Good morning. Let's open this
morning's service with the hymn from the Hardback Tymnal, number
70, Holy, Holy, Holy. Let's all stand together. Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty. Early in the morning our song
shall rise to Thee. Holy, holy, holy, merciful and
mighty, God in three persons, blessed Trinity. Holy, holy, holy, all the saints
adore thee, casting down their golden crowns around the glassy
sea. ? Cherubim and seraphim ? ? Falling
down before thee ? ? Which wert and art and evermore shall be
? ? Holy, holy, holy ? though the
darkness hide thee, though the eye of sinful man thy glory may
not see. Only Thou art holy, there is
none beside Thee, perfect in power, in love and purity. holy holy holy lord god almighty
all thy works shall praise thy name in earth and sky Holy, holy, holy, merciful and
mighty, God in three persons, blessed Trinity. Please be seated. Good morning. We're going to
be in Acts chapter two, both hours this morning. Acts chapter
two. I got a text from a brother out
of state last night and he quoted in his text Psalm 37. He said, I've been young and
now I'm old yet. I've not seen the righteous forsaken.
nor his seed begging bread. And I've always, I've always
thought of that verse as we be in the righteous one and our
children be in the ones that we have to provide for. But I
saw something in that passage I'd never seen before that Christ
has never been forsaken. He's the righteous one. I've
never seen the righteous forsaken. Is it possible for God the father
to forsake his own son? He forsake him once. And in forsaking
him once, he was satisfied, and never forsake him again. And
we are his seed. And we have the hope and the
confidence of knowing that as the father will never forsake
his son, so he will never forsake those who are found in him. He
said, I'll never leave you nor forsake you. What hope, what
encouragement. I want us to go before the Lord
and ask him to bless this service. For those of you that are watching
online, I thought that it would be important for us to try to
carry on as normal as we possibly could under the circumstances.
So we will have a full service this morning. I know it's different being at
home. and hopefully soon this will
be over and we'll be able to gather back together. It's not the same when you're
at home watching online, but I would give those who are watching
online some advice. Turn the TV off in the other
room. Prepare yourself for worship.
You know, don't don't don't be casual about it. Give this service
your undivided attention. And and ask the Lord to speak
to your heart and I I'm confident that. That we can. Take the difficult circumstances
that we have right now and that the Lord will be pleased to.
To bless us through them so. Let's. Let's go before the Lord
in prayer and before we do. Most of you, some of you don't
know Carl and I have a little born. They wintered with us as
snowbirds for about 10 years and they were part of our fellowship
here several years ago. Carl got to where he couldn't
travel, so they had to stay in Fairmont where Marvin Stoniker
pastors. That's their home church and
this past Tuesday. the Lord took Ivalu home. And Carl went to bed Wednesday
night pleading with the Lord to take him. It would have been
very, very difficult for Carl to take care of himself or have
someone else take care of him other than Ivalu. And Carl didn't
wake up Thursday morning. And he's been in a coma in the
hospital since then. a text from Kevin this morning,
his son saying that Carl went home to be with the Lord three
o'clock this morning. So we rejoice for both Carl and Ivalu and we
pray for the family and for the church and for ourselves that
the Lord will drive home to us the importance of our salvation
The importance of our of our hope in Christ and. Nothing, nothing reminds us of
that more than to to have a brother or sister go home to be with
the Lord so. Let's ask the Lord's blessings.
Our merciful Heavenly Father. Thank you for the comfort and
for the hope that you give us and knowing that. Everything
necessary for our eternal home has been prepared and accomplished
in the finished work of thy dear son. That we have the hope of
knowing that there's no more sickness, no more tears, no more
sorrow for our brother and for our sister. And for those of
us that you've been pleased to give faith in Christ. Lord, we
pray that you would forgive us for our unbelief. And that you
would cause us once again. To find our hope and our strength. And all our salvation, our forgiveness
of sin. In the glorious person of thy
dear son. Thank you for his accomplished
work. Thank you for the finished work of redemption. Lord, comfort
the hearts of your people in Fairmont, especially Carl and
Ivalou's children and their family members. Lord, cause us to rejoice
in knowing that the righteous one has never been forsaken,
nor have any of his seed been found begging bread. Bless your word. We ask it in
Christ's name, amen. You have your Bibles open to
Acts chapter two. We're going to begin this morning,
the greatest gospel message that's ever been preached. The first
gospel message that the Lord gave to his church after the
coming of the Holy Spirit. And we learn some things in this
message about the pouring out of the spirit of God. And when
Zachariah prophesied in Zachariah chapter 10, that in those days,
all that are of the house of David and the inhabitants of
Jerusalem, the spirit of God will be poured out on them. Turn with me to that passage.
