Open your Bibles, if you would,
to Acts chapter 2. I was going to name this message
the Lordship of Christ, but I thought, well, every week, gospel preachers,
when we stand up, we preach the Lordship of Christ. So I renamed
the message Pricked in the Heart, because that's what's happened
to every one of us. The Lordship Christ will be brought
forth in the first verse we'll look at, but then the following
verses will show the effect, the effect that the words of
Peter had upon two parties. Ones who heard with an inward
effectual call of God, and ones who the message just went right
by him. Who made them to differ? God,
and God alone, amen. Tells us that in scripture, it
says, for who made you to differ and what do you have that you
didn't receive? And again, in the Greek, that word differ,
that's in 1 Corinthians 4, 7, that word differ is distinguished
in the Greek. God distinguished us. And we
will see God distinguish one group of people, one group of
men from the other group of men. and there'd be 3,000 souls added
to the church. My, oh my. So Acts chapter 2, we'll continue
our study in this wonderful book. Look at verse 36. I had Brother
Brian read that so we could see the context from 29 to 41. Look at verse 36. Therefore let
all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made
that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ."
God did that. God raised him up. See, people,
they used to say, years ago, I heard this all the time when
I was in religion, just make Jesus Lord of your life. God
beat us to it. And we can't make Christ Lord
of our life. He's already Lord. He's already
Lord. He was Lord in glory, wasn't
he? He was Lord when he was on this earth and scriptures we
see here, he's Lord already. And Christ, Christ there being
Messiah in the Greek. So Lord and Messiah. Now, when
they heard this, they were pricked in their hearts. And said unto
Peter and the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall
we do? They're terrified. What are we
going to do? See, a certain group of hearers
heard something. And a certain group, the ones
who are saying they're just a bunch of drunk men, don't listen to
them, they didn't hear nothing. My oh my. Then Peter said unto
them, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name
of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive
the gift of the Holy Ghost. Now there has been a whole denomination
out there called the Church of Christ who take this one verse
right here and say, see, you must be baptized in order to
be saved. You know what I'm gonna tell
you? That's a lie. You must be born again. If we're not born again, we're
not saved. Right? And those who are born
again desire to follow the Lord in baptism out of obedience and
as a public proclamation of the Lord saved me. It has absolutely
nothing to do with our salvation. for the promises unto you and
to your children and to all that are far off. Look at this. Even
as many as the Lord our God shall call. That's us. And there's that word
again, Dave. Shall. It keeps showing up, doesn't
it? Who's calling them? The Lord. How will we call them? They shall
come. They shall. That word, I think
I told you, is used 9,000 times in the scriptures. And it's incredible,
because it's binding. See, that's a binding term for
the everlasting covenant. They shall come. Not one of them
can be lost. Praise God, it says that, right? Oh, they shall. They shall. As
many as the Lord our God shall call. And with many other words
did he testify and exhort, saying, save yourselves from this untold
generation. Then they that gladly received
his word were baptized, and the same day there were added unto
them about 3,000 souls. So Peter's declared in his sermon,
so far in the day of Pentecost, that the same Jesus whom these
wicked Jews, crucified and had slain, was raised from the dead
by our great God, by our great God, by his power. And he also
declared that the same spirit, or the same Jesus that they had
spit upon, they'd mocked, right, they'd beat, they'd murdered,
was now at the right hand of the Father. Sitting, mediating
for us. He's the one mediator between
God and man. There's only one. It's not no
priest. It's not no one else. For there's one God and one mediator
between God and man, the man Christ Jesus who gave himself
a ransom for all. Only one. And he's declared. He's declared
to be the Son of God. The glorious gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ and him crucified is what God the Holy Spirit uses
to deliver us from the darkness of our natural state, being dead
in trespasses and sins. He uses the preaching of the
gospel. See, we preachers, just like
Peter, we're just instruments. That's all we are. A surgeon
uses instruments, right? But who's the one controlling
the instrument? The instrument's just an instrument. The surgeon
is the one. Right? Who takes that instrument.
