Acts Chapter 10 (2009)

Second Corinthians, I'm sorry, first Corinthians.

He said, Brother, when I came unto you, I came not.

With excellency of speech, declaring unto you the testimonies of our Lord Jesus Christ.

He said, If I determine to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

And so there's nothing better we can actually talk about than to actually talk about Jesus.

And of course, that's more than just saying his name.

Jesus is the word of God.

That's what he is.

And of course, as that song said, he is the way, and that is to the Father.

He is the truth.

And then of course, he's the life.

That's what he is.

He's the way, the truth, and the life.

He is the everlasting.

You know, that's these are some scriptures that actually cause us a great confusion.

One place he's called the mighty God.

And uh that makes people think he's talking about the Father.

He's not the Almighty God, but he is, the Bible does call him, uh, it calls him the mighty God.

He's called the mighty God, and that's what he is.

Then he's also called, this is a uh a paradox for those whose eyes isn't open.

He's called the everlasting father.

You say, well, that's gotta be talking about God the Father.

It's absolutely it's not.

It's talking about his son.

And then again, he's called the eternity, he's called the everlasting, he's called the first and the last.

You say, well, that's got to be talking about the father.

It absolutely is not.

But yet he wears all of those titles.

He wear all of those titles, and even the name, J E-S-U-S, Jesus, is dispensational.

And the world to come, uh, I shouldn't say the world to come, I'm gonna say the world without end.

Uh that name, Jesus, will not be the name that he will be wearing.

And it's not the name that we'll be wearing.

But the Father will actually give his son, and not only his son, but all the bride members, a name that no man knoweth, save he that receiveth.

What will that name be?

Well, we'll have to receive it before we know.

But it won't be Jesus is a redemption name.

For that's the name he wears when he's actually saving his people from their sins.

Uh, that's his name that he's wearing while he's redeeming a fallen man, while he's restoring that which he took not away.

That is a redemptive name, that's a dispensational name.

And of course, uh God the Father, he works in times and seasons, and he works through his son.

I think the Bible says uh that is, as the uh Paul was writing to that church that was in uh uh Jerusalem in the book of Hebrews, he said, God, now that's God the Father.

He said, God who let me say this: whenever the apostles use the term God, they're talking about God the Father.

And how you know that, Brother Brown, because it always says, in the in the same verse, whenever you see him mention God in the apostles, in any of the writing, in any of the epistles, whenever he mentions God, he'll also say, and his son Jesus Christ, or in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

He always defined the two.

And so, uh, and of course, there's a group out there uh who says, well, you ought to love God enough to call him by his name.

Well, what is his name?

They say, Well, his name is Jehovah.

Well, that's not his name.

Jehovah is a title.

Believe it or not, it's a title.

And uh, do you know Jesus Christ never one time called his father Jehovah?

You know the apostles never one time referred to the father as Jehovah.

Uh that uh that term Jehovah, again, is a title.

And uh is it's a prefix to a dispensation or a uh a dispensational truth or a it's a prefix to another name.

It's called Jehovah Jarah, that's the Lord that provides, Jehovah Tiskanu, that's the Lord our righteousness, Jehovah Shalom, that's the Lord our peace, Jehovah is a prefix, it's dispensational as well.

And so uh it's like me.

Uh as long as my sons are living and my daughter is living, uh I wear the name father.

Uh uh they call me daddy.

Well, that's dispensational.

Once they cease to live, uh nobody has the right to call me daddy because that dispensation has ended, and I'll never be their father again.

If we all overcome, and I I trust God we do, I will be their eternal brother.

I will no longer be their father.

And so they can call me daddy, and I answer to that name, but that's dispensational.

Uh my mother and father call me son, and uh that I am, yet son is a title.

But when we cease to live in this earth and we obtain or we're counted worthy of the resurrection in that world, I'll never be son again.

That's dispensation, that'll end forever.

Uh, grace unto her, I'm a husband.

Uh uh, she called me sweetie, and I sure am.

But uh, all of that'll cease.

That's just all just titles, temporary.

And so everything that you see, the Lord works in times and seasons.

He works in times, it depends on what the Lord is doing at that hour.

What is he doing?

Is he providing?

Is he uh is he giving us peace?

Is he giving us uh uh righteousness?

And of course, that's what God the Father revealed himself in the Old Testament.

And so he says in Hebrews that God, and that's God the Father, at sunderous, that word means different, at sunderous times and in diverse manner, spake unto the fathers, that's Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the patriots of the nation of Israel, uh by the prophets.

He said, but has in these last days, that's the last days of that Jewish age, spoken to us by his what?

Son, by his son.

And so you see a father and you see a son.

And you notice you don't see the Holy Ghost in there because the Holy Ghost is not a person.

He is not the third person of the Godhead, but the Holy Ghost or the Holy Spirit is the active force of the Father.

He is the life-giving substance of the Father.

Uh, he is the uh the present representation of his father in the earth.

Uh he's omni, he's omnipresent.

He's everywhere at the same time.

Is he in hell?

Well, absolutely he's in hell.

He is absolutely in hell.

Uh, I think he says in the psalm, he said, if it made my bed in hell, he said, You're there.

Where would I flee from your presence?

So that's not talking about a rotisserie in the ground, but that's talking about these houses of worship, uh, these dens and caves that man has concocted.

And uh the Bible does call systems, uh it calls systems hell.

Uh it calls conditions hell, it calls states hell.

Uh state means a state of being.

Uh I've been in hell.

Have you been in hell?

I've been in hell, spent a long time in hell.

Uh that was a that was a rim beneath the will of God for my life.

And uh that was definitely a hellish state, and it was a hell.

But thank God, brother.

I'm so glad that he has the keys of death and hell.

He let me out.

And I'm happy about that.

And so uh we thank God for the Father.

And you know you can't describe God, we don't talk about God enough.

Uh I know we're gonna have what Bible said tonight, but you know you really can't describe him, Brother Michael?

What can you say about God?

You can't even articulate, I can't communicate uh the awesomeness of God.

The Bible said his ways are past finding out.

And uh who has been his counselor?

Who has advised God on anything?

His ways are absolutely past finding out.

We'll be spending 60 trillion years still learning about our great Father.

His ways are just that broad.

They are past finding out.

And so what is necessary is that we know him in his righteousness, we know him in his holiness, uh, that we can actually uh uh uh reflect, we can reflect, uh emulate uh the righteousness of God.

That's what it is to be a son.

It's one thing to be uh a seed, but it's something else to be a son.

Jesus Christ made reference to the nation of Israel in the uh eighth chapter of John.

Uh he said, You're Abraham's seed.

That's what you were.

He said, but you're not Abraham's children.

If you were Abraham's children, then you would love me because I came from the Father.

And of course they began to throw off on Jesus and say, Well, we're not born of fornication.

It was implying that Jesus was because he didn't have a biological father.

We only have but one father, even Abraham.

He said, If Abraham your father, you would love me.

He said, but you're of your father, the devil.

That is, you're just a carnal man, is what you were.

And so, nevertheless, I'm glad that God the Father loved us enough that he gave us a representation of who he is, that we could actually see uh a manifestation of God.

And we see that through his son.

Uh, the Bible said he is the express image, talking about Jesus.

He is the express image of the Father.

He is the express image.

That means when you looked at Jesus, not his physical features, but when you saw his spirit and his mannerism, his disposition, do you know Jesus got angry?

Because God gets angry.

Do you know that Jesus was saddened?

He wept?

Because Jesus, God the Father, he gets sad.

Do you know that Jesus Christ actually laughs?

Because God laughs.

Uh He was the express image of His Father.

Do you know He condescended?

Do you know He rebuked and He reproved?

Uh He done everything that He saw His Father does or did.

He put it like this.

He said they began to scorn him because he actually defiled in their precepts or their concepts the Sabbath.

And Jesus Christ said, My father work.

My father work.

He said, and I work also, I hear the two work.

Whatsoever I see the Father do, that does the Son also.

Of course, they wanted to stone him for saying that, that uh God was his father, making himself equal with God.

Well, he was equal, uh, not in authority, uh, but he was equal in a representation of the divine nature of God.

Jesus Christ had the divine nature of God.

He absolutely had that.

And thank God by giving us a new birth from on high, the baptism of the Holy Ghost, the Bible said that we may be partaker of his what?

Divine nature.

