God's Restoration Work

It's been a few weeks now, so I might have to do a little review. Of course I do a review each week. We're in Acts chapter 3. Peter and John are heading into the temple.

And of course they meet a lame man there at the beautiful gate. And we went through that story of how Peter and John were able to witness a healing of this lame man who was laying from his mother's womb. And this is a notable miracle.

He was above 40 years of age. And it causes many people to... word goes through the crowd. From what I understand, the temple had a court out front, Solomon's Porch.

And there were many people daily going to and fro to the temple, praying. And so a great multitude hear about this. It spreads through the crowd.

And they come running to see what is happening. And then last message, we talked about Peter's sermon. Peter saw this great multitude, and he explains how this has happened.

How this healing has occurred, and he brings up the Lord Jesus, whom the Jewish people had denied and actually put to death. And he talks about in verse 16, His name through faith in His name has made this man strong. His name, this name that is exalted above every name, that God has raised up Jesus from the dead, given Him the highest place.

His name through faith in His name has made this man strong. And so Peter explains faith in the Lord Jesus. Verse 17, And now brethren, I want that through ignorance you did it, as did also your rulers.

But those things which God before has showed by the mouth of all His prophets, that Christ should suffer, He hath so fulfilled. Peter, this is amazing to me. But Peter is one who didn't like this idea of suffering.

And you remember Peter was the one who, when Jesus said He was going to go to the cross, and He was going to suffer and die, and the third day rise again. Peter is one who said, Not so Lord. May it never be unto you.

And then the Lord had to give him probably the worst rebuke I've ever heard the Lord give. Get thee behind me Satan. Thou art an offense unto me.

In other words, Peter was misunderstanding the Lord's purpose. And now Peter mentions here, he doesn't mention the resurrection, he doesn't mention the ascension, he mentions that in verse 18 that Christ should suffer. That Christ should suffer.

And this is one of the great stumbling blocks. And it's a great stumbling block today, and I keep repeating this because we need to get over this hurdle. It is one of the great stumbling blocks today.

The Jewish people had a hard time accepting the true Messiah because they would not embrace this concept of suffering. But interestingly enough, Peter in his epistle writes more about suffering than any other. He takes a lot of time in 1 Peter to talk about suffering for Jesus' sake.

And a little later on here in Acts chapter 5, we're going to see him rejoicing that he is worthy to suffer for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're going to see a lot of suffering here in the next 15, 20 chapters as we go through the book of Acts. And we really need to open our hearts to embrace it.

We need to not be like Peter as he was when he resisted the Lord. No, we're not going to go that direction. And yet the church today seems to want to resist, just like the Jewish people, resisting this idea of suffering.

And suffering, as Joseph was sharing, suffering doesn't take place here, Lord willing. We don't suffer in the community, in the body of Christ. Suffering, as you'll see in the book of Acts, is always out there.

Suffering is out in the darkness, in the lost world, where there's animosity and hatred. And Jesus faced animosity, not from his disciples, not from the community of the 120. He faced it from the God-haters.

He faced it from the people who were in this world, the religious community that denied him. And so we need to embrace suffering. And we need to embrace, as we go out into the world, a willingness to suffer.

Just two weeks ago, Brother David and I, and this happens all the time, we're out on a campus, a bunch of God-haters, a bunch of people with reprobate minds who need to be reached. And yet, in one day, just one day, and it happens almost every day, but in one day, I was spit in the face, just right in the face. The Bible says Jesus, they spat upon him.

I had my... How many hundreds of times we were reviled, just reviled. The Bible says Jesus was reviled, yet he reviled not again. We had things stolen.

I had my Bible stolen from my hand. We had our signs stolen. The Lord, his garments were taken from him and imparted to the soldiers.

You know, this kind of suffering, the same sufferings that Jesus faced, yet we haven't been put on a cross, we haven't been beaten or killed, but everything up to that point is available for everyone, every Christian who is willing to go and try to minister the word and to reprove and to warn people of judgment to come. And it's available, and we're going to see men in the book of Acts over and over again do this very thing, go into the world and stand up against sin and speak out. And because of it, they lose their life.

