I'm interested in that Brother
Al mentioned the tenth chapter of Acts about the account of
Cornelius because that was where I would like to give some thoughts
this morning if the Lord enables us to. Chapter 10, and I'm going
to read this chapter. if we are able to make a few
comments on it. There was a certain man in Caesarea
called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian
Band, a devout man and one that feared God with all his house,
which gave much alms to the people and prayed to God always. He saw in a vision evidently
about the ninth hour of the day an angel of God coming into him
and saying unto him, Cornelius. And when he looked on him, he
was afraid, and said, What is it, Lord? And he said unto him,
Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before
God. And now send men to Joppa, and
call for one Simon, whose surname is Peter. He lodgeth with one
Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the seaside. He shall tell
thee what thou oughtest to do. And when the angel which spake
unto Cornelius was departed, he called two of his household
servants, and a devout soldier of them that waited on him continually. And when he had declared all
these things unto them, he sent them to Joppa. On the morrow,
as they went on their journey and drew nigh unto the city,
Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour. And he became very hungry and
would have eaten, but while they made ready, he fell into a trance. And so heaven opened, and a certain
vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet, knitted
the four corners, and let down to the earth, wherein were all
manner of four-footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts,
and creeping things, and fowls of the air. And there came a
voice to him, Rise, Peter, kill, and eat. But Peter said, Not
so, Lord, for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean. And the boy 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 that were sent from Cornelius had made
inquiry for Simon's house, and stood before the gate, and called
and asked whether Simon, which was surnamed Peter, was 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 nation of the Jews, was worn 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 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 am also a man. And
as he talked with them, 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 to come unto one of another nation. But God hath
showed me that I should not call any man common or unclean. Wherefore came I unto you without
gain, saying, As soon as I was sent for. I asked therefore for
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 prayers heard, and thine
alms are had in remembrance in the sight of God. Send therefore
to Joppa, and call thither Simon, whose surname is Peter. He is
lodged in the house of one Simon, a 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. Then Peter opened his mouth and
said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons,
but in every nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness
is accepted with him. The word which God sent unto
the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ, He is
Lord of all. That word, I say ye know, which
was published throughout all Judea and began from Galilee
after the baptism which John preached, how God anointed Jesus
of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power, who went about
doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil,
for God was with him. And we are witnesses of all things
which he did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem,
whom they slew and hanged on a tree. Him God raised up the
third day and showed him openly, 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 and to testify that it is he which was
ordained of God to be judge of quick and dead. To him give all
the prophets witness that through his name whosoever believeth
in him shall receive remission of sins. While Peter yet spake
these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word.
And they of the circumcision which believed 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
have received the Holy Ghost as well as we? And he commanded
them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. And then prayed
they, or asked, or implored him to tarry certain days. Now this is a very pivotal account
in the unfolding of the gospel to these men who were to the
disciples of the Lord who were all Jews by birth. and by religion. And the Lord
sets this scenario forth. Now, He could have taught them
this lesson any way He wanted to do it. sat down and told them
those things, which in fact he did throughout his ministry as
he showed even in dealing with the Samaritan woman. They were
kind of amazed that he would have anything to do with her,
but he showed that he was sent to save sinners. And of course
you remember in one instance, it is kind of amazing how the
Lord does things and how He would teach different lessons through
different means, but there was also an instance when another
woman came to Him who was a Canaanite woman, not of the house of Israel,
and implored Him to come and deliver her daughter from the
devil. And he said, Don't you know that
I'm sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel? He said,
I'm not sent to the Gentiles. But yet here he went to a Samaritan
