So as we're here at the adult Sunday school class, I like to remind everybody every week, we're all here to teach each other. It'd be kind of hard if I sat down and there was nobody standing in front, we all just kind of said what was on our mind, that'd be kind of difficult to do. So you need somebody to kind of officiate. So I'm up here, I'm here to try to teach, and I'm here to try to read the Bible. If you all have something on your mind, kids, Everybody, raise your hand and say it. We're here to learn together. If I say something that you want to add to or take away from, you're welcome to do that. But so we go forward in Acts chapter 10, we pick up in verse 12, and here we see that Peter, he sees the vision. And the vision, can you imagine right now what he's thinking? wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts, in verse 12 of Acts chapter 10, 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. But Peter said, Okay, no problem. No, that's not what we talked about last week. He said, Not so, Lord, for I have never eaten anything that is uncommon or unclean. And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed that call not thou common? This was done thrice, and the vessel was received up again into heaven. Now while Peter doubted in himself what this vision which he had seen should mean, behold, the men which were sent from Cornelius had made an inquiry for Simon's house and stood before the gate, and called and asked whether Simon, which was surnamed Peter, were lodged there. While Peter thought on the vision, the Spirit said unto him, Behold, three men seek thee. 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 were sent unto him from Cornelius, and said, Behold, I am he whom ye seek. What is the cause wherefore ye are come? And they said, Cornelius the Centurion, a just man, and one that feareth God, and of good report among all the nations of the Jews, was warned from God by an holy angel to send for thee into his house and to hear words of thee. Then called he them in, and lodged them. And on the morrow Peter went away with them, and certain brethren from Joppa accompanied him. And the morrow after they entered into Caesarea, and all Cornelius waited for them, and had called together his kinsmen and near friends. And as Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshipped him. But Peter took him up, saying, Stand up, I myself also am a man. And as he talked with him, he went in and found many that were come together. And he said unto them, Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company or come unto one another nation, but God hath showed me that I should not call any man common or unclean. Therefore came I unto you without gain, saying, As soon as I was sent forth, I asked therefore, What intent ye have sent for me? And Cornelius said, Four days ago I was fasting until this hour. And at the ninth hour I prayed in my house. And behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing, and said, Cornelius, thy prayer is heard, and thine alms are had, and remembrance in the sight of God. Send therefore to Joppa, and call hither Simon, whose surname is Peter, he is lodged in the house of one Simon the 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 present before God to hear all things that are commanded thee of God. And if you bring all of this together, this is why the Christian church, this is a real big event where the Christian church comes together and it comes between the meeting of two men. There's no way in the world we're going to get through all the way to verse 33 today in this class. But I want to go forward. I want you to be reading it. I want to go forward as a window to the future, as to what we're going to be talking about, and pay close attention. And I've asked week after week, be in Acts chapter 10, read this and learn this. You're going to find a lot of drama here. There's so much drama in here. That's why we're kind of going slowly through this. And I don't like to just hop, skip, and jump over things, you know, like kind of like a frog in a pond and just going over and just getting through it. I think there's enough drama here to last us for a while. And the more I studied, I know the more I'm blessed. And so at this point, we see the reasoning of Dr. Luke. If you go back to verse 10, he summed up at the end of the verse, there was excess of mind. Peter needed to clear his mind. And that's what we need to do when we worship the Lord. We need to clear our minds of the things of the world. And you know, isn't it amazing how when you clear your mind of the things of the world, when you come back, you have a whole different perspective? I've talked to two mechanics in the last couple of months, and I think this is a very good application. And basically, I have been encouraged. I talked to one last week. and talked about how angry you can get when you're working on a piece of equipment and things aren't going right. Maybe the wrench flies off or you break something. And both have encouraged me greatly. Walk away, reset your mind, and then come back later. Isn't