Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to Acts chapter 11, and reading
from our text from verse 18. It is the first clause that I
wish to speak from, but we'll read the whole verse. Verse 18,
When they heard these things, they held their peace and glorified
God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance
unto life. Acts 11 verse 18, but specifically
these words, when they heard these things. And what is on my spirit is responding
to what we hear. Peter in This account recounts
what had happened in the previous chapter. He summarizes it to
those who had an occasion against him, accusing him that he'd gone
to the Gentiles and preached unto them. And of course, as
Peter rehearses, he needed to be directed and made willing
to do that And that's why the Lord gave him that vision of
the sheep let down from heaven, and told him that that which
God has cleansed that he ought not to call common or unclean,
and bid him to go without doubting to Cornelius's house and there
preach the gospel to them. So Peter, no doubt, realizing
this, felt if he rehearsed that matter from the beginning, and
they heard what he had heard, and they were party to all that
had happened, that they would see what he saw, and that was
the effect. In our text we read, when they
heard these things, they held their peace and glorified God,
saying, then have God also to the Gentiles granted repentance
unto life. They didn't just hear what he
had to say and say, well, that might be the case or might not. We'll just wait and see. We'll
see how it goes. A bit unsure on this. No, they
really embraced the truth that it happened. They glorified God. They could see this was God's
plan. This was God's purpose, and that
is a wonderful result from the Word, a testimony of one of the
Lord's servants, of how the Lord used them, how the Word had been
blessed, and that Word was received by the people that they were
telling it to, received in such a way that they glorified God. Now we know Peter had come to
Cornelius, and he had spoken to them the word of God. He'd
spoken to them the gospel, how God had magnified the Lord Jesus
Christ, how he had been crucified and slain and raised again the
third day, and that it is through him that God has given repentance
and remission of sins. The gospel, the good news of
salvation, sin put away by the precious blood of Jesus Christ,
and righteousness brought in that he has wrought out to be
bestowed upon believers, upon sinners, that they might appear
faultless before God's throne. And Peter had been a witness
of how those Gentiles had received that word that was spoken. When they heard those things
from his mouth, They believed, they were baptised, they were
saved through the Word of God. The Lord uses the Word right
from the very beginning. The Lord gave the Word, great
was the company of them that published it. When we realise
how important the Word is and receiving the Word, then our
text comes more into focus when they heard these things. There was a response. There was
an effect. And really, there must be either
one response or another when we hear the Word of God, and
especially the true and living, eternal Word, the inspired Word
of God. But sometimes it is the response
even of those that bring false witnesses and how we respond
or how men respond to that. But the importance of the Word,
we should never ever forget it. If we realize the importance,
then we want a faithful translation of the Word of God. We want that
the Word of God is read to us, and not be of those that do not
read the Word of God, and even in the public assemblies of His
people. We would not be of those that, when
the Word was preached, there was a sermon but no Word preached. We'd want to hear the Word of
God. Every word of God is pure, and
the Bereans, when Paul preached, they were able to search the
Scriptures whether these things were so. We know from Paul's
letters that he constantly, especially to the Jews, referred to the
Old Testament Scriptures and showed and proved from them that
the Lord Jesus was the very Christ. And so if we value the Word,
Then also when we hear it, there should be questioning with ourselves,
how? How are we responding to the
Word? Our Lord said, be you doers of
the Word and not hearers only deceiving your own selves. James
speaks about those also that look into the perfect law of
liberty and look into the Word and then go away and they forget
what manner of persons they are. Not taking on board what has
been read and seen and the picture of themselves, of their lives,
and then going away. And things are changed, differences
are made. It's a good thing when we come
from the house of God and what we have heard affects how we
live and what we do. And some things are changed and
are put right. when we hear the word of God. We don't want to be, of course,
