Acts 2. And we're going to be
looking this morning at verses 37-39. 37-39. And the title of
the lesson is, The Result of Peter's Sermon. The Result of Peter's Sermon. Let's read our text. Acts 2,
beginning in verse 37. 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 you shall receive the gift of
the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you,
and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as
many as the Lord our God shall call." Put this down so it doesn't
break. I'm sure that's going to happen
as soon as I... Okay. Now, last week we saw the
message of Peter. We saw the sermon of Peter and
how he proved beyond a doubt that Jesus, this man Jesus, that
God hath made Him both Lord and Christ. that He by His life fulfilled
all of the prophecies that were mentioned of Him in the Old Testament,
and by miracles, signs and wonders, and by verbal communication,
God approved of this man. God approved of this man to be
the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed. And that by His death,
it was also manifest that He was the Christ, because remember,
Christ said, ought not Christ to have suffered and entered
into His glory. You see, the Scriptures prophesied
of His death. If Christ had not died, He would
not have been the Christ. So therefore, His death manifests
this to us. And we saw that by His resurrection,
He has exalted Him above all flesh. He has given Him a name
which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus Christ,
every knee should bow and every tongue should confess that He
is Lord. You see, these things are proven.
These things are written. And now Jesus, this man, Peter
said, whom you crucified, God hath raised Him up to be the
judge of you. Imagine that. Imagine if these,
not 50 days earlier, they were shouting, crucify Him, crucify
Him, and here they are. He is now manifest to them that
He has risen into the heavens and He is a judge of them. Imagine
that. Now, to those that are outside
of Christ, here we are, 2,000 years plus removed from the crucifixion,
and yet anyone that rejects Christ, anyone that does not believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ alone, they too are guilty of crucifying
Him. I know many will say, well, you
know, if I was there, I wouldn't have said that. I would have
said, let Him go. No. No, you wouldn't have. The natural
man says in his own heart, I will not have this man to rule over
me. That's what we say by nature. We say as the clay demanding
of the potter, why have you made me like this? That's what we
are by nature. But I'll tell you what, if the
message that Peter preached, the message that every gospel
preacher preaches, if the Spirit of God comes with power to that
message, to that man, into his heart, he will be like these
people of this day. He will say much the same as
these people here. He will have much the same reaction. Look at that in verse 37, when
they heard this. They were pricked in their hearts
and said unto Peter and the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren,
what shall we do? Notice when they heard what?
What did they hear? They heard the message. They
heard the gospel that Jesus is both Lord and Christ. That He
is the only Messiah and Savior of men. And when they heard of
their rebellion and sin and their hatred for Christ, The message
of God's grace always must come first to reveal sin. If the message
of God's grace does not first reveal sin, then how can a man
see his need of mercy? If a man never sees his need
of mercy, he will never beg for it. If a man never knows he is
blind, he will not ask for sight. If a man does not understand
he is dead, he will not beg for life. And if a man never comes to loathe
his sin, he will never come to love Christ. When this message goes forth, faith in power, by power of the
Holy Spirit, then it has the same result. They were pricked
in their hearts. This is the result of the gospel. To prick in the heart. Now then,
this word prick, it means to pierce thoroughly. If you can
imagine a man with a sword. You watch the movies, and I watched
several movies where a man would take a sword and he would run
it through a man. He would take the sword and He
would bring the man to the sword and He would run it through.
That's exactly what that word means. It means that the Spirit
of God has taken the sword, the Word of God, and He has run it
through a man's heart. Stabbed him in the heart. It is to sting to the quick. The sword of the Word of God.
When it comes in power, it goes right to the source of the problem.
God's Word, when it comes in power, it doesn't clean up the
outside. It goes right to the problem,
the heart. You see, that's the problem,
is the heart. You see, men don't have a religious
problem, do they? We're all naturally religious.
You see, man does not have a knowledge problem. I hear this a lot. Well, they're just ignorant out
there. You ever heard that? I've probably said that myself.
