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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s Word on Bibleline, everywhere, every time. Here God’s truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida. Clearly declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us toll-free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the BibleLineMinistries.org homepage. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, and that today’s first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

But anyway, take your Bible and turn to the book of Acts. The book of Acts. Doesn’t the book of Acts have a lot of interesting, soul-winning stories? It’s all about getting the gospel out. And if you want to become a strong Christian, see all the epistles and things like that are written to those that have believed. But there wouldn’t be any letters to the churches if somebody hadn’t have won those people to the Lord. You say, you can’t have a saint, you can’t build a Christian strong until somebody’s won them.

So somebody has to win them first. So that’s where it all starts. Somebody reaching somebody. So I think it’s a wonderful thing. But here in the book of Acts and chapter 10, we talked this morning about Cornelius, a gentile and how that he wanted to know the truth. And he prayed to the Lord, he did all the right that he knew to do. And I believe God is touched and moved. And so the Lord, through the Holy Spirit, sent him a vision and then told him what to do, sent three men down to Japa, which is about 30 miles away, and they went and saw Peter.

And Peter let him stay there the night, Gentiles in his house. And the next day they went. And when they got to the household of Cornelius, it wasn’t just him, it was he had a house full of them. He says, the Lord told me to sin for you, to have you tell me the words that I need to hear.” So he preached to him the word. So I went over a little bit quick toward the end of the message this morning because I always like to get the gospel into the end.

But I want you to go back there to verse 33. The book of Acts chapter 10 and verse 33, immediately, therefore I sent to thee and thou hath well done that thou art come. Now the Bible says that when Peter heard the message, well, he did it also. He came. Now therefore, are we all here, present before God, to hear all things that are commanded, the of God. You know, I wish all of God’s people would all come together at the same time to hear what does the man of God have to tell them about the Word of God.

Wouldn’t be neat if everybody had that same hunger and drive and desire to know the will of God for their life. We won’t know until we get to heaven to find out what our lack of studying the Word of God or the lack of praying or the lack of discipline has cost us. But Peter was a man that God was able to use and God had already told him that I’m going to use you in a great way. And he says in the of Matthew 16, I’m going to give to you the kingdom of heaven, the keys.

And the keys is the gospel that unlocks the door that lets somebody in. You see, it’s like you having the clear gospel. You have that which opens the door where people can see how to have eternal life. And God used them to bring the gospel to those that were there on the day of Pentecost. And then here to the the Gentiles also. So God really used this individual. Did you know there was a time in Peter’s life when he thought, I’m all washed up.

I’ve really messed up now. God can’t use me after he denied the Lord three times. Then he says, I’m going fishing. And not only did he decide to go fishing, but he was an influential individual. They all went fishing. They fished all night. Would they catch? Nothing. Jesus says, why don’t you do this? And they did it. And then their nets were breaking because there was just so many of them. He had told them, dream half years. earlier. Follow me and I’ll make you faciers of men.”

So they had a little talk with the Lord to campfire. Lord was talking to Peter and says, do you love me? He asked him at three times. I wonder why he said three times. You got any clue? How many times did he deny him? Well, I think that’s one way of him to kind of get things right. Lord, you know, I really love you. I really do. He said, I want you to feed my, feed my sheep. He didn’t ask him if he loved the sheep.

Just ask him if he loved him. I don’t have to ask you if you love souls. Do you love the Lord? So if you don’t love the Lord, you’re not going to love people. And the only reason you’ll really love people is that you love the Lord. And if you love the Lord and you love people is because you want them I have a burden for souls. You want people to have a burden for souls. I like that little statement that I read this morning from Dr.

Seymour’s book. You can’t have a burden for souls if you don’t have a burden for a soul. Well, I wanna reach the multitude. Yeah, but what about just one? Can you nail one of them down? Can you just talk to one person? Did you know it’s amazing that I’ve seen over the years, one person becomes a link into a long chain and how they just kind of like domino. And next thing you know, you can reach thousands of people just because you reach one person.

I’ve seen this over and over again. It’s a great thing. But look what he says in verse 34. Then Peter opened his mouth and said of a truth I perceive, God is no respecter of persons. Now as you go down through here, all the way down to verse 43, there’s four main things that I want you to just be aware of because it tells you the kind of like an outline that Peter uses in order to bring the gospel.

You see, number one, in verse 34, we talks about God is not a respecter of persons. Is everybody a sinner? Everybody’s a sinner. And it doesn’t make any difference whether you’re a georgentile, doesn’t matter about your race or your color or language, It doesn’t matter. God so loved the world. And that all are sinners. And that’s why there’s a message to be brought to them. The second thing that’s mentioned here is in verse 39, where it talks about Christ died.

