When I announced my title this
morning, when I said that I was going to preach a Pentecostal
message, what was your first reaction? Your, really and truly,
your first, the first thoughts in your mind? Was it, did you
think of the Holy Spirit? Did you think of tongues? Did
you think of, we're going to hold a healing service, or I
was going to begin to babble ridiculously? Is that what you
thought? That's how men in our day have wrested this portion
of Scripture. That's how they have twisted
and perverted this passage of Scripture. Rather than the word
of truth, the gospel of Jesus Christ, men have taken Pentecostal
preaching to mean speaking in tongues, healing, and this and
that and the other. Those were the means of an end.
Those were qualifications given by God Almighty to some apostles
who did not yet have this Bible before us. They didn't have this
finished Word of God. It hadn't been written yet. Peter
said, now, we've seen all these things. We've seen all these
miracles. We ourselves have done some miracles and so forth. He
says, but now you have a more sure word of prophecy. You've
got a book written, a finished book. These things are no longer
needed. These miracles, signs, wonders
and so forth. But I'm not going to get into
languages and this and that and the other. It's enough to say
that God does give the gifts of languages, other languages
to other men. We've had men in his pulpit preaching
other tongues, not in a babbling, but we have missionaries to Mexico
who can preach in Spanish. Brother Bill Clark can preach
fluently in four languages that was given to him. Brother Ken
Wymer in French, missionary to Africa and so forth. But the
day of Pentecost was a day of preaching the gospel. And when
I said I'm going to preach the Pentecostal message, what I meant
was I'm going to preach the gospel that they preached at Pentecost.
This was a day in which the gospel was proclaimed in no uncertain
terms, and three thousand people heard the power of God unto salvation. The gospel. Tongues aren't the
power of God unto salvation. Right? Healing's not. The gospel,
the Scripture says, is the power of God unto salvation. Pentecost. Now, Pentecost, the word Pentecost
means fiftieth. In other words, this was a feast
like so many feasts they had back then, a feast fifty days
after the Passover, fifty days. This was the end of the harvest
and many people were gathered together to this feast of Pentecost,
this fiftieth day feast. Many people were gathered together
just like other feasts in that day. But this was one to be remembered
above all else. This was one to be remembered
for all time and eternity. Why? Why? What did folks go away
talking about after this? Why was it to be remembered?
What did folks go away talking about? The Holy Ghost? No. They
did it first. So what's that sound? They go
away talking about tongues? They did it first. Hey, we hear
these fellows speaking in our own languages. How can this? They're Galileans. They don't
know Greek. Did they go away talking about
the apostles? No. They did it first. Look at these
fellows. Look what they're doing. They did it first, but they didn't
when they left this place. They weren't talking about the
apostles. They weren't talking about tongues. They weren't talking
about the Holy Ghost. They were talking about one person
when they left that place. They were talking about the Lord
Jesus Christ, about whom they had never heard before. The great
issue raised by the apostles on this day and the issue I'm
going to raise this morning that everyone went away talking about,
and by God's help, everybody in here go away talking about, is who the Lord Jesus Christ
is and what he did. That was the message of Pentecost.
Look at it, beginning in verse 22. Peter stood up and he said,
You men of Israel, you men of Israel, hear these words. Don't look at the fire. Don't
be taken up with a fiery preacher. Hear these words. Listen to what
I'm saying. Don't be enamored with tongues. Don't be taken up with, enamored
with, impressed by the oratory ability of the man. You see, I don't have it. The
oratorical abilities of the preacher. Don't be impressed by that. Hear
these words. Don't be taken up with these
things. Hear the word of the living God. And that's what is
majored on in this building. And that's what is majored on
by every true gospel preacher. He preaches the word of the living
God. And more specifically, the word of truth, which is the gospel
of salvation, which is the power of God. He says, hear these words.
Now, what are these words? What is the gospel? Look at it. Hear these words. of Nazareth,
a man approved of God." That's the gospel in a nutshell, right
there. Hear the Word of God. What does
the Word proclaim? What is the Word of God all about?
What is the Bible all about, from Genesis to Revelation? What
is it all about? Christ said it on the road to
Emmaus. He said, you search the Scriptures,
in them you think you have life. But he said, all the Beginning
at Moses and the prophets and the Psalms are they which testify
of me, who I am. The Old Testament says somebody
is coming, the Messiah, the God-man, the Christ. He's coming. The
Gospels say he's here. He's here. The epistles say he's
coming back. He's coming back. Hear these
words. Hear the word of the living God.
