I'm going to ask you to take
your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Acts, chapter
1. And the second message I plan
to preach is a subject called the Pentecostal message. But as I began to look at the message this morning, my
heart was drawn back to chapter 1 and I want us to look at Acts chapter
1 verse 5 and this is a promise that was
given by the Lord Jesus Christ to his apostles before he ascended
into heaven. Here's what he said, for John
truly baptized with water but ye shall be baptized with the
Holy Ghost not many days hence." The Lord told His disciples,
and these two words right here mean the same thing, they're
the same word, same word. It means to immerse. And the
Lord told his disciples, John immersed you in water. He administered
the baptism, the confession of faith by a believer in the Lord
Jesus Christ. But he said, I'm telling you
that you're going to be baptized, you're going to be immersed by
the Holy Ghost and not many days hence. It won't be long." He
said, now, this glorious truth of baptism of the Holy Ghost,
now I'm not even going to, I don't even want to go and try to refute
these things that are being preached. There's so many things that,
you know, baptism of the Holy Spirit, baptism of the Holy Ghost,
it always, it has to do, and it's all taken, they take words
from the book of Acts. But there's a complete distortion,
it's a, it's a, it's a, it's nothing but works, it's nothing
but pride, it's nothing but arrogance, it's nothing but, it's a, it's
a look to me, it's a, but I know this, that this is truth. There is a baptism of the Holy
Spirit. I read, Robert Hawker had related
an illustration that he had read, and Hawker was, hundreds of years
ago, when Robert Hawker, he said, I read an illustration, he said,
that gave me some real help. He said, these two baptisms that's
being spoken of, John baptized, you're going to be baptized with
the Holy Spirit. He said, I read an illustration where a man was
talking about making pickles. Making pickles. And he said,
the first step that was taken in the making of these pickles
was These cucumbers were baptized in water and they just washed
them. They just washed them and they
cleaned the cucumbers. Then they took the cucumbers
out. But he said when they put the cucumbers in the jars, in
the vinegar, and they stayed there, they were baptized again,
but they stayed there to become perfected as pickles. And I thought, you know, I can
understand that. Two different baptisms, same
word. One of them was a washing, a cleansing. It was a temporary
thing. One of them was a permanent thing
for the perfecting of, for the curing of, for the making of. I thought, I'm going to use that
illustration. I'll take that one and I'll give
him credit for it. But he gave somebody else too.
But you're going to be baptized. Now here's what I know. This
explanation of baptism of the Holy Spirit is not something
I could find. No, I mean just absolute clear
explanation. of the baptism, but the evidence
of it is given in the Scriptures. And that evidence, that baptism
of the Holy Spirit, is the way in which the Word of God reveals
that the Holy Ghost reveals Himself, manifests Himself. God's Spirit,
one with the Father, one with the Son, is going to manifest
Himself, and He's going to baptize you with Himself, and you're
going to receive power. It is the Spirit of God who is
absolutely revealed to be the builder of the church. Now, understand something. In
that eternal covenant of grace, God the Father, God the Son,
God the Spirit, one God, everlastingly covenanted for the redemption
and salvation of God's people. The Holy Spirit is revealed here
to be the one that baptizes God's people in an open manifestation
of the church. The Father chose them from before
the foundation of the world. The Son Himself came into this
world and redeem them. And the Spirit of God will baptize
them, immerse them in regenerating grace into an open manifestation
of who we are, lively stones. Now, it's this blessed Spirit
who has directed the people of God from the beginning. When they were in the Old Testament,
I want you to turn to Hebrews 9. Hebrews 9. Now it was the Spirit of God
Himself that was moving and directing and all these types and pictures
in the Old Testament. Look at Hebrews 9 verses 1 to
8. Who was directing? back in the
wilderness. When they were in the wilderness,
in the tabernacle, and they had the priesthood, Aaron and the
different priests, who was directing? Listen to this, Hebrews 9.1,
Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine
service, and a worldly sanctuary. For there was a tabernacle made,
the first wherein was the candlestick, and the table, and the showbread,
which is called the sanctuary. Now you know all those things
that candlestick sets forth Christ, the light of the world. That
showbread is Christ, the bread from heaven. In verse 3, and
after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the holiest of
all, which had the golden censer and the ark of the covenant overlaid
round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna,
and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant,
and over it the cherubims of glory, shadowing the mercy seat
of which we cannot now speak particularly." Now, when these
things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the
first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God, but into
the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without
blood, which he offered for himself and for the errors of the people.
