Freedom Through Christ’s Blood

Freedom Through Christ's Blood

(No. 3106)

A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 1908.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
AUGUST 2, 1874.

"As for you also, by the blood of your covenant Have set forth your
prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water. Turn you to the
stronghold, you prisoners of hope: even today do I declare that I will
render double unto you." Zechariah 9:11,12.

[Another Sermon by Mr. Spurgeon on the same text, is #2839 , Volume
49– "PRISONERS OF HOPE"]

THIS morning, [See Sermon #1186, Volume 20–THE BLOOD OF THE COVENANT].
I tried to show that in consequence of the blood of the Covenant having
been shed and the Covenant having so been fulfilled, Jesus Christ was
brought back out of the prison of the grave, set at liberty and exalted
to indescribable Glory in the highest Heaven. I then showed that Jesus
Christ is the Representative of all His people– that when He was set
free, they were virtually set free, and that when He returned into
Glory, He went there as their Representative, taking possession of the
heavenly places in their name, so that, in due time, where He is, there
they may also be. I had not time, this morning, to make a fitting
application of our subject. But happily for us, here stands another
text, an older one, and yet most suitable to come after the other, so I
will use it now.

Jesus Christ has been delivered from the bondage of the grave and I
have to remind you, first, that there are other prisoners who have been
set free through the blood of the Covenant. Secondly, that there are
otherpersons yet to be set free through the blood of the Covenant. And
then I shall close with a few words in honor of the secret reason of
their liberation–the blood of the Covenant.

I. First, then, dear Friends, we have to notice that THERE ARE SOME
PERSONS WHO HAVE BEEN ALREADY SET FREE THROUGH THE BLOOD OF THE
COVENANT.

This leads us to consider where they were prisoners and to what they
were prisoners. We are told, in the text, that they were in "the pit."
That is where all God's people were once. You know that, in the East,
they did not always take the trouble to build prisons–an empty well,
or a place where they had been accustomed to hide their corn, or an
underground, unused reservoir would serve for a prison. The poor
prisoner was let down by ropes and the mouth of the pit or well was
covered with a big stone–and there he was left to die. Generally the
place was noisome and foul, a living grave rather than anything else.
The position of a poor captive, sitting down on a stone at the bottom
of a deep, dirty pit, is a very apt picture of the state of man by
nature. When he is really awakened to a sense of his true position, he
finds that this is the very image of where he is. He is put in that
prison by the Law of God. He feels that he has broken the Law and that
the Law must punish him. Conscience builds huge walls harder than
granite around him–and when he tries to find a way of escape, there is
none that he can discover. He realizes that the Judge of all the earth
must abhor iniquity and must punish sin. In addition to that, sin has
put him in that prison, for, though he has mourned over his sin since
he was even partly awakened, yet he cannot cease from sin any more than
the Ethiopian can change his skin or the leopard his spots! Like the
big stone over the mouth of the well, his tendency to sin and his
corruptions shut him in. He cannot lift that stone–he is a prisoner to
his own evil desires and depraved heart and, at the same time, a
prisoner lawfully detained, under a warrant from the High Court of
Heaven by the officers of Divine Justice.

Many of you, my Brothers and Sisters in Christ, can recollect the time
when you were in that pit. I remember being in it for years and, oh,
what a happy day it was for me when I was lifted right up out of it! It
is a horrible place, that pit of conviction of sin. Nothing can be more
horrible, out of Hell, than to have an awakened conscience, but not to
have a

reconciled God–to see sin, yet not to see the Savior–to behold the
deadly disease in all its loathsomeness, but not to trust the Good
Physician and so to have no hope of ever being healed of our malady! Of
all the miseries that can be endured in this life, this is one of the
greatest.

