- Heart-felt CONVICTION . (Acts 2:37)
- Sincere REPENTANCE . (Acts 2:38)
- Godly MOTIVATION . (Acts 2:39)
- Radical SEPARATION . (Acts 2:40)
- Public PROFESSION . (Acts 2:41)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above with your cursor for answers!
-
00:00-00:04
Open up your Bibles with me to the book of Acts.
00:06-00:08
We're continuing our sermon series.
00:10-00:17
And everything that we're doing this year really hangs on one verse, and it's Acts chapter 1 and verse 8.
00:18-01:03
When Jesus made this glorious promise to his disciples, by extension to his church, that Jesus said, "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes. Power for what? Jesus said you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria even to the ends of the earth and that promise to the disciples is the same promise that we live by today that we are to be people that live in the power of the Holy Spirit we're not trying to do this church thing in our own power, our own creativity. It's by the power of the Holy Spirit. And you see it also defines our mission for us too, doesn't it?
01:04-01:25
We receive power. Why? So that we have some cushy life? No, that we receive the power because Jesus Christ wants us to be his witnesses in Jerusalem, meaning your own backyard, in your workplace, in your family. You should be a witness to In Judea and Samaria, those are the surrounding areas.
01:25-01:28
That's where our small groups are involved in outreach.
01:29-01:34
We want every small group involved in getting out into the community to be a witness for the love of Christ.
01:35-01:37
And then he said to the ends of the earth.
01:37-01:39
That's why we sent a group to Romania in August.
01:39-01:42
That's why I went to Thailand a couple of weeks ago.
01:43-01:45
The mission goes to the ends of the earth.
01:48-01:56
we are in the book of Acts, we recall the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost just as Jesus promised He would come.
01:56-02:05
And the Bible says there was a sound of mighty rushing wind and all of these people that were in town for the feast heard the wind.
02:07-02:13
They came out and they heard the disciples all preaching in different languages.
02:15-02:35
And the people said, "What's going on here?" And other people said, "Oh, they're just drunk." And when we get to Acts chapter 2, we've been going through this sermon that Peter gives where he explains what this means that the Holy Spirit has come.
02:36-02:41
Remember, first of all, Peter said that this was prophesied in Joel.
02:41-02:49
He's like, "This isn't news." Like clear back in the prophet Joel, promised that he would pour out his spirit on his people.
02:50-02:55
And then Peter says, and everyone, this is from Joel, so everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
02:56-02:57
Well, how does that happen?
02:58-02:59
Well, that's what we talked about last week.
03:00-03:01
It's Jesus.
03:02-03:05
Peter says, let me tell you about Jesus Christ.
03:07-03:08
What about Jesus?
03:09-03:16
Peter says he is the Messiah and he proved it in his life and in his death, in his resurrection, and his exaltation.
03:18-03:31
Peter says, "Jesus proved that he was the Christ." And then at the end of verse 36, where we left off last week, Peter's like, "And by the way, you killed him.
03:32-03:41
You crucified him. You Israelites that have been waiting for generations for your Messiah to come.
03:41-03:42
Your Messiah has come.
03:43-03:45
He's obviously, Jesus Christ is obviously the Messiah.
03:45-03:46
And what did you do to him?
03:47-03:48
You took him and you crucified him.
03:49-03:51
Look at verse 37.
03:52-04:07
It says, "Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, 'Brothers, what shall we do?'" See, Peter says, "He is the Messiah.
04:07-04:14
And you killed him." And at this point you see the people that Peter was preaching to, the lights came on.
04:15-04:24
And they said, "He is, Jesus is the Messiah. He is." And we killed Him.
04:26-04:32
We were standing in the crowd screaming for Him to be crucified.
04:34-04:35
What have we done?
04:38-04:48
They asked, "Brothers, what shall we do?" This is the question that's going to come up a few times in the book of Acts.
04:50-04:51
"What do we do?
04:51-05:02
What do we do about this?" Other times it's phrased this way, "What must I do to be saved?" That's really the question that matters at the end of the day, at the end of your life.
05:07-05:09
What matters is how you've answered that question.
05:11-05:16
Before we look at the right answer, I want to remind you of some wrong ways that people answer this question.
05:17-05:19
What must I do to be saved?
05:19-05:21
Some people answer the question this way.
05:21-05:24
They say, "If you want to be saved, you've got to keep the rules." You know the rules, right?
05:25-05:32
You've got to make sure you tie, make sure you go to church, make sure you keep the Sabbath, and we have our rules, and we don't dance, and we don't play cards.
