10
Acts
Introduction:
In
our text the Apostle Peter is still speaking to a large crowd of Jews
who had gathered around the Christians on
the Day of Pentecost. He sounds out a
warning
to them about the dangerous influence of that present generation of
people upon them and calls upon them to
save themselves from that influence.
I.
What had already taken place on that Day of Pentecost.
The
Holy Spirit of God had already come upon the church at
endue them with power from on high. One result of that power from on high was
that when those Galilean Christians spoke,
whoever heard them speak did not hear
them in their Galilean dialect. Rather, they understood them in their own
native language in which they had been
born.
This
mighty miracle had attracted a great crowd of people to the home in
which the Christians were staying. The Apostle Peter had already preached to
them and told them that they had crucified the Christ. Peter had reminded them
of a promise that God had made to them
through the prophet Joel. That promise
was that whoever would call upon the name
of the Lord would be saved. That
promise spoke about the Christ. Whoever would call on the Christ for
salvation
would be saved and would go to
heaven. Peter had informed them that
this
promise had been made to them and to their
children. Therefore, what these
people needed to do to get saved was to
repent of their sin and call upon the
Christ for salvation. Of course, after they get saved, they ought
also to get
baptized and get into the Lord?s church
and get to work serving the Lord.
Peter
in his sermon had pointed out their need of salvation. He had
pointed out to them the way of salvation
whereby they could be saved. He had
called upon them to repent of their sin
and turn to the Christ. Yet there was
great danger that these people would
ignore his counsel and would follow the
influence of the majority in their
generation. In particular, there was the
great danger that those people would
follow the influence of the Jewish leaders
who made up the Sanhedrin Council.
II.
The many other things which Peter said to them
V.
40, ?And with many other words did he testify and exhort...? We
are
to understand that not every word which
Simon Peter said to them was here
recorded.
Many of the details of what he said to them are not recorded. The
gist of what he said was recorded. That is the essence of what he said was
recorded.
A summary of what he said was recorded.
Some of the details were
given, but not all of them. This is true of the sermon which he preached
to
them.
Not every word of his sermon was recorded. This is also true of the
things he now says to them as he reasons
with them seeking to persuade them to
repent of their sins and to call upon
Jesus for salvation.
This
same thing is true of the words of Jesus and His ministry. Not
everything that Jesus said and did were
recorded. The Apostle John said in his
writings that he supposed that if
everything which Jesus said and did had been
recorded the world would not hold the books that would be
written.
III.
The warning which Peter sounded out to the his audience
?...saying,
Save yourselves from this untoward generation.?
The people in
Peter?s audience had already been swayed
by the dangerous influence of their
generation and particularly by dangerous
influence of the Jewish leaders. Let
me remind you that earlier when Jesus and
His disciples had come to
celebrate the Passover Supper, these very
same people who now stood before Peter
had accompanied Jesus into the city of
voices proclaiming Jesus to be the Christ
of God. Right at that moment they had
been under the influence of the great
miracle that Jesus had performed at the
village of Bethany. Jesus had just raised Lazarus from the grave
after Lazarus
had been dead for four days. Right at that moment these people could see
the
evidence that Jesus really is the
Christ. But a few days later they had
been so
influence by the Jewish high priest and by
the members of the Sanhedrin Council
that they joined right in with them and
shouted to the top of their voices
demanding that Jesus be crucified. When these people were out from under the
influence of the Jewish leaders then they
were ready to crown Jesus as their
king.
But when they got back under the influence of the Jewish leaders, they
were ready to nail Him to a cross. They were ready to mock Him. They were
ready to beat Him in His face and spit in
His face. Let me say to you that the
Jewish leaders had a powerful influence
upon the thinking and upon the actions
of those people.
They
had a dangerous influence upon them.
Peter told them to save
themselves from the influence of such
leadership. If those people did not
save themselves from the dangerous
influence of the Jewish leaders and from the
influence of the vast majority of people
in Israel they would never repent of
their sin.
They would never call upon the Lord for salvation. They would never
be saved.
They would never go to heaven.
They would go out into eternity
unprepared to meet God. They would go out into eternity without ever
being
forgiven of their sins. They would
suffer for their sins throughout all
eternity.
IV.
What Peter was not saying to them
Now
let me point out to you that when the Apostle Peter told them to save
themselves from that generation, he was
not at all suggesting that they could
earn the salvation of their soul by their
own good works. The Bible clearly
teaches that salvation is not earned by
the good works of the individual who is
lost.
In Ephesians 2:8-9 we read that salvation is by the grace of God and
that
it is not obtained by one?s good
works. In Titus 3:5 we are told, ?Not by
works
of righteousness which we have done, but
according to his mercy he saved us.?
Peter was not telling those people that
they had to work in order to save their
souls.
Rather he was telling them that they needed to save themselves from the
dangerous influence of the Jewish leaders
and others of that whole generation.
Peter
had already sought to make it clear to them that what they needed to
do for the salvation of the soul was to
repent of their sin and to call upon the
name of the Lord asking Him to save their
soul.
V.
The warning which I sound out to you concerning the dangerous influence
of
this present generation
I
say to you this morning that you, too, need to save yourself from this
untoward generation in which we live. The word which in our King James Version
of the Bible is translated ?untoward?
means ?Evil, crooked, perverse, wicked.?
