“PRICKED IN THEIR HEART” – Charles Spurgeon
“PRICKED IN THEIR HEART”
“Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God has made that same Jesus, whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ. 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?” Acts 2:36, 37.
I. PETER’S SERMON AND THE OUTPOURING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
This was the first public preaching of the Gospel after our Lord was taken up into Glory. It was thus a very memorable sermon, a kind of first fruits of the great harvest of Gospel testimony. It is very encouraging to those who are engaged in preaching that the first sermon should have been so successful. Three thousand made up a grand take of fish at that first cast of the net. We are serving a great and growing cause in the way chosen of God, and we hope in the future to see still larger results produced by that same undying and unchanging power which helped Peter to preach such a heart-piercing sermon. Peter’s discourse was not distinguished by any special rhetorical display—he used not the words of man’s wisdom or eloquence. It was not an oration, but it was a heart-moving argument, entreaty, and exhortation. He gave his hearers a simple, well-reasoned, Scriptural discourse, sustained by the facts of experience. And every passage of it pointed to the Lord Jesus. It was in these respects a model of what a sermon ought to be as to its contents. His plea was personally addressed to the people who stood before him and it had a practical and pressing relation to them and to their conduct. It was aimed, not at the head, but at the heart. Every word of it was directed to the conscience and the affections. It was plain, practical, personal, and persuasive. And in this it was a model of what a sermon ought to be as to its aim and style. Yet Peter could not have spoken otherwise under the impression of the Divine Spirit—his speech was, as the oracles of God, a true product of a Divine inspiration. Under the circumstances, any other kind of address would have been sadly out of place. A flashy, dazzling oration would have been a piece of horrible irreverence to the Holy Spirit—and Peter would have been guilty of the blood of souls if he had attempted it. In sober earnestness, he kept to the plain facts of the case, setting them in the light of God’s Word. And then with all his might, he pressed home the Truth of God upon those for whose salvation he was laboring. May it ever be the preacher’s one desire to win men to repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ! May no minister wish to be admired, but may he long that his Lord and Master may be sought after! May none bewilder their people with the clouds of theoretic philosophy, but refresh them with the rain of the revealed Truth of God. Oh, that we could so preach that our hearers should be at once pricked in their hearts and so be led at once to believe in our Lord Jesus and immediately to come forward and confess their faith in His name! We must not forget, however, to trace the special success of the sermon on the day of Pentecost to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, in which Peter had shared. This, it is, which is the making of the preacher. Immersed into the Holy Spirit, the preacher will think rightly and speak wisely—his words will be with power to those who hear. We must not forget, also, that there had been a long season of earnest, united, believing prayer on the part of the whole Church. Peter was not alone—he was the voice of a praying company and the Believers had been with one accord in one place crying for a blessing. And thus not only was the Spirit resting upon the preacher, but on all who were with him. What a difference this makes to a preacher of the Gospel, when all his comrades are as much anointed of the Spirit as himself! His power is enhanced a hundred-fold! We shall seldom see the very greatest wonders worked when the preacher stands by himself. But when Peter is described as standing up, “with the eleven,” then is there a twelve-man ministry concentrated in one. And when the inner circle is further sustained by a company of men and women who have entered into the same Truth of God and are of one heart and one soul, then is the power increased beyond measure! A lonely ministry may sometimes effect great things, as Jonah did in Nineveh. But if we look for the greatest and most desirable result of all, it must come from one who is not alone but is the mouthpiece of many. Peter had the one hundred and twenty registered Brethren for a loving bodyguard, and this tended to make him strong for his Lord. How greatly I value the loving co-operation of the friends around me! I have no words to express my gratitude to God for the army of true men and women who surround me with their love, and support me with their faith. I pray you, never cease to sustain me by your prayers, your sympathy, and your co-operation—until some other preacher shall take my place when increasing years shall warn me to stand aside. Yet much responsibility must rest with the preacher himself. And there was much about Peter’s own self that is well worthy of imitation. The sermon was born of the occasion, and it used the event of the hour as God intended it to be used. It was earnest, without a trace of passion—and prudent, without a suspicion of fear. The preacher himself was self-collected, calm, courteous and gentle. He aired no theories, but went on firm ground, stepping from fact to fact, from Scripture to Scripture, from plain truth to plain truth. He was patient at the beginning, argumentative all along, and conclusive at the end. He fought his way through the doubts and prejudices of his hearers. And when he came to the end, he stated the inevitable conclusion with clearness and certainty. All along he spoke very boldly, without mincing the truth—“You with wicked hands have crucified and slain Him whom God has highly exalted.” He boldly accused them of the murder of the Lord of Glory, doing his