Some years ago, I had the occasion of visiting a couple in Newark, New Jersey one evening. It was already dark. We were leaving the house and upon leaving the house, two rather large black men were walking down the sidewalk. This is Newark, New Jersey in the 70s. And whether we bumped into them or whether they purposefully bumped into us, I don't know. But tensions began to mount rapidly. These were two big guys. And my wife was with me, and I think the other couple was following not far behind. And so, as things began to become a little bit tense, I did what every man should do. I began to witness to them. And much to our surprise, these big burly guys who were at one moment angry became very submissive and very interested in what I had to say. And as a result, for about an hour or more, We sat on the curb out in front of my friend's house at night in Newark, and I shared the gospel with this big black guy. And the other couple, I think, was talking to the other one, but he was also listening to what I had to say. Now, after, as I said, about an hour, he finally said to me, you know, man, I could believe this. I could really believe in this stuff. If Jesus would just come down and appear to me right here on this sidewalk, I would fall before Him and I would believe. Well, what could I say? I pointed him to Luke chapter 16, where Jesus in that parable was, or Jesus in that account, was teaching that, you know, you have the Scriptures, you have the prophets in the Scriptures. If you won't listen to them, you won't listen even if one were to appear to you from the dead. You know, a lot of people say that. If only Jesus would come and appear to me, then I would believe. And I can't help but think, and as I believe, I thought even then, you know, that would be a whole lot easier, wouldn't it? Jesus, why don't you just come down and appear to the sky? Why don't you just show yourself? And then people will believe. Why don't you just stand there? In fact, why did you have to go back to heaven in the first place? That's the question that we want to answer today. Even though a lot of people wish that Jesus would appear to them, He does not because He has ascended back to the Father. We know that He was here. We believe with all of our hearts that He was real, that He lived among men, that He dwelled among men. We know that He went to the cross and gave His life, His broken body and His shed blood, which we celebrate at the Lord's Supper with those tangible reminders of the reality of Christ's existence among men. We know He was here. Why did He have to go? Why did He have to go back? That's where we are in our study of that psalm where David says, What is man that thou dost take thought of him, and the Son of man that thou dost care for him? Why did God do any of what He did for us? Why did He redeem us? Why did He die on the cross? All of those things that we've been studying for the past weeks. Why redemption? Why do anything for man? Why the incarnation? Why did Christ come? Why the crucifixion? Why did He die on the cross? Why the resurrection? What did that show? And currently, back to my account, my story of what happened, why the ascension? Why did He have to go back? Why can't He still be with us today? Why did He leave? Turn with me please in your Bibles to Acts chapter 1. Acts chapter 1, as we continue our study regarding the ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ. For it says in verse 9 of Acts chapter 1, that after He had said these things, He was lifted up. while they were looking on, and a cloud received him out of their sight. And it goes on further saying that the two angels were there standing beside them and they said, men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking into the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will come again. But here's what happened. He ascended and the text even says he went back up into heaven. This is the ascension of Jesus. This text tells us. that He dwelled among the disciples for 40 days. He appeared before them, as verse 3 says, with many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of 40 days. He taught them, He spoke to them, He showed Himself to them. We have in other portions of Scriptures the accounts of how He showed Himself alive to the disciples and even to more than 500 at one time. But now he leaves and descends back into heaven. Now, I mentioned that I had five reasons as to why the ascension, why was it necessary, what it accomplished for us. And last Lord's Day, we got up to just beginning, really, number two, the second one. And I had thought, as I was preparing this weeks ago, that I would just do one study and then sometime in the future come back and do a whole study on why the ascension. But since last week I only got up to a little bit anyway, I'm not going to get through it all this week either. So, we are in the midst of that study on the ascension. What did the ascension do? for you? What did the ascension do for me? Why the ascension? Now, for the sake of continuity, I just want to remind you of what we saw last week. We saw