What does the word of God testify of? Christ, the Lord of glory,
a man, a man. The Scripture says a child is
born, yes, and people just still have him as a mere mortal man,
a baby in a manger, a man on a cross. He's a man, yes, but
he's more than that. The Scripture goes on to say
a son is given. And it says the government is
upon his shoulders. The rule, the reign of all the
universe is upon this man whom you think to be merely a man.
It's upon his shoulders. Why? Because his name, his name
is called Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God. More than a man,
this is God. God walked this earth, the Mighty
God, and he said he's been approved of God. This man, hear these
words, this man has been approved of God. Now listen to me. From
the beginning of time, From Adam, the first man who fell miserably
and rebelled against God Almighty, from Adam all the way to you
and me and those that are going to come after us, God does not
approve of any of us. He says all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God, right? He says there's none that doeth
good, no, not one, right? That's what the Bible says. He
said there's none righteous. Now, he said I, the Lord, am
righteous and I love righteousness. But he said there's none righteous,
no, not one. That means he doesn't approve of us, does he, Stan?
He said, they all do fade as the leaf. He said, all have been
taken away by their iniquities. They all do drink iniquity like
the water, including this man. Nobody from Adam until this whole
thing is done has ever been approved. God actually said, I approve
of you. You've done good. You are righteous,
except one. One man. one man, and he wasn't
just a man. That's the only way he could
do it, because he wasn't just a man. He was the God-man. God had to come down here and
become a man and show us what God requires of a man. And Christ
walked this earth in perfection, and God even said it twice from
heaven. He said, I approve of this man,
that man I approve of. Nobody else. That man. And that's
the gospel, because the only way you or you or me or anybody
is going to be approved by God Almighty, going to be accepted
by God Almighty, is in that man. That is, God considering us as
in that man. I'll go into that a little more
here in a minute. 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, now look at verse 23, "...him,"
that is, this Jesus Christ, "...him being delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God." That is, the all-wise plan
and purpose of God Almighty was in this man. All time and eternity,
all the universe exists for the sole purpose of this man's work,
his life and his work. God planned it, purposed it.
The whole thing revolves around what this man did, this God-man. And God Almighty has delivered
him by his determinate counsel and foreknowledge, that is, foreordinating,
predestinating purpose. Why? He sent him down here to
be a sacrifice, a substitute. Now listen to me, ye men of Israel,
hear these words. OK? These are biblical words.
This is not just theology rolling in on that. Christ came to be
a substitute. A substitute. He came to be a
sin-atoning sacrifice. You need to know what that means.
That is the gospel. That is our only hope and help
of salvation. Substitute. That is, Christ came
down here to take my place, to do what God demanded of me. Perfect. Thought, word, and deed. I couldn't
do it. He could. So he did. And then Christ said
to go to the cross and take my sin upon him and be punished
by God. Why? Because the soul that sinneth
must surely die. The wages of sin is death. But
Christ being God can't die. But being a man, he can. So he
became a man and went to that cross and took my sin and the
sin of all of God's people. Not every single person that
ever lived, but God's people. Because if he'd taken all the
sins of all the people in all the world, everybody would be
saved. But he took all the sins of all of God's people and went
to the cross and bore the punishment that they deserved. And then
went back to heaven, accepted by God. Substitute in the stator. I'm going to preach on it tonight.
That is, I walk in this earth, sinful, wretched, unapproved,
disapproved, in rebellion to God. Christ comes down and says,
get out of the way. And he puts on my clothing, clothing
and flesh, and he walks the perfect life. And God said, Now there,
yes, good, holy, right, approved. And then Christ took that clothing
off, that flesh off, and put it on me. And I said, Now! And
now God sees me as being in Christ. And you, if you come to Christ
about that. And then Christ took my sin and
went to that cross, and God saw me hanging there and punished
me and all of God's people. A man approved of God. Now, could
you stop right there and preach it all from right there? But
let's go on. He was delivered by the determinate counsel and
foreknowledge of God. Verse 23. Now, that's the sovereignty
of God. That's the sovereign purpose
and plan of God Almighty to send His Son down here. You see, Christ
is called the lamb slain before the foundation of the world in
it. You've seen that in the Bible, I'm sure. The lamb slain before
the foundation of the world. But he had to come down here
actually one day and be slain. He had to be killed, his throat
cut just like the old lambs of old. Blood, without shedding
of blood there's no remission. The actual shedding of blood.
