A Step in the Dark

Sermon notes from Sunday 17 August 2014

“What God hath cleansed, that call not common” Acts 10 verse 15

“Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of another nation’ but God hath shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean.” Acts 10 verse 28

 A STEP IN THE DARK

Peter was on his knees before God when the heavens opened and God gave him a vision of the sheet with all the unclean animals on it.  Peter had to learn to surrender to God’s will.  What did it mean for Peter - to bring the gospel to the Gentile nation.  Peter had to sacrifice to God’s work.  Peter was about to take a step in the dark.  A nation would be saved through the obedience of one man.  Never under estimate what God can do.  Once we come to the place Peter came to only then can God move in such a place.  As you open yourself up to God he might save a complete household through your ministry.  Look at the sacrifices Peter had to make.

He had to sacrifice previous trophies.  All we have to do is look at the great biographies of men and woman in past days.  There were things these people had to give up to take the gospel out to far flung parts of the earth.  Think of Hudson Taylor and David Livingstone for example.  C T Studd was a young man of 18 when he was saved but he got stuck.  He went on with his normal days business but never felt the need to get down before God and ask him what he wanted him to do.  The Lord came again to him again 6 years later.  On the day he got married his bride asked him “how much exactly is in our bank account?”  He told her the exact amount.  He had inherited a fortune from his father.  His wife asked him “what are we going to do about it?”  C T Studd gave all his money away and went out to the mission field.  Acts 9 verses 32 – 35.  Here was a man who could not stand or walk.  Peter was called to this house and a miracle took place that day because Aeneas was able to walk again.  In verses 36 and 37 Peter is again called to another house.  Dorcas did a lot of charitable work for the poor and widows.  The people realised he was in the town and called on him to come to the house.  In verse 40 Peter put them all out of the house.  He then knelt down and prayed.  God answered that prayer.  Answered prayer might not always be in the way we might think or hope but in this place God answered Peter’s prayer for healing.  Dorcas is raised to her feet because of Peter’s prayer.  In verse 42 we read “and many believed in the Lord.”  How was Peter feeling after these 2 incidents?  He saw men and women coming to the knowledge of Christ through what he has done.  He doesn’t stop there though.  He is in the midst of blessing but God is going to call him away from all that.  God now seems to be giving him an impossible task.  He is calling him to something that is unheard of.  He must not dwell on these previous trophies.  If we want to serve the Lord we cannot dwell on previous trophies.  In Acts chapter 16 Paul was praying for a way to go into Asia but he was forbidden (verse 6).  Then in verse 7 we see Paul wanted to go to Bithynia “but the Spirit suffered them not”.

Peter had to sacrifice his precious time.  How often we look at the clock and say “I should be somewhere else.”  It only took 2 days to go to Cornelius’ house and I’m sure Peter felt he could do so much more in those 2 days but he would have to sacrifice his time.  Can we call that a sacrifice?  From the one who died for you?  Jesus left heaven and the praise of angels and came down into the world.  During his time on earth everyone tried to find fault with everything he did.  He would eat with sinners and publicans but there were those ready to condemn him for doing so.  Then we see him on that cross, he suffered, bled and died in agony because he was dieing for you and I.  God comes to us and asks us to given an hour to pray.  C T Studd said “if Jesus Christ be God and died for me then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him.”  Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan.  A man was robbed, beaten, stripped and left to die in the road.  A priest came down the road but instead of stopping he passed on by.  Then the Lord put the spotlight on a Levite.  Surely he would stop but no he didn’t.  He passed on by.  A Samaritan did however stop.  He poured oil in to the man’s wounds then raised him to his donkey and took him to a nearby inn.  He tells the innkeeper to care for the man and pays for his care.  That is what people need from us today – time to care, to sacrifice our time.  Anything we have today is not ours.  It is God’s and some day we must leave it all behind.  We are only using what is God’s today.

Peter would have to sacrifice his personal ambitions.  God was showing Peter the Gentile nation all around him.  They needed to hear the gospel.  They were termed as unclean by the Jewish nation.  God was giving Peter the keys to go into those homes and tell them about Jesus.  He had to sacrifice his traditions.  Some times we have to set aside the things we love because God is asking us to do something else.  John Wesley began to preach salvation through faith in Christ in churches but he was told to leave the churches.  He had to then take the gospel to open airs and he began to preach to people as they passed by.  He admitted one day that he had thought it would be a sin to see a soul saved outside a church building.  Maybe there are things you have to sacrifice – your time, your traditions – but God will use us mightily to save precious souls.

