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Let's take our Bibles this morning and turn to Acts chapter 10 as we continue to make our way through Luke's historical account of the early church; it's been a fascinating journey. I have enjoyed it thus far, and I know a number of you have commented as well.

And we come to a very intriguing passage of Scripture this morning - the story of Cornelius, the centurion, and Peter - as we see God begin to destroy the dividing wall between the Gentiles and the Jews. Before we look at the text, may I say that I am always amazed when I hear people share their testimony of how they came to faith in Jesus Christ.

That's always a fascinating thing to hear. And to hear those astounding stories of how God orchestrated so many events in their life to cause them to see their sin and their need for a Savior; to hear marvelous accounts of how God energized various individuals in people's lives to impact them for the sake of the gospel. Amazing testimonies of how the Holy Spirit came along and gave spiritual sight to their blind eyes and transformed that heart of stone into a heart of flesh and freed their will from the bondage of sin and Satan to suddenly serve the living Christ. And while every testimony is different, there is one common theme, and that is, it's always God at work behind the scenes.

In fact, as I think about it, some of those very works of God are occurring right now in the lives of many people that we're praying for. For example, our children, our grandchildren, praying that someday they will, too, be united to Christ in salvation. But this is not only true with respect to God's work in our initial salvation, but also, we see, as we look at Scripture, that God is at work behind the scenes in our sanctification.

He's always up to something in our lives. He's always doing something to conform us to the image of Christ. In fact, we know biblically from a number of passages that He's already got that worked out. For example, in Ephesians 2:10, we read that, “we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” And so God is at work even pertaining to our sanctification at work behind the scenes. The Holy Spirit is always causing “all things to work together for good to those that love God and are called according to His purpose.”

And of course, His purpose is for us to be ultimately conformed to the image of Christ. And so He's progressively transforming us into the image of Christ. And think for a moment just the journey of your own life, what God did to bring you to salvation, and also what He's doing now to cause you to grow in the grace and the knowledge of Christ. Think of all the people that He used to help you see the truth of the gospel. And many of the people that you never knew, those that prayed perhaps for other people who prayed for you and so on. I think of grandparents and parents and friends and Sunday school teachers, youth workers.

Those type of people had an enormous impact on my life -  Bible teachers, professors and friends. And to think of all the ways God used trials in my life and certainly in yours, certainly the steel of my faith has been tempered in the fires of adversity down through the years. As I think about it, God has shaped me more on the anvil of pain than He has on the beach of pleasure.

And so God's always at work. And in our text today, we're going to see once again, God at work in very profound ways, four ways in particular.

Number one, we're going to see God's sovereignty in salvation in the life of Cornelius. Number two, we're going to see God's shaping in sanctification in the life of Peter, the apostle. Thirdly, we're going to see God's sermon in sound doctrine through his servant Peter. And fourthly, we're going to see God's spirit in solidarity as he unites the church, as he destroys the dividing wall of separation between Jews and Gentiles. And thus, the title of my discourse to you this morning, “Destroying the Dividing Wall.”

In fact, later on, Paul reminds the Gentile converts in Ephesus and therefore all of us -  because I believe most all of us in here are Gentile converts - He reminds us, saying in Ephesians 2, beginning in verse 12,

“remember that you were once separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

“But now in Christ Jesus, you who formerly were far off, have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

“For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall.”

Now, before we look at the text here in Acts 10, may I remind you of the context. The Jews were absolutely convinced that they were superior to the Gentiles for many reasons, and even many Jews who became Christians continued to believe that they were superior to the Gentiles. And they were given, in essence, the name “Judaizers” because they believed that if you were a Gentile and you became a Christian, that you also needed to become a Jew. And therefore, you would have to be circumcised (for the man); you would have to keep the law and so on. And of course, this was a terrible plague in the early church - to think that somehow Judaizers were the elite and therefore insisting that Christianity be subordinate to Judaism.

And of course, as we're going to see, all of this is going to be publicly renounced in Acts 15 in the Council of Jerusalem. But God now is systematically exposing Peter to this error because he and many of the others still struggled with this. He's exposing him to their ungodly prejudice. And we've already witnessed that God has taken Peter and others out of Jerusalem and they've seen Gentiles be saved there in Samaria as the Samaritans come to Christ and the Holy Spirit falls upon them in chapter eight. And then God continues to work even in Gentiles as Peter roams around the Gentile region of the plain of Sharon there in chapter nine.