They're just ignorant. If they can just understand,
if they can just have this bit of knowledge that I have, if
I can just introduce them to Calvinism. No. You see, it's
not a Calvinism problem. It's a heart problem. It's a
heart problem. You see, we can't turn them around
by introducing knowledge to them. The problem is not education
or knowledge. It's not Calvinism versus Arminianism. That's the problem. It's the
heart. It's the heart. My friend, I
know this for a fact. There will be many Calvinists
in hell. There will be many Calvinists
in hell because they didn't have the
problem healed. They didn't have the problem
solved. It was a heart problem. It's not a habit problem. It's
not a change of habit. If I can just change my habits,
if I can just reform and change how I do things, then that'll
fix the problem. No, it won't. It will not fix
the problem. I'll illustrate it like this.
You go to your doctor and your doctor says you have a bad valve
in your heart. Your heart needs to be fixed. It has a valve and it is leaking
and if it is not fixed, you will die. Now a man can go and he
can spend all of his money, all of his time and all of his energy
going to a chemotherapist. He can go and take chemotherapy
and he can be really sincere in it. And he can go and he can
have his arms amputated and his legs amputated. And he can have
all the sincerity in his heart thinking that's going to fix
it. But my friends, you don't have an arm and leg problem.
You don't have cancer. You have a heart problem. And
if your heart problem is not fixed, it's not going to work.
Your result is the same, death. The heart problem. That's why
he said they were pricked in their hearts, because the spirit
always goes to the root of the problem, the heart. So the spirit
of God must and does use the gospel to cut open, to lay bare
the heart. It must be open and exposed. It must be the corruption of
the heart must be exposed. So that we see what Jeremiah
was saying in 1790, he says, the heart is deceitful and desperately
wicked above all things, who can know it? You see, our heart
is desperately wicked and deceitful. And many are deceived by their
own heart to believe that they're safe. They are they that are
saved. They say, I'm saved. I love Jesus. I believe in Jesus. I'm a Calvinist. I'm reformed. But they've never been lost.
You're running somebody like that. They've been saved all
their life. How can that be? How can you
be saved all your life? How can you be found if you were
never lost? How can you be resurrected if
you were never dead? I tell you what, there's a lot
of people in this world that will cut their wrist for Jesus.
I have no doubt in my heart that there are many pastors who would
give their life in the name of Jesus, but they have no idea
who He is. Have no idea who He is. Why?
Because they have not got to the root of the problem, the
heart. The heart. which is full of wounds
and bruises and putrefying sores. Man is a rebel by nature, a rebel
in his heart. If he never comes to see this,
if he sees that he is born innocent and he gets corrupted as he goes
up the chain, my friend, he's never understood sin. Sin's from
conception. Sin, we have a hard problem.
And this was my case when God came to me And I knew my problem
was deeper than I could go. And I cried with these men, what
shall I do? I knew that my problem was more
than I could handle. I knew that my problem was more
than I could possibly deal with myself. And that's what these
men came to and they said to ask this question, what shall
we do? In other words, is there any
hope? Is there any hope? Is there any
hope for our condition? Is there any remedy for the sickness
of sin? Is there any cure for the heart
of rebellion? Peter's answer in verse 38 is
yes. Yes, there is. There is hope. There is hope. Yes, there is a cure. Yes, there
is hope. And here it is, 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." Let's look at this hope for a moment, this message
of hope to the heart that is laid bare, to the man who has
no hope in himself, the one that the Spirit has ran through with
the sword. Let's hear what the Spirit has
to say to the man that's laid bare. Repent. Repent. This is of vital importance.
To repent means to turn around. I remember in the military, we
had learned about-face. And we had to do that 10 million
times. I got so sick of that word, I
could puke when I heard it. But I knew what it was when I
got done. I'll tell you that. I knew how
to do an about-face. It was to turn away from something. It was to go in one direction
and then to turn completely around 180 degrees and go the other
direction. That is what it is to repent. That's what it is.
