Not Them Anymore - Only Us

Let's have a word of prayer.

Father, God, we are so grateful for Jesus, who is

our advocate, our savior, who has brought love from heaven

to hear, who has taught us not to be racist,

but to be people who love every man, woman and

child from every race on the face of earth, because

there's only one race, the human race. And so guide

us today as we look at the New Testament teaching

that opened up the church to love in Jesus' name. Amen,

the title of the sermon is a little correction of

your bulletin. It is not them anymore. No, it's not more,

not them anymore, only us.

Now.

This week I pondered a number of meaningful quotes on

the subject of racial relations, and I'd like to share

far with you that bounced out and they resonated with me.

John Joseph Fort knew he was a Baptist preacher, became

an Episcopalian preacher. If you know anything about theology, that's

the massive.

Journey in life.

He wrote this, men build too many walls and not

enough bridges.

I like that.

Let's go to the second one. Mohammad Alli. Now I

like Muhammad Ali. He used to live right near I

went to the seminary on the Saint Joseph River near

Burrying Springs, Michigan, and Muhammad Ali. His boxing is fabulous

for in terms of the sport he was in, but

his greatness was his character.

In many ways.

He said, hating people because of their color is wrong.

And it doesn't matter which color does the hating. It's

just plain wrong. That's profound. Now, I think that statement

flies like a butterfly and stings like a bee. Now,

if you don't know anything about Muhammad Ali, that won't

make any sense. But he would often say that because

he was so fast, and he would say, I'm the

greatest boxer. But he was humble in other ways. H. G.

Wells wrote the Time Machine novel I wonder what he

would think of our time today. He said this, our

true nationality is mankind. So we get decided. Well, I'm

an American, I'm from this country. You know, we belong

as Christians to one nation. It's called God's Church. We

are one people. Profound statement. Really a personal hero of mine.

Abraham Lincoln, the author of the Emancipation Proclamation, one of

the greatest documents ever written in human history. He put

it plainly when he said, achievement has no color. Achievement

has no color. Friends, Our God loves all the peoples

of the earth. He is not a respector of persons,

a respector of races, and he wants politics out of

the way so we can become what he has envisioned

his people, one people. God is one. We must be one.

Ephesians two twelve to fourteen. Paul is writing, Remember that

you were at that time separated from Christ. He's speaking

to the gentiles, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers

of the governant, promised having no hope and without God

in the world, in other words, living senseless lives with

no meaning in paganism heathenism. And suddenly something happened to

you verse thirteen. But now in Christ Jesus, you who

once were far off, have been brought near. How in

the blood of Christ. The unifying factor for the human

race in the book of Ephesians is the blood of Christ.

In fact, the blood of Christ unites heaven and earth.

It heals the universe. It heals the schism that Lucifer

started when he rebelled in the presence of God. In

other words, we have been brought near in the blood

of Christ. Some people said, well, the blood of Christ

imagery is pagan. Look, anything that brings us together is

not pagan. It's from God, for he is our Peace,

who has made us both one and has broken down

the dividing wall of hostility. When they put that plaque,

when Pilot put that plaque over Jesus head, Jesus king

of the Jews. It was written in languages more than Hebrew,

so it was the message for the world. He may

be the king of the Jews, but he's the king

of the universe too, dying for us all on the

cross of Calvary. Peter is the subject of a sermon

to a large extent this morning. Peter was born into

ancient Judaism. He was born into a racist family, into

a racist religious experience. The rabbis were racist at the

time when Peter came online. And that's what Christ had

to work with.

Friend.

It's not wrong for a person to be born into

a racist environment. It's not wrong, but it is wrong

for a person to stay that way. Because of the

Gospel of Peace, Peter had to change. And I'll make

a statement for all of us. Because of the Gospel

of peace. We have to change. According to the tes estimate,

God established the early Apostolic Church to abolish racism, to

take those who were far and bring them near, to

unite people of diversity into one family, one faith, one

culture of commitment to God through Jesus Christ. Now racism.

