And you may be seated. Acts chapter 2. And we're going to be looking at finishing up the message from last time I preached in the book of Acts and when we focused quite a bit of our time on the doctrine of repentance. And now we're gonna pick up somewhat in the middle of verse 38. I'll back up and read a little bit more than that just for some context.

And then we're gonna finish up through verse 39. And then next Sunday, I'll be preaching morning service, and we'll pick up with verse 40 at that time. So I'm continuing to look at the answer to your greatest problem. Our greatest problem, of course, is our sin against God, that we are born by nature as enemies of God, and the answer to that. And we looked at last week, or last time, regarding not only the conviction of sin that this crowd had, but also their call that Peter called them to repentance.

So let's read beginning in verse 36 and we'll read down to verse 39. Therefore let all of the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus whom you crucified both Lord and Christ. 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? And then 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 Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children and to all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call.

So as we, as I want to pull you a little bit back into last time that I preached, as you remember as being overly zealous, my notes were longer than the amount of time that I had to share with you what I was prepared to share in thinking about this passage of Scripture. It's very easy in a passage like this that's so rich and full of just good things that we can learn from. It's easy to get bogged down on certain words and certain topics within this. But I believe that as we're going through Acts, we'll find times as we're going through here, there'll be times that we slow way down and we look at some things that I believe are very important for us to grasp. And then there'll be other times and some longer narrative portions where it will stretch out a little bit and we'll look at bigger sections.

But for the next few times that we're in the book of Acts, we're going to be somewhat slow as we look at these wonderful doctrines regarding, you know, last time on repentance and this week what I want to do is look at not solely but look at the doctrine of baptism. The book of Acts can cause confusion, sometimes regarding baptism. We see some different things spoken of. And in this passage, it somewhat begins some of that confusion. So I wanna clarify some of that.

But I hope to be able to finish up the message that I had started last time this week. So, last time we considered this question, the right question, and that question was what we saw here from this crowd when they cried out, men and brethren, what shall we do? We talked about the rightness of that question. They had experienced and were under conviction that what they had done was they had crucified the Messiah, the promised one. However, We also talked about when it comes to repentance that conviction is necessary but not sufficient.

When we're dealing with our own sin, not just the sin of the crowd here, but when we're dealing with our own sin, that Conviction is necessary, but it's not complete. It can't end just with conviction because we know that conviction after some time can fade away and we can get busy with other things. And that sense of conviction, that sense that we have done something wrong, that we have sinned against God, can just kind of mellow out and cool off. And we see that that was not the end of it because Peter did not leave them in just feeling convicted. They didn't say, men and brethren, what shall we do?

And Peter said, man, you're doing all you need to do. You feel really bad about this. No, Peter turns to them and he says straight to them, repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins." It was not sufficient that they had conviction. There needed to be more in the sense of They needed to turn from their sin. They needed to acknowledge it.

They needed to be convicted of it. But as repentance and as we looked at it as a turning from sin, and we looked a lot into some in-depth things regarding repentance. I'm not going to go all over that again. However, if you did want, there's a section there that I read that was somewhat lengthy that I felt was very beneficial. If you do want a copy of that sometime, just let me know and I'll be glad to send that to you.

It's been very helpful to go back over it myself and and consider all that repentance means. So we learned regarding this conviction and repentance and I challenged you to consider what really restrains you when you're confronted with sin in your life. That was somewhat of an unusual question because when we considered this, we think, well, of course, my desire to be right with God is what keeps me from more sin. But as we delved into that a little bit further, we looked at a few things like pride, self-preservation, hypocrisy, and the fear of man as also being those things, those actually sinful things that could hinder us from more grievous sin. And I was really pushing in so that we would get to the point that our repentance was not out of fear of man, that we were not not holding back from more sin just because we want to look good before others.

Because that's hypocrisy. True repentance is repentance of the heart because we have sinned against God. The commentator had asked that very helpful question was, is if you could sin and enjoy the pleasures of it, and no one would ever find out and you would never be punished for it, would you still turn from it? And it's really a heart-opening question that we can really open this thing up and consider what is the motivation for holiness of life. What is the motivation of turning from sin or keeping ourselves from certain sin?

So this is where I want to pick up. Peter says to them, let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. Two weeks ago we got to experience and see this glorious baptism. And we got to rejoice in that. And so what I want to do is look a little bit at that.

