I invite you now to turn back
with me to Acts Chapter 2. And as much as I can, I want
to try to paint a verbal picture of what was taking place in this account. It first of all was the time
of Pentecost. The Pentecost came about in about
our month of June, and it was directly following the wheat
harvest. And it was a celebration of God's
mercy. It was the first fruits were
waved before God. It was a time of in-gathering. the end gathering of the harvest
and a time to recognize the first fruits of God's blessings upon
his people, Pentecost. And because it was a solemn feast,
one commanded of God to be kept and observed, there were thousands
of Jews gathered here in Jerusalem from every nation in that part
of the world. If you go back to Acts chapter
2 and read verses 9 through 11, it names some of the countries
that were represented there by the Jews. And his disciples were gathered
there in the house and suddenly a sound, it said a sound, from
heaven was heard. Not a bang or anything like that,
but the sound like a rushing, mighty wind. Have you ever sat
out on the porch and you know the storm's coming and you sit
there and look at it, boy, this thing, whew, that sky's black
and here it comes, but it's perfectly still. There isn't a breeze.
And all of a sudden, whew, here comes that wind. That's what
happened on that day. They heard a sound from heaven. like a mighty, a mighty, not
a little breeze, a mighty rushing wind. And it filled the house
where they were sitting. And these men were filled with
the Holy Ghost. And they began to speak in foreign
languages as the Spirit gave them utterance. He says in verse 6, The last
part of the verse, every man heard them speak in his own language. No telling how many languages
was there. And Peter said this was the fulfillment
of the prophet Joel. You can find this and read it
a little later on if you're taking notes in Joel 2, 28 through 32. I'm just going to paraphrase
those verses. He said, I'll pour out my Spirit
on all flesh, and they shall preach. They're going to prophesy.
And whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be
saved. A new age. A new age had fully
dawned. Now, that new age was sparked
by the coming of the forerunner of Christ. And then Christ's
appearance sealed it. This is the new age. This is
the gospel age that Christ has now come. But all the prophecy
was not yet fulfilled. He said, you're going to be my
witnesses, and you're going to go into all the world and preach
my gospel. And all power is given unto me,
so you don't fear anything or anybody. I'm getting ready to ascend unto
God the Father and sit on the throne. And whatsoever you need,
it'll be given to you. But he said, first, you go to
Jerusalem, and you just be quiet and sit there. Sit there. You wait on me. You wait on me. Something's going to happen.
Something's going to happen. Don't you lunch out on your own
right now. Something's going to happen.
Something's going to happen. And it did. He fulfilled the
prophecy of Joel and poured out the Holy Spirit of God. The ascended
Christ did. He gave them the Spirit of God.
He blessed and submersed His whole church in the Holy Spirit
of God. Poured it out on them. And they
began to preach. The Holy Ghost was right then,
right now, so to speak, in that day, opening the hearts and minds
of His disciples and to those to whom he preached, opening
to them the revelation of Christ in the scriptures, who he is,
why he came, what he accomplished, and where he is now, and why. The salvation of a sinner called
by God's grace is a twofold work. It is a work which involves a
preacher. And it's a work which involves
the heart of the hearer. And God works in that man as
I pray that he's working in me this morning and he works in
the hearts of those who hear at the same time. And none can
do this but the Holy Spirit of God. It involves the preacher. It
involves the hearer. And not only was the gospel now
clearly revealed, they were clearly preaching the gospel, Peter was.
He was declaring this thing with such clarity, he never understood
it as clearly as he did on the day of Pentecost. And he would
begin to clearly declare the gospel to those men, and God
opened their hearts, and it was clear to them what he was saying.
Isn't that something? But isn't that exactly what happens
when God does? That's exactly what happens.
And Peter said, this promise is to you and to your children
and to as many as the Lord our God shall call. Because this
is how it's going to work. This is how it's going to work.
And not only was the gospel now clearly revealed to his disciples,
but also the evil and wicked influence of Satan on what they
believed their whole lives was God's people and God's religion
and God's house. You know, no matter what the
Lord told them, without this understanding, they still made
excuses for those scribes and Pharisees, didn't they? They
said, did you know you offended them? You offended them? Yeah, he said, I know I offended
them. For thousands of years, this
world recognized a clear-cut division among its inhabitants.
