Coming through, I can say to
you, Help me, please, and I'll need nothing, really, Many things
for today, please. Raise me above all men, and bring
me a new hope. O let them, O let them, O let
them, O let them, O let them, O let them, O let them, O let
them, O let them, O let them, O let them, O let them, O let
them, O let them, O let them, O let them, O let them, O let
them, O let them, O let them, O let them, O let them, O let them, O let
them, O let them, O let them, O let them, O let them, O let
them, O let them, O let them, O let them, O let them, O let
them, O let them, O let them, O let them, O let them, O let
them, O let them, O let them, O let them, O let them, O let
them, O let them, O let them, O let them, O let them, O let
them, O let them, O let them, O let them, O let them, O let them, O let them, O let them,
Alright, let's go back to Acts 13. Read one verse with Acts 13,
verse 48. Verse 48 is our text. We did not get to this last time
we studied this. Verse 48, And when the Gentiles
heard this, they were glad. glorified the word of the Lord,
and as many as were ordained to eternal life he lived. Now you remember, I hope, the
story in Acts 13. Paul and Barnabas were at Antioch,
and this is Paul's message which he preached at Antioch. And he concluded his message.
By saying that by word of warning, verse 40 and 41. He is quoting
from Isaiah. I'm sorry, Habakkuk. And verse
40, he says, beware. Therefore, lest that come upon
you. Which is spoken of in the prophet,
behold, ye despisers and wonder and perish. For I work a work
in your days, a work which you shall in no wise believe, though
a man declare it unto you." He said, beware, beware you despisers. And when he was preaching, there
were some that despised what he was preaching. The Jews, they
despised it. It's the same now. It's the same
today. Some despise the gospel, the
true gospel. Paul called it our gospel. Some
despise that. Now, by the gospel, what do you
mean? The sovereign, electing grace of God. That's the gospel. Some don't. Salvation is of the
Lord. It's sovereign. Elected. He chooses
to save whom he will. Grace, it's all by grace, it's
not of works, it's by grace. Sovereign, electing, grace, that's
in Christ. And it's all in and because of
Jesus Christ. It's not because of the object
of salvation. There's nothing in the person
he saved to cause God to save them. But it's all because of
Jesus Christ. All right, that's the gospel.
And he said, he quoted a backup who said some will in no wise
believe that. No matter what you tell. Someone
no wise believe. You run into people like that
you spoke in the people who. They will not listen to what
you have to say. They will not. Paul said this to Timothy he
wrote to Timothy and said they will turn away their ears from
the truth. unto a. Story. They will turn away their
ears from saying we won't have that. That's what happened wherever
Paul went. That's what happened. Look at
verse 42. Verse 42. It says when the Jews
were gone out of the synagogue. The Jews heard this. The Jews, as you know, are very
religious. Or very religious people. Traditional
religious people. And they didn't like what they
heard. And so they left. They left. And down in verse
45, it says the Jews, when they saw the multitudes, verse 44
says the whole city came to hear the Word of God. A whole city
came out to hear God's Word preached, and these Jews, these religious
fellows and women, didn't like it. They were envious. They wanted
to take away from their crowd, you know. And it says in verse
45, they were filled with envy and spake against those things
which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming. They spake against
them. But now this is what I like. This is what caught my attention
and made me want to preach from this some more. Verse 42 says,
When the Jews left, the Jews were gone out of the synagogue,
the Gentiles, the Gentiles, these are common, ordinary, everyday,
working class, irreligious, if you will, cast out, just common
old people. who the Jews turned their nose
at. The Gentiles, it said, besought, or that is, asked Paul and Barnabas,
would you please preach these words the next Sabbath? And we
saw that what they're saying was, would you preach? Do you
have to wait until next Saturday? Can you preach? Can we hear from
you real soon? The Jews, or the Gentiles, they
wanted to hear it. Well, so the next day, the whole
city came together to hear the word, and Paul and Barnabas preached
to them. And down in verse 48, it says,
when the Gentiles, after Paul got through preaching, said the
Gentiles were glad. After they heard what they heard,
they were so glad. Now, this is the title of the
message. It's something to make you glad.