And by the end of that chapter, you will recall that Peter is actually staying with a tanner by the name of Simon, a man that would be considered by the Jews to be unclean and defiled. So God's working in him.

So let's pick up the story here and watch God at work. First of all, number one, seeing God's sovereignty in salvation. Acts chapter 10, beginning at verse one.

“Now there was a certain man at Caesarea named Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian cohort…”

Now, may I remind you, friends, that it was a great honor for a man to be a centurion in the Roman Legion. A Roman Legion consists of, or consisted in that day, of six thousand men and a legion would be divided into ten cohorts consisting of six hundred men and a centurion was nothing more than a man that commanded one hundred men within a cohort. So there would have been 60 centurions in each Roman Legion.

And here now we have Cornelius, who is one of the centurions. And verse two tells us that he was

“a devout man and one who feared God with all his household, and gave many alms to the Jewish people and prayed to God continually.”

So here we see the Holy Spirit is working in his heart. He obviously is seeing his need to be reconciled to God in some way. Obviously, he is rejecting the Roman paganism and idolatry that is surrounding him and his culture. And he's seeing some measure of truth in Judaism, even though he's not fully a proselyte of Judaism. He's sympathetic with their plight. And at the same time, he's seeking truth. He's obviously seeing some truth in Judaism. And we see here that he prayed to God continually and certainly God is hearing that prayer, for in fact, he has initiated it in his life as he is preparing to bring him to salvation.

Verse three, we go on to read more of the story,

“About the ninth hour of the day he clearly saw in a vision an angel of God who had just come into him and said to him, ‘Cornelius!’

“And fixing his gaze upon him and being much alarmed, he said, ‘What is it, Lord?’ And he said to him, ‘Your prayers and alms have ascended as a memorial before God.’”

And so here we see God looking favorably upon his acts of worship, which were essentially Old Testament acts of worship. But you must understand that Cornelius cannot be saved until he understands the full scope of divine revelation with respect to the gospel that is now available because Christ has come and risen again and so on, so he must understand he must also embrace the gospel of Christ. He must understand that Christ died as the final sacrifice, that he rose again from the grave and that only faith in him, and him alone, can save him from the penalty of his sins.

Now, what is interesting as we look at this text is that God commands Cornelius to send for Peter rather than saying to Cornelius, “Why don't you go find Peter? I'll tell you where he's at.” He doesn't do that. You see, Cornelius knew full well that a Jew was forbidden to enter into a Gentile home, especially the home of a Roman officer, because the Romans were hated in ways that you cannot imagine because of what they had done to the Jews; so had God commanded him differently and said, “Cornelius, I want you to send for Peter…” If God had not done that, Cornelius would have certainly gone to find Peter.

But God is also at work in Peter's heart. As you're going to see here, God's going to rattle Peter's cage a bit here to get him to understand more of the truth about Gentiles being brought into the body of Christ.

So notice what happens in verse five. He says,

“’Now dispatch some men to Joppa and send for a man named Simon, who is also called Peter;

“he is staying with a certain tanner named Simon, whose house is by the sea.’

“And when the angel who was speaking to him and departed, he summoned two of his servants and a devout soldier of those who were in constant attendance upon him.

“and after he had explained everything to them, he sent them to Joppa.”

All right, so first we see, obviously, God's sovereignty in salvation as he is orchestrating all of these events to bring Cornelius and others in his household to a saving knowledge of Christ. But secondly, we see God's shaping in sanctification. In other words, in conforming Peter to the image of Christ. And Peter has no idea of what God has been up to in Cornelius, his life. Cornelius has no idea what God is up to in Peter's life.

But we're going to see it all unfold here in the text before us, notice verse nine,

“And on the next day, as they were on their way and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray.

“And he became hungry and was desiring to eat; but while they were making preparations, he fell into a trance;

“and he beheld the sky opened up, and a certain object like a great sheet coming down, lowered by four corners to the ground,

“and there were in it all kinds of four footed animals and crawling creatures of the earth and birds of the air.

