The Gentile Pentecost

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I want to invite you to take out your Bibles and turn with me to the 10th chapter of Acts.
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We've been in a series on the book of Acts, which we have entitled, Beyond Our Borders.
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The purpose of this series is to examine the evangelistic zeal of the early church.
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We've already seen that the early Christians, those who came right after Pentecost, were willing to battle very serious obstacles for their faith.
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As I mentioned in the sermon last week, oftentimes Christians today are not even willing to be inconvenienced for Christ, much less are they willing to battle and fight for truth.
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And yet that's what we see.
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We were talking about it in Sunday school this morning as I was teaching.
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I said, you know, in the early church they met daily to gather for fellowship and worship.
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I said the reason why they met daily was because there was a daily need of encouragement and edification because it was them against the whole world.
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The Jewish community saw Christianity as a sect, as a cult group that had risen up in their ranks and they were trying to squash it.
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The Romans had no respect for the Christian community.
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There was a hatred toward them and a vilification that had gone out towards them.
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And so within this small community, this small early Christian community, there were these mountainous obstacles that they had to deal with.
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The first thing they dealt with was sanction.
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Don't preach in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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And they did it anyway.
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And then they had to deal with corruption.
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Ananias and Sapphira trying to bring an embezzlement within the church and rob the church of what they had promised to give.
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And then there was division in the church between the Hebrews and the Hellenists over who was being treated properly among the widows.
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And then came the persecution.
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The great persecution which began with the martyrdom of Stephen where he was stoned there outside Jerusalem.
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And then Saul of Tarsus would take and go to the high priest and he would say, Give me letters of authority that I might bind both men and women and put them to prison for following after Jesus Christ.
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The last couple of weeks we've been studying the conversion of Saul and seeing how God took what was essentially a terrorist and converted him into the greatest apostle and living missionary the church has ever known.
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It's an amazing act of grace.
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A demonstration of God's sovereignty.
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Jesus promised that He would build His church.
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And He promised that the gates of hell would not prevail against it.
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But there is something implied in that promise.
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The gates of hell would always try.
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He said they won't stop us.
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But they're always going to be there to try.
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And there's always going to be a battle.
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And before He ascended after the resurrection and before the ascension, Jesus promised.
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He said you will be my witnesses.
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He didn't say you might be.
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He didn't say you could be.
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He said you will.
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You will be my witnesses.
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In Jerusalem and Judea.
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And in Samaria.
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And to the end of the world.
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You will be my witnesses.
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And beloved, today we're going to see the fulfillment of that.
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We're going to see the growth out of that.
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Because what we're going to see today is the church overcome the biggest obstacle yet.
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And you might think persecution is a pretty big obstacle.
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You might say, you know what? What they faced with Paul.
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What they faced with Saul of Tarsus.
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They're trying to put him in prison.
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That's a pretty big obstacle.
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But you know there's no bigger obstacle than the religious conscience.
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And that's the hurdle that still has to be overcome.
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Because all of the other obstacles have been external and physical.
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But now they're going to face a spiritual obstacle.
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And it's one that's going to push the apostle Peter right out of his spiritual comfort zone.
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To a point where he would even later renege.
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And have to be called out by Paul.
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And what am I talking about? Taking the gospel to the Gentiles.
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It's already gone to the Samarians.
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And you know how they felt about the Samaritans.
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Samaritans.
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They were a dirty, hodgepodge sort of mixture of Jews and Gentiles.
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They were a mixed breed if you will.
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And that's the way they saw them.
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They saw them as a dirty group.
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And they didn't want anything to do with them.
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But they had the gospel taken to them.
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And it was an amazing thing.
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But now the Gentiles will hear the gospel.
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And everything will change.
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So we're going to read.
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We're going to start by reading in Acts 10.
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We're going to read verses 44 to 48.
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And then we're going to go back.
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And we're going to go back to verse 1.
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I've given you an outline in your folder.