last week the first reason for His ascension, which was for the bestowment of the Holy Spirit, for the bestowment of the Holy Spirit. And we saw three things here. First was the promise. Back in John chapter 16, Jesus said, it is to your advantage that I go back to the Father. So he's promising that he's going to go back. And in the midst of that promise, he promises to send the Holy Spirit. This is why it's to your advantage, because I'm going to send the Holy Spirit. Now, we're going to look at that text again in a few moments. So just now, I'm just going to refer to it. But here now in Acts chapter 1, he says in verse 4 that, he tells him not to leave Jerusalem, for that which was promised by the Father, which, he said, you heard from me, for John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. The Holy Spirit will be poured out upon you. So he tells them in John 16, I'm going and it's to your benefit because I'm going to send the Holy Spirit. And here just before he goes, he says, don't go anywhere. Don't you leave Jerusalem because that which I promised is about to happen. So the first thing we saw was the promise. The next thing we saw was in chapter two, the pouring out. And this begins in chapter 2, in verse 1, And when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place, and suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. And they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit was giving them utterance." And we went on to see a little bit about how that happened. But here is the fulfillment of the promise, the pouring out of the Holy Spirit. That must have been exciting. Those first followers gathered together there and the Holy Spirit is poured out upon them. We made the point that it was obviously such an occurrence and such an event that people knew it happened. People could hear that it happened because people rushed to the place where this event was taking place. This was a real exciting time. The first followers of Jesus received what He had promised and then After the promise and the pouring out, the power, as the disciples and those who were filled with the Holy Spirit began to preach to all of those people who were there in Jerusalem. And they heard them with or in their own tongues. The power of the Holy Spirit came upon them and they boldly went forth. Those who were just hiding in fear are now boldly going forth preaching and people are miraculously hearing them in their own tongue. Not gibberish, not gobbledygook, which people can't understand, but their own language that was speaking in tongues. So here we have the fulfillment of that promise that Jesus made, the bestowment of the Holy Spirit. Now, we're going to see a little bit or a lot how the Holy Spirit affected the church and what Jesus spoke of when he said, it's to your advantage that I go and the Holy Spirit be poured out throughout our study. But I know we left off beginning in the second one, which was the establishment of the church. But I've decided that we'll come back to that, and I wanted to deal with one prior to that, because so much happens under this one for the advancement of the kingdom. Why did Jesus ascend back into heaven? For the bestowment of the Holy Spirit Secondly, for the advancement of the Kingdom. And now, number three, will become for the establishment of the Church. But I want to deal with the advancement of the Kingdom and how that was helped by the presence of the Holy Spirit following the ascension of our Lord Jesus. And for this, I want to ask you to please turn to Matthew chapter 4. all the way to the beginning of the Gospels, in Matthew chapter 4, as we see Jesus' promise of His Kingdom. The promise of His Kingdom, and that the promise of His Kingdom was part of the Gospel. Matthew chapter 4, I want to look specifically here at verse 17. From that time, and this is following His temptation in the wilderness, From that time, Jesus began to preach, saying, What? Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Here is the very first account of Jesus preaching to multitudes or to people at all. We have the actual Sermon on the Mount, the first sermon in chapter 5, where again the first thing he says to a people in a recorded sermon was that there is a kingdom of heaven. So the Understanding is that Jesus, as he preached, preached regarding his kingdom, that his kingdom was part of the gospel. So he's promising this kingdom has come upon them. Now, again, Jesus refers to the kingdom over a hundred times, well over a hundred times in the gospel. I'm not going to go to every one of those verses. That would take far too long. But it is central to what Jesus preached. And Matthew's Gospel, in particularly, picks up on it over and over. Again, I point it out in chapter 5 and verse 3. The first words of the Sermon on the Mount, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom. of heaven. And so we further see in chapter 4 and verse 23, even before that, and Jesus was going about in all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom. The gospel of the kingdom. It's what Jesus taught. The