If I were to ask you the question where was

racism born? Where does it begin in the Bible? What

would you say? At the Tower of Babel exactly. But racism,

according to the passage you read, was crucified on Calvary's cross.

And for the Church, it ends.

At Pentecost, because when the Holy Spirit is poured out

at Pentecost, God brings people together, not by confusing their languages,

but by uniting them through clear languages. The Christian Church

is ground zero for bringing people together. After Peter rased

Tabitha from the dead and Acts nine, p. Forty three,

he stayed at job but with Simon the Tanner for

many days. What does it mentioned Simon the Tanner, Well,

my son has tanned animals that he has found.

In the wild.

It's an awful thing, the tan and animal if you

know how to do it. The story of Peter lands

at Joppa, where Simon the Tanner, lived significant person in

the story. For Peter to stay at Simon's At Tanner's house,

Simon the Tanner's house, it was of itself a huge

step forward for Peter as an ancient Jew in the

Roman world. Tanner's prepared the skins of all kinds of animals.

Some animals were clean for the Jewish people, like cows, sheep,

and goats. Other animals run clean, like bears, which were

used to make hoods and capes for soldiers in the

Roman world. Pigs were used for certain kinds of fine leather.

Imagine a Jewish tanner trying to tan a pig hard

for them. The whole process of being a tanner involved

in an awful process in which in animal skins were

soaked in dog dung, lime urine so the hair would

fall off and it would soften the leather. Though that's

how they did it in the Roman world, you can

see why the rabbis required that a tanner lived fifty

cubits outside of town because of the smell. According to

the Jewish rabbis, of a man became a tanner, his

wife was permitted to sue for divorce because of the smell.

That is rabbinical law. At the time of Jesus, no wonder,

the Jewish people wore linen all the time instead of

skins of animals. Even clean animals became defiled. They became

what the rabbis called common if they touched the unclean.

Common was another category of defilent besides akathartos unclean.

In Greek, the rabbis.

Had a special category for defilement, to show that something

that is clean can become defiled by simply touching it.

If godd declared something clean, they taught, but if the

clean thing touched the unclean, then it became defiled by

by contact, and they called that coinos common. The Greek

word coinos means to join, to be defiled by touching

the unclean. So if a clean animal touched an unclean animal,

carrying the rabbis, you should not eat the clean animal.

The same principle applied to the washington of hands. If

you touched the unclean, your hands were common, you didn't

wash right, then you became defiled. Your hands became common,

not unclean. It's often translated unclean in our English Bibles,

but the word is common. Mark seven other places for

the Jewish people, the gentiles were dogs. Now the word barbarian,

what does it sound like to you? What does the

word barbarian sound like?

Bar bar? Barb bar?

What is this sound like a dog barking?

The Barbarians were the dogs, and to the Jews, they

thought the barbarians the dogs were everybody else with them.

In antiquity and Baba and Nessief one fourteen, verse six,

the not so wise rabbis said, the Jews are are

human beings, but the nations of the world are not

human beings but beasts. Another rabbi claimed that the non

Jew is an animal in human form and condemned to

serve the Jew day and night. They are to be

our slaves. That was nitrash topping off twenty five.

L or whatever. That's the footnote.

The rabbis even claimed that a Jew could violate a

non Jewish little girl, but he could.

Not marry her. That's right.

Some of the rabbis also allowed for the murder of

non Jewish boys or girls, but not the other way around.

You could steal, cheat, and lie to a non Jew

and that was okay, but they were considered to be

non humans. Plainly stated the Gentiles were animals for the

Jews in Peter's days, animals whose lives meant nothing to

God and nothing to a Jew. So Christ came to

a racist country when he came to save the world.

He came to a country then raised up by God

to bless all the.

Nations of the earth.

But that nation could not be a blessing to anyone,

because it couldn't love. Peter was taught this evil, racist

nonsense from the time he was a little child. These

satanic ideas were mixed in his early childhood with religious

training by the rabbis. Now it's fair to say Christ

told the Seraphenician woman, I didn't come to anyone except

the lost house, the sheep of the lost House of Israel.

