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Man, if you would flip back to chapter 10 in the book of Acts, this is the famous story where Peter wins Cornelius unto Christ and his whole household, and this is a very significant story in the book of Acts, and it really takes up two chapters, Acts chapter 10 and 11. So that obviously shows us that this is an important and significant story. Some people would look at Acts chapter 10 as a major turning point where basically God is turning to the Gentiles, but if you actually look at what Jesus commanded his disciples, that turning point took place in Matthew 28 when he tells them, go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. So Jesus Christ, when he gave the Great Commission unto the eleven apostles, he told them to go teach all nations, not just to teach the Jews or Israel, but to go teach all nations. Now of course he did tell them to wait in Jerusalem until they were endued with power from on high, so they wait until the day of Pentecost, of course they're endued with power from on high, they're filled with the Holy Spirit, Peter preaches a powerful message unto the Jews that are assembled there, but from that point on they were supposed to be leaving and going into all the world, but unfortunately they dragged their feet on doing that. They were just so stuck on reaching the Jews, reaching Israel, that they did not leave and go out into all the world as God had commanded them, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. So as we're reading the book of Acts, just because the disciples didn't do that doesn't mean that that's not what God wanted them to do because Jesus specifically told them to do that, and that's the end of the story. Jesus says go teach all nations. Now in Acts chapter 9 we have the conversion of Saul, right? Saul's on the road to Damascus, Jesus appears unto him, he ends up losing his eyesight, going to Ananias and so forth, and in the process of that story God specifically tells the Apostle Paul and he specifically tells Ananias that the Apostle Paul is going to preach to the Gentiles, you know, that God is going to use Paul to be his chosen vessel to the Gentiles. So a lot of people will get this false doctrine that says, well, you know, God used the eleven apostles to reach Jewry and his plan was for them to reach the Jews and Israel and then Paul's the apostle of the Gentiles. That's completely wrong because Jesus told them to go into all nations. Jesus specifically told them to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, all nations, and eventually they did that, but unfortunately for many, many years they dragged their feet on doing that. But the main thing I want to point out here about Acts chapter 10 is that even though in Acts chapter 9 God had specifically called the Apostle Paul and stated both to him and to Ananias that Paul is going to reach the Gentiles with the gospel, still in chapter 10 God is working on Peter to get Peter to reach the Gentiles also, because it was God's plan for all of these guys to be reaching the Gentiles. Now all the way in chapter 15 they're still saying, all right Paul, you go to the Gentiles, we're gonna go to the Jews, but that's just because they were stubborn, they're hard-headed, and this is how it is when we get a certain idea ingrained in us, it's really hard to change that. And so these Jews just had this idea that they're so important and they're so special and nuts to everybody else and it was really hard for them to get that out of their head and to realize that a Gentile soul is worth just as much as a Jewish soul and reaching the Gentiles is what God has actually commanded them to do. So it's hard for them to get past their upbringing, because a lot of us as well have been brought up with false ideas or brought up with wrong doctrines, and we have to at the end of the day let the Word of God change our point of view, even if it's something that's part of our core beliefs, if it's not biblical it needs to be discarded. And you know I grew up with this thinking that was sort of a Jewish supremacy thinking or you know Israel are God's chosen people and we have to bless them and they're special and it was almost like if you got around a Jew it's almost like being around a celebrity you know when you're in the old IFB like it's just like oh wow you're Jewish oh wow now it's like oh wow you're an Antichrist you know but the point is you know you're brought up with that you're ingrained with that teaching that says that somehow the Jews are special that they're God's chosen people and and and then it's hard to get rid of that you know when I started Faith Forward Baptist Church in 2005 I still thought that the Jews were God's chosen people even though I'd read the Bible like 24 times cover to cover I'd memorized a lot of scripture I'd study but I still thought that because it was so ingrained in me about six months after starting the church about halfway through 2006 is when it finally clicked with me I was preaching a sermon and I started to say something about the Jews being God's chosen people and I immediately thought to myself as I was saying I was saying to myself am I just repeating something I've heard is this even true or am I just repeating something and I went home and all these scriptures started flooding into my mind that night I'm like what in the world what am I thinking and I felt like such an idiot because once you see it it's so clear and then you can't feel like an idiot you know but yet for so many years I believed wrong on that and eat and it's not because I wasn't reading my Bible I did read the Bible I did study scripture and so that's why you know we need to understand that when when churches or pastors or Christians are wrong on these issues give them some grace and be patient with them because it's not that they don't care about the Bible it's not that they are just not studying it's just that things become deeply ingrained that are wrong and it's hard to get unprogrammed you know it's hard to get unbrainwashed and to understand that in the New Testament there is neither Jew nor Gentile in the New Testament the Bible specifically tells us to avoid genealogies and that it makes no difference whether you're a Jew or a Greek we're all one in Christ Jesus and then in fact the Jews have God's wrath abiding on them for rejecting Jesus and of course at any moment they can get out from under that curse anytime they want to by simply doing what believe in Jesus right and they can be saved and then that branch that's broken off can be grabbed back in and live