This poor prisoner, shut up in a pit out of which he could not escape,
could find no comfort. The text says it was a pit in which there was no
water. I saw the Mamertine Dungeon, which might very well be likened to
a pit–the entrance to the first vault is through a narrow hole, then
another narrow hole from the bottom of that vault into the second one.
But in the floor of the lower dungeon, in which Paul is said to have
been confined, there is a spring which continually bubbles up–and I
drank of the water–as cold and fresh and clear as any I ever drank.
There was at least one source of comfort there, for, in the stifling
heat of that horrible dungeon, there was some water. But when we were
shut up in the pit by our own sin and by Divine Justice, there was no
water there. Do you remember when you tried to drink at the cistern of
human ceremonies and found that it was filled with brine which
increased your thirst instead of slaking it? You sought next to drink
of what you thought was the water of your self-righteousness–but you
were like a pilgrim on the desert sands who sees the deceptive
mirage–limpid streams and crystal fountains before his eyes, but when
he presses forward to drink of them, he finds nothing there but the
burning sand! Some of us were duped and deluded, for a while, with the
vain hope of accomplishing our own salvation, but it all turned to
nothing and we were still in the pit wherein was no water. Oh, what
numerous devil's agents there are about trying to cheat poor souls who
are in this pit with the notion that they can supply them with water in
the pit and that they can remain there–that they can continue
unforgiven and unrenewed–and still enjoy true comfort! But that is an
idle tale! No, more–it is a fatal delusion! There might as well be
found water in Hell as true comfort for a soul that realizes its guilt
and fears the thunders of the wrath of God, yet is not reconciled to
God by the death of His Son. Apart from that Living Water which Jesus
came to bring, such a soul is truly in "the pit wherein is no water."

And, dear Friends, there was a still worse point about our bondage. It
was a thoroughly hopeless one, for we were not merely shut up in that
pit for a short time, but we were shut up there to die! When a man is
cast into a deep pit and the mouth of it is covered over with a
stone–and his captors give him neither food nor water–he knows at
once what that harsh treatment means. If they meant him to live, they
would at least put him down with a crust of bread and a pitcher of
water. But we were in a pit wherein was no water and we felt that there
was nothing before us but "a certain fearful looking for ofjudgment and
fiery indignation." I have known what it is to wake in the morning and
wonder that I was not in Hell, and to go to my bed at night afraid to
fall asleep lest I should sleep myself into eternity! When a man is in
such a state as that, he feels that life is hardly worth living, and he
could almost say with Job, "My soul chooses strangling and death rather
than my life."

This is the position into which many who are the true children of God
are brought–they are not all tried alike, for all are not made equally
sensitive of sin and to some, faith comes much sooner than to others.
But there are many persons who were thus shut up, but concerning whom
the text now says, "By the blood of your covenant, I have sent forth
your prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water." Notice that
expression, "I have sent forth your prisoners." That is the blessing–
we who have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ are in prison no longer.
We are trusting in the blood of the Covenant and, therefore, there are
no fetters upon us now, no stone walls, or prison bars, or terrors of
conscience, or convictions of sin to frighten us now, for the Lord has
said, "Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." There
are thousands in this Tabernacle who were once in this prison, but they
are out of it, now, and they can say, "Therefore being justified by
faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."

We are out of this pit by right. We did not break out of prison
contrary to the Law of God–we have the right to be out because the
debts for which we were imprisoned, are all paid–a full Atonement has
been offered for the sins for which we were put in prison! There has
been a complete expiation made, wide as the sin of all the Lord's
people, and as vast as the demands of infinite and inflexible Justice.
Every child of God is justlyas well as graciously saved! It would be an
eternal injustice if any soul for whom the Savior stood as a Substitute
could die by the sword of Divine Justice. But that can never be–

"Payment God cannot twice demand, First at my bleeding Surety's hand,
And then again at mine."

No, my blessed Savior–

"Complete Atonement You have made,

And to the utmost farthing paid,

Whatever Your people owed–

Nor can His wrath on me take place,

If sheltered in Your righteousness,

And sprinkled with Your blood." But, dear Friends, we are free by
might, as well as by right, for that same Jesus who bought our liberty
for us, has secured it to us. Those grim prison walls He has thrown
down by His own pierced hands. Those black shades of darkness that
surrounded us, He has chased away by His own glorious manifestation as
our Sun of Righteousness! It is the Lord, the Liberator, who has set
His people free! Therefore, if you are among them, rend the heavens
with your joyful shouts, you liberated ones! By the blood of the
Covenant you are set free by the almighty "Breaker" who has come to
break down your prison walls and to make you "free indeed."

