Praise the Lord. We broke it up into two sections of Acts chapter 9 with Saul's conversion on the road to Damascus. And then last week, we talked about some things how we don't always understand, make sense out of things, but when we look back, we always see how God's plan always works out to be the best thing that was there. And we spoke about that last week. As we look in the rear view mirror of our life, we always see that the circumstances that we had to go through, though we didn't understand them, when we talk about three different people, we talk about Peter, a man named Anais and Tabitha. And we talked about Tabitha who died, who was doing a good thing. She was helping some widows and we know that they were crying, they were upset and they wanted help. They didn't understand why she had to pass. And Anais was a man who for eight years was sitting there just was not able to walk and sick of the palsy and probably was asking himself why. And we end up finding out that God used it for His glory and God was doing it so that other people could come to know the saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're here at Acts chapter number 10. And I find this a very interesting passage as I was reading and studying through this. There are many questions that I had as I was going through it and studying and going through commentaries and talking to other preachers and just Many things as I was going through this and studying, but there's some very funny things that I read through here that I've used the verse that we'll read later on where he says to Peter, arise, kill, and eat. That's like my favorite verse in all of the Bible because I think that's got to be a hunter's verse, you know, where he said, arise, kill, and eat. We'll read about that. But it's not what he was talking about, but we'll get into it here tonight in Acts chapter number 10. I'm not going to ask you to stand for sake of time just because I'm going to go through some things here tonight. But this passage has to deal with a man that we're going to read about, a centurion. A centurion is a Roman soldier, but he's not just any Roman soldier. He is a captain of many soldiers. The century or a hundred is where they get that name centurion from. At least a hundred men were under his authority. And this man, if you look in Acts chapter number 10, starting in verse number one, it says there was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band, a devout man. 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 to 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 him, Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God. And now send men to Joppa, and call for one Simon, whose surname was Peter. And he lodged with Simon a tanner, whose house is by the seaside. He shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do. And when the angel, which spoke unto Cornelius, was departed, he called two of his household servants, a devout soldier of them, that waited on him continually. And when he had declared all these things unto him, he sent them to Joppa." Now this is a very interesting story. Because here is a place called Caesarea. We've talked about Caesarea already, haven't we? Remember Philip? How Philip went to the persecution of Saul was taking place and the church was scattered and we know that God used that to help the gospel to begin to spread and it went to Judea and Samaria and Philip was going through Samaria preaching and then he sent him to Ethiopia or to a man in Ethiopia in a desert an Ethiopian reading the account of Isaiah and didn't understand what was going on. He said, how can I understand except I have a man? And Philip talked to him and then poof, after he got saved and baptized, Philip was gone. And then we read how he went up the coast and began to preach everywhere that he went and he stops in a place called Caesarea. And then we have Peter who's going around and he's preaching after Saul's conversion. And now Peter's going to check on these churches. We hear what he's in Lydda and they send him to Joppa. They run down to Lydda and say, hey, we need you. There's a lady named Tabitha here that needs your help. And so he goes to Joppa. Well, Joppa is located about 30 miles south of Caesarea. And so here he is, he's still in Joppa. He's here at a man named Simon, a tanner's house. And as we read through this story, here is a certain man of Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion, a soldier, not just any soldier, but a captain of soldiers, a man who was in charge of at least a hundred men. And he had a great testimony or rapport with other people. They said that he was a devout man, one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people and prayed to God always. And as I began to think about this, I began to think about this man named Cornelius. Cornelius, I want you to understand, was a Gentile. The Jews did not like the Gentiles. The Jews didn't think the Gentiles could be saved. And we know that they didn't like the Samaritans either. If you study history, what happened in the Babylonian captivity, when the Assyrians took the northern kingdom of Samaria there, and then they began to have children with the Gentiles there and created the Samaritans, and they were half Jew, half Gentile, and they didn't want them, they didn't want to have any part of them. That's why when Jesus was at the woman at the well, they