In Acts 2:38-41 the Apostle Peter said to the people at Pentecost , “Repent, and each of you be baptized 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 your children and for all who are far away, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.” And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on urging them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation!” So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls.
Pastor Kyle continued last Sunday in our church sermon series through the book of Acts. Christian baptism quickly followed saving faith in the Lord Jesus as a true disciple; it was associated with His name, which was invoked by the person baptized; it signified the remission or washing away of sins by the grace of God. The King James Version of this passage uses the word “untoward” for this generation, translated from the Greek word “skolios”, meaning “crooked” or “wicked”. The wicked in Scripture, is defined as persons who live in sin; transgressors of the divine law; all who are unreconciled to God, unsanctified or impenitent. Evil in principle or practice; deviating from the divine law; addicted to vice; sinful; immoral. This is a word of comprehensive signification, extending to everything that is contrary to the Moral Law of God. The term “the world has gone to hell in a handbasket” is not new and neither is the battle between good and evil’; right and wrong; faithful Belief and unbelief; godly and ungodly behavior; the Spirit and the fallen flesh; and between Light and darkness. Ultimately, in the final analysis, it all is a war against God.
John 3:19-21 explains, “And this is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the Light; for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light, so that his deeds will not be exposed. But the one who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds will be revealed as having been performed in God.” the world has been in this conflict since the “Fall of Man” in the Garden of Eden. Today, the blatant disregard for God, God’s Moral Law, God’s holy statutes and Commandments, and biblical morality has many wondering if there is any way to reverse the declining culture and deterioration of society. The “unholy trinity” consists of (1) our fallen and sinful nature of the desires of the flesh, (2) the God-rejecting world system, and (3) the devil. An all three are alive and advancing darkness by wreaking lawless havoc daily. It will take a movement of the Holy Spirit to convict hearts of their wicked sin leading to genuine repentance, a Savior from God to rescue and save them, and in a spiritual transformation to turn from unrighteousness and unholiness in victory, baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.
Galatians 5:17 explains, “For the desire of the flesh is against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, in order to keep you from doing whatever you want.” Because of this battle within our soul. Romans 7:18 concludes that on this side of Heaven, “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t.” In our finite moral flesh, we cannot win this spiritual battle; we need God’s Plan of Salvation laid out by the Apostle Peter in Acts 2:39-41 (above). And as we shall find in Acts 4:11-12 that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom was crucified for the sins of the world, whom God raised from the dead, “This is the ‘stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.’ Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” You are saved from something eternally bad, to something eternally good; literally from death to life.
Let’s continue Pastor Kyle’s eternal Gospel message in the next post.
In Christ, Brian
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