But let's open our Bibles to... Luke chapter 19 and verse 10, and I love it whenever we have the marker board up here because, in fact, the father of the marking board is here this morning, Dan Smith, and Dan, thank you for thinking of this because I'm actually a seminary professor at heart and I've taught many years and still do when I travel overseas. Luke 19, 10, as you turn in your Bibles, this is the theme of the Gospel by Luke. When you go through each of the New Testament Gospels, you find that there's an overriding backdrop theme. Matthew, Jesus is presented as the son of David. Mark, he is presented as the suffering servant. In the book of John, he is presented as the divine son of God. But here in Luke 19.10 says that He is the Savior, because the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. So the theme of Luke is Jesus as a Savior, as the one who came to seek and save. When you think of Savior, you think of someone aggressively seeking out lost people and seeking to save them. That's Jesus, presented in the 89 chapters of the Gospels. Now, We're looking at Acts. Think about the connection between Acts and Luke. The same author wrote both of them. And the book of Acts is only a continuation of the book of Luke. And so Luke has already presented Jesus as the Savior who came to seek and save the lost. So the book of Acts is us realizing that we are sharing on behalf of Jesus Christ, the Savior, the gospel message, to see those people come to faith. Now, think about what this means. It means that every time we're sharing the gospel, we are right there being Jesus Christ, hands and feet and voice and compassion. So the book of Acts is just a picture of Jesus seeking and saving lost people through those early believers. Jesus no longer was, as the gospels show him, personally, from dawn to dusk, going out and preaching and sharing and ministering until he was so exhausted he couldn't go on. He now transfers that to us. And the book of Acts is showing those early disciples sharing the gospel of Christ. So, that's the context of what we're doing. And if you want to be near Jesus, what the book of Acts is showing is, share the gospel, because that's what he's doing. You want to be doing what he's doing? You want to be connected with him? You want to actually feel... In fact, I, a lot of times, and I'm a parent of many college students, you know, it seems like we always had someone in braces, now it seems like forever we've had someone in college, you know? It's just amazing when the years of parenting go on. But I talk to a lot of college-age parents with college-age students, and they say, what can we do to help our children not lose their faith? in their college years. Have them share the gospel. You want to have the most affirming, confirming, life-changing event in your life? Stand there as Christ's representative and share the gospel with someone and watch the miracle before your eyes of them being radically transformed. It's the most faith-affirming thing I can think of, to share the glorious gospel of Christ. I mean, the older I get, what I enjoy, I just got a note from a guy that came storming into my office many years ago. In fact, at that time, I had a 79-year-old secretary. She was this high and weighed 80 pounds. And this guy was a bodybuilder, weightlifter, law enforcement, special forces, you know, about 49 or 52-inch shoulders, you know, and just like Arnold Schwarzenegger used to be. Okay, that's what he looked like. And I heard this commotion outside my door, and I was getting ready for the midweek service, and I heard her say, no, no, no, you can't, no, you can't, you can't. So I opened the door to see what's going on, and here's this little tiny, holding this great big giant guy in his eyes. He's so angry. And I said, Kay, let him in. And her eyes got, you know, she said, really? I said, oh, yeah. I said, if I ever know anybody's out there, I always meet with him. So you let me know he's out there, I'll meet with him. So he came in, and as soon as he walked to my office, went right to his knees. And he just dropped to his knees in my office. I knew why he was there. He had become under conviction of his sin. He had heard the gospel, he had resisted the gospel, and now he was just pressing into the kingdom of God. He wanted so badly to be forgiven of his sins that he felt the burden of. Well, I just heard from him. And he told me, he says, God has utterly changed my life. The miracle of salvation. You want to be near Jesus? Share the gospel. Every time we share the gospel, He's right there. When anyone gets saved, Christ is right there next to them. He is the one that saves them. We don't. Everything important for now and for eternity is tied to the gospel of Jesus Christ and the book of Acts. It's just a picture of Jesus seeking and saving the lost using people. So, that takes us to the next. I was up visiting Bert Grieve. And, you know, after his massive heart attack, and he was up and everything connected to him. And he said, I had some questions about your sermon last week that you didn't speak. And I said, yeah, yeah, I'd like to share them with you. And he says, he said, so what is disciple making? I said, well, you should come to church tomorrow. You know, here's an ICU yesterday, all connected. I said, you should come to church tomorrow. I hope he's getting the stream. This is the Great Commission. I want you to see. The commission of Christ was to evangelize the lost. Making disciples is nothing less than evangelism. Now, we think of making disciples as a classroom, and we think of training people and having a manual and everything else. In the Bible, making disciples was