There were Jews and Gentiles. That was it. That's it. Anyone who was not a blood relative
of Abraham was a Gentile. Who were the Gentiles? The Gentiles
were identified with paganism, idolatry, witchcraft. Over in Romans chapter 1, it
said they didn't want to retain God in their knowledge, and God
gave them over to themselves. professing themselves to be wise,
they become fools. And they worship the creature
more than the creator. And it says they worship man
and birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things. The Jews,
on the other hand, were associated with the God of Abraham. They were looked upon as the
children of God. Their God was invisible. He was
only known by the Scriptures. And they had the Scriptures.
God revealed Himself to men who belonged to the nation of Israel,
children of Abraham. What the world did not know,
it understood this. The world understands this today.
They still have a superstitious regard for that little nation
over in the Middle East. Still do, and the world did then,
more so than it does now. But what the world did not know
is that the people who were most associated with the living God
didn't know God. They didn't know God at all. And their religious practices
and worship was just as evil as the paganism, maybe more so. Maybe more so. This first sermon, which was
preached in this gospel age after the pouring out of God's Holy
Spirit upon His disciples and upon His church, the very first
sermon was not being preached to Gentiles, it was being preached
to Jews. And Peter having declared that
they had crucified the Savior, put to death the very Christ
whom God raised from the dead and seated at his right hand.
And the people being convinced of their sin and realizing what
they'd done and how they must be looked upon
now by their God, they cried out, what shall we do? What shall
we do? They had rejected God's Son.
They had rejected the testimony of God concerning His Son. They
had scoffed at the miracles which God did by Him in their very
midst. That's the first thing Peter
told them. This Jesus of Nazareth, He was confirmed to be the Christ
of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, and you
watched Him. And you scoffed at the miracles
that God did by Him. They not only rejected Christ
in their ignorance, but they despised Him. They made up lies about him.
They mocked him. And they preferred a murderer
in his stead. When Pilate was determined to
let him loose, they cried for his crucifixion. When they could have had him
teaching again in their cities and healing their sick, they
cried, give us Barabbas, crucify Christ. By their estimation, Barabbas
was less of a threat to them than Jesus of Nazareth. And knowing the truth as only
the Holy Ghost can make it known, they cried, what are we going
to do? What are we going to do? Now isn't that what a sinner?
learns when he comes to know something of the Christ, something
of the living God. He learns the gospel, and the
Holy Spirit convinces him of sin, and he begins to look back
on his religious practices and all these things that he thought
he knew, all these things that he thought had to be so. And
all of a sudden, he sees them as acts of an enemy of God. And he cries out, where am I
going now? What should we do? Now, let me
see if I can bring this just a little closer to home. The
Jews have little significance today. We know about the cruelty
inflicted on the Jews by Nazi Germany. And we now know that
they occupy a tiny little strip of land over there in the Middle
East and that some still refer to them as the elect of God.
But I'm talking in this direction. As far as association with the
living God and being recognized as the people of God, the church
has long since took the place of the Jews in the eyes of the
world. In other words, you're a young
man, and you go out here, and you begin to lead your life,
and you sow your wild oats, and all of a sudden, it dawns on
you that this is not going to work for a lifetime, and now
you begin Think in your mind, well, it's time for me to settle
down, it's time for me to do these things, or some kind of
trouble happens. You don't run and hunt up a rabbi.
Boy, you do. Well, there's a church
on every corner, and that's what men do. They run to the church
of their choice, and they begin to seek some help. The so-called
Christian church in our day has long since replaced this association
in the eyes of the world as far as their connection with God. They identified the church with
God. They're synonymous in the minds
of men. The Jewish church, for lack of
a better definition, appeared the same way. It appeared to
be a place where one could find refuge and solace and spiritual
guidance. But their religion had long been
established. These Jews, 2,000 years, think
about it, the Jews represented on this earth as the people of
God. Their rabbis were well-trained, well-equipped to minister to
the needs of the people. Synagogues had been constructed
all over the known world. But Satan had entered into the
house that they swept and garnished. Do you remember that parable
of the Lord? He entered into that house that they swept and
garnished. And our Lord said to these leaders,
these men, these Jewish, the ones who represented the nation
of Israel the most, the Jewish leaders, the hierarchy, the high
council, the high priest, And here's what he told them. He
said, you neither know me nor my father. What a statement coming from
the Christ of God, coming from the Son of God. He said, you
don't know me. You're out here compassing sea
and land to make one proselyte. When you've made him, he's twofold
more the child of hell than you are. You don't know me, and you
don't know my father. And you make long prayers for
a pretense, and you bow your head, and you call upon, oh,
my father. He said, you don't know God the
Father, and you don't know me. And they looked at him, and they
said, now, wait a minute. We're not like those Gentiles. We're not depraved. We're not
pagans. We be not born of fornication.
