acts chapter ten uh... like to talk to you this
morning a little bit about uh... uh... to talk to you this morning about
a subject that uh... sometimes people don't understand
whenever we talk about certain things they kind of get a little
confused maybe you know I'll be honest with you a lot of times
we get hung up in terminologies we all have a terminology and
words Are only as good as the meanings that are put into them
words. If we don't know what that particular meaning is that
a person, whenever a person uses that word, you know, if we don't
know what they're intending in that meaning. then we don't know
exactly what they're thinking or saying or holding to. So sometimes
it's very important that we distinguish ourselves, that we define what
we mean by certain things. You know, a lot of times I'll
be approached by certain people and they'll kind of know a little
bit what I believe and they'll ask me, they'll say, are you
a Calvinist? And at that point, I will usually
say, well, you know, What do you mean by that? You know because
someone can just basically mean do you believe in tulip? And
at that point I could probably agree with them on Yes, I believe
in tulip, but even at that I don't have to ask them What what do
you mean by tulip because even within tulip there are some differing
opinions about man's depravity about limited atonement. There is some distinguishing
things between certain doctrines of grace believers on preservation.
So even at Tulip, I just can't just stop there. And sometimes
we have to define our terms, but usually, you know, they're
meaning, do you believe in the doctrines of grace? most of the
time they don't believe you know they're not saying are you a
calvinist meaning are you a baby baptizer or you know are you
a uh a sacramentalist or you know something like that so whenever
we come to terms about like being saved You know, that word saved
has a broad meaning in scripture. There is places where the word
saved speaks about what happened in eternity. There's places when
the term saved speaks about what Jesus did on the cross. There are terms when saved implies
something that happens whenever we are quickened. Then there
is saved that talks about during this lifetime of preservation
and perseverance. Temporal salvation saved from
certain things in this lifetime because of Christ keeping. And then there are times that
the word saved has connotation to eternal glory. Whenever Christ
comes again, being glorified, being brought into the eternal
state. And so whenever someone says,
you know, how are you saved? You know, there again, you have
to say, well, what do you mean by that? You know, there's different
ways that we approach some of these words and they have to
be defined. Well, one thing that I find is
pretty common among a lot of sovereign grace people is that
they say that we are saved, that there is one gospel, and only
that one gospel is the gospel that saves. I don't know if you've
probably heard that or not, but there are a lot of people that
says that we are saved by the gospel. And in that, I have to
always ask, what do you mean by we are saved by the gospel? Because I come from an Armenian
background and was taught in my growing up years that a person
hears the preaching of God's word, And the Holy Spirit takes
that preaching of God's word and convicts the heart and gives
them knowledge of things. And then that person has to make
a choice whether to receive that, accept that, receive Jesus Christ,
allow him into their heart. You know all the phrases that
you hear. And then once you do that, then you are born again. and that born again has everything
to do with hearing the gospel and believing it and accepting
it and letting it into your heart, whatever the case might be. Well,
even on the doctrines of grace side, we hear quite often, we
hear that people are saved by grace through faith by grace
alone, through faith alone, through God's word alone. And so we hear
that God's word is necessary, the preaching of God's word is
necessary for someone to be born again. And as I've studied through scripture,
I've come to understand that we are not saved whether legally,
or saved in quickening by the word of God. It isn't by the
preaching of men that we are saved in the aspects of legality,
justification, or quickening, the experience or the bringing
to life of one. Now, the preaching of God's word
does have to do with salvation as far as temporal things are
concerned, experiential things that are concerned. Whenever
we hear the preaching of God's word and it teaches us what God
says about things, what we should and shouldn't do, how we should
live and shouldn't live, whenever it gives us things about, you
know, Stay away from these things because they're harmful to you
here, they're harmful to you there. You know, whenever we
read that, the preaching of those things do save us from a lot
of turmoil and hurt whenever we heed those things. You know,
whenever the Bible tells us, you know, we were talking last
week revolving around the Lord's Supper and about, the wine and
everything, and we see that the Bible doesn't teach anywhere
that it doesn't say you shouldn't drink, but it says you shouldn't
get drunk. Well, the Bible gives us admonition not to get drunk. Well, if we heed that about entering
into drunkenness, then we are saved from a life of drunkenness,
possible debauchery, fornication, you know, all kinds of stuff
that can come out of drunkenness. And so we are saved in that aspect. But particularly I wanna talk
about this morning, I wanna talk about quickening because a lot
of people seem to think that it is, that the Holy Spirit uses
as means the word of God being preached or being read, a tract,
a book, the Bible, a preacher, uses them as the means by which
the child of grace is born again. And so I want to make some distinctions
here and hopefully make them very clear. I know I'm not a
very good orator nor am I a very good organizer of my thoughts
whenever it comes to sermons, but I just would like to Basically
gives some evidence from scripture that one is born again before
they ever Come to hear the gospel and that is by Actual, you know
if you look at it by necessity has to take place anyway because
of what the Bible says about the natural man and So I know
that this is this this meets a lot of issues with people because
they keep saying that the word of God is the instrumentality
that God uses with the Holy Spirit. He uses the living word or the
word that brings life. And I just want to make clear
that there are places in scripture where we are taught that people
were born again before they ever heard the word of God and I wanted
to bring that out to you and specifically in one man particularly
but before we get there I just wanted to read a couple things
now you can you can read and follow these if you want to we're
going to be looking mainly in Acts chapter 10 at Cornelius
this morning but I wanted to read back in Psalms chapter 22 Psalms 22 David wrote a few things
here. He said in verse 9 He said, but thou art he that
took me out of the womb. Thou did make me hope when I
was upon my mother's breast. I was cast upon thee from the
womb. Thou art my God from my mother's
belly. Be not far from me for trouble
is near, for there is none to help me. Now, David was writing
this, and this is also, and I'll be honest with you, and I'll
stand here for correction if anybody wants to bring that,
or anybody that hears and wants to contact me on this. David
is writing this. This is a Psalm of David. So this is coming actually from
David's heart. The Holy Spirit is inspiring
the words to David, and David is writing these words down.
