The Lord may graciously help
me. I turn your prayerful attention
to the Acts of the Apostles in chapter 2 and reading verses
37 and 38 for a text. Acts chapter 2 and verses 37
and 38. Now when they heard this they
were pricked in their hearts 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 you shall receive the gift of
the Holy Ghost. Acts chapter 2 verses 37 and
38. Well those of you who were at
the Sunday school this morning will know that I spoke of those
events that led up to Pentecost. We have recently had the Palm
Sunday when there was a preparation, the lambs separated for the work
of redemption that then was offered up at the Passover and on Good
Friday as we remember the death of the Lord Jesus and then there
was the resurrection of the dead. on Easter Sunday as we remember
that. And then we've recently thought
of the ascension into glory. And all these things are very
precious and very important. And yet you see when Jesus returned
to glory the disciples were told as i read in luke's gospel chapter
24 this is jesus speaking after the Emmaus road and after that
time with luke 24 verse 49 and behold i send the promise of
my father upon you but tarry ye in the city of jerusalem until
you be endued with power from on high and then we read that
he then ascended up into glory. So this was 10 days later after
his ascension, we have this great event of Pentecost. Pentecost was a feast in Jerusalem. It was a time when they remembered
the first fruits of the wheat harvest. It was a time that was
50 days. Pentecost is meaning the 50th
day after the Passover and it also,
it was a time when they remembered the giving of the law, because
they, Israel got to Mount Sinai, we can read that, about 50 days
after they left Egypt, they were at Mount Sinai when the law was
given, those 10 commandments. But here, so we have now, all
the effects of Christ's death, all the accomplishment of salvation,
and those events that we have recently thought of over this
time, the redemption accomplished, Jesus coming to this earth, Jesus
being separated as that Lamb of God, Jesus dying as that Lamb
of God, and Jesus rising again, and Jesus then ascending into
glory, all these great biblical truths, But you see, the vital
necessity is for those truths to be applied to sinners. And this is what was very special
in the day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit promised of the
Father. Jesus said, I will not leave
you comfortless. I will come to you. There was
a promise, you see, of the giving of the Holy Ghost. And God keeps
his promises. And so he sent the Holy Ghost.
to them and of course there was these special things that took
place at this time. There was this sound of a rushing
mighty wind and there was this clothing tongues of fire that
sat upon the heads of the apostles and they were given this filling
of the spirit. You see in Acts chapter 1 it
says Acts chapter 1 verse 5, for John truly baptized with
water but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many
days hence. So this baptism of the Holy Ghost
that is mentioned in Acts chapter 1 is fulfilled in Acts chapter
2 and in verse 4 of Acts chapter 2 it says, and they were all
filled with the Spirit. So it seems that this is two
ways of speaking of the same thing, baptised of the Holy Spirit
and they were filled with the Holy Ghost. so and it gave gave
them this ability but even though they were gallerians and it seems
that gallerians couldn't speak any other languages uh... because
uh... they they know the fact that
these people are gallerians they were not known for their linguistic
uh... capabilities uh... but these
that had never spoken other languages it seems we're now able to speak
in all these different languages. The words were spoken, it seems,
in their mother tongue and yet it was translated, it was miraculously
transposed so that each of the different people that gathered
in Jerusalem at this time were able to hear the words in their
own mother tongue. This just shows the power of
God. Just as God came to disrupt man
when he was building Babel, that tower to his own glory. God was
able, in a moment of time, to switch whole people groups so
that one group would all understand one language, and another group
would all understand another language, but the two groups
would not understand each other. That is a total miracle. That
is not something that you could imagine anything other than God
doing. For people to speak a language
suddenly, and a whole group to speak that language, that they'd
never spoken before or never understood before, it shows the
power and the finger of God. But you see here, God was going
to reverse that. And he was going to make those
that could not speak other language suddenly be able to speak all
these languages and bring a unity that the gospel, you see, was
going to be to every nation. And in verse 5, you see, we're
told of Acts 2. and there were dwelling at Jerusalem
Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Every nation under heaven were
at Jerusalem at this time. Why were they there? Was there
a a feeling that there would be something that God would do
that had given them a desire to be dwelling in Jerusalem at
