Would you open your Bibles again
to Acts 2? Let me speak to you for a little
bit this morning on apostolic exhortation. Peter had been preaching
to the Jews. These were Jews who had come
to Jerusalem the Feast of Pentecost that came from many different
nations. God brought them there. He brought
many of them to sit under the sound of a very powerful message. These were people who were quite
well aware of what happened 50 days before this Feast of Pentecost. They were aware of what happened
at the Feast of Passover. Jesus of Nazareth had been executed. Peter, in his message, he lets
these people know that everything that happened to Jesus of Nazareth
was by God's foreordination. God delivered him to die. Men
did that which they wanted to do. We understand that. God did not push them. God did
not coerce them to kill His Son. But in all that they did with
regards to the Lord Jesus, God's everlasting purpose was being
fulfilled. We read in Luke 22, for the Son
of Man goeth as it was determined to go. But woe unto that man
who shall betray Him. Everything that happened to the
Lord Jesus happened because God ordained it. And this is something
we know and people need to be made aware of who don't know
this. God is the first cause of all
things. God did this. Who sent His Son
into the world? God did. Who ordained for Him
to come? God did. When did God ordain
His death? Even before God made the world. You see, God in love and in mercy,
this relentless love, He had chosen a people unto salvation. I love the doctrine of God's
sovereign grace, don't you? He set His love on us. Not because of anything we would
ever do for Him. Not because of anything God foresaw
that we would do that would be good. Actually, we read that
this choice of God took place before we did anything good or
bad. He chose us in Christ. And He didn't choose us as a
great body all at once, but individually, one by one, God picked out a
people for His glory to be members of His family. If you're a believer
today, if you embrace the Lord Jesus, if He's all of your hope,
He's all of your glory, He's all of your salvation, and you
look to no other, you say it's the blood and righteousness of
the Lord Jesus alone. That's the only hope I've got.
Christ alone. I'll tell you, trace that back
to God's sovereign choice of you on salvation. And therefore, in order to redeem
you, in order to save you, He sent His Son to die. He had to
die because the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God
is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. The Law of God
says the soul that sins shall die. The Law of God has got to
be satisfied. Justice has got to be honored.
The Lord Jesus, He came on a mission from the Father. to save those
people that God has loved from old eternity. Because we fell
in Adam's transgression just like everybody else did. And
something had to be done about our sinfulness. Something had
to be done about our iniquities. The justice of God had to be
satisfied. It had to be honored. Therefore,
the Lord Jesus came into this world sent by the Father on a
mission of redemption. God gave him a work to do. When
in old eternity He gave these people to His Son, He said, these
are My children. Bring them all back to Me safe. Redeem them. Save them. Justify
them. The Lord Jesus came on that mission.
And He so often spoke of the work that God gave Him to do. I've come to do this work. And
then he said, I finished the work you gave me to do. How did
he finish it? By his death. By his substitutionary
sacrifice. He died as the substitute for
his people. He died as my substitute. What's that song? I should have
been crucified. I should have suffered and died.
I should have hung on that cross in disgrace, but Jesus God's
Son, He took my place. I deserved to perish and so did
you. We've had our hands lifted up
against God from the moment we entered into this world. We were
sinful in our natures. And then as we got a little older,
then we deliberately defied God. And we deserve to perish. But God sent His Son to die on
our stead to satisfy all the legal aspects of salvation. He died as our representative.
He died as our substitute. He died in our stead. All of
you who believe Him this morning, the reason your debt of sin has
been removed is because the Son of God removed it. He paid your
debt. God holds nothing against you. And I know we often bear a guilty
conscience for our own transgressions and our sins, and I understand
that, but listen, we need to enter into the joy of full forgiveness. God is not angry with us. God
is not mad at us. God's wrath will never be poured
out upon us. It was poured out upon the Lord
Jesus in our stead. And we're redeemed. We're redeemed. He died because God ordained
for Him to die. This is what Peter is setting
forth here. In the very beginning of his
message, it's God who delivered him. God delivered him up to
die. God delivered him up to be the
sacrifice, to be the sin offering. God delivered him up to satisfy
His own justice. Why, no wonder John said, herein
is love. Not that we love God, but that
He loved us and gave His Son to be the propitiation for our
sins. He gave His Son to die for us.