It's Zachariah chapter 10. Zechariah chapter 12, forgive
me. What we see in Acts chapter 2
is a fulfillment of Zechariah chapter 12, verse 9, and it shall
come to pass in that day that I will seek to destroy all the
nations that come against Jerusalem. Now that happened. in its fullest
sense when the Lord destroys all of those who stand at enmity
against God and against his church. And I will pour upon the house
of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace
and supplication. And they shall look upon me whom
they have pierced and they shall mourn for me as one mourneth
for his only son and shall be in bitterness for him as one
that is in bitterness for his only son. Now what's going to
happen as a result of Peter's message on the day of Pentecost
is that they realize that by their wicked hands, they crucified
and slain the son of God. And the response that they have
to the message that Peter preached is, what should we do? How are
we going? They're mourning now for what
they've done. And so the message of hope is
found in chapter 13. Look at chapter 13, verse 1.
And in that day, there shall be a fountain open to the house
of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for
uncleanness. So Peter concludes his message. Go back with me to Acts chapter
two and look at verse 37. And 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? Oh, what have we done? What have
we done? And Peter's message back to them
is repent. Oh, have a change of mind about
who you are, about who Christ is, about how it is that God's
pleased to put away sin and to save sinners. Have a change of
mind. And we know that that work of
repentance is a work of grace. The Lord has to take out our
old thoughts. Adam, you read it this morning.
My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways.
As the heavens are high above the earth, so are my ways above
yours. And the Lord has to give us the mind of Christ. He has
to change our minds. And he does that through the
command to repent. We see it once again, everything
that God requires, what does he require? He requires repentance
and faith God must provide. And everything he provides, he
provides in the person of his dear son and only accepts that
which he provides in Christ. And so he tells the people, he
tells the people of Jerusalem, repent and be baptized. Every
one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your
sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy spirit. Now,
the truth is that the gift of the Holy Spirit is necessary
for repentance and faith. We know that if a man have not
the Spirit of God, he's none of his. It's the Spirit of God
that convicts us of sin and of righteousness and of judgment.
And so we have to understand the cause and effect of this. We don't receive the Spirit of
God because we decided to repent and believe. The Spirit of God
is made evident in our lives through faith and through repentance. And so that's what, go back with
me to the beginning of Peter's message in verse 14. But Peter,
standing up with the 11, lifted up his voice and said unto them,
ye men of Judea and all ye that dwell in Jerusalem, be it known
unto you and hearken to my words. Listen to me. Oh, there's really
no way to overestimate the urgency of the gospel, is there? There's
a lot of urgent things going on in the world right now. This
pandemic is an urgent thing when it comes to when it comes to
men's needs in this life. And we don't mean to be callous
or insensitive or uncaring about the needs that men have right
now. But the truth is, the truth is that these things do not compare. They do not compare for our need
for forgiveness. They do not compare for our need
for eternal life. Um, you know, these things will
pass. Um, you know, we're, they will
one way or the other. I can't stand before you and
say, they'll say at the Lord, this is going to be over soon.
Uh, I'm, I'm, I'm sure it's going to get a lot worse than it gets
better before it gets better. And it may not get better. You
know, the Lord may just, he may use this to destroy the whole
world. I don't know. I'm not, I'm not. I'm not prophesying
a doomsday. I'm just saying that this is
in God's hands and he will do whatever he sees right. And,
and, and it'll be right, whatever he does. Um, but I can tell you
with the authority of God's word that we have a malady. We've
got a, we've got a sickness. We've got it. We've got a. a
virus, if you will, that's invisible, and it's called sin. You say,
well, sin's not invisible. Well, we see the evidence of sin in
our behavior and in the behavior of other men. We see the symptoms
of sin. But let me ask you a question.
