit of God and by which the
triune God brings about salvation. So election and calling are two
distinct things. I want you to get that election
is before calling. And calling is the process by
which regeneration comes. Election is before calling, but
the ones that are called are the ones who are elect. Called
in what we will talk about here in a moment, the effectual sense.
So like in the gospel of Matthew, Matthew 20, around verse 31 or
so, it says, many are called, but few are what? Chosen. That's
right. So those who are truly chosen of God are the ones when
the gospel is preached, at the right time, they actually hear
God's voice. Others don't. Let's back up one
chapter and we're not going to do it literally, but I'm going
to do it by way of remembrance. And the apostle, uh, the servant
Saul, who now is the apostle Paul was called effectually on
the road to Damascus. Remember that? There was an effectual
calling while the two guys that were with him, the other men
that were with him, they did not receive that effectual call,
though they heard a voice. And so it is with folks in your
life. There will be people around you
who will obviously see a marked change in what's going on in
your soul, who will have absolutely no sense of what's going on.
They're on the outside. They may have even heard an external
call from the preacher, you need to repent, believe the God, and
they're going to church right along with you, but they haven't
been born again. So by and by they drift on off. Many are called,
what? Few are chosen. It's important
for you to know that. So we are chosen under salvation.
Often my brothers and sisters who don't have a real good handle
on the scripture supporting doctrines like election will conflate election
with actually being saved. And so they will make statements
like, yeah, they are elect because they're saved. Well, no, they're
saved because they were elect unto salvation. Otherwise we
would be stating that every person that's unsaved is also not elect
This is the logical syllogism, right? But we know that you and
I were at one time unsaved Though in God's purpose his eternal
purpose of grace we were elect so you and I don't know who God's
elect are and until they die in an unsafe state, unrepentant,
or adopting heresies that are contrary to the gospel and perish
in those heretical teachings. Am I making some sense? So the
jury is always still in on a human being so long as he's breathing,
that he might be elect. But you and I better be very
careful when we mark an X or a Y on people's back and call
them the elect or the non-elect. Because I promise you, most people
call the thief that was on the right side of Jesus who finally
stopped suppressing the truth and acknowledges sin and acknowledge
Christ. I said, I promise they were saying
that he was a non-elect believer, non-elect person. Here he was
just as elect as Abraham living like hell to last hour. And God
had a purpose for him for, for all eternity, just in a moment's
transaction between him and Christ. That's designed to exalt God's
glory in the matters of grace. And it's designed to keep our
mouth shut because God doesn't need our help determining who
his elect are. Are you guys following what I'm
saying? I remember I had a brother. He
did. Now, it's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing how
our Christian journey works. So this must have been about Uh, 16 years ago, maybe 18 years
ago. Um, I'm just trying to think
now how old was Rachel at that time? 16 years ago. In any event,
I had a, I had this guy. I knew he was a religious person,
very Christian. That's what he said. And he,
he, he would look at all my kids, right? And you know what he'd
say? He said, Jesse, that one's saved. That one ain't saved. That one's saved. That was not
safe. I said, how can you tell? I already
knew he was a little, you know, a couple cards short of a full
deck. I already knew that. But how can you tell man? Cause
this one here, he's so peaceful and so nice. That's the one that
grew up later was just as wild as a Tasmanian devil. Wild as
a Tasmanian devil. That's the one that grew up.
So the point is, is that the assumption that you can know
who God's elect are is absolutely ludicrous. There's no empirical
evidence. Don't ever waste your time with that kind of vanity.
And people do. People waste their time. It's
a distraction from them making their own calling and election
sure. Sad because the guy just perished a few years ago of cancer. It's just amazing how we live
and people die and we continue to live. and people die, we continue
to live. That's a mercy from God. But
learn the lessons, learn the lessons as we go. Because the
people of God should be learning every day. I don't care how old
you are, you should be learning. Listen, the reason why God lets
you live every day is to get the gospel righter. That's right, that's right. To
get it righter. I know that's bad grammar, but
I did it for emphasis. to get it more right. To hone
your understanding of what God has been doing in your life all
these years so that you can frame your words to say it. That corresponds
with the scriptures. If any man speak, let him speak
as of the oracles of God. As you know, we used to say a
whole lot of things about God years ago that wasn't true. We
meant well. But see, the path of the just
is as a shining light that shines more and more to the perfect
day. Proverbs 4 18. As we get older, we ought to
have more light and therefore more of an accurate understanding
of what God has done. When we say chosen under salvation
and therefore call, we quote 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 13. I want you to see it briefly.