woman sitting by on this well, and he had an appointment that
he kept with her. And so to the man that doesn't
see, and doesn't understand the dealings of the Lord with His
people, he would be confused about those two issues. But yet
the Lord made it very plain that He has people in every nation,
tribe, and tongue. And it is unto the lost sheep
of the house of Israel that the Lord is sent. Now He used that
as an illustration to show to her that even though she was
not of the house of Israel by birth, she was still one of those
whom the Lord would receive unto himself, because she said, I
haven't found any greater faith than this in all of Israel. Because
she said, you're right, Lord. She said, I don't have any reason
or any claim upon you at all. Now, how different is that from
the common concept of the gospel that is preached around the world
today, or what's called the gospel, where it is that it's presented
as though all men have a right to come to the Lord. Well, the
Lord wouldn't cast out any. I mean, He would take everybody. You've got just as much right
to believe as the next man does, and you can do it any time you
get ready. Because it's all up to you. But you see, in all of
these illustrations, we see that it's the hand of God and His
mercy manifested in His purpose to save those who belong to Him. And those are the things that
He would teach us. And it doesn't fall upon the
lines of a nationality or an economic strata. or any place
that men have, because the Lord has His people wherever He would
have them. Now, it is an amazing thing. There was a certain man
in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion. This guy was a Roman. Now, the Romans were the oppressors
of the Jews, were they not? But Cornelius The Scripture says
he was one that feared God with all his heart, which gave much
alms to the people. He was a good man insofar as
men go, insofar as men understood. Because you see, here was a man
whom, as we see in the unfolding of things, was one of God's elect. He was one of those whom the
Lord had chosen from before the foundation of the world. and
in his own time brought the gospel to him. Now Cornelius, the Scripture
says, was a devout man. That is, the Lord had moved in
his heart, but he was yet without the light of the gospel. Now
the Lord is pleased to awaken his people many times before
He brings them to a place of an understanding of the truth
of the gospel. Because you see, life and light
are two different things. Now, in many cases, and perhaps
even in most cases, the Lord is pleased to bring light and
life almost simultaneously. But you need to understand this,
that life must precede light. Because dead men can't see anything. And it's only as the Lord is
pleased to give a man life that he can have any understanding
or light of the things of the gospel. And that's why Paul said
that the preaching of the gospel is that which brings life and
immortality to light. It doesn't bring life. You see,
you can't cause men to live because you preach the gospel. And when
Peter brought the message of the gospel to Cornelius, he didn't
cause Cornelius to become spiritually alive. What he did was he brought
Cornelius by the hand of God. By the ordained purpose of God,
he brought the message of the gospel to Cornelius. And so here
was Cornelius. a centurion, or the captain of
a hundred men in the Roman army, and he feared God with all of
his house. He was a godly man, and he had
a godly household. That's an important point, as
we understand, because you see, the working of God in the midst
of His people is to cause His people to follow the things that
the Lord has set forth. Now, we can't cause our household
to believe, but we can, as the children of God, by the grace
of God, set forth an example of what we believe. before our
kids and before our grandkids. Now, we can't make our grandkids
or our kids believe anything at all, but we can definitely
teach them what we believe. And you see, that's what's important,
is that we teach them what we believe, because whether they
ever believe it or not, the testimony that we have been given to give
to those around us is what we believe. And so never let there be any
doubt in the minds of our family what we believe and what we will
live by and the standards by which we will guide and guard
our life. And that's what this means here
when it says that he was a devout man who feared God with
all of his house. You see, a man who fears God
is the head of his house, and all of his house is under that
umbrella, not in the sense that they are saved, but they are
blessed. You see, it is a blessed thing
for a child to grow up under the sound of the gospel. It's
a blessed thing for the principles of holiness and godliness to
be instilled in a child. That is a very important thing.
Now again, you can't give one life, but you can definitely
teach them good habits and things that will help them in their
life. And so it was that I believe
that Cornelius was a godly man, And as it pleased God, as we
see later on as what happened, I believe there were those who
believed in His household. They were. You know, it is a
more common thing to find people who believe the gospel who were
raised under the sound of the gospel than it is to find those
who are not. I mean, if you had to statistically
set it out. I mean, that's the way God normally
works. We see it in the life of Timothy.
