There'll be no services tonight.
Everybody enjoy their Memorial Day weekend. Labor Day, sorry. I saw somebody
laughing at me. I thought, well, that's close. Peter's Sermon on Pentecost. verse one of chapter two, and
when the day of Pentecost was fully come. The day of Pentecost was celebrated
50 days after the Passover. The Lord Jesus Christ was crucified
on Passover day. This is 50 days after his crucifixion,
his resurrection, when the day of Pentecost was fully come. Now you will remember that after
the Lord's resurrection, he spent 40 days with his disciples and
they saw him in his glorified body with the scars of his death
still upon him. What must that have been like
to look upon him and to see his scars? in a glorified body. He was with his disciples for
40 days and then he ascended back into heaven. Now, this took
place eight days after his ascension. So think of how fresh this was
on their minds. He ascended back and they watched
this glorious manifestation. of him ascending back to his
father. Can you imagine seeing that?
Verse 14 of Acts chapter 2, but Peter, now remember, he had this
fresh on his mind, the Lord ascending back into glory. He'd been with
him for 40 days. That must have been so amazing.
After his resurrection, this time with him when he was giving
them instruction. Verse 14, but Peter, standing
up with the 11, lifted up his voice and said unto them, this
is what is known as the sermon on Pentecost. Now, what had taken
place? Verse four of chapter one and
being assembled together with them. The Lord Jesus Christ commanded
them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for
the promise of the Father, which, saith he, you've heard of me.
You stay here. Don't leave. For John truly baptized
with water, but you should be baptized with the Holy Ghost
not many days hence. Actually, just eight days this
is going to take place. Look in verse nine, and when
he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up,
and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they
looked steadfastly toward heaven, as he went up, behold, two men
stood by them in white apparel, which also said, ye men of Galilee,
why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus. You know, I
understand why they're gazing up into heaven, don't you? I
would have been too. But here he says, this same Jesus
which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like
manner as you've seen him go into heaven." Now verse 1 of
chapter 2, this day has come and when the day of Pentecost
was fully come they were all with one accord in one place,
and suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing,
mighty wind." Sounded like a tornado. And it filled all the houses
where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them
cloven tongues like as a fire, and sat upon each of them, and
they were filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with
other tongues, other languages, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
And he speaks of 17 different languages that were used to preach
the gospel. This was not some kind of Heavenly
prayer gibberish. This was men of other Languages
hearing the gospel of God's grace and the power of his spirit What
a miracle now verse 14 After these people were witnessing
this and some in verse 13 were just mocking say these men are
drunk verse 14, but Peter standing up with the 11, lifted up his
voice and said unto them, ye men of Judea and all ye that
dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you. Now that is exciting. In the preaching of the gospel,
God makes something known. Don't you want that to take place
this morning with you? For God to make something known to you. And hearken to my words. Listen
to what I'm saying. For these are not drunken as
you suppose. You know things are not as you
suppose. They're just not. You're suppositions.
They're all wrong. Things are not as you suppose. seeing it's but the third hour
of the day, but this is that which was spoken by the prophet
Joel. Now here is his authority. This is what God said would take
place. Everything that is happening right now that you're beholding
and you can't give an account for, this is what God said would
take place in his holy word. What saith the scriptures? That's the only issue. what saith
the scripture. Now let's go on reading. He quotes
from this passage in Joel and it shall come to pass in the
last day, saith God, I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. And your young
men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. And
on my servants and on my handmaidens, I will pour out in those days
my spirit, and they shall prophesy. And I will show wonders in heaven
above and signs in the earth beneath, blood and fire and vapor
of smoke, then shall The sun shall be turned into darkness,
the moon into blood before that great and notable day of the
Lord come. And it shall come to pass that
whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. I want that to take place with
me. And I want that to take place with you. I pray that everybody
in this room, through this message Peter brought, will call upon
the name of the Lord. And the rest of this message
that Peter preached will explain to us what it means to call upon
the name of the Lord. Now look what he says, verse
22. You men of Israel, this is actually when the message begins.
You men of Israel, hear. Oh, I wanna do that, don't you?
Hear. You know, there's nothing more
passive than hearing. Just listen. Listen to what's being said.
Hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, Remember that
town Nathaniel said, can anything good thing come out of Nazareth?