The will of God

Sermon notes from Sunday 10 August 2014

“And now send men to Joppa and call for one Simon, whose surname is Peter”

Acts 10 verse 5

This converted fisherman is on his knees in the presence of God.  He is seeking the way of God day and daily.  We need to be seeking the presence of God in our lives.  Peter’s face was towards heaven and his heart is open to God.  We see now that he is surrendered to the will of God.  I trust we will be those seeking the way of God.  He may choose to show us a different way but we need to be surrendered to the will of God.  This is the most important aspect of Christian living – to know, to find and to do the will of God.  Not just to be saved.  Remember what Jesus said “not every one that saith unto me Lord, Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.”(Matthew 7 verse 21)  F B Meyer was on board a boat one day which was heading into the port of Holyhead.  It was a dark night and there were no stars in the sky.  He came up and stood beside the captain of the ship.  F B Meyer asked him “how can you be so sure you can get into the port with no light to guide you?”  The captain said “can you see 3 green lights in the distance.”  “Yes I can” Meyer said.  The captain said “once the pilot sees those 3 green lights lined up and watches them continually he knows he is on the right course.  He can sail in the harbour very easily.”  F B Meyer went back to his room and thought on those 3 lights that lit up to direct the boat into the harbour.  He thought of his own Christian experience and how he might put that in writing.  The 3 lights – one is knowing the will of God and two is doing the will of God safe in the knowledge of him.  First there has to be conviction in the heart, something God is laying on my heart to know what to do.  Next is the light of circumstances, that I am able to do the will of God.  Then comes the clarity of God’s word to my heart.  He says it with his word.  That is how we find the will of God.  May we seek God’s will for our lives.  See how Peter surrenders to the will of God.

First of all he is gaging the will of God.  In verses 11 to 16 Peter has a vision of what the Lord wanted him to do.  It was the picture of a sheet sent down from heaven and on the sheet were animals.  Peter was told to rise up and eat.  It was something he had never done before.  Leviticus tells us the laws of unclean animals the Jewish people were not allowed to eat.  God told him “don’t call them unclean, I have made them after all.”  He was giving Peter the key to go in to the Gentile nation and present the gospel to them.  Now Peter is sitting thinking of what this all meant.  We need to be clear as we seek God.  It is not God’s will that none of us perish.  It is his will that we shall all be saved.  God sent His son into the world to die on Calvary’s cross for the whole world’s sin.  He is not willing that any should perish but all should come to repentance and faith in Christ.  Peter needed to discern what God was teaching and the way he was leading.  We need to be careful and know where God’s will is leading us at this point in time.  We could go back hundreds of years to another man sitting in Joppa – Jonah.  God told him to go down to Nineveh and preach the gospel.  “Not so Lord.”  He gets up and runs away from the Lord.  Peter is told to go to the Gentile nation and take the gospel.  Jonah ran away, Peter surrendered.  Which will we do?  Peter no doubt had his own plans in mind. He got on his knees before God and God stood all his plans up on their end.  It is very possible to pray “Lord guide me” but to have our own agenda and goal, to never invest in the way God really wants us to go.  Paul writing to Romans said his heart was longing to go there, he was ready to go but he was hindered time and time again.  At the end of his letter he wrote “I am going into Jerusalem then on to Spain then I am coming around by you if it be the will of God.”  Paul got to Rome alright but as a prisoner not a free man.  We think of a home in Bethlehem Judah, the translation of that name means ‘house of bread’.  We see a man sitting with his head in his hands, he doesn’t know what is happening.  There was a famine in the land and he had decisions to make.  He had a wife and 2 sons.  He lived in the days of Judges, the atmosphere was heavy.  “Men did that which was right in their own eyes.”(Judges 21 verse 25)  They had no king.  Something happens down in Moab.  He realises there was food down in Moab.  We don’t read of him getting before the God of heaven and ask him what to do.  Disaster later struck the family – he and his 2 sons died in Moab.  His wife had to come back to the beginning again.  Are we prepared to go through with God?  To surrender to him totally?