making followers of Jesus Christ, which happens through salvation. So, the commission of Christ was to evangelize the lost, and all of us are called to that. And then, after they get saved, this is what we call disciple-making. Most people, when they talk about discipling someone, they're talking about training them in everything that Christ said a convert is to follow. But actually, in the New Testament, it wasn't disconnected. It was a package. Everyone was going out, representing Christ, telling others about the gospel, and then when they came to Christ, everyone was involved in training them how to follow Christ. So, that equals making and training followers or disciples of Christ. The making is evangelism. The training is what we call discipleship. So, making disciples is what Jesus called leading people to salvation. And because of that, and if you take in your Bibles, go from Luke now to the book of Acts. And I just want to quickly run through what we've already seen a couple of weeks ago and then continue with you because what I call these, and these are all based on what we saw last time, the core of the gospel presentation. Do you remember we looked in the book of Luke, in the ending of Luke, chapter 24, Jesus told them to go out with the gospel, and he defined the gospel. And the core of the gospel, which we saw last time, is that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name. That is Luke 24, verse 47. Repentance and remission of sin. Repentance that brings the remission of sins. Those two are connected. When God changes our mind and our whole life, which is repentance, we are converted and that process of turning, He remits us of all of our sins. And so that's what Jesus told them to do. And so what we have in the book of Acts, Acts is just a picture It's a picture. Acts has 22 slides, you could say. 22 little video clips of first century evangelism. See, I want you to understand, this is not what, you know, the evangelism, you know, kind of like, what was the name, Coral Ridge, you know, down there, and D. James Kennedy, evangelism explosion. They didn't think this up. God did. God gives us, in the book of Acts, 22 pictures, slides, clips, of how, in the first century, Jesus saved people, using people. Now, the Gospels are people getting saved, and Jesus did it. And it was so clear then. Either they received him or they rejected him. It was so clear. You knew whether they got saved or not. They either followed him or they didn't. So it was so clear in the Gospels. When they rejected him, they turned around and walked away. When they were saved, they followed Him. And they wanted to, they would do anything to be near Him. They just hung on Christ. But when he starts working through people, it's a little harder to differentiate who gets saved and who doesn't. That's the problem we're in nowadays. But Acts is a divinely recorded and edited presentation of how for 30 years the gospel went forth. Now here's what we saw. And I'll just run through these. And what I've added is this week, I told you who is doing what. This is Peter. So Jesus is seeking and saving the lost through Peter. And in chapter two, right here we saw, is a summary of the first gospel presentation, and here's what it is. God saves all those who call on his name, and it will come to pass whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Who does the saving? Did Peter save all those people? No. Can you and I save people? No. God saves, so see this, this is what Jonah 2.9 says, salvation is of the Lord. It is God who does the saving. We share the gospel, God saves people. We go out and God does the work. We just have to be faithful doing our part for years. When I was in seminary, I worked for American Home Products, Whitehall Labs, Wyeth Labs. That was a historic drug maker. And I worked in the summer. And I remember that they sat me down the very first summer in 1981 that I worked for them. And they put me on the other side of a desk. And a corporate person came from New York. And they said, you are representing American Home Products, a $6 billion corporation. And this is how we expect you to dress. And this is how we expect you to act. And this is how you turn in your reports. And this is da-da-da-da-da. I never thought when I represented them to pharmacists or to purchasers, I never thought that I made that stuff and I was going to have to produce, you know, Anison and Advil and Dristan and everything else. I had no idea that it was me. It was the corporation and I represented them. And when I walked in, they weren't talking to me, they were dealing with American Home products. Which, by the way, in the two, three hundred billion dollars of purchases, Pfizer bought them. And they've been subsumed into that huge drug company, my former employer. But I always was just a representative of them. Peter is representing God who saves people. And when God saves people, he saves them by them calling on his name. You know, it's so interesting, I have people all the time and I say, when did you get saved? I just asked someone yesterday that, when did you get saved? I don't know when I got saved. I said, God calls it the new birth. Either you were born or you're not. Are you born? Again, I don't know. Now, I know, I don't mean to make fun, but Western Michigan is big on this. A lot of people say, I'm saved, I don't know when or how. But it doesn't matter whether you know when or how. God saves everybody the same way. He calls it the new birth. And there was a point in time, if you walked up to a normal person on the street and said, what's your birthday? I don't know. Okay, so your parents didn't tell you, but you're here, so you've