to switch over to this side here. We should appreciate it there and be a close fellowship. Turn to the book of Acts chapter 10 and 11 to start with. Welcome to our class on answers. And you all should have a sheet that says Lesson 10 and it should have questions 19 and 20. 19 and 20. Let me just make an announcement here before we get started. We'll have another class next week, Wednesday night, on answers. And then the entire month of May, I will not be here on Wednesday nights. I will be at Hilltop Baptist Church. Pastor Lewis will be in the Philippines for the whole month. But what we are going to do here is I'm in the process right now of picking out five of the best messages David Gibbs has ever preached and he's a much better speaker than I am and If you are not familiar with his ministry, you're going to want to be here every single Wednesday night in May He's the best storyteller. I have ever heard in my life, and I don't mean making up stories I'm talking about real stories of real things. God has done and so May is going to be different, but it's going to be exciting and And if you've never heard Brother Gibbs, you'll enjoy this and it'll help you. So, that's May coming up. So, we got tonight and next Wednesday for answers and then we'll get back to them in June and we'll probably go right through the year. Now, if you have any questions, Don't say I have all the answers, but I can certainly dig into them and try to find some answers Or just answer your questions individually or something, but maybe they'd be worthy of a whole class setting so Keep that in mind all right. I hope you got your Bibles ready. We'll have some sword drills tonight and We're gonna look at two questions tonight as we always do the first question is number 19 does God hear and The prayer of the unsaved. Does God hear the prayer of the unsaved? Well, yes, but it's dependent on a lot of things. As it says in our answer, yes, He does not have to answer them, although He can if they ask in His name. He's certainly not going to answer the prayers of somebody who's asking in some other name, like Allah or Buddha or whatever. But if somebody should ask in God's name, He will answer their prayers. Now we've got an example of that here in the book of Acts. In Acts chapter number 10 and 11 we have the story of the conversion of Cornelius. Cornelius is a Gentile. He is an Italian and he is as lost as could be but he was very, very, very religious. And we see here that in Acts chapter number 11 And verse 14, Cornelius was unsaved because the angel sent Peter to tell him what? It says in verse 14, Acts 11, who shall tell thee words whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved. And so Cornelius was not saved. He was not saved. And yet before his salvation and conversion and baptism, We have this if you'll turn back to Acts chapter 10 and verses 1 through 4. It says, there was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band, a devout man and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people and prayed to God always. He saw in a vision, evidently about the ninth hour of the day, an angel of God coming into him and saying unto him, Cornelius. And when he looked on him, he was afraid and said, what is it, Lord? And he said unto them, thy prayers and thine alms are come up for memorial before God. Now this was before his salvation. He's very, very devout. You know, a lot of lost people are very, very devout. Some of you were that way before you were saved, before you were born again. Very devoted to religion, very devoted to saying your prayers, to giving alms. And that might be the testimony of some of you. Some of you may have done that for years and years and years and years and years. I'm dealing with a man right now that I've been Talking to who's very devout very involved in his church But when I talked to him about being born again talked about being saved his eyes are like kind of like pinwheels Like what are you talking about? I've never heard that language before Well, that's Bible language. You must be born again Jesus said and being saved is mentioned 44 times in the New Testament, but he's never heard that but he's very involved in his church he's very concerned about his church because his denominational churches going downhill and getting smaller and smaller and smaller and the churches are all closing up and they're joining congregations just to try to keep one church going and it's just breaking his heart. And there's a lot of people. I believe that man loves God. I believe he's devout. But we're not saved by loving God. We're saved by believing on Jesus Christ and receiving Him as our Savior. We're not saved by our works. The Scriptures teach us It's not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy that He has saved us. Now, if you could look up Brother Kelly, Psalm 115. I'm going to have you read a portion out of there here in a little bit. But let's illustrate here. We have seen already that Peter goes and leads Cornelius to Christ after the testimony of Cornelius' life is that he was a devout man And he gave much alms, and he prayed to God always. Wow, what a guy. But he wasn't saved. But his prayers came up as a memorial before God, and his alms, that was his gifts that he gave to help poor people, widows or whatever, came up also. And he wasn't saved by those things. Later on, in chapter 11, you see he was saved by faith in Christ, like everybody else is. Look at the second illustration. A man may help the neighbor children or give them something if they ask, but he doesn't have to because they are not his children. But a good father will give his own children anything good that they ask for because they are his children. Does that illustration make sense? I mean if I got kids living next to me, And one comes up to me and says, Mr. Cole, would you give me a sandwich? I could say yes. I could say no. Either way would be okay. But if I was his father and he was my child and he said, Dad, could I have a sandwich? I'm hungry. I would say, sure, son. And I would give him what he asked for. Why? Because he's my child. It's the same thing with God when we're his children. Let's have a sword drill and show a verse that teaches us that. Draw swords, hold them by the bindings now. And Matthew 7 and verse 11. Go, Matthew 7, 11. Just like the store. All right, let me read that for you because some might be listening On the live stream if ye then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children How much more shall your father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him? All right, your father will give good things to them that ask him or the word ask is a synonym for prayer prayer, so I mean, if the neighborhood kid came up to me and said, Mr. Cole, would you buy me a bike? I'd probably say, no, it's your father's business. You're not my kid. And it's the same thing with God, you know. There could be children of the devil. That's what we all were before we were saved. That's what I was. And then we were saved and we're born again into God's family. God could give them something. If they ask, it's up to God. I could help my neighbor kids too, but I don't have to. And so it's the same thing here. And it's obvious that God showed some favor towards Cornelius. And the alms that he gave, the prayers that he said is devotion. But he wasn't saved. We're not saved by our works. Here's an explanation. God does not hear the prayer of those who pray to false gods today. There's a lot of people praying to Allah five times a day, some of them. Buddha. But just like he ignored those who prayed to Baal back then. Here's an example of their prayers. 1 Kings 18.26, And they took the bullock which was given them, and they dressed it, and called on the name of Baal from morning until even until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us. But there was no voice, nor any that answered. And they leaped upon the altar which was made. Their gods did not hear them, because they are not gods. They are idols that have been made in their minds, or made out of wood, or made out of marble, or stone, or whatever. And what does the Bible say about such gods? Brother Kelly is going to read for us Psalm 115, verses 3 through 8. But our God is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they speak not. Eyes have they, but they see not. They have ears, but they hear not. Noses have they, but they smell not. They have hands, but they handle not. Feet have they, but they walk not. neither speak they through their throat. They that make them are like unto them, so is everyone that trusteth in them." Alright, so that's where those words are repeated in Psalm 135, almost word for word. But, you know, they got these statues and things and you've probably seen those, maybe some of you that have come out of religion. Or gone to some cathedrals, and there's these statues and stations where you can kneel down and pray to them But what does the Bible say about those? Their ears don't hear their eyes don't see their hands don't they don't stand there and say oh our coal just came and prayed to me No, they can't see a thing they're made out of wood or marble or stone or something and They do not answer people's prayers Now here's a big question that comes up regarding this subject And it's John 9.31. What about that verse? It seems to be contradictory to what we've just studied. In this verse a blind man says these words, Now we know that God heareth not sinners, but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will him he heareth. Well, the Bible does say we're all sinners. And so the blind man here who has been healed by Jesus Christ miraculously in John 9, he's debating now with the Pharisees and the religious leaders and they're all upset because he was healed, he's not blind anymore and they can't figure out how he was able to see. They begin to interrogate his mom and dad and some of you are familiar with the story. This guy had been born blind from birth and now he can see. And in this