The Salvation of the Gentiles, Part 3

Acts 10:34-35

     We have been studying Acts chapter 10 in the flow of our study of the Book of Acts, and we've been learning so many practical points.  In this particular chapter, we have the account historically of the communicating of the Gospel to the Gentiles.  Now, without being repetitious to the point of annoyance, let me just remind you of this thought:  that Jews and Gentiles have been antagonistic for centuries by the time we come to Acts 10; and the moving of the Gospel to the Gentiles to include them in the church is a monumental, cataclysmic event.  Very, very important, and that is the theme of the 10th chapter as Peter is chosen by God to be the instrument to carry the Gospel to Cornelius and other of his household who come to Christ; and that begins the inclusion of the Jews and Gentiles into the one body, which welds together the body of Christ, not only in Jerusalem, but in Judea, Samaria, and now finally the outermost part of the earth.

     So it's a great and classic historical chapter; but it's also the story of the conversion of a man, a real live man by the name of Cornelius, and some real people who were his friends; and so it's important not only historically, but it's important soteriologically, which means salvation.  It's important for its history.  It's important because it's the story of a man's conversion; and we've looked at both of those things as we've moved through this 10th chapter. 

     And now we come in the conflux of events to the very moment of the meeting between Cornelius and Peter.  God has done some tremendous preparation.  Peter has been made ready by a special vision.  His prejudices were attacked and begun to be broken down.  Cornelius has been made ready by another special vision and told to go send some men to find Peter, for Peter would be the one to communicate the truth to him.  So everything is ready, and the men have met.  In fact, they met in our study last week; and they came together reporting how it was they were led to this meeting; and, as we approach our text today, we'll find that Peter begins to preach; and the first words of the verse which really will become our message is, "Then Peter opened his mouth and said," and here Peter pours out the content that is needed at that moment to bring an already prepared vessel to the salvation that he awaits.

     Now, the message which Peter gives, the dominant message, is stated in verse 36, and we'll just basically introduce the message by saying...by going over that verse.  "The Word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ (He is Lord of all)."  The message that Peter is giving is the message of peace.  That is the message of the Gospel.  Man is in open rebellion against God in the first place, and is not at peace with God.  It is only Christ who can bring him to peace with God.  Man is also in rebellion against his fellow man.  Men are selfish, self-centered, self-motivated, independent; and they do things which will reflect best on them, not on somebody else.  Consequently, to bring men to peace with each is extremely difficult; but it is exactly that which the Gospel accomplishes.  First peace with God, secondly, peace among men.  In fact, the only true peace comes from God.  Peace for the Christian is a reality.  Peace for the unsaved man is an impossible dream.  Can't happen.

     In 1 Corinthians 14:33, the Apostle Paul said this.  "God is not the author of confusion but of...what?...peace.  God is not the author of confusion but of peace."  You look around the world.  You say, "If God's God, why is the world in such a mess?"  God didn't make the mess.  God is not the author of a mess, of confusion, of hatred, but of peace.  Paul, in his benediction, the church at Rome, calls God the God of Peace.  At the end of the Book of Hebrews chapter 13 verse 20, the same statement is regarding...is made regarding God.  He is called the God of Peace.  In 2 Thessalonians, Paul calls Christ the Lord of Peace.  Jesus leaving, said to His disciples, "My peace I leave with you, not as the world giveth give I unto you.  Let not your heart be troubled."  He gave His peace.

     Peace comes only from God.  Anything manufactured by man is temporary.  An amazing statistic that I read from a historian was this:  of all the peace treaties that have ever been made between men, all of them have been broken on a national level.  You see, papers don't usually make for peace.  Paul put it this way.  In...in Ephesians 2, he said this.  "He is our peace."  What did he mean by that?  Well, suppose two people had a quarrel and a knockdown, drag-out quarrel over some particular issue; and they could not resolve it; and it was very, very volatile.  And so lawyers got into the act, and there were countersuits and all of this kinda thing going on, which is so common today; and they went to court.  And the court drew up a legal document stating the rights of each and told 'em to be at peace on the basis of that document. 

     Well, the chances are, friends, and you know it as well as I do, that the quarrel would continue, that the breach would remain, because no peace is ever made on the basis of a paper.  But then suppose that there is a third party, and this third party is somebody that both of those two fighting people love and who, in return, loves them; and let's say that that individual takes the hand of one and the hand of the other and clasps their hands...That person becomes their peace; and the chances of their peace are much greater when there is a common love for an individual, and they can get together on the basis of that common love than through some kind of legal document.  And that's exactly what Paul meant when he said, "He is our peace."

