Okay, Acts chapter 10, Acts chapter
10. I'm taking the title from the
word and the verse that's found in verse 33. Immediately therefore I sent
to thee, thou hast well done that thou art come. Now therefore
we're all here present before God. Now that's true of this
congregation right now. We're all here present before
God, the true and living God. And I pray that we're here before
God to hear all things. We are here present before God
to hear all things that are commanded thee of God. So the title of
the message, we're here to hear. using two different words that
phonetically sound exactly the same. That's why this English
language is so difficult. It is for me. My mother was a
Dutchman, and I grew up with broken English. She couldn't
teach me anything, and I struggled in school because of that. We're
all here to hear, and that before God. Now this is the God with
whom we have to do. We're here before God. We studied
in Wednesday night, Isaiah 46, the Lord said, I am God, there
is none else. I am God, there is none like
me. He's the only just God and Savior. He says, that's why he
says, look unto me and be ye saved. We're all here right now
before God. This is a God with whom we have
to do. And I pray that that's true of us this morning. We used
to sing a chorus, we've come into this house and gathered
in his name, remember, to worship him. The only real place worship
happens is before the throne of almighty, sovereign God, who
is holy, holy, holy, Lord God almighty. We're also here To
hear the word of God, the living God, the true God, I want you
to listen to the message I have because, Lord willing, I deliver
unto you the truth of the gospel of God concerning the Lord Jesus
Christ. I want you to listen to me, but
I want you to hear Him. Does that make sense? I want
you to hear him. You see, the gospel is the power
of God unto salvation. I want you to hear him, receive
his word, and believe his gospel. Those who do. The word of God
affectionately works in their heart to the salvation of their
soul. Now this is another true story
given unto us, how the Lord calls out his sheep with the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ by his servant sent with the gospel
message of Jesus Christ and him crucified. We saw in Acts chapter
nine, the salvation of a lost religious Jew named Saul of Tarsus. How God called him out. Now we're
going to see the salvation of a religious lost Gentile. Both men were religious, both
men were lost. Cornelius was devout, a devout
religious man, but he was lost because he had never heard the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why God sent him the gospel
preacher. He was lost, even though he was
religious. He was lost because he'd never
heard the gospel, never believed and trusted the Lord Jesus Christ. We see another example of the
sovereign providence of God arranging all things in the lives of his
people to bring them to hear the gospel and believe it. Can't you look back in your life,
I can't in mine, so distinctly, so clearly, GOD HAS ARRANGED
EVERYTHING IN YOUR LIFE TO CROSS YOUR PATH WITH THE GOSPEL OF
THE GRACE OF GOD. IT WASN'T AN ACCIDENT. YOU JUST
DIDN'T HAPPEN INTO OR BUMP INTO THE GOSPEL. AS MANY AS WERE ORDAINED
TO ETERNAL LIFE BELIEVED GOD AND BELIEVED THE GOSPEL. GOD WILL SOMEHOW, SOME WAY, BRING
A GOSPEL PREACHER INTO YOUR LIFE. Now, he did mine, and he will
you too. He will call you out. How God,
we see in this story, how God prepared the heart of Cornelius.
At the same time, he was preparing the heart of Peter to preach
to this Gentile. We call that pervenient grace. God was working in the heart
of Cornelius. Grace before grace, that's what
pervenient grace means. We've seen this before in our
study, in the book of Acts, where the eunuch went to Jerusalem
and was returning back to his home country of Ethiopia, reading
the word of the Lord, and God sent Philip all the way out there
to a desert country to preach that one man. God will cross
your path with the gospel. And Philip took the same scripture,
remember, and preached Christ unto him. We've seen this before
in our study, and we're going to see it again. This is what
we call the marvelous and sovereign good providence of God. The Lord is preparing to call
out a great number of his elect, and we're going to see that all
the way through, and we've already seen that. the preaching of Pentecost
and they're following how the Lord called out thousands and
thousands of people with the preaching of the gospel. The
Lord's going to save this Gentile sinner the exact same way that
he saved the religious lost Jews by the grace of God alone. I
want you to turn to this scripture Acts 15 verse 11 when they had
this conference in Jerusalem and About circumcision, does
God justify and save by grace alone, or do we have to add circumcision
to it? Peter stood up and said, Acts
15, 11, we believe that through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
we shall be saved even as they. By the grace of God alone, God
saved the Jew the same way he saved the pagan Gentile. by the
grace of God, the grace of God, the grace of God alone. It's
God who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to God's own purpose and grace,
given us in Christ before the world began. So the same means
the word of the Lord. The same means by the word of
the Lord. Notice in Acts chapter 10, the
last part of verse 22, WAS WARNED FROM GOD BY A HOLY
ANGEL TO SEND FOR THEE INTO THY HOUSE TO HEAR THE WORDS. TO WHAT? HEAR THE WORDS. NOW TURN OVER TO ACTS CHAPTER
11 WHEN PAUL RETELLS THIS STORY IN ACTS CHAPTER 11 VERSE 14,
WHO SHALL TELL THEE WORDS WHEREBY THOU AND ALL THY HOUSE SHALL
BE SAVED. We're all here before God to
hear the thing commanded thee of God. You see, my friend, it's
the word of the Lord, the gospel itself that's the power of God
and salvation. It wasn't Paul's ability or Peter's
ability nor any man's ability to speak the gospel that's the
power of God and salvation. Now we must speak clearly and
distinctly and boldly, but if all you hear is me, You won't
have any spiritual benefit. You must hear from him, from
God Almighty. Now, it's obvious that Cornelius
was one of God's elect, chosen unto salvation because he heard
and believed the gospel. You must hear the gospel to be
saved, to be called out of darkness. Now, I want you to turn with
me, find 2 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 13. Faith comes by hearing and hearing
by the word of the Lord. The sinner saved by the grace
of God must hear the gospel with ears given of God to be called
out of darkness into his marvelous light. 2 Thessalonians chapter
2 verse 13. We're bound to give thanks always
to God for you brethren, beloved of the Lord. BECAUSE GOD HAS
CHOSEN YOU TO SALVATION THROUGH SANCTIFICATION OF THE SPIRIT,
THAT'S REGENERATION, WHICH LEADS TO BELIEF OF THE TRUTH, WHEREINTO
HE CALLED YOU BY OUR GOSPEL TO THE OBTAINING OF THE GLORY OF
THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. NOW, TURN BACK A FEW PAGES, I
THESSALONIANS CHAPTER 1. Knowing, brethren, verse four.
First Thessalonians, chapter one, verse four. Knowing, brethren,
beloved, your election of God, for our gospel came not unto
you in word only, but it came in word, didn't it? But also,
in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance, as you
know what manner of men we were among you for your sake." They
heard the gospel with the power of God. That's how you know your
election. How do I know if I'm one of God's chosen? You hear the gospel and you believe
it. Love it and submit to it. As we read earlier in this chapter,
how the Lord, in his wise and good providence, arranged this
meeting between Peter the preacher and Cornelius the soldier, the
Roman soldier, and see the Lord preparing the hearts of both.
One sinner, Peter, telling the other sinner, Cornelius, how
God saves sinners in Christ. The Lord sent Cornelius a vision
about Peter coming and preaching the gospel, and the Lord sent
Peter Cornelius a vision, and the Lord sent Peter a vision
to preach the gospel to a Gentile named Peter. Cornelius and that's
why the Lord sent him that special special vision He saw heaven
open a certain vessel descending verse 11 as it had been a great
sheet of knit in four corners, and let down to the earth. Salvation
comes from heaven. It came down from heaven. And
this is a picture of God's church, centered out of every tribe,
kindred, nation, tongue, and heaven, who are redeemed by the
blood of Christ. Wherefore, where in all manner
of four-footed beasts and creeping things, wild things, fowls of
the air," and Peter said, I don't want to have anything to do with
them. God said, yes, you will. What I've cleansed by the blood
of Christ, he said, you go and preach the gospel to every creature. That's why the Lord sent him
out all over the world, going to all the world. It says there,
the four corners, four corners, God has an elect in the east,
the west, the four corners of the earth, the north, the south,
God's gonna call his people out. with the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, a couple things here, and
I'm just, it's kind of, it's kind of scattered, but this is
the way it came to me. The first thing I want us to
notice is this, the angel of the Lord did not preach the gospel
to Cornelius, but he told, was told to send for Peter who would
preach the gospel. We read that in several different
places in verse 22 and verse 23. Now, the angel of the Lord
could have, right? He could have preached the gospel
to Cornelius, but it wasn't God's pleasure to do so. Remember in
Luke chapter 2 when we went through the whole gospel of Luke You
remember some angels went and preached the gospel To some shepherds
and said unto you this day is born in the city of David Christ
the Lord and the whole heavenly host Appeared before them singing
glory to God in the high so angels can declare the gospel but normally
and usually The Lord sends a sinner with the message to tell other
sinners about the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how it normally
works. Now, my pastors used to tell
us young preachers this. You can't box God up in a corner
and say, now you've got to work just like this. He'll break out
and he'll do what he will, when he will, with whom he will, how
he pleases. Now, I say normally and usually
the Lord sends out a sinner who's been taught of God to tell other
sinners about Christ. As I've often said, one beggar
telling another beggar where he found bread. It pleased God
by the foolishness of preaching to save and to call out his people. Paul said, we preach not ourselves,
but Jesus Christ the Lord, and ourselves your servant for his
sake. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give
us the light of the glory of God that shines in the face of
Jesus Christ. And we have this treasure of
the gospel in an earthen vessel. You're looking at an earthen
vessel who has the treasure of the gospel, but we don't glory
in this earthen vessel, do we? We glory in the gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord called out sinners with
the word preached. Exactly so. You remember in Acts
chapter eight, turn over there. Acts chapter eight. When the eunuch was reading,
about the substitute Jesus Christ. He didn't know what he was reading.
And the eunuch answered Philip and said, I pray thee of whom
speaketh the prophet this of himself or some other man. And
Philip opened his mouth and began at the same scripture and preached
unto him, what? The Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're gonna see this over
and over again in our study. The second thing I want us to
notice is this. The Lord also was preparing the
heart of Peter. to preach the gospel to the Gentiles,
that salvation is by the grace of God alone, not by any nationality
or by the deeds of the law. It is true the Lord has an elect
people all over this world, and he will cross their path with
the gospel, and he will call them out with the word of truth. He said, my sheep, hear my voice. I know them and they will follow,
follow me. The Lord came to save sinners
and he calls them out with the gospel. The Lord has a sovereign
right to choose whom he will. He said, I will have mercy upon
whom I will have mercy. I want you to notice something
here. I tried to point this out. What God had cleansed, God said
to Peter, that call not thou common or unclean and then it
says down here in verse 28 but God has showed me that I should
not call any man common or unclean that's been cleansed by the blood
of Christ and then Peter in verse 34 opened his mouth and said
of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons Now,
that statement there has been so abused by people who hate
the gospel, because oftentimes when we say that God elected
a people, that God sovereignly chose a people, Jacob have I
loved, Esau have I hated, right away they turn around and say,
they quote this verse, God is no respecter of person. You're
exactly right. Election is unconditional. God
doesn't choose any man because he's a Jew or he's a Gentile,
because he's young or because he's old, because he's white
or because he's black. Who you are in the flesh does
not matter one whit salvation of the Lord and by his grace.
In that sense, Peter is saying God shows mercy to no man upon
the basis of his merit, of his righteousness. God does not respect
anything we are or have because we're nothing but sin. That's
what's being said. Don't use that as an argument
to say, well, Everybody has a chance at salvation, you know. God can't
be a respectful person. Yes, He is! In that sense, He
said, I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy. Now that statement there is given
in the Word of God six times. We read it a moment ago in Galatians
2, 6. Salvation doesn't have anything to do with who you are
in the flesh. It's unconditional. Election,
God's grace. Now, let me show you another
scripture that'll help you on this. Turn to Romans 3, Romans
chapter 3, verse 9. Romans 3, verse 9. What then?
Are we better than they? No and no wise, for we have before
both truth, Jews and Gentiles. all under sin. You see that?
There's none righteous, no, not one. There's none that understand.
There's none that seek after God. They're all gone out of
the way. They're together become unprofitable. There is none that
do us good. No, not one. And then it says down in verse
23, for all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God, therefore we're justified freely by His
grace through the redemption that is in the Lord Jesus Christ. That again, one of my favorite
verses, verse 24. Justified freely by His grace. So, And we'll look at this again
next week when we look at verse 34 down through verse 48. Now, Peter had to learn this
lesson just like the rest of the apostles did. Salvation is
always and only by the sovereign grace of God, not of works, because
all men are sinners. Sinners. These lessons are hard to learn. Now, you would think Peter, having
been through this situation, God giving him this special vision,
and he going and preaching the Gospel of Cornelius, and then
some years later when he was up in Antioch, and he was fellowshipping
with Gentiles who believed, And the Jews from Jerusalem, James
and those other apostles came up. Peter took a step back and
said, he separated himself. Now, you see how weak the flesh
is? Don't tell me that people won't
do things. Yes, they will. Apart from the
grace of God, there's nothing you or I will not do. And that lesson is hard to learn. Sometimes we have to learn it
the hard way too. It's his blood alone that cleanses
us from all our sin. Here's the third thing. When
Peter came to meet Cornelius, he had gathered together all
his family, neighbors, and friends. You see that in the last part
of verse 24. Cornelius waited for them, and he called together
his kinsmen and his dear friends. He wanted everybody to hear God's
servant. Verse 33, he said, We're all
here before God, present to hear all things commanded thee of
God. That's a good thing to do, to
gather together your friends and neighbors to come and hear
the gospel. It reminds me of a story about this place right
here, this ministry right here. In the spring of 1986, When this
building was completed by our dear friend, now with the Lord,
Paul Doug Thacker, God sent a Peter right here to preach to those
Corneliuses that were here when Henry Mahan came here to
preach the gospel. Paul Thacker, in that first meeting,
I was here that night because I drove Brother Henry up that
night. Paul and Sue Thacker had gathered
everyone they knew to come and hear the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. You know, this place was packed
out. I remember standing up here, because Brother Henry had me
read the scripture in there. I remember men standing on that
back wall. They gathered everybody here to hear the word of the
Lord. We ought to do that today. Be
zealous about inviting others to come and hear the gospel. Little did I know that one day
the Lord would send me here to preach the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ. I've been here now almost 20,
next week we'll make 26 years. We're all here to hear all things
God commanded me to tell you about the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ. We should always be zealous to
invite our friends and family to come and hear the word of
the Lord. That's what we do here. Cornelius
had to learn that the servant of the Lord, here's another lesson,
was just like him. When Peter was come in, Cornelius
met him, and he fell down at his feet and worshipped him,
and Peter rebuked him and said, Stand up, I myself am also a
man. Cornelius had to learn that the
servant of the Lord was a sinner just like him, man of like passion. John also had to be rebuked,
John the apostle, by the angel of the Lord in Revelation 19
where he bowed to the angel and the angel said, don't bow and
worship me. I'm your fellow servant. You
worship God. Those servants who are sent to
preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ are no different
than any other man. I'm just like you. I have the
same frailty, the same terrible thoughts, the same sickness,
the same hindrance that you have. I have the same problems and
issues that you have. I don't live in a bubble. Now, there are usually two extremes
that we run to when people consider preachers, and both extremes
are wrong. One extreme, either preachers
are totally despised and hated because of the gospel they preach,
and their message is ignored, they're strongly opposed, and
we're going to see that We've already have seen that in the
study of Acts. That's one side. The other side
of the coin is preachers are worshipped and put on a pedestal
and blindly followed. Both extremes are wrong. Paul
said, you follow me as I follow Christ. Servants of the Lord
are to be heard, they're to be esteemed for the ministry's sake,
Thanks be to God that he still yet does call and send gospel
preachers. Pray for them who are sent to
preach the gospel. An interesting side note, Paul
and Sue Thacker had a young son named Kevin. When we first came
here in 1986, Kevin was just a little boy, 10, 11 years old,
something like that. Do you know where he is now?
