All right, if you would open your Bibles with me to 1 Thessalonians. Book of 1 Thessalonians, chapter 1. As you're turning, a couple of announcements. Roger Shuff is very, very ill, seriously ill in the hospital and suffering. And so we want to remember him in prayer. Tomorrow morning, the Lord willing, I'll be heading down to Janet's mom's house Janet's already down there now. We're trying to get the house ready to sell and get that estate closed. I'll return, Lord willing, on Thursday. Jonathan will be preaching here on Wednesday, so covet your prayers in those endeavors. All right, 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus, under the church of the Thessalonians, which is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Grace be unto you and peace. from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers, remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father, knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God.

For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power. and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance, much assurance of Christ, much assurance of the gospel. As ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake, and ye became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word of much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost. So that ye were examples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia. For from you sounded out the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God were to spread abroad, so that we need not to speak anything.

For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the true and living God, and to wait for his son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come." All right.

Let's stand together as Chris leads us in singing our call to worship. ♪ Thou Christ the great Jehovah ♪ The fount of holiness and God with us thou art become. The Lord our righteousness, O wash us with thy blood and clothe, with thy pure spotless dress. O hide us in thyself and be The Lord our righteousness, make us Thy great to be in Thee. What we in word profess, O make us fly unto Thyself. the Lord our righteousness. Pour on us shepherds of thy grace, increase our fruitfulness, that we may yield thine own to thee, the Lord our righteousness. So in Thy glorious image raise, May we Thy mercy bless. and sing forever praise to thee, the Lord our righteousness. You can be seated now, and if you would, take your hymnal and turn it to page 70.

Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty. Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty, God in three persons, blessed Trinity. Holy, holy, holy, all the saints adore thee, casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea. Cherubim and seraphim falling down before thee, which word and ardent evermore shall be. ♪ Holy, holy, holy ♪ ♪ Though the darkness hide thee ♪ ♪ Though the eye of sinful man thy glory may not see ♪ ♪ Only thou art holy ♪ There is none beside Thee perfect in power, love, and purity. Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty All thy works shall praise thy name in earth and sky and sea Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty, God in three persons, blessed Trinity.

If you would, turn your Bibles to Acts chapter 10. Acts chapter 10. Pastors ask us to read verses 44 through 48. While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell upon them which heard the words. And they of the circumcision, which believed, were astonished. And as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. For they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God. Then answered Peter, can any man forbid water that he should not be baptized, which has received the Holy Ghost as well as we? And He commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Then prayed they Him to tarry certain days.

Let's pray. Our dear and most gracious and most merciful Heavenly Father, Lord, how we thank You. We have so much to be thankful for. But Your Word, Lord, Your Word in which You have blessed us by, Your Word in which You have given us faith, that God-given faith that comes by these words, this passage in which we have just read. We have no other means, Lord, can we have this glory. We pray, Lord, that this spirit, this spirit in which we have just read that you blessed these brethren with, we pray that same spirit, Lord, this morning be upon us. Leave us not alone, Lord, in our worship this morning, but be with us in the power of that spirit that is our only means in which we can have faith. Bless us, Lord. that the eyes of our understanding be enlightened by your word. Let these words Lord, we pray.

Let these words be affectionate to us in a way in which only you can send forth. And we pray Lord, we pray this blessing not only for ourselves, but we pray this blessing if anyone among us, Lord, whom you have not yet called, called to this gospel, we pray this blessing be upon them, this spirit be upon them also, Lord.

And we pray Lord, these ones in whom we're going through these very, very difficult times. These have been firmities, these inflictions in which they suffer. Lord, we have so many in the church. We have so many in our families, Lord, that are suffering these afflictions. We pray, Lord, we pray that you be with them, Lord, that you give them this understanding, this knowledge of knowing that only in Christ can they and will they be healed by that true physician, which is Christ our Lord. All these things, Lord, we pray in Christ's name, for your sake. Amen.

Keep your Bibles open there. The Acts chapter 10 will be our text this morning. One announcement I did forget to make. You see in your bulletins, we've got the Bible conference scheduled for May 8th through the 10th. without trying to put a burden on anyone. Let me remind you, a conference is pretty expensive to put on, so if Lord's prosperity and you've got something you can lay aside extra to offset the expenses of that, probably be a good idea.

