In Acts 2, Peter preached at
Pentecost. One verse that so many people
at least know in their heads. So many quote it with their lips.
It's a marvelous, marvelous verse. A word from the Lord in verse
21. It says, It shall come to pass that whosoever shall call
on the name of the Lord, shall be saved. And that struck me. We hear it
so often, so many people talk about saved. We really don't rightly know
what that means, or we would be more thankful. Saved from
sin. That's what saved me. Saved from
sin. Saved from the awful consequences
of sin. What sin has brought on this
human race. And the end of sin. The destruction
of everything. Saved from ourselves. From this
evil self. And we will destroy ourselves.
unless the Lord saves us from ourselves. Save from the God
of this world who has men and women and young people in captivity.
People call it drugs. People call it this and that
and the other. But Scripture says it's the God
of this world whom they cannot see, who has them captive at
His will. And unless a stronger than He
comes, and leads captivity captive to himself, takes them, saved, whose service will call,
not work, not anything. Call on the name of the Lord. And we've got to know who the
Lord is. How shall they call on Him whom they do not believe?
How shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard? How
shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except
to be sent? Preach the truth. I was just
struck by that. Saved. Preserved. Preserved. Kept. That's what saved means.
Kept. We can't keep ourselves. We cannot
save ourselves. We must be saved by the Lord. We must be kept by the power
of God. Preserved from all evil. preserved, kept from falling.
That's what this is all about. Now unto Him that is able to
keep us from falling. Saved. Whosoever shall call on
the name of the Lord shall be saved. And now I'm really talking
about something I can't tell you what it means to be joint
heirs with the Son of God, to be granted a place in the Kingdom
of God with the people of God throughout eternity in a place
where God dwells forever and His people dwelling in holiness
and righteousness preserved forever from sin in eternal happiness
and joy Peace and contentment and pleasures forevermore. Saved. Whosoever shall come. Upon the name of the Lord. And
then Peter, that's what he's doing here. He's preaching who
the Lord is. Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation
belongs to the Lord. It's His to give. It's not ours
to accept. It's His to give. But he did
say, whosoever calleth. The Lord. And Scripture says
there is salvation in no other. Neither is there salvation in
any other. For there is none other name under heaven given
among men whereby we must be saved. That the name of Jesus,
every knee should bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord. That's who we're talking about.
That's who Peter preached this day. He tells us who the Lord
is. It tells us why he came. It tells
us what he did. In verse 22, he said in his... Now, before I go any further,
let me just briefly say something about what happened there, because
so many people are ignorant of what happened there. The Lord
gave twelve apostles, excluding Judas. He's dead. Matthias, whom
they drew straws for. and raises twelve men up to preach
the gospel. Well, they're from Galilee. They're
Jews. They know one language, Hebrew. Well, they come to Pentecost,
and at that time, people, mostly Jews, many Gentiles from all
over the world, gathered themselves to Jerusalem one day a year at
the Passover, the yearly Passover, Pentecost. And they would come,
and well, the Lord in great power He was about to begin a work
that he told them about, that he would send the Holy Spirit
and the gospel would be spread all over the world. And the Lord
in great power gave these twelve Jews gifts to preach the Word
in many languages. They didn't go to school. He
just gave it to them. people came and heard, you read
it with me, the wonderful works of God, the gospel. That's the work of God. That's
what this whole book is about, what Christ did, what God did
through Christ, the work of salvation. And they all heard them preach
this gospel in their various languages. That's what tongues
or languages are for. They're not to show off. They're
not for believers, but they're for unbelievers. Now, when the
disciples went out preaching, they didn't have this book. They
didn't have the Word of God. People didn't have a copy of
the Word of God. What they were preaching and doing and saying
and writing was going to be the Word of God, the fulfilled Word
of God. So God opened up doors for the Gentiles to hear it. These men came in to various
places and they healed the sick and even raised the dead. And
people took notice that these men had come from God. No man
can do this except they be from God. And that was for the purpose
of preaching the Gospel. People sat up and took notice.
And all this stuff that goes on today is phony. It's fake.
If there's anything that actually happens, it's not of the Lord,
it's another spirit. Because number one, they're not
preaching the gospel. Okay? Number two, they're glorifying
themselves. And people are going away. Here's
the key. Today, when they're here and watch all these so-called
tongues, they're babbling, blah, blah, blah, blah. They go away
talking about the tongues. They go away talking about those
men. They go away talking about the music. They go away talking
about what a wonderful service we had. When these people left,
the people at Pentecost, they heard Jesus Christ exalted in
their language. And everybody cried out, men and brethren, what shall
we do? We've crucified the Lord with glory. They realized who
Christ was. And that they had rebelled against
Him, rejected Him. And now He's in their hands.