but i also believe that this is things that are coming from
david's heart what was going on with david at the time however
just like a lot of things that we see in the old testament there
is new testament uh fulfillment of that. There is a type and
there's a foreshadow that shows something that is true. And I
believe that this 22nd Psalm is also a prophecy or a type pointing to
Christ and what he would experience whenever he came, David was a
type of Christ. And David experienced some things
that typified what Christ was going, not exactly, not, you
know, identical things, you know, David wasn't crucified, he didn't
have his beard plucked out, he didn't have all this going on.
But we see that David experienced some things and that those experiences
was from his heart. And he wrote about those things,
praying to God in these times of instances. Now, whether or
not this 9, 10, and 11 has anything to do with David himself, if
David was hoping upon his mother's breasts, if he was cast upon
God from his womb, I don't know. If we look at the life of David,
we see that even as a young child, David loved the Lord. He trusted
in the Lord. If you remember, he was just
a young man whenever he faced Goliath. And he was the only
one out of all of God's army that stood out there that trusted
in God, that God would deliver them from the Philistines. And so we've seen that even as
a young boy, David trusted upon the Lord. So whether that has
to do with Christ, which I know that's also true of Christ, But
again, Christ wasn't born again. Christ was filled with the Holy
Spirit without measure. And he was always that way. He
didn't receive the Holy Spirit some point in time. He actually,
whenever he was conceived in his mother's womb, was conceived
of the Holy Spirit and was given the Holy Spirit without measure
from conception. And so he was that way because
he is God. There's no way he could ever
not be full of the Holy Spirit at all times because he's God.
That's his spirit. And so he has that spirit without
measure because the Holy Spirit is his spirit. But anyway, I
seen that in Psalms and couldn't help but think that that possibly
could even be speaking of David actually himself as the writer.
But also in Jeremiah, we read, who also is another type of Christ,
but in this certain passage, he's not prophesying of Jesus,
but in Jeremiah chapter one. We find something spoken about
Jeremiah. It says in Jeremiah chapter one
in verse five, or excuse me, verse four, it says, then the
word of the Lord came unto me saying, before I formed thee
in the belly, I knew thee. Now this is that foreknowledge
that we talk about all the time in the New Testament, where it
talks about those who he foreknew. That word foreknew there doesn't
mean that he had some cognitive understanding of a man who would
exist later in time called Jeremiah. It wasn't talking about some
prophetic vision that he's seeing of the future events that would
soon take place, and he would see a man named Jeremiah. This
means before I formed thee, he said, I knew thee, And this word
new has the same meaning, just like we see in the New Testament,
has the same meaning of a relationship, of a love, or as an intimate
knowledge of. He said, before I formed thee
in the belly, I knew thee. And before thou camest forth
out of the womb, I sanctified thee and ordained thee a prophet
unto the nations. So before Jeremiah was even born,
the Lord had sanctified him. Of course, we know nobody can
be sanctified that ain't justified. And now I know that Jeremiah
here, it doesn't say that he was quickened right away, but
he was set apart for being a prophet of God before he was even born,
which to me, at the very least, shows that he was predestinated
to be a child of grace before he was ever born. and that it
didn't have anything to do with him choosing or not choosing,
that God had foreordained before that he would be a prophet of
God and that thus, if he's gonna be a prophet of God, he's gonna
be a child of grace. And so that he was sanctified
or set apart for God's use, for God's purposes before he ever
came out of the womb. And so I would tend to lean that
one would have to be born again before that could be taking place. Now again, I know that there
is a little bit of gray area over that, nothing definite,
a lot of inference maybe on that and everything. And I'm okay
with that. But let's look also in Luke chapter one, if you're
turning with me in Luke chapter one. Matter of fact, let's go back
up to verse 13. It says, but the angel said unto
him, fear not Zacharias for thy prayer is heard and thy wife
Elizabeth shall bear thee a son and thou shalt call his name
