Well, Nancy and I thank you so
much for your prayers on our behalf in our travels this last
week. We had a wonderful time in Jacksonville,
North Carolina with a sister church there and people just
like you. Friendly folks that love the
gospel. So as we look again into the
book of Acts, may we ask you to turn with us to the book of
Acts this morning, chapter two. The book of Acts chapter two,
how glorious it is to hear the gospel. To hear about a savior that saves,
actually saves. To hear about a redeemer that
actually redeems. This savior did not make us savable,
this savior saves his people from their sins. This Savior
does not make us redeemable. He redeems his people from their
sins. This is a great God. We heard
some about him in that great book of Daniel. What faith had
been given Daniel to trust the Lord in all of those issues. Daniel would tell us immediately,
it was not me, it was Christ. It was not me, it was Jehovah.
That's who gave me the faith to step into that pit of a lion's
den. Well, as we look here in the
book of Acts chapter two, we find some folks that God has
just given great instructions to and shared with them that
they're going to be taught for 40 days by the risen savior. And then there's going to be
about 10 days that they're going to be instructed in the things
of God. And then God sends something
that in this capacity had never taken place. And that was, as
we read here in the book of Acts chapter two, when the day of
Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one
place. You know, as I think about that,
that is a blessed place to be when you are with people that
love the gospel and love the Lord Jesus Christ and at one
accord. Believe the gospel. Believe in
the new birth. Believe that God came and sent
his son. Believe that there was an interest
that God had before the foundation of the world to save his people
from their sins. That they would not be capable
on their own because of the fall. They would not be capable on
their own of ever coming to Christ, ever trusting Christ, ever believing
Christ, ever seeking Christ. So there's an agreement. God
had to be involved. He had to be involved in our
salvation. And they were together in one
accord. And we're going to find that the apostle Peter and the
rest of the disciples are going to preach that clearly through
this book of Acts. They're in one accord and suddenly
there came a sound. Now, there's something audible.
It's a sound from heaven as a rushing mighty wind. Now, it doesn't
tell us that there was wind with it, but it does tell us it was
a sound of a rushing mighty wind. It was an audible, and it was
so audible that it caught the attention of many hundreds of
people there in Jerusalem. Now it doesn't tell us it was
a wind, but it had the sound of a wind. Just think for a moment
what a strong wind sounds like, but that there's no wind with
it. And then it tells us in that next verse, that verse, And it was filled all the house
where they were sitting and there appeared unto them cloven tongues."
So we have something visible that came down and was brought
there. It said it was cloven tongues
like as fire. Now it doesn't mean it was on
fire. It means it was like fire. There's
some pictures here, types and shadows. And it said upon each
of them, now verse four, Read this with me, verse four of Acts
chapter two. And they were all filled with
the Holy Spirit, Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other
tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now, if we just stopped
there, we'd be a lot of concern or investigate what is that word
tongues talking about? Well, the Lord doesn't just leave
us hanging. The Holy Spirit is gonna share with us exactly what
that means here in this book of Acts. For there are three
times right here, one right after another, verse six, it says,
and when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together and
were confounded because that every man heard them speak in
their own language. So, okay, the Holy Spirit says,
don't get too concerned about this word tongue over here. You
may have an idea what it means, but the meaning of this is people
are going to hear the gospel in their own language. And then
if we look at verse eight, it says, and how here we every man
in our tongue, wherein we were born. So we're going to have
a language here. They're going to hear the gospel
in their language. And then if you'll notice with
me in verse 11, Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our
tongues. What? The wonderful works of
God. Now, when we find here in this
verse of scripture, that they were filled with the Holy Spirit,
we must go back to John chapter 15 and verse 26. John chapter
15 and verse 26. If you'd read that with me in
the book of John chapter 15 and verse 26, Jesus is telling about
this. He's not predicting it. He's
informing them that this is going to happen. And this is the ministry
of the Holy Spirit. Don't look at the Holy Spirit
as the entire minister He is not here to glorify Himself. We'll never find that about the
Holy Spirit. He will never have an interest
in glorifying himself. He will never have an interest
in glorifying his activities. He's gonna have an interest.
Notice here in the book of John chapter 15, and there in verse
26, Jesus Christ is instructing them with regard to the event
that we just read about. He said, but when the comforter
is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father. I promise
this. I'm taking, I'm leaving. I'm
removing myself from this realm. I'm going back to the Father.
I'm going to sit down just like it has said in the Psalms. He
will sit down. He will sit down at the right
hand of the Father. It is an indication to us that the job
was completely taken care of, of redemption by the Lord Jesus
Christ. And he has been given permission
to sit back down. I was sharing this with a young
man yesterday about the tabernacle in the temple. There were no
chairs around there, no benches. You know, I really get to appreciate
if I'm down on the riverfront trail, every once in a while
I'll find a bench to sit down on. We get kind of a good sign. In fact, I see these guys walking
around with some kind of thing and they can turn it around and
sit down wherever they want to. Well, these priests never were
given the opportunity to sit down because their work was never
finished. They never were finished with
their work. The next day they started the
sacrifices over. The next day they went through
the same thing again. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
only high priest that ever finished his work. And when he said it
is finished, that's exactly what he meant. Redemption is complete. Sacrifice is made. Sin is forgiven. Sin is put away by the sacrifice
of himself. So here we have the Lord Jesus
saying, I'm going to send you a comforter, even the spirit
of truth in the book of John chapter 15 and verse 26, even
the spirit of truth, which proceeded from the father. Now he's coming
from the father. I'm sending him Now this is in
a special application because everyone that has ever been saved
from the very beginning has had the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit
is the giver of the new birth. So is everyone that is born of
the Spirit. That's what Jesus told Nicodemus.
When we go back to the Old Testament, they were saved exactly like
you and I are saved today, by grace. It was not saved by those
sacrifices. In fact, people who come up with
the idea that they were saved by those sacrifices, we go over
to the book of Hebrews and he says, not by the blood of bulls
and goats. No sin was ever forgiven by the
blood of bulls and goats. It was a constant, perpetual,
sacrificial system that pictured, showed types and shadows of the
Lord Jesus Christ, but He is the true sacrifice, and by His
death on the cross, He put away sin forever, and as a result,
put away all sacrifices. It is so incorrect to continuously
sacrifice the Lord, because He was sacrificed once, and that's
all. All right, it goes on here. Now,
notice what this Holy Spirit will do when He has come. In
John chapter 5, or 15 and verse 26, When the Comforter is come,
whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of
truth." Now, that's another thing we need to understand, that everything
that the Spirit reveals is always going to be the truth. It will
not be confusion, which proceeded from the Father. This is His
ministry. This is the ministry of the Holy
Spirit. He shall testify of me. Now, if you don't honor Jesus,
you're not honoring the Father. If you don't honor Jesus, you're
not honoring the Holy Spirit. It must be, and only through
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the only way we can give
honor to the Father, honor to the Holy Spirit, is when we honor
the Son. And that brings honor to the
other two members of the Godhead. Well, as we go back over here
to the book of Acts chapter two, we find that in, let's just go
back over there, read a few verses, Acts chapter two. We find that
the saints have been blessed by the Holy Spirit. They speak
in languages that are understood by people that are there. Remember,
it's Pentecost. There's people from all over
the known world at that time coming down to Jerusalem to go
through some religious ceremony. And the Lord is gonna share with
them I brought you here on purpose to hear something, and that is
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. All right, in the book of Acts
chapter 2, dropping down to verse 7, it says, and they were all
amazed and marveled, saying one to another, behold, are not all
these which speak Galileans? How hear we every man in our
tongue wherein we were born? Parthenians and Medes and Elamites,
you want to know who is here? You want to know who heard their
gospel in their own tongue? It gives us a list of folks that
are there. Elamites, and dwellers of Mesopotamia, and Judea, and
Cappadocia, and Pontus, and Asia, Pergia, and Pamphylia, and Egypt,
and parts of Libya about Cyrene, strangers of Rome, and Jews,
and proselytes, Greeks, and Arabians. We do hear them speak in our
language, in our tongues, the wonderful works of God. And they
were all amazed. And we're in doubt saying one
to another, what meaneth this? Now notice the next verse. Acts
chapter two, verse 13. Others mocking said, these men
are full of new wine. Now it's quite interesting to
me that they would bring forth this theory that strong drink
can teach language. Isn't that interesting? Now,
my language teachers never brought that up. You're going to do better. No. Isn't it foolish what they had
to say about how these people were speaking in different languages? They are drunk. Well, we know
that's an absurd case, but we do have a principle that is brought
out here in this passage of scripture when on one hand we hear them
saying, What means we're amazed. We are amazed. We do hear the
wonderful works of God in our own language. And another group
of people says, can't be, can't be, can't be, they gotta be drunk.