They get beaten. They get reviled. They're hated.

And so here Peter is, he's mentioning this idea of Christ should suffer, and that's kind of a hurdle he had to get over. And so I'm going to start, we're going to pick up here in verse 19. We left off in verse 19 last time, and I want to finish this sermon.

This is the invitation that he gives here after preaching. I don't think this is a whole sermon. I'm going to read down through this, 19 through 26, and then we'll come back and take it verse by verse.

Verse 19 says, Repent ye therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you, whom the heaven must receive until the times of the restitution of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren like unto me.

Him shall you hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you. And it shall come to pass that every soul which shall not hear that prophet shall be destroyed from among the people. Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that followed after, as many as have spoken have likewise foretold of these days.

You are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kingdoms of the earth be blessed. Unto you first, that's the Jewish people, God having raised up his son Jesus sent him to bless you in turning away every one of you from his iniquities. There's a lot in here and a lot of things that could be spoken.

We'll try to go through this this morning and touch on some of these things. Let's pray and then we'll walk through this passage. Lord, we thank you again for your word.

We acknowledge it from my heart today. This is the truth. I believe it with all my heart.

And I believe that your son, the Lord Jesus, is the Christ. He is Lord of all. And we humble ourselves this morning under the mighty hand of God and under the authority of your word.

Thank you for feeding us, Lord. Thank you for the rich week we had with our tent meeting and all the things that we were experiencing and we learned. Lord, may you feed us also again today.

May the word of God come alive to my heart and to those that are sitting here, Lord. Bless the congregation. We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen. All right. Well, in every one of Peter's messages, there is an invitation.

We saw this in the sermon on the day of Pentecost. And here in this one, there is a purpose for his preaching. And that preaching is to convince.

That preaching is to convict and to draw out a response. And I guess I need a little bit more of that in my teaching on Sunday instead of just leaving the teaching lay flat and let you deal with it. Maybe having some more practical application and invitation.

But having preached his message here, the invitation time comes. And in verse number 19, he tells the people, Repent ye therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. Repent and be converted.

Now these two words are interesting words. Repent is this idea of turning away from something and being converted. If you look that word up, it means to turn to something.

And so repent, turn away from something, and convert. Turn to something or someone is what Peter is inviting them to do. And he is implying repent from your sin, especially your sin of betraying and murdering the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so he is calling on the nation of Israel and the Jewish people, many of them in that crowd no doubt were there at the cross, probably saying crucify Him. And some of the leaders may have been there, and those who had hand in delivering Him up. Repent, to turn in your heart from your sin, to turn away from sin and be converted.

Convert to a different direction, and that direction is to turn to God. And so true salvation is a turning away and a turning to. A turning away from sin in your heart, and a turning to the Lord Jesus Christ in faith.

I think it was Brother John this morning that read from this passage in Hebrews 6, Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on into perfection, not laying again. And here is the foundation of repentance from dead works, and faith towards God. So you have repentance from, turning from dead works, and faith towards God or towards the Lord.

And so this idea of repentance, turning away from, and conversion, turning to God. Now, here is a doctrinal error, and there is a lot of doctrinal error that come by preaching the Bible out of balance. And I have shared this with you in the past.

But just because someone says we are preaching the Word, we are standing for truth, we are standing for righteousness, does not mean that they are actually standing for the truth. Because a lot of times error is simply preaching a one-sided truth. You know, my mother used to say when you tell half the truth, that is a lie.

Half-truths are lies. And when we speak half-truths, we can speak truth, but it is a half-truth, and a half-truth becomes a lie. Listen, repentance is not enough.

Repentance is not enough. Now, many people focus on repentance. Repent, repent, repent, repent.

In other words, turn away from sin, turn away from sin, turn away from sin. You know, the Muslims teach that, turn away from sin. You know, the Catholics teach that.

Penance, do your penance, your penance, your penance, your penance. And there is a lot of people who will teach, the Amish teach, repent, repent, repent, repent. And everybody is repenting and repenting, they are still not finding any relief, they are not finding any peace for their heart.

They are repenting. And so, you know, repentance is a Bible doctrine, and I think you ought to preach it. But make sure you preach the other half of the message.