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This outline will take us at least two weeks to get through.
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I'm not going to rush.
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There's no reason to rush.
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It'll also give you reason to come back.
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If you're a visitor, make sure you're back next week.
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But this will be a...
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We're going to at least take two weeks on this.
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Minimum.
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But we're going to start here.
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And read the end first.
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So at least we know where we're going.
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So let's start.
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Let's stand.
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And let's read verses 44 to 48.
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As...
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To see where we're headed.
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And then we'll pray and ask God to bless the exposition.
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Verse 44.
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While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word.
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And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed.
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Because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles.
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For they were hearing them speak in tongues and extolling God.
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Then Peter declared, Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have? And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.
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Then they asked him to remain for some days.
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Father in heaven, I thank you for your word.
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I thank you for the truth.
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And I thank you for the fact that the gospel went out to the Gentiles.
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For I am one of those who is blessed by this text.
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And so are many here today.
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Father, I pray that you would, during this message, keep me from error.
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As I am a fallible man capable of preaching error.
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And I pray that Lord, as your word is preached, that you will be glorified in it.
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And that you will do that work which only you can do.
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In converting hearts.
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In changing minds.
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In drawing people closer to you.
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I thank you for all that you have done in bringing people here.
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And I pray that you would use this time for your own glory.
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In Christ's name.
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Amen.
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Throughout the Old Testament, we see God's willingness to save Gentiles.
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In fact, some of the most precious Old Testament saints were Gentiles.
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You can probably think of a few off the top of your head.
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Do you remember Rahab? Rahab was the one who hid the spies who came there at Jericho.
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And she was used of God.
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And she was protected by God when that city was destroyed.
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When the walls came down, she was protected.
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She was a Gentile.
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She was not a Jew.
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But yet God saw fit to save her.
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Later, Ruth would come into the family of God.
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She would be the ancestor of King David.
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And thus the ancestor of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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And she was a Gentile.
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We see also the Ninevites.
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When Jonah was spit out on the shores of Nineveh.
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He went in and preached to a whole city full of Gentiles.
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And it says from the very highest to the lowest, there was repentance and conversion in that city.
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So the salvation of Gentiles is not a foreign concept under the Old Covenant dispensation.
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Under the Old Testament, this is not a foreign thing.
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So what makes the conversion of a Gentile in Acts chapter 10 so special? This.
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This is the first time a Gentile is fully accepted into the covenant family of God without having to first become a Jew.
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This conversion would tear down the dividing wall between Jews and Gentiles forever.
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It would forever make them one in the body of Christ.
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Only after this event can Paul write Galatians chapter 3 verse 28.
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I invite you to go there with me.
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Galatians 3.28.
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Most of you probably can recite this, but I just want you to look at it.
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Because it's a precious text.
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Galatians 3.28.
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Speaking of what has happened in the Lord Jesus Christ, it says this.
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There is neither Jew nor Greek.
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In Greek, of course, there is euphemism for Gentile or one who is not a Jew.
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You had Jews and Greeks or Jews and Gentiles.
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And he says, and in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek.
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And he goes on to make other distinctions.
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There is neither slave nor free.
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There is neither male nor female.
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For all are what? One in Jesus Christ.
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What a precious truth.
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This is amazing.
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This is an outstanding reality that so many of us take for granted because we grew up coming to church as Gentiles never considering the fact that there would have been one time when we would not have been welcomed.
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Simply for being who we were.
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Simply for being born as we are.
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This becomes such a point of controversy that it goes on as a point of contention through the book of Acts and comes up in other epistles throughout the New Testament.
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In fact, the first church council.
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Does anybody know when the first church council was held? Acts 15.
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And we will get there in a couple of months.
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In Acts chapter 15, we see the first council held at Jerusalem.
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And what was the purpose of that council? The condemnation of those who would say that a man has to first become a Jew before he can become a Christian.
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It was the condemnation of those who would say that a man has to first be circumcised.