When and where was there more sin in one place and at one time
than at any other time in the history of the world. When was there? It's when the Lord Jesus Christ
as our sin bearer bore in his body upon that tree all of the
sins of all of God's people of every generation. Do we see any
symptoms of it in his life? No. What does that tell us? What's
that tell us? It tells us that we don't really
know anything about sin. That's what it tells us. This,
this, this sin problem, this, this, this invisible virus that
is infected the whole world, the whole world. We just see
the symptoms of it, but we don't really understand it. The Lord
Jesus Christ himself is the only one that understood the full
gravity and horrors of sin. And he suffered under the wrath
of God in order to put them away. And this is what I can tell you
for sure. I don't know what's gonna happen with this coronavirus. But I can tell you with the certainty
of God's Word what has already happened in putting away the
one sin that will not just take a man's life in this world, but
will cast his soul into hell for all eternity. And that's
been put away. That's been put away. The Lord
Jesus Christ has bore the wrath of God's justice. He has satisfied
God's holy law. And that's the message we need
to hear, isn't it? That's the hope that we have
to have, because if we have that, you know, Carl and Avalu this past Monday
did not have a clue that they'd be standing in the presence of
the Lord today. And we don't know what's gonna,
I can't tell you what's gonna happen. I think it'll probably
get better eventually and I fear that when it does, all the humility
and dependence and weaknesses that we see in men right now
is gonna fade away and everybody go back to what they were doing
before. But I can tell you that what
Peter said, hear these words, hear these words, because here
is the hope that we have for eternal life in the message of
the gospel. Now Peter goes on in the next
verse to say, for these men are not drunken as you suppose. You
remember they said these men, they're all speaking in different
languages, they must be drunk. It's nine o'clock in the morning
on the Sabbath. And it's forbidden for any Jew
to take any nourishment whatsoever until the first prayer time.
So Peter says to them, it's not possible that they're drunk.
It's forbidden for them to even take water at this time of the
day on this Sabbath day, much less for them to be. Now they
did have a spirit, didn't they? It wasn't the spirit of alcohol. It was the spirit of God. it
was the spirit of God and so he says these men are not drunken
as you suppose seen is but the third hour the day but this is
that which is spoken of the prophet Joel now go back with me to Joel
chapter 2 because this is this is the fulfillment we've already
seen from Zachariah that this is the fulfillment of the pouring
out of the spirit of God and This matter of Pentecost as we've
seen over the last few weeks is not just limited to what happened
in Jerusalem 2000 years ago. Our hope is that the spirit of
grace and supplication will be poured out on us. That we will
look upon him whom we have pierced and we will mourn after him as
one mourneth after his only son. We're very hopeful that the spirit
of God will cause us to prophesy and that the sun will be darkened
and the moon will be turned into blood and all those things that
are prophesied here will happen spiritually for us. That's our
hope. Because if it doesn't, if we
don't have the spirit of God, And we have no hope for eternal
life. And it doesn't really matter
what's going to happen in this world. We Lord, I need your spirit. I need to know that what you
did for your people on Pentecost, you're doing for me right now.
Now that's my hope this morning is that we'll leave here knowing
that, that we've experienced what they've experienced. Look at verse 28 of Joel chapter
2. And it shall come to pass afterwards that I will pour out
my Spirit upon all flesh. One of the things we see here
is that the pouring out of the Spirit of God is not a blessing
reserved for the spiritual elite. The pouring out of the Spirit
of God is for all God's people. He goes on to, he says that your
old men will dream dreams, your young men will prophesy, your
maidens will even prophesy, your servants, they'll all have the
spirit of God. Your sons and your daughters
will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men
shall see visions, and also upon the servants and upon the handmaids
in those days will I pour out my spirit. You see, the pouring
out of the Spirit of God in its truest sense is not limited to an event that
took place on a day we call Pentecost 2,000 years ago. It's not limited
to the spiritual elite today. It is for all of God's people. For the natural man receiveth
not the Spirit of God, or receiveth not the spiritual things. They are spiritually discerned.
They're spiritually discerned. We've got to have the Spirit
of God to discern these, this gospel, and to believe on Christ. And I will show wonders in the
heavens and in the earth, blood and fire and pillars of smoke.
