May it please Almighty God to
bless us together this morning as we meditate in His Word. Let's
turn to the Acts of the Apostles, Chapter 2, and we'll read verses
37 and 38. The Acts of the Apostles, Chapter
2, and reading verses 37 and 38. Now, when they heard this, They were pricked in their heart
and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, men and
brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, repent
and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ
for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of
the Holy Ghost. There have been in the history
of the Church wonderful occasions and wonderful days when the Holy
Spirit has gloriously blessed never-dying souls. And this indeed
was one of those occasions. And it occurred on the day which
they used to remember as the day of Pentecost, which went
back a long time in history. And it was something that the
people used to remember as the favor and blessing of God's toward
them. And so here was this day of Pentecost
and we're told and they were all with one accord in one place
and they were there really concerned about the things of God, but
not obviously in the way that the Lord is going to come and
to graciously and gloriously bless them. It was an occasion
which has not been repeated, an occasion which we don't expect
to be repeated, when those apostles were able to speak in other people's
languages and obviously There were very many languages because
we're told the Jews were gathered together and they came from very
many different areas. And you hear they were gathered
together. And the Lord graciously condescended that all those Jews
should hear the glorious Gospel in their own language. So what
a great blessing it was. What a great favour it was towards
them. And then we see God's servant
Peter, who was called by God to stand up and to declare and
to preach the everlasting gospel. Because the people thought, well,
these men who are speaking like this, they must be drunk. Well,
Peter very quickly tells them, no, these are not like that. These are not drunken. as you
suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. But this
is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel. And I think it's
very wonderful. And again, it's very encouraging
to know that here was an amazing fulfilment of that which was
spoken by Joel over 400 years previously. Joel was a wonderful
prophet of the Lord. It's only a short prophecy. It's
a very wonderful and very glorious prophecy. And as you read these
verses here, that the apostle recounts, they are almost word
for word of those which do occur in the second chapter in Joel. And so the apostle was very clear
then he must have been very familiar with the word of God, very familiar
with what John had said, and perhaps they'd been waiting,
perhaps they'd been praying for that prophecy to be fulfilled. And now the time had come. The time had come when God was
to gloriously bless the people, And so the words that the Prophet
had said was, and it shall come to pass in the last days saith
God. And we should remember that those words which God speaks,
without any doubt, shall come to pass, may come
to pass in a very different way to what perhaps you and I expect,
anticipate, but they will come to pass in the way that Almighty
God has ordained. And we can be sure of this, that
when God brings it to pass, it will be for his honour and for
his glory. And so says the Apostle, it shall
come to pass in the last days, saith God. I will pour out of
my spirit upon all flesh Your sons and your daughters shall
prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall
dream dreams. And are my servants and are my
handmaidens, I will pour out in those days of my spirit and
they shall prophesy. And I will show wonders in heavens
above and signs in the earth beneath, blood and fire and vapour
of smoke. The sun shall be turned in darkness
and the moon in the 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. It surely was
a glorious and a wonderful final statement when the apostle was
able to remember and speak of that truth. And it shall come
to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord
shall be saved. That should be a wonderful encouragement
to everyone. It is whosoever shall call on
the name of the Lord shall be saved. Again, a sure and a certain
promise, a promise that has been fulfilled, a promise that will
be fulfilled. All those who are moved by the
spirit to call on the name of the Lord for mercy, call on the
name of the Lord for blessing, shall be saved. And so the apostle
goes on to say, ye men of Israel, hear these words. Well, we are privileged this
morning And we are privileged this morning to gather together
to hear the Word of the Lord. Many people today care nothing
for the Word of the Lord. Many people today are unconcerned
about the Word of the Lord. But what a great blessing it
is when the word of the Lord comes and touches our heart. Now, the Apostle Peter preached
then the glorious gospel to all those people that were gathered
together. And we know that it had a wonderful
effect because we're told towards the end of the chapter Then they
that gladly received his word were baptized, and the same day
there were added unto them about three thousand souls. It's difficult for us to appreciate,
isn't it? But what we should realize is
that we do have the same almighty Spirit of God today, who still
does work powerfully and wonderfully. And so we come back to this 37th
verse, where we read, now, when they heard this, we'll come back
to that in a moment, what they did here. When they heard this,
they were pricked in their heart. And this pricking may be described
as their heart was cut, their heart was opened, their heart