happily ever after so the point is that in Acts chapter 10 God is working on Peter to get him to understand that the Gentiles need the gospel and that not just the Apostle Paul but that all of them are tasked with reaching the Gentiles with the gospel what sense would it make anyway for God to task eleven guys on one nation and one guy for the whole rest of the world that makes no sense especially after they'd already spent three and a half years reaching the entire nation of Israel with the gospel now it's time to go to the Gentiles let's take this the whole world but unfortunately they were too ingrained in this thing of the Jews being special or more important now in chapter 10 verse 1 the Bible reads there was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius a centurion of the band called the Italian band now this is not a music group okay this is talking about soldiers right so when the Bible uses the word band it's usually talking about a troop of soldiers he's a centurion so he's got a hundred troops under him verse 2 it says a devout man and one that feared God with all his house which gave much alms to the people and prayed to God always he saw in a vision evidently about the ninth hour of the day an angel of God coming into him and saying to him Cornelius and when he looked on him he was afraid and said what is it Lord and he said unto him thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God now the first thing I want to point out here is that Cornelius is a good guy he's not a bad guy he's he's he's one who fears God he gives a lot of money to the poor that's what it means to give alms and he's devout he fears God he's giving money but he's not saved because those things don't save you you're not saved by being a good guy who donates a lot of money you're saved by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ now in Acts chapter 11 verse 14 the Bible tells us who shall tell thee words whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved so the guy needs to be saved and the Word of God coming to him is going to bring salvation to him in his house but just because he's a good guy that doesn't make him say now keep your finger here in Acts chapter 10 and go to John chapter 3 John chapter number 3 and you wonder why does God give Cornelius this special treatment you know why does God appear under Cornelius and tell him your alms and your prayers have been noticed and so I want you to go send to Joppa to hear what Peter has to say well look at John chapter 3 verse number 19 it says and this is the condemnation that light has come into the world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil for everyone that doeth evil hated the light neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved but he that doeth truth cometh to the light that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God and right before that what did he say in verse 18 he that believeth on him talking about Jesus is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already because he had not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God so the Bible is really clear if you don't believe in the name of the only begotten Son of God you're not saved right if you believe on Jesus Christ you're saved that is what determines who goes to heaven and who goes to hell it's whether or not you believe on Jesus now where do good works come into play they don't they don't as far as salvation they don't get you one inch closer to heaven in and of themselves now here's the thing and it's not faith plus works either it's not you know faith and works okay I got there no it's all faith it's all grace there's no works involved towards salvation now here's the thing though people who are sincere guys like Cornelius nice guys people who are giving and generous and in general quote-unquote good people are more likely in many cases to get saved because a sincere person is more likely to receive the gospel than someone who's a rotten person now you say well you know I just don't think God would send nice people to hell yes he will anyone who doesn't have Christ is going to hell it's that simple but here's the thing about that first of all we might look at it and say well I don't think it's fair that good people would go to hell the first thing we need to rise is that number one there's none good but one and that's God so when we look at so-called good people even a guy like Cornelius is still a sinful guy he's still a sinner he's not as good as we might think he is or even as he might think he is so we need to first understand there's no such thing as a good person from God's point of view because he sees everyone as a sinner the Bible says he looks down from heaven upon the sons of man and he sees that there's none that do with good no not one okay well of course we have that in I believe Psalm 14 and Psalm 53 and it's brought up again in Romans chapter 3 when it says there's none righteous no not one and so the first thing we need to understand is that no one is truly good in the first place and then the second thing that we need to understand is that if someone is truly a quote-unquote good person you know from our perspective you know a pretty nice guy good guy sincere guy here's the thing about that if that person actually seeks the truth they shall find it because the Bible says ask and ye shall receive seek and ye shall find knock and it shall be opened unto you for everyone that asketh receive it and he that seeketh find it and to him the knocketh it shall be opened unto him so anyone who seeks the truth will find it there is no one on this earth who sets out and says I'm gonna find the truth I want to know who God is I want to know the way of salvation I want to know the heaven how to get to heaven and they actually sincerely set out on that quest there is no one who does that and comes back say oh I couldn't figure it out or comes back and says oh I'm a Muslim now oh I'm a Mormon now oh it turns out as Buddhism no no anybody who seeks is going to find period and the other thing is that according to what we just read here in John chapter 3 in verse 20 it says everyone that doeth evil hated the light neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved but he that doeth truth cometh to the light that his deeds may be made manifest that there wrought in God so a person who does truth comes to the light so here's a guy like Cornelius he's doing good things well guess what he eventually finds the way of salvation you know he comes to the light he gets saved whereas someone who does evil they hate the light so you