Grace Chapel Bible Ministries
worship Call 1145 Peter's sermon - 2024/09/11
[MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] Welcome to worship call with Bible teacher Buzz Lullbeck. Buzz is a pastor of Grace Chapel Bible Ministries located in Duncan, South Carolina. This ministry is dedicated to the verse by verse teaching of God's word and discipleship programs aimed at strengthening the faith of God's people. Now here's today's message. We start this morning with pursuing God with A.W. Tozer on date September 11th. Our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance. First Thessalonians 1-5. A marked characteristic, one marked characteristic of modern evangelism is its lack of assurance, resulting in a pathetic search for external evidence to corroborate its faith. It's set out bravely to declare its trust in Christ, but is shortly over awed by the counter declarations of science and philosophy. And before long it is looking about for some collateral evidence to restore its confidence, the faith of the Christian must rest upon Christ himself. He is the mystery of godliness, a miracle, an emergence of the deity into time and space for a reason and a purpose. He is complete in himself and gains nothing from any human philosophy. The New Testament points to Christ and says God now commands all men everywhere to repent because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world and righteousness by that man he has ordained. Our assurance is the fact that he raised him from the dead, in that God validated forever the claims of Christ. He is who he said he was and what he said he was so Christ is enough to have him and nothing else is to be rich beyond all conceiving. This is the fourth day of the week in God's created order, the eleventh day of the ninth month, 2020 fourth year of our Lord. And this is another fine day in the Lord, Father in Heaven. It seems that mankind always wants to make something more complex than it really is. We want to complicate matters. We want to throw in our own advice and our own philosophy. We want to just we want to help God. When God don't need any help. The power of the cross, the power of the preaching cross which we will view today and Peter's first sermon. That power brought many people thousands to come to want to know Christ. May our preaching be so powerful. Open our hearts this morning. Be with my brother Mike as he's traveling to his destination. Be with Terry and put a hedge protection on both my brother and his driving and my sister and our sister and our being home. And I pray Heavenly Father for Pastor Tim this morning as he's going into surgery. And I have prayed for grace and mercy upon him and for Dr. Skill and that everything will exceed their expectation within the surgery. Open our hearts this morning to the study your God and to your in Christ name would pray. Amen. And it is absolutely another fine day in the Lord, brother. I know you're out there and I know you're probably listening right now. So safe journeys, Godspeed to you and Godspeed to you as well, Tim as we are going into our continue our study. We got our first sermon today. You know sermons. I don't know about you, but acts is convicting me already and we're coming into the first sermon. First of all, the Holy Spirit has come. Here it is. Peter has been equipped with the experience of being with Jesus for those three years. He has been discipleship by Jesus. He has had his failures absolutely. But now he has received the Holy Spirit when it has come to him. And now here comes the first powerful message. Here's the first. And as a pastor and as you as congregants, as you as congregants, the people of the congregation should expect that from the pulpit that there is a powerful preaching and not preaching on how you should behave. Not preaching on how to be better. Let's do this sermon on how to be better husbands and better wives and how to be better parents and how to do this and how to do that. It's not preaching is not behavior modification. I see this in the sermon today. Preaching is directing the eyes to Christ, Christ's work, Christ's life, Christ. If you're preaching and my preaching is not Christ centered, then I'm wasting my time. I'm wasting your time. There is a difference and Mike and I have discussed what is the difference between preaching and teaching. And there is a difference, but there is also a necessity of both. Preaching comes or teaching is equipping the saints, whereas preaching goes right in and demands a verdict. It demands a response and it's preaching is declaration. So here is Acts 2 14, but Peter, take and stand with the 11, raise his voice and declare it to them. Men of Galilee and men of Galilee, you who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and give heed to my word. Let's see how to pronounce that. Let me do something a little different today. And that word here and we'll go to Lunata, and Lunata tells us that to speak and focus upon verbal sound rather than upon content, to speak to utter. And this is not just a teaching, but Peter is declaring, he's making a declaration, Peter is preaching at this point. And once again, the work of Christ, how important is preaching? Where would the knowledge of Christ be if it wasn't for preaching? Is it as important today as it was then? What