like Herod. When he heard John the Baptist,
he did many things. It had an effect on him in a,
you might say, a natural way, but it did not bring him to repentance. Or like the King Agrippa when
he heard Paul. He said, almost thou persuadest
me to be a Christian, but it was almost and not a real Christian. And the Word then did not profit
him. And so the words, when they heard
these things, when they come as they question, how do we respond
to the Word, especially to the Gospel, and the message of the
Gospel, is a very important question with us. Faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the Word of God. All of those that are blessed,
all of those that are brought to have a hope of heaven, it
rises up through the Word of God. The Word of God is our mate,
our drink, it's the manna from heaven, it is the gospel, it
is warning, it's admonition, it's exhortation, it's comfort,
It's everything for the people of God. So it can never be to
us an indifferent thing, how we actually hear it and how we
respond to it. I want to look with the Lord's
help at several different ways that throughout the scriptures
men have heard the Word or heard these things. and what their
response has actually been. In the first four, I want to
look at those who have responded in a very negative way. It's a most solemn thing that
man by nature does reject the Word of God. Sometimes he might
pay lip service to it and say that it's all right, but when
it comes pointedly, and when it is spoken so that it finds
them out, then it is a test of how the word is received. And the first one that I would
begin with is that of Joachim. Joachim, the son of Joash. Josiah, of course, Josiah saw
him. He was a godly king. But Jehoiakim,
Jeremiah brought to him the word in the 36th chapter of Jeremiah,
and verse 23, we read the response, how he received when he heard
these things. was in the prison and Bairangk,
Bairangk brought the word to be read to the king. We read, they went in to the
king into the court, but they laid up the roll in the chamber
of Elisha with the scribe and told all the words in the ears
of the king. So the king sent Jeduthai to
fetch the roll And he took it out of Elishma, the scribe's
chamber, and Jehudai read it in the ears of the king and the
ears of all the princes which stood beside the king." So they're
hearing these things. They're hearing the things in
the roll, those things God had spoken through Jeremiah, and
he's speaking them to Jehoiakim. And we read now, the king sat
in the winter house in the ninth month, and there was a fire on
the hearth burning before him. It came to pass that when Jehudi
had read three or four leaves, he cut it with a penknife and
cast it into the fire that was on the hearth, until all the
roll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth. The inspired
word says this, Yet they were not afraid, nor rent their garments,
neither the king nor any of his servants that heard all these
things. And yet there were those that
pleaded with them that they would not burn the wrong. And the way that they responded,
the way that the king responded, a complete disdain for it, a
hatred of it, and to literally destroy the page. No doubt there
are those who have received even the Bibles, and we know there
are, from the Bible boxes here. Received those Bibles, opened
them, read them, then maybe not even read them, just treated
them with disdain, pulled them apart, ripped them up, threw
them away. Some of them found their way.
over into our garden, so we know these things do happen. And it's
not surprised when we have it with even a king, a king of Judah,
acting in that way. You know, never ever will destroy
the Word of God. Our Lord said, Heaven and earth
shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. You can
burn the written word, you can't burn that which is written in
men's hearts and written in heaven. I think of in the time when Tyndale
was translating the scriptures into English and most of our
Bible, 97%, is from Tyndale's work of translation from the
original Hebrew and Greek into English. But he was doing it
over in Europe and sending the Bibles over here. The Church
of Rome was seeking to destroy them. And they were even paying
money for people to destroy them. They were burning these Bibles.
But there were many that they found, and the money that was
used to actually print more Bibles. And those that were imperfect
were sent over, perhaps printing mistakes in them, and they thought
they were destroying good copies, and in actual fact, they weren't
at all. The Lord was able to overrule
it for good, and we know that God's Word will stand, and whatever
is done to it will not touch the Lord or his people. With Jeremiah, and in this case,
Jeremiah wrote more words, the Lord gave him more, and added
further things, further judgments and warnings to that people.