was affected. It wasn't just their mind. The Spirit of God produced this
wonderful and glorious effect. And what did it do? It convicted
them. What did it do? It convicted them of their sinful
condition. Pricked in their heart. What
a mercy that is when the Holy Spirit comes and convicts us
before a holy God that we are indeed guilty, hell-deserving
sinners. We're not good people, we're
bad people. What a blessing that is. How
wonderful is the favour and mercy of God on this occasion And it
has been down through the history of the world. And what a blessing
if you and I, in our little lives, can conclude that our hearts
have been affected by the blessed work of the Spirit of God. We've been affected. We've been
convicted. by the work of the Spirit. How
wonderful that is. How glorious that is to think
that God hasn't passed us by as a cumbra of the ground, somebody
of no value. But you see, the value of every
child of God with God is immensely valuable. therefore to realize
this when they heard this and we today are blessed to hear
the gospel we have heard it naturally perhaps we've never heard it
spiritually we may just have sat and heard the gospel and
it's never touched our hearts what a blessing when that day
comes, which it does, which it will, in every true child of
God, when our hearts are opened, our hearts
are pricked by the powerful Spirit of God. And what it's really
done, it's produced that life in our souls. Because we've entered
into that spirit that the Apostle speaks of, a new hath he quickened,
who were dead, dead in trespasses and in sins, never heard the
gospel, dead. No voice has touched our hearts. But here under the preaching
of the gospel, The glorious message affected
these people and they were indeed pricked in their hearts. You
may say, well, why were they pricked in their hearts? Because
they were convicted that they were guilty sinners before a
holy God. And that's what the apostle had
preached unto them. He preached unto them Jesus. He told them, ye men of Israel,
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 full knowledge of
God. Ye have taken, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified
and slain. Now, very obviously, each one
of them hadn't physically taken Jesus. They hadn't physically
crucified him and slain him. But they had, they had by their
hearts, through their fallen nature, their sinful hearts. They were guilty. It was because
of them that Jesus had been crucified. What a blessing for us today. If we realize it's because of
us, you and me. that Jesus was crucified. And so that we cannot stand aloof. We cannot say, well, it wasn't
for me. What a blessing to know that
it was for us because of our guilt. All these people were
categorized as those who were indeed guilty, year taken. And
by wicked hands have crucified and slain. I wonder whether we
today acknowledge that we with our wicked hands, in essence,
have crucified the Lord Jesus Christ. And we can't then stand
aloof. We realize that we are the men,
we are the women that have caused Jesus to be crucified. Why? Because of our sins. Because of our sins. Guilty. Guilty sinners. Well, the Apostle
goes on to then speak of the Saviour, although they, of course,
were the guilty ones. He says, then he goes on to tell
them, Whom God hath raised up. God hath raised up. having loosed
the pains of hell because it was not possible that he should
be holding on it. This, of course, is the great
truth of the glorious gospel. Jesus Christ died upon that cross
at Calvary. He had to die. Why did he had
to die? because he had to bear the punishment
of all his church. He bore the punishment instead. He was the one who endured the
curse of God for sin. He was the one that stood in
our place. What a wonderful consideration,
how little we appreciate The wonder and the glory of it. To think that the Son of God,
the Lord Jesus Christ, the second person in the Trinity, so wonderfully
gave his life. He stood in our place. He suffered
that which we deserve to suffer. But if we suffered, it wouldn't
have absolved us from our sin. We wouldn't have been freed from
it. No, we needed one, a spotless one, a righteous one to take
away our sin. And that one was the Lord Jesus
Christ. Well, you know, it would be a
wonderful blessing for us today if we are convinced that we are
a sinner before God and we need salvation and we need to know
that Jesus has indeed died for us. We will need to know that
he has died for us. We'll need therefore a personal
application by the Holy Spirit to convince and to confirm that
we have been born again by the Spirit of God. a glorious work
by the third person in the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. Well, this morning, can we look into our hearts,
the hearts which God has opened, the heart which God has pricked,
to observe it is, it has been perhaps, the work of the Holy
Spirit to direct us to understand something of our sinfulness and
to direct us to the great Saviour of sinners, the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, my friends, what a wonderful
favour that'll be, the greatest of blessing, because what it
means is that the Holy Spirit has come to us The Holy Spirit
has called us, has quickened us into divine life. Now this, of course, is so, so
important. You and I may have a wonderful
head knowledge of the historical account, the things of God. Perhaps
we can quote many verses, perhaps many chapters. Nothing wrong
with that. But it is the work of the Spirit
that we know, we need to know in our souls, just like all these
people on the day of Pentecost. The glorious and wonderful work
of the Holy Spirit. And so, when they heard what
the Apostle was saying, they were pricked in their heart.