As the Lord said, or as Paul said to him, he said, this faith
which first dwelled in your grandmother and your mother, and from a child
thou hast learned the Holy Scriptures. Well, how did he learn the Holy
Scriptures? He didn't just pick up the Bible
one day and start reading it, did he? No, he was taught these
things. by his parents who loved him
and who loved the things of God. And so anyway, Cornelius was
praying. Now, one of the things that I
see in this whole scenario, and if a person doesn't see this,
then I'm sad for them. But you can see, if you don't
believe in predestination, and the ordination of God of all
events that come to pass, then you might as well just tear this
chapter right out of the Bible. Because it wouldn't make any
sense otherwise, would it? I mean, because let's say it's
all a matter of man's free will. And here's the centurion over
here. He's praying. And here's Peter
over here. He's doing what he's doing. The centurion decides, well,
I don't think I'll let... When Peter shows up, the centurion
says, well, I don't think I'll let him in. Or Peter says, well,
I don't know if I want to believe this dream or not. And he just
casts it off, because it's all about our free will, isn't it?
I mean, he had the choice, didn't he? To believe it or not, didn't
he? I mean, sure he did. And the centurion, I mean, he
could do anything he wanted to, couldn't he? Oh, dear brethren, you know,
isn't it a glorious thing when we see the hand of God at work? Because you see, what God's doing
is He's banging one that belongs to Him to Himself. And He's orchestrating
every point in this process. How did the centurion become
a man who feared God? Did he learn that from his Roman
parents? No. He didn't learn that. How did that happen? How does
a man who is a commander in the Roman army that hates the Jews
become a man that feared God and gave alms to the house of
the Lord? How did that happen? You can't
explain something like that. It happened because God, who
is rich in mercy, loved him with an everlasting love. He sent
His love upon him. And He brought him to the place
He would have him to be. Now, if Peter had met Cornelius
before he had this dream, he would have held him at arm's
length, would he not? Well, sure he would have. But
you see, it was not in the purpose of God to do that, but it was
in the purpose of God to give Cornelius a desire to pray and
to fast. Brother Al brought up the subject
of fasting, and that is an important thing. But now, the thing that
men often do with such things as prayer and fasting is that
they say, okay, well, let's fast. Well, that's not what the Scriptures
speak about. Cornelius wasn't fasting because he just decided,
well, I think I'm going to fast today. You see, Cornelius was
fasting because the Spirit of God was working in him so mightily. that he couldn't eat, because
this was a thing that was burning in his soul. You see, that's
what effectual fervent prayer is. It's prayer that burns in
the soul of a man. And he can't anymore cause that
to occur than Cornelius could have caused himself to be a devout
man. But you see, it is an evidence
of the Spirit of God, and it is an evidence of the blessing
of God when men are moved to pray. and fast. And Paul said, I was in fastings
often. He wasn't speaking about the
fact that he just, well, I think I'm going to fast today. No.
He was in situations that made him, buddy, I'm in a desperate
situation. And desperate things call for
desperate measures. And when men are desperate enough
You know, the things of this world don't mean anything to
him. That's why David fasted. He didn't just say, well, you
know, my baby is sick. I think I'm going to fast. No,
what did he do? He was just praying so hard,
and that was the only thing that was on his mind. He didn't even
think about eating. I mean, eating was not the point. Fasting is not simply about doing
without food. The Lord Jesus, when He fasted
for forty days, He didn't just say, well, I'm going to go up
to a mountain and fast. He went up into a mountain and
He wrestled. And He fasted because He was
spiritually wrought upon by the Word of the Lord and the things
of God. Now, why is there no more fasting
among God's people, fasting and praying among God's people? It's
because we're in a very cold state there, brethren. We need
the power of God upon us. Because you see, when the power
of God is upon a people, they will be praying and fasting.