So Christ came down here as the lamb slain. Now, God sent him. God purposed it. That's the sovereignty
of God in this thing. Now, look at the responsibility,
the response of man. Man exercises his, quote, free
will. What does he do? You, with wicked
hands, have crucified and slain him. Now, you did what God determined
before to be done. You slayed God's Lamb for him. He determined that the Lamb was
going to be slain. You took him, slew the lamb,
put him on the altar as a sacrifice for sin. I'm glad they did that. Oh, Robert, Rex Humbard one day,
in all of his foolishness, he said, he was weeping and crying,
you know how they do, standing up, he's weeping and crying,
he said, Brethren, if I'd have been there when they crucified
Christ, if I'd have been there, I would have stopped it. I'm glad they didn't stop it.
You and I'd be forever in hell. He had to be slain without the
shedding of blood. There's no remission of sin,
without a substitute, without a Sanatonian sacrifice, a perfect
one, the God-man. There's no salvation. Besides,
old Rex would have been right in on it with everybody else.
He says, we have. Everybody. Isaiah 53, read it.
We all have been in on this. If we'd have been there, I don't
care how religious we are, we'd have been right in on it, too.
We'd have been throwing stones, and we'd have been casting accusations
at them, because these were the religious people of that day,
folks. These were the churchgoers. Yes, they were. But, thank God,
God delivered him for a purpose, and he allowed this to take place,
us to take him with wicked hands to crucify him. to kill him,
but they did it because God determined before for it to be done. But
he didn't stay dead. Verse 24, God raised him up. He raised him up. You put him
in the grave here. And this is what men hate now.
It's what they hated then. He said God raised him up. He
had loosed the pains of death because it's not possible that
he should behold another. They took him down from that
cross. They killed him. They thought, we're done with him
now. They took his body down from the cross and threw it in
a cave and rolled a big rock over it and set a watch on that
cave and said, now we're through with him. Right? And they did
this back in the Reformation and back in the days of the apostles.
Men hate this same gospel of a risen Lord, a seated, sovereign
Savior. But no, God has raised him up. Men think they're through with
it. Think they're through with it. But it's not possible for
the Lord of life to stay dead. It's not possible. And men today
have Him, like I said, in a manger, in a box. They have Him still
on a cross. But He ain't on a cross anymore. He was for a brief time. He was in a tomb for a brief
time. He was in a manger for a brief time. But not anymore.
Where is He now? He's seated on the throne of
His glory. Go on. He says, David spoke of
him, verse 25. Now, remember, Peter's talking
to these Jews, these religious Jews back there, and he says,
David. Now, they all would raise up at the sound of this name,
David. David, their king. They said,
David spoke concerning Christ. You know all the Psalms? They
talk about Christ. David wouldn't just talk about
himself. You read the Psalms? Look for Christ in them, because
Christ is in them. David spoke concerning him. He
said, I foresaw The Lord. Who did David see? Not a baby,
not a boy, not a mere man. The Lord. The Lord. He said,
I saw the Lord before my face, and He is on my right hand, and
it should not be moved. Therefore did my heart rejoice,
and my tongue was glad. And moreover also my flesh shall
rest in hope. David said, I rejoice in the
Lordship. of this one, the absolute sovereign
authority and power, the reign and the rule of this one. That's
what I rejoice in, and I rest in Him as my only hope. I rest
because He's my hope, and I'm hopeless. That He must save because
I'm lost. That's what David was saying.
What David was saying, salvation is of the Lord, and He's my only
hope and the only one that I can appeal to. A very present help
in time of trouble. I can't save myself, David said.
He must save me. And he's the hope of all flesh. He's our only hope of rest. Verse
27, he said, You won't leave my soul in hell. Why? Why is it that men stay out of
hell? How does anybody stay out of
hell? Morality? Because you live a better life
than somebody else? Because you go to church more,
you got more Sunday school pens than anybody else? Because you're
a preacher? Judas found out, didn't he? Preacher
doesn't mean a thing. Why does anybody, how does anybody
stay out of hell? Verse 27. Because he didn't suffer
his holy one to see corruption. You understand that? The only
way that anybody's going to stay out of hell is because Christ
reigns and rules and he He destroyed the power of death and hell as
a man. But Christ Jesus won the victory
over death and over sin and imputed to us that victory. Now, verse
28, Thou hast made known to me the ways of life. David said,
You've made known unto me the ways of life. What is the way
of life? God revealed the truth. To David,
what is the truth? What is the way? What is the
life? Ring a bell? Christ said, I am the way, the
truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. Nobody gets to God except I take
them there as their representative. Nobody. No man cometh unto the
Father but by me. Christ saved him. David learned
that. Learned that. He found that out.
