Bro Gary Sunday Morning 8/21/11

Bro Gary Sunday Morning 8/21/11

Act 2:1  And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.

Act 2:2  And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.

Act 2:3  And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.

Act 2:4  And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Act 2:5  And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven.

Act 2:6  Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language.

Act 2:7  And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans?

Act 2:8  And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?

Act 2:9  Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia,

Act 2:10  Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes,

Act 2:11  Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.

Act 2:12  And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this?

Act 2:13  Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine.

Act 2:14  But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words:

Act 2:15  For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day.

Act 2:16  But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel;

Act 2:17  And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:

Act 2:18  And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy:

Jesus had paid the price that man’s sin could be forgiven and told them to tarry in Jerusalem until they should be filled with the Holy Ghost.

Act 2:34  For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand,

Act 2:35  Until I make thy foes thy footstool.

Act 2:36  Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.

Lord and Christ, governor and messiah:  Jesus Christ is still in control and is the governor of all things.  He is not ignorant of where we are or of all the things in the world that there are to be concerned about this morning. 

There were people of every nation that were there.  They were hearing the good things of God spoken in their language.  This is what the gift of tongues is: for each to hear the bible truths in their own language.

Act 2:37  Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?

Act 2:38  Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

There is a wonderful thing about God and His son and the Holy Spirit of God.  It is unique to them.  Often they make a diligent search of the heart with the candle of the Word of God.  There were thousands there that were not right with God.  The Holy Spirit of God pricked, or pierced thoroughly, them in their heart.

If I get a sliver, I look for a needle and begin digging around and it hurts.  I thought this scripture might be talking about how that feels.  Study showed me that it is a much greater piercing of the heart and conscience recognizing that “I have a need of God.” 

We are so blessed when God convicts us of a need, when we feel thoroughly pierced, stung to the quick. 

God was revealing to people of every nation that they needed to be saved.  Sometimes we don’t know what our need is.  I pray, “God help me to grasp what you are trying to tell me because more than anything else I want to please you.”

It is important to know what it means to repent.  People talk of turning over a new leaf, of accepting Christ.  There are many things taught of the religious world or of secret societies on how to receive Christ.  We need to know what the Bible says and “buy the truth and sell it not.”

Each of us is convicted in our heart by the faithfulness of God that we need to repent.

To repent means to confess our sin to God.  The God that we sinned against we now come back to and confess our sin to Him.  When I got saved I had too many sins to remember.  When we come to God we come confessing of our sin and asking God to forgive us of our sin. 

We must have the attitude of being sorry for our sin and that we don’t want to sin any more.  Then we are born again not of a physical birth but of a spiritual.  We become a member of the family of God and there is no one that is more special than anything else.  Our name is written in the lamb’s book of life. 

We are given a new name.  My name is Gary Bertrum Kelly.  When I got born again I had a new heavenly father and He added the name God to my name.  I’m not boasting; I’m no different than you.  When you get saved you are a part of the family of God and you have that name too.

Mat 4:16  The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.

Act 2:38  Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Act 17:30  And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:

There were times in history that people didn’t know about repentance, but now God commands every man to repent.  Good people need to repent of not accepting Jesus Christ as their lord and savior.  All men everywhere should repent.

Jesus message to the Laodicean church was to repent.

Rev 3:19  As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

If an individual has become lukewarm and has lost the fire of God out of their soul and is going along religiously then the Bible tells them to repent.

There are many teachings on baptism.  There is one baptism.

Mat 28:19  Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

Some believe in sprinkling, some in pouring, …  Baptism is when we are totally buried in the water.  It represents burying the life of sin. 

Rom 6:4  Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

We die out to sin.  Anything and any sin that you can think of is ugly.  All sin is ugly.  Beyond the shadow of any doubt, all sin carries the reality of ‘whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap.’

Get saved and be baptized.  You could have a record of sin that would be equal to someone in prison.  When you get saved you can sow good seed and start measuring to the Word of God.  Start practicing praising God.  David said that he was going to praise God seven times a day.

We have much to praise God for.  Praising God does much for us.  It brings to our mind how good God has been.  We are blessed to be under the gospel, to have opportunity to sow seed, to be saved.  No one in this audience has used up their measure of faith. 

Take care of your faith, sow seed and expect a crop.  If you’ve sowed seed and it didn’t come up, sow some more seed.  Don’t just sow where there is someone that is pleasant.

We bury our old prejudices, our own ways, our excuses.  Excuses are a terrible thing.

I’m glad that you can die to the life of sin.  Read in Galatians of the works of the flesh.  You don’t know what you will do if you don’t die out to sin.  Read the songs of DO Teasley.  You can hear in the songs God warning him to stay close to God.  He made a choice to wander away from God. 

We are blessed to bury the life of sin and everything that goes with it and rise to newness of life.

Rom 6:4  Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

God, His son, and the Holy Spirit are renewing factors.  In nature, when the ground is torn up, the birds fly and drop seeds.  The wind carries seeds.  The flowers, the trees, the grass, the fruit bushes grow up.  This is how God is with life.  Maybe you have a desert life; God can cause you to grow like the trees of Lebanon.   He wants you to have character and morals.  He wants you to be blessed with a mind and ability.  You can sing, you can listen, and you can smile. 

Life may not have been perfect to you, but this God that ordained repentance and baptism ordained that your life become as a beautiful tree of Lebanon, growing with grace and with strength.  God wants you to grow as Sharron; there was a beautiful garden Sharron.  God wants you growing as a garden to refresh someone else. 

God wants you to be as Carmel, fertile ground.  You weren’t very fertile ground when you got saved.  There were thorns, rocks, and hard and packed soil.  You begin digging out the rocks and letting God deal with you.  You pray, “God make me good ground.”  God not only makes you good ground, He plants good certified seed of the Word of God.  He sends the sunshine and the rain.  Sometimes He chooses our good brothers and sisters to send the sun and the rain through their testimonies, the Sunday school lesson, or the message.

1Pe 3:21  The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:

Peter told how Noah obeyed God and was saved from destruction.  We are blessed to know that when we have confessed and repented of our sin and obey God with a new, pure, and clean conscience then He saves us from the destruction of sin. 

My conscience was defiled by sin.  It is wonderful that our conscience can become a good conscience, clear before God.  When we obey, our conscience is clear, “I have done what the bible says.” 

Noah could have human reasoned but he didn’t; he obeyed God.  When we obey God our conscience is clear. 

“Take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine.” 

The Bible is what I’ll be judged by today, every day that I live, and at the judgment. 

There are many books, theories, and ideas that people come up with but we need to take heed to the doctrine: the word of God not taken out of context.  Don’t look for anything past the Bible.  There are spirits in the world today that would like to make men think that they can lead them past the Bible.

The way that you can know truth is by two witnesses.  The truths of the Old Testament are prophesied of and taught and they can be found in the New Testament.  Jesus fulfilled and taught the same word.

It is ultimate disaster if we teach anything other than the Word of God.  Every good book needs to be weighed on the balance with the Word of God on the other side.  Anything that contradicts the Bible is false.  There are those that want to obey in a rigid way, others want to live very loosely.  God draws a line for every one of us and we must each respond, “God you created me and I want to obey and serve you.”

Happiness is obeying God; it is being rightly related to God and to each other.

There is only one way to deal with someone doing you wrong and that is to forgive them.  You don’t need to become a door mat for them to continue to use and abuse, but we must forgive so that you can be forgiven. 

Put yourself on God’s balance and open the Word of God and say, “God in your kindness sting me if I have a need; pierce and convict me.”  What God does He does for our good and for our benefit.