know you knock on their door and you want to give them the gospel and a lot of times like oh no no I don't even want to hear it they don't want to hear anything about it because they don't want to be told that they're a sinner they don't want to confront the fact that they're sinners and so people get confused on these things because they try to mix works in with salvation or they try to say oh you have to turn from your sins to be saved you don't have to do those things to be saved okay salvation is a hundred percent by faith it's not by works not by turning over a new leaf or turning from your sins but at the same time a person who's living a sinful life many times that sinful life could keep them from coming to the gospel simply because of the fact that they don't want to hear it they don't want to hear the truth they don't want to be told that they're wrong they don't want to be held to any kind of a standard or anything and so unfortunately a lot of sinful people will go to hell because they're so sinful not because they actually would have to give up their sins in order to be saved because they don't all they have to do is just believe in Jesus and accept the free gift but often it's because they think that they do they think that they do okay or they just don't even want to be told that they're wrong because what kind of a person doesn't want to be told that they're wrong or that they're sinning a proud person right and what is the thing that's gonna damn the most people to hell in this world is pride because think about if salvation is accepting a free gift I mean who wouldn't just take Christ up on that and just accept that free gift prideful people and how many people are there in this world that say well you know if I go to heaven I want to do it on my own merit now a lot of times they won't come out and say that but that's what they believe that's why they say well I don't think that these people out there are living a worldly life I don't think that they should get to heaven you know I'm going to heaven because I go to church I keep the commandments I turn from my sins that's a super prideful person okay so pride is keeping people out of heaven for several reasons first of all it's keeping people out of heaven because they're too prideful to just accept the free gift admit that they're a sinner admit that they deserve hell and just accept that free gift they're too proud proud to do that also you've got people that are out living a very sinful life and pride keeps them out of heaven too because they don't want to be told the fornication is wrong they don't want to be told that drinking is wrong they don't want to be told the drugs are wrong you know they just they just want to live that sinful life so on one end of the spectrum you've got these holier-than-thou self-righteous people kept out of heaven by pride and then over here you've got people who are living a really raunchy sinful life also kept out of heaven by pride at the end of the day it takes humility to be saved you have to admit that you're a sinner admit that you don't deserve it and trust in Jesus Christ to give you that free gift of salvation so easy to be saved you know sometimes you just want to shake people and just tell them how easy it is but pride keeps them from being saved unfortunately so I feel like Acts chapter 10 is a great example of John chapter 3 where you've got a guy who does truth coming to the light he I mean this is like the easiest salvation ever Peter's not even done giving him the gospel you know and the guy's already getting saved part way through the presentation okay so this guy is just ready to get saved right under the picking so I think it's a perfect example of what we saw in John chapter 3 so go back if you were to Acts chapter 10 so he says thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God at the end of verse 4 notice what he does not say he does not say thy prayers thine alms are come up for a memorial before God so you get to go to heaven buddy congratulations you have earned your way into heaven no because you don't get to heaven just by being good you say well it says he feared God yeah but here's the thing you know the devil's also believe and tremble at the fact that God exists it's not enough to just believe that there's one God or even tremble at the existence of that God you've got to believe on the name of the only begotten Son of God okay Cornelius yes he believes in God but does he believe in Jesus not yet you know he hasn't heard the gospel yet when he hears the gospel he's gonna get saved but he hasn't heard it yet notice what else God does not say unto him God does not say unto him okay here let me tell you how to get saved right now and start to tell them about Jesus why doesn't the angel of the Lord just give him the gospel right then and there I'll tell you why because God has committed unto us the ministry of reconciliation I mean look doesn't God have hosts of angels that he can deploy for whatever the purpose and do not angels appear unto people in the Bible and and give them a message or speak to them so why wouldn't God just send out tens of thousands of angels yay millions of angels to just go out door knocking today throughout Phoenix and just knock every door and give everybody the gospel it's not gonna happen my friend because the only way for people to be saved is for a human being to preach the gospel unto them they have to hear the gospel from a saved Christian now there are lots of saved Christians out there unfortunately most of them don't do any witnessing you know ninety nine percent are not preaching the gospel they're not witnessing they're not soul winning but we are this world's hope to hear the gospel we are Peter in this story we have the gospel we're able to win people to Christ God does not give this task or privilege unto the angels and he does not do it himself now when Jesus was on this earth he won people Lord because he was a human being right he was God in the flesh but he said as long as I'm in the world I'm the light of the world and then he said unto his disciples ye are the light of the world so we are the light of the world today we need to preach the gospel and every creature God is committed unto us he's trusted us with this ministry of reconciliation it's our job to get people saved we are this world's only hope now it says here in verse 5 now send men to Joppa and call for one Simon whose surname is Peter he lodged with one Simon a tanner whose house is by the seaside he shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do so notice he does not give