That he had to have a representative. He had to have a son to do it.
He had to have a Messiah. He had to have a Savior. He had
to have a Redeemer. David learned that. And that's
what he rejoices in. He said, You've made this known
to me, that I can't get to God on my own. I'm nothing. I'm nobody.
I'm a sinner. God can't have anything to do
with sinners. He can only have something to do with the sinner
Savior. Us in Him. I'm telling you the
truth here, your only hope. I'm telling you. David learned
that. He said, you've made it known
to me, and blessed are your ears if you hear this. Blessed are
your eyes if you see and understand this. Blessed is your heart if
you receive this, because it wasn't given to you. Flesh and
blood didn't reveal that to you. But my Father which is in heaven
has revealed unto you that you can't get to God on your own
by your morality, your good work. You're going to get there in
Christ. And he'll make you full of joy. That's what he said there. David said, I'm full of joy.
Why? Because I see you're counting it. What did he say there in
2 Corinthians 4? Huh? The light of the glory of the
gospel of God has shined in our hearts. What is it? What is the glory of God? What
is the light of the knowledge of the glory of God? It's in
the face, the countenance of the Lord Jesus Christ. We see
the gospel, the truth, the way, the truth, the life, redemption,
sanctification, wisdom. We see all these things in a
face of Jesus Christ. A person. A person. Not in a
doctrine, not in a creed, not in a church, not in a pew, not
in the water. We see it in a person. A person. David saw it, do you see it?
I hope so. It's salvation. It's salvation
in a look. Look unto me and be ye saved. Salvation's in a look. Not itself,
though. Let's see if I stack up. Let's
see, I've got this down. Thou shalt not kill. That's not
it. Salvation's in a look at a person.
At a person. Trust in him. Now, men and brethren,
verse 29, go on, stay with me here. Men and brethren, let me
freely speak unto you of the patriarch David. Now, he just
quoted this psalm to them, these Jews, a bunch of Jews. Now, put
yourself in this position. A bunch of Jews attending this
meeting, and they loved David, they loved the psalms, they loved
the Old Testament scriptures, and he was quoting this psalm
to them, and he said, Now, men and brethren, let me talk to
you about David. David just wrote this yesterday, and I quoted
it. But David's dead. He's buried, and we have his
grave with us today. But David was a prophet, verse
30, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that
is, God revealed the truth to him, David's God revealed to
him that out of the fruit of his loins, according to his flesh,
he would raise up this coming Messiah, this coming one, to
sit on the throne. Not just his throne, David's
throne, but the throne, the throne of God himself, the coming one. And David, he said, seeing this
before, he spake of the resurrection of Christ. Christ, the Lord. That his soul was not left in
hell. That Christ's soul wasn't in
the grave that he rode. Neither did his flesh seek corruption.
And this Jesus, look at verse 32, this Jesus, not another,
not a helpless, frustrated, failing reformer and a murderer, not
one who's hanging over the banisters of heaven hoping somebody will
let him save him. Not a baby in a manger, not one
that's still on a cross, not one who just loves everybody
in such a sentimental fashion, this Jesus, this Lord. This sovereign one, this eternal
one, this promised one, this Jesus, not another. Paul said
they come preaching another Jesus, didn't he? Another Jesus. This Jesus hath God raised up,
and we're witnesses. That's all I'm doing this morning.
I'm not trying to convert you to Baptists, Calvinists, whatever.
I'm not trying to convert you to anything like that. I'm trying
to witness of who Jesus Christ is. Not who I am. I don't want you to go away from
here talking about this preacher or this church. I don't want
you to be looking for a church. I want you to be looking to find
out who Christ is. That's who we've got to save.
This is salvation. He is salvation. Not in that
water. Not in walking down the aisle.
Not in your prayers. Not in your doings. Whatever.
