I didn't know when I made the
title of this message that we would actually have a situation
where we could ask this question. What are we going to do? We don't
have a piano player. So I know you've been in this kind of place
where you had to say, where am I going now? What's my next step? And if the Lord has drawn you
to himself through the Spirit of God, I know you've been there
because he calls everyone that he brings to Christ to that place
where we have to ask, what shall we do? We're going to be looking
in Acts chapter 2 at these verses 33 through 37. And this is a
question that's posed in verse 37 of this chapter. And it's
posed by those whose minds have been confronted by some grave
contradictions. That's what the gospel does.
It brings some grave contradictions to our minds. It might be posed
by those whose options have run out here. Those who are at the
end of their rope, so to speak. The question seems to imply a
sense of despair. It's certainly a question of
obvious, deep concern in the minds of these men. And today,
that's what we're going to do. I want us to explore this question
in verse 37. Look at Acts chapter 2, verse
37. Now, when they heard this, and this might imply just one
thing, but they've heard a message here that talked of lots of things. When they heard this, they were
pricked in their heart and said unto Peter and to the rest of
the apostles, Men, brethren, what shall we do? Now, we're
not going to look at the answer to this question today. There
is an answer. It's a scriptural answer, and
we'll look at it perhaps in the following message. But today,
we just want to consider this question. What shall we do? And some specific things that
lead sinners to ask this question. The sinners in our context today
are those under the preaching of the gospel. This is Pentecost.
Peter has preached the gospel to them. First of all, flaming
tongues sat on the heads of these men, and they were enabled to
preach the gospel in languages that they had never learned,
languages of those who were gathered together. And they had heard
of the death of Christ, this Jesus of Nazareth, whom they
had taken and crucified. And they had heard of his resurrection,
and they had heard all these things that Peter had told them.
So they're sitting under the gospel. And they had heard of
this one that they had crucified. God had, in fact, made him both
Lord and Christ. And that's one of the things
that brought them to ask the question. But not every sinner
under the preaching of this gospel will ask this question, What
shall we do? Some will have no reaction at
all. For instance, you remember the parable of the sows and the
sower who went forth to sow? The first illustration there,
the seed fell by the wayside and the birds of the air came
and plucked it up. The sinners who heard it, they
were privileged to hear the gospel, but it didn't dawn them. It didn't stop them. It didn't
make them consider, even before they could consider. The evil
of this world just took it right away from them, and it had no
effect on them whatsoever. So some have no reaction, just
like them. Some will react negatively, but
calmly, like those in John 6.53, who were responding to Christ's
statement when He said, Except you eat the flesh of the Son
of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Later in
that chapter, in verse 60, the response of many was this. They
said, this is a hard saying. This is difficult. Who can bear
it? And then in verse 66 it said, From that time many of his disciples
went back and walked no more with him. They responded. They
left. They left calmly. Still others
will oppose the gospel more adamantly. It makes them angry. In fact,
it makes them so angry they oppose the gospel and the Christ it
declares so vehemently They kill the messenger. They kill the
man delivering the message. Look at Acts chapter 7 verses
51 through 54 here. This is Stephen preaching. Stephen
was the first martyr under the gospel age. He said, You stiff-necked
and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you do always resist the
Holy Ghost. As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets have not
your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them which
showed before of the coming of the just one, of whom you have
been now the betrayers and murderers, who have received the law by
the dispensation of angels and have not kept it. Now, when they
heard these things, they were cut to the heart and they gnashed
on him with their teeth. They were cut to the heart. Their
hope was being questioned. See, these were Jews. They thought
just being a Jew meant salvation. That's the way they equated it.
And they didn't like it. In fact, they hated it. So what
did they do? They stoned Stephen. They stoned
the one delivering the gospel. Obviously, not every response
to the gospel is positive. That's what I'm telling you.
But to some, to certain, the gospel brings a similar response
to those in our text. As I said in the beginning, underlying
the question, what shall we do? There's obvious, deep concern. When the true gospel is preached
and the true Christ is declared, some don't care. It doesn't faze
them. It doesn't matter. Some listen
a while, and then they leave. They get offended by something
the gospel states. Some rail out in anger. But some ask, what shall we do? What triggers this response from
some? What brings certain sinners to
such deep concern? Well, the answer is the Spirit
of God. Look back here at verse 37 with me, if you will. It says
they were pricked in their heart. Literally, that means they were
pierced through the heart. That's what pricked means. And
the word for heart is that which describes the seed of the feelings
The impulse, the affection, and the desire. The heart is the
innermost being of a man. It's our innermost self. It's
the mind, affections, and will. That's what was pierced through.
The hearts of these sinners was laid open. It was laid bare.
It was exposed to the message of grace. These sinners were made willing
to consider, even believe, the truth they were hearing. And
they were made willing to believe the truth they were hearing,
even though that truth opposed what they had always embraced.
You see, when a sinner comes to the gospel, it's a different
message. It's radically different than
anything you and I ever heard before God brought us and set
us down under this message. I believe this is very much the
same as the spiritual circumcision described by Paul in Romans chapter
2 and verses 28 through 29. It says, For he is not a Jew
which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is
outward in the flesh. But he's a Jew which is one inwardly,
and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not
in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God. You see,
circumcision of the heart is the Spirit's work in regeneration. He lays that heart bare. He opens
it up to the message of grace. Only those born of the Spirit
of God, only those made willing in the day of God's power, only
those born alienated and enemies in their minds by wicked works,
but brought into subjection to the Lordship of Christ, will
demonstrate such deep concern that leads them to ask, men,
brethren, what shall we do? This question comes only from
those sinners who have been brought face to face with some necessarily
vital issues. And I see in this context today
three such issues. The first issue is their thinking
concerning the death of Christ. The death of Christ was planned.
It was purposed. It was determined by God Himself.
Look back with me in Acts 2, verses 22 and 23. Peter said, ìYou 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 yourselves also know. Him being delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken, and by wicked
hands have crucified and slain." On a given day, a determined
day, God allowed wicked men to crucify His Son. They nailed
him to a cross. They put him to a cruel and unusual
death. And those men were simply, in
their minds at least, putting to silence the mouth of one whose
doctrine they opposed. They didn't like Christ's message.
They didn't like Christ himself. So they crucified him. But long
before that day, God had already determined that event. Before
there was a universe, God determined the death of Christ. Before there
was a man, God determined the death of Christ. Before there
was sin, God determined the death of Christ. Before there was either
life or death, God determined the death of Christ. Before there
was any revealed need for mercy and grace, God had already determined
to show that mercy and grace to a multitude of His choosing
by the death of His Son. Look at 2 Timothy 1, verses 8
and 9. Be not thou therefore ashamed
of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, Paul
writes to Timothy, but be thou partaker of the afflictions of
the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and
called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but
according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us
in Christ Jesus before the world began. God purposed to save a
multitude of sinners by his grace, which he gave to those particular
sinners in their representative Christ, and he gave it before
the world began. Now, since Christ's death was
so planned and so determined by God, would it not be reasonable
that his death had a specific purpose? Would it not be reasonable
that his death was aimed at a certain, specific goal? Well, it's not
only reasonable, it's also scriptural. Look at Matthew 28. Christ said,
Even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to
minister, and to give his life a ransom for many. And then John
10, verses 10 and 11. The thief cometh not, but for
to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. But I am come, that
they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep." Christ's death was determined by God. Christ didn't come to make sinners
savable in some general sort of way. He didn't come to make
a way for sinners to be saved. No, He came to pay the ransom. That is, He came to pay the redemption
price for the many, the many He was given, the many whose
salvation He was entrusted with. He came to save His sheep from
the eternal wrath they deserve. He came to give every sinner
He represented an unchangeable standing of righteousness before
God. To misunderstand the purpose
and goal of Christ's death is to misunderstand the Christ who
died. That is, to believe that Christ's
death was for all without exception, that it was a universal death,
a universal atonement. To believe that is to misunderstand
the Christ of the Scriptures. Christ's death was for many,
the many, the many of God's choosing, not for all without exception.
