Father Stuckey, Lord, just strengthen him, Lord, and fill him in the spirit of God.
We love you, and we thank you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
All right, I want to thank Pastor Mendez for the opportunity to preach.
I always consider it an honor. I love getting to preach the Word of God.
And we're in Acts chapter 10, and in Acts chapter 10,
there are basically two main characters in this chapter.
You see Peter, and you see Cornelius.
Now obviously, Peter is a more famous character in the Word of God,
but Cornelius is a very significant character that pops up in this chapter.
Before we get into the sermon, go to Acts chapter 11.
And at the beginning of Acts chapter 10, when we see Cornelius,
Cornelius is an unsaved man that actually fears God.
Now when you look out at the world, not too many unsaved people fear God very much.
But he's actually an unsaved man that fears God.
Now if you read Acts chapter 10, it doesn't make it explicitly clear that Peter led him to the Lord.
But in Acts chapter 11, it does make it very clear.
Because Peter is actually retelling this story to a bunch of Jews
that weren't really happy that he went in and preached the gospel to someone.
So look at Acts chapter 11. Look at verse number 11.
This is Peter recounting this story.
It says in verse number 11,
And behold, immediately there were three men already come unto the house where I was,
sent from Caesarea unto me.
And the Spirit bade me go with them, nothing doubting.
Moreover, these six brethren accompanied me, and we entered into the man's house.
And he showed us how he had seen an angel in his house.
So Peter's retelling this story, and when he says,
And he showed us, he's saying, Cornelius showed us how he had seen an angel in his house,
which stood and said unto him, Send men to Joppa, and call for Simon, whose surname is Peter,
who shall tell thee words whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved.
So it's very clear that Peter was told by Cornelius that you're going to get me saved, basically.
So Cornelius is told, hey, you know, send this guy here, and he's going to preach the gospel to you.
It's interesting that the angel doesn't preach the gospel to Cornelius.
You know, the angel actually sends somebody to preach the gospel to Cornelius.
Now, we have a lot of points in this sermon. There's seven points. This is a long sermon.
So I put the most important points at the beginning,
and when we get to the end, we'll probably just fly through those last several points.
But we see in this story that Cornelius is an unsaved man that fears God, and his family fears God as well.
The name of this sermon is The Conversion of Cornelius. Turn back to Acts chapter 10.
Now, this is my opinion. I believe Acts chapter 10 is one of the most important chapters in the Bible,
because there is so much information here.
Other than maybe Acts chapter 2, in my opinion, this is probably the most important chapter in the book of Acts.
This chapter is packed with great information.
Now, all of the seven points we're going to look at tonight, you can find these in other places in the Bible,
but honestly, it's most clear in Acts chapter 10 for many of these points.
So, look at verse number 1. The first point we have is this, the requirement for prayer.
The requirement for prayer to be answered.
You know, I've heard people say prayers of saved people, and he never hears the prayers of unsaved people.
But that is not what the Bible teaches. Let's look at Acts chapter 10, verse 1.
There is a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band,
a devout man, and one that feared God with all his house.
So it's not just Cornelius fears God, all of his house, his kids, they fear God as well,
which gave much alms to the people and prayed to God always.
Like I said, he's not your normal, everyday, unsaved person.
You know, he's praying to God, he's giving alms and helping people out that are poor.
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, and when he had looked on him he was afraid and said,
What is it, Lord? And he said unto him, Thy prayers and thy alms are come up for a memorial before God.
Cornelius was an unsaved man, and you know what? God actually hears and answers the prayers of an unsaved person.
You know, I've heard people say the only prayer that God will answer for an unsaved person is a prayer asking to be saved.
But that's not what the Bible teaches, because Cornelius is an unsaved man, and God hears those prayers.
He sees the alms, they come up for a memorial before God, and God answers the prayers of that unsaved person.
Well, you say, Okay, well the first point of that's wrong than what you said, that God doesn't hear the prayers of an unsaved.
But surely he always hears the prayers of the saved people, right?
Well, turn to Psalms chapter 66. We'll see if that's true.
See, most people, or at least a lot of people, they think the requirement for prayer to be answered comes down to whether or not you're saved.
That's not what the Bible teaches. It doesn't come down to whether or not you're saved.
You see, there's unsaved people we see with Cornelius where God can answer that prayer, but guess what?
There are saved people that can pray to God, and God won't answer at all.
He won't hear it. He doesn't want to hear that prayer.
We'll see what the Bible says here in Psalm 66 verse 16.
It says, Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what ye have done for my soul.
I cried unto him with my mouth, and he was extolled with my tongue.
If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.
But verily God hath heard me. He hath attended to the voice of my prayer.
Blessed be God, which hath not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy from me.
See, the Bible says in verse 18, if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.
You see, people that are saved people, that go out there and live a life of fornication and being a drunk,
God's not going to answer their prayers when they pray to them.
He's not going to answer those prayers.
If you regard iniquity in your heart, if you have sin in your heart that you're not willing to get right,
you're not willing to confess to God, you're not willing to try to forsake it,
God is not going to hear your prayers. He will not answer that prayer.