The great majority in this world are not
traveling the narrow road that leads to
life eternal. The great majority are traveling the broad
road that leads to
destruction. Yet they have a powerful influence upon all
mankind saying to all,
?Come on and go with us. Believe what we believe. Do the things that we do.
Go with us down this broad road. There is room enough for us all. There is
room enough for you. If you do not go with us it is because you
are out of step
with the majority. You are an oddball. You are a kook.?
But
I say to you that the great majority in this generation is traveling
on the wrong road. They are headed in the wrong direction. This generation is
headed he wrong direction morally. The modern cry on moral issues is that all
moral boundaries ought to be
abandoned. You are free to do what you
want. You
live in a free country and you have the
freedom to do what you please. If you
want to have sex before marriage and if you
have the consent of your partner,
then you are free to do what you
please. They say that even after you
marry if
you want to have sex with somebody other
than your marriage partner, you are
free to do so as long as you have the
consent of the other person and if you
don?t get caught by your marriage
partner. They say that if you want to
have
sex with someone who is of the same sex,
then that is your business and you are
free to do what you please.
This
generation is headed the wrong direction in honesty and truthfulness.
The direction they are headed is down the
road of dishonesty and lies. They
think it is perfectly acceptable for the
politician to lie to the public. They
think it is perfectly acceptable for a
business man to lie to a customer. They
think it is perfectly acceptable for
anybody to lie to anybody else. Just
don?t
get caught at your lie. Cover it up as best you can even if that
mans telling
another lie to cover up. That is the way this generation is headed.
This
generation is headed the wrong direction in language. The use of the
four letter words are no longer
unacceptable to them. The use of the
outright
profanity and taking God?s name in vain is
no longer unacceptable to them. To
them it is not only acceptable to use this
kind of language in private
conversation, but they use it openly in
public. They use it in the presence of
women and little children. They use it even on the radio and on the
television
for all to hear. The same is true with filthy language of all
kinds.
This
generation is headed the wrong direction in purpose of life. They do
not look at life as a time in which to get
prepared for eternity and a time for
service to God. They look at life as a time to have as much
pleasure as
possible and to gain as many worldly
possessions as possible. And they are
not
willing to resort to that old-fashioned
way of working to supply their needs and
desires.
They think that it is acceptable to resort to any means whatsoever to
get what they desire. They lie, they cheat, they steal, they
embezzle, they
deceive, they gamble, they rob at gun
point and they even kill in order to get
what they want. Their whole purpose in life seems to be to
get one more dollar
and to have one more sinful fling.
Speaking
of killing, this generation is headed the wrong direction with
regard to the value of human life. This is made evident by the large number of
murders, drive by shootings, by the
frequency of war and by the killing of
innocent babies.
This
generation is headed in the wrong direction in its misuse of alcohol
and other drugs. Alcohol is a very helpful chemical when
rightly used, but it
is a very dangerous chemical when it is
misused. It is dangerous to strike a
match to alcohol. It is just as dangerous to use alcohol as a
beverage. There
is no way of knowing how many homes have
been broken, how many automobiles have
been wrecked or how many lives have been
wrecked and ruined by the misuse of
alcohol.
But
in addition to its misuse of alcohol, this modern generation has gone
almost to the point of no return in the
misuse of other dangerous drugs. The
dangerous drugs which are commonly
available to the public today are too
numerous for me to name in this message,
but hardest of the hard-core drugs are
easily obtained today if you have the
money. They are not only available to
adults, but they are available to the
children in our schools. They are even
sold by little children in our
schools.
This
generation is also going the wrong direction spiritually. They are
going the wrong direction in both the plan
of salvation and in doctrine. While
both the plan of salvation and doctrines
are important, it is most important
that you not follow after the world by
depending on the world?s plan of
salvation.
Most of the people of the world are not going to make it to heaven.
They are going the wrong direction. They are going to the wrong place. They
are going where you most assuredly do not
want to go. It is vital that you
listen to the word of God and that you let
God tell you through His word what
you need to do to get to heaven.
The
Bible teaches that you must repent of your sin.
Jesus, Himself, said
that except you repent you would
perish. The Bible teaches that you must
call
upon the Lord Jesus Christ and place your
faith in Him to save your soul. Jesus
said, ?I am the way, the truth and the
life, no man cometh unto the Father but
by me.? He said, ?He that cometh unto me I will in no
wise cast out.?
So
in order for one to be saved, he must break from the plan which the
world follows. He must break from the plans which depend of
good works to get
to heaven.
He must turn to God?s plan and trust completely in the Lord Jesus
Christ to cleanse him from all sin and to
take him to heaven.
Let
me also say to you that even after you are truly save, even after you
are truly born again and after you are on
your way to heaven, it is important
even then that you break from the
lifestyle of this perverse generation in which
we live and pattern your life after the
teachings of the word of God. It is not
necessary for you to make this change in
order to be saved, but it is most
certainly necessary for you to make this
change in order for you to please the
Lord in the way you live your life.
So
I am going to call upon each and every person in this congregation this
morning to save yourself from this
untoward generation in which we live. Do
not
let the unsaved tell you how to get saved
and do not let the unsaved tell you
how you ought to live after you are
saved. You are to live your life
according
to the teachings of God.