looked at him and thinking, why is he talking to her? You know, and so they were very prejudiced people. The Jews didn't want the gospel to go anywhere else. They were just focused here on what, but God had given them a command, did he not, in Acts chapter number one. He said, but ye shall receive power. After that, the Holy Ghost has come upon you. And ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria. And then he says, into the uttermost parts of the earth. Well, here's Cornelius. And when we read about Cornelius, you read about this testimony, it said he was a devout man. He feared God with all his house. He gave alms to the people. He prayed always. And you think, man, this guy had to be saved. This guy had to be a child of God. But here we are, we're talking about in the Roman Empire during this time, and the Jews did not like the Romans. And because why? They were Gentiles and they were kind of outcasts and enemies one against another. Here we are, this man is praying, and it said that what he saw, it said a vision, evidently verse 3, about the ninth hour on the day that the angel of God was coming to him, saying unto him, Cornelius, Now if you study history as well, the ninth hour would have been three o'clock and that was a time of prayer. If you remember at the gate called Beautiful, we talked about that was the ninth hour when they were going in to pray and all of those things. That was a time that they did that. This was some customs that they did. But I want you to understand something. Cornelius, though he was a Roman soldier, And if you study what was going on, the doctrine of that day was a doctrine called polytheism that the Romans believed in. And that word means a doctrine or belief in more than one God or in many gods. There was a lot of gods to the Romans. They had a lot of things going on and that ended up going into pantheism, which means that a doctrine that God has transcended reality, which means that actually the universe or earth became God. and all kinds of things like that. They had a lot of false teachings and a lot of false things, but Cornelius didn't buy all that. Cornelius had heard about some things that the Jews were doing. And I believe as we read down through this, and you're going to see what happens as we go down through, and I'm going to read some more things, and then I'll kind of tie it all together for you here at the end, what I believe God has shown me through all of this. But here's Cornelius, and he's looking for something. Cornelius is searching for something. You know why he feared God, why he prayed, why he did those things? He was looking for something that he saw in somebody else that he did not have. And as he's going down through, it says that the angel came to him and he said unto him, thy prayers and thine alms are come up for memorial before God. And now send men to Joppa. And he tells them to go to Joppa and find Simon Peter. And then if we look down at verse 9, it says, On the morrow, as they went on their journey and drew nigh unto the city, Peter went up upon a housetop to pray about the sixth hour. And he became very hungry. You notice he didn't just say he was hungry, he was very hungry. I mean, he's ready for a cheeseburger, you know, he's very hungry right now. And he would have eaten, but while they made ready, he fell into a trance. So what it's saying is, here he's praying. And while he's praying, they begin to fix him. He's at Simon the Tanner's house, they begin to fix some food. Now remember, Peter's very hungry. Most of us, when we're very hungry, this is our prayer. Lord bless this food, thank you for it, amen. And we go eat. But here they were ready, they were fixing this food, and Brother Doug, it says he came into a trance. You know what he was doing? He wasn't possessed, but he's praying and what happened was he was given a vision of God. God is trying to teach Peter some things here and beginning to bridge a gap between the Jews and the Gentiles. This division that the Jews had with the Gentiles, God is trying to teach Peter something about this. Verse 10 says, And he became very hungry, and would have eaten, but while they made ready, he fell into a trance, and saw heaven open, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth, wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts of all the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air. Then came a voice unto him, again my light verse, Rise, Peter, kill, and eat. That's what he tells them, rise, Peter, kill and eat. Now, you know it was not customary for the Jews to eat anything that was unclean. They didn't do it. That was part of their custom, the things that they had done. And so here's a very odd request in this vision, or very odd command that Peter gets. And he says this, rise, kill and eat. Now look what Peter answers to the Lord. And Peter said, not so, Lord, for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean. So here, God is telling Peter to do something, and what was Peter's response? No. You ever done that before? I have. I'll be honest with you, God's told me something. I've said, no way, Lord. That can't be right. No way. But he tells him, not so, Lord, for I have never. God, I just don't do that. I've never done that, but God had something for him. He tells him, rise, kill, and eat. And Peter said, not so, Lord, for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean. Verse 