WWUTT 1072 God Grants Repentance?

Previously, in Acts 5 .31, we saw that God granted repentance to Israel. Today, in Acts 11 .18, we see that God grants repentance to the Gentiles. God grants repentance when we understand the text.

You're listening to When We Understand The Text, an online Bible ministry committed to teaching sound doctrine and exposing the faulty. Find videos and more at our website, www .wutt .com. Now here's our host, Pastor Gabe Hughes.

Peter's Recap of Cornelius and the Gentiles Receiving the Word

Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study of the book of Acts 11 today, and we're going to start here with a little bit of a recap of what we read yesterday in chapter 10. I'm going to read the first 18 verses.

Here's Acts 11, verse 1. Now the apostles and the brothers who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcision party criticized him, saying, You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them.

But Peter began and explained it to them in order. I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision, something like a great sheet descending, being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came down.

To me.

Looking at it closely, I observed animals and beasts of prey and reptiles and birds of the air, and I heard a voice saying to me, Rise, Peter, kill and eat. But I said, By no means, Lord, for nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth.

But the voice answered a second time from heaven, What God has made clean, do not call common. This happened three times, and all was drawn up again into heaven. And behold, at that very moment, three men arrived at the house in which we were sent to me from Caesarea, and the Spirit told me to go with them, making no distinction.

These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man's house, and he told us how he had seen an angel stand in his house and say, Send to Joppa and bring Simon who is called Peter, he will declare to you a message by which you will be saved, you and all your household.

As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them, just as on us at the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us, when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God's way? When they heard these things, they fell silent, and they glorified God, saying,.

Then to the Gentiles also, God has granted repentance that leads to life.

Amen.

The Gospel Confirmed by the Holy Spirit and the End of Tongues as a Sign

What a what a great recap here from Peter to the Jews and the celebration that they lifted up to Christ for the salvation that had come not just to Jews, but also to Gentiles. Let's go back to verse one here.

Now the apostles and the brothers who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. So that's what we read right at the end of the story that we had yesterday in Acts chapter ten verses one through forty eight.

We covered the whole chapter, Peter going to Cornelius's house and preaching the gospel. And it says after he preached the gospel, verse forty four, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word and the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles, for they were hearing them speaking in tongues and extolling God.

And then Peter declared, can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have? So the Holy Spirit is the baptism that we receive first. Then the baptism of water demonstrates outwardly the inward change that has happened.

Now here in the Acts 10 story, of course, when the Holy Spirit comes upon them, they begin speaking in tongues. So they they show they demonstrate that that the Holy Spirit of God is indeed come upon.

Them.

But this does not mean like some Pentecostals want to say that it means that you must speak in tongues in order to demonstrate that you have the Holy Spirit. Remember who this is being shown to here. It is a clear, miraculous sign to the Jews that they would see and know that the gift of salvation that has come through Christ is not just for Jews, but it is also for Gentiles.

And this miraculous sign was given by the Holy Spirit so that they would know. Even the Gentiles have come to believe, not just because they say it, you know, just say it by word of mouth. And so we have to take their word on it, but they demonstrate the power of the Holy Spirit in them so that you may know the gospel has come not just to Jews, but also to Gentiles.

We don't need that sign anymore because we have it confirmed for us in Scripture. Peter says in 2 Peter 1, we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed so that you would do well to pay attention to it as a lamp shining in a dark place.

That's what Peter says in 2 Peter 1. So we have that word confirmed. We don't need the speaking in tongues anymore. We have already come to know the gospel has come to both Jews and Gentiles. It does not need to be signified further by miraculous signs.

It already has been affirmed by miraculous signs. Hebrews 2, verse 3 says that the gospel was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.

So the gospel has been confirmed through these miraculous signs. We have the testimony now that has been given in those eyewitness accounts. Peter also laying that out in 2 Peter 1, John saying the same thing at the start of 1 John.

The miraculous signs have already been done and have been testified to. The prophetic word has been more fully confirmed. So we don't need those miraculous signs to confirm that anymore. What we have as our guarantee of salvation is faith.

By faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are saved. You don't need a miraculous sign to show you a confirmation of that salvation. The miracle has been done in you. A dead man or woman has been raised to life.

You previously were dead in your spirit, in your sins and transgressions in which you once walked. But your dead spirit has now been made to life by the living spirit, by the spirit of life that raised Christ from the dead, according to Romans 8, and that is the Holy Spirit.

So the Holy Spirit being poured out upon us has raised dead men and women to life. We have been baptized by the Holy Spirit when we heard the gospel and we believed it. So then our baptism is an act of obedience to show that our hearts are for Christ and we will follow him, having been buried with him in our transgressions and risen with him to new life.

