THE KING’ S BUSINESS
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the Lord Jesus Christ,” and, as far as the meaning o f the words goes, it might be immediately after, or long before, though it is clearly implied that the giving o f the Spirit was dependent upon the believing (cf. John 7:38, 39; Gal. 3 :2 )._ With the Apostles themselves it was a considerable time' that intervened between their believ ing on Jesus Christ and their being baptized with the Holy Spirit, but with most o f the Jerusalem church the being baptized with the Holy Spirit followed immediately upon their believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. In a normal condition o f the church the giving o f the Spirit would follow imme diately upon believing, but alas! a large part o f the church today is not in a normal con dition, but in an Ephesian condition (cf. ch. 19:1-5, R. V .). Peter asked a deeply significant' question, “Who was I, that I fcould withstand God?” . Many in the church do not hesitate to do what an Apostle did not dare to do. Peter carried the day against his critics. That was because his critics were honest. Many modern critics are not so easily silenced. Repentence is God’s gift and its result is life. Wednesday, December 27 . Acts 1 1 : 19 - 2 1 . Now that Peter had opened the door to th e' Gentiles the Gospel spread rapidly among them. Those who had been driven out o f Jerusalem by the fierce persecution that broke out at the time o f Stephen’s death went further and further in their missionary work, but at first they confined their labors to the Jews. But men who had themselves grown up in contact with Gen tiles, men o f Cyprus and Cyrene, at last broke out o f the bonds o f national preju dice and began preaching the Lord Jesus to Gentiles. God set his approval upon this, “the hand o f the Lord was with them.” The proof that God’s hand was with them was o f a very practical charac ter, “a great number believed and turned unto the Lord.” If not many are not believing through our ministry, we would do well to inquire whether the hand o f the Lord is with us, and if not, why not? The
W e are told that Peter was to speak to him words whereby he and all in his house were to “be saved.” So it is clear that neither Cornelius nor anyone in his house hold were saved until they heard these words o f Peter. I f it were not for this plain statement we might think that Cor nelius was saved by his devotion, alms, prayers, and righteousness works. Indeed there are many who do teach that, but this verse plainly declares that this was not so. God took account o f his prayers and alms, his sincerity o f heart and desire for truth, and sent him the truth whereby he and his house were to be saved, but he was not saved until he had heard the truth about Jesus and was thus led to- believe on Jesus Himself. Verse 14 also teaches us that we are saved by what we hear (cf. Rom. 10:17). How important it is then that we take heed what we hear, and also that we speak to others words, by hearing which they also may be saved. Tuesday, December 26 . Acts 1 1 : 15 - 18 . Verses 15 and 16 make it clear that the outpouring o f the Holy Spirit upon Cor nelius and the others was a baptism with the Holy Spirit. There are those who deny this and tell us that the language “baptized with the Holy Spirit” should be continued to the Pentecostal experience, but this is clearly a mistake; for Peter unhesitatingly and very definitely applies it to what hap pened to Cornelius and his house. Evi dently the baptism with the Holy Spirit is not an, experience given to the church as a body, but to the individual believer whether he be a Jew or Gentile. It is also evident from these verses that the lay ing on o f the hands o f an Apostle, or any other hands, is not essential to the receiv- . ing o f the g ift; for there was no laying on o f hands in this case. From the R. V. it might appear, that the gift o f the Holy Spirit was bestowed upon the Jerusalem church the moment they believed. This is not the force o f the original: “ when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, , literally translated would be “ haying believed upon
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