He and He alone must save. And that's what you do when you
come to Christ. You just come to Him and say, Lord, save me. I can't do it. Save me. This Jesus, God hath raised up. Verse 33. Therefore, being by
the right hand of God. At the right hand of God. The
right hand of God is a symbol of His power and His authority.
the right hand of God Almighty, exalted—oh, I wish I could preach
this like it ought to be preached—exalted, having received the promise—Christ,
he's talking about here—received the promise of the Father, of
the Holy Ghost, that is, he sent him forth. And this is what you're
now seeing and hearing. If you, by God's Spirit and by
His grace right now, are hearing these words from this preacher
right now, God sent him, the Holy Spirit, for you to hear
this message. You're not here by accident. God sent him. And right now he's saying, right
there he was saying to these Jews, he said, everything you're
hearing, everything you're seeing, Christ sent it for one purpose.
For one purpose and one purpose only. Why? That you might see
who Christ is. Not going away talking about...
Not going away talking about that nonsense. Not going away
talking about how we healed all these people. Not going away
talking about the preacher, but going away talking about this
living Lord. And every successful faithful
gospel message people go away talking about Christ. Somebody
went in one time to hear a Charles Spurgeon priest who was called
one of the greatest preachers. And they went out there and said,
one man said, oh, that was a great sermon, great sermon. That man didn't hear, didn't
hear the message. Another man went out of there
having heard the same message, and he said, my, my, my, what
a great Savior. There's the difference in salvation
and mere religion. What a great sermon. Oh, this
is a nice place. But go out rejoicing in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now
there's salvation. That's what the Holy Spirit does.
That's what the Holy Spirit does. God did all this, Peter said,
to make you hear the word of the gospel. God did it, verse
34. And David's not ascended into
the heavens, but he saith himself, the Lord said unto my Lord, God
said to my Savior, you sit right down right here on my right hand
until I make you foes your footstool. Oh, my soul. This generation
doesn't like preaching like this. They don't like to hear about
a sovereign king and a Lord, do they? About a Christ who does
as He will in the armies of heaven and among the heavens and the
earth, and none can stay His hand or say unto Him, what doest
thou? They preach a silly, sentimental
Jesus that's in the hands of men, don't they? That's not what
this Bible says. This Bible talks about a risen
Lord in whose hands we are. and who we must appeal to for
help and for salvation and for mercy. That's the first sign
or evidence of salvation. Now, accept Jesus as your personal
Savior. That's not in the Bible. But it's to come to this risen
Lord and say, please accept me. Please have mercy on me, the
sinner. That man or that woman is going
to be saved. And he'd walk in the aisle, shaking
the preacher's hand, getting that pull that's coming to Christ
to save you. And David, that's who David was
talking about, he said to the Lord, speaking of the Lord Jesus
Christ, that he's on the right hand of God, and he says his
foes are going to be his footstool. His foes, his footstool. Therefore, verse 36, let all
the house of Israel and let all the world and everybody under
the sound of the word of God know assuredly, without a doubt,
irrefutably, undeniably, unchangeably, that God has made this same Jesus
both Lord and Christ, the one you crucified, the one that walked
this earth, the one that's now risen and reigning. He's Lord. In other words, what he's saying
is, bow down. Right? That's the response that
Peter was evoking here. That's the response that I'm
evoking here, out of everyone that hears this message. Not
do anything. Not come down here. Not come
to me. Not do anything. But bow down
before this sovereign Lord. Right? and he'll take care of the rest.
Bow, bow. That's what all the Bible tells
us first. Bow down. Peace came. Bow to
these lords and bow down. That's what we're going to be
doing in heaven, Terry. Bow down, sitting at his feet, worshiping,
Lord, Lord. Oh, and perfect, a perfect love
will cast out fear then. Be perfectly happy and content bow down. Now, look at verse
37. When they heard this, when they heard this message
of this risen, sovereign, all-powerful Lord, they were put in there. Not seeing the tombs, not seeing
the fire, not hearing all the babbling, when they heard of
this one in whose hands they were. that they had killed Him,
and now they're in His hands. Oh, their hearts fail. Someday
everybody's going to hear, aren't they? Christ said, at the name
of Jesus, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess.