05:35-05:36
And that's called legalism.
05:38-05:44
And there is no amount of keeping a list of rules that's going to make you not guilty of sin.
05:46-05:49
Well, for some people, how do you get saved?
05:50-05:55
Some people say, "You just do good to other people." These are moralists.
05:56-05:58
"Just do good to other people.
05:58-06:08
you know, work at the soup kitchen and help little old ladies across the street and make sure you put money in the, you know, the Salvation Army drum with the bell ringer there.
06:08-06:10
Do those kinds of things.
06:11-06:12
That's how you get saved.
06:12-06:22
And the question that I have to ask is how much good is required to take place in your life to make God ignore the bad?
06:23-06:25
That concept is nowhere in the Bible.
06:26-06:28
do enough good and God forgets about the bad.
06:29-06:30
Still guilty of sin.
06:32-06:33
What must we do to be saved?
06:34-06:37
For some people, they trust their heritage.
06:38-06:39
I was born into it.
06:41-06:48
Church, it doesn't matter how good of a Christian your mother or your grandmother was, salvation isn't like hair color or height.
06:50-06:54
Your walk with Christ is about your walk with Christ.
06:56-07:04
Someday when you stand before the Lord, Grandma's not going to be standing beside you giving the Lord a sales pitch why he should let you into Heaven.
07:04-07:05
It doesn't work that way.
07:06-07:14
This would have been important for the Jews to understand because the belief was, "Well, as long as you're Jewish, you're saved." It doesn't work that way.
07:16-07:17
Well, there are some that are universalists.
07:18-07:29
They say, "Well, everyone gets in Heaven anyways, right?" It's taken a swing in evangelicalism, where people more and more are even denying the existence of hell.
07:30-07:38
That hell has been sort of redefined as this boogeyman that Christians have used throughout the centuries, scare tactics.
07:39-07:55
And my response to that is just, "Hey, read the Bible for yourself." But this idea that everybody gets into heaven and there's no condemnation or judgment for people that reject Christ, just read the words of Jesus Christ himself.
07:55-07:58
He talked about hell twice as much as he talked about heaven.
08:01-08:05
So the idea that everybody just gets in anyways, that doesn't fly in the face of Scripture.
08:07-08:08
What must we do to be saved?
08:08-08:09
Then you have the ritualists.
08:09-08:11
You know, you've got to go through the holy sacraments.
08:13-08:24
Well, concerning the sacraments, there are really only two that are described in the The Bible and neither of them bestow any spiritual power on the person doing them.
08:27-08:28
So all of these are incorrect.
08:30-08:32
Somebody here might say, "Well, what makes you think you know the right answer?
08:32-08:39
If all these people are wrong, why do you think you know the right answer on what must a person do to be saved?" The Bible.
08:39-08:40
That's how I know.
08:41-08:42
Or the Bible tells me so.
08:42-08:43
Remember that song?
08:46-08:52
Salvation is purely by faith in who Jesus Christ is and what he accomplished for you.
08:52-08:53
I want you to jot these two references down.
08:54-08:58
I could give you references until Christmas and I really just wanted to limit it to a couple.
08:59-09:07
Romans chapter 4 verses 4 through 5 say, "Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due.
09:09-09:18
To the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly," listen His faith is counted as righteousness.
09:20-09:24
The only way that you can have right standing before God is by faith.
09:25-09:28
It's by trusting in what God has accomplished through Jesus Christ.
09:31-09:32
His faith is counted as righteousness.
09:34-09:36
Here's another one of my favorites.
09:37-09:39
Galatians chapter 2 and verse 16.
09:41-09:42
I love this verse.
09:42-09:47
sometimes people say, "Preachers are repetitive, preachers are repetitive." Did you ever notice how preachers are repetitive? Did I mention that?
09:47-09:48
That preachers are repetitive?
09:49-09:54
Check this out. In Galatians 2.16, Paul says the exact same thing three times in one verse.
09:56-10:16
Just in case you missed it, he says, "Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ." So we also have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law.
10:19-10:20
What are you trying to say, Paul?
10:21-10:21
Here it is again.
10:22-10:25
Because by works of the law, no one will be justified.
10:27-10:30
You can't do anything to get saved.
10:32-10:35
purely by your faith in Jesus Christ.
10:37-10:49
However, there is real evidence when someone really comes to faith, and that's what we're going to look at in our passage today, just five verses.
10:50-10:55
Salvation is purely by faith, but there is real evidence when someone really comes to faith.
