Isn't it wonderful to be here?
Isn't it so good? My, Jill, that was wonderful.
You set the table for me. This is wonderful. The table's
set. I had Tom read Acts chapter 3. That's exactly where we're going
to be today, exactly where we're going to be, where Brother Tom
read Acts chapter 3. We're going to start in verse
17, though. And Lord willing, we'll finish
this chapter today, and then Lord willing, next week we'll
be in chapter four. Now the setting for this chapter
is, I had Brother Tom read a little bit further up than where we
were going to be, because we saw the setting for this chapter
is a lame man, the man who was lame from his mother's womb,
and he's been healed by the Lord Jesus Christ. He's been healed
by the Lord our King. And now he's clinging to the
disciples, and afterwards he was leaping, and walking and
praising God. And he's been made whole. Remember,
he never walked. He didn't go through no physical
therapy or anything, did he? He never walked, and all of a
sudden now his legs are fully strengthened. Ben, you and I
were talking about that. You told me it was your foot, wasn't
it? Your knee, yeah. Ben had a knee surgery done,
and his knee, he said, was like jelly after his leg. And I know,
because both my legs were the same way. They were just like
jelly after they took the cast off for six months. Couldn't
walk at all. Just couldn't even stand up.
And here's this man. He's been laying from his mother's
womb. He's never walked in his life. And now he's leaping in
the air. Brother Brian, if you and I were
there, we would have went, Who is that fellow? He was just at
the gate, right? Oh, my. And now he's walking,
and he's leaping, and he's praising God. It's absolutely amazing. And he's given all the glory
to the Lord. And the people were astonished,
right? They said to Peter, they said, well, how did you do this?
And as I said last week, Peter turned their attention away from
himself. and focuses on Christ, which is what gospel preachers
do, right? We don't want the focus to be on us. We want you
to be thinking about Christ and look at the Christ. I get excited
because this is my king I'm talking about. This is the one who saved
my soul, right? This is the master who came down
from heaven. But look to him. Look to him.
He's so wonderful. We can't measure how wonderful
he is. He's so gracious. He's so good. We saw on Sunday
School, his goodness is, oh, it's just so abundant. It's just
incredible. And so Peter, he doesn't mince
words. He says before him, you killed
the prince alive. And they're pricked in the heart. They know
they're guilty. My. My, oh, my. Just like those ones earlier.
So he directs attention away from himself, and away from John,
and away from the man who was healed, and puts their attention
upon Christ, the God-man, the glorified God-man. And that is
every preacher's responsibility. I have a responsibility to set
Christ before you. That's part of my calling, is
to set him before you. That's actually the main focus
of it. When Travis stands up and fills in for me, substitutes
there, right? You're a substitute. There's
a picture right there, right? It's amazing, isn't it? He, like me, just wants to set
Christ before you. That's all. That's all. Every gospel preacher, teacher,
we just want to set Christ before you. That's it. And Peter told his hearers, look
at verse 16, he said, and his name through faith in his name,
that being Christ, hath made this man strong, whom ye see
and know. Look at, he's made whole. He's not lame anymore, he's made
whole. My, oh my. And Peter says, this came by
God, not by me. Not by John. And he didn't heal
himself. This came by the power of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Yeah, the faith, which is by
him, has given him this, look at this, perfect soundness. Look
at that. We heard something. Ben, imagine you had to go through
physical therapy and all that stuff like I had to. My, we don't
have perfect soundness when we come out of an operation, do
we? No, not at all. No way. It's perfect soundness. He's not just walking, he's leaping. He's leaping. My, oh my, he's
so excited. He's seen other people walk for
all those years. And he never ever got to do it.
Could you imagine what that felt like? With perfect soundness,
too. See, when God heals us spiritually, you see? See the picture here?
Because we're lame from a fall, aren't we? We're not lame from
our mother's womb. We're lame from afar. We're lame
from way back with Adam. We come into this world from
our mother's womb lame already. But when we're born again, we're
healed spiritually. We're made alive. And scripture
says, remember that gathering demonic? He's sitting at the
feet of Christ in his right mind? That's soundness, beloved. His
mind is now focused on Christ. Now we're in our right mind as
believers. We're focusing on Christ. Isn't that amazing? Look at that. When you were reading that, Tom,
that jumped out at me. Perfect soundness. That just jumped right
out at me. I was like, oh my gosh. And you
know what? I'd read that how many times?
I just saw it. Isn't that wonderful? Perfect
soundness. That's what we have in Christ,
beloved. And it says, in the presence of you all. He's speaking
Southern there, you all. And then take note of chapter
6 there. It says, in the name of Jesus
Christ of Nazareth that Peter commanded the lame man to walk.
Right? He commanded the lame man to
walk in the name of Jesus Christ in verse 6 of Nazareth. And then
take note of verse 16 again, which we just read. And for the
benefit of those who might not have heard Peter's words when
he said, rise up, by the power of Christ, rise up, he says this
in his name through faith, in the name that made him strong.