blind man's theology, as he's arguing with these religious leaders, he says these words, Now we know that God heareth not sinners, but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth. And many people quote that as doctrine. All right? You've got to keep in mind that the Bible records the words of people as they said them, whether those words are accurate or not. And this happens many times in the Bible. In fact, I want you to think about some right now, because I'm going to ask you for some examples. But look at the explanation. This is very important that you understand this. God inerrantly records the errant words of people in the Scriptures. In other words, He records them exactly as they said them, whether they're true or not. God inerrantly records the errant words of people in Scripture. The blind man who said this meant well, as he argued with the Pharisees, but he was wrong. God does hear the prayers of sinners. Every sinner who calls on Christ to save them, believing in Christ is saved. For 2,000 years, God has heard the call of every sinner who has prayed in the will of God to be saved. And I know that's your testimony, I hope. I hope there was a day you came as a sinner and believed on Jesus Christ and received Him, John 1, 12. And Romans 1, Romans, I'm sorry, 13 and verse, Romans 10, 13 rather, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. So every one of us came to God as a sinner once, lost as could be and said, Lord, please save me. And guess what he did? He heard you and answered that prayer every time without exception when a person has come in true repentance and faith. So you got to be careful that you don't take a statement somebody makes out of as a doctrine without comparing everything else the Bible says about it. Who can think of some other times in the scriptures where God inerrantly, that is without error, recorded the error of people just for the sake of history. Sean? Job. Okay, Job's friends said a lot of things on the behalf of God, right? And a lot of that was wrong. In fact, by the end, God was pretty upset with all of them. All right, that's an excellent example. Who can think of another example? Fred? The devil, okay. And the devil in the Garden of Eden and the devil in Isaiah 14, I have on my notes here. Yeah, the devil said, thou shalt not surely die. All right, he was a liar, he was an error. But God recorded inherently the errors of people. Who can think of another one? Remember Isaiah 14 about the devil, I will sit on the throne, I will be like the most high, I will. Kelly. Solomon in the book of Ecclesiastes. Who else? Yes, back there. Yeah, amen. Is that the right story? Micaiah. I know that happened in Jeremiah. That happened in Jeremiah too, yeah. Yeah, Micaiah. Micaiah, remember Micaiah said, yeah, go out and prosper. Go out and prosper. That wasn't God's words. God said he put a lying spirit in all the other prophets and they were going to, and so. The king, Ahab, listened to them. But God just simply records that. One time Mary said, your father and I have sought thee sorrowing. What's wrong with that? Joseph wasn't his father. And he straightened it out in the next verse. He says, wished you not that I must be about my father's business. But God just simply recorded that. And you can probably think of other examples in the scriptures where people spoke errantly, but God recorded it inerrantly, without error. He recorded what they said. Just so we could... What they say in Nazareth is not this... I forgot what it was, but... Any others? All right, so the same thing here with this fellow. I think this blind fellow meant well, but he makes a blanket statement about prayer. We know that God heareth not sinners. But boy, you get back into Cornelius' life, and sure enough, God heard him. And his prayers came up for a memorial to him, to God. So, there's our first question tonight. Does God hear the prayers of the unsaved? Yes, He can, if He so chooses. It's His business. He says, I'll have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and on whom He will, He hardeneth. But God can and probably some of you Can think of examples before you were saved where you prayed and God answered your prayers? Probably some of you can can remember occasions like that and I think God was just showing his goodness sometimes to us to get us to keep seeking keep pursuing and finding the Lord All right next question number 20 Next page, will God forgive me for repeating the same sin over and over and over again? That's one a lot of people struggle with. Will God forgive me if I keep repeating the same sin over and over and over again? Well, the answer is yes, but he will take corrective measures. And we're going to see a bunch of them here in a moment. It's not His will that we sin. 1 John 2, 1, these things write unto you that you sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And so God doesn't want us to sin, but draw swords. I want you to remember this verse as we go on. Hebrews 12, verse 1. Go. Hebrews 