KVCC 08-16-2026: Seek Ye the Ancient Paths

Title: Take God at His Word

Text: Acts 2:22-41

Preacher: Bobby Warren

Church: Killbuck Valley Christian Church

Date: Aug. 16, 2026

(G) Show people that assurance does not rest on producing, interpreting, or remembering a dramatic conversion experience. It rests on Jesus Christ, the gospel revealed in Scripture, and the promise God has attached to our response.

(FAS) It’s great to be back with you again. I’m not sure how many of you know this, but Korey sends me his sermons to listen to. So, I get a sermon and start listening to it, and he calls me out on the carpet about a statement I made about Calvinists. I’m thinking to myself, Korey, what are you doing?

I know exactly what he was doing. He was being a Berean. You remember in Acts 17:11 when Paul and Silas went to a synagogue in Berea? It says: 11 Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.

The Bereans wanted to make sure what Paul was saying was true, and that was exactly what Korey was doing.

The comment I made related to Calvinists in older times who sought out dramatic conversion experiences, while acknowledging I do not know what the practice is today. I should have said “some” Calvinists.

The dramatic experiences I was referencing involved people like Barton W. Stone, Raccoon John Smith, and Elias Smith. All of these were affected by the revivalism that was sweeping our country in the late 1700s and early 1800s.

Some of the Calvinistic preaching they would have heard back then taught that a sinner could not believe, repent, or respond to the gospel until the Holy Spirit first performed an inward work called regeneration. In this use of the word, regeneration meant the moment when God gave spiritual life to one of the elect and enabled that person to believe.

Because the sinner could not cause that experience or know when God would provide it, sincere people could be left waiting and wondering whether the Spirit had truly changed them. Of the three men I mentioned, only Elias Smith had that dramatic experience, when he was out chopping wood in the winter and a log fell on him, pinning him and frightening him. Historian Dr. James B. North wrote that this was the type of saving experience that was expected at the time.

Because Barton Stone and Raccoon John Smith didn’t go through that kind of saving experience, they were left asking what to them was a painful question: If salvation depends on an experience I cannot produce, control, or fully understand, how can I ever know that I have been saved? The New Testament gives us somewhere better to look. It directs us to Jesus Christ, the gospel he gave his apostles, and the promise God made to everyone who responds to him.

Our message today is coming from Acts 2:22–41, Peter’s sermon on the Day of Pentecost, where we will see:

(CT) OUR ASSURANCE OF SALVATION RESTS ON THE PROMISE GOD HAS REVEALED IN THE GOSPEL.

(CS) Preachers like Korey and myself do our best to bring God’s Word to you because we want to introduce you to the only one who can save you and lead you, or keep you, on a path of faithful living. We want you to experience God’s saving grace and know fully you are among the redeemed. To help us, we will explore these three points:

I. ASSURANCE BEGINS WITH WHAT GOD HAS DONE IN JESUS, REGARDLESS OF WHAT WE FEEL WITHIN OURSELVES.

II. GOD HAS MADE OUR RESPONSE TO THE GOSPEL CLEAR, and

III. OUR CONFIDENCE RESTS ON THE FAITHFULNESS OF THE ONE WHO MADE THE PROMISE.

(TS) We don’t want you having to question or wonder if you are saved, so let’s look at Acts 2:22–36:

(SCR) 22 “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— 23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. 24 God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. 25 For David says concerning him,

“ ‘I saw the Lord always before me,

for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken;

26  therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced;

my flesh also will dwell in hope.

27  For you will not abandon my soul to Hades,

or let your Holy One see corruption.

28  You have made known to me the paths of life;

you will make me full of gladness with your presence.’

29 “Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. 30 Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, 31 he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. 32 This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. 33 Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. 34 For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says,

“ ‘The Lord said to my Lord,

“Sit at my right hand,

35 until I make your enemies your footstool.” ’

36 Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”

Let’s look at our first point:

I. ASSURANCE BEGINS WITH WHAT GOD HAS DONE IN JESUS, REGARDLESS OF WHAT WE FEEL WITHIN OURSELVES.

A. PETER GIVES US EVIDENCE ABOUT THE HUMANITY OF JESUS.

Jesus was a man accredited by God.