See, some of those people had already walked by, the lame men
were already in. They hadn't heard what Peter said. So he's
going to repeat what happened. He's going to say, this man is
healed because of Christ and him alone, not because of anything
I did. My, oh, my. He said, look at
this. And his name, through faith in
his name, hath made this man strong. See, he was weak and
unable. We can't save ourselves, can
we? We're weak and unable. God makes us willing in the day
of his power. Oh, as I said in Sunday school,
God makes Christ irresistible to us. I love that. He's irresistible
to us, isn't he? He's irresistible. But God's
brought that in our hearts. He's made him irresistible to
us. So Peter declares boldly to those
who are assembled that it was God himself who raised up the
Lord Jesus Christ from the dead and we see that he plainly declared
again the sovereign power of the Lord Jesus Christ, right?
My oh my, our God, he's a mighty fortress. He's sovereign. He's sovereign. He declares the
sovereign power of the Lord Jesus Christ in healing this man. Romans chapter 1 verse 16, I'll
just read this, that Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit of God, wrote
these words, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for
it's the power of God unto salvation to the Jew first and also to
the Greek. It's the power of God. The same power that raised
us from our deadness is the same power that made this man whole.
Isn't that amazing? Same power. And I believe he's
born again. He's praising God. He's praising
God. My, oh, my. Peter said, it's
in Christ's name. And he's listening to this whole
sermon here, isn't he? Oh, my. My, oh, my. The Lord Jesus Christ
is the power of God unto salvation. And our Lord tells all his born-again
saints in Matthew 28, 18, that all power is given unto me. So
who are we trusting in? We're trusting in the one who
has all power. Let that just become a reality
to us. He has all power. There's no
power that's not outside his hands. So think, the president has power
in the US, right? And other leaders have power
in their countries. God has power over all. And not
just this little world that we live on, because it's just a
speck in the universe, the mighty universe of God. It's just a
speck. But he's got a power over all
things, all other planets, all other worlds, the angels, every
little creeping thing. I remember Neil saying one time,
even the things that are under the ground that we don't see
that are working the ground and doing all kinds of stuff. He's
in control of all that. All of it. That's our God. That's our Savior. Can He keep us? Amen. It's not hard for Him, is it?
If He can keep them stars going through the sky, and the sun
rising, and the moon, well, the moon's always there, isn't it?
So the moon in the sky, though, and keeps it that it's the perfect
distance away that the world's not flooded. because the tides are controlled
by the moon, how the distance of the moon, isn't that amazing?
And he keeps on, and it says that the sea has gates, it can't
come, people say, global warming, we're gonna get flooded one day.
No, the scripture says that he's put gates with the sea. It cannot
go any further than he commands. Now the tides come in and tides
go out, but I'll tell you what, all the water that comes to whatever
level it comes to is by his command. See, they don't believe God's
in control. You tell them that scripture,
they say, I don't believe that. Well, I pray God will give you
faith one day to believe it, because it's true. Whether you
believe it or not, it's true. Are we to be good stewards of
the earth? Absolutely we are. Absolutely. With this nonsense
you hear about different stuff. I'm sorry, I'm going off on a
tangent. But, you know, they don't acknowledge God. They say
mother nature. There's no mother nature. There's
no such thing. That's a figment of people's
imagination. There's only God and God alone. That's it. The supreme ruler over all. And
that's our savior. And he has all power. I mean every, there's not a speck
of dust that floats in the air that he doesn't know about. My, whom shall I fear then? If God before, now we know what
it means when Paul wrote, if God before me, who can be against
me? Who can be against us if God Almighty, He controls all
things and has all powers for us and has saved us? Who can be against us? No one. Why do we fear then? The flesh, the flesh, the flesh. And Donnie Bell says that all
the time. I love that. The flask, the flask, the flask. But no,
seriously, we need to think about that. As Brother Tom prayed,
you know, but not being afraid. He's in control. He's in control,
beloved. This is wonderful. He has all
power. He says, all power is given to
me in heaven and earth. Who gave him that power? God the Father.
And he has that rightfully, too, as God, right? Don't forget he's
God the Son. See, the Son is just as powerful
as the Father and just as powerful as the Holy Spirit, right? The
three are one. My, oh, my. Is God's arm shortened
that he can't save? Now, what's he say, Brother Dave?
Come unto me. All ye that labor and are heavy
laden, come unto me. His arm's not shortened, is it?
You know, I heard a preacher this week, I was listening to
this preacher this week, and he said, you know what people
say to you? They say, oh, you don't know my past. You just
don't know what I went through. And you know what this preacher
said? Everyone's got a past. Don't let that hinder you from
coming to Christ. I was like, hallelujah, that's great. What
a great answer. Everyone's got a past. My, oh,
my. But the name of the message today
is sins blotted out. I got a past. But it's all blotted
out, beloved, by the blood of Christ. Is it so for you? Is
it so for you? Praise his mighty name, eh? And
it's blotted out by the precious blood of Christ, beloved. blotted
out all those handwriting ordinances that was against us. He took
it, that was contrary to us. He took it, nailing it to his
cross, beloved. It says in Colossians chapter
three. Nailing it to his cross. Oh my. My oh my. So the apostle proclaimed the
power of Christ, beloved. This miracle was performed in
Christ's name and by the virtue of his power. It was a miracle done by the
faith which was given to him, given to Peter, by the faith
which Christ gave. And every miracle and grace is
performed in the name of Jesus Christ through faith in him gives
God all the glory. Gives God all the glory. My oh my. Do you know the scripture
declares this? Turn if you would. Acts chapter
4. Look at this. Acts chapter 4. Look at verse 12. Look at
this. Neither. Neither. That means not at all. Right? Neither. Ran into a guy from
India this week. Said he worshiped some goddess.
What? Neither. Neither is there salvation
in any other. That excludes Buddha, Mohammed,
Mary. Right? You just keep going. Mormonism. Just keep going. Church of Christ, who believe
you've got to be baptized to be saved. Neither is there salvation
in any other. That includes us. We can't produce
our own salvation, we can't. Neither is there salvation in
any other, for there is none other name under heaven given
among men, whereby we must be saved. And look a little bit
up, look it up a little bit, verse 10. Be it known unto you,
and all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ
of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God hath raised from the
dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole.
Whole. You know we're made whole in
Christ? See, the next chapter, I'm not
going to get too deep into it, but the religious Pharisees are
trying to get Peter and John to stop preaching Christ. Well,
that's like trying to stop Niagara Falls with a little plug. Right? I'm going to put this
little plug in the water to stop Niagara Falls. The gospel's just
gonna flow out, isn't it? By the power of God. And if they
take one preacher's life, he's just gonna raise up another preacher.
Right? My oh my. I love that though. That's so, so definitive, isn't
it? There's no salvation in anybody
else. Not ourselves and not any of these other false gods in
the world. And all God's born-again blood-wet saints, we received
the same faith that Peter had. My oh my. And in our unregenerate
state, we're like the healed man. We're just looking for something
to help us out. We're just looking out for number one. We weren't
seeking Christ. That man wasn't seeking Christ,
was he? Not at all. Not at all. And what's one characteristic
of God's people? Well, we've renounced. We have
renounced. that any of our works can save
us. And we've said that we can only be saved by God and God
alone, by Christ and Christ alone. It's his finished work. And he
is the one who finished that work, isn't he? We can only be
saved by Christ, no one else. And we leap and praise God for
his unspeakable gift, which is who? The Lord Jesus Christ. Does
that not fill your heart with joy that God saved you through
Christ? My, it's amazing. Now let's look at verse 17. And
now, brethren, I wrought that through ignorance ye did it,
as did your rulers. Now Peter calls them brethren,
not because they're members of the family of God, but because
they're his kinsmen in the flesh, their fellow Israelites. And
because all of them were Israelites. And take note of his loving concern
for them. Peter tells them that he knew
that it was because of their ignorance that they took Christ
and crucified him and denied the Holy One of God and the Just
One and desired a murderer to be set free and killed the
Prince of Life. He knows, he knows they did that.
But look at the compassion. He tells them that he knew even
some of the rulers, the Sanhedrin and the Pharisees were just as
ignorant of Christ as they were. And that's us in our natural
state, isn't it? We are ignorant of the things of Christ. We don't
know who he is. My oh my. And in our natural
state, all refuse to come to Christ. That's why we got to
be made willing. That's why we got to be born again. That's
why that love of God that makes Christ irresistible to us has
to be placed in our hearts. Because by nature, none of us,
none of us will seek him. The scripture says that. There's
none that seeketh after God. None. And when God the Holy Spirit
reveals Christ to us under the preaching of his gospel, what's
it do? It sets us free. Liberty. Freedom in Christ. We are free. We're free from the dominion
of sin. We still are plagued with sin,
but the dominion of it, the ruling power of it is gone. Now we fight
it. See? Now we're convicted when we sin. When we... I always say that we're convicted
when we sin, but in the back of my mind, I'm always thinking
we're always sinning, right? But see, all that's even forgiven.
Sins of commission and omission. It's all blotted out. Everything. Isn't that amazing
that God would just wipe the slate clean? And it's like they weren't even
there. That's why I saved my old life. I look back at my old
life and to me it's like another guy. Because I'm a new creature
in Christ now. And I know that was me. I know
that was me and I remember how I was. But it's like another
life. I don't think like that anymore.
I don't act like that. And that's only by the grace
of God. There's nothing in me. Because if the Lord hadn't saved
me, I'd still be that fella. And I'm just a safe sinner now.
I'm not saying I'm not. I'm just a safe sinner now. But
what I'm trying to get at is my thoughts are different. My
desires are different. Like Paul said, the things I
once hated, now I love. How do you explain that but the
grace of God, the miracle of God? There's no other way to
explain it. We become new creatures in Christ,
don't we? My, oh, my. And it's absolutely amazing.
that he would do that for us. Think of this too. Our spiritual
ignorance is replaced by wisdom. And we can't lay claim to that
either. God gives us wisdom. I'm looking at a bunch of wise
people who are in Christ. Isn't that amazing? You'd be
made wise to spiritual things by God the Holy Spirit. We were ignorant. I was. I was a block of rocks, man. Had no idea about spiritual things. And now I know a little bit more.
Just a little bit. But that little bit more I'm
going to tell you about all over and over and over again. And
as he reveals, more like he did when you were reading there,
Tom, perfect soundness. Man, that made me want to shout. Perfect soundness. Isn't that
incredible? We've been restored. We were
spiritually dead, now we're spiritually alive. My, it's amazing, I'll
tell you. It gets better and better, I'll
tell you. Now let's read verse 18. But those things which God
before had showed by the mouth of his prophets, that Jesus Christ,
or that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled. Well, verse
18 here is an illustration of God's divine wisdom. He reveals
to his chosen people, look at this, but those things which
God before had showed by the mouth of all his prophets that
Christ should suffer, he has so fulfilled. He fulfilled everything
that the prophets said about him, he's fulfilled those things.
You wanna look at a neat study, go on the internet and type in
the prophecies fulfilled by Christ. Prophecies from the Old Testament
fulfilled by Christ. It'll knock your socks off. It's
amazing. It'd actually be a good study,
wouldn't it? My, oh my. And think of this, Peter was
addressing those who were guilty of crucifying our Savior, the
Lord, but his hope is for the guilty. Because what's he doing?
He's not saying, well, you're all wrote off. What's he doing? He's preaching Christ to them.
He doesn't know who God's people are. He knows God's got a people,
though, because he's one of them. And so here, he's preaching to
them. Oh, my. And he has hope. And there's hope for the guilty,
isn't there? There's hope for the guilty sinner in Christ.
That's the only place hope is found. Flee to Christ. He's the
only hope for sinners. And we sinners have found that
out, haven't we, who are born again. He's the only hope. And think of this, all this happened
according to what Peter's telling them about, all happened according to the wise and gracious purpose
of God. Remember when Joseph, turn if
you would to Genesis chapter 50. Remember? Remember when Joseph's
brother sold him off into slavery? They got him. Oh, you dreamer.
We're going to throw you in a pit. They threw him in a pit first.
They wanted to kill him. But one of the brothers said,
no, no, no, let's not kill him. Let's sell him off to slavers. And,
well, it just happened to be there's a slave train going by,
eh? Didn't just happen to be, was it? No, it was all by God's
wise providence, right? And here's Joseph. He gets taken
to the Egyptian slave market. And he's brought by Potiphar,
who's the captain of Pharaoh's guard. My, look at that. And then Potiphar's wife gets
eyes on Joseph, wants to lie with him. And Joseph said, this
was amazing. Joseph said, well, I don't want
to sin against God. First of all, he said, I don't
want to sin against God. And I don't want to sin against my
master. And I don't want to sin against you. So what'd she do? She cooks up a plan saying, oh,
he tried to lay with me. And Potiphar, man, he gets, he
does whatever any husband would do, right? Gets mad at a white
hornet. Right? Throw him in prison. And lo and
behold, there's a baker and a butler in there. Wow. They teed off the king, or the
pharaoh, right? And there's a baker and a butler,
and there's Joseph. Joseph's a picture of Christ,
right? Well, look at that. There's two. There's a baker
and a butler, right? There's two thieves on the cross
in between Christ, right? And the butler gets set free,
and the baker loses his head. Well, there's two thieves. One
is in paradise and the other one is in eternal damnation. My oh my. And then Joseph becomes
prime minister over all of Egypt. And a famine hits the land and
he's in full control. And you know God worked all this
out so that the Israelites will be brought down from where they
were into Egypt and preserved. And Pharaoh gave him the choice
land. I mean, he gave them Goshen,
which is the... I imagine those Egyptian advisors
were probably, what in the world are you doing, Pharaoh? You're
giving them the best land. And now, Joseph's father is dying. He
died. And look at this in Genesis chapter
50, verses 19 to 21. Look at this, and Joseph said
unto them, fear not, for I am in the place of God. Do you know
that right now, you and I are in the place of God, we're exactly
where he wants us? Isn't that amazing? We're part
of this body, because this is exactly where God's placed us.
We're here today, because this is exactly where God's placed
us. Isn't that amazing? But as for
you, he's speaking to his brothers, you thought evil against me.
But God meant it unto good to bring to pass as it is this day
to save much people alive. All his family, all his family
bought down into Egypt and he took care of them through the
whole famine. See, we don't know what God's
doing even in our lives. But he's doing something all
the time, isn't he? He's conforming us to the image of Christ. We
are exactly where he placed us. Now therefore, fear ye not. Oh,
isn't that wonderful? Fear ye not. That's what Christ
says to us, right? That's what God says to us through Christ.
Fear ye not. Remember what David said to Mephibosheth?