To believe that any sinner will perish that Christ died for is
to misunderstand the Christ of the Scriptures. He gave his life
for the sheep, and the Scripture is clear. Not all are the sheep. There are sheep and there are
goats. So the first issue that causes sinners to ask, what shall
we do, is their thinking concerning the death of Christ. The gospel
has shown these sinners that Christ's death was determined
by God. and that Christ's death accomplished
the salvation of every sinner he died for. The gospel has challenged
what they previously believed before they came to the gospel
concerning the death of Christ. Thus, the question, what shall
we do? The second issue that causes
sinners to ask what shall we do is their thinking concerning
the resurrection of Christ. Look at here in our text at Acts
chapter 2, verses 33 through 35. Well, in verse 32 it said that
we are all witnesses. He's talking about the 120 gathered
there together. We are all witnesses, eyewitnesses
of Christ's resurrection. And in verse 33, 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. For David is not ascended into
the heavens, but he saith himself, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit
thou on my right hand until I make thy foes thy footstool." Christ's
resurrection from the dead is a biblical fact. It is preached
by every preacher who names the name of Christ. But few understand
or preach that Christ's resurrection is in truth a declaration from
God. It's a declaration from God that
Christ accomplished the salvation of every sinner He died for.
It's a declaration from God that Christ fulfilled everything necessary
for God to be just in showing mercy to those sinners He'd given
to Christ. It's a declaration from God that
Christ's obedience unto death Establish thee one righteousness
that gives every sinner Christ died for an infinite, unchangeable
standing of righteousness before God. In Daniel chapter 9 we see
a prophecy of what Christ would do when he came. Daniel 9 and
verse 24. Seventy weeks are determined
upon thy people and upon thy holy city. to finish the transgression,
and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity,
and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and
prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy. Hundreds of years before
it actually happened, Daniel prophesied what the coming Messiah
would do. He would finish the transgression.
He would make an end of sins. He would reconcile his people
unto God. He would bring in everlasting
righteousness. Christ's resurrection from the
dead is the declaration from God that Christ has done just
what Daniel prophesied. Christ was not just raised from
death to life. He was exalted to the right hand
of the Father. He was exalted to that right
hand which is symbolic of acceptance and power and authority. Christ
earned that position because He had satisfied law and justice
on behalf of those sinners He had been given. He earned that
position because His Father was completely and totally satisfied
with His work. And that's why God raised Him
from the dead. And every sinner Christ represented in His death
is accepted in the Beloved. Ephesians 1 and verse 6. to the
praise of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the
Beloved." We're not accepted because of what we do. We're
not even accepted because of our believing. We're accepted
in the Beloved. We're accepted based upon what
Christ has done on our behalf. We're accepted based on His work
alone. Christ's resurrection from the
dead ensures the resurrection of every sinner he died for.
He has earned them full salvation up to and including final glory
in heaven. Daniel prophesied that Christ
would bring in everlasting righteousness. By his obedience unto death,
Christ brought in that righteousness. And that righteousness imputed
or charged to the accounts of every sinner Christ lived and
died for. demands their final glory in heaven. So the second
issue that causes sinners to ask, what shall we do, is their
thinking concerning the resurrection of Christ. Christ was raised
from the dead and exalted to the right hand of the Father.
because his obedience unto death had given every sinner he died
for an unchangeable standing of righteousness before God.
Again, the reason they ask is because the gospel had challenged
what they had previously believed about the resurrection of Christ.
And the third issue that causes sinners to ask, what shall we
do, is the contrast between the Christ being declared in the
gospel and the one in our thinking by nature, that is, before we
come to the Gospel. You see, as I said earlier, there's
a contrast. See, the Christ I'm preaching
to you today, the Christ I'm telling you about from the Scriptures,
that's not the one in your mind when you first came here and
sat down under the Gospel. There's a contrast. To every
sinner given life by the Spirit, these two things, the Christ
of the Gospel and the Christ in our minds when we come to
the gospel are obviously not the same. Look at verse 36 of
Acts chapter 2. It says here, Therefore let all
the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same
Jesus whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ. It's obvious to all of us that
these specific Jews to whom Peter is preaching are those of the
generation whose wicked hands did actually take Christ and
slay Him and put Him on that cross. They did it. They were
there. They're the ones who were instrumental in the crucifixion
of Christ. They despised Him. They rejected
Him. They crucified Him. Even when
Pilate gave these Jews a final opportunity to set Christ free,
they said, Give us Barabbas. Crucify Christ. You can read
about that in Matthew 27. And you and I could self-righteously
point our fingers and wag our heads. We could rightly say the
Jews of Christ's day shouldn't have done that. They shouldn't
have done what they did. But scriptures like this are
not written toward that end, just like Bill was preaching
in the back. I'm fixing to talk about some of those things he
was talking about here. These scriptures are not written
toward the end that we wag our heads and point our fingers.