You know, the Lord, in His wonderful mercy, has ordained that it's
through today, the preaching of the Gospel, that these things
shall be made known. And it will be good, therefore,
for us to be able to trace that in our lives. If we have heard
the Gospel, if it's had a good effect upon our hearts. The day has dawned when, perhaps
for the first time, we understood the truth. We understood the
wonder of it. And that is the work of the Holy
Spirit. And so they were pricked in their
hearts. And of course the effect of that
was to make them ask. They said unto Peter and to the
rest of the apostles, men and brethren, What shall we do? What shall we do? That's the
effect of the work of the Holy Spirit. Convicts us that we are
guilty before God. Guilty before God because of
our sin. And we've come, we've said, what
shall we do? What shall I do? The Lord knows whether that's
been your experience or not. What should I do? You stood before
a holy God as a guilty sinner. You said, what should I do? Well, it's good for us today
to ponder these things. Have we stood there? Like these
people, convicted, and crying to God, what shall I do? I'm
lost, I'm ruined. And I said, there's no hope for
me. Well, Peter tells them what they
should do. And this is a wonderful blessing,
isn't it? The Word of God directs us. And so this is what he told
them. This is what the Holy Spirit
of God told them. Remember, Peter was only just
a mouthpiece of Almighty God, just like God's servants are
today. They're just a mouthpiece of Almighty God. And so Peter
said unto them, repent and be baptized, every one of you, in
the name of Jesus Christ. For the remission of sins, and
ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. Well, you know,
it's very easy, isn't it? To read these words. But if we
have been brought by the Spirit of God to know the effect of
the preacher and the gospel like it was, in the case of all these
people so that our hearts have been pricked, they've been opened
to receive the word of God. We can say this, we are made
willing in a day of God's power to receive the glorious truths
of the gospel. And we don't rebel against it
because our heart has been made soft. It's been made as being
a change. God's given us a new heart, a
heart that now receives the truth of God, a heart which previously
was hard, unfeeling, rejected the word of God, rejected the
law of God, rejected the plan of God, but now to have been
humbled under the mighty hand of God. It is the great and glorious
effect of the wonderful work of the Spirit. And so now, says
Peter, repent. You know, we read again and again,
the first words really of the Saviour, when he began preaching
was repent and believe the gospel. People often shy away from that
word repentance today. And yet, you know, my friends,
every one of us must repent before God, before we pass out of time
into eternity. Otherwise, we shall be eternally
lost. To repent is a gracious, glorious
gift of God. The same as having our hearts
open is the great and glorious gift of God. And therefore, says
Peter, repent. Well, God knows, doesn't he? He looks upon us this morning
here before him. whether we've been blessed with
godly repentance. And Romans has a very beautiful
phrase, a repentance not to be repented of. That means it's
not a false repentance, but it's repentance given by God to truly
to be sorry for our sin. and to truly desire to be a different
person, to truly desire to be a changed person, to truly be a person that goes
in the opposite direction. See, that way that you and I
were travelling in, perhaps we have been going in it right up
till now. We've been going in that way which is in opposition
to the way of God. Yes, we might say we've been
doing and following our enemy, the devil. The devil, don't forget,
is very clever and he's very deceptive in the way that he
operates. And he will endeavor to deceive
us. And of course, one of his great ways is to say, well, of
course, Repentance, in any event, you can't do yourself, so just
forget about it and just carry on. Well, to the tender heart
moved by the Spirit of God, there'll be that concern to be blessed
with repentance. You won't just carry on without
any true concern. You'll want to receive repentance. You'll want to be made willing
in the day of God's power. You'll want to acknowledge that
he is your Lord and God. You'll want to obey his voice.