John and thou shalt have joy and gladness and many shall rejoice
at his birth. for he shall be great in the
sight of the Lord and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink
and he shall be, here it is, filled with the Holy Ghost even
from his mother's womb. Okay, so here we see an instance of John the Baptist who the Bible
declares was filled with the Holy Ghost before he was even
born. So if someone ever asks and says,
can you give me an example of anybody who was ever born again
before they heard the gospel? Well, here's an example. John
the Baptist was filled with the Holy Ghost. before he was ever
told the gospel, before he ever heard the gospel, believed the
gospel, made a profession of faith. If your church of Christ
was ever baptized, okay? Whatever the means that people
put up for being born again, here we have a person who was
not even out of the womb yet, but yet the Bible says was filled
with the Holy Ghost from his mother's womb. Look also down
at verse 41. It said, and it came to pass
that when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe
leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost. So here we see that he was filled
with the Holy Ghost in the womb, And later we hear whenever he
heard about, whenever Mary came to visit Elizabeth and heard
about Jesus, Mary being with child and these things, John
the Baptist leaped in the womb. He reacted and responded to the
fact that he heard about Jesus, and I'm assuming that's what
that means, and I could be wrong. And it says, and Elizabeth was
filled with the Holy Ghost, and she spake out with a loud voice
and said, blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit
of thy womb, meaning the Lord spoke through Elizabeth. giving
salutations to Mary and welcoming her because she knew matter of
fact verse 43 and whence is this to me that the mother of my Lord
should come to me. So here we see an instance where
John the Baptist responded to the fact that Christ was being
talked about after The Bible already says that he was filled
with the Holy Ghost. Now, why do I bring that up?
Well, because some say that it was whenever he was told about
Jesus. That's where he heard the gospel
through the room because we all know that babies can hear in
the womb and they can hear what's going out and You know, even
we did whenever Kalen hadn't been born yet. We played music
and talked and I got down with all the kids talking to Lori's
belly, you know, hoping the kids would hear me and all that kind
of stuff. Because we're told by, you know, supposed smart
people that that does make a difference and people can hear inside the
womb and all that kind of stuff. Well, obviously, that must be
true because John the Baptist, whenever he heard about Christ,
the Bible says that he leaped in the womb. And I don't think
that's just an abstract phrase that the Holy Spirit put in there,
that he just leaped in the womb. I don't think he was just, you
know, kicking for no reason because the whole connotation or the
whole context right here is speaking about this coming together of
one who was ordained of God to be born and another who was ordained
of God to be born. And did you notice that both
of them, Jesus and John the Baptist, an angel told them what to name
him? that there was a specific person that was given to raise
these people, these two men, that there was a specific time
and order, that John the Baptist was conceived before Jesus was
conceived, that he was born before Jesus was born, and that his
ministry began before Jesus' ministry. Why? Because all of
that was prophesied in the Old Testament that he would come.
And so, anyway, long story short, I believe that we see here a
great example of John the Baptist being quickened before he was
ever heard the gospel. Turn with me quickly, if you
would, into Romans chapter nine. Romans chapter nine. Again, someone may say, well,
this is a really vague verse. A lot of inference here, but
I'm just saying, whenever we pile up a lot of these verses,
and especially whenever we take those that are clear, like with
John the Baptist and what we'll be looking at in Acts, I think
there is a biblical precedence to believe what we hold to here,
and that there is a defense for that. And that we shouldn't shrug
and back down when people ridicule or criticize or, you know, say
that we're unbiblical. We do have biblical support for
what we believe. Now, if we find correction, I
think if the Bible corrects that or has something else to say,
that shows that our interpretation, our understanding of these things
is off base and we ought to correct that and not hold to that anymore.
