I love that. I love getting in a room full of men just to hear some men get a hold of God and for some young men to hear what it's like for a man to pray. Young men got a wrong impression of what makes a man. I appreciate some young men getting in to hear some men pray and get a hold of the Lord. You know somebody asked me, you know what the theme of the meeting is what the theme is whatever the Lord wants it to be and I've been blessed to get to be around some of the men that are gonna preach and Just talk to them and I've already heard in parts and pieces of conversations how the Lord's dealing with them and what the Lord's given him to preach and I'm excited to hear how the how the Lord puts the whole thing together so we don't have a theme I've been to enough blowouts know that a lot of times the Lord will put together his own theme if you just get out of the way and And man, I love the singing here this morning. And I'll say this just I'm going to the math teacher is going to come out here for a second. If you've got one of these, hold it up because I don't trust you. There are going to be somebody in here that said, oh, mine's off. And it's in your purse about a mile deep somewhere. You don't know where it's at. You hadn't seen it. And you know what's going to happen? You're trusting that nobody's going to call me. Turn it off. Hit airplane mode, right? I had the exact same conversation with a classroom full of students. You think it's off. It's not off. I'm going to hear it go off in about 10 minutes, right? And I'm squirrel, man. Your phone goes off and I, you, the Holy Spirit heads out and goes about 100 miles an hour down the road. Turn it off. It's not worth having it on unless, I mean, if you're on call, I get it, but turn it off. We do have Buzzers, I guess, for if you've got a kid in the nursery and you want to sit in a service, we've got a little buzzer for you. You know, if you've ever been to a restaurant where they want to buzz you, that's what we've got here. So, you know, whenever your child is ready, we'll beep you. So I don't know, I got up here, I had about 100 different things I wanted to say, but I'm just awfully blessed. You all have been a blessing to me. This church has been a blessing to me, and I'm excited for what the Lord's gonna do. And my prayer is that this thing just gets bigger and bigger year after year, because Yeah, just where we are. It's just good to get around, get to be around other Christians, get to be around some other churches, you know, get to have some fellowship where we can meet together here and and have a meeting and lift each other up and encourage one another because I'll tell you what, it's dry out there and it's hard out there and it's sometimes it's hard to keep going on. And it's good to get together and to lift one another up and pray for one another and preach for one another and just be an encouragement to one another. So I hope that you get something this weekend. I hope the Lord blesses you. And we've got folks coming from all over the place. We've got the Lucky family made a big drive up from Alabama. We've got Brother Dar up from Moberly. We've got Brother Darling down from Minnesota and Brother Fall from Ohio. So some folks that really made a real effort to be here. And I pray that the Lord blesses all the travel, all the work. I think, oh, and brothers, sorry, Brothers Rake, Brothers Rake from Arkansas. I'm going to miss somebody somewhere, but Brothers Rake from Arkansas and just all the work that's gone into this thing, all the people that are cooking all the meals and everything. I'll forget somebody, but you just, Know that the Lord sees it even if I don't mention it The Lord knows and the Lord knows the effort that you put in the amount of prayer that went into this for the months and months I don't take I don't take much credit at all Whitney and Barney have been the major big pushers of getting this thing going and So praise the Lord for for them and everybody else who's put their hand to the task to make something like this happen So I'm glad that you're here. I hope you get a blessing and I'm gonna get out of the way Brother Dar, we got you out first. Why don't you come and preach? All right, good morning, everybody. I was gonna try to crack a joke, but sometimes it backfires on me, man. Telling jokes. Got a new crowd that you're preaching to, you gotta be careful, amen. We'll feel you out a little bit, but let me know if I'm too loud or something else, amen. I'm always horrible with these sound devices and stuff like that, but either way, I'm glad to be here this morning. I'm glad to see everybody that's made it out here. Like the brother already said, Man, just coming up for that prayer meeting last night and singing the hymns like we did last night was a meeting for me. Amen. Listen, I know we're here for preaching and that this is a very important time for preaching. Amen. But you know what? You can relax, man. I'm glad that just because we're saved and we're in church and everything, it doesn't have to be a dry, rigid formula all the time. Amen. The Holy Spirit of God, when you got the Holy Spirit of the Lord, there is liberty, amen. There is liberty in Jesus Christ. And I thank God for that. Now I've been teaching our folks liberty is not a license for sin, amen. But man when you've got liberty, the real liberty that the Holy Spirit provides you can enjoy yourself. You can smile in church, amen. You can enjoy yourself, amen. That's one thing I'm so glad that I learned. I learned it in the church that I come out of over in Delaware and I learned it in Bible Baptist Church under Dr. Upman you can have a good time in the Lord, amen. So, I'm thankful for that. I'm glad to see my friends, amen. I'm glad to see Brother Drake and these fellows. Brother Darling I graduated with him. Brother Barney I knew him from school, graduated with his brother. And Brother Fall, never met Brother Wilcox until I come up here to Missouri, but either way, amen. We've got kindred spirit, amen. We've got the same book. We've got the same Savior, amen. Amen, we got we got the same teaching. Amen. Thank God for that And so I'm glad to be here and I hope you are too and I hope that the Lord does something for you that was our prayer last night is that the Lord would move in our midst and That he would work on hearts and just draw you closer to him That's I think that's the one of the most important things for a saved person That's that's gathered here today is for you just to get closer to God. I Somebody mentioned it in prayer last night. They quoted that verse when John the Baptist said he must increase and I must decrease You see he's got to increase first in your life and then you'll realize how small you are. Amen That's a good thing for you to realize how smart small you really are. Amen But let's take our Bibles Acts chapter number two Acts chapter number two And you know your Bible, you know that my goodness what in the world is fella gonna preach out of Acts chapter number two well here to tell you that this Bible is alive. And I thank God the Bible says in 2 Timothy chapter 316, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and it is profitable for number one doctrine. Thank God for doctrine. Thank God for people that try to rightly divide the Word of Truth that do rightly divide the Word of Truth. Amen. But first of all it is profitable for doctrine. And so believe you me I know that this chapter there is all kinds of confusion coming out of