kingdom was the message that Jesus preached. This is what people were to seek, as he says in chapter 6, part of the Sermon on the Mount, down towards the end of chapter 6, where he says, and this is a very popular verse, seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness. This is what men are to do. Seek first the Kingdom of Jesus. Part of his preaching over and over. was to be those who are part of His kingdom, as opposed to the kingdom of the world. This is a contrast right here, where Jesus is telling them, you cannot serve God and men. Seek His kingdom. Seek first His kingdom. And this is what He tells them that He has come to do. Look at chapter 12. Chapter 12. We're just going to look at verse 28. No, I can't. Got to kind of pick up the context here a little bit. Let's look at verse 23. A demon-possessed man is brought to him, and Jesus heals him. And the people are amazed and began to say, This cannot be the son of David, can he? Now, that is a that is a use of grammar in which they're stating, this is the Messiah. That's really what they're saying. This can't be the son of David, is it? It's an exclamation, really, where they're saying, this must be the Messiah, the promised son of David. And so the rulers, the Pharisees, heard this and they said, this man casts out demons by Beelzebub, the ruler of demons. But knowing their thoughts, he said to them in verse 25 here, any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and any city or house divided against itself cannot stand or shall not stand. And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then shall his kingdom stand? If I by Beelzebub cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? Consequently, they shall be your judges. But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you." Now, did he cast out demons by the Spirit of Beelzebub, or did he cast out demons by the Spirit of God? It was obviously and of certainty by the Spirit of God. He was not casting out demons by Beelzebub, otherwise His kingdom wouldn't stand. He was casting out demons by the Spirit of God, if that's the case. And if you believe that, Jesus says plainly, then My kingdom has come. The kingdom of Jesus was inaugurated with Jesus. It is not some far-off thing that we expect to enter sometime in a millennium. The kingdom of Jesus began with Jesus. If that's not the case, what kingdom are you in? Because according to my Bible, when you have been saved, you are transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light, which is the kingdom of Jesus. If there's no kingdom of Jesus now, we're not in the kingdom of Jesus. We must still be in the kingdom of darkness or in no kingdom. But the fact of the matter is the kingdom of Jesus was inaugurated with Jesus. In Mark's Gospel, in chapter 9, he says in verse 1, Truly I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who shall not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power. Then he goes on to transfigure before them. He is the focal point of the kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Jesus came as Jesus came. The Kingdom of Jesus came as Jesus inaugurated it. However, how many members were there of the Kingdom of Jesus by the time that He died, was buried, was raised, and even was ascended? How many followers, how many members of that kingdom were there? Look at Acts again, chapter 1. Remember this? We saw this last week. In Acts chapter 1, verse 15, at this time, Peter stood up in the midst of the brethren, a gathering of about 120 persons. was there together. About 120 persons. Now, this does not mean that this is all there was to the kingdom of God at that time. But it's likely not many more than that. Not many more followers of Jesus at the time of His ascension. So, with that in mind, With the understanding that at the time that Jesus ascended, there were really only a few followers of him. Because, you know, there were still a lot of people who hated him. Still a lot of people looking to squash this Christian uprising. I mean, this was right after Jesus had been raised, only 40 days. So there's still a lot of people who hated Jesus, who hated his followers. And then you remember that a lot of the people who followed after him were really only after him because they were fed or they were healed. They got what they could. And now that he's gone, what did they care? So, just a handful of believers. Now, I want to ask you to turn back to the Gospel of John in chapter 16. As we begin to see what happens because he ascended back to his father regarding the kingdom. We have seen the promise of the kingdom, but now here's what our Lord says regarding the power for the advancement of his kingdom through the Holy Spirit. Now remember, men can only be saved by the power of the Holy Spirit. This is what Jesus teaches them. Look at John 16, and this time, I want you to look over to verse 7, as he says, it's to your advantage that I go, for if I do not go, the helper will not come. But, he says in verse 8, and he, when he comes, He will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. This