Divine nature.

And so to actually uh represent or to be partaker of that divine nature means we have to have the mind of Christ.

And of course, Christ had the mind of God.

And so without the mind of Christ, there's no way I can have the mind of God, so I can't represent him.

And I may be his seed, that is, have the baptism of the Holy Ghost, but we want to be his, not just seed, we want to be his children, don't we?

We actually want to be his children, and not just that, but we want to grow up.

We want to grow up into sonship, we want to grow up into maturity.

Uh the Bible said the whole creature, he put this in Romans 8, he put it like this, the whole creature, the whole creation, that's how he put it, the whole creation groaned it.

It groaned it, waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God, waiting for the people of God to overcome, that this earth can be put back in the condition that it was in.

Do you know that that poor cat?

That cat got to be tired of chasing that rat.

And I know that rat is tired of that cat chasing him.

And that poor dog, that dog is tired of running behind the cat.

Do you know that that pit viper is tired of crawling on his belly with his venom, uh trying to uh find a prey that he can kill and eat?

Do you know that that lion and the hyena is tired of having to go out and kill these animals to eat?

But brother, all of that happened because of the fall of man.

Prior to that, everything ate straw.

Everything ate the fruit of the earth.

Nothing ate flesh.

That's from the fall of Adam.

That's from the fall of Adam.

So the whole creation out there, it groaneth.

It's groaning, waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God, uh, waiting for us to actually come into fruition, the bride of Christ to be made up, to be reaped.

A thousand years, the Lord will be doing a clean up job on this earth.

For 1,000 years, the law is going to go from Jerusalem and the word of God from Zion.

That's uh third heaven.

Uh that's going to be seven trumps, and that's going to be seven vows.

A trumpet will be blown on the earth, a trumpet's a message.

That's 144,000 Jews.

As they begin to uh minister in courses on this earth for 1,000 years, we'll be ministering courses from third heaven.

When they blow a trump, will be a time for man to hearken to that voice, to hearken to that message.

And then after which there will actually be a vow, that's a judgment, that'll be poured out, uh, that is upon this earth.

That'll happen until the time of completion has uh come into fruition.

The time of completion, the number of completion of the Bible is seven.

So there are seven trumps and there are seven vows that's going to actually bring into earth uh that is total restoration.

This earth, as you see it, I'm talking about the earth itself, not the earthly ways of man.

It cannot, will not, shall never be dissolved.

And uh, you can hear all these great myths out there about the uh uh global warming and uh nuclear holocaust and all those things uh can be true from a scientific standpoint, but man does not have the ability to destroy this earth.

He cannot do it.

Isaiah said, whatever the Lord does, he does forever.

This earth will be here throughout eternity.

Throughout eternity.

World without end.

This globe, let me put it like that, this globe would be here.

It's absolutely uh beyond the ability of man to alter that.

You can't do anything about it.

But thank God I want to do something with it.

I want to be a part.

Uh I want to be a part.

This earth, believe it or not, will actually become the throne room of God.

Boy, can you imagine that?

Of all the creation of God, Brother Elton is billions and billions.

It's just mind-boggling.

It's billions and billions of planted planets, more than man can even number.

Billions of planets.

Just in our galaxy, there are billions.

And then there are billions of galaxies.

Can your mind phantom that?

I mean, you're talking about a distance so vast it cannot even be measured.

And yet this little bit of speck, this little bit of speck that's called the earth, is where God's attention is.

This little bit of spot out in the vast of uh uh space is where God's attention is.

Why is this attention here?

Because this is where his creation is.

This is where he's actually working.

And to think, and that's pretty narrow when you think about it.

To think that God uh here's a people that think so that God is so narrow that you're saying out of all of his great creation that his eyes is only on this planet?

Well, I'm gonna take it a step further than that.

Not only is his eyes on this planet, but his eyes is actually on a certain group of people.

Uh and that's that's pretty narrow, isn't it?

That sounds pretty cultic when you stop and think about it.

Uh, but this is the truth.

Not only is his eyes just on a group of people, and that's those that have the baptism of the Holy Ghost and those whose heart is panting out to the Lord, he's actually only working in certain areas.

God, listen to this, he ruleth in the kingdom of men, but his son, he's the Lord over the body.

And when you're ruling, brother, that's not with mercy, that's not with any, we use the term rule, it's just to work his will.

Uh he says, he put it like this: do you know this whole earth and humanity is just a battle axe?

That's what the Bible calls it in the hands of the Lord, it's just to work his will.

Can you imagine such a thing as that?

Let me get a little narrower than that.

Can you imagine, and this is reality, of the hundreds of millions of people on this globe, or was on this globe, hundreds of millions, hundreds of millions, that God was only watching over and working with a small group of people, three and a half million in the wilderness, who was ex-slaves, and this earth had hundreds of millions of people, and yet God was only interested in Israel and what they were doing?

Can you imagine such a thing as that?

A bunch of ex-slaves, Brother Michael, who was stubborn, obstinate, rebellion, mumbering, full of doubt, unbelief, obstinate, disobedient, but that still was the people of God.

With all of their problems and all of their shortcomings, with all of their faults, that still was the people of God.

And that is where his eyes was.

He was his eyes was over his sparrow.

And that was the sparrow of the Lord.

That's just hard to conceive.

You say, Brother Brown, what about the Moabites, the Hittites, the Amekites?

What about the people in Asia?

What about the Chinese and uh what about the uh Alaskans and uh the Eczemos and brother?

They lived.

But God was working in Israel.

This is where God actually set up his statues and his judgments.

This is where he gave his ordinances.

And it's so hard to conceive, it's so hard to conceive that in your mind when you looked at them, they sure didn't look like very much.

A bunch of ex-slaves wander around in the woods for 40 long years.

Can you imagine that?

You know they didn't bath very regularly.

Do you know that?

They didn't bath on a regular matter of fact, we read that in one of the brothers' meeting, when the Lord came down to give them the uh commandments on Mount Sinai, he told them to wash yourself, sanctify yourself against the third day.

And so that was an occasion they took a bath.

It's in the wilderness of water, wasn't that plentiful?

But that still was the people of God.

Walking around, brother, for 40 years in their shoes didn't swell.

Walked around for 40 years, brother, and brother Michael.

Can you imagine that man?

Their clothes didn't decay.

That's just absolutely phenomenal.

And yet that was the people of God.

And you know what made it so interesting?

When you looked at the people, they didn't have a king, they didn't have a court system that you and I can conceive in our mind, but yet God himself had given them ways of dealing with every problems.

God himself provided for them, he gave them manner, and brother, when they ate that manner, there was no need to go to uh, what is that, GNC?

You didn't need your herbs and your vitamins.

You didn't have to go down to the Renaissance, YMCA.

Brother, you didn't have to go down to Dr.

Haydale, Brother Michael, we didn't have to go get these annual tests.

All they had to do was eat that manner, and everything they need to sustain their life naturally, every herb, every, I'm sorry, every vitamin, all the mineral was right there, right there in that manner.

And yet, when they was eating that manna, you know what they said, away with this manner.

We're tired of this.

Give us some flesh to eat.

And yet, God, in his great mercy, he gave them flesh.

He gave them flesh, but brother, life was in the manner.

And so how did that manner come?

It came, brother, by those who had an eye, uh, that is on God's order.

They could actually everybody didn't see Moses.

Can you imagine three and a half million people?

There was a man up there.

There was a man somewhere up there whom the people was persuaded heard from God.

And as that man heard from God, he talked to his brother, which was Aaron, and then Aaron talked to the people.

The people didn't see it, but everybody didn't, but somewhere up there was a man named Moses.

And that man is actually, he has the eyes to see a cloud.

And as that cloud moves, he moved.

When the cloud stopped, he stopped.

If it was at night, it was a pill of fire.

If it was at day, it was a pill of cloud, and yet they had to actually follow that cloud, uh, follow that man as he followed that cloud, and every time they stopped, the manor was there.

When they moved, the manor was there.

But when the cloud moved and the man moved, and the people moved, the manor moved.

And so if you stay there, your bones actually bleached in that spot.

And of all the people, do you ever stop and think about that?

Of all the people on the earth, that's what the Lord was doing.

That is what the Lord was doing at that time.

And so, uh, God has always had, and this is gonna sound cultic, but God has always had a remnant.