But up until now, this is the understanding that I've been
given by God, and I understand it that way. I got to stand on
it that way. And if I have such strong biblical
evidence, then, you know, it's hard for me to move away from
that, no matter how persuasive men's theories and systematic
theologies, you know, work against it, you know. look if you would
have verse 10 Romans 9 10 and not only this but when Rebecca
had also conceived by one even by our father Isaac for the children
not yet being born not yet born neither having done any good
or evil that the purpose of God according to election might stand
not of works, but of him that calleth. It was said unto her,
the elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have
I loved, but Esau have I hated." So here again, we see before
anybody was ever born in the womb, one was a child of grace
and one wasn't a child of grace. Whether Jacob was quickened at
this time, I don't know for sure. But here we see that, again,
at the very least, the predestinating and ordaining of God of the elect
happens apart from any conditions or means that happens through
gospel preaching. through gospel teaching or through
gospel receiving. That doesn't say that those things
aren't important and that God does have a purpose in those
things. But I'm just saying that the quickening or the making
one elect, if you're an Arminian and you're looking at you become
elect by believing, here again, this shatters your whole theory.
This person was elect before they ever heard. He was already
determined to be loved of God and that he would be the one
served by the reprobate. Okay, and so we see that we have
several instances here where before anybody was born, that
salvation was already secured for a specific person, and that
ordaining of ministry and use, sanctification, was already in
place before they ever came out of the womb. One more before
we get into Acts, and that is the Apostle Paul, and that account
is in Galatians chapter one, Galatians chapter 1 Look with me if you would at
verse 15 Paul by the Holy Spirit writes,
but when it pleased God Who separated me from my mother's womb and
called me by his grace to reveal his son in me that I might Preach
him among the heathen immediately. I conferred not with flesh and
blood Okay, but when it pleased God who separated me from my
mother's womb and called me by His grace to reveal His Son in
me. Why? So that I might preach.
So God had a purpose for Paul at one time, but before he was
even set out of his mother's womb, he was separated unto God. Almost exactly like what was
said about Jeremiah. Before you were born, I knew
you. And I separated you, I sanctified
you for a ministry, a specific ministry that I'm gonna have
for you. That's what he told Jeremiah. Well, that's what he
also told Paul. And Paul here said, but who separated
me from my mother's womb and called me by his grace to reveal
his son in me. Now, I don't know about you,
but for a long time, I thought that that comma between verse
15 and verse 16, and called me by his grace, comma, to reveal
his son in me, was a transition. He's talking
about before his mother's womb, and now he's talking about to
reveal his son in me, was talking about Damascus Road. And so it was on the Damascus
Road that God revealed his son in him and quickened Paul. But
if you'll remember, the scriptures don't have commas and chapters
and verses and all that kind of stuff. And it wasn't until,
and there's a brother that I talk to occasionally on the phone
who told me about there are certain Bibles that you can get or read,
and there's some online, the King James Bible, that is in
paragraph form that doesn't have all the chapter verses and breaks. And you can read those in just
paragraph form. And brethren, I'll tell you,
whenever you read the scriptures without man-made breaks in it,
there's a lot of times there's places that the meaning shines
a little bit different than whenever we have these man-made breaks.
that have been put into our scriptures here. And so this is one of them
that was really eye-opening to me. There isn't a break there.
Paul is making one flow. There doesn't seem to be a break
saying what happened in the past to what's happening in the future
until he comes to the next verse. He says, to reveal his son in
me that I might preach. See, he's speaking of something
that's gonna happen in the future, not something that's happened
right now. He says, it pleased God who separated me from my
mother's womb. So again, Paul was separated
for the work of the ministry before he was ever born. He was
separated by God. Now let me ask you, if God separates
you for the work of the ministry before you're ever born, do you
have a choice in that? No, we don't have a choice in
that. My grandpa used to always tell me, and I've told this story
to you guys before, I began to feel like I was called to preach
a long time ago whenever I was a young man. Even before what
I felt I was converted, I felt that I was called to preach. Before I even believed the gospel,
I had this drawing to want to preach. However, I didn't really want
to pastor. You know, I didn't want to be a pastor. I wanted
to be a preacher. I wanted to go out and go from place to place
to place and preach and as I've told you before, go in and stir
it up and leave. You know, get everybody riled
up and then leave and leave it with the pastor to deal with
after I leave. But, and that's just, I'm just joking on that,
that wasn't my intent, but I wanted to go because I didn't want the
responsibility, I didn't want the pressure, I didn't want,
you know, a lot of things. And I've told you that story
before. And I've told, and my grandpa kept telling me, you
know, that he kept saying, he said, you're gonna make a good
pastor one of these days. And I'm like, you know, I just
don't really want that, Pops, I don't wanna be a pastor. Yes,
I wanna be a preacher, but I don't wanna be a pastor and uh he says
whenever the lord brings you he'll give you the desire for
it and uh but yet there was always this desire to be a preacher
And I don't know where it came from. Even as a little kid, you
heard my grandma when she was here telling the story about
me preaching to a tape recorder when I was four. I mean, there
was something that was there. Is that what we see here? Is
that, you know, I always think, is that what it's like? And,
you know, we talk about as preachers that we were called to the ministry,
that we are called of God to be preachers. I was called to
be a preacher. I mean, I believe the scriptures bear out that
there is a divine call that he calls men to do that. And it's
just not a willy-nilly thing. It has nothing to do with seminaries
or educations. I don't have any college education
or seminary. I know a lot of men that don't
have any of that stuff. As a matter of fact, I've seen
a quote this week by a guy who was talking about John Bunyan.
