Sovereign Grace Chapel located
at 135 Annabel Lane in Beaver, West Virginia invites you to
listen to a gospel message concerning Jesus Christ our Lord. I want
to welcome you to this morning's
broadcast. I realize it's early in the morning,
this Lord's Day morning, this Sunday of August, but I wish
you would take your Bible. I have one verse I want to read
to you as a starting point, as a text, and it's found in Acts
chapter 2. That's Acts chapter 2, the Acts
of the Apostles chapter 2. I want to read to you Luke's
summary, Luke summarizes Peter's message on the day of Pentecost
with these words. In Acts chapter 2 and verse 40,
Luke writes this about Peter. And with many other words did
he testify and exhort, saying, save yourselves from this untoward. Do you see it? Let's read it
again. And with many other words did he testify and exhort saying,
save yourselves from this untoward generation. A little context
here, of course, most of you probably already know this, but
this is Peter's summary of, or I'm sorry, Luke's summary of
Peter's message on the day of Pentecost. The Lord Jesus Christ
had been crucified. As a matter of fact, Peter actually
put it this way in chapter two, verse 22, speaking mainly to
Jews. This was mostly Jews gathered
in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. And he says in verse 22, 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 ye yourselves also know,
him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.
Think about that. Peter is here preaching to a
group of people. who had cried out for Jesus Christ
to be crucified. Crucifixion was a torturous way
of death. These people have cried out for
Jesus Christ to be crucified, and he was crucified. This is
the context. This is the backdrop, and Peter
is now on this day of Pentecost, when Pentecost was fully come.
It says there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, that's in verse
five of chapter two, devout men out of every nation under heaven.
This is who Peter was preaching to. This is the context. Now
clearly, Peter knew his generation. He knew that this generation
to whom he was speaking, these people to whom he was speaking,
had some serious spiritual evils. Oh yes, they were very religious.
Their problem here, these people's problem was not drug abuse, alcohol,
and womanizing. That's not the problem. These
people were very religious. They were very zealous. They
were very Bible-oriented. They were called devout people,
but they had no spiritual life, none whatsoever. The apostle
Paul speaks of Israel in that day, and he says this, and it's
recorded for us in Paul's epistle to the church at Rome. In Romans
chapter 10, he says these words, brethren, my heart's desire and
prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. For I bear
them record that they have a zeal of God, but look at this, but
not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's
righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness,
have not submitted, that is, bowed down themselves unto the
righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. This was the
people that Peter was preaching to on the day of Pentecost. And
all that he said, and again, I remind you, Luke sums it up
this way, and with many other words did he testify and exhort
saying, save yourselves from this untoward generation. So
Peter clearly knew his audience. He knew who he was speaking to.
He's speaking to very religious men and women, speaking to very
zealous men and women, very Bible-oriented men and women, but these men
and women were without spiritual life. But listen to me this morning. and may God give you ears to
hear and may he give you eyes to see and heart to perceive.
Do not look down your nose at these religious Jews. Do not
look down the nose of some self-righteous sense of yourself. Listen to
what Luke also writes in Acts chapter four. And listen to what
he says in verse 27 of Acts chapter four. He says this. Acts chapter
four, and actually verse 26, I'm sorry. The kings of the earth
stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the
Lord and against his Christ. For of a truth against thy holy
child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate,
with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together
for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before
to be done. You see that? All men are the
same. The apostle Paul made it clear
that Jews and Gentiles were all under sin. So don't look down
your nose at these Jews. No, don't do that. I have a message
for you this morning. The title of my message is this.
It's a message to my generation. That's actually my title, it's
my subject. A message to my generation. My generation is very religious. Oh no, not everyone is, I understand
that. But my generation is very religious.
Just about every city, just about every town, just about every
little community, every little place in this country has multiple
church buildings. Hundreds of denominational and
non-denominational variations exist. You know this is true.
I'm not giving you anything new. There's just church buildings
everywhere. Denominational churches, non-denominational churches,
they exist everywhere. There are hundreds, hundreds
of 24-hour a day religious TV programming. I mean, anyone who
has a TV or probably a radio or the internet can find religious
programming 24 hours a day. Congregations are so large in
some places that they have their meetings in large stadiums. And
preachers, some of them are becoming millionaires. Think about that.
Preachers are becoming millionaires. People gather together. They
give millions of dollars. I don't know what the figures
are, but I'm sure it's staggering. Men and women give millions of
dollars to fight hunger, to fight drug abuse, to fight alcoholism,
to fight homelessness, to fight abortion, to fight spousal abuse,
to fight child abuse. And you could go on and on and
on. They give millions of dollars to fight against these things,
all under the auspice of religion and even in the name of God.
