look at this Pentecostal sermon
preached by the Apostle Peter on the day of Pentecost. The
first sermon on the day of Pentecost. What a dramatic fulfillment of
the promise of the Holy Spirit we see here in these words in
the Acts of the Apostles. Dramatic fulfillment. Christ
had promised that it would be so much better for them they
didn't want him to go away but he said believe me it will be
so much better for you if I go away if I go to the father we
will send the comforter the Holy Spirit to you and oh how much
better that will be Now what a dramatic demonstration we have
in this Pentecostal sermon of how much better it was that Christ
had gone away but had sent his Holy Spirit who takes of the
things of Christ and shows them to his people. You see, let's
look, I'm going to do this in reverse order and we're looking
at a lot, I know we're looking at a lot and you could break
this down into about 20 or 30 sermons but this morning I want
to get the big picture of this. I want to look at the results,
first of all. Do you know this was a fickle people in Jerusalem? An evil, fickle people. A few weeks earlier, a week before
the crucifixion, what we call Palm Sunday, they had gone into
the streets of Jerusalem as Jesus rode, as the Prophet had said
he would, on the colt, on the donkey, whatever it was, some
horse-like donkey-like animal and he sat on it and he rode
into Jerusalem. This is what was prophesied.
And these people, these people that were there in Jerusalem,
they got palm branches and they laid palm branches on the road
and they hailed him as the King of the Jews. Hail, Hosanna, Hosanna
to the Son of David. Here comes the Messiah, they
were saying. Here he is. And look at them five days later,
five days later. Crucify him. Crucify him. What would you have, said Pilate,
that I release Barabbas to you or this man in whom I find no
wrong? Release Barabbas to us. Crucify him. Crucify Jesus. What a fickle crowd. And the
weeks had gone by, the 40 days till the ascension of Jesus,
known only to his disciples, known only to the apostles and
the immediate number. And they'd waited for the promise
of the Spirit this other 10 days. And here it is. It's come. And
these amazing things have happened. And they're all gathered here.
and they're brought to see this fickle people, this fickle, evil
people who are only like all the rest of us by nature. They're
just the same. Believe me, if we or the people
of Nebeth or this country in which we live had been there
at that time in those days, we would have cried, crucify him,
crucify him. We would. And here they are and
they're brought in one sermon by the power of the Holy Spirit
they brought in one sermon to see that they had murdered wickedly
murdered the only one by whom man can be reconciled to God
they saw that they had murdered the Christ of God and they were
taught by Peter that not only was it that they had done it
by wicked hands for which they were entirely 100 percent responsible
and guilty yet in the sovereign purposes of God, it was all according
to the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. For he
had planned it, and why had he planned it? That he might be
a just God and a Savior. That justice might be established.
And so, is anything too hard for God? That's the question
the Scripture asks. Is anything too hard for God? The truth is faithfully declared
and with it comes the power of the Holy Spirit to conquer stubborn
hearts. Have you read John Bunyan's The
Holy War? It's a good book to read because
it's an allegory, a picture of the stubbornness of Mansoul I
think is the town and it's defended by a hard wall, a strong wall
and that's the stubborn will and Satan's taken up residence
but Christ comes, Christ comes and breaks in and conquers that
stubborn will. Nothing is too hard for God. He comes with the power to conquer
stubborn hearts and He comes with an effectual call. You know
what an effectual call is? Sometimes you call to your children
and they pay you absolutely zero attention. Don't they? You know? Their mind's on other things
or they deliberately choose to ignore you. When He calls, when
He calls His people, it's an effectual call. It's powerful. His grace is irresistible. You could read the testimonies
of some of the most stubborn rejecters of the truth of the
Gospel and when God breaks in and breaks them down. Oh, how
His grace is irresistible. How that free gift of salvation
is irresistible when it comes with the power of the Holy Spirit.