2 Thessalonians 2, verse 13. And let's affirm this process
because we want to be able to help people who struggle with
Doctrines like election and predestination and the fact that man does not
have a free will and other components of Biblical truth that that fallen
man Struggles with we want to be able to help people accurately
work with them Because the gospel is a message that when properly
communicated strips human beings of all forms of boasting. You're
going to hear this again on Sunday. As you have, we've been going
through the book of Romans and I've been enjoying that study
in Romans. Have you been enjoying that study? We're getting ready
to go deeper as we hone in some technical points in which the
apostle is laying down the gospel. But remember what I said. Paul
says that it must be the law of faith and not the law of works
so that there is no boasting. The law of faith, meaning having
a proper definition of biblical faith, doesn't leave any room
for a person to boast that they did something to contribute to
their salvation. Are you guys following? So then
when you meet people who say, I did this, I made the decision,
I chose, I came to God, I labored, I prayed, they may be ignorant,
And therefore you have the right if you have relationships with
them to clarify, take that I out and put the H E there and you're
getting better. You got that? Because biblical
faith does not leave room for your boasting or mine. It's all
by the grace of God. So as the Bible says in 2nd Corinthians
chapter 3, what do you have that you didn't receive? And if you
received it, why are you boasting as if you did not receive it?
Am I making some sense? So Christians can't be going around talking
as if they have intrinsic values and qualities by which they reach
after God and because they reached after God, God reached after
them. No, you turning the cart upside
down now and you're still in God's glory. Listen to the text. We are bound to give thanks always
unto God for you. First line says I'm obligated
that we're bound. There means I'm obligated. If
I understand biblical truth and I understand that God saved you,
I'm bound to give God thanks for you. I'm obligated to thank
God for saving you because he didn't have to save you. He could
have left you in your mess. We're bound to give thanks always
to God for you, brethren, what beloved of the Lord. Now watch
this, because God has from the beginning chosen you. The word
chosen there is election. Same word. God has elected you. Now watch this to salvation.
So the election is unto something. It's with an objective. He chose
you in the beginning to salvation. So salvation is the objective.
Now watches through the. Instrumental means watch this
of sanctification. chosen you to salvation through
sanctification of the spirit of God and what belief of the
truth. So what Paul has just stated
is that God who chose you, he chose you in the salvation and
the means by which you actually entered into that salvation is
the work of the spirit of God taking the truth and penetrating
your heart with that truth until it sets you apart to God. You
guys got that? I see if I can see if I can make
that good over in chapter 1st Thessalonians chapter 1 verse
Let me see before you go back let me see here go to verse 14
I'll watch this in verse 14 2nd Thessalonians 2 verse 14 Where unto he what called you
by our what? to the obtaining of the glory
of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's a powerful objective.
But the means is He called you by our what? And that's what
Cornelius is about to be confronted with. Do you guys understand
that? Cornelius is about to be brought under the preaching of
the gospel. But before we go back there,
go with me to 1 Thessalonians chapter 2. 1 Thessalonians chapter
2. and I'll show you something in
verse 13. This is what I meant by the effectual call. This is
called the effectual call. Are you there? Listen to what
he says. For this cause, we also thank
God. Paul used to thank God for a
lot of stuff. You're talking about a praying and worshiping
man. Paul was a praying and worshiping man. For this cause also, we
thank God without ceasing because when you received the word of
God, see it? Which you what? Faith comes by
what? And hearing by what? When you
receive the word of God, which you heard of us, you received
it not as the word of men, but as it is in the truth, the word
of God. Now watch this. This is what
we call the effectual call, which worketh effectually in you that
believe. You know what that means? At
that point, wherein God called you, the spirit of God worked
through the preaching to break through the door of your heart
and get a hold of your being. And when he got a hold of your
being, you knew that this was God talking to you. You weren't
sitting there playing religious games saying, you know, this
sounds cool. It makes a little sense. I think
I can roll with it. Every true believer, when God
speaks through his word, is confronted with omnipotent power. It's such
a power that it changes your life. Every now and then people
will come up to me and say, man, that was a good message. And
I'll respond a little here or there, waiting on what else they're
going to say. And then they'll go to talking about how, man,
I appreciate how you framed that, how you said that. Man, that
was cool how you did that. And I realized he didn't hear
nothing. All he was caught up in was the delivery. You know,
people trip when you you can demonstrate just a little bit
of acumen and knowledge in their mesmerized with the manner in
which you communicate the gospel instead of the substance of the
message. Are you guys hearing at that
point, they haven't heard a thing, just religion. When you can hear
the truth in the words and know that that's coming from God,
it moves you. This is what we call the effectual
working of the spirit of God and those that believe. That's
the difference between people who respond positively towards
God under the preaching of the word than those folks who are
still stuck in their place. That's the difference right there.
