He gives to certain men and women. And we saw how precious that
word certain is, because it's given to certain men and women
who are completely undeserving of the Lord's particular redemption. God could, and I'll add without
reservation should, have passed by every one of us. for all have sinned and all have
come short of the glory of God. He would not be any less God
if He had left us all to ourselves. But He determined before the
world was ever made to save some people. And He has by the grace
of God in Christ. God is a just God and in passing
us by and leaving us to ourselves to die in our sin would have
been nothing short of divine justice. But thank God for the
scriptures when it says, but God, who's rich in mercy. But God. Romans 6.23 says, for
the wages of sin is death. Sin is what we are. We sin because
we're sinners. And the wages of our sin is death. That's the just condemnation
of God's holy law. But it says these words, but
the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
I'm convinced that this is the message that glorifies God. It's
the message that gives him all the honor, all the glory, all
the praise. If a man is guilty of breaking
the law, the law claims that his punishment is deserved. Anything
less than that, anything less than just, just punishment is
called mercy. Oh dear friends, the wages of
sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. through
Jesus Christ our Lord. And scripture's always plain
about that, isn't it? It's through a person. It's in
a person. God's law just wasn't magically
fulfilled. A person came and kept it perfectly. Kept it perfectly in our stead
and in our place. Mercy is a gift. It's an act
of divine favor and divine compassion. Grace is unmerited favor, undeserved
pardon. I imagine the most wonderful
word to a prisoner with a life sentence would be that one word,
pardon. Pardon. And that is what God
has done for sinners in Christ. He's pardoned us as if we had
never ever sinned. No record. Perfect in the eyes
of God. We saw briefly last week in the
first verse of chapter 10 that Cornelius was a certain man. Chosen of God to be saved by
sovereign grace and mercy. And last week we also saw the
providence of God to send Peter to this certain man to preach
the gospel to him. And that's where we want to pick
up tonight, Acts chapter 10 verse 34. Here Peter stands before Cornelius
and those that were lodged in the house with him. And it says,
And Peter opened his mouth. Now friends, there's a difference
between just opening your mouth and speaking, and God opening
a man's mouth and speaking through him. And that is one of my greatest
fears in standing before you each time we meet, and that is
that not just my mouth opens, but that God opens my mouth,
that you might hear the wondrous story of the Lord Jesus Christ
and how he came to save sinners. I want to be clear. And I want
to preach to you the simplicity that's in Christ. And yet I know
that if I stand alone, that won't be done. I pray that God be with
me even tonight. But Peter opened his mouth and
said of a truth, I perceive that God is no respecter of persons. As we saw again last week, when
Peter opens his mouth to preach to these folks, He says exactly
what I'm endeavoring to say to you tonight. Salvation is of
the Lord. Now, I know that people who hear
me preach often say, boy, he sure says that a lot. I don't
think I can say it enough. Salvation is of the Lord. It's
the Lord's doing, is it not? From beginning to end, it's the
divine potter fashioning that clay. to his liking or his disliking. He said, let's go down to the
potter's house. Let's see how he does things. It's God who
has the prerogative to show mercy and compassion or withhold it. Are the words of God not clear
in this matter? Turn over to Romans chapter 9
with me. Let's look at this amazing passage
of Scripture, Romans chapter 9. I can remember in the church that
I used to go to, they'd skip over this chapter. They'd be
teaching through a book and they'd skip completely over this particular
chapter. I want to deal with it. But it's
there and it's part of scripture. And look at verse 15 of chapter
9. For he said to Moses, who's he?
God said. God said this to Moses. He said,
I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. And I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So that it's not of him that
willeth, it's not of him that runneth, but of God." You know
what that means? Salvation is of the Lord. But
of God, who is rich in mercy, but of
God that showeth mercy. For the scripture saith unto
Pharaoh, even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I
might what? Show my power in thee. How did God show his power in
Pharaoh? Well, he lifted him up to where
he was the most mighty man in the world at that time. And he
lifted him up and gave him all this power that he might take
it away and humiliate him before the whole world to show his power. Pharaoh was never in control.