And that's a key word.

It's always been a remnant.

He says one place, he said, though uh Israel be as the sand of the sea, he said, yet only a remnant shall be saved.

It's always been a remnant.

Uh in the world before the flood, there was no doubt millions of people.

There was millions of people, but there was only a righteous line that God was working with.

That's just hard to conceive.

And uh in the world before the flood, uh there was millions of people, but only eight souls, just a remnant.

Only eight souls were saved, and that by water.

Is that not hard to conceive?

Of all the people in Solomon Gomorrah, brother, it was only Lot and his wife didn't even make it, and those two daughters.

Only a remnant actually got out of their alive.

Is that not hard to conceive?

That's just hard to conceive.

But I'm glad to be a part of the remnant.

I am glad to be a part, and I'm not making reference to this assembly, but I'm making a reference to a people that's panting out the Lord.

I think he says in Jude, and we often quote it, uh, that is a people that's earnestly, earnestly, that word means sincerely, with much effort.

Uh, you know, you ever bought a house that asked for earnest money.

That's called sincerity money.

You since you're proving your sincerity, you put up this earnest money, and uh that's showing your gravity and your your your uh your seriousness about purchasing this house.

And so that's what the word earnest means.

And so we say we should earnestly contend, not pretend, but contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints.

What was that faith?

That faith is not talking about trusting God for this and trusting God for that.

Uh that faith was the truth of the word of God.

Like they ask you to say, What faith are you?

What's your persuasion?

And so their faith, the faith that was once delivered to the saints, is the teachings of those apostles.

And those apostles' teaching was not theirs, they got it from Jesus.

And of course, Jesus said, the words that speak are not minds, he said, but they're my father.

And so it's actually God the Father's teaching.

But we have to contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints.

Why?

Because, brother, there are certain men crept in unaware, bringing in damnable doctrine, even denying the Lord that brought them.

At good intentions, do you know great men with great intentions do some evil things?

They really do.

If you don't build, then you're destroying.

If uh if you're not helping, you're hurting.

And so uh I appreciate men and their good efforts.

But let's stick with the word of God.

Let's make sure, let's make sure that's nothing on our fifth rib that have an 11 in it.

And that's why it's imperative that as a people, uh, collectively we have our eyes open, but individually, individually, we have a revelation.

Uh, I love, I love the wonderful service Sunday.

I thought about that song all day today.

I really did, Brother Michael.

We can see where we're headed and we can see where we come from.

Can look throughout the Bible and we can see the great moves of God.

And this is a ministry.

This is a ministry that's using armor, and I like that word, that began on Pentecost.

What armor?

It's the word of God, which is the sword of the Spirit.

It's the name of Jesus Christ, for there is no other name given among men whereby we, under heaven, given among men, whereby we what?

Must be saved.

It's prayer, it's dedication.

This is armor.

This is what actually calls us to have protection and enable us to go to battle.

And so, this great church, here a little ring, brother Ron.

This great church, and uh, we can't emphasize it enough, we can't talk about it enough, because it's in this church.

It's in this great church that the Lord Himself established almost 2,000 years ago.

That is a pattern.

That is a pattern of what the Lord is gonna come back for.

Not anything less.

Not anything less.

He's coming back for a people.

The word church is an assembly, and not just this assembly, but it's an assembly of people throughout the earth.

And this people would have not one spot.

What does a spot represent?

It represents sin.

A spot in the Bible represents sin.

I think he's talked about Israel in Isaiah chapter 1.

Isaiah 1 · chapter mention

He said, From the top of the head, uh, that was a Leviticus priesthood, down to the soles of the feet.

That's the least person in the kingdom.

They were full of putrefying sores.

And then he asked, of course, he said, Can a leopard change his spot?

Talking about Israel.

Uh we talked about that great beast that came up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns in the 13th chapter Revelation.

Uh one of the identification of that beast is said, Brother Michael says she was spotted, she's like like a leopard.

A leopard, a leopard is full of spot, full of sin, full of sin.

And so this church will be without spot, that's sin.

And it will be without wrinkles.

What is wrinkles?

That's the vision.

That's the vision.

Uh God absolutely despised the vision in the kingdom of God.

And men find all types of ways to concoct the vision.

Everyone wants to lift themselves up.

The Bible says there's a time when one man rules over another to his own hurt.

When you lift yourself up, that's to your hurt.

That's absolutely your hurt in the eyes of God.

Uh never, let me let me uh make this real clear.

I'm grateful, I'm thankful, I'm excited for different things, but never does the Bible use the word proud and a positive connotation.

That word is next to profanity in the Bible.

I can't be proud of my son, I can't be proud of this assembly, I can't be proud of my parents, I can be thankful, I can be grateful, but you'll never find pride in a positive connotation.

Pride means something you're lifted up because of it.

Pride means that uh the flesh is glory, and it's always evil.

Pride goes before destruction and a what?

Halted spirit before a fall.

There's never justification for a proud spirit over anything, over your accomplishments, uh, over association, education, affiliation, uh is always evil.

We can be grateful, we can be thankful, but can never be proud.

That's always a negative word.

Always, always.

And so here's a church that came out.

They wasn't proud of their heritage, but they was thankful to be in his order.

And uh as that church went forth, I think he says, uh that is in uh Revelation chapter 6, that church went forth conquering.

Revelation 6 · chapter mention

It went forth conquering.

And it didn't conquer uh nations and kingdoms and bring them under subjection, but it conquered every falsehood.

It conquered every false way.

It conquered envy, strife, division, every falsehood until the devil, carnality, uh, wrong, paganism, idolatry, brother, could find no place in that kingdom.

And the kingdom of God, it was actually thrust out.

It had no resting place there.

Um so, brother, I'm so excited when I began to think about these things.

And so as we began, I think as he said, I think we quoted that a few times in uh Revelation chapter 11, uh he told John, he said, Listen, that was given to him first a rod like a uh a reed like a rod.

Revelation 11 · chapter mention

That what is that for?

That's to measure.

He said, Arise, get up.

You measure the temple.

That's the people of God.

You measure the temple, you measure the altar.

That is how the people, where they brought this sacrifice, how that they sacrifice, and they that worship therein.

He said, but the court that's without, the court that's without, don't you measure that?

Leave it alone.

He said, leave it alone, for it's given to the Gentile, that's this religious world out there.

He said, they shall trumpet it under feet for 40 and two months, which is 1,260 years, a day for uh uh a year, and being 30 days in a uh lunar calendar, that's 1,260 years.

And so as we begin to come together, brother, we're trying to measure, we're trying to measure the temple.

How do they have service?

What was their order?

What was their vision?

What was their government?

Uh brother, we can begin to look at that.

I'm glad the Lord has given us a measure rod.

And brother, it's a rod, uh read like a rod.

That's the word of God.

This is what we measure by.

And uh, I don't, I don't uh have any delusion.

I know we're always measured.

People, no doubt, when they come among us, they watch and see what we do and don't do.

I'm sure they wonder where it's the choir or where it's the Sunday school for the kiddies, or where the kid is church.

And uh no doubt they'll say, well, they're nice people, but you know, they don't have children's church.

They're a nice group of people, but I don't I don't really too much care about that little choir they have.

They don't have no choir, even more choir members.

Well, you're trying to measure us by religion.

You're trying to measure by the church down the street or the one across the tracks or the one that you came up in.

But look into this good book, this good word of God, measure us by that.

Measure us by that.

If you can show us a choir, a sitting choir in here, then brother we'll have a sitting choir.

If you can show me children's church in here, then brother will implement it.

I don't see it.

I it fails me to see it.

If it's in here, I need someone to help me to find it.

I hadn't identified it.

But I do know the emphasis was on this.

The emphasis in a New Testament church was on having the people's eyes illuminated, having their having a hope.

And of course, when you do that, I think he says in Psalms, he said, My lips shall utter praise when I learn thy precepts.

As you begin to learn the word of God, how can you help but praise him for all that he's done for you?

It causes your hands to go up.

No one has to tell you to go put them up.

You can't help.

You can't help but want to worship God.

You can't help but want to be thankful and uh extol him and to exalt him.

Uh why, brother, because he's done great things in the in the earth, in this earth.

And so this wonderful church, uh my God, I'm gonna talk out of my whole hour away.

Uh as this as this great church began to uh uh to go forth, you watch the pattern.