He doesn't want to hear it. He wants you to get right with him first.
And I'll tell you what, this is a good reminder for all of us that are here,
because I believe the vast majority, if not all, of the people that are of age here are saved.
If we're living a sinful life, God's not going to answer our prayers.
We need to go to bed at night and say, God, forgive me for what I've done wrong today,
and wake up in the morning and get right with God as well, and get our day started off right.
Because if we have sin in our lives that we are not willing to get right, God will not answer our prayers.
See, the requirement for prayer, just because you're saved does not mean God's going to answer your prayers.
The Bible says if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.
Turn to Isaiah chapter 59.
Now obviously everybody in this room is a sinner. We all do things wrong.
And all of us have different sins that we struggle with, maybe more often than other people.
But if there's something that you have that is a sin in your life, and you're not willing to try to get it right,
you're not willing to confess it, you just brazenly do it, knowing that God is against it, that it's wrong,
God is not going to answer your prayers.
We're not going to turn there tonight, but one of the great examples would be with David,
when he committed adultery with Bathsheba.
And until he got right with God, until Nathan came and rebuked him to his face,
God was not going to hear his prayers.
Because he had just committed adultery, he was living in very wicked sin, and he was not right with God.
Once he got right with God, God did answer his prayers.
It says in Lamentations 3, you don't have to turn there, you're in Isaiah 59, but it says,
It is of the Lord's mercy that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not.
They are new every morning. Great is Thy faithfulness.
Boy, isn't that the truth?
You know, we would be consumed, we'd be destroyed by God if we got what's coming to us.
And there's so many times, you know, I get down on my knees and I'm like, man, God, please forgive me.
And I'm so thankful that God is a compassionate and merciful God that we'll forgive you when you screw up.
Because we all make mistakes. Every single day we sin.
We get that song, Great is Thy Faithfulness, from Lamentations chapter 3, verse 23.
And that's the truth, that we all have sins that, you know, if we got what's coming to us, God would destroy us.
Thankfully, though, we serve a compassionate and merciful and loving God.
And when we get right with God, and we confess our sin, God is willing to forgive us.
I mean, you think about David. He committed adultery with Bathsheba.
That is a pretty massive sin, but, you know, he didn't just say he was sorry, he actually meant it in his heart.
Obviously, God sees the heart. But he got right with God, and God forgave him.
Look at Isaiah chapter 59, verse 1. The Bible reads,
See, it's not that God can't hear. It's not that he doesn't have the ability.
He just chooses not to hear if you've got sin in your life.
He's not going to listen to you. He doesn't want to hear it unless you're willing to get right with him.
Now, you might say, well, that sounds harsh.
You know, God's not going to hear my prayers if I pray to him.
But think about this. Let's say, for example, you have a son that just smashed all the windows in your house.
Okay? And then five minutes later, he doesn't say he's sorry at all.
He says, you know, can we get ice cream, Daddy?
I mean, are you going to take him out of the house? He's not sorry for it?
Of course you're not. And you say, well, that's a silly example.
Well, when you think about the things that we do, and we just brazenly commit sin sometime,
and just think, well, it's no big deal. You know, God will forgive me.
Well, he's not going to forgive you unless you ask for forgiveness.
Now, obviously, we're still saved, but if you want to have that fellowship with God,
if you want to be right with God, you're going to have to ask for forgiveness for those sins.
And if you don't do that, you can forget about God answering your prayers.
Just because you are saved does not mean we can just hold God up here and just say,
well, I can do whatever I want in my life, and whenever I choose to call on God, I expect God to be there.
Well, he's not going to be there for you if you're not willing to live a holy and godly life and get right with him.
Turn back to Acts 11.
So the first thing we saw tonight is the requirement for prayer to be answered.
It's not simply being saved. That doesn't mean that your prayers are going to be answered.
You actually have to have good fellowship with God. You have to be right with God.
And I'll be honest with you. You look at most Christians that never go soul winning, don't read their Bible.
Who knows what else they're doing? They're not right with God.
Quite honestly, probably most Christians, God doesn't even want to hear what they have to ask for,
because of the fact they're so disobedient to God's Word, they don't even care what God's Word says.
God's not going to answer their prayers if that's the way they're living their life.
And people think that they can just hold God up here and just do whatever they want,
and then just come to God and say, Oh God, please give me this or that.
God's not going to hear your prayers if you're not willing to live a holy life.
So we see the requirement for prayer as the first point, but we also see the responsibility of the saved.
Look at Acts 11, verse 13.
And I know we just read this, but it says,
And he showed us how he had seen an angel in his house, which stood and said unto him,
Send men to Joppa, and call for Simon, whose surname is Peter,
who shall tell thee words whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved.
So the angel tells him, Peter is going to give you the gospel and get you saved.
Now Cornelius was a God-fearing man.
This was a man who was trying to live for the Lord.
This was a man who undoubtedly knew the Scriptures pretty decently,
but he was not saved because he had not heard the gospel.
And I want you to understand this, that if Cornelius could have gotten saved without a soul winner,
he would have gotten saved.