Fear not. Fear ye not, for I will nourish
you and your little ones and he comforted them and spake kindly
unto them. God speaks kindly to us through Christ, doesn't
he, brother? Oh my, isn't it wonderful? What a picture. What
a picture of how Christ takes care of us. My, oh my. The Lord Jesus Christ, not Joseph,
says to guilty sinners, fear not, for I am the place of God
to save much people alive. And he did, didn't he? At Calvary's
cross. He saved a multitude that no
man can number. Isn't that wonderful? Oh my. And the Lord Jesus Christ died
on the cross. He was raised from the grave
and he ascended to glory. Why? To save sinners all according
to the will and purpose of God the Father. And the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit were in total agreement. through a
covenant made in eternity. My, oh my. Lord, he rose from the grave,
ascended to the glory, and he's right now sealed at the right
hand of the Father. And Peter told his hearers that the sufferings
of Christ, that Christ was delivered by Or he was declared by the
holy prophets and fulfilled all that the holy prophets said of
Christ was fulfilled by Christ. He fulfilled them all. And at
his appointed time, he died on the cross. So what Peter's telling
them is that God has orchestrated all the affairs of the world
for our good and for his glory. My. My oh my, that's how intricately
our God is involved in the affairs of the world. He didn't just
wind it up like a clockmaker like some people think and just
let it tick down. Nope. Nope. Now let's read verses 19
to 20. Repent ye therefore and be converted
that your sins may be what? Blotted out. Hallelujah. Blotted out. Look at that. when
the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the
Lord, and he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached
unto you. So God commands all men everywhere
to repent, doesn't he? He does. We're gonna see that
later on in our study in the book of Acts. He commands all
men everywhere to repent. And it's true that God is the
only one who can grant repentance unto life, but it's also the
responsibility of every human being to repent. See, man is fully responsible
for our sin because it's ours. It's ours. I remember, I think
it was Scott maybe that said the only thing we bring, or Scott
or Henry said the only thing we bring to the table is our
sin. Salvation is all of the Lord.
We're just sinners. We're just sinners in desperate
need for Christ. And think of this, no one's going
to repent for us, are they, brethren? No one's going to repent for
us. A teenager, they can't rely on their parents to repent because
they can't... I must be the one who repents,
and I can only do that by the grace of God. It's the responsibility of every
human to repent. But no one's going to repent
for us. And no one's going to believe for us. We must believe
ourselves, right? You must be born again. You must
be. It's a heart matter, isn't it?
Spurgeon, you've heard me say this many times, Spurgeon said
we can be regenerated without moving a muscle. Because it's
a heart work. Talk to Brother Brian about when
the Lord saved him. You weren't moving no muscles,
were you, Brother Brian? You gotta ask him what happened.
It's incredible. My oh my. God saved you just
like that, brother. My oh my. See, God looks upon
the heart. He knows our hearts. He knows
if our hearts have been broken in repentance. He knows if we've
mourned over our sins. He knows if we've even turned
from our own self-righteousness. He knows it all. He knows it
all. And he remembers that we're but
dust, too. He remembers we're just dust. So let us remember this as well,
that we cannot believe on the Lord Jesus Christ if we're trusting
in anything we've done. You know, if we're trusting in
anything we've done, we're not trusting Christ. Man, that's serious business,
isn't it? You mean not to trust in anything
I've done, Wayne? Nothing. I am saved by God's grace through
Christ alone, plus absolutely nothing I've done. Nothing. Not a prayer I've spoken,
not scripture I've read, not words I've spoken. I'm only saved
by Christ. and by his almighty power. Now,
by his grace and mercy, I preach, and I read the scriptures, and
he gives me an understanding. And I pray for my brethren and
for my family, my brothers who aren't saved, their families. But it all is because of the
grace of God. And nothing I can do can merit
salvation for me. Is it so for you? No merit, no
merit, no merit. Like Tim James says, right? No
merit at all. So look at that. Repent ye therefore
and be conferred that your sins may be blotted out. Blotted out. Gone. Gone. And even our repentance, though
it is a responsibility of every man, woman, everywhere to repent,
it's only granted by the sovereign power of God. It's God the Holy
Spirit working in us. Remember, you've heard me say
many times, when we're born again, God gives us faith and repentance.
And it's like a piece of paper, on one side's faith and on one
side's repentance. If you have true faith in Christ,
you're going to have true repentance before God. He works that in
us. It's not natural for us to repent.
You know what's natural for us? What's natural for us? We've
all learned this from our children. We've all learned it from ourselves,
right? Our child says, say, did you
do that? And you say, no, no, I didn't
do that. Or they say, well, it's not my
fault. It's your fault. Right? Where did we get that
from? Oh, do you remember that fellow
named Adam? What did he say to God? She did
it. It's the woman you gave me, Lord.
It's not my fault. You see, that's what we're natural
at doing, beloved. That's what we're natural at,
is casting blame. But when God works repentance in us, true
repentance, we say, Lord, I own this. It's me. I'm the one. I sinned against you. This is
my fault. You see the difference? It's
huge, isn't it? It's like night and day, isn't it? And what did
I say in Sunday school? If you sin, and we will, repent
and move on. Keep looking to Christ. Just
repent, say, Lord, forgive me for that. We know it's washed
under the blood, but still, if we confess our sins, He's faithful
and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Confess our sin and just move on. Move on. Look to Christ. Keep looking
to Christ. My. So God looks on the heart and,
beloved, the blood of Jesus Christ, we see here, we see here that
the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. Our sins are
blotted out, not to be remembered by God ever again. My, I know I have a multitude of sins
I can, that I can remember and multitude I don't even know about.
And they're all blotted out by the precious, precious blood
of Christ. You think the worst sin you ever
committed, beloved, and I know we have stacks of them, don't
we? And they're all gone. They're all under the blood.
They've been blotted out. They've been blotted out. So
God says, I look, he looks, he says, Brother Tommy looks at
you and says, oh, there's my son, Christ. He's clothed in
the righteousness of my son. He's one of the ones I've loved
for maternity that I gave to my son. Oh, my! Isn't that wonderful? Oh, my. I'll tell you what. It's absolutely wonderful. God
in Christ has purged our sin. And you know why we're forgiven?