him the gospel he tells him this other guy is going to tell you what you ought to do and by the way in Acts chapter 9 if you study the chapter carefully and compare it with Paul later telling the story in retrospect in places like Acts chapter 22 you know the Apostle Paul did not get saved until he meets with Ananias three days later there's a light that shines and he says Saul Saul why persecutest thou me and he trembling and astonished said Lord what though what would they have me to do and he tells him go to the city you go to Damascus find Ananias Ananias is the one who gives him the gospel and tells him to wash away his sins calling upon the name of the Lord he calls upon the name of the Lord and thus washes away his sins three days after the light shining and Jesus appearing to him on the road to Damascus so again we see that the Apostle Paul needed a human instrument in order to get him saved Cornelius needs a human instrument in order for him to get saved and that is the Apostle Peter now it's interesting the place here is very significant because he tells Cornelius to send men to Joppa and call for one Simon whose surname is Peter now what's the significance of Joppa in the Bible well Joppa is the exact same place where Jonah went when he disobeyed the Lord so Jonah's told you know go to Nineveh and preach unto them the preaching that I bid thee now think about it why did Jonah not want to go to Nineveh at first we might wonder you know why not like like we might wonder and think to ourselves like maybe he's just scared I've heard people even say that if you know if they don't know the story real well and they say you know maybe he was scared to Nineveh's too wicked it's too scary that was not the problem Jonah did not want to go to Nineveh because he did not care about the people of Nineveh he did not want them to be saved that's where I say how do you know that because when he gets to Nineveh eventually after being swallowed by the whale and going through all that when he finally gets to Nineveh he preaches and everybody gets saved and then what happens he's mad about it and then he's trying to get God to destroy the city anyway he wants God to make good on that promise to destroy Nineveh so that shows you his attitude he did not love the people of Nineveh he did not care about the people of Nineveh he did not want them to be saved now he'd been a mighty prophet in Israel but as soon as God tries to take him out of Israel and get him to go to the Gentiles he doesn't want anything to do with it now does that remind you of anybody else it's the Jews in the book of Acts right they only love themselves they don't care about the Gentiles they don't want to reach the Gentiles and even in the book of Acts later on when the Apostle Paul preaches this big giant long sermon about Jesus to the crowd there in Jerusalem as soon as he gets to the part where God tells him you're gonna go reach the Gentiles they're like no stop like they listen to him preach for so long and everything's fine and then it's when Paul says go to the Gentile I'm gonna you know you're gonna go to the Gentiles that's when they freak out and say put him to death kill this man is that bizarre this is but but we have to understand this is the way they thought they were obsessed with their nation they loved their nation more than they loved God they loved their nation more than they loved the Messiah they even said what are we gonna do everybody's gonna believe on Jesus and they were gonna lose our nation the Romans are gonna come take our nation from us folks that's the way these people thought their warped view was just this thing of all that matters is the Jews and nuts to everybody else nuts to the Gentiles very similar to Jonah's attitude and Jonah is a foreshadowing of that attitude now when Jonah is told to go to Nineveh instead of going to Nineveh he goes to Joppa this exact place Joppa and his idea of going to Joppa is that he wants to find a ship going to Tarshish now Tarshish is basically Spain so you know these people didn't know about America so to him this is like the end of the earth you know instead of going east to Nineveh he literally wants to just go to the exact furthest point that he knows about at that time he wants to go to the furthest possible point that's known to man he's like one way ticket to Tarshish because I'm not going to Nineveh and of course he does end up going to Nineveh anyway but isn't it interesting that he is in a place called Joppa when he is making that decision to go away from the Gentiles away from God's will and to head off in the wrong direction whereas Peter is in the same place but he's making the opposite decision right instead of deciding that he's not going to reach the Gentiles au contraire he is here in Joppa deciding and being convinced by God that yes I'm going to preach to the Gentiles so so he's doing the exact opposite of Jonah and then it's even more interesting when you stop and think about the fact that that Peter is called in the Bible Simon the son of Jonah so Peter is actually called son of Jonah Simon bar Jonah bar is Aramaic for son and so he's the son of Jonah he's in the exact place where Jonah went away from the Gentiles and he's being called to do the opposite of Jonah to go to the Gentiles and to preach the gospel to this Italian man Cornelius not only that but the word Joppa actually comes from the name Japheth okay because Japheth is the father of the Gentiles and so that's actually a significant place and the place name basically means you know Japheth place or Gentile place and you've got Jonah going the wrong way you got Peter going the right way so it's an important place symbolically that he is doing this at Joppa so it says in verse number seven when the angel which spake unto Cornelius was departed he called two of his household servants and a devout soldier of them that waited on him continually and when he had declared all these things unto them he sent them to Joppa on the morrow as they went on their journey and drew nine to the city Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour and he became very hungry and would have eaten but while they made ready he fell into a trance and saw heaven opened and a certain vessel descending unto him as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners let 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've never eaten anything that is common or unclean and the voice spake unto him again the second time what God had cleansed that call not thou common so the point here is of course the symbolism you know not to call any