     You see, God couldn't draw up a thing and say, "All right, now all you Jews, you have these 42 rules.  All you Gentiles, you have these 42 rules.  On the basis of those two rules, I want you to be at peace."  It wouldn't work, so God just took Jesus Christ, and He found that if a whole lotta Jews fell in love with Jesus Christ and a whole lotta Gentiles fell in love with Jesus Christ, a whole lotta Jews would be in love with a whole lotta Gentiles.

     Paul put it this way in 1 Corinthians 6, he said, "For he that is joined to the Lord is...what?...one spirit."  If I'm one with Christ as a Gentile, and a Jew is one with Christ as a Jew, we're one with each other.  There's only one body.  There's only one body, and we're one in Christ.  He is our peace.  He doesn't teach us about peace.  He doesn't give us a little document about peace.  He is our peace.  It is as we are in Him.  We are at peace with other who are also in Him.  Well, that's his message.  See, here's Peter, and the Jews are there, and the Gentiles are there, and Peter knows that peace is the issue; and first of all, establishing peace with God, a man could have peace with his brother. 

     Remember the prodigal son?  What happened to the prodigal son?  Well, the prodigal son thought it'd be better to go off and do what he wanted.  Do his own thing, so he gathered up all of his goodies and took...told his father he wanted his inheritance, took off for a far country, and lived it up.  Riotous living, women, wine, song, the whole bit, and he had a great time.  Shot his wad.  Often happens.  Decided he needed a job, and he got a job slopping hogs.  That's not a very good job.  I used to do that in high school.  That's a terrible job, come to think of it. You know, he came to himself one day, and he said, "This is not a good job."  Good thinking, fella.  And so he decided, "I'm going home to my father.  Took off for his father, and remember his father was out there?  Bible says he...his father fell on his neck and kissed him, you know, and they had a wonderful scene.  He was reconciled to his father; but, you know, there was still a renegade in the group.  Who was that?  His brother...and it took a little time before that reconciliation came about; but, first of all, reconciled to the father, possibility of reconciling to the brother was made.

     And that's exactly the picture of the church.  You see, it is when men are reconciled to the Father that they can be reconciled to their brothers, to each other, only in Christ.  And that's the point.  If Jew and Gentile are to be one in the church, they're gonna be one in Christ.  On no other basis.  Too many years of fighting, too many years of hatred.  I mean the Jews have been going around for years saying Gentiles were created to provide fuel for the fires of hell, and Gentiles have been going around for years saying Jews are no good but for slave material; and that had been inbred and ingrained in those two people too long to ever be settled by a document.  It had to be settled by an overwhelming love, by a miracle from God; and it could only happen in Christ.  That's the message that Peter wants 'em to get.  That there is peace, not only with God and the peace of God, but peace with each other.  So peace dominates.  That becomes Peter's theme.

     Now, there's a twofold theme as we have repeated to you several times since studying chapter 10.  That is that we see here the record of Cornelius getting saved, and we also see the beautiful record of the history of the Jews and the Gentiles becoming one in the church.  Both of these are important; but, as you know, we have decided to concentrate on the salvation of Cornelius, seeing the features of his salvation that are universal. 

     There are six things that we mentioned to you and put in your little outline that are the sequence events in salvation.  Now, lemme footnote by saying this.  Salvation is not a process.  It is a moment miracle.  For example, take birth.  Birth is a... is...is not a process.  It's something that happens in a moment.  A child comes out, and it's alive; but there is a...there is a period that leads up to it, a pre-preparation, and then there is a post-preparation.  You pre...the baby is prepared by God to be born, and then it is prepared to live life after it is born.  Certain things need to be done.  Take care of that baby.

     Same thing is true in salvation.  Though the actual new birth is a momentary miracle, there is a pre-preparation and a post-preparation...and this is what we're seeing here.  Not that salvation is a process.  You don't say to somebody, "Well, I'm... I'm in week six of being saved, and, you know, it's a nine-week process."  No, it's not.  It's not that at all.  It's just that there is a pre-preparation and a post-preparation that's obvious in the sequence of salvation.  We see that all outlined here in the 10th chapter. 