Now, not just doing it without food. That's not the point. And if that's the only thing
you ever understand about what fasting is, you've missed the
point of it. Because fasting is of no use
whatsoever without praying. Prayer and fasting. You see,
fasting is the result of praying fervently. It's not what you set out to
do, but it's what you do because It is such an important matter
that that food doesn't enter into it. Now, how does a man get in a
state like that? Can't he just decide to be? Well,
I think I'm really going to get pervant in prayer. How are you
going to do that? It's going to be as the Spirit
of God comes upon you. But you see, as men know and
understand that, and the Spirit of God works in them, they desire
that. Oh, that the Lord might pour
out His blessing upon us, that He might show us Himself, that
He might give us a hunger for the things of God, that we might
not be complacent in just going along the pathway. Now, all of
this stuff is intertwined, and I can't begin to explain how
it is that the Lord puts it in a man's mind to begin such a
place. But by the grace of God, he does
work in his people. And what a mercy and a blessing
it is when people pray fervently, earnestly. And so he prayed. And the Lord
spoke to him. He didn't know who Peter was,
but the Lord said to him, send men to Joppa. Call for one Simon
whose surname is Peter. Now the Lord sent them to go
get Peter before the Lord ever brought the message to Peter
that they were coming. Didn't He? That's what it says
here. Yeah, He sent them. He told the centurion, go down
there to Peter. Well, the guy was already on
the way to go to get Peter before Peter even knew anything about
what was happening. Well, what if, according to man's free will,
Peter just decided to go fishing that day? And he took him a big snack,
and he wasn't hungry. What then? No, dear brethren,
how hard is it to see that God, who is rich in mercy, put Peter
up where He wanted Peter to be, and He caused Peter to hunger,
and He caused Peter to fall into a trance. And he sent a man after Peter. And on the morrow, the next day,
see they were already on their journey. Well, you better go ahead and
start working on Peter because what if he doesn't decide? to
be where it needs to be when they get there. What if he decides
to go on off to Live Oak or Lake City or something? I mean, what
if he's not there when they get there? Because that may at least go
ahead and send him a note, because I mean, these guys have already
left. You told them to leave over here. How do you know he's
going to be there? How do you know he's going to
be there? Well, he knew he was going to be there because you
put him there. He decreed that he would be there.
He said, I want you to go down there where Peter is. And Peter
wasn't where they told him to go necessarily at that point
in time, but he told them he will be. And they went on their
journey and drew nigh unto the city. Peter went up into the
housetop to pray about the sixth hour, and he became very hungry. Now it doesn't say he was hungry
when he went up there, does it? It says he went up there and
he became hungry. Now why did he become hungry?
Because if he hadn't have been hungry, and this vision had come
to him with these things to eat coming down in this thing, it
wouldn't have made anything. But you see, he was hungry, and
then the Lord told him something. And He told him something in
his hunger. And he became hungry. and would
have eaten. He wanted something to eat, but
they didn't have it ready. And because he didn't have it
ready, I don't know if he fainted because he was hungry or what,
but in any event, the Scripture says he fell into a trance, and
that word means an amazement. Now, you know, you always see
in these gypsy fortune teller things in movies and stuff, they
go into a trench, you know, and all that. Well, that's not what
Peter did, but that is a similar situation. He dreamed, more or
less. He became in a state where he
didn't know if he was here or there. And he fell into a trance, and
he saw heaven opened, and the certain vessel descending unto
him, as it had been, a great sheet knit at the four corners,
let down to the earth, wherein were all manner of four-footed
beasts of the earth, wild beasts, creeping things, fowls of the
air. And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter, kill, and eat.