Peter didn’t guess the will of God.  Verse 17 – I don’t believe he doubted but rather questioned the meaning of it and the way in which God was leading.  God doesn’t reveal all at once what the plan is.  It is revealed by degrees.  The Psalmist said “thy word is a lamp unto my feet.”  The picture is of a light just lighting one step at a time.  He doesn’t open up the whole picture.  God doesn’t show the full picture.  John said “if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.”(1 John 1 verse 7)  Elimelech couldn’t wait for God to answer, he just picked up and went.  In Judges 6 we read the story of Gideon.  The enemies were coming down against the Israelite forces.  Gideon asked the question “wherewith shall I save Israel?”  The angel had come to him, told him “you are a mighty man, God will use you to deliver Israel, just through you.”  This was definite, no guessing.  If we are prepared to wait before God he will show us the way to go.  Gideon told the angel “my family is poor in Manasseh. I am the least in my father’s house. You are coming to me and asking me to do this, surely others could do it better than me.”  Verse 16 God gave him a great promise “surely I will be with thee.”  What did Gideon do?  He showed God a fleece and said – “If you are with me here’s a fleece.  Tomorrow morning if it is you speaking to me it must be wet and everywhere else around it dry.”  That wasn’t enough though – he tried it the other way around.  Both times he proved God.  Maybe God is saying to you “enough fleeces let’s get on with the work.”  There is no guessing with God’s will.  He wants you to simply surrender, take him at his word.  Peter on the little boat fished all night and never got any.  Jesus came and told him “launch out into the deep and let down your net.”  Peter replied “all night we have fished and caught nothing nevertheless at thy word I will do it.”  No guessing, simple surrender.  God wants us to do something similar – surrender to his will.  What is his will for your life?  What is his will for this church?

The guiding of God’s will.  For Peter it was a change of direction.  Peter would be the evangelist to bring the gospel to nations outside of the Jewish people.  Maybe there is someone God will lay on your heart to be used to take the gospel to.  A re-direction of your life.  Peter has to go down to the house of Cornelius.  He gaged the will of God for his life, he didn’t guess the will of God, he was gently directed down into this house following God’s guiding for his life.  Abraham’s servant went down to look for a wife for Abraham’s son.  When he met her he said “I being in the way God led me.”(Genesis 24 verse 27)  We need to get started in God’s will.  As we do so he will guide.  Don’t set aside his word saying you need to be saved instead surrender to it, come to the Lord and trust him as Saviour and Lord.  We need to seek God’s way and surrender to his will.

The guarantee of God’s will.  In verse 19 Peter was told there were 3 men coming to see him.  When he made his way down from the rooftop he found 3 men waiting on him.  F B Meyer talked about conviction then circumstances coming together and that was true for Peter – he had the company to go down to Cornelius’ house.  He also had the clarity of God’s word.  If we are going by that we will not go far wrong.

A late call

Sermon notes from Sunday 3 August 2014

Matthew 20 verses 1 – 16

A Late Call

This man owned a vineyard and he called for labourers to go and bring in the harvest.  Notice in verse 6 it was “about the eleventh hour”.  It was a late call for these labourers.  Notice what Jesus does in this portion of scripture.  He points to a man and is going to teach the people an eternal truth through a simple illustration.  A man at one time owned a vineyard.  He worked hard in it.  He sowed good seed and reaped a good harvest.  The trees were laden down with fruit and he wanted men to come in to gather in that harvest.  He had a great concern for the vineyard.  Think about the concern God has on his heart for you tonight in that you are not saved.  Imagine what God has done.  He took his only son, sent him down to this sin cursed world, he knew no sin and was made a sacrifice for our sin on the cross.  He gave his life that you and I might be saved.  He doesn’t want you to be lost for all eternity.  He is doing everything in his power to see you saved.  Those who were hired entered into the vineyard.  They were going in to serve.  If God saves us he saves us to serve.  Jesus is still gathering in.  This man who owned this vineyard went out at certain times of the day – early in the morning, at the third hour, at the sixth hour and at the ninth hour.  Now he is coming at the eleventh hour.  Think of those called at that time of the day.