“And a voice came to him, ‘Arise, Peter, kill and eat!’

“But Peter said, ‘By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything unholy and unclean.’

“And again, a voice came to him a second time, ‘What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.’

“And this happened three times, and immediately the object was taken up into the sky.”

Now, this is fascinating. Here we have God showing him a variety of live animals, some considered clean and others unclean, and I'll explain that in a moment. It's not like he's showing him here a banquet table with varieties of plates set before him that he could choose from. No, these must be killed. And this is especially horrifying to a devout Jew. I mean, these are unclean animals. And I might also add it is horrifying to animal rights activists. I mean, this is their worst nightmare to kill these animals.

Now, let me give you some background so you understand this. God had given Israel very strict dietary restrictions in the Old Testament, along with other things, various ceremonies and consecrated items and so on, but these dietary restrictions in the Old Testament were distinctions between things that were considered clean and unclean. And they were given to the Jews as a symbolic illustration of the importance of discerning between things that would be holy and unholy in the culture. They were basically object lessons, if you will, to help the Jews refine their abilities to discern.

Now, God chose them, you will recall, as a special people. He set them apart from all of the nations of the world, not through any merit of their own, but he chose them, “elected”. them, as the scripture says, ultimately to be a witness nation to the world. They were to be the custodians of divine truth, to be a blessing even to the Gentiles. And in order to do this, they needed to keep themselves separate from the pagan, idolatrous, immoral practices of their neighbors. They had to remain a distinct and holy people unto the Lord, separated unto the Lord to avoid spiritual as well as moral defilement.

And the laws of the clean and the unclean pertain to this very issue because they were literally living illustrations to teach them how important it is to distinguish between things that are holy in their culture and things that are unholy and the importance of being separated unto the Lord; to teach them the importance of making distinctions between things that would honor the Lord in their life and things that would dishonor the Lord in their life.

Now, I want you to understand and I don't want to spend a lot of time on this. This isn't the place, but as opposed to what some would say, these clean and unclean items were not some kind of a divine guide to nutrition and healthy eating, as some people would say. It's not like he's saying, “Oh, no, the pork is bad. Don't eat those pork chops. You know, that's going to cause some real problems here.” That that misses the whole point. And if that was the case, he reverses it all here in Acts 10:13, when he says, “’Arise, Peter, kill and eat.’” Verse 15, “”What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.’”

You see, such a view completely misses the point. But sadly, you must understand that because of pride, the Jews began to pervert God's living object lessons intended to teach them about holiness, to pervert them into a wicked system of self-righteous legalism. You see, the law was intended to drive them to humility and to God's grace. And instead, they began to equate both dietary and ceremonial cleanliness with works of self-righteousness. “If I do this, it gets God's favor and I can begin to earn my way into his presence.”

Moreover, as they abstained from eating anything considered unclean, they began to swell with pride. And of course, legalism will always do that and make you feel really proud. “I'm so godly. I do something that you don't do.” And so it began to cause them to swell with pride and they developed even yet another false conclusion. And that was that basically the Gentiles themselves are unclean and defiled.

And so we don't want to have anything to do with those dirty, unclean people. And so the superiority began to creep into their hearts. But you must understand that never in the Old Testament law did God prohibit Jews from associating with Gentiles.

In fact, when Jesus and the disciples come along, they routinely associate with sinners, with Gentiles, as you will recall, to the chagrin of the religious leaders. You see, that which God called clean and unclean was never, ever intended to differentiate between men. But rather to sharpen their powers of discerning those things God specifically defined as clean and unclean and thus preserve the people as a people set apart unto the Lord and protect them from compromise with the world.

So the object lessons God intended to teach and to humble ends up getting perverted into a form of self-effort that ultimately replaces grace as well as an elitism that replaces humility. And all of this begins to fuel a very virulent strain of prejudice. And of course, this was a staggering violation of the love of Christ, the love of the gospel, an obstacle to spreading the gospel.

You see, you must understand that God wanted his people to be humble. And that's what the law was intended to do, to humble them, to drive them to grace rather than be proud. He wanted them to be a people that were distinct, not distant from the world. He wanted them to be separated, not severed from the world, if I can put it that way. You see, he wants us all to be salt and light. And this requires a loving compassion and contact with a world that is decaying.