10:56-11:00
line, we're going to look at five ingredients of true conversion.
11:02-11:05
Okay, these are five ingredients of true conversion.
11:05-11:06
This is self-examination time.
11:08-11:10
Have you truly come to faith in Jesus Christ?
11:12-11:19
If you have, these are five ingredients that show up in your life in that process.
11:20-11:22
Number one, heartfelt conviction.
11:24-11:25
Heartfelt conviction.
11:25-11:56
verse 37 again it says now when they heard this Peter's sermon Jesus you crucified him now when they heard this they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the Apostles brothers what shall we do they were cut to the heart and his sudden anguish like what can we do about this step one is is what the Bible calls conviction.
11:57-11:59
That's what these people experienced.
12:00-12:01
What is conviction?
12:01-12:10
Well, first of all, conviction is not - conviction is not - everybody say not - conviction is not just grief.
12:12-12:18
Conviction is not just grief, meaning I'm sorry about the consequences that my sin brought in my life.
12:19-12:20
That's grief.
12:20-12:22
I did something wrong.
12:22-12:31
reaping the consequences and I feel really bad about having to reap consequences for my stupid decisions, that's grief. That is not conviction.
12:33-12:41
Conviction is not - it's not, everybody say not - conviction is not guilt.
12:44-12:47
Meaning, I'm just sorry because I got caught.
12:49-13:01
Some people will continue the same sin indefinitely and feel no conviction, feel no emotion toward it whatsoever until they get caught.
13:02-13:10
And then all of the sudden it's, "Oh, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry." Are you sorry about what you did or are you sorry you got caught?
13:12-13:14
Would you still be sorry today if you hadn't gotten caught?
13:16-13:24
Now when we talk about grief and guilt, these are sometimes roots of conviction, but these things are not conviction themselves.
13:25-13:32
When the Bible speaks of conviction, conviction it literally means this.
13:33-13:36
Conviction means you're convinced.
13:37-13:38
That's literally what it means.
13:38-13:39
You're convinced.
13:41-13:50
You're like, "I'm convinced about what?" No excuses, no defense, no blame.
13:52-14:11
It's when you get to the point where you say, "I'm a sinner, I can't make it on my own, and I do need God." You're convinced of the reality of your sin and how horrible and sick and destructive and filthy and ungodly your sin is.
14:12-14:16
And being convinced of your sin crushes you.
14:17-14:18
That's conviction.
14:21-14:25
Conviction is when you get to the point that you say, "I've sinned against God.
14:26-14:28
My ways have hurt other people.
14:30-14:40
You know, this thing that I thought was going to make me happy has really made me miserable." It's taking that giant step back, saying, "What am I doing?
14:41-14:42
What am I doing?
14:44-14:52
I thought this was okay, but now I'm convinced that this is wrong." Heartfelt conviction.
14:54-15:05
Several years ago, we had a--at my old church, we had a young man who, due to some legal problems he was having and some circumstances, he didn't have a place to go.
15:06-15:08
And one of our elders is actually a camp manager.
15:09-15:17
And out of the goodness of his heart, he said, "I'll tell you what, until we get you back on your feet, you can stay up at the camp with me.
15:17-15:19
You know, it was off season, we have room.
15:19-15:31
You can stay up at the camp with me." And, "Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you so much, thank you so much." This young man actually robbed a church camp where he was staying.
15:33-15:44
This guy rolls out the red carpet and gives him everything that he needs and he steals from the church camp and he gets arrested.
15:45-15:52
So I went from seeing him on Sunday morning church to seeing him on Friday night church at the Butler County Prison.
15:53-15:58
He came in and he comes up to me and I'll never forget this.
15:58-16:07
He comes up to me and he goes, "I guess you heard what I did." Giggling.
16:08-16:12
"Did you hear what I did?" I wasn't laughing.
16:13-16:17
I said, "Yeah, I heard what you did." He's like, "Yeah." Whew.
16:18-16:19
Proud of himself.
16:20-16:23
Well, the next week his mother came to the church office.
16:25-16:50
She's like, "Did you see my son in jail?" I said, "Yeah, I saw him." She said, she goes, "He's really repentant, don't you think?" And I said, "Not at all." She goes, "You don't think he's repentant?" I said, "Not a bit." She goes, "Why don't you think he's repentant?" I said, "Because he was giggling the whole time when he was talking about it. That's how I knew he wasn't repentant. That's not conviction.
16:51-16:56
Conviction isn't giggling and proud of your sin and "Hey, wasn't that funny?
16:56-16:58
This guy was gracious to me and I ripped him off.
