What did James say God did at the first for the Gentiles in Acts 15?

Les explains that in Acts 15, after Peter's explanation and Barnabas and Paul's report of miracles and wonders God had wrought among the Gentiles, James, evidently moderating the meeting, answered and said, “Men and brethren, hearken unto me: Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for His name.” Les identifies that first visitation as the house of Cornelius, and the people taken out as the church, which is His body. For over 1900 years, Les says, the church has been formed predominantly by Gentiles who are being called out from among whatever they are, pagans or whatever, and becoming members of the Body of Christ. When that began, the Jews got envious and began to oppose it everywhere Paul went, and God put a blindness upon the nation. Les reminds that God deals with the Jew on two levels, national and personal; national blindness does not take away the personal opportunity for salvation.