this chapter. all kinds of confusion. But you know what? Thank God again for the Holy Spirit that leads and guides in all truth. If you just believe what the Bible says, and you let the Holy Spirit lead and guide you, amen, and you compare scripture to scripture, I think you'll come out all right. If you've got an honest heart and want to know what the truth is, I believe the Lord will show you what the truth is. Somebody that loves the truth, that's what a fellow said one time, a real man wants the truth, he loves the truth. And then the brother talked about what a real man is. A real man is not somebody that can bench press 500 pounds. A real man is not somebody that can beat up 10 people in a street fight. I've known and seen men like that break down and get on their knees and trust Jesus Christ. Amen. That's good right there. But I've seen men like that too that are hard and man, they're going to live a miserable life. And if they don't get saved, they're going to die and go to hell. And then all that strength and all that vigor and all that toughness, it's going to go away. That's gonna be a sad day, but Acts chapter 2. Amen. Let's all stand. I know we've been standing up and down Let's all stand. I like to stand when we read Acts chapter 2 and starting in verse number 1 it says and when the day of Pentecost was fully come They were all with one accord in one place, the apostles, amen, that's the they. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. were filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed and marveled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galileans? And how here we ever man in our own tongue, and wherein we were born, Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and dwellers of Mesopotamia, and in Judea, and Cappadocia, and Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, and Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and the strangers of Rome, Jews, and Proselytes, Cretes, and Arabians. We do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God. what I want you to see, amen. And they were all amazed, verse 12, and were in doubt saying one to another, what meaneth this? Others mocking said, these men are full of new wine. Father, I thank You God for Your goodness and Your grace. I thank You for this time Lord where we can open up Your book and Lord, I pray that you do what only you can do, Lord, that you would go and move in the midst of these hearers, Lord. I pray that your Holy Spirit would touch each and every heart, Lord. I pray that you bring encouragement and exhortation where it's needed. I pray that you bring reproof and rebuke where it's needed, God. Lord, I don't know the needs of anybody in here, really, Lord. I couldn't even begin to pretend to know what everybody's going through in this room. But I'm thankful we can trust you. And I know that you know these folks. You know what's going on in every individual's heart and life. And I pray that, Lord, you prick the hearts, Lord God, and draw them near to you. We love you. We thank you. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. And as I was, you may be seated. As I was stating, Acts chapter 2 is often a hotbed for false doctrine, amen, especially when we didn't even get to the big part where folks try to preach salvation by baptism. It's an amazing thing to me when I ride out to St. Louis or wherever I'm riding to for work. I'll see a big billboard that says Jesus saves and it catches my attention. I think yeah, that's good Amen, thank God Jesus saves and then right underneath that it'll say acts 238 and I think oh, man It just lets the wind out of my sails a little bit deflates me a little bit, but man, thank God We've got the truth if anybody in here thinks that Acts chapter 2 verse 38 is the formula for salvation make sure you come talk to us after the end of preaching, amen, because I doubt your salvation. But we'll get into that thing. But I want you to notice this story here. I want you to notice what exactly was going on. So, I don't want to draw a huge emphasis on what the cloven tongues of fire with the Apostles, but you know it talks about how they spoke in other tongues. And there is another false doctrine that gets preached out of this passage. People think that other tongues is some gibberish that people flop around and act like a fool. Amen? Start dancing around and doing cartwheels down the aisle. I don't mind somebody doing cartwheels down the aisle, but do it for praising the Lord Jesus Christ, not because you're assuming that you're filled with some spirit, amen? I dare say that some folks that are in charismatic churches, and I know this is getting aired, I don't care, amen? Sorry, brother, if I get you in trouble. But I'll tell you this, if you're watching that and you think that's the Holy Spirit, you're deceived. Amen, that's the spirit of man That's an unclean spirit that leads people into that nonsense. That's a feminine spirit I've been in church services where the Holy Spirit of God was moving and there was a there was a charismatic fellow there And at first he started doing his nonsense and trying to you know, trying to show off in front of everybody but when men started standing up and shouting and Holy Spirit of God began to move in the midst that fellow cowered down He came there's not a bench here, but I saw him in the back. He was like this scared out of his mind Because that was a man he's used to a feminine spirit and what that charismatic nonsense is is that exactly that it's a feminine spirit and man, I thank God for God listen ladies gentlemen God is a spirit, and they who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth, but man, He's masculine. It ain't no woman, amen? I hate to burst your bubble there in 2023, the 21st century, but man, I thank God it's that way. All right, but these men, they heard that these folks gathered from all over the place. I want to get to the point here. They gathered from all over the place. I'm not going to go through and read all these different places again, but you saw it. We read it together. Some of those places are modern-day Iran. Some of those places are exactly what it says, Egypt and Libya. I mean, those places are still the same in Northern Africa. Man, I thank God this book is true. This book is right. This is not a book of fairy tales. This is not a book with all kinds of made-up nonsense like the Book of Mormon, amen, talking about some angel moron and all these other things, making up all different kind of places that these folks had their dealings about. This is real. It's on maps today. You think about Israel, everything that's going on in Israel today, place, man, you know that God's hand is on those people, and that this is God's Book. Lost people are waking up to that with everything that is going on in Israel right now. They realize there is something, there is something that is not too kosher, amen. Nothing is too kosher about what is going on over there in Israel right now. Amen. And I'll say this, you've got these people coming all over the place, and that was a miracle that happened. These apostles were getting up preaching and they heard that preaching in their own tongue. The apostles were preaching their language and everybody from all the different parts heard it in their own language. That's a miracle. That's a miracle. I believe in miracles, folks. you think, well you know God quit doing miracles He did the way the Apostles did. Don't get me wrong I ain't going