Please get your Bibles now and let's turn together to the book of Acts this morning, Acts chapter 10. As we continue our hearing of the book of Acts together, we come to the 10th chapter this morning. And as Jason just prayed and noted, we've been singing for and praying for the Lord's illuminating work as we are in his word this morning. We do come to another fairly lengthy reading this morning. There's been some long Bible readings, and we have another one in front of us now. I thought about breaking the reading up and just reading part of it, but the story is too good to only read part of it. And it's a glorious section, and I'll have more to say about that. But let's kind of gird ourselves up this morning for a bit longer reading. the whole chapter 10 of the Book of Acts. And so let's give our careful hearing now to the reading of it. Acts 10 verses 1 through 48. At Caesarea, there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of what was known as the Italian cohort, a devout man who feared God with all his household, gave alms generously to the people and prayed continually to God. About the ninth hour of the day, he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God come in and say to him, Cornelius. And he stared at him in terror and said, What is it, Lord? And he said to him, Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God. And now send men to Joppa and bring one Simon who is called Peter, he is lodging with one Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the sea. When the angel who spoke to him had departed, he called two of his servants and a devout soldier from among those who attended him, and having related everything to them, he sent them to Joppa. The next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. and he became hungry and wanted something to eat. But while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance and saw the heavens opened and something like a great sheet descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth. In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter. Kill and eat. But Peter said, By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean. And the voice came to him again a second time, What God has made clean, do not call common. This happened three times, and the thing was taken up at once to heaven. Now while Peter was inwardly perplexed as to what the vision that he had seen might mean, behold, the men who were sent by Cornelius, made inquiry for Simon's house, stood at the gate, and called out to ask whether Simon, who was called Peter, was lodging there. And while Peter was pondering the vision, the Spirit said to him, Behold, three men are looking for you. Rise and go down and accompany them without hesitation, for I have sent them. And Peter went down to the men and said, I am the one you are looking for. What is the reason for your coming? And they said, Cornelius, a centurion, an upright and God-fearing man who is well spoken of by the whole Jewish nation, was directed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house and to hear what you have to say. So he invited them in to be his guests. The next day, he rose and went away with them, and some of the brothers from Joppa accompanied him. And on the following day, they entered Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them, and he called together his relatives and close friends. When Peter entered, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshipped him. But Peter lifted him up, saying, Stand up, I too am a man. And as he talked with him, he went in and found many persons gathered. And he said to them, You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation. But God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean. So when I was sent for, I came without objection. I asked then, why you sent for me? And Cornelius said, four days ago about this hour I was praying in my house at the ninth hour. And behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing and said, Cornelius, your prayer has been heard and your alms have been remembered before God. Send, therefore, to Joppa and ask for Simon, who is called Peter. He is lodging in the house of Simon a tanner by the sea. So I sent for you at once, and you have been kind enough to come. Now, therefore, we are all here in the presence of God to hear all that you have been commanded by the Lord. So Peter opened his mouth and said, Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears Him and does what is right is acceptable to Him. As for the word that He sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ, He is Lord of all. You yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed. how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him. And we are witnesses of all that He did, both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put Him to death by hanging Him on a tree. but God raised Him on the third day and made Him to appear, not to all the people, but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead. And He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that He is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. To Him all the prophets bear witness. that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name. While Peter was still saying these things, 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. Then Peter declared, Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have? And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked Him to remain for some days." Thus ends the reading of God's holy and infallible word. This morning, we come in our series going through the Book of Acts to really one of the most important chapters in the entire New Testament. And it might sound, though, as you read Acts 10, it's just another stage in the story that Luke is telling about the early church. And that it's just another event recorded for us to see sort of the spread of Christianity. But it would be hard to overstate how important the event that happens here is. In fact, you are sitting here this morning because of the event that happened there in Caesarea with Peter and Cornelius and the Holy Spirit. But because this chapter is so important and because It is so rich in content. It is going to take us more than just one sermon to get through it this morning. This morning, and really kind of just focusing on the beginning part, or at least more heavily on the beginning part of the chapter, I want us to consider something that might get skipped over because we want to get to the watershed event that happens here, and that is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It's something that is called