And what's the result? Look at the result. Verse 41,
there were added that day about 3,000 souls that's a lot of people
you know probably not the population of Nebworth I imagine the population
of Nebworth is a bit more than that but nevertheless it's a
lot of people in one day as a result of one sermon 3,000 added just
those that could hear Peter 3,000 added and they were baptized
these 3,000 were baptized into Christ what does that mean? it
means that they were immersed into Christ They were publicly
identified with Christ. They were saying by their baptism,
this going down into water, symbolizing that they were buried with Christ.
When He died, they died in Him. When He died for sins, they died
for their sins in Him. When He was raised up from the
dead, they were raised, as it were, coming out of the water
to newness of life. They were baptized into Christ
to say that He is all my hope of salvation. He is not only
a hope that I hope will happen. He's my confidence of salvation
because he's achieved it all. He's done it all. And look what
happened as a result. They were added to the church.
They were conscious that they'd gone from darkness to light. They were conscious that the
light of the gospel had shined into them. They believed the
truth. They'd submitted to Christ. They'd known the bliss of this
glorious thought that their sins were taken care of, had been
dealt with by Christ on the cross. and they enjoyed fellowship together.
Look, fellowship steadfastly in the Apostles' doctrine and
fellowship and breaking of bread and prayers. They enjoyed fellowship. There was a spirit of self-denial. This isn't the blueprint for
communism that they all shared all things in common but there
was a spirit of self-denial. Why? Because self was crucified
with Christ. There was a spirit of self-denial
there and they were glad in it Those who had previously been
rebels to the cause of Christ, those who had previously been
those who had rejected God and His rule, they were glad now. They rejoiced together. They
worshipped God together. They praised God for His goodness
and for His truth. And look what happened. I find
this really interesting. Verse 47, they were praising
God and they were having favor with all the people. You say,
well doesn't the Gospel bring persecution? Yes it does, but
it also, it also has a remarkable effect. Did not Christ say in
the Sermon on the Mount, let your works so shine before men
that they, let your light so shine before men that they may
see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.
And this is what was happening. The people around, even those
that hadn't believed, couldn't deny that something dramatic
had happened. They saw their good works. They
saw the spirit of self-denial. They saw the gladness. They saw
the unity. They saw that where there had
previously been enmity, Christ had broken that down. And there
was this spirit of union in the things of Christ, and self-support,
and mutual support, and rejoicing. And what was the result? Fear
came upon all. Fear came upon all. A reverence,
verse 43, fear came upon every soul and many wonders and signs
were done by the Apostles. We can't ignore this. We can't
sweep this under the carpet. This is something dramatic. This
is what the people said. They couldn't ignore it. Are
we surprised by that? Do we regard this as a one-off
event? Perhaps it is in the history
of the Church. Perhaps it is. We're not to be
surprised when we live in a day of small things. When we live
in a day where the people of this world who only give any
credence to things that are dramatic and big and, you know, the hundreds
of thousands in the crowds. This is one of the marks of false
religion. They're absolutely gigantic congregations and the
wonderful time that they're all having is not the truth. But
are we surprised that this happened and are we doubting that God
can do it today? Well, He can. The Scriptures
assure us. Isaiah 59 verse 1, The Lord's
arm is not shortened that it cannot save. The Lord is not
impotent. He's not disabled in His ability
to save people. He is just the same God today,
yesterday and forever. He's the one who saved these
people. He can save people in our day too and He does. We live
in days where I think amongst our number here we've seen so
few in recent years, so few come to a knowledge of the truth.