been born, right? If they said, I don't know, then you'd need to take them somewhere else, right? See, what we're talking about is if you're here, you've been born. If you're saved, you were born again. At an instant, God turned us from darkness to light, from the power of Satan unto God. And he, in our heart, causes a change of mind. Our sins are forgiven, and we receive on the spot the Holy Spirit of God. God does that, and he's told us he does it. Now, we have to excavate a little bit. I talk to people and I say, okay, so you were born a lost sinner. Let's get this right. They go, they think for a minute and they go, uh-huh. I said, okay, and today you're saved, right? So that means between when you were born and today you got saved. And they, you know, they're hoping I'm not trying to trick them. I say, I'm not trying to trick you. You were lost at birth. Now, if they won't admit that, there's no hope for them, because God only saves lost sinners. So everybody is lost at birth, and if today they're saved between Now and then, somewhere in here, they got saved. And I know what happened because God profiles it in his word. And he does all these things. And what happens is right here. Conviction of sin. A person has to be conscious that they're a sinner. That's why babies can't be saved. They can't be born again. Now God and Q&A have already answered this. There is a provision for those who have never consciously come to an awareness that they're a sinner and the Bible talks about that. I'm talking about normal people that live to adulthood. They cannot be saved as an infant. Nobody is saved as an infant that's alive today. Everyone is saved when they're cut to the heart by the Spirit of God, when they're convicted of their sins. And when they say, what do I have to do? And the Lord says, what you have to do is you have to repent. You have to have a change of mind that will lead to a change of behavior. And when that happens, by the way, after that happens, this happens. See, everything's backward nowadays. We have people that have never believed, they get baptized, then they grow up and they're not sure they're saved. I've just described hundreds of thousands of people. They're not following the script of the Bible. Everybody in the Bible, after they believe and get saved, they're baptized. But that's a different message. I'm not covering that today. And when they repent, And after they're saved, God says, what I've done to you is I've remitted your sins, and you, at the instant of salvation, receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Well, let's keep going. Here's the second time. It's again Peter sharing the gospel. It's Jesus Christ seeking and saving the lost. He's using Peter like he wants to use us. And in Acts 3, The element that's pointed out is God turns the person. You see, I have a lot of people, and they say to me, how do you know when someone gets saved when God turns them around? Because everybody he saves, he turns around. See, God is the one that's saving. See, we've got it all mixed up. People say, well, my pastor, or I did this or that. I say, yeah, that's wonderful, but what did God do? When God does it, when we respond in faith, which is that change of mind, our faith no longer is placed in ourself but in God as our only hope, we're converted. Remember I told you last time this is the word epi and strepho. And strepho means to turn and epi means to really turn. We're converted, and when that happens, God takes our sins and blots them out. He sends refreshing to us. He blesses us, and this is what God does. Look what God does when he saves us. He turns away every one of you from your iniquities. If God saves us, he turned us. You know D.L. Moody? Remember the evangelist from Chicago? He was preaching in London once, 130, 20 years ago, and he was walking down the street in London, and one of the high church people that didn't like him, that was critical of his ministry, saw a drunken man in the gutter, vomiting, and he said, there's one of your converts, Moody. Look at him. Moody said, yeah, he is one of my converts. When God converts them, they change. I converted him. There's a man that knew his theology. When God saves us, he turns us away from our iniquity. Now, it'll be explained, and what's the message? Peter states it. Repent and turn. A change of mind, and God supernaturally converts us. We believe, changing our mind about God, God turns us away from sin. That's why we say saving faith is life-changing faith. If you've never been saved from sin, you've never been saved from hell. It's what Peter is affirming that God said. Well, he goes on. Peter preaches again in Acts 4.12. And look what he says. Who saves us? See? God saves us. See, it's a supernatural event. It is not the dispenser. When I would sell Advil to Ralph's Supermarkets in Los Angeles, I wasn't making people well. Advil made them well. All I did is show them how to get Advil. I don't save people. You don't save people. God saves people and you can tell if he has because he changes them. And see that's the essence. Salvation is in him and he is the only source. And then Peter goes on. Here's the fourth message. We saw this last time in Acts chapter 5. And look what he says. Now this is a different setting. Peter's speaking before the Sanhedrin, he's defending the gospel. And he says about Christ, him, Christ, God is exalted to his right hand to be prince and savior. Now look at this. The prince and savior, God the son, gives repentance. Now the context of this message is Peter was talking to the Sanhedrin and so he's the context is Israel. But the same gospel is to go into all the world but in this verse he