it amazing how that really helps? It's like a pitcher. I used to pitch in high school. I pitched in baseball. I loved it. And I remember learning. And I remember as I helped coach my boys in baseball. When you're pitching, You get nervous. You have to reset. You're standing there on the mound. Everybody's watching you. The next pitch, everybody is watching that ball come out of your hand, the release point, the ball comes out, hits the catcher. What happens next? That can be very nerve-wracking. And you know what? You have to take a deep breath and reset and clear your mind of everything in order to get that next pitch to go where you want it. It's not easy. It could be Arizona's all kind of short minute pitches that you can have. And so that is what Peter is being taught. He's still being taught. And you think now he's an apostle. He's reached some great big pinnacle. He now is being taught, just like us, you have to be patient. The Lord says, listen to me. And I don't believe it's any coincidence at all that the Lord speaks to him three times to remind him that the things that you think are common are not common. They are mine. They are a mystery to the world. And it's necessary and it's needful for the Gentiles to bring them in. You need to take down these barriers between the Jews and the Gentiles. Because my church is coming together. Now we're going to ask a very major, big, large question today. And here in a little bit. Peter has this vision. It's a huge cloth. Just to go back, to review a little. It's almost like a sail. Matthew Henry and John Calvin say it's like a sail of a large boat with a large bundle of things coming down to the earth. Four-footed beasts, birds of the sky, creeping things. God says, kill, eat them, enjoy them. Here were here were not only beasts of the earth that they were fowls of the air which might have been Which might have been laid at his feet not only tame beasts but wild beets, but it's amazing that there were no fish Because fish were customarily they were considered okay to eat and of course Why would there be a great big veil coming down with all kind of fish on it? What did Peter do for a living? Here's a fisherman. So we see that fishing's okay. Peter didn't go out there and catch fish every day in order to sell it and not eat it. I mean, that was part of his, basically, his culture, his dietary law. He was okay with fish, and he sold it. And we see how the Lord had told him to throw his net on the other side of the boat. Remember, it was filled not with cows, but with fish. So I think that's a good way to remember that. So we see here that there were no barriers here that one should believe on Jesus Christ did not perish, but have everlasting life, is not committed to one sect of people. If you look in religions today, and a lot of cults, and you know there are cults within the evangelical church too. Little segregated cults of people that kind of stay to themselves. The Lord doesn't want barriers. You know, there's a lot of this Black Lives Matter thing, and all these different things. There's a lot, there's a real big, people think that that's the only great big barrier right now of racism in the country, but it's also Hispanics. There's a big problem there also, and all. We don't, we don't act like that. No matter who walks in this church, we're witnessing to them. We have piles and piles that Pastor Olson brought of Hispanic tracts. Love giving them out. It's amazing. I think they love getting those tracts more than anybody I give tracts to. They love them. And they think it's wonderful. And the Lord says here, You come down off of your high horse, Peter. Stop thinking that what I'm saying is good for you now, is common. And you take what I have to give you. You spread the gospel. What is it? In the end of the gospels, what was the last words Jesus had said? Into all the world. He didn't say, get your own little club. You guys meet together and keep everybody out. It's open for everybody. That's what's so wonderful about this. Colossians 3, verse 10. and have put on the new man, Paul says, which is renewed in knowledge, after the image of him that created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision or uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all and in all. Put on therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, boughs of mercy, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, Long-suffering. These are the attitudes. See how detailed the Holy Spirit is? We're going to be learning here in a few minutes some of the direction the Holy Spirit gave Peter. But look, the Holy Spirit is so detailed, forensically in our lives, We're even taught here over and over again, this goes back to Matthew chapter 5, the Sermon on the Mount with the Beatitudes, we are even taught how to act around other Christians. What is our demeanor supposed to be? How are we supposed to bring others to Christ? Do we go up to them and laugh at their religion and say, give me a break, what a joke. You mean you've been worshiping this crazy thing all years? You either believe