The Salvation of the Gentiles, Part 5

Acts 10:44-48

     Some of you may remember reading The Adventures of Tom Sawyer at some time in your life; and, if you did, you will remember there was a rather troublesome character by the name of Huck Finn; and Huck Finn was in the...the simplest sense a rather undesirable type.  On one occasion, Huck had tried to infiltrate Tom's gang; and the dialogue went something like this, as reported to us by Mark Twain:

     "Now, Tom, hain't you always been friendly to me?  You wouldn't shut me out, would ya, Tom?"

     To which Tom replied, "Huck, I wouldn't want to, and I don't want to; but what would people say?  Why, they'd say, 'Humph, Tom Sawyer's gang, pretty low characters in it.'  They'd mean you, Huck, and you wouldn't like that, and I wouldn't, either."...

     You know, adults play games like that...less obviously, but, you know, we want an exclusive fellowship.  We want the fellowship of the pure.  The pure are those who think like we do; and we want the fellowship of the deserving, those who would be so gratified to have your presence around; and we usually manage somehow within the framework of our structure to screen out anybody who doesn't enhance our image, strengthen our viewpoint, boost our pride, reinforce our prejudice, or feed our ego; and we...we sort of clannishly group in these little kind of identifying circles; and it's amazing how difficult it is for us, who are in another circle, to break into another circle, or for us to feel at home.  

     I had a perfect illustration of this as I was taken through the Canyon Country Club in Palm Springs by a very wealthy oil man from Canada who, after he had shown me his $500,000.00 summer home, winter home there, then decided to take us to play golf when I was in Palm Springs; and it was funny, because I didn't know what to do.  I'd never been around rich folks, and the first thing I tried to do was open the car door myself.  Can you imagine?  And I was immediately reprimanded, because there were people who did that; and then I tried to take the golf bag outta the trunk; and another man said, "Sorry, sir, you don't need to do that.  We will take care of that."  I even tried to open the door, you know, going into the building, and there were ladies there who did that; but I just was way out of my...I got in there, and a man asked me if I wanted me...if he wanted to shine my shoes, you know, and I...I couldn't believe what I was seeing, you know, and hearing. 

     But it was a whole different...of course, they knew I didn't belong.  I mean I wasn't dressed right to begin with; and, secondly, I kept doing the wrong thing; and I just didn't fit, you know.  But, very often, we see...we recognize this within our society.  There are these...these segmented groups of people...and, you know, it's an interesting thing; but if you go back to the early church, you find the same thing was in reality happening there.  It shouldn't have, but it did. 

     The church was born in Jerusalem, and it was comprised mostly of Jews at the beginning.  In fact, exclusively of Jews with only some half-breed Samaritans incorporated with Jerusalem Jews, Hellenistic Jews, and then this group of Samaritans; and the church had become pretty much identified with Judaism; and, in fact, there had grown up within this wonderful church that's been just blossoming in the first nine chapters, there had grown up within this a party, a faction of people called the Circumcision Party; and they had come to the conclusion that the only way into Christianity was through the foyer of Judaism.  You couldn't get into Christianity unless you came through Judaism; and in order to fence out undesirables, they made circumcision the standard; and that was their way of keeping Gentiles at arm's length.  Unless you had the physical rite of circumcision, you could not enter into Judaism; and...and they made Judaism sort of the...the room before Christianity; and so they had decided that the way to keep undesirables out was to make them be circumcised; and circumcision became the fence that kept the undesirables out.

     Well, Jesus was in the business of smashing fences, and this was one that had to go; and so as you come to the 10th chapter of the Book of Acts, the Lord adds to the church Gentiles.  The pagans who were despised by the Jews and who, incidentally, despised the Jews, as well, who were thought to be unclean, in whose home Jews would never go, whose food Jews would never eat, and so forth and so on.  He includes them into the church, into the one body with the Jews.  Now, this is not going to be an easy thing, but our Lord had already designed to build one body.  As Ephesians 2 says, "To make one new man, to join together Jew and Gentile.  As Ephesians 3 said, "The mystery of the church was Jew and Gentile one in Christ." 

