Sunday, September 11, 2022 AM

Sunnyside Baptist Church

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Let's go to the Lord together in prayer. Heavenly Father, we come before you this day and we thank you for gathering us together in this place and at this time for this purpose that we would worship you, that we would rejoice together in your truth.

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We ask that you would give to us a clear view of your

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Son, Jesus Christ, that as we look at him in your word, we will look like him in this world, that you would give us the grace to worship you today in spirit and in truth.

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And for all these needs, Father, and for the rest of them, we turn to you, trusting that your favor is upon us through your

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Son. We thank you for the gift of the Holy Spirit by whom we may see and hear and rejoice today.

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In Christ's name we pray, amen. I invite you to open your

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Bibles and turn with me to Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2, as we continue our look at Peter's preaching on the day of Pentecost.

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Acts chapter 2, we'll be reading verses 37 through 40 here in a moment.

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We have seen that just as Jesus had promised, just as he said he has given to his people the gift of the

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Holy Spirit, as the prophets had stated, this key promise of the new covenant, the advent of the

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Holy Spirit to indwell the people of God has come.

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The Holy Spirit has arrived in a very definitive way, in a way that catches the attention, so that as the apostles begin to proclaim the mighty works of God, as they begin to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, his person and work in languages that they had never learned, so that these

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Jews from all over the Roman Empire who had grown up with these dialects near and dear to their heart began to hear the gospel preached in a clarity that they had never heard before.

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And they were amazed and many of them were skeptical. But Peter did not let them to remain in their confusion and their skepticism but he begins to declare the meaning of this day, the meaning of Pentecost, the meaning of the advent of the

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Holy Spirit and he begins to declare the reality of the new covenant.

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And he states clearly as he quotes from the prophecies of Joel and David, that the arrival of the new covenant signals the last days of the old, which will culminate in a judgment and yet there is hope, yet there is salvation, for whoever calls upon the name of the

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Lord shall be saved, who is this Lord? He is none other than Jesus of Nazareth, who is the

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Christ, the Son of the living God. And Peter points the finger squarely at his

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Jewish audience and he says to them, you are guilty, covenantally guilty for the death of the

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Messiah. You have put him to death by the hands of criminals, through injustice you have murdered your

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Messiah and the wrath of God is nigh. Well they respond to this message.

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They want to know what in the world now must they do?

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We take so much care in our lives when things are very important.

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If we receive a diagnosis from a doctor that is not good, we immediately embark upon a learning journey to understand everything we can about the diagnosis that we have just received.

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We want to know the ins and the outs, the options, the realities of what the doctor has just said to us.

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Don't we take such care with our physical bodies? If we receive some manner of alarming legal notice in the mail, and it's proven that it's no hoax, but indeed it's big government setting their crosshairs on us.

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We take so much care in understanding exactly the ins and outs of what this means.

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Are we not careful with our freedom? Are we not cautious with our stewardship?

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How much more so should we be concerned with salvation?

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Should we not listen carefully to what the Savior has to say? Should we not listen very carefully to what

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God has declared the means and the meaning of our salvation? Here we have a question that is commonly asked throughout the

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Word of God in various ways. But the people before Peter asked this question, and you'll hear it in a moment.

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What must we do to be saved? We must pay close attention here.

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This is of the utmost importance that we understand the meaning, the means of our salvation in Christ.

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I invite you to stand with me as I read God's holy word. Acts chapter 2, verses 37 -40, here are the words of our

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Lord and Savior Jesus Christ through His Holy Spirit and His servant Luke. Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do?

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And Peter said to them, repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the

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Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children and to all who are far off, as many as the

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Lord our God will call. And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, be saved from this perverse generation.

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This is the word of the Lord, thanks be to God. You may be seated. Salvation is fully and freely declared in Jesus Christ alone.

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This clarity is essential. As we look at Peter's preaching to his fellow

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Jews, those who have been made aware of their guilt before God, the rejection of the

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Messiah, the pending judgment of God, they say, what do we do? What's the proper response?

