We're in the Book of Acts, the
second chapter tonight, and the title of this, as we look in
this, it's going to be continued on Sunday morning, is the section
of Peter's Pentecostal Sermon. And it starts with verse 14 of
chapter 2 of the Book of Acts, And I'd like to read a portion
to start with of this, and then we're going to take a look at
a few thoughts in here and lay the groundwork or outline of
where we're going to be on Sunday morning. Remember before this
in Acts chapter 2, they were together on the day of Pentecost,
and they were amazed that they saw and heard these men speaking
and preaching the gospel in their own language. They weren't speaking
nonsense or an unknown tongue or gibberish. They were speaking
and understanding in their own tongues individually, and it
said, they do hear them speak verse 11 in our tongues the wonderful
works of God and they were all amazed and were in doubt saying
one to another what mean is this and so they were being preached
and taught and shown, as it says here, the wonderful works of
God is what they were hearing. And some said, like I said, what
mean is this? And others saying, mocking said,
these men are full of new wine, or they're drunk, and this is
nonsense. And Peter starts his sermon,
and we're going to read down a few verses of this, of what
he says here. It's quite a sermon and we'll
pick up here at verse 14 of chapter two of Acts. It says, but Peter,
standing up with the 11, lifted up his voice and said unto them,
you men of Judea and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known
unto you and hearken to my words, for these are not drunken as
ye suppose, seeing that it is but the third hour of the day.
But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel, and it shall
come to pass in the last day, saith God, I will pour out of
my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters
shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your
old men shall dream dreams. And on my servants and on my
handmaidens, I will pour out in those days of my spirit, and
they shall prophesy. And I will show wonders in heaven
above, signs in the earth beneath, blood and fire and vapor of smoke.
The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood
before that great and notable day of the Lord come. And it
shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the
Lord shall be saved. Ye men of Israel, hear these
words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by
miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst
of you, as you yourself also know him being delivered by the
determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken him by
wicked hands, have crucified and slain, whom God hath raised
up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible
that he should be holden of it. Now, here in verse 22 and 23, He says, Hear
these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you,
by miracles and wonders and signs which God did by Him in the midst
of you, as ye yourselves know, Him being delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken Him by wicked
hands, have crucified and slain. We have other records of very
similar words preached to group, and they took very strong exception
to it. Those people would not have said,
we have heard the wonderful works of God. A couple more sermons that we
have in the book of Acts, and the content of those sermons
didn't vary an awful lot. speaking to the different peoples. Some of the history is recounted
of the things that God has done, the wonderful works of God that
He had done in the past, and came up to the same point in
His message that said that our Lord had been delivered by the
determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. It wasn't by happenstance
or reaction of people to Him. It was by God's determination. And it says, Ye have taken and
by wicked hands have crucified and slain. That's pretty strong
to the point of what took place. And we're going to see some results
of what the Holy Spirit does with His Word. And just recall
that. Another thought that we're going
to look at, too, in more detail on Sunday is that our Lord It's
described here and said here, 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. Some of these people at
least were witness to those things taking place. And this one, that
the wonderful works of God were speaking of and about, and he
was approved of God, He, by wicked hands, you're taken and crucified
and slain. And that's a pretty strong spotlight to be put under
by the Word of God. And it says in verse 24, whom
God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it
was not possible that he should be holden of it. Another part
here, he was a man approved of God, we know he's God Almighty
himself, and whom God has raised up because it wasn't possible
that death could hold him. Verse 25, For David speaketh
concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for
he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved. Therefore
did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad. Moreover, also
my flesh shall rest in hope, because thou wilt not leave my
soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see
corruption. Thou hast made known to me the ways of life, thou
shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance. Men and brethren,
Let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that
he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto
this day. Therefore, being a prophet, and
knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit
of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ
to sit on his throne, he seeing this before spake of the resurrection
of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his
flesh did see corruption. This, Jesus, hath God raised
up where we are all our witnesses. Therefore, being by the right
hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise
of the Holy Ghost, He hath shed forth this which you now see
and hear." When they heard the wonderful works of God preached
in their own language, this was what they were witness to. For
David is not ascended into the heavens, but he saith himself,
the Lord said unto my Lord sit thou on my right hand until I
make thy foes thy footstool therefore let all the house of Israel assuredly
know that God had made that same Jesus whom you have crucified
both Lord and Christ pretty important point there they knew of the