Christ died. And when He died, of course, we know. And I believe that Peter preached a lot more than what’s mentioned right here. I don’t believe that just 34 to 43 is the total message that he brought to them. I believe these are the highlights of his message. You believe that he would have went there and spend all that time and you can read this in about two minutes. I believe he had a lot more to say, a lot more to teach.

And so we don’t have the total messages of all these men in the Word of God, but there’s Enough here to give us the idea of what was said, the high points. Though there’s a lot of things that’s probably explained. Don’t always think that you have to totally, fully understand every verse in the Bible. You don’t. And you won’t. So you just get some of the meat as you go and keep on going. And it’s amazing that what you don’t get here, there’s another verse down the road that explains that verse that you couldn’t understand.

So don’t try to go too deep. Just stay simple. Just get what you can get and enjoy it. Don’t get hung up on a gristle. You can stay there the rest of your life. Try to swallow it and you can’t chew it. It’ll choke you to death. And people say, well, I tried reading the Bible, but I just can’t understand it. So they quit. Well, the key is just go with what you can’t understand. You see, when you start off, you start off with milk.

Something is real simple. And then when you develop your teeth, you can go back and eat some of these, the meat of the word of God. And sometime it takes a little while. You gotta get your wisdom teeth, you know. But look what he says. In the next verse, verse 40, it talks about Christ rose from the dead. So we have where Christ… He tells us in his word, all are sinners. God’s not a respecter of persons. Everybody needs to hear the word, and that Christ died, and He died for us.

And He rose again from the dead, where of He says they were all witnesses of this. And then He makes the statement there concerning in verse 43, just believe, just believe. Is that a simple little outline message? But as you read this, you may not see it at first value, but it’s there. It’s there. There’s a lot of things woven in here and woven in there. But just like sometimes when we give the gospel, sometimes I’ll weave it through and I’ll say parts of it.

And then I’ll say another part and then we’ll weave some more and we’ll get the other part of it. But when we get through, we want the lost man to know. Look, God’s not a respecter of persons. and it doesn’t matter who you are or what you’ve done. The Lord will save you. When he died on that cross, he died for you, for everybody. And then he came back again from the dead. And if you’ll be lead that what he did was for you, then God said he would save you and give you as a free gift everlasting life.

Now, there’s some scripture here that I think is important to see. But look, they’re in John chapter 6. John chapter 6, just hold your place here. But just go back to John chapter 6. Because you can use these scriptures if you say, well I just don’t understand the one statement there. But get what he says in verse 28. John chapter 6 verse 28. Then said they unto him, what shall we do that we might work the works of God?

Jesus answered and said unto them, this is the work of God. that ye believe on him whom he hath sent. This is what I want you to do. This is the work of God that you believe on him whom he hath sent.” Now let me make that kind of clear, doesn’t it? Now go back to the book of Acts in chapter 10 and you notice what it says in verse 35, but in every nation, he that feareth him and work of righteousness is accepted with him.

Now work of righteousness, I know you can say, now is this talking about like Cornelius was trying to work righteousness, but if a man was doing that in seeking truth or seeking light, that’s one thing. If a man’s doing that depending or trusting in his righteousness, that is not acceptable with God. But God does accept the fact that he gives light to every man, he gives truth. And if any man will seek and follow truth, then it will lead to the source of truth, and that God is not a respecter persons and everyone who really wants to know, I believe, can hear the gospel and hear the truth.

So, makes a statement here in verse 36. The word which was sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ, He is Lord of all. This peace is the peace of Jesus Christ, but He’s also talking about a man can have peace with God. Romans chapter five and verse one it talks about being justified before God. We have peace with God because we’re justified. And I believe also when He says here in verse 37, that word I say ye know which was published throughout all Judea and you ought to underline this word began.

BEGIN from Galilee. See, a lot of times Jesus was referred to as Jesus of Galilee. Jesus is who he claimed to be, it was his earthly name. And he was from Galilee and that’s where he began his ministry. But he says, from that time until the baptism of John when he preached, All of that evidently he went through and he explained all these things. So he says, you know which was published throughout. In verse 30, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus of Nazareth.

With the Holy Ghost and with power, who went about doing good. Remember I said one time, even when you’re not winning somebody to the Lord, you can still go about just doing good. just doing good. Just do good. Just do right. Not to get to heaven, but because you and I are God’s children and because God is good and you and I should want to be like our Heavenly Father, we should do good. We ought to do good by our husband or our wives or the children or grandkids or people on your job.