And, Beloved, we are now free forever, for the Lord says–"Ihave sent
forth your prisoners." And when God sends us forth out of prison, who
can send us back? When He says, "Let there be light," who can create
darkness? When He says to me, "Be free," who can chain me up again? Let
all the hosts of Hell surround me–as the Philistines surrounded poor
blind Samson–my soul shall say with David, "They compassed me about;
yes, they compassed me about; but in the name of the Lord I will
destroy them." When Christ makes a man free, it is not with a temporary
liberty, to last for a month, or a year–but Christ's emancipated
slaves can never be enslaved again! Redeemed by His precious blood, the
Redemption is not temporary, but eternal!

And, blessed be God, that freedom is freedom indeed! If you know what
it is to be a Christian to the fullest, believing the true Gospel, not
clouding its beauty, not putting upon yourself the old yoke of bondage,
not mixing Judaism with Christianity, not bringing in human ordinances
to make you the cramped and fettered slave of man–if you are the
Lord's free men, then you are "free indeed!" "O Lord," said David,
"truly I am Your servant; I am Your servant, and the son of Your
handmaid: You have loosed my bonds." He who loves holiness and walks in
the fear of the Lord all the daylong is the only true free man! He is
the free man whom God's Grace makes free–all others are slaves! No
earthly power can bring real freedom to the soul–it is Grace and
Grace, alone, that brings it by the blood of the Covenant! And where
that freedom comes, no form of bondage can make a man a slave. He may
be owned by some cruel master and whipped to his work, but his soul is
free! He may be shut up in a damp, dark dungeon, but he can sing there,
as others have done before him–

"Stone walls do not a prison make, Nor iron bars a cage."

I cannot further enlarge upon this tempting theme, but I want every
true child of God, everyone who has been set free by the great
Liberator, to act and live like Christ's free man–not to go about
fawning and crouching like a slave who dreads his master's lash, but to
walk uprightly, in both senses of that word, as a free man should, in
the Presence of the Lord who has bought His servant's freedom at the
incalculable cost of His own most precious blood. May the Lord
graciously grant to you "access by faith into this Grace wherein we
stand, and rejoice in hope of the Glory of God!"

II. Secondly, and briefly, THERE ARE OTHER PERSONS WHO SHALL YET BE SET
FREE THOUGH THE

BLOOD OF THE COVENANT. Some of them are, I fully believe, going to be
set free tonight! This is the favored hour in which the Lord is going
to save them and set them free forever! They did not know this when
they came in here, but the Lord had designs of love towards them in
moving them, by His Spirit, to enter this House of Prayer an hour or so
ago.

To those who are going to be set free I have to say this. By nature,
you are in the state that I have been describing, though perhaps you
are hardly aware of it. You are prisoners in the pit without water If
unrenewed in heart, you are in a state of alienation from God and of
spiritual danger, destitution and misery! But, dear Souls, though this
is the case with all of you who have not been born-again, there is this
cheering Truth of God–though you are prisoners, you are "prisoners of
hope." Wherever the Gospel is preached, there is hope for sinners and
whoever hears it may take heart of hope. I am not now speaking merely
about outwardly moral people, but I am speaking of any who have strayed
in here and who have sinned grossly–drunkards, swearers, harlots–the
very worst and lowest of persons. You are prisoners to

your sins, but you are prisoners of hope, for you are within reach of
One who sets free from sin! The Lord Jesus Christ, whom we preach to
you, saves His people from their sins! And I pray that He may come to
you, in all the plenitude of His liberating power and set you free from
your sins this very hour!

Though you are in this prison, there is a Divine command given to
you–"Turn you to the stronghold." If you would obtain liberty from
your sin, both in its guilt and in its power, you must look to Jesus,
who is the Stronghold to which captive sinners are to turn! "Oh," you
say, "this pit is truly horrible." I know it is, but the Lord Jesus
Christ has come to roll away the stone from the mouth of it and,
looking down to you, He says, "Turn you to Me, your only Stronghold.
There is hope for you, you prisoners of hope, if you will but turn unto
Me." "But," you say, "we have looked all around, but we have found no
consolation. No man cares for our souls." There is One in Heaven who
cares for your souls and who, because He does, has come to tell you
that there is hope for the worst, the most hardened, the most
despairing of you all! He bids you escape for your life and look not
behind you, nor tarry in all the plain, but press on till you reach the
Stronghold where you will be safe even when the wrath of God pursues
you! "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." "The Son of
Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." Whoever turns to
Him shall live, whoever he or she may be!

