SPEAKER_01: So glad to be here with y'all.
SPEAKER_01: Um kind of rust about what to preach on this afternoon, but I want to go to uh Lord being my helper.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, sister, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Would you bring that to me?
SPEAKER_01: I want the Lord being my helper, go to Acts chapter 10 and preach about one of the most beautiful and powerful, thank you, sister, in uh example of the scripture.
SPEAKER_01: We spoke this morning about implanted faith.
SPEAKER_01: Um that uh what whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world.
SPEAKER_01: And then we talked about when you hear and know, you can build upon that faith.
SPEAKER_01: Uh Paul alluded to that, I believe, in Romans chapter 1, verse 16.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, when he said very plainly, he said, uh, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: For is the power of God unto salvation unto everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
SPEAKER_01: So there he tells you the gospel should have power and the gospel should save.
SPEAKER_01: Alright?
SPEAKER_01: And then we have to ask, well, save from what?
SPEAKER_01: Save in what respect?
SPEAKER_01: For I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
SPEAKER_01: Obviously, the gospel is not going to save you unless you believe it, right?
SPEAKER_01: Well, how are you gonna believe it?
SPEAKER_01: For it is the righteousness, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith.
SPEAKER_01: The religious world today in Christ, I'm afraid they they jump the gun, they they they go too far and they think that, well, if you are just uh believing, if you will just do the right thing, then you will be made just before God and you'll be able to live in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: But you know, he said there that the dynamic of that was from faith to faith.
SPEAKER_01: All right.
SPEAKER_01: Now, does that mean the faith that people had in God in the Old Testament who were true believers of God came to faith and understanding that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of Jehovah God manifest in the flesh?
SPEAKER_01: Is that talking about one person of faith that is uh witnessing to another person of faith?
SPEAKER_01: Well, I would say amen on both counts, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Because there obviously he didn't say from faith to faithless.
SPEAKER_01: He said from faith to faith, all right?
SPEAKER_01: The world of religion today in Christ, they want to tell you it's from faith to faithless.
SPEAKER_01: You've got to go out and you've got to witness you having faith, and you've got to go out and convince people to not be faithless so that they can come to faith.
SPEAKER_01: Uh then he goes on to say, as it is written, the just shall live by faith.
SPEAKER_01: It does not read the faithful shall be made just.
SPEAKER_01: But that's what we hear from all around.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: If we just believe what the word of God says, it will lead us in the right direction.
SPEAKER_01: And we see a good example of that.
SPEAKER_01: How the faith is given in the heart, and then when you come to hear the truth of that faith, you can rejoice in it, and it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: My job is to save people.
SPEAKER_01: And I say that without shame.
SPEAKER_01: I say that with all scriptural authority.
SPEAKER_01: My job is to save people, to save them from doubt, to save them from fear, to save them from distress, to save them from the guilt over their sin poisoning their hearts and minds, to save them from pitfalls, to save them from family trauma, to save them from losing their job, to save them from too much dependence upon the government.
SPEAKER_01: Now, notice one time there I did not say save them from hell to heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus takes care of that.
SPEAKER_01: But my friends, if the church, if we ever lose sight of the fact that we're in the saving business, then we, our brothers and sisters are like a sailboat without wind.
SPEAKER_01: We are in the saving business, but we save in the ways that God's word tells us we could save.
SPEAKER_01: And here's one named Cornelius who was going to be saved.
SPEAKER_01: There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion.
SPEAKER_01: This was a heathen man.
SPEAKER_01: This was a Roman soldier, this was a man in command of fierce fighting men.
SPEAKER_01: A centurion band called the Italian band, a devout man, one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people and prayed to God always.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if we just examine this according to the scripture, people read this and they read it with the presuppositions that have been instilled in them by well-meaning people that tell them the gospel had to get to him to save him from hell to heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: Again, if we will take these statements and interpret them according to the word of God, it will bring us to some conclusions that are quite different than that.
unknown: Right.
SPEAKER_01: Quite more revealing and liberating than that.
SPEAKER_01: So here was a man who had never been evangelized.
SPEAKER_01: This is a man who had no access to the law, no access to the synagogue, no access to the temple, okay, other than the court of the Gentiles, as it were.
SPEAKER_01: This was a man who was from Italy.
SPEAKER_01: It was a heathen place, a place of multiple gods.
SPEAKER_01: He was being led by leaders and a country that wanted you to worship their leaders and not God, or a multitude of gods, as they did on Mars Hill.
SPEAKER_01: This was a man, if you want to talk about it religiously, he was confused as a football bat.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't know which way was up and which way was down.
SPEAKER_01: This was a man in abject brain knowledge about anything to do with Jehovah and Christ.
SPEAKER_01: But what does the Holy Spirit go out of his way to tell us about this man before any gospel was preached to him?
SPEAKER_01: And that's not accidental, friend.
SPEAKER_01: We've got an entire chapter in the recording of Acts, a very important book.