And eventually, of course, they rejected them, they were carried
away into Babylon and into captivity. But may we never be of those
that treat the Word of God with such a disdain and hatred and
think that, well, we are bigger and greater than God and shall
somehow hurt God in what we are doing. It shall be ourselves
that suffer before God, not God or his people. Then we think of our Lord and
how that he began his ministry in his own town, in Nazareth,
and as he began to preach and speak, he said to the people
that a prophet was not without honour, save in his own people
amongst his own flesh, because there were those that were saying
that he is just Joseph and is not this Joseph's son. In Luke
4 and verse 22, they'd wondered at the gracious words which proceeded
out of his mouth, Then they looked upon him, and all they saw was
the carpet and sun. So he said to them, ye were surely
saying to me, this prophet, physician, hear thyself. Whatsoever we have
heard down in Capernaum, do also hear in thy country. And he said,
verily I say unto you, no prophet is accepted in his own country. And then he proceeded to tell
them a bit of history. And he brought them back to the
days of Elijah, when there was the great famine, three and a
half years in the days of Ahab, when they were serving Baal. And God had hid Elisha first
at the Brook Cherith and then with the widow at Zarephath. And the Lord blessed that widow.
And so he says, he reminds them of this very history. that in
those three years with the great famine throughout all the land,
but unto none of them was Elias sent, none of the other widows
in Israel, but unto a widow of Serapta, a city of Sidon, unto
a woman that was a widow. So he tells them that God bypassed
Israel bypassed his own people, went to the Gentiles, went to
a city that they despised, and blessed a widow there. And then
he tells them of Naaman the Syrian, and said there were many lepers
in Israel in that time, but God didn't send Elisha in that case
to him, but And none was cleansed, no, none of those lepers, but
Naaman the Syrian. Again, a Gentile. Sovereignly
God bypassing the Jews, bypassing his ancient people, and blessing
the Gentiles. Let me think of our text. When
they heard these things, they heard there how God had sent
the word to the Gentiles. The Gentiles had been blessed
under the gospel, they'd been saved, And they received that
testimony then. But now here with our Lord, we
read, and all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things,
that's our text, when they heard these things, what was their
response? Were filled with wrath and rose
up and thrust him out of the city. This is a treatment of
our Lord for telling them a bit of their history and pointing
the sovereign truth of God, and led him unto the brow of the
hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down
headlong. But he, passing through the midst
of them, went his way, worked a miracle, and escaped out of
their hand. His own people, we think of the
words, he came unto his own, and his own received them not.
But as many received their hem, To them gave he power to become
the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name." What a solemn response. When they heard these things,
when they heard things that their flesh did not like to hear, their
pride did not like to hear. Our Abraham's seed, they would
testify. We are the blessed people. We
are to have the word of God. And these Gentiles, these donks,
these thirts, rather heathen, the Lord won't bless them. But then the Lord tells them
that he did. And the Lord could have told
them about Ruth as well. And he could have told them about
Rahab as well. But just those two instances
were enough. And even the words of him, which
they had said before, they had wondered at the gracious words
that proceeded out of his mouth. Now it came something that really
hurt their pride, and they rose up against it, would even destroy
him. The heart of man against the
word of God. The hymn writer says, nor are
men willing to have the truth told. The sight is too killing
for pride to behold. Then we have the case of Stephen. When Stephen, one of the seven
deacons that were chosen of God, that he was accused and brought
before the council in Acts chapter 7. And he also, as our Lord did, took
them back to history and gave them a history lesson of all
that God had done for Israel and how he had appeared to the
fathers and he doesn't leave out how Israel had dealt so against
the Lord and against his word. In fact, he leads up to it and
he speaks of how that Moses who was refused at first, who made
thee a ruler and a judge. The same did God send to be a
ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel which appeared
to him in the bush. We know the Jews, they prided
themselves in Moses. And so Stephen, he says, this
is that Moses which said unto the children of Israel, they
Shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren
like unto me? Him shall ye hear. Then Stephen
set forth the Lord Jesus Christ as that prophet, as the one that
was raised up. And after setting that before
them, he reproves this people. He says, ye stiff-necked and
uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy
Ghost, as your fathers did so do ye. Which of the prophets
have not your fathers persecuted? They have slain them which showed
before the coming of the Just One, of whom ye have been now
the betrayers and murderers. He charges them with the death,
the crucifixion of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. He says,
who have received the law by the disposition of angels and
have not kept it. He brings before them their sin,
their father's sins, but their sins in crucifying the Lord. How do they respond to that? Read in verse 54, Acts 7, When
they heard these things, they were cut to the heart and they
gnashed on him with their teeth. And we read how that then they
took him and they stoned him. He was being full of the Holy
Ghost. He looked up steadfastly into
heaven, saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right
hand of God. Now we might think sometimes,
well, having testified the truth, wouldn't God preserve Him, keep
Him, hadn't not the Lord Jesus Christ Himself pass through the
midst of them? But then there came that time,
the Lord laid down His life. When they came to take Him and
His disciples took up a sword, He says, put up thy sword into
its sheath. How then, He said, thinkest thou
that I cannot pray my Father He had given me twelve legion
of angels, but how then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled?