And the Lord Jesus said to his disciples, greater love has no
man than this. Then he laid down his life for
his friends. He laid down his life for us,
folks. And this is how Peter begins
the message. He identifies Jesus of Nazareth
as being that one approved of God. And he says, God delivered
him up. God delivered him up to die.
But then he says, but now you crucified Him. And then he goes
through his message and he speaks of the resurrection of the Lord
Jesus and His exaltation. Peter is speaking to all these
different people from various countries. And he stresses the
fact that Christ is God and He's been raised again. And he's been
exalted. And as the people listened to
his message, something unusual began to happen. And those among
that congregation that day, thousands of people listening to Simon
Peter, there were some people there who loved the gospel already.
And they began to look with wonder and amazement as the expression
upon the faces of thousands of people began to change. These many of them who mocked
Jesus of Nazareth fifty days before this. Many of these people
no doubt said, crucify Him, crucify Him. When the governor said,
who do you want me to release unto you? Barabbas? Or Jesus? They said, release Barabbas. What then shall I do with Jesus
who is called the Christ? Crucify Him. Let Him die. Let Him die the vilest, most
painful death that you can inflict upon Him. And there were people
who said those things right here in this congregation. And those
people of God who were gathered there and mixed among these multitude
as they listened to this message, they must have said in their
hearts, God the Spirit is doing something here today. God is
working. Because here are people who just
a few days ago were all saying, thumbs down on Jesus! He's an imposter. He's a blasphemer. He says He's the Son of God.
Let Him die. The death of the cross. But now
they're listening. Now they're serious. Now the message has got their
ears. There's no more mockery. There's
no more making light of Jesus of Nazareth. They heard what happened. They
knew what happened, but now they've been told this all happened because
God brought it to pass. And that they, with their wicked
hands, they had butchered, crucified, they had murdered the Son of
God. And all of a sudden, the Spirit
of grace, the Spirit that was given in His great power at the
beginning of this day, all of a sudden the Spirit begins to
work in the hearts of these people, and they're upset. Peter didn't
manipulate these people. He didn't give some kind of emotional
altar call. This is just the power of the
Word. The Gospel has been set forth.
Listen, we have enough confidence in this Gospel to just preach
the Gospel to people as they are declaring God as He is and
Christ as He is and what He's done. And then leave it with
the Spirit of God to do the work. And this is what Peter did. He
preached the Word. He made this announcement in
verse 36, Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly,
without a doubt, that God, God, God who made the world, God who
governs all things, that God hath made that exactly same Jesus
whom you crucified, Both Lord and Christ. And boy, I'll tell you, the Spirit
of God came upon that place. And it says in verse 37, when
they heard this, they were pricked in the heart. God cut them. God the Spirit took the sword
of the Spirit. He cut their hearts. He wounded
them. Have you been wounded? Not wounded
because you stole a watermelon or you climbed somebody's apple
tree and stole an apple, but wounded over your attitude toward
God's Christ. See, this is what's wounded them.
This is what the Spirit of God did to them. He convinced them,
you've denied, you've despised God's Christ. We're not talking
about something little here. We're not even talking about
a physical transgression against God's law. I've heard people
say, you know, I need to be saved because I've done this and I've
done that and I need forgiveness of all these things. What about
your attitude toward God's Christ? What about the way you've gone
through your life? You haven't worshipped Him, you
haven't adored Him, you've been lifting up your own righteousness?
Feeling good about yourself? I'm keeping God's Law, I'm trying
to live a good life. And all the while despising the
work of Christ Jesus? Not believing in Him? Not resting
in Him? You see, these people, they had
denied the Holy One and the Just One. Peter will go on to say
in the next chapter. You've denied Him. And now their hearts are smitten. Their hearts are cut with the
sword of the Spirit. This is more than just a momentary
emotional response. This is the work of God in the
soul, and this is what we must have. Oh, my brothers and sisters,
this is what has got to happen, that the Lord Himself must work
within the heart, convincing us of the Godhead of God, and
of our own rebellion of denying the Lord Jesus Christ. We haven't
worshipped Him. We haven't adored Him. You can
talk about, I've lied, I've stolen, I've cheated, I've done this,
I've done that. You hadn't got to the worst things
yet. You've despised God's Christ.