It's to go in the opposite direction. It is to turn from something
to something. That's what it is. Very simple. To turn away from sin, to turn
away from self, to turn away from religion, to turn away from
our knowledge, to turn away from everything that we dreamed would
be right. You know what? Have you ever
stopped repenting, believers? Is this something that we do
one time? Is this something that we about-face
one time? No, I find many things that I'm
wrong about. And I must repent of them when
I find them. When God gives me light in those
things, what does He still do? He still runs me through. And I'm still pricked in my heart. Oh, my heart is pricked when
I see my sin. And what am I commanded to do?
Repent and believe the Gospel. Turn away from it. Turn away
from everything we thought. And forsake our knowledge, forsake
our understanding and our reason and turn to Christ by faith.
That's what it is to repent. Now, repentance. This is not
repentance alone, is it? Does repentance ever come alone?
If you turn from something to something, There's a reason. Why would we turn from our own
way? Why would we turn from our own
thoughts, our own knowledge, and turn to Christ unless we
believed Him? You see, faith and repentance
are so intertwined that you can't have one without the other. They
must go together. They always go together. Faith
and repentance. In other words, there is no such
thing as faith without repentance. A lot of people have faith. Remember
the book of James. The book of James is dealing
with justification before men. The epistles of Paul were dealing
with justification before God. But the book of James deals with
justification before men. And it's just as important. Because,
my friends, if we say we have faith and we have not repented
of our sins, then our faith is empty, it's vain, it's foolish. We don't have it. And the same
way as if, you know, you have repentance without faith. You
turn to Christ and you half-heartedly believe, what's that? If you
half-heartedly rest in Christ plus something else, then you've
not turned 180 degrees, you've turned a quarter turn, haven't
you? You're not turned all the way around. You see, we must
believe Christ completely for all our hope. We must rest in
Him and turn from ourselves. That's what it is to repent.
To all sinners laid bare, repent and believe the gospel. What
is the gospel? Look at verse 39. For the promise
is unto you. The promise. The gospel is summed
up in a promise. God promised, and He cannot lie. God made a promise. And the promise
is unto you. The promise of the Spirit is
unto you who believe on Christ alone. The promise of salvation
is unto you who call upon His name to be saved. Look at verse
17. Verse 17, "...and it shall come
to pass in the last days God will pour out His Spirit upon
all flesh." You see, God has promised to
give His Spirit. God has promised to give it to
everyone. To everyone that what? Verse
21, And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. It is all who call on
Him, all who rest in Him, have the Spirit of God given to Him. Believe. Rest. Lay down your arms. Lay down
your sins. Lay down your thoughts. Lay down your ways. Rest in Christ alone. He alone is hope for sinners. He alone is the righteousness
of God we need. He alone is the satisfaction
of God. God's justice. In Him alone is
peace, joy, love, patience, meekness, temperance, faith. In Him is
everything we need. Everything. And He gives it to all who come
empty. You know, I still come empty.
I still come empty of self to Christ. You see, this thing that
happened to these people, it was not once. And it did not
happen to us who believe once. It is a daily thing. It is a
constant thing. We are always coming to Christ.
We are always repenting. We are always believing. We are
always resting. Always. Always. And number two,
he says, be baptized in the name of Jesus. Now, baptism is not
salvation. Period. The waters of baptism
do not add anything to salvation. They are not part of our salvation. There is no saving power in the
waters of baptism. You can look at many examples
if you want to. The thief on the cross was not baptized. And yet he was saved. What did
Paul say? Paul said, he sent me not to
baptize, but to preach the gospel. Yeah, but Jesus said, he that
believeth not, he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.
