Well, in Italian, I see a record of the multo. Thank you very much for a good service. We're in the book of Acts. It's necessary, I give a little background for those who have not been here as we have verse by verse been preaching from the book of Acts. There was a man named Saul. He was a very fervent Pharisee. He was a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin. He very sincerely believed that everything he did to help God stamp out evil would be very, very much to his advantage when he stood before God in eternity. So there was a man named Jesus born in a city that they said, could anything good come out of the city of Nazareth? But this man began to persecute those who had accepted Jesus as the Messiah. He began to kill them. He began to put them in prison. And he's on his way now as we have reached this part of the book of Acts, the 10th chapter. He's on his way to Damascus in order to get people to put in prison and to put them to death for accepting Jesus as the Messiah. And God knocks him down. He is born again, he's baptized, but he is not accepted by the people of the church. You know, we're weak people and we have a very difficult time sometimes seeing past our prejudices and things that we should forget and begin to remember things we should remember. Anyway, he could not have fellowship with the people of the church. So God sent him to Arabia and he went there to Mount Sinai and Jesus left heaven and came down and taught him the things that he needed to preach to the Gentiles all over the Roman empire. Now he is a and spent 15 days with Simon Peter, the apostle, and they have been able to work some things out. And now he is on his way and Peter now becomes the feature of the book of Acts. Peter is on his way from Jerusalem down to the Mediterranean Sea area. On his way, he finds a man who has been, Peter finds a man who has been flat of his back for eight years. He heals him. That notoriety goes all over the land of Israel. Then he goes on a little further and there is a sweet widow who has died, who has been a great worker for God. They've cleaned her according to Jewish custom and put her body in the upper room. Peter goes up and raises her from the dead. You would think, ah, this man is so notorious. Surely he'll get to go to some great aristocratic place and be lifted up after raising people from the dead and healing people. But God has to do some cleaning up. in Peter's life, he still has some things that are traditionally sticking to him. So God sends him to a place that in English is called Joppa, J-O-P-P-A. In the Hebrew, it's Joppa, and it's an old city, been there a long time. In Hebrew, it actually means the bright and shining city by the sea. That's the meaning of the, and if you have read your Bible, you know that when they rebuilt the temple, when Zerubbabel came back from Persia, you know that they cut down cedar trees in Lebanon and they brought them down the sea to Joppa and then they took them on up to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple that had been destroyed. And now we find that in verse, the last verse of chapter nine of the book of Acts, we read this word and we dealt with this last week, we will begin to fuse it in to this morning. It came to pass that he tarried many days, that is Peter, in Joppa with one Simon, a tanner. And I told you last week that the Jews would not have anything to do with another Jew if they had the occupation of a tanner. And the reason is because they dealt with the skins and hides of dead animals. And they did not believe they should have any fellowship in the synagogue and in worship with anybody who had touched something that way. And I told you that God blessed me by letting me know just exactly what the reason the town of Joppa was not popular. because it had a stink to it that was absolutely unbearable. And God allowed me to, my wife and I, we would travel from Tripoli to the airbase where I was stationed, and we'd go through a village. And the village in Arabic was Suq al-Juba. translated English, that's the marketplace on Friday. But that wasn't the problem. They had a tannery there in the village of Sook El Juma. And when you went through there, if you didn't hold your nose and think real positively, you would absolutely become nauseated. It smells so bad. Now, after, if you'd like to know how they treated those skins and made them to where they were usable for many, many, many good things for people to use, I'd suggest you get the Ungers Bible Dictionary, look up the word tannery, and you'll find out what they did to those skins to make them to where they were no longer would make you sick if you smell them. Now, why did God send this man who was such an enemy of the church. And then why did he send Peter? Because you see, Peter had not got all these traditions of Israel out of his mind. He was not ready for the age of grace. I want to impress on you today, if nothing else, you do not live in the age of the law, the law killeth. The Spirit makes alive. And the grace of God, we live in the age of the grace of