All right, I've titled the lesson this morning, The Holy Ghost Poured Out. And, you know, as I'm going through, verse by verse, through Mark and through Acts, I couldn't have planned that these two things the lesson, the message came together on the same morning, but the Lord did.

And what we're seeing here in Peter coming to preach to Cornelius and his family and the people from the community that Cornelius gathered around, it's an example of the lesson that we looked at the Lord's final instructions, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Apparently Cornelius didn't live too far from Peter, but the Gentiles were a totally different world. to Peter, to the Jews, and he went to this other place and to all the world and preached the gospel, because that's what the Lord has given us to do. Now the Lord, you know the story, we've been going through this, had come to Cornelius in a vision and told him, you send for Peter to come preach to you. He'll preach unto you the way of salvation. And Peter came and preached, and when he got there, Cornelius met him in verse 33. This is what Cornelius has to say about the meeting. Immediately, therefore, I sent to thee, and thou hast well done that thou art come. Now, therefore, are we all here present before God to hear all things that are commanded thee of God.

And then Peter proceeded to preach such a great message of salvation, a message that glorifies Christ, that shows us how he's the only hope that a sinner could possibly have, that redemption in him is both just and merciful. And while Peter was preaching, I don't know if he thought he was done yet, maybe he had a few more pages of notes or some more thoughts, but while he was preaching, look what happened here in verse 44. While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word. And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. Now, the first thing I'd like for us to see here is the Holy Ghost fell on them.

Now, if you're gonna fall on someone, it has to be from above, doesn't it? Salvation is from above. Salvation is of the Lord. It's of the Lord's purpose. It's of the Lord's purchase. It's of the Lord's application. Salvation is all from above. And that means that you and me, we are completely dependent on God to save us by His will and by His grace and by His doing. And I can tell you this, if the Holy Spirit and salvation do not fall on us from above, we're not gonna get it from anything down here beneath, because it's all been cursed by sin. So what does it mean when the Holy Ghost falls on us from above? It's the new birth, that's the work of the Holy Ghost is to give life and faith in Christ and point us to Christ so that we believe Him, so that we see Him. This is when the Holy Ghost comes to the heart in power, in life-giving power, giving life to the dead, where there's a new man born.

And everything about that new man is new. It's all new. He's got new eyes to see Christ. He's got new ears to hear Christ in the gospel, to hear Christ in the word. He's got a new heart that loves Christ. He's got a new soul that believes Christ. He's got new arms that cling to Christ. He's got new feet that follow after Christ. And that new man is the man, is the nature that God accepts because he's holy and righteous.

Look at first John chapter three. 1 John chapter 3 and verse 9. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, because he's born of God. Now I know some people like to take that verse and say, well, he doesn't practice sin. Well, if that's true, I've not been born of God. How about you? Because all we do is still yet sin. When you take this verse and compare scripture with scripture, it obviously means this.

The believer has an old man that does nothing but sin. And he's got a new man that can never sin. He's holy and righteous and will always trust Christ. And the only way that man can be born, the only way that new spirit can be born, new heart put in us, is the power of the Holy Ghost falling upon us. This is very important too. The Holy Ghost fell on them while they were hearing the word preached. Cornelius told Peter, we are here to hear. Now that is so important to our souls. What a wonderful attitude to come to the worship service.

I am here to hear. Here's why I come to hear, because I need to hear. I need to hear the old, old story all over again. I need to be reminded all over again. And I can't worship, and I can't learn and grow in grace and knowledge of our Savior without hearing the gospel. And if we come in this attitude, I'm here to hear. I'm here because I need to hear. I'm a sinner that needs to hear of the Savior. I'm a sinner that needs to be reminded that salvation is by grace, not my words. I'm here to, I need, I'm a sinner, I need to be reminded, rest in Christ, trust in Christ, Christ is all.

If I come in that attitude, I bet y'all be just like Cornelius and his household, they needed to hear. They were here to hear and the Lord let them hear. Isn't it wonderful how the Lord blesses his people? He put that in Cornelius' heart, a need to hear the gospel. And then he blessed him for needing to hear it and let him hear. Let him hear of Christ and believe on Christ.

And when they heard Peter preach, they believed on Christ. They didn't believe a new way of religion or a new set of doctrines or want to put themselves under the Old Testament law and ceremonies. They believed Christ. Now, what were they hearing? What were they hearing that was so powerful unto salvation?

