At the height of Charles Spurgeon’s ministry, the building of the Metropolitan Tabernacle had to be expanded.
The church was forced to temporarily meet in the 7,000 seat Surrey Gardens Music Hall.
Once during a packed-out service some wicked men shouted that the building was on fire.
In the panic that ensued a great many people were injured and seven people were crushed to death.
That tragedy nearly broke the preacher’s heart and somewhat changed his ministry.
Perhaps you can imagine the way that some people would have FOUGHT other people to get to the exits.
You might say that the violent took the exits by force.
Turning the illustration around,
If we announced on radio, television and in newspapers that Calvary Baptist Church would be giving away $10,000 bars of gold to the first 100 people to enter the front doors our church at 1:00 this afternoon, there might be just as many people killed trying to get in.
There would likely be a violent crowd of people trying to take the church by force.
In Matthew 11:12 the Lord Jesus made a very interesting statement:
“And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.”
Most of the scholars admit that this is a pretty difficult statement to understand, and I agree.
The Greek word translated “suffereth violence” is elsewhere only found in Luke 16:16:
“The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man PRESSETH into it.”
Ie., the preaching of John had been used of God to stir up all kinds of people to seek the Lord.
For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, & ye believed him not: but the publicans and the harlots believed him: and ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe him.”
Those unworthy folk were almost violently pushing the others aside so that they could get in.
How fitting is the word “violent” when applied to this man.
As we said last Sunday night, Cornelius was a soldier, a heathen, Roman soldier.
But it was as if he violently attacked and entered that Kingdom.
He was “a devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway.”
It was almost as if he forced God to open the gates of His kingdom to let him come in.
Not only did some of God’s choicest saints take up arms to defend themselves and others: like Abraham,
But some of God’s saints were soldiers at heart and by vocation:
Like Cornelius, these last two especially stormed the gates of the Kingdom and broke down the walls that stood between the people of Israel and themselves.
Last Sunday, I described Cornelius as a “Diamond in the Rough.”
This morning I’d like to take that a bit farther by saying that he is one of the most important men in history.
But it’s not so much who Cornelius was or what he did, as it was what the Lord by His grace did to him.
He is an important man, not because of his deeds or his faith, but because of the lessons that the Lord taught to all of humanity through him.
Were his parents dyed-in-the-wool heathens, or were they liberal, free-thinkers.
Was he raised in some strict religious home or was there no religious instructions at all.
And then at what point and how did he become convinced that Jehovah was the One True God?
A good Christian novelist could have a lot of fun with the story of Cornelius, both before and after he became a child of the King.
By the time that we meet him, he had become the quintessential religionist.
There is nothing in verse 2 with which any of us should quarrel.
When the Bible says that he was devout and God-fearing, it means that he took his religion very seriously.
And, he was a praying man;
And it wasn’t just the grace before meals kind of prayer.
He prayed to God constantly, just the way the Lord Jesus commanded us to pray.
And he prayed about serious things.
And he demonstrated practical piety as well.
He gave MUCH alms to the poor Jews who were flocking to Caesarea.
To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”
In the name of religion people are blowing themselves and others into Hell.
In the name of religion people have been prostituting and defiling themselves.
In the name of religion people have been deforming their bodies.
In the name of religion people kill their babies.
In the name of religion people have been worshipping before chunks of wood and stone.
In the name of religion people have been doing some disgusting and awful things.
And at the same time throughout history there have been people, like Cornelius, practicing good, clean and socially-beneficial religion.
But none of these religions, good or bad, have provided any of its devotees with deliverance from the penalty of their sins.
None of these religions has changed the sinner into a saint.
None of these religions has had the ability to bring spiritual life out of dead souls.
And it didn’t in Cornelius’ case either.
If this man had died of a heart attack when he saw God’s angel, he would have awoken in Hades, his religion not withstanding.
“Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
And at this point, I don’t think that he had been born again.
But what does this angel mean with the statement, “Thy prayer and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God”?
I think that it is related to Leviticus 2:
And he shall bring it to Aaron’s sons the priests: and he shall take thereout his handful of the flour thereof, and of the oil thereof, with all the frankincense thereof; and the priest shall burn the memorial of it upon the altar, to be an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD.”