You've lived your life in unbelief. The Savior said when He, the
Spirit of truth, has come, He'll convince you of sin and righteousness
and judgment of sin because you hadn't believed on Me. You've
been embracing your own self-righteousness. You thought you were doing God
all these favors and you're racking up a bunch of brownie points
in heaven. You've not been brought to acknowledge what sin is. You
haven't believed God's Son. The only way of salvation, the
only way of life, the only way of acceptance with God is in
Christ Jesus and you hadn't believed Him. Shame on you. Shame on me. And the Spirit of God convicts
us of that. And He convicts us of righteousness. Righteousness. My righteousness is as filthy
rags. Rotten, stinking rags. I need a righteousness a whole
lot better than my righteousness. In fact, the Lord Jesus said,
except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes
and the Pharisees, you're going to perish. My goodness, they're
the holiest people on earth. That's what most folks thought.
You mean I've got to be better than them? Yeah, you've got to
be better than them. You've got to be perfect. And the Spirit
of God's going to convince you of that. The Spirit of God's
got to whittle us down. He's got to bring us down. And
He'll convict of judgment because that one is the prince of this
world. He's been cast out. The Spirit
of God is going to convince you that what Christ Jesus did on
the cross of Calvary finished the job. Judgment happened at
the cross. That wasn't a mere manifestation
of the outward goodness of God. It was a whole lot more than
that. Judgment took place at the cross. The judgment of our
sins. The judgment of the serpent. Judgment took place there. Something
happened when Christ died. God saved his people. And these people, these hearers,
they're listening to the message and their hearts are smitten. And they just like interrupted
the message. And they said to Peter and to
the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? What shall we do? It reminds
me of what those people said over in Luke, the third chapter.
They heard John the Baptist preach, and he talked about a generation
of vipers. And he said, God's going to take
the axe to the root. And they said, well, what should
we do? What should we do? It reminds
me of there in Acts chapter 16 where the Philippian jailer He
was brought under the convicting and convincing power of the Spirit
of God there in Acts chapter 16 as he heard Paul and Silas
pray and sing praises all night long. And he brought them out
and he said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And here are
these people asking essentially the same thing. Men and brethren,
what should we do? What should we do? They murdered
the Lord of glory that God exalted to His throne. And God said,
He's going to put His boot on your neck. That's what He said.
Back up there in verse 35, Until I make thy foes thy footstool. Here's the apostle Peter preaching
to these people. He said, listen, that Jesus you
crucified, God's exalted Him and one of these days He's going
to put His boot on the neck of all of His enemies. Men and brethren,
what shall we do then? I don't want His boot on my neck. What shall we do? I don't want
His judgment. I can't stand His judgment. I
don't want to perish. I've been in church a long time,
but I don't want to perish putting my hand on a Bible saying, I
know God and you can't teach me anything. No. Listen, I confess
my natural ignorance and I tell you, I need the Spirit of God
to teach me like you need the Spirit of God to teach you. to
teach you about the holiness of God, the justice of God, the
sovereignty of God, the righteousness of God's very character. We need
the Spirit of God to teach us of our own ungodliness, our own
filthiness, our own sinfulness. And we need the Spirit of God
to open up our hearts like He opened up the heart of Lydia
so that she attended and we attend to the Word of God and see the
Lord Jesus Christ as the only Savior of sinners. He's the only
righteousness that God will accept. We've got to have Him. Don't
you see that? We've got to have Him. Men and
brethren, what are we going to do? What are we going to do? Here's what Peter said to them.
Repent. Repent. He didn't say there's nothing
you can do. Though in themselves and in yourself, I'll tell you
this, you have no ability to do anything. Well then, how can
a man repent? Look over at chapter 6. Look
over at chapter 6, or chapter 5 rather. Chapter 5, verse 29. Then Peter and the other apostles
answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men. They
said, you better stop preaching this message. Don't you preach
this Jesus of Nazareth exalted anymore. We don't want to hear
about Him being raised. Peter said, well, we ought to
obey God rather than men. We're not going to listen to
you, we're going to listen to God. Verse 30, the God of our
fathers raised up Jesus whom you killed, you slew Him. You
hang them on a tree. But him hath God exalted with
his right hand to be a prince and a savior. Watch it. And for
to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. He's
the one that gave these people the desire to repent. You can't
repent. You can't believe. unless He
gives you these gifts. That's the reason Peter in all
of this says, he says all of these things that are happening,
they're happening because of what that One you crucified,
what He's doing today. All that you've seen, the giving
of the Spirit, the preaching of the Word, the piercing of
your hearts, the repentance that God has given you, it's Jesus
of Nazareth who's doing it all. That's what He's saying. So he
gets all the glory. And I tell you, if you've repented,
you've turned your back on your wrong ideas about God, and I
tell you, if the Spirit of God deals with you in true repentance,
that's what you'll do. You'll even take sides with God
against yourself. And you'll say, I've been wrong
from day one. I'm wrong. I'm wrong. God's right. I'm wrong. I'd take the grace
of God for a minute and say that. And mean it. I'm wrong. I've
been wrong. I've been wrong about this whole
thing. I've been wrong about salvation. I thought it was up
to my will. I thought it was up to my ways.