SPEAKER_01: A book that is the greatest collection of primitive Baptist sermons that have ever been recorded in this book.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: And here a whole lengthy chapter has been given us to describe the experience of a heathen, Gentile, Italian man who knew not God in his mind.
SPEAKER_01: But we're going to see he knew God in his heart.
SPEAKER_01: He knew God in his heart.
SPEAKER_01: A devout man, one that feared God with all his house.
SPEAKER_01: Now that fear, my friends, basically means with a reverential awe.
SPEAKER_01: Does everybody have that?
SPEAKER_01: And is everybody capable of that?
SPEAKER_01: Well, we know it's not so.
SPEAKER_01: Because, brothers and sisters, uh, we know in Romans chapter 3, what's one of the descriptions of people in their flesh who are void of the Spirit of God?
SPEAKER_01: There's no fear of God before their eyes.
SPEAKER_01: The wicked through the proud of his countenance will not seek after God.
SPEAKER_01: God is not in all of his thoughts.
SPEAKER_01: So a wicked man has no thought for God.
SPEAKER_01: He has no reverential fear for God.
SPEAKER_01: Now I'm telling you, there's coming a day when the wicked are going to pray, but they're not going to be praying to God with a broken heart.
SPEAKER_01: They're going to be praying for the rocks to fall down upon them.
SPEAKER_01: They're going to believe in God that day.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody say, all you got to do is believe in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Trust me, at that last day, they, everybody will believe in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: But I'm going to tell you what, that belief and just the person of Jesus Christ, brothers and sisters, will mean nothing to them because they do not believe from their heart that they are sinners and in need of a Savior.
SPEAKER_01: Well, here is one who feared God with all of his house.
SPEAKER_01: Well, he must have had something more than just the carnal mind and the carnal man has.
SPEAKER_01: But this man feared God.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever this change was, not change attire, not change britches, okay, not change a menu, not change anything else.
SPEAKER_01: What is a change under consideration?
SPEAKER_01: It is a change of spirit, my friends.
SPEAKER_01: Because they had no changes, they feared not God.
SPEAKER_01: But this man feared God.
SPEAKER_01: This man feared God.
SPEAKER_01: You know, it says here, this tells me this man had faith, but I didn't go any further.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 147.11 says, The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, to them that hope in his mercy.
SPEAKER_01: So it tells us very plainly.
SPEAKER_01: The scriptures say, the Lord takes pleasure in them that fear him.
SPEAKER_01: Here's one who feared it.
SPEAKER_01: Well, how in the world can you please God without what?
SPEAKER_01: Faith or the Spirit of God.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I mean, we got scripture for that too, don't we?
SPEAKER_01: See, if you just let the scripture, if you use just the scripture to interpret this, it'll lead you in a whole different direction than most of the world goes.
SPEAKER_01: And people think we're crazy.
SPEAKER_01: No, we just believe the scriptures.
SPEAKER_01: We believe we're rightly dividing the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: So here was a man who had a great honoring fear of God.
SPEAKER_01: How do I know?
SPEAKER_01: Because how it goes on to describe it.
SPEAKER_01: He feared God with all his house.
SPEAKER_01: Who gave him his fear of God was exercising itself in good works.
SPEAKER_01: Now don't get me wrong.
SPEAKER_01: Him giving alms to the people, that in itself, the wickedest man in the world can give alms to the people.
SPEAKER_01: But my friends, here, this is couched in the context of a man who feared God, which means he gave of the goodness of his heart.
SPEAKER_01: He was working out what God had worked into him in the best way he knew how to, and that was giving, doing good for people, like the sheep on the right hand side.
SPEAKER_01: Come, you blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
SPEAKER_01: And this man didn't know anything about that religion, but he knew that God in his heart.
SPEAKER_01: And here he was giving.
SPEAKER_01: How do I know that?
SPEAKER_01: And prayed to God always.
SPEAKER_01: You know, Saul of Tarsus spent his whole life standing on street corners, synagogues, and in the temple, hands to heaven, praying.
SPEAKER_01: That means mouthing words to Jehovah.
SPEAKER_01: But yet it's conspicuous to me that when the Lord visited Ananias to go to Saul, to ease his fear, he says, Behold, he prayeth.
SPEAKER_01: Now look, what sense does that make if he'd been praying all of his life?
SPEAKER_01: But God said, now he's praying.
SPEAKER_01: Well, what made the difference?
SPEAKER_01: The Holy Spirit of God.
SPEAKER_01: We quoted earlier from Galatians chapter 4.
SPEAKER_01: And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts.
SPEAKER_01: And what's the response of that?
SPEAKER_01: You start praying.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: Cry, Abba, Father.
SPEAKER_01: You see?
SPEAKER_01: That is the prayer life of a child of God starts, my friends.
SPEAKER_01: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: And that is instilled in the heart by the Spirit of God.
SPEAKER_01: So here he prayed to God always.
SPEAKER_01: Now we'll see, we have to ask ourselves, was he praying like Saul of Tarsus was?
