Well, you may be wondering what I was doing Wednesday night when I was not here teaching Bible study and the answer is I was taking my My boys to see the thunder play the Denver Nuggets in Oklahoma City could I have a friend who is a coach for the Nuggets So that was kind of a fun experience and But I broke where my cardinal rules we parked in the parking garage and as we were coming up the stairs out of parking garage I broke just that rule. You don't break. I put my hand on the hand rail and As we all know there is nothing quite as gross as parking garage handrails and As I like I mean immediately when I when I grabbed that rail I felt it and I felt repensance and there was goo. I don't know how to describe it. There was goo on the underside of the hand rail And it was it wasn't wall. It was definitely not water and it was yellowish and it was thick and I began I wipe my hand on the wall immediately and I wipe my hand on my pants and and you know coming into the stadium I found the the hand purifier and as soon as I could I went to the bathroom, but no to this to this day five days later my hands are not clean There is nothing I can do to get goo that feeling of goo off my hands They're just I don't think my hands will ever be clean again and You know I think there are people who feel that way Who feel that way about themselves maybe At some point in the past they had a breakup and Somebody that they love rejected them and they just Wonder if anybody's ever going to want them again. Maybe you committed a sin that you just thought you would never commit
maybe Somebody sinned against you In a way that made you feel worthless and Unwanted and I'm unwantable And you honestly wonder if you'll ever be clean again. It's got to give it up on it And if that's you then I got great news for you today What God has made clean No one can call common What God has made clean no one can call polluted Maybe you're on the other side. Maybe there are just certain people in this world who don't deserve to really share a world with you Maybe there are certain maybe there's a certain class of humans a certain class of centers Whatever that you just think are the enemy and You really wish you really think the world would be better without them Maybe it's people of a different tribe people of a different politics people who drive hybrids people whatever it is You just think the world would be better without them And I got news for you What God has made clean No one can call common No one can call common Our text today is about Peter getting an alarming message It's a message that rings in his ears and It takes a lot to get him to believe it God himself has to repeat himself three times To get into believe it What God has made clean No one can call common. Please stand as we read this text And I'll tell you I'll tell you kind of story behind it after we read it to put it in the put it in the context Here the word of the Lord from Acts chapter 10 verses 34 through 43 So Peter opened his mouth and said truly I understand that God shows no partiality But in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him As for the word that he sent to Israel preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ He is Lord of all You yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power and he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil For God was with him and we are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem They put in a death by hanging him on a tree But God raised him on the third day and made him to appear not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses Who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead? And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that He is the one appointed by God to be the judge of the living and the dead To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him Receives forgiveness of sins through his name That's far the reading of God's word all men like grass Now all of our glories like the flowers of the field and the grass withers and the flowers fall but not God's word God's word stands forever. You may be seated. What God has made clean no one Can call polluted now this the book of acts is interesting. It it spans 30 years But there are certain times when it just goes into slow motions kind of like the The movie Oppenheimer that some of us try to get through the summer and If you watched it, I've never seen the movie with a better use of a soundtrack Because the soundtrack just drives you through the movie Just And it kind of keeps you involved and it convinces you that this movie is fast moving even though it's not and But there's one point if you've seen the movie, you know, there's one point when the soundtrack just goes silent and
Time stops and you see this this Nuclear this first-ever nuclear explosion and the expression of everybody's face and just time comes to a stop That's essentially what happens in acts. I mean things have been happening times been passing like I said It's gonna span 30 years. It's really about to speed up. It's from this point um as we go through the life of of Paul but Here it stops And it says you you gotta see this and Peter gets a vision and he We tell the story three times he has the vision and then he retails the vision and then He summarizes it again and Cornelius gets a vision In Cornelius gets the vision and he retails the vision and he retails the vision again And and God has said this is important. This is important. I have made the unclean clean And so let's let's make explain kind of what's going on here Cornelius is a god-fearing Gentile. He's a Roman soldier. That's pretty nasty Um, they are just spies because they're not they're religiously unclean. They're not Jewish He's a member of the the foreign army who's done terrible things are known for their just Crude-ness and their absolute violent destruction and and he's part of this oppressive regime But for whatever reason he has seen Jews and he Has respected them and is begin to believe in the god that they believe in and he prays and he and he gives money to the poor And