You won't want to walk contrary to the ways of God. You won't
want to go in an opposite direction. You won't want to continue listening
to the devil. You won't want to continue following
his way. You'll want to receive that grace
from God. to truly repent. You'll be praying
that God will give you repentance, enable you to repent, and you'll
be very thankful when the Lord blesses you with that willing
spirit, that soft heart, that obedient desire to take up your
cross, to forsake all, and to follow Him. Oh, you see how wonderful
it is to receive the gift of repentance. Now, the Apostle
was able to set it before them, because he already told them,
as we've spoken of that situation, that the Apostle had spoken to
those people, telling them they were the guilty ones, they were
the sinful ones, And yet, you see, he sets before us what David
spoke. David spoke, and I'm sure, I
hope you know, many wonderful words of prophecy with regard
to the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says about David, David
said, I saw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right
hand, that I should not be moved. Therefore did my heart 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. The sea corruption thou hast
made known to me the ways of life. Thou shalt make me full
of joy with thy countenance. He goes on, men and brethren,
let me freely speak unto you the patriarch David. He's both
dead and buried. Therefore being a prophet, knowing
that God had sworn 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 seen this before, spake of
the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell,
neither his flesh did see corruption. This Jesus hath God raised up,
whereof we are witnesses. Physically we are not witnesses,
but spiritually we are witnesses. And we witness this because of
the effect that the risen Christ has in our hearts. The gracious effect of a risen
Saviour. Because what has happened is
we've been changed. from death to life, from darkness
to light. What has occurred? The glorious
light of the gospel has shone into our very hearts, and we
can indeed bless God for that. And the apostle says, therefore,
let all the house of Israel, there are no exceptions, If you
and I are therefore one of God's children, we are therefore one
of the house of Israel, then let all the house of Israel know
assuredly. Do you know, you and I do need
to know the things of God assuredly. To have the comfort of the gospel
is to know things assuredly. We possess by nature an evil
heart, of unbelief, but it's a wonderful blessing when the
Holy Spirit conveys the truth of the gospel into our very souls
so that we rejoice in it, then let all the house of Israel know
assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus whom ye have
crucified both Lord and Christ. What does that mean? He's already
convinced them, spoken about, they were the ones that crucified
the Lord Jesus. And now he says in these words
that God hath made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified,
both Lord and Christ. So what a mercy today, if not
only do we stand guilty of those who crucified the Lord of life
and glory, but also He is our Lord and our Christ, the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Saviour of sinners. This is the wonderful,
glorious work of the Holy Spirit of God. My friends, you and I
should not think that it's something which is not attainable. Think
it's something which is, well, not necessary. The Apostle was
speaking here, wasn't he? Very positively to all these
people on the day of Pentecost. And my friends, the Word of God
speaks to us today very positively. Know that you and I may be blessed
with the wonderful truth of these truths in our own soul, because
if they are, we will rejoice, we will rejoice, we must rejoice,
because it's the good news of the Gospel. And therefore, said
Peter, repent. Well, bless God then, if we've
been brought to that place of repentance. Bless God if we've
been brought to that condition of desiring repentance. Very sad, very sorrowful. If
we've never been brought there, oh, pray to God that we may. Perhaps we've been brought this
morning to this place. What shall we do? as they cried
to the Apostle, and the Apostle told them, repent. And then you
see, having been blessed with that, he says, and to joining
together, to following on, and be baptized. Every one of you. It doesn't say, well, some of
you, if you fancy doing it, is it quite a good thing to do?