SPEAKER_01: Was he praying like all those Pharisees went through the motions of doing?
SPEAKER_01: Well, let's see what he said.
SPEAKER_01: He prayed to God always.
SPEAKER_01: He saw in a vision, evidently, about the ninth hour of the day, an angel of God coming into him and saying unto him, Cornelius.
SPEAKER_01: Alright?
SPEAKER_01: And when he looked on him, he was afraid and said, What is it, Lord?
SPEAKER_01: And he said unto him, Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God.
SPEAKER_01: People say, You need to pray to God so that you could get into eternal life.
SPEAKER_01: Hear this angel saying your prayers and your alms, the good things you're doing, and the good things you're feeling, the good things you're talking to God about, he said they are a memorial before God.
SPEAKER_01: They're not a menu on how to get to God.
SPEAKER_01: They're not a roadmap or an architecture on how to build the Tower of Babel to get to God.
SPEAKER_01: No, he said they're a memorial before God, which means what?
SPEAKER_01: If it's a memorial to God, that means something was already been done in him to attest to that.
SPEAKER_01: If somebody said, look, we're going to build the World War III memorial, and I need some money.
SPEAKER_01: I've told y'all this before.
SPEAKER_01: You wouldn't give that person a dime.
SPEAKER_01: You'd laugh them out of the house.
SPEAKER_01: World War III hasn't happened yet.
SPEAKER_01: You don't build a memorial for something that hadn't happened yet.
SPEAKER_01: Something had already happened here.
SPEAKER_01: Something had happened here.
SPEAKER_01: And God recognized it.
SPEAKER_01: He was praying unto God.
SPEAKER_01: He was serving God in his gospel ignorance through faith.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Thy prayers and thine arms are come up for a memorial before God, which means what?
SPEAKER_01: God heard his prayers.
SPEAKER_01: It's very important that when God hears the prayers.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm Proverbs 15, 29 says, The Lord is far from the wicked, but he heareth the prayers of the righteous.
SPEAKER_01: If he heard this man's prayer, where'd he get that righteousness from, I wonder?
SPEAKER_01: Where'd he get it from?
SPEAKER_01: Does the world sell it?
SPEAKER_01: Does the world have any of it?
SPEAKER_01: Not a lick.
SPEAKER_01: It's all in God.
SPEAKER_01: So any righteousness he had, true righteousness, God attested righteousness, was of God.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Send men to Joppa, call for one Simon whose surname is Peter, lodge with Simon a tanner.
SPEAKER_01: He's living on the top of a stinky house.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: A tanner is a stinky place.
SPEAKER_01: So here he's up on a stinky house trying to get some air, trying to, I'm sure, pray, trying to get some fresh air.
SPEAKER_01: And the angel appeared unto Peter as he went up there.
SPEAKER_01: And when the angel which spake unto Cornelius was departed, he called two of his household servants, a devout soldier of them that waited on him.
SPEAKER_01: So that's three Gentiles and sent them out.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: Now Peter upon that rooftop of the tannery, he got hungry, would have eaten, but then he fell into a trance.
SPEAKER_01: He saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners and let down to earth.
SPEAKER_01: Wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth, wild beasts, creeping things, and fowls of the air.
SPEAKER_01: What's meant to be conveyed here is that these things, according to the law, were unclean.
SPEAKER_01: They were taboo.
SPEAKER_01: You couldn't eat them.
SPEAKER_01: They were among the list of unclean animals.
SPEAKER_01: They were not to be touched.
SPEAKER_01: But we're going to see these animals in this sheep that represents something.
SPEAKER_01: Not a potential, a reality.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: He tells him, Rise, Peter, slay and eat.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: And there came a voice saying, Rise, Peter, kill and eat.
SPEAKER_01: But Peter said, Not so, Lord, for I've never eaten anything that is common or unclean.
SPEAKER_01: And the voice spake again unto him the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.
SPEAKER_01: Now, did God say what I'm about to cleanse, what I'm using you to cleanse, what I'm trying to get cleansed?
SPEAKER_01: No, God said, This is what I have already cleansed.
SPEAKER_01: And note that those unclean animals, according to Peter's perspective, according to the law, let down out of heaven three times represent the knock on the door of the three Gentiles who came.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: And Peter understood this.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to see from the context later.
SPEAKER_01: He distinctly understood what God was telling him.
SPEAKER_01: You ever heard the saying, oh, I'm picking up what you're putting down?
SPEAKER_01: Peter was picking up what God was putting down.
SPEAKER_01: He realized that those three Gentiles, those heathen, represented those animals that were let down.
SPEAKER_01: And notice, if God wanted to, he could have popped that sheet up out of the ground to mean these are children of the devil and you need to go out and clean them up.
SPEAKER_01: But where did they come from?
SPEAKER_01: Heaven.
SPEAKER_01: They came down from heaven.
SPEAKER_01: And guess what?
SPEAKER_01: They went back into heaven without Peter doing one square thing for them.
