Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Niver. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 10.30 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
9.45 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com.
pastor, Todd Nivert. I've entitled this morning's
message, The Holy Ghost and the Word. In Acts chapter 10 beginning
in verse 44, While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost
fell on all them which heard the word. And they of the circumcision,
the Jews, they of the circumcision, which believed, were astonished. As many as came with Peter, he
had brought with him six brethren to speak to Cornelius. You can
read about that story in Acts chapter 10. The whole chapter
is devoted to that. A watershed event in the scriptures. This is when the gospel came
to the Gentiles. The Jews believe the gospel was
only for the Jews, and they're finding out in no uncertain term
that the gospel is for the Gentiles. And I think it's interesting
that the Lord used Peter, a man who was greatly prejudiced against
Gentiles, he used Peter to bring the gospel to the Gentiles. Now we read, and they of the
circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with
Peter, because that on the Gentiles was poured out the gift of the
Holy Ghost. For they heard them speak with
tongues and magnified God. Now, when it says they were speaking
with tongues, that is talking about the gift the early church
had to preach the gospel in other languages. If I had the gift
of tongues, I could go into Russia and speak fluent Russian preaching
the gospel. Or if I could go into Italy,
I would speak fluent Italian preaching the gospel. That's
what the gift of tongues is, the ability to preach the gospel
in other languages. This heavenly speech, speaking
in tongues when you don't know what you're saying, is foolishness. That's not what tongues is. Tongues
is the ability to preach the gospel in other languages. And
these people had the Holy Spirit poured upon them so they could
do that. And I love the way the scripture says in their preaching,
they magnified God. In true preaching, God is always
magnified. Now, in what goes on under the
name of preaching in our day, we have God belittled, God presented
as less than he really is, and man as presented more than he
really is. But in true preaching, there's
always the magnification of God. While Peter yet spake these words,
the Holy Ghost, fell on them." Now, who is the Holy Ghost? The
Holy Ghost or the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. God is one God. Now, the only
way we know this is because the Scripture teaches it. God is
one God in three distinct persons. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit. One God. Hear, O Israel, the
Lord thy God is one God, one God in three distinct persons. Now that's mysterious. The only
way we know this is because God has revealed this concerning
himself in his word, we would have never come up with this
on our own, but the salvation of God is a Trinitarian salvation. Now, what do I mean by that?
If you're saved, it's because God saved you in all three persons
of the Godhead. If you're saved, God the Father
elected you before time began to be saved. If you're saved,
God the Son represented you and worked out a perfect righteousness
for you and died for you, putting away your sins. If you're saved,
God the Holy Spirit gave you life. It's what's called the
new birth. It's called regeneration. He birthed you. You have spiritual
life. You were dead in sins and he
gave you life. That's why you believe. That's
why you repent. That's why you love God the Father,
God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. Now, while Peter was speaking
these words, the Holy Spirit fell on them. You see, words
of truth are just words unless God the Holy Spirit falls on
you and causes you to hear. Now, what were these words? that
are spoken of. Well, in Acts 11, verse 14, when
Cornelius is telling, when Peter's telling about what happened in
Acts 10, Cornelius heard this, you call for Peter who will give
you words whereby you shall be saved. Now, Cornelius was not
saved until he heard these words. Cornelius was a Gentile, a Roman
centurion, and I have no doubt that he had converted from The
Roman religion, the pantheistic religion, many gods, all way
too human if you read about them. And he converted or became a
proselyte of the Jewish religion and believed in the one true
God, the God of the Jews. And he was giving toward their
temples and so on. He was no longer a heathen idolater
of Rome, but now he had proselytized to the Jewish religion. But he
had not yet heard the gospel. Now, he is praying. God sends
an angel to him and says, your prayers are heard. Send to Joppa for a man named
Peter who will come and tell you what you ought to do. Now, while this was going on,
if you read in Acts chapter 10, Peter in Joppa goes up onto the
rooftop to pray at about noon, and he falls into a trance and
sees a vision. Three different times a sheet
is let down from heaven, and it's opened up, and there are