They heard this sovereign grace, and they were so glad. They were
so glad. Now, here's the thing. Here's
the whole story. Some believed. Some didn't. Some were real glad. Some got real mad. Why? Why? Who, who, who made, what,
where's the difference? Why do some believe and some
don't? It's still true today. People
come in and hear this gospel, same gospel. We preach the same
gospel. And some are very glad. They like what they hear. Can't tolerate it. Some believe. Some don't. Why? That's what we're going
to look at tonight. OK? Look, the answer is in that
verse. Verse 48. Let's read it again. It says,
When they heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of
the Lord and as many as were ordained to eternal life. Believe. As many as were ordained to eternal
life, believe, would you turn to Acts chapter 2, Acts chapter
2, turn over there. As many as were ordained, it
does not, it does not read as many as believed were ordained. It does not say that, does it?
Do you know that some perversions today have changed it to read
that way? It does not say that it says,
as many as were ordained to return to life, believe, believe, faith
is the gift of God. Paul said in Ephesians 2 verse
8, he said, by grace, and you say through faith, you must believe. The command comes, believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. When Paul said,
it's through faith, you must believe. But, he said, that's
not of yourself. You don't have to decide to believe.
If it's left up to you, you'll get mad. If it's left up to you,
you'll reject it. But by the grace of God, then
there's your answer. Why does some believe? God ordained
them to believe. Acts chapter 2, verse 39. Acts
2, verse 39, Peter is preaching at Pentecost. And after many
people believed and asked him what they must do to be saved,
verse 39, Peter said this, 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. Who believes? All whom God ordains
to believe. Who comes to Christ? All whom
God brings to Christ. Who calls on the name of the
Lord to be saved? All that the Lord calls first.
All that He calls first. You see, we begin here. We always
do, don't we? We always begin with this. Every
message you hear us preach once, you hear us a thousand times,
we begin with God's choice of His people. Why? Because that's
where the whole Bible begins. In the beginning, God. Right? That's the first words
in God's written Word that tells us, that should tell us, that
it all begins where? With God. All what? In the beginning, God,
we begin right here because that's where the Bible began. And we
begin here when we talk about salvation and the gospel. We
begin there because salvation is of the Lord from beginning
to end. The scripture says he's the author. That means he wrote the book,
the covenant. He wrote the names in the last
book of life. And what does it say? Also, he's
the author and what? Demonstrate. Of the fact. And all in between. Nothing is
left up to us. Now go back to Acts 13. This
was Paul's message. If you remember, this was what
Paul preached. This was his message and it's
ours. This is our message. Every time. Paul preached in
Acts 13, verse 17. You want to hear it again? A
little bit. Verse 17, Paul said, The God
of this people of Israel chose our fathers. That's where Paul began his message.
God chose our fathers. Who's he talking about? Abraham. Isaac. Not Ishmael. Isaac. Abraham was an idolater, right?
He wasn't seeking the Lord. He didn't know the Lord. He didn't
know God. He was an idolater. Seventy-five
years old. God chose him. Revealed himself
to him. Called him out of that country. His family, everybody called
him out. Said, Abraham, follow me. God
chose Abraham, didn't he? Worked the work in his heart.
Abraham believed God. He didn't know. He believed him. Abraham had a son. Had two sons.
First one was Ishmael. A boy that he produced. He and
his handmaid. God says, kick him out. That's
not my chosen. God provided Abraham with a son,
a miracle son in his old age. Isaac. Isaac. That was God's son of promise.
In Isaac shall thy seed be called. Isaac had two boys, didn't he?
What were their names? Jacob and Esau. Jacob have I loved. Now should
God have loved Jacob? Was anything lovely about Jacob?
Was Jacob better than Esau? Oh, no. God shouldn't have chosen
either one of them. But he did, in mercy, chose Jacob. Esau hath I hated. That's not
fair. Oh, yes it is. Esau was hateful.