Now listen to this, the Holy Ghost This signifying that the
way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest while as
the first tabernacle was yet standing. It was a figure. It was a type. Who moved? It
was the Spirit of God. Who is moving today? Directing, ordering, guiding
the Holy Ghost. It is God's Spirit. who anointed
men of old, holy men, to write the holy Scriptures. It was the
Spirit of God Himself who anointed the Lord Jesus Christ without
measure. It's the Spirit of God Himself
who teaches and guides. Anything you know, anything we
learn, anything that we understand concerning these Scriptures,
the Holy Ghost taught you. The Spirit of God is moving in
God's people. Even unto us, it says, is given
grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ, God's
Spirit. It's the Holy Ghost that the
Lord said, God is going to promise something to you. He's going
to promise. Now, what is that promise? Back in Acts chapter
1, here's the promise. He said in verse 4, verse 4, "...being assembled
together with them, commanded them that they should not depart
from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which,
saith he, ye have heard of me." Now, wait, don't move, the Father
has promised you. What is the promise? Look at
verse 8, "...but ye shall receive power." after that the Holy Ghost
is come upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto me both in
Jerusalem, in all Judea, in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of
the earth." So the Spirit of God
is going to manifest Himself. The Father manifested Himself
when the Lord Jesus Christ was baptized, When He was on the
Mount of Transfiguration, the Father manifested Himself. What
did He do? He spoke from heaven. He said,
this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. You hear Him. The Lord Jesus Christ manifest
Himself during the days of His humiliation upon this earth.
Thirty-three and a half years He walked this earth in perfect
obedience before God, manifest Himself. that He is the Christ
and now the Holy Spirit is going to manifest Himself. The Lord
says you wait. Now, I want us to look for just
a few minutes starting in chapter 2. starting in chapter 2, and
I'm going to read the first few verses, and I'm going to stop
at about verse 21. But I'm going to mainly just
read and just give a very, very light, if I can use that word,
explanation of what's going on, and then get into the second
message starting in chapter 22. But here's what's happening.
The Lord said, you wait in Jerusalem, don't leave. until God Almighty
sends the promise. Until He sends the promise of
the Spirit, you're going to receive power. Here's what happened.
The Spirit of God says through Luke chapter 2 verse 1, when
the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one
accord in one place. The Lord had told them, don't
leave, don't leave. He, as the Passover, was getting
ready now to ascend into heaven. Forty days. Forty days he had
been here. And he told them, don't leave.
Not many days hence. God's going to reveal to you
the promise. Ten days later, Pentecost means
fifty. It's Penta. Fifty. Like the Pentagon. Pentecost. 50 days after the
Passover. The Lord is our Passover. 50 days later now is the day
of Pentecost. 50 days. It's been about 10 days
since the Lord ascended. He told them, stay in Jerusalem.
Don't get out of Jerusalem until I send the promise. When the
day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord
in one place. And suddenly there came a sound
from heaven as of a rushing, mighty wind, a violent. It wasn't blowing. They didn't
feel it. The Scripture doesn't say they
felt it as far as the wind knocking things over. What it was, there
was a sound from heaven. There was a noise, there was
a rushing, mighty noise, and it filled all the house where
they were sitting. It was completely dominating
where they were. And there appeared unto them
cloven tongues like as a fire, and it set upon each of them. And they were all filled with
the Holy Ghost. Now you know a few weeks ago
I preached on being filled with the Holy Ghost. Now remember,
these apostles are there. Peter is there. Peter is going
to speak in just a few minutes. These men were believers, but
the Spirit of God filled them. prepared them, moved upon them
in a special way. That's what this being filled
with the Holy Ghost is referring to. They were filled with the
Holy Ghost for a specific purpose. Every time we read in the Scriptures
where men were filled with the Holy Ghost, it was for a specific
reason. God was going to accomplish something
in particular. and He moved upon them in power. And they were filled with the
Holy Ghost. And here's what happened. They
began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now, every time you find in Scripture
the word tongue, it's either talking about this, an actual
tongue, this tongue in your mouth. It's either talking about that
or it's talking about a language, a specific language, something
that men know and understand. Now, I may not be able to speak
it, but it is a spoken language. It's something that men understand. Somebody understands it. Somebody
hears it and understands it. Now, they were all filled with
the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit
gave them utterance. They began to speak in languages
that was not their native language. Just a few minutes they are going
to say, these are Galileans right here. They naturally spoke. Galileans. But here they were,
they began to speak in languages that they had never learned before. And there were dwelling at Jerusalem
Jews and devout men out of every nation under heaven. Now when
this was noised abroad, the multitude came together and were confounded. They were troubled. This began
to bother them. because every man heard them
speak in his own language. Now, I've said before, was the
miracle in the speaking or was the miracle in the hearing? Well,
I'm going to say probably both. But the Scripture says they heard
in their language. I don't speak Russian. But if
this miracle of tongues, of speaking in tongues, it's not this false
stuff that we hear today, you know, where men try to speak
this gibberish and stuff like that and bring attention to them.