man common or unclean but he uses the concept of food to do this you know Peter was really into following the dietary restrictions that God had prescribed in the book of Leviticus and the book of Deuteronomy so certain meats are allowed to be eaten and certain meats are not I can't eat any pork they can't eat the shrimp and the shellfish and things like that they could only eat certain animals but God is telling Peter specifically to kill an unclean beast and eat it so you know he's seeing all these creeping things and beasts and whatever and and he's telling him hey you hungry kill and eat and he's like no I'm not gonna do that I've never eaten anything common or unclean you know he probably thinks that maybe this is a test he's being tested and it's like okay right answer I was just testing you to see if you'd eat this you know pork sandwich or whatever so you know maybe he's being tested so he says no Lord I'm not going to but then God rebukes him and says what God has cleansed that call not thou common or unclean and God shows him through this and he explains later looking back on this that God showed him not to call any man common or unclean and not to have this idea that the Jews are special and holy and clean whereas the Gentiles are uncircumcised unholy unclean God's showing him that that is not the case now here's the thing God is also explaining to him that he can eat things that are not clean as well okay see a lot of people will miss this and they'll say no no this is just about people okay but when you're reading scripture you never want to miss the literal interpretation either he's telling him eat this unclean beast and he says I'm not going to and God says what God hath cleansed that call not thou common or unclean you say well Pastor Anderson I don't think so we'll go to 1st Timothy chapter 4 and I'll prove it to you 1st Timothy chapter 4 because when you talk to the Seventh-day Adventists or these other cultic groups that claim that we have to follow the dietary laws of the Old Testament you know the Seventh-day Adventist cult will answer and say well you know he's just telling him not to think of people as unclean but what kind of an illustration is that it'd be a fake illustration like stop and think about what bad logic is I mean what if I what if I sorry to be graphic what if I showed you a dog pile hey eat this no I'm not gonna eat that it's too gross hey don't call anything gross oh okay that'd be stupid it wouldn't make any sense or why didn't he say oh arise Peter drink a beer arise Peter here take a shot of tequila oh no Lord I don't drink alcohol well what I sanctified don't call common or unclean why would he use an illustration of something that he should not be eating to teach him that he should be doing something I mean think about that for a second isn't that ridiculous think about how ridiculous it would be to use an illustration of something that he's not supposed to be doing and use that to illustrate see you're supposed to be doing this it's absurd it's ridiculous okay but here's the proof 1st Timothy chapter 4 says this in verse number 1 now the spirit speaketh expressly than in the latter times some shall depart from the faith giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils boy that's a scary thought isn't it doctrines of devils things that are being taught by devils speaking lies and hypocrisy having their conscience seared with a hot iron for bidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats which God hath created to be received with Thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth for every creature of God is good and nothing to be refused if it be received with Thanksgiving for it is sanctified by the Word of God in prayer so what God has cleansed that call not thou common or unclean the food is cleansed by prayer it's sanctified by the Word of God in prayer if we give thanks for our food the Bible says every creature of God is good and nothing to be refused this is very clear how could you interpret this as only eat certain meats no he says every creature of God is good and nothing to be refused if he was received with Thanksgiving and so in light of that and then we take that and compare that to Acts chapter 10 where specifically shows him a bunch of previously considered unclean beasts and tells him eat these he wouldn't be telling him hey Peter steal stuff hey Peter commit adultery hey Peter Peter you know drink a bottle of booze why he wouldn't tell him to do that would he he'd tell him to do stuff that's good to illustrate a good truth otherwise the illustration makes no sense okay now this didn't shock us anyway because yeah people are so horrified by this like how could we do away these dietary restrictions go back to Genesis chapter 9 and might I remind you that Genesis is the first book of the law of Moses so the children of Israel when they're under the law did they have the book of Genesis yeah this is part of their law okay what does it say in Genesis chapter 9 verse number 3 Genesis chapter 9 verse number 3 every moving thing that liveth shall be made for you and yet the Seventh-day Adventist cult will still say that they in the days of Noah and in the days before Moses were not allowed to eat unclean animals if you talk to Seventh-day Adventists and ask them they'll say these animals have always been off limits and that Noah and his sons and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob were only allowed to eat clean animals what does the Bible say every moving thing that liveth shall be made for you how in the world could you interpret that as only eat that which parts the hoof and choose the kind don't eat pork don't eat how could you get that out you can't every moving thing that liveth shall be made for you as the green herb have I given you all things so here's the true story okay the true story is that all the way up until Moses human beings were allowed to eat any meat that they wanted they could eat any animal God specifically tells them that and the Jews themselves even had a record of that in Genesis chapter 9 that up until Moses they were allowed to eat whatever meat they wanted okay then when you get to the law of Moses he imposes these dietary restrictions on them where they are only supposed to eat these animals and not eat these other animals okay and the Bible specifically says in Hebrew chapter 9 that those ordinances about the meats and the drinks were imposed on them until the time of Reformation until the time of the coming of Christ so stop and think about that Moses was approximately 1500 BC okay so how old is