Jesus of Nazareth, he's the one I'm talking about. Jesus of Nazareth. A man approved of God among you
by miracles and wonders and signs which God did by him in the midst
of you as you yourselves also know. He's a man. There's one God and one mediator
between God and men, the man. Christ Jesus, the God-man approved
of God. God proved he was God by the
things that he did. He controlled the weather. I
want you to think of the awesomeness of that. No one else
could do that. He controlled the weather. He did what only God can do.
He created matter. He brought matter into existence
that was not there before when he created food to feed the multitudes. He suspended the law of physics.
They were his laws. He walked on the water. He healed
the sick as an act of his will. He gave sight to the blind. He
read men's thoughts. You see, God proved that He is
God the Son by the things that He did. He raised the dead. He controlled demons. They couldn't
make a move without His permission. While He walked upon this earth,
sufferers to go into the herd of swine, and He gave them leave. They couldn't make a move without
Him. This man was approved of God
by these miracles and wonders and signs, which God did buy
him in the midst of you. You can't deny it. You saw it
as you yourselves also know. Now look where he, what he says,
him, the one approved of God, him being delivered. by the determinate counsel, the
predetermined counsel and foreknowledge of God. The reason he was delivered
to be crucified and slain was the determinate counsel. The predetermined counsel, purpose,
and will of God. You want to know why he was nailed
to a cross? God's purpose. Don't miss that. This is where
we begin with God's purpose. We don't begin with men and their
needs. Men and the great things God
will do for them. No, we begin with the purpose
of God Almighty. Christ is the lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. Look what Acts chapter four says,
beginning in verse 25, who by the mouth of thy servant David
said, why did the heathen rage? And the people imagined vain
things. kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered
together against the Lord and against his Christ. For of a
truth," this is talking about the death of Christ, him being
nailed to a cross, for of a truth, against thy holy child Jesus,
whom thou has anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate with
the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together
for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before
to be done. Everything that took place happened
because He willed it. And you flatter yourself if you
think He was in your hands. This is God's purpose. This is
God's counsel. This is God's will being done for Him being delivered up to
be crucified by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God you have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain. He's talking to the murderers
of Christ, the ones who physically murdered him and the people who
called upon his death. You've taken him and with wicked
hands, you've crucified and slain him. Now, here we have in this
verse, God's absolute sovereignty and man's absolute responsibility. Yes, he's delivered by the determined
counsel and foreknowledge of God, but you've taken him with
your wicked hands, doing what you wanted to do willfully. You've
taken him and slain him. They did what they wanted to
do. God exercising complete sovereign control over their free and uncoerced
actions were fulfilling his purpose, but that didn't get them off
the hook. You with wicked hands. Do you believe this about yourself?
Was he talking about you? You with wicked hands. Now, me and you, if left to ourselves,
this is what we would do. We would nail God's son to a
cross to get him out of our way. you have taken, and with wicked
hands have crucified and slain. But look at verse 24. Whom God
hath raised up, having loose the pains of death,
because it was not possible that he should be holding of it. It was not possible for him to
stay dead. Do you hear that? When he talked about you slain
him, you put him to death, but it wasn't possible for him to
stay dead because of who he is. He's alive. Yes, he really died,
but he was raised from the dead because he completely answered
all of the claims of God's law toward the death of the sinner.
He satisfied God. It was not possible for him to
stay dead. God's justice, God's purpose,
God's righteousness demanded his resurrection. He's satisfied
with everybody he died for. It was not possible. I love to
think about that. He lays there dead, but he's
not gonna stay dead. It's not possible because of
what he accomplished by his death, the full payment of sins, God's
complete satisfaction. Now he quotes Psalm 16. Peter preaching and the Lord
had opened his understanding that he might understand the
scriptures. It could be that, uh, eight days before this, he
could have never done this, but now he understands the scriptures
and he quotes from Psalm 16 for David speaketh concerning him. This is the Lord's speech from
the cross. I foresaw the Lord always before
my face, for He is on my right hand, that I should not be moved.
Therefore my heart did rejoice, and my tongue was glad. Moreover,
also my flesh shall rest in hope, because thou wilt not leave my
soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see
corruption." Now this is Christ speaking, and He's in utter darkness. Remember how God turned the lights
off, the sun quit shining, he's in utter darkness. Forsaken by
God, he cried out, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me?