too crazy. But I know that the Lord can still perform a miracle. I absolutely believe He can. First of all I dare say that salvation is a miracle. Heard a preacher say this one time. He said to see somebody get saved in this day and age That's a miracle to see that person come and get baptized That's a double miracle to see that person come and get baptized and start coming to church faithfully That's a triple miracle to see that person get saved baptized come to church faithfully start tithing. That's a quadruple miracle Amen. Those are miracles, amen. You say, well that's what we ought to be doing. Well, man it's a blessing when folks start doing stuff like that. Amen. And listen we can get into our own stories and things we are seeing God do in our individual lives. Listen that's a great thing to do is to begin to talk about what God is doing in your life. What God is doing in people around your life. Amen. What God is doing in your church. I dare say the majority of folks sitting here today are part of this local church right here. Thank God for the local church. Amen. I know that we all I mean these brothers came from a distance I came from a shorter distance and we all have our own individual local church, but we're still all part of the body of Christ here Amen, and man, it's a blessed to see what God doing in the body of Christ But it's also blessed to see what God does in local churches so these people were all gathered around, the Jews and the proselytes. And doctrinally that is what you need to understand about this chapter if there is any confusion. It says exactly who was there, they were Jews. These were not Christians. Amen. They were not Christians at the time that this happened. They were Jews and proselytes. But again like I said this scripture is alive, amen, and we can learn something out of it even though we are saved, born again people in the dispensation of the grace of God. Amen. can learn some things out of this. And I want to say this, this is my point of the message. In verse 11 it says, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God. And man I see it all over the place. And it is not just because we are in the 21st Century and 2023. I believe there have been people that have been discontent throughout all time. Everybody is wanting to gain a little more. wants to get a little more experience, or get a little more money, or whatever the case may be. Everybody has a little bit of an initiative, or a little bit of a drive like that. And that's a good thing I'd say to an extent. But you think about the wonderful works of God. I dare say that people have gotten out of fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ and they have forgotten the wonderful works of God. forgotten the wonderful works of God." And when I ask you, do you think about the wonderful works of God? I want you to think about that when I ask you that question. But my question to you is, am I speaking your language if I begin to talk about the wonderful works of God? men were all from different places and spoke different tongues, and they heard a message preached in one language, but it was almost like they were speaking their language, the Apostles. And so if I were to begin to talk about the wonderful works of God, am I speaking your language? Am I speaking your language? Because I guarantee you if somebody got up and started talking about the wonderful works of God in their life, hey that would catch my attention. I hear what you're saying. I know exactly what you're talking about. When we get up and sing these old hymns about the blood of Jesus Christ, when we get up and hear these things about our wonderful Savior and how He saved our souls and died on the cross, you're speaking my language. You're speaking my language, amen. You ever heard that phrase before, amen? When we talk about when somebody's got some food, when I saw biscuits and gravy for breakfast I said, man, you're speaking my language. You're speaking my language around here. Homemade biscuits? Oh, yes sir, you're speaking my language. Amen. Praise the Lord. But that's exactly what these folks did. They heard those Apostles get up and preach the wonderful works of God, and they heard it in their own language. Amen. I want you to think about that. First of all I want to say this, listen you don't even have to be saved to agree with this. You don't even have to be saved to agree with this. But you know what I find in commonality with all of mankind? Most of mankind has an appreciation for God's creation God's creation When I say that I mean man I used to I lived in Colorado for a few years and you go out on those mountains and climb up those 14,000 foot peaks man, you look out across there on a Saturday. You can see hundreds of people climbing that same mountain and bunch of them maybe saved, bunch of them more than likely lost, amen, coming from Denver. A liberal enclave there, amen. But still, listen, folks know that that is something special when you go to a place like that. There is something special about bodies of water that God has created, man. You think about the Gulf Coast. You think about different oceans. Wherever you've been, there are folks that have been all over this world. sitting here in this room and have seen God's creation. And listen the Bible talks about God's creation. The Bible says, the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth His handiwork. The Bible says, day unto day uttereth speech and night unto night. Amen. I forgot the rest of that. But it talks about God's glory and creation. And And you know what? Just like it says, day unto day, utter of speech, God's own creation preaches to mankind. God's own creation shows mankind, first of all, that, hey, I'm here. There is a God. Like in Hebrews, I read Hebrews this morning, the first couple chapters, and it said, God, Chapter 1, God who at sundry times and in diverse manners has spoken to us in these last days by His Son. He spoke to them through the prophets, but here now in these last days God has spoken to us by His Son. Amen. And you think about the Son. You think about how in Creation the Son, the star out there, the thing that is glowing across out there that was made on the fourth day. And in God's timeline of millennial days the Son showed up on the fourth day. That's no coincidence folks. When you read through the Word of God and you begin to put that stuff together and the Lord shows some of that stuff, you think God did that by accident? You think that just all this is just a happen chance? Try that with the Koran. Hopefully you'll get bored with it and throw it in the trash can, amen. I know I have, I've held on to my copy for some reason, I don't know why, but it's the most dullest piece of junk I've ever read in my life. I can't stand it. But man, not this book, and not thinking about God's creation. You think about, you know, you folks right here in your area. Somebody coming from a different part of the country might come here and think, well, there's not much going, I like it. I like out in the country, amen. I like rolling hills. I like the creeks. I like the rivers. I like the ponds. I like the lakes. I love all that stuff. I like the deer running across there, amen. You think about that one song in How Great Thou Art or that one line, How Great Thou Art, you know, from Lofty Mountain Grander looking down there and hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze. You think about how, man, then sings my soul, How Great Thou