16:59-16:59
Oh, not just him.
17:00-17:03
A camper, we tell little kids about Jesus.
17:03-17:05
I ripped the camp off." Isn't that hilarious?
17:06-17:10
Like, yeah, that's not conviction and that's certainly far from repentance.
17:11-17:14
Okay, conviction is grief over your sin.
17:15-17:21
crushed over it because now you're convinced of what it really is.
17:21-17:26
True conversion starts with being broken over your sin.
17:26-17:29
Otherwise, you see no need for a savior, right?
17:30-17:31
You see no need for a savior.
17:31-17:36
If I don't have a sin problem, then I don't need a savior.
17:39-17:40
How does conviction happen?
17:40-17:42
It happens today, just like it happened in this passage.
17:43-18:01
The Holy Spirit works with his Word, that's what was happening with Peter. He's preaching the Word of God and the Holy Spirit was at work. That's what happens here in churches when they proclaim the Word of God. The Holy Spirit is at work with the Word of God.
18:02-18:30
Now let me ask you, have you been broken over your sin? In other words, do you see your sin as God sees your sin. You need to be broken because nothing happens spiritually until you are. So conviction leads to number two, sincere repentance. These are five ingredients of true conversion. First there's heartfelt conviction. Secondly, there's sincere repentance.
18:30-18:36
Look at verse 38, "And Peter said to them," like what should we do?
18:37-18:53
"Peter said to them, 'Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.'" So this flows naturally from conviction.
18:53-18:58
It's a natural result of conviction leading to repentance.
18:58-19:00
Like, what is repentance?
19:00-19:02
Repentance literally means you change your mind.
19:03-19:04
You change your mind.
19:04-19:16
I used to think this way about sin, and I used to think this way about God, and I used to think this way about what Jesus has done, but now I think completely differently about all of those things.
19:16-19:17
That's repentance.
19:19-19:21
And when your mind changes, your actions change too.
19:23-19:34
Every Old Testament prophet preached repentance. John the Baptist Jesus Christ on the scene preaches repentance.
19:35-19:37
It's all through the New Testament epistles.
19:37-19:39
It's all the way even in the book of Revelation.
19:40-19:47
Repentance because, hear this, there is no forgiveness of sin without repentance.
19:48-19:50
I've read the Bible a few times.
19:51-20:01
I have not seen one verse where God says, "You know what, I'm just going to forgive you and it doesn't matter what you do." matter what you do, what you think about me, how you live your life, it just doesn't matter.
20:01-20:14
You never see that. I've had people challenge me on that, I've challenged them back. I'll give you a hundred dollars for every verse in the Bible you say, or God says, I'll just forgive you but you don't have to repent, just keep living how you're living.
20:16-20:25
Repentance comes from a genuine hatred of sin. It's moving from actively loving your sin to actively hating your sin.
20:26-20:26
That's repentance.
20:29-20:32
Repentance is when you're at the point where you say, "I'm done with this.
20:33-20:37
This addiction that I have, I'm done with it.
20:39-20:50
This sexual sin that I have, that maybe I've been keeping secret from some people, and God knows, and it's wrong, and I'm done with it.
20:57-21:08
I'm so sick of insisting on my own way and my stupid pride getting in the way, never wanting to say I'm sorry, never seeking forgiveness.
21:09-21:13
I'm done living like that. I don't want this and God doesn't want this for me.
21:13-21:14
That's repentance.
21:15-21:17
We need to talk about a certain elephant in the room here.
21:18-21:22
Acts 2.38 has been a verse with much contrast to the verse in Acts 2.39.
21:22-21:23
controversy around it.
21:24-21:34
Peter said to them, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins." We're going to talk more about baptism here in a minute.
21:36-21:43
Peter says to repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins.
21:45-22:20
from this verse there are some people that believe that unless you get baptized you can't get saved. That's called baptismal regeneration. That means unless you get baptized you can't be saved. I know people that believe this and I don't understand it. I know a guy, he's a hospital chaplain and he had this woman on her deathbed. She was in her 90s and she He was hooked up to all kinds of tubes and monitors and he went and shared the gospel with her and she said she wanted to receive Jesus.
22:21-22:47
And this hospital chaplain says, "Well, we've got to get her to the tub and baptize her." And the doctors were like, "If you move her, you're going to kill her right now." And this chaplain was like, "Then there's really nothing I can do here." And he basically walked out of there saying, "This woman's going to hell because we couldn't move her to the tub to get her baptized." He believed that.