Messiah was coming they at least said they believed that
the Messiah was coming, they had the prophets that said the
Messiah was coming, they had all the prophets, and as we've
seen going through the books, earliest books of the Old Testament
as far as the first five books there, up through Numbers where
we've been, all those things witnessed it to the Messiah was
coming and a picture of Him and not a religion that was a religion
two of the time that the Messiah came. It wasn't a filler time,
it was from the very earliest, Cain and Abel, the same witness,
the same one was spoken of and was witness to them. And that
this same one that they read about and they knew the words
of the Old Testament, they were proud of the words that they
had, But they didn't have it in their heart and that's the
Holy Spirit put it there. They didn't believe it as they
actions showed out. And then the Pharisees there
and the ones at the time that he was there, they did not want
this man to rule over them. They did not accept him as who
he was. Regardless of the, as Peter says
here, the signs and wonders and being approved of God, that on
all the things that they had seen in their lifetime, let alone
the words of the law and the prophets, this was the one that
was to come. And when he did come, they had
no eyes to see him. and they sure didn't want their
religion upset by this guy that came on the scene. Even though
he'd be approved of God, resurrected from the dead, they saw him in
their midst after that fact, and it made no difference. And as has said before, great things and occurrences
don't change the heart. Even though much is made of it,
I have no doubt of the physical catastrophes physically that
we see about us, that does not change man's heart. He may not
like his situation, but that's not a saving event barring the
Lord Himself causing that to open someone's eyes. And the
same way, and people said, well, if we would have been Jews in
that day and He came, we would have opened arms and just been
glad to have Him, and He would have been the man of the hour. We just would have loved Him
for who He was. No, when they found out He was
not throwing the Roman rule off, That's about the biggest hope
some of them had in the Messiah, that they had no interest. Their heart was not in it. And I'd like to read a little
farther down through this before we make some other comments and
some scriptures we're going to look at. It says, Verse 37, after saying this,
and that the one that they had crucified and slain, that God
had not only raised from the dead, but had made that same
Jesus, both you have crucified, both Lord and Christ. And by
saying those things, Lord and Christ, He was the real Messiah,
the sent one. as Peter says now verse 37 it
says now when they heard this they were pricked in their hearts
and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles men and
brethren what shall we do Peter said unto them repent and be
baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for
the remission of sins and he shall receive the gift of the
Holy Ghost for the promise is unto you and your children and
to all that are far off even as many as our Lord as the Lord
our God shall call and with many other words did he testify and
exhort saying save yourself from this untoward generation and
then 40 verses 41 42 then they that gladly received his word
were baptized in the same day there were added unto them about
3,000 souls and they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine
fellowship breaking of bread and in prayers. These, it says here, they were,
when they heard this verse, they were pricked in their hearts
and said unto Peter and the rest of the apostles, what do we do?
And not, I don't think as it should, what we saw to start
with, that they recognized and said they were hearing in their
own tongues the wonderful works of God. It wasn't a, something that was throwing their
religion out and that they were in jeopardy of losing their financial
or business standing or whatever, that type of position, but I
think they, as evidenced by what took place, that God revealed
to them the position that they were in, and not just in a religious
sense, but with that position they stood in just by their nature,
by the sinful nature we have, and what must take place. And different than a couple other
sermons that we're going to look a little bit at on Sunday, when
it said that they were cut to the heart and they had other
reactions to it. It wasn't this reaction to the
preaching of the Word. And here, as it says here, Verse 39, it says, and there's
several of these important verses, we're going to look at them in
some detail on Sunday, but it says, verse 39, for the promise
is to you and your children and to all that are far off, even
as the Lord our God shall call. And it says that they were added
unto them, they were baptized, they received his word, And the
same day add to them about 3,000 souls. A little bit different
reaction and situation that we find in other sermons that were
preached to other groups in other times. And even in the book Acts,
we'll see that the reaction and the content of the sermons in
two of them were just about identical in some regards and said that
you've taken and crucified him. And they all knew the situation
that had come about in recent days with that, with the Lord's
crucifixion and resurrection and the things that went along with
that that we see, that there were some that were called, as
it says here, the ones that even as many as our Lord shall call, And we looked in recent times
about the amount or what is talked about as those that God has redeemed
and it's called the remnant. And it's not a picture of a large
majority by any means it's a minority but it's as was said last Wednesday
or Sunday I can't remember which by comment that it's an unknown
untold number it's a large number but as of the whole of humanity
it's a pretty small number by that but it is whatever that
number is that we don't know God does and it says again as
many as our Lord Our God shall call. And that's the key to it. If it's not that, the reaction
is not the same. If the heart is not changed,
it's not just, well, yeah, that's nice and that sounds good. As
we see, like I said, a couple of other sermons that are very
similar in the book of Acts, that the reaction was not this. There's another time when there
was 5,000 souls added, just a couple pages over in the book of Acts.