"But I am so feeble," says someone. Then turn away from your feebleness
to His strength. "But I am so sinful," says another. Then turn away
from your sinfulness to His blood–the blood of the Covenant which
washes black sinners whiter than driven snow! You are not to turn to
yourself, nor to a human priest, nor to your own works, nor even to
your prayers or your tears–all these are full of sin and worthless to
give you acceptance in God's sight. But the Lord Jesus Christ is
Divine–so look to Him and to what He has done–and especially to His
great atoning Sacrifice upon the Cross, for if you trust to that by a
sincere and humble faith, you will certainly be saved!

This declaration of hope in the Gospel is for the present moment What
says the Lord concerning it? "Even today do I declare that I will
render double unto you." You are getting very old, but "even today"
mercy is declared to you! You have been, perhaps, wasting the former
part of this Sabbath, but "even today" is mercy declared to you. It is
seldom that you go to a place of worship, but you are here tonight–and
"even today" is mercy proclaimed to you! You had so provoked God that
you thought He had cast you away. Well, you have probably gone to the
full length of your tether, but "even today" does God proclaim that
there is still hope for you–that hope which He has laid up in Jesus on
whom He has laid all necessary help for you!

And what is it that He tells you today? Why, that He will render double
to you! Do notice that. He will render double to you. You have
committed great sin, but He will give you double mercy to wash out that
double sin. But your heart is doubly hard–then He will give you a
double portion of His Holy Spirit to soften it! But you feel a double
tendency to sin–then He will doubly write His Law on the new heart
that He will give you! But you are so desponding. Then He will give you
double comfort. But you say that you feel so weak in prayer. Then He
will give you double strength. But your faith is so feeble. Then He
will give you double Grace to increase it. O Soul, if God says that He
will give you all that you need, that ought to satisfy you! But when He
says that He will give you double–double for all your sins–what
wondrous Grace is that! If you put down a sin, God puts down two
mercies. Put down another sin and He puts down two more mercies. "Ah,"
you say, "but I can keep on putting down sins forever, they are so
many!" And my Lord can put down mercies forever and ever for, however
many your sins may be, they can be counted–but His mercies are
innumerable! I know that your sins can be counted, for they are all
written in a book, but God's mercies cannot be written in a book–they
are altogether countless. His mercy is immeasurably greater than your
sin. David laid hold of that great Truth of God when he prayed, "Have
mercy upon me, O God, according to Your loving kindness: according unto
the multitude of Your tender mercies blot out my transgressions." I
tell you, Sinners, if you are lost, it will not be for lack of mercy!
If your sins destroy you, it will not be because the blood of the
Covenant has not power to wash away your sins. If you perish, it will
not be because Jesus Christ is not able to save you. Why will it be,
then? It will be because you have not believed on the Lord Jesus
Christ, for "he that believes not is condemned already, because he has
not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."

I do pray the Lord that you may have reason enough and Grace enough
given you to know that your eternal interests depend upon your
believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. You have not to go and spin a
righteousness which you are so fond of doing, but to come and take the
spotless robe that Christ has woven. You have not to bring the money
for

your own ransom, though you would like to do that, but you are to take
the liberty which has been bought by Christ's precious blood and which
is freely presented to every believing sinner, "for God so loved the
world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him
should not perish, but have everlasting life." We who have escaped from
the noisome pit, would, if we could, tempt you to also escape–we long
that you may share the blessed liberty that we enjoy! Dear children,
will you not follow your father and mother into Gospel liberty? Dear
husbands, do you not desire to experience the holy joy that throbs in
your wives' bosom? Good wives, do you not wish to have your husbands'
Christ to be your own Christ? Brothers, would you like your sisters to
be without you in Heaven? Will you not share with them in the blessings
of eternal life? Oh, that we might all together come to Christ right
now! For after all, whatever God has done for us, saints are still
sinners, so we will come down to your level and each one, taking the
hand of some poor fellow sinner who has never come to Christ, we will
try to come together, now, and look up to Him. There is the Cross of
Calvary and there is the Savior who hung there. O You blessed Jesus, we
have no hope but in You! And these poor souls whom we have brought
along with us, Lord, help them to look to You just now, even as we
ourselves looked to You long ago! Clear their eyes even more than ours
are cleared and may they, as they look unto You, find that–