We're forgiven for Christ's sake. That's why. Only because of Christ. There is nothing in us. that
would merit us to be forgiven, but praise be to God, we're forgiven
for Christ's sake. Oh, my. Since I heard the good
news, I not heard no bad news, right? Scott Richardson. It's
so true, isn't it? Oh, my. It's wonderful. God, for Christ's sake, in his
sovereign love and his sovereign grace and his sovereign mercy,
has granted us repentance unto life and faith to believe and
confess the Lord Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. And we
do it with joy unspeakable in our heart. People might not see
us joyful all the time, but in our heart we're joyful, aren't
we? I'm forgiven. I'm saved. This is wonderful. I'll tell you, you start getting
down, just start looking to Christ. Just start mulling in your mind.
Man, the Father chose me in Christ before the foundation of the
world. And Christ is a lamb slain before the foundation of the
world for me. And that was He purposed and planned. He sent
Christ in to do. And I'm saved now by the grace
and mercy of God. And that's not presumption. Scripture
says we can know that we have eternal life. That's why Peter
said examine yourself, see if you're in the faith. We can know
we have eternal life. Who are you trusting right now?
I don't care about 20 years ago. I don't care about something
somebody said. Who are you trusting right this second, right now?
Are you trusting Christ and Christ alone? Is he your all in all? That's what matters the most
right there. I've seen too many people make
confessions in the past. And it ain't worth a hill of
beans. I'll tell you what. They're in
the world. They have no care. And there's
somebody clinging that. Oh, they're saved. They said
a prayer 25 years ago. My, oh, my. Our Lord keeps us in the faith,
you know that? Isn't that amazing? He don't
let us wander off. Now we may wander off a little
wee bit, but He's gonna stop it, bring us right back, isn't
He? I've wandered off in my heart. I've told you before, before
I moved here, I've wandered off in my heart. Vicki knows there's
a time when I wasn't going nowhere, wouldn't want to listen to nothing,
and I started listening to this guy named Henry Mahan. And oh my, I heard something
I'd never heard before. The Lord saved my soul. My, oh my, isn't that amazing?
My oh my. He'll bring his sheep back. He'll
let us wander a little bit, but he'll bring us back with cords
of love. So let we hear the redeemed shout for joy. Shout for joy. We've been saved. We've been
redeemed. Look at this too. Look at this. In verse 21. And when the heaven must receive
whom the heavens must receive until the times of restitution
of all things what God has spoken by the mouth of all his holy
prophets since the world began. So remember on the road to Emmaus,
the Lord expounded himself through all the prophets to those two.
And they said, did not our heart burn within us? Yeah, you know
why? Because he's in all the Old Testament. They were talking to the very
one whom the prophet spoke of. My, oh my. The grave couldn't
hold our king, could it? Couldn't hold him. Couldn't hold
him, beloved. He burst forth in resurrection
power and entered into heaven itself. Now they appear in the
presence of God for us, beloved. For us, right now. So rejoice,
beloved God. He's right now seated upon the
right hand of power. Right now, interceding for us.
He's on the throne of power, not only as the glorified God-man,
but as the blessed surety of all his born-again, blood-washed
people. He's our surety, beloved. My,
oh my. And the restitution, note there
it says, the restitution of all things. that refers to the accomplishment
of all the promises and prophecies concerning the bringing in in
the fullness of the gentiles and the conversion of the jews
so gathering all the elect of god gathering all the elected
god it refers to all the glorious things spoken of the church in
the old testament which which was confirmed by what follows
which god has spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since
the world began there's a messiah coming There's a Messiah coming. And
the New Testament says He's come. There He is. The Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ. And He will continue to save
His people. He will continue to save His
people until they are all saved. And when they're all saved, Just it's over. It's over. Because right now, there's still
some blood washed sheep who are in the wilderness. Who are wandered around scattered,
but the Lord knows where every one of them is. And God, just like He did for
us, knows the exact time which will be their time of love, when
they'll be born again. Do you know that even the time
when the last sheep is saved is all set by our great God? That's why the scripture says,
no man knows the hour, the day, or the season when God comes
back. I go on YouTube a couple times there. I like going on
YouTube. Man, there is so much garbage on there about all these
different things about when the Lord's coming back and all this
stuff. They have no clue. It's just garbage. Absolute garbage. I don't even know what's coming
tomorrow and these folks claim to know what's coming in the
future. Do you know what's coming tomorrow? No. So what they do is they put
their own private interpretation upon scriptures and say, well,
this is going to happen. And when it doesn't happen, even
though they say it's going to happen, well, the scripture says
if they do that, they're a false prophet. But no one questions
the mind. Oh, we just got it wrong. My, oh, my. Let us just rest
in what the scripture says. He's coming back. And no one
knows the hour of the day. God knows it. The one who controls
all things, he knows it. He knows it. I can rest in that.
I'll tell you what, I can rest in that. Can you? Oh my. So here continues to save his
lost sheep until they're all saved, until they're all brought
out of the wilderness. And all of them, all for whom Christ
died for, will come to him. Every single one of them. They
will not be one missing. There will not be one missing.