It's been pitiful. It's been spiritual poverty in
a sense, that there's been so few coming to a knowledge of
the truth, but it's the same God. He's the same God who saves
His people. He's the same God who saved these
3,000, and if He calls, they'll come, even the people of Nebith
and round here. So what was the message that
Peter preached? Let's have a look at this sermon.
a note first of all I've got some bullet points down here
to note about this message this was the message that God gave
him Plainly, this was the message that God gave him. Because it
was spontaneous, wasn't it? He didn't know he was going to
preach this sermon on this day, particularly. It was a spontaneous
message. Things had happened. They were
speaking in these other languages, the wonderful works of God, verse
11 of chapter 2. The people were amazed and others,
mocking, said, these men are full of new wine. But Peter,
standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice and he spontaneously
preached this sermon. And he quoted his text, which
was Joel chapter 2, the end of chapter 2, about God pouring
out His Spirit on all flesh and various things happening. And
it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the
Lord shall be saved. It was a spontaneous message.
We don't read of him sitting down specifically preparing this
message. But I'm sure it was based on
study of the Scriptures. Absolutely. God gave him the
words for this special occasion. as he promised. As he promised
he would. But it was based on the study
of the Scripture. How do you think they used those
days of waiting in that upper room? Surely they'd been given
the key to understand the Scriptures. Christ had opened their understanding.
Surely they buried themselves in the Scriptures with that key
to unlock it. Those Old Testament Scriptures
that they had Every page must have been a revelation as they
turned it. Places that were familiar, they'd
heard it read in the synagogues as they were growing up. And
every page they turned, the light that came from that key that
Christ had given them, that these are they that speak of me. And
they could see these things. And he knew, he knew where to
go straight away. What's happening today? It's
what Joel said. Is it not like when you go to
a new place, you see, When you go to a new place, you don't
know it first of all. You go on holiday somewhere and
at first you're completely lost. And you spend the first day or
two driving around the area or walking around the town or whatever
it is. And after two or three days of walking around, it starts
to become very familiar. And you find yourself down an
alley that you've never been down before, but pretty much
you're not lost because you know where you are. It's familiar
territory. This is what we must do. We must
make it that the Scriptures are our familiar territory, that
we know it. You know, one of the things that
Christ said to the Pharisees when they were accusing Him,
He said, you do err, you're wrong, you're in error. Why? Because
you do not know the Scriptures. Make it familiar territory. We
need to make this familiar territory. We need to make it so that if
persecution came and our Bibles were taken away from us, in our
spirits, we'd have enough memory to know the things that relate
to Christ and the Gospel of His grace. We'd have enough knowledge
as the martyrs did when they went to the stake to be burned
or to be beheaded or to be drowned or whatever else it was terribly
that they did to them in the Middle Ages that they had the
Word of God and the Scriptures in their minds and they knew
and they were confident and they saw with the Holy Spirit's enlightenment
not to despair because God was sovereign over all things. They
knew, the Apostles knew, that what was happening was the unfolding
of God's sovereign purposes of salvation. They didn't have the
New Testament then. The book of Revelation was still
some years away from being written, probably another 60 years or
so away from being written, but they knew what's revealed in
Revelation 10. The truth is that Christ, the
Son of God, the angel of God stands with one foot on the earth
and one in the sea with a little book in his hand and he's turning
those pages of that book and that book is the scroll of the
purposes of God that book is the history of redemption and
he's unfolding it and Peter and the others knew that what was
happening on that day was simply the unfolding of that which God
had said would happen. And it's not as if God like Gypsy
Lee at the circus was staring into a crystal ball looking forward
and guessing. These things were happening because
the God who is sovereign had decreed they would happen. The
reason God's prophecies come true is because God is the one
who makes them come true. He's the one who writes the end
from the beginning and they all come to pass So he quoted Joel
chapter 2 verses 28 to 32, this was his text and in verse 21
he summarizes it with the last verse of that quotation. It shall
come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord
shall be saved." What he's saying is the day of salvation for mankind
without distinction of race or language is here. You've seen
it. Why are they speaking in these other tongues? Because
the day of salvation for mankind without distinction of race or
language is here. And he says to them in that verse,
quoting that verse, plead for mercy. on the grounds of accomplished
atonement, for Christ has accomplished atonement. He says, Whosoever
shall call on the name of the Lord, seek the Lord while he
may be found. This is what he's saying to them.