happened to our preacher? Why is it watered down? And why isn't the congregation supporting their pastors and lifting them up? See, the pastor's job, the center of pastor's job is to study and preach God's word. He has to be a godly man growing in the Lord. His primary focus set aside everything else. And the deacons were formed in order to take care of the congregation, to free up the pastor, to study and to teach. And again, to teach and preach Christ-centered messages, Romans 10, 13, the little message Paul here. For whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. How then will they call upon him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in him who they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? I'm going to go on and read that. How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it written, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things? However, they did not heed the good news for Isaiah says the Lord who has believed our report. For faith comes through hearing and hearing the message of Christ. And so we have pushed preachers off and as being incidental to our worship service. Think about it. You see, because what Peter does here is he sets up precedents for preaching. For standing in the pulpit, he sets up precedents. Again, I'm going to emphasize Christ-centered messages. This message is all about Christ. And I'm asking you today, why isn't I? And the problem with America is not political. It's because Christ is no longer taught and preached in the pulpit. So Peter begins with, as the spokesman, the herald to bring it into remembrance. All that Jesus said and did and the implications of his death, his burial, his resurrection. It is preaching that pounds these things home, that drives these things in. Yes, this Saint Peter who failed so many times. This Saint Peter who so often would put his foot in his mouth. Why should we believe Peter? And yes, he denied Christ through time. I'm not going to listen to him, he denied Christ three times. This is the Peter who stands up and gives the first sermon in the Church Age. You can say, "Yeah, I remember him." That preacher's prayer. He could scuff at him, he said, "What a hypocrite." You know, he denied Christ there, and now he's, you know, and now he stabbed Jesus in the back. Why should we listen to him? But what better person would it be to be a preacher than one who was snatched up out of sin, saved by grace? What better testimony when I'm looking at someone whose life was so broken? And now the Lord says, "Look what I'm going to do with this one." You see, it's not about the preacher. It's about what God is doing through him. And so what better person is it to give such a sermon? And Peter's going to lead the way. And if the Lord can speak through a dumb animal like Beaum's ass, he will have no problem with speaking through a spiritual-filled, repentant sinner, saved by the grace of God. Luke 22.32. "But I have prayed for you," this is the Lord speaking through Peter, "that your faith may not fail, that you, when you once have been turned again, strengthen your brothers." And then Acts 2.15. Here is the sermon. And that Peter brings up and he steps up to the pulpit, metaphorically speaking. He steps up the pulpit. "For these men are not drunk as you suppose, for it is only the third hour of the day." He's bringing meaning. They're witnessing things. What's going on around them? They're defining things. Let me stop right there. See, these believers have witnessed this miraculous thing. David witnessed the, and the Word of God, the Word of God speaks of these things. But sometimes when you're looking at, even today, when you're looking at things and you're looking at things unfold and again, the necessity of preaching, good preaching, as things unfold to keep people's attention, to bring them back to the reality. Because all of a sudden scripture is becoming reality. It's unfolding right before their eyes. And they do not know how to discern it. And they see these people speaking in a strange language and they say, "Well, they're drunk. They don't know." But here it is, that preacher, that Peter now is explaining. He's bringing the attention back to scripture as another thing that preachers do. They take the moment. They take the instant. They take the current events even. And they bring you back to scripture. I have to give a plug to Andy Woods. Every week he has the pastor's point of view. And pastor's point of view, he takes what's going on in the world, takes current events, and he brings it back to scripture. Now again, that's, we're going to look that up. We're going to do a search for pastor's point of view, pastor Andy Woods from Sugar Land Bible Church. He's also the president of Shafer Theological Seminary. But that's what preachers do from the pulpit. That they take, they also take that which is going on and bring it back to scripture. And this is what Peter's doing. He's defining those things that he's, that's an observation here. All right, for these men are not drunk, as you suppose. For it's only a third hour of the day. But this is what is spoken of through the prophet Joel. The preacher helps. Again, it is a point of doctrine. A preacher helps. Those who are trusting him, remember that Peter took. Remember what, and this is just to fulfill