I'm going to read some of our confession of faith, the Second London Baptist Confession, and look at a little bit that surrounds that because within this question we see the way this is worded it can be confusing and misconstrued. Peter says, repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. And it is at that point that some confusion can come into our minds regarding what baptism really is. It's interesting, Scott and I've talked about it as we've done baptismal interviews throughout my time here. It's interesting some of the different flavors of view that you get even within our congregation of what baptism is.

And I was even speaking with someone else, not from this church recently, and to get a feel of their view of baptism and it was very unusual. And you know these were people that I would, this was a gentleman that I would consider to be Orthodox But their understanding of baptism was definitely not what I would consider orthodox. And so I think it's helpful for us to look at baptism. So the Second London Baptist Confession of Faith states this. It says, baptism is an ordinance of the New Testament, ordained by Jesus Christ, to be unto the party baptized, a sign of his fellowship with him, in his death and resurrection, of his being engrafted into him, and him being Christ, of remission of sins and of giving up into God through Jesus Christ to live and walk in newness of life." Now I want to go back and look at that, of remission of sins.

Remember, he says, a sign of these things. It is a sign of remission of sins. Paragraph 2 states this, those who do actually profess repentance towards God, faith in, and obedience to our Lord Jesus Christ are the only proper subjects for this ordinance. The second London is so helpful in getting our doctrine correct regarding baptism. So here, as we pick up in verse 38, in the name of Jesus Christ, I believe that in this passage, if this was the only passage that we had regarding baptism, we could get ourselves off track in understanding what it actually is and what is actually done when it makes this statement for the remission of sins.

So what we do when we come to a passage of Scripture that may seem hard to understand or may be confusing or it may even seem to contradict what we believe about a certain subject. For instance, baptism or even the Lord's Supper or justification or whatever it may be. There are certain passages there that are not as clear as other passages. So what do we do? Well, Scott said it this morning.

Scripture interprets scripture. And so we're not left without help in this situation regarding baptism. God has given us the whole counsel of God. So when you're studying a doctrine, you study the doctrine. You don't just study partial verses to figure out what you want to believe about something.

You go to the whole Word of God and you bring it all together because Scripture interprets Scripture and it's very helpful. So the danger of many a sincere person is to take doctrines and make doctrines upon single verses and neglect to consider what the whole of the Bible has to say about it. So let's look at a few things and let's get our doctrine of baptism on solid ground. So I believe that this statement here, in the name of Jesus Christ, is really one of the most helpful statements and the key to understanding what Peter is saying. When he looks at them and says, repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, this in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, this in the name of Jesus Christ will give us the key to understanding what Peter is actually saying.

This baptism is in the name or we could say in the authority of Jesus Christ. So to be baptized in someone's name, we need to have this in our understanding, meant that they were being baptized into the faith or into the confession of that person and to be identified with their character and with their purpose in life. So in the scriptures there's others who had received baptism and they received the baptism of John. Well what is that about? Even the Gentiles, you know, baptism wasn't only a Christian, right, But Gentiles were baptized into Judaism and they were called proselytes.

Not only that, but in 1 Corinthians 10 2 we're told that all were baptized into Moses. Now there's some variations of understanding of what all that means there, but still there's this idea here that we're presented with this partial verse telling us, okay, we have people were baptized into Moses, we have people baptized in the name of John, and to the repentance that John preached, and now we're seeing be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. And what's interesting is, is as we come to the book, in the book of Acts to chapter 19, I believe chapter 19 will be very instructive for us to help us to understand and get a good picture, instructive for us of the fuller picture of baptism. So turn in your Bibles to Acts chapter 19 and we will look there. So in Acts chapter 19, Paul is at Ephesus and this is what it says, I'm going to read down through verse 3.

And it says, and it happened while Apollos was at Corinth that Paul, having passed through the upper region, came to Ephesus and finding some disciples, He said to them, Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? So they said to him, We have not so much heard whether there is a Holy Spirit. And he said to them, And to what then were you baptized? So we have a group of people here, and we're going to finish that, don't worry. We're going to look at the rest of those verses.

But we have a group of disciples who were baptized and had not received the Holy Spirit. They said they haven't even heard if there is a Holy Spirit. What is that about? So, this group of disciples is, they're actually not disciples of Jesus, they were disciples of John. And you can get that and understand that through reading the rest of this in the context of that.

John had disciples who followed him. Remember there was a point when John's disciples would come to John and they were asking about what Jesus was doing. And that's when you know John would say, I must decrease and he must increase. That's when John would say, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. And he was pointing his disciples to Jesus Christ.