You wonder why some people don't move because they're not hearing
from God. Others are. Go back to our PowerPoint. Let's continue working. Let me
see if I can make through this. We got 30 minutes here. I can
begin to show us something in our text. One can be awakened
to his knee as Acts 17, 26, 27 underscores Hebrews 6, 4 and
5. We talked about that many times. The writer to the Hebrews
warned those Jewish people that they were privileged of hearing
the gospel. But he says, it's possible that
we can hear the word of God, that we can be enlightened, that
we can taste of the worlds to come and the powers of the kingdom
of God and still not actually experience regenerating grace.
You can see miracles. You can see all kinds of evidential
signs that God is present and yet still not be in the kingdom. Our case in point, Judas Iscariot. It's important for you to know
that he was deeply immersed in the existential work of the spirit
of God. He was a company man, but he
was not born again. And a person can be drawn that
close to the kingdom and still fail to achieve a true conversion. So when we say chosen unto salvation
and therefore call, we mean called by the preaching of the gospel.
My last proposition, and we're going to go back to our text
and affirm this. We are saved only by the preaching of the
gospel. You guys got that? Go back to
our text. Now let's, let me see if I can make this good because
there has been major battles throughout the theological world.
I know this. not trying to bring you into some of those complex
and long, endless debates that have gone on where certain parties
have always sought to advocate and defend their assumed position
of wanting to see people in the kingdom of God who have not submitted
to the crown rights of Jesus Christ. Long ago, this would
be years ago. This was called the wider mercies
of God. This was something that was adopted
by people like Robert Shuler. Even Billy Graham fell into that
era. Him and Robert Shuler both talking
about God saving people all over the world who don't even know
Jesus have never bowed the knee to you. They both publicly stated
that. I'll leave them to God, but there is no way that you
could hold a notion that God saving everybody. through every
kind of means and make Jesus to be righteous. Do you guys
follow the logic? A man cannot tell you something
that doesn't correspond to the reality and be a faithful man. Jesus cannot tell you he's the
only way and truth in life. And then we come to discover
folks are getting in every other kind of way and he'd be a faithful
man. There's no way that you can be
told that salvation is only through the preaching of the gospel and
then come to discover that God's saving folks all kind of other
ways. Either this is not the word of God, either Jesus is
not faithfully proclaiming the word of God, or this God that
we're dealing with is a huckster. Because he's telling us to come
one way, but he's allowing others in a whole nother way. That's
kind of how our government is with immigration. I leave that
alone And in fact as we get ready to deal with this proposition
Saved only through the gospel. This is one of the most offensive
components of the gospel It's called exclusivity you're all
right with religious people so long as you don't press this
home a world of pluralism Where everybody is right in their own
eyes as the proverb says reading for yourself in Proverbs chapter
20 every way of man is right in his own eye That's what the
proverb says every way of man is right in his own eye now ladies
and gentlemen that just can't possibly be true It can't be
true that every way of man is right and yet that's what people
think and so if you press home the exclusivity of the gospel
of You force people to have to draw conclusions that they don't
like. Like people they know that lived
and died, never bowing the knee to Christ. So now here's what
I meant when I said saved only by the gospel, that Cornelius
is here yet to be saved. I'm going to start with affirming
this by verse 22 of Acts chapter 10. And then I'm going to affirm
it by the rest of our account in Acts chapter 10, verse 22.
