What shall we do

[0:00] Sunday school we can join together in a word of prayer let's pray together Lord God we thank you for the privilege we have of joining together like this once more, help us Lord to come today with a heart and mind ready for worship, a heart and mind set what it is we're doing here, we come to this time, this place this ground is holy ground, not because of the building not because of even ourselves, for this ground is holy ground because you meet your people here, where you are there is holiness we thank you Lord for the great gospel hope as we heard in recent weeks that you have come and for the great day of Pentecost we saw evidence that you descended in the Holy Spirit he now makes his home within us he empowers us, he guides us he opens up your word to us help us Lord then to understand just now as a gathering of your people we are here today as those those of us who know and who love our Saviour as those who are inhabited by the Holy Spirit he has made his home in us help us Lord then to understand as we meet together just now but you are present with us here in your power yes you inhabit the whole universe in your power it is all yours but in a glorious beautiful way your presence is with us here today with your people help us Lord then for this time together to set aside our minds and our hearts and our focus purely on you we come to this place we understand and we confess we come to this place in times of worship so easily and so often distracted with the worries and burdens and strains of this life distracting us and pulling us away we bring all these things before you today all the burdens and worries of this past week

[2:06] Lord you know the full detail and the full idea of them you know the full list of what we bring to this place of worship today we bring to try before you our various many family worries our loved ones we are worried for for health reasons for other reasons bring just now before you our own worries our health reasons our financial reasons job prospects Lord you know the full reality of our worry bring just now before you all the health worries we have both mental and physical bring just now before you worries that concern us and worries that no one else knows about apart from us bring all these things all these strains to the throne of grace that place we find mercy and peace grace and help in time of need for look after us we ask and keep us help us to be faithful to you even when life is complicated as we're sharing to the boys and the girls even when we face great disappointments help us understand we worship a sovereign God who keeps full control over all things and you are sovereign in all that you do you who created and sustained the whole universe you who created a number of stars you who named the stars are also the same God your word tells us who gathers up the tears of your people who as aware knows the very number of hairs on our heads that yes you are glorious yes you are sovereign yes you are high and lifted up but you're not distant you're not far away you are close to all who cry out to you you walk alongside your people day after day thank you Lord for this gathering we pray for ourselves as a congregation we ask you bless our time of worship once more together today bless our time around your word as we seek to open it up and seek to to study and delve into the beauty into the challenge into the truth that you share through your living word we ask that we have an impact today we give you praise your word never returns to you void it always accomplishes that which you plan for it to accomplish thank you Lord just now for your people here today those of us here who know you and who love you encourage us through your word help us to be built up by it help us Lord to be strengthened through it and to know it was good for us to be here today as we come to sing your praises as we come to just now publicly and privately pray together all the elements of our public worship help us to engage fully with them pray for you Lord for those of our number who are not here today for various reasons we ask you to be with them strengthen them encourage them those who are ill just now and those who are facing challenges just now come alongside them we ask pray just now for those here our friends here those we love and those we care for who as of yet cannot say that they fully understand who as of yet cannot say that they fully know what it is to love

[5:22] Jesus to serve him to have him as king over their lives we ask Lord that until we see that day they would keep on seeking we ask you speak to them today through your word they would hear they would hear the glorious gospel truth that today is the day of salvation if only they would come to Jesus pray just now for those who are not here those who would never come near this building those who hate what is going on in this building those who are against the gospel caused completely in our village in our families we pray for them especially as your word tells us we pray as it were for the enemies of the gospel Lord you would transform them you would change them you would bring them to a saving hope and a saving knowledge and you would use us in that process as salt and light as witnesses pray just now Lord for those of our family who are unsaved those of our friends who are unsaved those who we've been praying for for years and decades help us to be faithful still and to keep on remembering and knowing you're a God who hears the prayers of your people pray Lord for the glorious gospel work in