SPEAKER_01: But who had done something for them?
SPEAKER_01: God had done something for them.
SPEAKER_01: And so he understood this vision.
SPEAKER_01: And they said, Come with us.
SPEAKER_01: And the Spirit told him, Behold, three men seek thee.
SPEAKER_01: Arise therefore, get thee down, go with them, doubting nothing, for I have sent them.
SPEAKER_01: Then Peter went down to the men which were sent unto him from Cornelius and said, Behold, I am he whom ye seek.
SPEAKER_01: What is the cause wherefore ye are come?
SPEAKER_01: And they said, Cornelius the Centurion, a just man, and one that feareth God, and of good report among all the nation of the Jews, was warned from God by an holy angel to send for thee into his house and to hear words of thee.
SPEAKER_01: To whom are angels sent to minister?
SPEAKER_01: Hebrews chapter 1, to those who shall be heirs of salvation.
SPEAKER_01: This angel was not sent holding a sword as in the day of Balaam riding on that donkey.
SPEAKER_01: This angel came to minister.
SPEAKER_01: This angel came to give glad tidings of good things.
SPEAKER_01: So this angel, my friend, was a minister, the one who shall be an heir of salvation.
SPEAKER_01: He was an heir.
SPEAKER_01: God had already cleansed him.
SPEAKER_01: God had already cleansed him without Peter to.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, in spite of what Peter did, God showed, I've already cleansed them.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: But Peter was still to go to them, and he did.
SPEAKER_01: As Peter was coming in, Corinius met him, fell down at his feet, and worshipped him.
SPEAKER_01: Now somebody would say, You see, that condemned, damnable old reprobate.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: This was a man who was just before God, who feared God, who prayed to God always, who was devout, who gave alms, and that went up as a memorial before God.
SPEAKER_01: I hope some pray what I've done today comes up as some kind of memorial before God.
SPEAKER_01: How about you?
SPEAKER_01: Coming here today.
SPEAKER_01: I hope it was a memorial before God.
SPEAKER_01: Praying unto God as I hope you've done.
SPEAKER_01: And I think I fought your prayers.
SPEAKER_01: That was a memorial before God.
SPEAKER_01: That's God's children that are able to do that.
SPEAKER_01: And here was one, my friends, who was about to be fed in a special way.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: He uh he fell down on his feet to give him worship.
SPEAKER_01: I've heard some people say, well, see, you're saying that any Indian and you know, their gospel ignorance, if they've ever fallen down on a totem pole, then that's a work of grace.
SPEAKER_01: No, I've never said that.
SPEAKER_01: I ain't gonna say that.
SPEAKER_01: Let me tell you something.
SPEAKER_01: Worshiping a false idol is a negative, no matter how you look at it.
SPEAKER_01: But I thank God for this example because it shows what?
SPEAKER_01: Somebody who's already had a heart cleansed can still make some bad mistakes, right?
SPEAKER_01: He needed to what?
SPEAKER_01: He needed to learn more.
SPEAKER_01: He needed the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith more so that he could grow in the grace and in the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: None of you were born again full raised.
SPEAKER_01: I wasn't either, and ain't nearby there yet.
SPEAKER_01: So Cornelius was a process, okay?
SPEAKER_01: It's like the seed that cometh forth, okay?
SPEAKER_01: First the seed that comes the blade and then the full plant, and then the corn in the ear.
SPEAKER_01: This was a man who was very early in his knowing, but he didn't need to go get life.
SPEAKER_01: He already had life.
SPEAKER_01: He needed to grow, he needed to flourish, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And uh the morrow after they entered into Caesarea and Cornelius waited for them and he called together his kinsmen and near friends.
SPEAKER_01: This man's more faithful than most primitive Baptists already.
SPEAKER_01: Am I hurting your feelings?
SPEAKER_01: I don't care.
SPEAKER_01: We do a pitiful job of inviting people to church.
SPEAKER_01: We do.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm encouraging my including myself in it.
SPEAKER_01: I'm hearing it in my ears before you are.
SPEAKER_01: We need to repent over that and be thankful for what we have and actually believe that it will benefit other people.
SPEAKER_01: It will save them.
SPEAKER_01: If it saved me, it'll save them.
SPEAKER_01: It's meant all the world to me.
SPEAKER_01: So here he invited all these people in.
SPEAKER_01: But Peter took him up, saying, Stand up, I myself also am a man.
SPEAKER_01: Evangelical lesson number one he just got, right?
SPEAKER_01: And a long list of, I trust, many more to come.
SPEAKER_01: And he said unto them, Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company or come of one of another nation.
SPEAKER_01: Why did he say that?
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you go to the Great Commission, people say, well, they understood very plainly.
SPEAKER_01: They were supposed to go to Jew and Gentile when they got that commission.
SPEAKER_01: Well, why is it that we read earlier today from Acts chapter 15, the Council of Jerusalem?