this earth approximately okay it's about 64 hundred years old right so if the world's been around for about 64 hundred years so from the beginning all the way up until 1500 BC approximately they're allowed to eat everything then from 1500 BC approximately up until the first century AD they follow the dietary restrictions and then from then until now we eat whatever we want because the Bible says every creature of God is good and nothing to be refused if it be received with Thanksgiving it's specifically told to Peter in the vision and first Timothy chapter 4 makes it impossible to misunderstand then Hebrews chapter 9 reiterates it by saying that these meats and drinks and carnal ordinances were only imposed on them until the time of Reformation stop and think about that that means out of about 64 hundred years that the world's been around only during 1500 of those years approximately maybe 1600 years approximately was man held to these dietary guidelines so stop and think about that so for 4,800 years of history we've been able to eat whatever for 4,800 years of history and then for you know about 1,600 years of history we're told to only eat so there's been four times as much time that has happened on this planet where we were allowed to eat whatever we want then just this short relatively short episode where God specifically had them not eat those certain foods and it and all of those things were symbolic things that point us to the the coming of Christ and you have all of these animal sacrifices you got the tabernacle the Levitical priesthood the meats the drinks the carnal ordinances divers washings that period the Old Testament period for that 1600 years or so that period is unique to that and it's not coming back and it wasn't that way before that and it's not that way after that okay so we don't want to be stuck on that okay that it's a do not allow people to Judaize you they want to Judaize you which means to get you to live as do the Jews and the Bible teaches us that in the New Testament we are not to live as do the Jews we are Gentile believers and even if a Jew gets saved then in Christ there is no Jew or Gentile and so now they're a Christian right though I wouldn't call them a Jew anymore call them a Christian at that point and we as Christians do not need to follow the the these carnal ordinances the Old Testament so he's shown this this vision and then it says in verse 19 while Peter thought on the vision the spirit said unto him behold three men seek thee arise therefore and get thee down and go with them nothing doubt doubting nothing for I have sent them and of course this all clicks with him because he was shown the vision of the wild animals three times and now three men are coming to seek him so he puts it together and it says in verse 21 then Peter went down to the men which were sent unto him from Cornelius and said behold I'm he whom you seek what is the cause wherefore your come and they said Cornelius the centurion a just man and when the fearth God and of good report among all the nation of the Jews was warned from God by a holy angel to send for thee into 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 had called together his kinsmen and near friends and as Peter was coming in Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshiped him so again we see that Cornelius he's a good guy he fears God he's not saved so he gets confused and he starts worshiping Peter okay and of course we know that Peter was the first pope right that's what the Roman Catholics will tell you that Peter's the first pope well notice how he acts a little different than the Pope here but Peter took him up saying stand up I myself also am a man and as he talked with him he went in and found many that were come together and he said to them you know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company or come unto one of another nation but God has showed me that I should not call any man common or unclean therefore came I unto you without gains saying he's saying I didn't argue I didn't hem and ha I went just without getting saying doubting nothing as soon as I was called for and he says I asked therefore for what intent you have sent me and then of course you know Cornelius tells him the story about I was fasting and he saw the vision and so forth jump down to verse 34 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 and so we see that the point is that God does not care what nationality we are he doesn't care who is supposedly Jew or Gentile and this was an important lesson for Peter to learn because Peter had been brainwashed and brought up in this teaching that the Gentiles are unclean stay away from them we're better than them and you know we're special they're not God's heart was always to reach the Gentiles even in the Old Testament we talked about Jonah why did God send Jonah to Nineveh it's because he only cared about the Jews it's because he only cared about Israel no that's a garbage doctrine God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life God cared about the Gentiles and the Old Testament Jonah is not the only one by the way stay the Old Testament you'll find all kinds of prophets being sent by God to preach to all nations to preach to the heathen throughout the world and so God is not a respecter of persons and we should not be a respecter of persons either we should not even it's so funny one of our preacher friends I don't remember who it was he got a video taken down from YouTube it said you know it said something about you know the answer to racism or something and it said you know God's not a respecter of persons so the message that he was preaching was hey we shouldn't be racist because God's not a respecter of persons God doesn't care what color people are God doesn't care what their ethnicity is and YouTube took it down as being a hate speech but I think what was going on is I think they were just so stupid that when they saw I'm saying like don't respect persons he's saying not to respect people like they were just too dumb to understand this statement so they thought like you know we should respect these people of other age it's like you know when Bob says God's not a respecter of persons what it means is he doesn't give special treatment to one above the other it's not saying hey you know God's not a respecter of persons that mean either so I'm just gonna disrespect everyone I'm not gonna respect anyone that's not what he's saying okay whoa there you know not being a respecter of persons what does respect mean respect is when you basically acknowledge someone's position so