this time. They'd come, obviously, for the
Feast of Pentecost, which was a feast for the Jews. This was
one of the three feasts where the people, the males were expected
to attend. But you see, they come. And this
was an amazing fulfillment. It struck me, we were only reading
to our children at the morning worship this morning about Abraham
and God's promises to Abraham. It was noted that Abraham didn't
see many of these promises that God gave to him and yet you see
it didn't change the fact that they happened. In Genesis 22
and verse 17, this is after the Lord Jesus, sorry, after Abraham
offered up Isaac or was going to offer up Isaac on Mount Moriah. Genesis 22 verse 17, that in
blessing I will bless thee and in multiplying I will multiply
thy seed as the stars of the heaven. And then in verse 18,
and in thy seed, shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. You think of how long that took,
how long did that take from that being given to Abraham back in
Genesis and here we have on the day of Pentecost, God bringing
to pass his eternal purposes, absolutely and perfectly as he
said, and there were dwelling at Jerusalem devout men of every
nation under heaven. God had appointed them there.
They were there to hear the wonderful works of God and God reversed
that effect that happened at Babel so that these could all
understand in their mother tongue and surely showing that the gospel
was not going to be restricted just to the Jews. It was going
to be for all nations, all the nations, of the earth shall be
blessed. Surely this was what was very
precious at Pentecost. There was going to be an application
and that's the key thing. You see, we can speak of these
truths, we can speak of Christ laying down his life, a ransom
for many, but without the application of the Holy Spirit to each of
our hearts here this morning, those mere facts will do us no
good. There needs to be an application. Indeed, it's not just the fact
that it will do us no good, it's actually much more solemn than
that. In actual fact, it means that
if we, having heard the gospel of the grace of God, if we then
turn our back upon it, if we then prefer the world and its
vanities and its toys in comparison with seeking God and his righteousness. We read in the Bible, it will
be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in that judgment day
than for those who have heard the word of God and yet have
despised it. And of course, in this very chapter,
in Acts chapter two, we have those that despised the words
of God. You see, when this wonderful
thing was taking place that Peter was preaching and others were
hearing in their mother tongue, we read that in verse 12, and
they were all amazed and were in doubt, saying one to another,
what meaneth this? There were some that were interested
in it, but it drew their attention and a bit like Moses with the
burning bush, he turned aside to see what this was. that there
was an interest, there was a concern. What is this? What is the meaning
of this? And of course Peter is going to give the meaning
and he's going to illustrate what these things meant. But
you see, in verse 13, we have others mocking, said, these men
are full of new wine. In other words, they say they're
drunk babblers. They're just speaking babbling
words of drunkenness. And they're just demonstrating
that they don't know what they're saying. Well, you see, Peter
stood up. and defended himself and defended
what was taking place and showed that what was taking place was
indeed a fulfillment of what God had said. You see, we read
already the promise of the Father. We sung that in our hymn just
now, it mentioned that, the promise of the Father. You see, God had
promised to send his Holy Spirit and God is faithful. And you
see, without Pentecost, there would not be the church. There would not be the Christian
church. As I was studying this in preparation
for today, it came very powerfully to me how vitally important Pentecost
was to the preaching of the gospel as we know it today. It hadn't
taken place before. Christ was not preached. He had
been preached on the road to Emmaus to the disciples, but
this aspect of the preaching as we know and love today really
began with the application of the Holy Spirit on the day of
Pentecost. And so it is a vitally important
point in the line of salvation. The salvation of sinners is the
great work of redemption but the application of the work of
redemption. And it's only as the application
of the work of redemption that there's any benefit of all that
has been accomplished. And you see, this is what we
have in this great chapter. Well, interestingly, Peter, as
his lord did, when the lord in his temptations was questioned,
he went back to scripture. And Peter here goes back to scripture. Indeed, he goes to the prophecy
of Joel. And he quotes these words. In verse 16 we read, but this
is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel, and it shall come
to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out my spirit
upon all flesh. So here we have the promise that
all flesh does not mean, here I don't believe it means every
single human being that ever lived, but it's talking about
