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And we begin at nine o'clock, you know, with the Lord's Supper, and then ten, then eleven. I'm going to ask them to just have one meeting on Christmas Day, the Lord's Supper, at ten o'clock, and uh, we won't limit it to forty five minutes, but we can stretch it to an hour, to an hour fifteen, or an hour and a half. And uh, if we do that, we'll still be out at eleven thirty. and uh, we'll have a real time of the remembrance of the Lord on Christmas Day. And, uh, I'm going to ask the brethren that, and, uh, uh, it will be a good time for our children to enjoy the worship of their parents at the Lord's Supper.
So maybe we'll do it, maybe not, but it's one of the things I'm going to ask the brethren on, uh, Friday night. Now, we've been following the Apostle Peter. One of the things I like about character studies in the Word of God is we can identify with the characters. We have followed the life of Simon Peter from his initial call of God, of our blessed Lord, which is found in the Gospel by John chapter one. and we followed him through the many mistakes he made before the cross. We saw his denial of the Savior, his restoration by the Lord, and the many things.
He didn't make all mistakes. He did a lot of things right too. But we've been following Peter, and then when we got to the book of Acts, we saw on two occasions the fearless witness of Peter on the day of Pentecost, and then his fearless witness after the lame man was healed at the beautiful gate of the temple in Acts chapter three. Tonight, we want to look at Acts chapter eleven, beginning in verse one. Acts eleven, verse one. And the apostles and brethren that were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God.
And when Peter was come up to Jerusalem, they that were of the circumcision contended with him, saying, Thou wentest in to men uncircumcised and did seat with them. But Peter rehearsed the matter from the beginning and expounded it by order unto them, saying, I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision, a certain vessel descend as it had been a great sheet let down from heaven by four corners, and it came even to me, upon which, when I had fastened mine eyes, I considered and saw four-footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowl of the air.
And I heard a voice saying unto me, Arise, Peter, slay an eat. But I said, Not so, Lord, for nothing common or unclean hath at any time entered into my mouth. But the voice answered me again from heaven, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common. And this was done three times, and all were drawn up again into heaven, and he, behold, immediately there were three men already come unto the house where I was, sent from Caesarea unto me, and the Spirit bade me go with them, nothing doubting. Moreover, these six brethren accompanied me, and we entered into the man's house, and he showed us how he had seen an angel in his house, which stood and said unto him, send men to Joppa and call for Simon, whose surname is Peter, and he shall tell thee words whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved.
And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them as on us at the beginning. Then I remembered the word of the Lord, how that he said, John indeed baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit. For as much then as God hath given them the right gift, as he did unto us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. Who was I that I could withstand God? When they heard these things, they held their peace and glorified God, saying, then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life. May the Lord bless reading these words.
Let's pray together. Our Father, we thank you for the word of God. We thank you for the infinite riches of the gospel. We thank you for men like Peter, who were fearless in their witness and who boldly testified to the saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. We ask you that tonight, as we study this passage together, our hearts may be warmed and that we'll have a fresh vision of the Church of Jesus Christ, which was purchased by the blood of our Lord Jesus. Receive our thanks, motivate us, and may the words of our mouth be acceptable in thy sight and be a blessing to others, for Jesus' sake.
Amen. When Peter confessed Christ as Lord in Matthew chapter sixteen, in answer to the question of the Lord, whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? And Peter answered, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Our Lord then said a number of things to Peter. And one of the things that he said to Peter, as recorded in the nineteenth verse of Matthew sixteen, he said to him, and I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Now, in the second chapter of Acts, Peter first used the keys that were given to him. He used them to unlock the door of salvation to the nation of Israel, who were guilty of crucifying the Lord Jesus. In Acts chapter two, he opened the door to Israel, and then in Acts chapter ten, um the chapter we didn't read tonight, he opened, used the keys to open the door of salvation to the Gentiles. Now, I purposely skipped Acts chapter ten, and Acts chapter ten is one of those great chapters in the New Testament.
It tells how God used Peter to take the gospel to the Gentiles. And you and I should rejoice over Acts chapter ten because we're Gentiles by nature. By nature, we're outside of all the promises that God had made to Abraham. We're outside of all the covenant fellowships of the Old Testament. They were to Israel, and that's what Ephesians two verse thirteen says, "Wherefore remember that at that time ye were without God, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world."
And that is a sad condition to be in, without hope and without God in the world. However, God opened the door to the Gentiles, and today Gentiles are being saved. Now, after Peter went into a Gentile house, it's one thing to obey God, it's another thing to have to report to the brethren and tell him that God asked you to do something that they don't approve of. And that's what Peter had to do. The brethren didn't approve of what Peter did, going into a house of a Gentile dog, you see, and they were quite upset with him.
So what does Peter do? Peter defends himself in the eleventh chapter, and we read his defense to the brethren at Jerusalem. And, uh, the reason that the brethren were upset with Peter is, you know, the Jewish, the Jews looked at Gentiles as being second class citizens. And for a long time in the church, they were looked upon in this way because they did not have a natural relationship to the Messiah. Our Lord Jesus said to the woman of Samaria in John four, salvation is of the Jews.
And the Jewish nation that were, that were believers in the early church, they had a natural relationship to the Messiah. He came from us. And they let others know, many times, that they were a bit superior, and they had a superior standing to a Gentile. You see, what Peter does in Acts chapter eleven, he reviews the events of chapter ten. You can't really understand chapter ten until you understand chapter eleven. Because chapter eleven, Peter tells what took place, and there are a lot of things, and the basis of Peter's witness are four supernatural facts, and he rehearses these four supernatural facts to his brethren.
Fact number one, the supernatural vision that was given to Peter. In Acts chapter ten. as Peter is on the housetop of Simon the tenor praying, a sheep comes down from heaven. And you have to know something of the Old Testament to appreciate this. In Leviticus chapter eleven, God told the Jewish people, it was part of the law covenant at Mount Sinai, there are certain things they can eat, there are certain things they can't eat. They couldn't eat shrimp. They couldn't eat lobster tail. They couldn't eat ham.
And they missed bacon with their eggs because they couldn't eat bacon either, and there were a lot of birds that they couldn't eat. So, and here on this sheet are all kinds of birds that the Gentiles eat, and pigs. I had a good time with our brother Rick Lesh the other Sa- Saturday at the hospital. Uh, he told me they were having a pig picking out at the Beacon Baptist that, uh, that night. And, uh, uh, if, if, and I have nothing against it, but in kidding, I said to him, you know, if you're asked to thank the Lord tonight, you can say to the Lord, now, Lord, if you can bless under grace what you cursed under law, receive our thanks for this pig.
Amen. And I thought, he took off, you know, he just left, and uh, we just had a good time over. But you see, God is teaching Peter a lesson. Peter said to the Lord, the Lord said to him, Rise, Peter, kill and eat. Have a meal. Why should you be hungry? And Peter said, Oh, not so, Lord. Nothing ever common or unclean entered my mouth. I have lived kosher. That's what he's really saying. I lived according to the strict commandments of the law. I never ate bacon. I never ate ham.
I have not eaten seafood that didn't have scales and fins. And you could go down the list that Peter could say to the Lord. And the Lord told him to do it three times, and Peter refused. And then the sheet went back up to heaven. And as Peter is there thinking, it must have been a real time. God had sent men from Caesarea Philippi, from the house of Cornelius. For an angel appeared to Cornelius and told him where to go, who to, what to do. He said, now you go to send somebody to Joppa and inquire for a man by the name of Simon Peter. He's staying in the house of Simon the tanner, and that was a miracle in itself, that he lived with a tanner, a man who was in the tanning business, a man who dealt with dead animals.
That was forbidden under the law. The very fact that Peter lived there was a miracle in itself, for the tenor, if you read the Talmud and the Talmudic writings, uh, uh, not the Torah now, the Torah is the first five book of books of mo- of our Bible, the first five books of Moses, of Moses, but the, uh, Talmud are the writings of the rabbis, and in the writings of the rabbis, a tenor was about the lowest, uh, person and still be a Jew. He was considered one of the lowest in the community because of the work that he did.
Well, Peter was living there. It's amazing that while he lived there, that God gave him the vision, and God sent, uh, men from Caesarea Philippi all the way to Joppa to get Peter in order that he might tell them what? The words of eternal life. That's how important it is to be saved. You see, now, an angel could have told it a lot better than Peter. But you see, the angels can't preach redemption. God has ordained that sinners saved by God's grace tell other sinners how to be saved.
So the angel didn't tell him. The angel said, you have to send for Peter, and he'll tell you words whereby you can be saved. So we have the first, uh, supernatural fact, the vision that God gave to Peter. Then the second supernatural fact is the visitors from the house of Cornelius who were waiting at the gate and calling for Peter and inquiring for him while Peter is being dealt with by God. So then we have the third supernatural fact, and that was that God had given a vision to a Gentile. See, up until this time, in the record of scripture, it wasn't a Gentile who had ever who had a vision, except maybe Nebuchadnezzar, the who dreamed a dream, but it took a Jew to interpret the vision or the dream to Nebuchadnezzar.
And of course, Cornelius was in Caesarea, and he had to send for Peter in Joppa. And verse fourteen says, uh, who that Peter is going to tell them words whereby he can be saved. And then finally, the fourth supernatural fact is the gospel, its message, and its power. And we find the message and its power in a special way in verse fifteen. You know, it's a funny thing. These verses are thrilling. As Peter began to speak. When you read the tenth chapter of Acts, you'll find that Peter never finished his sermon.
Peter didn't plan on stopping when he did. And it's nice when God stops the sermon. And while Peter says in this fifteenth verse, and as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came as on us at the beginning. And those words, as on us at the beginning, tell us what took place on the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter two. What happened in Acts chapter two? In Acts chapter two, the Spirit of God came and dwelt upon individual believers, and he formed one body, the church.
And as he formed one body, the church, you see, he now brings Gentiles into the church, for the Holy Spirit fell on them as it did at the beginning. So this is great evidence as to what happened on the day of Pentecost. You see, this is an extension of Acts chapter two. Why? Well, they had to prove to Peter. Peter needed something to prove to him that God was saving Gentiles, and not only Jews. See, the covenants of promise were given to the Jewish nation in the Old Testament economy.
Gentiles, Ephesians chapter two and verse thirteen, I think it is, or either verse twelve, they were without hope and without God in the world. But now the door is open. Here is an extension to prove to Peter that Gentiles are included in the body of Christ. Now there's something blessed here in relation to a lot of people's thinking and preaching today, and I want you to grant, to grasp it. It is not faith plus a tarrying meeting. You know, people get the idea from Acts chapter two that if they tarry in a certain place and they pray and they say the right words, the Holy Spirit's going to come upon them.
It isn't faith plus a tarrying meeting. It is simple faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. As he spoke, the Spirit of God came upon them. Furthermore, it is not faith plus the laying on of hands. You see, Peter never laid his hands on Cornelius. He probably wouldn't have done it. He probably, he's a, he was a Gentile. He was a person of another nation, and he belonged to the select nation of Israel. He probably wouldn't have done it. And that leads us to exactly what the Word of God teaches.
The baptism of the Holy Spirit is the means whereby the Spirit of God takes a person when they're saved and places them into the body of Christ. That's what we read in First Corinthians chapter twelve verses twelve and thirteen. So if you'll turn to that, we're going to read it. I want you to see that. When people talk to me about the baptism of the Holy Spirit, uh, and I know th- those who usually talk about it are those who are looking for some supernatural event, you see, some charismatic happening, but it, that is not the baptism of the Holy Spirit at all.
It may have meant that they ate too much for supper or something like that. Notice, verse twelve: for as a body is one and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one spirit were, that are there is really past tense in the Greek. For by one spirit were we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.
When somebody asks me about the baptism of the Holy Spirit, I said, yes, I've had the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I was baptized the same day Peter was. That's right. I was baptized into the body of Christ the same day Peter was, for this reason. There is only one body of Christ. There is only one church. And I was, that one body was formed the day that, that the Spirit of God came at Pentecost.
And I was, I was baptized in the Holy Spirit the same day Peter was. Now I said it three times. Do you possess eternal life? Don't be afraid to say yes. If you're saved, you certainly do. The Word of God teaches, however, that we were children of what? Wrath, just like everybody else. What is eternal life? It's life that has no beginning and has no end. Well, did eternal life have a beginning with you? Yes. For you once were a child of God.
That's what, even as others, there was no difference. There's no difference between, before we were saved, between a Christian and an unchristian. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Do you have eternal life? I do. I tell you, the rich blessing of that came to me one day as I watched my friend in Bermuda, David Oliveira. He has a, a citrus orchard. Best oranges and grapefruit. Uh, oh, it's just delightful. But one day he took a branch of an orange tree, and he split open a grapefruit tree, and he placed that branch of the orange tree into the grapefruit tree.
And guess what? You go over there, you can find oranges growing on a grapefruit tree. That branch was grafted into the grapefruit tree. And when it was grafted into the grapefruit tree, it became a part of the whole past history of that grapefruit tree. And you know, there's a day I was outside of Christ. I was just as lost as anybody else. But the day that I was saved, God took me and he grafted me into Christ.
And he uses that very expression in the eleventh chapter of the Romans. We were that wild olive branch, wild olive tree that was grafted into that good olive tree, the person of Christ. And beloved, when you and I were grafted in, we became a part of the whole past history of the Godhead. Do you have eternal life? I sure do. Now, when I say that I was baptized in the Holy Spirit the same day Peter was, that day that I was saved, I became a partaker of the whole past history of the church.
When the Spirit of God placed me into the body. There's only one body, and that body was formed on the day of Pentecost. Now let me illustrate that one more time. First Corinthians twelve verses twelve and thirteen tell us of the, what the baptism of the Holy Spirit is. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body. But I usually tell people that First Corinthians ten comes before First Corinthians twelve. Now that's quite, that's quite a, an intelligent statement.
You see, First Corinthians ten comes before First Corinthians twelve. What do you have in First Corinthians ten? He says, moreover, brethren, in verse one, I would not have you to be ignorant how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and they all passed through the sea, and they were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. Oh, there we have that word baptized again. What happened at the sea with Moses? Well, a, a bunch of slaves from Egypt were unified into one nation under the leadership of Moses.
That's what took place at the Red Sea. Now, let's, uh, go a little a step further. Suppose, and this it's not a really a supposition, but suppose, you know, they wandered in the wilderness for forty years. Now suppose there was a baby born in the wilderness, and when that baby was about ten years old, you can see this woman taking her baby up to Moses, and she said, now, Mr. Moses, I want you to take my baby back, back to Egypt, and I want him to have a Red Sea experience. You follow me?
He doesn't, when he was born in that nation in the wilderness, he became a partaker of all the past history of Israel. And when I was born into the family of God, I became a partaker of the whole past history of God. Oh, the power and the blessing of the gospel. You see, the Jew today does not have an advantage over the Gentile because, uh, of natural relationship to the Messiah. Furthermore, the Gentile doesn't have an advantage over the Jew in the body of Christ.
The scripture tells us in First Corinthians twelve, there is one body, and we are all members of it. Now, this great truth of the oneness of the body of Christ was taught to Peter by experience. After he experienced it, what do we read? Ah, we read in verse sixteen, then remembered I the word of the Lord. Oh, this is what the Lord said. Exactly. This is what the Lord said. Now, beloved, I'm going to make one or two statements that I think are very important.
Number one, I believe that we don't need to ask the Holy Spirit to indwell us. We don't need to ask him to do that. He already does. If we're the Lord, we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. The pattern for righteousness, which is true of every believer, is then manifested in the believer's life when they're saved. And I believe it's wrong to ask the Holy Spirit to indwell us. It would be like me going home tonight and asking Phyllis to marry me. After all these years.
You see? And for a Christian who has been placed into the family of God and who is indwelt by the Spirit of God, to ask the Holy Spirit to indwell them is simply wrong. But when you get to verse seventeen, he says to them in verse seventeen— now notice Peter's on the carpet, and he's speaking to Jews who resented him going to the Gentiles. He says in verse seventeen, for as much then as God gave them the right gift, as he did unto us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. Who was I that I could withstand God?
Peter said, I couldn't do anything about it. How wonderful. How wonderful. Because in all probability, if he could have, he would have. You see, here we learn that this, when it comes to the power of the gospel, is the blessing of the Abrahamic covenant on the Gentiles. For God said to Abraham when he called him in Genesis chapter twelve, in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And here now, the Gentile families of the earth are being blessed in the seed of Abraham, who is the person of Christ.
And of course, in Galatians three verses thirteen and fourteen, we simply read that, uh, Christ was made a curse for us, and he hath redeemed us from the curse of law, being made a curse for us. As it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree, that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. But beloved, there's a warning in Romans eight verse nine: If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. We may know a lot about the Bible, and we may go through life having a lot of people fooled.
But if we do not have the Spirit of God, we are not the Lord's. Now, I love verse eighteen. And when they heard these things, they held their peace, and they glorified God, saying, then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life. In other words, here we have the basis of the apostles' worship. They worshiped the Lord over what took place in the house of Cornelius. We noticed their first reaction. They held their peace. In other words, they couldn't say a word about what took place in the house of Cornelius.
Furthermore, we find the basis of their worship was the fact that God had granted repentance to the Gentiles, and they were gr- they held their peace, and they worshiped over the fact of what God was doing in the world through the gospel. That God had gone contrary to their thoughts didn't bother them anymore. They glorified God because of what God was doing, and that's so important. Well, what was God doing? He was giving to the Gentiles repentance. Repentance is changing your mind about sin.
Repentance is changing your mind about God. Repentance is changing your mind about the person of Christ. And by the way, when this speaks of repentance, God granted repentance to the Gentiles. He's not talking about the sorrow of the world, which equals death, according to second Corinthians seven verse ten. The sorrow of the world works death. You know what the sorrow of the world is? We're sorry we got caught. And after we get over the present situation, we go back to living the same way we always did. When I was a teenager, I started going to the prison and preaching the gospel.
I saw all kinds of repentance. Most of it was the sorrow of the world. Sorry they got caught. But godly sorrow, you never change your mind about. And we're talking about godly sorrow for sin and a godly change of mind regarding God, sin, and Christ. And this repentance into life that God gives as a free gift. That repentance into life, it works. And it works genuine repentance, not to be repented of.
Now let's apply this very quickly. So application number one, there's only one tonight, only one application. The Lord settled for the church for all time, that truth that all who are genuinely, genuinely called by him are part of the church. When God calls a man and saves a man, they become part of the church. There are no second class citizens in the Church of Jesus Christ. We are one in him.
I tell you, that's grand truth. That's wondrous truth. There are no second class citizens. And Peter had to learn that lesson. The early church had to learn that lesson. And in the will of God, we'll take it a step further the next time, when we take another step with Peter as he fearlessly walks with the Lord. Let's pray together. Our Father, we thank you tonight for this man Peter, for teaching him, and through him teaching us. We pray, our Father, that we may have the patience with others in teaching that you manifested to Peter when he refused three times to obey, but he learned the lesson because you had supernaturally dealt from the other end, sending men from Caesarea to him.
Now, Father, we thank you for your ways. We thank you for the way in which you reveal truth to thy people, and we pray that through thy word, thy name will be glorified, and that we will honor thee with our lives continuously, for the Lord Jesus' sake. Amen.