12.1. Okay, this verse has a statement in it that says, Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us. What do you think that means? Something you do over and over and over and over and over again. The sin that does so easily beset us. Now maybe some of you don't have one of those. You're living in the victory, praise the Lord. I think it's possible to come to that state. But I think most people, at least for a time while they're growing in their Christian life, can think of something that is besetting to them. And notice the word in the verse, easily. which doth so easily beset us. All right? Which reminds me of another verse, draw swords. Psalm 103, verse 14. Go, Psalm 103, 14. Go ahead, Renee. For he knoweth our frame, he remembereth that we are dust. What did Jesus say to his own followers in the Garden of Gethsemane? While he was praying, he said, watch and pray. Why? For the spirit is but the flesh is weak. But the flesh is weak. He knoweth our frame, that we are but dust. Okay? Now I'm not using these verses to justify ourselves, but Paul one time said in Romans 7 what? It says, No longer I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? And then he ends up by saying what? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. And so he talked about his own wretchedness, He talked about how it just, he says, it's no longer I that do but sin that dwelleth in me. It had such power in me. But of course, he learned more about the spirit-filled life and the victory. Let's draw swords again. Psalm 78, 39. Go, Psalm 78, 39. All right, for he remembered that they were but flesh. So God knows our frame, that we're just dust and flesh. And our flesh is weak. He knows that about us. So as a result, He's merciful towards us. In fact, there's this little phrase in the Bible that says this, His mercy endureth forever. That's found 42 times in the Bible. It's something we're constantly reminded of. His mercy endureth Forever so let us therefore come boldly under the throne of grace Hebrews 4 16 that we may what obtain? Mercy and Find grace to help in time of need so when we need mercy we go to the throne of grace we say Lord be merciful to me forgive me of my sins and Then we also receive grace to enable us so question will God forgive me for repeating the same sin over and over again yes but he will take corrective measures now in the explanation when Jesus taught us to forgive he gave two answers the first answer was 490 times remember that one and that's in your on your notes Matthew 18 then came Peter to him and said Lord how oft shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him till seven times Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee until seven times, but until seventy times seven, which is four hundred and ninety times. Now this makes a point. Look at the second one. Seven times in one day he teaches us to forgive. Luke 17, three through four. Take heed yourselves, if thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him. And if he repent, forgive him. And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, Seven times in a day turned again to thee saying I repent thou shalt forgive him So notice he expects us to forgive people 490 times And that's probably just What's the English word hyperbole? And he expects us to forgive somebody if they commit the same sin against us seven times in one day and As I thought about these, do you think He's asking us to do more than He does? So will God keep forgiving me for repeating the same sin over and over again? Well, the answer is yes, but He's going to take corrective action. So here's a promise to keep, 1 John 1.9, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now, we're not getting in tonight to how to get victory over sin, but, and we should, I hate to leave this incomplete. I'm not saying, yeah, go ahead, just keep sinning and he'll just keep forgiving you. No, there's things we're supposed to do with our sin. I think there's five of them, acknowledge our sin, confess it, repent of it, forsake it, And it's been a while since I did that study. But we're supposed to be pretty thorough with our sins. But sometimes I think it would help us if we had the motivation. Sometimes people don't overcome a sin because they don't have the motivation. And so I've written down 10 motivations here to close our Bible study tonight. These have helped me. I think these will help you too and to stop committing the same sin over and over again because we have a motivation to stop. I mean, one of these 10 is going to hit you in the heart. All right? One of these 10 is going to hit you in the heart and you're going to say, that's it. That's the motivation I need. I can't do this anymore. And you're going to start to beg and plead to God to give you his help and power and strength and victory. And you're going to get in the word and memorize scriptures that you'll be able to use as a sharp sword to resist the devil with, just like Jesus quoted scripture when he was tempted to the devil. One