They said unto Cornelius, Cornelius, the centurion, a just man and
one that feared God and of a good report among all the nations.
He was warned from God by an holy angel to send for thee into
his house and to what? Hear words of you. Cornelius
was interrupted by the angel and told by the angel, go get
Peter. Watch this not so Peter can do
a miracle But because Peter has words That you need to hear Are
you hearing what I'm saying? This is why we are so passionate
about the preaching of the gospel And this is why we tell men and
women come hear the gospel or we give them CDs because we want
them to hear the gospel Because we know while as yet, many women
are not hearing the gospel. They cannot be saved. So stay
with me now. Look how important the preaching
of the gospel is. God dispatches an angel from
heaven. That's powerful. You go tell Cornelius to send
somebody to get Peter because it's time for you to be saved. No, you watch, watch, watch this
now. This is heaven using its resources
of a divine nature to position his elect to be saved by a process,
a methodology that's inviolable. This is heaven actually submitting
itself to its own methodology. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? This is heaven submitting itself to its own methodology,
which means this, God doesn't tell us how it's to be done and
then violate his own rules. Heaven sends an angel to the
man and tells the man to go get Peter Because Peter has to talk
to you in a way that's gonna bring about your salvation Do
you know what we call that? mission work This is the work of missionaries
Ladies and gentlemen, why would we send missionaries all over
the world hazarding their lives and for the cause of the gospel
if God can save people any other way. Help me understand the logic. There's no logic there. It's
illogical. It's illogical for God to cause men and women to
hazard their lives, to travel the four corners of the world,
to meet people they don't know, live in uncomfortable circumstances
and events just to communicate words to them. And see, presently
there is a major, major drought. and major, major, major chasm
in the world of scholarship and it's affected missionary organizations
as well. So that the vast majority of
your missionary organizations do not believe in the exclusivity
of the gospel. They are wrapped up in trying
to find all sorts of other ways to get people, as it were, prepared
for heaven rather than the preaching of the cross of Jesus Christ.
because they see the enormity of the task and they think God
can't possibly make this work. Well, see, the problem is with
them, not with God. And the problem actually goes
all the way back to their not believing the scriptures. So
what you and I are doing and have done now for an hour is
began to look at how God actually saves people from the scriptures
having And we're going to see its consummation here in a moment.
And we'll have to ask the question, if God saved people back then
that way, by inconveniencing them, sending servants from Jerusalem
all the way down to Caesarea, all the way over to Asia, then
around the world by this means of their feet, by their walking
on donkeys to share words. by which the world was converted
and Christianity has permeated the world for 2,000 years now.
Is God still working that way or is he doing a new thing? If
God's doing a new thing, he's a liar. Am I making some sense? All right, so it's important
for you and I to know this, that I'm not just hodgepodging passages
of scripture together to get you and I to buy into a pet peeve
methodology by which God sometimes works. No, what you and I are
doing is carefully observing the clear implications of the
inconvenience of this whole process. Intermediated by a God who is
utilizing angels to bring his apostles, who would be the foundation
of the New Testament church, into situations where the gospel
now will spread. Peter becomes the vehicle. Of
the process. Acts chapter 11. Acts chapter
11. I want you to notice this now. Notice how Peter in rehearsing
this to the Jewish brethren, and we'll talk about this next
week, because Peter's going to get in trouble for preaching
to the Gentiles. Yeah, he getting ready to get
in trouble. See, he got to go back to his religious colleagues
and tell him that he sat down and had hamburgers and barbecue
and shared the gospel with folks who are viewed by his religious
brethren as unclean. He has to justify he why he went
into the house of a Gentile And then he has to justify the claims
that God saved them because they weren't ready for that He knew
that he was in trouble when he went back to Jerusalem Are you
guys following me? But here's what Peter says When
he goes back in chapter 11, listen to this language ladies and gentlemen,
this is so very important In Acts chapter 11 I'm going to
start back at verse, uh, verse, uh, verse 12. He's just rehearsed how that
he had received the vision verse seven. I'm going from, I'm going
from verse seven through verse 14. He says to the Jewish leaders,
and I heard a voice saying that to me arise, Peter, slay and
eat. But I said, not so Lord for nothing common or unclean
has at any time entered into my mouth. See how he's telling
his Jewish brother, Hey man, I'm still Jewish. I told the
Lord I didn't want to eat. See, because he has to work out
his constituency and let them know he hasn't traded up on them.