"There is life for a look at the Crucified One"– life for them, life
for them just now, life from the death of sin, life from condemnation,
life to be had at once, by a glance at Your wounds and by simple faith
in You! You wear the thorn-crown and it seems to us as if all Your
thoughts were hedged about with thorns that they might be fixed on
sinners. And Your hands are fastened wide open, as if You would never
close them again, but hold them always open to welcome poor sinners!
And Your feet are fastened as if You would always graciously receive
all who come to bow before You. Yes, and Your dear heart was opened by
the soldier's spear as if to make a way for guilty souls into Your
inmost affection. Jesus, by Your Grace we come to You! Spirit of the
living God, draw this whole houseful of sinners and saints and enable
each one of us to say–

"There is a fountain filled with blood,

Drawn from Immmanuel's veins

And sinners, plunged beneath that flood,

Lose all their guilty stains!

I do believe, I will believe,

That Jesus died for me,

That on the Cross He shed His blood

From sin to set me free."

III. My last words–and they shall be very few–are to be IN HONOR OF
THE BLOOD OF THE COVENANT.

To you who have believed in Jesus and who are now coming to His table,
let me say–As we come to the Communion, let us think of the blood of
the Covenant. If we are free men and women in Christ Jesus, it is
because the blood of Jesus ratified the Covenant of our liberty. It is
because God saw the blood and delivered us. Let me remind you of that
beautiful verse in the Book of Exodus, from which I have preached more
than once. [See Sermon #228, Volume 5–the

BLOOD and #1251, Volume 21–THE SACRED LOVE-TOKEN] The blood of the

paschal lamb, as you know, was to be sprinkled on the lintel and the
two side posts of the houses of all the children of Israel. And what
did God say about it? Did He say, "When you stand outside your house
and look up at the blood I will save you"? No, He did not say that,
but, "When I see the blood, I will pass over you." It is God's sight of
the blood of Christ which, at bottom, is the reason for the salvation
of the redeemed! How I rejoice to think that although my faith-sight of
the blood gives me peace, still, if that eye of mine ever gets dim, it
does not imperil my salvation, for God's eye is not dim and it is
always fixed on the blood of His Son! In sacred contemplation the
Father surveys the Sacrifice of His Son with supreme satisfaction–and
as He sees the blood, He spares us for His Son's sake!

But, then, dear Friends, the blood of the Covenant is also to be
extolled because it is our sight of it that brings us peace. When we
realize that Jesus died for us, there is peace in our soul. I do not
know whether you are like me in this respect, but there are times when
I, as it were, take the fact of my eternal safety for granted. But
there comes a severe sickness, or deep depression of spirit. There
comes a time when death has to be looked in the face and the sense of
past sin rises vividly before me–and then it is a blessed thing to
stand once more at the foot of the Cross and to look up to Jesus
hanging there, and to say–

"My faith does lay her hand

On that dear head of Yours, While like a penitent I stand,

And there confess my sin."

And as I meditate upon that theme, despondency goes, pain is forgotten
and I say, "Yes, yes, yes! I am safe! I am saved by the precious blood
of Jesus! I do love Him and I would fall down at His dear feet and weep
with mingled repentance and gratitude–repentance because I have
sinned–gratitude because I have such a gracious Savior to put my sin
away." Brothers and Sisters in Christ, let us praise the blood because
God sees it–and praise the blood because we also see it by faith!