Thank God if you see Him now. and bow now, and worship now,
because everyone we're worshiping, but some people will be forced
to do so. But it won't be in salvation,
it will be in condemnation. But when they heard this, this
sovereign Lord, they were pricked in their heart. And what was
their reaction? Me and Jesus got a good thing. Yeah, I accept
Jesus as my personal Savior. No, that's not what they say
tonight. Are you reading the same Bible I'm reading? Verse 37, they said unto Peter
and the rest of the past men and brethren, what are we going
to do? What are we going to do? We're hopeless. What are we going
to do? You know what they said? Oh,
what are we going to do? Peter said, repent. I'm not hearing
this at all anymore. Are you? Why? Because God loves
everybody, they say. If God loves you, well, you've
got to repent of it. No, God is angry with the wicked
every day. The scripture says, God hateth
all workers of iniquity. The wrath of God abides on the
ungodly. And he says we're all ungodly.
Now, what are we going to do? Repent. Come to God, this all-powerful,
sovereign God, and repent. Bow down and say, God, forgive
me. Where is that, Henry, in these
crusades? Where is that in these revival meetings? Where do you
see people running down the aisles weeping and wailing and gnashing
their teeth and saying, Lord, help us have mercy on this sinner?
Where do you see that anymore? You don't. Come on now, shake my hand, join
the church, give me ten dollars! Come on back next week, give
me ten more!" Salvation is a look at the Sovereign Lord, a bowing
down, a begging for forgiveness. Now, all those who come to God
like that, he says, now, you've come to Christ. Verse 38, And
he'd be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Christ, confessing
this Christ, not another, not a weak, mean, helpless wimp called
Jesus, but this Lord Jesus Christ, this one that I preached this
morning. You'd be baptized confessing this one, this one, unless you
confess this one. You ain't confessed the one of
the Bible. This one, every one of you. for the remission of sin, because
in his name is remission of sin. And you'll receive the gift of
the Holy Ghost. What's the gift of the Holy Ghost? We just went
through it in John, didn't we? John 14, 15, 16. Christ said
the Holy Spirit will come and he'll take the things of mine
and show them unto you. He said in the Holy Spirit, when
the comforters come, he'll convince the world of sin and righteousness
and judgment. Not convince the world that these so-called preachers
are babbling idiots, although he but to convince the world
of sin, righteousness, judgment, to show the world Christ, to
show them Christ, who he is, what he did, where he is now.
That's the work of the Holy Spirit, and that's what Peter's saying,
that God, the Holy Spirit's come to you now. He's come to you
and given you this promise, because the promise is to you and your
children and all that are far off. Even, look at this, the
promise is to whom? Verse 39, the last part. The
promise is to as many as the Lord our God shall call. What does that sound like to
you, Henry? Does that sound like a certain
doctrine to you? Huh? As many as the Lord calls
or he chooses? Sounds like election to me, doesn't
it to you? I love it. I love it. Why? Why
do I love it? Because I'm a Calvinist? No.
This was around a long time before John Calvin. I love it because
if God hadn't chosen me, I'd have never chosen Him. If God
hadn't elected me to salvation, I'd have never chosen Him. I'd
have run down the road as fast as I could away from God. But
thank God He stopped me. He said, whoa, stop, you're mine. And if you are His, He'll do
the same thing to you. You might kick at first against
this what I'm preaching, this doctrine. Many of you did. Many
of you were in churches and so forth. I don't have anything
but that." But one day, God said, you'll have that, because I've
got you, right? How else can you explain it?
One day you're kicking and fighting against this, and the next day
you say, hey, that's great, that's the best thing I ever heard.
How do you explain that? God, as many as the Lord our
God shall call. In many other words, verse 40,
many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, now you save
yourself from this untoward generation. In other words, what he's saying
is, come out from amongst them, this religious camp. Come out
from amongst organized religion, what your daddy, what your mama
believes, what popular believes. Come out! Save yourself from
them. Come out to Him without the camp,
he said in Hebrew. Christ ain't in religion. Christ
is in heaven. Christ is in the Word. Come out from amongst them. Save
yourself from this untoward, this religious generation that
draws near with their lips, but their hearts are far from them.
Their heart is in the dollar and the collection plate. Come
out. Save yourself from that. Come
to Christ and Him alone. Save yourself from this untoward
generation. Look at verse 41. Being they
that gladly receive this word. Do you gladly receive this? Do
you? David gladly received this, said,
Oh, this makes me glad. I like this. Oh, I love it. The
Lord's on the throne, and I just love it that way. I'm in his
hands, and I just love it that way. He says whom he will, and
I love it that way, because I would not, but thank God he would.