Well, you know, as we look at this, we find that the scripture
in our life, in our family, in our acquaintances, we find this
great division between grace and natural man's thinking. Grace
is from God. Natural man's thinking comes
up with the silliest things. We propose that these men are
able to speak in these other languages because they're drunk.
Isn't that just ridiculous? Well, to them it wasn't. They
thought it was a fine theory. In fact, we find that most of
the time people come up with foolish ideas and they think
it's right. And yet the scriptures are so
plain on those things. Here's one set of men stuck with
awe. They're struck with awe about
the gospel. They're struck with awe about
the word of God. They're struck with awe about
these 12 men sharing languages that they didn't know by nature.
And it says that they, and then we got the other saying, they're
blaspheming about this. You know, when it comes to the
gospel, we're gonna find this principle throughout the scriptures,
that there are gonna be those who believe and those who believe
not. Those who are gonna look at this
and say, oh my goodness, This is the greatest message I've
ever heard. I've been messed up in all kinds
of works all my growing up years and someone come along and preach
the gospel and it was the best news I ever heard after I was
born again. All right, turn with me, if you
would, to the book of 2 Corinthians along this line. 2 Corinthians
2. In 2 Corinthians 2, we find that
the Holy Spirit, the same spirit that is dealing with these 12
apostles and allowing them to speak in other languages, the
same Holy Spirit spoke through the apostle Paul. Now, Paul was
a blasphemer, and he will admit that. And yet when the Lord saved
him, he says, I'm the chiefest of sinners. I'm the least of
the apostles. He didn't have this grandiose
idea about himself that he was a super Christian. I've had people
tell me he was a super Christian. We'll never attain that. Paul
would never say that. Paul would say, according to
the scripture, I'm the chiefest of sinners. I'm the least of
the apostles. I persecuted the church of the
living God. So, here in the book of 2 Corinthians,
chapter 2, notice this with me, verses 15 and 16. The results
of preaching the gospel. The results of preaching the
gospel. This is going to be carried out here in the book of Acts.
We're going to watch it through the book of Acts. We're going
to find it in all of the rest of the scriptures. There are
those that God is going to grant grace to. I love what we're going
to get to in Acts chapter 13. In Acts chapter 13, it says,
all the Jews mocked the apostle Paul when he preached the gospel
of Jesus Christ being raised from the dead, and he tells them,
you have judged yourselves unworthy of eternal life. Therefore, we
turn to the Gentiles. And the Gentiles came and heard
him preach the gospel, and they were glad, and those ordained
to eternal life believed. Now that's the difference. That's
the difference in every step we look at in the scriptures.
It is those who here are ordained to eternal life by God almighty
and the rest are not, and they will find fault to their dying
day. Here in the book of 1 Corinthians,
2 Corinthians, excuse me, 2 Corinthians chapter two, for we, verse 15,
for we are unto God a sweet savior. You know, when the gospel is
preached, It's a sweet savor. God loves the smell. He loves the smell of preaching
Christ and Him crucified. This is God's everlasting purpose
on how to save people. That His Son would be set aside
in the Council Halls of Eternity by the determinate counsel and
foreknowledge of God. He would be set aside to be the
Savior. And he came to save. And he said, this preaching of
this gospel is a sweet saver. You know, you go to the Old Testament,
some of those sacrifices were a sweet saver to God. They were
a picture, a type, a shadow of what Jesus Christ was going to
come and do. It was a sweet saver, but not
like this sweet saver. because he is the Son of God.
