God Shows No Favoritism And Saves Gentiles Too

Peter walks into a Gentile home and says the quiet part out loud: “God shows no favoritism.” That single line in Acts 10 collides with the way we sort people, trust institutions, and defend our favorite labels. We read the story of Cornelius and Peter straight through, then sit with the uncomfortable simplicity of the gospel: peace with God comes through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all, and forgiveness of sins is tied to His name, not ours. 

From there, we talk about the pressure to add “something extra” to salvation. Denominations, personalities, cultural credentials, even our own sense of being right can start to function like a backup plan. We push back on that instinct and ask what it does to our souls and to the people watching us. Along the way we connect the text to the Holy Spirit falling on Gentile believers, baptism, and why the early church’s message keeps pointing to Christ alone. 

We also zoom out to everyday obedience with Colossians 3:18–21 and the hard truth that most of us cherry-pick Scripture when it clashes with modern assumptions about marriage and family. Finally, we bring in Proverbs 17 and an 1803 election sermon to argue that a nation’s moral foundation cannot survive on shifting feelings and political whims. If you care about Acts 10, salvation, Christian marriage, and America’s Christian heritage, this conversation is built to challenge you and sharpen you. Subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find the show.

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Transcript

Jesus Christ Alone Opens The Day

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Acts ten starting with verse thirty-four. Then Peter replied, I see very clearly that God shows no favoritism. In every nation he accepts those who fear him and do what is right. This is the message of good news for the people of Israel. That there is peace with God through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. You notice there, folks, he didn't say anything other than Jesus Christ. You don't need a pope or a priest or pastor or cultural icon or any particular denomination. In fact, they won't do any good. You just need Jesus Christ. 1959, Halifax, West Yorkshire. 15-year-old girl was groomed and raped by a group of Pakistani Muslims and a growing immigrant community there. Recognize the date again, folks, 1959. This isn't new. It doesn't change. It only increases with increasing population of Muslims.

Welcome And Gratitude To Listeners

SPEAKER_00 1:16

Hey folks, this is Jesse Cope, back with another episode of the American Soul Podcast. Hope y'all are doing well, wherever y'all are, whatever part of the day you're in. Sure to appreciate you joining me, giving me a little bit of your time and attention. For those of y'all that continue to share the podcast with others, thank you. For those of y'all who continue to join us on America's Christian Heritage podcast, thank you. Hope you enjoyed the latest episode over there. For those of y'all who have checked out the Countryside Book Series, I hope you're enjoying it. Hope your kids and grandkids are enjoying it. If you got it for them, uh or if you're one of the kids or grandkids listening to the podcast, I hope you enjoyed it. Uh for those of y'all that continue to support the podcast financially, thank you. Most of all, for those of y'all who continue to pray uh for me and for the podcast, thank you very much. Need the prayers, want them. Extremely grateful for your prayers.

Opening Prayer For Strength

SPEAKER_00 2:13

Father, thank you for today. Thank you for you, Father, and your son Jesus Christ and your Holy Spirit. Thank you for your love and your mercy, your grace, and your forgiveness of sins. Through the merit of your son Jesus Christ alone, Father, and nothing else. Forgive us our pride, our greed, selfishness, lust, covetousness, gossip, slander, judgment of others, hypocrisy, laziness, cowardice and unbelief, and whatever other sins I fail to mention, Father. Lack of gratitude. Thank you so much for all the blessings that you bestow upon us as individuals, as a nation here in America in particular, and others around the world where people are listening. Help us to turn to you in all that we do. To love you with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength, to love our neighbors as ourselves. Please be with those listening to the podcast wherever they are, Father. Comfort them, ease their hurts, their pain, injury, illness, anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts, any other maladies, thorns that they have in their side, Father. And help us to remember that we're just passing through here. This is just a temporary home. Father. Not even a home, just a temporary place to live for a while until we get home to you and your son Jesus Christ for all of eternity. Be with our leaders in the pulpit and the state, please help them to rule in fear of you. Be with our military, law enforcement, firefighters, EMS, and their families. Give them wisdom and courage and a strong day. Protect them as they protect us, Father. And please, God, my words here. In your Son's name we pray. Amen.