22:47-22:49
Now let me ask you, church, is that God?
22:50-22:51
Does that sound like God to you?
22:53-22:58
Does that sound like the God you read about in His Word, like He's up in heaven going, "Oh, she's ready to receive me.
22:58-23:00
Oh, she's going to receive me.
23:00-23:01
Her heart's right.
23:01-23:03
Now get her to the tank.
23:03-23:04
Oh, oh.
23:04-23:06
Sorry, there was nothing I could do for you, ma'am.
23:07-23:07
I'm sorry.
23:08-23:10
just couldn't get you to the tank to get you saved.
23:10-23:14
That doesn't sound like the God that I read about in his Word.
23:15-23:18
But there are people that sincerely believe that.
23:19-23:34
You're like, "Well, what does this say then? I mean, it says be baptized for the forgiveness of sin. What does that mean?" Well, first of all, if being immersed was the way that you got saved, that would be very evident in the book of Acts, wouldn't it?
23:36-23:45
I mean, if it were true, you see, we go through the book of Acts, you're in Acts chapter 8, Acts chapter 19, you see people that were baptized that weren't saved.
23:47-23:51
You get to Acts chapter 10, you run into people that were saved and weren't yet baptized.
23:53-23:59
So you don't see this formula of "dumped, saved, dumped, saved." You don't see that in the book of Acts.
24:00-24:02
You don't see that taught in the epistles.
24:04-24:13
That's why Paul says, "What is it in 1 Corinthians he talks about, 'I didn't baptize'?" Well, if that's how you get people saved, Paul, why weren't you baptizing people?
24:14-24:14
Lame!
24:16-24:18
Because baptism isn't the thing that saves you.
24:19-24:23
Like, "Well, okay, what about this Acts 2.38 thing?" Well, it's simple.
24:26-24:32
The Greek word for "for" is used in the same way that the word "for" is used in English.
24:33-24:34
It's used the same ways.
24:36-24:39
Let me give you a couple examples of how we use the word "for" in English.
24:40-24:45
I say to you, "I'm going to the store for some bread." What does that mean?
24:45-24:52
"I'm going to the store in order to obtain some bread." That's how "for" is used, right?
24:55-25:36
Some people say, "Well, that's what Peter's saying here, 'Be baptized in order to obtain forgiveness of sin.'" But you know, another way we use the word "for" in the English, which is the way it's used in this passage, what if I said to you, "I had to take an aspirin for my headache." Would you say, "You took an aspirin in order to obtain a headache?" "No, I took an aspirin as a result of having a headache." That's how we use the word "for" there, and that's how Peter was using the word "for" here, meaning "as a result of." Be baptized as a result of being forgiven of your sin.
25:38-25:39
We'll talk more about baptism in a second here.
25:40-25:45
But repentance is another proof of the genuineness of your salvation.
25:47-25:49
Peter says you receive the forgiveness of sin.
25:50-25:58
Notice he says, "the gift of the Holy Spirit." The gift of the Holy Spirit.
25:58-26:02
Again, the Holy Spirit doesn't come because of the baptism.
26:03-26:06
That would be like a work that you have to do.
26:07-26:09
He says the Holy Spirit's a gift.
26:09-26:15
It's an unmerited, unearned, free gift that's given to everyone who comes to Jesus Christ.
26:16-26:19
The second ingredient is sincere repentance.
26:20-26:52
2nd Corinthians 7 10 the Apostle Paul says for godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation right along what we're seeing here conviction to repentance evidence of salvation so number three godly motivation godly motivation good verse 39 Peter says for the promises for you and for your children and for all who are far off.
26:54-26:57
Everyone whom the Lord, our God calls to himself.
26:59-27:05
I'll compare that with verse 21, verse 21 says, everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
27:06-27:10
And verse 39 says, everyone whom the Lord, our God calls to himself.
27:11-27:13
We've seen this a few times already, haven't we?
27:14-27:17
There's a sovereignty and salvation that we don't fully understand.
27:19-27:28
that somehow the Lord sovereignly chooses us and we have the responsibility to choose to follow Him.
27:28-27:35
And I've told you this before, I can't explain that because God is God and I am not, right?
27:36-27:42
So it makes sense to God that He calls us and we have the responsibility to choose.
27:42-27:45
And here in the same passage, again, we see both.
27:46-27:52
But you have to see as we're looking at this verse right now, we're talking about people that the Lord calls to himself.
27:54-28:00
This is a glorious truth about conversion, about coming to Christ, is it is a response to God calling you.