was talking to the religious leaders and he says Jesus Christ gives repentance and when that happens look what happens forgiveness takes place and we are his witnesses to these things and so is also the Holy Spirit whom God has given those who obey Him. See, Peter is only reflecting what Jesus said in Matthew 7. Remember in Matthew 7, Jesus said, someday there are going to be a group of people that went to church and they say, let us in. He says, no, I can't let you in. you who practice iniquity, you never did the will of my Father in heaven. You never came to... See, what salvation does is salvation turns my orientation from wanting and living for sin and self and my desires to being radically turned toward God and toward righteousness and holiness and his word and I hunger after him. And my life, I'm pulled back by my flesh, by the world, by the devil, by temptations, but it's only pulling me back from the new direction of obeying Him. Now, that's why 1 John 1 says that we have to be constantly confessing our sins and He's constantly cleansing us from all unrighteousness because none of us perfectly obey or follow or respond to His Spirit. It's a complete turn. See, we have a lot of people that are trying to back into heaven. They are still headed toward the world, the flesh, lust, and the devil, and that's where they want to be. And it's like people are saying, come on, go to church. And they're saying, no, that's what I want. What you should do is let go of them. Don't make them think they're going to heaven. They've never turned. They've never been radically converted. See, it's very, very hard to grow up in a Christianized place and have everybody telling you. In fact, this week, we had a lady walking off the street, wanted to speak with someone, met with one of our pastors. She walked in, and she had all of these struggles. And they said, well, before we talk about all of your struggles, one question. Have you ever been saved? She said, well, I don't need to be saved. She said, all my counselors told me that if anybody's worthy of heaven, you are. And the pastor said to him, would it alarm you if I told you that God says you're not worthy of heaven? And that woman was stunned and looked him in the eye and said, read that to me again. And he began sharing the gospel. And before the time was over, that woman said, no one ever in my life told me I wasn't worthy of heaven until you. And she said, I believe God. And she right there on the spot. repented of believing she was worthy of heaven, confessed that she was worthy of eternal, endless destruction, and it just crushed her to realize the weight of her sin, and right there, she received the Holy Spirit. She was a different person. She walked out, and she said, well, I'd like to come back next week. I still have all those problems, but boy, everything has changed in my life. She still had all the problems. I mean, the husband that left her with the children, and she doesn't have a job, and all these other things. But she had a new heart. See, that's what salvation is. And that's what Peter shared. Let's go to the next one. Now we have the fifth one is Peter joins with Philip. And Philip's preaching along. Remember, we met him in Acts 6. He's one of these super servants of the church. And for the first time, we find a false believer. Now Jesus talked about this. Matthew 7, he says, many will say unto me. Jesus said there's going to be many of these false believers. Here's the first one we meet in the record. And Jesus warned of this. And so in Acts 8.13, Simon, now Philip, sent by God, empowered by the Holy Spirit, preaches the gospel. As he's preaching the gospel, there's people responding to the gospel. One of the people that responded is Simon. Simon believes. He assents to the facts of the gospel. He says, yes, Jesus, I believe in him. I believe he died. I believe that he is the son of God. I believe, I believe, I believe. And so Philip says, okay, all of those who believe, there it comes up again. after you believe, baptized. And so he got baptized. And look at this, he continued. This would be the discipleship or the training. This guy is being taught. And he's hanging around Philip and he's amazed, verse 13 says, he sees the miracles, the signs which were done. So, he believed, he was baptized, but something's missing. That describes a large percent of Christendom today. Think about that. There are many people in America that believe the facts, they assent to the facts, and they have been baptized, most of them by their parents taking them in when they're a little child, but something's missing. When they hear messages about supernatural stuff, down deep they think, I don't think that's happened to me. Well, Peter shows up. Now this is Peter. This is Acts 8, 21 to 23. And Peter looks, see this is why we need Peter. Peter is the one that Jesus said, you have the keys, and Peter opened the gospel to the Jews in chapter two. Now he's opening the gospel to the Samaritans in chapter eight. And in chapter 10, he's opening the gospel to the Gentiles. And there we see Peter looking this guy in the eye, and Philip says, this is the guy I led to the Lord. And Peter says, uh-huh. You might have led him to the Lord, but the Lord didn't save him. Going through the motions is not salvation. Raising the hand, walking the aisle, praying a prayer is not salvation if God doesn't do something. What we have to get into our minds is salvation is of the Lord. God has to do something. He says, you don't have part or portion. In other words, he's saying, you have gone through the motions, Simon, nothing has happened inside of you that's divine. For your heart is not right. See, what