[6:34] North Tulsa from McGlen to Gary Lord we ask that every single home would know what it is to come and serve and come and worship the Lord Jesus as we do so we are mindful of our brothers and sisters next door we pray for them just now in their own individual walks Lord we ask for a blessing for them in their own lives we ask that you build them and strengthen them we ask pray all just now for the gospel cause not just in North Tulsa although that is heavy in our hearts we pray also for the gospel cause across our island across our nation across this world thank you Lord we pray just now especially for the prayer points we mentioned and thank you Lord for the work of OM as they worked on the west side a few weeks ago as we see as we hear a gospel blessing from their hard work there we also pray for the ongoing work in Govan Hill we thank you for that congregation the congregation we see such a mixed congregation with so many cultures and languages and colours showing us the beauty and the breadth of your church we ask for you bless your servant there bless your people there as we seek to reach out again and again and more and more into that community thank you Lord for the ongoing work especially amongst the minority groups in that area as we see and hear great news of some of these groups the gospel is spreading and spreading we give you praise for that give you praise for all the good news we hear all the gospel news praise for that for ourselves here we also are mindful of brothers and sisters across the world today praise for that brothers and sisters this day especially in South

[8:19] America in certain areas in that country that we in that nation in that continent we often forget about nations we forget about in areas of nations we have no knowledge about where it is hard to be a believer where even some who go by the name of Christian persecute our Christians for being honest and open about the simple faith and a saviour lord you know the full details the full situation that you pray lord the gospel cause in South America as a whole pay for it lord in every one of the great nations in that continent lord that you would prosper and bless your word there thank you lord as we join together in North Tulsa we can pray for these great gospel promises across our world knowing that you hear our prayers and we join together with the prayers of our brothers and sisters in South America in greater Asia then eastern Europe across this world today we gather as one church raising up our one voice and you hear us pray for those of our number who are going through difficult days those who are mourning recent loss but also those mourning perhaps loss of many years ago lord you know the full detail ask lord you would comfort those who need that comfort in a way that we can never hope to achieve thank you for all that goes on in our own congregation pray lord for the fellowship this evening ask you to bless Catherine as she comes to share with us and encourage her as she joins with us for worship and afterwards for the fellowship that she would know what it is to come alongside your people thank you lord for the starting of our hope explored thank you lord for the last session pray lord for the next two sessions you encourage perhaps some to come along who are reticent and who are worried but who have long wondered and long wanted to ask and discuss and hear more about Jesus we ask you give them the confidence to come and to hear and to sit and to ask and to join in and to know what it is to come to see Jesus for themselves pray lord for all our plans and all our hopes for the gospel in

[10:36] North Tolstair all these plans are yours all the ideas belong to you we plant and we water and we pray and we long but you alone give the increase we ask lord for that gospel increase in North Tolstair we would see more and more come to know come to love Jesus as friend as saviour as king forgive us lord for sin we come just now confessing sin before you confessing in our words and our thoughts and our very actions we've gone against you a holy god ask lord you forgive us and help us look towards Jesus the only way of salvation in his name and for his sake we ask for his many things amen let's turn to god's word we're carrying on our series but we're doing an act series in the evening and a gospel ABC in the morning but we're actually turning things around just for today we're looking at acts today acts chapter 2 acts chapter 2 we can read from verse 22 acts chapter 2 and verse 22 just for context last week in our series we saw the Holy Spirit descending and he descends upon the Lord's people and we see the gospel work begin to really take off and now we see

[12:08] Peter addressing the gathered crowd they've heard the disciples speak to him in their own language and now Jesus and now Peter sorry preaches the good news of Jesus to them acts 2 verse 22 that's on page 856 page 856 acts chapter 2 verse 22 let's hear together god's words men of Israel hear these words jesus of nazareth a man attested to you by god with mighty works and wonders and signs that god did through him in your midst as you yourselves know this jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of god you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men god raised him up losing the pangs of death because it was not possible for him to be held by it for david says concerning him i saw the lord always before me but he is at my right hand but i may not be shaken therefore my heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced my flesh also will dwell in hope for you will not abandon my soul to hate or let your holy one see corruption you have made known to me the paths of life and you will make me full of gladness with your presence brothers i may say to you with confidence that the patriarch david that he both died and was buried and his tomb is with us to this day being there for a prophet and knowing that god had sworn an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on the throne he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the christ that he was not abandoned to hate nor did his flesh see corruption this jesus god raised up and of that we are all witnesses being therefore exalted at the right hand of god and having received from the father the promise of the holy spirit he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing for david not ascend into the heavens but he himself says the lord said to my lord sit at my right hand till i make your enemies your footstool and all the house of israel therefore know for certain that god has made him both lord and christ this jesus whom you crucified now when they heard this they were cut to the heart and said to peter and the rest of the apostles brothers what shall we do and peter said to them repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of jesus christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the holy spirit for the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off everyone whom the lord our god calls to himself with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them saying save yourselves from this crooked generation so those who received his word were baptized and there were added that day about three thousand souls amen and good praise to god for his holy and his perfect word let's again sing to god's praise again and sing psalms psalm 92a the same psalm as we had before sing psalms psalm 92a this time verses 7 down to verse 15 sing psalms psalm 92a verses 7 down to verse 15 although the wicked spring like grass the foolish do not see but all who flourish in their sin will die eternally but lord you are forevermore exalted very high all evil doers will be crushed your foes will surely die psalm 92a verses 7 to verse 15 to god's

