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For our pastor dear God, please bless him as he preaches your word tonight in Jesus name we pray. Amen All right We're in acts chapter 10 this evening And act chapter 10 is pretty popular because of the fact that it has a story of cornelius the uh the centurion who gets saved and it's a great story to read through and to show us that God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance and more specifically, you know He wants people outside of israel to be saved, right? He wants people who are romans who are gentiles to be saved and we see that a very sincere man is seeking after god He's doing things that you know as far as what he knows is best He's responding to the light that god gives him obviously that's not going to get him saved But those are things that he's doing on his behalf to show god that he's actually looking for the truth And so it's a great story here and we're going to learn a lot this evening regarding cornelius And especially in how we apply that to today when it comes to soul winning now look down in your bibles verse number one We're going to look at cornelius responding to the light that god gives him It says in verse number one There was a certain man in cesarea 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 he saw a vision evidently about the ninth hour of the day an angel of god coming to him Coming into him and saying to him cornelius and when he looked on him he was afraid and said what is it lord? He said unto him thy prayers and thy alms are come up for a memorial before god And now send men to japa and call for one simon whose surname is peter He lodgeth with one simon a tanner whose house is by the seaside. He shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do So what happens here is that he's simply going about his business. He's worshiping god as he knows You know the best way he knows how And in light of that god sees that he considers it a memorial He remembers that and so he allows him to see a vision now We obviously see later on in the chapter that this man is actually fasting, right? And maybe he's fasting to find out the truth to seek after god Well in response to this god basically sends him a vision of an angel the angel tells him Hey, you need to go down to japa to find a man whose name is peter This guy is going to tell you what you need to do now in chapter 11 He reiterates that story and we see that greater clarity is given to that statement He actually says he's going to show you basically how to be saved. Okay what to do in order to be saved We see that in chapter 11. We're going to look at that in just a bit so he being a centurion and a man who is Basically has a lot of people under him sends his servants down to japa to find this man At the same time god is giving peter a vision and we see that he goes into into a house top It's basically lunch time. He's hungry so god uses his physical needs to give him a vision of different types of animals because you know When you're hungry, you'll eat anything. Amen. So he shows him these animals a sheet comes down from heaven It's knit at the four corners and on this sheet is these beasts unclean beasts unclean animals according to the levitical law And peter, you know god is telling peter hey rise kill and eat You know kill and eat the pig kill and eat the the the the what do you call it the shrimp or whatever? Kill and eat this which you would consider to be unclean kill it eat it now He's not necessarily trying to feed him. He's trying to teach him something, right? Peter's just like lord nothing on you know common or unclean has ever entered into his mouth So he had to repeat the vision three times over in order for peter to understand and even then he still doesn't get it It's not until in tandem you have these men actually come to his house And speak of this man named cornelius who's looking for the truth that he basically puts two and two together And he realizes maybe god is telling me this because I consider the gentiles to be common and unclean. Okay Because he's considering the gentiles to be common or unclean, you know He's not going to go preach the gospel to them And this is what we see the majority of the disciples doing they're just preaching the gospel to jews those who are of israel And they're really negating the rest of the people who god told them to go reach the rest of the nations So god has to give peter this vision to say hey These people are not common. They're not unclean. In fact, they are cleansed now look down at your bible at verse number 13 Let's read that it says 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 in other words He's saying look i've kept the levitical law You know, I know that pigs are unclean and these people these these animals are unclean And so i'm not going to touch it the voice may come to him again the second time what god hath cleansed That call not thou common. He said look if i'm telling you to eat it eat it, right? Don't say that it's common or unclean if god himself the creator has told you you can eat it now This isn't a sermon on veganism or vegetarianism But this is a good point to park it out when it comes to this, right? Because god is saying hey don't call an animal unclean or common, you know As long as we receive it with thanksgiving according to first timothy chapter number four You know trying to tell people to abstain from meats is actually a doctrine of devils according to the bible Okay, veganism and vegetarianism is not biblical It's a doctrine of devils god said that we should rise kill and eat And those aren't the only verses that we use to prove that, you know, we should eat meat. It's just a great Text story to use amen And so this was done thrice verse 16 and the vessel were received up again into heaven. So why does he say You know don't call common or unclean what god hath cleansed Because obviously, you know the the connection he's trying to make there is that these animals are symbolically representing people And more specifically gentiles, right? So why is he saying that gentiles have been cleansed now when we think of cleanse we think of you know being cleansed of our sins We've been cleansed from all of our unrighteousness when we believe on jesus christ In this passage of scripture, that's not what it's referring to at all Go, uh, skip down to verse number 34 here Go to 34 at this point Peter has basically made his way To cesarea and uh, he begins to preach the word of god unto the people and he reckoned he realizes man You know what? Maybe god wants to Actually wants us to go preach the gospel to every creature like he told us originally. I guess he was really serious about that, right? And notice he says creature, right? Look what it says in verse number 30 Excuse me verse 34 then peter opened his mouth and said of a truth This is what he's saying to cornelius