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That is the symbol of becoming a Jewish person.
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He has to first be circumcised before he can become a Christian.
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They were condemning that idea.
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They were condemning the concept of the Judaizers.
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The Judaizers were the ones who were teaching that.
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The whole book of Galatians, my family and I are studying it right now at home as part of our family worship.
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And the whole book of Galatians is given over to this idea that the apostle Paul says, if anyone comes to you with a gospel different than the one that I have preached to you, let him be anathema, let him be accursed, let him be put out.
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What was the other gospel that Paul was concerned about? The gospel of the Judaizers.
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That a man must first become a Jew before he can become a Christian.
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Acts chapter 10 shows us that that teaching is false.
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For God has accepted the Gentiles in Christ in the same way that he has accepted the Jew in Christ.
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And it is in Christ alone.
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And Cornelius becomes the prototype for all of us.
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Well, I say all of us.
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Some of you may be of Jewish heritage.
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I don't know.
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But the vast majority of you are probably not.
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I know I am not.
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So Cornelius, this Roman centurion, becomes the prototype for all of us who would follow after him.
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Who come by way of Christ, not by way of circumcision.
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So what we are going to do is we are going to go verse by verse through this text.
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And normally what I would do is I would give an exposition of the text and then I would give an application at the end.
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Well, there is so much text to get through.
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I am just going to make application as we go.
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What is the expositional preaching? Read the text.
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Explain the text.
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Apply the text.
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That is what preaching is.
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It is supposed to be anyway.
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That is what we are going to do.
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We are going to read, explain, apply and move on.
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Alright.
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This is a watershed moment in Christian history.
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And it deserves our attention.
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And I have given you the outline.
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There are two men.
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There are two locations.
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There are two accounts.
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And there are two blessings.
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And like I said, today I think we are just going to look at the two men.
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Because we are going to see the separation that exists between them that God is bringing together.
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So let's look first.
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Go back to verse 1 of chapter 10.
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And we are going to look at verse 1.
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I have entitled verses 1-8, The God Fearing Gentile.
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Let's read this, verses 1-8.
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It says, At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of what was known as the Italian cohort.
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A devout man who feared God with all his house.
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Gave alms generously to the people and prayed continually to God.
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About the ninth hour of the day he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God come to him and say to him, Cornelius.
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And he stared at him in terror.
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And said, What is it, Lord? And he said to him, Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God.
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And now send men to Joppa, which the last chapter tells us that is where Peter is.
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And bring one Simon who is called Peter.
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He is lodging with one Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the sea.
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When the angel who spoke to him had departed, he called two of his servants and a devout soldier from among those who attended him.
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And having related everything to them, he sent them to Joppa.
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Alright, that's the opening of this story.
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Let's break down its constituent parts.
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First of all, Cornelius, this Gentile man, is brought in without anything previous really said about him.
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It's just sort of, the story begins at Caesarea.
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There's a man named Cornelius.
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Now, I want to tell you, in Caesarea, there were a lot of men named Cornelius.
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The reason for that is because about a hundred years earlier, there was a man by the name of Cornelius Sulla who had liberated 10,000 slaves in a battle.
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Every one of those slaves took the name Cornelius in honor of Cornelius Sulla.
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So at this time, in the history of that particular area of the world, there would have been thousands of Corneliuses.
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And that simply to be said, it's making an interesting point in the text that this man is a man whose name represents sort of what it's about to represent spiritually.
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His name represents this group that was saved by this one person and they took his name.
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Well, he's about to represent a new group that's going to take another name, Jesus Christ.
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And so we see this man Cornelius.
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He's a centurion.
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And I don't want to get into too much of the historical stuff, but some of this is kind of fun to learn.
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A centurion, you know what the centurion, it means 100.
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You know, we get the word centipede, centigrade, all that, you know, it's a hundred.
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So a centurion was a leader of a hundred soldiers.
