Chapter 10, we're going to read verses 45 to 48, and then go to the first 18 verses. And if you've been paying attention, these first 18 verses are going to sound very familiar. But there's a real reason, and we're going to open that up for discussion and see why was it repetitive. Verse 45, And they of the circumcision, these were the Jews, which believed they were astonished as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. For they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God. Then answered Peter, Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which was received the Holy Ghost as well as we? And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Then prayed they him to tarry certain days. And the apostles and brethren that were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God. Let's just stop there for a minute. Verse 1, now we have a conflict. And I got to stop there just for a second. You will never be able to watch a good movie or read a good story unless there's a conflict. There has to be a conflict. There has to be some kind of problem and they get your brain going and saying, wow, how are they going to get out of this? You know, there was always, you watch, remember watching Leave it to Beaver when I was a kid? Beaver was always the conflict in the beginning of the show. He was always doing something to get into trouble. Here's the conflict here. The Jews have found out now that the Gentiles are now coming into the Christian church. Oh, well, that happened 2,000 years ago. That's ancient. That doesn't apply to me. This is archaic. If this didn't happen, us Gentiles right now would be in big trouble. We're Gentiles. And right now, the Gentiles have been invited into the Christian church. It was God Himself that said that they're coming. You Jews get ready, and you better be ready for it, because they're coming. Because the gospel of Jesus Christ, who's it open to? Who is the gospel open to? Right. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. Whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. It's open to the world. That's what that word means in John 3.16. It doesn't mean that every body is guaranteed salvation and God owes it to him. It means it's open to the world. Every nationality. And in the Christian faith, by the way, all lives matter. And when Peter was come up to Jerusalem, they that were of the circumcision contended with him, saying, Thou wentest into men uncircumcised, and didst eat with them. But Peter rehearsed the matter. I like that word. That's a great word here in the King James. He rehearsed the matter. That means he had been planning this to make sure he was going to get it right. But Peter rehearsed the matter from the beginning and expounded it by order unto them, saying, I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. A certain vessel descended as it had been a great sheet, let down from heaven by four corners, and it came even unto me. Upon the witch which I had fastened mine eyes, I considered and saw four-footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air. And I heard a voice saying unto me, Arise, Peter, slay and eat. But I said, Not so, Lord, for nothing common or unclean hath at any time entered into my mouth. But the voice answered me again from heaven, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common? And this was done three times, and all were drawn up again into heaven." Once again, how many times did the Lord have to do three times with Peter? Remember? Remember, he said, Peter, do you love me? Peter, do you love me? Peter, do you love me? Three times. Peter denied Christ three times. Three times this was brought to Peter's attention to drill it into his brain and into his heart. And it says, and this was done, verse 10, and this was done three times and all were drawn up again into heaven and behold, Immediately there were three men already come unto the house where I was sent from Caesarea unto me. And the Spirit bade me go with them, nothing doubting moreover, these six brethren," keep that number in mind, that's important, "...six brethren accompanied me, and we entered into the man's house. And he showed us how we had seen an angel in his house, which stood and said unto him, Send me to Joppa, and call for Simon, whose surname is Peter, who shall tell thee words, whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved. And as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them, and on us at the beginning. Then remembered I the word of the Lord, how that he said, John indeed baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost. For as much then as God gave them the like gift as he did unto us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, what was I that I could withstand God? When they heard these things, they held their peace and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life. How many times do you have controversies and contentions in the church or in your family, and you start having these contentions, and all this stuff is going, and it's flying back and forth? How many times are they resolved that quickly? Isn't it unusual? Immediately, this was resolved. Why? That's the question we are going to answer today. Why was this resolved so immediately when there was a lot of people standing around? And there were people that were furious right now, Peter. They were furious. Why are you contending with these wicked, dirty, unclean Gentiles? And that's putting it mildly. That's putting it reverently. They hated Gentiles. The circumcised Jews, even the converted ones of the diaspora, they hated it. They were the dispersed Jews. They hated it. Well, here's the beginning of the conundrum. Here's the question. Here's the answer. Peter delivered the gospel. Had Peter gone in to Cornelius' house and given his own intervention and opinions, it would have been a mess. He went in and he gave the gospel. And we see that the tongues of fire came down on the Jews back in Acts 2, and in Acts 10, once again to the Gentiles. Significance of the tongues with fire, that Christ is the language and the tongues of salvation. And we were finishing up last week about the difference between the word glossolalia and xenoglossy. Glossolalia is when you have these tongues and people are talking in unknown languages. they're saying they're babbling and they're saying things that nobody understands that's like a lot of these neo-pentecostal churches today you can still go in them and somebody who just I've been years and years ago somebody would stand up blah blah blah blah blah and they're and they think they say they're whole they're they're filled with the Holy Spirit but you can't understand what they're saying So there's nothing edifying there. But then you have xenoglossy. That's very important. That is speaking in a language, whether it's, maybe it's a sign language, maybe it's another foreign language or another nationality, and somebody can understand what you're saying. And these tongues of salvation, we're going to be looking at some verses that talk about how we as Christians, no matter how, where we are in the world, isn't it amazing when you meet another Christian how like-minded we are? that we believe in the same Jesus, we believe in the same gospel. I think that that's important. It's perfect. John 1.1 says, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. That means we now know Jesus Christ is the Word of God, and that Word must be like-minded. And we need to be using that same gospel that Peter was using. So when we go back to what Peter was doing, he went into Cornelius' house, and he had had witnesses with him. That number 6 is very important. Why is that important? Does anybody have any idea why the number 6 meant? Now let me just make it easy on you. Peter was in Joppa, Cornelius got a vision, Peter got a vision, Peter was told to go to Cornelius' house in Caesarea, and when the vision came to Peter and he went, he had six men with him. There were six. When he went to Cornelius' house, he preached. What did he preach? The gospel. And here we're going to talk about the benediction for a second. But why was it important to have six men with him? He had three Gentiles and he had three Jews. He had witnesses. So then he went back to the Jewish council. They contended with him. He had witnesses. And he could go back and say, hey, they saw the vision. They heard about the vision. Cornelius had a vision. I had a vision. What if you went and told somebody, hey, in church today I saw a vision? They'd think you were a nut. They'd think you're crazy. Especially today people are still talking. I see a bit Peter was worried whether he would believe him or not. I Saw a vision. Oh, by the way, I'll just you know, let's humor me a little bit. What was the vision? Oh, it was a sheet that came down from heaven with but with a bunch of animals on it and God said from now on you need to change the dietary laws back in the Old Testament you can now eat pigs you can eat bacon now you can eat pork and You can eat ground beef, you can have pot roast, you can have all the good things. And Peter said, uh-uh, Lord, I'm not eating anything that's common. And God said, what? I'm telling you, you can eat more than you've ever eaten, and I'm going to let you in on something that's awesome, and you're going to call what I tell you common? Don't you ever tell me what I tell you is common, or base, or it's not adequate. If I tell you you can eat it, you can eat it." And Peter changed his tune real quick. Now he's sharing with the Gentiles. He's sharing now, and the reason God did that is so now the Christians... And you know, I forgot to talk about this several weeks ago. It was in my notes. How important is it that Christians get together and have dinner together? Isn't that important for fellowship? See, right now there was a great big divide between the Jews and the Gentiles. They couldn't sit and eat together. They were killing each other over that. You know, the Gentiles liked to eat their pork. The Romans, oh, that was a big problem with Jesus. Remember He cast the demons into the swine and ran them all into the river? Well, it turns out I went, I dug a little bit deeper on that lesson and the Romans hated Jesus because that was a bunch of pigs. There was a bunch of them, hundreds of them, and they liked their pork and he killed them all. And so basically, you know, we see how this big wall's now torn down. And now the Jews now can have fellowship with the Gentiles. And the Lord knows that when you go to church and you're with some other kind of quote-unquote nationality, it's not easy to not want to sit down and eat with them afterwards. You know, we've started the lunch thing here after church here for months, and it's worked out very well. We enjoy our time together. It's good food. It's good fellowship. And we're all of the same mind. That's how important food is, and the Lord knew that. But here on the