If the people could not believe the words of Jesus, then the signs, wonders and miracles he performed should have been enough to show he was approved of by God.

In John 3:2, Nicodemus said to Jesus: “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”

Jesus was crucified.

This was in God’s plan to save us.

Yet, Peter is clear when he tells those gathered: You crucified and killed Jesus through lawless men.

We are not in the clear. Because we have sinned, we played a part in the crucifixion of Jesus, too.

Jesus ended up in a tomb. This is the end of the earthly story of Jesus, but not the final word.

B. PETER GIVES US EVIDENCE ABOUT THE DIVINE NATURE OF JESUS.

God raised Jesus from the dead.

O, death, where is they sting.

The grave could not hold him.

(ILL) Last year, my mother died. I was honored to be able to speak at her graveside service. When we left, the cemetery crew lowered her casket into the ground.

The next time I go home to Massachusetts, I can visit her tomb. That is not the case with Jesus.

2. As Peter said, Jesus was exalted to the right hand of God.

This is the most exalted position.

This is the result of a promise God made when he told David one of his sons would be on his throne.

This was the promise from 2 Samuel 7 that David one of his descendants would be a forever king sitting on a forever throne over a forever kingdom.

3. Jesus is both Lord and Christ.

a. Peter is telling the Israelites that the Jesus you crucified, is Lord. That means he is the exalted ruler over God’s Kingdom.

b. That Jesus is the Christ means he is the anointed and appointed one of God, the promised one would who wit sit on David’s throne.

(TS) Once the crowd realizes what they had done, they were cut to the heart and asked: Brothers, what shall we do? This leads us to our second point:

II. GOD HAS MADE OUR RESPONSE TO THE GOSPEL CLEAR.

A. PETER PREACHED JESUS, WHICH CAUSED THE CROWD TO EXAMINE THEMSELVES.

When they made a careful examination, they found themselves lacking. They did not measure up.

Peter’s message convicted them of their sin.

Once they were presented with the facts about Jesus, they realized they did something wrong.

Instead of trying to justify why they really couldn’t know this Jesus was the Messiah, or that they didn’t physically nail Jesus to the cross, they showed remorse and a desire to make things right.

(ILL) In Matthew 16:16, when Jesus presses Peter about who he thinks Jesus is, “Simon Peter replied, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’”

This was Peter’s message on the Day of Pentecost. He was both Lord and King … He was the Messiah, the Holy One of God.

When Walter Scott was preaching in the Western Reserve of Ohio in the early 1800s, that was his message. It’s what Scott called the Golden Oracle. He concluded the great central idea of the Christian religion is the Messiahship; that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.

He believed the gospel should begin where the apostles began, with the evidence that Jesus is the Christ. Once that is established, the sinner can be told how to respond to him in faith.

B. PETER’S ANSWER TO THE CROWD SHOWED THEM HOW TO RESPOND TO JESUS IN FAITH.

(SCR) 38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

The first thing out of Peter’s mouth is repent: Which is a change of mind.

You turn away from a sinful, wordly life and turn toward God; it’s a 180-degree turn.

You will hear some people say all you need to do is to believe in Jesus and you will be saved.

I know what they are saying, but can you be saved if you refuse to repent?

The second thing out of Peter’s is be baptized, and he links baptism with the forgiveness of sins.

If you are saved before you are baptized, are you saved before your sins are forgiven?

In the book of Acts, Paul recounts his conversion three times.

Paul was in the process of persecuting Christians.

Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus and asked why Saul, as he was known then, was persecuting him.

Paul was blinded and appeared to be convicted of his sin because he asked, “What shall I do Lord?”

He was told to go into town and he would be told what to do.

Then, Paul says what a man named Ananias told him in Acts 22:16: And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.

Paul encountered Jesus, believed in him, but he was told to be baptized in order to wash away his sins.

Mark 1:4 says, “John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”

So, Peter was not the only one who linked baptism with the forgiveness of sins.

However, Peter connects baptism to the name of Jesus Christ.