and his house and his friends of a truth. I perceive that god is no respecter of persons What is what is he insinuating that he's a respecter of people? Right, so he's imposing his own beliefs upon god He said well, I guess god is not a respecter of people like I am He says in verse 35, but in every nation He that feareth god, excuse me, he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him now keep in mind again This is not referring to accept that as in salvation Okay What he's saying is this is that people who respond to the light that god gives them? God will accept that as your next basically step to finding out the truth. Okay And that's what he means when he says cleanse that which is you know, don't call that which is common or unclean God has cleansed what you're calling common and unclean and what he's basically saying is this because the opposite of cleanse is to be defiled Right and you think of the old testament sacrifices god will not accept that which is defiled Okay, but he does accept that which is which has been cleansed so The interpretation there is that god is basically saying hey, I want the gentiles to be saved Don't call them common or unclean or defiled because i've actually accepted them. I want them to be saved is what he's saying They're not saved yet But I want them to be saved, you know, jesus christ is the savior of all men But especially of them that believe but he is the savior of all men That's not to say that everyone's going to be saved He's just the savior of all men. He's going to be the one to save them if they were to get saved Okay, so we see that take place they go down there he gets he gets a bunch of people saved And a great revival happens in the house of cornelius now a few thoughts to consider in light of these verses here Of course this is a bible study So we're just going to go through some of the verses look at verse number two. It says a devout man One that feared god with all his house which gave much alms to the people and prayed to god always now These are great things but none of this is going to get him saved But you know today we have people who think that right They literally think well, you know, i'm a god-fearing person. I'm devoted to my religion. I give to the poor You know that that that lazy bum who's on the street corner who's an able body who's able to work? I give them money You know, I give alms to those people And I pray to god always I mean how many times have you run into people when you're out soul winning? And you say are you 100 sure that if you die today you go to heaven. They're like why pray every day? I pray to god You know, I know god I pray to god I give to the poor they always list their works But they never necessarily list the works of christ, right? And folks not by works of righteousness, which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us You know therefore we conclude a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law Works cannot get a safe for by grace. Are you safe through faith and that not of yourself? Hey fearing god is of yourself Giving much alms to the people that's of yourself Praying to god that is of yourself. But you know what salvation is not This is not of yourself. It is the gift of god not of works lest any man should boast But here's the thing if there's an individual out there who's doing these things They're not necessarily an evil wicked person some people are sincerely doing these things hoping to be saved They're not going to get saved But you know, they're hoping that that's what's going to save them They're actually responding to the light that god gives them because they recognize there is a god. I need salvation Maybe if I pray to him, maybe if I give of my alms, maybe if I try to be a good person I'll get his attention somehow you understand obviously they're wrong, okay? But god looks at that and says okay this person is responding to the light that i'm giving them All right Now what does this teach us what teaches us that even those with the pagan background? You know, they know who the true god is Because think about this cornelius is a centurion under the operation of the roman empire, right He's part of the italian man. You know what the roman empire's religion Was polytheism right they believed in multiple a plethora of gods They worship jupiter and saturn mercury and venus and mars, you know They've worshiped all these false gods who they adopted from the greeks. Okay, and today we have a form of that It's called roman catholicism Right roman catholicism You know, they don't worship other gods. They wouldn't say they worship other gods, but they worship saints Okay, and where do you think they got that from well, there's a reason it's called the roman catholic church, okay They're well, we don't worship them. We venerate them. Well, yeah, but when you look at the veneration It's basically defining worship is defined as their veneration, right? When you look at how they venerate it's like well, you know and you compare it to the word of god you see Well, that's called worship. It doesn't matter what you call it. You can change the word and the terminology. It's still worship Yeah But we see here that this guy comes from a pagan background yet he recognizes there is one true god I mean it says one that feared gods no one that feared god Which gave much alms to the people and prayed to gods always no prayed to god always now We don't know what seeds were planted in this man's life throughout his life. Obviously there were christians in those days But you know what the truth was available to him just like it's available to any human being on this planet Okay, every individual on this planet has the opportunity to be safe folks The heathens, you know from from cornelius to the heat, you know The stupid illustration that people give you of the of the african in the jungle and the congo You know who doesn't have any church or whatever. Are you trying to tell me that if that guy dies he'll go to hell Yes, he will Okay, not because we want him to but because of the fact that for the wages of sin is death Obviously we need to go out and preach the gospel to every creature But every individual has the knowledge of god, okay The pagan who grows up in the mayan aztec culture They know of the one true god No, they don't that's where they're worshiping false gods. How is it that they know that there's false gods But not a true god I mean think about that So you're trying to tell me that they somehow are are worshiping this plethora of of gods And you know the god of the sun the god of the moon the god of fertility You know, but so there and they just didn't hear about the one true god who rules the entire universe. It's nonsense folks But these are the kind of you know theories and postulations that people come up with You know to try to guilt trip you to think, you know, you think a