In fact, Jesus prayed in John 17, verses 13 through 17, that we would be protected from the defilements of the world and as his chosen people, that we would be in the world, but what? not of the world. And so there is a distinction.

Now, let me digress for just a moment. It is very important to have some balance here. I don't want you to get the wrong idea. We are also warned not to become cozy with the world. Yes, we're to be separated in some ways, but yet not severed from the world. But we don't want to become too cozy with the world. For example, in Romans 12:1-2, the Apostle Paul throws the full weight of his apostolic authority behind one of the most strongest warnings in all of Scripture. He says,

“I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.”

In other words, he's saying because of the mercy that God has extended to us in salvation, every aspect of our body needs to be given to the Lord, surrendered, yielded to the Lord. In other words, how we think, how we look, how we dress, how we act, our ambitions in life, all of those things should be yielded completely to the Lord to be set apart from the world and set apart unto him.

And he goes on to say,

“And be not conformed to this world…”

Literally, if you execute that text, you will understand that it's saying, do not let the spirit of the age - the values, the ambitions, the pleasures of this world dominated by Satan - do not let these things unwittingly without you realizing it, shape you into its likeness. Because if you do without realizing it, you will begin to wear a masquerade on the outside that looks like the world that conceals your true identity on the inside as a person who has been transformed as a person who is clothed in the righteousness of Christ; as a person set apart unto God. If you do that, this masquerade will be deceptive even to yourself, not to mention other people. So guard yourself, lest the world squeeze you into its mold before you realize it. And if you let it happen little by little, you will begin to look like the world. You will begin to think like the world, act like the world. You'll fall more in love with the world.

Instead of that he says,

“but be transformed by the renewing of your mind…”

In other words, allow the word of God to saturate your thinking to such a degree that it transforms your outside; in terms of a metamorphosis, so it matches who you are on the inside. And how often I watch Christians, especially young people ignore this plea. So often I see people, especially young people who will call themselves Christians, and you take one look at them, and you can see that they desperately want to be identified with kind of the MTV sex drug culture.

And I warn all of you, as I have to warn myself, be careful with what the world can do with you. If I can put it this way, you will become what you worship. And just think of the way people worship, for example, American Idol today. I mean, what a fitting title, American Idol, and that's what you see millions of young people wanting to be like whoever the next idol is going to be. And little by little, what happens if you expose yourself to that, you begin to develop the values and the ambitions of the MTV hip hop, rap, rock, whatever world that culture you begin to look like, talk like, think like, act like American Idol type people.

That's the idea that God gives us here in Romans 12:1- 2 and many other passages. So as Christians, my point is simply we've got to be careful lest we like lot become so cozy with the world that we endanger ourselves and our family to the corruptions of Sodom and Gomorrah. Not only are we warned in Scripture not to be cozy with the world and its values, but likewise with worldly false religious systems.

Remember, in 2 Corinthians 6, we are we are all called to be like Christ and be separate from that type of thing in the world and basically to have no alliance, no affiliation with false religious enterprises.

As I say that, it reminds me as a shepherd, one of the things that I must do, as well as the other elders, is to protect you from these types of things. And I will tell you that several times a week I will get either an email or some kind of a brochure or a phone call, and sometimes all three every week, of some kind of distorted religious enterprise that wants to come to our church or wants to have our young people go to do something or have us go to do something. One of the latest ones was a was some kind of a DVD series and a book study guide that went with it. And these are supposed to be Christian people that have done some remarkable work about helping parents know how to raise teenagers and this type of thing. And the guy called and he gave me the spiel. And I was hesitant, but he gave me all of the accolades of praise and how so many churches all over are using it. And of course, that always raises a red flag right there. But I gave in and I said, you know, as long as it's not one of these things, you know, where we'll send it to you and if you want it, then you send us the money. If you don't, you just send it back.

Well, I got it and it's as shallow as water on a plate. Distorts the word of God, has things in it that is just not biblical, and so I have to protect you, I have to go through that and I've got to send it all back. I have to protect you from that. Not that you wouldn't have discernment as well, but the point is, we're to be so careful with these types of things.