If it were possible for a man to get saved or a woman to get saved without a soul winner preaching the gospel,
Cornelius would have gotten saved.
He was a God-fearing man.
Him and his whole house, he was trying to do what's right.
But you know what? It is impossible for someone to get saved unless a soul winner brings them the gospel.
That is what the Bible teaches very clearly.
Turn to Acts chapter 8.
And honestly, we're going to see this in Acts 8, Acts 9, Acts 10, Acts 11.
It's very, very clear.
Pastor Merriman has mentioned it briefly in his sermon this morning,
that you cannot get saved unless a soul winner brings you the gospel.
That is what the Bible teaches.
Look at Acts chapter 8, verse 26.
And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying,
Arise, and go toward the south, unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert.
And he arose and went, and, behold, a man of Ethiopia,
and eunuch of great authority under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians,
who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship,
was returning and sitting in his chariot, read Isaiah the prophet.
So this Ethiopian eunuch, he's going all the way to Jerusalem to worship,
and he's treating the Scriptures.
That's not your normal, unsafe person.
You know, most unsafe people, they don't read the Bible.
They don't care about the Bible.
This Ethiopian eunuch is someone who's trying to do what's right.
I know this is what it says in verse 29.
Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near and join thyself to this chariot.
And heard him read the prophet Isaiah and said,
Understandest thou what thou readest?
And he said, How can I except some man should guide me?
And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him.
You see, the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God,
for they are foolishness unto them.
Nobody can pick up this book and read it and get saved on their own
unless somebody preaches the gospel to them.
That's what the Bible teaches.
It says in verse 32, notice the part that he's reading with him.
He says, The place of the Scripture which he read was this.
He was led as a sheep to the slaughter,
and like a lamb dumb before his shearer,
so opened he not his mouth.
In his humiliation his judgment was taken away,
and who shall declare his generation?
For his life is taken from the earth.
And the eunuch entered Philip and said,
Pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet,
this of himself or of some other man?
Then Philip opened his mouth and began the same Scripture
and preached unto him Jesus.
This is one of the most exciting stories in the Bible.
Philip arrives at the perfect time to preach the gospel.
He runs to the Ethiopian eunuch.
That's some zeal out soul winning.
Sometimes you're going soul winning at a door,
and all of a sudden you see some teen walking on the street,
and you're in a tough area, and nobody wants to listen.
The houses are all like $500,000 houses.
And then you're like, man, I got to go and get that guy.
That guy might end up getting saved,
because we all know if you talk to someone on the street,
they have a much better chance of getting saved
than just the normal person you knock on that door.
And we see the excitement from Philip
as he's going to preach the gospel,
but also thinking about where he's reading the Scripture at.
The Ethiopian eunuch happens to be reading
the perfect Scripture to get saved,
and the Ethiopian eunuch was a man who was a God-fearing man
trying to do what's right,
and he was reading right where he should understand salvation,
but he doesn't get it, because nobody that is unsaved
can understand salvation unless somebody preaches the gospel to them.
You see, if the Ethiopian eunuch could have gotten saved
without a soul winner, then guess what?
He would have gotten saved without a soul winner.
Turn to 1 Timothy 1.
So we see that in Acts 8, also Acts 10 and Acts 11
as it goes back to Acts 10.
But remember in Acts 9, which we're not going to turn there,
we have Paul the Apostle.
Was Paul the Apostle someone who knew the Scriptures pretty well?
He absolutely was.
Was he someone who was trying to follow the Scriptures?
Yes, he was.
You see, Paul was living a bad life,
but he wasn't just trying to do that.
He did not understand.
Look at what it says in 1 Timothy 1, verse 12.
And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord,
who hath enabled me, for that He counted me faithful,
put forth a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious.
But I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.
See, because of the fact Paul the Apostle
did not understand what salvation was,
he was on the wrong side of the fight.
He was trying to get involved in the fight,
but he was on the wrong side because he did it ignorantly in unbelief.
You know, there's a lot of athletes
that will supposedly convert to Christianity,
and it's always these athletes that are living really bad lives.
You know, one of these guys was Manny Pacquiao.
He's pretty famous worldwide.
Manny Pacquiao was a fornicating drunk.
He was a boxing star that was cheating on his wife.
He admitted that he was committing adultery,
cheating on his wife.
You know, he was going out there drinking.
He wasn't living a godly life at all,
and then all of a sudden this angel visits him,
and he hears the gospel and gets saved.
That's his story of conversion.
And you can listen to Manny Pacquiao on YouTube.
I don't understand why any Christian would think that guy's saved,
because he just says,
work salvation with every word coming out of his mouth.
And he's like every athlete that you see that converts.
They have this weird Pentecostal experience,
and it's weird.
It's like Baptists want to have some famous athlete on their side or something.
So they look at this famous athlete and say,
well, you know what?
This guy's a good Christian.
It's like, oh, he's a Pentecostal.
He doesn't believe in salvation by grace through faith.
He believes in speaking in tongues and repenting of your sins
and work salvation.
He's not a saved man.