all kinds of unclean animals creeping things on this sheet,
animals that the Levitical law forbade to eat. You weren't allowed
to eat these. And God said to Peter, Rise,
Peter, kill, and eat. And Peter, as only Peter would
do, said, Not so, Lord. Nothing unclean has ever entered
my mouth. And the Lord said, What God hath
cleansed, don't call common. This took place three times. Now, this lesson lets us know
that the entire Levitical system is over. You can now eat these
meats that the Levitical system said you could not eat. God said,
rise, Peter, kill and eat. But Peter did not yet know what
this meant. He was wondering in himself what
took place. And as soon as that vision was
over, These men from Cornelius, who he sent to get Peter, came
and said, Cornelius has asked for you. And Peter went with
them to where Cornelius was and didn't know exactly why. He didn't
understand this vision just yet. Now he comes to Cornelius's house. And let's begin reading in verse
31. And said Cornelius, thy prayer
is heard, this is what the angel said, thy prayer is heard, and
thine alms are had in remembrance in the sight of God. Send therefore
to Joppa and call hither Simon, whose surname is Peter. He is
lodged in the house of one Simon at Tanner by the seaside, who
when he cometh, he shall speak unto thee. you're going to hear
what he says. Now, these are the words that
Peter repeated that the Holy Spirit fell down upon them and
the people were unable to believe, these Gentiles. Now, let's go
on reading. Cornelius is still speaking, and he says in verse
33, immediately, therefore, I sent to thee, and thou hast well done
that thou art come. Now, therefore, we are all here
present before God to hear. all things that are commanded
thee of God." What an audience. They said, we're here to hear.
We want to hear what you have to say. God said you would have
words whereby we shall be saved. And we are here to hear all things. We don't pick and choose. We're
to hear all things that are commanded thee of God. Now understand,
Gospel preaching is not offering you something or inviting you
to do something. Gospel preaching is a declaration
of what God has done in Christ, what He has accomplished, and
you and I are commanded to believe. Now, He says we're here to hear
all things that are commanded thee of God. Then Peter opened
his mouth and said, he now knows what this vision meant, of a
truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons. Now he's looking at a Gentile,
someone who before this, he would not have gone in their home to
eat with them. He looked down upon them. He considered them
common and unclean. And when he saw that God was
having the gospel preached to this Roman centurion, this Gentile,
he said, that God is no respecter of persons. Now, there is not
a human being alive that is free from this sin. And it is a sin to show respect
to persons. James 2.9 says, but if you have
respect of persons, you commit sin. and are convinced of the
law as transgressors. Now somebody says, what is meant
by the respective persons? Respective persons means to show
favoritism to somebody because of a fleshly distinction or to
judge different people with different standards, either more lenient
or more harsh because of a fleshly distinction. Now let me give
you this one illustration that I think everybody will know what
I'm talking about. Would you rather have an attractive person
deal with you or someone you find unattractive? Now, everybody
would say, well, I would rather have a person that I find attractive
to deal with. Well, that is showing the respect
of persons. That's a complete fleshly distinction
that you show favoritism to somebody over somebody else because of
a fleshly distinction. Now, there is only one person
who does not have the respect of persons, the living God. As a matter of fact, the Lord
tells us in Luke chapter 16, that which is highly esteemed
among men, that which men are attracted to and find favorable,
that which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in
the sight of God. Now, the most poignant demonstration
of this is the cross. Here is where we learn that God
truly is no respecter of persons. He spared not his own son. Now, if there was ever a time
when there could have been respect of persons, that would have been
it. But the Lord Jesus Christ took
the sins of his people upon himself. He bore our sins in His own body
on the tree. Those sins were not merely imputed
to him, although that's not a word that is sufficient. He was actually
made sin. What all that means, I don't
know, nor does anybody else, but he was made sin. The sins
of the elect became his sins. He became guilty of them, and
his father showed him no favoritism. His father was not a respecter
of persons, even with his own son. When sin was found in his
son, he killed him, because God is just. He is no respecter of
persons, justice, perfect justice is always
meted out by God. And this is a true story. It
happened centuries ago in a town, there was a mayor. And at that
time in history, the mayor was the judge and everything else.