28:03-28:17
Any true conversion, any true person that comes to Jesus Christ carries with it this sense of, "I just know that it was the Lord calling me." It has to be that motivation.
28:18-28:22
Because no other motivation is authentic.
28:23-28:30
Like the guy that says, "My wife's been on my case because I don't go to church, so I go to church with her just to get her off my back.
28:30-28:42
You know, our marriage has been in trouble and she says it's because I'm not interested in church, so I guess I'll get real interested in church." That's a wrong motivation.
28:43-28:47
Or, "I'm going to go to church because I'll make some new business contacts there.
28:48-28:55
I'll meet some people there that might be potential clients or buy what I'm selling or whatever." That's a wrong motivation.
28:57-28:58
Or, "You know why I'm going to go to church?
28:59-29:05
I've been going to a lot of bars to try to meet a lady and I haven't really met the kind of girl that I'd want to settle down with.
29:05-29:07
You know a good place to meet a girl at church.
29:07-29:11
I'll get a good church-going girl." That's a wrong motivation.
29:13-29:21
Speaking of the guy that goes to church, you know, pretends to get all serious about the Lord for his wife's sake.
29:24-29:27
Watch what happens if that marriage goes south and she divorces him.
29:27-29:29
Do you think he's still going to go to church?
29:30-29:30
No.
29:31-29:32
No, his motivation's gone.
29:35-29:37
You see, these aren't right motivations.
29:38-29:44
The right motivation, the godly motivation, knowing that it is the Lord that is calling you.
29:45-29:51
It's the guy or the woman who says, "I don't care if following Christ costs me my job because I know God's calling me.
29:52-29:54
I don't care if following Christ costs me my friends.
29:55-30:00
I don't care if following Christ, if He calls me to mission work full-time.
30:01-30:05
I don't care if Christ calls me to sweep the floor at the church.
30:05-30:08
I know that God's calling me and I'm not turning back.
30:09-30:13
That's godly motivation. That's someone that knows that God is calling them.
30:16-30:29
That's why everything in the Christian life, conversion, small group involvement, discipleship, personal evangelism, small group outreach, mission work, all of those things fall under the banner of "Well, why do you do that?" Because God's calling me.
30:30-30:37
I'm doing this for Jesus and because of Jesus. That's why I'm doing what I'm Godly motivation.
30:38-30:47
The fourth ingredient, the fourth ingredient is radical separation, radical separation.
30:49-31:09
Verse 40 says, "And with many other words he bore witness, continued to exhort them, saying, 'Save yourselves from this crooked generation.'" Was this some dialogue that he was having with the people after this sermon?
31:11-31:14
Whatever the case, radical separation.
31:14-31:16
We see the content of this discussion.
31:19-31:27
When Peter says, "You need to save yourselves from this crooked generation." You know, when you're in Christ, the Bible says you're a new creature.
31:29-31:30
The new has come, the old has passed.
31:30-31:32
You're a new creature in Christ.
31:33-31:41
2 Corinthians 5.17 and that's something that you can testify to that you've experienced or you haven't experienced it.
31:42-31:50
But when you're truly in Christ you know, the people that are in Christ here know what it means that the old has passed, the new has come.
31:50-31:52
What it means to be a new creature in Christ.
31:54-31:59
You know the guy that says, "Well, you know I'm thinking about becoming a Christian but can I still do this?
31:59-32:05
Or, you know, as long as I don't have to give up this or change this, or how much sin can I get away with?
32:07-32:11
People that say those kinds of things, you know, that communicate something about their hearts.
32:13-32:19
People that are unwilling to give up a sinful lifestyle that says something about your heart.
32:21-32:29
In other words, you don't seek separation because you aren't God motivated, because you haven't repented, because you haven't been convicted.
32:31-32:44
The bottom line is this, when God's Holy Spirit comes in and dwells in you, one of the glorious things He does, one of the biggest evidences that God's Holy Spirit lives in you is He changes your appetites. He changes your appetites.
32:46-32:48
In the flesh, by nature, we're hungry for sin.
32:50-32:54
When God's Holy Spirit comes in and dwells in us, We're hungry for the things of God.
32:55-32:57
We have this hunger for prayer that we didn't have before.
32:58-33:01
We have this natural hunger for God's Word that we didn't have before.
33:02-33:05
We have a hunger for fellowship and serving Christ together.
33:05-33:10
These are things that we love to do and long to do because the Holy Spirit has put those appetites in us.
33:12-33:14
It's a lot like food addiction.
33:15-33:17
You know, you develop your appetites.