Now Peter, being a good Jew, what did he say? Lord, I ain't
going to do it. Now maybe Peter thought the Lord
was testing him. See, I don't know what was going
through Peter's mind, but Peter, I don't believe he said what
he said out of rebellion, but Peter said what he said because
he believed that those things that the Lord had brought down
there in that sheep were not clean things to eat. And so he
was acting upon the knowledge that he had at the time, was
he not? And he was faithful in the knowledge
that he had. And he said, not so. Oh, we're
not supposed to eat creeping things and all these four-footed
beasts that are not clean. We're not supposed to do it.
They don't have a cloven hoof and all of that sort of stuff.
We're not supposed to do it. And Peter said, Not so, Lord,
for I've never eaten anything that's common or unclean. Now,
I don't know if that was absolutely true or not. Peter, at least in the main,
I believe he could say he was a Jew, and I believe he was a
devout Jew. But you know, we need to be careful
when we say, I've never done such and such, because there
are very few things that most of us have never done, if not
in actual deed, in mind and thought. And so that's a dangerous thing
to say. But nonetheless, and the voice
spake unto him the second time, What God hath cleansed, that
call not thou uncommon." And this was done thrice, or three
times, and then the vessel was received up into heaven. Now,
I don't know if that means the sheep came down three times,
or just that the sheep came down one time and the Lord said it
three times, that what God hath cleansed, that call not thou
common. It doesn't really matter. But
in any event, the Lord made the point, did He not? He didn't
leave Peter in his place of ignorance because, you see, it was the
purpose of God to teach the disciples that He was not a respecter of
persons. And up until that point, Peter
was not convinced of that. But look how the Lord convinced
him of it. He didn't say, Peter, go to the Gentiles. But He said,
Peter, eat this stuff. I mean, the Lord doesn't have
to directly tell somebody something to teach them the truth, does
He? He can teach men the truth in the manner in which He is
pleased to do it. Because you see, it is the Lord's
purpose to teach His people. And He can teach a man like that. How long did it take Peter to
learn this lesson? Just like that, doesn't it? You see, the
Jews think that They thought that it's line upon line, precept
upon precept, here a little, there a little. You've got to
lay this foundation and you've got to do this, you've got to
do that. Listen, the Lord can take a man from darkness into
light just like that. And He can bring a man to the
place where he sees the truth just like that. So when you look
at somebody and you say, well, man, there ain't no hope for
him, he's so far off the track, he couldn't ever come back. You're
wasting your time to speak the truth to this guy. Really? I mean, if the Lord pleased,
He can cause a man to see just like that. You don't think so?
Ask the Apostle Paul. I mean, here he is going down
the road, breathing out threatenings and slaughters against the Lord. One minute, and the next minute
he is on the ground. Lord, who art thou? Help me. I mean, I am an unclean
man. And so while Peter doubted in himself,
or that means while he questioned in himself, he wondered, well,
what in the world does this mean? He did not know. He didn't have
any idea what it meant right at the time. He didn't know if
the Lord wanted him to eat snakes or if... He wasn't sure. He questioned his mind. Well,
did Abe actually see this? Do you ever do that? You see, the Lord teaches you
something in His Word and you get to wondering later, you say,
well, I wonder if that's even really true or not. I do that
all the time. I mean, I see something and then
I say, well, that can't be true. I mean, that can't be true. I
mean, that God has ordained all things that come to pass, that
can't be true. Well, think of all the things
that are happening. How can that be true? It's true because our God is
in the heavens. The Scripture says, He hath done
what? whatsoever he hath pleased." It belongs to Him, dear brethren.
And whatever He does is right. And whatever He wills to do,
He will do. And He'll bring to pass all the
things that He has ordained to come to pass. What a glorious
thing! I can't explain that to everybody
that comes along. Most people don't believe it.
They think you're a nut. Why? If I believe that, You know,
and they go into this idea, well, you just think men are robots.