God was in control. And he said, for this purpose
have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that
my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore, verse
18, he hath mercy, on whom He will have mercy."
And notice those next words. This is not a popular message
with most men. "...and whom He will, He hardeneth."
You see, the reason most people have trouble with that is they've
been taught most all their life that God is love. From a small
child up for years, that's all I heard. God is love. God is
love. And truly, God is love. but is named holy and he can't
love except through the substitute, the mediator. Oh, that we might
see. Therefore he hath mercy on whom
he'll have mercy and who he will, he hardeneth. And I believe God
is clear here, isn't he? He said, I will have mercy. Not I might, not if I feel like
it, not if the sinner does this or that. I will have mercy on
whom? On whom I will have mercy. He's perfectly clear when he
says, I'll have compassion. I will have compassion on whom? I will have compassion. I don't
see any participation in that by the sinner. Do you? Who will? God will. I will. Why do men and women
ignore such direct statements by God Himself? Well, they're
blinded. They're blinded. I read these
passages for years. Never saw the beauty in them.
Never saw the sovereignty of God in the words. I was blinded. My ears were deaf. Couldn't hear. Couldn't hear
the Word. My heart was made of stone and
couldn't understand. Natural men cannot receive the
things of God. They just can't. They're spiritually
discerned. God has to reveal them. And that's
the greatest gift that sinful man could ever receive, the gift
of believing. You see, we can't hear, we can't
see, we can't understand because the scripture pronounces that
we're dead in trespasses and sin. And you've heard me say
many times, what can a dead man do? I remember when my father
passed away and I endeavored to preach his funeral. It was
the hardest thing I'd ever done. I looked over there and there
my dad lay in that casket, but that wasn't my dad. That was
a dead body. It had no life in it. I could
holler at him. I could say, hey dad. He wouldn't
answer. He was dead. He couldn't do anything. That's how scripture portrays
us in the things of God until God intervenes. We're dead. Dead. And that's the reason, dear friends,
God has to make you alive. He has to quicken you by His
Spirit and reveal to you or you will never see, hear, or understand. And you may be here tonight and
you say, I see that. I see that the Lord has mercy
on whom He has mercy. If you do, it's because the Lord's
already done a work. He's already done a work in you.
God's grace is His own, and He gives it according to His own
sovereign will and purpose. God does distinguish between
men. The Scriptures clearly say, don't
they, in 1 Corinthians 4-7, for who maketh thee to differ from
another? And what hast thou that thou
didst not receive? God distinguishes in election. Now listen, if God chose everybody,
that wouldn't be an election, would it? An election is choosing
one and not another. If we, every year, the whole
United States just said we want so and so and nobody ever voted,
that wouldn't be an election. God chooses. God distinguishes. He distinguishes in election
and redemption and most definitely in providence. I remember in
1986, Teresa and I thought we were moving to a little town
in Tennessee because my job had moved me there. But I look back
now and see that it was the providence of God and he set me under the
preaching of the gospel. And I heard, and she did too,
by the grace of God. What we thought was a job and
a quote, promotion, turned out to be God's marvelous providence
in the saving of sinners. God distinguishes, friends. He
said, I pray not for the world, but I pray for them, them, which
thou hast given me. And the Lord Jesus said, they
are yours. You gave them to me. And I'm
not going to lose a one. God distinguishes. Now men don't
like that. But if they don't, then they're
upset with God. Because I think the Scriptures
are very, very plain on that matter. Don't you? You're still
with me in Romans 9. Look at verse 19. Thou wilt say
then unto me, why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted
his will? Men say, well, if God has mercy
on whom He has mercy, and has compassion on whom He has compassion,
and He hardens who He wills, why does He yet find fault? See,
we still go back to that God is love. How can He find fault
if He Himself has mercy on some and not on others? And I love
the way Paul answers this in verse 20. He said, ay, nay, but,
O man, who art thou? that replies against God. And that's a good question. Who
are we? What is man that thou art mindful of him? What is there
in us, through us, by us, that would make God mindful of us?