And the difference being in the groups was God calling those
people. And that's the difference in
that the same message is preached the world over. by God's people
and if he doesn't call the men out, the people out, they're
not gonna have their hearts changed. Just a minute, I was thinking
of something and it kind of slipped. But it, those messages, like
I said, the content of the gospel can be, is phrased and put differently,
but it's still, the core of the gospel is the Lord Jesus Christ
himself and the Scriptures and the power of God. And those Pharisees
were told at least one time, you know neither the Scriptures
nor the power of God. And that is the sum total of
it. When the Word is preached, if
it can just roll past us and mean nothing, the difference
is God causing the heart to to receive it, to have it. And I'd
like to read just something out of the bulletin on Sunday that
struck me by Thomas Brooks, and it's called The Object of Our
Faith. Thomas Brooks wrote, it says, the person of Christ is
the object of faith. It is Christ in the promises
that faith deals with. The promise is but the shell. Christ is the kernel. The promise
is but the casket. Christ is the jewel in it. The
promise is but the field, Christ is the treasure that is hid in
that field. The promise is a ring of gold,
Christ is the pearl in that ring, and upon this sparkling shining
pearl faith delights most to look. Faith hath two hands, and
with both she lays earnest and fast hold on King Jesus. Christ's
beauty and glory is very taking and drawing. Faith cannot see
it, but it will lay hold on it. Christ is the principal object
about which faith is exercised for the obtaining of righteousness
and everlasting happiness. And we know that faith is not
us. That faith is given to us. It
is God's faith that lays hold of him. And that whenever the
gospel is preached, If our Lord Jesus Christ is not the center
of that message and the main focus of that message, the gospel
is not being preached. It's lacking the key point to
it. And we had a man that came to
our camp, summer camp, years ago once and he said, he said,
the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. And
that is to get on to the the point and the spotlight on our
Lord Himself and on the working of the Spirit in us to know those
things and to receive those things. And like I said, the difference
between this particular sermon that Peter preached, and a couple
that Stephen and Peter preaches again, they have different reactions
to them, and even though it's the same gospel, what makes the
difference is God made the difference in that, and it's like the parable
of the sower, if that ground has not been prepared of God,
it's not It cannot grow. It can look like things a little
bit and sprout up maybe or whatever, but there's no root in it. And
if it's not planted and that born from above is not caused
by God, it's just words and it doesn't mean anything to us. I would like to look at those
things being said In Joel, turn to the book of
Joel. The book of Joel. It's not a
very big book, but there's really some interesting things and some
important things said to us in the first, first, first chapter
says, the word of the Lord that came to Joel, the son of path
you will. And we don't, we have to keep
in our mind I think all the time and when we bring out the word
and ourselves or sharing it or whatever, when we use the scripture
this is the word of God to whoever we're quoting and the passage
we look at. This is God's word, it's not
Joel's word on the subject. In the second chapter The second chapter of Joel, I'd
like to read, well, let's see. Let's start in verse 28. And these are very, our brother
Peter was talking about these very things and quoting this
very part. It says in verse 28, chapter two of Joel, And it shall come to pass afterward
that I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons
and daughters shall prophesy, your own men shall dream dreams,
your young men shall see visions, and also upon the servants and
upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my Spirit. And
I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood and fire
and pillar of smoke. The sun shall be turned into
darkness and the moon into blood before the great and terrible
day of the Lord come. And it shall come to pass that
whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered.
For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the
Lord hath said, and in the remnant who the Lord shall call." Once
again, he speaks here, and Joel says that. the remnant shall
come to pass that shall be delivered of the remnant whom the Lord
shall call. And speaking to Israel at that
time, and he says in verses 13, backing up to verses verses 12 through 14 of the same
chapter, Joel, just before this. He says in verse 12, chapter
2, Joel, Therefore also now saith the Lord, Turn ye even to me
with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and
with mourning, and rend your heart, and not your garments,
and turn unto the Lord your God. For he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil."
And obviously, if man has not the capability
to have faith, man has not the capability to turn his heart
unto God. God has to do the turning, he
has to put that in God's people and when these things come about,
when the heart has been rendered as it says here, rendered the
heart and not your garments, that's a I believe, sign that
God has done the work and caused that to come about. And not just
being sorrow and wanting to go to heaven type of thing. That's
not the crux or the key point of the gospel. That's obviously
a definite benefit to God's people is everlasting life that he promises.