We have one Father, even God. The Lord said unto them, If God
were your Father, you'd love me. For I proceeded forth and
came from God. He said, I'll tell you who you
are. You are of your father, the devil, and the lust of your
father you will do. He that is of God, heareth God's
word. You, therefore, hear them not
because you're not of God. Now, in our day, the line of
social division is the world and the Christian church. And
as Judaism began to fade away and the churches began to be
established in the world, Satan found a new house. Yeah, he did. Satan found a new home. Certain
men, the scripture said, crept in unawares. Men ordained for
that work. Men whose mission was to turn
the grace of God into lasciviousness. That means loose living. Compromised standards. Ungodly
practices. Men who were proud knowing nothing. What a contradiction in language.
Proud. Knowing nothing. Sound like a
fool, don't it? Men wise, the scripture said,
in their own conceits. Doting on questions and strifes
of words. Perverse disputers of men with
corrupt minds. Causing men and women to depart
from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines
of devil. Doctrines of self-will. Doctrines
of self-righteousness. Doctrines of work salvation.
Doctrines of ceremonialism. You know what ceremonialism is?
That's trying to get back under the priesthood. That's what ceremonialism
is. That saying phooey on all this,
all this don't mean anything. We need to go back under that
old priesthood. We need to go back under those
old tithes which Christ fulfilled. Carrying over those old things.
Sabbath days, the priesthood, the feast days in the temple.
Doctrines of devils. Forbidding to marry, commanding
to abstain from meats, commanding a dress code. doctrines of devils. And the preaching of such doctrines,
universalism, a general atonement, and so on, is called by the Holy
Spirit, vang-jangling. That's what it is. Vang-jangling. Their preachers desire to be
teachers of the law, Paul said, understanding neither what they
say nor whereof they. Now, I'm telling you, and they
pound on that Bible, and they point that finger, and they put
the sign out in the yard, and they carved it up with a saber
saw so it looks like the scrolls, and they write on there the Ten
Commandments. One church had that out in front
of it, and it had a little notation at the bottom that said the Ten
Commandments are enough for us. They're too much for me. understanding neither what they
say nor whereof they affirm. Satan has found a new home. He's
dug in and he's fortified his stronghold. There's a church
on every corner in every little town across this nation. Go here,
go there. I guarantee you, every little
town you come in, you'll have a church on this corner, a church
on that corner, a church on this corner. Old churches, new churches,
big churches, little churches. left-wing churches, right-wing
churches, holiness churches, and not-so-holy churches. You
can find anything you want, anything you want. A preacher asks, are
you saying that every so-called Christian church in this nation
is a synagogue of Satan? No, sir. No, sir, I'm not. What
I am telling you is you'd be shocked to know exactly how many
are. You'd be shocked. You'd be shocked
down to your shoes to learn just how many are. Most of established
religion, in fact, you might even be more accurate to say
the overwhelming majority of the churches in our day are altogether
Antichrist. Everything they say is contrary
to Christ. That's Antichrist, against Christ. Preacher, I don't get it. How
can you make a statement like that? Because they, like the
Jews of old, have rejected the Christ of God. That's how. They have rejected. This is what
these Jews found out under Peter's preaching. And this is what every
sinner finds out under the influence of the Holy Spirit. When God
the Holy Spirit takes the preaching of the gospel and opens his heart
and mind and stamps it in there, presses it home, he finds out
that he's rejected the Christ of God. He has a Jesus, but it's
another Jesus. He has a gospel, but it's another
gospel. He has a spirit, but it's another
spirit. You find out that you set aside,
ignored, and denied God's testimony of His Son altogether. You remember the Jews took up
stones to stone him. They were going to stone him
to death. Picked up those big rocks about this big around.
