or chapter 10, Acts chapter 10. The verse that I want to call
your attention to and try to emphasize is verse Verse 44, where it says, While Peter yet spake
these words, the Holy Ghost, or the Holy Spirit, fell on all Lamb which heard
the word. Now, what brought this all about was a spectacular instance or a spectacular display
of the providential work of God in bringing certain things together
in the fulfillment of his design and purpose. And it begins in
the first verse of the tenth chapter. It says, There was a certain
man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called
the Italian band. It wasn't a music band. It's
a wonder someone in our generation has not read this and decided
to call themselves Cornelius and the Italian Band, the way
they name things nowadays. But Cornelius was a Roman soldier. He was a professional soldier,
and he was a captain of a company of men. And he was a Gentile. He was not a Jew. but as a Gentile. And we'll keep in mind, up until
this point, the Gentiles did not have the gospel preached
unto them, but the gospel was confined to the Jews. And the Jews looked upon the
Gentiles as dogs. Dogs was the lowest form by way
of description that could be applied or used by the Jews to
show their utter distaste for Gentiles, and they called them
dogs, Gentile dogs. The Samaritans hated the Jews,
the Jews hated the Samaritans, but the Jews and the Samaritans
hated the Gentiles. And this man was a Gentile. And that's the reason it's so
conspicuous here that this man is part of this arrangement of
the providence of God in bringing two parties together. And the
ultimate lesson here, or one important lesson to be learned
here, is this. that the gospel was not to be
confined just to the Jewish people, but it was to be preached to
the Gentiles as well as the Jews. You remember the apostle said,
the apostle Paul in Romans chapter 1, he said, that I'm not ashamed
of the gospel of Jesus Christ for it's the power is the power
of God unto salvation to every man that believeth to the Jew
first and also to the Greek, to the Jew and also to the Gentile. And Paul, as his custom was for
a long time when he preached after this revelation of chapter
10, he always went to the Jew first then to the Gentiles. And finally he said, seeing then
that you Jews, you Jews won't hear the gospel, you despise
the gospel, I turn from you and go to the Gentiles. Well, there's a certain man in
Caesarea called Cornelius, Gentile, captain, professional soldier.
the centurion of the band called the Italian Band. Well, it says that he was a devout
man, that is, a pious man. Now, I don't believe that in
this state that he's in right here, regardless now, and I'm
not trying to make the Bible say something that it doesn't
say, I'm not trying to misinterpret the Bible, but I'm trying to
interpret Scripture with Scripture. And I don't believe that this
man, though it says that he was a devout man and a man that prayed,
I don't think that he understood who the Lord Jesus Christ was. And I don't think that he was
saved by the grace of God at this particular time, although
it says this about him. It says he was a devout man. He was a pious man. It says he
was one that feared God. Now, all of these are descriptions,
I think, in a sense, of a saved man, a man who loves the Lord
Jesus Christ. But he didn't love the Lord Jesus
Christ because he didn't know anything about the Lord Jesus
Christ. He had never heard who Jesus
Christ was, did, at this point. Now, listen to me, he had some
light. He had some light in regard to
God Almighty, the one God of the Jews. He had some light,
and he acted upon that light. And as I said at the outset here
as we prayed, I believe, I said if a man will act upon the life
that he has. It doesn't make any difference
if we talk about sovereignty and election and all those things
that some people say. You know, they hide and say,
well, hide behind their excuse and say, well, I don't know whether
I'm one of the elect or not, and I don't think God ever elected
me, so I haven't got no chance or no hope or this and that and
so forth, and excuse themselves of their responsibility. Every
man has got life. Listen to me. Every man that's
born a woman has within him written on the tables of his heart a
built-in mechanism that says there is God Almighty. He's got that. And if he'll act
upon that light, act upon that light, God will increase his
light and give him more light. But if he refuses to act upon
that light, he'll never come to the light who is the chief
of lights, the Lord Jesus Christ. But he's got to act upon that
light. This fellow had some life. He
is a devout man. And one that feared God with
all his house. He was a pretty good parent.