You know what Jesus said? Yeah, but finish it. He said,
he that believeth not shall be damned. He didn't say, he that
believeth not and is baptized not. He that believeth not shall
be damned. Baptism is vitally important. I will not cheapen the waters
of baptism. For it is a command of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Go ye unto all the world, preaching
the gospel, making disciples of every nation, baptizing them
in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Baptism is not to be cheapened. It is a command of the Savior
to all children who follow Him and believe in Him. This is one of two ordinances
that the Lord Jesus has left His church. The ordinance of
His supper and baptism. Therefore, if we are believers,
we are our believers, We who have been pricked in our hearts,
we who have been repented and believed, we must confess Him
in baptism in this way. You see, confession of Christ
is not coming to the front of the church, is it? To confess
Christ publicly is not to come down to this front and say, I
believe in Jesus. That's not the biblical way of
confession. You know what the biblical way
of confession is? Baptism. Baptism is the way we confess
and identify with Christ. That's how we identify with Him.
When we go into the waters of baptism and we stand in the water,
we identify with His life. We understand and identify to
everyone witnessing that His life is my life. His righteous
life is my righteous life. When we go under the waters of
baptism, we confess that we are baptized into His death. His
death was my death. And so all my sins had been washed
away by His blood. And when we come up out of the
water, we confess His resurrection, we confess that He is on the
throne, and we confess that He is our King and our Lord. And
we follow Him. We are His disciples. We are His disciples. And we
walk in newness of life. Notice this, baptized in the
name of Jesus Christ. Why did Peter say, baptized in
the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit?
Why did he use this term, in the name of Jesus Christ? What
he was saying was this is not some formula that we have to
change. You see, false prophets use this
Because they don't believe in the triune God, they say, well,
there's no such thing, so they disannul what Christ says, and
they say, oh, this is the formula. You've got to be baptized in
Jesus' name. If you're not, then you're not
saved. That's the way they say it. Well, we know that Peter
here is not talking about a formula. What he is talking about is by
the authority of Christ. In other words, when I baptize
someone, I baptize them by the authority of Christ. You see,
Christ has delegated that authority to me. He has delegated that
authority to me, and to the person being baptized, he is by the
authority of Christ, he is doing this. He says, I'm not doing
this because I want to, but this is what Christ has commanded.
This is what Christ has ordained for me to do, and I'm following
Him. It's not something we make up. Something that our Lord has
ordained. So therefore, baptism is important,
isn't it? If the Lord commanded it. It's vitally important that
we follow our Lord's commands. And number three, the result
is, and you will receive the Holy Spirit. All who believe, does He not
make His abode with us? Does He not come to us by His
Spirit and teach us of Christ? Does He not come and refresh
our hearts in times of trouble and times of need? He always
does. Why? Because He lives in us. He lives in us. He made His abode
with us. He will manifest to all who truly
believe a spring of love for Christ in
our hearts. Do you have that spring of love
for Christ? When His name is mentioned, is it not fresh? When the Spirit of God brings
it to our hearts, it's a wellspring of love for Him. Romans 8.15
says, For we have not received the spirit of bondage again to
fear, but we have received the spirit of adoption whereby by
His Spirit we cry, Abba, Father. We that believe cry to our Father
in love. We long for His presence to hear
the old story of Christ. And we rejoice not in our sin,
but in the greatness of His love. I love that scripture in Ephesians
chapter 3 where it says, Oh, the length and the breadth and
the depth and the height of the love God, which is in Christ. Oh, the depths of His love that
reach so far down for me. Oh, the heights of His love that
exalted us and set us in heavenly places. Oh, the length of His
love that stretches from eternity to eternity. Oh, the breadth
of His love that casts my sins as far as the East is from the
West. That's what happens to every
heart that is laid bare before Him. He always comes with His
Word and gives them Christ. Christ. Christ. To us that have Christ, it is
a joy. To be pricked in the heart is
not something grievous to us, but necessary. Necessary. We see that our sin still is
here. We still got this flesh. It's
still hanging on. Anybody here made perfect yet?
No. No. May God examine us and lay us
bare so that we may cry to Him, Abba, Father. Pray the Lord bless
this to us.