They are in His hands to do with as He pleases. They all heard
who Christ was. Who the Lord really is. Peter
never said, won't you make Jesus Lord. That's blasphemy. What
he says here is God hath made him Lord. The word accept is not in this
Bible. See, that's another gospel. What
they heard was a sovereign Lord, reigning and ruling, who came
to do a sovereign work for his people. And because he did that, God
has highly exalted him, set him at the right hand of his majesty
on high, expecting all his enemies to be made his footstool, expecting
all that he died for, the Holy Spirit to bring them. That's
what he's doing right here. And he does. And he did and he
does. They come. And that we're in His hands.
And that's the fear of the Lord which is the beginning of wisdom.
The fear of the Lord. It created the fear of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Not some helpless fellow standing
outside the door that you must do something for. No, no, no. Someone who's reigning and ruling
who must do something for us according to His sovereign will. It's not of Him that willeth
or Him that runneth. It's of God that showeth mercy.
That's the message of Peter. And that's what the Lord used.
And they all cried out with one voice, what shall we do? That's
salvation. That's what the Lord does. And
here in verse 36, he said in conclusion of his message, here's
the sum and substance of his message. Here's the sum and substance
of the gospel in verse 36. Let all the house of Israel, let all in this house know. Let all in every house know.
Every tribe, nation, tongue under heaven. Let all the world know
them. All do not know this. All do not believe this. But
all will. Scripture says every knee will
bow and every tongue will confess. Let all the house of Israel know
assuredly. Without a doubt, and know for
the assurance, know for our assurance, assurance of joy and peace, rejoice
in this, his people. But know this without a doubt,
that God, verse 37, that God hath made this same Jesus. God hath made. God who made the
heavens and earth. God, in whose hands our breath
is in all our ways, that God hath made, God hath declared,
that's what the word means, that God hath set up, God hath established
this Jesus whom you crucified. Over in Psalm 2, we love that
psalm, those of you who know it. He talks about those heathen
raging and people imagining vain things about God. And he that
sitteth in the heavens laughs at what all is going on in religion.
And then he says, now I'll declare the decree. The Lord hath said,
I have set my King on my holy hill of Zion. God said, I have
set my Son on the holy hill of Zion. His church. Head of the
church. Lord over the universe. I have made him king. And he
says, you kiss the son lest he be angry. Not accept him. Bow. Bow and kiss the son. That same
Jesus. Everyone's heard of Jesus. Of
Nazareth. So that no one will mistake what
Jesus... I met a You know, there are many
thousands of Latin men, Spanish-speaking men named Jesus. I met one in
the church at Mérida. His name is Jesús. Well, you
need to know who you're talking about. Many say Jesus this and
Jesus that. What Jesus are you talking about?
There's another Jesus, Paul said in Galatians 1. Many come preaching
another Jesus. He said, if they do, you'd better
bear with me. And I'm going to tell you who
the Lord Jesus is. Jesus. Jesus of Nazareth. Born of a woman. Yeah. Named
Mary. We were just in a predominantly
Catholic country, which most of Europe and most of South America,
most of the world, billions of Catholics all over the world.
I'm not just picking on that false religion, because most
every other so-called denomination doesn't believe who Christ is
either. They still believe in just a
Jesus. But we were just down there, and most people think,
most Catholics will all do, think more of Mary than they do the
Lord Jesus Christ. I saw a picture. I went into
the marketplace and there were many pictures all over. Idols.
Like Paul went into Mars Hill and saw all those idols. I saw
that. Pictures. And what you would
see mostly is this woman, Mary. And one I noticed in the market
that just made me cringe. It showed her standing on the
earth. The whole earth under her feet
with the baby Jesus in her arms. So that's what most people think
of Jesus. And that's what most of them
think about Mary. Let me tell you then. Let me
tell you what the Scripture says. That Mary was a sinner just like
us. Saved by the Lord Jesus Christ. The one she was allowed to in
the providence of God, in the purpose of God, to give birth
to a baby named Jesus, Savior. But the Son of God, who is the
Father, actually was the father of Mary. And now Mary is sitting
at His feet with Mary Magdalene, sinner saved by the grace of
God through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. She's singing His
praises. And He's the one that sitteth
on the circle of the earth. He's the one under whose feet
all people are. So Peter said, this Jesus of
Nazareth, you know who I'm talking about. Born of Mary, yes. You think He's the son of Joseph?