     This was God's design to have one group of people who were His own, His body, His channel to the world; and so the Gentiles had to be reached...but the Jews believed that the uncircumcised were alienated from God.  They were corrupt, and so forth and so on; and this ultra-Judaistic, ultra-conservative group segmented away within even the framework of the early church and tried to hold onto such distinctives as circumcision; and, really, they shouldn't have.  There was no basis for it, because, in the Old Testament, the Bible had very clearly outlined the fact that God didn't play favorites.  Peter says in verse 34, "I perceive this.  I'm learning this.  That God is no respecter of persons."  That's not anything new.  That's something old.  Way back in the Old Testament, and last week I gave you three or four passages where it indicates that God says, "I am not a respecter of persons.  I play no favorites."

     And so Peter should've known that at this time, even though it took him a while to get it; and the Jews should've known it who knew the Old Testament.  In addition to that, Jesus Himself had even said as much.  Jesus said to them in the...in the parting words, "Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to Jews," right?  No, "To every creature."  And He said, "Make disciples and baptize 'em in the name of Christ."  And so Jesus had clearly indicated that the...that the fellowship in Christ was non-exclusive, that it was wide open, and it was available to all.  So there really shouldn't have been any reason for this whatsoever; but, nevertheless, in the Judaistic traditional framework, it had grown up. 

     In Galatians 3:26, Paul says, "You are all the sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus.  As many as you have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ, so there is neither Jew nor Greek.  You're all one in Christ.  That's the message of Christianity.  There's no distinction of race at all."...When Christ came, God's promise was fulfilled, and God's promise was this:  That in Abraham's seed, all the families of the earth should be blessed, and it was not that salvation was of the Jews inclusively, but that it was of the Jews in order that they might preach its complete freedom to the rest of the world.  And so, really, they weren't given the Gospel as an end, but a means.

     Now, when you look around the world, you find that all men are equally in need of salvation.  All men are equally unable to provide it, so God provides it equally for all men, and there can be no prejudice.  Christ came to be Savior to the world.

     Well, this didn't come easy to Jews, believe me; and Peter had to learn through a series of things.  First God had given him a vision.  God had broken down his prejudice in regard to Samaritans.  In the house of Simon, the tanner, he had broken down some of the other things that Peter had felt strongly about in terms of traditional background; and little by little, Peter's attitudes were beginning to break down; and, finally, here, he says he admits, "I see God's no respecter of persons," and so God has prepared him; and he's ready to preach to Cornelius.

     Now, Cornelius is a Gentile, a ruler, really in a real sense, because he ruled over a hundred men in the army of Rome; and Cornelius is a man who has attached himself to Judaism, because he believes that God, the true God, is represented by the God of Israel.  He doesn't yet know how to be saved, but he does know that he's found the right God, and so God brings Peter to him, and Peter's gonna preach beginning in verse 34.  Cornelius is not alone.  He has gathered together a whole household of people, and they are all eagerly waiting to hear what Peter has to say. 

     Now, this chapter then becomes a major chapter in the Bible, because this chapter presents for us the presentation that explodes the Gospel to include the world; and it becomes very important; and, thus, we've spent some time and some detail on it.  In the chapter, we see the salvation of Gentiles, as well as the salvation of individuals.  We look at it both historically, then, and personally, and both are important. 

     Now, we've seen...lemme just quickly review...the first three points already in the past.  Today we'll consider the last three.  We saw that, first of all, in order for this salvation of the Gentiles to happen, there had to be a sovereign call, how that God moved in and prepared Cornelius.  Then there had to be submissive will.  Cornelius needed to respond with a desire to come to know the Gospel, and so we saw a sovereign call and submissive will; and then once that had been already set in motion, all you needed then was simple proclamation.  Just the facts.  The heart of Cornelius was ready from God's standpoint.  It was ready from his standpoint.  He only needed information, and so Peter appears with a simple presentation. 

     Now, last week, we considered the presentation.  Lemme just take you through it very quickly by reminding you what it was.  Peter introduced it in verses 34 and 35, and his introduction was this.  "Cornelius and friends," and he's standing in their house, "I'm happy to announce in the city of Caesarea and to you and all Gentiles, salvation is available."  That's what he's saying.  It's available.  God doesn't play any favorites.  Any man in any nation who fears God, does righteously, God'll accept him.  So it's available. 