Is that a word? Esau sold his birthright when
given a choice to take the things of God or a bowl of soup. He said, what profit are the
things of God to me? No profit to me without giving
that soup. God said, I hate him. He deserved to be hated, did
he not? It wasn't as if God made him
that way. That man was that way from the beginning, right? And
so was Jacob until God changed him. God chose him and God began
to work on him. So, God chose a people and brought
them out. Look at verse 17 again. It says, God chose our fathers
exalted the people when they dwelt as strangers. They were
strangers, and with an high arm brought them out. This is Paul's
message. Now, I could preach this every
Sunday, really, every Sunday and Wednesday. John's sitting
here saying, I could listen to it. That's good. Does it make
you glad? Good, John, good sign. And to
all else, who this makes glad to hear this. God chose the people. And with a high arm brought them
out. They didn't bring themselves out. God brought them out. God
miraculously brought them out of that Egypt to follow him,
to worship him, to walk through the wilderness on the way to
the promised land. That's us. And that's Paul's
message. That's my message. God in sovereign
electing mercy and grace chose the people made a covenant concerning
them. That is an eternal purpose. And he ordered it in
all things and it's absolutely sure and nothing can change it
concerning his people. He said, I'm going to be their
God and there will be my people and I'm going to save them. I'm
going to send my son down to save them and he's going to save
them. And the Holy Spirit's going to bring them all the glory.
And nobody and nothing's going to change that. Not even they're
going to change that. You like the sound of that, John?
Does that make you glad? That's Paul's message. That's
my message. God's sovereign elect in grace.
God chooses some to believe. They must believe. All must believe. Those who ever believe it. But
others reject it. Some people reject this message.
Some people, at the mere mention of God's sovereign election,
get mad. Well, look at verse 46 in Acts
13. Verse 46. Paul said this to those
Jews. It says those Jews began to contradict
and blaspheme. They weren't contradicting God's
Word. They were contradicting themselves. They began to say all manner
of blasphemous things against the God of the Bible and His
purpose in choosing a people. And verse 46, I like this, Paul
and Barnabas waxed bold. Over in chapter 14, verse 3,
it says again, right after they were confronted by the Jews,
it said, they speaking boldly. Those fellows didn't scare Paul
and Barnabas, those Jews. Remember, Paul was a Pharisee,
and he confronted Pharisees everywhere. Paul knew the Scriptures, and
he knew that they didn't. And they didn't worry him. And
whoever it was that confronted him, like our Lord, who said
to them, you don't know the Scriptures, nor the power of God. You remember
that? He said, you're error. You do
error because you don't know the Scriptures. nor the power
of God. God's Word from the beginning
talks about God's purpose, does it not? About God choosing a
people. God's Word from the beginning
is a message of God's sovereign elect and grace. And those who
reject it, those who try to contradict it, they don't know the Scripture.
They don't know the Scripture. Nor the power of God. If he's
God, he can say it, can't he? I've asked people this before. If you could save your children
from harm's way, from trouble, from danger, if you could protect
them, would you? I mean, if you had all power
to prevent anything from happening to them, would you? Would you? Who wouldn't? What parent who
loves their child would not? We can't. God can. God does. All whom God loves,
He saves. Wouldn't you? Well, it's ridiculous
to think that He wouldn't. Huh? It's blasphemous to say
that He wouldn't. Is it not? Does that not blaspheme
God's power to say that, well, He loves you, but He can't do
anything. He won't let it. That's blasphemy. He can say
that about me. My child were rebellious and
I couldn't do anything about it. I love them, but I can't
do anything about it. God can and God does. It's blasphemous for somebody
to say that he can't. It blasphemes his power. It blasphemes
his love. It blasphemes his wisdom. It
blasphemes the whole gospel, does it not? It contradicts the
whole gospel. God's sending his son down here
to do something and he didn't do it. What a waste. That's blasphemy. Not one drop
of Christ's blood was wasted. That all affects you. You like
this? Well, Paul said in verse 46, he said, You reject. In verse 46, they rejected it. He said, You put it from you.