[16:09] praise the wicked sin they pass the holy do not care and God will die in change that sin will will die eternally adorn to the all evermore that shall be can be high all even to die who are who are who will truly die to be strong as can be lost with all in the life in me

[17:34] I see in my enemies with me a life of earth and free like mounds and and see her ravishing the light that all will be and round in the heart of heart will draw and and be so in all years they still get through they will see fresh and strong they will grow free and all are just my love on goodness your own so for a short time turn back to the chapter we had in

[19:06] Acts chapter 2 we're covering this large section of verse 22 down to 41 Acts chapter 2 verse 22 down to 41 again taking the whole section to perhaps focus our minds we can take verse 37 the response of the crowd verse 37 when they heard this they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles what shall we do brothers what shall we do as we said we're in Acts this is usually our evening series because of the content of both the sermons we swapped them around this evening we've got to D we're doing ABCs remember of the gospel we've got to D this evening which is discipleship that makes sense we have in the evening for reasons you'll see this evening but today we fear in Acts and as we said we've been following the journey of the early church early church and we saw last week that the coming of the Holy Spirit as he descends down on the people as he empowers the people and they all start speaking different languages and the crowds around them hear the gospel hear the good news hear the mighty works of God as the Bible tells us in their own language and so in the back of this there's now thousands of people hearing the gospel perhaps for the first time and Jesus now

[20:39] Peter now sorry preaches about Jesus he now gives an in-depth sermon on who Jesus is and that's what we're looking at today like all good sermons like all good sermons all good preachers Peter is driving at one or two main points he has one main point first of all in a sermon he is proving to them that this Jesus the one they crucified the one they hate that he is actually the one sent from God and the second point is actually there is no other hope for them apart from listening to and following this Jesus to help us to understand this there's three overarching headings first of all Peter shows them the person of Jesus then Peter shows them the prophecies about Jesus and then the promises of Jesus the person of Jesus the prophecies and the promise Peter is doing here a three point sermon himself it all has to be three points but it just so happens

[21:46] Peter is doing a three point sermon here for this crowd and they're hearing this sermon in their own language and that demands that they must respond to it friends we have no excuse at times I speak fast at times I may have to go in a Gaelic word or two but the reality is you are hearing this in a way you can understand like the crowds here around Peter they're hearing the gospel and Peter is saying to them because you're hearing this you have no excuse not to respond and the same is true for us today we're hearing once more the gospel call and it leaves us without an excuse we must respond first of all then the person of Jesus Peter begins his sermon really here in verse 22 onwards verse 22 down to verse 24 where he just summarizes for them reminds them who Jesus is what he did and what he now does men of Israel verse 22 hear these words

[22:53] Jesus of Nazareth Jesus of Nazareth he reminds them that he was a real man a fully human man he appeared there as human with thinking feeling flesh we cover it before cover again he was born of Mary he had to grow up he had to be fed and changed and looked after he was like us in every single way apart from sin with a full physical and emotional life like us thinking and feeling disappointment sadness worry joy happiness the whole range of human emotion our Saviour felt and went through and knows Jesus of Nazareth a fully human man with fully human lineage and origins Peter's reminding them he was not some charlatan who appears out of nowhere he's saying to them you can trace back his lineage trace back his people and it takes you right back to who?