He saw to it that the life that he had, he taught or instructed
the members of his household, even his servants and slaves.
And he gave much alms. He gave not only food, but he
gave of his money. He gave much alms, not just,
he wasn't stingy. He gave much alms to the people
and prayed to God always. Now he saw in a vision, evidently
about the ninth hour of the day, an angel of God coming in to
him, saying unto him, Cornelius, the angel knew his name. He had a vision. He was probably
up on top of the house. That's where these fellas prayed. They didn't have flat roofs. It wasn't Combs Roof like we
have now. But he was up on top of the house.
And it was a secluded area. It was a place where he could
be alone. These fellas went up there and they prayed, looked
up into the heavens. And he looked up into the heavens
and he heard a voice. And it was an angel of God coming
in to him, and the angel said unto him, Cornelius. And when
he looked up, he was afraid. And he thought that that angel
was the Lord God Almighty. And he said, What is it, Lord?
And he said unto him, Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for
a memorial before God. Your prayers. and your alms have
come up in remembrance. God's remembering these. He says,
now send men to Joppa. Joppa was about 25 or 30 miles
away from Caesarea where Cornelius was. Send men to Joppa and call
for one Simon. whose surname is Peter, he lodgeth
with one Simon a tanner, whose house is by the seaside, and
he shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do." So you see here
at the outset as we lead up to this providential meeting between
these two men. a Gentile, and another one, a
devout Jew, Peter, whose surname, that was his surname, that's
what they called him. But listen, first let me say
now, it says here, thy prayers and thine alms are come up for
a memorial before God. That is, God remembers these alms and memorials. That's
what that word memorial means. It's a type of remembrance. Well, as I read that, I thought that God, here in the
Bible throughout, it says that God forgets nothing but pardoned
sin. Everything else he remembers.
But he says, Your sins, isn't that right, Jack? It says, Your
sins I will remember against you no more. So when a man is
saved, when he's saved by the grace
of God through the blood and the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ, his sins are forever annihilated and put away. And the Bible says, God said
without the belief or sin, He said, I'll remember them against
you no more. God will not remember my sins
or the sins of any believer regardless of how great our sins were or
how insignificant or small they might appear to us. He said,
I'll put them away. The atonement, that's what I'm
saying, the atonement that our Lord Jesus Christ made by the
shedding of His blood, by offering His soul as a sacrifice for our
sins, is so sufficient and efficient and so complete that it completely
does away with our sins, and God says, I won't even remember
them against you no more. And as I read that, I thought
of that, thy prayers and thine alms are come up before a memorial,
before God, He remembers that, but He won't remember. The only
thing that God forgets is our sin. It's the only thing He forgets. I don't know whether that helps
you, but that helps me. My God, I couldn't sleep at night. I couldn't go during the day
if I realized and thought that I would have to die in peace. Oh, I wouldn't have a good day. I talk to my mother here about
every Sunday morning on the phone, and that's the first thing she
asks is, do you have a good day? Do you have a good night's rest? I wouldn't have a good day or
a good night's rest if I thought I had to face my sins, the ugliness
and all this inward, these thoughts and acts. My God, would you want
to face that? If you haven't got a sacrifice
or a covering for your sins, you'll face them. I don't want
to face them. And no wonder, no wonder a man
who is awakened to the fact that he's a sinner, when he hears
the good news that Christ put away his sins and made an end
to them, that he flees to the Lord Jesus Christ and holds on
to that and is willing to devote himself by that soul and every
drop of blood that runs the course of his veins to his service. Oh, that's something. That's
something. Yeah. Well, listen. He is a devout
man. Well, the Bible does say this. Jesus said, My sheep hear my
voice, and they follow me. And he also told them in that
same chapter, John chapter 10, "...other sheep I have which
are not in this fold, they must hear and be brought to the fold."