Everybody’s having a rough time. Everybody has a difficult. There’s no value in trying to be mean and ugly. Sometimes we are and we shouldn’t be. But like he says here, he makes a statement in verse 39, and we are witnesses of all these things which he did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem whom they slew and hanged on a tree. This is similar to the message that he preached over there in the book of Acts in chapter 2 when by the time he got through he says that Christ was delivered by the determinant counsel of the Lord.

But even though he allowed his son to die, it was because God had a plan and he came back again from the dead. And so it’s a lot of the same thing in the message. But remember the most powerful point of all the statements made in the book of Acts is it was always about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. You see, you and I are basing our eternal destination upon that truth. Not only did he die on the cross and was buried, he came back from the dead.

He says, An evil and adultery of generations, seeketh after a sign, but no sign shall be given to it, but the son of the prophet Jonah, for his Jonah was three days and three nights in the will of belly, even so shall the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. And he coming back from the dead, see. And so that was a sign. And so everything that he said, everything he did, hinged upon him coming back from the dead.

If Christ had not come back from the dead, there’d be no Christianity. There would be no salvation. He came back from the dead. So that is why it’s so important. He says, and we were all there. We saw it from the very beginning of his ministry. We can testify of that. And it says he was crucified and buried and came back where all witnesses of this. See, all we are is just witnesses. I just tell people what Christ did for me.

I love giving my personal testimony. You know, I’ve had people ask me, how in the world did you get the name Yankee? Did you know I can go from Yankee to the gospel? I can talk about Colorado and get to the gospel. Anywhere you are in the whole world and every incident in life can always lead back to the gospel. It’s amazing. But there’s always a road back to the gospel because to me it’s the most important thing that ever happened in my life.

That day when I trusted Christ as my Savior. And all I’ve wanted to do ever since is just to testify, to witness. And that’s all I believe that I am. I’m just a witness. Testifying about what God did for me. And somebody said, well, how do you know He saved you? I was there when it happened. And I guess I ought to know. I was there when it happened. And I guess I ought to know. But look what it says down here in verse 41.

Not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before of God, even to us who did eat and drink with Him after He rose from the dead. And He commanded us to preach unto the people. Did you know that command that came from the book of Matthew chapter 28? And He says, and teaching them all things whatsoever I have commanded you. So the command that Christ gave to His disciples was to be passed on to those that they reached and on to those that they reached.

Did you know that you, you, you are commanded by God to witness? Now you may not, but you’re commanded. Like it or not, I didn’t write the book. I’m just telling you what it says. says, you and I are under a command. We have been entrusted with the gospel. Now, let me make sure you understand this. We have Peter who works for us here in the ministry. We got James that works for us here in the ministry. Did you know that all those people that James leads to the Lord, he don’t get all the credit for that?

You see what, because we pay him. All those that gets on Friday night, So when he don’t get credit for all of those, we pay him. But you see why we wanna pay these guys? Because they have fruit that abounds to our account. That’s why we do it for missionaries. We want soul winners because it puts fruit to your account. You, when you get to heaven, if you support this church, you’re supporting those soul winning efforts. Because simply, if James didn’t win people the Lord, Lord, I’d probably fire him.

But he is a soul winner. Well, that was kind of strong. You’re a place saying, Martin, I’ll get on the ball. But I want him to do what he’s doing because I know that when he leads people to the Lord, he’s doing it because he’s got the time to do it. And we make it possible. And because he does such a wonderful job, we know that there’s going to be fruit that abounds to the people who support this ministry.

And whenever they go out on Friday night, so went in. You know they wouldn’t be doing that if Peter didn’t and got that thing started. And you think about all those people. Or we have all those people who trust the Lord because of the radio. And just like this morning we had this guy come in here who trusts the Lord from listening to Hank on the radio. Years ago back in 80s. I think he said How many of those guys are out there?

How many are out there? Did you know all those people who gave and supported the ready of ministry? There’s fruit that are bound to their account So that’s why when you give You’re given to a soul winning ministry because we’ve got soul winners here and that’s what makes it so important And and you’re not wasting your time. You’re not wasting your money And even though you may give sacrificial and you have a lot of time you don’t have a lot to give But you do it and you’re and doing,.

And yet there’ll be people that’ll be in heaven because of what you did You madeovych possible you made it possible And I think it’s it’s worthy to note that and to give you credit for that But Lewity says they’re in verse 43 To him give all the prophets witness that through his name whosoever believe it in him shall receive remission of sins.” Isn’t that a wonderful verse? That is a powerful verse. This is what the Old Testament prophets talked about, about the one that was going to come.

You see the word Christ meant the one that was going to make the payment for sin. He was to be the sacrifice, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. And so when He came and He died on the cross, paid for the sins of the world, Eugeney, and I can have eternal life. And it says in verse 44, But while Peter yet spaked these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word.