loving god How can a loving god send this person to hell? Read revelation 21 8 he shows you how he sends them to hell Read revelation 20 verse 14 and 15. It shows you how he does it Now look, he's not willing to finish your parish and he doesn't want people to go to hell, but that's a dumb question folks It's a dumb theory. It's a dumb question to try to say. Well, what about that little african kid? Well, let's go reach the little african kid I guarantee you the little african kid knows that there is a god A god the one true god, okay Even if they never heard a clear presentation of the gospel You know to say well, no, I don't agree with that There's plenty of people out there and in southeast asia in the 1040 window They never heard the name of christ folks. The bible tells us ask me now and I shall give thee the heathen for that inheritance God doesn't just want you know The people to be saved who are refined or as joe biden will put it the clean and the fresh or whatever the educator whatever You know He wants everyone to be saved. He wants the heathen to be saved. Amen He wants the person. Yes the heathen in africa Who's worshiping false gods he wants the the pagan in the amazon jungle? He wants the mayan and the astic he wants them to be saved He wants the heathen to come to the saving knowledge of jesus christ. Go to romans chapter one hold your place there in act chapter 10 Even those with pagan backgrounds know the one true god. I'm not saying That they know him deeply or they know what the bible says about him, but folks they have enough witnesses Of god Surrounding them Dwelling within them to know that there is one true god Because think about it. They have what the bible talks about creation, right? as a witness They have the law of god written in their hearts the bible says, okay And I guarantee you look If someone responds to the light that god gives them the light referring to creation the light referring to the the law of god written In their hearts god will give them that third light which is a soul winner Guaranteed I believe that with all my heart. Okay, look at romans 118 For the wrath of god is revealed from heaven Against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. So what is he telling everyone knows that there's a punishment The wrath of god is revealed Against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. So these fools who tell you I don't believe hell exists you liar. You know, it exists You just hate god And therefore you go around lying to people saying that it doesn't exist people know everyone knows the hell exists Everyone knows that there's a punishment for sin They may not know the intricacies of hell, but they know because it says there the wrath of god Is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth and unrighteousness because that excuse me because that which may be known of god Is manifest in Them for god look what it says had showed it unto them So god's not just like trying to hide himself You know, oh, I don't want this person to know about me. He wants the heaven's declared the glory of god folks His glory is declared throughout the whole world, right? Why because he had showed it unto them. He wants them to come to the knowledge of god through jesus christ Verse 20 for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen Being understood by the things that are made even his eternal power and godhead so that they are without excuse So look, even if someone doesn't realize that they have the law of god written in their hearts, which is impossible Because any culture will tell you murder is wrong Any person will tell you that you know pedophilia is wrong and if they tell you it's it's not it's because they're a reprobate themselves But here's the thing let's say let's let's just say that the law of god's not written in their hearts, let's just pretend okay Well still they have the eternal power and godhead being manifested to creation They can look up at the sky and recognize there is a creator Now there is a false teaching out there and I even heard it in bible college that says people could get saved looking at the stars What in the world? Like what kind of stars are you looking at? So What kind of peyote are you doing where you see the gospel presentation up in the sky You know, what's that drug from amazon the amazon Way too many people know about that drug in this place, okay, ayahuasca What kind of ayahuasca are you doing when you see the roman's road in the sky? You know And they literally said I remember a teacher got up and said yeah people could be can be saved through creation false Absolutely false creation doesn't speak of jesus What does creation do it speaks of the godhead? It speaks of the creator And when a person observes the creation the glory of god's creation they come to the conclusion a reasonable conclusion There must be a creator Who created all of this of these wonderful things and what is that? That's a person responding to the light that god has given to them Well, I just think people are just you know Not everyone comes to that conclusion. No everyone comes to that conclusion. It's just that not everyone accepts it Some people say they're like, oh no, that's not one god. It's it's the sun god. It's the moon god It's evolution They come up with all these other theories and stupidity And what is that? That's them not responding to the light to god again. That's them rejecting the light And you know what to whomsoever much is given of him shall be much required And if god gives you light and you reject it, then he's not going to give you anymore Okay So even if a person Is in the congo the jungles of the congo and man, I mean they got creation right there They have all the trees and the lions and the and all these animals. I mean folks you got lions chasing you You better be looking for god right Hey some of the most receptive people are gang bangers, you know why because they're always on the brink of death Right, so it should be the same with these But here it says god says They are without excuse So it's not like they're in heaven like oh god, I no soul or king it's like well you didn't respond to the light You thought you came from a stupid monkey Yeah You thought everything happened on accident, even though you know that I made it They're without excuse So you have that and then you have the law of god written in their hearts Because here's the thing. You don't have to be a saved christian to know that murder is wrong stealing is wrong lying is wrong These are things that god has instilled within us to know naturally, right and when your conscience is is is is is violated By by recognizing that you broke god's commandments. Hey sin is the transgression of the law And what it's supposed to do is supposed to behave as a schoolmaster to bring us unto christ to help us to recognize that we can't Save ourselves because