There's no idle words in this Bible, that's none.

As you began to see Peter uh on the day of Pentecost as he stood and began to proclaim the gospel.

He was actually fulfilling Matthew chapter 18, uh 18 and 18.

Matthew 18 · chapter mention

Uh he began to use those keys, and brother, that Jesus Christ had actually given him.

And he opened the doors up and let the Jews in.

And then, of course, you can see him again down in the 8th chapter of Acts, as he began to actually let those Samaritans in.

He used the same keys again.

That's the keys of understanding, that's the keys of knowledge.

He let the Samaritans in.

They give them the baptism of the Holy Ghost by the things that he did, laying on the hands.

And then, of course, uh you can see now you had the Jews, you had the Samaritan, which is half Jews and half Gentiles, and now come us.

We stopped in the 10th chapter, didn't we?

The ninth chapter.

Let's pick it up in the 10th chapter.

As a people, and I'm using the term people here, uh, and the eyes of God, I was making the statement Sunday, there aren't but two classifications of people naturally, and there's two classifications of people spiritually, far as uh uh ethnicity is concerned.

Let me put it like that.

You know, we see Chinese and uh Vietnamese and Mexicans and Europeans and Americans, God see Jews and Gentile.

You either are naturally and you're that way spiritually.

Either you are Jew naturally or you're a gentile naturally.

You are a Jew spiritually, that is, if you have the baptism of the Holy Ghost and you're a child of God by, uh that is a circumcision made without hands, then you're a spiritual Jew.

Or you're a gentile.

You're someone, brother, who's uh carried about with dumb idols, you're not concerned about the things of God.

That's just a gentile.

Uh so you uh there aren't other classifications.

Now there's other nationalities, but the classification is Jew or Gentile.

Whether you're a Hittite, Amekite, Perserite, Jebusite, you're still a Gentile.

You're still a Gentile.

And just as Israel had 12 tribes, they had the tribe of Reuben, uh, they had uh Simeon, they had Levi, they had Judah, and so on and so forth, they had those different tribes.

We may be in different tribes, but but we're just one nation of people.

We're Jews.

We're Jews, spiritual Jews.

Whether you're located in St.

Louis, whether you're located in Grand Bay or any other city, it doesn't make any difference what tribe you're in.

Your nationality, spiritually speaking, is a Jew.

And so here's the uh Gentiles, naturally speaking, they was yet without God.

They was cut off from the commonwealth of Israel.

They was without hope and without God in the world.

That's what they were.

They were, uh they were the Lazarus.

They were the Lazarus in the 16th chapter of the book of Luke.

Uh, they were the Lazarus that didn't have God.

And of course, the rich man is talking about the nation of Israel.

They fared sumptuously every day.

Every day, brother, they could just simply walk up to the temple.

They had the morning and the evening sacrifice being offered by the priesthood with this long pornographies and this long robe, Brother Michael.

And if you had sins, all you have to do is go over, brother, and bring a turtle dove or a pigeon, and some atonement will be made for your sin.

They had that every day.

But those Gentiles, brother, they longed to have a God like that.

They wished that they could get right with God, and they couldn't do it.

And it wasn't even permitted to go into uh that is to the temple.

They couldn't make a sacrifice.

And so they sit without the gate, brother Michael.

It was outside of that ministry.

And brother, they was full of sores.

They was full of sores.

What's sores in the Bible?

It's idols.

It's idols.

And you know what happened?

Dogs, that's other unsaved people.

They came and they licked their sores.

Uh brother, if you was worshiping Diana, if you was worshiping Zeus, Apoditus, Hercules, brother, there was other dogs.

There was other unsaved people who would come and lick those sores or worship the same God with you.

But brother, in a period of time, Lazarus, you know what happened?

He died.

He died.

And brother, he would, what he died to?

He died to those idols.

He died to uh he died to cardinality, and he was carried by angels, and those angels are talking about second heaven angels into Abraham's bosom.

That's a place of rest.

And you'll begin to see this in the 10th chapter of Acts.

You begin to see Cornelius and his household as they begin to die out to something, and those angels actually carried them into Abraham's bosom.

But you know what happened to that rich man Lazarus?

He died first, and that was the nation of Israel.

When they died out to the things of God, they lost their covering, they lost their first estate.

And so the Lord, they say, let his son, I mean, let his blood, talking about Jesus, let his blood be on us and upon our children.

And brother, and so they lost out with God.

They actually lost out with God.

But God didn't break the plate when uh when they stoned Jesus, I'm sorry, when they killed Jesus.

He actually gave them another three and a half years to repent.

And that brings me, brother Elton asked me about the uh ninth chapter of Daniel.

We're gonna get on that, brother.

My God, you had my blood boiling, man.

I hadn't talked about those things in so many years.

Boy, the hair stood up on my neck.

But uh uh, brother, they had three and a half more years to make up that period of time.

They gave him three and a half years to repent.

And brother, they didn't.

When they stoned Stephen, when they stoned Stephen, it was three and a half years after the day of Pentecost, Israel as a nation had broke their plate with God.

Uh they was actually cut off.

They was cut off from God now.

And so here's a rich man Lazarus, which fares sumptuously every day, was clothed in purple.

Brother, he had actually lost out with God.

And now, brother, he's on the outside.

And you can begin to see this great transition as it begins to take place in the 10th chapter of the book of Acts.

Let's get into this.

Um, someone read for me, please.

Acts 10 and 1.

Uh before Brother Michael read, remember the order?

The day of Pentecost was Jews.

The eighth chapter was half Jews and Samaritans.

And now, here comes, of course, from uh uh the persecution that arose after the stoning of Stephen uh was throughout Judea.

And then Samaritan, I'm sorry, which is the eighth chapter, and now it's getting down to the uttermost parts of the world.

The uttermost parts of the world is Gentiles, that's you and I.

And so here he is.

Uh the gospel has spread it from the Jews uh and uh out in Judea, and then of course the eighth chapter went down to Cornelius' house.

I mean, went down to uh uh to Samaritan, and now we're in the tenth chapter, and it's about to get to the Gentiles now.

He said there was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band.

Now the Bible is interesting, it doesn't use the word Gentile here, but it gives you a proper description.

He was a centurion.

What's a centurion?

A centurion is a Roman officer which is over hundreds of people.

It could be 500, 200, it could be up to 2,000 legion.

And so here he was, and believe me, there was no Jews in Caesar's army.

Over nobody.

But here he was, this man, he tells you who he was.

He was a centurion of the band called the what?

Italian band.

The Italian band.

And so we know they're Romans.

We know they're Romans.

Uh why did he why is that important, Brother Michael?

Because as Rome conquered countries, they put them in the army and they had different bands.

They had different armies.

But this was a true Italian.

This was a true Italian.

He said, a devout man, one that feared God with all his heart.

And see, this is the wonderful picture we see that Jesus gave about Lazarus.

Here's a devout man.

Uh brother, he realized there was a God in Israel.

He realized there was a God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

But brother, he was without.

He wasn't within.

Having that knowledge and being devout, brother, he still was cut off from the commonwealth of Israel.

There was nobody making atonement for his sins, uh, Brother Michael.

There was no one who had grafted him in.

But he he desired to worship this great God.

He desired to know about this great God.

He was devout.

He said, Who feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people and prayed to God already.

Brother Island as a devout man.

Look what he did.

He recognized the people of God, though they were being oppressed.

Uh there was a captured people at this time.

He gave much alms.

Alms mean uh we use the term uh charity.

Uh he gave money.

He helped those people.

And he prayed to God always.

But do you know his prayer, brother Mike, and the Lord, he can hear the prayer of sinners, but brother, he couldn't be saved in that state.

He couldn't be saved.

But the Lord saw him.

I'm glad he did.

Look what happened.

And he saw in a vision, evidently, about the ninth hour of the day, an angel of God coming in to him and saying unto him, Cornelius.

And when he looked on him, he was afraid and said, What is it, Lord?

And he said unto him, Thy prayers and our alms are come up for a memorial before God.

Brother, this is a wonderful, and you'll see it repeat of this throughout the Bible.

Brother, God will remember you for the good if you do good.

Even an unrighteous person, if you do good, the Lord will remember you for the good.

And of course, he's gonna pay you off.

He's gonna pay you off.

So, what you're doing good for?