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Okay? So a centurion had a hundred soldiers under him and six centurions would have 600 soldiers and that was called a cohort.
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Okay? And then 6,000 men, 10 cohorts, would make a legion.
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You've all heard a legion of soldiers is 6,000 soldiers.
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Now centurions were paid five times as much as a normal soldier.
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So Cornelius was a very wealthy and prominent individual.
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He was in charge of a hundred men.
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He made five times as much as any of those men.
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So here is a man who in his life is a very prominent individual.
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Very wealthy.
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He lived in Caesarea, which was a beautiful coastal city located near what would be the modern Tel Aviv.
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If you were in Israel.
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This was the administrative center of the Judea province of the Roman Empire.
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So this is where business was done for the Roman Empire for that area.
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Something interesting about centurions that we see in Scripture.
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Every time a centurion is mentioned in Scripture, he's mentioned in a positive way.
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If you go back through the New Testament, every time you...
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You know what's interesting? I've often said this because I'll have people ask me, Pastor, do you think it's wrong to be a soldier? Is it wrong to go to battle for your country? And my answer has always been no.
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I say, you know, Jesus spent a lot of time denouncing religious leaders.
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He never once denounced a soldier just for being a soldier.
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I mean, when those men came to John the Baptist when he was baptizing, and those soldiers were standing there, what should we do? Do what's right.
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Do what's fair.
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He didn't say set down your sword, set down your shield, and go off and become a monk.
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He didn't say go off and become one of these people who won't fight for anything.
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There's a reason for godly warriors.
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There's a reason why warriors are necessary among a people.
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And so, God has a plan even for the centurions.
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And we see centurions throughout the Scripture, and they're always given a very positive light.
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And here's one here as an example of someone who is a positive soldier, as an example in Scripture.
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And one of the things, when Peter finally comes to him, he doesn't say, oh, by the way, to become a Christian you've got to stop soldiering.
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I don't know if soldiering is really a verb.
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You've got to stop being a soldier.
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He didn't say that.
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And that's just an interesting little side note there.
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Now, what was he? What was Cornelius in regard to his faith? Because it's important to recognize he's not a Jew.
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That's part of what this whole story is about, is he's not a Jew.
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There were three ways that a person could exercise faith in Jehovah or Yahweh at this particular time in history.
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You could either be a naturalized Jew.
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That means that you were by birth born into the family, the covenant of God by being a child of Abraham.
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You were Jew by birth.
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You were circumcised on the eighth day.
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You were Hebrew.
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You were birthed as a Jew.
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That was the first way.
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The second way was a proselyte.
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A proselyte was a Gentile who was brought into the Jewish community via conversion.
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And they did that.
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In fact, the Pharisees were very evangelistic.
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Not in a good way.
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But Jesus said, you'll cross sea and land to make one proselyte.
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Remember that? Jesus talked about that.
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He was saying, you'll go out of your way to bring somebody in and make them a Jew.
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But the way that they made them a Jew was through the ceremonies of the old covenant.
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And they would make them go through the process of circumcision.
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They would make them go through the process of becoming a Jew.
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And even then, they were not still considered the same as a native.
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They were a proselyte.
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They never were considered a full native Jew.
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The third category at this particular time in history were those who were identified simply by the title God-fearer.
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God-fearer.
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A God-fearer was essentially someone who believed in the God of Israel, but had not gone through the process of becoming a Jew.
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So he had not been circumcised.
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He had not gone through the ceremonial cleansing.
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But he still read the Torah.
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He still read the Scriptures.
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He still participated in some form or fashion within the community.
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If you remember the temple, they actually had a court for these people called the court of the what? Court of the Gentiles.
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It was designed for this type of folk.
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People who were not Jews couldn't go into the temple to worship.
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So there was a court designed specifically for them on the outside.
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And these people would be identified as God-fearers.
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Earlier in Acts, we came across the Ethiopian eunuch.
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Remember him? What did I say about him? I believe he was a proselyte.