we're not perfect, right? We're not perfect. We can't keep god's commandments perfectly we sin and therefore we need a solution. Okay, that is the response there So that's the first thing we see man cornelius You know, he's not saved but he's doing everything he can to respond to the light that god is giving to him And you know who they're who are the people that we want to talk to the cornelius The people who are responding to the light that god gives them You say what happens if a person doesn't respond to the light? Well, they become hearted Okay And then eventually they'll become darkened and then eventually They become reprobate Where they can no longer be saved I didn't say they're gonna die, but the bible says they become twice dead plucked up by the roots In other words god basically views them as though they're already in hell And we want to reach people before they get to that point because at that point even though they're living and breathing walking and talking There's no hope for them. Okay Look at verse five or go go back to uh, act chapter 10 So we see here that even those with pagan backgrounds know the true god, okay Okay You know, by the way, i'm not for the creation gospel either You know where people want to use science to try to reach people and get people safe look I understand it has its place But nothing nothing can replace good old-fashioned gospel preaching I'm all for using it as a tool where at the end you give a clear presentation of the gospel And you tell them what the bible says about eternal life But when you're only trying to use that as a means to reach their intellectual part of their being It's not going to help folks because it's by faith If you're trying to help them to get saved by proving by showing the facts of creation, that's not going to get them saved They need to accept the truth by faith. Okay. In other words. The evidence is not all there. Right? The evidence is the word of god And you have to trust what it's saying is true So another thing I want you to notice is that the angel sends cornelius to peter to be saved he doesn't tell him himself He's not like hey God sent me here. He saw that you're responding to the light Let me show you how to be saved because angels cannot preach the gospel Okay, he says verse five and now send men to japa 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 now go to chapter 11 hold your place there And let's let's see a further expansion of this statement here in verse 13 of acts chapter 11 It says in verse 13 of acts 11 He showed him to us how he had seen an angel in his house Which stood and said unto him send men to japa 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 not like well, he's just going to tell you how to be filled with the holy ghost No, he's going to tell you how to be saved Why because only men? Only saved men and women Can get people saved He didn't tell them we'll go read this this track He didn't tell him we'll go here, you know, someone over there has the bible just go read it starting the book of john You know, you know Romans isn't written yet. You know paul's not you know, he's we're working on it But just read The book of isaiah and you're gonna get saved not gonna happen Folks it's right there What did the angel tell cornelius to do go to a man In fact go to a saved person go to peter he's going to tell you what you need to do Okay It says in verse 15 as I as I began to speak the holy ghost fell on them as on us at the beginning Then remembered I had the word of the lord how that he said john indeed baptized with water But you shall be baptized with the holy ghost For as much then as god gave them the like gift as he did into us who believed on the lord Jesus christ, what was I that I could withstand god? So this is a rare instance where you see people they get saved and they just immediately get filled with the spirit Okay, it doesn't happen all the time. But here in this instance we see this But the important thing that I want you to notice is that it took a person to get a person saved And more specifically a saved person Because look why would he tell him to go all the way to japa? Japa is you know, or excuse me, why would he tell him to go to cesarea? No, wait To japa, excuse me cornelius is in cesarea. Why would he tell him to go all the way to japa? To go get this one guy to give him the gods. Why couldn't he just find just some random individual? some unsaved person Who has the word of god and just use that person as a vessel To get them saved i'll tell you why because unsaved people can't get people saved That's why So Now look this is old ifp teaching That states that people can be saved from just reading a gospel track I mean you've heard something like that Okay, i've heard it many times because I went to an old ifp church and they would often tell us this And look, let me just start off by saying that i'm not against tracks. We have tracks And in fact, i'm not against with you leaving tracks on a door If the person doesn't answer What I am against is only relying on the track, right? But let me just tell you something though because if you give someone a track and you choose not to preach the gospel into them Right you give someone a track and you don't want to preach the gospel into them They're going to read that and you know what's going to happen. They're not going to get saved Very clearly the bible tells us that the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of god Neither can he know them for they are spiritually discerned So, how is an unsaved unregenerated person able to discern what the word of god says in regards to salvation just by reading the bible It doesn't happen that way You need a saved individual to do that Now I will say this is that when you give an invitation to an individual who's not saved Let's say you're in a rush or whatever and you just give them that invite read the back of the invitation It'll show you some verses there about the bible regarding eternal life when they read that seeds are being sown for sure Seeds are being sown And look folks people that you meet who get saved right off the bat. That's not the first time they heard the gospel They've heard it from multiple people or they read the word of god themselves. They saw these phrases They saw the verses And those seeds were being sown in that person's heart But it requires an individual to go to them and help them to recognize. Hey, you need to call upon the name of the lord Okay An unsaved person cannot get an individual saved it's impossible Right, you know why everything brings forth after their its own kind Right I mean, isn't that the pattern of things of this world whether spiritual or natural? Everything brings forth after its own kind. So if the bible tells us that how is it that an unsaved individual can produce a saved individual? It's impossible. Well, they have the word of