Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayer for attention to Acts chapter 2 and verse 39. Acts 2 and verse 39. For the promise is unto you and
to your children and to all that are afar off, even as many. as the Lord our God shall call. Acts 2 and verse 39. Words of
our text follow the directions of the apostles to repent and
be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for
the remission of sin. and then the promise, and ye
shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. And those here that
were hearing Peter speak the words of our text, it would have
meant a lot to them, because these are they that have just
been pricked in their hearts, just realized that they had crucified
the Lord of life and glory. And the words really could hardly
convey the torment of their minds as they realized what they had
done. And in addition to the crucifixion
of our Lord, they had said this, let his blood be on us and on
our children. And so the promise here that
is not only for them, but unto their children, would have meant
a lot to them. That the Lord should bless them,
forgive them, that he should bless them in spite of all what
they had done. Really, every one of us, it is
our sins. those sins of the people of God
that nail the Lord to the accursed tree, and all of those that are
pricked in their hearts or brought under conviction, they are those
that need these promises of God and that are the right subjects
of baptism and of the entrance into the church of God. Our text speaks of the Holy Spirit,
and we know, of course, that the Holy Spirit is the inspirer
of the Word of God. All Scripture is given by inspiration
of God. It is Spirit breathed. We know also that the Holy Spirit
is the author of the new birth. And the Lord has said in John
16, that it was needful that he go away. If I go not away,
the Holy Spirit shall not come unto you. And he said to them
to tarry at Jerusalem until they were endued with power from on
high. That is the occasion that we've
read here in Acts 2, the Day of Pentecost, the gift of the
Spirit, in a great demonstration with speaking in languages that
had not been learned and that were languages that could be
understood and identified very, very clearly in many instances
as set forth here. There's no justification for
the speaking in tongues movement of gibberish or that which cannot
be understood. The scriptures are very clear.
that if there be none to interpret, then there's not to be a speaking
in tongues in the assembly of the people of God. How vital
though it was that at the time when the gospel is to be sent
forth into every nation, kindred and tongue, that that which was
done at Babel, the confusion of the tongues, should be in
a way reversed by giving men In this instance, miraculous,
and in others, many have the gift of tongues. We know of several
that have been able to speak five or more languages fluently. And it is certainly a gift, and
especially where those that can do that also are called by grace. And those gifts are not used
in a secular way, but in a spiritual, gracious way, for the benefit
and blessing of the Church of God. Paul speaks about yielding
our members that once were used for unrighteousness unto righteousness,
and it's a blessed thing where the Lord gives the gift of the
Spirit in that way. But the miraculous gift of tongues,
we believe, ceases with the apostles, and yet of course it's not impossible
for God to give that in times where it would be needed, and
still the Lord is able to do those things. But the gift of
the Spirit is very clearly set before us here, and that is what
is upon my spirit, is the gift of the Spirit not just in one
instant, but right through the lives of the people of God. What would it be to us if we
were told in the scriptures, the Holy Spirit only acts once. All he does, all his work is,
is to open the eyes, to quicken a soul into life, to be the author
of the new birth, and that is it. There's no more. No more
work of the Spirit, no more help of the Spirit, that is all. But that is not what is set forth
in Scripture, because we have those here that were pricked
in the heart, they were convinced, they were brought to faith, they
were brought to repentance, and they were exhorted to be baptised. They had received the Spirit
in conversion, There were others there that had received the Spirit
in the miraculous gift of the tongues. There was the apostles
who spoke so boldly, so clearly in the name of the Lord. The
power was attending their preaching. All of these things were by the
Spirit of God. But Peter says here that they
are then to receive the The gift of the Holy Spirit upon their
being baptized for the promise is unto you and to your children
and to all that are afar off even as many as the Lord our
God shall call. And so the emphasis and how we
see later on through the scripture is to assure the people of God,
those that venture, especially in a public way of following
the Lord, that the Holy Spirit will be with them and will guide
them, will bless them right through life's journey. It is vital that
it be so. So I want to look, firstly, just
two points. Firstly, Those who are called,
the word of our text, it says that this promise is to all that
are far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. That is, amongst their children,
amongst those that are far off, so it is those that are called. And secondly, the promise to
those that are called, the promise of the gift of the Holy Ghost. Firstly then, those who are called. As we said in the beginning,
it is the Holy Ghost that does the calling, the quickening. The Lord says in John 3, there
must be that new birth, there must be a being born of the Spirit. The spirit quickeneth whomsoever
he will. The salvation, the working of
salvation in a sinner's heart is the work of the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Ghost. Our Lord says, no man cometh
unto the Father but by me. And no man can come unto me except
the Father which sent me draw him. It is the Spirit that quickeneth
the flesh, profiteth nothing, and those that are born, they're
born again of the Spirit. So we have a calling, an effectual
calling, which is set forth here. Certainly, whenever the Gospel
is proclaimed, whenever there's assembly, and the Word of God
is read and preached, there is an outward call. There is the
authoritative declaration of the Word of God, and God has
said, it hath pleased God through the foolishness of preaching
to save them that believe. He has so clouded men's wisdom
that though man, and we touched on that this morning, he has
been given gifts to make many, many inventions. In the electronics
world, mechanical world, in sending men to the moon. He's been able
to do many, many things. But what God has done is kept
back that ability to find out God or for any spiritual blessing. He cannot quicken his own soul. The realm of the spiritual is
shut out from him. And the only way it can be opened
is through the preaching of the word and through the Holy Spirit
enlightening and opening the eyes and calling that person. The Apostle says to the Corinthians
that the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. Foolish thing for a sinner to
get up and to preach the word, tell to other sinners the word
of God. set it forth in a living way,
not as an angel to men, but as a sinner to other sinners, having
handled, tasted, and felt it ourselves. And yet that is the
way God uses to call men. And what is necessary to call?