duty, in the sight of God and for the good of their souls, with great firmness and fearlessness. Yet there is great tenderness in his discourse. Impulsive and hot-headed Peter, who, a little while before, had drawn his sword to fight for his Lord, does not, in this instance, use a harsh word. He speaks with great gentleness and meekness of spirit, using words and terms all through the address which indicate a desire to conciliate and then to convince. Though he was as faithful as an Elijah, yet he used terms so courteous and kindly that, if men took offense, it would not be because of any offensiveness of tone on the speaker’s part. Peter was gentle in his manner but forceful in his matter. This art he had learned from his Lord. And we shall never have master-preachers among us till we see men who have been with Jesus and have learned of Him. Oh, that we could become partakers of our Lord’s Spirit and echoes of His tone! Then may we hope to attain to Pentecostal results, when we have preachers like Peter, surrounded by a band of earnest witnesses and all baptized with the Holy Spirit and with fire. When we follow the run of Peter’s argument, we do not wonder that his hearers were pricked in their hearts. We ascribe that deep compunction to the Spirit of God. And yet it was a very reasonable thing that it should be so. When it was clearly shown to them that they had really crucified the Messiah, the great hope of their nation, it was no wonder that they should be smitten with horror. Looking as they were, for Israel’s King, and finding that He had been among them and they had despitefully used Him—had even crucified Him—they might well be smitten at the heart! Though for the result of our ministry we depend wholly upon the Spirit of God, yet we must adapt our discourse to the end we aim at. Or, say rather, we must leave ourselves in the Spirit’s hand as to the sermon itself, as well as in reference to the result of the sermon. The Holy Spirit uses means which are adapted to the end designed. Because, Beloved, I do desire beyond all things that many in this congregation may be pricked in the heart, I have taken this concluding part of Peter’s discourse to be the text of my sermon this morning. Yet my trust is not in the Word itself, but in the quickening Spirit who works by it. May the Spirit of God use the rapier of His Word to pierce the hearts of my hearers!
II. PETER’S MESSAGE ABOUT THEIR EVIL CONDUCT TOWARD JESUS
First, note that Peter speaks to his hearers about their evil conduct to the Lord Jesus. And, secondly, he declares to them the exaltation that God had bestowed upon Him. When we have dwelt on these two things, we will notice, in the third place, the result of knowing this grand fact—“Let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God has made that same Jesus, whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ.”
Peter dwelt tenderly, but very plainly, upon their evil conduct towards the Lord Jesus. “He came unto His own and His own received Him not.” As a nation, Israel had rejected Him whom God had sent. The inhabitants of Jerusalem had gone further and had consented unto His death. No, had even clamored for it, crying, “Crucify Him, crucify Him!” Solemnly had the Jews exclaimed, “His blood be on us and on our children.” None of them had protested against the murder of the Innocent One. But many of them had been eager to make an end of Him. This, Peter, in plain words, charged upon them and they could not deny it—nor did they pretend to do so.
It is well when a sense of guilt compels a man to stand silent under the rebuke of God. We then have hope of him that he will seek pardon. Brothers and Sisters, we are not in Jerusalem and the death of our Lord happened more than eighteen hundred years ago. Therefore we need not dwell upon the sin of those long since dead. It will be more profitable for us, practically, to consider how far we have been guilty of similar sins against the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us look at home. Let each one consider his own case. I may be addressing some today who have blasphemed the name of the Lord Jesus. I do not suppose that you have been guilty of the vulgar language of blasphemy, which is coarse and revolting, as well as profane. But there are politer methods of committing the same crime. Some, with their elaborate criticisms of Christianity, wound it far more seriously than atheists with their profanities. In these days, wiseacres, with their philosophy, derogate from the glory of our Lord’s nature and, with their novel doctrines, undermine His Gospel. Denying the Atonement, or teaching it as something other than a substitutionary sacrifice, they try to make away with that which is the very heart and soul of the Redeemer’s work. Men nowadays drink in opinions which lessen the guilt of sin and, of course, lower the value of the atoning blood. The Cross is still a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. Men do not now accept the Words of the Bible as authoritative, nor the teaching of the Apostles as final. They set themselves up to be teachers of the great Teacher, reformers of the Divine Gospel. They do not accept the teaching of the Lord Jesus one half so much as they criticize it. If any here present have been thus guilty, may the Holy Spirit convict them of their sin! Since the Lord God has made this atoning Jesus both Lord and Christ and set Him on His right hand, any teaching which does despite to Him—however learned, however advanced, however cultured it may seem to be—is a grievous sin against the Lord God, Himself. By such conduct we are, as far as in us lies, again putting the Lord Jesus to death. We are attempting to make away with that which is the very life and glory of Christ. O my Hearer, if you have denied His Deity, rejected His atoning blood, ridiculed His imputed righteousness, or scoffed at salvation by faith in Him, may you be pricked in the heart as you see that God has made that same Jesus to be Lord of All!