And we've looked at this, but I just want to briefly go over this until we come back to our text. The first thing that they heard is this, God is no respecter of persons. Verse 34 says, Peter opened his mouth and said, of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons. Salvation, this is what this means, is not in anything about the person, in no way ever attributed to anything about that person.

And if it's OK with Kendon, I'm going to use him as an example. Our brother Kendon, I've known him since he was born. I saw him as just a little baby boy. I watched him grow up. And you couldn't find a finer boy anywhere than Kendon. He's a little fella. And now you can't find a finer young man than that young man. You really can't. Sabrina, I bet he's never given you a sleepless night. I mean, he's just been a good boy.

His parents are believers. He's got grandparents that are believers. He was raised under the sound of the gospel. Boy, he came into that Sunday school class and he was three years old. He knew all his memory verses and he sat and listened. He was just a good boy. Kenden, not one of those things contributed to your salvation. You know it and I do too. Not one of them.

It's all of God's grace. That's what being a respecter of persons is. I haven't done anything to make God respect me enough to show me mercy and grace in his son. It's all because of God's goodness. That's what that means. You know, God will give everyone exactly what they deserve. He'll give the unbeliever everything that their unbelief and their refusal to believe Christ deserves. And he'll give the believer everything that they deserve in Christ.

No respect of persons. God will accept anyone who is righteous, and he will punish anyone for their sin, regardless of who that sinner is. And the best, most clear display that God is no respecter of persons is the cross. When God's beloved son, who he has loved from all of eternity, was made sin for his people, and sin was found on God's beloved son, he didn't hold back. He gave him all the wrath that that sin deserves. He gave him absolute justice and put him to death in order that he might show mercy to his people.

God is merciful. He's merciful, but not because of us, not because of anything that we've done to deserve his mercy. It's because Christ satisfied justice for us by his death. And if God gave his son at the cross everything that I deserve, Now he cannot give me what I deserve. God's no respecter of persons. His justice was satisfied in Christ our substitute.

And despite all of the sin and failures that we see in ourselves, God's no respecter of persons. If he sees us in Christ, we're complete in him. Then Peter says, God will accept anyone who works righteousness. Verse 35, but in every nation, he that feareth him and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.

Now, the Lord Jesus Christ is the only one who ever worked out a righteousness by obeying God's law. He's the only one that ever did it. He only went around doing good. Everything he did was good and righteous and perfect. And all of us are described as being unrighteous. There's none righteous. No, not one. Then how is it A sinner like you and me can work righteousness. We can't do something to put our sin away. We can't do anything to make ourselves sinless. How is it that we can work righteousness? It's only by believing Christ. That's working righteousness.

Verse 43 in our text says to him, give all the prophets witness that through his name, whosoever believeth in him should receive the remission of sins. Whoever believes in Christ, Their sin is forgiven. Look at John chapter six. Here our Lord says the same thing, John chapter six. Verse 28. Then said they unto him, what shall we do that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, this is the work of God. You wanna do the work of God?

Here it is, that you believe on him whom he has sent. It's believing Christ. One more scripture, Romans chapter four. Romans four, verse four. Now to him that worketh, works according to the law and the ceremonies, now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace but of debt. but to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Now that's who, that's who is, is, works the work of, of, of righteousness. It's those who believe Christ, those who trust him to do everything that's necessary to save their souls from sin.

The inverse 36, Peter preached peace with God by Jesus Christ. Verse 36, the word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ. There is peace with God in Christ, and it's by the blood of his cross. The blood of the cross of Christ, the blood of his sacrifice, took away all the sin that made God angry.

God's not angry. He's not on a war path with his people. The blood of Christ took away what makes him angry, and he's at peace with His justice is not looking for them. He's not trying to condemn them. He's not trying to see if they slip up so He can condemn them. God's at peace with His people by the blood of Christ. And by that same blood, His people are at peace with Him.

Now you think of the preciousness of this. Peace with God. Peace with God. Something that It gives light and joy to our hearts and our souls as we go through this life below. I would imagine that this is the most precious. When you're laying on your deathbed and you know, I'm getting ready to part this life and go to the next one without fear of condemnation because Christ was condemned for me. To have peace with God. And it's so amazing.