     Now, we've already considered several of these things in this universal picture.  Lemme just remind you what they are.  You have an outline.  The six things that really are the features of the sequence of salvation are sovereign call, submissive will, simple proclamation, spiritual power, symbolic confession, and sweet fellowship.  Now we'll cover those one at a time. 

     First of all, salvation begins with sovereign call.  We saw this.  Peter has been prepared by God to meet Cornelius.  Cornelius is the guy who's gonna be saved, and God has prepared Cornelius.  Salvation initially is God's activity.  From the divine side it begins.  The natural man, no, he has no capacity to understand the things of God.  They're spiritual-discerned.  He's spiritually dead.  He doesn't know anything about it.  He cannot comprehend it by empiricism.  He can't under...he can't comprehend it by philosophy.  There's no way that a natural man can know God.  Romans 3, Paul says, "No man seeks after God."  He's just completely lost - 2 Corinthians 5...or 4 says that, "He is blinded by the God of this world lest the light of the glorious Gospel should shine unto him."  In other words, the man is locked into deadness, blindness, deafness, an inability to raise in order...or to make a rational conclusion concerning God and salvation.  He's completely trapped in his sinfulness.  Therefore, the initiation of salvation must come from God's sovereignty. 

     That's exactly what it says in John 1, "As many as received Him, gave you the power to become the sons of God.  Even to them that believed on His name...ohhhhh...not of the will of man, not of the will of the flesh, but of the will of God."  Salvation initiates with God.  Romans 8:28, Paul put it this way.  "All things work together for good to them that love God and are called according to His purpose."  In Romans, the same chapter, Paul later on says, "Whom He called," and then he goes on, "Whom He called, He saved, He sanctified, and He'll glorify."  You see, salvation begins with God.  Paul, look at Paul for a classic example.  Just traipsing down the Damascus Road.  Wham!  God smacked him right straight in the face with a vision of Jesus Christ and said, "I want you."  And he said, "Okay."  Sovereign call.  We've covered that in the first 20 verses of the chapter, that's what it's talking about.

     All right, the second point, submissive will.  Now, when we talk about sovereign call, we're not saying that God is in heaven stamping out little rubber ducks with no will of their own who just quack when he pokes 'em.  God is not manufacturing little robots all wound up with spiritual springs determined by God and planted in the guy.  But there is an activity on the part of a man.  Salvation is not just God.  It's us responding to God, and that's where submissive will comes in, and we find that clearly outlined in verses 21 to 33, which we studied last time.  Because, in those verses, we find how responsive Cornelius really was.  Boy, Cornelius was so open.  He had just...that God just moved upon his heart, and he had responded immediately.  In verse 33, he says, "Immediately I sent to you.  As soon as I heard what the angel said to me in the vision, I moved on it."  Salvation is a matter of will.  Jesus simply said this.  He said looking at Jerusalem and the leaders, he said, "You will not come unto Me that you might have life."

     Sovereign call, yes, but the beautiful paradox is it also demands a human response.  As I said last week, you don't go running around saying, "Gee, I hope God'll save me one of these days.  I'm waiting to get zapped."  No, it's a matter of your will, too.  You're not just waiting for some divine act.  You are involved in your will, and the Spirit of God moves upon your will till you come to that crisis point of decision which you receive Jesus Christ. 

     And so we find, then, that Cornelius had a will to respond to God.  God had done the preparation work in his heart.  God had taken a blind, dumb pagan who couldn't understand God, couldn't talk to God, couldn't see God, couldn't know God, and God did a work in his heart, turned him around, gave him a sight that he could see God.  He saw God.  He saw the light that God had given him, and he lived up to that light, right?  And when a man lives up to the light God gives him, God does what?  Gives him more light.

     People always say, "Oh, what about the heathen?  What about?"  Don't worry about the heathen.  Don't worry for a minute about the heathen.  God knows exactly what he's doing with the heathen.  There's no such thing as a man who's lived up to the light that he has who will be damned by God.  "Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?"  Here was a pagan, Cornelius, and he had...somehow God had worked on his heart, and he had seen the light, and then he saw that the Jehovah of Israel was that God that he knew to be, and he attached himself to Judaism as a God-fearer.  Remember, we gave you a definition of that?  He attached himself to Judaism, and he was living up to the light he had, and he was a good man, and God saw the man, and He saw that his heart was right, and that he had lived up to every revelation God had given him, inside of him and outside of him, and God moved to give him a full revelation that he might be saved, and that's how God deals with pagan people, whether they're pagans in New Guinea or Madison Avenue, New York.