This is one of them other sheep right here. This is one of them
other sheep. He's got to hear. He's got to
hear. And God has already brought about
a vision. And this fellow's talked to an
angel. And twenty-seven miles down the road is another fellow,
and he's going to have a vision, and an angel's going to talk
to him, and they're going to bring these two together. And
this fellow's going to hear the gospel, the gospel of the good
news of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's going to be saved. Not only
him, but all of here. I was talking to Brother Mahan
here on the phone yesterday. The fellow that's out there working
on And I'm railing up, and I was talking to him, and I said, I
just read the greatest sermon that I ever read in my life.
And I said, I've heard lots of great sermons. I said, as a matter
of fact, I've heard you preach some great sermons. And he said,
thank you. But I said, this sermon that
I read was greater than any sermon you ever preached. And he was
real quiet. And I said, for this reason,
the sermon that I read in the 10th chapter of the book of Acts,
everybody that heard the sermon was saved. And I said, I heard
you preach some great sermons, and as far as I know, nobody's
saved. He said, that's right. And he had his Bible, and he
opened it up real quick, and we began to read together. He
said, that is a great sermon. I said, It must be. It's all
the same. Isn't it? It's remarkable. It's all the
same. I'll read that to you. It says
in verse 4 to 4, While Peter yet spake these
words, and the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit, fell on all them
which heard the word. The Holy Spirit fell upon all
of them, and all of them believed. We'll talk about that in a little
bit. Well, anyhow, let me go on with this. Now, Cornelius
was instructed by an angel. Instructed in this way. The angel told him who to send
for. And he said, for one Simon, whose
surname is Peter." That's what our Lord said, Simon son of Bar-Jonah. He said, from now on, you're
going to be known as Peter. That's your surname. Now, one
Simon, who is surnamed Peter, The angel here did not attempt
to convert this man. The angel, doing the bidding
of God Almighty, came on the mission to tell Cornelius to
send for Peter, or Simon, whose surname is Peter, send for him,
he's got something to say to you. But the angel, he did not
try to convert this fellow. You notice that? He didn't try
to convert Cornelius. He didn't say, I just come down
from heaven. I've seen things up there you
wouldn't believe. No, sir, he didn't try to convert
him. But his mission was to direct Cornelius to send for Peter,
and he told Peter where to find him. That is, he said, he lodgeth
or he lives with one Simon the Tanner in a city called Joppa. Oh, listen, he knew the surnames
of these fellas. He knew where they lived and
what they was doing because God had told him. And he said, you
go and See this fella, and he'll tell you, verse 6, it says, He
lodges with one Simon the Tanner, whose house is by the seaside.
He shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do. And old Cornelius, his obedience
was prompt. Straightway. He did precisely
what the angel commanded. He didn't say, well, I've got
a better idea. That's what people tell me now.
When I preach to them the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, and
I tell them there's no other way to God except through the
Lord Jesus Christ, and I tell them who Christ is, that He's
God and man, and I tell them that the God-man went to the
cross and satisfied the law and justice God, and God's pleased
with them, and the good news is that he died for sinners,
and I tell folks to receive the Lord Jesus Christ. You know what
they tell me? Oh, they say, I don't think you
have to do that. I don't think... You ought to
listen to what God says and bow to what God says. Don't give
me this argument that I know better. I know better. I've had
people argue with me about the Bible. I've never read the Bible
more than one or two times in 40 years. Argue with the Bible. Argue with a man who spent his
life reading the Bible. If I wasn't telling you the truth
this morning, under God, I'd quit. I'm dealing with a man's
soul. I'm not dealing with $25. I'm
not dealing with a new car, or a piece of furniture, or a mule,
or a horse, or a calf. I'm dealing with a man's soul.
