Now can we turn, please, to the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. Some people prefer to call it the Acts of the Holy Ghost through the Apostles. But the second chapter of Acts, the last time I was speaking here, which was on the eleventh of July, we got to the I think to the fourteenth verse of the second chapter of Acts. So we'll read then from verse fourteen. Remember in the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, the Holy Spirit was given on the day of Pentecost. And some of the people, when they began to speak in tongues, some of the people there said they were all drunk. And Peter refutes that. Verse fourteen. But Peter, standing up with the eleven... lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words. For these are not drunken, as he supposed, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel. You see the answer? They said, in verse twelve, what meaneth this? What meaneth this? So he answers, But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel. And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God. I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. And on my servants and on my handmaidens, I will pour out in those days of my spirit, and they shall prophesy. and I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath, blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before that great and notable day of the Lord come. And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Ye men of Israel. Now you see in verse fourteen he said, ye men of Judea. In verse twenty-two he says, Ye men of Israel. In verse twenty-nine he says, Men and brethren, 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 by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know, him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain. Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should beholden of it. For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand that I should not be moved. Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad. Moreover, Also, my flesh shall rest in hope, because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to seek corruption. Thou hast made known unto me the ways of life. Thou would make me full of joy with thy countenance. Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that at the fruit of his loins according to the flesh he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne. He, seeing this before, spake of the resurrection of Christ that his soul was not left in hell, neither did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we are all witnesses. Therefore, being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he has shed forth this which he now see and hear. For David is not ascended into the heavens, but he saith himself, the Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool. Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus. whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ. Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, For the promise is unto you and to your children and to all that are far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation. Then they that gladly received his word were baptized, and the same day they were added unto them about three thousand, continued steadfastly in the Apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking the bread and in prayers. And fear came upon every soul. And many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. And all that believed were together, and had all things common, and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God, and having favor with all the people, and the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. So we seek God's blessing. Blessed Lord, again we thank you for this privilege of being here in thy name this morning. We thank you for all who are here. We thank you thou, the God that knoweth every heart. Search our hearts this morning. We pray, Lord, that the Holy Spirit, who was given on the day of Pentecost and who indwells us, that the Holy Spirit may take of these words and use them and apply them to every heart for thy glory. We pray, Lord, that give us all we need. for this meeting, to listen and to speak for thy glory. We ask it in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen. Now this will be the fourth talk we've given on the Acts of the Apostles. Remember we spoke about, first of all, our first talk about a pattern. And we said that just as God took Moses up into the mount and showed him a pattern of all things he had to make, of the tabernacle and all his furniture. God took him up and showed him a pattern. He said, Now see that thou make all things according to the pattern. God repeated that. See that thou make all things according to the pattern. Now as I see it, when God is starting a new creation in this earth, a new dispensation in this earth, the dispensation of law started with Moses. and the law was given by Moses as we know. But the dispensation of grace, the church age, started on the day of Pentecost. And I think God has given us a pattern. And the pattern is in the Acts of the Apostles. That's what we spoke about the first time I spoke on the Acts of the Apostles here. The pattern which God has given us in this book. And as we study it week by week, we'll see just how the Apostles did it in their day. They were not going to do their thing or what they think or what somebody else does, but they were going to do it according to the plan that God had given them. And that's the plan that God has given us, the Acts of the Apostles. I trust the Lord will help us to follow this as we speak from time to time if the Lord allow us on this subject. Then we spoke on what we called the Ten Days. The Lord, it says, that he continued with them for forty days, being seen of them forty days, speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. He stayed with them forty days, the Lord Jesus, and then, you know, in the first chapter, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight. He went back into heaven. The day of Pentecost was the fiftieth day after the Passover. So there was another ten days intervening after the ascension of the Lord Jesus until the dissension of the Holy Spirit. Remember we said in our first talk that the Acts of the Apostles has three movements. In the first chapter the Lord Jesus went up. In the second chapter the Holy Spirit came down. And in the eighth chapter they that believed went out. upward, downward, and outward. That's the pattern in the Acts of the Apostles. The Lord went up to glory, the Holy Spirit came