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What now? This inquiry about salvation comes after they had heard their covenant guilt.

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Verse 23, Peter says to these men of Israel, Him, Jesus Christ, Him being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified and put to death.

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Now again, these Jews who had gathered for the feast of Pentecost, so many days after the kangaroo trial of the

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Messiah, who had come from 17 distinct regions around the

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Roman Empire, were these men directly involved in murdering

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Jesus? That was the Sanhedrin. That was the chief priests. That was the scribes. There was those jealous Pharisees who were involved in that.

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And yet they are guilty because they are men of Israel. They're part of this old covenant.

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And Israel has killed the Messiah, so they stand in guilt of that. They stand responsible for that.

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And it is proven to them by the words not only of Joel, but of David himself, that the man who was killed,

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Jesus of Nazareth, was indeed the Messiah, was indeed the Anointed One. It could be no one else of whom

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David spoke. So it is proven to them that they stand guilty before God, and they are pierced to the heart.

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The Word of God is a sharp, two -edged sword, and it has cut deep.

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And these men stand convicted of their guilt, their sin. They say, what must we do?

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What must we do? They look to Peter, the rest of the apostles. Obviously you know what's going on.

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You've received the gift of the Holy Spirit. Obviously you're telling us the truth.

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You've told us where we're wrong. Why don't you tell us how to get right?

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What must we do? Their question is indeed our question.

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Their question is indeed our question, as the Word of God exposes us. The glory of Christ Himself, who is the very righteousness of God, exposes our sin, our shame, our guilt, our falling short before God.

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But notice how Peter preaches. He says to them that they're guilty of killing the

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Messiah, but he also says to call upon the name of the Messiah. Even as the glory of Christ exposes them in their sinfulness,

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Peter also points to the glory of Christ as their hope of salvation. He says to them to call upon the name of the

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Lord, the very one whom you stand guilty of murdering. Call upon the name of the

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Lord. He's already told them what they must do, and yet they still ask. And so he clarifies even more.

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And we have this instruction unto salvation here in verse 38. You see, do you see the very first word

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Peter says? Then Peter said to them, repent, repent.

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Sounds a little like John the Baptist. Repent. It's a word in the original that means with the mind.

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With the mind. There's an inward turn, an inward shift, and there has to be if you're going to call upon the name of the

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Lord. We talked about what that means. That when you call upon the name of the

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Lord, that you are asking that and appealing that he himself would be your appeal before God.

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That he would stand in your place and for your sake before God himself.

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That he is the peg upon which you hang everything in your life. Call upon the name of the

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Lord. This necessitates repentance. Turning away from excuses.

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Turning away from selfishness. Turning away from pride. Turning away from the self to hold fast to the

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Savior. Repentance is not merely turning away from the things that you've done that are bad.

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Repentance means you make a pile of all of your good deeds, and you make a pile of all of your bad deeds, and you leave them both for Christ.

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To call upon the name of the Lord is my only hope. There is one name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved, and that is

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Jesus Christ. There is one mediator between God and man. He is the man, Christ Jesus. And there's nothing else, and nobody else who can stand before God and bring us into favor with the

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Lord. No one else. And so to call upon the name of the Lord necessitates this repentance, a turning away from the shadows to the substance.

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No longer the sacrificial system, but the one who is the Lamb of God who came to take away the sin of the world.

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We turn away from the shadows of the holiness code to Christ who leads us into all holiness.

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We turn away from the physical temple to the temple that the Son of Man, the

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Son of David builds. A turning away from self to the

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Savior. That's what repentance means. How did Jesus put it? When Jesus was preaching the good news, his person and work, the good news of the kingdom, what did he say was an appropriate response to his good news?

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He said the time is fulfilled, the kingdom of heaven is at hand, repent and believe the gospel.

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He said it a different way, a clarifying way. He said whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospels will find it.

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You see repentance comes down to this, a turning away from self to Christ.