     Then his second point, the major theme is this.  Salvation is in Christ; and that's what Cornelius needed to hear.  Who is the Savior?  Who is the Messiah?  Who is this Redeemer?  And he says, "It's Christ," and he goes all the way down the line; and he says, "You see, Christ is your Savior," or verse 42, "He is your Judge."  And he exalts Christ and says, "Christ is the Judge."  You can compare John chapter 5 with that, because John chapter 5 presents the fact that Jesus Christ was given judgment by the Father.  So he presents Christ as the way of salvation, and the only way of salvation.

     Then he concludes with a powerful invitation in verse 43.  "To Him give all the prophets witness."  In other words, this testimony isn't just mine.  "That through His name," and that means through His person, through all that He is, "whosoever believeth in Him shall receive forgiveness of sins."  All right, salvation is available, introduction.  Salvation is in Christ, main theme.  Salvation is by faith, invitation.  This is a beautiful thing, because Peter simply says, "Cornelius, you can have it.  Here's what it is.  Here's how to get it."  That's all you need to know, isn't it? 

     And fantastic thing, it doesn't tell us what happened.  It just says the Holy Spirit interrupted Peter in verse 44. You say, "What were the results?"  Well, believe me, Peter had results.  Peter never preached without results.  They either came running to Christ, or they got mad.  And, for example, in Acts chapter 2 in Peter's great sermon, 3,000 people were saved.  Why?  Because the Spirit of God had done preparation work in their hearts.  The next time Peter preached, he preached to the Sanhedrin.  What happened?  They got furious.  Why?  Because there was no work of the Spirit preliminary to that.  Why?  Because they had already willfully rejected again and again.  They really were apostate by that time.  Peter presented the Gospel to them, even offered them an invitation in chapter 4, when he said, "Neither is your salvation in any other.  There's no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved."  He lays it all out, but nothing happens but animosity and bitterness and hatred; and there's two things that make the difference. 

     Sovereign call and submissive will.  Where they are present, salvation occurs.  Where they are not present, salvation does not occur.  When God has not done the preparation work, and the heart of man has not responded, there can be no response to the Gospel but animosity or indifference.  But, here, God has done the work.  I mean I've been showing you 30, the first 33 verses of the chapter is the work of God in the life of Cornelius and Peter.  And so Peter just gets up and says, "Salvation's available.  It's in Christ.  It's by faith," and, whammo, they all believe.  On the spot, the whole bunch believed.  You say, "Where does it say that?"  It doesn't.

     You say, "You mean you just say that when it doesn't say that?"  Yes.  "On what basis?"  The fact of the results.  Verse 44, "While Peter yet spoke these words, the Holy Spirit fell on all them who heard the Word."  Now lemme tell ya, God doesn't give His Holy Spirit to unbelievers.  God gives His Holy Spirit to believers; and, you know, it's a beautiful thing that it doesn't say in there, verse 43a, "And Cornelius believed, and everybody else believed, and they all said, 'Come into my life, Christ,'" and all that.  It doesn't need to be that.  All he needed to do is say, "Here's what happened to them," and that verifies their salvation.  And let's be honest, friends, from a human standpoint, that's the only way we can verify anybody's salvation, right?  By their fruits you shall know them.

     The only way you can really see what God did in a life is to see what happened in that life...Now, three things followed.  Three things led up to their salvation:  sovereign call, submissive will, and simple proclamation.  Bang, they got saved, and three things follow.  Spiritual power, symbolic confession, and sweet fellowship.  Let's start with spiritual power. 

     The first thing that happened in verse 44, "While Peter yet spoke these words, the Holy Spirit fell on all them who heard the Word."  Well, what a thrill to preach the Gospel and have everybody in the crowd get saved.  Fantastic.  What an exciting thing for Peter.  His message was suddenly interrupted while he was speaking.  Look at 11:15, he goes back to...to report to the folks in Jerusalem, and he says, "And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them, as on us at the beginning."  He didn't even get warmed up.  Just gave his message, and the...got going, and the Spirit came.  You say, "Why, well, what does that mean?"  It just means this, and, hang on, I'm gonna expand this thought.  The minute that Peter said, "Salvation is available.  It is in Christ," and then the minute he said, "It is by faith," bang, they believed.