Christian Household Roles And Scripture

SPEAKER_00 4:11

Marriage verse is for today. Colossians 3, 18 through 21. Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them. Children, obey your parents and everything, for this pleases the Lord. Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged. Instructions for Christian households. I always throw the last two in there just because they're very important as well. But interesting, there's a lady that's got a pretty huge following, ironically, a lady, a huge online following on multiple platforms that's going around from church to church right now, asking questions based on scripture. Wives, do you have a responsibility to submit to your husbands and everything? Do you have a responsibility to eagerly physically satisfy them always and at all times? Do you have a responsibility to be meek and quiet and silent in church, right? She's just pulling things straight out of scripture and she's asking people at these churches, what do you what do you think about this? And it's fascinating because it uh obviously you know how it's going. It's not going well. And it's pretty condemning because it's one example of many where we like to cherry pick what we want to do. And we take the verses that we like and and we leave the ones we don't. And of course, all of us do this to one degree or another. The problem is, via feminism the last several decades in particular, we've tried to pretend that that's right. To the destruction of marriages and families and the destabilization of our society, culture, nation. Scripture's obviously right, folks, regardless of whether we want to follow it or not. I wonder how often we pray for that for ourselves, to follow Scripture even when we don't like it. I certainly don't pray for that enough for myself.

Peter And Cornelius In Acts 10

SPEAKER_00 6:07

Acts 10, 24 through 48. They, Peter and the other believers, arrived in Caesarea the following day. Cornelius was waiting for them and had called together his relatives and close friends. As Peter entered his home, Cornelius fell at his feet and worshipped him, but Peter pulled him up and said, Stand up, I'm a human being just like you. So they talked together and went inside, where many others were assembled. Peter told them, You know it is against our laws for a Jewish man to enter a Gentile home like this or to associate with you. But God has shown me that I should no longer think of anyone as impure or unclean. So I came without objection as soon as I was sent for. Now tell me why you sent for me. Cornelius replied, Four days ago I was praying in my house about this same time. Three o'clock in the afternoon, suddenly a man in dazzling clothes was standing in front of me. He told me, Cornelius, your prayer has been heard, and your gifts to the poor have been noticed by God. Now send messengers to Joppa and summon the man named Simon Peter. He is staying in the home of Simon, a tanner who lives near the seashore. So I sent for you at once, and it was good of you to come. Now we are all here waiting before God to hear the message the Lord has given you. Then Peter replied, I see very clearly that God shows no favoritism. In every nation he accepts those who fear him and do what is right. This is the message of good news for the people of Israel, that there is peace with God through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. You know what happened throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee, after John began preaching his message of baptism. And you know that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. Then Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. And we apostles are witnesses of all he did throughout Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a cross, but God raised him to life on the third day. Then God allowed him to appear, not to the general public, but to us whom God had chosen in advance to be his witnesses.

Why Trust Nothing Beyond Christ

SPEAKER_00 8:29

I don't know how to answer that, folks, today or then. I don't know why Christ showed himself to some and not to others, why he doesn't show himself today. I can't answer that. And I just file that under the heading that our pastor talks about so often. If I could answer every single question about God and his actions, then I would be God. Thankfully, for everyone, I'm not. We were those who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead, and he ordered us to preach everywhere and to testify that Jesus is the one appointed by God to be the judge of all, the living and the dead. He is the one all the prophets testified about, saying that everyone who believes in him will have their sins forgiven through his name. Again, folks, just like we talked about at the beginning of the podcast, there is nothing else mentioned in Scripture. There's no additional requirement outside of Christ. You can make different arguments from Scripture, maybe about what particular what you need to do in relationship to Christ, but you cannot say that you have to be a member of the Church of Christ or the Methodist Church or the Baptist Church, Southern Baptist, Reformed Baptist, Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic. There's nothing to back that up in Scripture. You're not going to find any of those denominations in Scriptures. And to say otherwise is not only to endanger your own soul, because you're putting trust in something outside of Christ. When you get to those gates and you say, you know, why should I get to go in? And you say, well, Christ and the church, and they're going to look at you and go, Uh, no, just Christ. You're also putting a stumbling block in front of others. Let me read verse 43 again. He is the one that all the prophets testified about, saying that everyone who believes in him, Jesus Christ, will have their sins forgiven through his name. Even as Peter was saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who were listening to the message. The Jewish believers who came with Peter were amazed that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles, too. For they heard them speaking in other tongues and praising God. Then Peter asked, Can anyone object to their being baptized? Now that they have received the Holy Spirit just as we did. So he gave orders for them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Afterward, Cornelius asked him to stay with them for several days.