benediction, we see that there is an utterance of bestowing a wonderful blessing, especially at the end of this religious service. And Peter now gives the benediction on it. He speaks of the Holy Spirit. And as Paul said, Acts chapter 20, verse 27, For I have not shunned to declare you under the counsel of God. Preaching the whole counsel. and the truth from Scripture, proper interpretation of Scripture, and how Christ calls us to teach and preach, it needs to be done in a rite-like manner. And I think that it's wonderful that after the end of a service, the pastor gives a benediction. Or it could be the elder, it could be a deacon. Give the benediction. And I think I prefer to be the pastor, because the pastor spent all that time preparing the message, that he should put the icing on the cake and give a nice benediction there. You see here how Peter had quoted Scripture. He had called the people to repentance. And here Peter calls, when he was at Pentecost, he said, Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father, and that He is the true Messiah and the Savior of the world. Now, you know, we could basically just stop where we're at and talk for about three weeks about how this affects the Roman Catholic Church. This is an incredible, incredible benediction and finish by Peter because Peter gives all the glory to God. He doesn't take any credit for himself. He doesn't bring people to some type of physical ritual where they need at the benediction of the service do some kind of physical ritual that doesn't involve Jesus Christ. Everything is about the gospel here. Okay, anybody questions? Anybody have anything to add? For a minute, Lisa. Right. I think are a testament, really, to God's plan, his ultimate plan was to ascend to the Gentiles as well as the Jews. So even if the Jews were given to it first, that doesn't mean that he didn't care about the rest of it. He created it all the way. So to that extent that he created everyone independent, That's an important point and we need to talk a little bit more about that. Right. The contention is high. Go back to, go ahead Lisa. Right. Right. Right. So let me ask you this question. So then what you're basically saying, and this is what really fueled a big contention here, And it's probably one of the biggest contentions today in the Christian church. You're saying that the message itself is uniform to all, correct? It has to be bound and it has to be of like mind. Theologians have come out and blasted God and said that he's not perfect and he's not who he says he is because he changed the dietary laws and he's fickle. They say that he's not who he said he is because he changed his mind from the Old Testament to the New Testament. This is one of the big reasons I have found out that they have eradicated the Old Testament. They have called God a liar. That's how important this is. Lisa. Right. That was back in Acts chapter 10 when Peter was preaching. He said, you know that God is no respecter of persons. Good point. Yeah. That's OK. Go ahead. Right. You're not really supposed to be talking with a Gentile, or seeing with a Gentile, or reading with a Gentile. But then later on, in that very first page, it sounds very, what he says sounds pretty awful, the way he's addressing them. But then later on he says, but, and he says, but he now sees that the house of God is really scattered. And he had to have his story straight, didn't he? Because when he brings this up, he basically is on trial. It's like having a presbytery meeting. And he's basically being questioned. What are you doing with them? What are you doing with the Gentiles? And the question arose, why did God change the dietary laws? Does it make him a fickle God? And the biggest question is, does it change the meaning and the character of his being? Or was it an upgrade? See, the Christian knows it was an upgrade. How many times all throughout Scripture have you seen people start very maybe small in their faith, and the Lord continues to upgrade them through sanctification? You know, when you come into the Christian faith and you're a new Christian, you don't have the whole Westminster Confession memorized. You don't have the doctrines of theology outlined on your desk. You don't have all this real deep theology. You come in and you believe in Jesus. You just love Jesus and you want to learn. But as you grow, you get more and more knowledgeable. And Peter, I love this because he knows this. It takes time. It takes building blocks. And your whole life, you never step on the mountain, take your Bible flag and stick it in the mountain and say, I have arrived. I don't have to read anymore. I've mastered the Bible. It never happens. Lisa. Right. Right. Yep. Right. Right. And you're building the case that's the whole, that is the whole problem that's here. Lisey. That's right. That's right. Yep. That's right. So now, with those two arguments, it brings this together, and I'll show you how, because when you hear this, there's one word that can send everybody into a complete, you know, anger or tizzy or whatever you want to call it. The problem that you're describing, and we're building a case here, you start as a weak Christian, You work your way up through the Christian ranks. The Lord is connecting the dots in your life. He's opening and closing all kinds of opportunities. What is the biggest, probably the greatest wall you run into? And I'll tell you the word, legalism. The Jews here were legalists. They were looking