There was a time when he was to lay down his life and take
it again. But here with one of his dear
people, there was a time as many times through history, those
ten terrible persecutions in the first three hundred years
of the history of the Church, and the time in the Reformation
where many were burnt at the stake for their faith, that those
who believed the Lord, those who clearly testified of Him
and believed in Him and looked for an inheritance not in this
world but in that which is to come, those that remembered the
Lord's word, fear not them which kill the body, but after there
is nothing more that they can do, but fear him who hath power
to cast both soul and body into hell. And Stephen, like many
that was to follow him, and those that he referred to, went before
him, that he was slain. He died, he fell on sleep, as
we read at the end of this seventh chapter, and he kneeling down,
They stoned Stephen, calling upon God and saying, Lord Jesus,
receive my spirit. He kneeled down and cried with
a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when
he had said this, he fell asleep. You know, the Apostle Paul said,
I count not my life dear unto me. We very much keep our lives
dear, and many times we may sadly hold back the truth if we think
that it will have this effect on men. But the history of the
Church of God tells us the Lord's people, if they are faithful,
the Lord says, woe is you when all men speak well of you. But
blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And here, Stephen, the first
martyr, testified to the truth of God. But what a solemn word,
when they heard these things, these truths, yet these hard
truths, rather than fall before it, they attacked the messenger,
they slew the messenger. Then we have the Jews at Thessalonica,
in the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 17. We have them there falsely representing
the truth. The Apostle had come amongst
them and preached the Word three Sabbath days. He reasoned with
them out of the Scriptures. We read in verse 2, chapter 17,
opening and alleging that Christ must needs have suffered and
risen again from the dead, and that this Jesus, whom I preach
unto you, is Christ. And we read that some of them
believed, consorted with Paul and Silas, and of the devout
Greeks, a great multitude, and of the chief women, not a few. So that's the thing, when we
hear of those that believed. Many times under the preaching
of the Word, we read some believe the Word spoken and some believe
not. A division, how they received
the Word, and them that were ordained unto eternal life, that
they believed. It is one of the real signs of
having eternal life. This is the work of God, that
ye believe on the name of the Lord Jesus. And so we have this
work going on, the word that is preached, but then the Jews,
they rise up in enmity against the word that is preached. And so we hear that they cried
out this, they laid this charge, these that have turned the world
upside down, I come to you that also, in one sense it is, the
Gospel does turn the world upside down. It does cause there to
be a difference, a sad thing, if it didn't. If it didn't cause,
like it was at Ephesus, men to turn from idols to the true and
living God, or as it was with the Thessalonians in that way. But they sought to twist words,
and what was actually happened and say whom Jason hath received,
and then they add this, and these all do contrary to the decrees
of Caesar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus. How often that charge had been
brought when our Lord was on earth, when the Jews saw the
great multitudes, they said, the Romans will come, all men
are gone after him, the Romans will come, they'll take away
our heritage, our land. We have the same objection in
Nehemiah's day, when the Jews had come back from Babylon, when
he's restoring the walls in Jerusalem, they said again, they were preaching
that there was another king being raised up. And all the time they're
applying it in a natural sense that there was going to be a
rebellion. And so misrepresenting the preaching of the gospel as
if there was an ulterior motive and reason, and stirring up the
people. And that is exactly what happened
here. Because we read in verse 8, And
they troubled the people and the rulers of the city when they
heard these things. And there is our text, when they
heard these things. And yet in this case, It is not
the gospel, not the word of truth, but it is the opposers to the