He doesn't have a beginning. He really doesn't have a beginning. You know, most everyone said
they loved Jesus when He came. He fed them. He clothed them.
He did miracles. And they started to hate Him.
They started to despise and reject him. Why? Because he began to say things
like this, I'm from above, you're from beneath. Which of you convinces
me of sin? I'm the way. I'm the way. No man cometh unto the Father
but my name. No man can come unto the Father but by me. Except
the Father which sent me to all him. And I will raise him up
to the last day. He began to say, I'm God. I'm the only one. And they got
mad. They said, you're just a man.
You don't do what we let you do. You're in our hands. And many times they tried. They
even tried to grab ahold of him. And I loved those stories. They
said, he's a pastor. He came, alright, to be crucified.
But Peter preached to do what God had determined before to
be done. Men and women took with wicked hands and crucified the
Lord of Glory, but they did what God determined before to be done.
The Lamb of God from the foundation of the world. They killed Him,
and we killed Him. This message doesn't mean a thing
to us unless we see that we despised and rejected Him. All we like
sheep have gone astray. We hid, as it were, our faces
from Him. I don't know about you, but I
went several years where I didn't care about the Lord Jesus Christ.
When you ignore someone, it's like you wish they didn't exist,
like you wish they were dead. And I went for years without
giving God a thought, without giving Christ a thought. I killed
Him. If we'd been there, we'd have
done it. All of us. Not knowing that our very life
was in His hands. And men and women and young people
all over the world today who take that very name and use it
and blaspheme it, don't know it, but that's the only name
whereby they may be saved. And rather, if God would, in
mercy and grace, cause them Call on that name for mercy and be
saved. So Peter says, let everybody
know this, beyond a shadow of a doubt, assuredly, that God
hath made Him Lord. Not man. Man doesn't make Him
Lord. We don't make Him Lord. Whenever
you hear somebody say that, some false prophet say that, make
Jesus your Lord, that's another gospel. God hath made this same
Jesus, the Lord. One time they came and tried
to make Him king. You remember that? They came
and tried to make Him king, and He passed through them. I tried
to put a little tin crown on his head and put him on a little
wooden throne in Jerusalem and say, Hail, King of the Jews.
Well, he wouldn't let them do that. Why? Because he already
was king. And we don't make Him Lord. Salvation
comes to us when He reveals to us that He already is Lord. And He's come to claim us. God hath made him Lord, King
of kings, Lord of lords. What does it mean, Lord? It means
sovereign ruler. It means ruler over all. It means everything
is under his divine power. Christ said, All power is given
unto me in heaven and earth. All power. Paul preached Principalities
and powers, rulers of the darkness of this world, spiritual wickedness
in high places, all is under the divine command of Jesus Christ.
Every single thing Barnard used to say that writhes or wriggles,
Jesus Christ orders it. There is no power but that which
is of God. And God has given it all to Jesus
Christ. He said, the kings of hell and
death are at my side. I do what I will with whom I
will. Free will belongs to Jesus Christ alone, not man. Not man. Even the winds and the seas obey
Him. I was a little Lord one time.
I had a farm. This is a true story. It really
happened. I had a little farm and had many subjects under me,
dogs and cats and chickens and horses. Walter and Betty were
down visiting at this time. We were outside. Walter loves dogs. He had a dog. I was kind of showing off Abner
to him. Annie was there. I said, Walter,
what's this? This really happened. I said,
Abner, roll over. And he rolled over. And there
was Annie. I said, Annie, roll over. And
Annie rolled over. And I looked up. And there was that cat. And
I said, Willard, roll over. And that cat rolled over. Honestly. That cat rolled over. And I looked
up. And I said to my big horse, Molly,
roll over, Molly. And that horse rolled over. You
don't believe that, do you, Dylan? He did. Ask Walter. What happened
was he just happened. You know how a cat will roll
around. I looked up and that cat was
about to roll. And horses would drop, you know,
and scratch her. She just happened to be doing
that. I said, roll over, Myla. And
she did. And Walter said, you're the world's best animal trainer. That really happened. They did