is what the Holy Spirit is going to do. The Holy Spirit is going to convict men concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. Concerning sin, this is verse 9, because they do not believe in Me. Concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father. and you no longer behold me. And concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged." So here in the midst of this, Jesus is teaching them that these are the things that the Holy Spirit is going to do. He's going to convict men. He's going to convict men that they're unbelievers, that they're sinners, that they do not come near keeping the moral law and the ways of God. They are lost without God and without hope. This is what the Holy Spirit does. When people get to the place in their life when God begins to deal with them, He begins to deal with them and show them that they are sinners. It's a hard thing to do for the Holy Spirit now, because churches don't tell people they're sinners anymore. It's almost as if we don't want to offend them. And yet that's what the Holy Spirit does. We don't want to do that. We want everybody to like us. We want to be liked. We want to get along. We don't want to upset anybody. That is just not biblical. We are to preach the whole counsel of the Word of God and warn men that they are sinners from the Word of God. And the Holy Spirit takes that Word preached, pierces hearts and saves men. The Holy Spirit will convict. That's what Jesus says. And then He says concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer behold me. He's talking about the ascension. And the Holy Spirit is going to take all of His work, all of His finished work, and show the righteousness of what He has done to man, concluding or culminating in the fact that he ascended back up into heaven to be again with the Father, seated at the right hand of God, because what he did was true and right and perfect and complete. And now he's gone back to be with the Father. So all righteousness is in Christ. And any righteousness that you have comes from Christ. The One who has finished His work and ascended back to the Father. That's what the Holy Spirit teaches men. That's what the Holy Spirit brings upon men. As you are saved, the very righteousness of Christ. covers you and you are as perfect as Christ as Righteous as Christ because that's how righteous you must be to be where Christ is in heaven And that's what he does and then he says in concerning judgment because the ruler of this world has been judged men must know that there is a judgment coming and the Holy Spirit Warns them so he convicts of sin He shows the way through Christ and he warns them of judgment that is coming. Jesus said that this is the work that the Holy Spirit will do and therefore men cannot be saved. without the effectual work of the Holy Spirit doing these things in their lives. That's why He says in verse 7 that He goes away, and it's to their advantage that He goes away, for if I do not go away, the Helper shall not come to you. But if I do go, I will send him to you. So, if I send the Holy Spirit to you after I have ascended, then the Holy Spirit will do this work, this work of convincing and showing men their sin, showing them the righteousness of Christ and showing them the danger of judgment if they are still in their sins. So, it's to your advantage that I go. This is what Jesus is telling them in this text. And now, if you turn back to Acts chapter 2, we see the fulfillment of that, or the result of his ascension in what we could call the propagation of the kingdom. the propagation or the going forth of His kingdom. We've seen the promise of the kingdom, the power through the Holy Spirit to advance the kingdom, and here's the propagation of the kingdom as it begins as a result of Christ ascending and the Holy Spirit being poured out. And for this I'm going to ask that you turn to chapter 2 of Acts and verse 37. Peter has preached. What did Peter preach? He preached the Word of God. He showed how Christ was the fulfillment of some of the promises in the Old Testament. And He preaches to them. And He says to them at the end, look, I just want you to know that you're okay and I don't want you to have any hard feelings or anything like that. I know that you didn't understand what was going on, so don't feel bad that you killed Jesus or anything like that. No, no. Look at verse 34, For it was not David who ascended into heaven, but he himself who says, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand until I make thine enemies a footstool for thy feet. Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. This One that you called out, give us Barabbas! Give us Barabbas! This One you called out, crucify Him! Crucify Him! He is Lord and Christ! He is God and Messiah! So He preaches the Word to the people, and what happens? Verse 37, Now when they heard this, they were pierced to their heart. What is that? That is what the Holy Spirit did. That's exactly what Jesus promised the Holy Spirit would do. Convicting men of sin, righteousness, judgment. Convicting their hearts. And so their hearts are pierced, as we say, by the Word of God through the power of the Holy Spirit. And Peter said to them, they said, Brethren, What must we do? As their hearts were pierced, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, what shall we do? Like that Philippian jowler. What shall I do? I pray that every one of you has sometime come to that place in your life where the Holy Spirit has convicted you of sin. Not just willy-nilly here or there, but from the Word of God. from the truth of the Scripture, pierced hearts with sin. The power of the Holy Spirit convicts you of sin. It shows you your place before God and your need of salvation. And you cry out, What shall we do? What shall we do? And then Peter says to them, Repent. Same thing that Jesus said when he began preaching the gospel of the kingdom. Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand. He tells them to repent, to turn from their sin. Let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God shall call to Himself. and with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting, saying to them, Be saved from this perverse generation. So then those who received his word were baptized and there were added that day about three thousand souls." It is to your advantage that I go, for the Holy Spirit will be poured out, and the Kingdom of God will go forth. The Kingdom of God will advance. In one day, The promise of Jesus from chapter 1 and verse 8 is fulfilled, where he says, You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be my witnesses, both in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria, even to the remotest parts of the earth. And remember, those who were there in Jerusalem, in many parts, were from the remotest parts of the earth. So they preach to multitudes in Jerusalem, and they are saved. Multitudes from not only Jerusalem, but from the remotest parts of the earth. Now, what do you think they do? Once those people from all over the then known world are saved there in Jerusalem, what do they do when they go back home? And they do what Peter did. They're filled with the Holy Spirit just as Peter was, and they go back and they preach and they proclaim. And the kingdom of God began to spread and spread and spread because Jesus ascended. And because He ascended, He poured out the Spirit. And because the Spirit was poured out, The kingdom of God went forth. Let's look at some other texts very quickly. If you would see the promise of Jesus fulfilled in one day, this is continued. Look at verse 47, back up to 46. And day by day, continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved. Day by day, day by day, people are being saved. Why? Because Christ ascended. And the Holy Spirit was poured out. Look at chapter 4. Acts chapter 4. The disciples continued to proclaim the Word of God. And we read in verse 4, But many of those who had heard the message believed, and the number of men came to be about five thousand. We could use a little of that Holy Spirit adding to the church right here. The number came to be about 5,000. We're growing exponentially. Look at chapter 5, down to verse 14. And all the more believers in the Lord, multitudes of men and women were constantly added to their number. This is unheard of in Scripture. There were only a handful of followers by the time Jesus ascended, or at the time that Jesus ascended. And now we have thousands and thousands of converts and more believers added to the Lord. Multitudes of men and women constantly Day by day being added. Look at chapter 6 and verse 7. Acts chapter 6. This is even before Paul was saved. So the church is really growing. This is before his missionary trips and excursions. The church is growing and growing. Chapter 6. Look down, if you would, please, just look at verse 7. And the Word of God kept on spreading and the numbers of the disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem. And a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith. Men of Gentiles, men of Jews, men of all nations, and it says, continuing greatly, spreading greatly, increasing greatly. The Word of God is going forth by the power of the Holy Spirit because Jesus ascended and sent Him out. Now look at chapter 9. Acts chapter 9. Look down at verse 31. So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria enjoyed peace, being built up and going on in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit. It continued to increase. You cannot have People saved and added to the church apart from the work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, I will ascend and I will pour out the Holy Spirit and it's to your advantage. To your advantage because the kingdom will advance. I'm just going to look at one more here. Chapter 13, Acts chapter 13. Here in Acts chapter 13, we read beginning in verse 1, Now there were in Antioch in the church that was there, prophets and teachers, Barnabas and Simeon who was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Menaen who had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch and Saul. And while