15, and the voice spake unto him again the second time, what God hath cleansed, that call not thou common. This was done thrice. That means he didn't just say no once, did he? Three times this had to be said to him. Peter must like threes. He does things in threes. Remember how many times he denied Christ? Three times. How many times did Jesus have to say, do you love me? Three times. And now he's having to talk to him. He was pretty hardheaded, wasn't he? Peter's a hardheaded guy like most of us. And so he had to have things done three times. It said, and this was done thrice and the vessel was received up again into heaven. Now I want you to understand something. Were these men already on their way to get Peter? They were. They were already on their way from Caesarea 30 miles south to Joppa. Now they didn't have cars that they could drive 30 miles that quickly. This took them some time to get there. And so here they are this next day. Peter is at noontime. He's very hungry. He's ready to eat but now he's praying and he's in a trance and God gives him a vision. He's pretty confused, not really understanding what God's trying to tell him. But here these men are already on their way to get him here in Joppa. Verse 17, now while Peter doubted in himself what the vision which he had seen should mean, behold, the men which were sent from Cornelius had made inquiry for Simon's house and stood before the gate. Now here's something that's funny. These guys that are coming, Brother Shane, they're Gentiles. And they're coming to get a Jew. And what are they about ready to do in the house? Eat, right? They couldn't eat anything that was unclean. And I was wondering, why did they stop at the gate? Why didn't they just go to the door? You know why? Because the Gentiles weren't allowed with the Jews when the Jews were eating. You know why? Because they were unclean. They were considered unclean. So here they are, they're at the gate saying, hey, is Simon Peter here? And they're inquiring of him. This whole time Peter's up there on the roof praying. He's very hungry. And look what it says, verse 18. And called and asked whether Simon, which is surnamed Peter, were lodged there. And while Peter thought on the vision, the Spirit said unto him, behold, three men seek thee. Arise, therefore, get thee down, and go with them, doubting nothing, for I have sent them. So here, Peter's still pondering this vision that he saw, still doubting what God was trying to tell him. God, I can't eat anything that's unclean. You told me to do something that I just don't do. And God, I just don't understand this. And he says, listen, get up. There's three men outside that need to talk to you. Go out there. I sent them. Don't doubt. Just go with them. And so he's still a little confused. I know I would have been confused by this. And then if you look at what it says there in verse 21. Then Peter went down to the men which were sent unto him. for Cornelius and said, Behold, I am he whom ye seek. What is the cause wherefore ye are come? I think Peter's looking at him and saying, OK, guys, God just told me something and you're here. What is this that I'm supposed to be doing? What do you want? And now they begin to open up and paint a picture of what God was trying to teach Peter during this time. Look at verse number 22, and they said, so here's their response. Peter looks at them and says, tell me why you're here, fellas. And they said, Cornelius the centurion, a just man, that means a man of honest report, and one that feareth God and of good report among all the nations of the Jews, was warned of God by an holy angel to send for thee into his house and to hear words of thee. Now wait a second. What's that mean? We know Cornelius was doing some good things, wasn't he? Cornelius was praying. Cornelius was giving to the church or alms to the people. Cornelius said he feared God. You know why? Because Cornelius had heard... Remember, Philip was in Caesarea. Philip preached everywhere he went. People had heard about the gospel in Caesarea. And I believe that he saw that the Jews had something that he did not have in that area. And Cornelius began to try to follow those customs that the Jews were doing, thinking, well, this must be right. Worshipping this God must be right. And he's doing all these things that you're looking at. But then he comes to this vision and this vision tells him, he says, listen, the Lord has seen these prayers and these alms that you're giving. But there's something that you need to know. I believe he was telling him, listen, there's something that you're missing. And there's a man named Peter who's got a message for you. And then while they're already coming, you understand how the Holy Spirit already prepares the way before we ever even get there. God's already setting the stage to bridge the gap between the Jews and the Gentiles here when it came to the salvation aspect of it. To open the eyes to the Jewish people, to let them see that salvation was not just for the Jewish people, but it was for all people. And here he's telling, in this vision to Peter, he shows all of the beasts together. You know what he was trying to teach him? That it's not just for one group, it's for all of them together that I love. And when he's telling him, arise, kill, and eat, what he was trying to tell him is, there are some Jewish customs that