Art. Listen you've heard it before and it's true There's been plenty of guys that are backslidden that'll go out and say well I can worship the Lord at a deer stand Now listen, if you're doing that on Sunday morning, you need to get right with God But hey, if it's Saturday morning, you don't have a meeting going on. Hey, man, you can't worship God out in a deer stand Hey, listen, I can be on a rooftop working. I can worship God and Amen, I can ride down the road and worship God. I can look across when I'm driving down wherever I'm at and look across these fields or the forest and look at how God's changing the leaves on the trees. This is my father's world. Amen. I can see God's creation and that speaks to me. It speaks to me. How about you? Am I speaking your language when you look at that? Amen. Amen. There's a whole lot to God's creation, folks. You think about our bodies. You think about how fearfully and wonderfully we're made. The body's made, amen. The Bible says this, through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. Man is doing his dead level best to try to figure God out. He'll never will. Amen, but man has made all kinds of advances. We think it's great and wonderful advancements and figuring out nanotechnology and all this other stuff. I won't pretend to understand any of that. All I know is God said he's made thing. He made this everything we see out of things which are not seen. Amen. That's plain and clear enough to me. You can talk about atoms and molecules all you want. That's fine. Break it down. Look at it. Enjoy it, you know, but no, that's God. God made that. God put it together. Give Him the glory for it. What man can do is nothing compared to what God can do. Who can add one cubit to his stature, amen, by taking thought of it? Not one person. Not one person. Amen. You think about how this Bible, amen, if you've ever read through the Bible you know that this Bible is a scientific book. This is not a religious book. Number one, this book is a history book. book is a history book, but this book can teach you all kinds of things about science. Amen. True science about the weather. It could teach you about the stars. It could teach you all kinds of things. It could teach you all kinds of things. Solomon said this, as thou knowest not, what is the way of the Spirit? nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child, even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all." Tell me, I mean listen, I know scientists and you can, they have little videos of when you plant a seed in the ground and you can watch it sprout and then pop up and grow. They have those time lapse videos and stuff like that. I think that's pretty neat. But you know what? You don't know how it's done. I don't care how scientists frames it and write it in their book. You don't know how that's done. That's a that's a miracle of God life Life, that's a miracle of God the wonderful works of God. Amen. I see the works of God in creation. How about you? Now listen, I guarantee you You could you could get on that same agreement with all kinds of folks. Amen saved or lost in a Bible-believing church or not. You can meet random people. You can meet people from other parts of the world that will say, yes, sir, I believe there is a God because of creation. How could you look up at the stars at night and believe that there is no God? could you do that? I thank God. Man, listen I had exposure to the Gospel as a young child. I thank God for that. I'm thankful that I didn't grow up in a different country that didn't have the Gospel so free and easy, and freely available. I thank God for that. thank God that I didn't grow up around a so-called Christian religion that preached false salvation. I heard the Gospel as it is as a young child and I thank God for that. We didn't grow up in church but I heard the Gospel. I'm glad about that, amen. You can say amen right there. You can say amen. But you think about God's creation and everybody can agree on that. if you've read any amount of the Bible, or if you read at all, amen, which is a foreign thing these days as well, you can also agree with me here. You can agree with me about God's wonderful works throughout history. You know again like I said this Bible is predominantly a history book. history book. I like whole chapters in the Bible that just get in talking about the history of things. I mean the whole book does that, but man you think about Stephen in Acts chapter 7, that whole chapter just about is him giving the whole history of Israel. He's showing God's wonderful works through all that He's showing God's wonderful works how he historically how he took Abraham and brought him out of Ur the Chaldees He told Abraham where to go and he we know how God blessed Abraham and all the things that God did through him and how he blessed his seed through Isaac and Jacob We know all the promises. We know the history of that thing. That's a wonderful work and again when you look at Israel today if you ever witness to somebody that says, I don't know about that Bible. I had a fellow tell me one time he said, I don't know about the Bible, it's just too many gray areas for me. And I had my Bible and I was just a young Christian, amen, just trying to walk after the Lord. I opened it up and I said, it looks black and white to me. It's black and white. It's no gray areas in the Word of God. It ain't no murking things in the Word of God. Maybe to those that are lost the Bible talks about that. The Bible talks about the natural man doesn't know what God is doing. Amen. But he ought to. And if only he would avail himself to the truth of the Gospel then maybe he would begin to understand. But He also says this, that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed, talking about the Lord giving, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself giving history. That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, the son of Barakias, whom He slew between the altar. Amen. And there's all kinds of things we can get into, but I'm trying to tell you that this book and men in this book would refer back to their own history, especially obviously the Jewish history. Jesus Christ did it. Stephen did it. You know how many times Paul did it? You know how many times Paul referred to history with his own testimony in the book of Acts? I love that about Paul. Paul, many times when he would begin to, he would have an audience and you know what he would tell them to do? I'm going to tell you how I got saved, basically is what he did. And he'd start and he'd work you all the way down through it. And He did it so well, and the Lord blessed it so much, amen. I don't know if it's the Lord working, but He had kings and governors considering what He was saying. Imagine if your testimony was that strong. Now, I know He's the Apostle Paul, but listen, I'm here to tell you if you're saved in here your testimony is that strong. You think about your history, amen. Think about your history. Where did God bring you from? What's God done in your life? Amen, am I speaking your language? Amen. Thank God for what he's done in your life. Thank God for salvation. Thank God he got you in the Bible believing church. Thank God he hadn't killed you, amen. Amen, I thank God for that all the time. Thank you he hadn't killed me, Lord. Amen, I deserve it. I deserve to be in hell with my back broken, my eyes scratched out. But man, he saved my soul, man. He lets me try to do something for him. only talk