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In 1 John chapter 2, it says do not love the world nor the things of the world. For all that is of the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life is not of the

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Father but is of the world. The world is passing away and also the lust of it, but he who does the will of God lives forever. Do you hear what the world consists of?

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Do you hear what that system of rebellion consists of? It consists of the self, the lust of the flesh, all about me, lust of the eyes, my eyes, all about me, the boastful pride of life, how

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I would claim and make claims for me. It's all about the self. So the enemy is in the world and the

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Bible says the world is the self. The system of rebellion against God began in Genesis chapter 3 and what does that system of rebellion consist of?

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It consists of Adam and Eve, Eve looking at the fruit and saying it's all about me. I want to be on the level of God.

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I want to determine right and wrong for myself, good and evil for myself. I want to elevate me.

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I want to be all about me. And the lust of the flesh was there and the lust of the eyes was there and the pride of life was there.

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And she wanted to make life all about her. And you know what happened? Death. Misery.

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Disaster. That's why Jesus says you can't be about you.

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God is not your biggest fan. God has not sent his son into the world to help you think wonderful thoughts about you.

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We are made not in the image of self. We have been created in the image of God.

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Until our lives revolve around God, we know nothing but death and misery.

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Happiest people in the world are those who are born again by the grace of God, by the work of the

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Holy Spirit, who believe in Jesus and follow him, who don't have a thought for themselves. They love

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Jesus. I think of a man I used to pastor, he told me one day, he says, I wake up and my first thought is

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Jesus. Oh, what a happy man he is. The less we think of ourselves, you think to be obsessed with yourself and to try to save your own life and try to fix your own life and you grab hold of this idea about God and this idea about Jesus and you're trying to plug it in and fix your life because you're all about you.

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That is misery. That is death. And Jesus says, repent.

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And Peter says, repent. Repentance is on one side of the coin and belief is on the other side of the coin.

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In order to call upon the name of the Lord and believe in him and trust in him, you've got to turn away from yourself. There is no turning to Christ and being all about self.

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That's impossible. Repentance and faith, two sides of the gracious God -given response.

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I once did a study on all of the gospel preaching in the book of Luke and the book of Acts. Twenty -six times out of the mouths of Jesus and his apostles, the preaching of the gospel, the person and the work of Jesus Christ, and I called for a response every single last time was either repentance or faith or both.

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And do you know what the book of Acts has to say about repentance and faith? Eight different times it says it's the gift of God.

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The gift of God. That's good news. That means it's not dependent on you.

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It's not something you have to conjure up. It's not something that you have to pump up. It's not something that you have to go find somewhere.

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But it's the gift of God. Repentance. Peter says, repent, repent.

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And then throughout the preaching of the gospel and the promise response throughout the gospel of Luke and throughout the book of Acts, all 26 times, about 24 of those times, salvation is described like this.

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Forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. Forgiveness of sins and the gift of the

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Holy Spirit. Those two blessings are uniquely the promises of the new covenant.

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Where God says in the new covenant, I will remember their sins no more. I'll remember their sins no more.

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Every last person in the new covenant is forgiven by God so that when God looks at them, he sees the righteousness of his son,

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Jesus Christ, he remembers their sin no more. And every last member of the new covenant receives the

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Holy Spirit. That's the promise. Hearts of stone are removed for hearts of flesh.

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The law of God written upon our very hearts instead of external to us. The Holy Spirit at work making us alive.

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Every last one of us. Praise the Lord. That's the promised blessings of salvation.

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And what's the response to the good news of the kingdom? The good news of Jesus Christ? Peter says, repent.

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Turn away from self to Christ. And then he talks about baptism.

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Why does he talk about baptism? It's an interesting thing. In Jewish culture, if you were going to become a

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Jew and you weren't born one, in order to become a Jewish proselyte, you had to convert out of your old religion, whatever it was, some form of paganism.

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In the process, you would have to become baptized. You had to baptize yourself. Nobody would dunk you for you. You had to do it yourself.

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You had to quote the Shema. Quote the Shema. Deuteronomy 6 verse 4.