The Lord gives eternal life. He gives a new spirit. He opens the ear. He causes them
to hear his voice. You read of how the Lord worked
the miracle with Lazarus. Lazarus was dead, and the Lord
called him, used his voice, called him, called him out of his grave. He didn't say, Lazarus, awake,
and then checked that he could hear, and then gave him the direction
to come forth. It was all done in one word.
Lazarus, come forth. And the same word that quickened
him, made him alive, was the same direction, to come forth. We would never think if we had
someone asleep, just naturally. If we wanted to tell them something,
we wouldn't come next to them and just start telling them what
we wanted them to hear. We'd get them awake first. We'd make sure that they were
listening, and then we'd start telling them. You wouldn't think,
well, I've spoken one or two sentences already, and yes, you're
awake now, but you haven't heard the first part of what I had
to say. But when God quickens a soul,
there's not a distinguishing between when life was given,
the soul quickened, and when the word was actually received. And so he may come into the house
of God, dead. And then the Lord used one word,
one verse. And we hear that word, and we
quicken by it and go out from the house of God, a new creature. Not with assurance, not even
knowing that we are a child of God, but given eternal life. And from that time forth, There
will be a hearing which is different, a seeing which is different,
and desires that are different. He which hath begun a good work
in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. The calling of God is just that,
it is God's call. With Samuel, God called Samuel,
Samuel, Samuel. And Samuel heard his voice, thought
it was Eli first. Eli perceived the Lord had called
the lad. My sheep, they hear my voice,
and they follow me. It is the call that is equated
with the new birth, with conversion, with the giving of eternal life,
with the beginning of the pilgrimage of a child of God. And it is
God that does it. and it will be under the general
proclamation of the Word. The general call that all hear. It might be a chapel full of
people and yet only one or two hear that Word in a quickening
way. We read with the early church
when the Word was preached that some believed the Word spoken
and some believed not. and as many as were ordained
unto eternal life believed. That is, they were called, and
that call was evidenced by their belief. And it is the Lord that
does that. It is the Spirit that quickeneth
or maketh alive the flesh, profiteth nothing. And so there shall be,
to the end of the world, there shall be those that are called
the children of believers, to those that are afar off. In every
nation, kindred, and tongue, there will be those that will
be called and quickened. And it should be a great encouragement
for every preacher of the gospel. It should be a great encouragement,
as no doubt it was, to those here that were believers, that
it wasn't just for them. But it was a promise to their
children, and it was a promise to go through the world. In John 17, the Lord prays for
his disciples, for those that are near to him. And then he
says, I pray not only for these, but for them also which shall
believe on me through their word. And that then is a great encouragement
to us. We don't just look upon those
prayers and those blessings for the 12 and say, well, that doesn't
apply to us. But we can believe and know that
it does apply also to us, to those that shall believe on me
through their word. And it's passed on from generation
to generation, the father to the son, the wonderful works
of God. And it shall be to every, every
generation and every people. That's why we have on the outside
of the chapel here, the Psalm 100, enter into his gates with
thanksgiving. and into his courts with praise. Be thankful unto him and bless
his name, for the Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting, and
his truth endureth to all generations. It won't peter out, it won't
just stop and not go to another generation. And it is the same
truth, the old paths, the same teaching, the same salvation,
the same way of being saved by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The promised Messiah was the
way the Old Testament saints were saved, and the way all the
people of God are saved. They're saved by being called. And this especially is given
to us and applies in these Gospel days. It's a beautiful way, really,
that the Holy Ghost, the inspirer of the Word of God, shows forth
that great change in different ways. Not just one way. In one way it's spoken of as