One thing, mercy and grace, which is His and His alone to give.
The Lord Jesus Christ, whom He gave His only begotten Son. Who art thou that replies against
God, shall the thing formed? Say to him that formed it, why
hast thou made me thus? Oh, we dare not charge God foolishly,
do we? He's God. He does as He wills. He does as He pleases. And we're
nothing that He would be mindful of us. Anything, my dear friends,
short of hell itself is grace and mercy by Him and Him alone.
Now turn back with me to the book of Acts, chapter 10, and
I'll try to make this go a little faster. In verse 35 it says, "...but
in every nation he that feareth Him, and worketh righteousness,
is accepted with Him." And we also saw last week that no man
can work righteousness and be accepted with God. The Scriptures
are full of that in Romans and Galatians, not by works of righteousness
that we've done, but by the grace and mercy of Christ. All works
of righteousness have been done by Christ for us. The only way
we can ever be accepted by God is accepted where? In the Beloved. Who's the Beloved? The Lord Jesus
Christ. That's what Paul wrote in Ephesians
1, to the praise of what? The glory of His grace. That's
what we're that when we come together to praise God. That's
what we're praising We're praising his mercy and his grace wherein
he hath made us accepted He made me accepted I Didn't make myself
accepted But he made us accepted in the beloved and Paul doesn't
stop there. He says in whom I This acceptance
is in a person. And we know who that is. And
we have redemption through His blood. Whose blood was shed at
Calvary? God's blood. God's blood was
shed. And the forgiveness of sins according
to the riches of His grace. Now here is where we'll spend
the rest of our time this evening, verse 36. And I pray that God
will make this clear to us. He says, Peter says, as he opens
his mouth to preach, he said, the word which God sent unto
the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ. He is Lord of all. First of all,
have you noticed who sends this word of salvation? Who sends
it? God sends it. Who does He send it to? To His
children. Now Romans 9 says, and I know
here it says the children of Israel, and we know that the
Jewish nation refused for the most part, and then it was given
to the Gentiles. But Paul explains, he says, not
as though the word of God had taken on effect, for they are
not all Israel, which are Israel, neither because they are the
seed of Abraham are they all children. But in Isaac shall
thy seed be called, that is, they which are the children of
the flesh, these are not the children of God, but the children
of the promise. Whether Jew, whether Gentile,
regardless of race, nation, creed, color, gender, the children of
promise are counted for the seed. What was preached unto them? Now just that word, peace by
Jesus Christ, first of all tells us that there is absolutely no
peace outside of Christ. None. We have no peace with God. Matter of fact, we're at war.
A natural man is at war with God. God judges the righteous
and God is angry with the wicked every day. Psalm 711. Why is God angry with the wicked? Well, the psalmist that wrote
that said this in Psalm 51. He said, "...against thee and
thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight."
Why is God angry with the wicked every day? Because we sin against
Him and Him only. And David said, you're justified. and being angry with the wicked. Because we've sinned against
Thee and Thee only. And when you speak concerning
us as sinners, you're clear when you judge. This is what we deserve. We're at war with God. God is
angry with the wicked every day because all our sin is against
Him and Him only. Now, all sin, whether it's committed
against a fellow creature, it's a transgression of the law of
God. And it's against the law giver. It's against the one who wrote
the law. And indeed, every sin, every single sin begins as a
neglect and contempt of God's commandments and laws. He's the one we must be at peace
with, is He not? Christ is to preach peace with
God. That's what we all need outside
of Christ. We need peace with God. We're
at war with Him. Has God caused you to want to
be at peace with Him? Well, if He has, it's not by
accident. It's not by coincidence. It's
by the mighty purpose and will of God Himself. Peace with God
comes only in the message of Christ. I ask this all the time. What do you think of Him? Who do you say that He is? Turn
over to Matthew chapter 16 with me. Matthew chapter 16. I think it's good to see this. with our own eyes, verse 13. And when Jesus came into the
coast of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, and here's
what he asked them. He said, whom do men say that
I, the Son of Man, am? And he got a wide variety of
answers. In verse 14, and they said, well,
some say that thou art John the Baptist. And some say you're
Elijah, and others say that you're Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. Now, that wasn't criticism. Those were great men, but they
were far off from whom he really was. So we ask him in verse 15,
but whom say ye that I am? And God asked each and every
one of us that same question. But whom say ye that I am?" And
Simon Peter, oh Simon, he answered and he said, Thou art the Christ. Thou art the Christ. You're the son of the living
God. Well now, did Peter just, was
Peter just smarter than the rest of these fellas? Did he just
make a good guess? No, read on. And Jesus answered
and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona. How was this revealed to you?