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And then immerse yourself in water and come out declaring that you have changed. You have moved away from your paganism.

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Now you're part of a new thing. Fear the Lord. Isn't it interesting then that John the

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Baptist is out in the wilderness, the Jordan River, and he's preaching to people who are already

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Jews, already in the Old Covenant, and he's preaching to them saying, you need to repent.

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You need to repent. I'm going to baptize you towards something else.

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Something new. The coming of the Messiah. I'm here to prepare

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His way. I'm not here to protect the old way. I'm here to prepare the way of the

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Messiah. He says you need to repent and I'll baptize you. We go look at John the

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Baptist preaching in verse 11 of Matthew 3. He says,

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I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance. That sounds like baptism produces repentance.

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That would be a very bad way to read it. Why is that? Because he already said in verses 7 and 8 of the very same chapter.

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When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, brood of vipers, he's establishing rapport at that moment, brood of vipers, who warns you to flee from the wrath to come?

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Now listen, therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance.

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Very important distinction here. The fruits of repentance aren't repentance, but the evidence of repentance.

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And John says, I'm not going to baptize you until I see fruits of repentance. That makes no sense, right?

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So he says, until I see the fruit of repentance in your life, the evidence that there's been an inward change in your life,

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I'm not going to baptize you. Which is why when we read in verse 11, baptism unto repentance, we shouldn't think that baptism causes repentance.

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That'd be a bad reading. That wouldn't make any sense. Then he says this promise in verse 11, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals

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I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. There's going to be a new thing coming.

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When we read in Acts chapter 2 verse 38, we read, repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.

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Listen, he's saying, Peter's saying, you need to be converted.

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You need to change. You are with this wicked, perverse generation that's under the judgment of God.

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You are with, currently, with those who have murdered Christ by illegal means.

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You are with those, currently, that are under the judgment of God. And you need to get out.

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Be saved from this perverse generation. You need to get out. You need to convert to Christ. You need to turn to Christ.

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I've already told you to call upon the name of the Lord. I've already told you who that Lord is. And I'm telling you, you need to repent.

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You need to, you need to flee from the wrath to come. You need to flee from this wicked and perverse generation.

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And you need to cling to Christ and Christ alone. So it makes sense. He's talking about baptism.

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And he says, you need to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Who is

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Jesus Christ? He is God of very God and man of very man. The second person of the

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Godhead is taken upon human flesh. For us and for our salvation, two natures in one person.

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By even declaring the mystery of the incarnation, Peter declares the mystery of the

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Trinity all at the same time. There's no conflict here in Acts 2 .38 with Matthew chapter 28, verses 18 through 20.

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Where Jesus says to his disciples that they are to baptize, that make disciples of the nations and then to baptize those disciples in the name of the

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Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. There's no conflict here. In the truth of the

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Trinity, we have the incarnation. In the truth of the incarnation, we have the Trinity. They are in agreement.

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And as we look at this instruction, he says to be baptized, notice he says, be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the

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Holy Spirit. So when we read this verse, if that's the only verse we ever had, we might think that it means that the way you get your sins forgiven is to go get baptized.

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That's what it sounds like. Let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.

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You know what's interesting about that is both the Greek word behind that little word for and the

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English word for don't mean always one thing. We don't really have these anymore, but when you go to the post office and there's a wanted poster on the wall and it says wanted for murder, that's not a classified ad asking for a hit man.

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This individual whose face is, you know, uglified on the side of the post office wall is wanted because they've committed murder, you see.

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And that's the same sense of the word here. It's the same word in the original that we find in Luke chapter 11, verse 32, where Jesus says the men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it for they repented at the preaching of Jonah.

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And indeed a greater Jonah is here. They repented at the preaching of Jonah. Behind that English word at is the same

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Greek word that we have here in Acts 2 .38, the word for. Did they repent so as to gain the preaching of Jonah?

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No, Jonah went and preached to them and then they repented. So, what we see here is a common use for the

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English word for, and a use for the original word in the

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Greek. This is a consolidated material. Peter is giving them instructions and it's been consolidated into a very small section of scripture.