about the wondrous works of God. I know there's all kinds of things in the Bible, man, there's all kinds of things we ought to bring up. There's things when you teach the Word of God you've got to go through it line upon line, precept upon precept. I realize that my salvation is one of the smallest things that's even mentioned in the Bible. You know what the main theme of the Bible is? It ain't your salvation. It ain't your salvation, but thank God for it. Think about your history. Think about where your family, think about your ancestors. Think You think about that. I've got an uncle on my dad's side. My dad died when I was four years old, rough, you know, rough side of the family and all that. Down there around Baltimore, my uncle, his brother and his cousin rather, man, he's a 32nd degree Mason. And I just saw him over the summer, and I tried to witness to him again, but he just dangles that little chain around his neck. I'm a 32nd degree. I said, I don't care what you are. I don't care what that is. I said, that's of the devil, man. You need to get saved. And he won't hear it. He won't hear it. You know what? That could have been me. I could have been deceived with that nonsense. I could have been in that whole little world and experienced some false sense of prosperity through that nonsense. And I would have died and went straight to hell if it weren't for the grace of God. Hey, you talk about your history, man. And to talk about your history, you know what? I began to walk in my own dad's path. My dad died overdosed on heroin. I was four years old. He was 26 years old. I was on that same path, but God spared me from that nonsense. And that's the wonderful works of God. Wonderful works of God. Amen. Am I speaking your language? Amen. I hope so. You think about the history. Now, listen, that's our own individual history, but I love talking about the history of Israel. I love talking about the history that's in the Bible. I love that. I love it. Amen. And we already hit it about salvation. But man, you think about God's wondrous work of redemption. Amen. God's wondrous work of redemption. And you know what? Even though we're here in Acts chapter 2 and we understand doctrinally what's going on throughout this passage, but you know what? When I skim through this chapter here, my, my, my, I see God's wondrous work of redemption through here. Amen. You don't believe me? You don't believe me? Well, look here. Look in Acts chapter 2. Look in verse 22. Here Peter gets to preach. Amen. He gets to preaching. Thank God for preaching. He says, "'Ye men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs,' amen the Jews require a sign, "'which God did by Him in the midst of you as ye yourselves also know, Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken by wicked hands and crucified and slain.'" What I want to get at even though we are talking about redemption, You think about God's foreknowledge. You think about how God knows the beginning from the end. He knows the end from the beginning. Amen. Thank God for that. He's the Alpha and the Omega. There is nothing that He doesn't know already. You think about that foreknowledge of God. But as far as His redemption goes, amen, that's part of that, God's foreknowledge. God knows God knows that you one day you were going to hear the gospel and trust him Believe me. I ain't no stinking Calvinist. Amen. I ain't no stinking Calvinist I know that God does not determine before the foundation of the world who will be saved and who will not be But I'm glad that when I once you get in Jesus Christ, you're predestined You're predestined. Once you're in Christ, you're predestined to be conformed to the image of his son. Thank God for that. Behold, it doesn't appear right now what we shall be, but when we see him, we shall be like him. Amen. Thank God for that. think about that redemption. Amen. You think about that and he begins to talk about it down in verse 24, whom God has raised up. Amen. After those wicked hands slew him, whom God has raised up, having loose the pains of death because it was not possible that he should be holding of it. Thank God for that. You know what Jesus Christ said? He said, no man takes my life from me. I He said I lay it down and I take it back up again. He has that power. He had that power. He performed that already Amen, that's part of our redemption folks. What did Paul say there in 1st Corinthians chapter 15 if Christ be not risen Then our faith is in vain Amen, we understand how he was crucified and whipped and tortured and all that. We understand that. But man, thank God he got up again. Amen, he rose again on the third day. We sing, my kids love singing that song. Up from the grave he arose, amen. I'm not a good singer, but they sing it, man. They tilt their heads back, he arose. Amen, thank God. Thank God. Death couldn't keep them down. Death could not keep them down. You better learn to praise God for that. And you know what? I'm telling you right now, I can hear people speaking in another language, and I know those old hymns. I know I've been around people that I couldn't speak their language at all, and I know when they're talking about the Lord Jesus Christ. There's a language that goes on there between the spirit and then you know what Paul talks about that I may impart on you some spiritual gift When somebody's giving a testimony or when we're in that room praying like we were the other night And there's the spirit of God is there Yeah, you hear us speaking but man, I'm telling you what if you've ever been around people that can't speak your language They're Christians. There's just something about it. There's something about it. I don't even have to understand their their Ethnic language man, but man we speak the same language when it comes to our kindred spirit in the Holy Spirit of God and Jesus Christ Amen, and when people begin to talk about the crucifixion of Christ and the resurrection of Jesus Christ You're speaking my language. You're speaking my language Let's go to verse, let's look at verse 30, look at verse 28 rather, 28, 27, sorry, Acts chapter 2 verse 27. I like this, amen. Most people do not know that Jesus Christ went to Hell for us. He went down into hell for you and I, folks. And it says there, because thou will not leave my soul, quoting the book of Psalms, because thou will not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer, thou holy one, to see corruption. Thou hast made known to me the ways of life. Thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance. You know what you're speaking my language? I'm not going to hell, amen. When that song, those people get up and sing that song, I'm not going to hell. Amen, thank God for that. better thank God for that. You listen because you were never a bum on the street or you were never had a needle in your arm just because of that. If you didn't trust Jesus Christ you would have been going there too. And I dare say if you're not saved you're going there. If you don't get saved. Just because you've padded a pew your whole life doesn't mean that gives you a right into heaven without salvation. You know how many people are going to die and go to hell off a church pew? you say, are you trying to get reeked? No. But listen, there's a lot of people that are deceived. Even in Baptist churches, man, my family on my mom's side, I call them heathen Southern Baptists. They're good heathen Southern Baptists, amen. And listen, I don't rejoice in that, but they don't know a