they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. And when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away." And now we have the beginning of the missionary trips of the Apostle Paul. So Paul goes about and begins to preach the Word of Christ, and still in chapter 13, Verse 46, Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and said it was necessary that the Word of God should be spoken to you first, speaking to the Jews, since you repudiated it and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. For thus the Lord has commanded us, I have placed you as a light for the Gentiles that you should bring salvation to the end of the earth. The kingdom is going to spread. And then notice, and when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed. God saved people through the power and the work of the Holy Spirit. He was promised to the disciples. The Holy Spirit was promised to the disciples. He was poured out on the disciples. They gained power from the Holy Spirit and propagated the gospel. The gospel went forth with truth. This is the realization of that advantage that Jesus spoke of in John chapter 16. It is to your advantage. Now, I want you to stop and think for a moment. Was it not to your advantage? that Jesus ascended back into heaven and poured out the Holy Spirit? Because it was the power of the Holy Spirit that drove the disciples forth, that gave the disciples their understanding of the Gospel and of what Christ had done, enabling them to preach truth to men and women right down to this present generation. And it is because of the Word of God and the Holy Spirit taking the Word of God and using it in your life and in my life that we are saved today. So, it is to our advantage that Christ ascended back into heaven. I might like to have Him around to show people when I'm witnessing. But he says that the Holy Spirit will open their hearts. The Holy Spirit will do that work. It is because he ascended that we have the advancement of the kingdom. And I want to say one other thing in regards to what I've kind of just been saying. We've seen here that it is to our advantage for the advancement of the kingdom We have the promise of the kingdom of God by Jesus. We have the power given to the disciples to proclaim the kingdom. And we have the propagation of the kingdom as it grew and grew and grew. And I just want to touch on one thing, that because of this, we have the peace in our hearts. The kingdom of God has the peace of Christ in our hearts, knowing that it is His work to save men. Like I said, I don't know whatever happened to that man that I was witnessing to. But believe it or not, and it may be obvious to you, I still think of him to this day. Now, he was older than I was then by just a little, maybe. So he may be dead. I don't know. But I still think of that guy. And I wonder what happened. because he refused to make a commitment to Christ that night. But I have peace in my heart knowing that I can't save anybody anyway. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to save men. And I pray that the Holy Spirit did save both those men. And that they went on to be members of a church and real Christians serving God. But even if they didn't, the Holy Spirit would convict them of their sin, the righteousness of Christ, and their own pending judgment. But I have peace in my heart knowing that it is the work of the Holy Spirit to save men and not my job. Now, at that time, I wasn't a pastor. This was before I was ordained and in the Christian ministry. At that time, I was a member of a church. But the same thing is true about pastors. There is so much or too much emphasis placed upon man in the whole thing of salvation. There is a misconception of salvation in our day or soteriology, the doctrine of salvation in our day. The emphasis has been in the last century or so placed almost squarely upon men, upon preachers to get men saved. This was begun in part by some in the 1800s, but it was really brought to fruition by Moody at the turn of the last century. And in our lifetime, by Billy Graham. The hour of decision. Come on forward. The bus will wait on you. Give your life to Jesus. Make a decision. It's up to you. And I remember hearing this, and it drives me crazy when I do, where men would say, God has done all He can do for you. The rest is up to you. God has made one vote for you. Satan has made one vote for you. And you cast the deciding vote. People, that is nothing short of heresy. How dare they imply that Satan's vote is as valuable as God's, if there even was such a thing, and that your vote is more valuable than even God's. It's nonsense. It's heresy. But it is what the teaching of salvation has degraded to in our day. It's up to you. You must take the first step. If you but take one step to God, He'll reach down to you. It's heresy! It's Pelagianism or Semi-Pelagianism at best. The Bible says that men are dead in their trespasses and sins. Romans 3, there is none righteous. There is none who seeks after God. Ephesians 2, you're dead in your trespasses and in your sins. What can dead men do to