But he healed the Seraphenician woman's son because he was

opening the door by saving Israel from its awful sin,

its racism, It's evil.

He had an eye save the world.

These satanic ideas were mixed in Peter's mind, and even

though Peter had walked with Jesus, Peter had talked with Jesus,

Peter had learned from Jesus, it was not an easy

thing for Peter to get these bad racist ideas out

of his Christian head. In the Book of Acts, jesus

instruction to the apostles and to Peter was clear from

the beginning. Look at Acts one, verse eight. But you

shall receive what does it say power when who comes

upon you? Right, there's no such thing in power in

the Church without the Holy Spirit. When the Holy spirits

come upon you, you have power. And what is the Holy

Spirit empower the church to do? You shall be my

witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria. A

three phase evangelizing of the world, and then to the end.

Of the earth.

After the Gospel appeared to Cornelius, after excuse me, After

the Angel appeared to Cornelius, the centurion Cornelius, it was

not an easy thing for him to bring Simon Peter

from the house of Simon the Tanner. Why because you

have to hold your nose to get someone out of

that house. The house smelled. That was the Tanner's trade.

Look at Acts ten, verse nine. Now, as these messengers

from Cornelius are coming sent by the Angel to Peter,

Peter has a vision verse nine. The next day, as

they were on their journey and coming near the city.

Peter went up on the housetop to pray about the

sixth hour. The sixth hour is the hour in which

there was darkness over the cross, the sixth hour and

the ninth hour of prayer times for the early Church.

Jesus died at the ninth hour the sixth hour. He

was in darkness, and he became hungry and desired.

Something to eat.

But while they were preparing it, he fell into a

trance verse eleven, and saw the heaven open, and something

descending like a great sheet, let down by four corners

upon the earth. In it were all kinds of animals

and reptiles and birds of the air. Look at verse thirteen,

and there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter, kill

and eat verse fourteen. But Peter said, no, Lord, for

I've never eaten anything that is. Now does he say

unclean or does he say two things?

Here? What does he say common or unclean? Now?

Based on what I just showed with you, unclean would

be like a piece of park.

It would be an unclean animal, like a snake or vulture.

But common would be a clean animal that touches the

unclean and becomes defiled by contact.

Both are here in mind.

In other words, all kinds of animals were in that sheet, clean, unclean,

and those that were termed common because the.

Clean touched the unclean.

Peter is here claiming that he's not eating unclean animals

like pigs, rat, snakes, catfish, turtles, eagles, and the like

Pepperoni on your pizza is unclean. Yeah, which were unclean

in the Bibles identified by God to Noah before God

ever gave the Law of Moses. We know that there

are unclean animals. In Genesis seven, Peter is also claiming

that he has never eaten anything that is common, a

clean animal that has touched an unclean animal that has

become coinos contact defiled. The idea of the unclean was

given by God very clearly Leviticus eleven, Genesis seven. And

now some people say, well, because this dream, I can

go out and eat pork, I can go out and

eat anything unclean. Not so you come to the very

last book of the Bible, in Revelation chapter eighteen, and

an unclean animal, an unclean bird, represents a demon.

How many when to eat demon food?

Okay, So to stay away from unclean animals is valid

all the way through the New Testament through the very

last book of the Bible. In fact, a clean animal,

in principle, was one you could offer on an altar

to God. If you could sacrifice it to God, you

could eat it. Our bodies are a temple of the

Holy Spirit.

We see.

The Rabbis weren't satisfied with the word of God. They

wanted to add to the word of God. So they

created this category of common where if it's clean, blessed

by God, but it touches something, uh uh, it's common,

it's defiled by contact. And Jesus fought against that verse fifteen,

and the voice came to him again a second time.

What God has cleansed, you must not call, and what's

the word there common? See, the focus is not so

much on the unclean as it is the idea that

something that is clean touching something that is unclean becomes common.

God has purified so that that doesn't exist. Now Peter

is trying to connect the dots to figure out what's

going on. God is telling Peter here that something that

is clean cannot be defiled as common because it touches

the unclean.