He hasn't sold them out. Man, I told the angel, man, I
don't want none. I'm as Jewish as you get. It's
important to know. He said this was done three times
and all were drawn up again into heaven. And behold, immediately
there were three men already come unto the house where I was.
sent from Caesarea unto me. So you see how Peter is squeezing
together the narrative, had the revelation and immediately the
three men are there. It could have been a space of
time. Remember, Peter had the vision at 12. They had it at
three. It took them two days to get
there. Okay. It took four days as a total, but Peter is squeezing
it down, contracting it to the two major events, his vision
and their presence. He's making the connection between
God opening up the gospel to the whole world through the vision
And then these gentiles knocking on the door saying we want to
talk to peter. You guys see that right? Now, let's keep going
verse 12 And the spirit bade me to go with them nothing doubting
Moreover these six brethren accompany me. So now there are six Jews
who are joining Peter Peter is gonna call on them to bear witness
This is gonna take us back to our text when we deal with what
happened when he preached the gospel But these six Jews have
to bear record on Peter's behalf That God was actually in what
they did The Lord sent six brothers with Peter said man, I'm gonna
need some witnesses on this y'all got to come with you got to roll
with me I can't do this by myself, man, because if I do this, I'm
not able to come back to Jerusalem. I might as well stay out here
in Gentile land. And so we entered into the man's
house. And he showed us, now watch this, ladies and gentlemen,
how he had seen an angel in the house, which stood and said unto
him, send men to Joppa and call for Simon, whose surname is Peter.
Here's our verse. who shall tell thee words whereby
you and all your house what shall be saved. Amazing. Words to save the whole house. Got it? This is how important
the preaching of the gospel is to God, to the angels that serve
God, to Christ, to the apostles who serve Christ, to the Holy
Ghost, working in the lives of the apostles who serve Christ,
since the Holy Ghost now is the vicar of Christ. And he's not
going to do anything apart from glorifying Christ. Remember what
Christ? When he, the spirit of truth
has come, he'll take the things of mine and show them unto you.
All the Holy Ghost does is exalt Christ. And he does it through
the mechanism of preaching. Notice again what he says, they
shall tell you words whereby you and all your house shall
be saved. And then Peter faithfully says
this, then we're going to go back and do one more exegetical
labor in our account and close. And as I began to speak, brothers,
I promise you, I didn't do nothing. I just opened my mouth. All I
did was open my mouth, talk about Jesus. The Holy Ghost fell on
them. Now watch this. Just like he
did on us. See, Peter tried to save his
life at the beginning. And Peter said, Then I remembered
the word of the Lord, how that he said, John, indeed, baptize
you with water, but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost.
Do you see that? Peter is sharing with his Jewish
brethren his struggles in the midst of his obedience and how
God worked through it. Go back to our text. I want to
show you something else. Chapter 10. So then we are clear on our
second point. That election and calling and
conversion of the household of Cornelius is a consequence of
the preaching of the gospel. I could go to Romans chapter
10 verse 9 through 17, but you guys remember that. Romans 10,
9 through 17 plainly says that we must call upon the name of
the Lord if we're going to be saved. That we must believe unto
righteousness and we must confess unto salvation. It's a continual
confession. It's a continual believing. And then he argues,
how shall they believe on him of whom they have not heard?