But beloved, here's what I want you to hear - and here's where the distortion came in with Peter and the Judaizers - we should never equate separateness from the world with superiority over the world. You can't let that elitism come in. We don't want to be like the Judaizers never consider God's call for us to be separate; to be holy as a justification to avoid contact with sinners, but rather to avoid contact with personal sin, that's the issue. How can we be salt without touching the lives of those who are decaying in sin all around us? How can we be light if our candles shine only within the confines of our home and our church?

Well, this is what God is working with now in the life of Peter, so God invades Peter's pride and his prejudice. He's abolishing his kosher diet here with his horrifying vision. And this is almost comical. Come back to the text now in verse 17.

“Now, while Peter was greatly perplexed in mind as to what the vision which he had seen might be, behold, the men who had been sent by Cornelius, having asked directions for Simon's house, appeared at the gate;

“and calling out, they were asking whether Simon, who was also called Peter, was staying there.

“And while Peter was reflecting on the vision, the Spirit said to him, ‘Behold, three men are looking for you.

“’But arise, go downstairs and accompany them without misgivings, for I have sent them Myself.

“’And Peter went down to the man and said, ‘Behold, I am the one you are looking for, what is the reason for which you have come?’

“And they said, ‘Cornelius, a centurion, a righteous and God-fearing man well spoken of by the entire nation of the Jews, was divinely directed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house and hear a message from you.’”

My, God's timing is absolutely perfect, isn't it? Incredible. Peter is up on kind of the upper deck, and this is real common in the land, even to this day. He's had this vision now. He's hungry. He's wanting to eat. He's had this vision. He's now really perplexed. All of a sudden, these guys come up, and I'm sure he can overhear them, they're downstairs at the door. And then the Spirit of God speaks to him. Boy, what an amazing illustration of God shaping someone in sanctification.

So Peter gets an immediate interpretation now, as well as an application to his vision. And so, in essence, what God is saying is “Make no mistake about it, Peter, I want you to jettison your foolish commitment to self-effort. The law is fulfilled in Christ. The days of defilement are over.” In fact, Jesus has said in John 15:3, “’You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.’” So, Peter, I want you to abandon your arrogant prejudice. I want you to embrace these uncircumcised Gentiles with the love of Christ.

So look what he does in verse 23.

“And so he invited them in and gave them lodging.”

Now, folks, this is incredible. The term in the original language, the term for lodging means to “host a guest.” I mean, this is unheard of for a Jew to do such a thing.

“And on the next day,” the text says, “he arose and went away with them.”

So they spend the night together there. “The next day he arose, went away with them, and some of the brethren from Joppa accompanied him.” And don't you know this is how it would work? Some of his other brothers and perhaps sisters in Christ, other Judaizers are saying, “What has happened? Do you realize he left those Gentiles in the house? Peter is, first of all, staying with the tanner. I mean, that's bad enough, but he left these dudes into the house and now he's going to go to a Roman centurion. We got to follow. I mean, this is incredible. We got to follow along and see what he is up to. We’ve got to see this.”

And again, I think, isn't it great not only to watch God's sovereign work and salvation in the life of Cornelius, but again, his shaping work and sanctification and Peter.

Notice verse twenty four,

“And on the following day, he entered Caesarea. Now, Cornelius was waiting for them and had called together his relatives and close friends.

“And when it came about that Peter entered…”

Oh, friends, stop right there. Can you believe this? Peter enters into a Gentile house -  unheard of - but he enters and “Cornelius met him and fell at his feet and worshiped him.

“But Peter raised him up saying, ‘Stand up; I, too, am just a man.’

“And as he talked with them, he entered and found many people assembled.”

Wow, what a marvelous demonstration of God's love to bring all these unregenerate people together to hear the gospel. You know, as I read this, I remember thinking, my, can you imagine such a scene today? I mean, it's hard to find one person who has the slightest interest in the gospel today. And also, as you think about it, what an unwittingly fitting rebuke Peter gave Cornelius for falling at his feet there in unwarranted veneration. He says, “’Stand up; I, too, am just a man.’” And you have to laugh. It's as if God is saying to him right after he said that, “Did you hear what you just said, Peter? Indeed, you are just a man. You're a man no better, no worse than Cornelius. You are equals. So wherein is the justification for your prejudice?”