You know, we don't want someone operating on us who doesn't know
what to do with that instrument. God does an operation on our
hearts, doesn't he? We have a new heart now, as we
said in Sunday school, that hungers and thirsts after righteousness
by an operation of God, Paul wrote in Colossians. My, and
so the preacher's just an instrument. And so he uses the preaching
of the gospel to bring his, to deliver, to rescue his people
from spiritual darkness. And remember, they're his blood-bought
people. He's ransomed them. He paid with his life, the Lord
Jesus Christ did. That's the cost of our salvation,
is the shedding of the blood of Christ. Oh, and then he uses the gospel
to mature us, to grow in the grace and knowledge and truth
of Christ Jesus, our Lord. And it all hinges upon him, doesn't
it? Our salvation hinges upon Christ
Jesus, our Lord. Our growth hinges on Christ Jesus,
our Lord. Because the Holy Spirit, who
will he teach us about? Christ. He won't teach us about
anything else, will he? Oh, here we reveal the truth
about the Lord Jesus Christ to us. My, oh my. So that's why we gospel preachers
must preach Christ. It's vital. It's absolutely vital. You know, we had a couple visitors
a couple weeks ago and found out the fella, excuse me, and
his wife, they travel all over the world. And he came here and
found out that they believe like we do. Afterwards, I found out
they believe like we do. And he said, you know, see that
McDonald's across the road? He goes, we've been all around
the world. She's a traveling nurse. We've been all around
the world. And every McDonald's I go to has the same burger. And he goes, but not all churches
have the same message. And he said, we've been to churches
all around the world. And he says, it's nice to come
and sit and hear someone articulate what you believe and to preach
Christ. Because not everybody's preaching
Christ, beloved. But see, we gospel preachers,
this is the only message we have. I only have Christ. to set before you. Now I'm gonna
set them forth before you in all different scriptures, right?
Like every message is different, but who's the main one of every
message? Christ our King, amen. He's the
main one. He's the main one. Now today first we'll see the
Lordship of Christ. And then I'd like us to consider
the effect that the preaching had upon those who heard the
words preached. And I also want all of us who
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to apply what these believing
Jews experienced on the day of Pentecost to what we've experienced
when God the Holy Spirit regenerated us. Were we not pricked in the
hearts? Did we not see ourselves as, oh my gosh, I've sinned against
God? What am I going to do? And did not the Father just show
us Christ then? Or did not the preacher just
set Christ before you and the Holy Spirit went, there's the
balm of Gilead. There's the only Savior. Look
to Him and live. Look to Him and live. And God,
the Holy Spirit, was pleased to give us true saving faith
when we heard the gospel, when we really heard it. enlightened
our minds to the preaching of the gospel, to believe it by
God-given faith. So you must be born again. Then
comes faith, and then comes repentance. And faith and repentance is like
faith on one side, repentance on the other. It's the same piece
of paper. God gives it both to us. Right? At the same time. My oh my. Let's read Acts chapter 2 verse
36 again. And we clearly see in simple
language that Peter declares that the Lord Jesus Christ is
both Lord and the Messiah. Therefore, let all the house
of Israel know assuredly that God hath made the same Jesus
whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ, which is Messiah. Very clearly and very plainly
stated, right? And Peter tells us that Christ
is indeed the exalted King of Glory. I'm sorry. The man who was nailed to the
cross now sits in the throne in heaven, seated at the right
hand of the Father. And he has universal dominion,
beloved. He is in control of all things.
There's not even an insect that crawls on the ground that he
don't know about. and according to his will and purpose. Isn't
that amazing? How many ants do we see in our
everyday life? That ant is walking and going
all according to God's, it's amazing, will and purpose. He's
seeking out whatever God wants him to do. You say, come on. Yeah, it's true. It's true. That ant don't got no free will,
right? I'm just kidding. I'm sorry. No. But that ant is just
doing what it naturally does, right? Or a butterfly flying, landing
on a leaf. You ever had this experience?
You should be sitting there, maybe sitting on your porch. And all
of a sudden, the most beautiful butterfly will land close by.
Thank you, Lord. Or some insect. Thank you, Lord. That's not random, beloved. When
a bird lands beside you or near you, you hear birds singing.