God made peace, but we're the ones that made the war. We declared war on God and He didn't wait for us to surrender. He made peace and made us surrender, not by crushing us, not by just removing all of our ability to make war. He made peace with us by breaking our hearts to see the sacrifice of Christ.

What the amazing love of God that Christ, He would sacrifice His own son to put away our sin. If that doesn't break your heart and make you run to Christ in submission and love and just with your face in the dust, nothing will. But if God saved you, the thing that makes you come running to him and surrender is Christ died for you as the substitute for his people.

Then the end of verse 36, Peter makes it clear who it is we're dealing with here. Jesus Christ is Lord of all. He's Lord of all. He's sovereign over everything. And I'm telling you, you can't take that too far. Men may do wrong, but God's the first cause of it. And God's using it and controlling it to accomplish his eternal will and purpose. And that might hurt. That might make me sad, you know, to feel the consequences of that. But it also thrills my heart to know this.

Everything that happens is God's will. Everything, everything. Can something happen that's against God's will? Could God will, I don't want that to happen, but it happens anyway? Of course not. Everything that happens is God's eternal will and purpose being carried out. He's in control of everything and everyone. And tell you what that means. It means that salvation, is entirely up to God. Entirely up to Him.

It's up to the Father to choose me in divine election, because left to myself, I'll never choose Him. It's up to the Son in redemption. He must be willing to take my sin and suffer and die in my place as my substitute, as my sin sacrifice to put my sin away. If He's not willing to do that, to redeem me by His sacrifice, I'll not be redeemed. Salvation is up to the Holy Spirit. It's the prerogative of the Holy Spirit who blows where He will to give life to His people.

He comes in power, that's the Holy Spirit. The Lord says you don't see Him coming, you don't know where He came from, you don't know where He went. All you know is He's been here because now I have life. Now I have faith in Christ. And it's up to Him to give it, isn't it? And the Lord is also in charge of providence. in all the events of our life, in everything that happens. Everything that happens to you and me is God, what he purposed before time began. Everything.

I got so sick a few weeks ago. Jonathan, Gavin, I don't think I gave it to you, but they got it too, but you may have wondered this while you were so sick. Where in the world did I get this? Well, I don't think I've been around anybody that's sick. I don't know any...

God's in control of a microscopic germ that you can't see that's gonna lay you low for a week. Maybe even kill you. Who knows? But God's in control of that. And when I think that God is in control, you know I just have such peace of mind and heart If my father is controlling all of this and working all this together for the counsel of his own will, what do I got to worry about, really and truly? What do I got to worry about? It just gives you such peace. And anything we have, anything we don't have, God gave it. He's sovereign in that. If I have height or if I'm tall or I'm short or I'm skinny or I'm fat, play an instrument. I can't play an instrument. I can speak. I can't speak. Whatever it is, if I have that gift, God gave it to me. And it just goes back to this.

It's salvation is of the Lord. And if we're going to have it, we're going to receive it as a free gift of his grace. Not because we earned it, but because he opened his hand of mercy and grace and gave it to us freely for Christ's sake. And then here's the heart of the gospel. The sinner substitute. Substitution and satisfaction, verse 39. And we're witnesses of all things which he did, both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they slew and hanged on a tree. Now remember, we looked at this earlier.

God's no respecter of persons. When Christ was made sin, the Father punished him fully for that sin. The father put him to death for that sin. Can you imagine the angels in glory standing on tiptoe waiting for the father to give commandment to go destroy the earth for what man's doing to his son?

The whole earth, Jew and Gentile alike, religious and heathen alike. You know why the order never came? Because God loves his people. and the way he's gonna save his people from their sin and make it right for him to accept them into his presence, is Christ is gonna put away the sin of his people by his death as their substitute. Yes, men did what they wanted, Jew and Gentile alike, they both did what they wanted to Christ. This is what man wants to do with the Son of God. Just read the account of Christ mock trial and his crucifixion, this is what you see. This is what's in the natural heart of every man to want to do to the Son of God.

But the cross was not an act of men. It was an act of God. It was done to glorify God. The cross glorifies the justice of God. God will give justice even if sin's found on his own son. But the cross is also done to glorify the mercy and grace of God, the love of God for his people.