you guys have, that you look at, but understand the Jewish law has been fulfilled already. When Jesus Christ died on the cross, the law was then null and void because the law was there to show men their need of a savior, that they could not fulfill the law. The Jews had certain customs that they did to try to do things, but he was saying to them, listen, your customs really mean nothing. Your beliefs that you look into really mean nothing, Peter. There's something bigger that you need to see. And what he was trying to tell him. And then when these men began to tell him about Cornelius. And now Cornelius, he was a good man. He was a just man. He was an honest man. And people saw him and he prayed and he feared God. And he did all of these things. And he said, but an angel told him that we needed to come get you and that we need to take you back and that you had a message for him. And I believe Peter said, now I understand. That vision was not talking about, even though I'm very physically hungry, it's not talking about me eating something that's unclean. What he was teaching is that the things that I think are unclean, God has already purchased with his own blood. Jesus Christ has already paid for with his own blood, and what Jesus Christ cleanses because of his blood, how can I call them unclean? And so that's what he was trying to teach him. Is that, listen, there's a lot of times that we look at things and we don't understand it and we may look at it and think, God, that can't be so. But God's already preparing things and setting the stage. And here's something that doesn't happen with Gentiles and Jews. Once Peter gets it, brother Doug, look at what it says in verse 23. Then called he them in and lodged them. They're about ready to eat. The Gentiles are unclean people. But Peter gets it. I understand what he's talking about. It's not a physical thing right here that he's talking about. So he invited them in and he lodged them. And here's some things, the story goes on and you'll read about this later on in the chapter. Peter goes back to Caesarea with them and Cornelius, guess what Cornelius has already done? Cornelius got a group of people and had them in his house waiting. for Peter to get back. And Peter gets back and Peter begins to preach to him. And we're going to jump ahead here and I'm going to springboard back into what we were talking about. But look at verse 34. This is, now he's back here, he's talked to Cornelius. Cornelius shares with him the vision that he saw and everything. Then Peter opened his mouth and said, of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons. He said, listen, God just showed me something that it's not just for the Jews that Jesus Christ, the Messiah, came to die. It was for the sins of the whole world. Now the command in Acts chapter one, verse eight's really making sense. Now it makes sense to me what he said is you shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you and you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth. He said God's no respecter of persons but in every nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him. The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ, he is Lord of all. That word, I say, ye know, which was published throughout all of Judea, and began from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth the Holy Ghost, and with power, who was about doing good and healing, and then were oppressed of the devil, for God was with him. And we are witnesses of all things which he did, both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they slew and hanged on a tree." Now he just talked about the death of Christ, didn't he? Then look what it says in verse 40. Him God raised up the third day and showed him openly. So what did he just talk about? The resurrection. What is the gospel? The death, the burial, and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now Peter is here and he's telling these Gentiles about the gospel. He's telling them about the death of Jesus Christ, the burial and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It said, not to all people, but unto witnesses chosen before of God, even to us who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead. He's saying, listen, we saw this after he rose from the dead. We saw this and he commanded us to preach unto the people and testify that it is he which was ordained of God to be the judge of the quickened. Who am I to judge? That's what he's saying. Who am I to judge whether you're a Gentile or whether you're a Jew? He showed me this, that Jesus Christ came to die, not just for me, a Jew, but for you, a Gentile. The death, the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who we saw after his resurrection, so we have evidence that he's alive today. Let me tell you something, it's not just for us, it's for you too. And he tells them that. And then he says this, verse 43, to him give all the prophets witness that through his name, whosoever believeth in him shall receive remissions of sins. So now he tells them about the death, the burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. But Brother Doug, he doesn't leave them hanging. He says, now here's what you got to do. You've got to accept it and receive it. And look at what it says after that. While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on them which heard thy word. Guess what that