SPEAKER_01: Why is it that Peter said, Ye all know that God chose me, that by me the gospel would be preached to the Gentiles?
SPEAKER_01: Conspicuous, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: Seems to me that great commission was still for them to just go preach to Jews.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: Now, certainly we preach to all the world, alright?
SPEAKER_01: And we teach them and we baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.
SPEAKER_01: What we do, my friends, is based upon that commission.
SPEAKER_01: But that commission at that time, they were still supposed to go to Jews, and I believe they understood that because not one of these apostles, who were so zealous for the cause of Christ, that they all went to a martyr's death except for John.
SPEAKER_01: You're going to tell me they were just so high-headed they decided I'm not going to go what my Savior told me to do?
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: They didn't go to a Gentile because it wasn't time for them to go.
SPEAKER_01: Well, when was it time?
SPEAKER_01: Here's the time.
SPEAKER_01: God saying, now, up until this point, Peter said, It's been unlawful for me to come up in here.
SPEAKER_01: Because he had an understanding of the law.
SPEAKER_01: He had an understanding that God had told him, go unto uh, not unto uh go unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: Don't go to the Samaritans, don't go in the way of the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_01: And that's where they were still going for years now after the crucifixion of Jesus until this time, chosen of God.
SPEAKER_01: And I can tell you what, God made an impression on old Peter, didn't he?
SPEAKER_01: When God makes an impression, When he reveals something, he reveals it in no uncertain terms, especially regarding what he reveals to his apostles.
SPEAKER_01: So they weren't in ignorance or rebellion up to this time.
SPEAKER_01: He understood, now's the time.
SPEAKER_01: Now's the time for the gospel to be preached to these Gentiles.
SPEAKER_01: Now's the time for the fulfillment of all those prophecies that spoke in the Old Testament of the Lord, bringing in the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_01: Now is the time.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: He said, Ye know how that it was an un.
SPEAKER_01: No, he said, it is an unlawful thing.
SPEAKER_01: For one that is a Jew to keep company or come unto one of another nation.
SPEAKER_01: But, in other words, he said, here's the hinge turning.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the door opening.
SPEAKER_01: But God hath showed me that I should not call any man common or unclean.
SPEAKER_01: People think we're weird.
SPEAKER_01: Well, for a lot of reasons.
SPEAKER_01: But people think we're weird, primitive Baptists, because we don't go around castigating people to hell.
SPEAKER_01: That's not our job.
SPEAKER_01: Our job is to feed sheep, not point out goats.
SPEAKER_01: Our job is to feed the lambs, not point out goats.
SPEAKER_01: Goats are all around us.
SPEAKER_01: And as I've told y'all before, I'm going to tell you again, if you examine a man or a woman's sin, you can only come to one conclusion.
SPEAKER_01: That's a sinner.
SPEAKER_01: Well, guess what?
SPEAKER_01: Men, the same one you shaved this morning, is a sinner too.
SPEAKER_01: And ladies, the same one you put makeup on this morning is a sinner too.
SPEAKER_01: If you judge men's sins, you're just going to see that they're sinners.
SPEAKER_01: My friends, we are to judge fruitfulness the best we can and just leave the rest in the hands of God.
SPEAKER_01: Because here Peter said, God has shown me that I should call no man common or unclean.
SPEAKER_01: How much more common and unclean could you accuse a man of being than that he's hellbound and not covered by the blood of Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: That's as filthy, nasty, dirty as you can get.
SPEAKER_01: There's nothing more putrefying than that.
SPEAKER_01: And Peter said, That's not my job.
SPEAKER_01: God has shown me that I should call no man common nor unclean.
SPEAKER_01: Because God had revealed to him some that he saw walking up there.
SPEAKER_01: He said, There's never hope for them.
SPEAKER_01: But I'm going to tell you what God showed him otherwise, didn't he?
SPEAKER_01: Because guess what?
SPEAKER_01: God's in control of this thing.
SPEAKER_01: God's in control of everlasting salvation for his people.
SPEAKER_01: Now, therefore came I unto you, because I understood you were the meaning of that, where God had already cleansed.
SPEAKER_01: So here, I came I unto you without gainsaying.
SPEAKER_01: As soon as I was sent for, I asked therefore for what intent ye have sent for me.
SPEAKER_01: And Cornelius said, Four days ago I was fasting until this hour, and at the ninth hour I prayed in my house, and behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing and said, Cornelius, thy prayer is heard.
SPEAKER_01: And thine alms are had in remembrance in the sight of God.
SPEAKER_01: Send therefore to Joppa, and call hither Simon, whose surname is Peter.
SPEAKER_01: He's lodged in the house of one Simon of Tanner by the seaside, who, when he cometh, he shall speak unto thee.
SPEAKER_01: Immediately therefore I sent to thee, and thou hast well done that thou art come.
SPEAKER_01: Now therefore are we all here present before God to hear all things that are commanded thee of God.
SPEAKER_01: What were they doing?
SPEAKER_01: Seeking after God.