You know, John Bunyan only had like a third grade education.
And John Owen was going to listen to John Bunyan preach one time
and King Charles asked John Owen, he said, what in the world, with
a guy with your understanding and theological knowledge, why
are you going to listen to some two-bit preacher? And he said,
if I could preach to hearts like that two-bit preacher, I'd give
all my education that I have away. And I find that to be true
with most men that have ever went through seminary. They all
say, at the end of it, say, hey, You know, I've learned a lot
more. God has shown me a lot more, given me a more understanding
than seminary ever give me. And so it has nothing to do with
that. We see men are called of God. Paul was given a call of
God before he was ever born. So do men feel that? Is that
the same today? Is that what I experienced? Is
that what other preachers who are called and feel led to the
ministry, is that what they feel? Oh, I think some are false. I
think some listen to their grandmas and their grandpas. I think some
listen to their churches who are pushing them. I think some
may listen to the seminary because they think that they can go there
and get a great education and go in and make a lot of money
being a preacher. But brethren, I can see here
the Bible sets apart men for the ministry before they're ever
born and calls them in due time to that ministry as he did Paul. And I believe Paul's experience
here where it says to reveal his son in me isn't separated from what came
before, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me
by His grace. I think that all goes together.
And so I believe Paul might also have been one who falls into
this category. But turn with me back, if you
would, to Acts chapter two, or excuse me, Acts chapter 10. And
to me, let's look at probably one of the greatest examples
of someone who has been born again before they hear the gospel. And this is in Cornelius. The first thing I want us to
notice here, and as we start up around chapter, verse one,
we're not gonna go through the whole chapter here, but I'm gonna
point out a few things within the chapter. And if you wanna
read the whole chapter, you can see that. Matter of fact, I went
through this chapter and kinda marked and highlighted a lot
of points that shows a lot of great detail about a man who
was born again. But let me just make a few points
this morning as it pertains to Cornelius. The first thing we
notice is that Cornelius, this account of Cornelius here at
the first part of the chapter, was before Cornelius heard the
gospel. Peter had not yet come to preach
the gospel. God had not commanded Peter to
go down and to say things. Cornelius had a vision that someone
would come, but not what he would say. but yet Cornelius already
exhibited the life of one who was born again before, and I'm
gonna let the scriptures define and dictate whether or not this
is true about Cornelius, because I know some men say that Cornelius
wasn't born again, that all those things can be said about somebody
who could be doing that who is not born again, but let's let
the scriptures guide us in this, brethren, and not fancy philosophies. Now, the first thing we notice
here is the Bible says that Cornelius was a devout man. Look at verse
one. It says, there was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius,
a centurion of the band called the Italian band. Verse two,
a devout man and one that feared God with all of his house, which
gave much alms to the people and prayed to God always." Now
the first thing we see here is that he was a devout man. Now that word devout there, I
looked that word up, how it's used throughout the scriptures,
the King James Bible. and i found that in like in second
peter and you don't have to turn there i'll turn there real quick
but i wanted to read to you how it's translated uh this same
greek word is translated in second peter chapter two and verse nine
is translated this way the lord knoweth how to deliver the Godly
the word godly there is that same word devout that the translators
translated devout when it came to Cornelius But it's the same
word and it has the same meaning it has a meaning of reverence
godly reverence So Cornelius was a man who had reverence to
God. He was a godly man. That's what,
whenever we say someone is a godly man, now, I guess I probably
ought to qualify that. Sovereign gracers, whenever we
say that man was a godly man, we mean that he is a God revering
man. Armenians, when they say that
man was a godly man, that means that he is a law abiding man,
a good, good worker, you know, good works and everything. But
it says here that he was a godly man. So the first thing we see
that the Holy Spirit says about Cornelius is that he was a devout
or a reverencing man. And the context here shows us
who he's reverencing whenever it says that he prayed to God
always. So the context here bears out
that the reverence that Cornelius was giving before he ever heard
the gospel, he was giving to God. And he was devout in that. He was consistently reverencing
God. And it says that he also, that
he feared God with all of his house. So not only was Cornelius
that way, but his whole house was that way. So Cornelius isn't
the only one who was born again before he heard the gospel, but
everybody in his house was the same way. They reverenced God,
they feared God. So we see the first thing is
that he was devout. Now, the second thing we see
is that he feared the Lord. Now I wanted to read you in Psalms
85 and verse nine, something that the Bible says. Psalms 85 and verse 9, the Bible
says, Surely His salvation is nigh them that fear Him, that
glory may dwell in our land. Salvation is nigh them that fear
Him. See, the only people that fear
the Lord, that fear God, truly fear God, are those who have
been saved. Now it says here that salvation
is nigh them that fear him. Again, that word saved has a
lot of connotations. But only one who's born again
fears or reverences God. And here we see Cornelius both
fears and reverences God before he has ever yet heard the gospel. We also learn in Psalms, while
I'm back there, let me read 100 Psalms 103. Verse 17, it says, but the mercy
of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that
fear him and his righteousness unto children's children. So
the mercy of God was shown to Cornelius before he ever heard
the gospel. Because it says that the mercy
is shown from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear
him. So here, Cornelius is a man who
fears the Lord. He's a devout man, and mercy,
salvation, has been brought nigh, and mercy has been brought nigh
before he ever heard the gospel. In Psalms 147, we also learn... I hear what you're saying about
turning the pages, sister. I can't turn nothing. In Psalm 147 and verse 11, it
says, the Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him and those
that hope in his mercy. Now, I hope all of some of the
things that I'm saying is kind of starting to come together
for you. Remember the Psalmist said that you caused me to hope
on my mother's breast. those that hope in His mercy.