So Peter and some of his curious Jewish Christian friends arrived, Peter enters the house and notice what happens here in verse 28.

“And he said to them, ‘You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a man who is a Jew to associate with a foreigner or to visit him; and yet God has shown me that I should not call any man unholy or unclean.

“’And that is why I came without even raising any objection when I was sent for. And so I asked, for what reason you have sent for me?’”

And now Cornelius is going to tell his story. Verse 30,

“Cornelius said, ‘Four days ago to this hour, I was praying in my house during the ninth hour; and behold, a man stood before me in shining garments,

“’and he said, “Cornelius, your prayer has been heard and your alms have been remembered before God.

“’”Send, therefore, to Joppa and invite Simon, who is also called Peter, to come to you; he is staying at the house of Simon the tanner by the sea.”

“’And so I sent to you immediately and you have been kind enough to come. Now then we are all here present before God to hear all that you have been commanded by the Lord.’”

My that's a that's an evangelist's dream right there, isn't it? We're here to hear the truth. What a work of God. Dear Christian friend, again, what a marvel it is – and I don't want you to miss this - to contemplate God's sovereign work in salvation, in the lives of these people, as well as his shaping work in sanctification. And may I remind you again, that biblically the author of regeneration - when a person comes to a saving knowledge of Christ is born again -  the author of regeneration is always God, the agent is always the Holy Spirit and the instrument that the Holy Spirit uses is always the word of God, as we're going to see. I remind you of James 1:18, where we read, “In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth so that we might be, as it were, the first fruits among His creatures.” So again, we see God's sovereignty and salvation with Cornelius at the same time, God's shaping and sanctification in the life of Peter.

Now, thirdly, we're going to see God's sermon in sound doctrine. Here now, the Holy Spirit is going to fill Peter with these inspired words. And here is at least the essence of his sermon, it may not have been all of it, but it is certainly the essence of it. And might I say before we look at this more closely, dear friends, none other than sound doctrine or correct doctrine will God use to save a man's soul; only the truth will set a sinner free.

We're not going to hear a gospel of self-esteem or some prosperity gospel. We're not going to hear some social activism gospel or some gospel of world peace. But we're going to hear the gospel of Christ and him crucified.

So the Holy Spirit now has led Peter to these whom he is now preparing to be born again. And he's going to now empower him to speak the truth. Verse 34,

“And opening his mouth, Peter said:

“’I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality,

“’but in every nation, the man who fears him and does what is right is welcome to Him.’”

“Welcome,” it could be translated “is acceptable” to him – “dektos” in the original language -  it means “to be marked by a favorable manifestation of the divine pleasure.” In this context, the term “acceptable” or “welcome” literally is saying that every man who mourns over his sin, every man who longs to be reconciled to a holy God and who is hungering and thirsting for righteousness is a suitable candidate for salvation.

And certainly this is the case here in the life of Cornelius. And I have to share with you, as I'm sure you could share with me, that when I was a young boy, when I came to Christ before actually right before I came to Christ, there was a season in my life that I can still remember vividly that I mourned over my sin. I had a terror of Satan and a terror of hell, and I knew that I wasn't right with God. I did not have the foggiest idea, the depth of theology that I understand now, but I knew that I was a sinner. I knew that I needed to be saved. I knew that the only way for me to be saved was through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And therefore, at that time in my life, like Cornelius, I was a suitable candidate for salvation and therefore I was welcome to him or acceptable to him. But now also Peter is gradually here, as we see, beginning to understand more and more that that the Jews and the Gentiles are to be united together. In fact, later on, Paul is going to tell us in Ephesians 2:14, as I read earlier, that he made both groups into one, that he broke down the barrier of the dividing wall. Also in Galatians 3:28, “There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free man. There is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

And so Peter now is also grabbing a hold of these truths more and more.

Verse 36,

“The word which He sent to the sons of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ (He is Lord of all) –

“’you yourselves know the thing which took place throughout all Judea, starting from Galilee, after the baptism which John proclaimed.

“’You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.

“And we are witnesses of all the things He did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem. And they also put Him to death by hanging Him on a cross.

“’God raised Him up on the third day and granted that He should become visible,

“not to all the people, but to witnesses who were chosen beforehand by God, that is, to us who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead.