He will. I love it that way. Thank God
his blood does actually save. I love it that way. If it's up
to his blood and my faith, I'm a goner. But thank God it's all
in the power of his blood and his righteousness. And I gladly
received this world and was baptized. I went up there one day and I
was baptized. I was baptized. And the same day they added about
three thousand souls and they continued steadfastly in the
this same gospel. They came back to hear this same
gospel. Tell me that again. And many of you are going to
come back tonight to hear the same exact message. Not the same
text, but the same, I'm going to say basically the same things.
You've heard everything I've had to say in these two short
years I've been here. Are you going to come back again
tonight? Tell it to me again. Tell that to me again. They continued
steadfastly in this doctrine, the apostles' doctrine. What
is the doctrine, the apostles' doctrine? Doctrine of Christ.
Fellowship, they wanted to be with these fellows in the same
ship, like the apostles in the same boats, headed to the same
shore, right? Where are you going, Henry? I'm
going to see Christ. Let me move over. Let me in there
with you. To love God's people and the
fellowship of them, breaking of bread, that's what we're going
to do tonight. Partake of the Lord's table and make prayers.
And fear, see that fear came over. It never left them. It
started and it never quit. Fear. That's the telltale sign
of God's people and God's preacher. Anybody that God deals with.
What? The fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom.
Understand? Fear. The one great prevailing characteristic
of true people of God is they fear. They bow to Him. They fear
Him. They worship Him. They're in
awe and respect and holy reverence of God. And like I said, everybody
that received this world was baptized. And somebody is coming
this morning, Polly Sigmund is coming this morning. Turn with
me over to Acts chapter 8. Turn over here to Acts chapter
8, and I'll be brief. Polly came to me after service
last week and said, I want to confess Christ in baptism. Because that's what Christ said
to do. Christ commanded it. He gave two ordinances, two commandments.
He said baptism and the Lord's table. And these are both confessions
of Christ. They're not to get saved by or
to get more loving or gracious or more like a Christian or whatever.
They're just to confess Christ. That's all this is doing back
here. That's all you're doing back here is just saying, that's the
Christ I believe. That's all you're saying to everybody here
is, this Christ that he preached this morning, that's who I believe.
That's who I'm trusting, because it pictures his death, his burial,
and his resurrection. That's what you do. You die with
Christ, you crucify with Christ, you're being buried under the
water in the tomb. All your sin is gone, washed
away. You rise to walk with him and learn the law. She's coming
this morning to confess that. Now, she told me that she went
through much of the same things that many of us did. like Brother
John and many others. We were in religion. We were
in religion. Perhaps you were a young person.
I was 12 years old, and I had a meeting, and the preacher preached
a message, and some kind of emotional experience happened. I went running
down front crying. I didn't know what was going
on. I couldn't begin to tell you what the preacher preached
on. And I was baptized, but I didn't know Christ. I didn't know Christ,
and many of you, either under a profession of faith, some kind
of emotional experience, or in religion, it was a thing to do,
be baptized and so forth, you did this, you went in this booth.
But then one day, you heard this Christ. All your life you'd been
hearing about this Jesus that loves everybody and can't, and
wants to and can't, and He will if you let Him, you know? It's
Jesus, let Jesus in you, all your life you've heard that.
But one day, God's Holy Spirit took this Pentecostal message
and told you about who Jesus really was. Lord, and you said,
hey, I ain't missed that one. Let me in there. Let me in there. This is what, look at Acts chapter
8. And she came to me and said,
Polly came and said she wanted to confess Christ. She believed
Christ was her only hope, and she said much the same what old
Philip said here. Philip, the angel of the Lord,
verse 26, spoke unto Philip and said, You go down toward the
south, go down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is a desert. And so old Philip arose and went,
and behold, there was a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority
under Candace, queen of the Ethiopian. He had charge of all her treasure,
and he had come to Jerusalem for the worship. He was seeking. He was seeking to get in that
much. But God, the Holy Spirit, led
him to this place. And hopefully God, the Holy Spirit,
led you to this place to hear a faithful fellow preach the
gospel to you. Now he was returning and sitting
in his chair. He left that place of religion
empty, dry. He hadn't found what he was looking
for. All he heard was religion. He left there, and he was sitting
in his chariot, reading the Bible. He said, well, that preacher
ain't going to preach nothing, and I'm going to find out myself.
Got his Bible open. And just so happened, he sure was lucky. No, it ain't
luck. He was reading Isaiah 53. Of
all the scriptures in the Bible to read, He was reading Isaiah
53. That's the gospel in the Old
Testament. That speaks as clearly of the Lord Jesus Christ as any
passage in all the Bible. He was reading that. And the
Spirit said to Philip, Go and join yourself to that chariot.