Today is the day of salvation. What you're seeing here is not
drunken men. What you're seeing here is the
declaration by the power of the Spirit of God that today is the
day of salvation. And those who call sincerely
find that it was God who was calling them. Look at verse 39.
For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to
all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall
call. And we just sung that hymn. I
sought the Lord, and afterward I knew. He moved my soul to seek
Him, seeking me. Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord shall be saved. On what name should you call?
Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved."
On what name shall you call? If you read at the end of Genesis
chapter 5, you read this, that in those days men began to call
upon the name of the Lord. Men began to call upon the name
of the Lord, to call on God our Savior. You know that's the supreme
title by which God desires to be known in the Scriptures, God
our Savior. Is there any other Savior apart
from me, he says in Isaiah chapter 40 through 45, 46 and so on. He is God our Savior. Call on
the name of God our Savior for salvation from condemnation.
Because by nature, according to divine justice, we're all
condemned. Every man is condemned. From
the youngest of us to the oldest of us. From the brightest of
us to the dimmest of us. From the richest of us to the
poorest of us. We're all condemned. But here is what the Scripture
says, Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be
saved. Who is he that we might call on him? Just turn back to
John chapter 9. Gospel of John chapter 9. Again, see what I mean about
familiar territory. Make it familiar territory. Because,
you know, as you do, and you see something there about what
is it to call on the name of the Lord, you remember you remember
little nooks and crannies in the scripture that you found
previously and they echo in your memory and you go back there
and use the tools that we've got use the tools that we've
got I commend to you that if you've got a computer get the
online Bible you can download a free version of it get it because
it's great for looking things up it's much better than any
concordance you'll find in your Bible because you just put the
words in and there it is comes up before you But look in John
chapter 9 and verse 35. And it's about the man that he'd
healed. And the Pharisees, instead of
rejoicing in a wonderful miracle done, the Pharisees had put him
out of the synagogue. They'd kicked him out. And Jesus,
verse 35, heard that they had cast him out. And when he found
him, Jesus found the man who'd been cast out from the synagogue,
the one that he'd healed, he said to him, Do you believe on
the Son of God? Do you believe on the Son of
God? And the man answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I
might believe on him? Another echoes coming through
my mind. Romans 10. How shall they call on Him on
whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe on
Him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach unless
they are sent? Who is He, Lord, He says, that
I might believe on Him? And Jesus said unto him, You
have both seen Him, and it is He that is talking with you.
It's Me, is what Jesus says. I am the Son of God that is talking
with you. I am the One in whom you must
believe if you would have eternal life not believe that I exist
but believe that I am your sin substitute believe that I am
your surety I am your guarantor of eternal life with the Father
for I have established and will establish divine justice and
he said Lord I believe and he worshipped him who is it? on
whom we should call. On what name should we call?
You see, this is what these men, all these people in Jerusalem
must have been thinking. Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord shall be saved. On whom should we call? And Peter
goes on to tell them. Look at verses 22 to 24. Ye men
of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved
of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs which God
did buy him in the midst of you as ye yourselves also know."
It's as if Peter's saying, I dare any one of you to stand up and
deny it. I dare, you've seen it yourselves,
you cannot deny it. That the lame were made whole,
that the blind were made to see, that the dead even, in the case
of Lazarus, were raised from the dead. You know it, you've
heard of it, you've seen it, I dare you to challenge it."
