So David and his men conquered. They drove the Jebusites
from Zion. It says David dwelt in the fort
there in verse 9. That's Zion in Jerusalem where
the Jebusites had entrenched themselves and though the Lord
had commanded Israel to drive them out, they had been unable
to do it. And until David was anointed king, they couldn't
do it. And up until that time, the tribe
of Benjamin had not recognized David as king. And they were
the other inhabitants of Jerusalem. But when they bowed to David,
David came and delivered them from the Jebusites, drove them
out of the land. The Jebusites mocked David and
his men and said they could never conquer them. But it says in
verse 7, they took it nevertheless. And that's our Savior. He's all-victorious,
invincible, unstoppable. Now, David set up his residence
there. They called it the City of David.
And he began to build it up. It says he built roundabout from
Millo and inward. And David went on and grew great
and the Lord God of hosts was with him. He began to build.
and make the place, the city, the fort, the city around it,
Jerusalem and the roundabout regions there the way he wanted
them. Zion always pictures the church.
It's the city of David. It's the city of Christ. It's
the stronghold of God's King. Pretty clear picture. He lives
among his people there. That's his house. They built
him a house there. This is called the Lord's house.
And it's not a building. It's a people. It's a city. It's his body. He builds it up. It says, David began to build.
The Lord does too. It says in Acts 2 47, the Lord
added to the church daily such as should be saved. We don't
build churches. God does. And it says, David grew great.
That's what happens here. When that stops happening, it's
time to shut down. When Christ ceases to be great
and greater all the time, He grows great. He grows more and
more great in our understanding. He's altogether great already,
but we understand better and better how great He is. And every
time we meet, the greater He is. in our hearts he becomes
we learn more of him he must increase and we must decrease and he does
and we do by his grace and so a clear picture here of God's
church the Lord of hosts was with him it says he's promised
to meet with us where two or three are gathered in his name
It says in Matthew 28, 18, Jesus came and spake unto them, saying,
all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye, therefore,
and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe
all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And lo, I am with
you always, even unto the end of the world. So the Lord God
is with us. So what a beautiful picture of
Christ's church. It's the place where everybody
bows to Christ. All the tribes now have owned
David as king and his house is in Jerusalem in Zion. That's the church. That's where
everyone bows to the Lord Jesus Christ. You don't bow to me.
I don't bow to you. We don't bow to anybody except
him. It's the place where his people
enjoy all of the benefits of loyalty to the King of Kings
and the Lord of Lords. Verse 11, Hiram king of Tyre
sent messengers to David and cedar trees and carpenters and
masons. They built David a house. And
David perceived that the Lord had established him king over
Israel. and that he had exalted his kingdom
for his people Israel's sake. Now here's a Gentile king, Hiram,
king of Tyre who hated David's God. All of the people of Tyre hated
God. But they helped David build the city of David and had a house
for David. Hiram may have done this because
he was afraid of the power that David had now that all the tribes
had bowed to him and God had mightily, I'm sure maybe Hiram
had heard how that David had led the victory over the Philistines
before. Now he had defeated Goliath and
all the exploits of David that he had done by faith in the Lord
Jesus. It may have been for purely political reasons, doesn't really
matter that much why does it? The lesson's pretty clear, God
will use this whole world and everybody in it to bless his
people. for the good of his church. We have unlimited resources,
do we not? The only limit is what God puts
on it. What's God going to do? That's it. I'm excited to find
out. I'm excited to see what he's
doing, what he's done. Unlimited resources because all
of it belongs to him and this is his house. All of it, the
whole world belongs to him. What will we do with unlimited
resources? Well, we'll build. That's what
happened here in the text. He built. Now the world, the
world's religion thinks that that means building gymnasiums
and different kinds of, you know, counseling centers and fancy
stadiums and huge cathedrals and things like that. I don't
believe God is honored in those things. When the disciples, it
says in three of the Gospels, the disciples were all excited
about how beautiful and majestic the religious buildings were,
the temple and all the buildings that surrounded it. And it said
they showed them to the Lord. And said, look how great these
buildings are. You know what the Lord said?
You remember what he said? I'm going to tear them down. I'm
going to tear it down. There's not going to be one stone left
on top of another one. Tearing them down. In Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke
21, that story, God is worshiped in spirit and in truth. He's glorified in the preaching
of the gospel of his son, not in the trappings of religion.