It was a gracious call.  Jesus paints the picture of the call going out – verse 3.  He went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the market place.”  He is calling them to work for him.  He points to the vineyard and tells them to go in and work for him and when they had served their time he would pay them their just reward.  The Holy Spirit is going out tonight.  If you are not saved the Holy Spirit is seeking your heart.  He is not pointing to a church or to a denomination but shows you your greatest need – that you are not saved, that you have never been born again of the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit points to Christ the door to heaven.  “I am the door by me if any man enter in he shall be saved.”  The man didn’t have to hire all these labourers but did it out of the goodness of his heart.  God didn’t have to save us.  It is the “goodness of God that leadeth all men to repentance” (Romans 2 verse 4) Paul said.  When we entered into the world we took Adam’s sinful nature on ourselves.  God sent his son in grace to save us though.  We have nothing to earn or to give in place of God’s salvation, only receive it as his own personal gift.  Have you come the way of the cross, taken the Lord as Saviour for yourself?  Are you looking for heaven’s glory at the end of your life simply through what God has done for you?  The call was gracious in that the day was far spent.  It was the eleventh hour.  This man was still out pleading with workers to go into the vineyard.  There were still people standing outside the vineyard.  The eleventh hour of God’s grace is upon us.  We are nearer God’s return than ever.  God’s word says “And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.” (Luke 21 verse 28)  There are those in congregations called early in life, perhaps through a faithful Sunday School teacher.  Just like Timothy who had a grandmother who loved the Lord.  His mother also loved the Lord too.  He was being taught the word of God daily but there came a day when he turned to the Lord himself.  His mother and grandmother alone were no good to him in that sense.  He had to come personally to the Lord and take him for himself.  There are children coming to the Lord today through parents and Sunday School teachers.  There are those who have come through their youth, through camps and teenage ministries while others have come to faith later when they were first married and perhaps had their own children.  Enoch in the Old Testament in Genesis 5 verse 22 “walked with God”.  There was a time when he wasn’t walking with God.  It was after he begat Methuselah, after that child came into his home when he looked on Methuselah as God’s grace to him.  He realised his responsibility.  There are many in the latter years, almost at their eleventh hour and are yet not saved.  For many in our province the days in their lives are far spent.  Heaven beckons and they are not saved.  What about you?  Do you know the Lord as Saviour?  Have you trusted him to take away your sin?  What are you clutching onto tonight?

It was a general call – verse 6 “He found others standing idle and saith unto them why stand ye here all the day idle”.  It doesn’t say that they were being taken note of for some special reason.  They were standing outside the gate of the vineyard.  How general it was, not based upon their ability, who they were but on the goodness of the man who called them.  The gospel message is  a universal general call.  God goes out into all the world tonight.  In John 7 Jesus was going up to the feast.  It was the last night of the feast.  People were taking their leave of Jerusalem and going back home.  It was the final day of celebration.  Jesus came and gave a general invitation – verse 37 “If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink.”  The qualification for that invitation – only if they felt thirsty.  There would be those walking past, going about their normal day’s business but there were also those who would come to the Lord.  The call goes out tonight.  There are those who will rise to their feet, ignore the pleadings of the Holy Spirit and turn their backs, walk out the door – why – because “the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” (2 Corinthians 4 verse 4)  There were those outside the vineyard that day who heard the call and said “this is for me” and went in to work at that eleventh hour.  Maybe you are saying this call is for me, God has spoken to me in nights past but now he is coming again.

It was a generous call.  All who entered in were awarded the same amount no matter what time they came in.  God’s call and rewards do not change.  Verse 7 – generous in the sense that they had stood back and watched others take up the call and go in but they entered in at this late hour.  God is gracious.  God has taken our sins and placed them on the Lord on the cross.  God’s call is general because you and I can be saved.  Saul of Tarsus looked into the face of Timothy.  He was praising God because of the grace of God which had come to him “the chief of sinners”.  It is the last hour and you have still an opportunity to be saved.

It was a greeted call – verse 9.  The reaction was positive.  They accepted that call at the eleventh hour.  Maybe you have rejected God’s call unwittingly.  You have turned your back on the Lord time and again.  You realised you needed to be saved yet you said no.  Naaman in the Old Testament when he heard what God could do for the leprosy in his body threw back his head and couldn’t do it.  Later he repented and did as he was told and his leprosy was gone.

The calling of God on a person's life

Notes from a sermon heard on Sunday 3 August 2014

Acts 10 verses 1 – 23

In Acts chapter 10 we find a man who is longing for God.  As we look at Cornelius we see a man whose soul is longing after something he hasn’t got, something is missing in his heart.  He was a man full of religion, full of good works, looked upon well by the community, revered, thought highly of.  If there was a Christian in Caesarea it was him.  Can you see how closely a person can get to salvation and yet not have it?  There is a big difference in being religious and being saved.  Cornelius was like the young man in the scriptures who came to the feet of Christ one day and asked the question “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”  He could say “I have kept the commandments from my youth.”  Many today would say “I was brought up in such and such a church, sent to Sunday School, never missed a Sunday at church, brought up under a good minister, never did a thing contrary to the word of God on a Sabbath.”  This young rich man had been brought up under an environment where he respected the word of God, respected the person of Christ yet lacked something and didn’t know what it was.  He was so full of good things yet not saved.  The challenge to me was that God heard this young man’s prayers.  God took an angel from his presence to go to that man’s house and tell him “I have heard your prayers, send for Peter, he will come and show you how to be saved.”  Peter knew nothing about it.  He didn’t know that 40 miles away there was a man sitting on his knees praying and pleading.  Here’s the challenge – could God send for you today to step into a similar situation? 