They gathered around him. They were just going to stone
him. Take him out of this world. And the Lord turned and looked
at him, and he said, many good works have I showed you from
my Father. For which of these do you stone
me? And they glared at him. They glared at him, and they
said, for a good work we stony not, but for blasphemy. Because
thou being a man, makest thyself God. Denied God's testimony concerning
his son. Jesus of Nazareth is God come
into the flesh. He's the God-man mediator, made
of a woman, made under the law to redeem them that were under
the law. And as he was made of a woman and made under the law,
he made a curse. Made a curse for us. Cursed is
everyone that hangeth on a tree. Cursed of a holy and just God,
he must appear and take our place before God as a cursed man. Paul said God was in Christ,
reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses.
unto them." Who was in Christ? God was in Christ. As the God-man coming into this
world, He said, Sacrifice an offering thou wouldest not, but
a body hast thou prepared me. And He reconciled chosen sinners
in the body of His flesh through death to present them holy and
unblameable and unreprovable in God's sight. He was declared
to be the Son of God with power and all authority according to
the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. And
every preacher, John said, confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come
into the flesh, is not of God, and he's motivated and inspired
by the spirit of antichrist. Men and women despise God's testimony
today for the same reason they despised it when Christ walked
this earth. Nothing's changed. Salvation
is in the person of Jesus Christ. He alone can forgive sin. Go to the Pope. Go to a priest
and confess your sins. And he says, you do so many Hail
Marys and so many of this and so many of that, thy sins be
forgiven. He ain't got no power to forgive
your sins. And you ain't got any business
confessing them to him. Jesus Christ alone can forgive
sin. The Holy Spirit sent into the
world by virtue of the ascended Christ. He's not come to help
you work out your salvation or to help you earn God's favor
or to assist you in producing your own righteousness. The Holy
Spirit came to take of the accomplished redemption of Christ and show
it to you. Here it is. And the Jews despised Jesus of
Nazareth because he taught the people contrary to their traditional
doctrine. Why do they despise it today?
We had three Methodist ladies come here to visit not too long
ago. They haven't been back, and I haven't got a phone call.
I haven't had any contact with them whatsoever. Winston brought
a friend, same thing. Most of you have brought somebody
in the past, same thing. Why do they despise when I'm...
I've got the only gospel there is today. I'm preaching to you
the only hope under heaven, none other foundation laid. Christ
the Lord. Preaching sovereign grace, what
do they? It goes contrary to their traditional
understanding of doctrine. That's why all scribes and Pharisees say, why
do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elder? They
didn't even wash their hands. My soul, all the issues going
on in that day and age. They bring up this big straw
man about somebody who didn't wash their hands. Christ said to them, why do you
also transgress the commandment of God with your traditions? Listen to this scripture. I don't
think I've ever understood it the way I did in my study when
I jotted this down. We're told to consider the Lord
that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself. They
all contradicted Him. Did they not? All of established
religion contradicted everything He said. What do they do today? Huh? Same thing. Everything our
Lord taught infuriated established religion, and it still does.
They accused Paul of persuading men to worship God contrary to
the law. I need to tell you how religion
responds to the gospel of God's sovereign grace. Isn't that what
they say about it? I'm trying to teach people how
to worship God contrary to the law. It infuriates men to think
that God both has and has exercised His right to choose whom He willed
be saved. Oh, that would make their blood
boil quicker than anything. It infuriates men and women to
tell them that their righteousnesses are as filthy rags. It makes
their blood boil for you to tell them that God loved Jacob and
hated Esau. And so it is with all His elect. It makes them want to gnash their
teeth when you preach particular redemption, irresistible calling,
and imputed righteousness. And they just about have an apoplexy
when you preach the absolute sovereignty of God over all things.
They just have a meltdown. Peter preached to these people
that Christ was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge
of God. And His sovereign hand over these
things didn't interfere with your will to do with Him what
you wanted to do. He was delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God, and you took Him and by
wicked hands crucified and slain the Savior. And I say to you
that every man who despises the gospel of Christ and denies the
efficacy of His redemption, denies the glory of His person, denies
the goal of His appearance, is in the same boat with these Jews.