the new birth, a real new beginning. And we get a little picture of
what it is like that. Then we think of conversion,
except ye be converted or changed to become as little children,
ye shall not see the kingdom of heaven. And we get another
picture of the new birth. And then we have the picture
here of being called, hearing, hearing the Lord, following the
Lord, going after the Word, recognizing the Word of the Lord. my sheep,
they hear my voice and they follow me. And all these different ways
that we have to describe that work of God, he which hath begun
a good work in you, again, is describing the same time, the
same beginning, a good work in you, a heart work, something
that is worked inside. And this then is spoken of here
as a call and very suitable to how that is done through the
Word, through the preached Word, that the Lord speaks to the heart
through the Word. We'll know the difference. The
Apostle said with the Thessalonians that the Word came unto them,
not in word only, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. And he became followers, followers
of the Lord, followers of us. And they were then brought to
wait for his son from heaven. And they received the word that
was preached to them. And of course, with the apostles,
it was the inspired word of God. They received it as it is in
truth, Word of men, but the Word of God. And as far as a minister
preaches the Word, it is to be received as the Word of God,
not the Word of men. Every Word of God is pure. All
Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable. It's profitable for reproof,
for instruction in righteousness. It is what the Lord uses. So
firstly then, we have those who are called. And may our desire,
our prayer be to be amongst those that our election is known by
calling. Don't ever fall into the trap
of just trying to ask the Lord to show you that you are elect
or amongst his chosen ones. Election is known by calling. The scripture is, give diligence
to make your calling and election sure. And the calling is first,
that is how it is known. The secret things, they belong
unto God, but those things which are revealed, they belong unto
us and our children. And the Lord reveals his love,
his purposes to his people by calling them. and quickening
them, making them alive. So may that be our real desire,
that the Lord would do that, and in recognising that, to be
a new creature in Christ. It's another way it's described.
Old things are passed away, all things become new. All these
different ways that the new birth that changes is described. what man does, and yet God uses
means, he uses preaching as he did in this Acts chapter 2. But then secondly, we have the
promise to those that are called, and this specifically is the
gift of the Holy Ghost. Of course we can't really separate
it from the calling, all that are called will be given the
gift of the Holy Ghost. And the promise of the gift of
the Spirit is just as much the promise of the Lord being given
and of conversion. But the emphasis here is that
which follows the work of the Spirit in conversion, and follows
obedience in baptism here, is put as a separate gift. We have in Acts chapter 8 and
verse 16 a word that speaks this, where the apostles, heard at
Jerusalem that Samaria had received the word of God so they sent
unto them Peter and John who when they came down prayed for
them that they might receive the Holy Ghost and it said here
for as yet he was fallen upon none of them only they were baptized
in the name of the Lord Jesus then laid they their hands on
them, and they received the Holy Ghost. Now, it's an emphasizing,
the same as in Acts 2, of the blessing of the Holy Spirit with
a believer, abiding with the believer, and there's a need
for that. God is not saying, I will quicken
you, I'll make you alive, now you're on your own. You go through
the world, new work, all of what the Spirit is set forth as doing
in the Word of God, you do that yourself. No. There is the promise
of the Spirit, not as we said, to be evidenced by speaking in
tongues or other ways, but in a scriptural way. I want to look
at some of those ways. It's quite remarkable, we have
Acts 8 and verse 16, and then if you go further to Romans 8
and Romans 16, then we have this word, the Spirit itself beareth
witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. So we need the gift of the Holy
Spirit to bear witness with our spirit. As many of the people
of God, they may have made a profession, they may have spoken to the church,
been baptised, but they still need, as years go on, a daily
witness of the spirit, with their spirit, that they are a child
of God. Who is it that can assure them?