down on the Gentiles and they were saying, they don't know anything. Here we've been studying the Old Testament our whole lives. Even Matthew Henry brings it together and he says, with the legalism, he says, he uses the word, they were holier than thou. At the point of Acts chapter 11, verses one to three, they were telling Peter, we're holier than thou. Why are you contending with these people? And it happens, and Matthew Henry, when you sit down and read some of these commentaries, I love it, because it was written hundreds of years ago. He's struggling with the same things in his church back then as we can struggle in our own Christian lives. He's saying how the greatest contentions can come within. And the legalism here. Here the Gentiles are being looked down on. Peter's trying to build a case. And thank the Lord he had it in great detail. He says the Holy Ghost fell upon them. They need to be baptized by water. I think that's very important to look at. And those are very good points because it builds the case. How do you bridge the gap between new Christians and the seasoned veterans that think that they know it all? That can be tough. How is that any different when you go to work? You go to work, you're the newbie. on the block. You go into a new business and there's all these people that have been there for years and what's the first thing they do? They look at you. They look at you like, you know, like, like, like, like forensically to, you know, make sure you stay in your place because they've forgotten more than you'll ever know and there's already contention the second you walk into the front door. You know, it can be that way. Lisa. It's another proof that we are idol factors, because that's exactly what they were doing. They were moving the law into an idol. Right. That's what legalism really is. It's taking the law and putting it above God. Right. That's the true definition of it. Right. And that's man's version of his heart. And it's funny how legalism is the opposite of antinomianism, but it's still wrong. Isn't that amazing? Legalism is taking the law and making that your God, following it and thinking that's the basis of your salvation. Antinomianism is throwing out the old law, saying you're under the blood of Christ, the Old Testament really doesn't matter. I'm just being general, there's a lot more to that than there is. And saying we're anti-law, we don't have to obey the law anymore. the law is archaic, even though Jesus came to fulfill the law, that's how important it was, and saying that it doesn't... I've heard so many people say, oh, this thing here is gone. It's gone. Yes, that's just... That's old. It's too old. It's a relic. We don't pay attention to that. Although Jesus came to fulfill it, that was his whole mission. That was on earth in his ministry was to fulfill the law and to obey the word of the Lord. Obey my commandments. You love me, keep my commandments. Lise, I'm sorry. Go ahead. Right, right. So, You should have said, why aren't you wearing a dress? No, I'm just kidding. Right. Yeah. Oh, it's nice. That's lovely to be walking around when there's outlines that people have made of measurements on exactly how your strap on your shoulder needs to be and how far your pant legs need to be off your shoes. And we used to go up to the school, one school I was in, they would come in and they would measure the back of your hair. Yeah, they would measure, look at that, she's hilarious. They would measure your hair. Up here, Faith Baptist Academy, and my hair was touching my collar. Do you know they shut down the whole classroom that day? And the elder, who was also a teacher at the church, put me in his car and started to drive me to the barbershop. My father flew in there and found, I don't know how he found out, somebody called him and he said, you touch one hair on his head, I'm gonna personally take care of you myself. Shut the whole classroom down, remember that. Yeah, and my hair was on my collar, ooh. Crazy. Right. Right. And somebody comes walking through the door, they may not even be saved. And you're going to already be throwing tracks at them on how to dress. They don't even understand it. And all of a sudden, they're now just walking out the door saying, forget you, you know. Lisa. Right. And when I get, like, when you get to a point where you're missing a guy, that's the one thing my mother wanted me to have for church. Like, it was the one, one of many things that she saw. She would never believe what it, what it was, unless she was in that work. but she was a very intelligent and very well informed, but could never get on any kind of dean list or anything, because she would go on a date, or she couldn't keep her hair, or she wore a bra too short, or she had makeup, and hated the role. She hated the role. Now, maybe they were kinder to her, but now it's just a young feminine, and you're a woman, you should wear makeup if you want to wear makeup. appealing to the opposite sex, in my opinion, trying to lure a man into your chamber or something. That's clearly not right at all. And that's what they were trying to turn it into. Your feminine side is you're luring any Well, you have trends and you have all these things, but when it comes down to the point where that's all the relationship's about, especially in the church, I mean, some people need time to grow, they need to breathe, you know, they need to be encouraged. You know, they need to be welcomed in, and then in time, who