You turn away from something, but let people know that they can turn to something. And that is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is the whole message.

And if you do not preach the whole message, you are going to preach and lead people into damnation, because half the truth is ultimately going to be a lie. And there are many false doctrines, there are many false churches that teach, repent, repent, repent, repent, repent. And I will say this, there are some who teach faith and faith and faith and faith and faith.

And they teach the other half without the repent and the turning from and a turning to. And so it is important. So Peter here brings both in, and you will find in his sermons, he brings them both out.

Repent ye therefore, and be converted. And here is the blessing, that your sins may be blotted out. Your sins may be blotted out.

And that idea is to wipe your sins away. Revelation 21 talks about, the Lord will wipe away our tears. It is the same Greek word.

He will wipe our tears away. No more tears from that point on. Same word here, that your sins are blotted out.

Now that is important, because sin, as you know, sin is what separates us from God. And I tell the college students this, try to make it real simple, your sin is what is separating you from God. And if you do nothing about your sin, you will be forever separated from God.

That is pretty simple. If you don't deal with your sin, you are going to stay separated from God forever. So that is why it is important to make sure that you deal with your sin.

And that your sin is blotted out. Now what does it mean to have your sins blotted out? You know, this is a whole sermon, probably a whole week of sermons. But sins blotted out.

What do you think of, when you think of your sins blotted out? Do some of you think of, well, that means my pre-conversion sin. Or does that mean my pre-conversion and my after-conversion sin? Which one of my sins? How many of my sins are blotted out? Well, that is an interesting subject to consider. When you are saved, how many of your sins are blotted out? Is it just from the past, that moment when I was saved at 19? God said, I want to blot out all your sins up to this point.

But your future ones, you better watch out. How does this work? You know, our sins, are they truly blotted out? Well, I am going to read some passages here and ask you maybe to turn to a few of them. But let me read to you here in Colossians.

It uses the same concept of blocking out. Colossians chapter number 2, in verse 13. Excuse me.

Yes, 2.13. I am in the wrong book. Colossians 2.13 says, And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He quickened together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses. Now what does that mean? Having forgiven you all trespasses.

Blotting out the handwriting of ordinance that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to the cross. All transgressions. Are all transgressions referring to just those that I have committed pre-conversion? Or is that talking about all my transgressions? Is God looking down through my future and seeing the rest of my life and saying that all transgression has been blotted out? That would be an interesting thing to have people come up here and give their opinion and give their understanding of those things.

But I want to look at this. How is all of our transgressions blotted out? And just do a simple view here of the book of Romans. Turn with me to Romans chapter 3 for a minute and I'm going to look at a couple of verses.

And we'll talk about this idea of sin being blotted out. And what does it mean? And we could spend a lot of time here and I don't want to spend a lot of time, but just read some verses in Romans chapter 3 starting in verse number 19. Here is our condition that God speaks of with regards to being under the law.

Verse 19 of chapter 3, Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifest, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe.

For there is no difference, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Now in that first verse there it says the whole world is under the law. The whole world is under the commandment.

Thou shalt not. God has a law, a standard. The problem with that is that no one has kept that entire standard.

It goes on to say for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And so all humanity is under the condemnation of the law. So you can picture every one of you.

Let's say all of you represent our world and all of you are under condemnation because you have violated God's law. One time, ten times, a thousand times, it doesn't matter. Just ask Adam and Eve.

Look at one. And they're cast out and the world fell. So we're all under the law.

Look over to Romans chapter 6 with me. Romans chapter 6. Here's what happens when you come to the Lord Jesus Christ. You repent from sin and you convert to the Lord Jesus.

In Romans chapter 6 verse 14, for sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under the law but under grace. So here's what happens. When you come to Jesus, you move outside of being under the law to being brought over here to being under grace.

Now there's two different places you can be and every human being is either under law or under grace. You're either under the law or under grace. And I prefer to be under grace actually because law or the law condemns us.

So when you come to Christ, the Lord takes you out from under the law and moves you over here to being under grace. Now let's keep reading here. Look back to Romans 7 in verse number 1. Know ye not, brethren, for I speak to them that know the law, how that the law has dominion.