Did your grandmama teach you this? Did you learn this in Sunday
school? No. Flesh and blood had revealed
it unto you. Who did? God. My Father. My Father which is in heaven,
has revealed it to you. And he said, I say unto you that
thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church,
and the gates of hell should not prevail against it. Was it
Peter that the foundation of the church was built upon? Was
he the rock? No. His confession was. Thou art the Christ. That's the
foundation. Christ is the foundation. He's
the cornerstone. He's the stone that the builders
rejected. Christ is our solid rock. That's what we sing, isn't it?
On Christ the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. Oh dear friends, it's never revealed
by flesh and blood. You see men and women in an unredeemed
condition. They're at war with God. They
might not even know it. But they're at war with God.
And here Peter is preaching to an attentive congregation. consisting of the best of men.
Cornelius' house, we read early in the chapter the good things
that he had done and he had given of his substance. Here we find
him seeking God, wanting to know more of what truth was. And God appears to him, sends
him an angel, and says, you've sinned for Simon Peter, and he's
going to tell you some things. These are good men. These are
the best of men. But they were, by nature, at
enmity with their Maker. By nature, they were at war with
God Almighty. and is no different with us.
Paul tells us in Ephesians 2, among whom also what we, we had
our conversation in times past, in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling
the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and we were by nature
the children of wrath even as others. I tell you what, it's
real easy to forget from where we came from Oh God help me not
to judge others, sometimes my tongue just so quick to condemn
others and yet I was dug from the same pit. How easy that is
to forget. God help me to never, God help
me to forget but to also never forget that it's by His grace
and mercy that I know who my Redeemer is and I know that He
liveth. Now, Peter's main purpose here
was to preach peace by Jesus Christ, who's Lord of all. And
that's the desire of my heart tonight. I pray that all of us,
every single one of us here, may be brought to peace with
God through Jesus Christ. If we trust in Him, we will be.
Now, I just have just a few quick questions to ask you. Why should
we desire to be at peace with God? Well, that's pretty obvious,
isn't it? Because we're at war with Him
without Christ. Spurgeon once wrote, he said,
if God be for us, none can successfully fight against us. But to have
God opposed to us, oh my, is in itself the chief of evils. Job 22, 31 says, Acquaint now
thyself with Him, with God, and be at peace. That's the only
way we're ever going to be at peace, is to acquaint ourselves
with the true and living God of Scripture. Now I hear about
a lot of gods, and I call them little g-gods, little ten gods. These are gods that are wanting
and trying and hoping and pleading and wishing and begging. That's
not God. That's not God. He works all
things after the counsel of His own will. He lives in the heavens.