That is true.

Both for food and for people.

Verse sixteen.

This happened three times, and the thing was taken up

at once to have Peter saw the vision repeat itself

three times so he would realize that God meant what

he was saying to Peter. While Peter was perplexed in

trying to figure out what this very strange, bizarre vision meant, Carnelius,

three messengers show up. Now Peter had seen the vision

three times. Three messengers show up and they start calling

and asking for Peter. They knew him by name the

Holy Spirit as the third person. The God had speaks

to Peter, commanding him to go meet them. In that

he has sent to Peter. And now some people say,

how do you know that the Holy Spirit is a person?

Have you ever asked that question? Just read the Book

of Acts, Tim, just a little more on my mic.

Just read the Book of Acts. And when you read

the Book of Acts. Thank you. You read the Book

of Acts, you will discover that Peter here is not

You will discover it. The Holy Spirit will speak to

the apostles to people as a person. He said, he commanded.

In fact, the Holy Spirit even commands Jesus in the

Book of Luke.

He sends him out.

Jesus is subject to the authority of the Holy Spirit.

You can't blur the Holy Spirit with Jesus. He is

a separate person one in the Godhead. But he was

actually the Lord of Jesus Christ in some ways in

the New Testament. So the Holy Spirit is the third person.

The God had speaks to Peter verse nineteen, and while

Peter was pondering the vision, the Spirit said to him, behold,

three men are looking for you. Rise and go down

and accompany them without hesitation, for I have sent them.

So the Holy Spirit calls himself, I have sent them.

And when the man appeared to Peter, they inform him

that their master, Cornelius is good.

He's an upright man. He's good to the Jews. The

Jews respect him.

Now, Peter probably wasn't impressed with that at all, but

he kept on listening to the servants as they spoke.

And then they told Peter that the Angel appeared to us,

a bright, shining being. A man appeared to us, and

he sent us to you to hear what.

You will tell us.

Oh, Peter is suddenly in the mix of an angel,

the Holy Spirit, sucking him into something he is not

comfortable with. But Peter called them into his house as guests,

and then he went with them the next day to

meet Cornelius. Because you don't defy the Holy Spirit, you

don't act like the Holy Spirit isn't the person you

obey the Holy Spirit. He went on the errand and

because of the angel in the Holy Spirit, Cornelius was

expecting Peter, and so he welcomed Peter and the others inside.

And now we have a racist godly Jew growing in

his mindset. We have Cornelius who needs the message that

the Jewish Christian has, and the Holy Spirit has put

him in the same house.

Wow.

Perhaps Cornelius had learned that Peter had raised Tabitha from

the dead. In any case, he greeted Peter and look

at his greeting verse twenty five of Acts ten. When

Peter entered, Cornelius met him and fell down at his

feet and worshiped ten. Is that the right response? You

can say no, no, look at verse twenty six.

Thank you.

Yeah, it's just it's the lack of humidity. I appreciate that.

I'll give me a little bead there verse twenty six.

But Peter lifted him up, saying, stand up. I to

am a man I mean Peter was the rock star

of the early Christian Church. He was called the Rock,

Peter the Rock, and yet Peter would not take the

title of God.

He would not.

Allow a person to bow down to him.

There are many people in history today, many people in

the world today, who believe the pope is the direct

representative Peter. He is Peter after the long line of

Peter's in words and the kings of Peter and Son,

and some of the popes in history have made some

amazing claims. Pope Leo the thirteenth, there's a statement June twenty, nineteen,

eighteen ninety four. He said, we hold turn to the

slight next light, we hold upon this earth the place

of Almighty God. That's an amazing statement for a man

to make. Pope Leo the thirteenth didn't know what he

was talking about. Stephan is the fifth a ninth century pope,

the heart of the Middle Ages. The popes, like Jesus,

are conceived by their mothers through the overshadowing of the

Holy Ghost. All popes are a certain species of man

gods for the purpose of being mediator between God and mankind.

Next Light, he continues.

All powers in heaven as well as on earth are

given to them.