And that's what you see with pretty much every famous athlete
that supposedly converts to Christianity.
But you always see these people that are living bad lives.
Here's my question.
Why would an angel come and visit Manny Pacquiao to preach him the gospel?
That doesn't make sense, because he was living an ungodly life.
See, Paul the Apostle was different.
He wasn't knowingly living an ungodly life.
He did not understand what salvation was.
He was doing it ignorantly and unbelief.
So God was merciful to him.
But see, Paul the Apostle was a man who was trying to follow the Scriptures
as well as he possibly could,
and he knew the Scriptures really well.
And guess what?
If Paul the Apostle could have gotten saved on his own without a soul winner,
guess what?
He would have.
We see that with the 8th open eunuch.
We see that with Paul the Apostle.
We see that with Cornelius.
These people that they would have gotten saved,
but they cannot understand the Bible without a soul winner.
Turn to Romans chapter 10.
And we see this in Acts 8, Acts 9, Acts 10, Acts 11.
Let's look at Romans 10, the most famous passage,
where we're talking about believing and calling upon the name of the Lord.
And the Bible is very clear here.
It says in Romans chapter 10, verse 13.
It says,
That doesn't necessarily just mean somebody preaching behind the pulpit.
That's talking about us when we go door to door.
Men, women, kids preaching the gospel.
How shall they hear without a preacher?
You see, somebody cannot believe and call on the name of the Lord
unless a soul winner actually presents them the gospel.
The Bible is extremely clear on this.
And you say, why is this a big deal to you?
You know, we put up a video on Sam Gipp recently.
And in this video, Sam Gipp did a documentary on the King James.
He's supposed to be the expert on the King James.
And there's a segment in that video where Sam Gipp says,
you can just pick up an NIV.
Not King James, he says you can pick up an NIV
and read it and get saved without hearing the gospel.
It's like, good night.
That's the King James defender these Baptist churches have?
You can pick up an NIV and get saved?
I mean, that's another rabbit trail I'm not going to hit,
but how many verses could you quote that say you need
the incorruptible seed of the word of God to get saved?
You cannot get saved with an NIV.
The Bible is very clear on that.
And you know, if that's a new topic to you,
we have a documentary where we talk about that.
We'll show it to you.
It's very clear you cannot get saved from a false version
that changes the word of God.
It's not the incorruptible seed.
He's supposed to be your King James defender.
That's one massive error.
The other massive error he has is this.
He says that you can get saved by reading the Bible on your own.
And my question is, where in the Bible?
Show me the place where somebody reads the Bible on their own
and gets saved.
Show me the place where someone reads the Scripture on their own
and gets saved.
And what was amazing to me is on the comments on that video,
a bunch of people that listen to lots of sermons online,
they say, I actually agree with Sam Gibb on this one.
I think you can read an NIV and get saved.
You know, you don't need a soul winner.
And the reason why this is a big deal is because
this is a massive attack on soul winning.
This is a huge attack on soul winning,
suggesting you can get saved without a soul winner.
And that's amazing to me because I've never heard anybody
say that until these recent years.
Even in the lame churches I went to in the past,
they taught that you need somebody to preach the gospel.
And it makes sense because I got saved because somebody gave me the gospel.
Everybody I know got saved because somebody gave them the gospel.
And that's what the Bible says in Acts 8, Acts 9, Acts 10, Acts 11, Romans 10.
And it's like I'd love to see the one verse someone's going to show me
because I've never seen it, where someone says,
we can just pick up this book and read it on your own and get saved.
But they use man's wisdom to try to justify it.
That is not what the Bible teaches.
And that is a huge attack on what we do on Saturdays,
on Thursday afternoons, and on Sundays.
And it's like you might as well just become a Calvinist if that's your view
and just suggest that you can get saved on your own.
Because you start leading it, going into Calvinism when you teach stuff like that.
The Bible's very clear, you need a soul winner in order to get saved.
And this is a big topic.
And I'll tell you what, I'm willing to disagree with people on minor things,
but on the big things like the King James Bible, salvation,
on soul winning, what is good soul winning and bad soul winning,
I'm not willing to agree to disagree on that.
You say that you don't need a soul winner to get saved.
Man, I'm sorry, you know, we're on different sides of the fence.
You might be saved, but we're not on the same team here.
Because that is a big deal to suggest that you don't need a soul winner.
And I'll tell you what, that sort of philosophy
is going to make people not want to go soul winning.
If you have this attitude that people get saved on their own,
you're going to say, well, what's the big deal of going soul winning?
They can just read it on their own.
They don't need a soul winner.
And I think one thing that could confuse maybe some people that are in our movement,
a lot of people in our movement get saved through online preaching.
A lot of people in our movement, they still have a preacher giving the gospel,
but they get saved through online preaching,
and they're kind of searching for the truth, but we need to understand something.
The vast majority of people that are going to get saved in Sacramento
are not going to get saved through online ministry.
It's going to take us knocking on their door and preaching the gospel.
God's biggest method is always going to be us opening our mouth,
going door to door, and preaching the gospel.