But how many actually give their hard-earned money to hear Christ
preached? You see, don't misunderstand
me. I'm not saying that drug abuse, alcoholism, homelessness,
abortion, sexual misconduct, spousal abuse, child abuse. I'm
not saying that these things should not be declared for what
they are, sin and rebellion against God. But listen to me. Listen
to me. Don't turn that dial off. Don't
turn that TV off. Listen to what I have to say.
You can so teach a man or a woman. You can so preach to a man or
a woman. You can sow witness to a man
or woman that in many cases, if you do it in the right psychological
way, do it in the right emotional way, you can get people off of
drugs. You can get people off their liquor. You can maybe help
raise that fellow or that gal laying there in the gutter. You
can raise them up and help them get a job and help them get some
nice clothes and give them a nice place to stay. You could give
all this money and do all of this witnessing and psychological
and emotional tactics. You can use all these things
and fight abortion, spousal abuse, child abuse. but if you're not
preaching Christ, you've only moved them from one error to
another error. Yes, it's good that they've quit
their drugs, they're lickering it up, their homelessness, abortion,
their sexual misconduct, their abuse of spouses and of children,
but if they don't have Jesus Christ, they're still just as
lost as they were when they were in those immoral things. Listen
to me, my generation. Hear me now. Again, don't turn
off that TV. Don't do that. You may regret
it one day. Hear me now. Most of my generation
claim to be spiritual, if not out and out zealously religious.
Hundreds of thousands of people. Think of it. I know because you've
got the TV there 24 hours a day. You can see some kind of church
meeting, some kind of revival, whatever you want to call it.
And you see hundreds of thousands walking aisles every Sunday,
every Sunday night, every Wednesday for that matter, maybe throughout
the whole week if they're having some revival meeting. So hundreds
of thousands, they walk aisles every Sunday. They make professions
of faith. They cry tears of great emotional distress. And I'm not
mocking that. I understand, I've been there.
I've been in religion to where every time the preacher preached,
And every time they gave what men call today the altar call,
deep down inside, something was telling me, if that's the right
thing to do, then you better go forward because you're not
right with God. Something's wrong in your life.
So again, I say thousands, hundreds of thousands. They walk aisles
every Sunday. They make great professions of faith. They cry
tears of great emotional distress. They rededicate. They rededicate. They start and participate in
prayer chains. Now, is that fact or not? You know, to you, my generation,
you know this is a fact. But hear me now, hear me now.
These things are true. Give thousands of dollars, put
in great effort, but just to do about everything except have
a man preach the gospel of Christ. Have a man preach the gospel
of Christ. My generation, my generation, sadly, has all of
this religious zeal. And all of these religious, if
you do listen to the TV, I don't encourage you to listen to all
of these preachers out here, but if you do listen to the TV
or the radio or get on the internet, you will see men constantly saying,
send us money so we can preach the gospel. Send us money so
we can preach the gospel. But it's, they never get around
to actually preaching the gospel. Always begging for your money
to preach the gospel, but they keep doing the same thing over
and over again. That's begging for your money,
and they never get around to preaching the gospel. Here's
why. Because my generation does not
know the gospel. My generation does not know the
true and living God and Jesus Christ, whom the Father sent.
My generation is super active in religion. I mean super active
in religion, but they are devoid of true spiritual knowledge about
the Godhead. Listen to me. I am not. I pray God may use this to help
some drunk. God may use this to help some
drug head or some homeless person. God may use this if some poor
lady, young girl has went through an abortion. God may use this
if you're going through some kind of abuse. God may use, I
pray God uses this to help someone, but I'm not talking particularly
those people. I'm talking to those of you who've
walked the aisles, you've prayed the prayers, You went through
all the forms and the ceremonies. You've been baptized. You partake
of the Lord's table. You go to church Sunday, Sunday
night, Wednesday night, whatever it might be, Tuesday night, Thursday
night, whatever it might be. But you really don't know the
true living God. You see, again I say my generation
is super active in religion, but they are devoid of true spiritual
knowledge about the Godhead. Listen to me, my generation,
We lie to ourselves and we lie to one another about this fact.