The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood
before the great and terrible day of the Lord come. Now the
great and terrible day of the Lord is going to come and it's
going to be a whole lot greater and a whole lot more terrible
than anything the world is experiencing right now with this coronavirus. So what the Lord said, that's
the day we have to be prepared for. That's the day we have to
be prepared for. And by God's grace and by his
spirit, we will be. We will be. Hearken unto my words,
you men of Israel. Oh, this is the only hope you
have. And it shall come to pass, verse
32, that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall
be delivered. Yeah, the Lord may deliver us
from this virus. I hope he does. Uh, I believe he probably will. Um, but when it's over, there's
going to be another thing. And, and, and here's the thing
we, here's the, the day we have to be delivered from is the great
and terrible day of the Lord. And as great and terrible as
this is right now, it's not the great and terrible day of the
Lord. Four, look at the rest of verse
32, four in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance
as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall
call. You see the whole world right
now is infected with the virus of sin and they don't know it.
And the death rate is 100%. And they don't know it. They're worried about something
that, you know, they call it the invisible enemy. The truth
is you can see a virus on a microscope. It's not completely invisible.
It might be invisible to the naked eye, but it's not invisible.
This sin is invisible to the natural man. This virus of sin,
man doesn't know he's got it. He doesn't know what's... to
the remnant, to the elect, those whom the Lord will call, they're
the ones who've come to realize only by the fact that the spirit
of grace and supplication has been poured out on them. Now,
what is the evidence that the spirit of grace and supplication
is poured out on me, on you. Well, what did the Lord say would
happen? They will all prophesy, every single one of them. Your
men, your wives, your children, your servants, they will all
prophesy. You say, well I don't, what does
that mean? To prophesy is to speak of those
things with understanding that can only be understood by divine
revelation. That's what it is to prophesy.
It's not to foretell some future event. It's not even strictly
speaking or in its narrow, it may be in its narrow, the standing
up and proclaiming the gospel, but in the broadest sense of
the word. God gives all of his people discernment about the
gospel. They have some understanding.
They understand that they have no righteousness in and of themselves. They believe that. The Spirit
of God has made them to be sinners. They wouldn't dare stand in the
presence of God and present a work or a decision that they've made
for the hope of their salvation. They've gotten some prophecy
about that. They understand something that
can only be understood by divine revelation. You see, the world
doesn't know that. The world doesn't know that.
All of the righteous of God believe themselves to be unrighteous
and all the unrighteous believe themselves to be righteous. Everyone
that's unrighteous believes that they've got some righteousness.
They've got something they can do. But God has given you the
spirit of prophecy. He's given to his children the
spirit of prophecy. They know that apart from Christ,
they have no righteousness. They've got some understanding.
And they went and if all they can say to that is amen, then
that's the evidence that the Lord has given them the spirit
of prophecy. Because that can only be, that
can only be believed by divine revelation. They believe that
the Lord Jesus Christ did everything that God required from them for
their salvation. They believe that. They believe
that he is the fullness of the Godhead bodily, that there's
no way that he could fail nor be discouraged, that when he
came to this world, he fulfilled everything the Father sent him
to do, in short, the salvation of his people. You shall call
his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. They believe that. They believe
that Jesus is God and that he has fulfilled everything necessary
for their salvation. They know that faith is the gift
of God. And if they have any spirit of
prophecy about them at all, it was given to them by grace. They shall all have the spirit
of prophecy. They shall all understand something
that the world doesn't understand. What does, uh, let him who have
ears to hear, hear what the spirit sayeth on to the churches. We've heard what the spirit of
God has. How do I know it? Those who don't have the spirit
of God will hear the gospel and they'll not be able to discern
the gospel from the false gospel. How do you know if you've got
the spirit of prophecy? You can tell the difference, can't you?