all people, all the nations, In him shall all the nations
of the world be blessed. This all in the sense that every
nation, kindred, tribe and tongue, not specific to the Jews, but
opened up to the Gentiles also. And what a blessing that is for
us here gathered this morning on behalf of Red Hill. 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 servant and on my handmaids
will I pour out in those days of my spirit and they shall prophesy. Now you might think well surely
this is all all something very very positive
of the Spirit being poured upon us and there's a there's a prophecy
and there's there's these things but it's interesting you see
that verse 19 and verse 20 actually speak of judgment and I will
show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath
blood and fire and vapor of smoke the Sun shall be turned into
darkness and the moon into blood before the great and notable
day of the Lord come So here you see that we have the judgment of God. And then you
see the apostle then, Peter goes on, and it shall come to pass
that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be
saved. The two sides, judgment and mercy. And it's interesting if you look
in Luke's gospel. Luke, if you remember, I noted,
It is the writer also of the book of Acts. Acts is written
by Luke as well as the Gospel of Luke. It very much follows
on from the Gospel of Luke. Luke's Gospel chapter 3, we have
the words of John the Baptist. John the Baptist, that forerunner
of Christ, he spoke of this. Remember he was the one that
said, behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the
world. But he also prophesied of what would happen at Pentecost. in Luke 3 verse 16 Jesus John
answers saying unto them all I indeed baptize you with water
but one mightier than I cometh the latch of whose shoes I'm
not worthy to unloose he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost
and with fire whose fan is in his hand he will thoroughly purge
his floor will gather the wheat into his garner but the chaff
he will burn with fire unquenchable. You see, the gospel, there's
two sides to the message of Pentecost. There's a message of forgiveness,
of mercy, of being right with God, of knowing that this God
is our God. But there's also a message, you
see, of judgment. And you see, This is the vital
thing in preaching today. The gospel is good news for sinners,
but the gospel is also tells us of the tremendous awful state
of those who are outside of that mercy. And you see that the people
on the day of Pentecost felt it. They felt it. This prophecy
had come to pass that John the Baptist had spoken of so long
before. This had come to pass. Joel had
spoken of it. That there was gonna be this
judgment and we believe that really what was being referred
to here at Pentecost was the judgment that was soon coming
upon Jerusalem. Jerusalem in 70 AD had a tremendous
judgment upon it by the Romans. And you see, it was terrible
for the Jews, terrible for those who had been the rejecters and
the despisers of Christ. And you see, so here, we have
the two sides. And in the preaching of the gospel,
there is the two sides, there is the solemnity of being an
enemy of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of life and glory, the
one who owns everything, is in control of everything. And this
is what Peter is preaching here. And so he quotes Joel, that there
was coming this time of the outpouring of the spirit, there was gonna
be a prophecy, there was gonna be an understanding of what God
was going to do, both positively and negatively. both positively
in blessing all the nations of the world, but both negatively
in the judgment that was coming to Jerusalem. You see, it's amazing
here, isn't it? Jerusalem was the place that
just put the Lord Jesus to death. And yet Pentecost happens at
Jerusalem. You see, it's Jerusalem sinners
that have the gospel preached to them. And this is what Peter
does here. Well, Peter starts his application
in verse 22. You men of Israel, this is Acts
2 verse 22. You 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 you yourselves also know. He commends the fact that
Jesus performed miracles which they could not refute. The leaders
could not refute the fact that he was, had given those signs
and wonders. And Peter says here he was approved
of God. God approved of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And then, but you see here, he
links something that must have seemed very strange. If God approved
of the Lord Jesus Christ, how do we get to verse 23? Him being delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God. God approving of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and yet God having the determinate counsel and foreknowledge
of God to give that baptism of fire. You see, John the Baptist
spoke of two baptisms, a baptism of the Holy Spirit and a baptism
of fire, of judgment. But you see, the Lord Jesus was
going to endure, had endured that baptism of fire. I have a baptism to be baptised
with and how am I straightened? The Lord Jesus said he had a
baptism to be baptized with. He was going to be baptized with
that judgment of God so that he could be that paschal lamb.