33:20-33:29
And if you're like me, How many people here would say that when it comes to food you have an appetite for garbage?
33:30-33:33
How many people would say that? We can be honest, come on, nobody's judging you here.
33:34-33:44
And you know what? That's me sometimes. Sometimes I'm, you know, Pepsi and how many Twinkies can I fit in my mouth and stuff like that.
33:44-33:49
I have an appetite for unhealthy things.
33:50-34:15
And here's what I've noticed, when I discipline myself to eat healthy, after a week or two, I start to lose my appetite for the Pepsi and the Twinkies, and I actually, believe it or not, I actually enjoy the carrots and the spinach, and I actually would rather have a glass of water than a glass of pop.
34:15-34:17
Can anybody else testify to that?
34:17-34:18
Like, yeah, I know what you mean.
34:18-34:22
Your appetites do kind of change, and then you get back to the old habits.
34:23-34:33
Here's the point. When you come to Christ, it's not about, "I'm going to have self-discipline to have these new appetites." The Holy Spirit puts those new appetites into your heart.
34:33-34:42
Like, "I want to." That's why Jesus said, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness." That's evidence that the Holy Spirit is at work in you.
34:44-34:53
Now you want to live a holy life because you see that many are on the broad path that leads to destruction.
34:53-35:03
Which is why Peter said, "Save yourselves from this crooked generation." These people that are living in their sin and life is one big beer commercial and party.
35:04-35:07
They're on a cruise ship that's going down. Do you want to be on that ship?
35:07-35:09
Save yourself from this generation.
35:11-35:19
And the person that experiences this radical separation can look at that old lifestyle and those old sin habits and say, "You know what?
35:20-35:20
That's not for me.
35:21-35:27
That's not who I am anymore because God's Holy Spirit has given me new appetites." Radical separation.
35:27-35:37
And then finally, the last ingredient of true conversion is public profession.
35:41-35:53
It says, "So those who received His word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls." So Peter told them to be baptized.
35:54-36:07
It says, "They received His word on all of this stuff, but including baptism." It says, "And they were baptized." So why baptism?
36:07-36:11
You saw in the picture that we were baptizing people in Thailand.
36:11-36:14
Why baptism? Why do we do that?
36:14-36:23
When you think about it, if we can just take a step back for a second and just try to look at it with fresh eyes, baptism is kind of a weird thing, don't you think?
36:24-36:24
I mean, let's be honest.
36:25-36:29
Isn't it, from a worldly point of view, isn't baptism kind of a weird thing?
36:30-36:33
Like, "Oh, you've changed your belief system.
36:33-36:38
Well, let me grab you and dunk you in water." Doesn't that sound weird?
36:38-36:39
Why do we do that?
36:41-36:46
Well baptism is the profession of faith.
36:48-37:00
Profession of faith in Christ biblically isn't, you know, if you want to receive Jesus raise your hand or if you want to tell people that you came to Christ just pull out this card and put it in the offering and we'll read them next week.
37:01-37:05
Biblically, the profession of faith is baptism.
37:05-37:06
And why is that?
37:07-37:09
Why do we dunk people in water?
37:11-37:17
Because you're identifying with Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection.
37:17-37:18
That's why we baptize.
37:18-37:21
That water is like a liquid tomb.
37:22-37:26
And when you go down in the water, what you're saying is, "I'm dead.
37:28-37:31
My old self has been crucified with Christ.
37:31-38:00
I am dead. And when you come up out of the water, what you're saying is I identify with the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The life that I live is no longer me. It's Christ alive in me. You know, I'm raised with Jesus Christ. It's a beautiful picture of identifying with Isn't that a beautiful picture of identification with Jesus Christ?
38:01-38:22
But there are the, you know, people can hear the message, be baptized, and immediately we jump to the other end of the spectrum and say, well, being baptized doesn't make you saved, and you don't have to get baptized to get saved, So why should I get baptized?
38:22-38:26
And as usual in the church, we gravitate towards the extremes.
38:26-38:38
You have the people that say, "You can't get saved unless you're baptized." And then you have the people over here that say, "Baptism is not important." And the answer is somewhere here.
38:38-38:41
They say, "Baptism is important." It is.
38:42-38:45
It is the public profession of faith in Jesus Christ.
38:46-38:48
Which is why Peter brought it up.
38:50-38:53
And when it comes to obedience and baptism, it's a hard issue.
38:54-39:07
Some people get so wrapped up in the "I'm not performing some work, I'm not going to publicly do this." Some people get so caught up in the idea that it's not the thing that gets you saved.