Mercy is from everlasting to everlasting. It doesn't, mercy
doesn't begin at a specific time for us. It's from everlasting
to everlasting. Those who fear the Lord, the
Bible says, put their hope. Those who know thy name, put
their hope in Him. Our hope is in who God is and
what God has done. And here we see that Cornelius
has done all these things. We see that Paul, it was a misguided
part of his life, but yet we seen that there was that zeal
for God. There was something there that
was driving him and he knew later on that he had been separated
for the work that God had called him to do after his conversion.
And let's make distinct, there is a difference between being
born again and being converted. One has to be born again before
they can be converted. Conversion comes as a change
of mind. Converting, I've been converted
from wrong thinking to right thinking. Repentance is all about,
or is all part of conversion. And so Paul, or excuse me, Acts
writes about, Luke writes about in Acts here, Cornelius is one
who fits the bill. He pleased God. We learn that
later here in just a few minutes. But also in Romans chapter three, Romans chapter 3 and verse 18,
the Bible says, there is no fear of God before their eyes. Whose eyes? Well, if we go back. A few verses it says, and it
is written, there is none righteous, no not one. There is none that
understandeth. There is none that seeketh after
God. They are all gone out of their
way. They are altogether become unprofitable. There is none that
doeth good, no not one. Their throat is an opulent sepulcher
with their tongues. They have used deceit, the poison
of asbestos in their lips. whose mouth is full of cursing
and bitterness, their feet are swift to shed blood, destruction
and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace, have they
not known? There is no fear of God before
their eyes." It's talking about the natural man. It's talking
about the man who's not born from above. They have none of
these things. And so there is no fear of God
before their eyes. So Cornelius has a fear of God
before he ever was heard the gospel. In Psalms 36 verse one, the scriptures
say, the transgression of the wicked saith within my heart,
there is no fear of God before his eyes. So those who are not
born again have no fear of God. only when one is born again that
we are given a fear and a reverencing to God and here we see Cornelius
was one who had such a thing. So the first thing that we see
is that before Peter heard the gospel he showed particular things
that are inherent in one who is born again. Second thing that
we see, that prayers came from Him. Look in verse 4. And when He had looked on him
which was afraid and said, What is it, Lord? And He said unto
him, Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before
God. So whenever the angel appeared
before Cornelius, The angel told Cornelius, if
you remember, he prayed to God always, and he says that he was
fasting and praying later on in Acts. He says that he was
fasting and praying. It says that this came up as
a memorial unto God. As a matter of fact, it was over
in verse 30. It says, And Cornelius said, Four days ago I was fasting
under this hour, and at the ninth hour I prayed in my house. And
behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing and said,
Cornelius, thy prayer is heard, and thine alms are had in remembrance
in the sight of God. So we see that Cornelius not
only prayed, which was indicative of a child of grace. Now, there
are people who are not Christians who pray. They have these false
professions, especially whenever someone's sick and about to die
in the hospital. All of a sudden, God becomes
alive to them and they want to pray. But yet the rest of the
time, they don't have any use for God. OK. But we're talking
about a man who was earnestly praying before God because I
said he prayed to God always And so we see that but in Proverbs
chapter 15 and verse 29 the Bible says that God only hears the
Prayers of the righteous. Let me read that to you real
quickly Proverbs chapter 15 And verse 29, it says, the Lord
is far from the wicked, but he heareth the prayer of the righteous. And so the Lord had heard the
prayers of Cornelius. So Cornelius was described as
righteous before he had ever heard the gospel. Another reason
why I believe in eternal justification. We are righteous before God not
based upon our faith, not based upon our hearing the gospel,
our receiving the gospel, our good works, anything. We're declared
righteous before God by our substitute and his finished work and his
righteousness. It says they've come up for a
memorial before God. If you'll remember, the Bible
speaks a lot about memorials and that they are put up before
God as reminders or remembrances of who God is. So the fact that
Cornelius was praying was a remembrance or a reminder of the work of
God. The very fact that his, because
it isn't something fancy about Cornelius's prayer, and God says,
oh, that's a fancy prayer. I'm gonna hang that up so everybody
can see your prayer and, you know, remember your prayer. No, he said, the fact that you're
praying, your prayers have come up before God as a memorial to
remind. God doesn't need to be reminded,
but he's speaking in human terms that we understand. Him praying
is a remembrance that he is one of God's elect, that he is one
of God's children whom God has saved and has caused to have
this heart to pray to him, to seek after him. And as I said
here, to give alms to others, to be assistants and have ministry
to others. That was something that Cornelius
had. Now thirdly, we see that Peter
acknowledged this very thing. Look in verse 34 of Acts 10.