like let's say if I were told hey you need to respect your mom and dad it's like okay I'm stopping and thinking about the fact that my mom and dad are in authority over me and so therefore I need to treat them a certain way you know I'm stopping and thinking about their position right and if I'm supposed to respect the boss at work it means I need to stop and say wait a minute you know I'm the employee he's the boss so I need to treat him a certain way because he's in this position so I'm acknowledging that position so when the Bible says that God is not a respecter of persons God doesn't look down and say okay well wait a minute you know you're white so therefore here let me treat you as oh you're Jewish oh well you know here let me go ahead and give you some special treatment now we do treat our parents differently than we treat other people do we not I don't treat my parents the same way that I treat everyone else I treat my parents better than I would treat other people of the same age and you know just just people that I know that are that age I'm gonna treat my parents with more respect okay I'm gonna treat the boss at work with more respect than I would just you know somebody who's maybe lower than me on the totem pole at the office but God is not a respecter but he doesn't look down and give special treatment based on nationality special treatment to the Jews special treatment to red yellow black or white God's not a respecter person and by the way now that God does not respect the person of the rich so God doesn't look down and say well this guy's rich let's make sure that this guy gets saved so that he can give a lot of money to the church you know this poor guy he doesn't have much to offer so he can just go to hell that's not how God looks at the world and you know what that's not how we should look at the world either which means that we should be just as excited about getting a poor person saved as a rich person saved we should be just as excited about getting one nationality saved as another nationality saved we should be just as excited about getting the Gentile saved as the Jews saved because it's meaningless God's not a respecter of persons God looks at the heart of man he doesn't look at these outward things that classify us into different types of people he looks at the heart and so we shouldn't care what kind of person that we get saved we should just want to get people saved and you know what that's why we have historically done most of our soul winning in the poor areas and in the ghettos of Phoenix because of the fact that those were the most fruitful places to go soul winning and those people are just as valuable unto the Lord and unto us as anyone else now in the last two years we've shifted more to knocking doors in middle-class areas simply because of the fact that we have knocked the poor areas so many times that you start just seeing the same people over and over again and I'm thinking like I've knocked the store three times personally you know and then and eventually it's like okay we need to knock some fresh doors so you know our goal is to knock every door we've kind of shifted our focus on that but we but notice we went to the poor first we gave the poor part and by the way when we go to these middle-class areas or areas that aren't that receptive you know we're very meticulous about marking the map and I I say mark them and avoid them you know these bad neighborhoods I'm like I don't ever want to do this again you better be sure to log this soul winning because this is a one-time deal whereas some of the poor areas we knocked as many as eight nine or ten times because it was worth it because it was you know whereas some of these rich areas it's more like you find that one person and then you shake off the dust to your feet because the vast majority was unreceptive and so the the big takeaway from this chapter getting it in context obviously it's a great chapter about soul winning and about the need for guys like Peter to preach the gospel of course we got this great verse in verse 43 to him give all the prophets witness that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins you say is that really the best verse well look at the next verse while Peter yet spake these words the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word so yeah that's the killer verse right there my friend that's the real Pat that's basically the the the knockout punch right there whosoever believeth that is the coup de grace right there and so we see that all the Old Testament prophets witness the fact that whosoever believeth in Jesus that believes in the name of Jesus will receive remission of sins not of works as any man should boast so it's a great passage on soul winning and and and someone getting saved and people hearing the gospel but it's also a great passage to really drive in the fact that God is interested in all nations being saved and he doesn't matter who we reach so long as we're reaching people it doesn't matter who we reach it's not we don't have some kind of a quota system of well you know well we got to reach this certain demo no we just want to reach everybody we know just point me towards somebody who wants to hear the gospel I don't care what they look like I don't care what their background is I don't care their ethnicity God's not a respecter of persons and neither am I and so the main thing that we see here is God is trying to get Peter and Peter represents the rest of the Apostles as well the original 11 guys he's trying to get them to see that it's not just the Jews but you need to reach the Gentiles and there's thing in chapter 11 Peter gets told off for doing this in verse 3 of chapter 11 say that would have been uncircumcised and just eat with them and he has to you know make this big story to tell them like no God told me to do this and then they're like oh wow so God also granted unto the Gentiles repentance into life it's like hello is anybody home do you not remember when he said go teach all nations go into all the world preach the gospel to every creature and again it's not that these people are dumb is that they're brainwashed and we could be the same way where we get we get a dumb idea in our head ingrained it's just hard to get rid of it and we see this struggle all through the book of Acts even the Apostle Paul the so-called Apostle to the Gentiles okay even the Apostle Paul he struggles with this and he keeps wanting to go to the Jews and God keeps trying to twist his arm and get him to go to other nations that's the story of the book of Acts is trying to get people to