Are you doing good because you want favor with God?

Are you uh even McDonald, uh, brother Michael, they give much alms.

They give you know why?

They they have a principle.

They believe that if you support the community and you give good things that happen to you.

Do you know the unsaved world has that principle?

And it works.

It does work, and people preach prosperity.

It has some elemental truth in it.

But the problem is all it does is breed covetousness, and the Lord just gonna pay you all because that's what you're giving them for.

That's what you're serving them for.

And the Lord will do that.

Paul says some preach Christ out of envy and some contentious.

He said, nevertheless, Christ is preached, so the Lord's gonna pay you all for using you.

Even these television preachers, they do some good.

Uh they do some good.

Did I ever tell you I watched Jimmy Squaggett when I was a little boy, Brother Michael, and man, I wept like a baby.

I think I had a conversion.

It didn't last very long, but I had one.

And so you can get converted off the television.

You can receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost.

You'll think that's your testimonies in Sister Helen, off the television.

And so they do some good.

And the Lord will remember them.

He will.

If you're doing it for the have your name in the earth, he'll write your name in the earth.

If you want your name in the lights, he'll put your name in lights.

If you want money, he'll pay you off with money.

But brother, we're serving the Lord for a penny, aren't we?

We're in this for eternal life.

Lord, don't pay me off.

There's nothing in this life, and I want to say this uh absolutely, there is nothing in this life that I'm striving to obtain more than eternal life.

Nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

And the Lord hear these words, and I've been tried with much, and I've been tried with little.

Brother, I've been so far down, I had to look up to see the earthworm.

But brother, that don't discourage me.

Whether I was on the mountaintop or in the valley, it didn't change my disposition, didn't change my vision, didn't change my speech, and it didn't change my resolve.

Brother, nothing, nothing lasts forever, whether it's good times or bad.

It does not last forever.

I like to have enough substance, brother Michael.

I like to have enough substance in me that the Lord can look at me and say, you know what, I can trust them to suffer.

I can trust them to suffer and I can trust them to prosper.

And so, whatever the Lord wants to do, if he wants to prosper me, I'll prosper.

If he wants me to suffer, be an example of suffering, I want to have this testimony.

I can suffer and keep the right spirit.

I can go through and keep the right spirit.

And so here's Canadians.

But I'd like to do this, Brother Michael.

While the Lord is giving me peace, I like to make sure that I'm sowing peace.

While the Lord's giving me mercy, I want to make sure I'm sowing mercy.

So when the time of testing comes, I like to have something.

I can hate to use this analogy, but I'd like to be able to write a spiritual check and it don't and it don't come back in as F insufficient funds.

I'd like to have enough mercy stored up when I need some mercy, I can get it.

I like the Lord to remember me for good while I have the ability, whether it be health or strength or a sound mind or an able body, that I serve your people.

Lord, like Neil Maya said, remember me for the good.

I like it on my record.

And we all should have that, that type of heart.

Because everyone, under the sound of my voice, even if you're not in the sound of my voice, it doesn't change the fact.

Every salt is, every sacrifice is gonna be salted with fire.

Everybody's gonna be tried and tested.

Everybody's gonna have good times and bad, whether you're in God or out of God.

I like to make sure I got a God on my side, Brother Michael.

That's what gives me the confidence when I wake up every morning.

There's nothing gonna happen to me.

There's nothing gonna happen to me except the Lord permit it.

If he permit it, then thank God he's gonna bring it through.

It's gonna be the somehow it's gonna work together for good.

Now on the other side, I'm waking up every morning looking for some good thing, too.

Because the Bible says his mercy is renewed every day.

So yesterday's mercy was for yesterday.

I'm looking for something new today.

I mean, that's Bible.

That's absolute Bible.

And I believe that.

I believe you can wake up every day looking for some good thing.

I'm not looking for the sky to uh fall, I'm looking for the earth to open up.

I'm looking for good things, Brother Michael.

And even when something bad or distaste will happen, I know it's got to be something good gonna come out of it.

It has to be something good gonna come out of it.

He said, I know the thoughts that I think towards you, they're thoughts of what?

Peace and good and not evil.

Well, amen, Lord.

That's what I want to.

Let's keep reading.

So here is this great man, Canidius.

And what he was, he was just a Lazarus.

He was outside the camp of camp of uh the gate of Israel.

He was outside the household of faith.

Go on, brother Michael.

Verse 5.

He said, and now send to Joppa and call for one sinner.

We read verse 4.

Yes.

Read it again for me, please.

I'm sorry.

He said, and when he looked on him, that's the angel.

He was afraid and said, What is it, Lord?

And he said unto him, Thy prayers and thy alms are come up for a memorial before God.

A memorial means in remembrance.

All those prayers and all the time you gave to my people, all the time you bless my people.

Brother, when it got time to bring the Gentiles in, you know what God did?

He rewarded the man who was blessing his people.

He couldn't get in until the uh until the gate was opened to the Gentiles.

But brother, he was the one that was counted worthy.

That was on his record.

Let's keep reading.

This is gonna get good.

He said, and now send men to Joppa and call for one sign.

Down a little bit.

He said he lodged with one Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the seaside.

He shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do.

And see, therein is the importance of the ministry.

Do you know this angel?

Do you know an angel, a third heaven angel, can't preach this gospel?

You won't find a scripture in the Bible where an angel led anybody to salvation.

They cannot do it.

God uses human instrumentality.

And so all the angel could do is tell you to send for somebody who has the keys.

Did the angel know the gospel?

Yes, he knew it.

Could he preach it?

Absolutely not.

He could not preach it.

He was not redeemed.

He will not be redeemed, and he cannot preach this gospel.

All he could do is tell him to send for Peter.

And watch what happens.

He said, and when the angel which spake unto Cornelius was departed, he called two of his households.

That's Cornelius.

Look, and see, here's here, this is what I want us to consider.

Here's a Gentile.

What this man had, Brother Michael, he though he's a centurion.

He reminds me of the center in the eighth chapter of Matthew's, brother, when Jesus, when he came to Jesus and said, Master, he said, I'm not worthy that you should come under my house, under my roof, but speak the word and my servant will be healed.

And he said, Well, listen, Jesus, I haven't found such great faith, no not in Israel.

But the reason that man knew that, he said, Listen, I'm a man on authority.

I say that this man comes and he comes.

I say that that one sit and sit.

He said, I know that I know who you are.

You the son of God.

You got authority.

Just speak the word and my servant will be healed.

You don't have to come up under my roof, you have to anoint him with oil.

It doesn't take all that.

Just speak the word.

Because I have authority and I know how authority works.

Jesus looked at him and said, Man, I he marveled.

He said, I hadn't found that greater faith, no, not in Israel.

That's among his people.

Do you know there's ungodly, unsaved people out there?

And I hate to say this.

Brother, they have, some of them have faith beyond what's in the household of faith.

It's people that crave it to believe God.

Don't even have a right relationship with God, no more than that centurion had it.

But he simply recognized that Jesus had authority and he could speak the word and serve and be made whole.

Brother, there's people who listen, I was out in religion.

I dared to believe God to do anything.

He winked at my ignorance, but brother, he honored my faith.

Then you come over here, you get too much knowledge and understanding, you get puffed up, headed, and you're waiting.

You can't trust God.

Then you gotta figure this out.

Now let me see what God is doing.

No, God, please heal me.

And if you don't, if you don't hear you the first time, just do like Paul.

Just keep praying until he tells you no.

He said, Maybe the sickness is from the Lord.

Well, if it's from the Lord, my praying ain't gonna make it believe.

I'm gonna keep praying, he tells me no.

Does that make sense to you?

Let's keep going.

He said, and when the angel which spake unto Cornelius was departed, he called two of his household servants and a devout soldier of the angels.

That's three of them that waited on him continually.

And when he had declared all these things unto them, he sent them to Joppa.

He gave those men an account of what had happened before his angel was concerned.

Okay, now watch what happened.

He said, On the morrow, as they went on their journey and drew nigh unto the city, Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour.

Now remember now, listen.

Peter was down in Joppa.

And then his angel sent to uh go to Cornelius and told him to send the Jopper for Peter.

Well, Peter had no idea what was about to happen.

He's going on his uh his daily routine.