knows, maybe something little can come up, but it doesn't have to be like what was going on with the legalism here, where all of a sudden, the Jews were upset, but I love how they come around. So let's go forward a little bit here. That's good discussion. Thank you. That's very good discussion. Bringing the gospel together is how Peter was the foundation of how he preached to the Jews back in Acts chapter 2, and he preached to the Gentiles. He didn't preach one message to the Jews and then come around and preach another one to the Gentiles because they were a lesser people. He gave them the same gospel. And they got the same Holy Spirit. And then He baptized them with water. This is the de facto and the perfect truth. It's the quad erratum and strandum, which means the truth to be demonstrated. That Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father, to us Christians, it is transcendent magnificence. To the hard-nosed, hard-hearted Jews, it was to their ignorance because of their arrogance, getting back to the Pharisees. But this new sect of Christian Jews, they needed to learn also. They had to learn, and I think that is one of the greatest marks of a Christian is to know in your heart you need to be learning. And I'm going to quote R.C. Sproul again, I'm sorry. He loved to write books, and he said he could write them because he always knew in his heart, and he was taught as a young man, that everyone is a veritable wealth of knowledge. that you could take anybody's life and talk to them for two weeks and come up with enough material for a good novel. And I think that's a very reverent, lovely way to think about other people. Instead of always stereotyping them and tearing them down and looking how you can just stomp on them and say, I'm better than that guy, you know. Everyone is a veritable wealth of knowledge. And I think that's a really good way to approach when we witness to people. Listen to them. You know, it's like when Jesus said, the question to Jesus was, why speak ye in parables? Well, the blindness of the Jews, they rejected, the Pharisees had rejected the Word of God. But there are some that got saved out of it, didn't they? Isn't that amazing? I remember years and years ago, somebody scolded me and said, there's not one Jew that didn't want Jesus Christ dead. They all hated him. And then I had to ask, well, what about Mary? What about Nicodemus? What about Joseph of Arimathea? You never know. You just never know. The Lord knows. Spiritual blindness is out there. The Gentiles are now led by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit would come down and then they were baptized in water. So I think this brings up a very important point before we get to our discussion. We're running a little bit late, as always. Always have good discussion here, it's incredible. We have here the issue and effect of Peter's sermon to Cornelius and his friends. Peter's labor was not in vain. Is our labor ever in vain for Christ? Is it? Never. Never is our labor in vain to promote the gospel of Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 15, 58, Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain. in the Lord. Our labor is never in vain. And look at the prayers answered in our lives. Look at the prayers that were answered this week. I know we're all, everybody's going crazy over this election, but don't miss the real miracles this week. We were praying that, we've been praying for Miss Rita. Miss Rita's home. She told Charlie the other day, there's my husband. We've been praying for that, that she would come around. She looks like she's doing a little better. We're so happy for Charlie, and we're happy for their home. Pastor Coleman sent out an email a few days ago, and Nancy was kind enough to send it to everybody, that Pastor Eapon from India was dying. And that's what it said in the email. Well, they were able to figure out how to get him a pacemaker. He's doing fine now, and he sent him home. Am I correct? He's still doing OK? What a miracle! You know, we've been praying for these things. And you know, it's amazing how our labor is never in vain. And it was all in the Lord's time, as always. And here the Gentiles are brought into the household of faith. They were all brought home to Christ. They were brought home to Christ. Don't we love to be home? Isn't it amazing when you get saved, how you finally found a home in your heart? You know that you have finally found a home in the household of faith. You find a home with Jesus Christ first. You find a home by reading your Bible. You find a home by being on your knees in prayer. No matter how bad things get, I've been on my knees all week begging the Lord that Joe Biden would not enter into that White House. And basically, by this point, the Lord's saying, my grace is sufficient for thee. And that's what he's saying. So I have no fear. I know the Lord's telling me, you wait on me. I'll put ten more liberals in there before I put somebody else if I want the Lord's saying. That's up to me. But we put it. We finally found a home. Don't you find a home in your church? You find a nice home in your church? And you find an eternal dwelling with Christ? You now know where you're going when you leave this earth. You now have a home on this earth. Let your heart not be troubled. In my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I've come to prepare a place for you. It's nice to find a home. The Gentiles have found a home. They found a wonderful