And it tells us there, for we are unto God a sweet savor unto
Christ, and them that are saint, and them that perish. Here's
the dividing line. Oh, what meaneth this? Oh, we're
hearing the word of God in our own language. Those guys are
just drunk. They mean nothing. There's no
good coming out of this. Well, verse 16, to the one we
are the saver of death unto death. You hear the gospel, you'll never
be the same. You may never be saved, but you'll
never be the same. You will argue about it till
the dying day. You'll say it's not true, it's
not true. God cannot do that, he's unfair. He's unfair when
he requires that. He's unfair if he's already written
people's names down in the Lamb's Book of Life. You know what God
would do if it was fair? There would be nobody on the
right-hand side. It would be an empty line. All
would be on the left-hand side. And here, depart from me, ye
workers of iniquity. I never knew you. If it wasn't
for God intervening in our lives, we would all go to the pit. So I have to say, thank you,
Lord. Goes on to tell us in verse 16, and to the other, the saver
of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these
things? When the gospel goes out, some, not for me, I cannot
handle that. I've made my little profession
of faith. I've made my little decision. I've been baptized. I've taken the Lord's Supper.
I've had communion. I've had this. I've had that.
And to the others, they say, Christ and him crucified. The
Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, came down to this sin-cursed
earth for me, individually, and on purpose to save me from my
sins. All right, let's go back here
to the book of Acts, and we find that this thing that happened
with this group finding fault and saying, oh boy, they're just
drunk, and this side over here saying, Hi, I'm hearing the wonderful
works of God in my own language. You know, the Lord Jesus Christ
had to deal with a lot of this. If we can't, I remember doing
this, if you can't win with a scripture, you tear up their character. Yeah, and besides that, you're
ugly. That's scriptural, isn't it?
That's dependent upon good, sound scripture. Well, the Lord Jesus
dealt with this same thing. During his public ministry, he
dealt with the same thing. He had these guys that would
find fault with him on every word he had to say. Turn with
me, if you would, to the book of Matthew. This is a constant
division in the scriptures. This is a saver of death unto
death or life unto life. This is a group of people that
are saved by the grace of God. And here's a group of people
that could care less. And they're going to find fault
with everything about Christ and everything about his gospel
and everything about his people. Here in the book of Matthew chapter
11, Matthew chapter 11, And verse 19, well, look at verse 18. John
came neither eating nor drinking, and they call, say, he hath the
devil. The son of man came eating and
drinking. And they say, behold, a man gluttonous
and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. Now what
accusations they bring up against the Son of God unknowingly. They didn't know who they were
talking about or talking to. This guy has been a problem for
us and he's bringing this word about God knowing exactly who
he's going to save and it doesn't depend upon their education down
at the temple or over at the synagogue. You know, most people
have been educated into the kingdom. If you learn enough, my dad is
an example. 11 years old, he went to special
class at his church, spent five, six, seven weeks, memorized a
few verses of scripture. They asked him, do you believe
Jesus is the son of God? Yeah. Do you believe Jesus died for
you? Yep. Do you believe that and believe this, believe that?
Yep, yep, okay, you're in, let's get you baptized. Educated into
the kingdom. God never educates anybody into
the kingdom. He brings them the gospel, and
then he gives them the new birth, and then they rejoice in being
placed in the kingdom. It's a work of God. It's not
a work of us. So it's not being educated. I
was found seriously at fault because I hadn't got a young
man saved yet, because I hadn't done enough to, you know, Almost anybody that's ever been
to Sunday school says, oh yeah, Jesus is God. I'm a sinner. I don't wanna go to hell. Okay,
I'm in. Well, that's not what we find. Here, the Lord Jesus
is found by these people to be a gluttonous man and a winebibber
and a friend of publicans and sinners. And the church says,
hallelujah on that part because I fit in that group. I'm a publican
and a sinner, and I'm glad he's a friend of mine. Now, we would
never say that about Jesus, the other part, but that part we'll
agree with. All right, turn with me, if you
would, to John chapter 7. John chapter 7, along the same
line. There's always this line of demarcation. We're going to
find that there's a line drawn. There's going to be those that
believe and those who don't believe. There's going to be those who
hear and those who don't hear. There's going to be those who
say, oh my goodness. And the others are going to say,
you know what? That is the rottenest thing I've
ever heard. I'm gonna go back to my church.