in Christ or you're gonna go to hell, goodbye. Is that how we go up to somebody? No, no, we open our ears and we close our mouths and we listen to what they say. Look for that opening and it'll be there. Holy Spirit promises it'll be there. And we all have gifts and we all can do that. I've never seen it fail. What a beautiful blessing to be able to be a Gentile and guard the kingdom of God. Who here is a full blown Israelite Jew? Anybody? Not I. My grandfather's mother, she was part Jewish. And she actually part Hebrew Jew. But if anybody here is an Israelite Jew, you would also have to be very in awe of this also. That now, since this happened, Gentiles can be ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ. You look at it that way, does it really seem like a burden? Because a lot of people treat it that way. You have outreaches, I don't want to go. You have different things, I don't want to go. but you're a Gentile, and you are given the keys, in a sense, Peter has the keys to heaven. Remember God told him that? Christ said, I have the keys to heaven, and I'm giving that to you. So if Peter has the keys to heaven, and he invites Gentiles in, wow, what it means to be an elder of the gospel of Jesus Christ, a deacon of the gospel of Jesus Christ, a pastor of the gospel of Jesus Christ, a member of an evangelical Christian, true Bible-believing church. To be a Gentile and to be able to do that is a gift. It's a wonderful gift. And so, what a gift. There were many un-Jews in the Old Testament. Talked about it last week. Remember, you're right. My favorite un-Jew in the... I have to have favorites. I love having favorites. My favorite un-Jew who came into the Christian faith, who I think was the most incredible example of loyalty, Faithfulness, and has a little cameo appearance in the Old Testament in 2 Samuel, is Uriah. I think Uriah was incredible. What David did to him was so horrible, it's hardly unspeakable. He loved him, and even when David wanted him to get drunk and go to his wife and have a relationship with her to cover over what he did, he laid like a faithful little hound dog on the steps of the palace of David because he honored his king. And then David sent them off to get killed. He was a Hittite. He wasn't a Jew. He had come in. He loved Jesus Christ. He would have heard David speak about Jesus Christ. And can you imagine how that would have annihilated him? He almost said, it's no wonder the Lord took him the way that he did, so we wouldn't have to go through the agony of what... Exactly. I mean, you see others. There's the woman at Zarephath, who Elijah threw himself over, her little boy that died. Then you have Naaman, and you have the lepers, and there's many others. But here now, you see now that they're coming in, and Cornelius has a church. Peter is in the middle of this vision, and he sees the animals, and he responds to the word of the Lord. Peter's response to our Lord was not like Saul of Tarsus. It was not like Cornelius' response. It was not like Isaiah's response. Here am I. Jacob's response. Here am I, Lord. Do whatever with me. I'm scared to death. I am in your presence. I don't know what you're going to do with me. You have every right to break me into pieces. What do you want me to do? Peter says, no. No, I'm not doing it. No, Lord, this is crazy. Peter still has not relinquished his impetuous disposition. Remember that watershed moment when Jesus would ask the disciples, whom do you say I, the Son of Man, am? Thou art the Christ. Peter came back. They talked back and forth. We talked about this a little last week. I could talk about it for weeks, because I love that story, the Caesarea Philippi Confession. It goes back and forth. And Peter comes out and he says, Thou art the Christ of the living God. And Jesus says, that's wonderful. You're Peter now. I'm going to call you Peter. You're the rock. You're the church. And upon this rock will I build my church. The gates of hell will not ever go up against it. But Jesus comes around and he says, but it must needs be that I am going to be beaten. I'm going to be crucified. I'm going to be resurrected and I'm leaving. And Peter says, not so Lord. The Lord didn't like that very much. He said, get thee behind me Satan. So this wasn't the first time. We're going to look at another event with Peter here in a little bit where he questioned the Lord. And that was a big one too. You know, it seems very interesting where Peter the contrast with the previously converted Saul of Tarsus, how both of them regarded welcoming Gentiles into the Christian church. Peter struggled with this, and for Paul it was no problem at all. In fact, Paul would be the one that would go forward and he would be reaching the Gentiles. And in fact, we're literally, here you see Cornelius and what happened with Peter. And, you know, if you go down through the missionary journeys of Paul, and you go all the way until he gets into Asia Minor, later on he gets into Europe. And guess what happens in Europe? The gospel of Jesus Christ catches on like a wildfire. And when it catches on like a