This morning, Acts 11 verses 1 through 18, your sermon title, Get Moving God's Direction. That's an exhortation. Get moving God's direction. This is one unit in Acts 11 here. We're going to have to split this up. It's not that the text itself or the unit itself can be split up because The unit is what it is. So it's 1 through 18 is the subject or the section that we're going to be covering. But we're going to have to do this in two sermons, I think, with the amount of content in these passages. And so we're going to start off in Acts 11 verses 1 through 18 this morning. We'll likely finish up with part two next week. But get moving God's direction. This is living in the sovereign will of God. That is a common concern for professing Christians. It seems like on a regular basis, what's the will of God for my life? I mean, what do I do? How am I supposed to live my life? How do I know that God is leading me? And if He's leading me, how do I know that I'm deciding right? How do I know that I'm walking in the leading of the Lord, walking in the will of the Lord? Well, in one sense, if you're obeying God, you're walking according to His will. Because His will for you is that you obey Him. And so if the Bible says to evangelize, you go out and evangelize. If you're sitting in your house, you're sitting on your couch, you're praying to God by your bedside, wherever you're at, and you say, I just want to know what the will of God for my life is. And you're not evangelizing? OK, well, the will of God for you is to start evangelizing, right? If you've got any other commands, forsake iniquity, repent of your sin, and you're harboring this sin, well, the will of God for you, as the Bible says, is your sanctification. Get rid of that sin. Repent. Follow Christ. The will of God, in many senses, is very simple, very clear, very easy to understand. But people today make it mystical. They make it difficult. They make it occult-ish in the way that they think about it. We're not to do that. The Bible is very clear. We're also going to see here from Peter's example that living in the sovereign will of God is very clear. It's just something that's not Hard to do. If you're obeying God, you're indwelt by the spirit, you're studying his word, you're doing the things that you're supposed to be doing, then God, through his sovereign will and by his providence, leads you. And you end up obeying God and living for Christ. And that's the way it works. And so in this chapter, we're going to see here from Peter's example, how God has orchestrated This entire event, this entire event in the history of the church, with Cornelius and his household being saved, Gentiles coming to salvation by faith alone in Christ alone, and how this was put together, God sovereignly directed this entire event start to finish. Now this account is given to us in Scripture three times. It's told that when God says something once, it's important. Take it to the bank, you better do that. If he says something twice, Okay, I need to consider what's being said here. I need to make sure that I'm doing what... But if he says it three times, this is something really important. This is something that we need to, like all God's Word is, very important. We need to take heed to, and there are multiple facets of this that we can look at it from to glean application for our lives. Okay, so we look at it from one direction, we apply it, we learn from it, we get transformed by the Word of God, we live by it. We look at it from another perspective, we get more. We look at it from another perspective, we get more. Today, from Peter's account to these believing Jews in Jerusalem of how this event happened with Cornelius gives us another way to look at this in the sense of, okay, Peter's emphasis in walking through these verses in chapter 11 is to emphasize God's leading, to emphasize God's direction. This is all of God. Now, if you can imagine, Peter is going out to these believing Jews in Jerusalem that wanted to ask him what he was doing with Cornelius in his household where he sat down and ate with him. And Peter's going to have to defend, basically, and explain what God has done. And so in Peter's explanation, he's going to give the testimony that this is all of God. Now, as a disciple of Christ, You living in the will of God, your destination is clear, right? If you're a disciple of Christ, God's regenerated you. You've repented, you believe the gospel, you've got heaven in your future. There is no more wandering in the wilderness, right? For the believer, you don't wander any longer. We are searching out a heavenly city whose builder and maker is God, right? We are sojourners and pilgrims on this earth, and we have a heavenly destination awaiting us. That is crystal clear. But now sometimes, moment by moment, it can create a little bit of anxiety. You know, what's happening here? What's going on? Major transitions in the church. What is happening? What's going on? I can trust God But sometimes just in our flesh. It's that fear of the unknown minute by minute day by day. Sometimes it's a little difficult but now most people outside of Christianity And even those inside professing Christianities look at it mystically as an occult thing. People examine lizard entrails to determine what the will of God is. They consult Ouija boards, horoscopes. You want to find out what the Jamaican fortune teller lady on TV has to say, you know, it's trying to figure out what the will of God is. All right. But we have a sure and steadfast word of God. We have a Holy, the Holy spirit and dwelling us. So we're going to learn more about that in a minute, but our destination is very clear, but the specific sometimes day by day. can cause some confusion. And what most people do is that they get or they sense the leading of God through circumstances in such a way that it sends them on one fool's errand after another. They get greatly and grievously misled because they don't know from God's Word how God leads and what they're to do. And so we're going to look at Peter's example today to avoid those pitfalls. And the first point on your notes I want