“And He ordered us to preach to the people, and solemnly testify to testify that this is the One who has been appointed by God as Judge of the living and of the dead.

“’Of Him all the prophets bear witness that through His name everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins.’”

Herein, dear friends, is the quintessential truth that can save a man's soul from the eternal penalty of sin, namely that through his name, everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins. That's what Peter preaches to them. Now, as the transforming power of the gospel begins to penetrate the walls of these men's hearts - as the transforming power of the gospel begins to shatter the fortresses of Roman paganism, as it begins to topple their idols and tears asunder the shackles of Satan and sin that has incarcerated them all these years, as the Spirit of God now begins to work in the hearts of the men and women and boys and girls, the servants and the soldiers in this room, as their hearts begin to melt in brokenness under the heat of divine grace, as they hear the gospel - suddenly the Holy Spirit manifests himself in a magnificent display of glory.

And here's where we come to the fourth point in this little outline. Here we see God's Spirit in solidarity as he destroys the dividing wall and unites the Jews and the Gentiles together into one church.

Verse 44,

“While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon those who were listening to the message

“and all the circumcised believers who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out upon the Gentiles also.

“For they were hearing them speaking with tongues and exalting God. Then Peter answered,

“’Surely no one can refuse the water for these to be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we did, can he?’

“And he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to stay on for a few days.”

What an amazing story of God's grace, oh, child of God, what a marvelous truth. The Holy Spirit fell upon those who were listening to the message in verse 44. Indeed, you must remember that no man is ever converted apart from the Holy Spirit falling upon him when contemplating the message of grace.

And as a pastor, I never know what part of a sermon the spirit of God will use to accomplish this in the life of a person. It's amazing, while every text has but one interpretation, there are many hundreds of applications that are relevant to different people at different times. And how often I will hear people say, “Pastor, the Spirit of God spoke to me through this that was said…” and another person through that which was said and on and on it goes.

And such is the mysterious work of the Spirit of God, as we see even here, where first he makes a man willing to repent and then secondly to grow into conformity to Christ Jesus. And in Peter's case, Peter now is growing as well as these Judaizers that were accompanying him. They're seeing firsthand what God is doing and uniting the church, causing them to forsake their prejudice and welcome Gentiles into the church, the body of Christ.

Last week, I challenged you to emulate the compassionate private ministry of Peter to target someone for ministry, perhaps someone who is forsaken, someone who is lowly, perhaps someone who is despised in some way. And I hope you have done that and I hope you will continue to do that. But today, I would challenge you in two ways.

Number one, dear friends, examine your own prejudices. Where do you feel superior to other people because of what God has done for you? Unfortunately, there are many people who name the name of Christ, who feel far superior to the Jews today because in their minds they consider them to be the Christ killers. And unfortunately, we can become very often like the brother of the man who went away, the prodigal son who went away and finally came back to Christ even as someday the Word of God tells us that He will bring His wayward Israel back to Him. And we can be like that brother even with the Jews and in essence say, I'm better than them. I don't want them to come to Christ. God is finished with them because of how sinful they were.

And it's not just with the Jews, it can be with other people, the Muslims today. How many times we hear of the horrible things that the Muslims do. But dear friends, were it not for God's grace, we would be right there with them.

And we've got to remember that we must not turn our mission field into a battlefield. These are the people we're called to love and to bring the gospel to and on and on it goes. So examine your own prejudices. Are you salt and are you light? Even to those that perhaps you feel you are superior to in some way.

And then secondly, examine your commitment to be separate from sin, not from sinners. Ask yourself, “Am I presenting my body as a living, holy sacrifice acceptable to God? Not allowing the world to conform me into its mold but rather renewing my mind as I pour the word of God through it and allow it to saturate all that I am so that I will manifest the love and the purity, the righteousness and the glory of Christ.” I hope you will do that this week. Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for giving us this incredible story that demonstrates your sovereignty and salvation, as well as the way you work in our sanctification. And Lord, thank you that you have brought even we as Gentiles into the church, though we were once separate. Like because of Christ, we have been brought near, and we praise you for that. And Lord, I pray that the eternal truths that we've discussed and heard this morning will find a place in our heart and bear much fruit. For we ask this in Jesus’ name and for his sake. Amen.