home. And we see that the signs of the work through the apostles are very evident. I'm going to come back to this next week. There's some more things I'd like to talk about real quick, but I want to go forward. Let's move on now as we go to Acts 11, chapters 1-18. Now let's bring this all together. The discussion earlier was very important. We've had Lisa talking back and forth with Lisey. We're talking about the Gentiles, talking about how the Jews were looking down on them and how it's important that we're just patient with each other. But all of a sudden, Peter now brings up, and now the homework, last week I just asked everybody if you could read Acts chapter 11 verses 1 through 18. Why was it that Peter recapitulated almost word for word some of the verses all the way back in Acts chapter 10? Lisa? That's a good word, accountability. That's important. You know, there are times in our, Pastor? Yes! That's it. He would do it as I work. Right. Right. strength in the testimony of what takes place, and it wasn't that Luke went ahead and said, well Peter, what did you say? Let me put that down. The Holy Spirit binds it together and puts it down and gives us clear evidence of something that was an absolute fantastic occurrence in the New Testament church. So in other words, Luke just didn't forget and copied it over again and forgot and hit the copy button too many times. There was a purpose. See, that's a great, great answer. Did you have your hand up again, Lisa? I'm sorry. Anyway, but Peter, now, I mean, I guess I should stay in the notes a little more. I don't know. Sometimes I like to just, you know, get everybody talking. Why? Why does Peter bring this up word for word? Well, let me tell you something. I have sat into some of the candidates and credentials meetings in the presbytery, and you're going to get some questions thrown at you that you never imagined. They're good questions. Some can be difficult questions. Some there can be questions in session meetings about personal matters in people's lives, and you have to be very careful at what you say. The accuracy must be pinpoint. It must be very, very important and you better be praying about it. Because if you say something that's wrong, you could really hurt somebody. And it can be taken and it can be twisted around too. But you know, when you are in the church and you have private matters, you may be counseling somebody, you might be witnessing to somebody outside of the church, and you're sitting down and they ask you to come in and they want to pray with you. You have to have the accounts of the Bible accurate. And you need to be careful. That's not to say that you're going to get them perfectly. And I think, I really believe that it's a good idea. If there's something you're not sure about, say, let me pray about it. Let me get back to you on it and do something like that. But Peter, if you read, Peter would have probably been so serious when they contended with him and he went back. Remember, there's different locations now. There's a different setting here. Peter had left Cornelius' house, and he had gone back to the Jews. These were the newly converted Jews, back to Jerusalem. Cornelius was still back in Caesarea. It wasn't that far away. It wasn't even a day's walk. And now, all of a sudden, Peter gets back. He has to get back and give an account of what happened. Now, it all rests on his shoulders. But did it really? He had witnesses. He had people there that saw it. He had Cornelius backing him up. He had three Jews and he had three Gentiles backing him up. And the reason this is written in 18 verses in such detail is as Pastor Coleman said, Dr. Luke, Peter, the elder and the apostle, they're both corroborating and they're both, their stories are of like mind. Peter had to answer to this Jewish council and he had to prove to them why all of a sudden the whole Christian church has been upended. Look at it. Everything's been changed. The old dietary laws are completely changed now. All of a sudden, the Jews hated the Gentiles. They were in this Roman-Greco-philosophical world, and they had all these different beliefs, and all these different gods that they worship. I mean, look what Paul winds up going to in Acts chapter 16, where he's standing there at the Agora, and they're asking him all these questions, and he's like, you've got a god for everything. You even have a god for an unknown god that you don't even know who that's about. They were Gentiles. And now they're thinking the Jews are still really having a problem with this. So all of a sudden, the Gentiles have heard the Word of God. Peter needs to quell the offenses by taking the circumcised Jews back to how he gave the gospel. And you know how sometimes we often can find greatest contentions in our own camp. Now Peter's up against the wall here. What does Paul say about contentions in our own camp? Romans 12, verses 16-18. Matthew, could you look that up and read that for me? Romans 12, verses 16-18. What does Paul say? How are we supposed to react? As much as possible, what is supposed to be on our hearts and how to handle these situations when contentions might arise? Go ahead, Matt. Read it nice and loud and clear there. Romans 12, verses 16-18. Okay. if it be possible. That's the part I love. If it be possible, as much lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. Boy, does Satan make sure that that doesn't happen often. He makes sure that there's enough contention. I mean, this