[23:59] to King David to the one who promised a descendant would come from his line Peter's speaking to them about things they knew now for us when we talk about Old Testament we need context we need reminded these people they lived and breathed they knew their scriptures so well especially in this context and this culture they're very much a spoken generation they would learn a lot by hearing and repeating think of ourselves think of our own kind of fireside stories years ago think of all the stories your grandparents could recite and all the songs and poems they knew it was a culturally it was a spoken culture and the same for this day they knew their Torah they knew their history and Peter reminds them this is the one God promised would come and he has come from very human origins very human lineage his mother is there and his ancestor going right back is King David Jesus of Nazareth of course we see there's more going on he is not just human yes he is fully human but he is not just human a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God threw him in your midst there's something more to this man he is not just

[25:27] Jesus of Nazareth the rabbi Jesus of Nazareth the teacher Jesus of Nazareth no he is Jesus of Nazareth fully human yes fully human yes but also we see here as Peter reminds them fully God and he goes on to explain that more later on quoting from David in the Psalms Psalm 110 quoting the point where David himself says one will come who will be called Lord we covered that Psalm together before at great length this Jesus then fully God fully man Peter reminds his people this Jesus fully God fully man what happened to him verse 23 he was delivered up according to the plan and foreknowledge of God following the definite set plan he came to live as a real man he came into a world he himself made

[26:33] Jesus who made this world the son of God who this world was made through and made for it all belongs to him it's all his and he came into this world he stepped down from glory into creation took on human flesh walked and smelt and saw this world for himself all according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God God's sovereignty yes but also look you crucified speaking to the crowd you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men now we know the full story we know our saviour came to live and to die to save his people but it does not absolve for a second those who hated him and those who cried out in the crowd crucify him crucify him Peter's saying you willfully out of your own evil heart wanted him gone wanted him dead even though he did miracle and sign and miracle and sign and mighty wonder you saw it all as Peter says

[27:42] God did these things through him as you yourselves know they saw the signs of Jesus many of the crowd here would have tasted the miracles of Jesus the bread and the fish they saw and talked of those he took back from the dead at the same time all they wanted was to get rid of him why?

[28:00] why do people hate him so much? because Jesus reminds us that he is Lord that he is King and that we are not we want to be Lord and King as it were over our lives we want to be the supreme over all things and Jesus says no I am I am I must be King I must be supreme in your life and nothing else and no one else including yourself and including myself it must be Jesus and him alone and the crowds would rather get rid of him would rather kill him than actually listen to him but we see the plan carries on regardless the crowds kill him the crowds crucify him God raised him up loosing the pangs of death why?

[28:54] because it was not possible for him to be held by it Jesus came to live to die to be raised again this was an ordinary man in many senses at the same time he is no ordinary man he is the God man he is the one fully God and fully man fully man to walk this earth fully man to understand us to come alongside us but fully God to say I am God follow me who can say to us your sins are forgiven who can say to us you are cleansed who can say to us I am yours and you are mine this Jesus as Peter says he cannot be ignored he cannot he cannot be ignored and we know this and perhaps you have been trying like the crowd here for years to ignore him and you try and just get through a Sunday get through a Sunday and you keep coming back we give praise to God you are here you come here perhaps because of family history you come here perhaps to keep a loved one happy you come here perhaps just to it is what you have always done but you come here and you leave here and you go home again and you think well that's never Sunday

[30:18] I ticked it off my box never Sunday morning never Sunday evening never week gone I've gone to church I've done my good deed I've done my thing and at the same time you are suppressing the fact that one day you must come face to face with this Jesus he cannot be ignored he must be heard it's a person of Jesus fully God and fully man Peter then goes on to give more context he then talks about the prophecies about this saviour verse 25 down to verse 36 this is a long section of the sermon but we can quite simply break it down Peter as a good preacher here is giving the full biblical evidence the fact that Jesus is who he says he is that's all he's doing here in verse 25 roughly down to verse 36 he's just showing the crowd and telling the crowd that Jesus is who he says he was have no doubt this man is who he said he was and here is the evidence here's the evidence and like all the sermons in Acts we'll cover this more in the future in the evening sermons there's good reason to say this often the sermons in Acts we're almost confident are more just summaries of the sermons the summaries of what was said because like every sermon if you wrote down every word I said in half an hour roughly speaking and those of you who know me well will know