god, but here's the thing. They don't know how to explain the word of god Folks It's dangerous to put the word of god into the hands of an unsaved individual who doesn't know what they're talking about They'll twist and pervert the scriptures. Just look at calvinist All right Just look at dispensationalists Look at all the perversion that they come up with. This is what happens when unsafe people try to teach you how to be safe I think people could get saved listening to robert breaker. Are you are you insane? I mean The guy is a heretic you think people get saved listening to john mccarther Well, I mean, I mean obviously not them, but i'm just saying the regular joe schmoe folks no unsaved person can do it Because everything brings forth after its own kind the bible says look folks The bible says that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mysteries of the gospel. What does that require boldness? What does that boldness come from the spirit The spirit of who the spirit of god that dwells within a believer And look i've heard this argument and look there's safe people who believe this Okay, safe people great people They believe this they're just wrong And they may be sincere about it I know the point that they're trying to make But they're just wrong Because i've heard them use this they'll use luke 16 when the man is in hell And you know, they'll quote verse 29 where it says abraham sent them to him. They have moses and the prophets let them hear them Because a lot of people will say, you know people could get just get saved Listen reading the word of god because here it says they have moses and the prophets let them hear them. There you go Well, hold on a second. Moses and the prophets were dead by then When the bible says let them hear them Let me just help you to understand what that means let them hear them at the mouth of another person Let me give you proof of that. The bible says this if any man speak let him speak as the oracles of god Put that to bed If any man speak let him speak as the oracles of god go to act chapter 26. I'm chasing a rabbit here, but it's good Any time you hear the bible talking about listening to the prophets listening to moses Folks, it doesn't take rocket science to understand. This is referring to listen to them out of the mouth of a safe person Who's preaching them? Hey, you're listening to moses right now, right if i'm quoting moses you're listening to moses But look folks preaching requires The reading of the scripture and the expounding of the scriptures as well Right to expound it to give the application you read the scripture you expound upon it and you give the application Unsafe people cannot do that Please do not tell me that an unsafe person can read the scripture and expound and apply it to you Even though they don't have the spirit of truth dwelling within them That's the russian roulette right there Look at the bible says in acts 26 and verse 22 Paul speaking here says having therefore obtained help of god. I continue into this day witnessing both to small and great Saying none other things than those which the prophets and moses did say should come So, what's he saying because i'm not saying anything else other than what moses and the prophets are saying So is he saying that he's just going to people in the bible just Like what are you trying to tell me What he's saying here is like i'm just going to repeat what moses and the prophets are saying Verse 23 that christ should suffer and that he should rise and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead and show light into the people and to the gentiles Folks don't twist scripture like that When it says hear them it's referring to hear them out of the mouth of a person who's preaching them You know, if you would have believed moses you would have believed me he wrote of me Right, isn't that what jesus said So, you know this thing of of well people could just get saved reading the track That's a dangerous kind of ground to tread upon Because here's the thing the individual teaches that it's not going to allow himself to just give out a track But the individual listening to him will Leave it out of track Because what we do in moderation Our followers will do in what? Excess If you had the standard here, guess what your followers are going to have their standard here Much worse. If you have your standard here They're going to dip down to here So yeah, you may believe that people could get saved from the track But I guarantee you the people who are teaching that are not letting themselves Just leave it out of track right an invitation They're going to preach the word of god, but you know the individual who's listening to that person Who esteems their teaching and esteems their leadership They're going to allow themselves to slip through the cracks and not be Thorough not preach the gospel because so-and-so taught that you understand This is not like a false doctrine a false gospel in the sense of that's like damned old heresy. It's just not wise folks Look open your mouths bully to make known the mysteries of the gospel, okay? And the reason I say this because I came from an old ifb church where they emphasize that a lot At the expense of sowing, I mean they literally would call that sowing Where they drop off a bunch ten thousand tracks Fifteen thousand tracks twenty thousand i've given out fifteen thousand tracks me personally have given out at least fifteen thousand tracks Because that's what I was taught How many say people zero as far as I know? zero In fact, I remember one time when I was working at that church plant They're like we got to give out twenty thousand tracks. I think it was like fifteen or twenty thousand For easter, you know what? I mean? Just just hand them out put them on every door We're gonna have such a big easter sunday. It's gonna be great Come easter sunday not one individual came from those tracks I take that back one person came but it didn't come from the track. They found us on the internet Oh, did you get an invite out of your door and they're like no I just found you guys on on your website Just looking up churches Well, can you say you got an invite on your door or something? I remember it was at that point that I realized I messed up I was like, this is not working. This is not the right way. This is not how to reach people. Okay We're mailmen We're just mailmen Bible says in first corinthians three five who then is paul and who's appauls by but ministers by whom he believed Even as the lord gave to every man speaking of john the baptist it says in john chapter one in verse number six There was a man sent from god whose name was john the same came for a witness to bear witness of that light that all men through him Might believe did you get that? He says he came to be a witness To bear witness of the light that all men through him might believe How is an individual