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I believe he had been circumcised.
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I believe he was a Jew.
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Because nothing is made to the point of him receiving the Gospel.
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Now Cornelius comes, not circumcised.
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A Roman centurion.
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Not a Jew.
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Not a proselyte.
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Just a man who fears God.
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Now we got to deal with him.
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And what are we going to do with him? Now, I have so much in this text that I want to get to.
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And I don't want to overburden your minds.
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But I want to address a theological issue at this point.
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Because probably a third of my week this week was spent just dealing with one theological issue.
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And that is this.
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Cornelius, at this point in the story, verses 1-8, has not yet heard the Gospel.
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Yet he is spoken of as having characteristics of one who we would identify as having regeneration.
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It says he prayed to God.
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And that his prayers were pleasing to God.
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Now, verse 4.
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The Bible tells us in Hebrews 11-6, Without faith it is impossible to please God.
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Did y'all know that? People say all the time, Oh, isn't it great what these unbelievers are doing? They're out there doing good things.
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They're pleasing God.
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No, they're not.
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Apart from faith, it is impossible to please God.
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That which is not of faith is sin.
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People hate when I say that.
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It's just Scripture.
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Romans 14.
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That which is not of faith is sin.
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Which means every good thing the unbeliever does prior to faith is continuing in their rebellion against God.
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No matter how good it is.
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You say, oh, that's hurtful.
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I don't care.
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It's the way it is.
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It's the truth.
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Truth hurts.
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We move on.
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In this sense, though, it says his prayers pleased God.
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Which means his prayers stemmed from a heart of faith.
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So we know that at least at this point, he is exercising a form of faith.
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Because apart from faith, he can't please God.
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We also know that faith is a gift from God.
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You want to look at the Scriptures? Romans 12.
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Ephesians 2.
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I can give you many more.
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Faith itself is not something that is generated out of the heart of man.
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Faith is something that God opens our heart to do.
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We do not believe naturally.
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John 6.
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Verse 44.
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No one can come to me unless the Father in heaven draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day.
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John 6.
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Verse 65.
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No one can come to me unless the Father grants it to him.
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Gives him the ability to come.
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That coming to Christ in faith is a gift from God.
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We do not naturally do that on our own.
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So what he's doing by praying, and what he's doing by lifting up God here, is something that is being wrought in him by the Holy Spirit.
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Now, having said all that, later in the narrative in chapter 11.
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Verse 14.
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It says that he was saved on hearing the message of Peter.
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And there comes the confusion.
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Because at this point it seems like he's already regenerate.
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But yet it says later he was saved on hearing the message.
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So it becomes kind of confusing.
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Well, when did he get saved? And like I said, I spent a lot of time with this.
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And here's the reason why.
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How many of you are familiar with Pelagianism? There's one hand.
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Okay, maybe a couple.
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Not a big popular thing in 2015.
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But it was huge in the 5th century.
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Pelagianism is what Augustine battled back in the 5th century over the issue.
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Does a man by nature have the ability to please God? Or does God have to give him that ability? Because we are sinners by nature.
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Augustine said no.
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Man does not have the ability by nature.
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God must grant it to him.
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Pelagius said man does have the ability to please God.
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And can please him.
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Pelagius lost the debate.
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Because from scripture there's no doubt.
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Pelagius lost the debate.
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Became known as the great arch heretic Pelagius.
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That's what I like to call him.
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But Pelagius lost.
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And rightfully so.
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Because it's not scriptural that a man can please God apart from grace.
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That's what he was teaching.
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Having said all that though.
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This was one of the verses that Pelagius used.
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This was one of the passages that Pelagius argued from.
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Well Cornelius pleased God before he was saved.
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That's a huge issue.
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It's one worthy of our consideration.
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One worthy of us spending some time with.
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And as much time as I'd like to spend with it.
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I want to simply give you something to gnaw on.
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Something to chew on as you leave today.