Now would Peter have said something like that.

Did Peter tell Cornelius, by the way, go ahead and

worship me. I am I've had god like power, I'm

a God. No, Peter said, don't do that, don't worship me.

Now.

If Peter were alive today, Peter would reach out to

the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church or any church

that venerates the pope in this way, and he would say,

not so I commanded Cornelius not to do it.

You don't do it either.

But we see, we live in a day when there's

been so much drift away from the Word of God.

People revere people in ways they should not Peter.

In fact, as Jesus says of a religious leader, you

shouldn't even call them. You shouldn't call them anything but teacher,

because we are not to reverence someone, We're not to

hold them in this high holy awe as if they're

a god person. They are simply a servant of the Lord.

Peter understood this that the vision was not about animals.

It was ultimately about.

People, and this poor man who worshiped God as best

he knew, needed more information.

He needed the.

Gospel, the Apostolic Gospel, to turn to God. Verse twenty seven,

Acts ten. And as he talked with him, he went

in and found many persons gathered. Suddenly, that pagan Roman

who's not so pagan because he's praying to God as

best he knows how his house becomes a church. Look

at verse twenty eight, and he said to them, you

yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to

associate with or to visit any of one of another nation.

But God has shown me that I should not call

any man common or unclean. In other words, you're not

a bad person because you're not a Jew, and you're

not a bad person if you are a Jew because

you interact with those who are not Jews.

That's what he's saying.

You don't get defiled by hanging out with people of

a different color, a ethnic background. You are just as

good as they are. God has leveled the playing field

verse twenty nine. So when I was sent for, I

came without objection. I asked, then, why you sent for me?

So he's putting it back on Elias. Now, Peter here

settles it for all time for all of us. When

God sends someone into our church, friend, it doesn't matter

where they were born, what their religion was, how bad

their life has been. No human being that Jesus died

for is.

Common or unclean.

A person from the outside that God sends into your

life is not an unclean person.

Period that mentally ill are not unclean.

Those who have committed sins in the past do not

have to be considered unclean if they're coming to Christ.

The doors of the church are open for those who

need the Lord, and so Peter here is honest about

the teaching and preaching of the New Testament. Peter says,

But God has shown me, you see me, Peter, that

I should not call any man common or unclean. The

problem is not everybody else. That's in me, my thinking,

my thoughts, and God has corrected me with the Gospel.

At this point, Peter asked them why they had sent him,

and Cornelius gave the answer. Now, getting back to this,

Peter is stunned that you know, God gave him the

keys in Matthew sixteen, the keys of the Gospel, not the.

Keys of authority.

Peter opened up the Gospel at Pentecost to the Jews.

He opened up the Gospel to the Samaritans by preaching

to the Samaritans. And now there was a Roman standing

before him. He was given the third key to open

the Gospel to the gentile Roman world. In verses thirty

four to forty three, we have Peter's sermon condensed by

Luke Acts ten thirty four to forty three. And Peter

opened his mouth and said, truly, I perceive that God

shows no partiality. Now, if God shows no partiality, should

we show partiality? No, h, I grew up in the

Deep South. Anybody here grew up in the Deep South? Nobody?

Did I feel pretty alone up here?

Now?

My goodness, if I revert to my Southern accent, you

may kick me out of the church today.

Did someone raise their end? You and I?

Brother, we came from the Deep South. I mean I

came from a place that was racist on steroids, and

I was taught that as a kid. But you know,

my best friends were African American boys because I was

considered white trash. See, it wasn't just racial and ethnic,

it was also socioeconomic. In our grade school, there were

different groups. I was in a group based on the

fact I was poor and Carl my best friend, who

was an African American was in the same group because

he was an African American, and we all banded together

in the second group to get the best grades to

make the first group look bad because we didn't.

Believe achievement it was based on race or ethnic things.

We would work harder, get good grades and show up

the teachers. And one day they pulled me aside said Mike,

we don't like what's happening here. My teacher said, we'd

like you to move to the first group and leave

the others. I said, I'm staying with my friends. So

we held together and we played with the minds of

our teachers.