So we have this group of disciples here who were John's disciples. And this next verse will help us to be fully informed on that it is not baptism itself that saves us because if it was water baptism then these in chapter 19 of the book of Acts would not have needed to be baptized again. So we actually have here a case where these disciples were baptized at least twice. So look at what he says. Let's continue on in chapter 19 and verse 4.

Then Paul said, John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on him who would come after him that is on Christ Jesus. And when they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. So interesting here. We have, you know, sometimes people get concerned if they feel like they need to be baptized again. Well, in this case specifically, these disciples did get baptized again, but they were not following the baptism of Christ.

At the beginning, they were baptized unto John, unto the repentance that John had preached. So what we understand from this is that it gives us a clearer picture, and I submit to you that it is this last statement again, in the name of Jesus Christ, or in the name, as he says here in verse 19, in the name of the Lord Jesus that helps us and instructs us in what the meaning is. So, in the name of the Lord Jesus shows us who they were going to follow, who they were going to be identified with. For previously they followed John. They believed in the baptism of repentance.

They believed in this message that he was preaching about repentance. But here we see that they had followed John and I believe they were looking for the one whom John had preached. If you'll remember, John said, There comes one after me who is mightier than I, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to stoop down and loose. I indeed baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit." And so they were looking for the one. I believe that's why it was so quickly that as soon as Paul had confronted them with this, that they immediately were baptized into the Lord Jesus because these disciples were looking for the one.

And Paul said Jesus is the one and they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. So they were following the Lord Jesus Christ. Now why do I bring this up? I bring this up because in this next statement for the remission of sins can be a stumbling block for certain people. That they actually think baptism carries with it some merit in the sense that it remisses or forgives our sin.

But in this case, we see that these disciples were actually baptized twice. So if baptism actually remissed our sins or forgave us from our sins, why do it twice? Rather, what I'm presenting to you and what I hope that you already know and hope that you believe, that if we look at this, Peter is not the first to use this language regarding the remission of sins. We see it, and I'm going to name a few other places that it mentions it here, but we see that if it was actually the waters of baptism that forgave and remiss sins, why do it twice? But rather, they, these disciples in chapter 19 were first baptized into John's baptism.

That's what they say there. He says, and he said it to them, into what then were you baptized? So they said into John's baptism. They were believing John. But then Paul calls them to follow Christ.

And so the remission of sins that we're going to look at is actually based upon not the baptism, which is a sign, as the Second London Confession tells us, but is actually upon that profession of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is in the name of someone. As to why you are baptized, you're baptized in the name of Jesus, and because it's in the name of Jesus Christ, that is the point at which we understand that someone's faith is in Jesus, that their sins are forgiven through the blood of Jesus Christ. So as I said, Peter's not the first one to use this language of remission of sins. It's stated in Mark chapter 1 verse 4, John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.

Matthew 26, 18, for this is my blood and the new covenant which is shed for many for the remission of sins. And then in Acts 10, 43, Peter preaching to the household of Cornelius says to him, Jesus, all the prophets witnessed that through his name, whoever believes in him will receive remission of sins. And then in Luke 24, 46 through 47, then he said to them, thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all nations beginning at Jerusalem." And then two very helpful passages are found in Hebrews 922 and then in Ephesians 1 7. Hebrews 922 says this, and according to the law almost all things are purified with blood and without shedding of blood there is no remission. He's showing us here through the testimony of Scripture that the remissions of sin is not based upon the waters of baptism.

They are based upon the name in which you are baptized because that name, this baptism is the symbol of the one that you are trusting and following. The disciples of John followed John until John pointed them to the one, Jesus Christ. It is only through the name of Jesus Christ and faith in him that you can have remission of sins. And then I said, Ephesians 1 7, Paul writes, in him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace. Therein lies the forgiveness of sins.

It is through the blood of Jesus Christ we have forgiveness of sins and not through the waters of baptism. In Acts 22, 16, Ananias told Saul this, and now Why are you waiting? Remember, Saul had been blinded and he received his sight, and Ananias says, why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized and wash away your sins and call on the name of the Lord. So Saul, and who would be here on out called Paul, was baptized in the name of the Lord.

He called upon the name of the Lord and that is the point at which remissions of sin was applied. The remission or forgiveness of sins was through the name of Jesus Christ. So really, baptism is this physical sign of the spiritual reality. So that is the kind of the big picture. We could talk about other passages regarding baptism.