You think how God must love his people. He tortured his son. He turned his back on his son so that he could show mercy and grace to you and me freely. Herein is love. Not that we love God, but he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation, the sin covering, by sacrificing himself for our sin.

And whosoever, whoever it is that Christ died for, whoever that is, They are completely and eternally saved. The substitute paid their debt and made satisfaction for it. And I know he made satisfaction for it, because the next thing Peter told him is Christ is the successful Savior. Verse 40, men put him to death, hanged him on a tree, but him, God raised up the third day and showed him openly, not to all people, but unto witnesses chosen before of God, even to us, who did eat and drink with him, after he rose from the dead. Christ rose again and he appeared, not to unbelievers, but to believers. He appeared to his people and he appeared to show them, prove positive, that he died for their sin and was raised again for their justification.

Christ died because of sin. You know why he rose from the dead? Because that sin's gone. Now whose sin did Christ die for? Not his own. He did no sin. He knew no sin. He died for the sin of his people. And that sin demanded his death. Well, if it's gone, Christ raised from the dead, what does that say about your sin? Chris, it's gone. It's gone.

You're justified. Now those are shouting words. Those are shouting words. What rejoicing that there is in this. When Christ rose from the dead, he proved, he justified all of his people. And if you're justified, the Father will never condemn you. Never, never. He will gladly welcome you into his presence when he calls you from this world to the next. This is cause for rejoicing. Somebody asked me the other day about Easter. I have no idea when it is. But the world's gonna make a big, you know, hubbub about this. This is what we rejoice in and celebrate every Sunday.

Christ rose again. He rose again because he put away the sin of his people. And Peter, I mean, he's just preaching. I mean, he's just going at it, isn't he? He's just preaching Christ and just glorifying him in every way he can. And while he's doing that, the Holy Ghost fell on Cornelius. fell on his family, fell on those who were around there, that he had invited to come hear the gospel, and enabled them to believe Christ.

And those Jewish believers, I think that it says there were six of them that came with Peter, they were amazed. They were amazed. Boy, just how deeply ingrained is it in our hearts to be prejudiced against, people of another race, they were amazed that God would show mercy to these heathen Gentiles. They just couldn't believe it.

Look at verse 45. And they of the circumcision, these Jews, which believed, they were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of God. Now again, what is the gift of God? What is the gift of the Holy Ghost?

It's the new birth. It's faith in Christ. It's eternal life. And all those things, now this is an inward matter. Salvation's a heart matter. It's the giving of a new heart. It's giving of faith in Christ. It's the birth of a new man that's in you so that you're forced to go through the rest of your life with the old man and the new man constantly battling one another. Those are inward things.

But when God's grace is in the heart, it's gonna show up outward. Not as well as we wish that it would. But if grace is in the heart, if the Holy Ghost, which dwelleth in thee, Paul said, is in you, it's going to show up in our actions. It has to, because there's a new captain steering the ship. There's a new sheriff in town.

You're going to be loving where you used to be hateful. You're going to find it easier to forgive folks than just cut them off forever. You're going to seek peace and pursue it. you're gonna be kind to others. And it's because God was kind to you when you didn't deserve it. Because God loved you and forgave you and made peace with you when you didn't deserve it.

But specifically here, there are three things that is listed here. And these are the three outward evidences of faith and salvation in the heart. And there is a sense in which every single believer experiences these three things. Number one is this, and I know it's gonna sound a little bit shocking, but I touched on this in the lesson.

Every believer speaks in tongues. Every believer. Verse 46, don't run out on me now. Wait till I finish this point before you run out, thinking, oh, Frank's gonna start speaking in tongues and rolling around on the floor. Hang on a minute. Verse 46, for they heard them speak with tongues. They heard them speaking in languages that they had never learned before.

And that gift was a gift that God gave to the early church. The apostles had that gift, and by the laying on of the apostles' hands, they could give that gift to someone else. But that person couldn't give it to anybody else. So this gift of tongues died out with the apostles and the early church.

And that gift is not needed anymore, the gift of speaking in tongues. Because if you want to know if somebody's preaching the gospel or not, if God's with them, if God sent him to preach, Just see if his message matches the word of God. That's all you need to know. But you know, I can also see why it's a good thing. It's a good thing that these gifts are not given to people anymore.

And I'm going to quote Gary Holback on this. Gary says, it's a good thing the Lord never enabled me to raise somebody from the dead. Because if I did, I'd work that into every conversation I ever had. Let me tell you about the time I raised somebody from the dead.