That's not random. That's all by the providence
of God. Sister Carolyn and I often talk about how we sit out and
listen to the birds. It's beautiful. And then birds are singing to
the Lord, beloved. You say, come on, Wayne. Yeah, I'm not. They're singing
to the Lord, beloved. My, oh, my. See, the whole world
praises God. Right? The trees, when they wave,
what are they doing? This is Spurgeons. They're waving
in adoration to the Lord. The waves of the ocean as they
crash, clapping in adoration to the Lord. Praise His name. Praise his name. Praise his name. Oh my. Isn't that wonderful? Isn't that wonderful? That man
had a way of looking at things that was just incredible. Just
incredible. So the man who they nailed to
the cross now sits upon the throne of glory. He's king. He's king
of kings and he's lord of lords. He has taken possession of his
throne again. So what does this mean? What's
the significance of Christ's exaltation? Well, Christ on the
throne means that his work is finished. The high priests, when they went
into the temple, there was no chair for them to sit in because
they had to go back in again and again. Christ's work is done. It's finished. Tommy's redeemed
us. It's done. He said, it's finished. We rest in that, don't we? We
trust in that. It's finished. He came to do
the Father's will, which was what? To obey the law perfectly
and to redeem his people from their sins. And he did it. He did it. He didn't fail. Nope. He did it. And because God's
pleased with that sacrifice, he's raised from the dead, isn't
he? Where is he right now? Sister, he's right now. He's
seated at the right hand of glory, isn't he? Right now. And we're going to see him one
day. We're going to see him one day. Face to face, just like
that song we're going to sing. Face to face. Number two, What
does this mean? Number two, Christ's exaltation
upon the throne of glory means that God the Father has accepted
the sacrifice of his son. And if he's accepted the sacrifice
of his son, and the scripture says we're accepted in the blood,
what does that mean? It means we're accepted in Christ. Oh my! And will God the Father
ever reject his son? No. Well, he said, well, you
know, your arm over here, Wayne, he's sinning too much, so we're
going to get rid of that arm. No. Praise God, our salvation
is not dependent upon what we do. It's dependent upon what
he's done. Now, that will give you joy. That will give you peace. And
that comes from the Holy Spirit of God as we looked at in Sunday
school, right? Remember, it's the fruit of the
Spirit. It comes from Him. It comes from Him. And the believer's
assurance that our sin is pardoned is the ascension and the exaltation
of Christ. So we can sit here today and
say, I'm a saved man or woman because Christ ascended into
glory. And God is absolutely satisfied with that sacrifice. Isn't that? My, you know, ever since I've
been listening to the DJ and stuff, and he's just, he just
hammers that, that you can't, we can't sin our way out of God.
And Paul said, God forbid that we'd even do that, right? We
can't sin our way out of Christ, but the believer don't want to
do that. But when you hear that your salvation is not dependent
upon anything you do, my, that's wonderful news. That's truly the best news I've
ever heard. And I just want to keep hearing it. Do you? My. And then number three, the exaltation
of Christ proclaims reconciliation between God and man. See, when
Adam fell, right, that fellowship was broken, wasn't it? And the
gospel is the ministry of reconciliation, Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5,
he said that the gospel is the ministry of reconciliation. Reconciliation
between who? Between God, the offended party,
and between men who's offended God. And think of this, this
is what just blows my mind away. He's the offended party, and
yet he sends his son, who's the only way we can be reconciled
to him. What love he has for us to do
that, to surrender his son, to die for our sins. What love he
has for us, and that we know, we've learned, haven't we? We've
learned through our studies and various messages that that love
is an everlasting love. Jeremiah says, he said to Jeremiah,
I've loved you with an everlasting love before your mother conceived
you. Woo, my, that's for every believer,
isn't it? My, that's, you can't even measure
that. You can't even measure that love.
And yet, it's true. My, oh my. So the debt, Brother
Dave, the debt for our sin, paid in full. Paid in full, Brother. How? By the redeeming blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ. The blood of the God. And that's
true for every one of us who's believers. The debt of our sin
is payed in full. Lord, help my unbelief. Help
me to live in that every day. Help me to have that joy, right,
that comes from the Spirit. And I'll tell you what, if we
live in that every day, we're going to have joy. And we still
confess our sins, don't we? Yep, we still confess our sins.
But if we live in the fact that I am totally saved by the precious
blood of Christ, I've been redeemed. And my sins have been paid in
full. Not by anything I did. I sinned against the God who
sent his only begotten son to die for my sins. Because the
only way I could be reconciled to him who I offended was through
the death of his son. My So we say, well, why me? Well,
because it pleased God to do it now. It pleased him to send
his son to die in our Roman place. It pleased him to do that. Would
we send our son to die for our enemies? People who are shaking
their fist at us? We wouldn't do it. Not one of
us would do it. And here's God. He sends the
Son of God, the Word of God. into this world. Very God of
very God, right? As much God as the Father, as
much God as the Holy Spirit. He's God the Son, and he's sent
into this world to reconcile us to God. My. And number four, the exalted Christ is able to
save fallen man. As Christ on the throne is able
to save all who come by him. Christ is touched with the feeling
of our infirmities. He was tempted, yet without sin. And I'll tell you what, he's
God. I'll tell you what, Brother Zane,
can we keep ourselves from falling, Brother Zane? Can't keep ourselves
from falling, can we? but praise be to God. We worship
and adore and love he who is able to keep us from falling
and to present us faultless, like we have no sin. That word faultless, it means
unreprovable. And then he goes on to say, and
blameless with exceeding joy. You know why he's filled with
exceeding joy to present us faultless and blameless? Because he purchased
us with his precious, precious love. And because we are the
gift from the Father to him. Ever think of that? You're a
gift. You're a gift from the Father to Christ. Now we value gifts from those
we love, right? Probably more so than if we got
a gift from someone we didn't even know. Imagine how Christ feels about
a people being given to him by the Father's love. Imagine how much he loves those
people. That's us. That's the redeemed
of the Lord, beloved. Loved with an everlasting love. My oh my. What a hope we have,
I'll tell you. What a hope we have. So our Lord
is both Lord and Christ. He's both Lord and the Messiah.