wildfire, it never stopped. And there were men that came over from Europe that brought it to here, where we are now. That's how important this is. Men like George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, they had learned from men over in Europe. It was incredible what had happened over there. And it was because of Paul's missionary journeys. And it was amazing the difference between Paul and Peter, that Peter, later on, you go into Galatians chapter 2, Teresa, she opened me up to that one, that was a good study. Later on, Paul has to take Peter to the woodshed, because between Jerusalem and Antioch, one of the places Peter would sit down and he would eat with the Gentiles, but another one he wouldn't. And Paul said, what are you doing? You know what the Lord's done. The Gentiles are part of us now. What are you throwing them away for? And so here, Peter, he was struggling. But we'll see that later. Paul, the apostle, he was one who was persecuted. And he knows, Lisey. Sure. This, again, just emphasizes that when we do a show for something, it still takes time to work it out. If you've been reviewed for something, you know, God's only answer is to receive it. But we still wrestle with that. That happens. And then, as you mentioned, it works out to the beautiful process. But I love this because it's OK to not say, oh, great, I just love being reviewed. I just love what you said. Let's get on with it. Right. Right. Amen. That's a great point. Paul comes back in Corinthians and what does he say? Take ye where ye stand lest ye fall. None of us get to a point where we put our flag in the mountain and say, I'm here, I'm the best Christian, and I'm done. I don't have to read the Bible anymore. I've achieved it, and I'm done. I've made all of my marks on the earth. The rest of my life, I can do whatever I want. There are some religions that teach that today. We're under the blood of Christ. The old law is archaic. It's all gone. We've talked about it before. Antinomianism. There's all this autonomy. Antinomianism means autonomous. Totally, this doesn't matter back here anymore. And there's a lot of good reasons why we put these up, healthy reasons why they're up there, to remind us. The Lord says to post them on the frontlets of your house. And we are extremely important. This law is important. Lisey. Exactly. Amen. But there's a lot of this sect of so-called Christians today that believe that there's nothing left to do. Christ died. You sinned, fine. No problem. You just keep asking forgiveness. And that's not that we can't ask forgiveness when we sin. It's got to be on our heart to want to ask forgiveness and to change that. But they don't think it's a problem at all. They just go do what they want. The Old Testament is no longer in existence. We're under the new covenant of grace, and anything we do is covered by grace. We can't out-send God's grace, so let's live it up. And I think we see that in a lot of prosperity churches today, where anything goes. I was listening to James Boyce this morning, Lisa and I were talking about it, about the publican and the Pharisee. You know, back then there was a big distinction. For years, there was a big distinction that the Pharisee was the one who was the arrogant one, who said that, I'm glad that I'm not the publican, The publican says, I really have absolutely no right to face God. So there's a divide there. You know what relativism would say today? They're both right. You can be saved by either one of them. Pharisee's right. The Roman Greco world's right. The Greeks are right. You can see that today because you go into some of these big mansions of historical figures and there's statues of Greek gods everywhere. You know, Lise? Right. Yes. Right. Amen. Amen. That's right. We see here in this story, and that's a great point, we see here the components of systematic theology. So, we're going to look at what systematic theology is. Right here, one of the parts of systematic theology, and this is a real, sadly it has to be this way, but this is where systematic theology becomes very important for Christians today. What is systematic theology? Systematic theology is a collection of the doctrines, the tenets, and the confessions through scripture. all throughout Scripture that tell us who Jesus Christ is. And that's just a small answer, it's a massive, there's a lot more to it than that. But systematic theology today, the biggest problem we face is Scripture, and it's very simple. We've talked about this a million times. I mean, you say the word systematic theology, wow, that's a big one, I have no idea. You know what it talks about? The inerrancy of Scripture. Today, you won't find ten people who believe in the inerrancy of Scripture. I mean, God's character has been greatly compromised. That's serious. Because if you take away the inerrancy of Scripture, you now do not have a Lord. You don't have a standard. You do not have somewhere to hang your hat on. Somewhere that you can have a standard that is inerrant, that you can go to when you have a problem. And that's there. That's very serious. So