[31:57] I speak very fast this is me doing well I speak fast in real life about 3,000 words every 40 minutes I can rattle out if I'm really going for it 3,000 words give or take so this is a summary we could say and what Peter's saying here is brothers listen look at the evidence he quotes from David twice two psalms from David he quotes to show to prove that Jesus is who he says he was he quotes psalm 16 and psalm 110 he quotes two of these believers from their own sources proving who he is they didn't believe in Jesus but they all trusted the words of David he says well don't believe me believe David look what David said he then quotes first of all here to them from psalm 16 verses 25 down to verse 28 as he quotes this then later on psalm 110 down in verse 34 these are two psalms that David wrote the Holy Spirit wrote through David working in David speaking about the coming saviour as Peter uses these psalms he shows first of all in psalm 16 for us verse 25 onwards that David speaks about one whose body would not decay one who was coming from the

[33:27] Lord the holy one whose body would not see corruption and Peter's saying well David wasn't talking about himself there because look his tomb is right there David died we can see his tomb we can go visit his tomb and Peter's saying well who then is David talking about in psalm 16 these hundreds of years ago who was David talking about who was he writing about who is this holy one who would not see corruption who is this holy one who would not be abandoned to the grave who is this holy one who would see life all the days of his life it's Jesus it was the coming saviour we see and we know and Peter showing to them that long ago your king David your patriarch the one you hold in high esteem even he was saying from the mouth of the Lord that one day one will come the Messiah will come and he will not die he will be raised up again from the dead his body will not see corruption the holy one will live and live forever

[34:32] Peter is doing his job and showing the evidence of what he's saying we're seeing this in Hope Explored February night and Tuesday night yes we must have faith and hope but there's no such thing as blind faith the gospel call is not come and believe have a blind faith blind faith is a distortion have it entered into our vocabulary I have no idea it's a disaster there is no such thing as blind faith our God is a God of logic and reason who gives us evidence after evidence and proof after proof that all he says is real and true and the second you actually look into yourself and dig into yourself you see it's true it's one thing that separates ourselves perhaps from the cults the cults will say don't look don't touch don't read don't prod because if you do it it all unravels and we see that we've got friends we have no friends in our groups our friends in JWs for example and to this day as of last year anyway as of last year

[35:44] I'm assuming it hasn't changed there are still repercussions if you do too much outside research don't see what everyone will say about us because it's all false don't look into yourself it's all false see what we tell you what we tell you all that we tell you friends that is not the gospel we're saying take and read yourself research yourself pray yourself look into yourself God is able to prove his own word to you he doesn't need me or anyone else to do it for him and Peter does this Peter says look at the evidence yourselves and weigh up the evidence yourselves my brothers this is the one David was talking about who would not die this is the one who is the Messiah and again in Psalm 110 which is verse 34 and verse 35 for us where David then says and we've covered this before in great detail in Psalm 110 it's a conversation in heaven where David's observing conversation and the Lord is speaking to

[36:46] David's Lord you think what's going on there and we learnt before it is the father speaking to the son it's the father speaking to the son and Peter's saying yet more evidence that King David wrote about the one coming from his own lineage his own descendant who would be the very son of God he is layering up layers and layers and layers of evidence for the listeners he is proving to them don't take our word for it but see it yourself research it yourself understand it yourself and come and know that all this is true all this is true friends all this is true this is not just something we do once a week to as we were tick the box it's not something we just hope might be true we believe this to be true not just blindly but because we have evidence and proof for it layer after layer after layer my question to you is like Peter is encouraging and offering to the crowds here

[37:57] I encourage and offer to you have you researched this for yourself truly or do you just come and sit and go do you spend time during a week to look into what's being said to ask the big questions you've perhaps been too worried or too scared with respect to ask your whole life can this be true and if it's true can it apply to me if Jesus is real if he is God if then he is saying to me come to me can I actually come to him I was saying to you it is yes and yes and yes it is all true and it's all for you now not for a second I saying phone a man and I will give you every answer to every question or come to Hope Explored please do come to Hope Explored I'm not saying come to Hope Explored and have every question you have perfectly answered not for a second not for a second of what happened we're saying come and ask these questions or phone a man

[39:00] I promise we're friendly I can't offer you tea tea a cup have a cup of tea sit down ask the questions we can chat about things we're here to serve you the elders myself included we're here for you have you ever thought of asking us a question burning in your mind if not then please I promise these gents are also very approachable come and make use of us we're here for you if you've never investigated the gospel for yourself as Peter shows the crowd here then please investigate look into it ask the big questions your questions aren't too big for us or God to handle with that in mind in a few weeks time and there's something very new for us in Tulsa but let's try and see what happens in a few weeks time there'll be a box in the back of it this was very childish but sometimes simple things work and other churches who you think have tried