That's what's being signified by being dunked under the water and being raised again to new life. Sorry, Presbyterians, Methodists, all you sprinklers out there, you're missing out if you're not doing full submersion.

What that is truly signifying here, what we do in our baptism. So again, Peter, when he went up to Jerusalem, the circumcision party criticized him. The circumcision party being the Jews. Anytime we're talking about the circumcised, the uncircumcised, it's just words for Jew or Gentile.

It would be the equivalent. So in verse 3, you went to uncircumcised men and ate with them. So remember what I mentioned yesterday, Jews did not associate with Gentiles. They didn't even go into their homes lest they would end up sitting with them at table and eating their food because they ate what was unclean.

We had the dietary laws that were given to the Jews in Leviticus chapter 11. As I pointed out yesterday, Jesus declared all foods clean in the lesson that he taught in Mark chapter 7. Though the disciples heard this, it did not come to their sanctification until this point in the advancement of the gospel around the world.

This first comes to Peter in this vision that he has had. Do not call unclean what God has called clean. If you go to a Gentile's house, you're not doing anything unclean. If you sit down at his table and he gives you food, eat it.

It is not going to defile you. Remember what Jesus taught to the disciples before he had even gone to the cross and died and risen again from the grave. Though Jesus taught them this in Mark chapter 7, it wasn't like at that point the disciples went, oh, okay, well, I can eat pork now.

And then through the rest of Jesus' ministry, they started eating pork. I don't even think Jesus did that. It's just that he showed to them what goes into your body does not defile you. I mean, folks rejoice.

Good news. On judgment day, you are not going to be judged for your diet. Hey, I did all this sinful wretched stuff, but at least I didn't eat pork. God, hey, you got to give me something for that and let me into heaven.

That's not going to justify you and it's not going to condemn you by what you eat or don't.

Eat.

Diet is going to have nothing to do with judgment day. All right. As I read also from first Corinthians chapter eight yesterday that we are not condemned if we eat and we're not any better off if we don't eat.

So this is what the Lord was communicating to Peter in this vision that he received. And this was for his sanctification. The dietary laws were ceremonial, which Christ has fulfilled. So there is no reason for them anymore, which is why we have the apostle Paul saying something like this in Colossians chapter two, verse 16, let no one pass judgment on you.

In questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. Hebrews 13, nine, do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods which have not benefited those devoted to them.

So eventually it comes into the apostles teaching. Don't worry about food, OK, that's going to have nothing to do with your sanctification. Don't let food be the thing that divides you. Don't condemn the brother who is convinced that he sins if he eats this food and don't quarrel over opinions for the Lord has welcomed them both.

Everyone must be fully convinced in his own mind. That's the apostle Paul in Romans chapter 14. So that eventually comes into the apostles teaching. But it wasn't the case over the course of Jesus earthly ministry that the disciples started eating pork, nor was it the case in apparently what we're reading here in Acts in the first couple of years of the spread of the gospel, the growth of the church.

It's really not until we get to the Jerusalem Council, which is coming up in a few chapters where there was kind of like a unified consensus on what we need to tell the Gentiles regarding the pursuit of godliness and how diet is not going to be one of those things.

What you eat does not make you godly. What you eat does not make you ungodly. So we'll talk about that when we get closer to there. In the meantime, Acts 11 here, verse two, Peter went up to Jerusalem and the circumcision party criticized him, saying, you went to uncircumcised men and ate with them.

You ate Gentiles food. But Peter began and explained to them in order exactly the story we read yesterday. I was in the city of Joppa praying and in a trance, I saw a vision, something like a great sheet descending, being let down from heaven by its four corners.

And it came down to me. Looking at it closely, I observed animals and beasts of prey and reptiles and birds of the air. And I heard a voice saying to me, rise, Peter, kill and eat. This is this is like the bacon verse in the Bible, whether you're using the the first occasion of this in Acts 10 or you're using this verse here in Acts chapter 11.

This is God saying you can eat bacon. You are not defiling yourself by eating pork. And praise God for that, because we had some wonderful pork chops on Sunday evening that my wife made. They were terrific.

Babe, you can make those pork chops anytime you want. And I'm always a sucker for bacon, too. But we are blessed to eat bacon by God, who does not oblige us to keep these dietary laws in order to have holiness.

And praise the Lord for that. Again, there was a certain reason for those laws in Leviticus chapter 11. And those things which were a shadow of the things to come have been fulfilled in Christ, who declared all foods clean, according to Mark chapter seven, verse 19.

So then Peter goes on to say, verse eight, I said, by no means, Lord, for nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth. Can you imagine that? Peter, in his adulthood, had never had bacon before or any of these animals that that Jews were not permitted to eat, had never entered his mouth before.