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We read in verse 40, when with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, so Luke is giving us a faithful synopsis of what

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Peter preached. And when we take these themes of repentance, the themes of forgiveness and the

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Holy Spirit and baptism, and we see them put into actual expanded story material, do you know what we find?

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When we read the chapter of Acts, chapter 10 and chapter 11 and chapter 15 of Acts, you know what we find?

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We find that Peter goes and preaches to Cornelius and to his household and he preaches the gospel of Jesus Christ to them.

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They hear the word and they believe upon Christ. They repent of their sins and the

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Holy Spirit fills them. They are declared forgiven in the summary of the story in chapter 15 of Acts.

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In chapter 10, what we have is Cornelius, born again, forgiven of his sins, having repented from his sins, trusting in Christ, full of the

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Holy Spirit, and then Peter says, well, I guess we better baptize you, which causes no small controversy.

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But still, here's the man born again, forgiven of his sins, full of the Holy Spirit, and not baptized.

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So when we read Acts 2 .38, it's a question about dominoes. You can play dominoes more than one way.

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You can put dominoes up on end and each one falls into the other and causes a cascade of A, B, C, D.

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Or you can play dominoes and they're flat on the table and you connect them according to their themes in their order.

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Acts 2 .38 is not a passage of dominoes placed up on their end as if it's a formula wherein you push the first domino and that crashes into the second one and that crashes into the third one and so on.

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In other words, Acts 2 .38 is not saying that you must first then repent and then you must get baptized if you want to be forgiven and then only then do you receive the

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Holy Spirit. That would be a very bad way of reading the verse, because then it becomes strange to every other passage in the

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Bible. But rather, it's dominoes laid flat on the table and we see related themes that are important connected to the gospel of Jesus Christ laid out in a proper arrangement that is explained further in other passages of the book of Acts.

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Remember I mentioned that Acts is the second most abused book in the New Testament. We just have to read carefully though, and the

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Lord is clear for our good. The point that Peter is making is that they are guilty of crucifying the

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Lord and Christ. They must repent of their rebellion. They must call upon the name of the

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Lord. It's by His death and resurrection that He has sent the

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Holy Spirit and this promise is made clear before them. Peter says he wants them to call upon the name of the

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Lord Jesus so that they may be saved. He says you must repent of your sins, turn away from the self and turn to Christ and when you do, you will be forgiven and you will receive the

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Holy Spirit. This is what he is promising. These are the blessings of the New Covenant. You come into the New Covenant not by being born, not by being circumcised, not even by getting baptized.

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You come into the New Covenant by Christ. By the new birth of the

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Holy Spirit, by being baptized in the Holy Spirit. That's how you come into the New Covenant. And then it just makes sense, doesn't it, to go ahead and take that sign of baptism saying

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I'm with Jesus. Hey everybody, I'm with Jesus. He's my

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Savior. He's my Sovereign. Now notice the incentive for salvation in verse 39.

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We've seen the inquiry about salvation, verse 37, the instruction on salvation, verse 38.

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Now verse 39, the incentive. Peter says for, for the promise is to you and to your children and to all who are afar off as many as the

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Lord our God will call. And that's encouragement, isn't it?

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That's incentive. He says the promise is for you, for your children, for everybody afar off. What is that promise?

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Promise has been mentioned in chapter 1 verse 4, the promise of the Holy Spirit, the promise of the New Covenant. The promise is mentioned in verse 33 of Acts chapter 2.

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Therefore, being exalted to the right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the

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Holy Spirit, he poured out this which you now see in here. That's the promise. The promise is the gift of the

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Holy Spirit. He says that promise is for you, is for your children, and all who are afar off.

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These guys are from 17 different distinct regions of the Roman Empire, a thousand miles west of there, a thousand miles east of there, 500 miles north of Jerusalem, 500 miles south of Jerusalem.