switch from just real and you know what today even in 2021 you've got fundamental baptism like God's calling me to be a missionary to Israel you know there's all these people want to go be a missionary to Israel even though it's like the most one of the most unreceptive places on the planet even though there's already a whole bunch of other people doing the same thing and then you've got other countries that have like no one preaching the gospel hardly at all just a handful of missionaries and they're super receptive and then you got just thousands and thousands of missionaries beating their head against the wall in Israel because they're like to the Jew first to the Jew yeah we're not this isn't first this is two thousand and twenty one years later my friend okay this isn't the Jew the Jew first already happened we're like last now we're in the last days okay we're we're on the tail end okay we're in the also to the Greek phase right now but today I mean I'm telling you Baptists they still they get excited they knock on the door it's like oh I'm Jewish it's just like so cool folks if you give the gospel to a Jew go to Romans 3 they don't believe the Old Testament they don't believe the New Testament how can you go to Romans 3 when they don't believe in the New Testament they don't believe in the Old Testament either why would I turn to Isaiah 53 when they don't believe that any more or less than they believe Romans 3 I'll give them the Romans Road that's what they need my friend no look I'm not against using Isaiah 53 in a in a gospel presentation because Isaiah 53 is a great scripture for giving the gospel amen I'm for that but what's funny is like well we have to use the Old Testament with the Jews no no we don't because the same gospel works for everybody and you know I'll close with this thought you know some people have this attitude that they can't go out soul-winning until they kind of learn all the different religions that are out there and they want to be able to answer every objection and how do I shut down the Mormons how do I shut down the Jehovah's false witnesses how do I shut down the Seventh-day Adventist how am I gonna shut down this and you know how do I preach to the Jews how to preach to the Muslim and I get all these messages asking me like how do I give the gospel to Muslims how do I give the gospel to a Catholic how do I give the gospel to a Buddhist what if somebody's an atheist how do I give them the gospel and you know what the same gospel works for everybody that's the beautiful thing the same gospel works for everybody because you know what all these people have in common they they all do not believe that salvation is through faith in Christ alone am I right I mean all those people that I just listed they all think that salvation is found somewhere other than faith in the Lord Jesus Christ so that's the message when we go so in the messages believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved is that what the Muslims need to hear is that what the Jews need to hear is that what the Catholics need to hear is that what the Hindus need to it that's what everybody needs to hear okay now yeah it's true there are little tips and things where you know little tips when you're giving the gospel to the to the atheist or maybe a little tip when you're talking to Jehovah's Witnesses and and look I'm not saying that those tips aren't out there they're good tips I use little tips here and there but let me tell you this the meat and potatoes of my gospel that I preach at the door is gonna be the same for everybody because it's all preaching Christ crucified resurrection you know it's like well how could you how could you preach that to a Jew they don't believe that well that's why I'm here to change that how do you preach that to an atheist I mean if they don't I have this one guy I was out stolen with this guy and and and somebody's like in there oh I'm an atheist and he literally just said oh okay well I'm not gonna show you anything for the Bible that cuz you know I believe in any way so see you later and I was like what I'm like why are you walking away from this door it's like well how can I show that guy versus from the Bible he doesn't believe the Bible I'm like if he believed the Bible he'd already be saved and why are we even here like you only oh oh you only want to give the gospel to people who say they believe the Bible but don't so that you could get them say it's like folks if these people actually believed the gospel or believe the Bible or believe the New Testament or believed in Jesus they don't need us what are we even doing so if somebody's like oh hey faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God somebody's an atheist then then you know I want to show them the plan of salvation and sometimes they'll be like oh I don't believe the Bible then I always did this is what I say to the atheist I just say well you know what how about this why don't we just pretend that the Bible is true for a few minutes I'll show you what the Bible says and then you can decide whether you believe it or not but at the end of the day I just want to give that person the Romans Road I just want to give that person the gospel just like anybody else okay people are the same everywhere the Jew the Greek the Buddhist the atheist the Catholic the Hindu they all need that same message of salvation through Christ it's the whosoever believeth message that they need to hear whether they be Cornelius Gentile or whether they be the Jews like Nicodemus in John chapter 3 you know that's what they need to hear whosoever believeth and they can all equally be saved because God's not a respecter of persons and neither should we be a respecter of persons and you know that my buddy who uploaded that YouTube video he was correct when he said that that does solve racism because once you realize God's not a respecter of persons and we're all equal in God's sight you know are you better than God God doesn't differentiate between races but you do what what in the world right so that video needs to be reinstated immediately so we'll let the people on YouTube know that please all right let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer Lord we thank you so much for the gospel and that it's available to everyone Lord and please help us to be like Peter where we're a ready vessel that says here am I send me Lord help us like Peter to go reach the Gentiles with the gospel without any doubting without gains saying Lord help us to just go and preach the gospel to everyone who's willing to listen in Jesus name we pray amen