John 7, verse 20. Let's read this together. John
7, verse 20, the scriptures share this, and it says, and the people
answered and said, thou hast a devil. Who goeth about to kill
thee? Well, they've been plotting to
kill him all along, and now he brings that subject up, and they
said, you have a devil, you have a devil. Well, you know, that's
a common thing, just blame it on the devil. And then John chapter
8, would you turn there with me? John chapter 8 and verse
48. We have similar thing against
the Lord Jesus in verse 48 that the disciples are going to deal
with over here in the book of Acts. Verse 48 of John chapter 8, then
answers the Jews and said unto him, say we not well that thou
art a Samaritan and hast the devil? That's our answer. You are one of those guys over
there that we don't have anything to do with. And besides that,
you have a devil and we're going home. You know, on that day,
that great day when Jesus went to the cross, listen to this,
Matthew chapter 27. Matthew chapter 27. These are
the religious leaders of the day. It just tells us how blind
we are by nature that we would never have seen Christ in Christ.
We'd never have seen Jesus in Jesus if he didn't reveal himself
to us. The apostle Peter was asked one
day, who do you say that I am? And he said, thou art the Christ,
the son of the living God. And I think he said it with gusto
too. I believe he believed what he was saying. He wasn't, I'll
give you hope. Thou art the Christ, the son
of the living God. And Jesus shares with him those
blessed words. Now, I think it was to help Peter
not get to feel too big about it. He just said, just remember,
flesh and blood did not reveal that unto you, but my father,
which is in heaven. He is the one that reveals the
truth to us. All truth that we have any understanding
about has been revealed to us by God the Father. All right,
Matthew chapter 27. Matthew 27 and verse 39, and
they that pass by, now he's on the cross. It doesn't matter
if it's this cross or this cross. I'm not gonna get into an argument
over that. There's more things to discuss than what style it
was. You know, most people that believe
it's this way don't know the gospel anyway. And most people
that believe it's this way don't know the gospel either. But he's on the cross on purpose. He is there by the determinant
counsel and foreknowledge of God. He is there because in the
covenant of grace, it was determined that one of the Godhead and Jesus,
or Christ is the choice, the son of God, must be the ransom
for his people because there's no one in the people that could
ransom another person. Why? We're all sinners. And sinners
can't ransom sinners. We need someone who is not a
sinner. And so we have the blessed son of God come without sin. He came, he submitted himself
to the death of the cross. They did not take him by force. The scriptures tell us, Jesus
shares with us, no man takes my life from me. I lay it down
that I might take it up again. Nobody's taking this, I'm submitting
to this. I'm going to please the Father
by doing this. And he was hung on a cross, suspended
between heaven and earth, and by God's infinite wisdom, and
for the glory of God, for the glory of Christ, and for the
glory of the church, he laid on him all the sins of all his
people. And then he poured out his infinite
wrath. And while that's going on, we
read here, they passed by, reviled him, wagging their heads and
saying, thou that destroyest the temple and buildest it in
three days, save thyself. You know, he said that, destroy
this temple in three days, I'll build it up. And they thought,
there's tongue about this temple over here, it took 40 years to
build. And Jesus in the scripture said, he spoke of his own body. and he's gonna do that, but they're
mocking him for what he said. And then, if thou be the son
of God, come down from the cross. Another accusation, if you be
the son of God, come down from the cross. Likewise, also the
chief priests mocking him with scribes and elders, all the religious
leaders that had brought accusation against him and said, he must
die, wagging their heads, He saved others, himself he cannot
save. If he be the king of Israel,
let him now come down from the cross and we will believe him. You know, there was a brother
of some brothers that was cast into the pit. And he said, please, Abraham,
go back and talk to my brothers. And Abraham said, you know, If
they'll not believe Moses and the prophets, they'll not believe
the one rose from the dead. Those critters that are saying
this very thing would not have had their heart changed in one's
capacity. If Jesus had have come off the
cross, but he's not going to because he is nailed there on
purpose to take away the sins of his people. So they're going
through all this rigmarole. And then it tells us there, He
trusted in God, let him deliver him now if he will have him.