Acts 34. Acts 10, verse 34, I'm sorry. It says, Then Peter opened his
mouth and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons,
but in every nation he that feareth Him and worketh righteousness
is accepted with God. So here before Peter even goes
into telling him about Jesus, because he doesn't start that
until verse 37. See, verse 37 is whenever he
begins to preach to him Jesus. But before that, he says that
Peter perceived of God that there is no respect of persons. Why
is that? Because God showed that to him in a vision before Cornelius
sent the men to come and get him. He's seen that on the rooftop,
God had showed him that he's no respect of persons. What God
has called clean, you're not to call unclean. And that was
all talking about the inclusion of Gentiles. And so Peter was
one of the first ones to be sent to the Gentiles. As Brother Larry
mentioned last week, it wasn't just Paul who was the one sent
to the Gentiles, that Peter also had a ministry down to the Gentiles.
It wasn't as expansive ministry as Paul's. Paul's was specifically
for the Gentiles, but both had overlapping ministries. Paul
did come back and minister to the church at Jerusalem, but
he also ministered to the Gentiles more specifically. But here we
see Peter has recognized in Cornelius the fact that he feareth God
and has been worth righteousness. And he says anyone who falls
in that category is accepted with God. And so even Peter realizes
that Cornelius, before the Gospel is even being preached to him,
is accepted of God. So brother, I think as we look
in here, There's a lot more things that
you can look at. As a matter of fact, in verse 22, you can
see it says, And they said, Cornelius the centurion, a just man, and
one that feareth God, and of good report among all the nation
of the Jews, was warned by God, by a holy angel, to send to thee,
for thee, into this house, and to hear words of thee. So here
the scriptures declare that Cornelius was a just man, one that feared
God, and had a good report, among all the nations of the Jews. In verse 28, we see, God has
shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean. So he recognized it in Cornelius
when he came in there, not to judge him as unclean. So there's a lot of things that
we see in here, and I think that we can conclude from what we
see in Acts chapter 10 and some of the other verses that we talked
about that seem to be more inference in gray areas, that when we look
at here, we can say that the Bible teaches that the quickening
happens before ever there is a preacher ever come on the scene.