You can tell the difference between grace and works. You can tell
the difference between a salvation that's dependent upon something
that you do and a salvation that's completely and wholly dependent
upon something that's already been done. You can tell the difference
between that, can't you? Why? Because God's given you
ears to hear. He's given you the spirit of
prophecy. You know, I was thinking. What did Peter say? He said,
you men of Judea, hear these words, hear these words. And I was thinking, you know,
there, there are sounds and pitches that dogs can hear that we can't
hear. And, uh, and there are sounds
that God's dogs can hear that the, that the rest of the world
can't hear. I can't hear why? Because they'd been given the
spirit of prophecy. They shall hear my voice and
they shall follow after me. I, um, was talking to a brother
recently and he, uh, he and his wife sat under the gospel for
40 years, 40 years. And he was a believer all that
time. His wife came out of duty and never had an interest in
the gospel. And last year, last year, on
the way home from church, she said to her husband, she said,
honey, she said, I heard today. I heard today. She went to her pastor that week
and asked him to baptize her. And she's rejoicing in Christ
right now. Why? Because God gave her ears
to hear. He gave her the spirit of prophecy. You know who Christ is. You know
who you are. You have some understanding as
to what God requires for the putting away of your sin. And
you know that Christ had to do it all by himself. That's how
I know the Spirit of God's been poured out on me. I'm not just
sitting here listening and not having, and I'm not unable to
discern the difference. And I can discern the difference
between doctrine and a person. You know, there are a lot of
Calvinists that'll preach the right doctrine, but they're not
preaching Christ. They're not preaching the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ. They're not giving me hope in
Christ. They're, they're, they're, they're
giving me knowledge and knowledge puffeth up the gospel. When you have the spirit of prophecy,
you use humbled by the gospel. Aren't you? What is it that they hear? Well,
what did we read? The sun was turned into darkness. What is that a reference to? Well, the scripture refers to
the Lord Jesus Christ as the son, S-U-N, of righteousness,
which rises in our hearts. What happened to the Lord Jesus
Christ on Calvary's cross? What happened to him? The scripture
says between noon and three o'clock in the afternoon, the sky was
blackened. I mean, it was pitch black. There
was no light. It was like that. You remember
the darkness that came upon the children, the Egyptians in Egypt
as the ninth of the 10 plagues right before the 10th plague,
which was the, which was the death angel and the shedding
of blood. The ninth plague was darkness. The scripture says that could
be felt. The sun shall be turned. to darkness. What does this speak
to us about? It speaks to us about substitution
and satisfaction. That's what it speaks to us about.
We have some understanding as to what happened. We don't understand
sin. We don't understand Christ. But
we know that in order for my sin to be put away, God had to
pour out the full fury of his wrath on Christ. Christ had to
be my substitute. And God is satisfied only in
him. The sun was darkened. It was darkened, a darkness that
could be felt. The scripture says in Isaiah
53 verse eight, he was cut off out of the land of the living
for the transgression of my people was he smitten. You know that's
what happened at Calvary's cross, don't you? That the Lord Jesus
Christ was cut off from the land of the living. The son of righteousness
was darkened. There was no light. God had to
pour out his fury. That's why the Lord Jesus Christ
cried on Calvary's cross, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me? The Lord Jesus had to be forsaken,
didn't he? Turn with me to Isaiah chapter
66. This is how we know if we have the spirit of God. Because
this spirit that was poured out is still being poured out. He's
still being poured out. And all of his people are still
prophesying. And they're all still seeing
what it means for the sun to be turned into darkness. Look
at Isaiah chapter 66, look at verse three. He that killeth
an ox is as if he slew a man, and he that sacrifices a lamb
as if he cut off a dog's neck, he that offereth an oblation
as if he offereth swine blood, he that burneth incense as if
he blessed an idol, yea, they have chosen their own ways and
their soul delighted in their abominations. I also will choose
their delusions and will bring their fears upon them, Because
when I called, none did answer. When I spake, they did not hear.
But they did evil before my eyes and chose that in which I delighted
not." Now that's man-made religion. We've been there. We've been
there. And all the offerings and sacrifices
that we made to try to atone for our own sins, God says you
might as well cut off the head of a dog. You delighted in your
own oblations. And I will, and I will judge
you. I will send you a strong delusion. And we're not, we're
not delighting in our own oblations anymore. Are we? We're delighting
in the fact that God cut off his son. The sun was darkened
and we believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is the only sacrifice
that God is satisfied with. Now, what else does the scripture
say? The moon was turned into blood. Now, clearly in the scriptures,
the moon is a picture of the church, God's elect, the true
Israel. We don't have a source of light
in and of ourselves. All we can do is reflect the
light that comes from the sun. What did God do? What did Aaron
do in the Old Testament when he took that sacrificial lamb
and put its blood in a basin and he took the hyssop and dipped
it into the blood and what did he do with it? He sprinkled it
on the people, right? And God said, when I see the
blood, I'll be satisfied. This boon being turned into blood
is the sprinkling of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ on God's
people. When John saw the church in heaven
and he asked the angel, he said, he said, who are these arrayed
in white robes? And what did they say? What did
he tell him? These be they that have washed their robes and made
them white in the blood of the lamb. You see, not only is the sun
darkened, but the moon is turned to blood. Lord, I've got to have
the blood of Christ. You're going to have to sprinkle
me with my, with your blood. You're going to have to wash
my robe white in the blood of the lamb. That's my only hope. You see only the spirit of God
when he's poured out will cause you to believe that Lord look to the blood of thy
dear son for all my salvation. You see these weren't. We know
that the sun was dark and I don't know about the moon turning to
blood. I guess, you know, there's some
writers that say, well, that was a, an eclipse that took place.