what I said. Dogs and cats. That was all. I didn't do that. Men fancy themselves to be little
lords. No. Men and women fancy themselves
to have some kind of power, some kind of free will. And they boast
this and they boast that. When the Scripture says the kings,
the most powerful man on this earth, his heart, It's in the
hands of the Lord, like the rivers of water. Now what makes the world mad, makes
me glad. Because when I see what these
fellows are doing, I get worried. For my children, my grandchildren,
and this nation, how it's going to pot, going to hell in a handbasket,
as some would say. The Lord ranks. It's still His
earth. And it's all going exactly according
to His sovereign will and His sovereign purpose. Nothing by
chance. Satan doesn't have any power
at all. That's why Paul keeps saying,
Rejoice in the Lord. And again, I say, Rejoice. If
you know Him and you know that all things work together for
good according to His purpose for His people, nothing harms
His people. He's got a hedge about us until
He says it's time, just like His Son. He's Lord. Not a figurehead. We don't make
Him Lord. God did. God did. And salvation is to know Him
for us to find out. And we come to rejoice in the
Lord, our Lord and our Savior. There was a story in 1 Kings
1. I love this story. We looked at it years ago. A
man named Adam Nijah. who was a son of David, Solomon's
brother. And Adonijah wanted to be king. David is getting old. David is
70 years old. And Adonijah knew that someone
would be king in his place. So Adonijah said, I'll make myself
king. And he got a lot of fellows around
him that loved him and said, yeah, you're a good king. We'll
let you be our king. So Adonijah had this big party. and got all the people together
that loved him, liked him, and he had a big celebration, and
he said, I'm king! I'm king, Adonijah. Well, lo
and behold, they heard a commotion outside, a loud gathering of
people, and Adonijah said, what's going on? And then ran a fellow
with tidings and said, David, had made Solomon king. And the
prophet, and the priest, and the bride, Bathsheba, is all
there. And David himself has declared
him king. And he's right now seated on
the throne, reigning and ruling over all Israel. And Abba John
just said, Oh, no. And it says, he ran in and grabbed
hold of the horns of the altar and begged Solomon not to kill
him for thinking he's a king. To let all the world know assuredly
that God had made him king. Long before this world was in
existence. Long before. Now that, you know, this fear
of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And to this man, when
I look, he, this poor, with a contrite heart, I tremble at that, my
Lord." It said there in Psalm 2, kiss the son, worship the
son with fear and trembling. It said, rejoice with trembling. That's the beginning of wisdom,
saving wisdom. And then he said here this wonderful
declaration. He said, God hath made that same
Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. Christ. Sovereign ruler, sovereign
King of kings, Lord of lords, and Christ. Peter said, Thou
art the Christ. Go with me to Luke chapter 4,
and I'll wind this up. Luke chapter 4. What does it
mean that he has made him to be the Christ? Christ. Well, the word itself means anointed
one. Anointed one. And again, you
hear these phony fellows say, the Lord has anointed me, I have
an anointed ministry, anointed this, anointed that. Immediately
you know that they are false. No prophet or preacher ever said
that. And Isaiah wrote that in prophecy
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord said here in Luke 4
that this day is that Scripture fulfilled in your ear. But what
Christ means is anointed one, that God hath declared Him to
be the one and only Messiah. And what Messiah means is the
covenant head, the one that God will accept. on behalf of others. Ephesians 1.6 on our sign out
there says we are accepted in the Beloved. God accepts sinners
only in Christ because of Him. He is the covenant head. He is
the one that came to do what He did for His people. And Christ
means that prophet, priest, and king. All of Israel knew that.
Prophet, priest, and king. The woman at the well said, when
Messiah has come, when Christ has come, He'll tell us all things.
And He did. He came. He told us all things.
And He told the apostles all things. He said, write this down.
More wonderful works you'll do through the preaching of the
Word and writing of the Word. And they did. And He told us all
things. We don't need any more prophets.