Paul notes in Romans 6 the connection of baptism to the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.

Peter also links baptism with the gift of the Holy Spirit.

You cannot earn the Holy Spirit; it is a gift of God when our faith meets God’s grace.

This is sometimes called the indwelling gift of the Holy Spirit because Paul will talk about how God dwells within us in Romans 8 and in 1 Cor. 3 and 6 Paul talks about how the Spirit lives within us, meaning our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus said in John 14 that went he returned to heaven, he would send another Helper, the Holy Spirit.

In Acts 1:8 Jesus told his disciples they would receive the Holy Spirit and they would become his witnesses; the Holy Spirit helps us become witnesses of Christ, too.

The gift of the Holy Spirit was a fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel who said God would pour out his Spirit on all flesh, which Peter referenced in Acts 2:17.

(TS) How can you find confidence and assurance that you have been saved? You do not have to be like Barton Stone and John Smith and wonder if you have indeed been saved because ...

III. OUR CONFIDENCE RESTS ON THE FAITHFULNESS OF THE ONE WHO MADE THE PROMISE.

(SCR) Let’s look at Acts 2:39-41: For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself. 40 And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” 41 So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.

A. PETER GIVES US ASSURANCE THAT THE PROMISE IS FOR US.

Peter says in v. 39: The promise for you, your children, and all who are far off.

Who is God calling to himself? I read into v. 39, all of us.

The promise is for “all” who are far off; everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.

Does Jesus call some or all?

I read John 3:16–18 to mean all: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”

Whoever believes … all have the possibility.

Jesus did not come to condemn, but to save.

Whoever chooses not to believe has chosen condemnation over salvation.

B. TRUSTING IN THE PROMISES OF GOD LEADS TO SALVATION.

Peter’s sermon was longer than what we read in Acts 2, but we see in v. 40 he told them: Save yourselves from this crooked generation.

You have the ability to respond to the Gospel message that Jesus saves.

You do not have to wait for some kind of feeling.

Also, I think the “save yourselves” translation is unfortunate. A.T. Robertson in his Word Pictures in the New Testament notes the word for save is passive and literally means “be saved.”

We do not have the ability to save ourselves; what we have is the ability to respond to the saving message of Jesus in faith and be saved.

Just a little refresher: If a verb is active, it means you are doing the work. If it is passive, it means something is being done to you.

Just like the verb for baptize is in the passive voice when it applies to someone being obedient, and active when someone is doing the baptizing, like John the Baptist.

C. GOD IS FAITHFUL TO FULFILL HIS PROMISES WHEN WE ARE OBEDIENT IN FAITH.

As v. 41 says: So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.

Scripture teaches us not everyone is going to accept Jesus as their Savior.

But, those who received Peter’s message and were baptized added to the body of Christ.

In Acts 2:47 we learn who is doing the adding: “And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.”

Salvation and growth of the church, the body of believers, the household of God, belongs to God.

Paul will say, he planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.

Luke, here in Acts, is saying God is doing the adding.

(TS) Last time I was here, I talked about my fascination with the invitation part of a worship service. How we handle the invitation is not in the Bible. We do not see praise teams singing an invitation hymn or preachers offering an invitation like we do. So, why do we do it?

CONCLUSION

We offer an invitation because God wants all people saved.

Paul speaking to the philosophers in Acts 17 said God has overlooked the times of ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.

Paul will say in 2 Tim. 2:4, God “desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth."

In 2 Pet. 3:9, the apostle says: The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

As we saw in the Scripture today: Peter pleaded with them to repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of sins so that they can receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

He pleaded with them to be saved from this corrupt generation.

Paul told the Romans not to be conformed to the patterns of this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of their minds.

John says in 1 John 2 not to love the things of this world, rather do the will of the God and live forever.

While we see no invitation as we practice it today, we see clear examples of the apostles pleading with people to change and live.

What about you? Have you received God’s Word? Do you want to change your life and your future?

You might be asking, Bobby, what do I need to do?

Paul says we are saved by grace through faith. How is that faith expressed? Peter is clear: Repent and be baptized.

What is your decision today?