He said, and he became very hungry and would have eaten, but while they made ready, he fell into a trance and saw heaven open and a certain vessel descending unto him as it had been a great sheet, knit at the four corners and let down to the earth, wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth and wild beasts and creeping things and fowls of the air.

And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter, kill and eat.

Can you see the reality of this?

Here's this man, Peter.

Brother, it's noon.

When he said the sixth hour, that's noontime.

He goes up on the housetop, because the dinner's not ready.

And while he's praying, he falls into a trance.

While he's in this trance, he sees this vision.

This great vessel, like a sheet, is let down from heaven.

Inside of this sheet, this great sheet, he sees all manner, he's hungry now.

He sees all manner of four-footed beasts and creeping and crawling things.

No doubt he saw some hog jaws and some pigtails and some uh possum gizzards, and he saw everything in there, Brother Michael, and he was hungry.

And a voice came and said, Rise, Peter, kill and eat.

Well, see, that's against Peter's concepts, based upon Leviticus 11.

He could eat anything that didn't have fins and scales come out of the water, anything that didn't split the hoof and chew the cud.

He said, Not so, Lord, for I've never eaten anything common or unclean.

I've never done that.

This is listen, this is the trance.

This is not literal, but it's showing Peter's spirit and what he would say.

And so the Lord said, What I've cleaned, don't you call that common or unclean?

But it happened three times.

It happened repeatedly.

It happened three times, Brother Elton.

Now Peter's baffled.

He said, Man, why would the Lord show me something like that?

And listen, here's a key point too.

Get this.

These men, just like you and I, they didn't have an advantage.

It's not like God sat down on that bed and told them what he wanted to do.

God, the Father, didn't sit down, he didn't send Jesus Christ and say, Peter, I want you to go down to uh Canelias' house.

That's not how God worked.

He didn't work that way then and he doesn't work that way now.

When somebody tells me the Lord said this and the Lord said that and the Lord told me this, you are taking a presumptuous position in life to say the Lord said.

Now the Lord may have showed you some things, and time approved whether he showed you that or he revealed something, but God doesn't talk that much.

Read the Bible.

Look at the book of Acts.

Here's a church that pleased him, and very seldom do you say God said in here?

God dealt with things by his spirit.

He dealt with things by his spirit.

Those men are just like you and I in 2009, they had to lean on the Holy Ghost.

That's what they did.

It wasn't some voice they heard from heaven God talking to them.

It was the Holy Ghost and the Word of God, brother, that was the rod and the staff.

This is what made that people so great.

They weren't superstitious.

There wasn't some mind over matter.

They weren't hyped up.

It was not like that.

These were real people walking in real shoe leather, serving a real God the same way we are by his spirit.

All they had, brother, was a spiritual state and the word of God.

That's all they had.

And so was that dream from God?

I'm no doubt Peter was thinking it, or was I just so hungry?

What was working?

Was that a dream from God, or was I just that hungry?

Because think about it.

He was hungry and he saw all these unclean beasts.

And so Peter sitting there trying to figure this out.

Now, is this God or am I really just that hungry?

But this is the good thing about God.

We're not a sign-seeking people, but the Lord always confirmed things if we just be patient.

He thought he saw this how many times?

Three times.

And listen, here come three men.

And the Holy Ghost already pressed something in.

Let's keep reading.

But look, this is the I'm so glad this is here.

It's throughout the book of Acts.

We can see how that church operated.

We can see what made them spiritual.

It wasn't God thundering his voice from heaven, Brother Michael.

You won't see that.

That's not how they got what they got.

They got it by being spiritual-minded.

Verse 14.

He said, But Peter said, Not so, Lord, for I've never eaten anything that is common or unclean.

And a voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.

This was done thrice.

Thrice is how many?

Three times.

You know how I guarantee you, Peter began to think about that.

Why is this done three times?

I'm sure he remembered Brother Michael a conversation that he had.

Peter, lovest thou me more than these?

Yeah, Lord, you know I love thee.

Feed my sheep.

Peter, lovest thou me more than these?

Yes, Lord, you know I love you.

Feed my lamb.

Peter, lovest thou me more than these.

The Bible said he was grieved that he asked him three times.

He said, Lord, you know I love you.

Feed my sheep.

No doubt Peter thought about that.

Now he fed, brother, he fed the Jews on the day of Pentecost.

He went down and he fed the Samaritans.

But brother, he wasn't gonna feed no Gentiles.

He was not gonna go that far.

And that's why the Lord gave him a vision.

And he's plundering, brother, is this me or is it the Lord?

Let's keep reading.

He said, now while Peter doubted in himself.

Get this.

What that word is?

He doubted him.

I mean you said he did what?

He doubted within himself what this vision which he has seen should mean.

Brother, does it mean I'm just hungry?

Is the Lord talking?

You think he knew for sure he didn't know for sure?

He wasn't sure.

When the Lord is speaking to us sometimes, we're not sure.

But brother, stay spiritual minded.

If it's God, he'll confirm it.

He'll bring it back around.

It won't take long.

Keep reading.

He said, Behold, the men which were sent from Cornelius had made inquiry for Simon's house and stood before the gate and called and asked rather Simon, which was surnamed Peter, were lodged there.

Simon was his name and Simon bar Jonah.

Peter was a name that Jesus gave him, which is Cephas, actually.

We pronounce it Peter in English, but that word means a stone.

And so when he said the surname, surname means a nickname.

His name was Simon.

Simon bar Jonah.

His father's name was Jonah.

Bar means son of Simon, son of Jonah.

They didn't have last names.

They identified who you were by your family.

Verse 19.

He said, While Peter thought on the vision, the spirit said unto him, No, listen to this.

How did the spirit speak to him?

Did he hear an ellible voice?

I dare say not.

How did the spirit of God speak to him?

I think he spoke, I think he spoke to him on his inner man.

He spoke to him in his in his in his spirit.

His spiritual man.

But Peter was spiritual enough to discern.

He was spiritual enough to know that, brother, these thoughts is not my voice.

You know what voice does the Lord usually talk to you?

Sometimes he uses yours.

Sometimes he uses somebody who talked to you.

Sometimes he uses a voice that you would identify without even hearing anything audibly.

God can speak to you and you know it's you think it's God.

You're pretty confident it's God.

And brother, the confirmation, the confirmation is always before after.

You'll know if it's God.

If it's God, usually it's a scripture for me, I'll confirm it, but uh somebody, but that's always confirmation.

And so I'm very slow, and I admonish the people of God.

I'm not saying never say, be slow to say God said.

That's a dangerous, a presumptuous statement to make.

It really is.

God impressed me.

I feel God showed me.

But when you say God said, God told me.

I was watching this tape, Brother Mike, you gave to Brother Jeff.

Brother Jeff gave me from the meeting.

The brother stood up.

Oh, the Lord said this, the Lord said that.

Well, they done heard him say that so many times, man.

Remember?

But they blew it off.

The Lord said you ought to stand up when you talk.

Well, brother, we ain't gonna stand up.

Everybody's tired.

Everybody, some men's old, they can't stand up.

But if they believe the Lord said it, they would stand up.

But he done said it so much, it's without any validity.

You have to be careful how you say that.

Oh God, I'm sorry.

Now I believe he believed the Lord said it.

Right.

He said, while Peter thought on the vision, the Spirit said unto him, Behold, three men seek thee.

Nah, brother.

It's making sense.

How many men?

Three.

I bet at this point, I bet Peter no doubt believed these are gonna be Gentiles.

They're gonna be somebody unclean.

They're gonna be somebody common.

Keep going.

He said, Arise therefore and get thee down and go with them, doubting nothing, for I have sent them.

Then Peter went down to the men which was sent unto him from Cornelius and said, Behold, I am he whom ye seek.

What is the cause wherefore ye are come?

Now get this.

Brother Peter was pretty sure the Holy Ghost told him, because those men were there, brother Elton, to go with him, but didn't tell him why.

He didn't tell him why.

Didn't tell him why, didn't tell him how long to go, how far the trip is.

Now that sounds like God.

He might not have gone.

But listen, the Lord gives you information on a need-to-know basis.

That's the way he does me.

If I don't need to know, he don't tell me.

And he and listen, I think I need to know a whole lot more than he does tell me, but I'm glad he didn't.

But it's on as a need-to-know basis.

All he needs to know is that this is of me, go.

How far are you going?

I don't know.

How long you gonna stay?