going to hear how's an individual going to get saved through us? We save people. Yes, you heard right We didn't die for them but folks the the the the life jacket is what saves them But you know what the lifeguard who's tossing them the life jacket is necessary right Yeah, a life jacket can save any individual but you know if there's not an individual tossing that person the ring or the life jacket They're screwed person who's drowning in the ocean We got to get that person a life jacket who yeah a person has to get him the life jacket It's supposed to get him the life saver There's supposed to be a lifeguard who goes out on a seadoo And throws him the lifeline throws him the life saver the life jacket in order to save him No one's denying that people don't get saved by the word of god But folks it requires a person who's distributing the word of god to get them saved You know, why did that person drown I don't know man he could have been saved by the life jacket He should have just swam to the land and got grabbing himself one and then you know brought him back Folks it requires an individual to get another individual saved. Okay I Just want to make myself clear on that go back to act chapter 10 And again, i'm not against tract we have a bunch of them we give them out There's times when we are in a rush for whatever reason and we can't talk to an individual We'll give it to them. But you know what? We never depend just on that Okay, that's lazy That's not thorough. We want to be a church that's thorough with our gospel presentation Hey, we want to be a bold church Where we say, you know what? This is the invitation, but let me just open my mouth And tell you what the bible says about this You know, we have this treasure the bible says in earthen vessels not in a track Okay So instead we see angels directing people to save other individuals now What's a couple things that we can learn from cornelius? Well, we see that he's a law himself verse four We already read that let's skip down to verse number, uh, go to verse 33 I'm sorry, go back to verse four. We already read verse 33 So verse four look what it says 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. So what does that mean? What he's saying is like god is remembering He's keeping him remembers the things that you're doing He sees what you're doing. Okay, and look I guarantee you there's people here that prior to salvation There are some things that there's there's light that you responded to You know, maybe it was an individual Maybe it was a message that you heard or a conversation that other people were having that piqued your interest And got you to think about the things of god I'll give you my testimony, okay Mother don't give your testimony. We're now preaching the gospel. Okay you know, I remember uh when I Wanted to get saved. I didn't know what it is that I had to do to be saved And uh, but here's the thing like I knew that the bible said to believe on jesus christ I knew that the bible said that I just didn't understand what that meant What in the world you just didn't get savory in the bible like that just said it right there Well, because I didn't understand that i'm i'm i was a natural man So I couldn't understand it's like well believe on jesus christ I knew it said that but I didn't understand what it meant And so I remember when I came back from guatemala, I had taken a trip to guatemala. I was born here. Okay, don't worry about it Did you are you're an immigrant ice, you know people are going to be threatening me You know, I came back from guatemala and and I remember thinking myself, you know what I need to start like searching for god You know, I need to get myself a bible, you know, I need to like seek after god and I tried the best that I could I would like You know listening to calvary chapel preaching You know, which obviously is not going to get you saved, you know And um, I had a friend who worked at my at a job there the company that was at and he was a pentecostal guy and uh You know I don't think he was saved because he even showed me what the bible says about salvation as far as believing on jesus christ And eternal life, but I still didn't get saved And I was like, okay, you know and he would take me to his pentecostal church and I was just like well This place is weird, you know, because they would speak in tongues and And I was just like, I don't know how to do that. You know, I can't do that And so I was sincerely seeking after god and I remember like telling my brother like hey If you hear about any churches around our area You know You know if someone mentions something let me know because i'm trying out different churches. I lived in downey at that time I was like I just trying to look for a good church I just I would visit these different churches and nothing ever sat well with me Like I just felt like well, maybe maybe this is the best there is, you know, I don't know and so I was having a conversation at my job And there's this individual who overheard me And her name her name was jane mcconnell And this lady, uh attended, uh, my old church pacific baptist church And she came up to me and she said hey, I heard you talking about god and jesus and stuff like that I go to a baptist church Now she was a very tall white lady And prior to being an independent fundamental baptist, I always thought like baptist churches were like black churches Oh like you go to a baptist church with all the I'm like man And she's like well, my pastor is actually white He's italian. I was like what? She's like i'm not a southern baptist. I'm not a missionary baptist. She's like i'm an independent fundamental baptist I was like i've never heard that before And she said come to the church and she gave me an invite She said we're having a youth conference or whatever, you know You can come by there's going to be some preaching and Keep in mind that prior to that, you know I saw the hoopla and all this nonsense and tongue speaking and hey waving hands and all this And I just wanted something of substance you know so I ended up going there the following week and I remember I thought to myself hey, this is This is nice. Like they're singing normal songs There's no guitar There's no drums You know, there's no like craziness going on people look like they they they dress like they're going to church Which caught my attention as well I like why these people seem to know what they're talking about and then the preacher got up And the preacher started ripping face And I remember he's like bob gray jr. He was preaching and he just looked right at me And I was just like dang, who's this guy? So And I remember thinking myself like You know, like this is that that's like some pretty offensive preaching there I didn't know like the term hard preaching. I was just like that's like offensive, you know And he was getting in people's faces. He was like ripping