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Cornelius is in a transitional time in history.
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Between the old covenant and the new covenant of God.
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Simeon and Anna.
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You remember those two characters when Jesus was born.
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Brought into the city and the two characters come up.
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Simeon and Anna both look forward to the coming of the Savior.
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And God had brought them to see Him so that they could see Him.
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And then pass knowing that the Lord had come.
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They too were in that same transitional period in history.
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Here's the reality folks.
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Cornelius could not please God in any way.
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If God were not already working in his heart.
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Philippians 2.13 says this.
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For it is God who works in you.
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Both to will and to do His good pleasure.
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If we do anything good towards God.
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It is because God has wrought that goodness within us.
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Very simple.
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It is God who both what? It is God who works within you to will and to do.
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Means God is the one who gives you the desire.
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And God is the one who gives you the ability.
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So if Cornelius is doing something that pleased God.
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It was because God had given him both the desire and the ability to do that thing.
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Do we understand? As much as some people want to use this text to argue the order salutis.
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And the order salutis is Latin for the order of salvation.
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Because people do.
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They want to make this an argument for the order salutis.
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This is not about the order salutis.
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This is about the expansion of the gospel.
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That's what this text is about.
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And if you spend all the time arguing as to whether or not.
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When did he truly become regenerate? When did the spirit really take over his heart? You are going to lose the point.
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And I hope I haven't made you lose the point by spending as much time as I did.
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Because all that is simply to say this.
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Nothing he did, did he do apart from the grace of God.
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That's all.
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Nothing he did.
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No prayer he prayed.
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No alm he gave.
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No good work did he do that pleased God.
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Was done apart from the grace of God.
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Simple? And now we move on.
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Because now that he has received this message from the angel.
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And by the way, I love the fact that it says he was terrified.
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Because all these talk.
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I hear people today talk.
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Oh I saw an angel.
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And it was so beautiful.
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And you know we walked.
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And we had ice cream on Hallelujah Boulevard.
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All that junk.
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Everybody in the Bible who saw an angel was afraid.
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Because at that moment you are face to face with one of God's holy creatures.
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And you are at that moment realizing how unholy you are.
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Think about Isaiah.
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In Isaiah chapter 6.
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It says he saw the Lord lifted up seated on his throne.
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The seraphim were around him singing holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty.
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And what did Isaiah do? He put his hand over his mouth.
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He said woe is me for I am undone.
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For I am a man of unclean lips.
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And I live among a people of unclean lips.
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And I have seen the Lord of hosts.
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He didn't cavort with God.
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Or go skipping through the streets of gold with God.
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He fell on his face.
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We all have a naturally low view of God.
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And a naturally high view of self.
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That's why John the Baptist said I must decrease.
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And he must increase.
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So we see the story.
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Cornelius has seen the angel.
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He realizes now he's got to sin for Peter.
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So verses 9-16 tell us about Peter.
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And that's where we are going to go now.
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We've seen the God fearing Gentile.
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Now we're going to see the law fearing Jew.
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And that's what Peter is.
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He's the law fearing Jew.
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Verse 9.
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The next day as they were on their journey and approaching the city.
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These are the messengers.
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Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray.
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And he became hungry and wanted something to eat.
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But while they were preparing it.
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He fell into a trance.
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And saw the heavens opened.
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And something like a great sheet descending.
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Being let down by its four corners upon the earth.
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In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air.
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And there came a voice to him.
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Rise Peter kill and eat.
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The great hunter verse by the way.
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If you're a hunter.
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That one inscribed somewhere.
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Rise kill and eat.
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But Peter said by no means.
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Lord for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.
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And the voice came to him again a second time.
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What God has made clean do not call common.
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This happened three times.
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And the thing was taken up at once to heaven.
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Now this is the sixth hour.
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This would have been noon.
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A normal time for prayer.
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He went up on the housetop.
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The houses had flat roofs.
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They normally had a staircase.