you to see is take responsibility. In getting moving, in getting out, moving God's direction, you have great responsibility that has been leveled on you. placed on your shoulders, laid in your lap, that you must, as a disciple of Christ, do, okay? We're gonna see four points from this. The first in verses one through three, Acts 11. Now the apostles and brethren who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God. And when Peter came up to Jerusalem, those of the circumcision contended with him, saying, You went in to uncircumcised men and ate with them." The first thing I want you to see from verses 1-3 is that you need to trust God in your circumstances. Right? Here are the circumstances that Peter is faced with. Peter doesn't know the end result. For the longest time, Peter had difficulty even understanding the meaning of the vision. Remember? It said that he looked intently and observed the sheep. He was contemplating the meaning of the four-footed animals, and the creeping things, and the beasts, and the birds of the air that he saw there, and was having difficulty putting this together in his head, what these things meant. But what did Peter do through all that? He obeyed and he trusted God. That's what we're to do. First on your notes, trust God in every circumstance. Now I want to give you context here for what Peter was trusting God in. Look at verse 1. Now the apostles and brethren who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God. Now right off the bat, we've got the Gentiles receiving the word of God. That means that receiving means that they was welcomed to them. They accepted it. They lived by it, took the Word of God, they trusted the Word of God, and now we're gonna see that they're gonna live by the Word of God, they submitted to it, and these were words of God, the angel said, by which Cornelius and his whole household would be saved, okay? So they received the Word of God. Then in verse two, it talks about those of the circumcision. And when Peter came up to Jerusalem, those of the circumcision contended with him. Now these are, we're gonna have to distinguish between those of the circumcision and what that means in different contexts. In one sense, those of the circumcision simply means believing Jews. Those who had believed in Christ, who were Jews and had been circumcised and were keeping the law. Those were out of the circumcision, those that were brought by Peter to Jerusalem. Look back at chapter 10 and verse 20. We'll see those there. It says chapter 10 verse 20, Arise therefore, go down and go with them, doubting nothing, for I have sent them. Then Peter went down to the men who had been sent to him from Cornelius and said, Yes, I am he who you seek, what reason have you come? And then he left with six believing Jews out of the circumcision in order to go to Jerusalem. Okay? That's one sense of what that phrase means. But there's another sense, and that's the sense that's here, and that is those out of the circumcision are believing Jews. They've professed faith in Christ. but they are zealous for the law of God and are still, just like Peter was, they're struggling with the purpose of the law and the relationship of the law now to them as Christians by faith in Christ. They're struggling with that but very zealous for the law. But you also have a different set of those out of the circumcision and those are those that are found in Galatians that came from Jerusalem to Antioch to visit Peter, who persuaded him and those Galatians out of the way, who were zealous for the law in such a way that you had to keep the law in order to be saved. They were the Judaizers. They were those that were condemned by Paul, condemned by Peter, condemned by Paul so much in Galatians 1 that there was a curse against them for bringing another gospel, okay? These out-of-the-circumcision here are believing Jews who are zealous for the law of God. We'll see more why that's important in a minute. Some here, these out-of-the-circumcision, rejoiced when they heard that Cornelius and his household were saved. Look at chapter 11, down in verse 18. When they heard these things, they became silent. And then they glorified God, saying, then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life. So there were some that were rejoicing. They glorified God, praised God in that news. Just like Peter, rejoicing that these Gentiles are now our brothers and sisters in Christ. There were others that weren't so much. Others who had difficulty with this, that did not submit to God's plan and direction now for the church, and had difficulty with it. And we can see that these Judaizers in Jerusalem, we'll talk about it more later, went to the churches in Galatia, went to Antioch and stirred up trouble. You have to keep the law in order to be saved. So they weren't of God and they weren't rejoicing in this, to them, new idea of salvation by repentant faith alone in Christ alone. They were still sticking to their old pharisaical ways and wanting to envelop this new church idea under the umbrella of Judaism. And we're going to see that it causes problems. Here, after this example with Peter, after his explanation, some rejoice, but it wasn't long after that we find most of the work of evangelism to the Gentiles being done from Antioch. And so it makes you wonder, did the church at Jerusalem not so warmly embrace this idea of Gentiles coming to faith in Christ by faith alone, right? And not by keeping the works of the law. It's also interesting to note that right after this, rather than Peter being appointed as the head of the church in Jerusalem, who was? James the Just. So James was appointed. And maybe, you know, it makes you think, were those Jews, some of those Jews in Jerusalem, had their feathers rustled over this idea of Gentiles coming by faith alone and not by works of the law? And Peter's been fraternizing and eating with Gentiles, and then we see James appointed the head of the church. So, interesting to think, but there were people in Jerusalem, there were believing Jews in Jerusalem and Judaizers in Jerusalem that had a really difficult