what Jesus told Peter. Peter beat my flock, beat my flock 10. And how do you do that preachers? By giving them the word. By giving them the word and, and so he's bringing them back to scripture, helping them to cause, helping them to understand what was written in scripture. But it's spoken through the prophet Joel and, and that's Joel to 28 to 32. And it shall be in the last days. God says that I will pour forth of my spirit on all mankind. And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. And your young men shall see visions. And your old men shall dream dreams. Even of my bond slaves, even my slaves, both men and women, I will in those days pour forth my spirit and they shall prophesy. And I will grant wonders in the sky above the signs of the earth below the blood of fire and vapor. Let's stop right there, let's back up from 16 from 17 verse 17 and in the last days. First of all, the last days are the fact we are living in the last days. Last days happened with the death, the burial, the resurrection of Christ coming into this new age. These are the last days and the, and last days don't remember what the, what the Lord says that, or what Peter says about the Lord for God. A day is like a thousand years, a thousand years like a day. There is no time, we are living. We are living in a time, the church age where there's the assembly of the church, the body of Christ. And we're leading up to that great and terrible day of the Lord. These are the last days preceding that which is about to come. And, and as Revelation says, these things will soon come, come forth. This right here on the day of Pentecost has already been accomplished in it marks the last days. It marks a new, the new age which is the last days leading up to that great and terrible day of the Lord. As we, as we said last night, this describes the day of the Lord. And the day of the Lord is not Sunday, the day of the Lord is when Christ returns to this earth. That's also in Psalms, you know, in Psalms we like to say, this is the day of the Lord that has rejoiced and be glad in it. It points to that day when, when those who believe will see the Lord come, their redemption has come. All right. So, and so this has been, this has, this has been fulfilled. And it shall be in the last days that God says, I will pour out my spirit on all mankind. That's this, this is all the, all the, all the languages that come together on that day and here is this flesh on all flesh. And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. You see, the Holy Spirit is not, now it's not just on the, those of Israel. And, but this is all mankind. This is, this is not just for the select few of the Old Testament. But now anyone who proclaims the Lord Jesus Christ, anyone that calls upon him receives the Holy Spirit. And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. And your young man, and we saw this during the apostolic age. And we had, we'll, we'll see where we have two women, those who speak with Paul. And they will, they are prophetists. They will, they will prophesy. They, they will be visions and old men will have dreams. And even to this day, given to this day, now with, with the completion of a canon of scripture, the dreams haven't gone out. Just, there are, there are actually many Muslims here that I hear of who actually have dreams. It seems to be a reoccurring thing over in the Middle East. That's something I won't expound on today, but there are those. Today we have here, we have the Word of God. This is what we have to complete a canon of scripture. And that's our, that's our, the word. Okay, here we go. So that part, old man will shall, shall dream dreams. Okay, that's, that has been, even my slaves, both men and women, I will pour those, I will, in those days, pour forth my spirit, and they shall prophesy. Okay, now 19 is yet to be fulfilled. It's still in this age, but there's a culmination of this age, hasn't come yet, but this is that day of the Lord leading up to the day Lord coming up. And when these things happen, when the season comes, these things are going to come pretty quickly. And I'll read through this. And I will grant wonders in the sky above, the signs on the earth below blood and fire and paper and smoke, the sun will be turned into darkness. And the moon into blood, that has not happened yet. So those that say these things have already happened in the 70, it has not. This, this is a mark of a cosmic disturbance. These things are taking place in the air, in the stellar, in the stellar sky. And before the great and glorious, before the great and glorious day of the Lord shall come. Again, what is that great and glorious day of the Lord when the Lord will leave the throne of his father and depart and return. He is the Son of Man that we read in Daniel. He is the Son of Man. He is the one who's coming in the clouds. He's coming from above and he's bringing his army with him. This is the day that when the answers finally come, and many of us had the question, when is the Lord going to finally get fed up? Well, the Lord knows exactly. God in heaven knows exactly the day that he's going to send his son back to this earth and is certainly upon his timing. But on that day, we can say finally, finally, that evil and the wickedness that we send in evil and those things that