There's going to be no gotaways. None. None. He shall. Amen. He shall save
his people from their sins. And there's even a shall in this
next verse we're going to look at here. Look at this in verse
22. For Moses truly said unto the fathers, a prophet shall
the Lord your God raise up. He's going to do it. And he did
it, didn't he? His name is the Lord Jesus Christ.
Notice that. A prophet. Singular. Singular. This is the prophet
whom the prophets spoke of. He's a prophet. He's the God-man.
Look at that. A prophet. There's that word
again. Shall the Lord, your God, raise
up unto you of your brethren like unto me. Him shall There
it is again. Him shall ye hear in all things
whatsoever he shall say unto you. Praise God that God's given
us hearing ears that we shall hear the things of Christ. Because
otherwise we wouldn't hear them at all. Look at this. Look what this
verse tells us. Jesus Christ is the prophet that Moses spoke
of. He is the prophet that Moses spoke of. He was raised by God
from amongst the people. He was bone of their bone and
flesh of their flesh. And he's a prophet raised up
by God. My, conceived of the Holy Spirit
of God in the womb of Mary. A sinless man. And he's also
a son of David from the tribe of Judah. And Jesus Christ, he's
a prophet like unto Moses. Remember, Moses was a mediator
for the people. He said, oh Lord, don't slay
them. Please, don't wipe them all out. Well, he said, get a
brazen serpent and put it on the staff. If Moses hadn't have mediated,
God would have wiped them all out. Man, he can raise the people
just like that, can't he? My oh my. He raised us from the
Valley of Dry Bones we were in, right? Amongst all that multitude
of his people. My oh my. That's where we were.
We were in the Valley of Dry Bones, beloved. Oh my. So Christ is a mediator between
God and man, a deliverer of God's people from bondage, a leader
of the people of God. And Jesus Christ is the true
prophet. We see here a prophet, the true prophet, sent of God,
who has spoken us in these last days. And Jesus Christ is the
living God. The Word of God, the Holy Scriptures,
are the works of Jesus Christ, the living Word. And if we don't
believe what the written Word of God says, then you know what
we're doing? We're turning the deaf ear to
Christ. He's the living Word. My oh my. I ask you, how serious
is that? That's pretty serious, isn't
it? Well look at, now, let's see
how serious it is with the next verse. Look at verse 23. And
it shall come to pass that every soul which shall not hear that
prophet, every soul which shall not hear Christ, every soul which
shall turn a deaf ear, shall what? Oh my, shall be destroyed. There's
no doubt with everlasting destruction, everlasting torment in hell from
among the people. So verse 23 brings forth that
to not to listen to scripture is to bring about your own destruction. Man's fully responsible, remember? I think it was an old preacher
I read one time, and I thought this was fantastic. He said,
if you go to hell, it's all you. But if you go to heaven, it's
all God. 100% God. My, this brings forth that,
doesn't it? That if we don't listen to the
prophet, Christ, it brings destruction upon our soul. This is very serious. We see that God says what he
means and means what he says, doesn't he? He's very serious. A famous,
do you know, do you know how, and think of this too. He's speaking
these words to those, some of those who may still be alive
in 70 AD. Remember how the Jews, they took
Christ and they nailed him to the cross, right? Do you know
what happened in 70 AD? the complete destruction of Jerusalem. I was reading a historian, a
Jewish historian. He estimated because it was the
Passover time when the Romans sacked Jerusalem, that place was full. There was
more people there than would normally be there because it
was the Passover. Remember they all had to go to Jerusalem to
observe the Passover? He estimates that 1.1 million
Jews were slaughtered. Slaughtered by the Romans. That verse came true. They did
not listen to the prophet, did they? It's estimated that I think 100,000
of them were taken into captivity. Who knows how many got away?
1.1 million people destroyed. And they were all guilty of not
only refusing to hear the Lord Jesus Christ, but there was probably
some alive that rejected him when he preached and that said,
crucify him, crucify him. Now there's nothing new under
the sun, is there? Natural man is no different today than those
wicked hearts that crucified our Lord and Savior. The whole
human race in its natural state is guilty before God. And just as worthy as God's wrath
is those unbelieving Jews who died in the destruction of Jerusalem.
And we, we who are the redeemed, we're just as worthy of that
wrath to fall upon us, but praise God it fell upon Christ in our
room and place. That's mercy, isn't it? And the
only reason we've hurt the prophet is because God gave us hearing
ears, seeing eyes. What mercy, beloved. What mercy,
God, God has given us. And by his substitutionary death,
the Lord Jesus Christ suffered the unmitigated wrath of God
just poured out upon him. And think of this, let's make
it personal. Let's all say, for my sin. The unmitigated wrath of God
poured out on Christ for every single sin I ever committed. And for you who are believers
too, and for all the elect of all the ages. And by his substitutionary
death, he delivered us. And what he did? You know what
else he did? He blotted out our sins. He brought it out, our
sins, and His precious, precious blood that was shed to redeem
our eternal soul. My, what a Savior, what a Redeemer
is Jesus Christ our Lord. And we will never face the wrath
of God because it fell upon Christ in our room and place. I'll tell
you, our God is so good to us. He is so good to us. Oh my. And under the preaching of the
gospel, Jesus Christ promises eternal life to all who believe.