And figuratively, the aroma of the sacrifice was pleasing to the Lord . . .
If it was offered in humility and faith.
And a word sometimes used for that sweet-smelling savour was “memorial.”
But please understand, they DIDN’T FORCE God to be kind and forgiving.
The sacrifices of Israel weren’t sacraments and causes of grace.
There is no such word as “sacrament” in the vocabulary of the Lord.
And still Cornelius’ religion didn’t make him a child of God.
One of the serious problems that we have in understanding God, is that we are not gods ourselves.
The only way that we can really understand why our neighbor limps is to walk a mile in his shoes.
And the only way that we will ever know God is to have the mind of God, and this will never happen.
There are things that the Lord has revealed to us about Himself, and for these things were are thankful.
But even those things are sometimes worded in human language and metaphor which cannot exactly express the thing intended.
When the Bible says “God is no respecter of persons,” it means that there is no unjust favoritism with Him.
He hasn’t predetermined that he likes Swedes over Danes, red-heads over blonds, and boys over girls.
And just because He sovereignly chose Israel over all the other nations of the earth, doesn’t mean that He has no concern or grace to share with Africans or Americans.
The bigoted Jews thought that Jehovah loved only them, hating the rest of humanity.
The bigoted WEALTHY Jews thought that Jehovah loved only them, hating the poor.
The bigoted HEALTHY Jews through that Jehovah hated the sick, or they wouldn’t be sick.
But as the Lord said unto Samuel, “Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.”
So Peter added, when he was talking to Cornelius, “I have learned that in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.”
Why did the Lord Jesus consort with publicans and harlots as much, if not more, than He did with leaders of the Jewish synagogues?
It was because God is no respecter of persons.
Why did He have women disciples as well as men disciples? Because He is no respecter of persons.
Why did He give the Syro-Phoenecian woman the same grace that he gave to the widow of Nain?
It took a direct revelation from God before Peter would admit to this fact, even though he had seen it in practical form in the life of the Lord Jesus.
Some people have the idea that there are people who WANT to enter God’s kingdom, but who can’t because they aren’t enrolled in God’s buddy list or Favorites file.
While there is such a thing as the election of grace,
The truth is that “in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.”
If some hyper-Calvinist has told someone that they can’t go to heaven unless they are elect of God,
“The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.”
Press yourself into it; squeeze through that doorway.
Say with Jacob, “Lord, I will not let you go until you bless me.”
But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs.
And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.
Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.”
One of the lessons reiterated in Acts 10 is that God is no respecter of persons.
“In every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.”
Religion does not meet the real needs of the sinner.
The prophet Isaiah said, “We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags;
And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee:
For thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities.”
“For there is not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not.”
Some of those sinners are religious and even outwardly righteous-looking, like Cornelius.
When Isaiah says “all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags,” he is saying that we may HAVE apparent righteousness;
We may be generous and prayerful;
But these things do not replace or overcome our transgressions against God.
God has “hidden his face from us, and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities.”
If I might be permitted to add to what Paul says in I Corinthians 1:
For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent, (and I reject the religion of self-righteous),
For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom (and even by religion) knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.”
“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.
To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.”
He could have said, “Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life, no man cometh unto God but by Him.”
He could have said, “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”
He could have said, “The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand.
But the wrath of God abideth on him.”
There are multitudes of people around the world ignorantly striving to enter the kingdom of God.
But all their good works are considered as sin before the eyes of the Lord, because they are not mixed with the kind of faith that God demands.
These people cannot save themselves, even by their religion, and they need a Saviour.
They need to be told that there was a sacrifice made and presented to God the Father which meets all of the Lord’s demands against sin.
“For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.”
But in Christ Jesus there is salvation, forgiveness and deliverance.
“Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.”
God is no respecter of persons:
Whosoever will humbly repent of their sins and believe on Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour, to them the Lord grants forgiveness of sin and eternal life.
They are the only ones who ACTUALLY receive entrance into His kingdom.
“In Him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.”
Are you like Cornelius?
Have you met the Saviour?