He gives an example that all of us can understand. The law has dominion over a man as long as he lives. For the woman which hath a husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he lives.

But if the husband is dead, she is loose to the law of her husband. Every lady knows this, that she is bound to this man. Hopefully he's a good man.

Bound to this man for as long as he or she lives. But in this marriage if the husband dies, she is then no longer under the law of her husband. She is free.

That death sets her free. Verse 3, So then if our husband lives, she be married to another man, she should be called an adulteress. That's not good.

But if her husband be dead, she is free. You and I are free. We are free because Christ Jesus died to the law and therefore we who are in Christ are dead to the law through the body of Christ.

And he'll talk about that here in a minute. So then, verse 3, if while her husband lives, she be married to another man, she should be called an adulteress. But if her husband is dead, she is free from that law so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.

Now verse 4 is the lesson. Wherefore, my brethren, you who have come to Christ, my brethren, you also are become dead to the law. That law which was over you and held you under condemnation, you're no longer under it anymore.

Just like that woman who was under a husband when her husband died, she's free. You are no longer under the condemnation of the law anymore. You are free.

You're free from it. Wherefore, my brethren, you also become dead to the law by the body of Christ. You know, when Jesus died, He suffered in His body.

That has freed you from the condemnation of the law that you should be married to another, even to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. You know, I think it's going to be an amazing day when we stand in the judgment and God opens people's eyes and here He shows how that everyone in the world was a sinner and everyone was under this condemnation of the law and Jesus came and He died to free us from that condemnation and those who simply put their faith in Jesus were moved out of the condemnation into grace and they realized that you mean the only thing that I needed for eternal life and eternal heaven with you is to simply receive the Lord Jesus and come out from underneath the law. And here most people were thinking well, I'm trying to do best.

I did better than Joe over here. I did better than Tom. And yeah, I have my own issues, but I hope God will somehow forgive me of my issues.

No, we're all under the law. We're all guilty, every one of us, because we've sinned, but God is willing to move some of you out from underneath the law over here to grace if you'll respond to His Son the way you ought to respond in faith. And you can be into grace.

And the picture here is a woman who is bound. She's bound. I have a husband.

I'm committed. I have to stay under his authority for the rest of my life. And the only way I can get out for a moment is here I die.

And then he dies. Whoo! I'm free. Unless he was not a good husband.

Look with me to Romans chapter 4. A couple more here. I don't want to spend a lot of time. Romans 4 verse 15.

And there's a number of verses in Romans that teach this. Verse 15 says, Because the law worketh wrath. Whoo! For where no law is, there is no transgression.

Therefore it is of faith that it might be by grace. Now here's an interesting concept. And I know you get in trouble when you start teaching this, but when there is no law, there is no transgression.

If you go on here, look back to Romans 4 verse 6. Even as David also described it, the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputes righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. In other words, over here under grace, God does not impute sin.

Under the law, every little sin is imputed. Under grace, He'll not impute your sin. Someday, if you believe on the Lord Jesus and you keep your heart stayed upon Him, you'll stand before Him and you'll realize you have no sin imputed to your account.

Praise the Lord for that. And it was not because of anything you did outside of putting your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so your sins are blotted out.

Under grace, everything is blotted out. Past, present, and future. Paul said in Romans 6, What shall we say then? If we had everything blotted out, shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? What's the answer to that one? God forbid.

If God has done all this for you, and He has laid Himself down and sacrificed to save your soul from sin, and you're given forgiveness, why would you want to go out and live in sin? And so, God forbid, why would you ever do that? That's like someone laying their life down, jumping in front of a semi-truck to push you out of the way, and that person is barely alive, and you go over there and say, hey, thank you for that, and smack them in the face. You say, no one would ever do that. I know that.

They wouldn't. And so if Jesus went to the cross and died for all of your sin and suffered the agony that you suffered, and then you get forgiven for all your sin, you don't go up to Him and slap Him in the face and say, I'm going to go out and live in sin. Do you do that? Not at all.