Proverbs Warning And Coming Conflict

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Oh, praise the Lord, all you servants of the Lord. You who serve at night in the house of the Lord, lift your hands toward the sanctuary and praise the Lord. May the Lord who made heaven and earth bless you from Jerusalem. Proverbs 17, 9 through 11. Love prospers when a fault is forgiven, but dwelling on it separates close friends. A single rebuke does more for a person of understanding than a hundred lashes on the back of a fool. Evil people are eager for rebellion, but they will be severely punished. That last one, folks. Only fools want a war. I think we have a war coming inside the United States. I think Britain, the UK has one coming inside their own borders as well. Maybe some other nations and Western civilization. But only fools want it. But there are worse things than death. There are worse things than war. Living under leftism, Marxism, socialism, communism, right? Not Nazism, fascism, or Islam. The rape and pillage and genocide of living under those is worse than war, is worse than death alone.

Books Reviews And Supporting The Show

SPEAKER_00 12:34

If you are looking for a family-friendly middle-grade read, if you would check out the countryside series, there's two books in the series. The Book of the Wise is the first one, The Tears of Edina, the second one. You can get on Amazon, Barnes and Noble. There's Hardback, Paperback, Ebook, whatever you like. It's kind of like Narnia, The Hobbit, Percy Jackson, Harry Potter. And if you enjoy it, if you'd leave a review somewhere online, that helps immensely. And if you want to, if you leave a review somewhere, drop me a copy of it. You can text the show and we'll try and get it on here. Also, uh, same thing for the podcast. If you're enjoying it, if you'd leave a review of it somewhere online, I'd be very grateful for that as well. That helps both podcasts, The American Soul and America's Christian Heritage. So thank you for that. You have five or ten dollars a month you can spare to donate to the podcast, that kind of keeps us going, keeps the lights on, so to speak. So thank you for that too. I had something else. And my brain is gone.

Immigration Tragedy And Public Policy

SPEAKER_00 13:46

I I will tell you, I didn't pull this, but if you noticed about a week ago, I think it was in Pennsylvania, there was a illegal immigrant truck driver that killed a stake trooper there. And if I'm not mistaken, I believe that was he was a veteran of some number of years, quite a few years. But it's just one more example, folks, of the damage. And you say, well, we have a lot of people inside the United States. Yeah, we we do have a lot of citizens that cause problems. So why would you add something else to it? It's it's the same lunacy of trying to approve marijuana that people say, well, it's not any worse than alcohol. Well, isn't alcohol bad enough? You know, isn't it already abused poorly enough? And of course the statistics bear that out in that case, and they bear this out. Why would you invite more? Maybe one of the best examples is why would you invite someone that has a propensity to cause destruction into your own humble? Why would you take space away from your children, your wife, your family? Right? But that's what we do when we invite the legals and the Muslims into the country.