time, just like Peter did initially, had a really difficult time with this context. And that's the context that Peter is in. That's the great transition that's being worked here by God, that Peter, every step of the way, is forced to trust in God for its outcome. Now, we have far less often circumstances where in every step of the way we have to trust God. We have some great circumstances where every step of the way we have to trust God. God orchestrates the grand plan of all of that. Every bit of that, God is completely and totally, crushingly, beautifully in control over, from start to finish. He knows from the second it starts, He knows to the second it ends, He knows every detail in the middle. When you lose a hair, He's got the numbers still in His head, right? God knows everything start to finish and His control of everything start to finish. So we can trust Him. Now, those details, those things that happen, we just have to be faithful in the steps, right? As God moves, as God directs, as He leads, we just have to be obedient and faithful every step of the way so that the grand master plan by the framework of God's sovereign will gets accomplished and we get in on the blessing because we were obedient through that. It's just we have to trust God along the way. We don't see in every case the full grand scope of what's going to happen. We just have to believe God and we have to trust God and walk in obedience to him. And that's what we see Peter doing. That's what we see Cornelius doing. Cornelius gets a vision, Cornelius obeys. Peter gets a vision, Peter grapples with it, Peter obeys. All right? And we see God working out his plan. But now, Peter, after all this, Peter now goes to Jerusalem and has to explain himself, has to explain to these in Jerusalem exactly just what happened. The difficulty with all this and what these believing Jews in Jerusalem were trying to do was to prevent a bad precedent. They had in their minds exactly what was supposed to happen. All right, they had in their minds centuries of following the laws of Judaism. And so now they're trying to avoid a bad precedent. And so they've got to ask questions. I want you to see in verse four here. So Peter went into the uncircumcised, or in verse three, you went into uncircumcised men and ate with them. It's interesting to note in verse three, that the complaint wasn't, hey, you went into Gentiles and Gentiles got saved. That wasn't the complaint. It's like, you went to Gentiles and ate with them? That was the thing that caused the rub here. It was that he had table fellowship with Gentiles. After centuries of the dietary laws, like we've already talked about, clean and unclean, it came down to that. You went into Gentiles and ate with them. Now that same complaint was leveled against Christ, wasn't it? Luke 5, Luke 15, you went in and ate with sinners? You ate with Gentiles? You ate with tax collectors? It was the same complaint leveled against Jesus Christ, all right? But these transitions here are made up of a lot of small steps. Look at verse 4. But Peter explained it to them. He exposed it, is what that word means. He laid it out openly, clearly. He exposed to them exactly what happened, step by step. And he did it in order. step-by-step, just an orderly account. Now, in point two, verses four and five, Peter remained humble and prayed. You must remain humble and pray. The first point I want you to see from verses four and five is Peter's humility here. It wasn't that Peter went into Jerusalem and he exerted or enforced his apostolic authority, all right? It wasn't like that. Peter didn't go in there and say, well, how dare you ask me questions? What are you coming at me with these questions for? It's my way or the highway here. I'm the apostle. It didn't respond that way. Very humble. He just exposed the truth to them, laid it out. He willingly took their questions. He didn't respond defensively to criticism. Listen, if you're in a position of authority, or you're a leader, if you're a leader in this church, or you're a teacher, or if you have any authority, somebody comes to you for counsel, if somebody comes to talk to you, You don't respond defensively to criticism. Respond humbly to criticism. If you think about David and Shimei, how he was casting and hurling assaults at David, and David said he took it. Those words may be from God. That criticism may be directed to him by God through Shimei. The same thing with authority in the church. You're not to respond in an authoritarian, defensive posture You just respond humbly. So Peter here proves he's not above questions. He's not above somebody coming to him and just asking honest questions. He's not responding with hostility here, not responding with defensiveness. He lays it out, exposes it for them, explains it to them step by step in order. It's a pretty straightforward defense here of what happens, okay? And he shows that he's not flaunting his apostolic authority. He just lays out his case, right? And then verse 5, I was in the city of Joppa and what was he doing? praying. I was in the city of Joppa praying and in a trance I saw a vision, an object descending like a great sheet let down from heaven by four corners and it came to me. We won't go any further into the sheet, we've already talked about that, but it's interesting that he adds here, and it came to me. This vision came to his proximity. That was something new that was added to the account. This sheet was let down from heaven and it came to him. And Peter contemplated it. But the next thing is that Peter was praying. He responded with humility. And that's what we need to do in every circumstance. You, as a disciple of Christ, You've got the Spirit of God. You've got the Word of God. You've got a conscience. God informs your conscience. You're reading the Word of God. You're living by the Word of God. You're obeying the Word of God. And so if you're a genuine disciple of Christ, then you just respond with humility in every circumstance. And take that. That may be God's way of directing you. You respond with humility. But the next thing is you need to be praying. You