down, the Apostles were filled with the Holy Ghost, and the Lord commanded them to start at Jerusalem, and then to go out. Judea, Samaria, Galilee, Samaria, and the other most parts of the earth to preach the gospel. One day, God willing, we'll come perhaps to the way they went out in the eighth chapter, God had to send a persecution to make them do what he told them to do. They stayed at Jerusalem, but he told them to start at Jerusalem and move out. And he sent a persecution, and they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the gospel. Or gossiping the gospel, some people translate that. So the Holy Spirit was in the next talk was the, what we called the birthday of the church. This day of Pentecost, when they were all together with one accord in one place, and suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And then they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak in tongues. So the Holy Ghost came down and filled them. There were a hundred and twenty of them. If... It was the same number. It says in the first chapter, the number of them was a hundred and twenty. I think it says about a hundred, the number, yeah, the number of names together were about a hundred and twenty. These were the men and women that had to go forth to tell this wonderful story. God was about to start a new thing in the earth. We have now lived nearly two thousand years in this church era. One of the longest, I suppose, of the dispensations. God's grace has been extended longer than any other period. That was a long period before Noah, but this is longer. The day of grace, God's infinite mercy, before he sends judgment into the world as he sent judgment in the days of Noah long ago. And here's the start then. of the dispensation of grace, the start of the church age, the start of the history of the church. The Holy Ghost was given. And, of course, in those days there were mockers. There always have been and always will be mockers. If you preach the gospel, somebody is going to make fun of you, depend upon it. So don't worry about that. That's what we expect. And if you try and live for Christ, they'll say, well, that doesn't fit in. You're a square. Well, we are squares. We don't fit. We're separate. We're different. We've got to be different. If we're not different to the people around us, then we're not living the Christian life we should live. We're not the witnesses we should be because we should be different. And they began to mock and said they were full of new wine. Then Peter stood up and as I read, he said, ye men of Judea. and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem. This thing took place at Jerusalem. Be it known unto you, be this known unto you, hark to my word, these men are not drunk. And then he says, and notice how beautifully he quoted scripture. You see, Peter hadn't got the New Testament. He was one of those who later on wrote part of the New Testament. And there was no John's Gospel, Matthew's Gospel, Luke's Gospel, Mark's Gospel. It wasn't yet written. There was no New Testament written at all. They only had the Old Testament. But how well these men knew it. Now, he was a fisherman. But how well he'd been trained. So that he could quote Joel. He said, This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel. It shall come to pass in the last days that I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh. Now, this seems to me to be an introduction to what Peter's going to say. This that Joel wrote about. is something that is going to take place by and by. When the Lord Jesus comes back in power and sets up his millennial kingdom, that's when all this will be fulfilled. I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, and young men should see visions, and old men dream dreams, and so on. That primarily applies in a future day when the Lord Jesus comes back and set up his kingdom. But they understood that. These men of Judea understood that the Messiah, when he came, was going to set up a kingdom. That's what they were all looking for, and that's what they could never understand, the fact that the Lord Jesus didn't set up a kingdom. Here in this very Acts of the Apostles, in the first chapter, they said to him, They asked him, saying, Lord, will thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? All they had in their mind was an earthly kingdom. That's what they thought he was going to do, set up a kingdom. He's going to, but not yet. I don't know how far away, not very far away. If the Lord Jesus came today and called his bride to be with himself, called us, and the rapture took place today, and we were called up into the glory of heaven today, then eight years from now the kingdom would be in existence. because there's going to be seven years of tribulation and then the Lord after seven years is going to set up his kingdom so the kingdom may be a lot nearer than we think and Joel was looking on to those future kingdom days as most of that Old Testament prophecy these Old Testament prophets they wrote about the glorious kingdom of the Lord when he reigned and that's why they could not understand why the Messiah should suffer now to some there was special knowledge given special understanding and insight. It says of most of the prophets in Peter, it says they searched their own scriptures, trying to find out what it meant, the things they were writing when they wrote beforehand of the sufferings of Christ and the glory they should follow. They could think of the glory they should follow, but not of the suffering. And so the Lord Jesus said to those going to Emmaus, we were thinking of it this morning, He says, O fools and slow hearts, to believe all that the prophets have written, ought not Christ to have suffered these things and then to enter into his glory. That's the way of the kingdom, suffering first. And these words primarily apply to the future day. But what Peter is saying, that same spirit which you men of Judea understand, that in the coming day God's going to send his spirit. And your young men are going to perhaps say your old men are dreaming dreams and so on. In a future day, this is the thing in anticipation. God will send his spirit. And God will set up his Lord will set up his kingdom and reign. But this is a new thing. This is something that's an interim thing. This is a parenthesis. This is a... The Jewish people are put on one side for the time being. The Jewish nation. And God is starting something new. And the same thing that he'll do for the Jews by and by, he's going to do it in a new way, all together. He's going to do it. Look, it says, Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Whosoever, not the Jews only, but whosoever. And so the church age started with the grand word, Whosoever, whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. I think that's one of the greatest verses. comes again in Romans ten and verse thirteen I think whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved that's the way of salvation anyone here this morning who's not yet saved if you will come in all sincerity to God this morning and call upon the name of the Lord to save you he's going to do it because he says he will whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved And so the church age came in, came in with the same, in the same way that the kingdom age is going to come in by and by, by the giving of the Holy Spirit, and by great powers and signs from heaven. Those signs didn't take place to such an extent on the day of Pentecost. There was. It appeared unto them grove and tongues as a fire and sat upon each with them, and the whole place was shaken, and there was a great rushing wind and so on. Of course, it would be far, far more severe than that when the kingdom is set up. But this is a foretaste of what God is going to do. But this is applied by Peter to this new age, just starting the church age. Now then, verse twenty-two, and we call this Peter's sermon, Ye men of Israel. Now, first of all, he said, Ye men of Judah. And all he is at Jerusalem. But it says in the previous chapter that there were strangers from all over the world, and there were Israelites from all over the known inhabited world of that day, and they were at Jerusalem, come up for the feast. And so he applies it generally to the men of Israel, ye men of Israel. Hear these words. Here's the first sermon in the history of the church. It's been a model sermon all down through these nearly two thousand years. How many people have preached and used this sermon as a background and what a wonderful sermon it is. See what he did. He talked first of all about Jesus of Nazareth. And then he tells us that Jesus of Nazareth was crucified and then he tells us that God raised him from the dead. Now that's the gospel. Moreover, brethren, says Paul, I declare unto you the gospel, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. Here's the gospel, the first gospel message in the church age. Amen. If Israel hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know. He tells us, as we all do when we preach the gospel, we tell about the Lord Jesus came down from the glory of heaven. And we tell of how he lived amongst men, performing miracles and wonders and signs which God did by him. We tell about Jesus of Nazareth. It kind of hurts me today to hear so many people talk about Jesus, just the word Jesus. I like the title we have here. Jesus Christ is Lord. There you've got these three titles. Jesus Christ and Lord. And he is the Lord. And let's try and give him, if we can, his full title. Jesus Christ the Lord. But he starts where they were. All they had known that there was a man came down here. They didn't know he came down from glory. They knew there was a man born somewhere. They didn't even know he was born in Bethlehem. Although the Scriptures said he would be. But they were blinded to all that. They knew there was a man of Nazareth now the scripture said he had to be born in Bethlehem not Nazareth but he lived in Nazareth and Jesus of Nazareth a man approved of God no one could deny the fact that what he did proved that he was sent by God but they would not accept him they crucified him verse twenty three him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God ye have taken and by wicked hands of crucified and slain. Now this is the problem when our brother, Dr. Sanford Mills, was with us last year. You remember this was his problem. Who crucified the Lord? That was his first sermon. You remember quite a controversial sermon. Who crucified the Lord? He said, you Gentiles say the Jews did it. And we Jews say the Gentiles did it. But here God says both of them did it. Whom ye have taken, that's the Jews. And by wicked hands, that's the Gentiles. Whom ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain. So we all had part in the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus. Jew and Gentile. The Jews wouldn't actually crucify him because they wouldn't swallow their hands on a feast day. So they employed the Gentiles to do it. But God was behind the whole thing, delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God ye have taken, and by wicked hands of crucified and slain. It was in God's determinate counsel, wonderful words used here, the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. All this thing was planned before the eternal ages, up there in the glory of heaven. God planned a means whereby you could be saved, whereby I could be saved. And that means was that His beloved Son had to leave the glory of heaven, come down here to be Jesus of Nazareth, and walk around amongst men and do what He did, those wondrous deeds, and then be taken by wicked hands and nailed to a cross and crucified. And there's the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. God had planned it. It was God's plan that His Son should bear our sins in His own body on the tree. It was God's plan. It had to be that there must be some way of meeting the demands of the throne of God on account of sin. The wages of sin is dead, and you and I could never get to heaven. except for what the Lord Jesus Christ has done. Sin cannot enter there. God is holy. God's throne is holy. And God declares the soul that sinned it must die. And we'd be lost for all eternity. The righteousness of God, the holiness of God, which cast us out of heaven forever. But thank God, back in eternal ages, he worked out a plan. the determinate, counsel and foreknowledge of God. And his son came down here, and he went to the place called Calvary, was crucified and slain. Verse twenty-four, whom God raised up. Wonderful words. God raised, you see how God did it all? Did you notice that he was approved of God, things which God did by him, the foreknowledge of God, whom God raised up, God raised him from the dead, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should beholden of it. How could the Lord of life and glory be held by death? I don't know. The marvel is that he died at all. But he died for you and for me. Because the soul that sinned, it must die. And he died as my substitute, which he took my place and died for me. But God raised him from the dead. Now Peter is... bringing this home to the children of Israel. They had no idea what they did when they crucified him. They had no idea. They didn't know he was the Messiah. They thought he was an imposter. And because he called himself God, that's why they crucified him. Now he's bringing it home to them that this very one whom they crucified is the very one about whom David wrote. David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face for he's on my right hand that I should not be moved. Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption. Psalm sixteen is saying that when David wrote Psalm sixteen he was writing about the Messiah. And now clearly Peter argues he couldn't have been writing about himself. Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you about the patriarch David. that he is both dead and buried and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. So he couldn't be the one of whom he says, That will not leave my soul in hell nor suffer thine holy one to seek corruption. David did seek corruption. Surely ever to this day it says, His sepulchre, but where is he? The human body sees corruption and disintegrates and disappears. And he saw corruption, not the body of the Lord Jesus. He saw no corruption. Thou wilt not suffer thine holy one to see corruption. God raised him from the dead. So he's proving that David was not, although it looks, first of all, he's writing about himself. He wasn't writing about himself. He was writing about the Lord Jesus Christ. and look at the words, therefore being a prophet. David was a prophet. And here he's called a patriarch. We always think of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as the patriarch. But David is called, let me freely speak to you about the patriarch David. He's dead and buried, his sepulchre is with us to this day, therefore being a prophet. And knowing that God had swarmed with an oath to him that at the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne, He, seeing this before, spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither did his flesh see corruption. When David wrote Psalm sixteen, he was writing as a prophet and prophesying what would happen when the Messiah, the Son of God, would be raised from the dead. This Jesus has God raised up. whereup we're all witnesses now I suppose by all he means these hundred and twenty it says in it says in first Corinthians fifteen that he was seen of four or five hundred at once five hundred ones I think that the Lord was seen of five hundred people at once he said we're all witness we have seen him since his death we know he was raised from the dead we saw him of he raised him from the dead whereup we're all witnesses therefore being by the right hand of God exalted. Now there's something new. They knew he'd gone back to heaven. They knew the clouds received him up out of their sight. But now we're looking beyond the clouds and see what happens. Therefore, being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he shared this forth. The Lord is now at the right hand of God amid the glory of heaven. And he, the Lord, sent the Holy Ghost. God exalted him, and he received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, and he shed forth this. When they said back there, they said, what is, what means this? And he says, be this known unto you. And here he says, he shed forth this. What? Which you now see. The thing that happened at Pentecost. the giving of the Holy Spirit to those first members of the church. For David is not ascended into the heavens, but he saith himself, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand. Here David, a prophet, is looking in. Do you think David saw Christ? I do. Do you think Abraham saw Christ? The Lord said he saw my day. He rejoiced when he saw my day. These men looked ahead. And David looked ahead. And he says, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit at my right hand until I make thy foes thy footstool. Their great King David knew about this. And their great King David wrote about how the Messiah would be exalted. And magnified and glorified and stood at the right hand of God. Therefore, that all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ. They looked upon him as Jesus of Nazareth. He said, he's Lord and Christ. God has made him Lord and Christ. Now our time has gone, and the most interesting part, I suppose, is what happened after he finished his sermon we'd have to come to that next time the results of his sermon but just briefly let's say this when they heard these things they were pricked in their heart and said what shall we do let me say as we close that the Lord Jesus Christ has gone back to the glory of heaven having accomplished that glorious and wonderful salvation at Calvary and we'll repeat the words we read just now whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Our brother told us, I went to friends next door and asked, what can I do to be saved? And they told him. You asked me this morning, what can I do to be saved? Call upon the name of the Lord your Savior. Come to him and he says, repent. That's what he said. Repent. Every one of you. We have to repent of our lives, of our sin and our wickedness before God. And turn around and we have to accept Christ as our Savior. And he will give us eternal life. May God do so that, do that for some of us this morning, for his name's sake. Amen. Blessed God, we thank thee for the wonderful sermon of Peter. Oh, the wonderful way he quoted from the scripture. And we thank the Lord, it's the entrance of thy word that giveth light, not our words. And we pray thou take some words from Scripture this morning and apply them to some heart here for thy glory. We thank thee that the Lord Jesus, who was crucified, taken by wicked hands and crucified and slain, thou hast raised him from the dead and set him at thine own right hand amid the glories of heaven. And we wait for that tremendous moment when we'll hear the call. will be caught up to be with him there amid the glory of heaven too. That may be today. Lord, keep us looking up and waiting until he calls us back. We thank thee, Lord, that thou hast brought thy church into being. We thank thee for the pattern thou hast given us in the Acts of the Apostles. And help us as we study these, if thou should delay, if thou should not come, as we study these wonderful writings in the Acts, to see the pattern and the principle and the way which thou hast ordained for thy church to function and to maintain its witness in this world today. We seek thy parting blessing in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.