You say, Lord, thank You so much. I'm going to give my life to You. Someone who loves me, right? So sin is blotted out.

And I would recommend here, if you're not under grace, that you get under grace. It's a lot better place than under the law. You're either under grace or under the law.

There's a lot of people over here under the law that, I'm just going to try to keep doing good and do the best I can, and hopefully God will save me. I've got news for you. He's not going to save you.

Under the law, it's not going to work. So here in the book of Acts, Peter is telling them, if you are willing to turn away from sin and turn to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, then your sins can be blotted out, meaning you'll move out of the law to grace. And I know we have a hard time understanding this, but it's a positional thing.

Positional. It's kind of like this. When I was born into my family, I'm actually a mohor by birth.

I'm not a mohor by my works. I'm a mohor by birth. Tommy and Zach, when they got adopted, they became mohors by adoption.

They positionally moved. They had a name. They were part of this family.

Now they positionally are now a part of our family. Legally. It's a legal act.

When you come to Jesus legally, in the courts of heaven, you move out of law into grace. It's a position. It's a good position to be.

It's under grace. So the sins are blotted out. Well, let's keep going here.

It says in verse 19, Repent ye therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord, and He shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you, whom the heavens must receive until the times of the restitution of all things which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began. Now there's a times of refreshing coming. And I believe those times are when the Lord Jesus returns.

It says here, He will send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you, and He is going to restore all things. And as I told the children here today, God is in the restoration business. He is not into throwing things away.

And I just enjoyed the restoration business. I enjoyed restoring those houses. There was something, I don't know, there was something valuable in it.

I'd much rather do it in flipping burgers and things like that. Although me flipping burgers and handing some greasy burger with some white bread to a person may satisfy you, I don't think it would satisfy me. But taking an old dilapidated house where the neighborhood is just sick of this house, and going in and gutting it and renovating it and making it look new had a, hey, I don't know, there was just some value to it in the heart.

It's a good thing. Restoration is a good thing. Restoration is redemption.

The word redemption means to bring back something to its original state. A slave who is redeemed is brought back to the state of freedom. So here, we're told that this is amazing, but Jesus went back up to Heaven and His heart is to restore everything.

To restore. And He's coming to do that very thing. You go back to Genesis 2 and 3, it talks of the fall of man and the curse.

And then the last chapter of the Bible says man is restored and there's no more curse. This whole book is a restoration. It's a restoration from the first three chapters of the fall of man to the restoration in the last chapter, Revelation 22, of Him being restored to His original state and His original purpose.

And I'm just going to throw this out. I've talked about this in prophecy meetings, but many people think that God's going to throw the world away and He's going to make a whole new one. No, God is going to redeem this planet.

And if you read 2 Peter 3, you'll see that God is in the redemption business, the restoration business. And He restored it already one time with a major flood. And He's going to restore it next time with a major fire.

But this ball, this planet is going to remain. It's going to stand forever. And God is going to restore it.

New heaven, new earth. And we're going to live on that new heaven and new earth for the rest of our eternity. It's the same way with our body.

This body, how many of you think we're going to get or do you think this body is totally annihilated and God gives us a brand new body? That's not actually what happens. It says in 1 Corinthians 15 that we're going to be changed. Changed.

Not like my garbage up here, not throw it away and start all over. No, it's going to be your body is going to change from mortality to immortality. Changed.

Like when Jesus was on the Mount of Transfiguration, He shows how to do it. All of a sudden, mate, He was transfigured before. Changed.

And so God doesn't throw the body out. He changes it. He restores it.

He redeems it. A beautiful example of this, children, is the cocoon and the worm. You know the worm and how the worm builds that cocoon and that worm is going to turn into a beautiful butterfly and that worm does not disappear and a butterfly jumps in.

No, that worm is changed. It is the word metamorphosized. It is changed into something that is beautiful.

And that's what's going to happen to your body. This vile body is going to be... Well, I'll just read the verse. Paul said that this vile body shall be changed like unto His glorious body.

And so the same thing is going to happen with our world. God is going to restore. Verse 21 says that Jesus went into the heavens and the heavens must receive Him until the times of the restitution or the restoring of all things which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.