He's done whatsoever He's pleased. All the inhabitants of the earth
are like grasshoppers. No, that's not the God of the
Bible. And we need to be at peace with this God. Quaint thyself
with Him and be at peace. There by good shall come unto
thee. This war that we're engaged in
against God. It's an unjust one Natural man
has inherited this intentional evil of their father Adam Adam
sinned with his eyes wide open the scripture says Eve was deceived
But Adam sinned with his eyes wide open his sin was horrendous
He disobeyed God's one and only command. God had one command. And you know what? That one command
that Adam did not keep was for Adam's good. He said, you can
eat of all the trees here in this wonderful garden. I heard
somebody say, can you imagine what an apple or an orange tasted
like in that garden? That's God's garden. And he said, of all these, you
can take a butt of this one. Don't eat. He said, because in
the day you do, you shall surely die. And all the others wasn't
good enough with it. It wasn't enough. And he partook
of the one that God told him not to. But the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it. For in the day
that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. Now he lived
hundreds of years after this. But he died spiritually. And
every man and woman that's been born since has been dead. in trespasses and sin. God was
unjustly and wickedly ignored and disobeyed by his ungrateful
creature. Oh, what a sin that was. Sin
is war against what's right. It's war against love, against
happiness, and most definitely against peace. which is the opposite
of war, isn't it? If men say we're in a time of
war, we're in a time of war. When they're not in a time of
war, they say we're in a time of peace. Transgression of God's
holy law is a transgression of God's commands. God said don't,
and we do. And the things that He tells
us not to do are things that are profitable and good for us. The one thing that Adam was commanded
not to do, and that one thing was the best thing for him, he
did. You know why he chose evil? And
he loved evil over good. A serpent had tempted Eve. She said, you shall not surely
die, and the day you eat of this fruit, you'll be as God, knowing
good and evil. Adam wasn't happy with being
under God. He wanted to be his own God.
And it's the same with men and women today. To love evil is
dishonorable. It's wrong, unfair, unjust. And
the conscience of man tells him so. To be at war with God is
to fight against truth and justice, holiness and righteousness. When you see men that love what's right, There's
a man God's done something for. When you see a man that loves
that which is good and true, and he yields himself to God's
will, there's a man that God's done something for. Then the war's over. And that can only be in and through
Christ. The only peace, dear friends,
we can ever have, true peace, is in Christ our Lord. Now we
know that it's not right for children to rebel against their
parents. There's nothing more unappealing
or revolting to me to see a child just, you go to a store and see
a child acting up, screaming and hollering at his parents,
and they're saying to him, put you in time out. There's nothing that's more revolting
for a child to rebel against the very one that provides and
takes care of it. And friends, it's the same with
us before God. Where is this peace found? That's
my second question. I promise I'm going to hurry.
It's only in Christ. The natural order of the relationship
between us and God Almighty in all things is that we should
be conformed to His will. And we can only be conformed
to His will by being conformed to His Son. And that's God's
doing. We should in all things bow to
His will and providence. Well, Brother David, do you do
that? There's not a day goes by that I don't shake my fist
at God in some shape, manner, or form. Somebody pulls out in
front of you on the highway, and that may seem trivial, but
that's exactly what that is. All things bow to His will and
property. We should in gratitude kiss His
precious Son, where mercy and truth are met together. Righteousness
and peace have kissed each other. That's what the psalmist said
in Psalm 85. He said, mercy and truth are met together. Now you
think about this. Righteousness and peace, they've
kissed each other. How? Only one way. The same way
that we're saved. The same way that we're at peace
with God Almighty. through the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's the only way. Anything I receive other than
spiritual death, everlasting condemnation, torment forever
in eternal damnation and punishment for my sin is sovereign mercy,
grace, undeserved. Mercy which I can never deserve,
truth which I can never see, have met together for me in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Christ alone is truth. God's
mercy that I so desperately need is only found in Him. And in
Christ alone have mercy and truth met together. Isn't that right?
And they've met together in perfect harmony for me, an undeserving,
depraved, wretched man. And because God has caused them
to meet together, consider this, now perfect righteousness which
I could never perform. I could never perform perfect
righteousness. I never could provide perfect
righteousness for myself. So the perfect righteousness
which I couldn't perform or provide and the peace which I could never
buy or embrace in Christ, they've kissed each other. Christ has truly made unto me
all that I need. And not only that, but all that
God requires. Everything's going to be alright.