I thought it was up to my works. And now I find out it's all of
God. He can save me or damn me. Men and brethren, what shall
we do? Oh, I repent of my attitude toward God. I thought I could move God around
by my own will. I found out God doesn't move
at all. He doesn't move at all. He never budges. He's going to
have to move me. He's going to have to draw me.
Draw me. No man can come to me except
the Father which has sent me. Draw him. Oh Lord, draw me. I've tried the free will path,
that don't work. I've tried the works path, that
don't work. Here's what I need, sovereign,
effectual, drawing grace to pull me to the Savior. To make me
see who He is in His beauties and in His glories. And to bring
me to worship at His feet. Peter said, repent, repent. and then acknowledge that repentance
in the waters of baptism. You see, they had despised the
name of Jesus of Nazareth. He says here, be baptized every
one of you in the name of Jesus Christ. They hated His name. That was the name they despised
to hear. I don't want to hear the name
of Jesus Christ. We have Moses. I traced my lineage
back to Abraham. Don't tell me about Jesus Christ. And that's what the apostles
preached. They blasphemed His name. They
despised His name. And now Peter says, you repent
and you'll confess that Jesus of Nazareth is the Lord and you'll
do it publicly in the waters of baptism because publicly You've
blasphemed His name. You'll identify yourself with
the Lord Jesus Christ. You're not going to have any
private disciples. Because private disciples are
suspect disciples. You'll come out in the open on
this. You came out in the open of your defiance of Him. And
now you'll come out in the open of your confession that He's
Lord, to the glory of God the Father. You confess Him. And you do that because of the
remission of sins. And He says this in verse 39,
for this promise is unto you, and unto your children, and to
all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall
call." Who's this promise for? Everybody God calls. As many
as He calls. As many as. Over in Acts chapter 13, Peter's
preaching. Preaching to Jews in the synagogue. They said, we don't want to hear
this. I don't want to hear this, but too much grace for us. Too
much blood for us. I don't want to hear this. Paul
said, well, we'll go preach to the Gentiles then. And the Gentiles,
when they heard that, they was glad. And as many as were ordained
to eternal life. That's who believed. As many
as. He believed. As many was ordained to eternal
life. And there we are again, face
to face with the sovereignty of God in salvation. As many
as He ordained unto everlasting life. Everlasting life comes
to those who are ordained for everlasting life. Well, preacher, I thought God
gave everybody a chance. Well, salvation is not by chance. Salvation is by choice. And we
made our choice in Adam. Salvation is by God's choice. The sooner you come to grips
with that, the better off you'll be that God is in charge of all
things, even grace. He's not your debtor. He doesn't
owe you a reason for the things that He does. He's not accountable
to any man. He said, I'll be merciful to
whom I'll be gracious to whom I'll be gracious. He doesn't owe you anything.
God's not in your debt. If He damns you, you'll get exactly
what's coming to you. If He saves you, it's because
of His free, sovereign grace given to you in Christ Jesus
before He made the world. It's due to Him alone. We've
got to come to grips with this, folks. Who saves? God saves. Why does He save? Because He wills to save. How
does He save? Through the substitutionary sacrifice
of Christ Jesus. Who does He save? Whoever He
wants to. Whoever He wants to. And if He
doesn't save you, you'll go to hell with your fist in His face,
cussing His name. That's just what you deserve.
And if He does save you, you will praise Him forever. Because you'll know if it hadn't
been for the Lord's decision, His choice, His choice of saving
you, you'd be in the regions of the damned right now. That's
the only reason you hadn't perished. It's the only reason you're not
going to perish. It's because of God's sovereign will and grace. Peter says, as many as the Lord
our God shall call. And over there in Acts 13, as
many as were ordained to eternal life believed. John 17 verse 2, the Savior said
this, as thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he
should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. Who's going to get eternal life?
What is eternal life? It's to know God. It's to know
God. Well, who's going to know God?