We don't make him that way again. God's made him that. And then
right after Peter boldly declared that, to let all the house of
Israel know assuredly that God hath made the same Jesus whom
they crucified, both Lord and Christ, we read these holy inspired
words in verse 37. Let's read Acts chapter 2 verse
37. Now when they heard this, they
were pricked in the heart. Now remember, I had mentioned
before that this was during the time when they would be offering
sacrifices, so there'd be all kinds of men offering sacrifices
during the day at that time, at nine in the morning. They'd
be offering sacrifices. And there'd be all kinds of people
from all different places, and they heard the preaching in their
own language, remember? Well, now we see some are pricked
in the heart. just like we were when the gospel
was made effectual to us. We may have heard it before,
and it may have went right over us, but there was one time when
it became effectual, when we actually went, I hear something. I never forget Josh Gobel coming
up one time and he said to me, he said, after a service, he
said, I heard something, Pastor Wayne. Man, we were all crying. He heard something. My oh my. You see. the only one who made these people
to differ, it says, and they were pricked in their heart and
said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren,
what shall we do? Remember that, remember the Philippian
jailer? What must I do to be saved? See,
man always asks what we have to do. What do we got to do? And Paul said, believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Right? My oh my. Now think of it. There's two classes of people
here. There's vessels of honor and
there's vessels of dishonor. Right? We know in this world
there's only two. There's saved and lost. Right? There's sheep and goats. We know
that because that's what the scriptures say. We don't know
who they are so we preach the gospel to everyone. Right? And
have the gospel go out all over the world. But there's two parties
here, ones who heard and ones who didn't hear. All of them,
both parties heard the words of Peter, right? Just like all of you are hearing
the gospel preached, to some it's effectual, to some it's
edifying, to some it builds up. And as it goes out, right? There's some who don't know and
don't understand. The words go right by them. But
then there's some who it's effectual to. And many, after they heard the
words of Peter, continued in their ungodly state of unbelief. But some we see here. You know
what's happening right before us? Some are being raised from
their spiritual death. They're being taken from the
kingdom of darkness and translated into the kingdom of God's dear
son, right before our eyes in the text. Isn't that amazing? They're pricked
in their hearts. And who made them to differ?
What is the difference between these two parties? God's sovereign
grace. That's the only thing that made
us to differ from all the people we know in this world. God's
sovereign grace. See, salvation's a heart matter,
isn't it? It's a heart matter. And only God can deal with the
heart. All we preachers do is trumpet the message out, and
it's God that does the heart work. That's why we say, when
God's dealing with someone, leave him alone. See, religion, like,
Well, you gotta pray this prayer right now. You gotta do this,
you gotta do that. Leave him alone. Let the Holy Spirit do the work.
He's the only one who can do the hard work. And we just keep
presenting the scriptures, right? We just keep setting Christ before
our family members and our friends and anyone who asks questions.
We just set Christ before them. And Peter here, he's been entrusted
with the glorious gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ in the blessed
honor of preaching, but he's just an instrument. He can't
do the heart work just like I can't do the heart work. Now I can
tell you about someone who's done the heart work on me. God the Holy Spirit. See, if
I wasn't saved, I couldn't preach to you. I couldn't tell you about Christ,
but I'll tell you why. The Lord Jesus Christ saved my
soul, and I'm going to brag on Him as much as I can. I'm going
to tell you, I'm going to just keep setting Christ before your
ears, because He's the only hope. He's my only hope, and I know
He's your only hope, right? We want to hear 50 ways how to
be a better Christian, because we can't do it! It just shows
us how much failures we are. But in Christ, we got victory,
beloved. You ever sing that song? We need to sing it soon again.