Praise the Lord that we can have an online ministry that reaches people,
but the biggest and best method is always going to be us going to them,
going to the lost, preaching the gospel, and showing them what the Bible says,
that salvation is a free gift only in Jesus Christ.
Not repentance of sins, a free gift that He has for anyone who believes that.
That's what the Bible teaches. That is always going to be the best method.
And suggesting that you don't need a soul winner,
that is a massive, massive attack on soul winning.
That's a big deal if you say that.
That is not what we believe here. That's not what we teach here.
And what's weird to me is this.
All the pastors in our movement would say the same thing I'm saying now.
And what happens is people listen to a lot of preaching online,
but they never do the work, so they're forgetful here.
And they forget that, man, I've heard Pastor Jimenez and Pastor Anderson
scream the same thing, that you need a soul winner to get saved.
They completely forget it because they're not doing the work.
Turn to Joshua chapter 2.
I mean, when you think about the three examples, Cornelius, Paul the Apostle,
the Ethiopian eunuch, none of them were able to get saved on their own.
I just wonder, who do you think could end up getting saved on their own then?
Three people that fear God and are trying to do what's right,
who could get saved on their own then if they can't get saved on their own?
It doesn't make any sense.
So the first thing we saw tonight was this.
We saw the requirement for answered prayer.
We saw the responsibility of the saved.
It's our job to preach the gospel because they will not get saved on their own.
But we also see the reach of God.
You see, God wants everybody saved. That's what the Bible says.
The reach of God extends to the entire world. That's what the Bible teaches.
In Joshua chapter 2, look at verse number 1.
So we see this woman Rahab, who the Bible says was a harlot.
Now this was a person who was not living a great life.
But she believed in the true God of heaven.
Because you say, why is she helping spies out that should be her enemies?
Well, we see the answer in verse number 9.
So this woman has heard the gospel.
She believes in the true God of heaven.
She says, you know, we have heard of this.
Now the truth is most people, even if they hear the message, they're going to reject it.
Narrow is the way which leadeth unto life.
People could hear the gospel and still reject it.
But she doesn't reject it. She understands it.
She heard what they did and she believed it.
She believed in the true God of heaven.
And you say, well, how in the world does this woman Rahab,
how could she have heard the gospel? How could she have gotten saved?
We'll turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 3.
You see, God has the ability to get the gospel out to the end of the world.
That's what the Bible teaches. I believe that.
God has the ability to get somebody saved in Iraq, in Afghanistan.
You name the country, God has an ability to get the word of God out to the end of the world.
Throughout the Bible, the word of God is just going to the end of the world.
Somehow God has a way to get it to spread.
Unfortunately, sometimes it's persecution.
Unfortunately, you know, you get kicked out of countries
and then all of a sudden the whole country hears, hey, there's this crazy guy.
But they hear the word of God.
So it says in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, we read this on Wednesday night, but notice this verse.
Who then is Paul and who is Apollos?
But ministers by whom he believed, even as the Lord gave to every man.
You see, as our pastor said on Wednesday,
every unsaved person, God has someone designed to preach the gospel to them.
Every unsaved person says, even as the Lord gave to every man.
See, every single person in Sacramento, there's somebody designed to preach the gospel to them.
And there's certain people in my life that you're probably never going to be able to give the gospel to.
I have family members you're probably never going to see.
You're never going to have an opportunity to give them the gospel.
Same with you. You have co-workers, family members,
maybe old friends that you could preach the gospel to and they might listen, but they won't listen to me.
But every single person in the world, everybody in Iraq, God has someone designed to preach them the gospel.
Everybody in Afghanistan, everybody in every country, the Lord gave to every man.
Now, in my opinion, when you look at this, Cornelius was a God-fearing man.
Everybody has somebody designed to preach them the gospel.
But this is my opinion. This logically makes sense because God is a logical God.
This book just makes sense. It's not strange. It's not weird. It makes logical sense.
You think about Cornelius. Like I said, there weren't too many unsaved people like Cornelius.
He was a pretty good guy.
Yes, he's a sinner like everybody, but in terms of being a good guy, he was one of the best guys there was.
He was a God-fearing man.
And he lived his life in a way that his whole family feared God as well.
He was doing a good job raising his kids. He was a God-fearing man.
Now, the person designed to give the gospel to Cornelius was Peter.
Now, when you look at Peter, Peter's one of the great soul winners who ever lived, isn't he?
He's one of the greatest soul winners, one of the greatest preachers, one of the greatest men of God who ever lived.
It's interesting that God looks at a man who's doing a pretty good job, Cornelius, but is unsaved, a God-fearing man.
And God says, you know what? I care so much about getting you saved, Cornelius.
I'm going to give the responsibility to one of the best soul winners that's ever lived, Peter.
It makes sense that he would...
You know, God's going to look down and say, you know what? I really would like to see this guy get saved,
because he is trying to do what's right. I'm going to send my best guy for the job.
God's a logical God. It makes sense that he would do that.
When there's people out there that really fear God, I believe God's going to give them someone
who is very good he can count on to get the job done, because it's hard to find people that you can count on.