God. Even as Brother Phil was saying to you, the angels don't understand the grace of God. They're right here in this assembly right now. And they are, we're teaching them. One of the great Bible scholars, Wiest, one of the great Bible scholars of the Greek language said that we are, we the church, are the university of the angels. They're here learning because they've never known the grace of God. And so Peter now is staying in this place where it stinks. but he's there because God wants him to know that if you're going to serve him, You're not going to be in some ivory palace all the time. You're gonna go through some very stinking, ungodly, filthy things that God expects you to shine and to tell the good news, no matter what the stench may be. And Simon Peter wasn't ready for that yet, but God was gonna get him ready. That's where we start with verse one of chapter 10. There was a certain man in Caesarea. Now here's Joppa, about 35 miles north is a city called Caesarea. There are two Caesareas in Israel or there was at this time. There was Caesarea by the sea, which was the capital of the Roman government as they ruled the nation of Israel at that time. There was another Caesarea It's called Caesarea Philippi. It's right at the foot of Mount Hermon. It's a beautiful place If you ever go to Israel, please make sure that they take you to Caesarea Philippi Because you'll see water gushing out of the mountain and that's how the River Jordan begins that beautiful that beautiful river that is the irrigation of the whole land of Israel going all the way down to the Dead Sea. And this, now here is a man now at Caesarea by the sea. This, he was a man, a centurion. That means that he was in charge of 100 Roman soldiers. And he was also from a band in the English here, called the Italian band. Now this meant that this man, Cornelius, was an aristocrat in the land of Italy. There was no one higher up in society than he and his people that came from the Italian band. So he is a very, very highly aristocratic man in the Italian government and in the Italian society. But let's see what this man who has that kind of a heritage, let's see what he does with that. if you'll let me read the next verse. He was a devout man. That is, he worshiped. He believed in his creator as much as he had possibly had the opportunity to study and to know. And by living in the land of Israel, he had come to know Yahweh. He had come to know the true and the living God. He was a devout man. He was one that feared God, the word feared here. comes from a very powerful Koine Greek word, which mean having great reverence. He had such a reverence for God. He was so humble. Although he was an aristocrat among his people in Italy, he was a man who was very humble before Almighty God. which gave much alms to the people. He was very interested in distributing his wealth to those who were truly poor and who were truly in need, the widows and the orphans and other people who had lost out in the economy of life. He gave money to them and they would be Jewish people. I don't know whether you've seen this ad on television. I really was, it shocked me. There are those who send a box of food to Israel. Through this organization, you can send $25 and you send a box of food to poor Jews. I honestly could not believe, but it's true. There are those who are God's chosen people who are going through poverty. This man looked upon the Jews and he said, here's a $25 box to those Jews. And he saw a vision, this man now, Cornelius, he has a vision about the ninth hour. Now, if you were to go the Jewish time, the ninth hour was three in the afternoon. And in Jerusalem at three in the afternoon is when they offered the sacrifices. And so he saw this vision at the same time, they were offering the sacrifices that showed that Jesus would die and would give his life for our salvation. So about the ninth hour of the day, an angel of God, I could stop now and maybe preach a long time on angels. I would suggest if you would like to know more That you get Billy Graham has written a good book and tells angels are our servants. Did you know that? they are they are here to serve you and They have a love for you from God. And I don't think that's preached enough, but I don't have time this morning in this message, but I would suggest that you get that book by Billy Graham on angels, and you'll have more of an awareness. An angel of God coming to him and saying to him, now the angel knew his name, Cornelius, And when he looked on him, Cornelius, he was afraid. Believe me, if an angel visibly came and called your name and started talking to you, you'd also, you'd be filled with fear because the awe of God almighty sending a messenger to you. And he looked on him and he was afraid and said, Here's the words he said to the angel. What is it, Lord? And he said to him, to Cornelius, thy prayers and thy alms, the things you have done for the poor are come up for a memorial before God. When I do a funeral service, a memorial, I have reached a very beautiful time in preaching those. I know that