And they couldn't challenge it. He said, this Jesus of Nazareth
is clearly a man approved of God. Even Nicodemus when he came
to Jesus by night said, we know, we Pharisees know that you are
a man approved of God. For no man can do these things
that you do unless God is with him. And then he says, it's him,
this man, the man, Jesus of Nazareth, him being delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God. He's gone to the cross and
he's died because God ordained it from before the beginning
of time, is what he's saying. And how did he do it? Because
you have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain
him, whom God has raised up. He's not still dead. This Jesus
of Nazareth is not still dead. God has raised him up having
loosed the pains of death because it was not possible that he should
be holden of it. Why was it not possible? I'll
tell you why. Because Jesus of Nazareth was
not just a man approved of God who he was that. He was God Himself. He was the Son of God. He was
God in human flesh. He was the God-Man. He was the
declaration of God. He is the Word of God. He's the
mind of God expressed. He's the tangible, visible manifestation
of God. And God has proven this by raising
Him from the dead because it was not possible that He should
be holden of it. This is the one on whom we should
call Jesus, the God-man. Look at Romans chapter 1, just
at the very start of Romans chapter 1, where we have this glorious
introduction by Paul in his epistle to the Romans. And he says that
he's separated to the gospel of God, which he had promised
afore by his prophets in the Holy Scriptures, all according
to the Scriptures. Verse 3, What is this gospel? It concerns His Son, Jesus Christ,
our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the
flesh. His lineage, His human lineage, was from David, as the
Scriptures had said they would be. He was a man who had David
as his physical human ancestor, but He was declared to be the
Son of God. This isn't just saying that he's
God's little boy. You've heard me say this before. Don't think
that. When you see the Son of God,
it means God manifested in the flesh, declared to be the Son
of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness. And
what is it that's the proof? By the resurrection from the
dead. This one God has raised from
the dead. And it's exactly the same today
that this is the name on which men must call. This is the name
on which we say to the people of Nebith. This is the name on
which you must call. We'll see as we get into the
next chapter that Peter says there is no other name under
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. There are not
lots of alternatives for coming to God. There is not this religion,
and that's very nice if you want to follow it, and yes, you'll
get there eventually. There is no other name given
under heaven whereby we must be saved. Jesus said, I am the
way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father. No
man comes to God and knows God but by me. You see, they were
thinking, the Jews were thinking, that salvation was in their traditions. that it was in their patriarchs
and all of the things that they had. They were the elite. They were Zion. They were the
ones to whom God had particularly poured out his blessings. But
look at verse 25. This is what Peter does. He says
in verses 25 down to 35, He is saying that the Scriptures
say that this one, this Jesus of Nazareth, is the one upon
whom you should call. Not David, not the patriarchs. David speaks concerning him,
Jesus of Nazareth. Verse 25, he says this, I foresaw
the Lord always before my face. He's quoting Psalm 16. He goes
down through there. You will not leave my soul in
hell, verse 27. Neither will you suffer your
Holy One to seek corruption. And he spoke this to show that
it was Christ that he was speaking of, that he raised him from the
dead. You see, it wasn't David. David was not speaking of himself.
He wasn't saying that he was the one who would rise to heaven,
rise from the dead. He was talking about Christ.
David, he says, and all the other patriarchs, they're dead and
buried. You can go and visit their graves. Their sepulchres
are here to this day. Go and visit their graves. They're
here. You can go. If you want to go
in there and exhume them, you'll find some bones in there. They're
like other men who die, whose flesh decays and leaves the bones,
the skeletons behind. But not in the case of Christ.
How easy wouldn't it have been if Christ had not risen from
the dead? How easy would it have been for the Jewish religious
leaders to say, this is a lie. We have his body. Come, look,
we'll show you. Nice words, Peter. Good try.
But look, he's still dead. There's his tomb. Here are his
bones. Like David's bones. Like David's tomb. But they couldn't
do it. And Peter knew they couldn't do it. Because they were witnesses
of the resurrection. They'd seen it. This Jesus, verse
32, hath God raised up, whereof we all, all of us standing here,
the apostles and those with us, we're all witnesses. Many infallible
proofs. Many infallible proofs for 40
days. Shown to 500 at one go, at one time. 500 people saw it
at one go, at one time. He is the one. David can't have
been speaking of himself. Verse 27, when he said, You will
not leave my soul in hell, neither will you suffer your Holy One
to see corruption. He can't have been talking about
himself. He must have been speaking of Christ. This Christ. Verse
31, he seeing this before spoke of the resurrection of Christ.
The one that you have crucified, that his soul was not left in
hell, neither did his flesh see corruption, decay, as is the
case with all of us when we die. It's Christ who has fulfilled
his work of a Savior. It's Christ whom God has raised
up and authenticated the fact that he is the one. It's God
who has poured out His Spirit, and that is what you're seeing
today. Verse 33, Therefore, being by
the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father
the promise of the Holy Ghost, that the Spirit would be poured
out, He hath shed forth this, which you now see and hear today.
These things that you're seeing and hearing, they're not the
results of drunken men. They're the results of the outpouring
of the Spirit, the wonderful works of God, are being spoken
this is what you're seeing and hearing and in verse 36 having
quoted again Psalm 110 the Lord said to my Lord David is saying
this the Lord God said to my Lord my Savior Christ sit at
my right hand until I make your foes your footstool and he summarizes
he comes to his his pinnacle here in verse 36 therefore let
all the house of Israel he was in Jerusalem let all the house
of Israel know assuredly that God has made that same Jesus,
and he reminds them, whom you have crucified, both Lord and
Christ. What is he saying in that? The
one you crucified, that man, attested by God by miracles,
is Lord and Christ. He, he's saying, is the suffering
servant of Isaiah. You know Isaiah 52, 53, the lamb
before his shearers was dumb, that suffering servant, Jesus
of Nazareth, whom you crucified. He is that one. He is the subject
of all the Psalms. I've quoted Psalm 16 to you,
as you know, says Peter to them. I've quoted Psalm 110. Therefore,
let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made that
same Jesus, whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ. He is the
one. He is the one who bore the sins
of His people, that they might be justified. You know this in
the Scriptures, He's saying to them. This is what the Scriptures
talk about, a just God and a Savior, that God would be just and the
justifier of those who come to God by Christ. A just God and
a Savior, as He says in Isaiah 45, 21. I am a just God and a
Savior. Just, why? Because He doesn't
overlook sin. He punishes it. He ensures that
the price is paid perfectly. And a Savior? Because in doing
so, He is able to save. His people from their sins. Call
His name Jesus for He shall save His people from their sins. He
says to them effectively and I'm expanding but I know this
because In verse 40 it says, And with many other words did
he, Peter, testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from
this untoward generation. Save yourselves from this dire
condition in which you find yourself along with the rest of mankind.
Save yourselves for a gospel of good news is being preached.
He says to them, Turn to Christ. He is the one who saves his people
from their sins. You're condemned by God on account
of sin. And this One, this Jesus of Nazareth,
this Son of God, this Christ, confirmed by His resurrection,
is the only Saviour, but the oh so sufficient Saviour. And look what happens. These
are the words that Peter preaches to them. This is what he declares,
that there is reconciliation with God. that there is peace
with God for eternity, that there is no condemnation now in Christ
Jesus for those who are in Christ, for Christ has paid it all. Is
this not our message to this community and further afield,
to anyone who will hear, to anyone whom God will cause to cross
our paths? This is the message that we have, that it's in Christ,
in Christ alone there is salvation from sins, there is peace with
God there is hope of eternity there is confidence there is
no fear of death that dreadful fear of death is removed and
look the light dawns verse 37 now when they heard this this
crowd they were pricked in their heart and said to Peter and the
rest of the apostles men and brethren what shall we do pricked
in their heart. The light dawns. These people
who had walked in darkness, as Isaiah 9 verse 1 I think it says,
maybe verse 2, the people who walked in darkness have seen
a great light. The light is shining in. The
Holy Spirit has come. The promise is fulfilled. He's
shining into dark hearts. You know there's an old hymn,
I can't find it, it's not in our book now, but it has a line
in it. Praise the grace whose fears alarm. the free gift of
God and you know when the gospel comes it begins with a fear in
the heart of condemnation because we know our just condemnation
because of our sin we know guilt. This is what they felt. They
were pricked in their heart. It's not a kind of a pin prick. Ouch. It's a stab in the heart. It's a blade right through the
heart. That sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, which
divides right down to the bone marrow. It divides. It gets right
to the core of it. And they felt their guilt. And
they knew their sin. And they knew that it was they
who by wicked hands had taken the Prince of Life and crucified
Him. They knew it was. They knew it
was all in the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God. But
it was them that had done it. And they said, as David said,
when Nathan came to Him and said, Thou art the man, David. You
are the man. And David cried out in his Psalm 51 of penitence,
Have mercy on me, O God. according to Thy loving-kindness,
have mercy on me. Against Thee, Thee only have
I sinned and done this evil in Thy sight." Your judgment is
just. Your judgment is right. I know
I'm in eternal mortal danger. And they cry out, what shall
we do? They've realized where they are,
compared with eternity, compared with God. And so Peter says to
them, repent because what shall we do they're not able to do
anything none of us are able to do anything but he says repent
but isn't repentance something that God alone can give yes it
is Acts 11 18 God has granted to the Gentiles repentance he's
given them the gift of repentance it's only the gift of God but
you know again one of these little things that comes to your mind
from the scriptures. Do you remember the account of the man with the
withered hand whom Jesus healed? And the one thing the man could
not do was stretch out his hand because it was withered. And
what did Jesus say to him? Stretch forth thine hand. And
with the command he gave the power for him to stretch forth
his hand. And when He says repent, although
man by nature does not have the ability to repent, man by nature
may have the ability to be remorseful and sorry and fearful, but by
nature does not have the ability to repent towards God. But in
the giving of the command, He gives the power to respond and
repent and to turn to God. to turn to God, to turn around,
to completely change the mind. As Paul says to the Thessalonians,
when we came to you, 1 Thessalonians 1 verse 9, he says, what manner
of entry we had unto you with the gospel. You know, like all
men you were naturally a big wall put up against it, but he
said, it came straight in. What manner of entry we had unto
you and how you turned to God from idols, from the idols of
false religion. turn around and they turn around
and Peter says, repent and be baptized. Be baptized in water. Be immersed in water. Why? Does
that do anything for you? No. Not in the slightest, but
it's symbolical of something dramatic that the Holy Spirit
does within. It's a public identification
of union with Christ that just as when Paul was talking about
Husbands and wives. And he says, I'm not really talking
about husbands and wives being one flesh. I'm talking about
Christ and His Church that were in union with Him. That what
He did, He did for me. That what He did, I did in Him. When He died for sins, I died
for my sins in Him. This is the Gospel. When He lived
a perfect life before the law of God to establish righteousness,
I lived in Him. I don't understand it, but I
believe it that that is the truth. and verse 39 for the promise
is unto you repent and be baptized for the promise is unto you this
promise of the gift of the Holy Ghost of spiritual light coming
in and flooding into your soul the promise is unto you and to
your children and to all that are far off even as many as the
Lord our God should call the promise of life is unto whosoever
and wherever and who who are they these people whosoever and
wherever as many as the Lord our God shall call as it says
at the end of verse 39 this is the promise of life he's calling
his people out they hear call on the name of the Lord for whosoever
shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved if God is
calling you by his word by his gospel or anybody that hears
this message if you're hearing the truth if you're sensing your
dire eternal condition call on him for his promise of life is
to you this promise is unto you and to your children says Peter
and all that are far off even as many as the Lord our God shall
call this promise of life is to you repent of your sins be
baptized into Christ lose yourself in him and find life forevermore. And what a glorious result is
produced when the Spirit turned the hearts of 3,000 in one day,
in one sermon.