The place of prayer.  Think of Peter here and the man God uses.  Will you be that Peter in the coming days?  Peter is searching for the way of God here.  He was before God searching for the way God would lead him into.  Verse 9 “On the morrow, as they went on their journey, and drew nigh unto the city, Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour.”  Where do we find Peter?  He was in the way of prayer, seeking God to find the way to go.  I’m sure the words of the Psalmist rang in his head “Evening and morning and at noon will I pray and cry aloud and he shall hear my voice.” (Psalm 55 verse 17)  He lifted up his voice to God in prayer.  The sixth house was at midday.  Peter remembered the words of the psalmist.  It is good to set aside time to pray, to seek God.  Look at the place Peter comes to.  Peter went up unto the housetop to pray.  He knew he had to get alone with God.  It was somewhere to get a clear vision of the Lord.  It was a place of separation.  It was a place of seclusion.  It was a place of serenity.  He didn’t want any interruptions.  He was rising above everything and everyone else.  He was getting alone with God.  “Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who shall stand in his holy place?  He that hath clean hands and a pure heart, who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.” (Psalm 24 verses 3 and 4)  Remember Daniel when the government officials turned their backs on him.  He knew if he was to go to the place of prayer he would be cast into the den of lions so he went into his house, opened up his windows and faced towards Jerusalem and began to pray.  Have we a place where we can go to and pray?  We have to rise above all the problems and difficulties.  “What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear, what a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer.”  Remember the man who brought his son to Jesus who was possessed of a demon.  The disciples could do nothing for him.  Jesus told his disciples that “this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.” (Matthew 17 verse 21)  If it is a prayerless effort it will fail.  We have to be in the place of prayer.

The persistency of prayer.  It is not just something quick, a flash in the pan but he will persist – verse 10 “”And he became very hungry and would have eaten but while they made ready, he fell into a trance.”  There will also be the temptation to take us away from the place of prayer.  There will always be something to come in and separate us from prayer.  Maybe it is the call of work.  Maybe something in life that is unseen until you get up and do it.  We need to persist in prayer to see souls saved.  There were 4 men in Kells who came night after night to meet together and continue in prayer.  They prevailed until revival came.  In Luke 18 Jesus gave the parable of the widow woman who kept coming to the unfair judge. She persisted until he folded and granted her request.  We need to be pleading and praying.

The power that Peter experienced.  Peter wanted to know the way God wanted him to go.  Has the church got into a state where we no longer need the God of heaven to guide us?  The power only came when he persisted – verse 11 “And saw heaven opened and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners and let down to the earth.”  Verse 13 “And there came a voice to him, Rise Peter, kill and eat”.  It all happened when he was persisting in prayer.  Alone with God Peter sought clarity and leading in his prayer.  In chapter 9 we find Peter was called to visit a man called Aeneas who was sick of the palsy.  Peter said unto him “Jesus Christ maketh thee whole arise and make thy bed.”  Peter was stepping from that great miracle.  Peter had taken the man’s hand and he walked.  He had never walked until that day.  Next we find Peter in Joppa.  A woman named Dorcas had died and Peter is called to visit.  Again he takes her by the hand and lifts her up.  She is raised to life again.  Now in this chapter we find Peter searching for God in prayer.  He could easily have looked back and felt such pride in the way God had used him.  Peter has come back into the presence of God to seek God’s will.  Once more we see the power that came down.  We don’t see him living in the past blessings.  He is now living afresh, he has to seek God for the day he is living in.  Moses went down into Egypt time and again to see Pharaoh and asked him to let God’s people leave Egypt but each time Pharaoh told him no.  Each time Moses stepped back out into the presence of God.  Remember when the battle was going on in the valley – Moses was praying on the mountain top.  His hands were raised in prayer to God but they got tired.  Aaron and Hur had to hold up Moses’ hands.  While those hands were raised Joshua prevailed in battle in the valley but when they were lowered the enemy prevailed.  There is nothing as tiring as prayer.  Here was Peter in the place of prayer.  He was surrendered to the will of God.  He had to learn that a sacrifice was called for in the work of God.  Later he had to learn to spread the word of God.