And this particular mayor was well beloved by the citizens
of that town. They loved him. They respected
him. They were so happy to have him as their mayor. Well, his
son, committed a murder. And the townspeople did not want
his son punished because of the love they had for their mayor,
and they would not put that man to death for what he did. Now
one morning very close to that taking place, the town was awakened
by a bell ringing And they came out early in the morning, and
they saw the mayor of the town's son hanging by the neck, dead. And the mayor looked at the people
with tears in his eyes and said, nobody is above the law. Now that is no respect of persons. And that's infinitely seen in
how the Lord punished his son when sin was found in his son. Now this is the great mystery
of the gospel. My sin became his sin. and his righteousness
becomes my righteousness. Now let's go on reading. 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 of him. Even if he's
not a Jew, in a Gentile nation, in every nation, doesn't matter
what nation it is, if somebody fears God and works righteousness,
that person is gonna be accepted by God. You see, God is always
just, he's always right, he's always righteous. Now, who is
this person that worketh righteousness and fears God? Because the Bible
says there is none righteous No, not one. And in that same
passage of scripture describing the depravity of mankind, the
fall of mankind, he said, there's no fear of God before their eyes. Now this is true of me, and this
is true of you by nature. None righteous, no, not one.
As a matter of fact, the scripture says our righteousness is, are
as filthy rags, Isaiah 64, six. And there's nobody that naturally
fears God. So who is this person? This is
the person God has saved and has given them the righteousness
of his son so that the only way they can be described is ones
who work righteousness, ones who have never sinned. That's
what justification is. It's not some kind of a paper
that says you're, not guilty even though you are, knowing
God's sight, you have no sin. You've never sinned. You work
righteousness. And what is the fear of God?
The fear of God is being afraid to look anywhere but Christ alone. You have such respect for God,
Such fear of God that you wouldn't dare look anywhere but Christ
alone for all your acceptance before God. Now this is the work
of Christ for you, righteousness, and this is the work of Christ
in you, fear. Now wherever the Lord sees this,
doesn't matter whether it's Jew or Gentile, he's going to reward
them accordingly. Verse 36, the word, now remember
these are the words that These Gentiles heard, and the Holy
Spirit fell on them and saved them. It was through hearing
these words. The word which God sent unto the children of Israel,
preaching peace by Jesus Christ, he is Lord of all. Now, if you go on reading, Peter
mentions six things, all which must be a part of true gospel
preaching. He mentions the person of Christ,
the life of Christ, the death of Christ, the resurrection of
Christ, Christ as judge, and Christ as Savior. Now, first
his person, peace by Jesus Christ. He's the author of peace. Jesus
Christ means Savior, Jesus, Savior, Christ, his offices, his prophet,
priest, and king. Peace comes by this one. Now, the only way I can have
peace, and I mean true peace, is if I see that God has no reason
for anger with me. He's completely at peace. He's
completely satisfied. And that is the case with every
believer because we have no sin. Christ put it away. When he had
by himself purged our sins, they're gone. And he gives us his righteousness
so that it's ours. Peace by Jesus Christ, the one
who is, I love the way he says this, he is Lord of all. Now
the Lord is the one whose will is done. That's what the Lordship
of Christ means. When He created the world, it
was His will being done. He willed this universe into
existence. Everything that happens in time
is His will being done. He's in control of everybody
and everything. He's completely sovereign over
the free and uncoerced actions of men. Now, you do what you
want to do. I do what I want to do. But Christ is sovereign
over that, and whatever takes place is His will being done.