They can't go to another minister or another believer and say,
look, I'm not sure whether I'm a child of God. Do you think
I am? Am I a child of God? And they assure them to really
comfort their souls and be a help to them. When we have life and
death at stake, eternity at stake, we want it from God. We want it from the same spirit
that quickened us, the same Spirit that made us alive, to bear witness
with our spirit. And so we read, for as many as
are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For
ye have not received the spirit of bondage, ye are going to fear,
but ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry,
Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness
with our spirit, that we are the children of God. And if children
then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if so
be that we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together. And so the promise unto you and
your children, the promise of the Spirit, is a witnessing spirit. But then when the apostle writes
to the Galatians. He has another word to set before
them, and it is in Galatians 3 and verses 2 and 3. These are those that he reproved
because they were foolish, and he says, This only would I learn
of you, received ye the Spirit by the works of the law or by
the hearing of faith. Now we know that faith cometh
by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And he speaks of
then the beginning, they begun in the spirit, they begun with
being truly converted, or that's what they testified, that's what
appeared was the case. But then he says, are ye so foolish,
having begun in the spirit, i.e. now made perfect by the flesh. As if he would say, well, you've
begun by the Spirit, are you expecting now to just rely on
your own works? Because that is what was being
set before them. But no, the implication is, the
teaching is, if we begin by the Spirit, We continue by the Spirit,
by the same Spirit in the same way, same resting upon Christ's
finished work, resting upon the Spirit's work within, not by
going back to the law, not by leaning upon an arm of flesh
to our own strength. Thou only hast wrought all our
works in us, and so This is the line that Paul takes with these
Galatians. Then later on, when he comes
to the fifth chapter and verse 18, he speaks of those, or prior
to verse 18, exhorting to walk in the Spirit. And he says, but
if ye under the law. And so we are
dependent upon the ongoing leading of the spirit in opposing to
the law. It is a great blessing if we
have a spirit ministry, that we're not preaching the word,
saying to our hearers, do this, do that. obey this rule or that
rule, or take these steps and follow them through. Some churches,
I've seen it, little books in the foyer, you read through this
and sign at the end of it that you believe, and you're a Christian,
you're saved. And if you can't, then start
back at the beginning and read it again. And that's how they
supposedly come to faith. Where is the Spirit's work in
that? It is tarry at Jerusalem, The
Lord said to his servants, until ye be endued with power from
on high without the Spirit, there cannot be effectual preaching
at all. It's absolutely vital. And the
people of God are to be led by the Spirit. Philip was led by
the Spirit. We're told very clearly to go
out into the wilderness to meet with that chariot who directed. the eunuch to read Isaiah 53,
to give Philip his tax, the same spirit. And this is what we need. This is what is the same in the
preaching of the word, is dependent upon the spirit. Then we have
in verse 22 of the fifth of Galatians, the fruits of the spirit contrasted
with the verses before all of the works of the flesh, all of
the evil workings of the flesh, but the fruit of the Spirit is
love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance, against such there is no law. Where would we be without the
Spirit and without those fruits? We'd be just with the flesh and
the fruits of the flesh. Every child of God groans under
a body of death, like the Apostle did. O wretched man that I am,
who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God
through Jesus Christ my Lord and the office of the Holy Spirit. He shall receive of mine and
shall show it unto you. It is the Spirit that abides,
the Lord a great mystery of godliness. But the Lord ascended up into
heaven, but he said, Lo, I am with you always, even to the
end of the world. He's with us by his spirit and
by his grace. And his presence is to be known
as the spirit takes the things of Jesus and reveals them unto
the soul. Then when the apostle goes on
and writes to the Ephesians, that He gives another work of
the Spirit, a vital aspect of the Spirit, and that is access. In Ephesians 2 and verse 18,
for through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the
Father, that is Jews and Gentiles through the Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him we both have access
by one Spirit. Now therefore ye, ye Gentiles,
are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the
saints and of the household of God. And when the blessing was
upon the house of Cornelius and the Spirit fell upon them, The
Apostle says, then hath God granted to the Gentiles repentance unto
life. And here, the access is given
to the Gentiles through the Spirit. And then in Ephesians 4, we have
the sealing of the Spirit in verse 13. And the exhortation,
and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed
unto the day of redemption. If we believe and understand
the Holy Spirit indwells a believer, that he takes up his residence
there, your bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost who is in you. And God has given that to a believer
to abide in him and to bring forth those spiritual fruits
and blessings, and it is that spirit that seals for heaven,
puts the seal of it being the work of God, and keeps that soul
alive. That's why we're exhorted not
to grieve the Holy Spirit of God. So we have in our text a
promise, the promise to those that are called, the promise
of the Spirit abiding and remaining. For the promise is unto you,
the verse that goes before, ye shall receive the gift of the
Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you and
to your children and to all that are afar off, even as many as
the Lord our God shall call. Those of us who have been quickened
may we know the reality of the Spirit indwelling, may we be
very careful not to grieve the Spirit, may we not despair when
we see what we are by nature, but seek of the Lord that we
might have the fruits of the Spirit within us, and that that
blessing we prize and value, and may that be an encouragement
to those who may be held back from open profession. What if
I make a profession? What if I can't continue? What
if I make shipwreck? What if I, like the hymn writer
says, I cannot promise future good to bring. No, we cannot. But with the spirit, from me
is thy fruit found. And in abiding with Christ and
with his spirit with us, we shall bring forth fruit. spiritual
fruits, fruits to the honour and glory of God. For the promise
is unto you and to your children, to all that are afar off even,
as many as the Lord our God shall call. Amen.