III. THE EXALTATION OF JESUS BY GOD AND ITS EFFECT
Much more common, however, is another sin against our Lord Jesus—namely, neglecting Him, ignoring His claims and postponing the day of faith in Him. I trust that none here are willing to die unconverted, or would even dare to think of passing away without being washed in His precious blood. Yet, my Hearers, you have lived to manhood. You have lived, by God’s Divine Grace, to ripe years—perhaps even to old age—without yielding your hearts to the Lord Jesus and accepting Him as your Savior. To say the least of it, this is a very sad piece of neglect. To ignore a man altogether is, in a certain sense, as far as you are concerned, to kill that man. If you put Him out of your reckoning, if you treat Him as if He were nothing, if your estimate of life is made as if He were a cipher, you have put your Lord out of existence in reference to yourself. You treat Him with empty compliment by observing His day and hearing His Word. But you have no real regard for Him. Is not this a cruel fault? From morning till night your Lord is not in all your thoughts. He never affects your dealings with your fellow men. You never endeavor to catch His spirit of love and considerateness and meekness. And thus, as a Leader and Exemplar, He is dead to you. You have never confessed your sins before Him, nor sought for pardon at His hands, nor have you looked to see whether He has borne your sins in His own body on the tree. O soul, this is base neglect—ungrateful contempt! God thinks so much of His Son that He cannot set Him too high. He has placed Him at His own right hand, and yet you will not spare Him a thought! The great God thinks Heaven and earth too little for Him and magnifies Him exceedingly above all, as King of kings and Lord of lords. And yet you treat Him as if He were of no account and might be safely made to wait your time and leisure. Is this right? Will you treat your Savior thus? May this prick you in the heart and may you cease from this base ingratitude!
IV. THE RESULT OF KNOWING JESUS AS BOTH LORD AND CHRIST
There are others who have done more than this—for they have absolutely rejected Christ. I now allude to those of you who have not been able to resist the appeals made to you by the Lord’s ministers. You have felt a good deal—felt more than you would like to confess. You have been so inclined to seek the Savior that you have almost done so—sin has flashed in your face like the flames of Tophet and in alarm you have resolved to seek salvation. You have gone home to bend the knee in prayer, you have read the Scriptures to learn the way of eternal life. But, alas, an evil companion crossed your path and the question came, “Shall it be this man, or Christ?” You chose the man—I had almost said, you chose Barabbas and rejected Jesus. A sinful pleasure came before you when you had begun to be serious and the question arose, “Shall I give up this pleasure, or shall I renounce all hope of Christ?” You snatched at the pleasure and you let your Savior go. Do you not remember when you did violence to your conscience? There was an effort about it, as you stifled conviction. You had to put forth a decided act of the will to quench the Spirit of God and to escape from the strivings of your awakened conscience. I know not to whom this may apply. But I am certain—as certain as Peter was when he spoke to the crucifiers of Christ—that I am speaking to some who have been rejecters of the Lord Jesus Christ. Some of you have distinctly rejected Him almost every Sabbath, but especially when the Word of the Lord has been with extraordinary power and you have felt it shake you, as a lion shakes his prey. Thank God, you are not past feeling yet! I pray you, do not presume upon the continuance of your tenderness. You will not always feel as you have felt—the day may come when even the thunders of God may not be heard by your deafened ear—and the love of Christ will not affect the heart which you have made callous by willful obstinacy. Woe to the man when his heart is turned to stone! When flesh turns to stone, it is a conversion unto eternal death—just as the turning of stone to flesh is conversion to eternal life. God have mercy upon you and prick you in the heart this morning, while you yet have tenderness enough to feel that you have rejected Him whom you ought to embrace with all your heart!