There's more that we could look at, but I hope that this has at least given you a good, solid foundation of what baptism is in the sense that it is a sign and a symbol of what Christ has done in our hearts. And I read this morning during the Lord's Supper from Colossians chapter 2 and there also we see some good instruction regarding what baptism is symbolizing. It is just like the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ and we enter into that and that symbolic nature of baptism shows us that very thing. Now, in moving on from verse, or from the middle part of verse 38, we read, and he says, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Now, if you remember there in Acts 19, those disciples of John said, we haven't even heard if there is a Holy Spirit.

Well here Peter in Acts chapter 2, he's saying that through this, and he's telling this crowd, repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remissions of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." The gift of the Holy Spirit was not based upon the waters of baptism. They were based upon conversion. And so all true believers receive the Holy Spirit at the moment. Y'all please forgive me. At the moment of conversion and this gift of the Holy Spirit is not connected as I said to the act of baptism but rather it is connected in the sense of the symbolic means of baptism.

What does baptism mean? Baptism is that sign that shows that we have trusted in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins. Ephesians 1.13 says, in him you also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession to the praise of his glory." You know, one of the things about Bible interpretation that you will find to be very helpful is this. We should let, not in like we're giving permission to, but we should have the didactic portions of Scripture interpret the narrative portions of Scripture. It helps us greatly.

Ephesians 1 is an example of that. Sometimes you can read the narratives, and it doesn't give you every detail about what's happening there. It gives you just this narrative, this story of what took place. We actually see that in the life of Paul when he's giving his own testimony about his conversion. He brings a little bit more clarity to what took place.

So as we look at Ephesians in 1, 13 and 14 that I just read, we read nothing of baptism. No word about baptism. Let me read it again. In him you also trusted after you heard the word of truth. So we're speaking here about trusting in, this faith in, believing in the Lord Jesus Christ.

This took place after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. He doesn't say after you were baptized, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. You were sealed after you believed. You believed and you trusted in the gospel which you heard. And the Holy Spirit of promise is that guarantee of the inheritance until the redemption of the purchase possession to the praise of his glory.

That Holy Spirit seals you until the day of redemption. And that part of redemption, I would interpret that to be until glorification, until you are in heaven with him. You are sealed forever, not temporarily. And then he goes on from there to speak about this great promise, because remember, it's the gift of the Holy Spirit that was actually the promise. So go back to Acts 1, and we spoke about this previously, but in Acts 1, verse 4 and verse 5, The promise points to this blessed coming of the Holy Spirit.

And he says this in Acts 1-4, and being assembled together with them, he commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which he said, You heard from me. For John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit, not many days from now." So Here he is showing us that this promise is directly related to what Peter is saying here in his sermon to the crowd, that if you do these things, when you repent and you're baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. In Ephesians 1 shows us that we receive the Holy Spirit based upon, not baptism, but based upon our faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's when that takes place. So there's no waiting after you're converted, waiting for the Holy Spirit.

It is instantaneous. The Holy Spirit of God seals you for the day of redemption, until the day of redemption. That's when it takes place. So Peter, he wants them to understand that this promise that they had read in Joel, remember they were looking for this promise, They just didn't understand it. And Joel was telling them about that.

And Peter says that this is what the prophet was talking about. And now when they read Joel, Peter wanted them to understand that the promise of Joel was for all who repented and that all would be baptized based upon their faith in Jesus Christ. Now think again, going back to Ephesians, he mentions down there, it is the Holy Spirit of promise. It's the Holy Spirit of promise. He is the guarantee.

So this promise, he says in verse 39, for the promise is to you and to your children and to all who were far off. What does that mean? There's a temptation there. Well, let me just first look at to you. Who was he speaking to?

He's speaking to this crowd of Jewish people, specifically those whom he was speaking to. And I want you to think of the magnitude of this, okay? Remember this crowd. This is the crowd that Peter looked at them and said, this Jesus whom you crucified. And then they said, men and brethren, what shall we do?

They're under conviction. Peter says, repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. And then he says this, this promise of the Holy Spirit is for you. How bad do you have to be for Christ not to be willing to save you? They crucified the Messiah.

Can you think of the audacity that they must be thinking is in Peter? Peter stands up and said, this promise is for you, you who crucified the Messiah. Believe on him. This promise is for you. Can you imagine we've been talking about hope this morning?

It was in our in our scripture reading in Romans. Think of the hope that that must have given this crowd. The promise is for us. For us, we crucified him. And here they are saying, and Peter's saying, this is for you.

So don't you dare sit here for one second thinking, I'm too far gone. I've sinned too greatly. No, the promise is for you. It is for you. And it's more than sufficient for you.