The same thing is true about this gift of speaking in tongues. Not only would it be a sideshow, and they spoke in known tongues. It's not gibberish or anything. They spoke in known tongues. So, there's no need for us to speak in tongues here. We all speak the English language as good as we can anyway, right?

But I've been to Mexico. And one of the, I loved going to Mexico. I loved the meeting the believers down there and the pastors down there and preaching to folks, but it's always so frustrating that I had to have an interpreter. I couldn't tell, I couldn't just talk to somebody, you know, and if I'd ever gone to Mexico and the spirit just fell on me and I was able to speak in Spanish to, to those people, I'm preaching Spanish and talked back and forth to those men in Spanish and listening. to those native pastors speaking in Spanish.

You wouldn't have time to hear about Gary raising somebody from the dead. All I'd be talking about is that time I spoke in tongues. And make a sideshow of it. We don't need that gift anymore. And it would have been something to see. I mean, there's no doubt about it. That would have been something to see, these people speaking in tongues and doing these things.

But you know what? If God has saved you by his grace, you do speak in tongues. You used to not be able to speak a heavenly language. Now you speak a heavenly language. There's somebody I was talking to last week, and we were talking about something about the gospel and how amazing it is, and you can't explain it, but it's just something a believer experiences. And I told them, well, that's what Donny Bell says, that's heart language. You speak a heart language now that you didn't know before. You may have heard somebody speak it, you know, these years you didn't really understand it, Now you do. Now you speak it differently.

Now you speak about grace. Now you know what grace is. Grace is not God doing his part and you doing your part. It's salvation by grace and grace alone. You talk about mercy. You talk about the glory of Christ, even though you've never seen him personally. You talk about his glory.

You talk about the blood. People just, oh, the blood, that's so gory. Oh, let me talk about the blood. Let me hear about the blood. You talk about righteousness. You talk about mercy. Oh, and holiness. It's a heavenly language. Now you can speak of Christ, and here's what you can say. If somebody don't want to listen to you talk about him all day long, just let me tell you this. He's all and in all. He's my all. He's my only hope.

Now you understand the scriptures. Sometimes, when you read, you might not understand exactly what that's saying, but when you hear it preached, you say, that's it. Now I understand. And if you ever read the scriptures and are blessed, or you ever hear the gospel preached and are blessed, you know why? It's because the Holy Spirit fell on you.

You speak in tongues and you understand the preacher who's speaking in tongues. We understand each other because we're all speaking in tongues. We're speaking the same language. And the second thing that they did is magnified God. It says here that they, they spoke with tons and magnified God. Every believer magnifies God. Now we can't lift him up as high as he ought to be lifted up, but we can magnify him in this way.

I take no credit for my salvation. I take no credit for my righteousness. It's not something that, that, um, that I deserve. I take no credit for the forgiveness of my sins. It's not like I've sinned less than somebody else. No, I'm the chief of sinners. And God forgave me anyway. God's blessed me even though I don't deserve it. I'm not trying to earn any crowns in heaven because all the crowns are Christ.

I'm not trying to do that because I'm not worthy. Christ is worthy. I don't want to talk about me. I don't want anybody to talk. I want to talk about the Savior. And I know everybody's not a preacher. And some of you, if I asked you to preach on Wednesday, you just wouldn't show up, you know. I'm glad Jonathan will, but some people wouldn't do it, you know. But you know what every believer can do?

They can say, let me tell you what God did for me. And you'll magnify him because you'll say he did it all, that there's salvation in no other, I have no other hope than Christ and Christ alone. And here's another way I can magnify God. To talk to someone. and tell them, if God saved me, there's hope for you. Now come listen, come listen to the gospel with me. If God saved me, I know there's hope for you too. That's magnifying God's grace and mercy. And then thirdly, we'll confess Christ with our mouth and with our actions.

Verse 47, then answered Peter, can any man forbid water that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we? And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Then prayed they him to Terry certain days. Now this word baptized means to immerse. It doesn't mean to sprinkle somebody with water. It means to immerse. It's believers baptism. It's not for infants. It's not for somebody that doesn't believe. This is for someone who believes. And you know why they believe?