need to be praying all the time. Peter was a man of prayer and he's here praying. like Paul says to pray without ceasing, needs to be a constant communion with God. It's a constant seeking of God. If you're going to get moving God's direction, and you wanna know that you're moving out in God's direction, you wanna know that you're living according to the will of God, that you're living by his word, that you're doing what you're supposed to do, then you need to be in constant communion with God. It's like people on a regular basis, okay, I wanna know God's will, And so they look at their circumstances, and they don't give one second to prayer. Why don't you ask God what his will is? You know, ask God to help you. Ask God to give you wisdom. But instead, prayer is a non-existent part of their lives. Or, otherwise, it's only a part of their lives when there's a problem. Right? Everything coasts along nice and good, and then all of a sudden the bank account gets a little short that month, and your prayer life goes into overdrive. Right? You treat God like a genie in a lamp. And listen, prayer is the constant, we've talked about it before, the constant overflow of a believing heart. When you are transformed by God, you have a new nature and dwelt by the Spirit, you want to pray, you want to talk to God, you want to be in communion with God, you're grieved when you feel like your prayers are hitting a glass ceiling, right? When your prayers are hindered, you start thinking, okay, God, where's the sin in my life? I got to repent of something. Something's going on here. My prayer, you know, as you start going into anxiety, when your prayers, you don't feel like your prayers are being heard. And so prayer is this constant communion with God and it needs to be so. We need to be dependent on God and your prayer life, your attentiveness to prayer, the discipline of prayer, your consistency of prayer is an indication of your understanding of your own dependence on God. To the degree that you don't pray, shows how foolish and ignorant you are to your own dependence on God. We are weak frail, sinful, rebellious, unable to keep ourselves from anything. And so we are completely and totally and utterly dependent on God and should be in prayer to Him constantly. I mean, minute by minute, day by day. Any decision that comes up. You're in the shower, you're praying. The alarm goes off, you're praying. You lay your head down, you're praying. You're going to work, you're praying. You're in the car, you're praying. You're talking to someone, you're praying. It should be a constant thing because we are dependent on God for everything. And here, God works through prayer. If you want to get moving God's direction, you need to be praying. And that's exactly what we see Peter doing here. And that's from this passage, this principle, this is what I want you to see. Now, there are grave consequences when you don't. And God will give you enough rope to hang yourself with when you don't. If you get out on your own, you start self-directing, self-leading, you'll find yourself in a tub of hot water. Go back to Joshua 9, and let's look at an example of this. Joshua 9, prayer is, if you wanna get moving God's direction, you gotta be a man, a woman of prayer. In Joshua 9, Joshua, takes over with the Israelites here and is going to lead them, has led them into the promised land. Okay. And I'm sure that came with great prayer. You know, we want to cross this river, Jordan. They're praying, crying out to God. We want to take Jericho. We're praying, crying out to God. There's a lot of seeking God going on as it should be. But like we do, like we have a tendency to do, We are prone to slip into laziness and apathy when it comes to important spiritual disciplines like this. That's what we see them doing. Look at Joshua 9 and look down in verse 3. But when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and to Ai, they worked craftily. and went and pretended to be ambassadors. And they took old sacks on their donkeys, old wineskins torn and mended, old and patched sandals on their feet, and old garments on themselves, and all the bread of their provision was dry and moldy. They were going to set up a farce here. They were going to deceive the Israelites. Verse 6, And they went to Joshua to the camp at Gilgal, and said to him in the event of Israel, We have come from a far country, now therefore make a covenant with us. Are you prone to being deceived? In your flesh, apart from Christ, yes, you are. Are you prone to being deceived when you're apart from the word of God? Yes, you are. What's the only way you're not going to be deceived? Is by throwing yourself into the word of God and depending on God and prayer to God, crying out to God to protect you, to give you wisdom. But when you start trailing off on your own, you're gonna be deceived. You're gonna fall into one error after another. But God is our strength. The Holy Spirit in us guides us. We can't neglect these means of grace if you intend to stay protected. Alright, and so what happens here? Look down in verse 12. This bread of ours we took hot for our provision. And this is what the Gibeonites are telling Joshua and the Israelites. We took this bread of ours hot for our provision from our houses on the day we departed to come to you. But now look, it's all dry and moldy. And these wineskins which we filled were new, and see, they're torn. These Gibeonites are deceiving these Israelites, seeking to. And these, our garments and our sandals have become old because of the very long journey. Look at verse 14. Then the men of Israel, took some of their provisions, but they did not ask counsel of the Lord. You see that? They're about to fall into a pit here. Verse 15, so Joshua made peace with them and made a covenant with them to let them live and the rulers of the congregation swore to them. It comes out here very recently after this that Joshua and the Israelites find themselves in the position of having to fight for these Gibeonites, all right? Putting their men at risk in war to defend this covenant that they had made by deceit. because the