Victory in Jesus, right? Victory in Jesus. That's where
our victory is, is in Christ. He's the conquering king. My,
oh my, it's wonderful. So I can only do what Peter's
done. And every sent preacher of God
can only do what Peter's done, tell you about Christ, set Christ
before you. And we preachers can't make the gospel effectual,
no, only God the Holy Spirit can do that. Look at verse 37
again. 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? Well, it's God and God himself
alone who pricked 3,000 men's hearts that day. 3,000. Isn't
that amazing? All at once. All at once. John Gill says this. by those
who were pricked in their hearts. And he says, the word of God
entered into them and was a sharp sword unto them. Remember the
word of God's like a sharp sword, a double-edged sword, which cut
and laid open their hearts in the sin and wickedness of them.
And they saw themselves guilty of a crime laid to their charge.
So they saw themselves by the power of God the Holy Spirit
as sinners. And they saw themselves guilty
of what Peter said. that they had by wicked hands
taken and slain the Lord of Glory. And that can only be shown to
us. See, you know who else had a part in slaying Christ? All of us who are God's people.
You know why? Because it's our sin that was
laid upon Him. My, oh my. My, oh my. He's dying for the sins of his
people. What great love. What great love he has. Oh my. He goes on to say that they were
filled with remorse of the conscious for it. They felt pain at their
hearts and much uneasiness because they're like, what are we going
to do? and were seized with horror and trembling. They were wounded
in their spirits being, like this, being hewn and cut down
by the prophets and the apostles of the Lord. That's what happens
to us. The Lord just takes the ax to us, doesn't he? He just
hewns us down through the preaching of the gospel, doesn't he? Oh
my, we get cut right down, don't we? Every one of us. My, and he goes on to say this.
They were hewn and cut down by the prophets and the apostles
and slain by the words of his mouth. And they were as dead
man in their own apprehension." We're dead. We're dead. And indeed, a prick, a cut, or
wound in the heart is mortal. My, oh, my. They were cut down. I like what
Scott Richardson and Henry Mahan used to say all the time. I love
this. It's so true. God's grace is stripping grace.
It strips us right down to nothing. And then builds us up in Christ.
Clothed in the perfect righteousness of Christ. But before it does
that, it strips us right down, like Gil said, takes an axe and
just cuts us right at the lower legs. And what happens, our pride
just goes kaboom, doesn't it? Our self-righteousness just goes
kaboom. Down it goes into, where does it go? In the dust. And
Scott used to say, we make our headquarters in the dust. That's
so true. That's what happens to a believer
when they become under conviction, when the Lord's drawn them to
Christ, when the Holy Spirit's drawn them to Christ. So they
saw their need for the Savior, just like we did. Oh, how thankful
we should be when God sends one of his preachers to preach Christ
and him crucified. Oh my, my, oh my. But he took us out of that spiritually
deprived and dead situation that we were in spiritually and bought
us and lifted us up into the kingdom of his dear son. Oh, when we heard the gospel
of Lord Jesus Christ and His perfect work for the redemption
of His people, that's when we cried out, God, be merciful to
me, the sinner, right? Have mercy on me, Lord. We might
not have said it like the publican did, but I'll guarantee you,
we cried out for mercy. Forgive me, Lord, please. I've
sinned against Thee and Thee alone. My, oh my. And it's so different from the
mechanics of religion, isn't it? Y'all know I was a Catholic,
and there's all mechanical stuff in that. Repeat this, repeat
that, repeat this. Now it's a cry from the heart.
Now when I pray, I pray from my heart, right? Now there's
sin in it, because I'm a sinner. But I'll tell you what, it's
different. It's a lot different now. I serve a living Redeemer. Somebody offered Vicki, we went
to a thrift store we go to all the time, and somebody said to
Vicki, you want a cross? A neck cross? And she says, no,
my Savior's not on that cross. He's risen. I don't need that. He's risen. Man, isn't that wonderful? He's risen. He's not hanging
on some cross. People put these superstitious
things in their homes. That's all it is, just a bunch
of superstition. We're going to hit that one part.
I can't wait to get there when Paul's talking on Mars Hill. And he says, I'm going to paraphrase
this. He says, I perceive you're entirely
too superstitious. That's man in our natural state
and in religion. Too superstitious. Too superstitious. My. It's all around us. I love
hockey. I love hockey. And those guys,
they tape their sticks. They tape their sticks one way,
thinking it's going to bring them luck. And they keep doing
that as much as they try their skates every time. If they score
a goal or get multiple, oh, I'm going to keep doing it that way
all the time. superstitious. Nothing but superstition. It's
all around us, in religion, and in all different places. Also,
too, you ever think of this? We love sports. Do you know that
substitution is set forth before us in every sport? I was thinking
about that this morning after I listened to DJ. I'm sitting
there and I'm thinking, well in hockey, the right defenseman
comes out and somebody jumps in and becomes the right defenseman.