that service that we have for the person who has gone on to be with the Lord, Jesus said, I go to prepare a place for you. Did you know that you have real estate? heaven that Jesus purchased for you what are we going to build on that place and that's at the funeral service I try to have a service to where we can build a memorial here on earth for that person who has gone on to heaven what you have done has become up a memorial before God now Cornelius, send men to Joppa and call for one Simon, whose surname is Peter. Now, Peter doesn't know about this yet. God's talking to Cornelius first and Peter didn't have a hint of what's gonna go on with Cornelius. He lodged, that is Peter, he lodged with one Simon, a tanner, whose house was by the seaside. He shall tell thee what you ought to do. Peter is going to come and preach to you and tell you what you should do. And when the angel which spake to Cornelius was departed, Cornelius called two of his household servants and an avowed soldier, one of his hundred soldiers, that waited on him continually. And when he had declared all these things to them, he sent them to Joppa. They're on their way now down from where they had the vision at Caesarea. They're on their way down now to Joppa. On the morrow, the next day, as they went on their journey and drew nigh to the city, they haven't gotten there yet, God now begins to talk to Simon Peter. He says, Peter, go up on the rooftop. So Peter went up on the rooftop to pray the sixth hour. Now that would be at noon Jewish time. He's going up to the top to pray. He has no idea what's going to happen to him and how God is going to teach him And he became very hungry. He's up on the rooftop. I might just say this. When we lived in Libya, you didn't have a yard. The roof was your yard. And it was a nice place to go and look out over the Mediterranean Sea, a beautiful thing. And so here I could just see Simon Peter up on the roof looking out over the Mediterranean Sea. And he became hungry and would have eaten, but while they made ready, he fell into a trance, Simon Peter did. And he in the trance saw heaven opened and a certain vessel descended unto him as it has been a great sheet knit at four corners let down to the earth in front of him there as he's on the top at the rooftop wherein that is on that great sheet were all manners of four-footed beasts now not just clean ones according to Leviticus but even unclean ones there are all kinds on this sheet that's been let down There's gonna be a lesson taught here. This is an object lesson, and it's not just for Simon Peter, it's for you and me. You better not believe you're just holy, holy, holy, and too holy to help anybody that's lower down on the ladder of holiness than you are. God may put you down right where they are and say I want you to help them. Peter's going to get a logic lesson and I have one and you have one. There were all manner of beasts of the earth and wild beasts and creeping things and fowls of the air and there came a voice to him to Simon Peter and that was this just these simple words I thank God he knows I'm simple and he can deal with me in simple ways praise the Lord rise Peter and kill and eat rise and kill and eat those animals that have come down on that sheep before you Well, Simon Peter still had some Old Testament, Old Testament, Old Testament Moses law in him. And so what does he say to God? Woo. But Peter said, not so Lord. I'm not gonna do that. For I have never, eating anything that is common or unclean. And I'm going to leave you today with God's answer to that Pharisee statement that Simon Peter made. I have never done that. Ah, no, not me. And verse 15, take this with you for time and eternity. And the voice spake to him again the second time. And here it is. What God hath cleansed, that call thou not common or not unclean. Well, he wasn't convinced, Peter wasn't convinced the first time he heard it. It took three times. Three witnesses, good idea to have three witnesses before you make a decision, it's all right. This was done thrice and the vessel was received up again into heaven. Don't you dare. When God says, I want you to deal the gospel in places that you never dreamed that you'd have to do it, with people you would never have anything to do with, God says, what I say I can clean, I can clean. And Peter, you go ahead and get it done. In Jesus' name, as we stand to sing. Let's offer up the psalms. Have thine own way, Lord, have thine own way. Have thine own way, Lord, have thine own way. Thou art the ponderer, I am your clay. Mold me and make me after thy will. ♪ While I am waiting ♪ Yielded and still ♪ Have Thine own way, Lord ♪ Have Thine own ways ♪ Search me and try me Father, thank you. that you do not turn your back on the unclean. But your son died on the cross and rose again, that we might be cleansed. Thank you for everyone present. May your anointing power. And Father, may there have been seed planted in every life here. and may those seed begin to grow and produce fruit. In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you.