You know, and all that kind of junk. I'll tell you the truth
of the matter of man being a robot. And that is the fact that all
men are sinners. And I guarantee you, just like
a robot, they will sin. Now, if you want to see a man
being a robot, you just look at sin. He's a robot, alright? He won't do anything different
apart from the grace of God. Now that's robotics in action. But you see, God who is rich
in mercy, He ordains all things to come to pass for the purpose
of bringing glory to His name and for the good, the Scripture
says, of those that love Him who are the called according
to His purpose. All things work together for good. Can you see
the illustration of this before us right here? All things work
together for the good of those that love Him. Cornelius was
a man that loved Him. Why did Cornelius love Him? Because
God loved him first. And he loved God. And the Lord
said, I love him and I want to give him light. I want to bring
him out of the darkness. I want to show him my Son in
glory. The boy spoke to him three times,
and Peter questioned in himself what this vision was. Behold,
the men that were sent from Cornelius had made inquiry for Simon's
house, unbeknownst to Peter. He didn't know anything about
it. He didn't know they were coming.
They were already there. I mean, if you can't see the
glory in them, they were already there before the Lord said, hey,
oh, by the way, I've got some men down here. And then, buddy,
a light bulb went on in Peter's eyes, in Peter's mind, and he
understood what the vision was because he said in himself, these
are Romans. I can't be doing nothing with
no Romans. and called and asked whether
Simon, which was surnamed Peter, was lodged there. These guys
didn't even know where they were going. They didn't even know
if it was the right house or not. How did they find it? Same way Jonah found the whale. Or was it that the whale found
Jonah? Huh? Which was it? They found both
one another at the exact same time. The whale didn't know he
was going to swallow Jonah and Jonah didn't know he was going
to be swallowed by the whale. But I'll tell you who did know
it. That was the Lord because He put the fish and the man at
the exact spot at the exact right time. Did He not? Now wouldn't
that have been something? If those men acting in their
own free will had not thrown Jonah over that ship, that would
have been amazing, wouldn't it? Old Fitch, he just swam around,
he said, you know, I had this feeling I should have been here,
but I was, nothing happened. I guess I'll just swim on away. I was getting kind of taste,
I was having like these thoughts of a taste of you know, of a
man, but I can't, I'm not going to have, I guess, nothing happen
because all thwarted by the free will of men. Oh no, dear brother. And neither to this situation
here, for these men were brought to that house at the appointed
hour when Peter had... What if they had come there the
day before? Before Peter had the vision,
what would he have done? He'd say, you all get on out
of here, I've got time to be messing with you all. But you see, God who
is rich in mercy, He brought these things to pass at the appointed
time. And 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 look what it says, Then
Peter went down. Now why did Peter go down? Because the Lord sent him. And
the Lord told Peter, go down. And Peter didn't have to think or
decide, did he? Because you see, the Lord decided
for him. Dear brethren, what a glorious
thing it is that God directs the steps of His people, what an awful thing it would
be if we directed our own steps. Now some people might take some
comfort in that. I couldn't take any comfort at
all, because you see what a glorious thing it is to know that the
Lord directs our steps and brings us by a way which we knew not.
But He has ordered every step of a righteous man for his glory
and unto the end that will benefit them the most. Now, I didn't
even get halfway through what I wanted to talk about, but I
got through some of it, so we don't have time to go much further.
But may the Lord cause us to meditate on these things. And
be reminded that the Lord will teach His people exactly what
He wants them to know when He wants them to know it. And all hell cannot prevent it. There can be no thwarting of
the will and purpose of Almighty God. And that is most especially
true. when the Lord comes to call his
sheep. He said, I know my sheep. I call them by name. And he said,
another shepherd will they not follow? Now how did Cornelius
know that this was the right one? I mean, what if these guys
went to the wrong house, got the wrong guy? I mean, there
was a lot of people. I mean, there might have been
some other folks inspecting somebody. No, dear brethren, God brought
these things to pass because it pleased Him. And He gave Cornelius
trust in Him that He would bring these things to pass even as
He gave Peter that same confidence. And He brought them together
for His own glory. calls us to praise him.