See that? You put it from you and judge
yourselves unworthy. All who refuse the gospel, all
who reject the gospel, they judge themselves. They have
rejected it, they have refused it, and they judge themselves
by their refusal. That's right. And all do reject it. All do refuse it. And put it
from you. I did for several years. I came and heard the gospel and
put it from me. I don't want that. I don't need
that. I don't. I don't need that. And put it
from me. And left like those Jews. I left.
But God. But God who's rich in mercy. to not put it from, but to lay
hold on it. Say, hey, I like that, I like
that. Well, all right, let me ask you that. What makes some
believe and some don't? It's who? God. As many as were
ordained to eternal life believe. God chose some to believe. Many,
many. Now here's the second question.
What makes some glad and some mad? Now, it's not the same question,
it's a different question. What makes some believe, some
glad? Sovereign grace of God. Well,
what is it that makes some glad and some mad? What is it they
get glad at and what is it they get mad at? Well, the same thing.
Sovereign grace. Sovereign grace. See, the Jews
believed. Turn to Luke chapter four with
Luke chapter four. Luke chapter four. The Jews believed
they were God's chosen. They did. They believed they
were God's chosen. Not the Gentiles, but the Jews. The Jews believed
that God chose them. But not, they did not believe
this to the glory of God's grace, to the glory of God's electing
grace of them. They didn't, that's not why they
believed that. They didn't believe that. They believed they were,
they didn't believe to the glory of God's electing grace, they
believed to the glory of the Jewish race. You understand me? They believed
to the glory of the Jewish race. Now, our Lord is preaching to
the Jews. In chapter 4, verse 25 of Luke,
look at it. Our Lord says, in verse 25, I
tell you of a truth. Many widows were in Israel in
the day of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six
months. Many widows were in Israel. Three years, six months, great
famine was throughout the land, but none of them was Elijah sent
to. Not one Jew did God send Elijah
to. But say unto Sarepta, a city
of Scythia, that is a Gentile woman, a woman that was a widow,
a poor, insignificant, nobody, Gentile woman, widowed woman,
over there living by herself, in a little huddle. That's who
Elijah, the great prophet of God, God sent him and one little,
measly, old widowed woman, no Jews. Many lepers were in Israel,
our Lord says, in the time of Elisha, the prophet. And none of them was cleansed,
Elisha, the prophet. None of them was cleansed, save
Naaman, the Syrian. A dark-skinned fellow from Syria,
who Jews hate the Syrians, still do. Syrians hate the Jews. God sent Elisha, the great prophet,
to this Naaman. His pagan captain to cleanse
him of his leprosy. Look at verse 28. And all in
the synagogue, all the Jews, when they heard these things,
were filled with wrath. Filled with wrath. They just,
everybody in there knew what Paul was saying, that God chose
some and rejected Jews. God chose a couple of Gentiles
and no Jews. Isn't that right? Ooh, boy, they
got furious, furious. And they believed that God chose
Jews because there was a good Jewish race, about like some
white folk think. Right? Good wasps, white angels,
Saxon Protestants, you know. That's about, you know, that's
about the same. They believed that they had the superior race.
Superior race, the Jews. Also, they believed God chose
them because they were good Jews. Because they were good Jews.
They were real good, pious, moral, devoted Jews that kept the law.
Now back to Acts 13. Back to Acts 13. Very quickly.
Acts 13. They believed that they were
good, pious, moral, devoted Jews that kept the law. They kept
the traditions. And Paul preached the message
for sinners. For sinners. Not good Jews, but just for sinners. For sinners. Not good righteous,
moral, pious people that thought well of themselves. No, no, no.
Sinners. That's the message of the gospel.
The common, ordinary, run-of-the-mill sinners. Look at verse 38. This is what
Paul preached. He said, Be it known unto you,
therefore, men and brethren, that through this man, through
Jesus Christ, is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins.
