Meanwhile, here is the transcript for your convenience and your further study.
"The time will come when they shall
not endure sound doctrine but after their own lusts shall heap to themselves
teachers having itching ears and they shall turn away their ears from the truth
and shall be turned unto fables." I mean what is truth? This question
has been at the forefront of philosophical debate for many years yet there is
only one answer: the Word of God. God's Word is the only real source of truth
that we have anything we believe outside of his word is subject to error and
anything we believe contrary to his word - it's a lie! How we think or
feel is irrelevant to the truth. The truth stands all by itself. Paul writes in
the book of Romans, “What if some did not believe? Shall their unbelief
make the faith of God without effect? God forbid! Yay, let God be true but
every man a liar.” It doesn't matter if every person in the world believes in a
lie. God's Word will stand true. “All flesh is grass and all
the glory of men as the flower of grass. The grass withers. The flower
thereof fades away, but the word of the Lord endures forever.”
Since there's only one source of
truth, then why are there so many beliefs and denominations and
doctrines? The Bible says there is only one Lord, one faith, and one
baptism. That means if there is a hundred different beliefs about what it takes
to be saved, only one of them can be right. God has designed one way
to inherit eternal life one plan of salvation uniformed for all
believers. There's no picking or choosing or customizing your
own plan of salvation. So, how do we know which way is right? By looking
to the source of truth: the Word of God.
Now, the Bible is composed of many mysteries.
Some due to the fact that it was translated from a different
language, others references to a time and culture that differs from
ours, and some are prophetic mysteries which are dark and difficult
to understand and that's the way God intended them to be so that they would
only be understood when the time came to pass. However, a large portion of Scripture
does not need any interpretation or extra commentary. When Jesus said,
“Go and sin no more,” He simply meant stop sinning! We
don't need the Greek word for “go” or the cultural views of the time
on sin. Many study Bibles today are filling up with more commentary
than actual Scripture and this is something we need to be careful of
because we cannot replace the Word of God with the word of man. In fact, the
best commentary on the Bible is the Bible itself.
God's Word is consistent from
Genesis to revelations in that it does not contradict itself.
“All Scripture is
given by the inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine.”
It's important that we don't
support our beliefs by pulling scriptures out of the Bible, but
rather go to the Bible to find out what to believe because many
times in an effort to support our own beliefs we take
scriptures out of context and end up in error.
So, what does the Bible say about
salvation? What shall we do? This question was asked thousands of years
ago to Peter on the day of Pentecost who had just finished preaching
a message about Jesus Christ. Peter didn't instruct them to have
faith and believe in Jesus because we know they already believed his
words about Christ. The Bible says that they ‘were pricked in their
heart’ it was their faith that led them to ask the question, “What
shall we do?” Therefore, Peter’s response was instructions for those who already
believed in Jesus. It wasn't good enough
for the people just to believe, but they had to act on their faith being obedient
to the Word of God. James 2 “What does it profit my brother if someone
says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If
a brother or a sister is naked and destitute of daily food and one of
you say to them ‘depart in peace, be warm and filled,’ but you do not
give them the things which are needed for their body, what does it profit
thus?” Also, faith by itself if it does not have works. Dead talk is cheap
and just saying something with your mouth does not constitute faith.
True faith is when we act upon what the Word of God instructs us to
do.
So, what should we do? Peter gives
us the answer in Acts chapter 2 verse 38 and contrary to popular Christian
teachings, it wasn't to accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior.
The Bible says that Peter said unto them, “repent and be baptized every one
of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins and you shall
receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you and to
your children and to all that are far off, even as many as the Lord
our God shall call.” Here Peter gives us God's simple and clear plan
of salvation, “repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus
Christ for the remission of your sins and you will
receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Peter also lets us know that
this promise was not just for the group of people he was
talking to but these were instructions to all people from every nation as many as God will call. This means
repentance, baptism in the name of Jesus, and receiving the gift of the
Holy Spirit applies to everyone just as Jesus boldly stated to
Nicodemus, “Verily, verily I say unto you, except a man be born
of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.”
What does it mean to repent? Repentance isn’t
just being sorrowful or having tears or feeling bad. Repentance
is taking direct action to turn away from sin. The Bible says that Godly
sorrow leads us to repentance unto salvation. When we understand that
we're sinful, it causes us to be sorrowful for our trespasses against
God and turn from our evil ways. If you could summarize the message
of John the Baptist who came to prepare the way for Jesus Christ, it was to
repent. John instructed the believers to bring forth fruit, meat for
repentance. Now he wasn’t talking about literal fruits, but actions.
He told the tax collector to stop cheating, the soldiers to stop making
false accusations. The act of repentance truly prepares us to receive Jesus
Christ. We cannot continue the sin and please God. Paul asks,
“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God
forbid! How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?”
Some doctrines teach that we will
always continue this sin daily and God will continue to cover us with
His grace forever, but the Bible says, “God forbid! Don't you know
that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not
deceived. Neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor effeminate nor
abusers of themselves with mankind nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkards nor
revilers nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God.” No sinner or person
who actively sins will inherit the kingdom of God. Jesus stated, “Except you
repent, you shall likewise perish.” Repentance, however, is only the first step for a believer towards
salvation. You can't just
stop there. You must be born again of the water and the spirit in order to be cleansed of your sins and receive power to live a life free from sin.