It's nothing. It's flesh. It's flesh. It's pride. It's arrogance. I
can do it and you can't. I've known people I've known
people that were surrounded by others and they
would try to work them into a frenzy and talking gibberish and trying
to get them to try to emulate. If somebody's got to make me
emulate what you're saying, you've got to teach me how to do it,
then it's not of the Lord. These men were speaking in languages
that they had never learned before. The Spirit of God moved upon
them in power. And the Scripture says, And they
were all amazed and marveled, saying one to another, Behold,
are not all these which speak Galileans? And how Here we every
man in our own tongue wherein we were born, Parthians and Medes,
Elamites, dwellers in Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia,
Persia, Pamphylia in Egypt, in the parts of Libya, Cyrene, strangers
of Rome, Jews, proselytes, Cretes, Arabians, we do hear them speak
in our tongues The wonderful works of God. You know, if somebody
would just read what the Scripture says, they would understand what
speaking in tongues was. These men, we hear them speak
in our language, the wonderful works of God. And they were all
amazed and were in doubt, saying one to another. What meaneth
this? What is this all about? What's going on here? We're all
together here to... Well, we're here because we're
commanded by the law to be here. Three feasts a year that a Jew
had to go to Jerusalem, had to go for these feasts. Pentecost
was one of them. What's going on here? What means
this? But others, verse 13, mocking,
and said, these men are full of new wine. There's nothing
to this. These men are drunk. They're drunk. But Peter standing
up with the eleven, 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 men, he's saying, they're
not drunken, as you suppose, saying it is but the third hour. It's somewhere between nine and
twelve in the morning. When it was, say, like the third
hour, the sixth hour, it could be anywhere in that three-hour
period. It's just, it's somewhere in
the morning. These men are not drunk, as you
suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. But this
is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel, and it shall come
to pass. And here he begins to relate
and recite what Joel had said. It shall come to pass in the
last days, saith God. I will pour out of my Spirit
upon all flesh upon all different manner of flesh." That's what
they just said. We're from all over the place.
We're from this place and this place and this one and this one. These men are speaking and we're
all hearing it. In our native tongue, I'll pour
out my Spirit upon all flesh. And your sons and your daughters
shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men
shall dream dreams. And on My servants, on My handmaidens,
I will pour out in those days of My Spirit. And they shall
prophesy. That's what they were doing.
I'm going to pour out My Spirit and they're going to preach and
you're going to hear. And I'm going to show wonders in heaven
above and signs in the earth beneath. Blood and fire, vapor
and smoke, the sun shall be turned to darkness, the moon to blood
before the great and notable day of the Lord come. And it
shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the
Lord shall be saved." The Lord told His apostles. He said, not
very long hence, He said, God's going to send
the promise. I want you to stay in Jerusalem. Don't move. And when God the Holy Spirit
came in power, this is what happened. Now in just a few minutes, I'm
going to pick up in this second verse, and we're going to look
at verses 22 through the end of the chapter. And I'm going
to preach on a Pentecostal message, on Pentecostal repentance, and
on a Pentecostal walk. what happened on the day of Pentecost. May the Lord bless these words
to our hearts for Christ's sake. Amen.