But the key of it is the Lord himself and who he is and what
he has done for his people and what he has done to redeem them. from the position they are in
by nature, just lost and hell bound. And He has redeemed His
people and has done those things. And as He said, one of the things
He said on the cross was, it is finished, it's done. He accomplished
those things. So Joel was speaking of that,
and he uses a term several times in this book too, the day of
the Lord, and as we've seen in other studies and in Malachi
and Zechariah, the day of the Lord is an important phrase,
an important thought in there. The day of the Lord is that time
when that remnant, that individual is called of God when that person
is called and that's not called by hearing the general call and
maybe, maybe not whatever you feel like. This is the call,
the effectual call that God does call his people in. There's no thinking about that, or I'll
get back to you later about that, when that takes place. When the
Lord, as it says here, and when the remnant whom the Lord shall
call, and over there in Acts we saw those ones such as God
would call out would hear the gospel in Acts 17-21 on Acts
2, where he speaks of Joel's prophecy that we just read, he
speaks of that, and he's the object of our faith, as we read
that from Thomas Brooks, and that the gospel is. He is the
key, he's the true cornerstone of the gospel, and if he is diminished
on who He is or any way that His position is diminished in
man's eyes, there's a problem. He's either the complete Savior
of His people or He's not. I'd like to read a verse in 1
Corinthians. first chapter, and you know probably
where I'm going on this, on this one here, and we looked at some time back on
a couple of different lessons on, in the first and second chapters
of the Book of Corinthians, of God's power, Christ, God's power
in the spirit and salvation of his people, and in here, It says
in verses 30 and 31 of chapter 1 of 1 Corinthians, but of him
are ye in Christ Jesus who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption, that according as it is written,
he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. And that glory that
his people have in the Lord is that he is made those things
to his people. And it's not by looking at a
catechism or just some statements of faith or something and said,
that's where we stand, but God has to, as it said, Christ of
God is made unto us those things. He is really those things to
his people, but he makes and reveals that to his people, that
he is all of the wisdom that we have, the righteousness and
sanctification and redemption we have, If it's not all in Him,
we're in a spot, because that's all there is. All He has supplied
is all there is, and it's all that is needed. And as Peter
said there, He's a man approved of God. He is the only Redeemer
that is there. He's the only Redeemer that can
do and has done and accomplished redemption for His people. In Psalm 16, another verse I'd
like to read, a couple of verses. Psalm 16, a lot in the Psalms,
obviously, of who the Lord is to His people, the great things
He has done, the refuge He has to His people, deliverance and
all those things. But in Psalm 16, let's read 8
through 11. It says, I have set the Lord
always before me, because He is at my right hand. I shall
not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and
my glory rejoiceth. My flesh also shall rest in hope. For thou wilt not leave my soul
in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to seek corruption.
Thou wilt show me the path of life, in Thy presence is fullness
of joy, at Thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore." And
here speaking of those attributes and about our Lord Himself, but
also about us and that because of who He is and the perfect
one, that redemption and that righteousness that we have through
Him and because of Him. These are similar verses to what
Joel has to say in other places. I have to think of what other
thing to say right this minute. We're going to look at some of
those things in a little more detail that we looked over at
Peter's sermon, but I'd like to read down a little farther
in chapter 2 again. It says here, and according to
what Peter is saying there, it says, verse 44 going on, chapter two,
it says, and all that believed were together and had all things
in common and sold their possessions and goods and parted them to
all men as every man had need. And they continuing daily with
one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to
house did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart. Praising God and having favor
with all the people and the Lord added to the church daily such
as should be saved and That's that's another Phrase like him
calling the ones that he shall call but added to the church
daily such as should be saved and it doesn't mean the clean
ones or the best one of the group, best ones should be saved, but
those that should be saved because they were given to to our Lord,
and they are His sheep, and He's not going to lose any of them,
as He says in John. And such as should be saved are those
that He died for. And that's something that we
rest in. And people look at the ministry
in different places, and there's probably been countless missionaries
that people ask them, well, how many souls have you saved since
you've been over there? Some of them might say, not a
one, but the gospel was preached, or maybe a number, but it's those
that are added, such as God says should be saved, and that's something
we can rest in, that the gospel, it's always a successful gospel,
because it goes out and the sheep are going to hear that gospel,
and those that He will reveal Himself to. And we know that. We can't reveal Him. We can preach
the Gospel or have it taught and recite the Word to people
and God does what He does with it and we can rest. If we're
faithful to present the Gospel as it is in the Scripture, all
of the Scripture, people can rest at night knowing
that they did what what is required of preaching
the gospel and God does what he will with it. We're going
to see that, like I said, in a little more detail on Sunday,
but in this particular passage of Peter's
sermon on the day of Pentecost, we see that what was preached
they attested to and God used that message of Peter's to, says
3,000 souls were added that day. That's amazing to me. It's amazing, but the next one,
the next service we look at, not quite the same result as
far as outwardly appearance. So that when the gospel is preached,
it's the only difference when one gospel preacher preaches
one place and goes and preaches another place is what God has
done to prepare the soil when that word goes forth. And we
can rest in that and know that it is done well. And those that he calls will hear
the gospel. He will call them in to himself. So with that, as Mike would say,
Be free. Thank you for your attention.
And good to see you. Now there's
a whole bunch of names on there. Just a minute. Come on.