and at the end He was just like some of you are not saved in here And he's just like and we did the old-fashioned altar, you know And I came to the altar and I got saved And I remember a guy who's the song leader there he taught me about eternal security You know, and I told him I said hey can so I can never lose my salvation. He says no He says the bible says for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves It is the gift of god not of works that any man should boast and it's like the light bulb went on And I was like, I understand that now I get what you're saying But looking back I see it all of the Times that I responded to the light so to speak Where I easily I could have been like, you know what the stupid pentecostal church i'm out of here You know, and by the way, obviously the pentecostal church is not, you know, it's it's a very, you know, it's it's a false church But they're preaching out of the king james bible. So there's a little bit of light there A little bit not enough to get them saved But there's enough light for me to see the word of god and desire the truth That's what it was. I wanted the truth when we say response to the light basically says we want the truth And I was making an effort To seek after god to know the truth And you know what going to the independent fundamental baptist church? You know, I wanted to know the truth and you know what by the time that guy got up and preached My heart was ready And it was god who was guiding me that entire time He was guiding me that entire time But here's the thing if at that point if I was walking down that driveway to to that independent baptist church And I said this is stupid. I'm done with this. I've already tried too much and walked away from it. No more light No more light So here's the thing folks, you know We need to recognize every individual that comes to that door is an individual more often than not that's They want some light They came there for they came here for a reason Whether they're invited by a friend or they heard about us There's something in their mind that says I needed like draw close to god. They don't know how to word it Obviously, that's not the terminology that we would want to use We never want to say oh, yeah come close to god and get saved but you know, that's terminology that they use And what we want to show them is the right way of salvation get them saved go to roman chapter two roman chapter number two You know, I think about that illustration I gave a couple weeks ago when when we took my my son to go get his stitches removed And it was like in south pasadena or some some some foreign city that i'm not really familiar with And my my Sorry, if anybody lives in south pasadena, does anybody live in south pasadena in here? See everyone? It's four and twelve you guys, right? I didn't really know it like You know leave me in los angeles leave me in long beach Blindfolded and I can find my way anywhere there. I was just like, I don't know where i'm at And I went there and you know, they wouldn't let two both parents in because of the whole covet thing So she took him in and I took my kids to go get potoloco And to go to like a park I was like, well, let's just look for a park And we find this park and we get there and there's this old guy there reading his bible And we eat and come to find out he's reading a keen james bible. We spark up a conversation the guy ends up getting saved And he was very I just remember thinking to myself like this guy. This is a divine appointment And god like was working on this guy, you know god moved this guy To come to the park at this time To be here at the same time that we're going to cross paths Why because he's sitting there reading the bible What is he doing? He wants the truth? Folks, he had a king james bible, too Talk about wanting the truth I mean, you know if you had an niv god, you know, god bless him He just you know his ignorant but folks when he's just he told me he's like king james bible is the only bible I'm like heck. Yeah, this is you're you're right for the picking man And the guy was sincere he got saved, you know, why because he responded to the light that god gave to him Look at romans 2 verse 11 Very familiar what to what paul said verse 11 for there is no respect of persons with god For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law Oh, what if people out there don't have a bible? Well, they'll perish without the bible And as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law What is he saying by the way those who have the bible and they still go to hell Well, guess what to whom suffer much is given of him shall be much required that person will suffer the greater damnation because of that That's why the pharisees are in like the lowest part of hell You know with their phylacteries and their scriptures on their foreheads You know Trying to act all yeah god's gonna they're they're like in the core of hell right now Because god's like you even have scripture on your forehead You wore the scripture on your forehead you jew and you still didn't get saved Verse 13 for not the hearers of the law just before god But the doers of the law shall be justified for when the gentiles which have not the law Do by nature the things contained in the law these having not the law are law unto themselves. So what is he saying? Look, okay. Yeah, the individual doesn't have the bible In his hand, but you know what? He has the law in his heart Thou shall not kill is in his heart Thou shall not steal is in his heart Thou shall have no other gods before me. It's in his heart So he is a law unto himself the bible says Verse 15 which showed the work of the law written in their hearts their conscience also bearing witness And their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another don't give me this. I didn't know any better folks Your conscience told you you were doing wrong When you're worshiping that false god When you're partaking of dia de los muertos Which I need to start talking about You know the closer we get to october In the day when god shall judge the secrets of man by jesus christ according to my gospel Let me skip a couple verses here Go to john chapter 3 hold your place in roman chapter 2 I just want to show you this just a couple verses to to prove this here Look what it says in john 3 verse 18. He that believeth on him is not condemned But he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten son of god And this is the condemnation The light is coming to 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 so there's wicked people out there Who are like, I don't want to hear the truth because the truth is going to go against the grain of what I believe But he that doeth truth cometh to the light. What is he saying? He's responding to the light That his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in god The person who loves