I'm going to tell him the truth, so help me God I'm going to tell
him the truth. How he can come to God. That's
the most important thing that will ever happen to a man in
time or in eternity, is to find out the truth in regard to how
he can come to God. And I ain't going to sit around
and try just to get a church full of people. Make a name for yourself. That's
what most preachers do. They want to make a name for
themselves. They want to be recognized. I don't care if nobody in Marin
County knows my name or the state of West Virginia that knows what
my name is. I'd like for them to know the
name of Him who reluctantly gave himself for me, the Lord Jesus
Christ. I'm not trying to make no name.
If I did, I'd start giving some prizes out here. Put some dollar
bills or ten dollar bills in a song book. Then pass the word
around through the community. I guarantee you I'd have some
folks here. What would they come for? Not to hear what I got to
say. They'd come for the ten dollar bill. Hoping that the
ten dollar bill would be in their hymn book. And that's the kind
of shenanigans and tricks that preachers in churches do in order
to... And they think they're doing
people a favor only adding to their condemnation. That's all. Prompt obedience, straight
way. He did precisely what he was
told to do. True faith never attempts to
improve on divine instruction. Oh, listen to me now. I'm going
to tell you some more here in a minute. But anyhow, in verse
44, it says, and I'll not read the account with Peter and all
that. You can read that later on. But
just to tell you that Peter and Cornelius met. Peter and Cornelius
met. Brought them about. And verse
32, it says, Send therefore to Joppa, and call hither Simon,
whose surname is Peter. He lodges in the house of one
Simon, a tanner by the seaside." Here he knew what his nickname
was. He knew where he was at. The angel of God told him who
to go to, where he was at. He's living down there in the
house of Simon the tanner, and his house is by the seaside.
And, "...who, when he cometh, shall speak unto thee." Immediately
therefore, this is Peter talking, I sent to thee, and thou hast
well, or I mean Cornelius, thou hast well done that thou art
come. Now therefore, are we all here
present before God? Cornelius says to Peter, now
here we are. I did what the angels said and
sent those men down there, and here we are. We're right here
in your presence. before God Almighty, to do what? To hear the things that are commanded
thee of God. Tell us now what we're to hear,
is what he's saying. And Peter opened his mouth. That's
the only way you can speak and communicate, is open your mouth. He opened his mouth and he said,
Of a truth, he started talking about the sovereignty of God
right off the bat. Of a truth I perceive that God
is no respecter of persons. That means this, the Jews believed,
as I told you at the outset, that they were to have nothing
to do with the Gentile dogs. They wouldn't even sit down beside
a Gentile. It was almost a criminal offense
to be seen talking to a Gentile. That's how narrow and bigoted
the Jews were in reference to the Gentiles. And so what God
is saying here through Peter is that, I don't consider these
diversities of nationalities and colors and skins like the
human race does. I'm not like that. What he's
telling him is that the gospel is not just for the Jews, it's
for every man that desires to go to heaven when he dies. The
gospel is for all men. black, white, red, yellow, Gentiles,
Muslims, Jews, whatever, whoever will hear. All right? He says,
God is no respecter of persons in every nation. He that feareth
him worketh righteousness is accepted with him, accepted with
God. The Word which God sent unto the children of Israel,
preaching peace by Jesus Christ, He is Lord of all. That Word,
I say, ye know, which was published throughout all Judea, and began
from Galilee after the baptism which John preached, how God
anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power,
who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed
of the devil, for God was with him, and we are witnesses of
all these things he did both in the land of the Jews and in
Jerusalem, whom They slew and hanged on a tree. Him whom they
slew and hanged on a tree, Him preaching peace by Jesus Christ,
He is Lord of all. Him whom they slew and hanged
on a tree, Him, verse 40, God raised up from the dead the third
day, and showed him openly, everybody's seen him, there's 5,000 witnesses,
eyewitnesses. He showed him openly. Listen
to this now, verse 41. Not to all the people, that is,
every single solitary soul living at that time, didn't see. Not
to all the people, but there were spatial people that did
see. But unto witnesses chose. That's election, witnesses chosen,
chosen before of God, even us. Who did eat and drink with him?
When? After he rose from the dead. And he commanded us, Peter said,
to preach unto the people and to testify that it is he that
God raised from the dead, which was ordained of God, ordained
of God before time ever was, to be the judge of the quick
and the dead, to be the judge of those that are alive and those
that are dead when Jesus Christ comes. You see, a man's got to
He's got to somehow, in his confrontation with the Lord Jesus Christ, make
reconciliation somehow. Because the Lord Jesus Christ,
when he comes, according to this verse, he's going to judge those
that are alive and those that are dead. The dead are going
to give up. The graves are going to give
up the dead. The sea is going to give up her
dead, and all of the dead ones that died outside of Jesus Christ,
and all of those that are alive when He comes outside of Jesus
Christ, are all going to be gathered together. And Him, who they hung
up on a tree, and God raised Him the third day, said that
He's going to come and judge Everybody's going to face Jesus
Christ sooner or later. Face Him as a Redeemer, Savior,
Righteousness, Reconciliation, Redemption, Justification, or
face Him as their Judge. And if we wait until we face
Him as our Judge, there'll be no mercy. There's not going to
be mercy in this judgment. When this man... man that goes
through this life and says, I'll take my chances, I think I'll
be all right. I can, I got the art of persuasion
by way of argument, or I can bring up my life, or I can bring
up my wife. Witnesses, they'll speak for
me. It won't do no good there. You ain't got no witnesses. And
ain't nobody going to speak for you. Everybody's going to be
concerned about themselves. And even if you could find someone,
or even if you did have something good to say, God wouldn't hear
you. Because He's going to deal with you on the strict basis
of His holy law. Brother, we ain't got a Chinaman's
chains. I appeal to you this morning,
you hear? Seek the Lord while He may be
found. This is the day of grace. This is a day of grace right
now. One day this thing is going to shut up. And it ain't going
to be no day of grace, it's going to be a day of judgment. But
it's a day of grace now. Well, anyhow, that's what He
said. And He commanded us to preach
unto the people and to testify that it is He, that's the Lord
Jesus, that you slew, you hang Him on a tree. He's ordained
of God. be the judge of the quick and
the dead." Now, listen to this, "...to him gave all the prophets,"
even the prophets back yonder in the old days, they talked
about the Lord Jesus Christ. "...God gave them witnesses of
him, and through his name," listen to this, "...and through his
name, whosoever believeth in him shall do," what? "...shall
receive remission of sins," remittance of sins. The sins are done away
with. The good news of the gospel is
that Jesus Christ stood in my stead, in my place, in my room,
and in His own body. He hung upon that tree and He
bore in His body the penalty for my sin. He bore that in Himself. That's the good news to my poor
heart that I don't have to bear. So you say, well, why do you
believe in the Lord? That's the reason I believe in Him. He bore
my sins. He bore my penalty. My penalty. He bore it. And I'm complete
in Him. I don't need anything else. I
don't need your recommendation, or my wife's recommendation,
or the President of the United States' recommendation. I've
been made accepted in the Beloved. See what I'm talking about? All
right. And while Peter yet spake these
words," now, Peter preached to them, didn't he? He was preaching.
From verse 36 on down, or verse 35 on down, he was preaching. And it says, while he was preaching,
now listen to this, verse 44, while Peter yet spake these words,
he was still preaching. Something happened. Something
happened. The Holy Spirit fell on all them which heard the word.
There was Cornelius. And his near kinsmen, his wife
and children and the rest of them, his band, all of them that
was gathered there, all that was interested, they all gathered
there. And while Peter was speaking,
the Holy Spirit fell on them, just like it fell on the day
of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit fell on them, fell on all them
which heard the Word. Now let me tell you this, I can't
explain why Well, let me put it this way. I can explain what
the Spirit does. Let me read something to you
here in the book of John, chapter 3. I'll find that real quick
and read something to you here. Our Lord's speaking to this man
called Nicodemus, and he said this. Nicodemus said, How is
it that a man can be born when he's old? Our Lord said, Except
a man be born again, he can't see the kingdom of God. And this
Jew, this religious Jew, he says to the Lord Jesus, he said, well,
I just don't, I can't reason that thing out. I don't understand
what you're talking about. How can a man be born when he's
old? He said, I'm an old man. How
can I be born again when I'm old? Can I crawl back into my
mother's womb a second time? How can a man be born when he's
old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb,
be born? Can't do that, can you? Huh? How is a hundred pound or
a hundred and fifty pound man going to crawl back into his
mother's womb and be born again? That's ridiculous. I don't know
why he even mentioned that. Why he even talked like that.
Showed how religious he was, but no grace. And our Lord Jesus
Christ said this. Jesus answered. He hadn't explained
anything to him. I can't explain. I can explain
what the Spirit does, but how He does it, I can't explain it.
I know the Spirit of God fell upon those people, and I know
those people believed what the preacher preached, and those
people were saved. I know that. Listen to what it
says here. Jesus said, Verily, verily, I
say unto you, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit,
he cannot enter the kingdom of God. He said, That which is born
of the flesh is flesh. That is, this fleshly body right
here. Flesh, flesh, natural. That's all it'll ever be. But
that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. Something's got to
take place by the work of the Spirit of God that I might be
born again. And whatever that is that is
born again is of the Spirit. See? He said, Marvel not that
I say unto you, ye must be born again. Don't be amazed at that.
He said, The Spirit, now listen, the wind bloweth where it That
is, the wind bloweth where it wants to. And they said, you
hear the sound thereof. The wind does what it wants to
do. You hear the sound of the wind, but you cannot tell whence
it cometh. You don't know where the wind
comes from. You think it's coming from the east. When you say the
wind's coming from the east, well, what have you said when
you said that? Where's the east at? You say, well, it comes from
the north. Well, what have you said when
you said that? He said, you don't know where it comes from. Listen,
you cannot tell whence it cometh or where it goes. So is everyone
that's born of the Spirit. Now, let me say this. I said
I can't explain or I can't explain what the Spirit does. But how
He does it, I don't pretend to know. The work of the Holy Spirit
is the peculiar mystery of Christian religion. Who knows where the
wind comes from? Who knows how the Spirit works? He's like the wind, and the wind
blows where it listens. You can hear the sound, but where
it comes from, you don't know. Only God knows that. So I want
to tell you what the Holy Spirit does. But I can't tell you how he does
it. Now, in the work of conversion,
when he fell upon these men, the Holy Spirit did something.
Let me try to just say a few things here about what happened
when the Holy Spirit fell upon those men. Well, listen. First, when the Holy Spirit fell
upon this holy band, it was an awakening of the powers that
man already had." Remember now, it was an awakening of the powers
that man already had. Now, first of all, when the Holy
Spirit, in conversion, falls upon a man, he awakens the mental
powers of that individual that he falls upon. Now, remember
that the Holy Spirit does not give any man new, N-E-W, mental
powers. Take, for instance, reason. We all have reason. Now, the
Holy Spirit, when he falls upon a man in conversion, he does
not give men reason, for they have reason prior to their conversion. What he does is dissent. our reason in the right direction
or put our reason on the right track so we can use our reason
for the right purpose. I say that because men say this,
and this is what the Bible says that men say, men say that there
is a way. There is a way that seemeth right
unto man. There is a way. Now, this is
one of the ways. Do the best you can, be sincere,
love your wife, love your children, and open your Bible, and go to
church every now and then, or go all the time if you want to,
and pray three or four times a day, and do those things, and
quit cussing, and quit this, and quit that, and you don't
have to worry about anything. Everything's going to be all
right when you die. There is a way, you see. that seemeth
right." Now, that seems right. That seems right. If someone
had told me that about 40-some years ago, I would have said,
well, that seems good to me. I think that's what I'll do.
I think I'll just quit this foolishness, and I think I'll start doing
right. There's a way that seems right unto man, but in the end,
it's the ways of death. What I'm saying is, what He does
is set our reason in the right direction, so we can use it for
the right purpose and know the difference between the precious
and the vile. Listen, the Holy Spirit does
not give a man a will before a man, because a man has a will
prior to his conversion. But what the Holy Spirit does
when he falls upon men, he makes that will that he has prior to
conversion, that was in bondage to Satan, he makes that will
free to the service of God. Now, the Holy Spirit gives no
man the power to think or the organ of belief, because he has
the power to think prior to conversion. Man has power to believe or think
as far as the mental act is concerned prior to conversion. But the
Holy Spirit, when he falls upon a man, he gives that belief that's
already there a tendency or a persuasion to believe the right thing. And the right thing is the gospel
in this case. And he gives the power of thought,
the propensity to think in the right way. And when the Holy
Spirit falls upon us, we have the right reason, and we go in
the right direction, and we begin to think as God would have us
to think, And our mind then desires to walk in the steps of revealed
truth. And that's what happened. That's
what happened when the Holy Spirit fell upon these fellows right
here. Now listen, let me tell you this. When a man is converted
to God, it's like that. It's done instantaneously. When
a man is converted unto God in regeneration, it's that way. Regeneration is an instantaneous
work. The Holy Spirit of God is the
author of regeneration. Regeneration is an instantaneous
work, conversion to God. is the fruit of regeneration,
and conversion occupies all of our life from the time of regeneration
until the time we die. We're being converted to God
every day. It occupies all of our lives,
but regeneration is effected in an instant, in an instant,
in an instant, when the Holy Spirit falls upon a people. and
that man is regeneration. In an instant, a man who hates
God, the Holy Spirit makes him to love God. A man is opposed
to the Lord Jesus Christ and that man hates the gospel of
Jesus Christ. He does not understand the gospel
of Jesus Christ and he will not receive the gospel of the Lord
And when the Holy Spirit comes, he puts light into that man's
darkened understanding and frees him from the chain of Satan's
bondage and gives him liberty in his conscience. He gives life
to his dead soul. It's instantaneous. It's supernatural. It's the work of God's Holy Spirit. working as He willeth in the
sons or among the sons of men. Listen, while Peter yet spake
these words, preached to them. What did he preach? He preached
the same thing that I preach every time I preach, that Jesus
Christ has made an end of sin. Believe it. I tell people, believe
it. Believe it. Believe it. Not very many believe
it. Not very many in my lifetime
have ever believed it. But if the Holy Spirit of God
ever falls, man's going to believe it. I don't know who he's going
to fall for. I don't know. I'm just trying
to be obedient to this. He said, preach the gospel to
every creature. And that's what I'm trying to do. I don't want
anybody to go out of here, any time they ever come in here for
any kind of a service, I don't want them to leave and say in
their mind, I never heard the gospel. I heard the guy talk,
he said a lot of good things. He talked about prophecy, he
talked about the parables, and he talked about politics, and
he told us how to live and what to do and what not to do, but
he didn't tell me how to die! See? That's what I want to tell
people. I ain't talking to them about
how to live. My God, you know how to live. What you need to know is how
to die. By the gospel. See? See? Peter spake these words,
and the Holy Ghost fell upon them. All of them which heard the word.
And it's all the same. Now, they have the circumcision.