     Cornelius illustrates submissive will.  Lemme take it a step further and...and just a footnote.  Peter also shows the will of a Christian in this, doesn't he?  Do you know that God not only choose people for salvation, but hang onto this one, he chooses people for service?  Did you know that?  You just look down in verse 41, and you'll see it.  "God had raised Jesus and shown Him openly, not to all people, but to unto witnesses chosen before by God."  Do you know that God had certain select people that He chose to be the witnesses of the resurrection?  John 15, what did Jesus say?  "You have not chosen Me.  I have chosen you and ordained you that you should go forth.  Bring forth fruit."

     You see, He chose the disciples.  God not only chooses to salvation, but He chooses people to serve us.  I'm here at this church teaching you because God has chosen to put me here.  I'm chosen of God for this task, and I'm grateful.  God choose His servant.  But you know something?  The servant also has to be submissive.  God may have chosen you for certain, specific duties.  You need your will involved.  God's not gonna pick you up by some kind of divine chariot like Elijah and, you know, haul you off.  You gotta go.  And so Peter illustrates the submission of the will of a Christian in doing what God called him to do.

     We went all over this.  You know, I closed last time with Psalm 119:60.  Lemme just remind you of a principle.  In Psalm 119, you have tremendous statement repeated, well, what is there?  A hundred and...hundred and seventy-six verses or something, and it's just over and over and over and over, talks about how this psalmist loves the Word of God.  Now, that's the spirit of obedience.  Lemme just show you.  In Psalm 119, don't try to follow me, just listen, verse 16 says, "I will delight myself in Thy statutes.  I will not forget Thy Word."  Can you imagine a guy who loved commands that he had to obey?  That's what's known as the spirit of obedience.

     Here's what I mean by that.  You say to your...your daughter, "Honey, do the dishes."  Well, then you'll find out whether she has the spirit of obedience or not.  She'll say, "Ohhhhh, dishes, Mmmmmm."  She goes in the dishes.  Why?  Because she's...she's afraid that you're gonna, you know, give her a little shot if she doesn't or take away her allowance, something like that.  You ever had your daughter come in and say, "Mom, are you done so I can get the dishes done for ya?"  Say, "No, never had that happen."  See, well, that's...that's stretching depravity pretty far, you know.  But the point is this.  One is obedience.  The other is the spirit of obedience. 

     The psalmist said in Psalm 119 verse 60, and this is the classic definition of the spirit of obedience, "I made haste and delayed not to keep Thy commandments."  Isn't that beautiful?  The spirit of obedience says, "I'm in such a hurry.  I gotta get going, 'cause I got some commandments I gotta keep."  Isn't that terrific?  That's the spirit of obedience.  It's one thing to be obedient.  It's something else to have the spirit of obedience.  Some people are obedient out of fear.  They're afraid of God's punishment.  Out of legalism.  They think that they can please God by doing it, and He'll like 'em better.  And some people are obedient because they love Him so much they'd rather serve Him than do anything else.  That's the spirit of obedience, and, incidentally, that's synonymous with maturity.  That's synonymous with maturity, spiritual maturity.  The spiritually mature people are in a hurry to obey God.

     And look at...in the Psalm, he just repeats it.  Verse 20, "My soul breaks for the longing that it hath unto Thine ordinances at all times."  You imagine any guy like that?  He says, "God, my heart is just breaking, 'cause I can't...I can't get over this desire to keep your commandments."  Say, "Wow, that guy's a far long...a long way from where I'm at."  Well, that's spiritual maturity. 

     He goes on in verse 24, "Thy testimonies are my delight."  Hum, interesting.  Verse 47, "I'll delight myself in the commandments which...in Thy commandments which I have loved."  Verse 70, "Their heart is as fat as grease, but I delight in the law."  You know, it's like saying, "Mom, give me some commandments.  I'm just so eager to obey."  Oh, that sounds so strange.  That's maturity.  Verse 97, "Oh, how I love Thy law."  Say, "No, no, no, you're supposed to say, 'I love Thy grace.'"  No, no, I love Thy law, because it is in my obedience that I can prove my love.  That's good.  Verse 103, he's...I'm just picking out some that..."How are...how sweet are Thy words unto my tastes.  Sweeter than honey to my mouth."  And over, was it 140?  "Thy word is very pure; therefore Thy servant loves it."  167, "My soul hath kept Thy testimonies.  I love them exceedingly."  Now, that's the spirit of obedience.  Well, Peter had that.  Submissive will.  As a believer, he had the desire to submit himself to the will of God, not grudgingly, but because he loved to do it.  That's the spirit that God wants. 