lick of Bible. They don't know the Bible. If it was smack them, you call us Bible thumpers. They need to be thumped with the Bible. They need it. They need it. And you know what I mean? Those people don't know what salvation is sitting in a Baptist church. They've never trusted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. God forbid, we're living in the last days. People sitting in Baptist churches, and I know there's Bible believers, I know there's a Bible-believing church, so there's a greater chance that maybe you are saved. But man, kids growing up in church, thinking, well, mom and dad, man, yeah, my mom and dad said, my dad's a preacher. ain't saving your soul Because you're part of this church doesn't mean you save you better make sure You better make sure just because you never did into something that you consider real bad You better know that any sin the Bible says the wages of sin is death but the gift of God's eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Thank God for that. And you know what? I'm not going to hell. Amen. You know what? You know what led me to salvation? The Holy Spirit of God as an 11-year-old kid. I got saved when I was 11. Didn't grow up in church, but I got saved when I was 11. The Holy Spirit of God put His finger on me and said, you're going to hell. You're going to hell I heard a preacher in a contemporary church with an niv I had a king james bible sitting on the back row. They had it up on the screen He was teaching out of revelation chapter 20 Talking about the book of life in the lake of fire And that moment the holy spirit of god put his finger on me and said you're going there 11 year old you say you shouldn't scare a little kid. Yes, you should Hey, man, you better. Hey, man You better and I didn't get saved in that church service But you know what God kept pressing me and pressing me and pressing me Till finally one night in my backyard and my mother's house in Jarrettsville, Maryland. Nobody in this room guarantees ever heard of Jarrettsville, Maryland Went out in my backyard. It was a full moon. I looked up at that moon and I put my hands up in the air I said Lord, I know I'm a sinner. I said, will you please save me? I believe Jesus Christ died on the cross. I just I told him I said I know I'm a sinner Will you please forgive me and please save me and I'm telling that's the moment I got saved. I Amen, it took the Bible and took the Bible even church to help me begin to grow in the Lord But I'm telling you what, that's when I got saved. You can't convince me. Otherwise, I'll never forget when I first started going to a Bible-believing church I went to the preacher there and asked asked him for a Bible and I'll thank God for this He said yeah, we'll get you a Bible but first are you saved? He wanted to make sure I was saved. But you know, even in that condition that I was in, I was in a worldly messed up condition. Even in that condition, I knew in my heart of hearts that I was saved. I told him, I told him exactly what I just told you was. Yes, sir. I got saved when I was 11 years old in my backyard. I knew what he meant. He was speaking my language. I knew what he meant. I knew what he meant when he asked me that. The man alive. You think about the wondrous works of God. You get ahold of this Bible. I'll never forget when I started reading this Bible, God began to talk to me. When you tell people stuff like that, that don't know what you're talking about, they think you're crazy. God began to speak to me. You know what that's like? Am I speaking your language? When God talks to you, I'll give this testimony. I like to share it every once in a while, but this is just one. This is after I had grown in the Lord a little bit, but man, I still had some, you know, trying to get the sanctification, you know, my own personal sanctification. But you know, the old flesh comes up. And I had a friend of mine that had a business somewhere and Basically, he had moved out of state and some things of the business were left behind. And the guy that supposedly bought that stuff never paid for it. And so this fellow is in a different state and he was a Christian, too. So it wasn't a good situation. But I'm just telling you how your flesh gets to thinking your mind starts spinning. Amen. If you're not careful. But thank God I'm trying to give you a testimony of the Bible and God speaking to you. Basically, I made up this whole plan. I was going to dress in black. I was going to get the mask on and I was going to do a covert operation. Here I am, man. I forgot how old I was at the time, but I was going to go in there. I was going to get that stuff back. I was going to steal it. And before I did that, I was in my room. I was laying on my bed on my stomach there, reading my Bible. And I got over there to Micah. There's a passage in Micah, and it says, Woe unto them that devise mischief upon their beds. Right as I was plotting my little theft. The Lord spoke to me. And don't you know, I saw that and I said, okay, Lord, no problem. No problem. That's after I grew. But man, imagine when you're coming out of a fall, you know, you're coming out of this world and God begins to speak to you. I don't forget when the Lord showed me Romans chapter 12, verses one and two. Those verses right there, man, did something for me that changed my life. That changed my life. Amen. This book has changed my life. Amen. I'm still a rotten sorry scoundrel, man, when it comes to the sin and the flesh and everything else. But thank God we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. My heart is deceitful. It's desperately wicked. But man, I try to take that stuff to the Lord and repent of those things and turn from those things and hand them over to Jesus Christ, put them under the blood. Thank God we have that. Amen. Am I speaking your language? Amen, thank God for that. Thank God for that Amen, I don't even know where to land this thing, but I'll land it here. Amen. You guys get the point There's so much you can think about how wonderful God's been in your life and what he's done for you Through this book through salvation through fellowship finding a good local church. I There's people sitting in this room that were going to a dead dried-up church That was just falling apart because that's the state of Christianity that we're in and then you you come Stumbling into a Bible-believing church and begin to hear the Word of God you begin to feel the Spirit of God again Amen, that's that's that's not getting saved over again, but I'm telling you what when I first went into a Bible-believing church It was almost like I was getting saved. Amen. It was so new and so clean and so fresh Man, that's good. That's good stuff. But as you begin to recognize and identify God's wondrous works in your life, and you can say, yeah, you're speaking my language. I'm going to tell you, even in Acts chapter two, you can see some things. I want you to turn over to verse 41. I'm going to start wrapping it up here. I don't know how long I've been up here. I apologize. But verse 41, I want you to see this. There's a whole lot in here, folks. There's all kinds of things that we can consider when it comes to the wondrous works of God. All kinds of things. But I want you to see something here. those proselytes and those Jews heard Peter preach what happened historically they went to him in verse 37 and said men and brethren what shall we do and that's where you get into that verse 38 and it has nothing to do with the