of these is going to hit you in the heart. If you have any love for God at all tonight, one of these 10, maybe a bunch of But here they are, number one, God will chasten us. I don't know how to hit us all. I don't like that because sometimes God is pretty severe. God is pretty severe so that's number one. Number two, our sins will withhold good things from us. Yikes. There's another verse that says, no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. But let's draw swords and let's look this one up and we're going to read it. Somebody's going to read it. And it's Draw Swords, Jeremiah 525. Go. What's the score? Is that good or bad or what? That's bad. Oh my. No, she had it. Is that right? Okay, I can't quote it. Your iniquities have withheld these things from you and your sins have withholding good things from you. That kind of hits me in the heart because you wonder, don't you? Doesn't that verse make you wonder? What might God be withholding from me? because of this little pet sin I keep stroking and coddling and justifying. What good things might be withheld from me, from our church? Amen? From our family? What good thing? Doesn't that kind of hit you in the heart? It should. Number three, our prayers will be hindered Who can quote this verse without looking it up? Psalm 66, 18, pretty famous verse. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. What does regard mean? Regard, okay. Regard is like a respect. If you wrote a letter and then said, with regards, and you put your name down, it means you have respect for that person. If I regard iniquity in my heart, if there's some sin that I think is, that's okay. You know, it's the high places. Remember those, the high places? We're never taken away. And they always were an obstacle to Israel, spiritually. Sometimes we regard certain sins, you know? Especially what? Which sin does especially Americans regard? Pride. We just think, we think it's a virtue. We do. We think it's a virtue. And it's not. It's a monster inside of us. And it births so many other sins. Number four, God's power in our life will be quenched. Draw swords. Judges, 1620. Go! Come on, men. Judge is 1620. All right, it says about Samson, he wished not that the Lord was departed from him. I believe that, you know, I think things may have been different in that dispensation, but that's a picture of the power of God leaving a person's life. He had the power of God in his life. Samson was filled with the Spirit four times in his life, four times. But he got so involved with women, three different women, three strikes he was out. Delilah got him. And when the Philistines came, he beat the Philistines every time he fought them. He said, I'm going to go out and shake myself as at other times. but he wished not that the Lord was departed from him. But that's got to be like the worst thing, to experience the power of God, the power of God in prayer and ministry and service and soul winning or whatever and then just have it gone and now nothing's happening in a person's life. Nothing. Nothing fruitful. Talking about David Gibbs, I was watching one of his sermons the other day He starts the sermon out saying, why do you want to waste your life doing something great? The first thing he said, I said, what? He said, God doesn't want you to do something great. There's unsaved people all over the world that have done things that are great. God wants you to do something impossible. He says, there's unsaved people that have built skyscrapers and kingdoms and conquered the world. Why do you want to waste your time doing something great? We should try to do something impossible. But boy, if the power of God's gone because of our sin, if our sin quenches the Holy Spirit and grieves the Holy Spirit, nothing's going to happen. Boy, we need to be introspective. I hope some of these are hitting your heart. If that doesn't, how about this one? Number five, the next three generations might be plagued by it. Your kids, your grandkids, your great grandkids. Might that be a motivation to say, I got to stop this. I got to break this chain. Doesn't he say he visits the iniquities upon the children to the third and fourth generation? That might be a motivation. Maybe we don't have motivation. Number six, it may bring us a premature death. 