truth taking what has been said and taking what has been done,
misrepresenting it, blackening the name of the people of God,
and troubling the people, even the rulers, when they heard these
things. And so again, would expect that
that will happen, and does happen. When the Word is preached, then
men will misrepresent what is set forth. They'll stir up secular
rulers and those that are over us, and seek to undermine the
preaching of the Word. And we would not be amongst those
that do that, and are needful, we need to be so careful, that
if we are reporting a matter or speaking of a matter, that
we don't misrepresent it, don't end up troubling the Church of
God when they hear things from our lips. May it always be that
what they hear is the truth, and it is not twisted and turned
to suit us, which is exactly what the Jews were doing there. And so we have four occasions
through the scriptures when they heard these things, those things
that were testified, the reaction to it was of hostility against
it, either twisting the truth, trying to physically destroy
the Word of God, or destroying those that were bringing it,
like trying with our Lord and with Stephen, trying to stop
its proclamation when they heard these things. The Lord deliver
us from responding in such a way, such an anti-way, to the holy,
infallible Word of God and those that set it forth. I want to
then think of Josiah. We mentioned him, And the account
is actually in the second of Chronicles and chapter 34. It was a time that the temple
worship had fallen very sadly away. And when Josiah came to
the throne at only eight years of age, then he began to repair
the temple and to cleanse it and to take away all the things
of idolatry in it, and as it was being done by his servants,
they found the Book of the Law in the temple. And he brings
it, and that word then is read before the king. And we read
in verse 19, that when came to pass, when the king had heard
the words of the law, that he rent his clothes. The king commanded Hilkiah and
Hikim, the son of Shaphan, Nabdom, the son of Micah, Shaphan the
scribe, and Asir, a servant of the king, saying, Go, inquire
of the Lord for me. and for them that are left in
Israel and in Judah concerning the words of the book that is
found." What an effect! When the word is heard, then
there's a going and inquiring of the Lord. In our time, it'd
be inquiring in prayer, asking of the Lord, searching of the
Lord. Maybe inquiring in the house
of God or the Lord's servants and asking them concerning those
things that have been read because He says, for great is the wrath
of the Lord that is poured out upon us, because our fathers
have not kept the word of the Lord to do after all that is
written in this book. He not only heard it, but he
applied it, and he believed the judgment that God would have
upon them. And so they went to the prophetess
at that time, and she answered them, thus saith the Lord, God
of Israel, tell the man that sent you to me, thus saith the
Lord, behold, I will bring evil upon this place and upon the
inhabitants thereof, even all the curses that are written in
the book which they have read before the King of Judah." And
the reason was that they'd forsaken the Lord and that they'd gone
after idols. And yet there was a word for
Josiah himself. And it was this from the Lord,
because thine heart was tender and thou didst humble thyself
before God when thou heardest his words against this place
and against the inhabitants thereof. Humblest thyself before me, didst
rend thy clothes and weep before me. I've even heard thee, saith
the Lord. And he was told that instead
of seeing all the destruction The Lord would gather him to
his fathers, he would die, he would be brought to be with the
Lord, and he would not see that which was coming to pass. But
what an illustration of a right response to hearing a word that
cuts us down, that brings us in guilty, that shows that we
are sinners, that tells us the judgment that is due to sin,
and how He humbled himself and bowed
before the Lord. He believed the word that was
spoken. And before ever the Lord blesses
his word, before ever he brings the gospel to sinners, he'll
bring those sinners so that they are sinners. The Apostle Paul,
as he was a Pharisee of the Pharisees, He is brought in again by the
law of God, the same law that Josiah had. When the commandment came, sin
revived and I died, brought in as a sinner. Paul says very clearly
to the Romans, the law was given that the offense might abound,