And even through all that, he never quit believing God. He
knew when he was on the cross, suffering all of the wrath of
God that his soul, when he died, he would not begin the process
of decay. He would satisfy God completely
and God would raise him from the dead. He knew that. He said,
though he slay me, Yet will I trust him. He's the only person to
ever do that, me and you haven't done that. But he trusted his
father completely, even while he was in utter darkness, knowing
that God would raise him from the dead. He knew exactly what
he was doing. Verse 28, thou hast made known
to me the ways of life. Thou shall make me full of joy
with thy countenance. You know, his countenance had
been hidden from him, but I'm gonna see your countenance again,
your smiling countenance of full, complete approval and acceptance. Verse 29, men and brethren, let
me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he's both
dead and buried, and his sepulcher is with us unto this day. There's a pile of dirt somewhere
in Israel with his DNA in it. Still there. David wasn't raised
from the dead. Verse 30, therefore being a prophet
and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the
fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise
up Christ to sit on his throne. He's seeing this before. Spake of the resurrection of
Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh
did see corruption. You know David knew exactly what
he was saying when he wrote that. Somebody said, did he understand
it? Yes. He saw this before. When he was
writing Psalm 16, he knew he was speaking of the resurrection
of the Son of God. Verse 32, this Jesus, the one who you with wicked hands
have crucified and slain. I wish the Lord would give us
grace to see that this is what we're guilty of. There's no doubt that everybody
in here has done things you're ashamed of and bad things. And
that's, there's no question about that. But this is the issue between
you and God. You have been guilty of hating
his son and putting him to death. That is the issue. God raised this same one you
put to death from the dead. Verse 32, this Jesus has God
raised up. We're all witnesses. We're witnesses
of this. God raised him from the dead. He accomplished everything he
purposed in this death. He accomplished the full salvation
of everybody he died for. And God raised him from the dead.
The reason God raised him from the dead, he was delivered for
our offenses, raised again for our justification. God completely
accomplished what He intended to do through His death. He was
raised from the dead. This Jesus has God raised from
the dead, and we're all witnesses of this. We're speaking what we know.
We're giving testimony to what we've seen, and if you don't
believe it, that doesn't take away from the truthfulness of
it. We've seen and do testify, this Jesus hath God raised from
the dead. We're all witnesses of this. Therefore, verse 33, therefore being, this is the
way things are right now. As I speak right now, present
tense, present tense then, present tense now, therefore, being by the right hand of God
exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of
the Holy Ghost. He hath shed forth this which
you now have seen here." The reason they're speaking the gospel
in these other languages is because of him. He shed this forth. For David has not ascended up
into the heavens, Like I said, the pile of his DNA's still here
right now, somewhere in Israel. There's a pile of dirt that used
to be David. For David has not ascended into the heavens, but
he saith himself, the Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou on my
right hand until I make thy foes thy footstool. He quotes another
Psalm, Psalm 110. This is the first verse. Sit
thou at my right hand, after he raised him from the dead.
"'Til I make thy foes thy footstool.'" Now, these people knew all of
a sudden, we're his foes. We're his foes. We've murdered
his son. God raised him from the dead.
We are in a world of trouble. We are his foes, his enemies,
enemies of God. If you're an enemy of God, if
I'm an enemy of God, we have someone we may battle against,
but we can't win this battle. He is God. Therefore being by the right
hand of God, exalted with all authority and power, until I make sith out my right
hand, until I make thy foes thy footstool. And here's his last
statement. Therefore, let all the house
of Israel know assuredly. Know this for sure. Here's what it is, that God hath
made That same Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. Make Jesus the Lord of your life.
What arrogant ignorance. Make Jesus the Lord of your life. He is the Lord of your life. Right now, always has been, always
will be. Now I can say this with utter
confidence, me and you are in His hands. And our eternal destiny
is up to Him. Now do you understand that? You
don't have any control in this thing. You and I are in His hands. He can save me if He's pleased
to, or He can send me to hell if He's pleased to. That's how
sovereign He is. He's Lord. God hath made this
same Jesus. Won't you make Jesus the Lord
of your life? Oh, He is your Lord, whether
you know it or not. You are in His hands. The issue is not will you accept
Him, Will He accept you? That is the one issue right now. Do you understand that? He is
Lord. You're in His hand. I'm in His
hand. He's Lord of creation. He created
the universe. He's Lord of providence. Everything
that takes place is His will being done. Whatever it is, it's
His will being done. He's Lord of salvation. That
means if you're saved, it's up to Him. Maybe they understood for the
first time what the leper understood. Lord, if you will, you can make
me clean. Have you ever prayed that prayer?