Word of God says they did not ask counsel from the Lord. Ask yourself, if you've been a Christian for very long, how many decisions have you made in your past where you look back and you say, man, right? I didn't ask counsel of the Lord. I didn't pray about that. I just charged in there like a fool and made up my own mind because that was my preference or my desire and now I'm paying the consequences for it. You know, God just doesn't automatically relieve you out of consequences that you sin yourself into, right? And so this not asking counsel of God is sin. And when it needs to be repented of, a decision needs to be made, you ask counsel of the Lord. You know, here's, this is what I need to do. I'm, I'm looking at, um, uh, I do a new house and we feel like we need more, ask counsel of the Lord. Do I need to change jobs? Ask counsel of the Lord. You know, what do I need to eat for lunch? Okay, well, some decisions, you know, God provides food. But when you make a decision, you need to ask counsel of the Lord. Don't just make decisions. Lean not on your own understanding, right? So, and God will direct your paths. But that's what we find Peter here doing. Peter is praying and decisions here need to be made. Look back at Acts 11 and look down in verse six now. Acts 11, verse 6. So Peter's praying, and God is directing. Peter wants to move with God's direction. He wants God's direction for him. He wants to move out in obedience to God. And so what does he do? He trusts God, and he prays. But the next, in verse 6-7, I want you to see this. When I observed it intently, talking about the vision, and considered, I saw four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts creeping things, and birds of the air. Here, Peter gets a revelation from God, okay? And this is the principle that I want you to apply from this. You have the revelation of God. You have it in your hands right now. You have it in your lap, open before you. That's God's word. You have the revelation of God. And what did Peter do with his revelation that he had, this revelation from God? The first thing, atenizo, he looked intently at it, okay? He fixed his gaze on it. He stared at it. There's an element here to that word of constancy. I don't want to take my eyes off of it. I want to follow it to the letter. I want to know exactly what it means, exactly what it has to say to me. That's the way we need to be with the Word of God. What's going to happen next? I want to know from God's Word. I want to learn from God's Word. It's the same exact Word. When Jesus Christ was preaching in the synagogue at Nazareth, And they said, wow, look at this are the words that he's speaking. He speaks as one having authority, not like the scribes and the Pharisees, right? And he said, Jesus Christ, at the end of his brief reading of scripture, closed the book and they fixed their gaze on him. What else is he gonna say, right? We need to be that way with the word of God. What else is gonna come out of his mouth? I mean, they were astonished at his teaching. We need to look at scripture that way. Now, Peter fixed his gaze on this revelation from God. He intently observed it, stared at it, constancy, okay? But it also says, katanoeo, that he considered it, carefully pondered it, He contemplated it. He thought deeply about it. That's what we need to do with the Word of God too. If the Word of God is your delight, the Bible says, you meditate on it day and night. Is this the way that you are with God's revelation? We have the prophetic word made more sure. And so we need to be this way with the Word of God. We look at it, fix our gaze on it, fix our life on it, be constantly in it, and then we contemplate it, we think about it, we ponder it, we deeply consider it. That's what Peter was doing here. The revelation of God next gave Peter a command. Look at verse 7. And I heard a voice saying to me, rise, Peter, kill and eat. So he has a revelation of God, a modern day comparison, it's gonna be our Bible study, our Bibles. We have the word of God, the revelation from God in our hands. What did the word of God, the revelation of God do for Peter? Well, it commanded him. It gave him an exhortation, a command, an imperative, rise, rising literally, kill and eat, gave Peter a command. The word of God gives you commands, right? Now, Peter, Here, in this particular state, he had already been trusting completely in God, to be directed by God. He was praying to God, completely ready to be moved by God, completely prepared to be directed by God. And so, when the command was given, Peter is prepared to obey. Now, he thinks it's a test initially. Nope, nothing unclean has ever entered my mouth. But anytime Peter's been asked to move out, Peter obeys, and he's going to get the meaning of this command here soon. We've already seen that. But it's an imperative to obey. We have imperatives from God's Word to obey. Now, with respect to the vision, I want you to see this. Peter had this vision from God, this revelation from God, the sheep falling down, right? Peter also, if you remember, saw the glorified Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration. And turn to 1 Peter, or 2 Peter rather, turn to 2 Peter, and I want you to see how Peter, we're talking here about intently studying God's Word. You must intently study God's Word. And how did Peter feel about God's Word? This is Peter with his vision here. It's interesting to think that it was Peter that got the vision. He goes to Jerusalem to explain the things that happened, but God didn't give them a vision. Do you see that? Peter got the vision. Apostolic confirmation, once there was apostolic confirmation, the visions ceased. So the people in Jerusalem didn't get the vision, they got the apostolic word from Peter, right? Visions and revelation today, in that sense, trances, dreams, that kind of stuff, you have the apostolic word in your hand. There's no need for visions and trances. God can do whatever God wants to do, but these people that say, okay, I got a vision, I saw in a dream, here's what God told me, here's what I saw in a vision, here's what I'm supposed to do. A bunch of charismatic baloney. And this is what Peter felt about the Word of God. Look at 2 Peter and look down in verse 16. 