I don't know.

What's the purpose?

I don't know.

But the Lord impressed me to go.

But how did he say this?

By his spirit.

He didn't hear an audible voice.

So there's always an element you could be missing it.

And that's where spirituality comes in, is to learn the voice of God.

You can't do that corner.

You can't do it if you're not reading, you can't do it if you're not praying.

You can't.

You have to follow somebody to say it, the Lord said.

But brother, when you're when your spiritual antenna is up, when you come together and worship and you feel an unction, and you stand up, you're saying, I feel the inspired of the Lord to get up.

You're training yourself to hear the voice of God.

You're training yourself to feel an unction.

And that's why we have free course in the services.

You're learning how to be led of the Holy Ghost.

The songs that we sing.

We can sit down and write some songs and come and just sing them, but brother, we don't believe that's the Lord.

We believe we should come and fill out for the Lord and let the Lord impress upon us what song to sing, or what testimony to give, or how to share our life.

I don't come with some canned sermon or thought.

I don't have a thought on my mind.

Unless it's something I have to address.

And then even then I don't know which way I'm gonna dress it.

You can't can this up and give it to God's people.

He won't accept that.

That's mold and bread.

You can do it in religion, but you're not gonna do that in his kingdom and it prosper.

It will not prosper.

The people of God, the Bible says by reason of use, we have our senses.

What?

Exercise to discern both the good is spiritual, evil is carnality.

You need to learn to hear God's voice.

We all have to learn it.

This is just training ground.

And so when I'm on that job, I need to hear his voice.

Uh, not say I'm on the job, but I'm talking about those who work normal jobs.

When you're at school, you need to learn to hear his voice.

When you're driving, this is the truth.

I'm gonna get to no testimony.

Brother, I remember, I promise you, Sister Juju, I would go to a town.

Now I don't know what happened to him.

I guess I've gotten too intelligent.

But I can remember back just five years ago, Sister Cheryl, I would go to a town.

God knows I didn't have a slight idea of how to get where I had to go.

I would do it intentionally.

Of course, now Sister Grace has uh navigation in my cell phone and we have map quests.

But man, I would go to a town.

This is the God knows truth.

And man, I would just start praying and say, Lord, show me.

Show me how to get here.

I don't even have the address.

You say that's stupidity.

No.

I would do that just training myself.

And man, I could fill an unction.

I'll turn right, turn left, turn right, turn left, look over here, and there it was.

I've done that over and over.

Now sometimes I try and end up in the wrong town.

But I've learned, I learned the difference.

I learned the difference until I could actually pray my way to a location, to an office, just praying my way to the office.

I couldn't be corner all day and that'll work, man.

But I gird myself up.

I I would do this intentionally.

And man, I would get in the high, get on the highway and drive to this location, whether it was in Coverton, whether it was in Alexandria or Lafayette, with nothing but the Holy Ghost.

Nothing but the Holy Ghost.

And uh I remember one time in St.

Mortonville, and that's a difficult town to get around in, and brother went straight to a contractor's office to pick up a check, so you knew it was important.

But uh I was training myself, and I would do this repetitively, repetitively, just to learn to hear this voice, learn to hear his voice.

And then sometimes I couldn't hear nothing.

Sometimes I wouldn't hear nothing, Brother Michael.

And when I started trying to come up with something, I ended up in the wrong town.

So I learned when I couldn't feel it, you pull over the side of the road and just wait.

If you still don't hear nothing, go go call Susan Grace and pull up map course and tell you how to get there.

But I learned when he was talking, I learned when he wasn't.

And you couldn't force it.

But many, many times.

That's just an example.

But uh these men live like that, Brother Michael.

This is the life they live, was dependent on nothing but the Holy Ghost.

Let's keep reading here.

Verse 22.

Oh man, time is getting away.

He said, and they said, Cornelius, the centurion, a just man, and one that feared God and of a good report among all the nation of the Jews, was warned from God by an holy angel to send for thee into his house and to hear words of thee.

Who told him it was a warning?

Because when you read it, that's not what we read.

Cornelius took it as a warning.

What would you mean a warning?

It wasn't if you don't do this, I'm gonna get you.

The warning was if you want life, here's your opportunity.

If you want obtain favor, here's your opportunity.

And to Cornelius, he told those men there was a warning.

In other words, this is something I must act upon.

I can't afford not to do this.

The consequences is too great.

He was persuaded this was his chance to be saved.

And so he used the word warn.

He said, then call he them in and lodge them.

That's Peter.

Now he's bringing these three Gentiles into his house.

He said, and on the morrow.

Okay, here's another morrow.

He said, Peter went away with them, and certain brethren from Joppa accompanied them.

And the morrow after they entered into Caesarea.

That's the fourth day.

And Cornelius waited for them and had called together his kinsmen and near friends.

Brother, here's the faith of Cornelius.

Look at this man.

This man was so persuaded.

He was so persuaded that when this man Peter comes, whoever he was, because the Lord had showed him in a vision and a dream, when this man came, brother, he was gonna have words that was gonna change his life.

And so what did he do?

He went and got his mama, his daddy, his brother, his sister, his uncle, and all of his friends and told him to come.

He didn't know how long he was gonna wait.

They had been there for four days.

For four days they was waiting, brother Elton.

But brother, they waited because Cornelius believed that when this man comes, it's gonna change our life.

We got to wait.

Brother, what faith?

Can you see the faith of this man?

Can you see what this was in this man's heart?

The Bible said, faith without works is what?

This man had works, brother.

His life proved he believed it.

And you can see why God chose him to bring him in first.

Look at this spirit.

Come on, brother Mike.

I'm sorry.

He said, and as Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshiped him.

And brother, why did he do that?

Brother, he believed that this man was a great ambassador of God, for which he was.

And so what do you do when you meet great men?

You bow down.

Especially if you're a Gentile.

Because they bow down before Caesars, they bow down before kings.

And so, brother, it was just natural for them to bow down and worship.

That's what they did.

But I wish the Catholic would read this.

Look what Peter did.

He said, But Peter took him up and saying, Stand up, I myself also am a man.

Brother Peter said, Don't bow down and worship me.

Don't bow down and worship me.

I wish the Pope of Rome would read this.

Don't bow down to me.

I'm a man.

He said, and as he talked with them, and he went in and found many that were come together, and he said unto them, Ye know how that is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to come keep company or come unto one of another nation.

He's talking about being a Gentile.

Now he's letting them know, listen, I'm here, but this is not lawful for me to do this.

This is not lawful for me to do.

This is against my convictions.

This is against my upbringing.

But brother, here's the difference.

The Lord told Peter to do it.

Keep reading.

Or showed him to do it.

He said, but God has showed me.

That's the term.

Say who told him?

God has showed me.

And look how Peter put it.

He said he said, God told me.

What did he say?

God showed me.

How did he show me?

He showed me through events.

A vision, three men, and what they had to say.

I know that was the Lord.

He showed me by his spirit, by events.

But he didn't tell me.

Keep reading.

He said, But God has showed me that I should not call any man common or unclean.

Therefore came I.

Ah, he got a revelation of what that dream was, didn't he?

He got a revelation.

His eyes became open.

What that was.

That was the Lord.

It wasn't because I was hungry, and I was hungry, but that's nothing to do with the Lord used that as an opportunity to touch my ignorant mind, to open my eyes.

Do you know that Peter was a staunch Jew?

Do you know he was a staunch Jew?

He wasn't religious, but brother, he helped the Tradition of not associating with the Gentiles.

Even after he was saved, Brother Michael, he kept that.

That was hard for him to get it out.

He didn't get out of that out of him until Peter rebuked him to, I mean, Paul rebuked him to his face.

That's how entrenched that was in him.

He didn't realize he was biased.

Was he biased?

Yes, he was biased.

He was biased for his own nationality.

He absolutely was.

And he was ignorant to it until Paul pointed it out.

He would have never gone into those Gentiles' house.

Do you remember how Jesus Christ told him?

And they had dualities in that.

He said, Peter, when you're young, you went where you would.

But when you're old, when you mature, you're going to stretch forth your hands.

You're going to yield to the Lord.

And another, that's the Holy Ghost, he's going to lead you where you wouldn't go.

And you can begin to see a fulfillment of that.

He would have never gone to the Gentiles.

Absolutely not.

Absolutely not.