The Lord sent a preacher to him. Join yourself to that chariot.
And Philip ran thither to him and heard him read the prophet
Isaiah and said, Do you understand what you're reading? And the man said, How can I?
I read it, but it doesn't really make much sense to me. How can
I except some man should guide me? And he just said to Phil,
Now, get up here with me and you tell me what this is saying.
Now, if that's not the work of the Holy Spirit, what is? He
didn't know this man from Adam. He said, Come on up here and
you tell me what this says. So he got up there, and the place
of the Scripture which he read was this. He was led as a sheep
to the slaughter like a lamb before her shearer. So opened
he not his mouth, and his judgment was taken away? And who shall
declare his generation? His life is taken from the earth."
He read Isaiah 53. And the eunuch said to Philip,
he said, I pray thee, would you tell me, please, don't beat around
the bush, I want to know who this is talking about. I want
to know something about God. I want to know something about
salvation, how a man is really saved, something about who Jesus
Christ really is. That's, in effect, what he was
saying. I hope you're saying the same thing. Who is he speaking
of? Himself or somebody else? Then
Philip opened his mouth and began at the same Scripture and preached
unto him, Jesus. I'd like to hear that message,
wouldn't you? I have. I believe you heard it this morning.
And as they went on their way, look at it, they sat in the chariot
a little while, and Philip was preaching to them all the way
down the road, and they came to a certain water, and in the
evening, after he was listening to Christ being preached, exalted
from Isaiah 53, they're riding along in his chariot, and he
said, There's water! There's water! What doth hinder
me to be baptized and confess this Christ? You can, if you
believe. If you believe with all your
heart in this Christ, you may. He said, I believe that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God. And Philip says, stop the chariot.
Stop the chariot. Let's go get in the water. Go get in the water. And that's what we're going to
do. We stopped the chariot this morning. You've heard about Christ. This is the Christ that she's
confessing this morning. If I said it like you feel it,
Paula, is that? And she's just going to confess
him. There's no saving effects in this water. No. The saving
effects are in the blood and the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. All this is is a confession of
faith before men to say, this is the Christ I believe. This
is the one. And I urge you, as many of you,
as the Holy Spirit has taken this word and pricked your heart
to show you who Christ is, who God is, and your need of Him,
I urge you strongly to confess Him. And then all the comfort,
the peace and encouragement and instruction and all that come
back to hear the gospel. Then all that comes in time.
It doesn't come overnight. All your bad thoughts and your
sin don't go away. No, trouble just starts. It just
begins to start because your adversary, the devil, then ceases
to be your father and becomes your adversary. That's when the
trouble starts. But confessing, whoever confesses
before me, and he said, I'll confess before my Father which
is in heaven. Joe, come up here and lead us
in a song. and a few verses of a song, a
couple of verses. And Sherry's going to play a
little bit, and you, Tyler, go back and be prepared. Hucky Hembuck will turn to number
228. 228. Stand with me, we'll sing the
first and the fourth. Number 228, My Faith Has Found
a Resting Place. The first and the fourth. My faith has found a resting
place, God in me lies more free. I trust the ever-living One,
His will for me shall flee. I need no other argument, I need
no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died
and that He died for me. My great tradition heals the
sick, the lost He came to save. For me his precious blood he
shed, for me his life he gave. I need no other argument, I need
no other plea. It be not that Jesus died then,
that he died for me. Thank you and be saved. That's your hope, isn't it, what
I preached this morning? Everybody that rejoices in this
profession of faith this morning and our membership in this church,
say Amen. Amen. Holy Sigmund, in obedience
to the divine command of Christ Jesus our Lord, And upon your
profession of faith in him, I baptize you, my sister, in the name of
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. But Henry, would you dismiss
this in front of. If you ask me, what is the shame
of it? What is our shame? I'm afraid not. I thank you that you live with
it. Very much, you know. The shame of all these people.
If you pay for salvation, I implore
you, Therefore, some of them, I don't
want to use them all, I want to do them. I do this for the health and the strength of
one or the other partner. Your evil will create evil. When we reach one ocean, we'll
throw this ship into the middle of each other, and each other's
evil will fall. Friends, try to be unified in
your life. If you don't want to end up where you're not supposed to be, you
want to stay true to yourself, to your faith, to your truth,
to your faith, to your faith.