[40:08] I won't name names other churches who you might think a lot more wouldn't work for them it's worked for them a box in the back of the church and in that box you can drop subtly and quietly questions you have and then every so often we will have a time where we go through these questions and seek to answer them if you can't ask them to me to my face at least ask them in a box in the back of church but friends I promise you our biggest desire is for you to come and to know the Lord for yourself to come and to see him come and to serve him come and have him as your friend as your saviour as your elder brother and to know that you're right and at peace with God Peter lays then levels a great accusation against the crowd and there's the promises of

[41:10] Jesus our final point he levels a 36 he gives him all the evidence all the proof at the end of the sermon and he says to him verse 36 let all the house of Israel in other words let all of you guys hear all you people gather together listen to this God has made him both Lord and Christ this Jesus whom you crucified you have like your ancestors he says to these people like the people before you you have stoned and killed finally have killed have laid your cruel hands your lawless hands onto the one sent from God the son of God you have enabled him to be killed you have allowed it to happen you have encouraged his death you cried out for it in other words because of you he has been killed we see a clear response from the crowd verse 37 they ask of one voice it seems a question when they heard this verse 37 when a crowd heard this they were cut to the heart said to

[42:28] Peter and the rest of the apostles brothers what shall we do friends in your hearing today and in a language you can understand you're hearing once more of a true fact because of your sin because of your rebellion the son of god came lived a life was nailed to a cross choked slowly to death in his own fluids before that lived a life of embarrassment and shame a life of ridicule who faced on a cross not just physical torment but also the reality of hell who became sin on that cross who faced the full wrath of god for every sin of every one of his people all for you today like the crowd here as you are being reminded and together as we're being reminded that jesus came and because of us he was on that cross and because of us he died a cruel agonizing spiritually physically agonizing death is our response the same as a crowd when we hear of the death of our saviour for us our hearts say like the crowd well then what do

[43:52] I do what do I do like the crowds it's a question that has to be asked the question has to be answered what's the answer peter gives the crowd says well if you're saying this jesus came and lived and died and rose again for me what then do i do peter says repent and be baptized every one of you and so on repent and be baptized is a simple response to a simple gospel call repent that's placing a full faith in jesus a hope in jesus when i say full faith i don't mean strong faith when i say hope i don't mean a strong hope it could be a clueless faith a clueless hope you have a small faith a small hope but place yourself in jesus hands and say i want you i want you as lord and king i don't want to be lord and king over my life anymore i want to turn away from who i once was and turn to you that's the meaning of repent to do as it were a complete 180 a complete change of position away from yourself and towards jesus turn away from yourself a godly sorrow for sin not just you might say remorse not just remorse remorse comes and remorse goes but a godly sorrow for sin you realise that because of who you are and what you have done because of who we are and what we have done we cause as it were the son of god to be nailed to that cross and to die horrifically on the cross because of his love for us he remained there and as he is there slowly dying he is there for you and for me taking himself our full deserved wrath as you imagine him there as you place him there just now as you see him in your mind's eye there just now there for you you come then to

[46:09] God and say I trust that his work is enough to save me I can't save myself I'm not saying to come with full understanding you can learn a lot after you're saved but come to say I can't do it I can't live this life I'm not good enough but he is I can't save myself but he has saved me by his finished work and be baptized with the crowd here the baptism was real it was this outward sign this change of life this public showing of your faith now for many here we've been baptized perhaps as children but some of us haven't so if you were to be saved we'd very gladly baptize you but was baptism in a sense was that outward showing of God's faithfulness towards you turn to him turn away from yourself turn to him and have that outward showing that outward exclamation that he is now yours and you are his that he's washed you clean with his blood come to