V. THE RESULT OF BELIEVING IN JESUS
I must come a little closer to some of you, who have forsaken the Lord Jesus Christ. There are a few unhappy persons here this morning, over whom I greatly grieve, because of their wanderings. And yet I am glad that they have not quite forsaken the courts of the Lord’s House. These once professed to be disciples of Christ. But they have gone back and walk no more with Him. They were once numbered with us and went in and out of our solemn assemblies for prayer and breaking of bread. But now we know them not. They were not backward to confess themselves Christians but now they deny their Lord. In former days they were zealous and apparently devout. They were quick in the service of God and sound in their creed. But there came a day—I need not describe the circumstances, for they differ in different cases—when two roads were before them and they must go either to the right or to the left. And they took the road by which they turned their back upon Christ and upon the vitality of godliness. They went off into sin and apostatized from the faith. We fear, “they went out from us but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us.” They have gone aside unto crooked ways and we fear that the Lord will lead them forth with the workers of iniquity. O my backsliding Hearer, I hope you are not a Judas—my trust is that you may be a Peter! You have denied your Master, but I hope you will yet weep bitterly and be restored to your Lord’s service. For your good I must bring home your wanderings to you. May the Lord prick you in the heart about them! Why have you left your Lord? Wherein has He wearied you? There may be present persons from the country, or friends from America, who were once glad to be numbered with the children of God—but now they care nothing for God, or His people. Alas, they take part with the adversaries of Christ and the despisers of His precious blood! Friend, you are here this morning that I may bring your sin to remembrance and ask you why you have done this thing! Were you a hypocrite? If not, why have you turned aside? God has exalted to His Throne the Savior, on whom you have turned your back. Have you not acted madly in what you have done? The Most High God is on the side of Jesus and you are avowedly on the other side—is this right, or wise? It is painful to me to speak of these things. I hope it is far more painful for you to hear them. I want you to feel as David did, when his heart smote him. What have you been doing? Has the Lord Jesus deserved this at your hands? Turn, I pray you, from your evil ways and turn unto the Lord with full purpose of heart.
VI. THE EXALTATION OF JESUS AND THE RESPONSE OF THE PEOPLE
Peter also showed his hearers that the Lord was greatly exalted in Heaven as the Head over all things to His Church, for He had that day shed abroad the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit comes, He comes from Christ and as the witness of His power. He proceeds from the Father, and the Son, and He bears witness with both. Christ’s power was marvelously proved when, after He had been but a little while in Heaven, He was able to bestow such gifts upon men—and especially to send the tongues of fire and the rushing mighty wind, which betoken the energy of the Holy Spirit. He is such a Lord that He can save or destroy. The Christ that died upon the Cross has all things committed into His hands. He can, this morning, send forth salvation to the ends of the earth, so that multitudes shall believe and live. For Him has God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and a Savior, to give repentance and forgiveness of sins. Or, He can turn the key the other way and shut the door against this unbelieving generation. For He opens, and no man shuts. And He shuts and no man opens. In any case, be sure of this, you Gentiles, even as Peter would have the house of Israel be sure of it, that, “God has made that same Jesus, whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ.”
VII. A CALL TO REPENTANCE AND BAPTISM
I notice that, at this time, few writers or preachers use the expression, “Our Lord, Jesus Christ.” We have lives of Christ and lives of Jesus. But, Brethren, he IS THE LORD. Jesus is both Lord and Christ—we need to acknowledge His Deity, His dominion, and His Divine anointing. He is “God over all, blessed forever,” and we can never praise Him too much. A great and grievous error of the times is a want of reverence for our Lord and His sacrifice. To sit in judgment on His sacred teaching is to spit in His face. To deny His miracles is to strip Him of His own clothes. To make Him out to be a mere teacher of ethics is to mock Him with a purple robe. And to deny His atonement, in philosophical phraseology, is to crown Him with thorns and crucify Him afresh and put Him to an open shame. Be not guilty of this, my Hearers, for God has made this same Jesus, “both Lord and Christ.” Let us worship Him as Lord and trust Him as Christ.
VIII. THE RESULT OF KNOWING THIS ASSUREDLY
Now I come to my closing point, which is, the result of knowing this assuredly. May I here pause to ask—do you know this assuredly? I hope all of you believe that God has made Jesus Christ, the Mediator, in His complex Person, as God and Man, to be “both Lord and Christ.” He was Lord, as God, always. But as God and Man, He is now Lord and Christ. Manhood and Godhead are in Him united in one wondrous Person, and this Person is, “both Lord and Christ.” You believe it. But do you so believe it that it is a fact of the utmost importance to you? Will you assuredly believe it, that the man of Nazareth, who died on Calvary, is today both Lord and Christ? If you do now believe this, what are your feelings, as you review your past misconduct towards Him? Does not your past neglect prick you in the heart? If you do not so believe, it is of little use for me to describe what the result of such belief would be, for that result will not take place in you. But if you have so believed, and Jesus is to you Lord and Christ, you will look on Him whom you have pierced and mourn for Him. As you remember your negligence of Him, your rejection of Him, your backsliding from Him, and all your ungrateful acts which show contempt of Him, your heart will be ready to break and you will be seized with a great sorrow and a hearty repentance. The Lord work it in you, for His Son’s sake!