respond? Nothing. You could poke them, you could kick them, you could punch them, you could shoot them and they don't move. That's how they tell whether criminals are really dead sometimes. They don't want you to shoot them, they don't move, they're dead. You can do all kinds of things to a dead person and they won't do anything. They cannot respond. Why is it in our day that the onus has been placed upon man to do everything? I guess Finney was the one who started the whole invitation system. And it's just grown and grown and grown. So now in our day, if you don't give invitations, you're a heretic. I say the opposite is true. If you do give invitations, you're a heretic. Because the work of salvation is not the work of a preacher twisting an arm, pulling on your emotions and trying to somehow or other manipulate you and say the right things to get you saved. And if he doesn't do that, he's a failure. Man, am I a failure. Because I don't do that, first of all. And you see the results. But I know men when they go to churches to candidate for the ministry or the pastor of that church, that they have to make sure that someone comes down the aisle and they'll keep you there till three o'clock until someone does, because if someone doesn't come down the aisle, they're no good and they won't get hired. That's how ridiculous it has become. The onus is not upon man to save. The onus is not upon keeping the law and saying the right thing. God saves men. Jesus saves. And so I, as a pastor, can have peace in my heart in knowing that as long as I'm preaching the Word of God, that He takes the Word by the Holy Spirit and uses it to pierce man's hearts and save those whom He has ordained to save. That's what we read in Acts 13. Those who had been ordained to eternal life believed. We preach the Word God takes the Word and He, by the power of the Holy Spirit, saves men. It's not that man has to dig deep down inside of himself and find the good that is in there and then get response to God. There is no good in there. There is no good. It is God who opens men's hearts. Case in point, turn over two pages or so in your Bible to chapter 16 of the book of Acts. Acts chapter 16, verse 13. And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to a riverside where we were supposing that there would be a place of prayer. And we sat down and began speaking to the women who had assembled. And a certain woman named Lydia from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshipper of God, was listening. And the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul. The Lord opened her heart. How is it that today people say that God can't open your heart? He's a gentleman, and He would never do that. Then you'll stay dead! And they have this whole picture of Him standing at the door knocking, but there's no doorknob on His side. Oh, poor Jesus. He's so weak. He's so impotent. There's no doorknob on His side. So you'll go to hell! Because if He doesn't change you, if He doesn't save you, if He doesn't make you alive when you're dead, you'll stay dead. It is God who opens men's hearts. Salvation is the work of the triune God. And with the power of the Holy Spirit, He takes the Word and opens hearts. What peace that ought to give us when we think of even our loved ones that we've been praying for for years. It is the power of the Holy Spirit who can come this very day and take what you've said for years to that daughter or to that son or to that grandson or granddaughter, can take what you've been saying, can take what they've heard in church, can take what they've heard from the Bible in reading and save them. Just like that. Not what you say! But what the Spirit does, what peace it gives me as a preacher to know that I can't save anyone, no matter how hard I may try, not by invitations, but men are saved by God. And what peace it gives me to know that that guy that I witnessed to heard the truth. and I leave it in God's hands. These are the things that we have from the Gospel. We preach, we witness, but the results, salvation, is up to the living God through the power of the Holy Spirit. And that, I say, is what Jesus meant when He said, it's to our advantage. Because the Kingdom of God has gone forth The kingdom of God has advanced because Jesus ascended into heaven, and the Spirit was poured out, and people have been saved throughout the world ever since, more than ever in history. You look back to the Old Testament, there really weren't very many believers. Look back prior to the flood, how many people were saved. You look back in the Scriptures and you see all the people of Israel, even, were so against God. And they had the law of God, the witness of God, the words of God. And they still rejected Him, let alone all the other millions of countries and pagans that were around. But now, since Christ has ascended, there are Christians everywhere, all over the world. In every town, in every community, there are Christians everywhere. Because Christ ascended, the kingdom advanced. And we are grateful for that, because we are saved because of that. Amen? Let's pray.