That's racist.

But when I came to this area, I discovered racisms

up here too. I preached a sermon on racism over

twenty years ago at the church I was pastoring to

come Apart, Maryland, and within minutes people were going after

my job. I mean it was printing the Adventist Review,

but literally it was used as one of the reasons

to fire me. Don't tell me racism isn't here. Also,

do you realize racism is in all of us unless

we come to the cross and we realize that Every

human being is our brother, is our sister. The person

God sends into your life, whether you're used to them

or not, is a precious person that may be your

best friend in all of eternity.

So why not start here? In the church.

The early Church was struggling with the stuff that we

struggle with at times. Peter opened his mouth and he said, truly,

I perceive that God shows no partiality. If we had

nothing but this verse alone, we have absolute proof that

our God is not a racist.

He is not a k k K kind of God.

He is a kind God with a big heart for

everyone verse thirty five. But in every nation anyone who

fears him. Now, some religious traditions will say that only

the elect can be saved. Now, that doesn't work with

the word anyone John three point sixteen. For God so

loved the world that he gave his only begotten son,

that who whosoever Jesus died for the whosoevers, he died

for the anyone. Coing to Daniel nine twenty four, he

died for sin and iniquity with no definite article, which

means all sin and iniquity, whether you make it or not.

Christ died for Caiaphas. He died for the people in

the cross that he labored with that would never be saved.

He died for their sins. But in every nation anyone

who fears him, that means loves him. Diuteronmy tent twell,

the fear of the Lord is the love the Lord,

and does what is right? What does it say is

acceptable to him? God accepts people. Now, if God's in

the accepting business, shouldn't we be in the accepting business?

Also? We should be.

You know that the word which he sent to Israel

preaching good news of peace by Jesus Christ.

He is Lord of all.

Peter continues the word which was proclaimed throughout all Judea,

beginning from Galilee after the baptism which John preach.

Peter is sharing.

The gospel with Cornelius, a gospel of grace, a gospel

of coming together, a gospel in which God forgives, God restores,

God accepts people. Peter told Cornelius that Jesus is Lord

of all friend, Jesus is lord of seventh they have

and as Christians right, He's also the Lord of the

Hosannah church that meets here on Sunday, noticip somebody that

why would we have those people in our church because

God led them to us. I can remember when we

were praying, we had someone lined up to come to

reaching hearts. God did not lead them to us. We

begin to fast and pray because there were spiritual signals

that this would have been a mistake. And I remember

standing right out there we were praying, and I saw

a group of people park at the front of the

parking lot newly made church. They walked down together and

it was the leadership pastor Freddie and others of the

Hosannah Church.

And when they.

Walked down, I could sense that God was leading. We

were going to interview the other church, and we did

interview them. They said, you probably would never accept us.

We were not a big church. We're Nazarenes. Nazarenes are

more like us than any other group outside of Adventism.

Most people don't know that they arose shortly after the

Second Great Awakening. They are very similar in many ways

are the organization. They are not tongue speaking. They in fact,

they repudiated the tongue speaking movement. They believe in the

Second Blessing of John Wesley's the Holy Spirit as the

fruit of the spirit love. They pray fervently, but they

pray in their language, and so if you don't know Spanish,

you can assume whatever you like. But these dear people pray.

Now.

I've come into the church here and I have seen

the senior pastor, Pastor Freddie's father, who's now retired, but

he preaches a lot praying for us. In the back

room over there, he says, Pastor and Mike have been

p for you, been praying for you. I mean, look,

if someone's praying for me and they don't know about

the Sabbath, they don't know prophecy, but then they have Jesus.

Is that person a friend of mine? You better believe it.

And they're not gonna listen the prophecy or Jesus if

we don't love them like they love us. God led

these people to us. And Mike, you've worked with them.

You've seen how these genuine Christian qualities there are they perfect? No,

because we're not perfect. But dear heart, we need to

be in the uniting business. Not to sacrifice faith and principle, No,

but to save people. We must be instruments of the Gospel.