It's foolishness for a man who is nothing to think that he can
contend with his Maker. If a man stands out here on this
road, I hear this train come by quite frequently. Not so much
now as I used to. You kind of get used to it. But I've seen that train move
on fast before. And if I went out there and stood
on them tracks, and that train come toward me at a tremendous
speed, I know, and I'm not real smart, but I know that according
to the laws of nature, weight, velocity, all these things, I'm
not going to slow that train down or prevent it from moving
forward if I stand in front of it. It's not going to happen,
is it? Would you call it courage on my part to try to do so? No,
you'd call it foolishness, ignorance. It'd be madness. It'd be suicide. But let me tell you something,
that doesn't even compare to what men do when they place themselves
in opposition against God. It makes more sense for me to
try to stop that train than to place myself in opposition with
Him. God's not going to alter His
laws for us. Why should He? They're good and
they're perfect and they're right. Why should He change them? He's
not going to. And men better lay down their
weapons. Lay down them old weapons of
rebellion and surrender them, and they must confess that they're
wrong." That's what it means to repent, to change. Repent
means to change. If God is pleased to give us
a consciousness of our sin, let me tell you something, He's going
to give us a consciousness of His love. That's just the way
He does things. He shows us our sin and our desperate
Conditioned before Him, by His grace, He's going to show us
the remedy for our sin and our condition. That's just the way
God does things. He's not going to show a man his doom and not show him the
grace that He's provided. Let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord.
That's what the Scriptures say. is our personal and public claim
of peace in Christ. And it's found in those last
few words of verse 36. It's something that we should
always claim in the preaching of the gospel. He is Lord of
all. He's the Lord of all mankind.
Some acknowledge Him as Lord and some don't. He's Lord of
the Jew and the Gentile. He's Lord not of just one nation,
many nations, but all nations. The Lord Himself said in John
17, 2, And God has given Me power over all flesh, that He may give
eternal life to as many as thou hast given Him. Sounds to me
like He's in control. Christ has the power over all
flesh, and we preach the gospel to all flesh, don't we? That's
what we're commanded to do. If He has power over all flesh,
then we ought to preach the gospel to all flesh. Someone said, well,
yeah, but you believe in election. Why don't you just preach to
the elect? Well, I believe it was Spurgeon
that said, well, go stick a sticker on them, and I'll preach just
to them. We don't know who the God's elect are. We preach the
gospel to all men and women. We plant, we water, God gives
them grace. This is God's business. The heathen
rage, the princes take counsel together, but the Lord hath made
Jesus Christ the King of kings and the Lord of lords, and under
His reign we dwell. I'm going to tell you what, as
sinners, we need a mediator. We need a substitute. between
us and God, and Jesus Christ, Lord of all, He stands in that
place. If He'd be Lord of all, and if
all things be put under Him, then you know what? We can dwell
safely and rely upon Him, can't we? Well, just in closing, turn
with me to Philippians 4. I want to read four verses to
you, and I'm done. Verse 4, Philippians 4, Paul says, Rejoice
in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice. Let your moderation
be known to all men, the Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing,
but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving,
let your requests be made known. unto God. Here's the verse I
want you to see. And the peace of God. That's
what we're talking about. That's what Peter was talking
about. The peace of God through the Lord Jesus Christ which passes
all understanding. We can't understand. Do you understand
the peace of God that you have in your heart? I don't. I think
God is there. It's not always there, and that's
my fault most of the time, but the peace of God which passes
all understanding shall keep your hearts and your minds through
Christ Jesus. Everything's going to be alright.
Everything's going to be all right. Finally, brethren, whatsoever
things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things
are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely,
whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue,
if there be any praise, think on these things. And you know
what? I got to thinking about that
not long ago. All those things are the Lord
Jesus Christ. Think on Him. I think on Him. All that we have, all that we
need, all that God requires is in Him. We throw down our weapons
and we find ourselves at peace with God only, only in Christ. Amen. Let's pray together.