God raised him up. GAVE HIM FAITH TO BELIEVE THE
GOSPEL, MADE HIM A PREACHER OF THE GOSPEL, AND PASTOR OF A CHURCH
NOW IN CALIFORNIA, JAMAL, CALIFORNIA. ISN'T THAT AMAZING? THE LORD
USED ALL THAT TO RAISE THAT ONE MAN UP TO PREACH THE GOSPEL OF
THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. THAT'S HOW GOD WORKS. HE WORKED
IN KEVIN'S HEART, HE WORKED IN THEIR HEART, AND BROUGHT THE
TWO TOGETHER. THAT'S HOW IT WORKS. GOD'S SERVANTS ARE TO BE HEARD,
THERE BE TO ESTEEM FOR THE SAKE OF THE MINISTRY, AND WE GIVE
THANKS TO THE LORD WHO SENDS OUT GOSPEL PREACHERS. THEY'RE CALLED AMBASSADORS OF
THE LORD, SET TO PREACH THE WORD OF THE LORD. NOW, LASTLY, LET
ME CLOSE WITH THIS. WHAT SHOULD BELIEVERS EXPECT
FROM THE PREACHER? WHAT SHOULD YOU EXPECT FROM ME
WHEN YOU COME HERE? WHAT DO YOU EXPECT THAT I'LL
SAY WHEN YOU COME HERE? ALL THINGS, AS IT SAYS THERE,
WERE HERE TO HEAR ALL THINGS COMMANDED OF GOD. YOU WANT TO
HEAR THE GOSPEL, DON'T YOU, WHEN YOU COME HERE? YOU DON'T WANT
TO HEAR SAD STORIES ABOUT MY CHILDHOOD, DO YOU? I'VE GOT A LOT OF THEM. YOU WANT
TO HEAR THE GOSPEL. MY SAD CHILDHOOD IS NOT GOING
TO HELP YOU. Expect to hear the gospel. Believers always should expect
those who are sent as ministers of Christ to declare what God
has commanded. We should keep back nothing,
but rather declare all the counsel of God, how God saved his people. Let me show you an example of
this. Turn to Acts 20. We are commanded to preach the
gospel of God concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, His person,
His work, nothing more, nothing less, and nothing else. Acts
chapter 20, the Apostle Paul. Verse 19, serving the Lord with
humility of mind, with many tears and temptation which befell me
by the lying and weight of the Jews, how I kept back nothing
that was possible unto you, and have showed you and taught you
publicly from house to house, testifying both to the Jews and
also to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Verse 25, Acts 20, verse 25,
and now behold, I know that you all among whom I have gone preaching
the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more. Wherefore, I
take you to record this day that I am pure and free from the blood
of all men. I shall not declare unto you
all the counsel of God. Take heed, therefore, unto yourselves
and all the flock, over which the Holy Ghost hath made you
overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased
with his own blood. And he winds up by saying, verse
32, And now I, brethren, commend you to God, to the word of his
grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you inheritance
among all them that are sanctified. God's able to do that. We commend
you to God and to his word of the Lord. Verse 34 in Acts 10,
Peter opened his mouth and said of a truth, God does not respect
a man's person. Mercy does not run or salvation
does not run the bloodline, but in every nation God has a people.
They're brought to worship Him. They're brought to believe the
gospel. They're accepted in the beloved, and they believe the
gospel, the word of God, preaching peace, salvation by the Lord
Jesus Christ, that He is Lord of all. We're commanded to go
in all the world and preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 34, down through verse
48, we'll look at that.