means? They were under conviction of the Holy Spirit of God because of the gospel that was being preached. And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished. and then jumped down to verse 48, and he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord, and they prayed Him to tarry certain days. So now look, that shows baptism after salvation, by the way. Here they believed, then they were baptized afterwards. What's the whole point of this? I believe there's some lessons that we can learn out of this passage and will be done fairly quickly. I wanted to kind of paint this picture for you of this, what was going on. As I was reading this, I was a little confused at first, Brother Shane, because the testimony of Cornelius would make you believe that he was a saved person. The testimony of Cornelius would make you believe that he was like a regular church member. But you know what he was doing is he was just doing a custom and a ritual, a good work, to try to earn heaven. He didn't really understand about the death, the burial, and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. All he knew is the Jews had one God that they served, and the Romans had many gods. And he had seen the wickedness of the many gods, and I believe he was a man searching for God. And as he began to search for God, you know, everywhere you read in the Bible, when somebody begins to seek God and looks for that light and goes to that light, God begins to give them more light. And here he's looking for the light. He's looking for some sense into what he's seeing and what he's doing. And he's praying and all this. And there's an angel that comes to him and says this, you're seeking. The Lord notices it. And there's somebody that's got a message for you. And guess what? He was hungry for it. He obeyed that voice. And he said, I want to hear this. And so he sends for Peter. And Peter comes now and preaches the gospel. And they believed. and trusted Christ, and then they were baptized. But there are some lessons we learn from this, Brother Doug. First off, I believe the first thing we learn out of this whole passage is from Cornelius that religious deeds were insufficient for salvation. Religious deeds are insufficient for salvation. Ephesians 2, 8, and 9, for by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It's a gift of God, not of works. Lest any man should boast." If you looked in the telescope or the microscope of humanity, Cornelius would have been one of those guys that you put as a a leader of the teenagers, because hey, he had a good example. He was one of those trustworthy adults that you put there. Now, not only that he was a Roman soldier, so they probably behaved pretty well, because he was a captain of over 100 soldiers. But here, Cornelius was a man, and he was doing right. He was giving alms. He was praying. He was doing all of these things, which, by the way, here's a lost man doing some good works, and God noticed it. God brought somebody to Him. Listen, there's many people out there that are doing good works, that are trying to find what we have. They're looking for the gospel. And I believe the Holy Spirit of God is already preparing their hearts to receive it. I believe God's doing the same thing that He did to Cornelius. He notices that they're seeking Him. And you know what He does for us? He gives us a commission to go and tell them. about the gospel. But religious deeds are not sufficient for salvation. That's why Cornelius was missing something. He was missing out, and the angel said, hey, he's got a message for you. And when they came to Peter and they told him, said, this angel said there was something you had to say that we needed to hear and that Cornelius needed to hear, and he wants you to come and tell them all. But God had already told Peter that this is of me and I want you to go. He already said, hey listen, I'm already setting the stage for what's about to take place, Peter. And he goes and he preaches Jesus. He preaches the death, the burial, and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel that we know of. He preaches the gospel. And they get saved. And then they're baptized. So religious deeds are insufficient for salvation. Just because somebody's religious does not mean that they're saved. There's a lot of religious people that are gonna die and go to hell because they're trusting in their religious works. They're trusting in confession to a priest. They're trusting in blowing themselves up for the cause of Allah. Many false doctrines, many false things that they're doing, some religious deeds that they think they're doing for their religion, but they're gonna die and go to hell because they haven't come through Jesus Christ. The second thing that we see through this, Brother Shane, is God has a chosen method for the gospel. Why didn't the angel just say, Cornelius, it's not your works that get you to heaven. You've got to come by Jesus Christ and what he did on the cross. Why didn't he say, hey, there's a man over here that's going to come tell you something. Because God's way that the gospel gets out is for people to reach people. That's God's design. That's how God does it. Think about it. How shall they hear without a preacher? They've got to hear because of a preacher, right? Somebody's got to go tell them about it. Why do you think he told them, you shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth. Why