it's saying is that salvation changes our heart. It's not getting us wet or joining something. It's a change of our hearts. It's supernatural. It's something humans can't do. I can't change someone's heart. You can't change someone's heart. I don't mind going out and telling the guy that burst past my secretary that was the, you know, I mean, this guy that I got ahold of recently, or that got ahold of me, he was living a life of what you would call lecherous life. God completely changed his heart, his appetite, his direction, everything. This, Simon, your heart is not right. Your heart hasn't been changed. What's the solution? Repent. Turn from thinking that you are going to do this yourself and let God transform you. Change your mind about God. That is what faith is all about. Repent of your wickedness. Say, I want God more than my sin and my wickedness and my whatever. And pray, if God perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you, you need forgiveness. And Peter defines where this Simon was. He says, you're poisoned by bitterness. You know what, all of us have had horrible things happen to us. I was an abused child. I've told you that many times. Probably all of you were too. I mean, I also got abused in school. I used to get spanked by every principal I ever went to school, you know. I was a very bad student and doing things I shouldn't do. But you know what, I can look back on all those things. And I'm not bitter about him because I know that I've been forgiven and that God is in charge of my life. This guy was poisoned by bitterness and completely a captive of iniquity. He had never been, if you'd have seen him spiritually, he was wearing, have you ever seen the people going off to, you know, wearing the orange suits and they've got shackles on their feet and they've got the chain and it comes to the middle and they're and they're like this, you know, coming out of the courtroom after they've been indicted for something that's really bad. If you could see a lot of people spiritually that call themselves Christians, they're just like this. They are bound by iniquity. When Jesus saves us, My chains fell off, as the hymn writer said. My heart was set free. Long my imprisoned spirit lay, fast bound in sin and nature's night. Thine eye diffused a quickening ray. I woke, went forth, and followed Thee." That is the supernatural work of salvation. This guy never had it. Now, look at this. Simon believed, was baptized, but he did not receive the Holy Spirit, which was the seal of true conversion and new birth. This means belief and baptism without repentance was insufficient. He never repented of his sin, so Simon was never saved. Someone asked me after the service, they said, whatever happened to him? He actually started a sect, S-E-C-T, a small group of heretical adversaries to the church. You can read about him in Eusebius' Church History. Okay, so Philip, remember, goes on from this situation, and look what he says. The next person he leads to the Lord, he says, now wait a minute, I'm not gonna tell you're led to the Lord unless you really are, you know, clinging to Christ. Do you believe with all your heart? Do you see Christ as your only hope? It's not me, it's not because I'm able to do all these things. Are you clinging to Christ? That's what belief is. So that's how Philip was changed. And the summary after these six is that people that are agents through whom Christ saves people, tell the people that they really have to repent. They're not worthy of heaven. There's nothing good about anybody that merits heaven. Not even Mother Teresa. Nobody. Not even Mary, mother of our Lord. She said, God, you're my savior. Mary knew she had to be forgiven of sins and so do all the rest of us that are saved. Turn away from iniquity. And I can't turn away from iniquity. When you and I come to Christ, we have those shackles on. There is no way, sometimes they even put one around their neck. I mean, you've ever seen them really go into there. I mean, they're really shackled. I can't get out of that. Christ releases me and turns me away from the slavery to sin, and I'm saved from my sins. That's what salvation is, to be saved from sin. It doesn't mean I never sin again, it means I'm not shackled by it anymore. And also, it makes me sick. Because I don't even want to go that way. And when I'm pulled from behind that way, it sickens me because I have a new orientation, a new direction, a new hunger, a new appetite, everything else. I've been saved. And I've been forgiven. So I can't be poisoned by bitterness. I believe with all my heart. Jesus said truly saved people turn from doing their own will. See, that's what Matthew 7 is about. You know how you know you're saved? You don't want your own way anymore. That's why it's really hard in America. We want to fiercely be independent. We want financial independence. God says Christianity is complete dependence. So in our secular financial world, we want complete independence. In our spiritual life, we're supposed to be completely dependent. God. And that's why the Lord's Prayer reflects this. You know, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come. What is that? You know, we don't even talk about the kingdom of God very much. Wait till you see it in the book of Acts. Seven times the gospel is portrayed in the book of Acts as entering the kingdom of God. And they taught people about the kingdom. What is a king? You have a king. A kingdom has a king. Entering the kingdom is bowing to a king and saying, I don't want my own way anymore. I want your way. I want to turn from my own will. I want to stop going my own way. My own way is headed to destruction. Turn