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These guys are from all over. These guys are from afar off. So who's Peter talking about? He's talking about the

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Gentiles. He's talking about the non -Jews. Hey, the New Covenant promise of the Holy Spirit is for you, for your children, not just this generation, but the next one, and for all who are far off, as many as the

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Lord himself will call. Oh, that's good news. That is good news.

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You think about Joel's promise, whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

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Joel's promise, the gift of the Holy Spirit to those who are in the New Covenant. What a good promise.

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But notice these three groups, you, your children, and those who are far off. Now I found it interesting that all three of those groups are mentioned in Matthew chapter 27, when we're looking at the sufferings of our

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Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Peter says, you and your children, and all who are far off.

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Let's look at that. Matthew chapter 27, verses 22 through 26. Pilate, there's somebody far off.

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Pilate said to them, what then shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ? They all said to him, let him be crucified.

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Then the governor said, why? What evil has he done? But they cried out all the more, saying, let him be crucified.

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When Pilate saw that he could not prevail at all, but rather that a tumult was rising, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude.

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Don't you see how the pagans do it? Do you see how the pagans seek justification?

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They virtue signal. Do you see how this seeps into our churches?

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We seek justification by seeking the approval of men. Do some virtuous signal before men.

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There's no justification there. There's no righteousness there. He says,

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I am innocent of the blood of this just person. You see to it. Verse 25, then all the people answered and said, his blood be on us and on our children.

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Do you hear how they condemn themselves? Do you hear how they condemn their own children? Do you hear that? Then he released

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Barabbas to them. And when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. Oh, he's guilty after all.

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In Acts chapter four, we'll be reminded that it was Herod and Pilate. It was the Jews and the nations gathered together against the

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Lord's Christ. Gathered together in vain, but they did the

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Lord's business. We see here all three groups.

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What a good promise. What a good promise that Peter preaches and says, you condemned yourselves, you condemned your children.

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Indeed, you condemn the nations by rejecting the Messiah. But salvation is still to you. It is still to your children.

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It is still to those who are far off. God's grace is greater than the sin.

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How many Jews turned to the Lord? Even those who have been participants in the murder of Christ.

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How many Jews turned to the Lord as the apostles went forth and preached the gospel in Jerusalem and Judea?

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Thousands and thousands. They stopped counting. So many turned to the

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Lord. What good news. The promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off.

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We see the sureness of God's mercy and grace, and we see the wideness of God's mercy and his grace.

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So that Jesus Christ died upon the cross and shed his blood for his bride, a multitude of men, women, and children from every tribe, tongue, and nation, a multitude so high, numbered so high that no man can count.

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The promise is the Holy Spirit poured out in salvation on all who call upon the name of the

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Lord. As many as the Lord our God will call. That is critical.

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Do you know who the original church would have called unto salvation if it was left up to them?

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My friends and family, Jews like me. They had no plans to leave

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Jerusalem. Oh, this is great. We've got thousands of people turn to Christ.

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This is great. We're going to hang out here in the temple. We're going to hang out here in Jerusalem. This is wonderful.

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And then the persecution started. You know how God scattered his bride, scattered his church to go to the nations?

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Persecution, conflict. He pushed them out. It's often been said

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Acts 1 -8 started when Acts 8 -1 came about. You'll be my witnesses to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth, and then

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Acts 8 -1. Then persecution broke out against the church, and Saul was breathing threats. There we go.

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Now the people begin to scatter. Now the gospel begins to be preached, and now we have all kinds of controversies like there's more

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Gentile Christians than Jews in Antioch. Uh -oh. Now what do we do? But that was

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God's plan. As many as the Lord God will call.

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That's why the gospel has gone to the nations. That's why we have the word of God translated into almost every dialect upon the face of the planet.

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That's why we've had the missionary movements that we've had. It hasn't been our stellar righteousness.

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It's been God at work to save sinners no matter where they are.

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Praise be to God. We see the incentive for salvation, and lastly the insistence upon salvation in verse 40.

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And with many other words, he testified and exhorted them saying, be saved from this perverse generation.

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So he comes with testimony and exhortation.