No. They are written for you and me to understand our part
in Christ's death. Every son and daughter of Adam
is accountable to God for the death of his son. Every son and
daughter of Adam. Did you hear me? In the end,
we will each be either in the camp of those who continued to
despise and reject Christ, those whose wicked hands crucified
and slew him, those who continue to reject the gospel, those who
continue going about to establish a righteousness of their own.
rejection and unbelief of the gospel and the Christ in it.
We'll either be in that camp or we'll be in a different camp.
We'll be in the camp of those who have been brought to understand
that it was our sins that sent Christ to the cross. That's the
camp of those who believe the gospel, the camp of those brought
to rest in Christ and Christ alone for all of salvation. We
will find our place in Isaiah 53. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. His strikes were because of our
sins. We will look on Him whom we pierced. You see, Christ didn't go to
the cross for the world. He went to the cross for His
sheep. He went to the cross for the elect. He went to the cross
for those who the Spirit brings to rest in Him and Him alone. So we're going to know Him whom
we pierced. We weren't there. Our hands didn't
touch Him. We didn't thrust a spear in His side or drive the nails
in His hands, but we pierced Him because our sins put Him
on that cross. We will know that Christ died
because of our sins. Both Old and New Testaments bear
this point. Look at Zechariah 12, verse 10. It says, And I will pour upon
the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the
Spirit of grace and of supplications. And they shall look upon me whom
they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one mourned
for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him as one
that is in bitterness for his firstborn." Again, he's talking
about whom they have pierced. He's talking about his elect,
because it was our sins that put him there. Look on at Revelation
1, verses 4-7. John is writing to the seven
churches here. John to the seven churches which are in Asia. Grace
be unto you and peace from him who is and who was and which
is to come and from the seven spirits which are before his
throne. And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness,
and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings
of the earth, unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins
in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God
and his Father, to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever.
Amen. Behold, he cometh with the clouds,
and every eye shall see him. And look at this next phrase
now. And they also which pierced him, and that could easily say,
even they, which pierced him. And all kindreds of the earth
shall wail him, even so. Amen. All kinds of people, those
of every kindred, tribe, and nation, because their sins put
him on the cross. Scriptures like verse 36 are
written so that you and I can understand our part in Christ's
death. We have nothing to whine our
fingers at or to shake our heads at. We put him on the cross.
But there's a second reason why verses like this are written.
They're written that we might face our own despising, our own
rejection of the Christ of this world. This is an important and
a very vital issue for every sinner listening to consider.
The Christ of the Scriptures is the one whose death was according
to the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. His death
was purposed by God with the specific goal of saving his sheep
from the wrath they deserve. The sins of the sheep demanded
their eternal death, and Christ endured that death for them when
he bore their sins in his body on the cross. He suffered all
the punishment that God's inflexible justice demanded that they suffer.
And Christ's resurrection from the dead is a declaration from
God that Christ has given every sinner he lived and died for,
by his imputed righteousness alone, an unchangeable standing
of righteousness before God. That is the Christ of the Scriptures. And here's something that only
the gospel will make known to sinners. All of us, all without
exception by nature, misunderstand the purpose and goal of Christ's
death. All, by nature, misunderstand
the resurrection of Christ. By nature, none of us knows why
Christ died. Not the real reason. By nature,
none of us knows who he died for. None of us knows that his
resurrection and exaltation to the right hand of the Father,
we don't know what that declares. Not a right. Not by nature. None
of us knows nor is resting in the Christ of the Scriptures
when God brings us to the gospel. Not one of us. Not one single
son and daughter of Adam is resting in the Christ I've described
to you when God brings us to this message. We are all, by
nature, the children of wrath, even as others. This is a Scripture
that Bill read in the back. Let's look at it again. Ephesians
2, verses 2 and 3. Now Paul is writing here to Ephesians
who have been converted. They have been regenerated. But
he said, wherein in time past you walked according to the course
of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air,
the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience,
among whom also we all. Paul included. You included.
Me included. We all had our conversation in
time past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires
of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children
of wrath, even as others. What does that mean to be by
nature the children of wrath? We're not children of wrath.
God's elect are not children of wrath in any sense, but we
are by nature. We were all looking to a universal
Savior, one that we were convinced died for all without exception.