SPEAKER_01: What brought them there?
SPEAKER_01: Because here is a group of people, heathens, who were seeking after God.
SPEAKER_01: Not in a false way, not in a counterfeit way, but within a minute's time.
SPEAKER_01: They came there waiting to see what God would say unto them.
SPEAKER_01: I heard Elder Charles Kitchens the other day telling about his uh, I think it was his daddy Charles, uh, when Brother Charles was off in the war on the other side of the world on an island where people didn't speak any English and he didn't speak any of what they spake.
SPEAKER_01: And they were all sitting around there one day, and one of the natives was sitting there among them under a coconut tree, and a coconut, and this wasn't a little big coconut, a coconut fell out of that tree and landed right there next to that native.
SPEAKER_01: And brother Charles jumped back, and that native just kind of sat there, he looked up, and he looked at Brother Charles, and you know, he was kind of shaking like that, and he said, Talking about, there's someone up above who has just delivered me.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: Now I will tell you what, I don't know that man's heart, but I do know from scriptural attestation that these people were there seeking to what God would tell them.
SPEAKER_01: And who is it that seeketh after God?
SPEAKER_01: Again, according to Romans chapter 3, of the wicked there's none that understandeth, there's none that seeketh after God.
SPEAKER_01: And they were seeking.
SPEAKER_01: And here they were, for that reason, to seek of what God had thee.
SPEAKER_01: Then Peter opened his mouth and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons, whether it be man or woman, whether it be Jew or Gentile, is what he's referring to there.
SPEAKER_01: He said, But in every nation, he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: How do we recognize someone who truly fears the Lord and wants to work his righteousness?
SPEAKER_01: Friends, do you tell them about Jesus Christ and it strikes a chord with them?
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: We can know it manifestly and according to Scripture authoritatively by what?
SPEAKER_01: Someone who believes in Jesus Christ as Savior, as the Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: And so we don't need to go around just saying, well, I think he likes to do good and I think he fears God and go and tell them you're saved, you're going to heaven.
SPEAKER_01: That person may be going to heaven.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord knoweth them that are his, right?
SPEAKER_01: But when we go to convey and share the gospel with people, my friends, I'm going to tell you what, it'll never mean anything to somebody unless they already fear God and desire to work righteousness in them.
SPEAKER_01: But what do we do?
SPEAKER_01: We share the gospel with them, and that is most highly manifest in evidence when someone recognizes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and he came into this world.
SPEAKER_01: My friends, there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost.
SPEAKER_01: And so therefore we rejoice.
SPEAKER_01: Rejoice that he didn't say, everyone that feareth him and worketh righteousness is almost there.
SPEAKER_01: No, he said, is presently accepted with him.
SPEAKER_01: The sheep was wrapped down three times with creatures that had already been cleansed.
SPEAKER_01: So you know what we need to do?
SPEAKER_01: We need to go out and preach.
SPEAKER_01: We need to go out and share the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: Because I'm going to tell you there's some creatures out there that you would look at.
SPEAKER_01: They got too many stones coming out of their face and their head, and they painted from top to bottom, and they may even have a little course language.
SPEAKER_01: But you know what?
SPEAKER_01: You love them out where they are in the name of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And you never know what kind of difference could be made in that person's life.
SPEAKER_01: If they hate and reject it, then you just say, whatever, have a good one.
SPEAKER_01: But I'm going to tell you what, what if they love it and are excited by it?
SPEAKER_01: What if tears come out of their eyes?
SPEAKER_01: What if they're humbled by it?
SPEAKER_01: What if they're warning no more about it?
SPEAKER_01: And I'm telling you, brothers and sisters, we tell them, press the collar.
SPEAKER_01: Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive of the Father the gift of the Holy Ghost.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm going to tell you, I've been enjoying that sweet gift for a long time.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, he wasn't telling them that you're going to get born again.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: But what is born again in you will give you a special gift.
SPEAKER_01: A special gift, a wonderful gift.
SPEAKER_01: And there he said, The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: He is Lord of all.
SPEAKER_01: That word I say ye know, which was published throughout all Judea and began from Galilee after the baptism which John preached.
SPEAKER_01: How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power, who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil, for God was with him.
SPEAKER_01: And we are witnesses of all things which he did, both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they slew and hanged on a tree.
SPEAKER_01: Who slew him?
SPEAKER_01: They slew him.
SPEAKER_01: But yet he also gave his life.
SPEAKER_01: Both are correct.
SPEAKER_01: You may be saying, how can both be correct?
SPEAKER_01: Well, he said, No man taketh my life from me, but the Son of God who came as a man, my friends, that body was susceptible to damage, and those people poured out so much damage on him it would have killed one of us a long time before.
SPEAKER_01: But he didn't give up the ghost until his time.
SPEAKER_01: And then what did he do?
SPEAKER_01: He simply allowed his body, his physical body, to succumb to the damage that was inflicted upon it by men.