     That's all they needed to hear; and immediately when somebody believes, God grants that somebody His Holy Spirit.  That's not something you wait for, contrary to...to what you hear so often.  It's amazing that it doesn't say, "And then they went out, and Peter told 'em how to get the Holy Spirit."  You know, there are...there are some Pentecostal friends who teach us that you get the Holy Spirit later on; and you know that they have to take this passage, Du Plessis does this.  You have to take this...he's a writer for the Pentecostal viewpoint.  He then says Cornelius was already saved, and this is only the time that he got the Holy Spirit.  The problem with that is, in chapter 11 verse 14, Peter was telling the people in Jerusalem what he said there.  "Who shall tell thee words by which thou and all thy house...what?...shall be saved."  Not only that, if this was the occasion of Cornelius getting the Holy Spirit, why did Peter preach him the Gospel?  Why didn't he give him something on the Holy Spirit?  Doesn't make any sense.

     This is his salvation, believe me; and the moment he believed, God interrupted Peter.  In effect, He said, "All right, Peter, that's sufficient.  They've got the message.  I gotta give 'em the Spirit, because they believe."  God withholds not the Spirit, friends, from the believing heart.  It is wrong to say that somebody can be saved and not have the Holy Spirit.  Here, they believed; and God even interrupted Peter's sermon and gave them the Holy Spirit.  This was the Pentecost of the Gentiles.  God gave them the Holy Spirit when they believed.

     Now that becomes the norm, watch this, for every believer from then on.  When a man believes, God gives him the Holy Spirit.  There are no tricks to getting Him.  He's yours at salvation.  The first thing that happens when you put your faith in Jesus Christ, instantly God gives you the Spirit of God who dwells within you from then on, and His presence is as eternal as your salvation...

     Now, God even interrupted Peter to bring it about.  This is the immediate result of saving faith.  The Spirit indwells the believer instantly.  I wanna expand this, because this is a very confused issue today, and people are forever and ever saying, "I'm searching for the Holy Spirit," or, "I'm seeking the baptism of the Spirit," or, "I'm saved, but I've not yet received the Spirit."  And I wanna clarify once and for all about this area.

     When you believe, the moment that you believe, the moment you put your faith in Christ, you, at that very instant, receive the presence of the Spirit of God within you.  You don't wait for it.  You don't get it.  You don't do 49 spiritual pushups and you earn it.  It is given to you at the moment you believe.  That is absolutely clear in Scripture, and I'll begin by Ezekiel 36 to show you how clear it really is. 

     Ezekiel 36:26, listen.  Here is the promise of God, Ezekiel 36:26, that far back.  "A new heart also will I give you."  Now, that's salvation.  The man needs a new heart, because the old one is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, so he needs a new heart.  That's salvation.  "And a new Spirit will I put within you."  Notice, salvation and the Spirit are connected at the same moment.  "I'll take away the stony heart of your flesh, and give you a heart of flesh."  Listen, "I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you shall keep Mine ordinances and do them." 

     Lemme tell you something, friends.  If you didn't have the Holy Spirit, you couldn't obey God.  You would not have the capacity to obey God.  For God to say to you, "Now you're a Christian.  Do this, and I'll give you the Spirit," would be ridiculous.  You wouldn't have the power to do what you needed to do to get the Spirit...You must have the Spirit in order to have the power to do anything. 

     In John chapter 14, "Not by mun..." before I say John 47, while you're turning there, remember what the Old Testament said.  "'Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,' saith the Lord."  The only possible energy or power for anything that pleases God.  And now John 14:17.  I get so excited, I get ahead of myself...verse 17.  "Even the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive," Jesus says, "I'm gonna send the Spirit.  The world can't receive Him, because it sees Him not, doesn't know Him...watch...But you know Him...now listen to this one...for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you."  Period, no qualification.  Doesn't say, "If you do 49 spiritual pushups, He shall be in you."

     The promise of God is the giving of the Spirit to be within us.  Now, I want you to look at John chapter 7, and I wanna show you something very important.  John chapter 7 introduces us to the Spirit of God in a very unique way; and I'm gonna take this as kind of a kickoff point; and then show you how important it is for us to have the Holy Spirit and why I believe, unequivocally with no contradiction, that we absolutely, at the moment of salvation, receive the Spirit. 

     John 7:37, feast of tabernacles is going on.  The...the pouring of the water, symbolizing, of course, God's sustenance of Israel in the wilderness.  People have been saying Isaiah's words about drinking at the wells of salvation.  And, at that moment, when everybody's looking at water, Jesus stands up in verse 37 and says, "If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink."  In other words, Jesus takes the whole illustration, the whole deal, and turns it to Himself and takes advantage of this.  You know what He's saying?  He's saying that if you're thirsty, you can drink.  You know that salvation could come at that day to those people if they would turn to Jesus Christ?  They could've received the water.  Remember the water that He gave the woman at the well?  He said, "If you believe in Me, I'll give you water, and you'll never thirst again." 