Now, who would be interested in the forgiveness of sins? Who
would listen to a message about the forgiveness of sins? Who
would be real glad to hear about the forgiveness of sins? Huh? Who by a sinner. Now, I don't
mean somebody, well, I got some faults, and if the Lord just
help me with these faults, I'll be a pretty good person. No! I mean
a person who says, I'm no good through and through. I've tried
my best all my life, I can't improve. Everything I think,
everything I do is mixed. That's who will be real glad
to hear about the forgiveness of sin. And read on, it gets
better. It gets better, verse 39. Paul
preached by Christ, by Jesus Christ, yes, just through Him
and Him only. All that believe, just simply
believe. Not do anything, not if you'll
crawl a mile on your knees, not if you'll sacrifice, not if you'll
do this or do that. Believe. Look to Christ alone. Just believe. Look at this. Here's
the message. All that believe are justified
from all things. think and say and are sin. And she said, such were some
of you living a life like that. And the Gentiles and the Lord
began to work on and began to be ashamed of that and want out
of it and want help. And they heard this message.
Some of them came to church, you know, that's why they were
there. They came to here. The Jews looked at them like
a bunch of sinners. You remember the Pharisee and
the publican that came into the temple? The Pharisee was a good
Jew. He came in and said, oh, God's glad to have me here. I'm such a good man, there was
an old publican, a fellow, everybody knew what he was, and he knew
it, and felt ashamed to be there, and didn't feel like he was worthy
to be there, and so he sat on the back row. And all he could do, all that
old publican could do, when he came to the worship service,
was sit on his chair. That's all he could say. God be merciful
to me, sinner. Would God have mercy on me, somebody
like me, sinner? And here's what the Lord Jesus
Christ said, the only one who has the power to forgive sins,
the only one who has the say in the matter, here's what he
said concerning those two men. Here's a real good, upstanding,
moral, pious, religious fellow. forgiven, washed clean, forgiven,
slates clean, he'll be with me in glory from now on. The other
fellow, I reject him. Thumbs down. Now, who's glad to hear a message
like that? Sinners. I've got to tell this on you,
Mack. We were standing around by the
fire a week or so ago. He said, when you find out you're
a sinner, you can't stay away. He said, you'll want to be away,
but when you find out you're a sinner, you can't stay away
from this gospel. You need it. And Paul said, all who
believe are justified from all things. Those Gentiles that did
things, said things, that they would never forget, and so have
we. Things that haunt us about our past that we cannot erase,
we cannot forget, we wish it never happened. I mean things
last week. Yesterday. That we wish we could
erase, but they won't, and they'll haunt us. But God says, there's
sins and iniquity. I remember no more. No more. Justified. What things? All things. All things. But you don't know. There's a
woman, our Lord. There's a story of a woman being
married. How many times? Five times? Is that the story? The woman, John chapter 4? Five
times? Six times? Seven times? Bunch
of times. What difference does it make?
She'd been married often, and now she was living with a fella.
And the Lord came to her. and exposed herself to it. He
told her, you know, he created in her a conviction of what she
was. And then he created an interest
in her, thirst. He talked to her about water
that would leave you never thirst again. Trying to get happy at
being married and this and that, but couldn't find it. The Lord
told her about that about himself. And she said, Lord, give me this
water. Give it to me. And eventually the Lord, he said,
I am what you need. I that speak unto you, unto Christ,
your only hope, your only help, justify you from all things,
just as if I, justify, just as if I, never sin. justified from all things, from
which he said, Paul said, you cannot, you cannot be justified
by the law. Paul preached that very clearly,
didn't he? You cannot be justified by the
law of Moses. Nobody can put away one sin by
doing anything. By living a thousand lifetimes,
nobody can put away one sin, but God puts away all sin by
simply faith and pride. Now this made sinners glad. That's
what made these sinners glad. It made Jews mad. They said,
here's what they concluded. You mean I've been religious
all my life for nothing? You mean I've been attending
church all these years and God doesn't count it? No. You mean
I've attended Sunday school, got all these pins to show, and
I never missed a day? I wanted to. I wanted to see
the Super Bowl. But I didn't. I came to church
and what would they think? And I might, you know, lose my
staff. You mean that accounts for nothing? Nothing! I'm not even mad. But I've won all
these songs of Jesus. Nothing. Doesn't count for anything. Only the blood and the righteousness
of God's Son counts for anything. And I tell you what, it counts
for everything. And it removes all things. That makes them glad. Oh, it
made them glad. The only people that need sovereign
mercy are, well, those that need it. Sinners need sovereign mercy. It makes them glad. The only
people it makes glad, sovereign grace, that is salvation, a complete
gift and work of God Almighty. Psalm 92, 4. Psalm 92, 4. David
said this. He said, Thou hast made me glad
through thy work. He said, I'll triumph in the work of your hands."