How shall they hear without a preacher? How shall he preach except he
be sent? That's an inviolable mechanism
critical to the salvation of men and women. Am I making some
sense? This is important for us to know. People are not going
to just slip into heaven. They're not going to just wake
up in heaven. If the gospel is not preached, there's not a possibility
of that occurring. Now, going back to Acts chapter
10, I want to do one more thing in Acts 10. I'm just going to
give you a bulk view of Peter's message. We got 15 minutes. I might be able to actually do
both and then move us into our further outline. Under our last
point saved only by the preaching. No go back saved only on by the
preaching of the gospel We'll probably be able to work and
I want to show you what Peter did in Acts chapter 10 verse
34 Verse 36 through 40. Are you there? Here's what Peter
did the text tells us in verse 34 that he opened his mouth So
he came to speak and the first thing he did was acquiesce To
the to the fair nature of God. He says of a truth. I perceive
that God is know what? I Now see, he had come to that
conclusion as he made the three hour journey from the Tanner's
house to Cornelius's house, struggling with the vision and the providence
of God. He, see, he had to actually overcome
his Jewish prejudice to even go in the house. And when he
got in and saw the piety and the order and the structure and
the humility and the readiness of the people, cause they all
sat down and you know what they said, preach brother. That's what they said. Preach,
we're ready to hear what God has to say to us. And the way
Cornelius put it, it's amazing the way Cornelius put it. He
said, here we are all now in the presence of God. Verse 33,
immediately therefore I sent you, this is Cornelius talking,
and you have well done that you are come. It's almost sounding
like a command. Good thing you obey God, boy.
Now, therefore, we are all here present, what? Coramdale. See, Cornelius knew this was
a God moment. He had gathered everybody around
in his house. This house is full. They getting
ready to have service. And when Peter comes in and sees
the disposition of every heart ready to hear, he's blown away.
You know how we can barely get folk to church today? God was moving and the people
were ready. We're all present here before
God. Are you ready to hear all things
that are commanded thee of God? Cornelius, who is a leader, recognizes
that Peter is a leader. And as Cornelius is given command
from his superiors, he knows Peter is under command to tell
them something. You got that? See, the preaching
of the gospel is a command. It's amazing. Now watch how Peter works. I
just want you to see this in verse 36 through 40. First of
all, he acquiesces in verse 35. that verse 34, that God's no
respecter of person. That means he not just saving
Jews. Verse 35 is what we call an exegetical or an explanation
of the proposition. God's no respecter of person.
But in every nation, he that feareth him and worketh righteousness
is accepted with him. That's true. That bears its own
development. But fundamentally, what verse
35 is saying, when God is drawing and working with people, he's
preparing them for salvation and we ought not to cut them
off. You remember how frequently in the times of Christ's ministry
the disciples would do stupid stuff Like say don't let the
kids come Jesus said what? Do you understand the kingdom
of God is full of children? Forbid the children not let them
come and in other occasions to to Two disciples were doing ministry
down the road and they didn't want to join the apostolic church
You get that in a second the church of the apostolic apostles,
the church of the apostolic Jesus disciples with Peter, James,
and John at the head of the ministry. No, they did ministry down the
street, didn't want to join those brothers. And they said, master,
there's some dudes down the street preaching and they haven't joined
us. You got that? They haven't joined
us. And the master says, this is
impossible. for them to be doing a work for me and not be of us. That bust their bubble, right? And it indicated that the master
was doing work with other people while simultaneously working
with the disciples. So he had disciples everywhere.
That's how God works. You do know that, right? That's
how God works. So now this is interesting. From
verses 36 through 40, we are going to have what is described
the person and work of Jesus Christ. This is a pattern for
preaching. Verse 36 through 40. The word
which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by
whom? His first line of proclamation is about God sending peace through
Jesus. Then he explains he's Lord of
all. That word, I say, you know, which was published throughout
all Judea, began in Galilee after the baptism of John preached.
He's preaching the historic ministry of John the Baptist and Christ.
He's acknowledged that God sent Christ. Verse 38, how God anointed
Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and power who went about
doing good, healing all that were oppressed of the devil for
God was what? So we call this here the person
and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 39 verse 38 no verse 39
and we are witnesses of all things Which he did both in the land
of the Jews in Jerusalem whom they slew and hanged on the tree
now We are centered on the cross Are we not and not only are we
centered on the cross which is an essential message to preach?
Not only do we preach the calling of Christ the work of Christ,
but we must preach the cross of Christ. I And so the apostle
is preaching the cross of Christ to them. They hung him on a tree. And then he preaches the resurrection. Him God raised up the third day
and showed him openly critical to the preaching of the gospel.
You preach his person. You preach his work. You preach
his atonement. You preach his resurrection.
You do not preach his atonement and resurrection. You have not
preached the gospel. If you merely preach his work
in terms of miracles and healings, you have not preached the gospel.