Peter's second instruction was to be baptized
in the name of the Lord Jesus. Christ Jesus shed his blood on the
cross to remove our sins, but his blood is not automatically applied
to our lives. The work Jesus did on the cross is only applied
to our lives by calling on the name of Jesus in Baptism. Jesus told his disciples,
“He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.” Baptism
does not cleanse us physically, but spiritually. 1 Peter 3:21 states that “The like
figure whereunto even baptism does also now save us, not to putting
away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience
towards God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” The only way to
have a good conscience towards God is to be cleansed of sin. After Paul received
his sight in the book of Acts, Ananias asked him, “Why are you waiting? Arise
and be baptized and wash away your sins calling on the name of the Lord.” We
can see here from the scriptures that the purpose of baptism is to
spiritually wash away our sins. It is not an optional step toward
salvation, it is a commandment and it is critical in order to receive
the work of atonement that Jesus performed on the cross.
The third instruction Peter gives is
to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit
of God dwelling inside of a person. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit
was prophesied by Joel that in the last days God would pour out his
spirit upon all flesh and this prophecy was fulfilled in the book of
Acts chapter2. “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come,
they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly, there came a sound
from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and it filled all the house
where they were sitting and there appeared unto them cloven tongues
like as a fire and it sat upon each of them and they were all
filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as
the Spirit gave them utterance.” Receiving the Holy Spirit is
necessary for salvation. Jesus said in John 3 “Except the man be born
of the water and the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
For that which is born of flesh is flesh. , and that which is born of
the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I say you must be born again.
It is impossible to enter into the kingdom of God if you have not been
born again of the Spirit. Paul writes in Romans 8:9, “Now if any man
have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. If you do not have
the Spirit of God in you, you do not belong to him. The great news is
the Holy Spirit is a gift. You don't have to earn it or work for it.
God is more than willing to give it to those who ask in faith. “Marvel
not that I say unto you you must be born again. The wind blows where
it wishes and you hear the sound of it but cannot tell where it comes
from and where it goes so it is as everyone who was born of the Spirit.” These
words Jesus spoke concerning those who are born of the Spirit. He
compares the spirit to the wind. Like the wind, the Spirit of God is
invisible. You can't see it. You can't tell where it comes or where
it goes, but Jesus tells us that the evidence of the presence of the
wind is that you will hear the
sound. So, how will you know you have received the Holy Spirit? You
will hear the sound.
Let's look at three different
accounts of believers receiving the Holy Spirit in the Bible.
“And they were all filled with the
Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave
them utterance.”
“While Peter was still speaking these
words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those that heard the word and those of the circumcision who believed were astonished, as
many as came with Peter, because the gift of the Holy Spirit
had been poured out on the Gentiles also. For they heard them
speak with tongues and magnify God.”
“When they heard this they were baptized in
the name of the Lord Jesus and when Paul had laid hands on them, the
Holy Spirit came upon them and they spoke with tongues and prophesied.”
In every recorded account of the
outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the Bible says that they spoke with
other tongues. When the Holy Spirit was first poured out on the day of
Pentecost to the hundred and twenty disciples of Jesus, the Bible says
that they spoke with other tongues. When Cornelius in his household,
the first group of Gentiles to receive the Holy Spirit were filled,
the Bible says that they spoke with other tongues. When the disciples
of John the Baptist who had to be
baptized a second time because their first baptism was only unto
repentance and not in the name of Jesus, when they received the
Holy Spirit, they spoke with other tongues.
One uniformed plan of salvation
with one uniformed experience for all believers! The evidence is speaking
in other tongues. God didn't give us a vague, ambiguous sign to leave us
in uncertainty or doubt, but he gave us a sure, supernatural sign of
his presence. The only way Peter knew that the Gentiles had received
the Holy Spirit was because they heard them speak with other tongues.
“While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell
upon all those that heard the word and those of the circumcision
who believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter,
because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles
also for they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God.”
God is not an author of confusion. Everyone
who receives the gift of the Holy Spirit has the same experience. God's
Word has not changed. The same born-again experience that the Apostles witnessed
is being experienced today. The same sign of speaking in tongues is still
the evidence of the Holy Spirit today.
Maybe you're saying to yourself, “I haven't
experienced these things,” or “I haven't taken these steps that
Peter described in acts 2:38.” You may have made a confession at an
altar or repeated the sinner's prayer, but haven't been baptized in the
name of Jesus. Maybe you've been baptized but they only called on the
titles ‘Father Son and Holy Spirit’ and left out the name of Jesus. Harden
not your heart. Maybe you felt excited at a church service and cried tears
of joy and someone told you that you had the Holy Spirit, but you've
never spoken tongues. Harden not your heart. There's only one
way to inherit eternal life. A man once asked Jesus, “Lord, are
there few that be saved?” and Jesus told him, “Strive that you may enter
in at the strait gate. For many shall seek to enter in and shall not
be able. The way to eternal life is a narrow
path the wide path which is full of doing your own thing, making
verbal confessions without actions, and doing the best you can do will
only lead to destruction, but the narrow way leads to eternal life.
My friend, if you believe the Word
of God which has been spoken unto you, you have found the entrance to
the narrow way. You have found the keys to eternal life. What do you
have to do? Just as Peter said 2,000 years ago, “Repent and be
baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the
remission of your sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy
Spirit. For, this promise is unto you and to your children and to all
those that are far off even as many as the Lord our God shall call.”
This is the way, now walk
therein.