So friends, God is going to restore everything and I want to read to you here a verse, Romans 8.22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth. Think about this for a minute. All of the creation under the curse is groaning and travailing in pain until now and not only they but ourselves also, our bodies, we have the fursuits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves waiting for the adoption to it, the redemption of our bodies, the restoration of our bodies.

Now why would the creation be groaning? Oh, we're groaning, waiting, waiting, groaning, waiting if they're going to be annihilated. No, they're waiting to have this curse that was placed upon the world and everything in it. See, that curse is going to be removed and this earth is going to be rejoicing.

And we are going to be rejoicing, those who are God's children. Our bodies are going to be changed also. God forbid that you would die and go to hell with that cursed body.

God forbid that you'd spend an eternity in your vile body. I'm tired of this body. I don't know about you all.

I'm tired of the temptations and the lust and the evil and this vile body. Do you all have a body like me or not? I don't want to spend eternity in this body. That would be awful.

And place this body in a lake of fire with all those passions and desires. So God is going to change this creation. He's going to change our body.

It's not going to be an annihilation. It's going to be a changing. And I know that we live here in an annihilation society.

Everything goes to the garbage dump. We all want new things, new things, new things. New phone, new this, new that.

But God is into taking that marred piece of pottery and redoing it and making it into something that is usable. Well, let's keep reading here in verse 21. I want to make another comment here in verse 21.

It says, "...whom the heavens must receive until the times of the restitution of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began." You think about this. Every prophet all the way back to Moses and Samuel. He mentions two of them here, Moses and Samuel.

These prophets have been telling people, God is going to restore. Everything is pointing to the restoration of all things. From the very beginning, the mouth of His holy prophets, all of them.

He's been talking about this restoration. I can just give you a chart here on the board. Some of you are familiar with the idea of dispensationalism, but way back here in the Garden, there was this period of time that many people call the time of innocence, where man and Adam and Eve were innocent, and they had no sin, and everything was wonderful.

And then this event called the Fall took place, and man just became perverted in his ways, and he fell. And after that Fall, there's a period of time that's called the Law and the Prophets. And that went on for about, I don't know, 3,000 or 4,000 years, the Law and the Prophets.

And the Law and the Prophets is what Peter is mentioning here. These prophets, from the very beginning, have foretold of these days. The Law and the Prophets were pointing people forward.

All the prophets were saying, the Lord is going to restore even the Law, its symbolism, its shadows and types, that Lamb. All the things that were in the Law, the ceremonial Law, was pointing to the restoration of all things. And this is a teaching time.

The Law was to bring us to who? Christ. The Law is our schoolmaster to bring us right here to Christ. And so this period of time was simply the prophets saying, here's what's coming.

Here's what's coming. God's going to restore. He's going to restore all things.

And then this is the climactic event right here, where Jesus dies, and the restoration of all of humanity and creation begins at this point right here at the cross. And that is when God begins the new covenant and the restoration process. And if you've been restored in any way, it always starts with salvation.

Salvation is the restoration beginning. God starts His work right there. And so restoration begins at the cross.

It was lost here. The Law and the Prophets told us about it. As a matter of fact, in Peter it says, these prophets wished they could have been up here.

They longed to be able to be a part of the restoration of all things. Look at verse 24. Jump ahead here.

Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that followed after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days. They have been telling you, Jewish people, all this time of these days that are coming. It's called the last days.

Peter mentions the last days here. The last days. These are the days that God is going to begin His great restoration work.

By the way, you and I get to live in some of these days. And you can, you know what, this is great. You can jump in here and say, Lord, start the restoration project on me.

Amen? I'm willing to go. Let's go. I want to get back to my original purpose.

I don't like the way I'm living. I don't like this vile body. I don't like sin.

I want to live holy, righteous. I want to be saved. I don't want to go to hell.

I want in the restoration program. Well, that's possible. You can jump right in any time in these last days.

Just don't wait until the Lord's return, because that's when the door is going to be shut on your opportunity for restoration. So restoration begins at the cross. Christ has come to restore.

His work begins at the restoration. And he likens it here to Moses. Look at verse number 22.

For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren like unto me. Didn't Moses come and restore the nation of Israel? They were in bondage. They were in slavery.

And he brought them out and he began a restoration project. Moses said, I'm a type in a shadow. There is another prophet coming who's going to do the great restoration program.

And Peter mentions it here. Verse 22. Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you like unto me.

That's Jesus. Him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you. And it shall come to pass that every soul, verse 23, which will not hear that prophet shall be destroyed from among the people.

So this restoration is offered. And what you need to do is hear the voice of the prophet. Who's the prophet? Jesus.

Just like Moses. Guess what happened when Moses told the people of Israel, folks, there's a great restoration coming to the nation and God has sent me to tell you to take a lamb and kill the lamb and take the blood and put it on the doorpost and the lintel and we'll start the restoration project. And the people of Israel said, we're not going to do it.

We don't believe you. You know what happened to them? They were destroyed with the Egyptians. They were destroyed.

And so the Lord, His Word. That's why I think Brother David mentioned it this morning that when God saves a man and puts His Spirit in him, He starts a work of restoration. You know, if we would have bought a house and it was an old run-down house and we said we're going to restore this place and a week went by, a month went by, a year went by, five years went by and nothing was happening at that house, you'd say I wonder if they're doing any restoration.

I wonder if there's anything going on there. It doesn't look like it. Christians who say they're born again and you look at their life, a year, two, five, ten years, and nothing's happening, you wonder, is there a restoration work being done here? Because the purpose of God is for restoration.

And He starts that work from the inside out. By the way, Brother David and Brother Judy here, they all know this. When we redeemed a property, one house up here in Mount Vernon was a burn-out house.

And we went in and got all the plaster and all that. It was a mess. What's the first thing you do when you redeem one of these places? You go in and you gut it.

By the way, those of you who are going to help us down in Columbus, we're going to gut the place first. That's what you do. You don't go in and paint first.

You don't go in and put new appliances in. You don't put new carpet in the showy things that everybody sees. You've got to go in first of all and gut it out.

So when the Lord saves someone, He guts them out. We're going to get all the trash out. This is gone.

This is gone. We're going to gut the place out. That's what repentance is.

Brother Craig, when he got converted, he gutted his place out. He got all his drug paraphernalia. He got all his rock and roll and all his movies and all that kind of stuff.

And we got a big barrel and he brought it out and we dumped it in the barrel and we burned it all up. He gutted the place out. That's a good sign that you're starting your restoration work is when people see you getting gutted out, tearing out all this old stuff.

We're going to start with some new two-befores. We're going to go right down to the two-before. So, He which hath begun a good work in you will complete it at the day of Jesus Christ.

So God starts the work on the inside. Cleanse first that which is within the cup. So that's how God always works.

He works from the inside out. Let's keep reading here. Verse 24, Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that followed after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days.

These are important days. All the prophets have been talking about these days that are coming. Christ is coming to bring restoration to humanity.

Verse 25, Ye are the children of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. Here's something important. This restoration project is not just for these Jewish people.

According to what Abraham learned, it's for every nation. All nations of the earth are going to take part in this restoration. And so that was the message that God gave Abraham.

Abraham, your seed is going to bless all kindreds of the earth. And so we are given that great commission to go into all the world because God wants to restore a lot of people. A lot of hearts.

A lot of lives. And then he closes here in verse 26. Unto you first.

Here's an amazing thing. The grace of God. These people who had just betrayed the Lord and murdered Him.

Verse 15 is They killed the Prince of Life. Unto you first. God, having raised up His Son, sent Him to bless you.

Can you imagine that? These are the same people that murdered my Son, that put Him on a cross, that cursed Him, that spit upon Him. I raised Him up and I'm going to send Him first to you people right there. That's my grace and mercy.

You Jews. I'm going to give you a chance. I'm going to give you another chance here.

And the grace and mercy of God. He sent Him to bless you in turning away every one of you from His iniquities. Now I believe this that one of the greatest evidences and 1 John says this, greatest evidence is that the restoration project is at work in your life as if the Holy Spirit is turning you from your iniquities.

That's when you're really blessed. And if you're not being turned from your iniquities, then you need to question whether or not you're truly in this restoration program. Because God wants to bless you.

I mean, when He looks down and He says, I'm going to bless you. I'm going to bless you people and I'm going to turn you away because I know your sin. Just go down with us sometimes to Columbus and watch these individuals come to these meals who are living in sin and you'll see how hard a life they're in.

Oh, the sorrow and the depression and the broken homes and the torment. Oh, I mean, I used to live that way where I was converted. Life is miserable.

And God wants you to have joy and peace and I want to bless you. You know, we say that to our children. Son, we want you to live.

Daughter, we want you to live godly and righteously because your life will be blessed. You'll marry the right person. You'll have wonderful children and family and you'll live a life that's happy and blessed.

We want that for you. How much more does God want that for you? Right? A happy family and a happy life and a happy home. That's if you get married.

And a worthwhile life. So God is interested in blessing you and one way He does that and primarily the most important way is to turn you from your iniquities. And that's one of the great signs of a truly converted heart.

By the way, if you're in a neighborhood and we were remodeling a house, we're gutting it, people look over there and see, oh, look at all that stuff. We've got a big dumpster out there. Look at all that stuff coming out of that house.

They're carrying everything out and it's going into that dumpster. Boy, things are moving. I know they're going to restore that place.

So people watch your life and say, boy, look at the stuff coming out of his heart. He's repenting of this. He's repenting of that.

He's bringing this to the altar. He's getting rid of that music. He's getting rid of these movies.

I mean, he's getting rid of his drugs. He's getting rid of his alcohol. There's a restoration project happening here.

I mean, this is real. And that's a blessing. People look at that house after a few months.

Boy, that's a blessing. That place used to be the eyesore of the neighborhood. Now it's the nicest house on the block.

That's a blessing for all of us. So God wants you to be blessed. And Abraham, God chose Abraham.

He's mentioned here because Abraham was a man of faith. And here's how God wants to bless the world through faith in Jesus Christ. That's how He wants to bless us.

You'll get outside of that law. You'll come over here to grace. By the way, law works wrath.

Did you know that? He that believeth not shall be damned. The wrath of God abides on him. Over here, it's like it's raining down guilt, condemnation, wrath, and curse.

Get over here into grace. There's blessing, peace, joy. So God is wanting to bless.

And it's by faith. Abraham learned that. Look up here, Abraham.

Look at the stars. How many of them? All these stars, your children are going to be like that. And Abraham believed.

And Romans says, God moved him from out of the law under grace because his heart believed the Lord. So this restoration project, God wants for you personally. And I trust He's doing that in your heart.

But He also wants you to get involved in the restoration of others. And not just, okay, my house is good, so what do I do now? Well, it's time to restore others. And one of the things that discipleship and the Bible teaches us is you come to Jesus, you get your house cleaned up, and then you go out and help other people get their house cleaned up.

So not only be restored yourself, but also get concerned about restoring the messes of other people's lives and their houses. And so go into this world and restore souls. And I would encourage that for anyone who's experienced a redemption, a salvation.

And so the message here from Peter, the Lord Jesus Christ has been raised up from the dead. It is through His name and faith in His name that this man is standing before you whole. You need to repent and be converted.

God has been telling you this through generations by the prophets. He's wanting to restore. And by the way, you just saw Him restore a lame man and give him back his ability to walk.

He's a restorer. And He wants to restore you people. Why don't you repent and be converted? God, you can get a part of this restoration project.

And this project's going to go on until the new heaven and the new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. We're in the midst of it right now. God is in the restoration project right now.

And it's going to get more physical. It's going to come to this earth. It's going to restore this earth.

And then we're going to move into eternity. So jump on. Jump on.

When I was telling my children the story of Noah, I like to tell them a Bible story and then they jump on my lap and I give them a story about, okay, Daddy and Tommy and Zachary are walking along one day and we hear a man preaching. Let's go see who it is. We go over there.

Oh, it's Noah. And we get the choice then to get into the ark or not. And you have a choice.

God is offering you and I, a sinful person, the opportunity to be restored. And jump in. Jump in while you can.