That's substitution. In basketball, a guard goes out,
someone comes in to play guard, that's substitution. In baseball, substitute runner,
right? It's all through, it's all over.
Substitution is set before us all the time, beloved. But we
know the truth of the real substitution, that Christ died as our substitute,
beloved. Isn't that wondrous? My, oh,
my. And our great God, our great
God, when we cried out for mercy, our great God, by His sovereign
will and purpose, granted us repentance. Born again by the
Holy Spirit of God, and then granted faith and repentance
before God. My, but before that, we were
born again by His Spirit. And Christ said, this is the
key right here. You must be born again. You must
be to see the kingdom of heaven. My, oh my. And then following,
following repentance before God, which do you know is just a,
just a change of mind. Following that, we desire to
be baptized. We desire to follow the Lord
in baptism, to be identified with Christ, confessing Him as
our Lord and Savior. And so marvel at this, beloved.
After these Jews who were ordained to eternal life, they were pricked in their hearts,
they said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, men and
brethren, what shall we do? My, oh my, the Holy Spirit had
convicted them and revealed to them that what Peter had boldly
preached was true. Was truth. Just as the Holy Spirit
reveals to us when a preacher is preaching that that's the
truth. He's not lying. We can tell when a man's lying
to us, can't we? It's not hard. It's not hard. They say things
like this. Well, God's done all he can do. Now the rest is up
to you. That's a lie. Or every head bowed, every eye
closed, Put your hand up if you want
to be saved. And repeat this prayer after
me. Now you're part of the, I've
actually heard guys go, now you're part of the kingdom of God. There's
absolutely no Holy Spirit work there. Liars. And I've been in, I've been in
situations where I've heard both, I don't just say God's all he's
done, and I've heard that. I've had friends of mine say
that from across the road. I was talking to a fellow this
week, and he said, well, Christ died for everybody. And I said,
so you're telling me that all he did was die to make them savable? He said, well, he died for everyone.
I said, no, he didn't. If he died for everyone, everyone would
be saved. And then he just started spewing
stuff out. What do you do? I've told you
guys what to do, right? I said, OK, in John chapter 10,
Christ is looking at these Pharisees. And he's just said a little bit
further up, he said, I give my life for the sheep. I said, who
are the sheep? He said, well, God's people. I said, yeah. I said, and then
he says, he looks at these Pharisees and says, you're not my sheep.
What does that tell you? Well, I said, Christ didn't die for
them. That's what it tells you. That's what it tells you right there
so plainly and clearly, right? Couldn't see it. I couldn't see
it. I thought, that was me before
the Lord saved me. And that's why I just keep sitting
in Christ before this fellow. And that's what we're to do.
Just keep sitting in Christ before people. And always use scripture. And you'll notice, you'll notice
people who don't believe what the Bible says will give you
all kinds of stuff about what they believe. And that's not
worth a hill of beans. That's just words. That's all
that is. Scripture is where the power
is. In Scripture alone. God does not lie. This book is
truth. When he says, when Christ says,
I give my life for the sheep, he means that. Right? And then he says of those
sheep, I'm not going to lose one of them. I ain't going to
lose one of them. Well, that fills our hearts with
joy, doesn't it? Oh, my. My, oh, my. Let's read verses
38 to 41 now. Then Peter said unto them, Repent
and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ
for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of
the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you and
to your children and to all that are far off, even as many as
the Lord our God shall call. And with many other words, Did
he testify and exhort, saying, save yourselves from this untold
generation? Then they that gladly received
his word were baptized, and the same day there were added unto
them about 3,000 souls. Oh my goodness. 3,000 people pricked in the heart
by the Holy Spirit of God. See, he can save whomever he
wills, right? My. Peter's answer to those who
were pricked in the heart, they said, man and brethren,
what shall we do? And he said, repent. And we know repentance
only comes from God. It's not something we can muster
up. It comes from God. Repent and be baptized, every
one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins,
and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Peter said,
repent. Repent. Now, that's needful for
today, isn't it? Just as needful for today as
it was for then. Repentance. So what is repentance? Well, I'm going to tell you what the
repentance isn't first. Repentance is not reforming your
life so that God will have mercy on you. Remember our dear sister
saying, just as I am? Do you know it's another gospel
to say, clean up and come to Christ? That's another gospel. What dear Linda sang was so true.
