Can Good People Be Saved Out of the Church

Text: Acts 10:1-8; 11:14 Series: Restoration Sermons Date: Speaker: Ed Rangel Location: Waupaca Church of Christ Bible Version: NASB 1995 Sermon Type: Expository

Learning Objectives

By the close of this lesson the hearer should be able to:

1. State the real question — not whether good people exist, but whether God saves anyone outside the church.
2. Show from Scripture that every spiritual blessing, including salvation, is located in the church, which is the body of Christ.
3. Answer the moral, sincere person who trusts his own goodness — using Cornelius as the test case.

Thesis

Salvation is in Christ, and to be in Christ is to be in His body, the church; therefore no one — however good — is saved outside the church, because every saving blessing God gives is found only there.

Burden

This question makes people uncomfortable, and it should. We all know good, kind, sincere people in every kind of religious body and in none, and something in us wants to wave them all through. But the question is not whether they are nice; it is whether God has said He will save them where they are. The moment we answer from sentiment instead of Scripture, we have stopped letting God decide who is saved and started deciding for Him. So we will let the Bible set the terms and give the answer, even where the answer is hard.

Introduction

1. This is an important question, and only the Bible may answer it.
2. Whatever it says, we take.
3. Notice first what the question is not.
4. It is not, “Are there good people outside the church?” a. Of course there are.
5. It is not, “Does the church itself save?” a. Christ saves.
6. The question is whether God saves a person outside the church He purchased with His own blood.
7. Scripture sharpens the question, defines the church from Scripture, locates salvation inside it, and then sets two men before us: a. Cornelius. b. Saul.

I. Getting the Question Straight (Acts 11:14)

A. Several confusions have to be cleared away.

B. “Good people can be saved anywhere.”

1. How do we know? a. Has God said so? b. Since it is God who saves, we must find His answer in His book, not in our assumption.

C. “It does not matter which church you join, since the church does not save.”

1. This quietly swaps the Lord’s one church for a human “join the church of your choice.”

D. The question is not whether God saves someone in a denomination, but whether He saves anyone out of the church — the body Christ built.

1. The location of salvation is not ours to invent. a. God must answer where He saves.

E. Whose standard of “good” are we using?

1. God’s?
2. Man’s?
3. And is God’s standard met inside or outside the church?

F. We are not eager to preach anyone to perdition.

1. But the question of where salvation is found is God’s to settle, not ours.

G. If people are saved outside the church anyway, why did Christ establish it?

1. And why did He pay so dear a price for it? (Acts 20:28)

II. What Is the Church? (1 Tim. 3:15; Col. 1:18)

A. If a person were saved “out of the church,” he would be saved out of everything the church is.

1. Look at what Scripture says the church is. a. The kingdom of God, entered by the new birth (John 3:5). b. The house and family of God (1 Tim. 3:15). c. The body of Christ (Col. 1:18, 24).

“He is also head of the body, the church…” — Colossians 1:18, NASB 1995

“Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body, which is the church…” — Colossians 1:24, NASB 1995

d. God’s building, of which we are living stones (1 Cor. 3:9; 1 Pet. 2:5).

“For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.” — 1 Corinthians 3:9, NASB 1995

“You also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house…” — 1 Peter 2:5, NASB 1995

B. There is no salvation in Christ apart from being in Christ’s body.

1. To be saved outside the church is to be saved outside the kingdom.
2. To be saved outside the church is to be saved outside God’s family.
3. To be saved outside the church is to be saved outside the body of Christ.
4. Stated that plainly, the idea collapses.

III. Everything That Saves Is in the Church (Eph. 1:3, 7)

A. Press it further.

1. To be saved outside the church is to be saved without the very things God put in the church. a. “Every spiritual blessing” is “in Christ” (Eph. 1:3).

b. Redemption and the forgiveness of sins are in Him (Eph. 1:7).

“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace” — Ephesians 1:7, NASB 1995

c. The blood of Christ is applied in His body, the church.

“...to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.” — Acts 20:28, NASB 1995

B. Has God put the same saving blessings out in the world that He put in the church?

1. He has not.

C. Here is the decisive point: the same process that makes a person a Christian places him in the church.

1. When one is baptized into Christ, he is by that act added by the Lord to the church. a. Acts 2:41.

“So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls.” — Acts 2:41, NASB 1995

b. Acts 2:47.

“Praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.” — Acts 2:47, NASB 1995

c. First Corinthians 12:13.

“For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.” — 1 Corinthians 12:13, NASB 1995

2. You cannot get the salvation without getting the body, because God joined them.
3. There is no saved territory in the devil’s domain.

IV. The Two Test Cases: Cornelius and Saul (Acts 11:14; 1 Tim. 1:15)

A. Scripture sets two men at the extremes, and they settle the matter.

1. Cornelius was as good as an unconverted man can be. a. Devout. b. God-fearing. c. Generous in alms. d. Constant in prayer. e. Granted a vision of an angel.

2. If sincere goodness ever saved a man outside the gospel, it saved Cornelius. a. Yet the angel told him to send for Peter, “who will speak words to you by which you will be saved” (Acts 11:14).

b. He was not yet saved — for all his goodness — until he heard and obeyed the gospel (Acts 10:48).

B. Saul of Tarsus stood at the other extreme, “foremost” of sinners (1 Tim. 1:15).

“It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all.” — 1 Timothy 1:15, NASB 1995

1. Yet he too had to obey.

a. “Be baptized, and wash away your sins” (Acts 22:16).

“Now why do you delay? Get up and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on His name.” — Acts 22:16, NASB 1995

C. The best moral man and the chief of sinners had to enter by the same door.

1. Everyone between those two extremes must do the same.

Application

A. This lesson cuts against a comfortable modern instinct, so apply it honestly.

1. If you are trusting your own decency to save you — that you are kind, sincere, religious — you are standing exactly where Cornelius stood before Peter came. a. Cornelius was lost until he obeyed. b. Goodness is not the same as pardon.

2. If you have settled for “any church will do,” remember that the Lord built one church and put salvation in it. a. He did not scatter it among the bodies men have made.

3. Do not rest your soul on being good or on being somewhere religious. a. Rest it on being in Christ. b. That means being in His body, on His terms.

Conclusion

A. Can good people be saved out of the church?

1. Not because God is stingy, but because He has put salvation in His Son, and His Son’s body is the church.
2. Cornelius was good and still had to obey.
3. Saul was guilty and obeyed the same gospel.
4. Every saving blessing is inside, and the act that saves is the act that adds you.
5. The kindest thing we can do is tell the truth. a. Come into Christ. b. Be saved where salvation actually is.

Invitation

A. The good news is that the door stands open and the terms are plain.

1. Hear the gospel.
2. Believe that Jesus is the Christ.
3. Repent of your sins.
4. Confess His name.
5. Be baptized into Christ for the remission of your sins. a. In that moment the Lord adds you to His church (Acts 2:38, 41, 47).