2 Peter verse 16. For we did not follow cunningly devised fable when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. This is Peter talking. For he received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to him from the excellent glory. This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Verse 18. And when we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain. And so we have the prophetic word confirmed. Right? This is the Word of God. It's been confirmed by them, by the Apostle Peter. And what does he say about it? Which you do well to heed. Heed the vision? Heed the trance? No. Heed the prophetic Word. You have the Word of God in your lap. Heed that as a light that shines in a dark place. Man's understanding is a dark place. Right? Man's heart, apart from Christ, is a dark place. We don't have wisdom from above apart from Christ, apart from his spirit, apart from his word. You have idiocy apart from Christ, apart from his spirit, apart from his words. You don't have thinking that honors God, thinking you can't find truth with a spotlight and a search warrant apart from God and his word, right? We need revelation from God, and this is what Peter's saying. You heat it as a light that shines in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, right? This is our guide for life. It's a guide for all of your life, for every detail of your life, for every circumstance of your life. Knowing this first, verse 20, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation. Don't twist it. As Peter later says, some twist it to their own destruction, right? For prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit." This is his infallible, inerrant word of God. No error, a sure guide. This is what Peter thought about scripture. In Psalm 119 it says that your word is a lamp to my feet and a light unto my path. exhort you that the word of God cannot be a lamp to your feet or a light to your path unless you know it. It's not a lamp to you or a light to you. It is no direction to you whatsoever if you don't throw yourself into it to learn it, right? It's useless to you unless you're going to get into it and study. You must know it. Pink, A.W. Pink said this, many men eulogize the lamp, but they don't walk in its light. I thought that was a great phrase. Many, oh, the Word of God is great. It is truth. I love the Bible. I read my Bible all the time. I love the Word of God. It's my delight. They know what they're supposed to say. But they're not living their lives by it. They're not obeying it. They're not submitting day by day, hour by hour, their will to what the Word of God says. And as a result, it's not a lamp. It's not a light. It's just a trinket. Right? So, you must walk by the light of God's Word. Your conscience is of no value unless it is informed by the Word of God. No eternal value, mind you. Unless it is informed by the Word of God and convicted by the Spirit. And that happens when you study and ponder and contemplate and fix your gaze on the Word of God. And you learn it and you ingest it. And that's what we see Peter doing with his vision. And that's the principle that we want to draw out for ourselves. throw yourself into the word of God, be transformed by it, all right? You want to move out in God's direction, two things, you must pray and you must take up the scripture. And I, Joshua, when we talked about Joshua 9 and the Gibeonites, I just want to read, you don't have to turn there, I just want you to, I want to read this in Joshua 1 verse 8. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then, for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success." So we're talking today, and we're seeing from Peter's example here, getting moving, moving out in God's leading, God's direction, okay? We want to live in accordance with God's sovereign will for our lives. We want to be in the will of God. We want to do the work that God wants us to do. If God's working, we want to be in the middle of what God's doing in the middle of God's work. The only way that happens is when you trust God, trust him completely. You're a man of prayer, a woman of prayer. and that you're in the word of God day and night. For then God will make your way prosperous. Then he directs. That's how he guides. It's the way that God does it. Back in Acts 11. Next I want you to see in verses eight through 10 here. Acts 11. And in verse eight now. He gets the vision. He gets the command, rise Peter, kill and eat. And then in verse eight, Peter says, but I said, not so Lord, for nothing common or unclean has at any time entered my mouth. All right, verses eight through 10, expect to be stretched and get ready to obey. Expect to be stretched and get ready to obey. Verse nine, but the voice answered me again from heaven, what God has cleansed, you must not call common. Now this was done three times and all were drawn up again into heaven. Divine revelation is applied by God to the heart of man by the Spirit of God in the form of a command to be obeyed. You see that? Divine revelation, the revelation you have in your lap, in your hands, the revelation even that Peter got, is applied by God to the heart of man by the spirit of God in the form of a command to be obeyed. That's the way it's going to come to you. And you need to be ready to obey. You're going to be stretched, get ready to obey. Now, what was stretching them in this context here? Ritual cleansing has now been replaced in their minds and their understanding by real cleansing through faith in Christ. That ritual cleansing, that whole idea, is now gone. Jewish evangelists can now share the gospel with Gentiles, share the same gospel of repentant faith alone in Christ alone, and expect that Gentiles will be saved on the same basis that they were when they heard the word, right? And that now all of that those old prejudices, all of that old dietary laws, those are all gone, okay? As a depiction of that shared, this new shared righteousness in Christ, now they can have warm