way I got saved if this is how you got saved here again let come talk to the pastor afterwards please Amen, if you're holding on to acts 38 acts 238 for you salvation come see brother Barney or brother brother Wilcox Amen after the service Because this is not how I got saved. I think it's a I told you how I got saved and how I got saved his scriptural weight how a Gentile and the dispensation of the grace of there anybody gets saved in the dispensation of the grace of God and By calling the name of the Lord Jesus Christ believe in how he died for your sins on the cross of Calvary how he rose again You call on him you realize that you're a sinner in need of a saving you call on him. That's salvation That's salvation All right, but then you get Acts 2 38 and a bunch of them come and get baptized. Amen. But look at verse 40. And with many other words, Peter's preaching, he did testify and exhort saying, save yourselves. How come somebody, when they read through Acts 2, don't see that part? I never saved myself. I have not saved myself. The Lord Jesus Christ saved my soul. Amen. Save yourselves from this untoward generation. I'm not here to teach you all the different things about Acts 2, but I want you to see some things in these remaining verses of this chapter. It says, then they that gladly received His Word were baptized. You know what happens when you begin to acknowledge God and His wondrous works in your life? You'll begin to gladly receive His Word. Amen. When you realize how good God's been in your life, you'll be glad to receive the Word of God. You won't get all twisted up when the preacher gets up and start having your number. You won't get all sideways about the preaching. You won't get upset when the brother's preaching a little too long. Amen. I get on people all the time. You can sit and watch a two and a half, three hour movie, but you get upset at over an hour long sermon. I realize it can be uncomfortable sitting on some pews and everything else, but man alive, you go and sit in your lazy boy for three or four hours. Come on. Listen, stand up. I don't care if you got to stand up and stretch your legs. Amen. I was talking with Brother Chris last night, Brother Wilcox. I was talking with him. The old preachers, the old circuit riding preacher would preach for two and three hours at a clip and then ride somewhere and preach another two and three hours at a clip without stopping. Could you handle that? Amen. Thank God you're here on Saturday morning. We're a bunch of Sabbath worshipers today, man. Amen. But thank God you're here on a Saturday morning. That's unusual. It's unusual for people to come out on a Friday night just for prayer and singing hymns and fellowshipping. It's unusual these days. It ought not be, but it is. But anyway, if you begin to identify and you begin to acknowledge the wonderful works of God in your own life, you'll gladly receive his word. You'll gladly receive his word. Keep on reading now, look at verse 42. And when you gladly receive his word, you'll start seeing, actually at the end of verse 41, you'll see people getting saved. You know what? If you really care about souls around you in this town or wherever you're from, amen, you better have a high estimation of God's word. want to see people get saved you better have a high estimation of the Word of God. And you better be doing your dead level best to live it the best way you can. See that's the thing with our crowd. I'll go ahead and say it, we know all kinds of stuff. Listen, I guarantee you, you put these men up against any preacher in a great radius they will know this Bible better than all of them, I promise you that. But you know what I'm glad about these men too that I know of them is that it hasn't puffed their heads up. Although sometimes that can happen, you've got to be careful with that. You begin to learn the Word of God, the Bible says, knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifies. But you know what? I'll tell you, if you begin to live, you know what I've seen with some fellas? They'll start getting in the Word of God and learn all, how to rightly divide and get all high on their horse about it. But you know what? They ain't living nothing. They ain't applying half of what they've learned. That's not good. If you're not applying what you know out of the Scriptures, What's the point in knowing it? What's the point in knowing if you ain't trying to apply? Listen, I want to apply what I know better than what I'm doing right now. But if you ain't even attempting to apply it and you're holding your knowledge over somebody, you know what Jesus is liking that too with the Pharisees? He said, you shut up the kingdom of heaven, or you shut up heaven against men. You're locking them out. And listen, you want to see souls get saved, you better have a high estimation of God's Word, and that's just not you just knowing it, that's you living it. As best you can, amen? I realize again, we're all flesh, I get that. ought to have a desire to want to live and apply what the Bible teaches. Amen. Man, I must have been getting something there. You guys kind of seemed like you kind of quieted down a little bit. Amen. I'll stay on that if I have to. Verse 42, and they continued steadfastly, look at this, in the Apostles Doctrine. You know what? Isn't that funny how that goes when you first either get saved or start getting into a Bible believing church? you'll get a higher estimation for God's Word, and maybe even if you're not the one leading people to Christ you'll begin to get excited about other people getting saved. But then you begin to learn doctrine. Amen. Doctrine again is not for us to hold over people's head like we are the masters, come to us. That's not what that's for. That's not what that's for. But listen, you know what it says too? You know what I know what's going on in this day and age amongst Bible believers? They are not continuing steadfastly in Right Doctrine. You see that in verse 42? And they continued steadfastly in the Apostles Doctrine. There is a whole movement out there called Recovering Fundamentalists. And man, are they a sorry lot? They are a wretched little sorry lot. They are. They're a bunch of drunkards. All they want is that license to sin that I mentioned. That's all they want. A bunch of kids that grew up in church. Now listen, I realize, man, kids, preacher's kids, you know, they talk about preacher's kids all the time. Whatever. You can analyze that stuff all you want. But you know what I think? Just grow up. grow up and praise God, man, that you are not in Hell, amen. Thank God for something. I realize that if people begin to get thankful about what God has done in their life they won't get all upset with all this foolishness. They won't get all sideways and bitter about things, especially if you are going to continue steadfastly in the Apostles' Doctrine. Look what the next one part of it says in verse 42, they continued in doctrine, the Apostles' Doctrine and fellowship. How many people do you know are getting out of Church? How many people you know are leaving churches, even good Bible-believing churches, for one reason or another? You know what's happened? They've gotten away from hearing that language. People aren't speaking their language no more. Or they're not speaking God's language, amen? They're not considering the wondrous works of God. And so what do they do? They've left fellowship with all the saints at the local church. They've left fellowship. Now they're