Those are critical to the credit of who Christ was as Messiah. He healed. He raised the dead.
He opened the eyes of the blind. But none of that atone for sin
until you preach the crosswork of Christ. You have not preached
the gospel until you say that God raised him from the dead
on the third day and exalted him to heaven. You have not preached
the lordship of Christ. Now, watch this, ladies and gentlemen.
We don't preach merely a Christ on the cross. That's Catholicism. Are you hearing me? Crucifixes. We understand the cross work.
We understand the implications of the man on that cross. But
he's no longer on that cross. And he's certainly not in the
grave. And if in fact he has risen from the dead and is exalted
at the right hand of God, that means necessarily the man who
came and died and was buried and raised again was himself
God. You guys understand that? Was
only God could endure the wrath of God and come out on the other
side. Only the God man could atone
for sin and be raised again from the dead. Those are the theological
implications that are clearly laid out in the scripture. If
Christ would have been tagged with one sin in his obedience
to God, he would have never come out of the grave. If one sin
would have been identified in his person, contaminating his
holy nature or his good works, he would have never come out
of the grave. If he had sinned even in a remote thought, and
you know, you and I sin infinitely. To the core of our being even
our good thoughts are racked up with sin Can you and even
the thought of folly is sin according to the word of god the thought
of folly not folly itself? The thought of folly is sin with
a holy god. We're undone aren't we? So can
you imagine the way christ was thinking? How pure his thoughts
had to be? and consistently pure and infinitely
pure and endlessly pure. Every one of his thoughts had
to be impeccable and never contaminated with the slightest variation
from the glory of his father. This is what makes him the holy,
harmless, spotless lamb of God who knew no sin, did no sin.
In him was no sin at all. No one could convince him of
sin. He was sinless in everything that he did. Are you hearing
me? This is impossible to believe, but necessary to believe. And
the evidence that it was so is that God raised him from the
dead on the third day. Are you guys following this? This is the gospel we preach
and you haven't preached the gospel if you're preaching And
you do all of this sermonizing and anecdotal stories and at
the end of your message You say you want to receive jesus and
you have not preached the cross You have nothing to give the
people with which to receive jesus Am I making some sense
critical man critical critical like you guys We've been learning
god pulled the curtain back to show us that only one man could
do this thing And you stay right there with your eyes, soul fixed
on that one man until you see him face to face. Because you
need to be reminded again and again and again. Are you ready?
Only Jesus. Only Christ. No one else could
do what he did. This is all my hope. This is all my glory. What God
did for me in Christ is my only hope for glory. You got that
right? This is how folks are saved.
Right there. Delivered from the false notion
that we can get in some other way. Cornelius in his house heard
this message. Now watch this. He moves from
the person and work of Christ to the witness of Christ. Verse
39, and we are witnesses. Did you see that? And then he
says over in verse 41, not to all the people, but unto what?
Witnesses chosen before of God, even to us who did eat and drink
with him after he rose from the dead. So he rose from the dead,
how? Bodily. That's why he used the term ate
and drank. See, I love my Lord. He's just like me, love to eat
and drink. Whenever we come together to fellowship, we eating and
drinking. Fried catfish, cornbread, lemonade, Talking to scriptures
and he lays it out. He lays it out. We ate and drink
with him. The verse 42 is exactly what
Cornelius said, and he commanded us to what he commanded us to
what he commanded us to what preach. That's what he did. There's not an option. We've
got to preach. There's not an option. We've
got to preach. Peter laying on the rooftop cause Peter likes
sleeping. I'm getting there. Peter loves
sleeping. Every time you turn around, Peter
sleep and he received his assignment while sleeping. I see God will
catch up with you. He received his assignment while
sleeping. Oh, there you go. Sleep again.