But for Cornelius, a God-fearing man, God gave the job to Peter, one of the greatest soul winners who's ever lived.
Turn back to Acts 10.
And I'll be honest, my belief is that there are saved people in every country in the world.
I believe there are saved people in Iraq, in Iran, in Afghanistan, Muslim countries that are 99.9% Muslim.
I believe there's people in those countries that fear God and are trying to do what's right, and God has a way to get the gospel.
Now, God's not going to come down from heaven and preach the gospel to them.
I believe that in the Bible. But I believe God will have a way for that person to get saved.
And you know what? There are people that fear God, and people are the same everywhere.
No matter where you go, there are people that fear God.
Every single country in the world has at least 10,000 people in it, except for one.
Which might be the exception to what I'm saying, that there's somebody saved. I'll explain that in a second.
But every country in the world has at least 10,000 people.
It was interesting when I was looking on Wikipedia and Google about the population sizes of various countries,
and there's countries that are like 11,000 people.
It's like, well, how is that a country, if there's 11,000 people in that country?
But even in those places, 11,000 people, I believe there's somebody saved.
The only country with less than 10,000 people is Vatican City.
It has between 400 to 500 people in Vatican City.
And every single person that lives in Vatican City either works for the Catholic Church,
or they're married to someone who works for the Catholic Church.
So in Vatican City, supposedly what I saw was 451 people live in Vatican City.
And I saw there's 29 women, like a ton of men, which really shouldn't be that surprising, in Vatican City.
But honestly, even there, it's very possible one of those women somewhere heard the Gospel,
or one of those kids, because kids at a young age, if they hear the Gospel, they'll get saved usually.
If you explain it and are clear with it, usually kids will receive the Gospel and get saved.
Let's see the one exception, though. There might not be somebody saved in Vatican City, I'm not really sure.
But other than that, every country in the world, I believe that there's somebody saved.
You know, in Acts chapter 10, so the first thing we saw was this.
We saw the requirement for answered prayer. We saw the responsibility for the saved, for us.
We saw the reach of God goes to the whole world.
But the next one we had, you know, I had to make this alliterated, didn't know what to say.
So it was the racial bias of God, or the supposed racial bias, the racial bias of God.
Look at Acts chapter 10, verse 10, and it says,
And he became very hungry, this is Peter, and would have eaten.
But while they made ready, he fell into a trance,
and saw heaven opened and a certain vessel descending upon him that had been a great sheet,
knit at the four corners, and led down to the earth.
Wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth,
and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air.
And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter, kill and eat.
But Peter said, Not so, Lord, for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.
Notice those words, common or unclean.
See, Peter says, That would be wrong for me to do that.
You know, because in the Old Testament law, you know, he wouldn't have done that.
Notice what it says in verse 15,
And the voice spake unto him again the second time,
What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.
This was done thrice, and the vessel was received up again into heaven.
Now while Peter doubted himself what this vision which he had seen should mean,
behold, the men which were sent from Cornelius had made inquiry for Simon's house,
and stood before the gate, and called and asked whether Simon,
which was surnamed Peter, were lodged there.
While Peter said, Behold, three men seek thee. Arise therefore, and get thee down,
and go with them, doubting nothing, for I have sent them.
Now we know that when Jesus rose again from the cross, you know, there were certain changes.
You know, the moral law hasn't changed.
Obviously, God's laws for the death penalty, it's still the same.
But there are certain cleanliness laws and cardinal ordinances that would no longer apply to us,
because Jesus fulfilled those when he rose again.
And one of those things was not being able to eat certain animals.
You see, we're allowed to eat pork.
You know, it's not a sin to eat pork, and pork tastes pretty good.
It's not a sin to eat pork.
And Peter didn't fully get the changes that had taken place.
And he said in verse 14, I've never eaten anything that is common or unclean.
But see, God actually uses this to help him understand the fact
that he should be preaching the gospel to the Gentiles as well.
Notice what it says in verse 28.
See, we know from the Bible that Peter and the other Jews, they often look down on the Gentiles.
They often look down on the heathen and the unclean like they weren't supposed to get the gospel.
That's not what the Bible teaches, though.
Notice verse 28.
And this is Peter speaking.
And he said unto them, Ye know how that is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company
or come unto one of another nation.
But God hath showed me that I should not call any man common or unclean.
See, God used that vision to help Peter understand you should be giving the gospel to the heathen,
the Gentiles, as well as the Jews.
And they should have already understood this because it was Acts chapter 1 where he said,
Bring the gospel to Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and on to the uttermost part of the earth.
That's what the Bible teaches.
Even in Mark 16, go ye into the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
Not, well, if they're Jewish, preach the gospel to them.
To every creature, we should be willing to preach the gospel.
God wants to see everybody get saved.
He's not willing that any should perish.
That's what the Bible teaches.
And notice what it says in verse 34 of Acts 10.
Then Peter opened his mouth and said, Of a truth I perceive, that God is no respecter of persons.
But in every nation, he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him.
I don't understand what other independent Baptists don't get about this.
I mean, the Bible is so clear because they have this attitude that the Jews are special to God,
and they're better than us.