one day during his regular prayer time an angel comes and visits him can you And he said these magic words these words that are just so powerful God has heard your prayer When you love to hear those words God has heard your prayer. God's heard you can't Cornelius And there's a man who's staying at the house of Simon the Tanner down on the on the beach in japa sent him His name is Peter and he's going to teach you the way He's going to tell you the good news So Cornelius excited and he sends people down It's about a day's journey. He's about 40 miles And he sends them the next day about the time that these these men are arriving Peter is at this house in japa and he's hungry And he lets the people there know that he's hungry and they're going to prepare meal for him It's kind of a sign of respect. You know that the apostles come to stay at our house and and he goes up on the roof Probably looking out at the coast and we're told the house was on the beach probably looking out at the Mediterranean there Sounds like a great view and Maybe to see a gallery. I'm sorry. I'm not great geography, but you know, you get the idea He's looking out at this body of water and he's hungry and he starts praying and he gets a vision And this vision is strange. It's a vision of a huge sheet coming down from heaven And the sheet is filled with nasty animals with reptiles and and birds and all kind of the strange things and he hears his voice saying rise Peter Killin' eat and he says oh no no no no not me It's just gross. It's just dirty Come on. It's very important to me. It's my identity. It's my religion. Lord you know me I've never eaten anything unclean in my whole life He hears his voice saying what God is called clean don't call common
Thinking about it. He gets the vision again. Killin' eat. No, not me. I wouldn't eat it. That's nasty What God is called clean. Don't call common Again, he gets the same vision. He's hungry. He's like lord don't you get it. You got to we got to fix yourself How much is he remembering right now? Is he remembering the three times he denied Christ? Is he remembering the three times Christ restored him? Do you love me? Is he wondering himself? Why am I so dumb that it's always three times? I don't know Killin' eat. No Lord. It's dirty What I call clean don't call dirty And he's sitting there thinking about this. God really want me to eat buzzards? surely not And three men come and knock on the door downstairs and he hears the voice saying go with him And so he starts to get it right and he has a day's journey And he's walking and he's like, oh no, this isn't about food. This is about people surely not. Oh my gosh, surely not And he arrives at Cornelius's house And he walks in and he says now look I would never come into a house of a person like you and that pleasant thing to say I would never ever even come into your house But God showed me that what he calls clean I should not call common So what do you want? That's nice Peter. That's good. That's good evangelism And Cornelius says You got to kind of wonder if he Pushes back. I'd never ask somebody like you to come in my house But God told me to send after you And that you would bring me good news So what have you got to say? What would you say? What would you say? Someone just gives you the open invitation All right, I hear about this good news. I've heard about this christianity thing What is it? And Peter begins And the first thing he does is he announces that there is good news There is good news of peace. Look at verse 36 He says now I know I can get my bullets mount I'll quote it correctly verse 36 Peter opens his mouth and he says As for the word of him as for the word that he sent to Israel preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ. He is Lord of all What is he saying? He's saying the war's over There's good news of peace now that that's a phrase that meant something certainly meant something to a soldier like Cornelius And meant that the message is here They didn't get there weren't in a constant 24-hour news cycle, right? They didn't get news every time they opened their phone. They didn't have constantly getting You know their their sermons interrupted about people getting news Headlines flashing their phones. They got news very seldom and especially when there was a war out and it was wars all the time Herald would come back to their town and tell them who won And this is a good news is this is that in that context. I have good news the war is over And God is one there is peace the war between God and man is over I've got good news of peace God has won the war Now it's the kind of thing that He's saying he's wrapping the entire gospel up in that that the war between good and evil is over God is one Jesus has defeated Satan both in this life He he went around healing and and casting out demons he defeated Satan in this life He defeated Satan by not giving in the temptation. He defeated Satan by giving up onto death He he defeated sin by paying the price for sin. He defeated hell and and the grave I'm going into the grave and and blowing the back out of it so that Through his resurrection and now he is the judge of all He is the king who decides your eternity. He is the judge That's all all in that message that he gives it's actually very close and probably um, the in seed form the apostles creed Jesus was alive He healed He died He was crucified. He was hung on a tree He was put in the grave He rose again He talks about not only did rise again It wasn't a wasn't a vision like the vision of the sheet coming in. It was no sheet Right? It was a vision. It's not like a vision of of something Did you have in your mind? Jesus rose again. He ate with us. He drank with us He stresses that it was a physical resurrection And he is the judge of all What matters about your eternity what determines your eternity is your allegiance to him or your lack of allegiance to him That's what matters You see it's like it's like a herald coming back from the front saying um Jesus is one the war He's won it So either start paying fealty to him Or continue on the