And that's what Peter is doing here. And he goes

in verse thirty seven the Word which was proclaimed throughout

all Jaedea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism which John preached.

Now Peter told Cornelius that Jesus is the Lord of all.

Look at verse thirty eight, how God anointed Jesus of

Nazareth with the Holy Spirit with power. He went about

doing good and healing all that were oppressed by the devil.

You see the word all in verse thirty eight. Christ

didn't pick and choose who heal. He healed anyone who

needed the Gospel, and it says for God was with him.

If you want God to be with you, get out

of this business of virtue signaling everybody else like how

bad they are, and start getting the business of saving

people that are different from you, learning to speak their language,

understanding and loving them. You will be doing the work

of the Holy Spirit, the very work that Jesus did.

And verse thirty nine Peter then unites his experience with Jesus,

and we are witnesses to all that he did. Both

in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They

put him to death by hanging him on a tree.

They rejected him too. Verse forty but God raised him

up on the third day and made him manifest. That's

a direct allusion to Daniel nine twenty three and twenty

four and Daniel eight, verse fifteen and others. The mare

the appearance of the Messiah. He was manifest verse forty one,

not to all the people, but to us, who were

chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with

him after he rose from the dead. Our faith is

not some scandal. We touched a resurrected man. We ministered

with him for three and a half years. We saw

him alive for a long time, forty days before he

went to heaven. Our faith is rock solid sure that

death does not overcome the Christian that has faith in

Jesus Christ and verse.

Forty two.

And he commanded us to preach to the people and

to testify that he is the one ordained by God

to be the judge of the living and the dead.

That's a Daniel seventh picture. The son of Man will

appear in the judgment seat of God. He will receive

his kingdom, how by judging the living and the dead.

In verse forty three. It's the clincher in Peter's Little

sermon that opened the Roman world. The third key, the

keys that were giving him opened the Roman mind to

Jesus Verse forty three. To him, all the prophet's spare

witness that everyone who believes in him. That's John three

point sixteen stuff. For God so loved the world that

he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever no, not

the good, not the pict not the chosen anyone. He

says that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of

sins through his name. Now, I can't preach this without

getting excited. Now here's why I'm a sinner. How many

of you were in the club. I'm a sinner. I

have failed God in my life. I don't want to

stand up here and act like I'm some perfect saint

ready for translation because of what I have done. Friends,

I need a right now, righteousness good enough for every

day of my life and the judgment day too. And

I don't find it in me. You know where I

find it in Jesus Christ, my savior, the forgiveness of sins. Now,

Peter's saying, this gift isn't just for Jews, It isn't

just for people with a lot of religious knowledge. This

is for anyone who calls in the name of the Lord.

Anyone who comes to Christ gets forgiven. That's how it works.

So shouldn't we be about sharing Jesus with the power

of prophecy as prominent in our experience? What do you

think shouldn't we be about that? That's what they were about.

I like to read a statement to you from the

Spirit of Prophecy, and it's amazing statement. It's one of

my favorite statements and all of Sister White's writings. It

comes after eighteen eighty eight the Great Minneapolis Conference on

Righteous by Faith. The deepest teaching of the on Righteous

by Faith anywhere is coming from her pen I guarantee it.

She writes.

The emancipation papers of our race were signed by the

blood of the Son of God, and away was open

for the message of hope and mercy to be carried

to the ends of the earth. Now whoever will may

reach forth and take hold of God's hand and may

make peace with him, and they shall make peace. The

heathen are no longer to be wrapped in midnight superstition.

The gloom is to disappear before the bright beams of

the sun of righteousness. The power of hell has been overcome.

The truth of the words have been proved. I am

sought of them that asks not for me. I am

found of them that sought me not. I said, behold me,

behold me unto a nation that was not called by

my name. God is a God who reached out to

save a world that would never have reached out defined him.