the truth loves it even if it goes against their own grain Even if it steps on their toes if it makes them feel bad, they just want the truth And let me say this even after salvation folks still keep responding to life Not for salvation, but just for biblical truth And there's a lot of people out there's christians who get saved they keep hardening their hearts They're hard in their hearts. They harden their hearts and they just don't want the truth and god says, okay I'm gonna take truth from you There's pastors out there who don't want the truth. You know what god does he makes them stupid He makes them brute a bunch of brutes because they're like, oh you don't want the deep things of god Okay, then i'll just extract truth from you. I've known pastors and christian individuals who knew the word of god They knew it very well. They knew the deep things of god But over the years as they grow older in the lord what happens they resist the truth the based truths The based and red pill truths, right? And what happens god says okay if you don't like that truth Which is my truth that i'm going to take away truth from you And that's why you're that's why you're going to have to depend on the commentaries And the dispensational charts because you ain't getting it from me Go back to romans 2 Look what it says in romans 2 verse 4 He says or despises thou the richness of his goodness and forbearance and long-suffering not knowing that the goodness of god Leaveth it to repentance Think about that by the way now repentance of sin repentance of your change of mind, right He's saying that the goodness of god, it doesn't get you saved, but it leads you on that path Being thankful for the things you have how many people you know, they say man thank god for another day of life Even though they're not saved They recognize that whatever they have it's because of god, right? But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasures up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation Of the righteous judgment of god who will render to everman according to his deeds to them who by patient continuance Listen to this in well-doing Seek for glory and honor and immortality eternal life What is that referring to it's referring to the person who's responding to the light. They're continuously doing good Because they want more light Now here's the thing there's a lot of people in the truth or movement Yeah They act like they want the truth But when you hit them with the truth about believing on jesus christ That his name is jesus not yeshua When you tell them the book of enoch is a fraud, it's stupid, right? You tell them the truth And they're like, I don't agree with that. Okay, you don't really love the truth then Because this is the truth the truth is nephilim's aren't real Right the truth is the earth isn't flat I just lost like 15 viewers right now The truth is it's jesus not yeshua, right And at that point they're just like well, I don't want the truth I still love the truth. No you don't Because the truth should lead you to the feet of jesus, right? Jesus said I am the way the truth And the life But here it tells us that those who by Patient continuance and well-doing doesn't mean they get eternal life, but it leads them on that path To where someone god will send a peter to a cornelius To get them saved but unto them that are contentions and do not obey the truth But obey on righteousness indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that do with evil of the jew first and also The gentile but glory honor and peace to every man that worketh good To the jew first and also to the gentile for there is no respect of persons with god So what's the lesson this evening? The lesson is simply this first and foremost Just recognize this when people come through our doors They're not saved. Just remember this. Oh, man. This person is responding to the light that god gave them Because not only are they coming to church. They're coming to this church They're coming to first words baptist church, okay You know, obviously they want more light and look, you know, don't be mean to them Like i'm gonna give you some hardcore truths right now About the jews about the homos about whatever, you know get them safe first Because look folks some lights people can't handle some light some light is just too bright for them They need like sunglasses, you know what I mean? me is just like We'll take all the light we can get. Let's get let's get it brighter in here Let's get more light But not everyone who comes to our doors is like that folks We need to give them like a little flashlight first And then just make it brighter and brighter for them as they come to more services as you disciple them You don't want to just unload on I have this flashlight that john gave me. It's this police flashlight Or like it'll it'll blind you it'll just burn off your corneas or something if you just flash it in your eyes Most of you that you guys want to just flash down in the lights in the eyes of people spiritually, you know That's not what you should do You know, just let them get used to these lights first Okay And then after a while It's all right. Let me uh I'll be talking about my favorite subject It's called replacement theology You know You know get them to respond to the first light of salvation and after that give them more light thereafter. Amen Oh by the way, look folks There's people who come to our church And they're just like I can't handle the preaching They can't And it takes them a while to digest the food The spiritual food so you got to like be patient with people like that That's why the bible talks about long suffering and doctrine. Amen Let's bow our heads in our word of prayer father. We thank you so much for your word Thank you for the testimony of cornelius. What a great story and um Just a centurion a man who? Has a lot of responsibilities, but he obviously understood that there's one true god in the light of that he did the best that he could to Get your attention and and obviously you gave it to him by sending him to a soul winner to get him saved and His friends and his household and all of his associates there got saved and what a great story Pray god that as your people even though after now that we're saved I pray that you'd help us to continue to respond to the light That you give us through your word that as we read the perfect law of liberty And maybe we read something that goes against our way of thinking That it rubs us the wrong way, but we embrace the truth even though it hurts Because the truth is wonderful. It's beautiful and uh if we read something And and it bothers us. There's just something wrong with us. There's something wrong with our heart There's something wrong with our mind because the word of god is never wrong And I pray god that you continue to bless us with more light and in jesus name we pray. Amen