here's the conundrum. Would Peter receive Cornelius? He's already said no. Three times the Lord comes back to him and says, yes. No. Three times, yes, Peter. Yes. What is common, what is common, what is common to you is not unclean. It is clean, clean, clean. So what is he going to do? Peter immediately responds. Would he go to Cornelius? Would he tell him, forget it. I am a Jew. You're a Gentile. And that's the way it's going to stay. Could you blame Peter for his initial disinclination to cross over into the Gentile world to bring them into the Christian church? Why would there be some hesitancy? Could Peter have been concerned that they believed the same doctrine? Was Cornelius circumcised? All that was a big problem with the Pharisees. God's law down through the centuries made it clear that it was forbidden to associate with idolatrous nations. I get that. I get that. See, in the Old Testament, the Lord told the Jews, do not go to those Gentiles. Stay away from those wicked nations. Stay away. Don't marry the women. Stay away from the women. That's where you're going to really have a problem. And they did. And then all of a sudden, when they did, all of a sudden, then all these wicked idolatrous practices came in. You know, sacrificing your children to Moloch, and, you know, bowing down to their false idols, and there was Dagon, and there was all these other... Ashtaroth there was all these ones that they started the Israelites just started that forget goodbye God and then they would go off And then the fury of the Lord Isaiah 42 8 I am the Lord that is my name my glory will I not give to another? Neither my praise to graven images and that's never changed all these years So the question we have to ask ourselves. What is your God? What is my God? Is it the God of gods the great? I am the one who holds the keys to heaven. I Or is it all the little gods? Our little personal intimations and all the things that titillate us more than Scripture? That can be a real problem. We hold the works of the forefathers of our country very precious because of the impact of the Word of God on our Bill of Rights, our Constitution, and the efficacy of it on the hearts of our Christian heritage and the country. Can you imagine how deep the Mosaic Law was embedded in Peter? You know, these tenets that we have, they're embedded in our hearts. Here we're reading these verses, and all this is coming together, and we see here, very plainly, Peter thought on the vision. He thought on it. And then the Lord said, Arise and go. Three men are standing at your door. And they said, Cornelius the centurion, a just man, in verse 22, one that feareth God and of good report among all the nations of the Jews was worn from God by unholy angels. That's incredible. See, at this point, Peter is in the grip of ambivalence. He was like, not questioning God, but he was questioning the meaning about what was behind the vision. What in the world's going on here? He's asking this massive question. And we see here how it was embedded in the Mosaic Law. The Old Testament was embedded in his heart. So can you really blame him for wondering what's going on? No, go ahead. They were going to be taken in by God. And then the Lord tells him that his cousin was going to come and redeem a piece of land for him, and he was to buy it. He says, this doesn't make sense, because I'm telling everybody that they have to leave, and what's this going to look like, that I am buying, I'm redeeming this piece of property. And I'm telling this because, just from what I'm gathering when I was reading this, He didn't know if that was the Lord that had spoken to him, because it was crazy. He says, until his cousin came and did the shoe thing and all that, and then I knew. Then I knew. I love that, because here, with Peter, it's the same thing. It was so radical, something so radical to even consider, but he knew him when he was there in front of these people. I don't think no bully, Hey, that's a great point. That's a great point because when Jesus comes back and he says, what does he say? Even the very elect will be deceived. Keep your eyes on me. See, eventually he knew that that was from God. The Lord will let us know if we're close to Him, if His words are from Him. And let me tell you something, those words, it could be one little microsecond in your whole span of your time on this earth can save your life, or your children's life, or your grandchildren's life, that you recognize there is a mandate from God keeping you from something that could kill you, or could hurt your family. And you know, I've seen families disintegrate because of one major event that comes in that they didn't go to the Lord. And I've seen it very up close. And you know, if you are close to the Lord, He will show you. And that is unlimited power. For you to be able to see that from heaven, that's unlimited power from God, and He gives it to you in order to protect you. This is just the beginning of how great this is. I'm going to go forward just a little bit. I love how the Holy Spirit goes to Peter personally. I love how the