And Jesus is God's guilt to humanity, all humanity. When

Jesus died. I love this statement. The emancipation papers of

our race were signed by the blood of the Son

of God. She's referring to Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. The big

one was when Jesus died on the cross. Acts ten

forty four records that while Peter was still preaching, and

before he finished his sermon, the Holy Spirit fell on

the people. Before they were baptists. I mean, they didn't

even have a chance to come forward an after call.

They were hearing the word of God. They were responding

to the word, and through the words, suddenly the Holy

Spirit came upon them verse forty four. While he was

still saying this, the Holy Spirit fell on all who

heard the words, and the believers from among the circumcised.

It's the Jews who came.

With Peter were amazed because the gift of the Holy

Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. This

is a breakthrough in Apostolic Christianity. This is a place

in which the Church will now be multi ethnic. It

will not be a certain political group, a certain ethnic group,

or that it will be multi ethnic. We're all ground

as a level. Notice that the Holy Spirit fell on

those who heard the word. Now we live in a

time where people said, well, we get the Holy Spirit

because we have loud music, we jump up and down.

You never hear these people do that, have you.

Yeah, And when we get the Holy Spirit they start

doing this, and they're not Holy Spirit that way. These

people got the Holy Spirit by hearing the word of

God and accepting Jesus. That's how you get the Holy Spirit.

Before they were even baptized, these Gentiles began to speak

in tongues. Now we know from the context that these

tongues are real languages, because the Greek says they spoke

they glorified God. And then the Jews heard it, which

means it had to be at least Hebrew and Aramaic.

They heard and they recognized that they were glorifying God

because their language was being spoken. God was giving the

gift of languages to these gentiles to speak Jewish languages,

Aramaic and Hebrew, at least so that they could hear

that they were glorifying God. Acts ten forty six. For

they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God. The

Greek literally says they were speaking greatly of God. How

do you know that they understood? Then Peter declared verse

forty seven, can anyone forbid water for baptizing these people

who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?

I mean, they already got the outpoint of the White Spirit.

We got to hurry up and baptized them. That's what

he's saying. Why would you forbid them from being baptized?

Verse forty eight. And he commanded them to be baptized

in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him

to remain for some days. Friends, God's Church is made

up of all kinds of people everywhere.

I don't know about you. I'm glad of that.

I'm glad of that because of Jesus. The Church is

not them anymore. The Church is only us, not them anymore,

only us. Why because Jesus signed the emancipation papers of

the human race at the Cross of Calvary. In Jesus,

there is no dividing wall anymore. In Jesus, we are

all sons and daughters of God, brothers and sisters, God's family,

the Church, and those who God has brought together. Let

no man or no woman, no political ideology, no nation,

put them asunder and divide them, not them anymore, only us.

Mm hmmm.

Mm hmm. All the colors of a rainbow.

Scaressa blue and forest, green, red and yellow flowers on

the hillside grove.

But Lord, what color is soul? Chilled and laugh and

play together.

They don't know what's bad or good.

They don't understand they're in the wrong neighbor.

My Lord, what color is a soul?

H Angels up in heaven looking for that day strife

and trouble all will vanish out of every tribe and nation.

Say it's redeemed of God. Shall come redd and yell.

Little black and white will join to know that there

is no color to soul. Angels up in heaven looking

for that day, strife and trouble.

All will vanish way.

Out of every tribe and nation, says redeemed of.

God shall come.

Redd and yellow, black and white.

Will John tying to know that there is no color, Sus,

so red and yellow, black and white will join to

know that there is no color.

She was so thank you, Dan, thank you.

That's fay, Dear heavenly Father, Oh, thank you for loving

us sinful, failing hateful people at times, and bringing Jesus

to us, making our race part of the true the Godhead,

incorporating humanity into the second person the Godhead. I can't

fathom that. I am grateful that you are not a racist.

You took the most awful beings in the universe and

made him your family.

Father. Heal us, Father, heal us.

From evil, the kind of evil that would measure a

person by the color of their skin, where they came from,

or whether they've messed up and sinned it in their

life or their knowledge of theology. Lord, May we seek

to save as Jesus saved us, and never look back

and cherish every soul you bring into her life. Thank

you in Jesus's name.

Amen.