B. If you have been trusting your own goodness, or assuming one church is as good as another, settle it God’s way today.

1. Come into the body where the blood was shed and the blessings are kept.
2. Come while we sing.

Word Study

English Term	Greek Term	Basic Meaning	Usage in This Sermon	Sermon Significance	Key Texts
Church	ekklēsia	The called-out assembly; an assembly summoned or gathered.	Used for the people saved by Christ and added by the Lord.	In the New Testament it is the saved — those the Lord adds — not a denominational label men adopt. The church is not an optional religious association; it is the body of the saved.	Acts 2:47; 1 Tim. 3:15; Col. 1:18
Added	prostithēmi	To add, place with, join to, or put together with.	Used of the Lord adding the saved to the church.	The Lord Himself adds the saved to the church; entrance is His act, simultaneous with obedient faith, not a later optional step of “joining.”	Acts 2:41, 47
Saved	sōzō	To save, rescue, deliver, preserve.	Used in Acts 11:14 concerning Cornelius hearing words by which he would be saved.	Cornelius was devout and moral, but still needed saving. His goodness did not equal pardon. Salvation came through the gospel God sent him to hear and obey.	Acts 11:14; Acts 2:47
Body	sōma	A body; an organized whole with members under one head.	Used of Christ’s body, the church.	To be in Christ is to be in His body. To argue for salvation outside the church is to argue for salvation outside the body of Christ.	Col. 1:18, 24; 1 Cor. 12:13
In Christ / In Him	en Christō / en hō	Located in Christ; union, relationship, or sphere of blessing in Him.	Used in Ephesians 1 to locate every spiritual blessing, redemption, and forgiveness.	The saving blessings are not scattered everywhere. They are “in Christ.” Since the church is His body, salvation cannot be separated from Christ’s body.	Eph. 1:3, 7
Redemption	apolytrōsis	Release, deliverance, liberation by payment of a price.	Used of redemption through Christ’s blood.	Redemption is not achieved by moral decency. It is found in Christ through His blood.	Eph. 1:7
Forgiveness	aphesis	Release, pardon, sending away of sins.	Used of the forgiveness of trespasses in Christ.	A good reputation is not forgiveness. Cornelius was devout, but he still needed the words by which he would be saved.	Eph. 1:7; Acts 11:14
Baptized	baptizō	To immerse, submerge, overwhelm.	Used of those who received the word and were baptized, and of being baptized into one body.	Baptism is not presented as a later church-membership ritual. In the same obedient response, the person comes into Christ and is added by the Lord to the saved.	Acts 2:41; 1 Cor. 12:13; Acts 22:16
Wash away	apolouō	To wash off, wash away, cleanse.	Used in Ananias’ command to Saul: “wash away your sins.”	Saul had seen the Lord and was praying, yet still needed to obey. His sins were not treated as washed away before the commanded response.	Acts 22:16
Purchased	peripoieō	To acquire, obtain, secure for oneself.	Used of the church God purchased with His own blood.	The church is not a human afterthought. Christ paid for it with His blood. If salvation were outside it, the price paid for it would be emptied of force.	Acts 20:28
Kingdom	basileia	Reign, rule, kingdom, realm of authority.	Used in the sermon to describe the church as God’s kingdom, entered by the new birth.	To be saved outside the church would be to be saved outside the kingdom of God.	John 3:5; Col. 1:13
House / Household	oikos	House, household, family, dwelling.	Used of the church as the house and family of God.	To be saved outside the church would be to be saved outside God’s family.	1 Tim. 3:15
Building	oikodomē	Building, structure, edifice.	Used of God’s building and spiritual house.	The saved are not loose stones scattered outside God’s work. They are living stones built into His spiritual house.	1 Cor. 3:9; 1 Pet. 2:5
Devout	eusebēs	Reverent, pious, God-fearing.	Used of Cornelius’ sincere religious character.	Cornelius proves the point: sincere piety did not save him apart from hearing and obeying the gospel.	Acts 10:2
God-fearing	phoboumenos ton Theon	One fearing or reverencing God.	Used of Cornelius before Peter came.	Respect for God is good, but it is not the same as gospel salvation. Cornelius still needed words by which he would be saved.	Acts 10:2; Acts 11:14
Foremost / Chief	prōtos	First, foremost, leading, chief.	Used by Paul of himself as the foremost of sinners.	Saul stands at the opposite extreme from Cornelius. The best moral man and the chief sinner both needed the same gospel obedience.	1 Tim. 1:15

Scripture Interlock Table

Theme	Boles' Outline	Supporting Scripture
Christ purchased the church	I	Acts 20:28
Church = kingdom, house, body, building	II	John 3:5; 1 Tim. 3:15; Col. 1:18; 1 Cor. 3:9
Every spiritual blessing is in Christ	III	Eph. 1:3, 7
Saved = added to the church	III	Acts 2:41, 47; 1 Cor. 12:13
Cornelius good yet unsaved until he obeyed	IV	Acts 10:48; 11:14
Saul the chief of sinners obeyed too	IV	1 Tim. 1:15; Acts 22:16

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Converted from H. Leo Boles, Outline 16. Doctrinal audit: core-framework (the one church = body of Christ; salvation located in Christ/His body; obedient-faith response; the saved are added to the church; rejection of "any church will do"); no correction. Style audit: OCR cleanup ("Uohn 3:5"→John 3:5; "Eph. I:6"→Eph. 1:6-7; spacing). Source text line "Acts 10:1-8; 11-4" read as Acts 10:1-8 and Acts 11:14.

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