1 John 5.16 says there is a sin unto death. It also says there's a sin not unto death. You know, I doubt if God's going to strike someone dead for jaywalking. Of course, He's God. He can do what He wants. But there's times where God has taken people out prematurely. Solomon said, be not over much wicked, why shouldest thou die before thy time? Sin unto death. And the Bible says don't even pray that you don't even ask for it. Don't even try to find out what it is. Just avoid sin. Number seven, it reminds God of the death of His Son on Calvary. Boy, there's a motive, isn't there? We'd do sword drills, but you guys are getting killed here, so. It reminds God of the death of his son on Calvary. Does that make sense? All right, all sin. Christ died for all of our sins. All of our sins. I don't know about you, but that affects me sometimes when I think about it and motivates me and say, boy, I can't keep doing this. God help me. Sometimes we don't have motivation. Here's another one number eight God's work might be destroyed by hypocrisy That would hurt wouldn't it a lot of people are looking for a hypocrite to hide behind aren't they? Let's do this one draw swords Ecclesiastes 918 Ecclesiastes 918 Go This one's worth five men Alright, one sinner destroyeth much good. One sinner destroyeth much good. I mean, there's been cases where a pastor fell into sin and an entire church fell apart. We need to pray for pastors. They got bullseyes on their back. The devil's firing arrows at them. You know what I mean? where one person falling can, you know, you chop down a big tree, it's going to crush a whole bunch of little ones on the way down. And one sinner destroys much good and maybe, I don't know, who can think of an example in the Bible where one sinner destroyed much good? Yeah, 23 times it says, Jeroboam who caused Israel to sin. 23 times, what a legacy. How about Aiken? You're going to say that? Aiken? Boy, that guy cost 36 men their lives because he stole some gold in a Babylonian garment. What's he going to do with a Babylonian garment like the one preacher said? What's he going to do with that? Walk around with it? Everybody's going to say, where'd you get that from? But boy, he hurt a lot of people. Oh boy, we're tied up now, right? Number nine, you may not hear from God anymore. It's possible, you can't break relationship. Relationship with God is permanent. We're His children forever. But fellowship can be broken. And here's a classic example of a guy that used to have fellowship with God. He had the mighty power of God on his life. He used to be a prophet for the Lord. But look what happens in the end. Draw swords. 1 Samuel 28.6. Go. Okay. When Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord answered him not. And then the rest that it can't quote, but thank you Malachi The Lord answered him not and that was a guy who once was filled with the Holy Spirit And they said is Saul among the prophets I? Mean that's the highest calling there is is it be a prophet And then he got so bad he got to where God wouldn't answer him no matter No matter how Saul tried to contact God God would not answer him So the last one is number 10, you might become God's enemy. And now that the men are ahead by one, we'll say this one's worth two, okay? Draw swords, James 4.4. Go. Is it possible for a believer in Christ to become an enemy of God? James 4.4 tells us. Okay, I bet God. All right. Sometimes, folks, we don't overcome sin, our pet sin, and we have to confess it over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. And sometimes we even think we're going to wear out the love of God, we're going to wear out the grace of God, we're going to wear out the patience of God. All right. But he can do some corrective things here. But I really think a lot of times we don't get the victory because we don't have any motivation. We don't have any, but if you look down through these, there's got to be one that hits you in the heart tonight. Got to be one. It's got to be one that hits me in the heart. God will chasten us. Our sins will withhold good things from us. Our prayers will be hindered. God's power in our life will be quenched. The next three generations might be plagued by it. It may bring us a premature death. It reminds God of the death of his son on Calvary. God's work might be destroyed by hypocrisy. You might not hear from God anymore. You might become God's enemy. One of those, two of those, three of those ought to hit us all in the heart and we ought to say, that's it, no more. God help me. And do whatever we've got to do to get the power of God in our lives to just get the victory. But thanks be unto God which giveth us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. All right, let's pray. Father, we do thank you that you do hear the prayers of the unsaved and many of us before we were saved asked you for things and in your goodness you gave them to us and you by doing that kept us seeking you and we thank you also every time any lost sinner just by faith comes to Calvary and says God forgive me a sinner and save me and believes in your son you save him Lord, you do forgive us over and over again. Thank you that we can't wear out your mercy and your love. But Lord, you could take very harsh corrective measures like chastisement. Lord, help us to look at these motivations tonight. Find a couple that hit us in the heart and say, that's it. I can't do this anymore. Give me the victory. And bless now the rest of our evening, our travels home. The play Friday, the Lord's Day service is Sunday. We pray, Lord, that you might even use us to gather people together to the house of God, and the gospel might be a blessing to their souls. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.