table Christian fellowship with each other, okay? The same basis. All this is the context. They're stretched. In other words, that is ripping at the shreds of everything they've believed, ripping at the shreds of what they held dear. They're being stretched. But now, the consequence or the result of this needs to be that they obey, and there is in them now a point of rebellion. I want you to see another example of being stretched. Go to Ezekiel, Ezekiel chapter four. Ezekiel chapter four. And this just, you know, when I was looking at the text, this passage came to mind because it's the same response of Ezekiel here, and it sort of informs our understanding of Acts 11 and Peter's response. But if you look at Ezekiel four, Ezekiel stretched, right? These prophets were stretched, stretched in what they were asked to do, and they obey. You just simply obey God. And in Ezekiel chapter four, look down in verse four, look at the instructions given here to Ezekiel. You don't have it so bad, all right? Lie also on your left side and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it. According to the number of these days you shall lie on it, you shall bear their iniquity. For I have laid on you the years of their iniquity according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days. Ezekiel, lie on your left side and bear the iniquity of Israel for three hundred and ninety days. Verse six, and when you have completed them, you think it's done? Nope. Lie again on your right side. Then you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah 40 days. I have laid on you a day for each year. Therefore you shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem. Your arms shall be uncovered and you shall prophesy against it. In doing this, God is demonstrating judgment on Israel. This is gonna be a siege against Jerusalem. This is God's judgment. Verse eight, and surely I will restrain you so that you cannot turn from one side to another till you have ended the days of your siege. Verse 9. Also, take for yourself wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt. Put them into one vessel and make bread of them for yourself. During the number of days that you lie on your side, 390 days you shall eat it. Well, that's, you know, not bad. Wheat, barley, beans. Verse 10, and your food which you eat shall be by weight 20 shekels a day from the time, oh, so I'm gonna have enough to eat. Verse 11, you shall also drink water by measure one sixth of a hen from time to time. You shall drink it and you shall eat it as barley cakes and bake it using fuel of human waste in their sight. All right. That's a stretch, okay? Verse 13, then the Lord said, so shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles where I will drive them. This is a depiction of God's judgment. Ezekiel here is being stretched. Verse 14, so I said, ah, Lord God, indeed, I have never defiled myself from my youth till now. I have never eaten what died of itself or was torn by beasts or has abominable flesh ever come into my mouth. That's how Peter responded, no, Lord, never had any abominable flesh come into my mouth. Okay, he's being stretched here, but Ezekiel obeyed. The Bible says that you are to present your bodies a living sacrifice to God. And it calls that living sacrifice, which means you don't live for yourself anymore. You deny yourself, take up your cross and follow him. And it calls that self-denial, that self-sacrifice, reasonable service. And that's your reason. That's just, that's just the base level, entry level 101 foundation. Do what you're supposed to do. Whatever I command you, that's what you do. Don't live for yourself anymore. Live completely for me, God says. And that's your reasonable act of worship, your reasonable service, just what you were supposed to do. You're to obey. Okay. You got to repent where you rebel. If you have rebellion in your heart, if you're rebelling against God in a certain area of your life, if you're not turning over everything, if you're not completely obeying in everything, you're not following the Lord. You've got to repent of that rebellion, get rid of it. Are you doing your reasonable service to God? Or are you holding back? Is there some hidden sin, some little corner of your heart that you haven't turned over, that you haven't submitted to the Lord Jesus Christ, or are you holding back? I want you to see now, we've seen in this first point of taking responsibility, you've got to trust God in everything. Trust God in every circumstance. You've got to pray. You need to be asking counsel from God, from the Lord, living for God, depending on Him in prayer. You've got to intently study God's word, and then you have to expect for stretching circumstances. God grows believers, disciples, through trial, through difficulty. Well, you find it strange. You're falling into various trials. No, that's how God matures. That's how God builds perseverance. That's how God grows you in the faith. You need to expect. the stretching, and you need to be prepared at all costs to obey. I want to give you an illustration from scripture that sort of summarizes those four parts. Go back to Daniel. Look at Daniel chapter nine, Ezekiel, Daniel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel nine. And Daniel beautifully illustrates all these four points that we've drawn from the text here in Acts 11. Gives us an example of what this looks like. He's under great circumstances. Listen, you need to obey God, trust God, pray, intently study His Word in every circumstance, not just great circumstances, but certainly in great circumstances. We've gone through some great circumstances here that, I mean, it caused me to continuously pray. I mean, it caused me to lose sleep, you know. It's great circumstances, certainly you study God's Word and you pray. and you ponder, and you contemplate, and you trust God. But even in the small issues of life, you trust God, and you pray, and you contemplate, and you study his word. You just live that way, and in living that way, you become gloriously, by God's grace, prepared for great circumstances, right? That's the way God grows you. But look at Daniel chapter nine, and look in verse two. Here's Daniel, in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of years specified by the word of the Lord through Jeremiah the prophet that he would accomplish 70 years in the desolations of Jerusalem. Now Daniel is, what's he doing? He's intently studying scripture. He's in the scroll of Jeremiah, Jeremiah 25, when God is talking about the captivity that Israel's gonna go into here, and it's gonna last 70 years. So here, Daniel is intently studying God's word, all right? Verse three. Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer, by prayer and supplications, with fasting. sackcloth and ashes. That fasting sackcloth and ashes represents his humility. We're going to see him humbled here in another way in a second too, but just humble prayer, humble dependence on God. He reads in the scripture, he sees it in Jeremiah, and now he's praying to God. Verse 4. And I prayed to the Lord my God and made confession and said, Oh Lord, great and awesome God who keeps his covenant and mercy with those who love him and with those who keep his commandments. In other words, Daniel here is trusting completely in God because God is worthy of every single smidgen of trust that we can muster. God is worthy of it. God is faithful. He keeps His covenant in mercy with those who love Him, with those who keep His commandments. Verse 5, We have sinned and committed iniquity. We have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from your precepts and your judgments. Neither have we heeded your servants, the prophets who spoke in your name to our kings and our princes, to our fathers and to all the people of the land. He's repenting. It's repenting of the sin, the sins of himself, the sins of his people. Here, Daniel, in prayer to God, demonstrates this for us clearly. He's trusting in God completely. He's humbled himself. He's not coming to God in a spirit of arrogance, in a spirit of pride. God, 70 years is up. Now give us what you promised. No. I mean, he's humble before God. He's praying to God. He's intently, in the process of intently studying God's Word. God uses Daniel. You know, you see that from Scripture. God uses Daniel, uses him mightily Because he's moving in God's direction, and the first points here that we've made, Daniel takes responsibility to do what he's supposed to do. He's studying Scripture. It's obvious from Scripture he's a faithful man of prayer. He trusts God in every circumstance. He's humble. Those are our responsibilities. So point one on your notes. When you're moving out, you want to move in the will of God, you want to live according to the will of God, then you need to take responsibility for what you have to take responsibility for. If you're thinking that the will of God toward you is only directed toward you through circumstance, then you're going to be, you're going to find yourself in a ditch. Because that's where circumstances will lead you. That's not the word of God leading you. That's God judging you. That's God giving you the consequences of your sin and independence from Him by putting you in the ditch. And praise the Lord for the ditch sometimes because you should repent of being in that ditch and follow Christ and be saved. But if you're not following the Lord, you're not trusting Him, you're not depending on Him in prayer, you're not humbling yourself before God, you're not intently studying His Word, then you're going to be directed by God towards something that will point you. It's like Romans 1, right? That's the goodness and forbearance. God is so forbearing, so patient with us sometimes. That's the forbearance of God that should lead you to repentance. That's in we should repent and follow God this way. If you're going to live according to the will of God, it's not mystical. It's not mystical. It's not some ethereal, far-off, hard-to-understand, difficult-to-figure-out thing. And yet there are so many questions generated. What's the will of God for my life? What should I do? How do I know I'm walking in the will of God? Should I get a tattoo? Okay, God, if you don't want me to have a tattoo, God, then show me some way. When you show me, show me you don't want me to have a tattoo. I mean, that's the way people act, right? Okay, I want this new car. God, if you don't want me to have it, then you just need to close doors, God, and just show me that you don't want me to have it and I won't get it. We're gonna look at that in the next week when we look at circumstances, acting on circumstances according to God's will. If you wanna be in God's will, you wanna live your life in accordance with God's sovereign will, then you take responsibility, you trust God, you pray, you intently study his word, you remain humble through it all, you obey, and you just prepare yourself to do whatever God asks you to do. Let's pray. Father in heaven, I thank you, Lord, for, thank you, God, for your word, which is our sure guide. Lord, you are our refuge, our strength, God. We turn to you, God, for everything. We acknowledge that we are completely dependent on you, and we want that, God. I want to be completely, God, please protect us from taking moronic pride in our own self-determination and leaving. God, we're prone to wander. God, help us to hold fast, hold steady, God, to cling to you, to cling to your word, God, and to humble ourselves and pray, to trust in you, to depend on you, to intently study your word, God, to pray, to obey you. And we want Lord to follow you. We want to be pleasing to our master. We know that's what Peter wanted. We want to trust you. We want to be right in the middle of what you're doing, God, right in the middle of your work. We want to live our lives completely and totally for you. And help us to do this, Lord. We are weak in our flesh, Lord, but You're our strength. And by Your Spirit, God, You've said that we can conquer. And so help us to do that, Lord, for Your glory, for the good of Your people, for the blessing, God, and protection of Your church. We pray all these things in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.