just rip out hearts out. Donnie, it's going to be because it rips out hearts out as we explained last night. It tears out hearts out because we see the integrity of God being impugned. We see the markers and those that are standing toe to toe, God, God, will you not answer them in your mighty justice? The Lord says, wait, just like he did with the people there in Egypt, his people. He says, when Moses says stand still and watch the deliverance of the Lord. We're in a time where we must stand still, but there's coming a time. See, they're great and glorious day. That event was when the waters parted. It was phenomenal. It was something and they crossed through and these people crossed through the waters because there is even a greater day coming, a greater and glorious day when the Lord returns to this earth. This is a prophetical here. He starts out with prophecy. Again, Peter is getting their hearts and their minds set upon looking toward the future, looking for the coming of Christ. That's what we must do. We must recognize. We must keep in our hearts that there is coming a time when the Lord is going to return. This is the glorious day of the Lord shall come. It is it shall be that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. That everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord is salvation about getting your life right. What does it say? It says that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord doesn't say everyone that gets their life squared away and then calls upon the name. We are sinners. We're calling upon the name of the Lord. Your sins is inconsequential at this point. As unbelievers, you are a sinner. We can go ahead and admit that. I'm a sinner and there is no hope. It doesn't matter how you feel about your sins at this point. You're lost. As I've often said, apple tree produces apples, orange tree produces oranges. But it is to step through that door is to call upon the grace and the mercy of Christ. Call upon his integrity, his reputation as Savior Jesus. He is Savior. He is our Redeemer. And by trusting in him, we have eternal life. Does that mean we go? Am I belittling sin and saying that now as I'm saved, I can do whatever I want? No, I'm not saying that at all. But I'm saying the issue of our redemption, our salvation, begins by stepping through that door proclaiming the name of Christ, calling upon him in his grace and his mercy to save us. Our lives beyond that boy becomes a response of what Christ has done for us. Verse 22, "Men of Israel, listen to these words, Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs, which God performed through him and your midst, just as you yourself know." Coming in as he's bringing, what has Christ already done? What do we already know? What have we already affirmed? Because if we can affirm them what Christ has already done, and he has done it, to its completion, we can be assured of the things that are yet to come. We can be assured of the victory that is yet ahead of us. We see the victory of the past and the promises and all the things that God said that he was going to do. And Jesus said he did and performed and all the miracles, his word has been validated. This man, the Lord Jesus Christ, this man in his humanity, delivered over by the predetermined plan and for knowledge of God. Stop right there. How many people that you hear from time to time speak of Jesus being crucified by the Jews? They're looking, they're looking, leaving the door open for anti-Semitism, that we can hate the Jews and we look down on the Jews, that we can say that they killed Jesus. So therefore God has rejected them and made the church the new Israel. That's a lie. And a number of different ways we can look at it. But right here Peter says this was a predetermined plan. This wasn't happenstance. This was God's plan that he would go to the cross. This was God's plan. It was just that he used evil, the unbelief and the evil of evil men as a tool, as an instrument to get them to the cross. And so Peter, Peter is, and this is where we're going to stop today, but Peter is in this powerful message. And this message is for me as a pastor. It should be every pastor on the things that we determine and it's to you. Because as Peter is preaching to these people now, he's preaching to you and I, as believers, a Christ-centered message that I pray that we are hearing from the pulpit, that I pray that it's coming into your hearts now through this message. Let's close out. Father in heaven, thank you for this opportunity this morning. Fellowshiping in your word once again, Heavenly Father. I pray for my brother's trip. I pray Heavenly Father for Tim's surgery today. I pray Heavenly Father that you continue to sanctify our hearts with the message. Thank you for this message that the Apostle Peter begins with in the book of Acts, and we pray Heavenly Father that we will be edified by. We pray these things in Christ's name, amen. All right, so now to find day in the Lord. Keep your armor on, keep fighting a good fight of faith. Lord Will and Spirit, God, my outstanding will be back here in the AM. Love y'all. Thank you for joining us. You can hear this message again, as well as previous lessons, and get note by visiting us online at www.gchapel.org. [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO]