In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of unity in preaching the message of Jesus Christ. He highlights the unity among the disciples as they stand together with Peter while he delivers his sermon. The speaker also acknowledges the prevalence of different preaching messages in the world today, with each claiming to be right. However, he suggests that it would be tremendous if everyone focused on lifting up Jesus Christ as the Savior of sinners. The sermon emphasizes the need to seize opportunities to proclaim the gospel and points out various important aspects of Peter's sermon that can still be used today.

If my memory is correct, I promised on Sunday night that I would answer the request of some folks with unusual curiosity, and I would tell you how I got my name. Lest I should forget, I shall do that right now. You will remember, if you were here Sunday morning, that I mentioned that King was born and raised in the wonderful state of Pennsylvania, and that is absolutely true. And in the state of Pennsylvania, when I was born, there was either a custom or a tradition or a state law or a federal law, I don't know which, but you had to take the same name as your father. My father's name was John Detweiler, so naturally I had to take his name. His father was Ephraim Detweiler, and he got his name from his father. And Ephraim's father's name was Joseph Detweiler, so we all got our name because of our fathers, and that's how I got my name. And as to whether it comes from Holland or from Germany, I am not quite sure. One of those two, I have a slight suspicion that it did come from Germany, perhaps. Now, I trust that will satisfy your curiosity how I got my name. On Sunday morning, I asked you to turn to Mark's Gospel, chapter 5, where we read, Go home and tell what the Lord has done for you. On Sunday night, I asked you to turn to the Old Testament, 2 Kings, chapter 7 and verse 9, and there those lepers said, Let us go and tell. Our theme for this week is that of evangelism, and it is summed up in those words, go and tell. We notice the definition of evangelism, and then the importance of evangelism, that all through the word of God, God wants those who have found the riches in Christ to pass it on, to tell others about the way of salvation. I mentioned that from our point of view, it would have seemed better if perfect angels were given that privilege, rather than imperfect believers. But it was God's plan and desire that there should blessing flow through believers who would have that opportunity, and God must be a very patient God to allow such imperfect people to carry such a wonderful message that he has said to believers, Go and tell what the Lord has done for you. Tonight, I want to point out that it is not only important that we go and tell, but it is very important what we go and tell. And I would like you to turn tonight for our scripture reading to Acts chapter 2. And I will begin reading at verse 14. And I'm not going to start at the beginning, but you'll remember that this is the day of Pentecost, and some very unusual things happened, and the people around are saying, What does this mean? And in verse 13, others, mocking, said, These men are full of new wine. But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice and said unto them, Ye men of Judea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words. For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel. 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. Verse 22. Ye 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 ye yourselves also know, him being delivered by the determinant counsel and foreknowledge of God ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain. Whom God hath raised up, having loose the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be holden of it. Verse 32. This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we are witnesses, therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear. Verse 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? 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. 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. And with many other words did he testify, and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation. Then they that gladly received his word were baptized, and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. God will add his blessing to the reading of this portion of his word. I didn't read the entire chapter, but I like to give my class some homework, and you can read the entire chapter and get all of the details. When I move from the wonderful state of Pennsylvania thirty-five years ago to the more wonderful state of North Carolina, I heard a rumor that the most famous Sunday noon meal was southern fried chicken, and I believed it. But it was only some months later when I found out it wasn't true, that the most famous meal on Sunday noon was roast preacher instead of southern fried chicken. And by that they meant that as soon as the meeting is over, before they even get in the car, someone says, I don't think he should have said that, or he could have said it in a different way. He doesn't know that some people have bunions, and he doesn't know that some people have the gout, and he should have said it in a softer way, and so on. Now, it is not my intention to roast the preacher that we read about tonight, but I guess we dare inspect his sermon, dare we not? A recorded sermon, isn't that interesting? Many, many years ago, that beloved disciple, Peter, who made a few mistakes, but did a lot of good things too, his sermon is recorded. And I think I should point out that I don't think this was a scheduled meeting. I don't think there was a printed program, but on the spur of the moment, and Peter could see things that the other disciples perhaps didn't notice, Peter saw this great big crowd of people, and he heard the commotion. What is this? What is this? This would be a good time to tell him, and I think on the spur of the moment, he got up and said, this is a good chance to preach the gospel. He was a real evangelist. He saw opportunities, and really, we have to watch for opportunities. I want to point out a number of things in Peter's sermon that are very important, and will help us regarding the message that we are to proclaim, and you will find that there are many things in this sermon that have been handed down all through the generations, and have been used, and today the same message that Peter preached is the message that we can give to the people. The very first thing that I want you to notice is that it was a united message. It tells me, in verse 14, that Peter's standing up with the eleven. There were eleven men with him, behind him, standing in agreement with him while he is preaching, and don't you think that is very, very important? Just suppose that, today, no one preached any other message except lifting up Jesus Christ as the savior of sinners. Wouldn't that be tremendous? I'm sorry, it isn't true. There's an awful lot of preaching going on in the world today, and I can't blame some young people who have listened to this preacher, and this preacher, and this religion, and this religion, how many of them? And they are saying, every one of them, when they get up, they say, we are right, and all the rest are wrong. How in the world are we going to know what to believe? And some of them are saying, until they get their heads together and present one message, I shall have no interest in all these that are standing up and say, friends, Americans, lend me your ears, and then one tells me this, and the other says, oh no, not that, do this, to be in heaven, and so on. What confusion! Our Lord Jesus Christ was tremendously interested that his own might be one. He expresses that in John 17, and I'm sure that that includes he wanted us to be one in the proclamation of that one message, that one and only message that saves guilty sinners. I'm sorry that the devil has been so successful in spreading all kinds of religion, and that's all the more reason why we should watch every opportunity to stand for Jesus Christ and proclaim this wonderful message. Let me just suppose that when Peter is done speaking, John steps front and says, friends, Peter has given you a very nice lecture, but I want to correct him. He was wrong, and I want to straighten him out. He should have said this instead of what he said, and after John is through, James stands up and says, is it my solemn responsibility before God to straighten both of my brethren out, and to point out that Peter did say some things that you ought to believe, but not all of them, and John is just as bad. He made a mistake, too. What do you think about that crowd? If they had heard, even these men are confused. I'm glad it says they stood behind him, they were standing with him. The Methodist church was not formed at this particular point, but I have a slight suspicion that every once in a while out of those 11 men you would hear, amen, Peter, give it to them, amen, Peter, give it to them. That's what they meant when they stood behind him. They were behind him 100, and these standing there were presenting a united message, but there's something more in this sermon. It was a biblical message, and that is so very important. He refers to the Prophet Joel. He refers to two or three places in the Psalms. Where did he get his message? Out of the book. Oh, I must tell you that he didn't have the New Testament, he just had the Old Testament, but he preached the gospel from the Old Testament, and in the Old Testament you will read over and over again, thus saith the Lord, thus saith the Lord, and there is a sense in which every preacher, when he gets up, ought to say, you surely didn't come to hear my opinion, did you? What you really want to hear is, what does God say about this? There are people who say, preacher, what is your opinion about a certain subject in the Bible? And then, if I know them well enough, I say, you didn't really mean that, did you? What you meant to say was, what does the Bible have to say about that subject? You shouldn't be interested in my opinion, you should be interested in what the Bible has to say. And that's why Peter, in getting up to answer these people's questions, and the opportunity to preach in the gospel, turns them to the word of God. It was a biblical message, and the only message that meets the need of the human heart today is a biblical message, what we get out of the Bible. Beyond that, it was a Christ-centered message, and we get that down in verse 22. Ye men of Israel, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God, and so on. Peter, do you realize that there is no name that these Jews hate worse than the name of Jesus? Can you figure out some way of preaching this sermon, and don't mention his name? You can hedge around, and you can, but as soon as you mention his name, you're finished. They despise that name. Not Peter. I'm going to tell them, if they like it, or if they don't like it, I have come to exalt Jesus Christ. And a united message is fine, a biblical message is fine, but it must be a Christ-centered message, or it will not meet the need of the heart. The last book in your Bible is called The Revelation of Jesus Christ, and really, you could write that on the covers of your Bible, and say the entire book, the whole volume, is really a revelation of Jesus Christ. Oh, it does talk about the nation of Israel, and a lot of other nations, but only as it relates to the person of Jesus Christ. While his name is not mentioned in the Old Testament, he is there in picture form, and really the whole sum total of our Bible is to lift up Jesus Christ, to crown him with many crowns. And Peter gave a Christ-centered message. I understand that there are many, many sermons today, or sermonettes, maybe, that will talk about Julius Caesar, and some great men, and what they thought about these things, and it is possible that the man gets through without ever mentioning the name of Jesus Christ. And the people who sat in the puke and say our intellect was tickled, but our soul's need was not met, only Jesus Christ can meet the need of the human heart. A Christ-centered message. But I go one step farther. It was a gospel message. Oh, you say, is there a difference between a Christ-centered message and a gospel message? Yes. Do you know that the modernist has a Christ-centered message? He talks about Jesus. He may tell his audience, Jesus was a wonderful prophet, Jesus was a wonderful person, and our Bible has given to us the wonderful and the lovely, beautiful life of Jesus. And if we try to follow in the footsteps of Jesus as near as we possibly can, God will be well pleased, and he will allow us into his heaven. Character, living the life that Jesus lived, as near as possible, is the modernist way of salvation. They do have a Christ-centered message, but it is not a gospel message. I find this gospel message in verse 23. Him being delivered by this firm and constant foreknowledge of God, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain. If you want the gospel message in a nutshell, the definition of the gospel, Paul gives it in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, in the earlier part of the chapter. I've delivered unto you, first of all, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. And that is the gospel message. Some years ago, I was preaching in a certain city, and a young couple came to the service, and they said, we are visiting different churches in the city. We are not quite satisfied where we are attending. We don't know exactly what's wrong, but we're just not quite happy about it. And in that message that night, I mentioned that if a preacher gets through talking and preaching a sermon without mentioning the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, he has not preached the gospel. It is impossible to bypass the cross, or the resurrection, and say the gospel has been preached. That man went home, and as they visited churches, he said to his wife, let's listen. Let's see if he gets through without mentioning the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. And he came to me a year later, he said, you know, it was amazing. He said, we watched for that, and some of them got three-quarters way through, but then they came out and mentioned his death, burial, and resurrection. But he said, we were amazed how many times we listened to sermons, they never got to the cross. Never told us about the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, and this being the real, plain gospel message. Peter preached not only a Christ-centered message, but a gospel message, telling them that they were guilty of crucifying the Lord of Glory. Now, of course, Peter knew, I think, that they didn't murder Jesus Christ. That he said, no man taketh my life from me, I lay it down on myself, I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again. That he volunteered to lay down his life. But, from the human point of view, the Jews were guilty, the whole world is guilty, of crucifying the Son of God. Can you think of a righteous God ever being gracious enough to provide salvation for people who murdered his only begotten Son, who never sinned? This certainly is a reflection upon the mental capacity of the human race to have one person living among you who never sinned, and upon whom no one could say, I caught him doing this. They set a lot of traps for him, and every one of them had to say, I find no fault in him. What a wonderful man to have around. And the human race, Jew, Gentile, you name it, all the nations are guilty of banding themselves together, and in one chorus saying, crucify him! Why? It doesn't make any difference, crucify him anyway! Peter says, you have crucified your Messiah, the one who came to save you. He exalted the Lord Jesus Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection. Once more, in writing to the Corinthian church, he says, when I came to you, I knew nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified. When Jesus Christ is lifted up on Calvary's cross, and he is put in the tomb, and then raised from the dead and presented as the living Savior, that's the gospel message that men and women need. It was a very simple message, too. Nothing hard, difficult to understand. I think perhaps it's possible to be cloud the gospel, because we try to make it harder than it really is. Some years ago, we had the privilege of having Dr. Harry Ironside at our chapel in Durham, North Carolina, and a number of people who read some of his books, who heard about him coming. We had a full house, and people went out of that meeting and said, you know what's so wonderful about Dr. Ironside? He made it so simple and so clear that everybody could understand it. They were amazed. That was the key to his wonderful ministry, to bring it down very simple. I wonder if you heard about the lady who heard a wonderful preacher one day, and her sister had to stay at home taking care of an invalid mother, and she enjoyed this preacher so much that the next time she said, I want you to go tomorrow night, and I'll stay home with mother. No, no, no, no, I'm not interested. You go ahead. No, I insist, because he's so wonderful. So she finally said, I'll go, and she went. And of course, when the meeting was over, the sister that was home was so anxious to see how she would be thrilled to hear the preacher. So she asked him, what did you think of it? Oh, he wasn't so wonderful. I understood every word he said. You know what she expected? She expected the preacher to say, a second look at him, leonastic, cyclical, four-chartered, sarcastic, circumscribed by anatomy, idolatry, lost in verbal profundity. Oh, what a wonderful man. What did he say? I don't know, but it was wonderful. Then there was that other man who carried that great big pulpit Bible, great big thick thing, and the preacher saw him bring it night after night, and thought he ought to congratulate him, and at the door he said, I want to thank you for carrying that big Bible to the meeting. And the man said, I'm sorry, that's my dictionary. He was opening his dictionary all through the meeting. Who was it that said, put it down so the lambs can get it. It won't hurt the sheep to stoop a little. So when we make the message of salvation, let's make it down on the level of the children, and sometimes when I have an audience of children and adults, I say, any of you adults that do not understand my message, after the service, you ask the children. They'll explain it to you. And if you bring it down to a simple message, is there anything in this message that you can't understand? I think it's possible for us to, well, I've heard people say, you know, I hear sermons, but not the way I used to hear them. Uh, I don't know what you call it, intellectualism or something. Their sermons are all right, but it's not down to earth. It's not in simple language, and the sinner today still needs to hear the gospel in very simple language. But there is something even more wonderful about this message. It was a convicting message, and that's still very important, because the preacher must be sure that the message comes from God, and must realize that this is a living word, and that it is the dynamite of God. That's what Paul says in the Roman Epistle, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power or the dynamite of God. Lasting sinners, the power of God. What is the result of Peter's preaching this day? Down in verse 37, they were tricked in their hearts, and they said, what shall we do? It is the preacher's desire, especially the evangelist's desire, that when the message has been proclaimed, the sinner will respond like the Philippian jailer, what must I do to be saved? It was just less than a year ago that I was preaching in Grand Junction, Colorado, and a young man, a husky young man, came up after the service. He came real close to me, and I thought first he's going to kiss me, but he didn't. He said, I want to be saved. Came right up in my ears. He said, I want to be saved. I tell you, that's music to the evangelist's ear. That's what he wants to hear, and that's what Peter heard. The result of his message was not, Peter, if you keep on like that, you'll eventually be a pretty good preacher. They were pricked in their hearts, and they asked the question, what shall we do? The Holy Spirit has to do this work. In the presenting of the gospel, there is human responsibility, and there is a place where human responsibility has to stop, and the Holy Spirit takes over, because when Jesus Christ ascended, the Holy Spirit soon after that came down, and among the various things that he does in the world today is convict men and women of their sins. I love to hear people who express that they're under conviction, who will tell you that for some reason or other, I want to dismiss this idea of being saved, but I can't. I used to sleep sound all night long, and I wake up at 12 o'clock midnight. I wake up again at three o'clock. The first thing that pops in my mind is, I'm going to hell, and I'm not saved, and I will never see my parents, who perhaps are in heaven, and so on. I like to hear that. Last fall I was in Augusta, Georgia, preaching the gospel, and a doctor's wife brought her mother out to the service. The doctor's wife was a Christian, but her mother was not, and after the service, the mother said to her daughter, don't you ever ask me to go to that service again. That's the most ridiculous sermon I ever heard. That man said, you can know that you're going to heaven. Now, I've got enough sense to know that no one knows that until you arrive, and she said, my mother just said, I'll never go back again, and I said to the doctor's wife, I wouldn't be too much concerned about that. I prefer to have people get their feathers ruffled when I preach the gospel. It's a much better sign than those people that say, that was a lovely sermon. I would rather say, I'm not coming back again, and I said, you keep on praying for her, and I like to see people who are angry when they hear the gospel. That was about Tuesday night, I think, of the meetings, and Friday night when I got up to speak, she was on the back seat again. She didn't keep her word, and that proves to me that she was convicted. Now, I would love to tell you that she did trust the Savior, but I can't. It was only about three weeks later that I met a man from Augusta, and he said, do you remember that lady that went home in a rage? She dropped dead, and I said, did she ever profess? The daughter doesn't know. She said, as far as she knows, she never told. Now, no one can say she didn't, but I love to see sinners under conviction. These people were pricked in their hearts. Now, I think some of them said, I don't like that kind of preaching, and then conscience said, but he's right, isn't he? Yes, he is, but I love to see that conflict, that battle going on when the Holy Spirit is working, and the person says, I don't like it, I try to save myself, I don't want to bow to receive salvation on a charity basis, but he got it from the Bible, and I like to see that conviction lead still further. Being convicted is not enough. Did they get converted? What did we read in the last verse? The same day there were added unto them about 3,000 souls. It was not only a convicting message, but it was a converting message. I'm very happy that I wasn't there that day, because if I had been there, I don't think I would have allowed Peter to preach the sermon. When Peter said, I think I'll get up to preach, I would have said, Peter, not you. It has only been about seven weeks ago that you denied your Lord three times with oaths and curses, and you are the last man that will preach. You can't. But Peter said, I'm going to do it anyway. All right, Peter, go ahead. You want to make a fool out of yourself? You want to waste the time? I'll tell you one thing, no one will be saved. I would have been wrong, wouldn't I? What does this teach us? It teaches us that when a person falls into a sin such as Peter did, God's restoring grace is just as wonderful as his saving grace, and he can reinstate a man, blot out that blunder, and use him again. And the secret to Peter's quick restoration is that as soon as that rooster crowed, Peter went out and he didn't just weep, he wept bitterly. I picture a big husky fisherman whose cheeks have never had any tears on him. Maybe some water splashed when he was fishing, but Peter, you ever cried? No, sir, not me. I can see a man shaking, trembling. He wept bitterly, and that means he was restored to the Lord by confessing his sin immediately, and God used him in blessing to many, many others. The message that he gave to these people in verse 38 was, repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. You are aware of the fact that there are a few religions around that build their gospel on five verses in the Bible, and this is one of them, and from that they deduct that a person cannot be saved unless they're baptized, that baptism is a part of salvation. And if we had only this one verse, I guess we would have to say they are right, but we have many other verses that indicate that this is not the meaning of it. But Peter said, first of all, repent, and that reminds me of John the Baptist. When John the Baptist was about to introduce the Lord Jesus Christ, what was his message? Repent. This is the first thing that people need to hear, and there is a possibility that in gospel preaching today they have overlooked the word repent. Suppose I come to a nice gentleman and I say, you know what you need? You need to let Jesus Christ into your life. Why do I? Well, a lot of people do, and it's a nice thing to do. He wouldn't be interested. In repentance, I am saying to a man, before you trust Jesus Christ as your savior, you have to recognize that you are a lost, guilty sinner. You have to change your mind. I don't know of anyone who has ever been saved that can say, I never changed my mind. By nature, we first of all have our own idea of salvation. It sounds good, I mentioned Sunday morning, my idea was that if you live right, you've got to go to heaven. Those who are good go to heaven, those who are bad go to hell. It does sound very reasonable, but not scriptural. And I had to change my mind, and repentance means I change my mind about God, about myself, about the way of salvation. I just submit to what the Bible has to say. Repent first. And Peter said, since you are associated with the nation of Israel who is guilty of shedding the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, I'm going to make you take a public stand for Jesus Christ. Being linked with that nation, you took a public stand against him, you crucified him. I'm going to ask you to go down in the waters of baptism to indicate that you are cutting yourself off from that nation. You are no longer associated with the nation that crucified him, rejected him, and through this you are saying, I will no longer take my place with that nation that crucified the Lord of Glory. Repentance first, and then present Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Did I tell you on Sunday? I'm not sure, but it bears repeating in case I did. A man in Durham who was a wicked sinner, and after he got saved, he heard of a number of people who made professions, and they didn't turn out too well. And he said one day, you know, I believe I know what's wrong with them. He said they weren't lost good enough when they professed getting saved. I got the message. They weren't lost good enough when they got saved. The painful part of the preaching of the gospel is to tell sinners just where they stand before God, as lost, guilty, hell-deserving sinners. Now, I mentioned a moment ago that the Holy Spirit has his part in the conversion of the sinner. It is mine to tell people how to be saved, and to urge them to trust the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior. But I can't save them. It's the work of the Holy Spirit convicting them, bringing them to the place where they will be willing to surrender to our Lord Jesus Christ. Sometimes, after a person, after a meeting, a person comes up and says, I would like to be saved. I take my Bible. I show them how to be saved, and let's say they profess. There are always some friends who brought them, or relatives. They're at the door, and after he goes, did he get saved? Did he get saved? And I say, I don't know. You don't know? What's the matter? I really don't. All I can say is, he professed. Come back 12 months from now. Let me watch him. And I can only see the outside. If the external evidences of a conversion are there, I say yes. But the night he professes, I can't tell. When a person makes a profession of faith in Christ, he either gets a saved feeling, or he gets eternal life. And the one is just as good as the other on that night. The one wears, the other one doesn't wear. And it's impossible for me to tell. I have tried on times, and I've said, oh, that was a very, very clear conversion. They didn't turn out. Another one? I don't know. They were pretty hazy. I don't think they really understood it. Turned out fine. I have stopped counting converts. Does it say here, Peter and the 11 went around and counted the 3,000 souls? It doesn't. That's not for the evangelist's business. Now, I have to admit that we are human. And it would be wrong for an evangelist to say, I don't care whether one gets saved, or a thousand. I don't care. We do care. We're concerned about it. But to count them, and to advertise them is not important. In this case, God counted them. Well, let's say Luke wrote this, and by the Holy Spirit, he put down about 3,000 souls. Where did he get it? He got it by the Spirit of God, and when God counts them, there's nothing wrong with it. At least we have the story here of many people coming to know the Lord Jesus Christ as a result of one sermon exalting the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, this is many, many years later, and I just want to bring this to your attention, because since the devil has been so active in watering down the gospel of the grace of God, it may be necessary once in a while for us to go back and say, what really is our message? What is the nitty-gritty, the core of the message, leaving off all the chaff and getting right down to the sinner's need, and sticking to that one important thing? And if there's an unsaved one here tonight, and you are at that place where these people were, where you can honestly say, what shall I do? What shall I do? You have pointed out to me that I'm a part of that family that crucified the Savior. How can I be saved? The Lord Jesus Christ died for you on Calvary's cross, and rose again, and is ready to save you the moment you will open your heart and trust Him as Lord and Savior. And I must once more give you the opportunity, in case there is something that I said tonight that you don't understand, or if there is some barrier that is keeping you from trusting the Savior, I would love to have the opportunity of taking my Bible and trying to find an answer to that obstacle, to remove it, so that tonight, on Abram Lincoln's birthday anniversary, you could say, that night I trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. I offer to help you at the close of this service, let us pray. Our Father, we thank Thee that Thou hast recorded in Thy Word an event that took place many years ago, and we thank Thee for the blessing that Thou didst put upon the gospel message that went forth that day. We thank Thee for Peter, his desire to make Christ known, and we thank Thee for the many that will be in heaven because of that sermon that was preached. Many sermons have been preached since that day, and we ask our Father for all of Thy servants who are today proclaiming Thy Word. Add Thy blessing. May the Holy Spirit, in His convicting power, fall upon those who are hearing the message and come to know Him as Lord and Savior. We thank Thee for the joy that is brought to heaven when souls are saved, and also the joy that comes to weary, sin-sick sinners, and also the joy that comes to family circles when those who are still outside of Christ come to know Him as Lord and Savior. Should there be one in this service who is not quite sure, we pray that Thou wilt by Thy Spirit convict them so they will not go home until they receive this wonderful Savior who has saved and satisfied so many of us for so many years. We give Thee thanks for this glorious message that is still fitting for the generation with whom we deal. We give Thee thanks in His worthy name. Amen.