SPEAKER_01: So therefore, no man took his life from him, he gave it, but yet at the same time, they were guilty of slaying him and hanging him on a tree.
SPEAKER_01: And him God raised up the third day and showed him openly.
SPEAKER_01: Why was he raised?
SPEAKER_01: Because Romans 4, 25 said of Jesus who was given for our transgressions.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, let me go over and read it.
SPEAKER_01: Look at me.
SPEAKER_01: I'm tripping all over it.
SPEAKER_01: Romans chapter 4, verse 25, he says, who was delivered for our offenses.
SPEAKER_01: That means because of.
SPEAKER_01: Who was delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our justification.
SPEAKER_01: That means because of too.
SPEAKER_01: If he hadn't justified every one, if he hadn't cleansed every dirty critter, if he hadn't done the work that he came to do, he would have never risen from the grave.
SPEAKER_01: But that grave is empty today, praise God.
SPEAKER_01: It's empty today.
SPEAKER_01: Not to all the people, but under witnesses chosen before God, even to us, who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: To give, to him, give all the prophets witness, that through his name, whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.
SPEAKER_01: This is the same remission of sins spoken of in Acts chapter 2.
SPEAKER_01: Repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins.
SPEAKER_01: Now look, I agree that that could mean because of remission of sins.
SPEAKER_01: That's a valid concept.
SPEAKER_01: But compare what Peter said there to what Peter's saying here, and he said this remission of sin is for who?
SPEAKER_01: People who believe.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: Now, is this remission of sin talking about your eternal sin debt being put away from the eyes of God?
SPEAKER_01: No, if Jesus didn't do it when he came up on high, when he died upon the tree of the cross, when he was resurrected, it'll never get done for you.
SPEAKER_01: But brothers and sisters, I'm telling you what, Job needs to see day by day that he is not responsible for his own sins.
SPEAKER_01: I need to be freed from that weight.
SPEAKER_01: And how do I do that?
SPEAKER_01: By believing in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Galatians chapter 3, verse 22, I think it is.
SPEAKER_01: that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given them that believe.
SPEAKER_01: I'm telling you, brothers and sisters, there may be a lot of reasons why people don't believe.
SPEAKER_01: But you know what?
SPEAKER_01: If they don't believe, again, that's not my business.
SPEAKER_01: That's not my business.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to rejoice in those who do believe.
SPEAKER_01: Are y'all believers today?
SPEAKER_01: I'm here for you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm here to encourage you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not here to defend unbelievers.
SPEAKER_01: I'm here to encourage you who do believe.
SPEAKER_01: Because you know what?
SPEAKER_01: The promise of God rests upon you.
SPEAKER_01: And that promise is from the Greek epigelia, which means a divine assurance of good.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what God blessed Cornelius and his house with: a divine assurance of good.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't give them the epigello, which means to enter into a contract or an agreement to actually strike a covenant.
SPEAKER_01: Epigelia means the divine assurance of that covenant that stands.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus came and saved these folks because he agreed to do it.
SPEAKER_01: And brothers and sisters, the assurance and the power that they felt under the sound of the gospel gave them the divine assurance, the epigelia.
SPEAKER_01: The promise was unto them.
SPEAKER_01: He said to him, Give all the prophets with it through his name, whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission.
SPEAKER_01: That's talking about an experiential remission or putting away of sins.
SPEAKER_01: Let me tell y'all something.
SPEAKER_01: There have been times when I've hurt my wife's feelings.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: I have.
SPEAKER_01: I've said dumb things and done dumb things, and I know that's just so hard for y'all to believe.
SPEAKER_01: But you know it's true.
SPEAKER_01: I'm very apt and capable at doing such things.
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever hurt somebody's feelings so badly you just thought I've destroyed whatever trust, whatever love.
SPEAKER_01: But you know, when I go to her and she hugs my neck and she abides with me still, okay, that didn't mean we're remarried.
SPEAKER_01: But it is an epigelia.
SPEAKER_01: It's a divine, it's an assurance from Bunny that she still loves fat boy.
SPEAKER_01: I like that.
SPEAKER_01: And you coming to hear the gospel today won't add your name to the Lamb's book of life, but it is God's powerful, blessed way that He gives that a specially blessed people among his elect get to hear the declaration and feel the power in the bones and know heaven awaits them.
SPEAKER_01: Now let me ask you something.
SPEAKER_01: How can Trump tear your nerves up now?
SPEAKER_01: How could Biden tear your nerves up now?
SPEAKER_01: How could Kamala Harris?
SPEAKER_01: How can she tear your nerves up now?
SPEAKER_01: When you had felt the power of heaven on earth, when you had believed in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: I'd tell you the devil can't steal your cookie.
SPEAKER_01: I'll tell you, I like the old saying, I feel like I could swing out over the pit of a fiery hell on a rotten grapevine singing amazing grace.
SPEAKER_01: How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.
SPEAKER_01: This is why we've been given the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: This is the proclamation of the finished work.
SPEAKER_01: This brings life and immortality to light.