And the man who hears the truth and the power of God's Spirit
will cry out, what shall I do? What shall I do? And there's
only one answer. Repent. You see the direction you're
going, why you won't keep going? Repent. Recognize that what you have
despised and rejected was true and good and effectual in the
saving of men's souls. Turn from the direction you're
going. Believe the testimony of God concerning His Son and
be baptized, confessing both your sins and your salvation
in Christ. For the promise is unto you,
it's unto your children, and to all that are afar off, even
as many as the Lord our God shall call. God calls men and women
by telling them the truth. The truth about God, the truth
about man, and about the person and work of Christ. There's nothing
else to tell them. I can brag on you. You do a lot
of things, people in this church. I can brag on you. Brag on you. When I'm aware of things that
you do, I will brag on you. But bragging on you is not going
to help you at all. It's pointing you to Christ that's
going to help you. That's going to help you. God
calls chosen sinners to the preaching of the gospel, and all that He
calls, He calls to His Son. Isn't that what he said over
in John? Isn't that what our Lord said? All which the Father
has given to me is going to come to me. Why are they going to
come to Him? Because that's where they were
called. And Him that cometh to me, I
will in no wise cast out. Called of God. Called through
the Gospel. Called to Christ. Now watch this,
Acts 2 verse 40. And with many other words did
he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward
generation. One old preacher said, Untoward
is said of anything which will not go toward. That's untoward. If I walk back there, I'm going
toward that door. But an untoward man won't go
that way. He'll go this way. He's like
an old horse, one preacher said. You get on there and he's an
unruly, rebel beast. And you pull on those reins for
him to go straight, but he goes to the left. And you pull him
back and he goes to the right. And he goes to the left. He don't
want to go the direction that you're guiding him to go. That's
untoward. And Peter said, save yourselves
from this untoward generation. And I say the same thing to you.
Same thing to you. And I've already told you why. Twenty generations have come
and gone. The message is still the same.
When the apostle exhorted them to save themselves, he was not
talking about a deliverance from sin or the power of sin or the
penalty of sin, but to deliver ourselves from their lies and
deceit and darkness, especially in false religion. Well, how does a man save himself
from this untoward generation? Buy a Bible. Start there. Get yourself a Bible. Don't sit
back there and cross your arms and take my word for it. Buy
you a Bible. When I tell you to turn to 2
Peter 1, turn to 2 Peter 1 and read it. Take it home and read
it. Get acquainted. You might not
understand all it says, but you get acquainted with what it says.
So when a man stands up here and he tells you the Scripture
says, you know if he's telling you a lie or not. Prove all things the scripture
said and hold fast that which is good. Prove it. You can deliver
yourself from this untoward generation if you just read the Bible. I
tell you, I spent half my lifetime in religion and didn't realize
what the Bible said. A man said something to me, I
wanted to prove to myself that that wasn't true. I bought a
Bible. and sit down and read that thing, and I'm telling you,
there was so much in there that I'd never heard in my life. Unbelievable how much was in
there that I never heard in my life. Save yourselves from this
untoward generation. Buy a Bible and read it. Find
a man who's faithful to preach and teach from the Scriptures,
verse by verse. Not topical preaching, you don't
go in chapter 1, pick out a topic, go in chapter 2 and pick out
a topic, skip chapter 3 and go to chapter 4 verse by verse. Find a man who majors his ministry
on Christ crucified and sit down and listen to him. Whatever you
do, don't get drawn into this free will, universal decisionism
that we have today, this unto regeneration. Preaching of self-will and self-righteousness
and self-made men and self-glorifying man. Don't get sucked into that. Save yourselves from this untoward
generation. Now these were Jews, traditional
Jews, Jews who were among the crowd that crucified Christ.
They were right there. Right there. And Peter preached
to them the truth and told them about that generation and about
their own actions toward the Christ. Proved to them by their
own selves and their own experience exactly what he had been preaching.
Exactly what the Word of God teaches. And the Holy Spirit
pressed it home. Now listen to this, verse 41,
Acts chapter 2. Then they that gladly received
His Word were baptized. They always will. They always
will. Those who received His Word were
baptized. And that same day, they were
added unto them about 3,000. I don't know how many thousand
was gathered in Jerusalem. Might have been 100,000. I don't
know. But 3,000 of them were born again from that one message. one message. May the God of all
grace be pleased today to command His light, the glorious light
of His gospel, the gospel of Christ, to shine in your hearts
and enable you to see the difference between us and them, between
Christ and His gospel and false religion and what this world
preaches. Don't get drawn into it. Don't
get drawn into it. The old whore, Solomon said,
has a house. And she stands on every corner,
and she says, come in. Come in. That's religion. That's
this untoward generation. They're going, but they're not
going toward. They're untoward.