didn't God just come down in the cloud and say, everybody listen up. Because God has a chosen plan, a chosen method to get the gospel to the lost. And that's for you and that's for me to spread the gospel wherever we go. Third lesson. And lastly, this is where I'm going to spend just a few more minutes. Religious deeds were insufficient. God's chosen method for the gospel is people to reach people. If you read 2 Corinthians 5 and 6, it says we're ambassadors for Christ. You know what that means? We're representatives of the Lord. We're ambassadors for Christ. But thirdly, the greatest hindrance of the gospel in all of this, Brother Doug, all the way from Acts chapter 1, when Jesus had given them that command, He said, listen, I want you to go preaching Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the uttermost parts of the earth. We read in the first seven chapters, where were they? Still in Jerusalem, weren't they? They hadn't branched out to Judea and Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth. God sends persecution to the church to scatter them, to get the gospel to begin to be preached in other areas. He's saying, guys, you're not listening to what I'm telling you. There's something going on, and here's why. And I believe that's our problem today. is the greatest impediment or the greatest thing hindering the gospel are our prejudices, our preconceptions, and our pride. You say, what's that mean? They're prejudice. What was the Jews prejudice? They didn't like the Gentiles. Gentiles were unclean. The Samaritans, they didn't like the Samaritans. That's why when Jesus is talking to the woman at the well, it's like, why is he talking to her? She's a half Jew, half Gentile. Why would we talk to her? She's got uncleanness in her. Why would we talk to her? They had some prejudices about the Gentiles. They didn't want to go out there and give the gospel to those kind of people. And I want you to understand, there's some people out there that, I hate to say it, we go out there and we think, you know what, I don't want to talk to them. You know what, Brother Doug, there's some Muslims out there that all they are is violent, and I don't want to go talk to them. There are some people, maybe we don't like them. So we say, you know what, I don't want to go talk to them. And Peter had some prejudices. And when he saw this vision, Brother Doug, God was trying to tell him, listen, you need to set your prejudice aside. Because I'm no respecter of persons. And in my eyes, there is not different races. There is a human race that I died for. And don't ever get to the place where we allow our prejudices to stop the gospel from going forward. There's a lot of people that say, well, I can't go over there. You know what? I've heard some preachers say, well, we don't support anybody unless they're going to the 1040 window there, because there's a lot more souls to be reached there than there are over here. Brother John Penix, we support him in remote Alaska missions. I remember when I went with him on a missions trip, I think I told you this, Brother Shane, there was a preacher that called him. told him something. He said, you know what, I don't think we can take you on for support, brother. He said, because what's the cost per soul in Alaska? He said, you know what, if I send a missionary to the 1040 window, we may see a thousand souls saved for that $60 that we send each month. But if I send you to these little villages here, I may get one person saved. What's the cost per soul? And I loved Brother Penick's response. He said, last time I checked, preacher, the cost was the blood of Jesus. Because you know what? We have some prejudices. We say, you know what? Let's go reach these people, but we don't want to reach these people. You know, there may be only five people, Miss Joy, in this little village in Alaska, and we can't really start a church there and do this and that. So why waste our time with them? Let's go over here. the apostles and the Jews that were saved he said ye shall be witnesses not just here in Jerusalem but in Judea and Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth and they still didn't get it. They had to set their prejudice aside and say you know what though I think they're unclean Christ loved them. He loved them. And this preconceived ideas that they had was, well, they're unclean and the Messiah is just for the Jews. You got to set that aside. It's not your ways, it's my ways. And then they not only had some prejudice, not only had some preconceived or preconception, it was pride. They didn't want to do it. He said, no, Lord, not so. I'm not going to go out there and do that. They're unclean. I don't like them. We don't talk to them. And I know he didn't really get it, what he was saying, but what he was doing was he was rejecting God's command to go out there. And you know what that was? That was pride. Here's the problem. We look at that and we think, how could Peter be that way? But we do the same thing. We do the same thing on a daily basis and a weekly basis. We do the same thing. God tells us to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Why? Because He's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And here, He broke that bondage. He bridged that gap. He basically joined the two together and said, listen, it's not just for the Jews. He broke this barrier that