That means those who heard, he that have ears to hear, let him hear. And so this is to those who did hear. They heard it. They believed. Because you’ll see over there in the following verse, those that believed it in verse 17 of chapter 11, he says, for as much than as God gave them the light gift as he did unto us, who did what? who believed. So then we know that over there it’s because they believed the word that they heard.

And it says, and they were indwelled and they spoke in languages. They spoke in tongues. And the word unknown is not mentioned here. In verse 45 it says, and they of the circumcision, that’s those Jewish guys who came along with Peter to the household of Cornelius. And so circumcision is to the Jews. And so here’s the six Jews that went along and they heard them speak. They understood. And it says there, they are the circumcision which believed, so these were believers, were astonished as many as came with Peter, those were the Jewish ones, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost.

See, this is the same thing that that happened on the day of Pentecost. And it was to convince the unbelieving Jews. Here was some Jews who were already saved but didn’t believe the Gentiles could have the baptism of the Holy Spirit or that they were supposed to reach them. There’s so much God had to teach them. AndAbove they heard they believed that they had also been granted the gift of eternal life. And it says that in chapter 11. In verse 46, and they heard them speak with tongues, languages, and magnify God.

So they not only heard, they knew what they were saying, and they knew that they were magnifying the Lord about whatever was saying. But it was the evidence or the proof that these Jews needed to know and hear. And remember, tongues was always for a sign. It was not a sign to the person that did the speaking. It was the one that was a sign to the one that was doing the hearing of what they were saying. So he says here in verse 47, can any man forbid water that they should not be baptized?

So evidently somewhere along the line they had to cover that issue. True, it doesn’t say that, but evidently it did. But if you look there in chapter 10 and you’ll notice where it talks about John the Baptist in verse 37, that word I say you know, which was published throughout all Judea and began from Galilee after the baptism which John preached. And so if they listened and they heard the message that John preached, he baptized with water. Now take your Bible, hold it right here, but turn over there to the book of John in chapter 7.

and chapter 7. And you notice there’s a verse there, verse 39, where it makes the statement, That on the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, if any man thirst, let him come into me and drink. And as the scripture hath saith, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. This spake he of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive. So look up there in verse 39. But this spake he of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive.

for the Holy Ghost was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorifying. So whenever they did believe it, now it says that they were in dwelt, received the Holy Spirit. And then they were water baptized. Now this is with the apostle Peter. Now when you talk about the apostle Paul, it’s even still in the book of Acts in chapter 19 where the apostle Paul is still doing it the other way. And there’s a reason, but we don’t have time for that.

Now we’ll get into chapter 19 a little bit later, but go back there now to the book of Acts in chapter 10. So he says, what does hinder us from baptizing them? In verse 47, can any man forbid water that they should not be baptized, which, And here’s these two words you need to underline it in your Bible. It’s past tense. Have received the Holy Ghost as well as we. Just like us Jews, these Gentiles have received the Holy Ghost.

So you see, John the Baptist would baptize in water saying, you need to believe on him who comes after me. Who sure that’s just I’m not worthy to even bow down in Thai shoes. He’s coming after me, but He is going to baptize you with the Holy Ghost. But I’m baptizing you with water. But I’m doing this because you believe the message that I preach about believing on Him whom God has sent. So when they believe that message, they were baptized in water.

But being baptized in water is a pitch of your death, burial and resurrection. So when you believe that Christ, the Messiah is going to do this for you, you believe that and you were baptized in water, but it was a picture of the Holy Spirit baptism that they were going to receive later. So now after the cross, here we are, we trust Christ as our Savior, we are baptized by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ. The very moment you trust the Lord.

And whenever that happens, thenabiding God says, we should be baptized in water. So this is the sequence that’s used here. They heard the word and they believed it. And they were baptized by the Holy Spirit. And then baptized in water. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida with Dr. Ralph Arnold. We pray that you were blessed by today’s message. Part 2 of this teaching will conclude with tomorrow’s broadcast. If you have enjoyed our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, you can reach Bibleline and pledge your support to keep us on the air in your area by dialing tool free 1-800-576-3771.

That’s 1-800-576-3771. To listen to today’s message again or to obtain a free download of any of our Bibleline programs, just go to our home page at BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the radio broadcast link. If you are in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Our Sunday morning services begin at 10-30 and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. Live broadcast of our services may be seen by clicking on the Calvary Community Church link at BibleLineMinistries.org.

Thanks for joining us on Bibleline, and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen, the trumpet will sound, and we will be changed. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day, believing that the Lord is coming soon, and just keep looking up.