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Or some type of a ladder system to get up there.
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And there was a place to go and fellowship.
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Because the other houses that were nearby.
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People would call to one another and have fellowship.
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But also it was a place where you could go.
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And you could pray.
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And this is what Peter is doing.
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And while he's praying he gets hungry.
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I don't know if that ever happened to you.
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Especially when you're trying to fast.
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You sit down to pray.
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And every part of your body that wants you to do something else.
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Comes up.
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Well he sits down to pray.
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And he gets hungry.
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And God uses that hunger.
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That natural physical desire.
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To teach him a lesson.
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And he sees a vision.
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It says he fell into a trance.
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Basically everything that was normal to him.
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Stopped working.
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And he got to see it with spiritual eyes.
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Just for a moment.
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Something that God wanted him to see.
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This is not unique in scripture.
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God does this several times throughout the Bible.
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Where God will take someone.
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And let them see with spiritual eyes.
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Something he wants for them to see.
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And what he saw.
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It says it was a sheet.
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In the Greek language.
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It speaks more of like a ship's sail.
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That type of material.
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Big heavy sail type material.
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And it's let down by its four corners.
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And some of your translations say a vessel.
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It's a vessel.
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It was meant to hold something.
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And the animals in it were of all kinds.
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Particularly animals that were ceremonially.
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That was wrong.
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Ceremonially unclean.
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Animals that would not have ever entered the mouth of Peter.
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Now again.
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We don't live in this type of culture.
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So we don't understand the cultural shock that's happening here.
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We don't.
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We didn't grow up.
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Most of us as law keeping Jews.
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So we don't understand the idea of the rules of kosher.
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And why things have to be prepared a certain way.
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And have all the blood let out of it.
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And never to eat blood and anything.
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We don't understand that because we don't live that.
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This is a man who from birth had lived that.
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And here he sees a vision of all different sorts of animals.
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And God says take, rise, kill and eat.
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And what's his response? No.
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You might think that he's arguing with God.
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In a sinful way.
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And maybe he was.
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You know what I think? I think that at that moment Peter thought he was being tested.
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To do what is not to be done.
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And Peter was saying no.
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I can't.
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I won't.
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He has to be told three times.
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Now any of you with kids.
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You know what it's like having to tell more than once.
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The text says he had to be told three times.
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Why? Because he's convinced in the impropriety of the action.
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This cannot happen Lord.
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Nothing unclean has ever passed my teeth.
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It's never entered my lips.
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It's never gone down my throat.
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I can't do this.
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What is happening at this moment.
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Mustn't be missed by us.
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Because the animals and the food are not the point.
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I'll be it.
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The animals and the food are now made clean.
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And now we can't enjoy that pork sandwich on Sunday afternoon.
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Because the ceremonial laws have been fulfilled in Christ.
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Praise the Lord.
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Amen.
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But that's not the point.
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These animals in this vessel represent something more than your ability to have that good barbecue.
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These animals represent the most unclean thing in the history of the Jewish people.
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Us.
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We are the unclean thing.
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We are the animals.
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What were the Jewish people...
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How did they identify Gentiles? Dogs.
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Even Jesus at one point had a Gentile woman ask for something.
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And he said should the children's food be thrown to who? The dogs.
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The dogs.
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You see the point of this narrative is not the food.
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It's the people.
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That God has now made clean.
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He has opened the door to the Gentiles.
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Those who were cut off.
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Who literally if you went to a Gentile land as a Jew.
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You had to shake the dirt off your feet on the way back into Israel.
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So as to not contaminate Israel with the dirt from a Gentile land.
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That uncleanness has now been lifted.
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And God has said accept them.
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This is not just a dietary lesson.
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This lesson is about the expansion of the gospel to the Gentiles.
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Those who were once considered unclean.
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Have now been made clean through Christ.
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And beloved this is a huge, huge challenge.
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It's a huge challenge.
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One that Peter would never really get over.