We believe that multitudes would perish for whom the Christ in
our minds died, and we believe those things along with many
other God-dishonoring doctrines. When God brings each sinner to
the gospel, that sinner is also alienated and an enemy in his
or her mind by wicked works. Bill looked at this, too, in
the back, Colossians 1 verse 21. What can I tell you? Great
minds just run together is all I can say. Colossians 121, and
you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked
works, yet now hath he reconciled. What does that mean, alienated
and enemies? Along with our religious family
and friends, we are busy by nature. Before we come to the gospel,
we're busy trying to work out our acceptance with God through
our obedience. We are eagerly, zealously going
about to establish a righteousness of our own. And that's in total
opposition to the command of the gospel, that we rest in the
righteousness Christ worked out, in the righteousness of God alone.
The Spirit of God has to bring sinners to the Christ of the
Scriptures. We don't come here by nature.
We'd never come here by nature, except the Spirit draw us to
this Christ. He has to deliver us from the
Christ of our imaginations. The Scripture says he has to
reprove us of sin, the sin of not believing in the Christ of
the Scriptures. Look at John 16 with me, verses
7 through 11. Christ is about to go to the
cross and he's talking to his disciples here. He says, Nevertheless,
I tell you the truth. It is expedient. It is necessary
for you that I go away. For if I go not away, he's talking
about going to the cross. If I go not away, the Comforter
will not come unto you. But if I depart, I will send
him unto you. And when he has come, he will
reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment.
Of sin, because they believe not on me. Of righteousness,
because I go to my Father and you see me no more. Of judgment,
because the Prince of this world is judged. He will reprove the
world of sin and righteousness and judgment. Webster defines
reproof. as a kindly intent to correct
a fault. That's what the Spirit does in
the hearts of everyone He sent to. He corrects our faults. He
comes to every air of grace, and He comes to correct the faults.
Not the faults of anger or lawlessness or perversion. We need to be
corrected of those things, but that's not the Spirit's work.
He's not trying to conform us, or to change us, or to make us
better, or to get us to straighten up. No, He has one purpose. He
has a purpose. His purpose is to bring us to
Christ and to keep us looking to Christ and Christ alone. The
faults the Spirit corrects are the faults found in our self-righteous
religious zeal. The faults of not believing in
the Christ of the Scriptures. The sin, He said, the sin of
not believing in the Christ of the Gospel. He corrects us for
not resting in Christ's imputed righteousness for all of salvation
and not seeing the judgment of this world being finished at
the cross. You see, this world has already been judged. Those
in Christ have been judged in Christ, and they'll be found
righteous in Him in the end. Those outside Christ will be
found in their own righteousness and needing a righteousness that
God demands and they can't produce. The Spirit's work throughout
the life of a believer, as I said, is to bring them to Christ. And
having brought us to the Christ of the Gospel, it's to continue
to point us to Him and Him alone for all of salvation. That's
all the Spirit wants to do. He just wants to keep you looking
at Christ. When we stray, when our mind wanders, when we doubt,
when we find ourselves wondering, could this be reality? Could
this little handful of people be the only ones in this town
who know the Gospel? He brings us back to this gospel,
and He shows us this Christ, and He enlivens that hope that
we have within of Him. Under the gospel, the Jews in
our text came to understand that they had failed to see that Jesus
of Nazareth that they crucified. They had failed to see who He
really was. They didn't know what they had
done. They didn't know whom they had
taken and put on that cross. They came to realize that they
had not just slain a man, They had slain the Messiah, prophesied
of old, and sent by the Father to save his people from their
sins. They came to realize that they had despised, rejected,
and crucified the Lord of glory, the very anointed of God. And that's where the Spirit brings
every sinner he is sent to in regeneration and conversion.
He comes to correct our thinking concerning the death of Christ.
He comes to correct our thinking concerning the resurrection and
exaltation of Christ. He comes to deliver us from the
Christ of our imaginations to the Christ of the gospel. That's
where he brought these sinners under Peter's preaching. That's
why they ask the question, what shall we do? Well, what about
you? What about me? Have we been pricked
in the heart by the Spirit under the gospel? Has the Spirit of
God delivered us from the Christ of our imaginations to the Christ
of the gospel? If He has, we too have asked. Either this question or one similar,
what shall we do? Now, next time I stand before
you, I hope to answer that question from this very context. The answer
is scriptural. It's very simple. The only thing
you can do, the only thing one who's been brought to this question,
what shall we do, is repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus
Christ.