Holy Spirit directs him and gives him detail personally. It's an intimate relationship. And when you think of all the false gods and you think of all these cult leaders around down through the centuries. Look at the Branch Davidian cult. Look at this moron, Marshall Applegate, that took all these people out and they wore their Nikes and they all died. Jim Jones, you remember that? They were all laying around wearing Nikes. That was crazy. And then you go about Hitler, you go all the way back to Confucius and all. None of them had personal relationships with each one of their followers to comfort them and to help them and to encourage them. None of them had that. But the Holy Spirit comes to Peter personally. Peter could have been thinking, these people are ceremonially polluted. How can I do that to my testimony? Remember what happened in John chapter 18 verse 28. This is, our Lord is there with Caiaphas. Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas unto the hall of judgment. Then it was early, and they themselves went not into the judgment hall. I hate this. I hate the Pharisees for what they did to Jesus and the Sadducees here. I hate what they did. They wouldn't go in there because they said that he was undefiled. They went not into the judgment hall, lest they should be defiled, but that they might eat the Passover. Christ Jesus our Lord is the Passover. And look what they did. They mocked him. They said he was defiled. And so Peter right now is being taught. We see the dilemma here facing Peter and Cornelius. It's no wonder both of them were met with a shocking visit from heaven by an angel. You can see why now as this unfolds. Why was it so important that they be met with an angel? Could you imagine Peter or Cornelius hearing some mortal man tell them the things that are going to happen and then believe some man telling them that? The fact that the angel came and gave them a vision shows that it must need to be done. That it needed to be done. I think that's very important. it would have been hard for Peter to reach out to the Gentiles and eat food that he had been taught was forbidden. We can see now that he has an objection with Jehovah Jireh. Jehovah Jireh, it's the one time you'll see that in Scripture in Genesis. That's when Abraham has Isaac prepared as an altar, as a sacrifice of obedience to the Lord, and all of a sudden, this little ram comes out of nowhere in a thicket, and takes the place of Isaac, and then Abraham comes back and builds an altar, and he regards God as Jehovah-Jireh. What does that mean? Anybody? What does Jehovah-Jireh mean? Amen. He's a great provider of all things. So, Peter is learning. Don't question the Lord. If He says to eat these unclean animals, He's providing for you. He's a great provider. Daniel would not eat the king's food and put his life on the line, but now God is changing this part of the Old Testament. Here comes our big question. How much time do we have? Good, we got a couple minutes. This does not defile or turn over His holiness and perfect righteousness. He's not denying His own character. God will not deny His own character. This is not like God is saying, it is okay to take my name in vain, it's okay to worship false idols, it's okay to dishonor your mother and father, kill, commit adultery. He's not saying He is not holy anymore. There's the big theological question where God gets questioned, and where the inerrancy of Scripture is compromised. There are theologians that have perverted this, and turned it around and said, since the Lord changed the dietary laws, He's fickle. He compromised His character, and He's not God. That He's a fickle God, that He changes His mind. And that, basically, He's not who He says He is. Some people, the Jews, well, look at the Jews. The Jews, how messed up they are today. They don't believe in Christ. Many of them don't believe in Christ at all. They don't believe that he's definitely not the Messiah. And then you can see why. So the question is, did the abrogation of the old law compromise the immutability of God's decrees? Did the abrogation, or I call it an upgrade, the change of the dietary laws, did that cause the eternal decrees of God to be compromised? and for his ultimate plan to be changed so that the Lord no longer is perfect. Of course not. No way. It's not okay to believe that God repealed the old law that would demean his character. That's not okay to believe that. We're still expected and commanded to obey the moral law. The fact that God changed the dietary laws was a blessing. It was an upgrade. Don't we see that in our Christian lives on how we need to be taught different things as we grow? The first time you became a Christian, and the Lord came into your life, and you knew you loved Jesus, was the first week of your life were you able to sit down and give a whole complete thesis on systematic theology, on confessions, and on doctrinal issues? You know, there are many people that spend a lot of their life still kind of infantile Christians. And when they don't understand the things that we understand, if you