He could be that one who opens the door of salvation to his
church. The baptism of fire and the baptism
of the Holy Ghost, the two sides and the fire, the judgment of
God fell upon his beloved son, whom God approved. What a gospel
this is, gospel of the grace of God, that the one who never
did anything but was obedient to his father's will, he received
the full judgment and anger of God against sin for his entire
church, him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge
of God, ye have taken him by wicked hands of slain. the solemnity
of these people, they were responsible. They were not just innocent bystanders
just listening to a message to take or leave or to do what they
want with it. No, this message was a message
that affects every human being on the face of this world. This
message is a message of either eternal destruction or eternal
blessing. him being delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye are taken, and by wicked
hands have crucified and slain him. God hath raised up, having
loose the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should
be holden of it. And then he goes into, he quotes
Psalm 16 where David is talking about the fact that the psalm
speaks of one whose soul will not be left in hell, neither
his flesh should see corruption. And he's saying that this was
not true of David. David's grave is with us today. This cannot be true. of what
David, David must not in Psalm 16 have been speaking of himself. Let's just read what Psalm 16
says. In Psalm 16 verse nine, therefore
my heart is glad and my glory rejoiceth. My flesh also shall
rest in hope for thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither
wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption. And Peter
says, this was not true of David. David did see corruption. He
was not speaking of himself. He was speaking of Christ. He was speaking of the Messiah.
And this is the Messiah. This is the one, this Jesus whom
ye have crucified is the one that David was speaking of prophetically
some thousand years before. or David speaketh concern in
him. And then, so he shows that from the Old
Testament that Christ was, it fits exactly what happened to
Christ. And then if we slip down to verse
33, therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, after his
resurrection, and having received of the Father the promise of
the Holy Ghost. You see, he was going to send
his Holy Ghost. I will not leave you comfortless.
He was going to send his Spirit. He hath shed forth this which
he now see and hear. So Peter is saying what you're
seeing now is a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, both
for positive and for negative. both for mercy and for judgment. And David has not ascended into
the heavens, but he saith, this is verse 34, the Lord said unto
my Lord, sit thou on my right hand until I make thy foes thy
footfall. Verse 36, therefore let all the house of Israel know
assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have
crucified, both Lord and Christ. This had never been preached
like this before. There had never been, as it were, an application
to those in Jerusalem and those which were Jerusalem sinners
that had been involved in the very death of Christ. God hath
made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and
Christ. You see, Peter had just been
speaking of the judgment. He'd been speaking of the sun
should be turned into darkness, the moon into blood before that
great and notable day of the Lord come. He'd been preaching
of the judgment as well as the mercy. So what are these people
gonna think? What are these people at Pentecost
going to consider? Now, when they heard this, they
were pricked. in their hearts. So here we have
the application. When he the spirit of truth is
come he will convince the world of sin. This is what John's gospel
says. John chapter 16 speaks of what
the spirit will do when it comes of sin. John 16 verse 8 and when he is
come he will reprove the world of sin You might say, well which
particular sin do you think it's going to reprove the world of?