Any fellow that stands up, a woman, and says, I'm a prophet, they're
false. Christ came. He told us we don't need them
anymore. He's our prophet. He's our priest. That's what
Christ meant. Prophet, priest, king. He's our
priest. He's the one we go to and confess
our sin. If we confess our sin to Christ,
He is faithful and just to forgive us. And millions all over the
world confess their sins to men, to sinful men, and they can't
do one thing about their sin. But if we come to Christ by His
grace and confess all our sins, any sin, all matter of sin, He
says, shall be forgiven. Just confess them. Don't hold
back. Don't cover your sins. Confess
them to Him. He's able. To completely forgive
and to wipe clean. The blood of Jesus Christ cleansed
him. Prophet, priest, king, mediator. God always hears him. We don't
pray to St. Christopher. We don't pray to
St. John or St. whoever, St. Mary. We don't pray
to them. We pray to Jesus Christ because
God said, you call on the Father in My name, He'll hear you. Look at this, Luke 4. Our Lord
came to Jerusalem that day, and when He was 30 years old, they
gave Him the book, and He opened it to Isaiah 61, verse 18. The
Spirit of the Lord is upon Me without measure, because He hath
anointed Me. I'm the One. I'm the Christ. He said, preach the gospel to
the poor, good news. Christ came preaching the kingdom
of God. Repentance for the kingdom of God is at hand. The people
under bondage to the God of this world, he said, good news, your
king is here. Stronger than he is here. I'm
here to take what's mine. Unless he does, we will remain
captive. Good news, I'm here. That's the
gospel. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted. Any brokenhearted sinners, any
poor in spirit, any mourn, good news. I came to save sinners,
to preach deliverance to the captives, recovery of sight to
the blind, open blind eyes to see who I am, to set at liberty
them that are bruised. We sing that psalm, bruised and
mangled by the fall. To preach the acceptable year
of the Lord. And it is still the acceptable year
of the Lord. God is accepting everyone who calls on Him for
mercy through Jesus Christ. Every single sinner, whosoever
calls in that name, looking to Him, believing Him, trusting
Him, shall be saved. God hath made Him Christ, Lord. And when He made Him Lord and
Christ, it's like Sheba said to Solomon when she saw him. I love this. She said, because
the Lord loved Israel, He made you king. Because the Lord loved
Israel, He made you king, and therefore, You are their King
to do judgment and justice. And because God loved a people,
He gave them to Christ, and they have a wonderful Lord and Savior
like no other, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ
says this, He is a God ready to pardon, gracious, merciful,
slow to anger and of great kindness to all them that call on Him,
to all that call upon Him, and truth, ready to forgive. I've often wondered what it would
be like to be under Solomon's reign. But if I could live in
any time, I've thought about that many times, if I could live
in any time in history, what time would I live? It might be
three years, 30 to 33 A.D. But if another, it would be under
Solomon. Forty years Solomon reigned over
Israel. A godly man. It says, every man
dwelt under his own vine and fig tree. It was not an arrow
that flew through the air. Peace. A godly man, king over
the kingdom. My, my. The fact is we have one. But ready to pardon. I thought
about Solomon. You know, you could come to him.
Whoever it was could come to him. Well, we have a greater
than Solomon. Ready to pardon. Ready to forgive. Plenteous in mercy to all that
call upon him. That's why Peter began the message
and why I did too with whosoever shall call on him. He delights
to show mercy. Ready to forgive. ready to pardon. Great kindness, all that call
upon Him. I love that. It made me think
of a story. Some of you have heard this before.
One time when Isabella was just maybe two or three years
old, I had my Bible open. And it was on the stool in front
of my chair there and a pen I was writing with laying there. And
I walked away and I came back and I spotted her. She had that
pen in her hand and was just scribbling all over that Bible.
Writing her epistle all over my Bible. This book is very precious
to me. Not to mention that a good one
Expensive. Don't want it desecrated. Don't
want it marred when she was marring it. And I wasn't happy. So Isabella, her heart sunk. Her grandfather just doesn't
very often raise his voice or speak to her in any way other
than real kindness. She realized what she'd done.
And her countenance dropped. She stood there, that little
Frank stood there in front of my stool, and I sat in front
of her, looking at her with a stern voice and stern eyes, a frown. What have you done? Her lips quivering. And she's
sorry. But you know, even before I approached
her, I knew what I was going to do. Before she repented, and
she needs to know what she's done, she won't do it again.
She needs to know she's done wrong. I knew what I was going
to do before I even spoke to her, before she repented. I was
going to pardon her. Completely and totally forgive
her. Scripture says he's ready to
pardon. When the Lord was hanging it on the cross, the very first
words that came out of His mouth were what? What were they? Father, forgive
them. They don't know what they're
doing. They don't know where they're
going. They don't know that they have no interest, that they killed
me. Their only hope, forgive them.
Let this blood that I'm shedding right now be propitiation on
the mercy seat for their sins. Send your Holy Spirit to arrest
their hearts and minds. To show them that the very one
they cared not for, cared greatly for them. and had mercy and grace upon
them, and died to save their soul. Do that for them. Well, you know,
to this day, when I opened that Bible, and she repented, such
as lies within her, with groanings that could not be uttered, I
said, it's okay, it's okay. To this day, when I open my Bible
to that page where those scribblings are, You know what I do? That's my sweetheart. That's my sweetheart. The very
marks that we put in the hands of the Son of God. He looks at him and says, I've engraved you on the palms
of my hands forever to look at. Well, that's mercy. Ready to pardon. Ready to forgive. Let all the house of Israel know
assuredly, God has met this Jesus and we've crucified both Lord
and Christ and Archeglaia. We have a merciful Archeglaia.
Let all the house of God, let everyone, let them be redeemed
as the Lord says so.