understand good things, a lot of things, and there's a lot of things I still don't understand and I won't for a very long time, I'm sure. Do we treat them like they're not worthwhile? I've seen that happen. They might question a doctrinal issue. They might still say that, you know, we can decide to follow Jesus and that we choose Jesus. They might say that because they just don't know. I think this is very, very important. to understand that we, as Christians, during our process of growth and sanctification, the Lord has to upgrade and He has to be changing us constantly. And this is what was happening here. This was opened up many times in the Old Testament, that this would happen. We read verses last week from the book of Malachi, the book of Isaiah, about how the Gentiles would know that God is God and they would be ushered in. And it was made very clear. Does anybody have any questions or anything to add at this point? I know I've been kind of going constantly, but OK. Well, anyway, basically, this dietary law does not compromise God's unique character. The abrogation of the old law does not change who He is. I think that's very important to look at. This is not about food and animals. It's about the people. God repealed the dietary laws that those who were unclean, such as the Samaritans, the Greeks, and the Romans, can now be clean through Jesus Christ's blood. God reserves the right to make exemptions and upgrade to His mandates for our growth. So can Jehovah's character be compromised? Well, I think we need to burn that into our soul, so that's not possible. And the Lord always gets a number one billing from us, and we do not question Him. You have a question about God, and you think that it's... You know, a lot of questions come that really tear down the character of God, from radio, from television, from what other people say, and they talk about, and they try to back you into a corner. Well, the Lord's changed this law, the Lord's done this, the Lord's done that. of the question that you had, you know, this nullifying our idea or making it fickle. I love how it's all laid into place. Everything has the offensive of the word. And I was just thinking of this scripture here, but it's actually jumping ahead to Acts 13. Then when Paul of Artemis waxed bold and said, it was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you, But seeing you put it from you, seeing you put it from you and judge yourself unworthy of everlasting life, no, you turn to the Gentiles. I love this, because it had to be this vision in realizing this is what it was to be. Nothing was out of place here. This was not God just suddenly, this was the relaying groundwork for this very moment, because the Jews had projected and projected. and he just says, okay, well, we're gonna let him in. You know, it's from the beginning of a time. The whole book of Judges spans 450 years of sin and judgment and repentance and then it's okay for God. It starts all over. It's a constant cycle. So it's not like the Jews didn't have from the very beginning every opportunity. And so I love that because this, of course, then you can understand that who among us would say, well, we're just gonna, again, turn a blind eye Amen. Right? And that brings together worship. That's another great point because it brings together the current worship. Where were the Jews going for worship? What were they doing? They didn't have these little churches in their house. They weren't worshiping Christ. They were going to the temple. They were still going to the temple with the Pharisees, enjoying all of the feasts and all of the... Even after Christ died and the new covenant was in, they were still sacrificing animals and they were still back in the old law. They were not, but there were Gentiles out there that had little churches all over the place. That's what we see now. You get this great big thing back in March. Okay, we're all dying, the China flu has hit us, we're finally gonna die, we're gonna die. So, all the governors, they all come out and say, Your churches are not life essential anymore. Close the doors until we tell you to open them. And I'm here to tell you now, driving to church, probably 90% of the churches are still closed. I don't believe a church is open when people are sitting on the front yard for 20 minutes, personally. They're closed. And so you still today, even in the midst of all of this, have little evangelical churches that will obey God rather than man. Keep the doors open and they're worshiping like we do here. That's what was happening back then. Yeah, it's it's tough here now It's tough here so and I believe we're going to get a second wave of this and it's going to be even harder because Satan's army is not divided and he wants to eradicate the churches. He really wants to he'd love to do that He's been trying to do that for years back then you had a little Christian Church if you didn't have Caesar's insignia on You were left open to a bloody crucifixion if you were not declaring Caesar as king. And so all these little churches were kind of like in their little catacombs