     And so there was the promise that they could have spiritual water, spiritual refreshment, a spring of pure cleansing water of life inside of them; but He goes a second step, 38, powerful statement.  "He that believeth on Me."  Notice, what is the qualification?  He that does what?  Believeth on Me, no other qualification.  "As the Scripture hath said, out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water." 

     Now you have a twofold promise.  Hang on here.  No. 1, you're gonna receive the water.  No. 2, it's gonna gush out of you.  Not a trickle, but a what?  Rivers, gushing rivers of water.  Two promises.  Spiritual refreshment for Me, and a flowing of the water of life that comes out of Me to the world.  That's evangelism, beloved.  That's what He's talking about.  "That the life that is in me by Christ flows out of me to reach others."  That's the promise; but watch verse 39.  Here's the key.

     "But this spoke He of the Spirit, whom they that believe on Him should receive."  Future tense, it's coming.  "For the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified."  Now watch here, your thought here for a moment.  This is saying this...Jesus says, "People, you can now believe, and you can drink the water of life.  Someday, you will gush with the water of life to the world; but that can't happen until the Spirit comes in."  You see?  Look at it again.  "This spoke He of the Spirit, whom they that believe should receive; but He was not yet given."  The principle is this.  All who believe will receive the Spirit.

     Look at it backwards.  Who receives the Spirit?  They who believe.  That's the only qualification.  You say, "Well, why didn't they receive the Spirit yet?"  Because the Spirit hadn't come yet.  But once the Spirit had come, Acts chapter 1, the promise was, "You shall receive power after the Spirit comes, and then you shall be witnesses unto Me."

     Now, what's He saying?  Watch this.  He's saying, "Men, women, all you who hear, come to me, and you can have spiritual nourishment, the water of life; and someday, when the Spirit gets here, you'll become a gushing river of that water to the world."  Did you ever hear Jesus in the Gospel say, "Men, I wanna let you know you're not doing the job.  Get on out there and evangelize."  He didn't tell 'em that.  In Acts 1, He said, "I've told you everything that there is to know.  I've spent time with you post-resurrection.  I've informed you.  I've talked to you about the Kingdom.  Now," He says, "men...don't do anything."  That's exactly what He says.  "Stay in Jerusalem until you be imbued with power from the Spirit of God.  Don't do anything." 

     What am I saying?  I'm saying this.  They wouldn't have the power to open their mouth about Jesus Christ apart from the energy of whom?  The Holy Spirit.  So He says, "Do nothing till He gets here."  And that's what they did.  They sat around, and they just waited, and He came, and then in Acts 2, the water started to gush; and it flows all through the Book of Acts.  Those believe...they drowned Jerusalem in a matter of weeks...and they said, "Oh, you filled Jerusalem with your doctrine."  Those people were all in over their heads.  Within a matter of weeks, the water was gushing so rapidly from their hearts. 

     Now what's He saying?  He's saying, "You shall receive power after the Spirit is come upon you and be witnesses."  Watch, people, if a Christian didn't receive the Holy Spirit when he was saved, he could not...he would not have any capacity to communicate his faith...Now that would mean that you're saved without the energy to reproduce.  I don't believe for a minute that the Lord Christ saves a man, sends him into the world, and doesn't give him the energy to communicate his salvation.  Do you believe that?  Of course not.  That's contrary to everything we know about the commission that God has given to us. 

     You say, "Well, maybe you can do it on your own strength."  You better believe it, and you know just what happens when you do.  Nothing...The Gospel record shows us that before the cross of Christ, before His resurrection and before His ascension and before He sent the Spirit, the disciples couldn't do anything.  Mostly, they sat around trying to figure out what they were all about...They could never rush the living water to the rest of the world.  They had no energy.  The power behind the rushing of living water is the power of the Spirit of God.  In John 16 verse 7, I wanna read you a statement.  "Nevertheless I tell you the truth."  He always told us the truth.  "It is expedient for you that I go away."  He says, "You all are lingering around saying, 'Don't go.  Don't go.'  I go