other side It's your decision Once he gets back he's going to judge. He's going to calculate. He's going to separate But you have time now And it's the kind of message that demands action. It's like um Well, it's like my son got a email this week It really calls a alarm to him You know, and it was the email was about debt and having his debt consolidated and uh And he was alarming to him because he has no debt And he's like Well, is there something I don't know and it calls me up And he's like well you go through all of my mail and make sure I don't have some debt And I don't know about he doesn't know that he's going to get this email every month for the rest of his life, right There's people out there trying to get you to Do away with your debt by taking on more debt And uh But you know he it was alarming to him because he didn't know if it was true or not and it was there was Consequence to it You know if you get a letter from the IRS tomorrow that says you owe four million dollars You're going to check into it. It's probably not true. I've never made four million dollars I have like all the money I've made my whole life doesn't amount to that But still I'm going to check into it because it's consequential. I need to know And this this good news that Peter brings it It demands action. It's consequential has is Jesus really the victor has he really defeated evil Is it really a matter of me being on his side is that a is that a matter of all eternity being on his side And that brings us to the response of faith that the next two Points are faith and repentance. That's the the action that's demanded and In verse 43 he tells us about faith He says to him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him Receives forgiveness of sins through his name Everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness Of their sins through his name. What is it? I want to just take a moment have our kind of opinion moment when we stop And talk about what does that mean to to believe in him And the first thing I want you to see is this belief is linked to historic facts It's not some kind of vague Faith You know so and so is a man of faith right in what And in our particular culture What that typically means is we have faith in faith That we believe that what we want to happen is going to happen and if I believe in faith enough if I if my faith is strong enough Then I can make things happen It's faith in faith That is not what Peter is talking about It's not faith in some vague God It's not well, I believe in God and I get great comfort from that That's good. I'm not trying to take that away from you But that's not what Peter is talking about. That's not what the Bible talks about That's not saving faith saving faith in the Bible is Belief in a particular historic person who was born who lived who was crucified on a tree Who was who rate was raised from the dead who ate and drank with his disciples And he was ascended into heaven It's you know it has a historic Factualness to it That's what faith is that's what the faith is in that I believe that And some of us don't And I urge you I beg you if you don't believe that Examinate There are reasonable rational humans in this room who do believe that you don't have to be Strait well, we're a little strange, but everybody's a little strange But it's it's not a it's not a flight of fancy. It's not Insanity to believe that it has a historic facts to it That's what it means to have saving faith it has that kind of definition that kind of content And saving faith is also an allegiance It means these people are my people This truth is my truth I am what they are That this is me this is I'm 100% invested in this it's um I'm sorry. This is a very stupid illustration. It's the best I got okay
It's like that terrible day when you decide that you have a favorite football team and you really love them And you care about what happens to them and why do I call that day terrible because you're probably going to have Most likely according to overwhelming odds you're gonna end every year sad I mean, there's only one team that's gonna come out of the champion next week. There's 31 teams that won't And so all 31 of those teams had a really bad day at some point Right when you're likely and to be invested were to be your team means you were really sad when they got beat That's that's your identity It's who you are when I when you're bring your children to me to join the church That's kind of what I ask I want to tell them. It's like when you join the church It means you don't just like the church because your parents bring you it's like saying you don't just like the cowboys because your parents like the cowboys They are your team now Yeah, I like cowboys. It's no one to me. Uh But you know you try you try and And to be invested in Jesus me that's that's my identity His opinion is what I care about This is who I am. I and yes, that means sometimes I claim brotherhood with people that I may not approve of But they're my people and I love them and as long as they continue in the church They are my people because that's who I am. This is my team That's what it means you you invested yourself. You don't just believe it You certainly don't believe it like you believe a legend You believe the historic facts and you've invested yourself in it And that investment requires another part that we call repentance under life now We don't have this verse in our text, but when you get home today look up Chapter 11 verse 18 Peter The Jews aren't real proud of what he's done here And they call him and they go we hear you went into a Gentile house