I don't know about all of that. I know what the spiritual meaning
of these things is. And, uh, look at, uh, look at our texts
in Acts chapter two. Verse 17, and it shall come to
pass in the last day saith the Lord that I will pour out my
spirit upon all flesh and your sons and daughters will prophesy.
Young men shall see visions. Your old men shall dream dreams.
Your servants and your handmaidens, I will pour out my spirit upon
them. And they're all going to prophesy. They're all going to
have the spirit of prophecy. They're all going to discern
that which it can only be discerned by divine revelation. They're
all going to believe the same thing. And I will show wonders
in the heavens above and signs in the earth below, below blood
and fire, fire. What is this a picture of? In
judges chapter six, when God was calling Gideon out to, to
lead his people, uh, Gideon offered a sacrifice on a rock. And the
angel of the Lord came and took his staff and touched that rock
and fire came up out of the rock and consumed the sacrifice. You
know, that angel of the Lord was Christ, and that rod is the
law of God, and that rock is Christ, and the sacrifice is
Christ, and it was when Moses smote the rock, water came out,
and the Lord Jesus Christ was smitten by the fiery wrath of
God's justice on Calvary. All these things are a picture
of Christ on the cross, aren't they? The fire of God's wrath
coming down has to be quenched in order for us to escape the
fire of eternal judgment. That's the great and terrible
day of the Lord. Oh, and it was, it was. When Elijah offered that
sacrifice on Mount Carmel and the fire came down and consumed
the sacrifice, there we see it again. And we see it at the burning
bush when Moses was called out. Moses, take off thy shoes for
the ground on which thy stand is holy ground. And what was
Moses looking at? He was looking at a bush that
was on fire, but was not being consumed. The Lord Jesus Christ
consumed the fire of God's wrath on Calvary's cross. They shall
see the sun to be darkened. The moon shall be turned to blood
and they shall see fire. Fire. You see, the world wants
to escape the fiery judgment of hell. And that's the only
fire they're looking at. And they think that somehow they
can avoid that if they just do enough now. We're looking back
to the fire of God's wrath when it fell in judgment upon the
Lord Jesus Christ. You remember when Moses, when
the Lord told Moses to kill that Passover lamb and to consume
it, to eat it? And whatever wasn't eaten, I
mean, every hair, every hoof, every entrail, what was to be
done with it? It was to be consumed by fire.
It was all to be burned up. You see, all those pictures,
all those sacrifices, shows us what Christ accomplished on Calvary's
cross. How do I know if I have the Spirit
of God? I've got some discernment about the gospel. I see that
the sun was darkened for my justification before God. And the God is satisfied
with the full sacrifice that Christ made of himself. I see
that the blood being sprinkled on me is my only hope to have
a robe of righteousness. And I know that the fire of God's
wrath fell on Christ and that that fire has been quenched and
now there's smoke. Hey, you know, what smoke is
a picture of. It's a picture of prayer all throughout the
scripture. You know, they put the incense on the fire and the
smoke would go up. And it's a picture of the intercessory
prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ. who went to the cross and cried
out to the father, father, forgive them for they know not what they
do. Father, I pray for them. I pray
not for them that are of the world, but I pray for them, which
thou has given me out of the world. What made the difference
between Simon Peter and Judas Iscariot? What made the difference? They both did the same thing
that fateful night. Peter, be of good cheer. I've prayed for you. I've prayed
for you. And now when we go in prayer,
when the spirit of supplication is poured out on us and we go
before the father in prayer, how do we come? How do we come
in Jesus name? Lord, I'm not looking to any
of my prayers for the hope of my salvation. I'm looking to
Christ. He's the one who offered up the
incense of prayer that was acceptable to God. Spirit of God still being poured
out, brethren. He's still being poured out. These are the evidences
of it. And this is the hope that we
have. When that great and terrible
day of the Lord comes for the rest of the world, the Lord has
given us hope in Christ. Amen. All right, let's take a
break.