Come to Christ just as you are. In our filth, in our sinfulness,
come to Christ. Come to him. So true repentance
is not reforming your life so that God will have mercy on you.
And true repentance is not cleaning up your sinful lifestyle or getting
your act together so that you can make yourself good enough
so that God would accept you. That's not true repentance. Not
at all. True repentance is not something
that the sinner does to gain favor with God either. Because we can't gain favor with
God outside of Christ, can we? Do you know what the word repentance
means in the text? It means to think differently
in the Greek. To think different. We think
differently now about Christ and the Bible and the gospel
and God and the Holy Spirit than we ever did before we were saved.
Isn't that amazing? That's what it literally means
in the Greek, to think differently. My, how can we think differently? only by the power of God, the
Holy Spirit, right? That's the only way we can think
differently about Christ. That's the only way we can think
differently about God. That's the only way, beloved.
It's all by His mighty work. So let's say hallelujah for His
mighty work in us. Amen. It's Him who's done that
work. It's Him who's done it. My, He's
so good to us. And these Jews, remember, they're
self-righteous religionists. They have a wrong view of who
Christ is. He's the Messiah. They just think,
ah, he's just some teacher. That's before they're saved. Who do they think he is after
they're saved? He's my all in all. He's Christ Jesus, my Savior. He's the King of kings and the
Lord of lords. What Peter proclaims is true
and I believe it by the grace of God. Isn't that wonderful? Is that not so with us now? We
believe what God says. Norm keeps saying that all the
time to me. He says, the difference between God's people and the
world is we believe what God says. We believe it. And these Jews, they were self-righteous
religionists. They'd been deceived by their
religious leaders. They'd even deceived themselves into believing
that they had established their own righteousness just because
they were of Abraham's seed, his natural seed. And they believed the promised
Messiah was coming to sit on David's throne and to wipe out
the Romans and for them to rule. But Christ said, my kingdom is
not of this world. It's not of this world. My, oh, my. And now 3,000 of
them have had their hearts pricked. 3,000 of them have been regenerated. You know how we know that? Because
they cried out, what must we do? Natural man doesn't cry that
out. Stuff can be happening to them and they'll just start cursing
God. But the born-again, blood-washed believer, we cry when we hear
the gospel. We say, oh Lord, thank you for having mercy on
me. Thank you for saving my soul. Thank you for granting me faith
to believe. And we who are born again will repent, we'll think
differently by God's power and by God's power alone. He's turned
these men from their wrongful thinking and their sinful view
of themselves and of Christ to now they believe the words of
Peter. Just like that too, you notice
that? Peter didn't say bow your head and repeat a prayer, right?
It's all God the Holy Spirit doing it. That's what I like
about Spurgeon. Spurgeon said this, and I love this. He said,
God can save you in your seat without you moving a muscle.
Because it's a hard work, right? Let's look at verses 38 to 41
again. And think of this, by the regenerating
power of God the Holy Spirit, who gave them a true understanding
of the Old Testament Scriptures. Because remember, Peter's preaching
from Psalm 16 we saw last week, right? And they didn't have the
New Testament. All they did was preach from
the Old Testament. My, we see them turned. They're
turned to believe what Peter's preaching. Look at this, verses
38 to 41. Then Peter said unto them, Repent and be baptized
every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission
of sins and ye shall, there's that little word again, receive
the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you and
to your children and to all that are far off and as many as the
Lord our God shall call. Notice who does the calling?
It's God. God does the calling. It's effectual. And with this
many other words, did he testify and exhort saying, save yourselves
from this untold generation. Then they that gladly, look at
that. Gladly. How are they glad? We looked
at the phrase of spirits today, didn't they? Didn't we? Well,
they got the joy of the Holy Spirit in their hearts now. They
gladly received these words. Oh my. They gladly received his
word and were baptized. And the same day, they were added
unto them by 3,000 souls. 3,000 who turned. 3,000 who thought
differently all of a sudden. Oh, by the power of God, the
Holy Spirit. My, oh my, and let us remember that it was Christ,
the exalted God, man, who gave them repentance. Over in Acts,
flip just quickly over to Acts chapter five. I'm gonna close
up here soon. Acts chapter five. It's God who gives them the repentance. This thinking differently comes
about by regeneration of the Holy Spirit of God. Think of
us. Think of how we thought before
the Lord saved us and think of how we think now. We see everything
now in the light of God's providence, don't we? I never used to think
that way. I never used to think that that little ant was being
guided by God's providence. I never even thought that. My oh my. And think of the things
we can't even see under the ground that are moving all by God's power and control.