And so what this is all about is denying or refuting the notion
of gospel quickening, or gospel regeneration is what they call
it in systematic theology, gospel regeneration. But you know my
thoughts on the word regeneration. It's not proper in what we mean
by quickening. Gospel birth, gospel new birth,
gospel rebirth, gospel quickening, whatever the term you want to
put in there. There is no using of the word of God as a tool
to cause one to come alive. The Bible says that the spirit
blows where it lists. that the Holy Spirit is the agent
that is used and he doesn't use a tool to do that. He does that. He is life. The Bible says that
Jesus has been given power over all flesh to give eternal life
to as many as the Lord has given to him and to as many as he chooses
to give it to. which are the ones that God given
to him. And he sends the Holy Spirit into our hearts so that
we would cry, Abba Father. Where he sent into Cornelius
where he cried, God, in fear and reverence, devoutness. So Cornelius, I believe, is a
great Bible example of what the Bible teaches regarding the new
birth. The Bible says in John chapter
one and verse 13, It says, we were born not of
blood, nor of the will of man, or excuse me, the will of the
flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. We are born of God. And so that is necessary before
any man can see, as John tells us in John chapter three, before
any man can even see the kingdom of God. We must be born again. So, Cornelius seeing the kingdom
of God and the fact that he reverenced God, he prayed to God, he hoped
in God, he was accepted of God, he was just before God, he had
a good report before God and everyone else, that this man
had been born again. See, this refutes the fact that
you let me have the terminology lost sinners whether it's lost
in the sense of how we believe it that only the elect are lost
it's only the elect who are lost the reprobates not lost he's
never never was Christ so he's not lost he's reprobate but if
you allow me that lost sinners can't save themselves by believing,
by receiving, by joining a church, by being baptized in water. None of these things is what
causes us to be born again. Only the Holy Spirit of God causes
us to be born again. So it's only whenever a man's
already born again does he have the desire like Cornelius had
to hear and obey the gospel message. In John chapter 5 we're told And we'll read this in one more
verse and we'll be through today, brother. In John chapter 5 and
verse 24, we read, Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth
my word and believeth on him that sent me hath already, hath,
eternal life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed
from death unto life." The ones that hear and believe are the
ones who already have eternal life and is passed from death
to life. They don't pass from death to
life when they believe, but they believe because they have passed
from death to life. And probably the most poignant
verse in all of Scripture that teaches this is 1 Corinthians
2 and verse 14. But the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness
unto him. Was the things of God foolishness
to Cornelius? Absolutely no. They were not
foolishness to him. Why? Because he revered them. He was devout. He fasted before
God. He gave of alms. Those good works
didn't save him. And brethren, good works aren't
proof that we are, but the fact that he revered God, feared God,
reverenced Him. That is a significant thing. We don't just willy-nilly do
those things. Whenever we are born of God,
we see those things. It says, for they are foolishness
unto Him. Neither can He know that there's
an inability that we have to know the things of God. And Cornelius
knew the things of God before he ever heard the Gospel. But
he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is
not judged. For who has known the mind of the Lord that he
may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ."
And I would say that Cornelius, before Peter ever preached a
gospel message to him about Jesus Christ, he had the mind of Christ
and loved God, loved his Holy Spirit. But what did Peter do?
Why did Peter, and I hear this all the time, and really it's
just a straw man or a diversion, Well then, what was the need
for Peter to go down there anyway? See, you're coming still from
the vantage point or from the thought process that one has
to go before one can become born again. See, it's conversion that
the Holy Spirit uses the word of God to convict men of sin,
to bring them to Christ. But yet Cornelius already exhibiting
the things of a person born again, had yet to hear about what Christ
had done and believe on him. And then what did he do? Soon
as he believed and soon as he heard those things and believed,
Peter commanded him to be baptized. And he was baptized. Him and
everybody in the house that believed. It doesn't say babies were believed.
It said everyone in the household. But everyone in the household
already was believing before he got there. So everyone in
there already had a fear, a reverence, a belief, a devoutness to God.
before the gospel was ever preached, but the preaching of the gospel
told them about that, what to believe on, what to look to,
who to come to, who to trust in, and then instructed in the
things that Christ had commanded to be baptized. And if you'll
notice, the Bible says, and I don't think we need to get hung up
here, it said that the Holy Spirit fell on them as it did on the
ones in Pentecost. And I believe that was basically
just to confirm the fact that what was happening to the Gentiles,
that there is no distinction. I think that, again, I think
those signs were a lot for the Jews. If you remember, there
were Jews that had come with Peter, Down to Cornelius's house
and they seen all this happening and God brought the Holy Spirit
down just like he did on Pentecost so I don't think when it says
that they were filled with the Holy Spirit is talking about
being born again or or the Holy Spirit coming upon them was talking
about being born again, or this whole notion of being Spirit-baptized,
okay? This is a one-time thing during
that period of time that happened with those who were at Pentecost
among the Jews as a sign, and then on those first-believing
Gentiles as a sign to tie that back, saying, what's happening
here is now opened up over here, And God declared that, God solidified
that through that miraculous working of that. And so those
Jews who were evident with Peter seen that, so that when Peter
went back, it wasn't just one witness that seen it, but many
witnesses that saw it. And those Gentiles that see it
all around say, hey, what happened there is what happened there.
And they're not so standoffish against the Jews who are now
coming to preach to them. Because you remember, When Paul
first went out to preach, there were some that wouldn't bring
him in because they had heard, oh, we've heard about that guy. And
how he's trying to round up all the Jews and, I mean, all the
people of Christ and trying to kill him. And he's like, no,
no, I've come to you to preach about that. And so there was
this whole thing that took place specifically for that time period.
But that's for a whole other lesson and sermon. Does anybody have anything you'd
like to add to that? Oh, absolutely. Yeah, that is a good one. Yeah. Matter of fact, I mean, that's
the kind of the whole theme here that Cornelius's deeds was made manifest
that they were a rotten God. Yeah, amen. Anything else?