That's a good verse. God, He said, thou hast made
me glad through thy work. That's the work of Christ. You've
made me glad. He said, I'll triumph through the work of thy hands.
I'll get the glory by Him. I won't get there, I'm wrong.
If left to myself, I'll fall today. That makes sinners mighty glad.
What makes some people mad? Same thing. Sovereign mercy. I don't need mercy. I'm not that
bad. Then you don't get it. What makes some people mad? Sovereign
grace. Salvation. Total work of God
Almighty. I don't need that. I'm not being
a good father. Then you don't get it. You know, whoever wants it gets
it. Ask somebody. You want it? I don't think that.
I made my decision. Well, then you don't get it. Ask the sinner. Do you want it?
Oh, I sure do. You get it. Everybody that asks,
that needs it. All right, last thing. What is
it that believers do? Glad believers do. Verse 48 says
that they heard this word, were glad, and they glorified the
word of the Lord. They didn't glorify themselves.
They didn't glorify their decision for Jesus. They didn't glorify
their baptism. They didn't glorify how they
accepted Him and led Him into their heart. They didn't glorify
how they prayed through that night. Mom had prayed them through
that night. Daddy prayed them through that night. They didn't
glorify how they finally decided to come down front and give their... They didn't glorify anybody but
God. They glorified the Word of the
Lord. They knew what it was that operated on them. What is it
that operated on you? What was it that spoke to you?
What was it that broke your proud or sinful heart? And sinful heart? The Word of God. Nothing else.
There sits Nancy Clark. Oh, she was a good Christian
for a long time, weren't you? Good Southern Baptist woman,
weren't you, Nancy? But lost, weren't you? God Almighty sent
a preacher. John 17, John 6, somewhere in
John, the word of the Lord. Had to convince Nancy Parks that
she was a sinner. You weren't a sinner before,
were you? But God. It's the mercy of God
to convince somebody they're a sinner. Even an old drunk on
a bar stool won't admit it much. You know, ask you, well, I wasn't
good as an ex-fella. Yeah, you are. And he's very
good at all this. Isn't that right, Kelly? Worst fellow
you've ever been around. He's better than somebody. Ah, boy. Ain't many sinners.
Boy, but sinners are glad, and they glorify the Word of the
Lord. Self-righteous people glorify themselves, their morality, how
they quit doing this and quit doing that. Sinners glorify God. They glorify His choice, they
glorify His righteousness, they glorify His power, they glorify
His Son. That's what they do. It says they glorify the Word
of the Lord. I love that. It says after the
Lord preached, it says the common people heard Him gladly. The
old common people just heard Him gladly. Now you explain to
me. When our Lord was here, everyday
low life people were just drawn to Him. They just loved to hear
what everything had to say. While the religious people, those
are the ones that killed Him. Sunday go to meet Him, real pious
religious people killed Him. They hated Him. Why? Exposed
Him. He said, if I hadn't come, you
wouldn't have any sin. But now I've come. I look on the heart. Well, common
people heard him gladly. Sinners hear this, they're glad.
And one more thing. One more thing. Acts chapter
2. OK. What do glad believers do? Acts chapter 2. Look back there
again. Acts chapter 2. It says they
glorified the Word of the Lord. Glad believers glorify God. And
Acts chapter 2. Those who believe God's word,
love it, glorify it, they do what it says. These people, as
I said, asked Peter in verse 37, when they heard this, when
they heard the gospel, they were pricked in their hearts, they
were convicted. And they said unto Peter and to the rest of
the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? What shall
we do? And Peter said, verse 38, here's
what Peter said, to lose, repent. That means, that doesn't mean
just, no, repentance is toward God. You don't repent to a man. You don't come to me and tell
me about it. You don't go to anybody but Christ. You go to
him and ask him for forgiveness. That's repentance. Repentance
is sorrow for what you are, what you've been, what you do, what
you are, who you are. And if you don't make big promises
not to do it again, that's not repentance. It's saying you're
sorry. But repentance is to have a heart
desire to want to turn from me, to turn from everything, the
world, yourself. Repent. That's what repentance
means. You also repent of your goodness. I won't pick on you
a little bit, Nancy. Nancy had to repent of her self-righteousness. My sister, we grew up together. My sister was a model child.