Jesus knew that when he said, I have other sheep that's not of this fold.

Brother Evita said, I'm going to the Gentiles, Peter would have been the first one.

You're doing what?

My Lord.

Keep reading.

And see, we're people, let me say this.

Let me drop this in.

We got to stay open.

There's some things that we probably just wouldn't do.

There's things I myself wouldn't do.

But if the Lord showed me to do something, I like to have enough God in me.

Even if it cross me, and some things do cross me.

I'm telling you, it hurts.

Anything that crosses you hurts.

But if God impresses on me through ways that He has a certain thing, I like to be humble enough not to resist God.

Can we all be like that?

Let's not be so entrenched in anything.

Let's not be so dogmatic on anything or be so intoxicated about anything that we can't change if the Lord shows to do differently.

Because this was not something, this is not an easy thing.

It's not something you want to hop over.

This is monumental.

This is the chiefest apostle.

That's what he was.

He was a spokesman of the twelve.

And here this man is, and everything in his heart, brother, he knew not to sociate or go into a gentile house and eat.

He knew that.

And yet the Holy Ghost, not Jesus Christ, not God the Father, the Holy Ghost showed him, This is what I want you to do.

And he humbled himself enough to do it.

It takes a broken man to do that.

Let's keep reading.

Verse 29.

He said, Therefore came I unto you without gainsaying.

My God.

What do you mean?

He said, As soon as I was sent for, I ask therefore for what intent ye have sent for me.

And Cornelius said.

Now look, in other words, he still didn't have.

Okay, listen, you done brought me here.

I listen to what your guy said.

What do you want me to do?

Peter didn't know if you want me to lay hands on you.

What do you want me to do?

But watch what happens.

He said, and Cornelius said, Four days ago I was fasting around the sixth hour.

Four days ago.

Four days ago.

He said, and at the ninth hour I prayed in my house, and behold, a man stood before me in bright clothes.

Don't hop over that word.

See that word a man?

It used interchangeably with an angel.

It uses that throughout the Bible.

When an angel appears, he doesn't appear with wings.

I'm trying to wash our feet a little bit.

He always appears as a man.

Somebody says, I seen an angel and he had big wings and he.

Where do you find that at in the Bible?

Every time an angel appeared, he appeared as a man.

Throughout the Bible.

The Lord knows I seen some big angel next to me, sister uh uh Desiree.

What am I gonna do?

What some big wings?

How do they know that he was an angel?

He usually appears in white apparel.

Uh, there's something special about him, but it's not anything uh the monstrous like big wings or he's eight feet tall, nine foot tall, and come on now.

Come on now.

That seems like God to you.

Boy, we are messed up, aren't we?

We're superstitious.

He said and said, Cornelius, thy prayers heard, and thy alms are had in remembrance in the sight of God.

Send therefore to Jopper, call hither Simon, whose surname is Peter.

Now listen to this.

He is lized in the house of one Simon of Tanner by the seaside, who when he cometh shall speak unto thee.

Immediately therefore I sent to thee, and thou hast well done that thou art come.

Now therefore, are we all here?

All are here.

He got everybody he knew who had any interest in God.

We're all here present before God.

Before who?

Before God before God to hear all things that are commanded thee of God.

Brother, when Peter heard that, no doubt he marveled.

He absolutely marveled.

I'm sure his heart smoked him, because he was prejudiced against the Gentiles.

He was prejudiced against them.

Look what he says.

Then Peter opened his mouth and said, Of a truth, I perceive that God is what?

Let's say that again, that God is what?

No respectable person.

That was an eye-opening for Peter.

My God, he said.

He said, But in what?

Every nation, not just the Jews, but in every nation, he hath he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is what?

Brother, Peter was astonished.

His eyes was open.

My Lord.

How did he learn it?

He learned this, brother, by revelation of yielding to the Holy Ghost.

And he got a revelation.

Now watch this.

And then he began to preach.

And my God, what a short message.

He said, the word which God sent unto Israel, he's preaching to them now.

He's acknowledging, first of all, that God was working in Canadians.

He's acknowledging that.

I can see God is in this.

And so now he began to preach.

He said, the word which God sent unto the children of Israel, that's his own nation he's talking about, preaching what?

Peace by Jesus Christ.

He is Lord of all.

He said, that word, that word, I say, you know.

You know, you've heard about it.

You are centurion.

You were right there in Judea, which was published throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee.

After the what?

Here's the gospel.

Here's the gospel in one verse.

How God anointed who?

Wait, wait, wait.

How say it again?

How God anointed who?

How many of you see there?

Three?

One?

It's two.

God and his son.

That's throughout the Bible.

How God, that's one entity, anointed Jesus of Nazareth.

That's the second one.

He anointed him what?

And he didn't anoint a person with a person.

He anointed him with a spirit.

How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the what?

Holy Ghost.

He was anointed with the Holy Ghost.

There is no Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Making one.

I'm making a Trinity.

That's the Spirit of God.

The Spirit of a Man is subject to a man.

The spirit of the prophet is subject to a prophet.

That's his divine spirit, Brother Elson.

That's not the third person of the Godhead.

My God.

Let's keep reading.

He anointed with Holy Ghost and with what?

Power.

That's talking about a gift.

Who went about, come on, doing good and doing what?

For what gift is?

You'll see two.

For what?

How many is that?

One.

For who?

God.

What is that?

One was with what?

What is that?

Is that two?

God was with him.

He didn't say God was him, or him was God.

God was with him.

He said, All right, Sister Betty.

Okay.

All right.

My God.

Let's keep reading.

He said, now look, look, that's the gospel in a nutshell.

Verse 2039.

It said, and we are witnesses.

That's talking about the apostles and the prophets.

We are witnesses of what?

All things which he did, both in the land of the what?

Jerusalem, of the Jews, and in what?

Whom they slew.

And now that's what they were.

They were witnesses of Jesus Christ's life, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension.

Now he gets back to the gospel.

He says, Him, that's Jesus, God, that's Jesus' father, raised up the what?

The third day, not the second day, not Sunday morning from Friday night, the third day, and showed him, but not to all the people, but unto witnesses, that was 500 brothers, you've seen at one time, but to witnesses chosen before of God, even to us, who did eat and drink with him, what?

After he rose from the what?

Verse 42.

And he commanded us, we read that in Acts chapter 1.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

He commanded us to preach unto the people and to do what?

Testify that it is what?

He get this, it is what?

He, that's one, which was ordained of that's two, to be what?

Quick means the living and the what?

And the dead.

Quick and the dead.

To him give all the prophets witness that through his name, whosoever believeth in him shall receive what?

Now Peter was commissioned to preach that and he didn't even believe it in his fullness.

But he got a revelation.

Now he believes it.

To him, brother Elton, all was just Israel.

Or maybe even the poor Jews and Samaritan, but he couldn't see the Gentiles.

Absolutely not.

But brother God was merciful.

Now verse uh 44.

I love this verse.

While Peter, what?

Brother, listen, the Holy Ghost said amen to it.

The Holy Ghost backed those words up.

Why did he back it up?

While Peter yet spake these words, the what?

I don't believe that means, Sister Michelle.

Everybody in that room.

That's not what it said.

Read it.

He said, listen, not everybody, not everybody.

While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which what?

Somebody has heard noise.

Somebody heard Peter just talking, but there was some people, they heard the word of God.

The ones, he that have an ear let him, the ones whose heart was right, because dear old brother Cornelius, he got everybody, Brother Arnell.

He got Uncle Joe and Ain's Sue, got everybody, but everybody wanted to be saved.

But those who had a hunger and a thirst, they had ears to hear, the Holy Ghost fell on them.

Like on the day of Pentecost.

Not everybody received it, it's that all the house where they were sitting.

Okay, let's keep reading.

Now watch this.

Verse 45.

And they of the what?

That's the Jews who came from Joppa.

Which believe was what?

Astonished.

As many as came with Peter.

Why?

Because that on the look at this prejudice, look at this biasness in their heart.

Because that on the what?

Say it.

The what?

Gentiles also was poured out the.

They was astonished.

Didn't believe that the Gentiles could be saved.

Who were still dogs?

Full of sores.

They couldn't get past that.

You've never seen racial bigotry like it was between the Jew and the Gentiles.

And that's a fact.

That was real bigotry, brother.

And brother, it was not by the Gentiles.