Praise the blood, too, because when we really trust in it, it gives us
liberty If you get away from the blood of the Covenant, you get into
slavery. But keep close to that and you are at liberty. In prayer, mind
that you plead the blood, for that is the way to get the "double"
spoken of in the text. The double blessing comes by the blood of the
Covenant. If you need more Grace, plead the blood for it. There is one
talisman that will open every vault in the treasury of God–the blood
of the Covenant! You cannot be denied if you plead the atoning
Sacrifice of Jesus Christ! Knock at Heaven's gate with the crimson
token in your hand and as surely as God loves Jesus Christ–and He
loves Him more than all of us put together love Him–He will honor His
Son's great Sacrifice and He will say to you, "According to your desire
and your faith, so be it unto you." There are some preachers who cannot
or do not preach about the blood of Jesus Christ–I have one thing to
say to you concerning those–Never go to hear them! Never listen to
them! A ministry that has not the blood in it, is lifeless, "for the
blood is the life thereof–and a dead ministry is no good to anybody!
Leave out the atoning Sacrifice and it would be better for the people
that the places in which a Christless, bloodless Gospel is preached,
should be all burnt to the ground, for the atoning Sacrifice is the
soul and life and marrow of Christianity! Rest in that and you are
saved! But get away from that and you have wandered where peace and
life and safety can never come! God Almighty bless you, for Jesus
Christ's sake! Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: ACTS2:14-43.

Verse 14. But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice
and said unto them, You men of Judaea, and all you that dweel at
Jerusalem, be this known unto you and listen to my words. A great crowd
had gathered in the street and the Apostles, under Divine Inspiration,
addressed them in different tongues. Peter, as the leader, coming
prominently to the front–"Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted
up his voice." They were 12 witnesses of the Resurrection of Christ
from the dead, for they had seen Him after He had risen and had eaten
with Him. They constituted a jury of 12 honest and true men. And Peter,
as their foreman, "standing up with the eleven," gave their verdict!

15. For these are not drunk, as you suppose, seeing it is but the third
hour of the day At nine o'clock in the morning, it was not to be
supposed that they had become drunk.

16-18. But this is that which was spoken by the Prophet Joel, And it
shall come to pass in the last days, says God, I will pour out My
Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shallprophesy,
and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream
dreams: and on My servants and on My handmaidens I wiilpour out in
those days My Spirit; and they shall prophesy. Every member of the
Christian community would be anointed by the Holy Spirit. The blessing
would not simply be given to one here and another there, but there
would be a wonderful outpouring that should fall upon the whole
multitude of Believers.

19-21. And I will show wonders in Heaven above, and signs in the earth
beneath, blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke: the sun shall be turned
into darkness, and the moon into blood before that great and notable
day of the coming of the Lord: and it shall come to pass, that whoever
shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. This is a wonderful
connection in which to find such a promise as this–a darkened sun, a
blood-red moon–yet "whoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall
be saved." When the worst comes to the worst, prayer will still be
heard and faith will lead to salvation! O matchless Grace of God! Is
there not someone here who will call upon God's name, now, before that
evil day comes in all its fullness? "Whoever shall call on the name of
the Lord shall be saved." Oh, that everyone of you would lay

hold of that promise! It is said that drowning men will catch at a
straw. This is no straw, but a gloriously strong life buoy! Only get
into it and it will float you to Glory!

22. You men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a Man
approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God
did by Him in the midst of you, as you yourselves also know.Note that
Peter does not begin with the Deity of Christ. He will get to that
soon. But, like a wise speaker, he commences with points upon which
they were all agreed, or which they could not deny. He therefore calls
Christ "a Man approved of God," and he reminds them of the "miracles
and wonders and signs, which God did by Him" in their midst. They knew
that God had thus attested His mission, so he appealed to them for
confirmation. "As you yourselves also know."

23. Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge
of God, you have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.
There is a wonderful blending in this verse of the predestination of
God and yet the responsibility of man. I suppose our finite faculties
cannot yet discern where these two things meet, but faith, in the
absence of every other power, believes them both! The predestination of
God does not alter the moral quality of the acts of wicked men. Man
acts freely, as freely as if there were no Divine predestination–yet
the free agency of man does not affect the foreknowledge and
predestination of God.

24. Whom God has raised up, having loosed thepains of death: because it
was notpossible that He should be held of it It was possible for Him to
die, but it was not possible for Him to be held in the bonds of death!

25. For David– Speaking of Christ in the Psalm which, at first sight,
might seem to refer to David, himself, but which was even by the Rabbis
believed to also refer to the Messiah, and which we know did, indeed,
refer to the Messiah!

26-27. Speaks concerning Him, I foresaw the lord always before my face,
for He is on my right hand, that I should not be moved: therefore did
my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall
rest in hope: because You will not leave my soul in Hell—Hades, the
world of separate spirits.