And let me tell you something, men are no different today than
they were in Christ's day. And listen to what the Lord Jesus
Christ said to some Jews, some of his own people, some of his
own, those he came out, he was a Jew. Jesus Christ of Nazareth
was a Jew, but listen to what he says to them, but remember,
Paul makes it clear, we're all under sin, Jew and Gentile, there's
none righteous, no, not one. There's none that understandeth,
there's none that seeketh after God. And listen to what the Lord
Jesus Christ said to some people, and it's recorded by John, in
John chapter eight, Now listen to what our Lord Jesus Christ
said in verse 54. Listen to it. Jesus answered, if I honor myself,
my honor is nothing. It is my Father that honoreth
me, of whom ye say, now look at it, of whom ye say that he
is your God. Yet ye have not known him. Do you see that? Now preacher,
how is that possible? It just is. You see, men think
they know who God is, but by nature. As we are born into this
world, none of us can understand Romans chapter three. None of
us do seek the true and living God. We may seek a God that we've
imagined in our imaginations. We may seek the God that is under
some perversion of the gospel of Christ, which is not another.
But look away, ye have not known him, but I know him. And if I
should say, I know him not. Now listen, these are the words
of Christ. I know, listen to me. A lot of folks make Jesus
Christ to be this effeminate little sissy that come out and
just begged people to let him have his way. This is not the
Christ of God. Listen to what he said. You have not known him,
but I know him. And if I should say I know him,
I shall be a liar like unto you. But I know him, and keep his
sayings. Your father Abraham rejoiced
to see my day, and he saw it, and Abraham was glad. Then said
the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet 50 years old, and hast thou
seen Abraham? Jesus said unto them, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, and then he uses
that Old Testament name of God, I am. And look, then took they
up stones to cast at him. But Jesus hid himself, and went
out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed
by. My generation is no different.
We put on a great facade. As one writer said, we talk a
lot about God with our lips. We honor God with our lips. We
say words about God and we talk of deep respect for God, but
we do it with our lips. But what's the problem? Our hearts,
our hearts are far from him. Listen to what Christ also said.
Same chapter, John chapter eight. And listen to what he writes
here, John chapter eight. And verse 12, then spake Jesus
unto them, saying, I am the light of the world. He that follows
me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
The Pharisees therefore said unto him, thou barest record
of thyself, thy record is not true. Jesus answered and said
unto them, though, you see it, though I bear record of myself,
yet my record is true, for I know whence I came and whither I go,
but ye cannot tell whence I came and whither I go. Ye judge after
the flesh, and there's our problem by nature. Ye judge after the
flesh, I judge no man. And yet if I judge, my judgment
is true, for I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent
me. It is also, now listen, he goes
to the scripture. Listen to this, he goes to the
scripture. It is also written in your law that the testimony
of two men is true. I am one that bear witness of
myself, and the Father that sent me beareth witness of me. Then
saith they unto him, where is thy father? Jesus answered, and
look what it says. Ye neither know me, nor my father. If ye had known me, ye should
have known my father also. These words spake Jesus in the
treasury, as he taught in the temple, and no man laid hands
on him, for his hour was not yet come. Again, listen, my generation
is very religious. I acknowledge that, I understand
that. Many are very sincere, but they are sincerely wrong.
The generation doesn't know the true and living God, they do
not understand or know the Godhead. You see, Christ, Jesus himself,
taught that the union between eternal life and true God knowledge
is vital. Now turn with me to another passage.
Still in John, but now John chapter 17. And this is truly the Lord's
Prayer. There is what some men call the
Lord's Prayer, And it's actually the model prayer that Christ
taught the disciples to pray. And not merely repeating the
words, but he gave the disciples, here are certain truths that
we are to cry out when we pray to God. But here's the actual
Lord's Prayer. It's actually all of John chapter
17, but I wanna read just the first few verses. Listen to what
our Lord said when he prayed to the Father. Look at it, John
chapter 17, verse one, these words. These words spake Jesus,
and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is
come. Glorify thy son, that thy son
also may glorify thee. You see it? Look, as thou hast
given him power, that is authority and might, as thou hast given
him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to
as many as thou hast given him. Now there's a message right there,
but that's not what I'm dealing with. Look at the next verse.
And this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only
true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. Now let me briefly
touch on this. Men are not given eternal life
because of who they know. They are given eternal life so
that they might know the true and living God and Jesus Christ
whom he sent. You see, Jesus Christ has the
authority and he has the might, the power, the ability to give
eternal life to who? To as many as the Father gave
him. And when he does, when Jesus
Christ gives eternal life, he will do so in conjunction with
the preaching of the gospel whereby he gives life and the gospel
then comes in power and informs these people that he's given
eternal life to as to who God really is and to who Jesus Christ
really is. Consider, again I say, Christ
taught the union between eternal life and a true God knowledge.