that all the world might be brought in guilty before God. And it
makes way for the gospel, the gospel of the mercy of God, the
gospel of the free grace of God, that good news of salvation through
Jesus the Lamb. But for those who are rejecting
the judgment, who believe that God is unfair and unjust, and
the law is too rigid, and they want to obey it, they want to
be able to present themselves acceptable and good before God. They want smooth things, nice
things said about them. To those there is no gospel,
there is no good news. There is only wrath from the
Lord. For all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. All have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. And it's a blessed
thing when we hear that word. that then the effect that it
has upon us is to fall before the Lord and beg of him mercy. The Lord told the parable of
the Republican and the Pharisee in the temple. The Pharisee could
only speak of his supposed good works, but the Republican beat
upon his breast, God be merciful to me, a sinner. And it is in
that way that is the way of salvation. Now, the Lord said that man went
down to his house justified, or free from condemnation, rather
than the other. And so how we respond, not first
to the gospel, not first to Christ and his salvation, but the sentence
against us, our sin, and what we are before God. That must
come from the Lord to soften our hearts because by nature
we rise up against it. We will not have this man to
reign over us and to tell us that we are sinners and guilty
and have come short of the glory of God. And yet, if we are to
ever see the Lord, ever to be saved, then that is the way that
we are to respond when we hear the words of the Lord. Then we
have the, and I'll bring this to our last point, in the Acts
of the Apostles, when the day of Pentecost was fully come,
which is the equivalent to what we have read in the 11th chapter,
that was 10 years after Pentecost, that was when the gospel was
first preached to the Gentiles, the Holy Spirit was given to
them, but when it was to the Jews in Acts 2, then they were
charged with the death and crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ. Peter
preached to them and testified of the Lord Jesus Christ. The
Holy Spirit had been given, the evidence had been, men spake,
in languages that they hadn't learned, and those that were
visitors in Jerusalem at that time from other nations, they
heard men, Jews, speak in their own language and glorifying God. Then Peter preached to them and
He said that, in the man of Israel, verse 22, hear these words, 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 ye yourselves also know him being delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken by wicked
hands, crucified and slain. He could not have been more clear,
more direct to them as to what they had done and their wickedness.
Also pointing out, this had not taken God by surprise. It had
been foreordained and appointed. God is not the author of sin. They were charged with it. We
should never sin that grace might abound, that God will never be
put off from his purpose through the deeds of wicked men. If Balaam
would be called to come and curse Israel, then God turned his curse
into a blessing time and time again. But then Peter says in
verse 24, whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of
death, because it was not possible that he should behold an oven.
And then he speaks of how David prophesied of the coming of our
Lord. and saw also his resurrection
and being raised up. And so he testifies this, Jesus
hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. And he then
summarises in verse 36, Therefore let all the house of Israel know
assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus whom ye crucified,
both Lord and Christ. Then we have the words of our
text. Now when they heard this, their
response to all that Peter had set before them, their own sin,
the prophecies of David, what had gone before, the Purposes
of God in raising up the Lord Jesus Christ. They heard all
of these things. They were pricked in their heart.
And I often think that, you know, words, it hardly, hardly tells
really what they must have really felt. How would you and I respond
if we'd had someone that had been with us even? for a period
of time, and we didn't realize who they were. Maybe a very important
person, and then afterwards we were told, and we thought, oh,
wish I'd have realized. Why hadn't we spoken to them?
Why hadn't we asked? Why hadn't we recognized them?