27. Neither will You suffer Your Holy One to see corruption. David was
speaking of Someone who, though He should die, would never in His body
feel the natural effect of death, namely decay.

28, 29. You have made known to me the ways of life; You shall make me
full of joy with Your Countenance. Men and brethren, let me freely
speak unto you of the Patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried,
and his sepulcher is with us unto this day. Peter craves liberty to
speak with freedom and then he very shrewdly gives to David the high
title of Patriarch, which is not generally given to him, so as to win
their attention and approval–"Let me freely speak unto you of the
Patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulcher is
with us unto this day." And therefore he did not speak about himself in
the words Peter was quoting!

30-32. Therefore being a Prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with
an oath to him that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh,
He would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; he seeing this before
spoke of the resurrection of Christ, that His soul was not left in
Hell, neither His flesh did see corruption. This Jesus has God raised
up, whereof we all are witnesses. Peter points to the eleven around
him. There they stood, steadfast in the midst of the surging crowd,
assenting to the bold declaration of their leader.

33-35. Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having
received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has shed
forth this which you now see and hear. For David is not ascended into
the heavens: but he says himself, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit You
at My right hand until I make Your foes Your footstool See how he
builds up his argument with clear and cogent reasoning?

36. Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God has
made that same Jesus, whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ.How
those men must have started when he came to that which was the finale
of his address, the point at which he had aimed all along!

37. Now when they heard this, they were picked in their heart The
pointed Truth of God had gone home to their heart and they were wounded
by it.

37. And said unto Peter and to the rest of the Apostles, Men and
brethren, what shall we do.?These may have been the same people who
mockingly said, "These men are full of new wine." They began badly, but
they ended well. I hope none of you have come here to mock. But if you
have done so, and then go out pricked in your heart by the Truth of God
you have heard, it would be better than coming in an attentive frame of
mind and then going out unimpressed as so many do. God prevent it!

38. Then Peter said unto them, Repent "Change your mind entirely. Be
sorry for what you have done. Repudiate what you have done by a holy
repentance of it. 'Repent'–

38. And be baptized, everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ for
the remission of sins. Peter urged them to repent and bade them confess
their faith by being baptized in God's appointed way.

38. And you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. "You shall be
sharers in this wonderful manifestation which has so astounded you."

39. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that
are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. What promise
did Peter mean? Why that promise in the 21st verse, "Whoever shall call
on the name of the Lord shall be saved." That promise is also given to
you, my Hearers, and to your children, and to all that are afar off,
even in the most distant heathen land, for the " whoever" in the
promise applies to everyone who "shall call on the name of the Lord."
Do not, therefore, shut yourselves out, or try to shut others out, but
believe the promise–call upon God and you shall be saved!

40. And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save
yourselves from this untoward generation. Peter first bore witness to
the Truth of God and then pleaded with his hearers to receive his
testimony. All true ministers will both "testify and exhort." Some are
always exhorting–they cry, "Believe, believe"–but they do not tell
their hearers what is to be believed. Others are always testifying.
They preach good doctrine, but they do not like to exhort sinners to
repent and believe the Gospel. Each of these is a one-legged ministry!
We must have two legs to our ministry and, like Peter, "testify and
exhort saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation." "Come
out from those who crucified Christ! Quit the generation that is guilty
of the blood of the Son of God! Put your repentance between you and
them! Put your public Baptism between you and them–avow that you
belong not to them, but to Him whom they crucified, and whom God has
exalted!"

41. Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same
day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. They not
only believed what he said, but they were glad to believe it,
acknowledging that they had greatly sinned. And they rejoiced that
there was a promise which covered even their sin–"Whoever shall call
on the name of the Lord shall be saved." Then, having repented and
believed, they were baptized upon profession of their faith, according
to the true Scriptural order.

42. And they continued steadfastly in the Apostles' doctrine and
fellowship, and in breakkng of bread, and in prayers. They believed the
doctrine that was taught by the Apostles and they had fellowship with
them and with all other Christians with whom they were associated. They
did not try to go to Heaven by some underground railway without
confessing Christ, but having confessed their faith in Christ, they
further manifested their devotion to Him "in breaking of bread, and in
prayers." I do not know how many Prayer Meetings they had–they must
have kept on praying, praising and preaching pretty well all day long.

43. And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done
by the Apostles.