Brother Neil, he sees you plant the corn and beans, and God's
the one who gives the increase. My, see preachers, we're just
sowing, and God gives the increase. Just sowing the Word of God.
Just keep sowing, brother. Amen. Amen. Look at this in Acts
chapter 5, verses 29 to 33. But the verse is 31 where we
see that God gives repentance. Then Peter and the other apostles
answered and said, we ought to obey God rather than men. They're
talking to the, these Pharisees are trying to shell him up. And
they said, no, we're just going to keep talking about Christ.
The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you slew and hanged
on the tree. Him hath God exalted with his
right hand to be a prince and savior. And look at this, for
to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. Who
gives repentance to God's people? God. Who gives forgiveness? God. And we are his witnesses of these
things. And so is also the Holy Ghost,
whom God hath given to them that obey him. When they heard that,
look at this, they were cut to the heart and took counsel to
slay them. So instead of repenting, thinking differently, these folks
wanted to kill them. My, oh, my. Do you know if people
could destroy God's people, they would. They would. They would. They'd destroy every
one of us if they could. But they can't. They can't. I think we may have even tried
to destroy ourselves by, I know, my recklessness before the Lord
saved me. We talked about it on a Wednesday. It's got to be
four or five times I should have died before the Lord saved me.
But it wasn't my time. I hadn't been saved. Isn't that
amazing? So God preserves us until that
appointed time. My. And it was God, the Holy
Spirit, who picked the heart of these hearers. You know who
they were? They were the redeemed of the
Lord. Christ had died on that cross
for their sins. They were just saying, crucify
him, crucify him, some of them probably. Remember He said, Father, forgive
them for they know not what they do. My, oh my. Now they're saying,
He's Lord and Christ. He's the Messiah. So what does
this tell us? This tells us salvations of the
Lord, doesn't it? It's salvation. It's God who
pricked their hearts. It's God who regenerated them.
It's God who gave them faith to believe on Christ. It's all
God, it's all his work. So let we who are the born again,
blood washed children of God rejoice, as there was never a
time when God didn't love his people. There was never a time
sister when God didn't love us. Never a time. My oh my. God himself says this to those
he chose. And this is a verse I quoted
in Sunday School, and I'm gonna quote it again here. He says
this, listen to this, Jeremiah 31.3. If you can memorize it,
write it to your heart, whatever, or just think about it. Yea,
I have loved thee with an everlasting love. What's that mean? What's
everlasting mean? That means it doesn't end. Listen
to this. Therefore, with loving kindness,
I've drawn you. I drew you with love and kindness.
He drew me, He drew you, beloved, with love and kindness. It's true of all God's elect,
we're guilty sinners, just as guilty as the workers of iniquity
that God hates, but there's never been a time that He's not loved
us. That's truth. That's what Jeremiah, that's
what He told Jeremiah. And that's true of every born-again,
blood-washed believer. I've loved you with an everlasting
love. My, and he laid down his life. Christ laid down his life
for those he's loved with an everlasting love. Willingly,
he obeyed and honored the whole law of God. He established the
perfect righteousness that only God will accept. He will only
accept a perfect righteousness. So the God-man, the Lord Jesus
Christ, establishes a perfect righteousness, which God clothes
us in. How do we know that? The father
of the prodigal son said, bring forth the best robe. And he was clothed in that. What's
the best robe? The robe of righteousness. The
robe of the righteousness of Christ that were clothed in. Oh, accepted in the beloved,
beloved. It's wonderful. And the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ cleanses us from all sin. That's it, cleanses us from all
sin. Like, I mean, we're washed clean,
beloved. We're gonna get snow soon. I love it when that snow
comes, because that reminds me that scripture verse says, I'll
make you whiter than snow. And there is nothing like that
first snowfall, or even just a snowfall. And that's so white,
no one stepped in it or anything. It's just white and beautiful.
And you can literally see the sparkles coming from the snow.
It's so white. Oh my. He obeyed and honored
the law. He established the perfect righteousness
the Lord Jesus Christ did for his people. And God's accepted
that. My. For if when we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God by the death of the Son, much more
being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. Praise be to God. Saved by the
Lord Jesus Christ. Kept by the Lord Jesus Christ.
Glorified by the Lord Jesus Christ. Our lives, like a vapor, will
be there soon enough by the grace of God, by the grace and mercy
of God. My, oh my. Brother Travis, can
you close us in prayer?