and little caves and little corners. But you can see they're there. And here the Lord draws one out right here for us with Cornelius. Peter is called three times. He's told, the vision's here. The men show up. They get there. And Peter says, what do you want? Get out of here. I don't want to talk to you. I'm too busy with Simon the Tanner. Now he invites them in, and he lets them lodge with him. And then the Holy Spirit already tells Peter this, and he says, and by the way, you're going with them tomorrow to Caesarea, and you're going to go meet Cornelius. You're going to go, and you guys are going to have a talk. And this is going to be a very important talk. And you really don't know how important this talk is going to be until you see it unravel. And all along, Peter is just doing what the Lord tells him. One thing after another, he obeys the Lord. And look at how it all comes together. We see here, three times he is told. I think that's important because we've talked before about in Hebrew categories, or in Hebrew dialect or language, back especially in the Old Testament, whenever someone's name was mentioned twice, we've talked about that. Abraham, Abraham, Jacob, Jacob, Simon, well this is New Testament, Simon, Simon, then you have Isaiah, you have others in the old, there's so many of them, I can't remember them all right now. But when it was said twice, that is when your ears are to perk up, and it is a massive lesson. But when something is said three times, holy, holy, holy, and Isaiah six, you see the example that's given when something is repeated three times? When the Lord repeats something to you three times, you better be listening. The Lord repeats things back to us a thousand times in Scripture. We better be listening to it. And so here Peter, he hears this three times and now he's ready. This dominion mandate was very, very important that the Lord gave. The Hebrew could only believe that Gentiles were unclean And now Christ opens the gates for the Gentiles, not only to come to Christ, but to have churches, preachers, elders, deacons to sing praises to Him and to teach their children also about salvation. God is immutable. He never changes. His character can never be wavered. It can never be compromised. Hebrews chapter 13 8 we read Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever So here we bring this all together about the abrogation of the law the new dietary laws Does Christ does God change Malachi 3 6 for I am the Lord I change not therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed Psalms 80 Psalm Psalm 89 34 my covenant will I not break nor alter the thing that has gone out of my lips I And this brings up some very important points of systematic theology. What is systematic theology? Well, here's a collection of some notes that I wrote down on what systematic theology deals with. Lise? Sure. Right. Right. Third time. That's a good point, because that's in, actually, I didn't write that down, but that's in some of the commentary about how Samuel, they knew that it was the Lord, and he knew it was from the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is in the Old Testament. Very important. That's a very good point. The systematic theology, it deals with creation. New creation. A young earth. A new creation, basically. The laws of Moses. in the Pentateuch, redemption, salvation, the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Great Commission, the works of the Apostles, and the Apostle par excellence, who is Jesus Christ, the ultimate Apostle, and the inerrancy of Scripture. That's a big one. If Scripture is inerrant, then how can we believe it was the Lord? So what is our standard? St. Peter doubted the vision, but he had the standard. You know who to go to. You doubt something in your life, you go to the Lord. You have a problem, you go ultimately to the Lord. Yes, go to your pastor, you can go to your elder, you can go to other pastors, other elders. You go to the Lord. You go right to the Lord, and you approach Him first. And you pray to Him. He is not changeable. He never changes. So Peter is now questioning our Lord about who the source of the vision is. He knows who it is. He questions the meaning. This is not unusual when unfamiliar changes are being made in our lives. Unfamiliar changes will be made in our Christian lives, and we must stay close to Christ and be prepared. But Peter is now in the grip of ambivalence. He is being trained. He's not sure what's going on. And so, I guess, what time do we have? I'm going to have to stop. I have a good analogy. The next time we meet, we're going to go into this actual conversation with Cornelius and Peter. And what's interesting is how Peter is being groomed, he's still being taught, and he's an apostle. He already has healed people. He has already been beaten and put into jail, but he's still being trained. And that's who we are as Christians. We're in a process of being training, always. Always be apt and open to learn. I think that's very, very important. Let's close this morning. I guess, Jacob, could you close us? Thank you.