That's not what the Bible teaches.
God wants to see everybody get saved.
And Peter's confused on this, but we have Acts 10 to look at in Acts 11,
and it should be pretty clear to everybody that God wants to see everybody get saved.
And he doesn't have a racial bias towards the Jews or towards anybody.
Look at Acts 11, verse 1.
You would think they'd be happy that people got saved, but they're not happy.
No, they want to contend with Peter.
They're upset with what happened.
They're criticizing the great works that are being done.
There are people that are always going to criticize when you do big works for God.
There are people that are going to criticize when you go out and get people saved and do something for God.
Drop down to verse 17, and it says in verse 17, this is Peter speaking,
It's like, you should have already known that.
I mean, Rahab was saved in Joshua chapter 2.
I mean, the Bible's very clear.
God wants to see everybody get saved.
Jesus didn't just die for some people.
He died for the sins of the world, very clear in the Bible.
Turn to Acts chapter 10.
And so far what we've seen tonight is this.
We see the requirement for answered prayer.
We see the responsibility of the saved.
We see the reach of God to the end of the world.
We see the supposed racial bias of God.
But the fifth thing we see is this, and I know I'm really hitting the Catholics tonight,
but it's Roman Catholic stupidity.
Look at Acts chapter 10, verse 25.
And as Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshipped him.
But Peter took him up saying, stand up.
I myself also am a man.
So Cornelius goes, and he bows down before Peter, and he worships Peter.
Now, who do the Catholics say is the first pope?
Peter, right?
Now, let me ask you a question.
Have you ever seen somebody bow before the pope and the pope say, stand up, I myself also am a man?
Peter loves to get worshipped by people, doesn't he?
You'll never see him say, stand up, I myself also am a man.
See, a man of God, Peter, says, stand up, I myself also am a man.
That alone destroys Catholicism.
Because you look at Peter, the first pope, and he rejects being worshipped.
Why? Because he's not God.
He's not worthy of being worshipped.
Now, honestly, this is something we can apply to our lives,
because in our movement, sometimes this can be a problem.
Sometimes people look at the pastors in our movement, and they respect them a little bit too much.
And I'll be honest with you, I was guilty of that in the past as well.
I remember the first time I met Pastor Anderson,
and I'm just like, oh, I wonder what he's going to think about the way I'm dressed.
A man is just a normal person. Imagine that.
And all the pastors in our movement, they're just normal people,
but sometimes people can look at them a little bit too highly.
And that can be a problem, because here's the thing.
They're fallible just like anybody else is.
They're sinners just like anybody else.
And when you look at someone too highly, and then maybe they do something wrong in your eyes,
you could end up resenting them and saying, oh, I can't believe you did that.
But you should have understood at the beginning that everybody's a sinner.
People are going to make mistakes. People aren't perfect.
We should never worship a man.
Cornelius was a pretty good guy, but he was worshipping Peter.
So obviously, if Cornelius back then could have fallen into worshipping someone,
we today could do the same thing.
It's not like Cornelius is a wicked heathen.
He's a decent guy, and he's worshipping a man. That's something we should never do.
There was one person in the Bible, though, who did accept worship, but never rejected it.
That was Jesus Christ.
That destroys the Jehovah's Witness, because Jesus had people worship him all the time.
And guess what? He never said, don't worship me, I myself also am a man,
because he wasn't just a man. He was God in the flesh.
Look at Acts 10, verse 1.
So the fifth point we see is Roman Catholic stupidity.
But the sixth thing we see is raising family.
We see lessons in raising family.
Look at what it says in verse number 1.
There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius,
a centurion of the band called the Italian band,
a devout man and one that feared God with all his house,
which gave much alms to the people and prayed to God always.
His whole house fears God.
This is an unsaved man who's doing a pretty good job raising his kids.
That ought to be the goal for any of us husbands in this room.
Not just that we go soul winning, not just that we read the Bible,
but that our whole house actually wants to serve God.
Our whole house loves the Lord.
Our whole house has a daily walk with God.
That ought to be the goal for any of us fathers in this room.
We ought to have a goal that our whole family is willing to serve God.
Cornelius as an unsaved man was honestly doing a much better job than most saved people.
There are unsaved people that are doing a good job raising their kids.
We ought to do a good job because we have the Word of God.
We have the preaching.
We have no excuse for not doing a good job raising our kids.
When you're at a church like this, you're going soul winning every week.
You're hearing the lessons from the Word of God.
You're reading the Bible.
You read nine chapters a day of the New Testament in January.
We have no excuse for doing a bad job raising our family,
We have no excuse for doing a bad job being a bad husband or a bad father.
We ought to do a good job.
Cornelius was an unsaved man who was doing a pretty good job.
There are a lot of people that do a really bad job of raising their kids.
My wife and I were at the doctor's, I think it was a week ago,
and there was just some crazy kid there,
just screaming to no end at his mom.
It was kind of humorous to me, like listening.
It was sad.
I joked with my wife, I'm going to go over there and spank that kid for that woman.
She just said, don't do that.
One more time.
I'm going to do something.