Give me a assignment while they sleep. God accommodates our weaknesses. And he commanded us to preach
to the people and to testify that it is he. Now, this is a
very important component component to the gospel, ladies and gentlemen,
that it is he which was ordained of God to love everybody in the
world. See, you may not be aware of
it, but most of the preaching today that you hear is perverted. You may not be aware of it because
you and I by nature are inclined to lies. We easily receive things
that make us feel good. But, you know. What's so offensive
about God loving everybody? What's so offensive about it
is it's a caricature and a distortion of his nature, and it's a perversion
of his message. So let me string this out for
you. Preaching requires a man telling the facts about who Jesus
is, telling the facts about what Jesus did, telling the facts
about the implications of what Jesus did and telling the facts
about what Jesus is going to do. See, we don't hear about
a Jesus coming to judge, but he's coming and he's coming to
judge the living and the dead. Now notice what Peter does. He
preaches the exalted, the resurrected Christ, the ruling Christ, the
reigning Christ. That's why we call him Lord,
by the way. He's not a Lord if he's just merely hanging on the
cross. He's Lord because he has proven himself to be Lord by
his resurrection from the dead. But in that he's Lord means that
he's also judge. And see, if there isn't a judgment
component in our preaching, We leave people undone. Why tell
people to be saved if they're not saved from an horrible plight? What do you want them to be saved
from? Ignorance? Poverty? But you want them to be saved
from a bad emotional state? These are all pragmatic components
or pragmatic reasons for which people do church. Come to church. Jesus will help you have a better
life. Come to church. He'll help solve your emotional
problem. Come to church. Jesus will put some money in
your pocket. Come to see all of these are wrong motivations
for coming to church and wrong motivations for coming to Jesus.
And I would assert you're not coming to Jesus. If you're coming
to Jesus to fix your problems, your real problem is your hell
bound state. You're going to hell. And if
you don't have a savior, You're going to perish. Listen, and
if Christ fixed that problem. So that you never have to face
God in judgment. You shouldn't be asking him to
give you anything else. If he saved your narrow tail
from hell. You should be happy. Now, don't
get me wrong. We have received all spiritual
blessings. in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Don't get me
wrong. If the father offered him up for us all, how shall
he not also with him also freely give us all things? Don't get
me wrong. There are thousands and thousands of promises in
the word of God, but don't prostitute those promises over against the
gospel. Am I making some sense? I'm glad
my name is written in the lamb's book of life. I'm glad I'm headed
to heaven. I'm glad I'm a citizen of the
kingdom of God. God can take me out right now,
right in front of you. I'm headed to glory. You got
that? It's very important for us to
know. So then under the last point, which I'll just start
us here because our time is up. This is quite fascinating. And
this is why we must preach the gospel. We preach the gospel
because the Holy Ghost only works through the gospel. The Holy
Ghost only works through the gospel. As Peter declared the
person and work of Christ, he declared the witness essential
to the resurrection of Christ. Now he declares the witness of
the scriptures to Christ. Verse 43, to him gave all the
prophets what? To him gave all the prophets
what? So all the prophets of the scriptures point to whom?
Christ is the subject of the whole of the Bible. Moses talked
about Christ. Joshua talked about Christ. Daniel,
Samuel, Ezekiel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, they all preached Christ. Am
I making some sense? So what he does now is he takes
the scriptures and he says to these Gentiles, you want to know
about Christ? All these dudes talked about the same person.
That's what the book is for. The preaching of Christ and the
Holy Ghost was so jazzed. with Peter preaching the gospel,
that he immediately burst the heavens open and poured out on
those Gentiles. Simultaneous to the preaching
of the gospel was the pouring out of the Holy Ghost. Simultaneous
to the preaching of Christ, the Spirit of God was so blessed
by the exaltation of Christ that he just began to pour upon all
those Gentiles and give them life and water their souls. You know, that was a worship
service. You know, they was getting at it. Am I telling the truth? They were getting at it. The
Spirit of God was working mightily through the preaching. Implications
are so wonderful. I'm going to draw those out next
week. But the implications are there. At this point, we're going
to deal with the propensity of religious folks to want to put
God in a bottle and lock him into formulas and methodologies
as if you can control the Holy Ghost. We'll straighten all that out
and then we'll move on forward in our studies. Let's pray. Father,
thank you for this time. Thank you for our class. Thank
you for every soul here. Spirit of God, do for us what
you did for them. Fill our hearts. Fill our minds. Fill our soul. Fill our whole
being. Cause us to magnify you abundantly in a superfluous way. Help us to adore you for all
that you've done for us. Do for us what you did for them.
Bring a revival in our generation. Oh God, we need you. We need
you mightily. And we pray it in Jesus name.
Amen. God bless you. God bless you.