The regret, but in this case, not any important person on earth
as a sinner, but the Messiah, the seed of the woman, the one
that should come to realize that you had lived in that generation. You had seen him, you'd heard
him, you rejected him, you'd crucified him, you'd slain him,
you'd remembered how you called him an imposter, how you had
cried out, crucify Him, crucify Him. That prick in the heart
must have been like swords in their hearts. And yet, dear friends,
all of us, Christ died not just to put away the sins of those
that crucified Him. He prayed, Father, forgive them,
for they know not what they do. But for all the people of God,
yet laid on Him the iniquity of us all. They shall look upon
Him whom they pierced. We have pierced Him. Our sins
have pierced Him. Even if no one else had sinned
in the world but us, Christ would have had to suffer the same to
save our soul. And each one of the people of
God remembers this, identifies in baptism, and remembers it
in the Lord's Supper. You do show forth the Lord's
death till he come. You think of those here, showing
forth the Lord's death. What memories it would bring
them, and what they had done, and what they have said. And
yet, right to the end of the world, each believer knows, it
is Christ that died, that suffered, in my place, in my stead. He
had laid on Him the iniquity of us all. They were pricked
in their heart. Have we been pricked in our heart
when we've heard that, when we've had it set before us? And said
unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren,
what shall we do? Immediately they realized there
was some response that was needed. It wasn't just to say, well,
that was a pity, wasn't it? They realised there was a need
there. What should they do? Then Peter
said unto them, repent and be baptised every one of you in
the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you
shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost for the promises unto
you and to your children and to all that are far off even
as many as the Lord our God shall call. What was there in that account
that constituted their call? It's how they responded when
they heard. They're falling under the word
of sinners. And as soon as that was so, repent
or turn from their sins. No more feel what you did once
feel about the Lord. all your horrible words, all
your blasphemy, all your accusations. Instead of that, you glorify
His name, you love Him, you praise Him, you see Him truly as He
is. What a turning, what a change,
what a difference, what a difference there was with the dying thief.
We read at one time, they both cast the same in his teeth, And
then we read that one, Lord, remember me when thou comest
into thy kingdom. What do you say before to his
fellow? We indeed justly, we receive
the due reward of our deeds, but this man hath done nothing
amiss. Convinced of their own sin, convinced
of these spotless, sacred humanity, sinless Lamb of God, And here
Peter points them to Him. The Lord Jesus is exalted to
give repentance and remission of sins unto Israel, that is,
unto His spiritual Israel and people. That is His gift, it
is His blessing. And His evidence first, with
the falling under the Word, when the Word is heard. Instead of
tearing it up, instead of fighting against it, rising up against
it, minimising our sin is a falling before the Lord and receiving
of that mercy from the Lord. Peter does not add any more accusation,
only exhortations to them. Save yourselves from this untoward
generation. And then we read this. They that gladly received his
word were baptized. And the same day were added unto
them about three thousand souls. And they continued steadfastly
in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of
bread and prayers. Acts 2 is one very important,
special chapter in the Word of God. Very clearly setting forth
our Lord's crucifixion, death, God's purposes in His resurrection,
clearly setting forth the response to the preaching of the Word,
and those who are the right candidates of baptism, that fall under the
condemning word of God, humbling themselves before God, and then
gladly receiving the word of the gospel, the word of hope,
of repentance and remission of sins, and the effect of it. They don't just believe for a
moment and then forget it. They don't just go on in the
course as if they never had had anything happened. No, they continued,
and not just continued, but steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, not
in others' doctrine, this doctrine, what they just heard, and fellowship. They wanted to be with the apostles,
with the people of God, and in the Lord's Supper, breaking of
bread, and in prayers. What an effect. And when Paul
speaks in his letter to the Thessalonians of the Word, he says, you know
what entering in, or manner of entering in, the Word had unto
you. The proof of the blessing of
the Lord is the effect, and we read of the effect in these passages
here, and we read in our text here then, when they heard, these
things has the word had an effect on us when we have heard these
things and should it should there be that which we also attend
to as well may the lord add his blessing amen