Medal Of Honor Story Worth Remembering

SPEAKER_00 15:14

Medal of Honor for today. William Campbell, uh Boneswain's mate, U.S. Civil War, USS Teconderoga, U.S. Navy, January 13th through 15th, 1865. You could tell I had to pause at that, right? Taconderoga, if I'm saying that right. Fort Fisher, North Carolina. On board the USS Taconderoga during the attacks on Fort Fisher, 24 and 25 December, 1864. Merry Christmas, huh? And 13 to 15 January 1865, despite heavy return fire by the enemy and the explosion of the hundred-pounder parrot rifle, which killed eight men and wounded twelve more. Campbell, as captain of a gun, performed his duties with skill and courage during the first two days of battle. As the ship again took position on the line of the 13th, he remained steadfast as the Ticonderoga maintained a well-placed fire upon the batteries on shore. And thereafter, as she materially lessened the power of guns on the mound, which had been turned upon our assaulting columns. During this action, the flag was planted on one of the strongest fortifications possessed by the rebels. Credited to Indiana, not awarded pushhumously, born 1838, Indiana. And that's all we got on Mr. William Campbell. Just one more name, folks, we need to remember just a little bit more than the politicians, college professional athletes, singers, songwriters, etc., movie lyric, movie lines, song lyrics, right?

Election Sermon And America’s Foundations

SPEAKER_00 16:52

We don't have near enough time to read all these quotes, but I'm going to start today. Mathis Matthew Mathis Burnett was a congregational minister and pastor of First Church in Norwalk, Connecticut. On May the 12th, 1803, in Hartford, he gave a sermon, an election sermon, which was a traditional annual address to Connecticut's legislature, titled An Election Sermon Sermon, preached at Hartford on the day of the anniversary election, May 12, 1803. Interesting, so interesting, just another little piece of evidence. These election sermons were pretty common to a legislative body. Our founders didn't want to separate God and Jesus Christ. They wanted those two combined. They didn't want any imposters involved in the state: Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, etc., including denominations that tried to punish people for following Christ as opposed to their church. But they very much wanted Christianity tied to civic duty, moral character, virtue in the nation, right? So we've got some quotes. We're going to read one or two today, and we'll get to some more tomorrow out of this election sermon. Quoting Psalm 11.3, if the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? What condition on earth can be imagined more wretched than this? If those only sure foundations of order, peace, and security in society, religion, and government are undermined and destroyed, the pillars on which their safety rested being taken away, they are of all men the most miserable. If we give away the foundations of America, the United States, which are the principles of Christ, we are going to be miserable, folks. Another quote from this election sermon. Whoever therefore regards his own interest or that of the public must be a friend to religion, as the surest bond of propriety in all private dealings, and as the best preservation of national peace and welfare. Banish a sense of religion and the terrors of the world to come from society. And you at once dissolve the sacred obligations of conscience and leave every man to do that which is right in his own eyes. If we throw away God, folks, we take away the best guarantee of morality and virtue and private life and preservation for peace in our national life. And that the second part here is so true. When we take away the unchanging principles of God and Jesus Christ as the foundation of our nation, then we're left to the political whims of men. Whatever they think on Monday, whatever they feel like when they roll out of bed Monday morning, oh, this sounds like a good idea. I'm going to do this. And then next Monday it might change. And five months from them it might change again. We've seen it. You know you've seen it. If you pay attention to politics, even if you've just been around, you know, people in general in your life, we change our opinions to suit the moment. God doesn't. That's why it's the only sure foundation of our free institutions of our republic. One more. The public worship of God is the most excellent method to communicate, spread, and perpetuate the knowledge of God and religion in the world that ever hath been or can be devised. It promotes good husbands and wives, good parents and children, good masters and servants, good rulers and subjects. The very best thing you can do for marriages across the nation, the very best thing you can do for families across the nation, for communities, for churches, for schools, for our courtrooms, for our military, for our law enforcement, for our classrooms. If I haven't said that already, the very best thing that we can do is to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. We'll come back and read a few more again. This was uh Mathis Burnett, 1803, an election sermon, delivered in Hartford, Connecticut.

Lord’s Prayer And Farewell Blessing

SPEAKER_00 21:50

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not to temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is a kingdom in the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen. God bless y'all. God bless your families, your marriages if you're married, your kids, if you have them, your nation, wherever you are around the world listening. God bless America. We'll talk to y'all again real soon, folks. Looking forward to it.