Not at all. This is the words of the gracious
Apostle speaking these gracious words to those who've been convicted
and who were led to the Saviour. And this is what he says, 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. Well, put it this way, those
of us who have been baptised can look back on that occasion
and bless God for it. And the effect has been, the
Lord has opened our mouth to speak the truths of God. Prior to that, perhaps our mouths
have been shut. Perhaps we haven't wanted and
we haven't been able. As the Lord's given us grace
to take up our cross and to follow him. And to be baptised, the
Lord has graciously blessed us with spiritual blessings, our
tongues being loosed, we've been able to speak. of the great things
of God. And ye shall receive the gift
of the Holy Ghost. Well, you know, as we read here,
these, of course, are the words of Almighty God. Oh, my friends,
may they speak powerfully to every one of us. Repent and be
baptized, every one of you. Baptism is an ordained ordinance
of God. Many people cast it off. Many
people think it's not necessary. Many people think, well, perhaps
anybody else, but not me, because so and so died and he wasn't
baptized. Well, we could leave that, my friends. You only have
one master. And he set the example. The Lord
Jesus Christ. The first thing that was done
when he was shown to be the son of God was to be baptized and
God the Father said, on that occasion, this is my beloved
son. This is my beloved son in whom
I am well pleased. My friends, God is well pleased
with that. God is well pleased with those
who take up their cross and follow the Lord Jesus Christ. Can we
expect God to bless us? Can we expect God to favour us
if we walk contrary to our God? The Word of God says, if you
walk contrary to me, I will walk contrary to you. Can we expect
God to bless us? Can we expect God to hear our
prayers? when perhaps we're being blatantly
disobedient to a gracious God. And so he says here, repent and
be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ.
And let me just say this, what happened to these 3,000 people Then they gladly received his
word. They didn't receive it grudgingly.
They gladly received it. And my friends, what a mercy
when you and I gladly receive God's word to our souls. Gladly to receive the truth that
we've been convicted of our sin. Gladly receive the truth that
we've been directed to the Saviour of sinners, the Lord Jesus Christ. And they that gladly received
his word, they were baptised. They didn't wait for a great
long testimony. They didn't wait to have some
wonderful word spoken to them. My friends, we are not promised
Anything like that at all. Some people think they need a
word to be baptised. My friends, that's not true.
We never need a word to be baptised. We walk by faith and not by sight. We walk believing. We are listening
to the gracious words and example of the Saviour. in they that gladly received.
His word were baptized, and the same day were added unto them
about three thousand souls. There's only one thing needful.
Jesus is the one thing needful. If our hope is based on what
he has done, we can believe it is well with our soul. And they
continued, steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship,
and in breaking of bread and in prayers. And fear came upon
every soul, and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.
And all that believed were together, had all things common, And they
sold their possession and goods and parted them to all men, and
every man had need. And they continued daily, every
day, every day, continued daily with one accord in the temple
and breaking of bread and from house to house. And they'd eat
their meat with gladness and singleness of heart. You see
the gracious and wonderful effect of the gospel. They wanted to
meet together every day, every day, to come and worship the
Lord. Well, we have these wonderful
examples before us, don't we, in the Word of God, for our instruction
and for our encouragement. And so this morning, may we have
reason, every one of us, to thank God for the glorious work of
the Holy Spirit, which shows to us the wonderful work of the
Lord Jesus Christ and directs us to these wonderful words and
that we may be able to trace them out in our own spiritual
experience and praise God for them. Then, when they heard this,
they were pricked in their heart and said unto Peter and to the
rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we 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
ye shall receive the gift