care to explain yourself So he goes through the whole thing again. I had a vision If these men came and got me I talked in the gospel and when I explained the gospel and they believed it The Holy Spirit fell on them the same Holy Spirit that fell on Jesus the same Holy Spirit that fell on us Who if the Holy Spirit is falling on them how can I not baptize them And they gave glory to God and the Jews said then it's true The God has given the the Gentiles repentance unto life Repentance unto life What is that that's the that's the second half of the saving faith saving faith is not just faith like you have faith in Your parents to give you birthday presents where you have faith in Your spouse to not cheat on you saving faith is a faith that says I am putting myself in you and I'm turning away from everything else I'm turning away from From the other things in life that that I've That I've entrusted myself to now there's repentance. There's all kinds of people out there repenting. We repent every day You're repent of being You know of Vanderbilt football fan wasting life with that your repentive spending too much at Costco your repent at Of drinking too much and sometimes those repentancees are big um You know, that's what a lot of kind of moral
Cleansing and moral turnarounds are there their repentancees But there's not repentance unto life unless it's linked with faith There's a great example um, it was this 70s rock star named Alice Cooper It was very weird But made living off of the glam rock kind of guy and uh, it was an alcoholic which is not a surprise to anyone He's ever listened to his music and But the alcoholism was wrecking his life And so he went through AA and he gave up alcohol right that's repentance But he wasn't repentance on the life he wasn't Converted he just became it went from being a compulsive alcoholic to becoming a compulsive golfer And he golfs every day at least 18 holes 36 holes many days like that became his new compulsion He went from being a compulsive drinker to being a compulsive golfer. That's not salvation We're it's healthier. I mean golf is one of the healthiest things you can possibly be addicted to them But uh, it's still addicted Right it's still unhealthy and and he began playing golf with a philogen named RC Sproul Who also happened to golf every day and so they were in the same golf club in Orlando And RC Sproul taught in the content of faith and called him to repentance and at one day Alice Cooper Belize on it That's repentance unto life. It's it's turning away from whatever it is. It's getting you through life Whether it be your intelligence and this this Comfort you receive of being more intelligent than everyone else or your independence That's one of the things that most of us have to repent of we we take such great pride and we go to such great Leads and extends to prove that we're independent from our families and our parents and from from our church and whatever we grew up around and and we have to With repent of that and instead turn to Jesus and say I can't get through life on my own I can't rely on myself We have to repent away from The love or our trust and money And turn to him and trust him with it
CS Lewis describes it like this he says We oftentimes find ourselves turning down Jesus Refusing to believe in God because we just can't imagine anything that good is real He says we're like children playing in a mud puddle and we We're being offered a trip to the seaside We refuse to take the trip because We just can't believe something that great is real and so we just stay in our mud Repentance on the life is giving up the mud puddle Saving faith is going with the people to the seaside And to be a believer to be a part of the way or a Christian is There will later be called an axe is to do both repent and believe And the what what do we then receive we receive eternal cleanliness Never call unclean what I've declared clean And that's what I want you to see the crisis offering he is offering cleansing He is offering That wonderful feeling when you have a new identity and you are not what you were And no matter how gross the goo on your hands is He washes it off forever he makes us Clean and we can never be clean again We can never be unclean again Once he makes us clean we can never be unclean again
Even if you're divorced And Christ you're clean and no one can call you unclean again Even if you're adulterous and you've committed that sin you thought you would never commit Once Christ calls you clean you can never be unclean again Even if you have Just glued fantasies and you you feel like if anybody knew what was what you fantasized about You'd be cast out forever Even if you're addicted to the worst kinds of pornography or child pornography Once Christ has made you clean you can never be unclean again Even if you're poor and you experience the shame of Of knowing that everybody around you falsely thinks that you're poor because you don't try hard Once Christ makes you clean you can never be unclean again Even if you failed in life In school or in Work and You're surrounded by people who are successful and as nice as they claim to be and you just always are looking through those smiles and wondering What do they really think of you? Let's Christ has made you clean You can never be unclean again even if you're Overweight and you know that people Think bad thoughts about you behind your back and they've called you names your entire life and you believe those Those terrible untrue things Once Christ has made you clean You can never be called comment again Even if you just dealt with it the rejection your entire life of being unpopular No, I like you and you Began to identify that as As something you deserve because you're unwanted and there's something wrong with you Christ wants you And once he's made you clean you can never be unclean again Please pray with me Father in heaven we long to hear those words that we've been made clean That we are in Christ We are Christ in us Although we know he is the definition of purity when he Touched the unclean he made him clean and we pray Lord that you had continued to defeat the forces of evil that are even in our own houses in our own mind so they're constantly accusing and calling us unclean and bringing up Terrible memories from years and years ago That we just can't Forget Father would you make us to feel our Cleanness would you bless the Lord suffer today as we take it and as we drink that wine would we feel That cleansing From all unrighteousness that you promise To those who confess to you we pray in Jesus precious name