     Well, so that's a footnote.  Free for nothing.  But anyway, in verse...in verses 21 to 33, we see this submission will of Cornelius as he obeys the moving of God in his life, and the...and salvation is set up:  sovereign call, submissive will, whammo, he is ripe.  He has lived up to the light that he has had.  He has obeyed the information God has given him, and God's about to give him the final information. 

     We come thirdly and to verse 34 to simple presentation; and the reason I call it that is because that's exactly what it is.  It's a simple Gospel message that Peter gives.  There aren't very many sweeping theological, grandiose, complex state.  Just simple, simple content.  Why?  This guy is ready.  In fact, Peter doesn't even get his sermon going.  Peter later on gives testimony to the Jews in Jerusalem.  He says, "And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on 'em."  What does that mean?  That means that God, in effect, was saying, "Shut up, Peter, you've said enough.  They're already saved."  Peter had probably a long way to go.  He only began to talk.  They were saved.  The Spirit came, and the Lord ended the meeting.  They were so ready.

     Boy, it's a tremendous thing.  All they needed was a simple content, and that's what Peter came to give.  It's a good illustration of this, friends.  It's a good illustration of the fact that...that you can have a guy who believes a lotta things, who's a good man, who's a righteous man all the way down the line, but who doesn't know Jesus Christ, because he hasn't heard the Gospel.  This man was prepared by God.  He was willing in his...in himself.  He had all the ingredients, but he still needed to hear the Gospel; and I believe that no man, mark it, will ever enter into heaven apart from faith in Jesus Christ.  You say, "Well, what if they can't hear?"  They will.  God will never hold back truth from a man who wants to know.  John 7:17, "If any man wills to do His will, he shall know of the doctrine."  Christ said, "Whether I speak of Myself or not."  In other words, if a man lives up to what he has, God will always give him more light.  Don't worry.  God knows what He's doing. 

     All right, so Peter's gonna begin his sermon, and it's a fantastic approach.  Peter is a master of introductions.  He can sense the situation.  You remember back in Acts chapter 2, how the Holy Spirit created a citywide illustration for him?  He had everybody speaking languages and the wind and the whole thing is going on, and everybody's in a turmoil.  They can't figure out what's going, and Peter stands up and says, "You men of Judea and Jerusalem, be this known unto you and hearken unto my words.  Now, I'm gonna tell ya what you saw."  Everybody goes riveting on Peter.  See, he lets the Holy Spirit create the illustration, and he just slides in.  It's a great thing.  It's a great thing.  Great way to introduce, and we always learn this in public speaking.  A great way to introduce your message or your speech is to always accommodate a situation that's going on that everybody's aware of; and that immediately ties you into the...to the scene.

     Well, Peter does it so beautifully.  Hum, you can just picture the scene.  They're in Cornelius' house.  Nice house probably, and the Jews are there, and the Gentiles are there.  Now, that in itself is a shaky thing, because Jews didn't go into Gentile houses, remember?  The Jews at the crucifixion of Christ wouldn't enter the house of Pilate, 'cause they would become defiled and couldn't take the Passover.  They didn't...and it was a defilement to go in a Gentile house, as I told you, because they felt their abortions...that they put their abortions down the drain, and that brought a seven-day defilement.  They didn't want to get near those Gentile houses.  There were other things that they didn't like either; but they didn't like, either; but they wouldn't go...well, here they are sitting in a Gentile house, probably really, you know, concerned; and over somewhere else are the Gentiles; and you've probably got the Jews looking over and saying, "Gentiles, um, what a deal.  See.  What's gonna happen?" 

     And it's probably so thick in there, you coulda cut it with a hatchet, you know; and the Gentiles were over there looking at these Jews, see.  Well, Peter could just sense that just...that stuff is in the air, you know.  Just like two feuding parties sitting in the same room.  It's just thick, and Peter begins his introduction.  Beautiful.  Listen to this.  "Then Peter opened his mouth," which is the best way to start.  You got something to say.  "And said," you know, I used to