She just kept talking like that.
Then they finally get out of there, like 30 minutes later,
and the kid just runs away from her down the hall, screaming and everything.
Everybody's looking.
It's just like, you know what?
We don't have an excuse, though, because the Bible tells us to spank our kids.
We ought to know what the Bible teaches.
Obviously, it's difficult to raise a family,
but you see, Cornelius was doing a good job as an unsaved person.
We ought to do a good job.
The seventh thing we see, though, is this, the result of a holy life.
Look at Acts 10, verse 21.
In Acts 10, verse 21, the Bible reads,
Then Peter went down to the men which were sent on to him from Cornelius,
and said, Behold, I am he whom ye seek.
What is the cause wherefore ye are come?
A just man, and one that feareth God,
and a good report among all the nations of the Jews.
See, everybody knew this guy.
They didn't have anything bad to say about this guy.
He was warned from God by an holy angel to send for the end of his house
and to hear words of thee.
Then called he them in and lodged them,
and on the morrow Peter went away with them,
and certain brethren from Joppa accompanied him.
And the morrow after they entered into Caesarea,
and Cornelius waited for them,
and he had called together his kinsmen and near friends.
So Cornelius calls his kinsmen and his friends to hear the word of God preached.
Man, that would be awesome at the door.
You have somebody who's willing to listen to you, a father or a mother.
You know, you knock the door and a father answers,
and then he says, Yeah, you know what?
I want to hear how to get saved, but hold on.
I'm going to bring all my friends, all my family,
they're going to hear it as well.
That's what Cornelius was.
He wanted everybody to hear the word of God.
Look at what it says in verse 43.
To him give all the prophets witness,
this is Peter preaching the gospel,
that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.
While Peter yet spake these words,
the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word.
See, everybody who heard it ended up getting saved.
Everybody ended up believing on Jesus Christ.
Now, when you think about this, when you're preaching the gospel,
it's hard enough to preach the gospel to one person.
But what if you have two people?
It gets a little more difficult.
What if you have three?
It gets more difficult.
If you have like 10 people you're preaching the gospel to,
inevitably someone is going to be acting up and causing problems.
But this man has all of his family in obedience,
so they're willing to listen.
That shows he's doing a great job as a father,
and it shows the result of a holy life
that he can gather together a group of people
to hear the word of God preached.
I would love to just preach the gospel to 20 people, let's say,
that are just receptive and willing to listen.
And that's what we see here with Cornelius.
The result of him living a holy life,
he's able to get many people to hear the gospel and get saved.
We had seven points here tonight.
The first point was this, the requirement for answered prayer.
See, if you don't live a godly life,
God is not going to answer your prayers.
That's what the Bible teaches.
But also we see the responsibility of the saved.
It is our job as saved people to preach the gospel to everybody.
And it's not going to get done by any other church here in Sacramento, sadly.
I wish there was other IFP churches, but let's be honest.
Do you really think the other IFP churches in Sacramento are doing anything out there?
No, they're not.
It's our church that is doing the work.
That's the way it's going to be.
We've got to get the job done as a church.
But we also see the reach of God to the end of the world.
He wants to get everybody saved.
We also see the supposed racial bias of God.
We see Roman Catholic stupidity.
We see lessons in raising family and the result of a holy life.
What can we learn from a sermon like this?
You know, there's two characters in Acts chapter 10.
You see Peter and you see Cornelius.
Now there's men in this room that are training to be pastors.
That's a desire God's put in our heart.
That's a goal that we have to one day become a pastor.
You could look at a guy like Peter as a great example.
Because Peter was a man who was a mighty preacher of the Word of God.
He was a great soul winner.
He's someone it's great to strive to be like.
Those are big shoes to fill.
But you know, not everybody in this room necessarily has that desire.
Maybe that's not a desire God's given you.
Maybe you're never going to be a pastor, and that's fine.
And obviously if you're a lady in this room, that's not going to be what God has for you.
But you look at the life of Cornelius.
Anybody in this room could be a Cornelius, though.
Now you might look at Cornelius and say,
Well, he's only in one chapter in the Bible.
What impact did he really have?
Well, we saw that he brought a whole group of people to hear the Word of God to get saved.
But think about this.
He was a God-fearing man before he got saved.
I think undoubtedly he became a soul winner.
To me, I think it's pretty obvious he probably became a soul winner.
And I believe many of his friends and his family that heard the Word of God and got saved as well became soul winners.
See, we can all strive to be a Cornelius.
We're such a God-fearing person that everybody around us is touched by the life that we live.
Our family, our friends, whether you're a man in this room, whether you're a woman,
even if you never get behind the pulpit to preach,
you can still live your life and try to be like Cornelius and use him as an example,
who not only was eventful to get many people saved,
but undoubtedly many of those people became soul winners as well.
Let's close in a word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here this evening and hear the Word of God preached
and the lessons we can learn from the life of this man, Cornelius, God.
Help us to look at this passage as a great example of a man who really did something big in his life, God.
Help us all strive to become better Christians each and every day.
And in all these points, God, help us to apply these things to our lives.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.