But he says this, to all who will turn a deaf ear to his gospel,
to all who refuse to believe his precious words. He that believeth
not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth
on him. My, oh my. That's John chapter
3, verse 36. That's part of when he's talking
to Nicodemus. My. Every soul that shall not
hear the prophet shall be in hell forever. My. Thank God for giving us a new
heart. Thank God for redeeming us. Thank God that we're born
again and that we believe on Him. Look at verse 24 here. It says, Yea, and all the prophets
of Samuel and those that follow after as many as have spoken
have likewise foretold of these days. Peter continued to declare,
he just keeps continuing to declare Christ. It's wonderful. He's
stating that not only did Moses speak of God's prophet, the Lord
Jesus Christ, but Samuel spoke that he shall come too. And all
of God's prophets that followed Samuel, they all preached Christ.
They all proclaimed the coming Messiah. They foretold the days
of the coming of the promised Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh my, and our Lord Jesus, He
set a perfect example for His preachers and teachers to follow. He preached Himself. Now we don't
preach ourselves, we preach Christ. But He gave us a perfect example,
just preach Christ. Just preach Christ, that's what
God's people want to hear. Preach Him from the Old Testament,
preach Him from the New. Preach Him in every book, just
preach Christ. because it was he who the prophets
spoke of. It's he who Paul speaks of. It's
he who Peter speaks of. It's he who John and Matthew
and Luke, they speak of Christ and Christ alone. And remember
those two again on the road to Arimaeus, they said, did not
our hearts burn within us? Well, he talked with us by the
way. Well, he opened to us the scriptures and that's what the
Holy Spirit does to us. He opens the scriptures up to us, doesn't
he? Tom, that happened to me when you were reading that little
section. He opened up that little word, those little, made whole.
My, that's wonderful. Praise God when he does that.
Give him all the glory, beloved. It's wonderful. Look at verse
25 now. Ye are the children of the prophets
and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying
unto Abraham, and in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the
earth be blessed. Now in his sermon to the Jews who had recently
killed the prince of life, Peter, we see here, told them that they
were children of the prophets. The very ones who prophesied
about Christ coming, they were the children of them. You know
what it shows us? Just because our children. are
of our blood, it doesn't mean they're going to be saved. And we pray for them, don't we?
We all lift up our kids and pray, please God, we beg God, save
them, please. If they don't know you, save
them, please. My daughter told me that her
and her boyfriend want to get married, so we want to have four
kids. I'm already praying for my grandkids.
They're not even here yet. Please, Lord, if it be your will. If she does have kids, please,
if it be your will, save them. My, oh, my. Never too early to
start praying for folks, never too late, as long as they're
breathing. Right? My, oh, my. So in this verse 25, Peter's
speaking of the covenant of God's grace, that the seed has reference
to those in Christ. Remember Abraham said, or Paul
wrote in Galatians, that if you be Abraham's seed, then you are
heirs according to the promise. So the seed there is Christ. Now let's read verse 26, and
we're almost finished here. It says, unto you first, God,
having raised up his son Jesus, send him to bless you in turning
away every one of you from his iniquities. So Peter's here referring
to God sending the spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ into our
hearts, into the hearts of his covenant people, under the preaching
of his glorious gospel. And it was all purposed by God
for his gospel to be preached to the Jews first and then to
the Gentiles. So rejoice, beloved God, It was
also purposed by God to bless us by turning us away from our
iniquities. Look what it says there. In turning every one of
you from his iniquities. God's turned us from our iniquities.
Our sins are blotted out. They're blotted out. He turned
us. Repentance is a change of mind.
Remember we looked at that too? Our whole view of God is different
than it was at one time. Oh my. Before our sovereign God
converted us to Christ, we lusted after the things of the world.
Our lifestyle was to fulfill that sinful lust in us, which
we all know we did, the desires of the flesh. But marvel, marvel,
God's turned us away from that life. He's turned us away from
that life. Oh my. Now we still sin, but
sin no longer has dominion over us. It doesn't rule us anymore.
Every one of us is sinners, but it doesn't have that power that
it once had. It just ruled us. I remember
that, just being ruled, just every single thing. Oh, my. My, oh, my. So what do we say? Praise God for changing our sinful
desires. Those things that we once lusted
for no longer hold what they used to hold, the appeal that
they once had for us. And praise God for sending the
spirit of his son into our hearts whereby we now cry, Abba, Father.
Mine. And now what do we have? We have
a desire now to grow in grace, don't we? We have a desire now
to grow in Christ. And by the spirit of Christ who
dwells in every believer, we have now set our affections upon
Christ. And that's what we ask God to
do for us too, right? Help us to set our minds upon Christ.
No matter what this world throws at us, no matter what we see
in this world, beloved, just set your eyes upon Christ. Fear is one of the greatest tools
that the devil uses in this world. And if you don't believe me,
just turn the news on. Or go on the internet and watch some
of them. You won't want to watch those videos I was telling you
about. But just fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear. God says,
I'm not giving you the spirit of fear, but of power and of
love and of a sound mind. Dave, what do we say? Hallelujah,
right? Amen, brother. Oh my, oh my.