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Well at least scripturally speaking we know he battled with.
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And that's what I want to show you to close today.
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Go with me to Galatians.
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Go to chapter 2.
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Now in the first part of Galatians Paul talks about his pedigree.
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He talks about the fact that he wasn't given the gospel by men.
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But by God himself.
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That after he was given the gospel he went away for a time.
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Where he spent time in fellowship and in communion with God.
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And in time of learning.
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Before he came back and ministered with the Gentiles.
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I'm sorry with the apostles.
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All that he talks about in chapter 1 and the beginning of chapter 2.
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But here in chapter 2 verse 11.
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It talks about his encounter with Peter.
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Now you know this is years past the conversion of Saul.
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So this is many years into the ministry of the gospel for Peter.
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This is well after the situation with Cornelius and Centurion.
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This is well after that.
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And listen to what Paul has to say to Peter.
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But when Cephas came to Antioch.
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Cephas is another name for Simon Peter.
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When Cephas came to Antioch.
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I opposed him to his face.
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Why? Because he stood condemned.
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Now not condemned to hell.
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But under the discipline of God.
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This is where Hebrews 12 indicates there is a type of discipline that believers can receive.
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That's not the hell discipline.
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But it's a discipline of our misbehavior as believers.
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He stands under that level and type of condemnation.
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He stands condemned.
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Verse 12.
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For before certain men came from James he was eating with the Gentiles.
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But when they came he drew back and separated himself fearing the circumcision party.
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And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him.
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So that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.
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But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel.
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I said to Cephas before them all.
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If you though a Jew live like a Gentile and not like a Jew.
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How can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews? He challenged.
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And I'm going to deal with this more next week.
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He challenged the guy who later the Roman Catholic Church would say was the first Pope.
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So his word was law according to Roman Catholicism.
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Paul didn't see it that way.
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Paul didn't see Peter as one who was unworthy of challenge.
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He went to his face and he said look here.
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I'm not sure he said it just like that.
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He said every time the Gentiles are here and your Jewish cronies are out.
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You have dinner with them and you fellowship with them.
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And you don't have no problem with it.
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But every time these Judaizers come around.
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You are so afraid of them that you will besmirch these people and go back with them.
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How dare you make that separation? What do we take from that? What do we take from that? Beloved it's simple.
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It really, really is simple.
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God has opened the door to every tribe, tongue, and nation of the world.
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He has opened the gospel to every person in the world.
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Every nation in the world.
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We do not have the right to hold the gospel back from anyone.
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And it is our duty.
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The charge of Christ is to go into the whole world.
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Not just Jacksonville.
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Not just Florida.
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Not just America.
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But the whole world with the gospel.
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Let's pray.
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Father I thank you for the gospel.
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I thank you for the truth.
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I thank you that you expanded it beyond Israel.
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Because in doing so you encompass most of us.
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And Father we are so thankful for the truth.
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We are so thankful for Cornelius.
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And the fact that you used him as the prototype.
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For all of us who would believe.
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And Father we thank you.
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That Peter was as we will see in the weeks to come.
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He was obedient and going.
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And though Lord he would falter and he would fail.
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Because he was not perfect.
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He still was an instrument in your hands to bring the gospel to the Gentiles.
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And for that we give you thanks.
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Lord this morning as we think about the gospel.
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And we consider what all it means.
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I pray Lord that it has been clearly preached today.
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That those under the sound of my voice have heard what the gospel is.
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That we are sinners.
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That we cannot come to Christ on our own.
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But by grace you give us the ability to come.
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By grace you open our hearts to believe.
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And by grace you adopt us into the family of God.
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Lord if there be one among us or many.
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Who have not experienced that grace.
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And been converted.
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I pray Lord that they have been moved today.
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Their hearts have been opened.
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That they would call upon Christ and know forgiveness of sins.
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Through repentance and faith.
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In Jesus name we pray and for his sake.
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Amen.