Think about it. God is holy. You hear me? Now I know, I know, every preacher
probably says that, but they really don't even know what it
is. Holiness here, well, God's holiness means he's far so superior
to us. He is so far above us, so far
separate from us, so far distinct from us, that there is no comparison. God is holy. God is just. God is jealous, and he's jealous
of his glory of his son. God is immutable, that is, God
does not change. God is invincible, that is, you
can't stop God when God acts. God is also sovereign. That means
he's not just in control of everything, but he has ordained everything
that comes to pass. You see, God, now listen to me,
God the true and living God, is God in fact. God, the true
and living God, and Jesus Christ whom he sent, because Jesus Christ
is God Almighty. God is God in fact. God is God
in character. God is God indeed, and not just
a God in name. Sadly, most people today use
God's name, and God has many names throughout the scripture
whereby he defines himself. But think about it, God's name
is not a lucky rabbit's foot. It's not just a phrase you quote
with your lips or say with your lips. It's not just something
that you say with your voice box. Think of it, God's name
describes who God is. And in all of these various ways
that God describes himself, these names that God expresses himself
to us through his word, define parts of the character and attributes
and who God really is. And again, I say God is God in
fact. God is God in character, in an attribute. God is God indeed
and not just a God in name. The knowledge of God is not gained
by man's prerogative. Do you hear what I just said?
The knowledge of God is not gained by man's prerogative. The prerogative
of a true God knowledge is God's. Listen again to our Lord Jesus
Christ's words. I'm not giving you my words.
I'm going to give you what Christ said. Listen to what he said.
In Matthew chapter 11, if you're following along, Matthew 11,
verse 25. At that time, Jesus answered and said, I thank thee,
O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid
these things from the wise and the prudent, and hast revealed
them unto babes. Do you see that? What's wrong
with wisdom? What's wrong with prudence? Absolutely
nothing if God gave it. but if it's a product of our
fallen flesh, it is condemned and despised by God. Look, because
you hid these things from the wise and the prudent. Jesus Christ
is thanking God the Father for this and has revealed them unto
babe, but notice that it still had to be revealed to the babes. And look, this is his answer.
Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. That's who
God is. All things are delivered unto me of my Father, he continues
on. All things are delivered unto me of my Father. And no
man knoweth the Son. Now look at it. Think about it.
It's what I'm talking about. This is my message to my generation.
No man knoweth the Son but the Father. Neither knoweth any man
the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will
reveal him. So again, True God knowledge,
that God knowledge that comes from the free gift of God in
eternal life, it's not gained by man's prerogative. It's God's
prerogative. Has God taught you anything of
himself? Has God actually taught you anything
of himself, by himself? And our Lord made it clear that
this is how it happens. In John chapter six, These words
are recorded by John, and our Lord spoke these words, John
chapter six, in just one verse, verse 45. It is written in the
prophets, so that means the Old Testament. This is no new thing.
This is no new thing. It is written in the prophets,
and they shall all be taught of God. Every man, therefore,
that hath heard and learned of the Father does what? They come
to Christ. Matthew chapter 11, back there
again. You see, this is what Christ said when he said, I thank
thee, Father. You've hid these things from
the wise and prudent, but you've revealed them unto babes. This
is what he says when he continues on, verse 28. Come unto me, all
ye that labor and heavy laden, and I'll give you what? Rest.
Come to this Christ, not another Christ. Not a false Christ, not
this weak effeminate Christ that some are preaching today. Come
unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, I will give
you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. Learn of me,
that's learn by him, that he does the teaching, and it's also
to learn about him, because he's doing the teaching. Take my yoke
upon you and learn of me, for I'm meek and lowly in heart,
and you shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy,
and my burden is light. Listen to me. Listen to me. Has God given you a bellyful
of this religious generation's religiosity? Has God given you
a bellyful? Save yourselves from this untoward
generation. They talk a lot about God, but
they don't tell the truth about who God really is. They talk
a lot about Jesus, but they certainly don't talk about the Lord Jesus
Christ. You see, I wonder, has God given
you a belly full of this? Are you just so wearied by all
of this religious religiosity? I don't know another way to say
it. This religious religiosity that professes great spiritual
strides, but has no eternal life, and are completely devoid of
knowledge. You remember the prodigal son, He was down there in a hog
pen. He was willing, he would have
ate the very husk of the swine, but all of a sudden he came to
himself and he realized, my father My father has it all. Here I
am in this swallow. Here I am in this pit of corruption. He says, I will arise and go
to my father. Will you run to Christ? Will
you run to God's Christ? Will you run to the Christ of
God, that Christ that is preached in this book? I pray you will.
I pray God enables that. I will encourage you to listen
to, at 12 noon every Sunday on this station, listen to one of
our messages preached then also.