Because they've been baptized into Christ. Let me show you that in Romans chapter six. They've been baptized. They've been immersed and put into Christ so that when the father sees me, all he sees is his blessed son. Romans six, verse three. Know ye not that so many of us that were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Now that's not talking about water baptism. That's talking about being put into Christ so that what he did, I did because I was in him.

Therefore we buried with him by baptism into death. That like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we've been planted together, the likeness of his death, we should also be in the likeness of his resurrection. Knowing this, that our old body is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed, justified from sin. Justified by the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, my sin has been put away.

The Father put me in Christ before time began. And if I've heard the gospel, and I've believed on Christ, the commandment to me is to confess Christ and believe His baptism. Be baptized, be dunked, immersed, be dunked under the water as a picture of the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Christ. And again, this has kind of been a theme I think I've been on recently, see these commandments of God. What a blessed commandment, to publicly confess that Christ saved me. To publicly confess there is no worse sinner in this world than me. I'm so sinful that the only way I could be saved is the blood of the Son of God.

And He shed His blood for me. The Father put me in Him. When He suffered and died, He suffered and died for my sin. When He was buried, He was buried for my sin. I was buried in Him. And when He was raised from the dead, I was raised in Him. Justified. This is the believer's opportunity to confess Christ. That when He obeyed the law, I did too. Just like I was made a sinner in Adam, I was made righteous in Christ by what my representative did. When he died, I died in him. I died to the law. I died to justice. In Christ, my substitute. And when Christ arose, I arose to new life in him. Now that's how God saved me. That's what God did for me. That's how God saved me. Isn't that a blessing? What a blessing to be able to confess Christ that way.

And if you gather here week after week after week, and you think, I believe the gospel. I believe the gospel. I can't tell you exactly when that started. All I know is right now I believe the gospel. Then you're commanded. to confess Christ in believer's baptism. Don't think, do I gotta know enough? Don't think, you know, I gotta grow and I gotta do some things. Do you believe Christ? Do you trust him? Then God's commanded you to be baptized. And it's a blessed commandment.

And I'm not trying to talk you into doing anything now, but I have yet to ever meet a believer who's been baptized that didn't say, that did say, I wish I'd have waited. You know what they always say? I wish I'd done that a lot sooner. Because now I can move on. Now I've obeyed his first commandment. Now I can move and grow in grace and knowledge of the Savior. I hope you understand what I'm trying to say and I hope it's been a blessing to you. All right, let's bow together.

Our Father, how we thank you for salvation in our Lord Jesus Christ. How we thank you for your mercy and your grace that purposed it. How we thank you that you accomplished it in justice through the death of Christ our substitute. And Father, how we thank you that you send your spirit to apply to the hearts of your people. We'd never have life otherwise. We'd never believe otherwise. How we thank you for you sending your spirit to your people so that our spirit confesses one to another, says the same thing one to another, that Christ is all.

He's all of our hope. He's accomplished all of our salvation. How we love him. How we long to hear him preached and how we long, Father, to one day see him face to face and be made just like him. Oh, how we thank you for your purpose of salvation. Father, I pray that you would Be pleased to send your spirit to fall upon each one of us here this morning, that we might leave here trusting in, and resting in, rejoicing in Christ our Savior. It is in his blessed, precious name we pray and give thanks. Amen. All right, Chris. All right, in closing, if you would, take your hymnal and turn it to page 208, and let's be standing as we close, please. 208, Are You Washed in the Blood? Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power?

Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Are you fully trusting in His grace this hour? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Are you washed in the blood, in the soul-cleansing blood of the Lamb? Are your garments spotless? Are they white as snow? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Are you walking daily by the Savior's side? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Do you rest each moment in the crucified? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Are you washed in the blood, in the soul-cleansing blood of the Lamb?

Are your garments spotless? Are they white as snow? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? When the bridegroom cometh, will your robes be white? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Will your soul be ready for the mansion's bright, and be washed in the blood of the Lamb? Are you washed in the blood, in the soul-cleansing blood of the Lamb?

Are your garments spotless? Are they white as snow? Are you washed in the blood of the Lay aside the garments that are stained with sin, and be washed in the blood of the Lamb. There's a fountain flowing for the soul unclean, oh, be washed in the blood of the Lamb. Are you washed in the blood? In the soul-cleansing blood of the Lamb? Are your garments spotless? Are they white as snow? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?