But not only for you, it is for your children. Now what does this mean? Well, there are a couple ways that people look at this, and there's a nuance. Is it for your children, in the sense of many Presbyterians take it to mean my little infant children, and because of that they believe that they would bring their children to the waters of baptism because the promise is to our children. Well, I believe there's a clearer understanding of this as you read it all in context and see what he's saying.

He's saying much of the same thing that's been said before and really what is said throughout the Gospels and throughout the New Testament. So he's looking at this Jewish crowd, he says, it's for you and it's for your children. This word here for children can really be interpreted your posterity. It does mean child, but it means posterity. The context tells us that it's this latter meaning here is what is meant.

In John 8 39, They answered and said to him, Abraham is our father. And Jesus said to them, if you were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham. So Jesus was referring to the Jews who were living right then. If you were his children, He wasn't talking to little children, he was talking to adults. It's the same word.

In 1 Peter 3, 6, the script, Peter says this, as Sarah obeyed Abraham calling him Lord, whose daughters you are if you do good and are not afraid with any terror. This word daughters is that same word for children. He's not talking about child wives here. He's talking about the posterity of those who are children of faith. So Peter's not, again, he's not talking about children wives, but rather when women follow in the footsteps, as Scott talked about this morning about following in the footsteps of Abraham, when they follow in the footsteps of Sarah and obey their husbands, they are Sarah's children.

So there's a double footsteps that we follow. We follow in Abraham's, and you dear wives, follow in Sarah's as well. Follow in the footsteps of Sarah. So the remaining context and act shows us that this is the case. The promise is not only to the Jews, but it's also to their posterity.

But not only that. Here is the mystery that Peter or that Paul speaks about in the book of Ephesians. It's also to all who are far off, to the Gentiles. Those considered by the Jews to be far off were these Gentiles. This was the great mystery that Paul spoke about in Ephesians 3.

I'm not going to read all of that, but Ephesians 3, 3-6, he speaks about this mystery, and at the end he says that they would be partakers of his promise in Christ, the same promise. And then he says this at the last part, to all who are afar off, As many as the Lord our God will call." It's important to know that this call here is not the general call of the Gospel, but he's speaking specifically here of the calling of God. So there's two sense of calling. One calling is what preachers do. We are extending the call to everyone.

Imagine sowing seed, the parable of sowing the seed. You scatter it abroad. You're not planting like what we do in our gardens and put a little hole and put a seed. No, they were scattering the seed. We proclaim the call to all.

This is different than that. This is the calling of God to as many as the Lord our God will call. It is what is called the effectual calling of God. It's effectual or successful in producing the desired and intended result that God has for it. This call is irresistible and it accomplishes all that God has designed.

And this is where many people have trouble. I'll be honest with you, in doctrine people have, they stumble over this one. However, we have clear scripture that proves this is the case, the clearest of which would be Romans 8, 28 through 30. And I'm going to read that and then we will be wrapped up until, well, I'm going to read a couple more verses just to help that and then we'll finish up. So in Romans 8, 28, and we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to his purpose.

For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he predestined, these he also called, and whom he called, these he also justified, and whom he justified, these he also glorified." And later on, and I won't read all of these passages, but we have other places in which this effectual calling is mentioned. That it is not just the general sense of you get to choose what to do with the call. It is a call by which when God calls you, you will come. And you'll come willingly and gladly.

He's not going to pull you kicking and screaming because he makes you willing. He changes your want to. You know it's interesting in Acts 13 48 says, now when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord, and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed. He gave them this desire to believe the gospel which they had heard. So ultimately salvation is from the Lord.

However, God does use means to accomplish his ends and the means are this, the preaching of the gospel. Even though This preaching is not effectual until he makes it effectual. It is the work of the Holy Spirit that makes that call effectual. So what is the answer to your greatest problem? Repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And based on that faith, be baptized in obedience to him in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. For the promise is to you and as many as the Lord our God will call. And my question is this, is he calling you? Good news is today is the day of salvation. Do not delay.

Heed the call of God. Let's pray. Our Father in Heaven, we thank you for your glorious word that teaches us and instructs us. And Father, I pray for anyone who is hearing as if for the first time the calling of God. Lord would you give them ears to hear and a heart to understand.

Take that heart of stone Lord and make it a heart of flesh and bring them, Lord, into the fold. We thank you, O God, that salvation is not dependent upon our goodness or our efforts, our wisdom, or our strength, but that salvation is of the Lord and we rejoice in that Father and we thank you for calling us out of darkness and into that marvelous light and we ask this in Jesus name, Amen. And you are dismissed.