Now, when Peter came from Joppa to Caesarea, or vice versa, when Cornelius
came from Caesarea to Joppa, whatever happened there, I don't
remember, Peter brought some men with him. Some say it was
seven men, some say it was three or four men. They come with Peter. I don't know whether they come
with the same idea that Peter had or when they thought, well,
these two men was in a trance, a vision, and something big is
going to happen and we don't want to miss out on it. I don't
know why they came. But they came with Peter. And they are of the
circumcision. That's the Jewish people. Circumcision. Every Jew, when he was so many
days old, had to be circumcised. He had to be. He didn't have
anything to do with health or anything like that. It was a
law commanded by God that every Jew, it was a mark of identification. You be circumcised. Why? When Moses refused to circumcise
his children, you know what God said? God said, Zipporah said,
you better get them circumcised or I'm going to kill old Moses.
Is that what he said? So I'm going to kill old Moses if you
don't circumcise them children. And she took a plenty wrong.
She took a flinty rock and she went out there and cut the foreskins
off every male child in her family. And she looked at old Moses and
said, you're a bloody man, Moses. It's a sign of identification. That's
what it was. Had nothing to do with it. That
doesn't have anything to do with it. Now, you can be circumcised
or not circumcised. Doesn't make a difference whether you circumcise
your children or whether you do. Doesn't make a difference. But they probably
need it. But anyhow, we ain't going to
get on that. And they of the circumcision,
which believed, that is, these people with Peter, they're Jews,
and they believed the gospel, and they was with Peter, probably
members of that church up there. And they believed they were astonished,
that is, they was amazed. They never heard tell of a Gentile,
the Holy Ghost falling upon a Gentile, Gentile people being saved, they
were nothing but dogs. Remember, God said here through
Peter, He said, and Peter opened his mouth and said, Of a truth
I perceive that God is not a respecter of persons like you are. You
looking down on them Gentiles over there and calling them dogs
of God? God, He don't look at them like that. See? Alright. And they were astonished. They
were amazed that the Holy Ghost was following those people. Because
the Gentiles also, I was poured out, on the Gentiles was also
poured out the gift of the Holy Spirit. And when they heard them
speak with tongues, these people spoke with other languages. Same as happened on the day of
Pentecost. They spoke with other languages, other tongues. They didn't go to language school.
It wasn't gibberish. It wasn't Pentecostalism. There's
someone who jumped up and did all that business like Jimmy
Swagger does on the television every once in a while to gain
your attention. You ever heard him? All at once he'd be going along
and he hadn't got anything else to say or nowhere to go and it
looks like he's losing his crowd. Everybody said, who's he talking
to? Shut up. He ain't speaking any
languages. He just wants your attention,
that's all. He's preaching himself. He ain't preaching Christ and
Him crucified. He wants the attention. He wants
you to look at him. Look at me. Look at my new suit.
Look at my Cadillac and Rolls Royce. Look at my Rolex. Listen. For they heard them speak with
tongues, and they magnified God. They magnified God. Then answered
Peter. And he looked to those brethren,
these seven Jews or whatever they were. He looked down and
he said, Now, can any man forbid water? I'm going to baptize these
brethren. Baptism for saved people. He
that believeth in him is baptized. That's the order. He that believes
and is baptized. He said, Can any man forbid water,
that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy
Ghost as well as we? And not one of them fellows said,
I vote against you. No, sir. And he commanded them
to be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then prayed
they him to tarry. They said, Stay with us a while.
You see what I'm talking about now? Two men, the providential
realm of God is brought together, one a poor sinner and the other
a preacher. How can they preach except to
be sinned? How can they hear without a preacher?
God uses the foolishness of preaching. Preachers, God calls, ordains,
sets them apart, instructs them, teaches them the gospel. How
can a man hear except to have a preacher? And how, listen to
me, how can he preach except to be sent? And how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the glad tidings of the gospel. The two got together. He preached the Word. The Holy
Spirit fell. Now you see why I said it's the
greatest sermon I ever read? Everyone was there. The Holy
Spirit fell on them and they're all saved and they're baptized. Less than will be dismissed.
Meet again at 6 o'clock.