online with their cloud church. Come join me online. To that I say, phooey. To that I say, no thank you. Uh, we spoke about this last night to thank God. You know, if you got a long distance to drive, I'm glad there's good churches that put their stuff online. I'm thankful for it. You can tune in, but that is no replacement for attending a local church. That is no replacement. Uh, I won't give any details, but we've seen that in our church. Uh, we've had some folks that were, that, that were coming and, uh, they quit the church because they're online day in and day out, uh, on, on these online things. Again, I'm thankful for the online stuff, but man, I'm telling you, you know how you're going to get out of doctrine? You begin to isolate yourself from the local church, you'll begin to believe false doctrine. Bottom line. You go ahead and keep surfing that YouTube and you'll pick up all kinds of false doctrine. You better watch it. You better watch it. You better consider the wondrous works of God You better consider it. Look what it says in breaking of bread. Amen. Thank God everything we do Has to do with food. I'm with my brother. Amen. I'm here to get fed. Amen Thank God for the church our brother Clifton down there and in Bible Baptist Church Dwayne Clifton Amen, he always has that testimony. He was uh, he was in prison for years and years and years Hard drugs and everything else. He got out. He was in a rescue mission down there in Columbus, Ohio And he always says he said I come for that physical food, but God gave me that spiritual food My brother, I thank God for his testimony this fellow. He's in Bible Baptist church. He's all crippled up. He's got a cane And when when the Spirit of God gets moving and people are shouting he'll be the one marching around that whole auditorium holding that cane He's got something to praise God about amen. He's got something to eat. I speak his language Amen, when I see brother Clifton running the aisles, he's speaking my language I can't tell you how many times I want to just run and scoop him up on my shoulder, but I'm afraid I'll break him One time we were over at the meat meeting, amen, and I took off running around. Brother Pilkington was singing that song y'all heard just a little while ago, and our brother Justin Pizzo got up to give me a hug and I slammed him into the wall. Amen, that was a force. Your brother could tell me better, but that was a moving force hitting a stationary object and he went right into the wall, amen. Amen, thank God you're speaking my language when people get excited about the Lord Jesus Christ you speak in my language Amen, I'm almost done with that breaking the bread That's what you'll do when you begin to Understand and receive the wondrous works of God and look what else look what it says prayers. Amen. You begin to pray more I can't tell you how important prayer is in your life. And yet it's the thing that we all need to do more of. Pray. It can be a struggle. The flesh wants to fight your prayer life. It is a struggle, but you know what? You power through it. You just keep praying. You keep praying. I'm glad that I can talk to my savior. I know he's my God. I know he's omnipotent. I know I need to bow before him, but you know what? I'm glad I can call him my friend. And I can talk to him like a friend. I can talk to him like my father. Amen. I grew up without my dad, but you know what? I have my heavenly father. I have my heavenly father. Verse 43, and fear came upon every soul. And it goes into those signs and wonders. But you know what's missing in Christianity today is a healthy fear of God. If you begin to understand the wondrous works of God you'll begin to have the fear of God in your life. Amen, amen, and we can go on, but look lastly, verse 46, and they continuing daily with one accord in the temple, amen, staying in church. It's all there, you see that? Did you ever think you'd get all that out of Acts chapter two? Now, I know doctrine don't apply to you and I, amen. But when I read this, I can see spiritually, devotionally, that we as Bible-believing Christians in 2023 ought to behave. We ought to be at church, amen? Breaking bread, it says house to house, amen? It's good to visit with one another. It's good to go out and visit other folks. You know what? I thank God for the privilege of visiting shut-ins and folks who can't make it out to church. You know what? That shouldn't only be the pastor's job, by the way. I'll just go ahead and step out there and say that. If you know somebody that's a Christian that's a shut-in, you can go visit them, too. You don't have to wait for the preacher to go do it. Talk to him. Amen. But you know what? If you know somebody that's a Christian that needs some fellowship, go visit them. Give them a call. You don't have to leave it all to the preacher. Amen. They did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart. Verse 47, this is where I'm done. We're at the last verse of the chapter, amen. But look what it says, praising God. You know what also gets missing? I thank God it's not missing right here at this assembly right now, but all over the place. You'll be in churches, man, it's quiet. And even if it's not a church service going on, do you ever praise God? Outside of church, do you praise God? Good. I believe around this crowd there is folks doing that. But you know what? We don't have to just get around and start shouting when we're together. Although you ought to, amen. If you could have just at least raised your hand, you know, or get a holy grunt or something. That'd be good. That'd be good for some of you guys. Praise God. Praise God. Have you ever praised God? Think about that. I'm not going to get into it because that's a whole other sermon for another day. But you know what this Bible is chock full of? Praising God. Praising God with your mouth. Praising Him. Whether it's shouting Amen or Hallelujah or Glory to God. just saying thank you Lord. There's all kinds of ways to praise God. But when you understand and acknowledge the wondrous works of God in your life, you better have a praise. Amen. You better thank God for what he's done in your life. Amen. And having favor with all the people and the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. I think if it all starts with Speaking that language and enjoying the wondrous works of God If you're excited about your salvation, maybe you'll start seeing other people get saved If you're excited about this book that you claim to believe maybe you'll see other people want to get into it If you're excited about coming to church, maybe other people begin to get excited about coming to church If you're excited about praising God, maybe other people begin to praise God Amen. Amen. All right every head bow and every I close. Amen brother Barney Amen. That's a good start. Real good start. Give you some good stuff there, and you ought to take some time to pray about it. I think that verse that you read there in verse 46, it says, and they continuing. If there's anything that we need today, it's to continue. Continuing the right things. Quitting's easy. But boy, when you quit, you're a quitter. It's hard to keep going sometimes. One of the greatest things that you can learn is how to just stick with the right stuff. Paul told you he says, "'Moreover, brethren, it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful.'" And so why don't you take a little bit of time here to pray, and I'll hand it over to Brother Barney here.