39:09-39:11
Please hear my heart on this, church.
39:12-39:15
Sometimes we can neglect just pure and simple obedience.
39:18-39:20
I'm not chewing anybody out for not being baptized.
39:21-39:22
I just want to encourage you.
39:24-39:37
That if you haven't been baptized, that you've given your life to Christ, you see very clearly in His Word that this is a step that God calls you to take.
39:39-40:08
testimony of a changed life and it's an encouragement to those that get to witness this profession. If there was ever anybody who walked the earth that didn't need to get baptized it was probably Jesus right? But in Matthew chapter 3 in verse 15 Jesus said that he needed to be baptized in order to fulfill all righteousness. What does that mean?
40:08-40:17
Basically what that means is this, Jesus said the Father wants me to get baptized so I'm going to get baptized. God wants me to.
40:18-40:38
God wants me to get baptized and I would just challenge you if you have sort of put it off or sort of kicked against the idea of being baptized I just want to challenge you with this, if saying God wants me to do it Is it a good enough reason for you to be baptized?
40:40-40:41
See, baptism is like a wedding.
40:42-40:52
Just like in a wedding you have two people that love each other and are making a commitment to one another before God and before man.
40:52-40:54
That's really what baptism is.
40:54-40:55
It's making a commitment.
40:55-41:00
You're showing your commitment to Jesus Christ before God and before man.
41:05-41:06
It's an important part.
41:08-41:17
We have baptism services every two or three months usually, and I encourage you if you haven't taken that step, talk to me about that.
41:17-41:18
It's important.
41:19-41:24
The question that we're examining as we looked at this passage today, was your conversion real?
41:25-41:30
I just want you to take a second and look inwardly and think about your walk with Christ.
41:31-41:38
When you came to Christ, did you experience a real heartfelt conviction over your sin?
41:40-41:41
When you came to Christ, did you repent?
41:44-41:49
Did you change your mind and see your actions change as well?
41:51-41:54
Would you say that your coming to Christ was God motivated?
41:55-41:57
I know that He called me.
41:59-42:06
Did you see in your life when you came to Christ a radical separation from a sinful lifestyle and sinful habits?
42:06-42:14
And did you see that radical separation as the Holy Spirit changed your appetites?
42:16-42:22
When you came to Christ, did you make the profession of faith that God's Word calls you to make?
42:24-42:29
and be baptized, that you make that public profession of faith.
42:31-42:48
If you aren't sure, if you have experienced a true conversion, if you're hearing these things and say, "You know what, I'm not, I don't know." Or maybe there's someone here that's sure that they haven't.
42:49-42:53
But we have people down here who would just love to pray with you.
42:55-43:00
And if God is calling you to get real, now is not the time to be shy.
43:01-43:05
Today could be the most important day of your life.
43:07-43:10
This could be the biggest decision that you ever make.
43:11-43:14
To say, "I'm done. I'm done playing church.
43:15-43:43
I'm done pretending. I'm done hiding. I'm not settling for anything less than a real thing. I'm done and pray with this. Father in heaven, I pray for anyone in this room right now who hasn't come to faith in Christ. Today would be the day that they hear you calling them.
43:45-43:47
Father, we know that you have been calling them.
43:49-43:51
I pray today's the day that they hear that.
43:52-43:59
Father, if there's someone here who's not sure, I pray that they don't put off investigating.
44:01-44:04
They don't put off this sincere seeking.
44:05-44:10
that they would come down and simply seek your face.
44:12-44:32
Father, we want nothing more than just to be real before you and allow your Holy Spirit to take these broken and sincere hearts and manifest your glory, manifest your presence among us.
44:34-44:43
Father, we thank you for the glorious gift of your Son, as we saw in this passage today, the glorious gift of your Holy Spirit.
44:45-44:52
We thank you, Father, that you are the God who pursues us, you are the God who loves us, you are the God who calls us.
44:55-44:57
In Jesus' mighty and holy name we pray.
44:58-44:59
Amen.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Acts 2:37-41
How can you tell if someone is truly "cut to the heart", that is, they are genuinely sorry for their sins? (Acts 2:37)
How would you answer someone who asks, "Why should I get baptized? What does it mean?" (Acts 2:38)
Is Acts 2:38 teaching that "you can't get saved unless you are baptized"? Why or why not?
What are wrong motivations to come to Christ? (See Acts 2:39 for the right motivation)
What did Peter mean by, "Save yourselves from this crooked generation"? (Acts 2:40)
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.