And so, verse nine, but the voice answered a second time from heaven. What God has made clean, do not call common. Understand that the dietary laws came into effect through Moses. There were not such dietary laws prior to the Mosaic law, which was, again, God doing something with his people and demonstrating to them holiness, a separation, even in the food that they ate.

They had to consider what was clean and what was unclean, according to what God had said. But prior to the Mosaic law, there was not any restriction on anything that could be eaten. In fact, as Jesus said to Noah in the Noahic covenant, Genesis chapter nine, verse two, the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea into your hand.

They are delivered now. Verse three, every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. So before the Mosaic law, you could eat anything and it was not considered unclean.

The Jews, as they lived in Egypt, they ate anything. The dietary laws did not come until they were rescued out of slavery. And God gave these laws as a matter of purification and ceremonial cleanliness.

Now, whenever you've got like Hebrew roots guys or maybe Messianic Jews and stuff like this, how do they get around these passages? How do they look at something like Genesis nine, three or Mark seven, nineteen or first Corinthians eight, eight or Colossians two, sixteen through seventeen?

How do they reconcile these verses with continuing to teach that you must oblige or keep the dietary laws that are listed in Leviticus chapter eleven? Well, what a Hebrew roots guy will tell you is pork is not food anyway.

So where the Lord says in Genesis nine, three, every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. As I gave you the green plants, I shall give I give you everything. The Hebrew roots guy is going to say, well, that doesn't include pigs because pigs are not food.

So every moving thing but pigs that lives shall be food for you anyway. Yeah, there's a lot of bending and twisting that they have to do in order to continue that lie that they keep up. But you don't listen to those Hebrew roots guys.

There's that video channel on YouTube called Unlearn the Lies. That's a Hebrew roots guy. And he talks about all this stuff. You have to keep the dietary laws or you're doing something godless. You are being sinful and the Lord will judge you for it.

Nope. First Corinthians eight, eight says that food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat and no better off if we do. Let's let's continue on here. Acts chapter 11, verse nine.

But the voice answered a second time and from heaven and said, what God has made clean, do not call common. This happened three times and all was drawn up again into heaven. And behold, at that very moment, three men arrived at the house in which we were sent to me from Caesarea.

And the spirit told me to go with them, making no distinction. These six brothers also accompanied me. And we entered the man's house, that man, of course, being Cornelius. And he told us how he had seen the angel stand in his house and say, send a Joppa and bring Simon who is called Peter.

And he will declare to you a message by which you will be saved. You and all your household. And we know that was the gospel. Peter preached the gospel. We read it yesterday in Acts chapter 10. The apostle Paul says in Romans 116, I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to all who believe to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

And that's what we've seen demonstrated over the course of the book of Acts. The gospel has been preached to the Jews first. At this point where we are in the story, the Jews make up the majority of Christians on the planet.

You have Jews that have been converted to Christianity. The Gentile population is now going to start growing. According to what we have here in Acts 11, the gospel has come not just to the Jews, but also to the Gentiles, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

And whoever believes the gospel will be saved. So I go on here, verse 15. As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God's way? And when they heard these things, they fell silent and they glorified God saying then to the Gentiles also, God has granted repentance that leads to life.

Previously in Acts 5, 31, Peter said that God had granted repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And here in Acts 11, 18, we see that repentance has been granted to the Gentiles leading to life.

It is God who gives repentance. Repentance is not something that we will. It is something that God wills. You turn from sin and follow Jesus Christ because God willed you to. You did not have a will that followed after God.

In fact, your will was fallen. You had a desire for sin and rebellion against God. But by the power of the Holy Spirit, God has turned you from this wickedness. And again, he has raised a dead man or woman to life so that you no longer pursue those things that lead to death.

Instead, you are pursuing life and godliness, peace in the Holy Spirit, righteousness, sanctification, Christ, and all of this granted to you by God through his spirit that is upon you. When you heard the gospel and believed it, it was the miraculous work of God.

Amen.

Let us conclude with prayer. God, to you be the glory for great things that you have done. We were dead, wretched sinners. We were worthy of destruction. We were headed for hell. We were under the judgment of God.

And yet you considered our need and showed mercy and love to us through your son, Jesus Christ, who died for our sins. And then the message of the gospel went out to the world that Jesus has died for us and has been risen from the grave so that all who believe in this message will likewise be raised from death and seated with Christ in glory.

Help us to embrace and rejoice in the message of the gospel today and give us an opportunity that we may share it with somebody else so that they too may turn from their sins and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and live.

We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.

Pastor Gabe keeps a regular blog sharing personal thoughts, alerting readers to false teachers, and offering commentary on the church and social issues. You can find a link to the blog through our website, www .utt .com.

Thank you for listening and join us again tomorrow as we continue our study in God's Word when we understand the text.