For he said, I am the son of God. How many different things
that Jesus said about himself do they bring up here? And besides
that, you're ugly. You are a mockery. And verse
44, the thieves also, which were crucified with him, cast the
same in his teeth. One on the right hand and the
one on the left hand, both. Now one went out of this life
casting the same in his teeth. But God was gracious to the other. God humbled him. God saved him
by his grace. Oh, this man has done nothing
amiss. We get what we're deserving. He does not deserve this. And
then he cried to Jesus, remember me when thou comest into thy
kingdom. And Jesus said, today thou shall
be with me in paradise. That man went out of this life
in hope of Jesus Christ, the Savior that saved him from his
sins. All right, now let's go back.
I have a little bit of time left. Let's go back to Acts chapter
2. Notice the apostle Peter here. I just am so impressed as I read
through this. There's so much in here I've
never seen. You know, I was taught all my life that there's so many
new things going to happen in the book of Acts. There's nothing
new. There's no new gospel, there's no new teaching, there's no new
apostles, there's nothing new here. We're having something
go on here that has been minuscule in the Old Testament. Here are
few, there are few, very few. But now God is pouring out his
grace and we're gonna see 3,000 at one time brought into the
kingdom by the preaching of the gospel and for no other reason.
Acts chapter two, let's look at this. Verse 14, this is so
good. But Peter, he's listened to this enough.
They're not drunk. It's only nine o'clock in the
morning. They haven't had a drink yet. This is something very special. Peter, standing up with the 11,
lifted up his voice and said unto them, Ye men of Judea, and
all you that dwell in Jerusalem, be it known unto you and hearken
to my words, for these are not drunken as you suppose, seeing
as but the third hour of the day." Now their day started at
six o'clock for us, so it's about noon. But this is that which
was spoken by the prophet Joel. The Lord has taught Peter some
things about the Old Testament in the times that he's been with
him and the time that he's been there in Jerusalem waiting for
those days until this happened. The Holy Spirit came upon him
and it's only the Holy Spirit that can reveal the truth of
the Word of God to us. We will just see natural events.
We will just see it in a natural state. We'll be looking for things.
I had a man tell me one time that Texas will not be the largest
state in the union anymore when Colorado is leveled out because
every mountain shall be level and every valley shall be exalted. What does that have to do with
the price of tea in China? Taking a verse of scripture and
applying it in a literal sense, Now, if we look at that from
the Old Testament standpoint, and listen to what it said about
those cities of refuge, and that every valley must be filled in,
and every mountain must be taken down, so that people can get
to the city of refuge without hindrance. Spiritually, that's
what happened physically. There's no hindrance from anybody
coming to Christ. except you. Our nature will not have this
man rule over us. There is nothing that prevents
anybody from coming to Christ but us. And so he said here, this is
the prophet Joel in living color. This is what Joel was talking
about in living color. Right here, you're seeing it
happen. He said there, this is what happened. Peter standing
on the 11, lifted up his voice and said unto them, ye men of
Judea and all ye that dwell in Jerusalem, be this known unto
you and hearken to my words. These are not drunken as you
suppose, but this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel. You know, the Lord mentioned
the prophet Joel Not by name, but by subject matter. What does it tell us in Luke
chapter 24? It says, in beginning at Moses
and all the prophets, he expounded to them in all the scriptures
the things concerning himself. So he didn't mention Joel by
name, but he mentioned Joel by content. What is in the book
of Joel? That's the message of Christ
in the book of Joel. If we only had the book of Obadiah,
that's all that we were permitted to have, you're gonna find the
gospel in the book of Obadiah. One chapter. We'll find Christ. And we'll find Christ in him
crucified. And we'll have the gospel. And there'll be enough
to preach from one book that God will save all his people
that he intends to save from their sins. All right, so the
book of Joel is going to be right here. Now, because of Peter's