If you haven't, do it right now. Lord, if you will, I'm in your
sovereign, you're the Lord. If you will, you can. Make me clean. That's what I need. I need to
be made clean. I can't make myself clean. If
you will, you can. Make me clean. Now, God have
made this same Jesus. I love this. Not only Lord, but
Christ. The Christ. God's anointed Messiah. Not only is He Lord, I'm thankful
He's Lord, but He's not only Lord, He is God's Christ. God's anointed Messiah. That's
His purpose in salvation. He is the Christ. He's God's prophet. He's the
Word of God. He's God's Word to you. He's
God's Word to me. He's God's Word. He's called the Word of God.
In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God. The Word
was God. He is God's prophet. He's God's
priest. He's the priest God provided.
And if He represents you, you must be saved. You can't be anything
but saved if He represents you. He's God's King. He's the one
whose will must be done. But Christ has something to do
with salvation. You see, God sent Him not to
condemn the world. The world was already condemned.
He sent Him to save the world. He's the Savior, God's Christ. Thou shalt call His name Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sins. Oh, I want to
be saved from my sins. I can't save myself from my sins.
Not only is He Lord, He's the Christ. Verse 37, now when they heard
this. Now here's our hope in the preaching
of the gospel. They were pricked in their hearts. Who pricked their hearts? God
the Holy Spirit did. They were pricked in their hearts. And what happens when you're
pricked in your heart? They said unto Peter, to the rest of the
apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? We've been guilty
of murdering the Son of God. God's raised Him from the dead.
We're in His hands. What? We're guilty. What? Give it. What shall we do? That's
no different than the Philippian jailer, saying, sirs, what must
I do to be saved? I can't save myself. I see that.
What must I do to be saved? We're in a world of trouble.
We see it. What should we do? Give us some
kind of direction. Then said Peter unto them, repent. Repent. I'd love to know the way he said
it. I wish I could duplicate it. I can't, but I'll read it.
That's all I can do is read what God, the Holy Spirit inspired
him to say. Repent. Now, eight days before this,
turn to Luke 24 for a moment. This took place eight days before
this sermon. Verse 45, then, eight days before this,
opened he their understanding that they might understand the
scriptures. Do you know the only way you and I are gonna understand
the scriptures is if he opens our understanding? It ain't gonna
happen without that. But when he opens your understanding,
you understand the scriptures. Then opened he their understanding
that they might understand the scriptures. And he said unto
them, thus it is written. And thus it behooved. That word
behooved is it was necessary. It was necessary for Christ to
suffer and to rise from the dead the third day. This was all God's
purpose. It was necessary because of what
I accomplished with it. And that repentance and remission
of sins should be preached in His name among all nations beginning
at Jerusalem, the place where I was crucified. That's where
you begin. But notice he says repentance
and remission of sins are to be preached in His name. Now here's two things that go
together quite often in the scriptures. Repentance and remission of sins. And don't miss that. Repentance. A change of mind. That's what
the word means. A change of mind. and the remission
of sins. And here's the bottom line with
this. Repentance is a complete change of mind with regard to
the remission of sins. Every one of us by nature thinks
there's something we need to do before our sins can be forgiven. I need to first do this. I need
to first do that. I need to quit doing this and
start doing that. Then my sins will be forgiven.
Wrong. Salvation begins with the complete
remission of sins. There's nothing you do to get
it. Repentance, a change of mind
regarding the remission of sins. That's what repentance is in
its essence. Now, we all by nature, We're
born believing in salvation by works. That's just the way we
were born. We believe there's something
we need to do in order to get God to move toward us. When we believe in salvation
by works, we demonstrate a complete ignorance of the character of
God that he could accept anything we do. We demonstrate a complete
ignorance of our own character, thinking there's anything we
can do in the first place, our sinfulness. certainly demonstrate
a complete ignorance of how God saves sinners by Christ. Now,
repent. Change your mind about that.