That's why it's true that all things work together for good
to them that love God, to them who are thee called according
to His purpose. He controls everything. He is
the Lord, and He's most especially Lord of salvation. That means
if you're saved, He willed your salvation. You're utterly and
completely in His hands. Salvation is of the Lord. It's
not of man. It's not of man's works. It's
not of man's will. Salvation is of the Lord. And if you're
saved, it's because He willed your salvation. He's Lord. Now
let's go on reading. He's Lord of all. Verse 37, that
word, I say, you 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. And here's the result of that,
who went about doing good. That's all he did. He went about
doing good. He worked out a perfect righteousness
and healing all that were oppressed of the devil for God was with
him. Now, the life of Christ is the
life of him going about doing nothing but good. And that's
the life that every believer is justified by. You see, when
I'm called to stand before God on judgment day, my life is going
to be his life. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. His life, His law-keeping, His
perfect righteousness is my personal righteousness before God. Now
let me ask you a question. What good would it do me or you
if He came down here and lived a perfect life and then just
went back to heaven? All it would do is condemn us. But he didn't
merely come down here and live a perfect life, he died. Look
what it says in verse 39, and we are witnesses of all things
which he did, both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem,
whom they slew and hanged on a tree. He was nailed to a cross,
he died. Now, the big question is why
did he die when he never sinned? There's only one reason for death,
sin. There are no other reasons. The
sins of God's elect became His sins. You see, this is His eternal
purpose. He's called the Lamb slain from the foundation of
the world, and this universe was created for this event, Him
coming to die on a cross to put away the sins of God's people,
demonstrating who God really is. Oh, the cross is the whole
counsel of God. He died. You see, he became guilty
of the commission of those sins that he took upon himself, the
sins of his people. Now, he never sinned in his own
person. He lived a perfect life. But when God's people's sins
became his sins, he became guilty of them, and God showed no respect
to persons. He slew him. But look what it
says in verse 40. Him God raised up the third day
and showed Him openly. Now why did God raise Him? Because
He completely satisfied all the demands of God's law. The law
has nothing to say to me. The law says, I'm satisfied because
He paid for those sins and God can't look for anything else.
He's perfectly satisfied with everybody that Christ died for,
lived for, died for, and was raised for. Him God raised up
the third day and showed him openly, not to all the people,
but unto witnesses chosen before of God, even to us who did eat
and drink with him after he rose from the dead. He showed himself
to 500 brethren at once, but he was on the earth 40 days after
his resurrection, instructing his disciples." Now look what
it says next in verse 42. And He commanded us to preach
unto the people and to testify that it is He which was ordained
of God to be the judge of quick and dead. Now that word quick
means living. He's the judge. He's the judge of unbelievers.
He's the judge of believers. He's the judge of everybody. He's your judge. Your eternal
destiny is in His hand. He's the one who will say, come
ye blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you
from the foundation of the world. And he is the one who will say,
depart, ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and
his angels. He is the judge and where you
will spend eternity is going to be determined, not by you,
but by him. Now there are people who will
not like that. But there are other people who will say, I'm
going to ask him for mercy then. I see my salvation in his hands.
You're going to come to him like the leopard did and say, Lord,
if you will, you can make me clean. That's the way to approach
him, as the utter sovereign of the universe, suing for mercy.
Let me say this. Anyone who's ever asked for mercy
has received mercy. God has never turned anyone away
who truly sought his mercy. They know they're guilty, they
know they can't save themselves, and they need mercy. And then
he said in verse 43, to him give all the prophets witness. Talking
about the Old Testament prophets. He is the only thing in the scripture. He's not the most important thing,
he's the only thing. He's not the central thing, he's
the only thing. To Him give all the prophets
witness that whosoever believeth in Him." That's what faith is,
it's believing Him. It's not believing you're saved,
it's believing He's the Savior. What think ye of Christ is the
issue, not what do you think of yourself, what think ye of
Christ, whose Son is He? It's believing who He is, the
Eternal Son of God, the Man Christ Jesus. Whosoever believeth in
him shall receive the remission of sins. All sin put away. Standing before God without guilt. Now while Peter yet spake these
words, the Holy Ghost fell on them which heard the word. And that's why they believed.
You will not believe unless the Holy Ghost falls on you, and
you're enabled to believe because of His great, powerful command
and birth, raising you from the dead, making you willing, making
you a new creature in Christ Jesus. When they heard the word,
while that word was being spoken, the Holy Ghost fell on them,
and they believed the gospel. And the only way you and I will
believe the gospel is if the Holy Spirit falls upon us and
invades us and gives us life from the dead. May the Lord cause
that to happen to you and me for Christ's sake. Now we have
this message on DVD and CD. If you write the church, call
or email, we'll send you a copy. This is Todd Nybert. that God
will be pleased to make Himself known to you. That's our prayer.
Amen.