me the right direction. I want to do your will. You know what people say? That sounds impossible. It is. When people say, I want to be saved right now, I say, I'll point you to Christ. He's the only one that can save you. I can't. You can't. They can't. It's impossible. It's totally a work of God. No one gets to heaven without God giving them a new heart and a new spirit. Well, now we get to the interesting stuff. This is the first one Jesus does. It's been Peter, Peter, Peter, Peter, Peter, Philip, Philip, Now Jesus. Now this is interesting. The next gospel presentation is in Acts chapter 9, verses 1 through 6, where Saul is converted. It's described twice outside of here, Acts 22 and 26. Something to note is, remember how Paul says right up here in verse 4, it's hard for you to persecute, you know, you're persecuting me and it's hard for you to kick against the pricks. Something to note is when Jesus saves someone, he's right there. Remember, the book of Acts is showing Jesus saving people using individuals like us. But Jesus saves them. That's why Paul got saved without any individual, because it's Jesus that saves people. If you're leading someone to Christ, do you think about Christ being right there with you? That's why, again, I said, if you're off in a far off place and you feel far from the Lord, say, Lord, I'm going to obey you and go do what you called me to do. I'm going to go start sharing the gospel. You share the gospel. It immediately begins to convict us about what we're talking about. We're saying, whoa. Am I headed the right direction? Am I forgiven? Am I set free? Am I poisoned? See, that's why you share the gospel. It's very impactful on your life. But if you do it, Christ is right there. Also, Jesus clearly identifies with us. Jesus told Paul he was attacking Christ when he attacked the church. Jesus identifies with us so much. By the way, here, and I'm not going to cover these because this is where we are, there's no gospel explanation. Paul again, in 22, says the same account. He doesn't tell how he got saved until you get to Acts 26, and we're getting there someday. And there, in verse 18, is one of the clearest gospel presentations in the Bible. When we're saved, our eyes are open, we're turned from darkness to light, we're set free from the power of Satan onto God, we receive forgiveness of sins, we have an eternal inheritance, we have faith being sanctified by Christ that's in us. That is salvation. And that's what God does. Okay? Now, someone told me last week we're not making any progress, so we're going to make progress. Look at how far we are. We're on Peter now. Look at Acts chapter 10. If you're marking these in your Bible, verses 35 to 43 is Peter describing salvation in these terms, believing, receiving. See, all we do is believe. We place our faith in what we can accomplish ourselves and cry out to the one who can, the Lord. We receive from him remission of sins and God grants us, that's in verse 48, I didn't type it in here, he grants repentance. And so look what it says, the word of God sent the children of Israel preaching peace. One of the works of righteousness, Isaiah says, the work of righteousness is peace. The effects of righteousness are quietness and assurance forever. The work of God in us brings peacefulness. Did you know that this service is very hard on a lot of people? You know why? There's a whole generation of people that need sound and activity around them all the time. They just can't stand silence, quietness. Did you know one of the marks of salvation is the work of righteousness makes us peaceful? We're not restless. We are living in the most restless generation. Did you read about the Santa Barbara boy with all of his video games that just shot up Santa Barbara, USC, Santa Barbara, and killed all those people yesterday? You know what it said about him? He was utterly, restlessly living in his game world. Did you know if he hadn't gotten killed in that exchange, and he had been sent to prison for killing all those people, and someone from prison fellowship, you know, Colson's ministry, went to see him in the prison, do you know what they could tell him? they could share with him, he could have peace through Jesus Christ. Because Jesus Christ was killed by being hung on a tree. By the way, that's an eyewitness account. Peter saw the crucifixion, and he said Jesus was killed by being hung on a tree. Interesting that he called the cross a tree. Probably it was. It was probably a tree that they clipped the branches on, but it was already planted in the ground, and they used it over and over again instead of digging a hole and dropping the cross in like all the movies show. Peter said it was really true, but that doesn't matter. Jesus was killed for my sins, and that guy that killed everybody at USC yesterday, he could have peace if he would say, Jesus, you died on the cross because I'm a murderer, and I'm restless, and I'm hateful and vengeful. And look what he does. Through his name, whoever believes, That's why I love to read all those prison fellowship reports and all the other Forgotten Men and everywhere else that serves those people. All they have to do is believe in Him and they receive remission of sins. How many sins do they get remitted? watch. Peter goes on with others saying God gave the same gifts when we believed. God has granted the Gentiles repentance and whoever believed turned to the Lord. The Lord turns them. So this is the ninth one. But look at what they said. Forgiveness of everything. See this is what salvation is. Salvation is forgiveness of everything to all who believe. In Acts 13 it says this, That means every sin anyone has ever