understanding of the Old Testament passage, many will say Peter
missed it because he uses the last days. Notice this, all right. It shall come to pass, verse
17, in the last days. Now in the Bible school I went
to, boy, they made big money out of this, last days. They
never read the scriptures about the last days. I just want to
read a couple of verses of scripture about the last days. Hebrews
chapter one, verse two. Hebrews chapter one, verse two,
we have here God speaking about the last days. He's not speaking
about it in an eschatological sense. He's speaking about it
in a historical sense, because in Hebrews chapter one, verse
two, it says, well, let's read verses one and two. God, who
at sundry times, Hebrews chapter one, verses one and two, God
who at sundry times in diverse manners spake in time past unto
the fathers by the prophets. From here back, he spoke to the
prophets. I was mentioning this morning
to Beth, sometimes he spoke very audibly to individuals. They
didn't have the Bible as we have it. God doesn't do that anymore
though. The only way he speaks to us
is through that book. Through that book. Through the
Bible, that's how he speaks to us. Don't expect some audible
voice to come to you. Read your Bible. That's where
you get the answer. All right. And verse two, half
in these last days spoken to us by his son. Now, when did
the last days begin if he spoke to us by the son? Well, I'm just
gonna go back there to There was a babe laid in a manger. That's the beginning of the last
days. The end of the last days, when he comes again. We have
a period of time in there that God calls the last days. Now don't go say, oh, we're in
the last days, I expect all this to take place. An evil and adulterous
generation look after a sign, that's it. Just look to Christ,
don't look to signs. Goes on to tell us here, he has
spoken to us by his son, these last days, whom he hath appointed
heir of all things, by whom also is made the worlds. Now turn
with me, if you would, to the book of 1 John, chapter two.
1 John, chapter two, this subject comes up again. 1 John, chapter
two, verse 18. Oh, I got 1 John 1. Verse 18, 1 John 2, verse 18. Little children, it is the last
time. And as you have heard, that Antichrist
shall come. Even now are there many Antichrists. You know, everyone that does
not agree with God on salvation, is an Antichrist. Everyone that does not agree,
you don't have to agree with me, you have to agree with God. Everyone that does not agree
with God on how people are saved are Antichrist. Here he goes
on to say, there are many Antichrists whereby we know that it is the
last time So we're in the last times right now. It may last
for another thousand years. It may be wrapped up today. We
don't know. That's not our business to know. It is our business to scatter
precious seed. So the last day. God is true. Scriptures are true. The message
of grace is true. And Peter begins here with the
book of Joel of preaching a message from an Old Testament passage.
And I want us to go back to Acts chapter 2 for just a moment. And we'll pick up here, Lord
willing, the next time. Acts chapter 2. We'll look at that passage written
in Job or Joel. The one I want is verse 22 and
23. 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." Now he's speaking in a
language and there's 11 other men speaking in languages of
other people and the message is in complete agreement. They're
not talking about 12 different things. Ye men of Israel, Jesus
of Nazareth, he just brings out that passage of scripture in
Joel chapter two and begins at the same place and preaches unto
them, Jesus. Jesus of Nazareth, verse 23,
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 loosed the pains of death, because
it was not possible that he should be holding it. So we have Peter
preaching the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus
Christ for sinners. And he preaches that out at Joel,
and what Joel had to say was fulfilled that day. It's gonna
be fulfilled the day that he saves someone else, preaching
the gospel, saving people from their sins. This is that same
Jesus. We'll begin at the same place
and preach unto them Jesus. We'll stop there and we'll pick
up Joel's prophecy that's written here that Peter picks up. He's
led by the Holy Spirit to go to that passage of scripture.
He didn't just open his Bible and say, well, I think I'll speak
from this place today. Nope. The Holy Spirit led him
where to go. He read it, quoted it, brought
it out, and said, this is speaking of Christ. All right. Nathan, if you'll come.