In verse 9 it says, of sin, because they believe not on me. That is the ultimate cardinal
sin, because they do not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. The only way of salvation. Now
when they heard this, They were pricked in their hearts and said
unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren,
what shall we do? Peter had preached with a tremendous
judgment and they realized that they had, without realizing it,
they had put to death the Lord of life and glory. How much they
understood, we don't know. But there was an ignorance, I
think, also associated with it. We read of that, you did it ignorantly. But they had done it. They had
put to death this one that the Lord Jesus, the God in heaven,
had given his beloved son, and they had killed him. They had
put him to death. They had rejected him. But God
has put that same one that they've rejected as king of everything. So the one that they've treated
like that now is in ultimate control. Men and brethren, what
shall we do? And it's very important to realize
that there's no real gospel blessings that we can have of true assurance
before we have some understanding that the order is in God's hand,
but surely there needs to be some awareness of the danger. flee from the wrath to come.
These people on the day of Pentecost, what shall we do? We have crucified
the Lord of life and glory. We have done the ultimate sinful
thing. I wonder what they thought Peter
would say. I wonder whether they thought Peter would give any
hope for such Jerusalem sinners. Well, the wonderful Words that
Peter spoke were words pregnant with mercy. Then Peter said unto
them, repent, repent. Repentance. Jesus began his ministry
with repent. John the Baptist began his ministry
with repent. Repentance. There's a way back
to God from the dark paths of sin. This vital repentance. For those who have mocked, who
those who've despised, those who've cried out for his crucifixion,
men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them,
repent and be baptized every one of you. This was a simple
command, a simple response. Peter gave to these people who
were wondering just what would happen to them. Having heard
the judgments that were coming, having heard that there was a
baptism of fire that surely was going to take place and will
take place. But you see, Peter pointed out,
Peter pointed them in this first gospel sermon, as we would know
it today, the first preaching of Christ and him crucified in
a public way, the application of the Holy Spirit working in
the hearts of the hearers. You see, when you normally accuse
somebody of doing something, often the reaction is, how dare
you blame me of that? Or they give 100 excuses why
it was acceptable what they did. But these were pricked in their
hearts. They didn't have any reasons.
They didn't have any excuses. They didn't have any complaints. They were pricked in their heart.
And they said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles,
men and brethren, what shall we do? The great question, and
this is a great vital question that we each need to ask this
morning. There is no neutral ground There's
no place of neutrality here. Is Jesus Christ your only plea? Is he thy great forerunner there?
He either is or he is not. You might say, well, I long to
know. Tis a point I long to know. Oft it causes anxious thoughts.
Do I love the Lord or no? Am I his or am I not? Well, there's encouragement here,
you see, to those that are seeking souls to come with repentance. Repentance of all our sin, all
our unbelief, all our shortcomings, all our pride, all our selfishness,
and all our rejection and our unwillingness to look to the
Lord Jesus Christ for our salvation. The unwillingness. The Jews,
you see, the Pharisees, they were so pleased with their own
righteousness. Why should they want Jesus's?
But you see, they come here to renounce their own righteousness.
All the wickedness, all the plotting against the Savior, all the twisting
his words, all the counsels they met, all the payments they'd
given to the soldiers to lie about the fact that the disciples
had stolen the body away from the grave, and that's why the
body was no longer in the grave. All these sins. needed to come
and confess. What could they do? They were
to repent. The message is the same today.