often by commentators and theologians, this is the Gentile Pentecost. It's when the Spirit is poured out in an official way on the Gentiles, and then from here the Gospel now goes throughout the whole world. We're going to get into that event, what we might call the theology, of our salvation, the theology of the Kingdom of God. But this morning I want us to focus on something that is as vitally important as that, and that is the actual aim of this Pentecost, the actual goal of your salvation. We often don't think about the goal of our salvation. We revel in the glorious things that God has done for us in Christ, but often our thoughts and our lives are deficient as to the actual purpose of our salvation. Why did God save you? What is the purpose and the goal of your salvation? Well, the purpose and goal of your salvation is not just to keep you out of hell. It's not just in some kind of nebulous way so you get to go to heaven. The goal and aim of your salvation is to make you holy, to make you godly, godlike. That's why Christ came, was so that you could be conformed into his image. I want to ask you to think about that question for a moment this morning, even as we begin. I'd like you to really ask it in your own heart right now. I mean, ask yourself, do I really want to be godly? Do I really actually want to be a holy person? I mean, as you sit here today, is that even, is that, you claim to be a Christian, is that the desire of your heart? I mean, is that the aim of your life? Those are vitally important questions because throughout the New Testament, we read over and over again passages such as Hebrews 12.14, I have it in your outline this morning where the writer there says, I didn't put all of it there, but he begins the verse and he says, Strive for peace with everyone and, so strive for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. Strive for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. Or possibly, and possibly quite frighteningly, to some of you this morning, what Paul says in Ephesians chapter 5, verses 5 through 7. Listen to what he says. Think about it in light of friends that you listen to. Think about it in light of messages that you hear. Paul writes in Ephesians 5, for you may be sure of this, you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure or who is covetous, that is an idolater, has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words. For because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore, do not become partners with them." Congregation, we need to, as it said, we need to disabuse ourselves of the false and eternally deadly idea that dominates really much of the church today, and that is that your lives don't matter much in light of your salvation. Your actions are inconsequential to your faith, that you don't need to watch against worldliness in your own life and actually live for the Lord. So the picture of godliness that's presented here in this passage And it's really from what we see in the descriptions of both Cornelius and Peter, my aim and my hope this morning is that it will be encouraging and it will be motivating for all of us to then desire to live for the Lord, to actually desire a godly life. Because this passage shows, I think this passage shows absolutely definitively that you can be godly. You, you can be godly and you can live for the Lord no matter who you are and no matter what your calling is in life. No matter where you live, you can live for the Lord. You can live a holy life. It does this, the passage does this by way of, really I'm going to break it up in two things. It does this by way of showing us the characters here in this event that's recorded for us, and then it gives us, and the Spirit doesn't waste words. There's a lot of description of the characteristics of these characters here, and I want to begin with the characters because I think we too often have preconceived ideas of what godliness looks like, or at least we have these ideas of the types of people who can be described as being holy or godly. In fact, I think some of you have not pursued godliness as you should because you think to yourself, well, that's just not who I am. I mean, I'm not like other Christian people. I'm just not into things that church people are into. Let me ask you a question right now. What do you think of when you think of, let's say, a godly man? What's the first thing that pops in your mind when you think of a godly person? For your first fill-in, here's the one I want you to ask yourself. Do you think of a soldier? A soldier? One of the most Striking descriptions of the godliness of any man that we meet in the pages of the Bible is the description here of Cornelius, the centurion. It's an absolutely astounding description. And you need to note that a centurion was not an officer. The centurion was somewhat of a leader, but he A centurion wasn't an officer, which maybe, I don't know if we do or not, but maybe when we think of an officer, we associate some level of character or stature or whatever with an officer. But a centurion, centurions were enlisted men. They were the kind that hung out at the Thirsty Parrot down here on Tejon. Now when you conjure up in your mind the idea of a godly person, do you readily think of soldiers? And if not, why not? Why not? You see, Cornelius should have broken the mold 2,000 years ago as to our idea of who can be godly or of which professions or callings you can engage in and still be a real Christian. In fact, with Cornelius here, we're hearing again yet another echo from the ministry of Jesus. We looked at this with the miracles in chapter 9 last Lord's Day. Those were just Jesus still at work through Peter. They were echoes, they were repeats in a sense of the miracles that Jesus did in his own Ministry, do you realize, did you know that the very first Gentile that Jesus had contact with in his ministry was also a centurion? We read of Christ's contact with this amazing man in Matthew 8 when Jesus is in Capernaum. This soldier comes up to Jesus, and let me just read it there. It's in Matthew 8. He came forward to Jesus, appealing to Him. Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly. And Jesus said to him, I will come and heal him. But the centurion replied, Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. but only say the word and my servant will be healed. And he goes into this whole thing about being a man under authority, but when Jesus heard this, it goes on, Matthew goes on, he marveled and he said to those who followed him, truly I tell you with no one else in Israel have I found such faith. If you think that you are somehow not the type of person that is ever going to be all that godly, or a good Christian, or whatever lame excuse you use because you think that you are just different. Look at what the Bible is teaching. It is precisely your kind that Jesus is so impressed with often. It is precisely your kind that the Spirit is seeking out, that is seeking to draw to Christ. And maybe these accounts of Jesus and these soldiers, Jesus and the centurions in both the Gospels and here in Acts are to teach us precisely the lesson that if soldiers can be Christian men, If soldiers can be godly, then you can too. What about St. Peter? He's a saint, right? So your next one is a saint. And you might be thinking, well, now that's the type of man that it makes sense that he would be godly, right? I mean, he seems to be the type that would just sit around reading devotional books and theology books all day. He's this unassuming kind of a guy. He's who you'd characterize as a religious guy. Well, if that is your view, if that's your idea of Peter, then you have no idea who Peter was. Peter was a weathered fisherman. I knew fishermen when I was young, older brothers of friends of mine. I lived up in Seattle for a short period of time. And these guys would take trips up to Alaska and work for the summers to make really big money over the summer. They were some of the most profane and worst people I knew, was this crop of older guys around in their young 20s that would head up to Alaska each year to make a mint in fishing. Peter was a weathered fisherman. who was impulsive and he had a bad habit of, more than once, making contradictory statements like, no, Lord. And he does it again. Look at verse 14. He says it right here in this text. No way, Lord. I've never done this. He's told to do something and says no. Indeed, this saint is the one who cussed and cursed and denied that he even knew Jesus. So don't for a moment think that you have simply sinned too much to ever be a godly man. Don't ever think that you've sinned too badly to ever be a holy person. No, the radical change that we see that the Lord, by His Spirit, worked in Peter should give you hope that if God can do this kind of work with him, then he can do that kind of work with me. In fact, it's not just Cornelius and Peter. The Bible is full of sinful people who have been made godly. by the God who saves and sanctifies His people. Holiness is the goal of your salvation. And therefore, if you are a Christian, no matter who you are, no matter what type of person you are, no matter what you do for work, no matter what you have done in the past, you are called to holiness, but that call is as effectual as the call to salvation in general. The call to holiness is an effectual call, and the Spirit is even now working in you to make you godly. That is the aim of your salvation, and let me put it this way, it is part of your salvation. It's not just that God says, hey, come to Christ, come to my son, and then all your sins will be forgiven. No, that's not the deal. That's a very diminished view of the salvation that our God has provided for us himself. There is a spirit, and we see that spirit poured out mightily here in this chapter, but there's a spirit that Jesus said, when I go, you should, I mean, I'm paraphrasing, but Jesus said, when I go, you should rejoice, because when I go, I'm going to send the spirit, and he's going to lead you into all truth. I know we have a lot of grammar Nazis in the congregation, but you'll like this one. I really think we need to begin thinking of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, as the Holying Spirit. The Holying Spirit. It doesn't make sense to say it that way, but I think you know exactly what I'm saying. It's the Spirit who makes holy. That's why you were given the Spirit. You're not just given forgiveness of sin. You have a distant Savior that's up there in heaven somehow, and you've got to keep looking back to what He did for you. on the cross, all of that is true, and you need to live there, and you need to be thankful, and you need to see that love that He had, that He would give His life for you, that He rose again for your justification. He's now seated at the right hand of the Father, interceding, praying for you. He also gave you His Spirit to be with you, to do the actual work of making you holy, to actually change you. This is not something that you can change in yourself. Holiness is not something you make. Something can't be cleaner, can't make itself cleaner than it is. If it's tainted, it will always taint. But the pure spirit who's been given to God's people is the one who is actively cleansing us and washing us and making us new. I'm actually going to, end there this morning. We're going to get in next week into looking more at the characteristics of, well, what is holiness? What does it look like to actually be godly people? But I think this morning, we need to stop there and thank God for and contemplate the gifting of the spirit, that we have been given this spirit to make us holy. This is part of our salvation. And we're going to continue to look at that over the next couple weeks together. Let's pray together right now. Our Father in heaven, Lord Jesus, who stands right now, you are at the Father's right hand praying for us that our faith won't fail, that we will ultimately be made like you and ultimately be brought into your very presence. And Holy Spirit, you who have been given to us as the the gift and the one who will make us what we are supposed to be, why we were saved. We come to you this morning thanking you for this glorious salvation and this aim and purpose for which you made us and have redeemed us. To make us like you in all points that we as your creatures can be made like you This is your purpose for us. We come with some sense of awe that that would be your desire for our lives. Lord, convict us this morning, though, to think again of why we are living, why we claim to be Christians. May again you turn our eyes back to that great purpose that you actually predestined us to be conformed to the image of Your Son. And what a glorious salvation that is, that You would not just take the penalty off of us, but that You'd free us from the power of sin. What a great salvation we have. We praise You and desire to walk in Your ways. And we pray that You would enable us this week, even as has been prayed, that we might die unto sin, and live unto holiness, knowing that you have freed us for that purpose. Teach us, Father, teach us, Jesus, teach us, Spirit, how we might, by you, by your grace, by the Spirit, kill sin and to live to your glory. We ask these things now in Christ's name.