My sister never did anything bad. She was a good girl, my
sister. I mean a model child. Everyone
in here would love to have a daughter like that. Grew up a fine, moral,
upstanding girl. Everybody thought, well, she's
a good girl. Now me, I was the opposite. But anyway, my sister had to
come to the point to realize that she was a sinner. And what
the Lord convicted her of was her self-righteousness. Her self-righteousness. Thinking she was good. You see,
God hates that as much as out and out open immorality. Why? Because that's why Christ came.
to be righteous for people. And people who think they're
righteous don't need what he did. And that's for them to say,
he might as well not have come. I don't need him. I can get there
on my own. God hates that. God hates that. The thing about it is, people
think they're right, but they're not. They're not. And my sister
had to, God had to convict her of her self-righteousness. That's repentance. That's repentant. And it read on, it says, verse
38, Peter said unto them, repent and be baptized, every one of
you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sin. You
shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. Assure them. Baptize, baptism. The Lord commands
this to everyone that believes this message. Everyone is glad
to hear it. And they did. Verse 41, when
they that gladly received his word were baptized. Now, baptism
doesn't put away any sin. Baptism doesn't do anything.
Getting in that pool is the same as getting in your bathtub. Except, what you're doing when
you get in there is in front of a crowd of people, you're
saying, I believe Jesus Christ. I want everybody to know it.
That I believe what Jesus Christ did. He came to live. He did it for me. I believe this
message. And when he died, put him down
under the ground, you go down under the water. When he died,
he took me with him. I was punished, I was killed
when Christ was crucified. He punished my sins. And I was
crucified with Christ. Buried. My sins were taken away. And now I rise to walk in the
newness of life. Now I'm a follower of Him. And
I want everybody to know. That's the difference. You can't
do that at home. You're baptized. But you do it here in front of
the whole... It's kind of like a marriage ceremony. You're going
to tell everybody, I'm a disciple of Christ now. And that's the
way He told us to do it. He did it. Jesus Christ did it,
didn't He? But He did it. And He tells all
His disciples, and they that gladly received this were baptized.
And if you read on, verse 42, they continued steadfastly in
the apostles' doctrine. What's that mean? They came back
with His denial. That's what it means. They continued
steadfastly. What does that mean? Well, they
were so glad to hear it Saturday, they came back Wednesday, or
whenever they met. You go, when are you going to
meet next? We want to be there. That's what glad receivers do.
Fellowship. Doctrine and fellowship. They've
got—God's people were their people now. The family, the church family,
was their family now. Their home, their flesh and blood
family. If they didn't believe the gospel,
so be it. I got a new family. That's who I want to be with.
That's what they did. Who does this? Everybody that
this message makes glad. Glad receivers. Does this message
make you glad? And it ought to be comforting.
Let me tell you something. If it does, well, that sounds
pretty much like you've been ordained to eternal life. As many as were ordained to eternal
life. Make you want to come back and
hear it again? Make you want to fellowship? Make you want
to hang around and break bread? That's what we're going to do. Sounds good to me. Sounds mighty. of God's grace. All right, let's stand. Our Lord, thank You for Your
Word. Thank You for Your sovereign mercy and grace, the Gospel of
Christ, our salvation. Thank You. Thank You for Your
Word. We glorify and magnify Your Word above all else. It's Your power, it's Your glory,
it's Your honor. We honor You and Your Word, which
effectually worketh in us to believe, and worketh all things."
And again, Lord, we ask your mercy upon our sister. And it's
in Christ's name we have met here tonight. Amen. Okay, you're
dismissed. There's food downstairs, lots
of it.