Gospel preaching today is exactly the same. Repent. There's a turning
back from the dark paths of sin, the relying on our own righteousness
our own righteousness to obtain salvation. They had to renounce
it. They had to look and they had
to confess their sins. You see, it's the Spirit's work
to convince of sin, but it's also the Spirit's work to reveal
Christ to his people. And that's what was so powerful
on the day of Pentecost. And that's the Spirit that we
need today to apply the message of the gospel that it might be
applied with power to the hearers. Then Peter said unto them, repent. Very simple command, but a very
difficult command for us to do. We need the Holy Spirit to give
us repentance. Jesus gives us true repentance. We need to pray to him. need
to pray to him to give us that repentance, to give us of his
spirit, that spirit of conviction, the spirit that makes us hate
the sins that made him mourn and drove him from our breast
and be baptized. This is an outward symbol of
what have internally taken place. They were to repent and as a
witness as a clear outward experience, or they were to be baptized,
you see. You see, if we repent quietly
in our closets, as it were, in our private devotions, in prayer,
we truly pour out our hearts in repentance to God, which is
a blessing, it's a great thing to do. How does others necessarily
know that we've done that? It's a matter between us and
the Lord. True repentance, to weep before
the Lord. But you see, Peter didn't say,
well, just repent. There was also to be a witness. There's also to be a demonstration
to others that this has taken place. And that is the place
for baptism. It's to be, show our allegiance
to the one that we have come to put our trust in for time
and for eternity. To nail our colors to the mast
as it were, to say that this is the one that I will stand
by. We spoke this morning, James Skelton took the Sunday school
for the older ones on that friend that sticketh closer than a brother.
You see, Jonathan, was not ashamed to own David as his friend and
David was not ashamed of Jonathan either. There was that friendship
one to the other and so you see between God and his people there
is a friendship and they're not ashamed both ways. He's not ashamed to call them
brethren but also they are not ashamed to call Him their God. They're not ashamed. They do
it out of obedience to what He has done for them. Repent and
be baptised, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ,
for the remission of sin. You see, there needs to be a
forgiveness of our sins. There needs to be pardon. These
were rebels. These had crucified the Lord
of life and glory. They were enemies to God and
they were ripe for judgment. But the gospel is this, that
there's mercy in repentance. While it is yet today, if you
will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. because there's
a time coming when that fire, that baptism of fire, if it did
not fall on the Lord Jesus Christ on our behalf, it will fall on
each one of us personally. And when that fire of the judgment
of God falls upon us, there will be no escape. It'll
be like those that came late to the wedding, foolish virgins it was too late
the door was shut while it is today if you will hear his voice
harden not your hearts this was the this day of Pentecost that
the apostles were given this ministry The spirit applied,
touched their lips, and gave them that ability to speak also
in these special tongues. But really when you look at the
emphasis of Acts chapter two, it's the message that is the
important thing. Yes, it was spoken in other languages,
but it was the message. The message was one of repentance,
the one of conviction, and one of mercy. And be baptized every
one of you in the name of Jesus for the remission of sins and
you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. The gift of that
Holy Ghost that reveals Christ to us. You see, we need the Spirit. We read that the Spirit speaketh
not of himself but he speaks of Christ. It's the Spirit's
work. And we see here in this chapter where the Spirit was
very, very active. What was the subject? Christ
and Him crucified. That was the subject. The Spirit
was not speaking of itself. It was speaking of Christ. It was revealing Christ. It was
revealing His great work. And it was bringing men and women,
boys and girls, into conviction. Well, This great preaching of
Peter on the day of Pentecost was not without effect. We read
in verse 41, then they that gladly received his word were baptized. And the same day there were added
unto them about 3,000 souls, 3,000 people who had been Enemies of God by nature had
been turned to see that Christ in all that he had accomplished
in his coming to this earth, his being separated for the work
of sacrifice, of him going to Calvary, of him dying, of him
rising again, him ascended into glory, all these things. They
came to realise that these things could be a blessing to them as
they repented and believed the gospel. And that's the same today
as we preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. There is a
gospel to be preached, but it's not just positive. It's also
solemnly judgement. There is the two sides. There's
the baptism of the Holy Spirit, but there's also the baptism
of fire, that baptism of fire did fall upon God's beloved son,
because he so loved the world that he gave his only begotten
son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but
have eternal life. Well, may we each be amongst
those who, by God's grace, know Jesus gives us true repentance,
repent of our sins, Turn to the Lord and make Christ unto you
therefore which believe. He is precious. May the Lord
have his blessing. Amen.