The Unchangeable Sign

God sent the apostle Peter and a few Jewish brethren to the house of Cornelius the Roman centurion to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to these people, who were the first Gentiles to have the Gospel preached unto them. I'm going to pick up with the end of Peter's short sermon, and then I want to look at what took place, and ask just a few questions: "To him [Jesus] give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word. And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God" (Acts 10:43-46). But before the questions I would just like to point out that what is described here perfectly exemplifies what Jesus said about the fact that true believing on him results in receiving the Spirit of God (Jn. 7:38,39). Note that when Peter said, "whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins," these people's faith procured the holy Ghost baptism. And according to Peter, at a later recounting of this event, that same holy Ghost baptism "purified their hearts [from sin] by faith [in Jesus]" (Acts 15:8). Okay, my first question is, Is there "variableness, or shadow of turning" with God? Not according to James 1:17, which is where the above quote is taken from. So then we've established that God never changes. Let's go from there. Our text passage says that the Jews who came with Peter were astonished that God had given the holy Ghost to these Gentiles. So how did they KNOW that these people had indeed received the Spirit? Did they 'get saved?' That isn't there. Did they 'accept the Lord as their personal savior?' Again, that's not there. Did they 'confess Jesus to be the Lord?' Well, they didn't confess that he wasn't the Lord, but there was no verbal confession to that effect. Did Peter and the brethren with him 'see the fruit of their lives?' Seeing they had just arrived there and met them for the first time, that one's out too.

So then, just how DID they know that these fine folks received the holy Ghost? Friend, the answer is right there in front of us, as is always the case. All we have to do is read one verse further to get it: "For [because] they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God." These Jews were astonished that God had poured out his Spirit on these first Gentiles for the simple reason that they saw and heard the inseparable SIGN, or evidence of the experience of receiving God's Spirit; which sign and evidence they readily recognized, seeing that it had been present with everyone who had received the Spirit since Pentecost. And I for one believe that the judgment of these early elders of the faith is to be regarded above anyone's judgment today that is contrary to that. Not one of them acknowledged anybody receiving God's Spirit until God's chosen sign that they were familiar with showed up. Like the scripture says, "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." If that is how these men recognized that these people received the holy Ghost, then it was and is ALWAYS that way when someone receives the Spirit. Otherwise we charge God with orchestrating confusion, and we also say the scripture is untrue that says he never changes or varies. This is certainly no small point of truth to consider and heed, seeing that the Bible clearly tells us, "Now if any man have NOT the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his" (Rom. 8:9). I will add this very important element of this equation, and that is the absolute fact that a WHOLE LOT of people have received the Spirit AND have had an utterance, and never realized it. Trust me when I tell you this happens all the time. I literally couldn't count the people I have met that somehow or another it ended up coming out that they had indeed received the holy Ghost at some point, and were never aware of the fact that they spoke in tongues or had "stammering lips" (Isa. 28:11,12). Nonetheless the truth of the matter is unchangeable. Amen.