As many as the Father gave Him. No more, no less. And in John 1 we read, but as
many as received Him, To them gave He the power to become the
sons of God, even to them that believe on His name, which were
born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the
will of man, but born of God. As many as received Him, they
received Him because they were born of God, not because they
decided, not because they said, well, this seems to be a better
way to me. They received Him because they're
born of God. The Savior said, You must be
born again. You must be born from above.
Something's got to happen. I'm dead. I've got to have life.
Nobody can give me life but Him who is the life giver. And if
you believe, if you receive Him, Prophet, Priest, and King, it's
because He's made you alive. He said, this is to your children,
verse 39, to all that are far off, even as many as the Lord
our God shall call. And then he said with many other
words, the sermon wasn't over. Did he testify and exhort? He broke open the scriptures,
he testified and he exhorted, he compelled people. And He said,
save yourselves from this untoward generation. They lived in a generation
of works mongers. By the deeds of the law you'll
be justified. Paul will say in Romans chapter
3, by the deeds of the law, no flesh shall be justified in God's
sight. That's the generation they lived
in. And here's what Peter says, you better cut the cord from
those self-righteous folks and distance yourself from their
false religion. And that's what I'm saying today
because here we are in this little city, lifting up the banner of
God's sovereign grace. And all around us, I know people,
many of them, they're well-meaning and sincere. But they're mired
up in a religion that's man-based. And I hear people lots of times
say, but they're doing good work, they're building orphanages,
you know, they're going over to Africa and building the hospitals,
and they're feeding the hungry. I've just got to send them some
money. Cut the cord. That's what Simon Peter said.
Save yourselves from this crooked generation. Distance yourselves
from them. It was like Korah, Dathan and
Abraham told Moses and Aaron, you know, you all take too much
upon yourselves. We're all the people of God here. And we don't need you all. We don't need a representative
with God. We don't need a prophet. We don't
need a priest. We're as good as you are. Moses
said, well, we'll find out. And he told all the rest of the
children of Israel, you better separate yourself from these
men. Because they're not going to die a natural death. And if
you're going to go along with them, you're going to walk hand
in hand with them, the same fate that awaits them awaits you.
You better distance yourself from them. And boy, they did. They began to back up. The earth
split open. Swallowed them up right into
hell. And this is what Peter is saying. Save yourself. Deliver
yourself. You want to know what must we
do? What should we do? We're in a
mess. What should we do? You better
break all ties with false religion. with this God who's being preached
today, who's a manby, pamby, sissy God. Break ties with that
religion. Break ties with those who say
Jesus of Nazareth, He tried to do something on the cross, tried
to start a new religion, show us how to die to be a good example. But no, He didn't actually save
anybody. He didn't actually redeem anybody.
Distance yourself from that kind of tomfoolery. Distance yourself from those
that say the Spirit of God's trying if you'll just let Him. Cut the cord. Cut the cord. Be done with all that. Why, they
blaspheme the name of God. Anytime somebody brings God down,
you're blaspheming the name of God. Listen, He's either all
or He's nothing. There's no such thing as a salvation
that's 99% God or 99.9% God. It's salvation of all of God. That's what the scripture says. And then he says this in verse
41. Then they that gladly received his word. I'm glad to receive
it because it comes to me as good news. Good news of redemption
finished? Of reconciliation accomplished? Of righteousness brought in?
Of sins put away? That's good news! I gladly receive
the Word, don't you? I gladly receive the Word. I
gladly bow and say, Lord, all the glory goes to You. We sing
that song, Thank You, Lord, for saving my soul. Thank You, Lord,
for making me whole. Thank You, Lord, for giving to
me Thy great salvation, so rich, so full, and so free. Thank You,
Lord. Those that gladly received the
Word were baptized. God did something that day. He
did something that day. And I'm going to tell you something.
We need Him to do something for us every time we need Him. Every
day. Every day. And my friend, if
you hear an unbelief, your only hope is that God will do something
for you. See, there are a bunch of us
in here and a bunch out there too, who gladly receive the Word. I'm not rebelling against the
Word. I'm bowing to the Word, aren't you? But the only reason
I'm bowing is because He's enabled me to bow. It's the Lord. It's His Word. It's His Gospel. It's His salvation. It's His
grace. He can give to whoever He wants
to. That's His business. I'm just
amazed He'd give it to me. Give it to me. Well, let's sing
a