was set up, Brother Shane, between the Jews and the Gentiles, stopping the gospel from going where God intended for it to go. And if I could title this message, it'd be breaking the barrier of the gospel. I wonder what it is in your life that's blocking the gospel from going. Is it prejudice? Is it a preconceived idea that God only wants you to do one thing? Is it pride that's stopping you from being a witness like you're supposed to be? You know, there's a lot of prejudices that go on. There's prejudice of, well, they're not capable. We have this preconceived idea, well, they're just, they're not, they just can't understand. Why not? You know what? The Ethiopian, he was looking. He didn't understand. He said, how can I accept a man? Show me. See, there's sometimes we think, well, you know, I can't talk to that little kid. They won't understand. God tells you to talk to him. You know why? Because he's already working. He's already doing things, setting up the preparation for the gospel in that person's life. Don't tell him no. No, no. Think about Jonah. When he told him to go to Nineveh, how many people died without hearing the gospel because he told God no? God tells us to go. Our response should not be no. Our response should be where to. And when he says to go, don't allow your prejudice, your preconceived ideas, your pride to stop the gospel from going where it needs to go. Peter, went to the Gentiles. And if you read later on what takes place, he was questioned later on. And we'll talk about that a little bit next week. But he began to get grilled for going to the Gentiles. And he had to go back and tell this whole story again of what God did. And we'll get into that next week. But here's what the lessons I learned through this is that there are some things that I think that I feel sometimes that really mean nothing. Because our prejudices aside and our preconceived ideas aside and our own pride set aside, here's the message. God loves all. Jesus died for all. And my job and your job is to spread the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to everyone, whether we like them or not. If Barack Obama came in this church tonight, You know what most of us would allow? We would allow our prejudice of his lifestyle and his leadership over the last eight years to stop us from treating him the way that Christ would treat him. If Hillary Clinton walked in these doors, we would allow our prejudice, our preconceived ideas, Brother Shane, to stop us from reaching to her as Christ would reach to her. But the fact of the matter is he died for Barack Obama. He died for Hillary Clinton. He died for all of those that you would look at and say, you know what? I would never witness that person. You know what? I hope I never have to talk to that person because I just don't think I could witness to him. You know what? That's pride. And that is a prejudice in your life. And there's people going to die and go to hell because we as God's people allow our prejudice and our preconceived ideas to stop us from being what God wants us to be. And that's a light to the lost world. You know, there's many searching, just like Cornelius. Think about it. There's many Catholics going through a ritual. They pray. They go to mass. There's many Muslims. They pray three times a day. They're going through the motions, Brother Doug, and you know what they're searching for? Light. Because they're in darkness. You know, we say, you know what, all these ISIS people, guess what? I believe we ought to defend ourselves. Don't get me wrong. But let me ask you this, if one of them came through the back doors of this church and said, listen, I'm struggling. We'd say, wait, you were the guy on that video that cut that man's head off. Get out of here. What if God says, no, wait, I'm reaching for him. But we'd allow our ideas to come in the way and put a barrier up. Are the chances of that happening very slim? Absolutely. But let me tell you this, you will be tested. There's going to be people that maybe you haven't gotten along with. You just really could care less if you get around them or not. They're going to come by and God's going to say, you need to reach them. And if we're not careful, we'll allow our feelings to put a wall up between that person and God. And we can't do that. We have to break that barrier. And that's the lesson I believe that God was trying to teach Peter is that, listen, just because you call something unclean does not mean that it's unclean. What my blood, Brother Doug, has paid for, you can't call common. There's nothing common about it because it's something that is beyond your reach and mine. It's only something that Jesus Christ could do. And it's not just to the Jews. It's to the Gentile people as well. And we begin to see these Gentile people trust Christ as their Savior, all because Peter finally got it and gave them the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And they believed. That's the power of the gospel. The Holy Spirit came upon them, convicted their hearts, and they got saved. Not because Peter was somebody. Peter had prejudice against the Gentiles. But he put that aside and he obeyed God and the Holy Spirit worked through the gospel. I wonder what it is in our lives that's got a barrier up. Heads bowed, eyes closed, nobody looking around. But as I was going through this, I thought about what are some things that I need