SPEAKER_01: And it means the world to me.
SPEAKER_01: And you know, after a while, there's coming a world where I won't need this gospel.
SPEAKER_01: I won't need this gospel because I'll be seeing and living fully immersed in the eternal glory of what the gospel proclaims.
SPEAKER_01: And I thank God for it.
SPEAKER_01: Brothers and sisters, what we teach makes sense according to the scriptures.
SPEAKER_01: They can be defended by the scriptures.
SPEAKER_01: It's our challenge just to rightly divide them as we've been instructed to do and rejoice in them and hold to them.
SPEAKER_01: Cornelius, he surely was saved that day.
SPEAKER_01: His house was saved that day.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, the Lord had already done the eternal cleansing.
SPEAKER_01: But they needed their conscience cleaned.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: And what's the acceptable answer of God to somebody who's got a good conscience?
SPEAKER_01: He's going to give you an opportunity to be baptized here in just a minute.
SPEAKER_01: That's what God said he wanted you to answer.
SPEAKER_01: It becometh us to fulfill all righteousness and being baptized.
SPEAKER_01: And I'll tell you, if you haven't been baptized, if you haven't confessed your Lord and Savior today, there is a gift of the Holy Ghost and a remission of sins in an experiential sense that you have not felt the full effect of.
SPEAKER_01: And even if you didn't feel anything, why wouldn't you just do what Jesus told you to do?
SPEAKER_01: It's an easy thing, a simple thing.
SPEAKER_01: It's a thing that's a spectacle.
SPEAKER_01: But isn't it wonderful to be made a spectacle for Jesus Christ?
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I thank God for Acts chapter 10.
SPEAKER_01: Because I'll tell you, it gives a bold comfort for me.
SPEAKER_01: It gives a bold refutation to many false doctrines that will arise.
SPEAKER_01: And brothers and sisters, as we leave here today, just realize God loves you.
SPEAKER_01: He sent his son for you to judge the quick and the dead.
SPEAKER_01: And you believing these things is such a powerful evidence that you're in the party of the quick.
SPEAKER_01: And I like that.
SPEAKER_01: I thank y'all for your good order and attention.
SPEAKER_01: I love you.
SPEAKER_01: That wasn't when I got up here to preach, but I just felt there to preach it.
SPEAKER_00: So I was talking to Brother Mike Seals a while ago about him uh being a substitute teacher.
SPEAKER_00: I remember when I was teaching vocational education that I was uh even back then I was a little bit thicker and uh more muscular than now I'm more muscular in a in a in a wrong place.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's right.
SPEAKER_00: Um but I remember that I was talking with three high school boys that um they just didn't want to do what I told them to do.
SPEAKER_00: They just, no, Mr.
SPEAKER_00: King, we're not interested in doing that.
SPEAKER_00: And that baffled me.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I look, I I didn't, you know, I I you know in the real world, you know, you don't like when a work situation, you don't deal with that.
SPEAKER_00: They folks like that get fired, you know.
SPEAKER_00: But in a school system, they just, you know, no, Mr.
SPEAKER_00: King, we're not gonna do that.
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
SPEAKER_00: I I my my children didn't tell me no.
SPEAKER_00: But you know, y'all think about that, that uh you and I and I remember being so appalled at their behavior that how can they not submit to an authority figure that is over them who was trying to teach them and instruct them in a good way.
SPEAKER_00: I wasn't being unreasonable or anything, but don't you and I do the same thing that the Lord has shown us what you and I are supposed to do, and we know what we're supposed to do, and then we just go off look, no Lord, I'm just gonna do my own thing.
SPEAKER_00: Brothers and sisters, may the Lord help us to do what he's told us to do.
SPEAKER_00: We don't do it to get saved to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: No, we literally bless others and bless ourselves by doing the things that he's told us to do.
SPEAKER_00: But yet every day you and I go off and just do whatever we want to do.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, I remember but I remember being so appalled by their like, how can they tell me no?
SPEAKER_00: I'm the teacher, I'm the one in charge, and I can't do anything about it.
SPEAKER_00: Well, brothers and sisters, you know, um God is a sovereign God and he doeth his will among the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and no man can stay his hand or say unto him, What doest thou?
SPEAKER_00: Yet you and I, as children of God, can decide to run our own cart off in a ditch.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And we do that from time to time.
SPEAKER_00: But brothers and sisters, aren't we just better off when we just do what the Lord has told us to do?
SPEAKER_00: Man.
SPEAKER_00: Lord give us strength to just love him better.
SPEAKER_00: We love y'all very much, and it's so very good to see all y'all today.
SPEAKER_00: We are gonna close in a word of song, and the church doors are always open to unite with the membership of our church.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, we will forego a handshake this afternoon, but y'all uh be careful to thank Brother Joe, and if you have anything as a gift, you can leave it up here on the table.
SPEAKER_00: Um so we're just gonna close in a word of song.
SPEAKER_00: How about uh I think it's 154 amazing?