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This is a solemn witness. This is an ongoing exhortation. And he says, with many other words,

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Luke says, Peter was, not different words, but a multiplicity of words. A lot of words.

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Peter didn't preach for five minutes. He never talked that short anyway. You can read through this really fast, but he said a lot that day.

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He preached a lot that day. A lot was said. We've been faithfully given what we need, but he said a lot that day.

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He was insistent that they be saved from that perverse generation. Why? Jesus said that that generation was going to be wiped out, destroyed.

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The judgment of God was upon them. This wicked and perverse generation. But Peter said, you need to be saved from this perverse generation.

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They were currently with the generation who had crucified the

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Lord. And there's no salvation. There's no salvation for those who remain there.

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You know, if there would be salvation anywhere on the face of the planet, where would it be? It would be

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Jerusalem, wouldn't it? I mean, that's where the temple was. That's where the high priest was.

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That's where the altar was. That's where the most holy

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Jews lived. The holy city, Mount Zion. If there was salvation anywhere to be had on the whole face of the planet, it was there in that Jerusalem with that generation.

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Surely that's where salvation would be found. Peter says, called upon the name of the

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Lord Jesus Christ. Repent from and turn to.

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Be saved from this perverse generation. The old covenant,

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Hebrews says, at this point is obsolete. Hebrews says, the new has come, the old is now obsolete and ready to pass away.

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Don't go back to the shadows. Turn to Christ. He's the great high priest. He's the true prophet.

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He's the real successor to Moses. Don't go back. Repent. Turn to the

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Lord. Be saved. Be saved from that perverse generation,

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Peter says. And the generation standing before him, they were a perverse generation. They were unique in that they were guilty of the blood of Jesus Christ.

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But you know, I don't know if you've noticed, our generation is kind of perverse too. Have you also noticed that that's not unique to our times?

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In Proverbs chapter 30, verses 11 through 14, we read, there is a generation that curses its father and does not bless its mother.

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There is a generation that is pure in its own eyes, yet it's not washed from its filthiness. There is a generation, oh, how lofty are their eyes and their eyelids are lifted up.

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There is a generation whose teeth are like swords and whose fangs are like knives to devour the poor from off the earth and the needy from among men.

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Proverbs is wisdom. In the wisdom of God, we recognize that there are generations that are perverse, that are twisted, that are turned in upon themselves, that are violent and miserable and constitute a culture of death.

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And you know, we need salvation from such perverse generations. And there's only one salvation and the one

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Savior, and that is Jesus Christ. Jeremiah 8, 10 through 11 acknowledge the perverse generation of his day.

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Therefore, I will give their wives to others and their fields to those who will inherit them because from the least even to the greatest, everyone is given to covetousness.

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We call it Marxism today. From the prophet even to the priest, everyone deals falsely for they have healed the heart of the daughter of my people slightly saying, peace, peace, when there is no peace.

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Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed, nor did they know how to blush.

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Therefore, they shall all fall among those who fall on the time of their punishment. They shall be cast down, says the Lord. Perverse generations that don't even know how to blush anymore.

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What does salvation look like? New politicians? I don't think so. What does salvation look like?

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A change of laws? I don't think so. Listen, there is only one savior and he's king of kings and he's lord of lords and he reigns from the right hand of the father.

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He's our savior. He's our savior. We'll close with this, Hebrews 13, 12 through 14.

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Therefore, Jesus also that he might sanctify the people with his own blood suffered outside the gate.

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Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp bearing his reproach.

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For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come. Indeed, our savior is

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Christ. Let's close in prayer. Father, we thank you for the day. We thank you for this call to salvation.

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We thank you that you make it clear that there's only one savior. We thank you that you make it clear the blessings of the new covenant that we may have our sins forgiven, our trespasses removed as far away from us as east is from the west by your righteous acceptance of Christ's death upon the cross.

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We thank you that we have the gift of the Holy Spirit. We are alive in you and may fellowship and commune with you.

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We thank you, Father, for all these blessings. And we ask that you would increase our faith in Christ.