You can't save yourself because God's holy. Believe God's holiness.
Repent concerning salvation. Don't think there's something
you need to do to facilitate this thing of being forgiven.
It's finished. It is finished. Salvation has been accomplished. What do we do? Repent and be baptized. Now that doesn't
mean baptism causes the remission of sins. You won't have your
sins forgiven because you go down in the water and come back
up. But it's what baptism represents. The only reason my sins are remitted
is because I was in Christ. When he lived, I lived. When
he died, I died. I was crucified with Christ.
My sins were put away. When he was raised, I was raised. Repent and be baptized, every
one of you. I love the way he said that,
don't you? Are you in that group? Repent and be baptized, every
one of you, for the remission of sins and
you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. Now, the reason
you repent and the reason your sins are remitted is, well, the
reason you have the Holy Ghost is because your sins are remitted
and you've been given the gift of the Holy Ghost to believe
the gospel. You know, that's God's work. Faith is the gift
of God. It's the gift of God, the Holy
Spirit. You say, I can't repent. Yeah,
you can. You have the Holy Spirit. He
gives you a new heart. You will repent. You will believe
on Christ. You will follow him. You can't
do anything else. You cannot not believe the gospel
if you've been given God the Holy Spirit. What should we do? Repeat. Be
baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ. Oh,
His name. God's given Him a name which
is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee
will bow. Every tongue will confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Now, look what he says in verse
39. Four, the promise. Don't you love the way the gospel
is called? The promise, the promise of God. Abraham staggered not
at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith,
giving glory to God, being fully persuaded that what he had promised,
salvation in Christ, he was able also to perform. Now, I said
this in Sunday school, if I say I promise, It's because I'm making
an admission by that that I might not always be telling the truth.
I'm telling the truth this time, I promise. Whenever somebody says, I promise,
I think, well, you're saying you're usually a liar. And that's
what we mean by that. I promise, but this is God who
cannot lie making a promise. He's showing us, this is my promise. The gospel is the promise of
God. For the promise is to you. Take
that for what it says. Well, I'm afraid I'm not one
of the elect. It's to you. To your children. I'm glad it
says that. And all that are far off. Are
you in that group? Are you way out there, a far
off? So far from God, I seem to lie,
which often makes me weep and cry. The songwriter said, so
far, so far. For the promises unto you and
to your children and to all, A-double-L all, that are a far
off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. Now, how can I know if God is
calling me? Go back to verse 21 of chapter
two. And it shall come to pass that
whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. The called call. If you call right now on his
name, you're calling on all of his attributes to save you. Lord,
save me by your justice, save me by your grace, save me by
your mercy, save me by your sovereignty, save me by your power, save me
by your wisdom. You're calling on all that God
is to save you. Lord, save me. Let me tell you
why you did that. Because he's called you. Who's
the promise to? Even as many as the Lord our
God shall call. You say, I'm not gonna call on
his name. Well, he's not calling you. But if you call on his name,
there's one reason you're called by his grace to believe. May the Lord call every one of
us and here's the evidence he's calling us. We call on his name. Let's pray. Lord, we ask in the name of your son that every one of us will be
called by your grace and that every one of us will
call upon thy name to save us. Lord, we're calling on your name. Save us by your grace, by your
power, by your sovereign will, by your righteousness, by your
justice, by your love, by your wisdom, all You are. We call upon you to save us. For Lord, indeed, we cannot save
ourselves. Bless us for Christ's sake. In
his name we pray. Let's close with 125. Him, 125.
Jesus paid it all. 125. I hear the Savior say, thy strength
indeed is small. Child of weakness, watch and
pray, find in me thine all in all. Jesus paid it all. All the dead I own. Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow. Lord, now indeed I find Thy power
and Thine alone. Can change the leper's spots
And melt the heart of stone Jesus paid it all All the debt I owe
Sin had left a crimson stain He washed it white as snow O'er
nothing good have I whereby thy grace to claim. He hath washed
my garments white in the blood of Calvary's Lamb. Jesus paid
it all, all the debt I owe. Sin hath left a crimson stain
He washed it white as snow And when before the throne I stand
in incomplete, Jesus died my soul to save, my lips shall still
repeat, Jesus paid it all, all the debt I owe. Sin had left
a crimson stain, he washed it white as snow. Okay.