[47:19] Jesus what's the promise promise then is a gospel promise here promise of gospel goodness a promise for all who will hear it from generation to generation the promise of the gospel is for you and your children and for all who are far off everyone whom the lord our god calls to himself friends we are here today as those who are once far off when this was first preached by peter we are the ones we are the gentiles in far off lands north tulsta nor lewis nor scotland had ever seen or heard of the gospel good news at this point we are those who are far off and the gospel come to us and think of yourself think yourself of your lineage for many of us not all of us not all of us I know for many of us that are praying parents praying grandparents praying friends and those who have gone before us generations ago generations ago who never knew of their existence but yet were praying for the generations that would come after them who are praying for you who pray and laid hold on this promise the lord gives his people the good news is for your children and your children's children we covered this text before looking at why we baptise babies we covered that before we won't go to that just now but this is a promise we can only hold on today and say well there's been prayers for you and prayers for me from generation after generation before us and the lord is faithful to the prayers of his people he hears them he cares for them and the question to you today is have you yet taken hold and laying hold on the promise given to you the promise of the gospel all who come all who come he will not turn you away he will not turn you away to come to him and ask him for that salvation he will not ignore you he will not abandon you nor leave you he will hear you when you cry out to him when you say

[49:48] I know I can't save myself I know I'm not good enough to get into glory I know in myself and of myself I am not where I should be I come to you and I say to you Lord have me will you have me will you take me will you be my lord my king my saviour my friend and again I challenge you once more if you haven't ever prayed properly not saying repeating prayers if you haven't ever actually prayed for yourself then maybe today's the day you do it maybe this afternoon you first pray with no other words no fancy words just pray simply saying Lord will you have me as yours will you save me will you be my lord and my saviour I repent of all I've done and all that I am I want nothing more anymore than you and you alone have you yet taken hold of the gospel promise if you haven't but maybe today for you is that day but there's nothing keeping you back from holding that promise but yourself nothing holding that gospel promise today you think well

[50:56] I can't I'm a hypocrite I don't understand enough I don't believe hard enough whatever excuse you're using it's excuses Jesus says come without qualification without limit come all who want all who are thirsty all who are heavy laden all who are weary all who are needy come and receive from him life and hope love and glory 3,000 souls are saved when Peter preaches this sermon brothers and sisters North Tulsa has 400 give or take souls now if that 400 souls there's many brothers and sisters we know we are praying we'd see 30 souls aren't we 30 souls saved in our midst why not

[51:56] God is able to do that for us for his glory for his name's sake 3,000 are saved there let's pray for 30 to be saved in Tulsa again for his glory for his church that he will be glorified and magnified that feels perhaps too big for us to pray why is God somehow scared by our big prayers of course he's not is God able to answer our big prayers of course he is we pray for his glory for his kingdom's work we pray for 30 in North Tulsa he's able he is able we hold in the promise and don't let today pass you by without coming back even reading these words again even this week perhaps taking that big step of phoning the months emailing calling facebook twitter i'm on every platform possible come and find me grab a hold of me talk to me we can talk through these things together if it's helpful let's pray together lord we come once more around your word we thank you for the gift of it we thank you for the promises we find in it the promise of hope and salvation found in

[53:07] Jesus and him alone we also pray lord for the challenge we heard and received today the challenge that we must come if we do not there is as it were no other hope for us there is no hope found outside of Jesus no hope in ourselves no hope in our efforts no hope in our good works it is him and him alone help us lord then to leave this place having received once more encouragement to search after Jesus and to find our hope in him let's call these things in and through and for his precious name's sake amen let's sing in scottish psalter and psalm 103 scottish psalter psalm 103 these words of praise for many of the christians here these are the words that we can sing and the words that reflect our own salvation scottish psalter psalm 103 that's on page 369 page 369 we can sing verses 1 down to verse 5 oh vow my soul bless god the lord and all that in me is be stirred up his holy name to magnify and bless bless oh my soul the lord thy god and not forgetful be of all his gracious benefits he hath bestowed on thee psalm 103 verses 1-5 to god's praise oh that thy self bless

[54:44] God health the lord and all that he is esteた souひよ That chose I am blessed.

[55:10] Let so my soul the Lord thy God grant not forgetfully.

[55:25] Of all his precious heaven is, he hath been stored on me.

[55:42] All thy gifts, when you to the Lord's grace shall see for you.

[55:58] His thanks for all your desires, has God TUDA Silence.

[56:15] Good Job, making God, junk aus kundiackIt's a Yodam.

[56:30] Goodie- arranged by night!!!

[56:46] Now some love will fall to thee starting from the OldenEC with the leaves of the damage of the cross Mona Mona Lisa Mary, this is the children's scripture song from paint in bright softness I will see you in the name of the Lord.

[57:12] I will see you in the name of the Lord. I will see you in the name of the Lord. In the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the love of God the Father, in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, for with you now and forevermore.

[57:29] Amen.