week I had to get on my knees even more than ever because I got violent when I saw this election going down the tubes. Oh my, this is just, you know, you knew it was coming, you just didn't know how bad that they were going to do it. But it's very easy to be contentious in your heart. And Paul says, as much lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. Do not dwell in your own conceits. Don't be prideful. Be of the same mind. Try to get everything, keep it on an even playing field. and try to make things understandable. And I think that's very important in how we need to be transparent with each other. We need to be honest. We need to be open. We're not to monopolize the church. It's not a prized possession that we own. And that's the contention that I had about shutting the church. People were saying to me, well, we need to shut the church down. The governor said, just shut the church down. And I said, well, I can't shut it down. It's not mine. It's Christ's. It's the Lord's church. He'll shut it down when he's ready. If he wants to shut it down, if he doesn't, we're just going to keep on going. It's not a club. There's no Grand Puba. I mean, it's not some great big VFW, some big club. Christ is the church, and our job is to spread the gospel into all the world. At this point, the Jews were just like the Jonahites. Remember, what did Jonah say? I love this. I was reading Jonah. I love Jonah. I might do a study on that sometime. Jonah. He goes in. He speaks to over a million people. And all he said out of his mouth, the Lord said, If you're in Tarsus, you're hiding from me. One way or the other, I don't care if I've got to spit you out on a shore in a fish. You're getting to the Ninevites whether you like it or not. So he gets there and all he said out of his mouth, and he preached, it says that he preached. He said, in 40 days you all are going to be taken over. And Jonah turns around, the whole country repented. I don't know about you, but I've never seen that. It's hard enough to get one person to listen to the gospel of Jesus Christ than a whole hundreds of thousands of people. And out of his mouth, the king repented, everybody repented, and Jonah got on his knees and he thanked the Lord and said, thank you, God. I love the fact that we got the Ninevites. Is that what he said? Well, this is what happened. Jonah 4, verse 1, "...but it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry." Does anybody know how angry he was? How angry was he? Yeah? He was so angry, he said, Lord, kill me. He was fuming. He had more care for that gourd than he did for the people. And the Lord fixed his wagon, didn't He? He went from a legalist to talking to the Lord, straightening him out. But once again, why was it that Peter was so in so much detail? He trusted the Lord. He could rest in the truth of the Word of God to go back and to convince the Jews that what had happened, although very supernatural, that this really happened. Visions. Sheet coming down visions of animals hanging on the sheet all these things three times the Lord came to the Peter and he had to convince them So the three questions, it's a good way to sum this up so you can remember this Three things, and I'm copying this from Pastor Mike Britton, because I listened to his last message three times. He preached in February of 2018, and he said, this is the best way, when you get into the Bible, you can ask these three questions and you can remember an outline. And he asked the question, of all the messages you've heard in your lifetime, how many of you can remember the outlines of the service? He goes, well, I'm going to give you a way to remember the outlines to make it as simple as you can. Three things you ask in a situation like these. What did he do? Why did he do it? And what was the result? Those are three really good questions. What did he do? Why did he do it? And what was the result? What did Peter do? He contended with the Lord, but he listened to the Lord. Why did he do it? Because God told him to. And what was the result? We're here worshiping the Lord Jesus Christ. Gentiles brought into the household of faith. I think that's a really, really good reason We gotta go. Anyway, to kind of pull this all together, Peter brought this together, he was put on the witness stand, and he had to have the detail. He had witnesses, he had the scripture, he preached the gospel, and there's a couple verses that I want to read that Paul gives. I don't want to miss this. Philippians chapter 3 verse 15, let us therefore as many as be perfect be thus minded, and if anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing. Let's not take the gospel and chop it up and make it into something it's not. Just remember, the gospel is not your confession. It's not your life experiences. Too often we can listen to speakers that they spend most of the time talking about all of their things. You can hear it on the radio. And they talk about their life experiences. That's not evangelism. The gospel of Jesus Christ is what happened to Jesus. And what is the gospel? Amen. Right. He said all of my PhDs are all just a mile high, just another badung. But the gospel of Jesus Christ is the story of Jesus Christ. It's the ministry. It's the it's the good news. Isn't that the great, great news? It's wonderful news. It's the best news. So anyway, we'll talk about this more next week. Let's just finish up this morning. And I ask, hey, Noah, can you close us this morning? Thank you.