committed can be paid for by Jesus Christ. You see why it's so wonderful to share the gospel? Do you know what it's like to talk to someone who is so burdened with their sins, so pressed down with their sins, so guilty with their sins, that they're drowning in their sins and they don't know what to do, and tell them, you can be justified? What does justification mean? It means both the penalty and the record. The penalty is paid, and the record of my sin is removed. There's no record. There's no record of my sins before God. because Jesus already paid for them. Isn't that amazing to think about? The more you understand salvation, the more you want to share it. Because it's a miracle, and you want to see God do that miracle. Well, real quickly, if you look now, the book of Acts is more and more describing salvation as believed. I thought we were supposed to say repent. By the way, by the time we get to the gospel by John, the word repent doesn't even show up in the last gospel. It's only believe. And in Acts, 39 times the word believe is used to describe people's response to the salvation message. But we've already seen in Acts 8 that some believe and they're not saved. Jesus warned us about that. So what does it mean to believe? Well, the Bible always defines itself. Jesus already defined belief in John 2. And what he says is, there are people that assent. This is assent to facts. I mean, who couldn't? In Christ's ministry, even the people that crucified Him, the Sadducees, they never said what He did wasn't true. They never said, you didn't raise people from the dead, you didn't make them see. They never denied the miracles. They assented to them. They said, He's a miracle worker, but we're not going to bow to Him, and we're not going to believe in Him. It was in Jerusalem at the Passover during the feast. Many believed in his name because they saw the signs. They assented to the facts. This man can multiply food. This man can raise the dead. He can make wine out of water. They believed in him. He did all that. They said, you did all that. But look. Next verse. Jesus did not commit himself to them. Do you know what that means? They weren't saved. Merely assenting to the facts does not equal salvation. Jesus goes on, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up that whoever believes in him won't perish but have everlasting life. There's a difference between an assent and whatever he's talking about here. And that That scene there is a beautiful picture of salvation. Moses and the serpent. You know, we're talking about an Old Testament event. Do you remember what it was? The camp of Israel was a big square. and they had the tabernacle in the middle, and they had three tribes this way, and three this way, and three this way, and three this way, and if you do the math, 603,000 families with all their children in their tents, and their carts, and their animals, and all their farming gear, and everything they'd ever owned their whole lifetime dragging it through the desert, to make a campground with three million people in it, is a minimum, if you just use the minimum square footage of a campsite, a nine mile wide by nine mile long campground. Minimum. That's 81 square miles. Okay? Snakes were biting people in this story. Moses in the center of town, or of the camp, put up a, like a little telephone pole and wound a brass serpent around it on that pole right there. And this person is vomiting and going through spasms of venom from a viper, and they're laying, being blinded by the, I mean, there's a paralysis of their nervous system from these vipers. It's a horrible way to die. And here's Uncle Joe over here, four and a half miles from the center of camp, and it says that whoever Believes in him should not perish like Moses lifted up the serpent. People would run as soon as the word began radiating out. People came to Uncle Joe and says, guess what? Moses just lifted up a serpent on a pole. We don't have medevac here. You're never going to make it. But if you will just believe, that that serpent is lifted up and that God can heal you, He will. And you know what? Uncle Joe right here, in his spasms, if he in faith looked to something he couldn't see and believed it was true, he was instantly healed. See, he would cling to that event of that serpent lifted up as his only hope, and God ratified that belief by healing him. That's exactly all we do. We go around to people. If you would see lost people, they're writhing in paralysis, and they're foaming at the mouth, and they're blind. And we say, you know what? Someone was lifted up on a tree 2,000 years ago, and if you will believe that's your only hope, God will totally set you free from your paralysis and blindness and spasms. And that's the miracle of salvation. Well, real quickly, beware of just being 18 inches from heaven. And we have four minutes to do this. Turn to chapter 2, and I want to show you the book of James, chapter 2. Because what most of us don't realize is while all of this book of Acts is going on, there's a church. in Jerusalem. It's pastored by Jesus' brother, his earthly brother, James. And James is the first epistle of the New Testament written. And James is pastoring all these thousands of people that came to faith in Jerusalem. And a lot of them came to mental ascent. And he's got to deal with that. And so he says, hey, watch out. Look at James 2, starting in verse 14. He says, watch out. What does it profit, my brethren, if you say you have faith, but you don't have any change in your life? There's no works. Can you just saying that you've assented to the truth about Christ, can that save you? He goes on to say in verse 17, faith by itself, if it doesn't have works, is dead. What he's saying is faith is never alone. Always attached to faith is the justifying works of sanctification. So what James says all the way through verse 19 is, there's some people that are going to miss heaven by this far. They've assented to the facts. They've never had a new heart. So, what happens? Well, he goes on. He says, watch out of having mere intellectual faith. That's verse 17. Faith by itself. If you just believe the facts, if you're just like Sergeant Friday from Dragnet 30, 40 years ago, just believe the facts. That's not enough to save you. Also, beware of mere emotional belief. Look what he says in verse 19. You believe there's one God? Don't think you're doing well. The demons also believe and tremble. Beware of emotional belief. You know, a lot of people have an emotional experience. They think they're saved. There's no change in life. They're still headed this way. They still love this. Everything in their life is the world and the flesh and God. I mean, they don't even want to read the Bible. They hardly can go to church. It's hard for them to be around all that. And when people drag them to church, they don't want to leave what they love. They had an emotional experience. That's not salvation. So what James is saying is this, beware of demon faith. What is demon faith? Let me just define it for you. Demons completely believe in the reality of God. There are no atheistic demons, okay? None of them are atheists at all. Secondly, demons completely believe in the deity of God. There are no liberal demons either. You know, we have liberals today. They're not sure about the miracles and if Christ is really God, you know? Demons completely believe in the supreme power that Christ holds over their destiny. There are none of these demons that believe that everybody is going to go to heaven. In other words, there are no Well, I won't name names, but the guy that used to preach in Grand Rapids, you know, that love wins and everybody's going to make it someday. Demons know that's not true. Demons completely believe in hell and the horrors of eternal punishment. Every time a demon saw the Lord, they said, you're not sending us there now, yet. It's not time. They believe in it. Demons completely believe in submission to God's Word. They never expressed doubt God's Word was true, and they usually instantly obeyed the Word of God. That's demon faith. There are people like that. They believe in the reality of God, the deity of God, the supreme power of Christ. They believe in hell and submission to God's word. They just don't have a new heart. That's demon faith. And that's horrible. How do we apply the sermon James preaches here in verses 14 to 19? The application is this, just knowing the facts, believing the facts is not enough. It must be clinging to Jesus Christ. Coming to him just like we see in the Gospels. When people wanted to be healed, they came and fell at Christ's feet and they held on to him and they said, we know you can do it. You're the only one. You're my only hope. I want you to cleanse me. And you know what? Everyone that came, he did. Some came and said, I want you to cleanse me, but I don't want to change. And he says, no. And they went away. See how clear it is in the Gospels? Intellectual agreement won't save us. That's James Point. Emotional responses coupled with intellectual response also isn't sufficient. Demons had regular emotional responses. It says they dreaded, they quaked. True saving faith comes from God's grace at work in our heart. Saving faith is a repentant faith that comes from God and always results in a changed life. That's why God's grace is so amazing to watch when people get saved. So what I thought we'd do, because it's time to go, is stand up. Okay? And after you get everything closed, let's sing our testimony. And what I thought would be wonderful is to remember that salvation is when I'm saved, I'm a wretch, guilty, worthy of destruction. I was lost, but God found me. Boy, isn't this good theology? God found me in my lostness. I was blind. and God restored my sight. If you're saved, and this morning because I know that Jesus Christ found me, He turned me radically in a new direction. He changed my appetite. I might eat something from the past, but it makes me sick. I'm allergic. You know, all these people that are allergic to everything nowadays, you know, they have this allergy and that. I have a sin allergy. And if you've been saved, you do too. It makes you sick, violently. We hate it. And now we see Something so beautiful it captivates us and it's all we want. And we just can't get enough of it. That's the amazing work of salvation. Okay, you already know these words, so why don't we just close our eyes and let's sing to the Lord, Amazing Grace, and then we'll go. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found. Was blind, but now I see. And let's pray, Father in heaven. Thank you for finding us, writhing in the paralysis and blindness of our sin. And thank you that just by us hearing that you were like the serpent lifted up in the wilderness, and if we would just believe that you died on that tree for us, that you did everything. You saved us and turned us. You gave us a new heart. You put your spirit within. You remove forever our sins, and there's no sin that you have not forgiven, past, present, or future. And when we hear that, Like John Newton said, it's amazing to us. I pray that we would believe that so much we'd tell someone about it this week and we would pray that we'd see the miracle of them come to faith. In the name of Jesus we pray and all of God's people said amen. God bless you as you go.