The building of God's church is not about that. It's about
building us up, as the scripture puts it, building us up on our
most holy faith, increasing our faith, building us up, growing
in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
if the Lord adds to us more people, however he's pleased to do that,
I just won't in on it. I just won't in on it. And when
the heathen began to be instrumental there in the building of Zion,
David perceived something it says there in verse 12. David perceived that the Lord
had established him king over Israel and that he had exalted
his kingdom for his people's sake. Now David already knew
God had anointed him king Long time ago, long time before this. He already knew it, you don't
kill Goliath. David doesn't kill Goliath without
some inkling that God is with him. He doesn't survive the wrath
of Saul for all those years and have Saul delivered right into
his very hand where all he had to do was drop a sword and kill
him. You're not preserved throughout
all of your foolish blunders, tragic mistakes, losing everything
at Ziklag and then having God hand it right back to you without having some inkling God
has established you. And then being exalted as King
of Israel even though you were an overlooked shepherd's boy. So David knew that God had established
him, had chosen him, and was with him. But we get reminders
along the way, don't we? That's what happened here. We have a pretty good idea. God's
been taking care of us for a long time, hasn't he? But we have
reminders along the way, and we learn it better and better.
It sinks in further at certain times. There are certain times
when you stop. and look around you and say,
look what God has done for me. In spite of my great undeserving,
in spite of the weakness and evil of my flesh, in spite of
my self-destructive nature, God has established me in his kingdom.
I'm secure and blessed beyond all measure in Christ. And nothing and nobody can take
it away from me. You ever just stop and think about that, look
what God has done for me. God Almighty has just decided
to bless me beyond my wildest dreams and I'm living it right
now and most of the time I don't even realize it. But every now
and then, right now maybe for a moment I perceive David did hear all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places are mine in Christ Jesus. Look
what God has done The last phrase of verse 12 He exalted his kingdom for his
people Israel's sake that's what the church is God doesn't need
us We need Him. This is for our sakes. God has
built His kingdom, established it, established His church, set
Christ on the throne, put Him in our midst, built Him a house
right here in our midst. Did it for our sakes. Of course, everything's for His
glory, everything's for His sake. but also for ours. He establishes
his church. He builds it. He's there amongst
them. Christ himself is exalted and
dwells among them and is great there. And all of it is for the
good of his people. His spiritual Israel is elect. Chosen in Christ before the world
was. Redeemed by Christ around 33
AD or whenever. United to Christ in regeneration
and faith. when we experience his salvation
through the preaching of the gospel and then one wonderful
day in our life we see him, believe him, hear him, bow to him, believe
on him kept safe in his hand until this
world ends and meanwhile here we are in the most wonderful
place on God's earth Can you think of anywhere more
wonderful than where Christ meets with his sheep and feeds them,
and communes with them, holds personal communion, teaches,
encourages, comforts? This is the most beautiful place
on God's earth right here. His church. You think of somewhere
better, you let me know. I can't think of one. All of his churches, it's the
same. Wherever he has his church, his body, his people. Verse 13, David took him more
concubines and wives out of Jerusalem after he was come from Hebron
and there were yet sons and daughters born to David and these be the
names and it lists them there. We have reminders throughout
all of David's story of his sinfulness. We see David as Christ. We also
see David as David. The weakness of his flesh. There's
just one reason to add to yourself more wives and concubines. It's
not because you're smart. That's not the reason. It's not because you're wanting
to honor God in that. That ain't it. What is it? Have
you guessed it yet? It's your flesh. It's your sinful
flesh, that's what it is, David. And we all, we all live with it just like
him. And yet, you know, we see Solomon's name there to remind
us of God's providence even in, even in using our sin to accomplish
his purposes. He's going to overrule all of
it. David was great. The Lord was with David, God
established David as king, God exalted David, and David was
a fleshly fool. Add that to the list. That's the grace of God. God
has grace on sinners, not good people. He's chosen the worst. That his name should be exalted
and not the names of men. When you look at King David,
it's hard to glory in David. You glory in his Redeemer whom
he pictures by his grace. Verse 17, But when the Philistines
heard that they had anointed David king over Israel, all the
Philistines came up to seek David. And David heard of it and went
down to the hold. The Philistines also came and spread themselves
in the valley of Rephiam. This godless religious world
is just fine with the God of free will religion. For the most
part there are some wretched people who don't want to hear
the mention of God at all. But that's not much different
from the free will God of religion who is himself no God at all.
It's pretty much the same thing. But when David when they heard
that David was anointed king. All these nations round about
Israel tolerated David when he wasn't king. Even the Philistines
harbored him for a while, didn't they? When he wasn't king. But now he's king. And they've
got a problem with that. It's King Jesus, the sovereign
Lord Jesus Christ that men hate and rise up against. You preach
him in his power to forgive sins. He has power on earth to say
to one, your sins are forgiven and pass by the next one. And
then forgive somebody else's sins and pass by a few more.
That's his authority. That's what he does. If He wanted
to forgive everybody's sins, He'd forgive everybody's sins.
That's our Lord. Everybody's sins are forgiven
whom He wants their sins to be forgiven. You preach Him now in His perfectly
successful atonement, limited atonement. He died for a select,
preordained, Love from eternity, people. You preach him saving
and damning sinners at his own sovereign discretion. He'll put
you in hell just because he wants to. He raised up Pharaoh just
to make his power known in him. We deserve hell anyway. But you know what else? He'll
save you if he wants to too. But you preach him and the enemy
will respond. If they hear, they heard, they
heard, they heard. David's king now. We're gonna
have to do something about that. It's the sovereign, omnipotent,
almighty, invincible redeemer of sinners that people hate. When you preach of Jesus, it's
trying to save everybody. He wants to save everybody and
those who are smart enough to decide for him or spiritual enough
or to distinguish themselves and choose him will be saved. In other words, he's not king. He's just a martyr trying to,
you know, help work things out for you. He's tolerated in this world.
Many even love him. But preach Christ on the throne
and the enemy rises up. They gnash their teeth. Spurgeon
said this so well that it deserves to be read and it deserves to
be heard. You may have heard this before. Listen to what Spurgeon
said. Men will allow God to be everywhere except on his throne.
They will allow him to be in his workshop to fashion worlds
and to make stars. They will allow him to be in
his almonery to dispense his alms and bestow his bounties.
They will allow him to sustain the earth and bear up the pillars
thereof or light the lamps of heaven or rule the waves of the
ever moving ocean. But when God ascends his throne, his creatures then gnash their
teeth. And when we proclaim an enthroned God and His right to
do as He wills with His own, to dispose of His creatures as
He thinks well, without consulting them in the matter, then it is
that we are despised. And then it is that men turn
a deaf ear to us, for God on His throne is not the God they
love. They love Him anywhere better than they do when He sits
with His scepter in His hand and His crown upon His head.
But it is God upon the throne that we love. and love to preach. It's God upon his throne whom
we trust. It's God upon his throne whom
we have been singing this morning, he said, and it's God upon his
throne of whom we shall speak. That's pretty well said, isn't
it? So when they heard that David was king, here they come. Strap on your swords. Verse 19
and David inquired of the Lord saying shall I go up to the Philistines? Will you deliver them into my
hand? And the Lord said unto David go up for I will doubtless
deliver the Philistines into that hand I Preached a message
a long time ago. I don't know if I can even Remember
much about it, but it was the the name of the message was why
preach and Why preach? I've been asked before if you
believe in a sovereign God, you believe that God's already preordained
everything that's going to happen. He's already elected everybody
that's going to be saved. And only they're going to be
saved no matter what. Then why do you preach? Why do you bother
to preach? I don't remember all the points of that message, but
this was the text of it. I remember that. I remember the
first one because he said to. He said go and preach, didn't
he? That's pretty clear. Go and preach. And this is how
it works. God says, go up. The victories
won. I will doubtless deliver them
into your hand. If anybody else said that but
God, you might be thinking, well, but God said it. It's done. We already know in
advance it's going to be a win. Everybody he chose, he has saved,
is saving, and is going to save. But we still want to have to
fight, aren't we? He didn't say don't bother to go up because
I will doubtless give the victory into your hand. I'll deliver
them into your hand. Just stay home. I'll deliver
them. No. He said go up and I will doubtless deliver them into your
hand. The sword is going to have to
be wielded. There's going to have to be a fight. Now salvation
is of the Lord. I will save, that word deliver
there, I'm going to save you from them. I will deliver them
into your hand. I don't want to go anywhere.
I don't want to do anything without Him. Do you? God, shall I go
up? Will you deliver them into my
hand? I don't want to go without Him. And I don't want to do anything
without Him. I do want to go up if he's in
it, don't you? I want to know. I want in on what he's doing. But it's him doing it. And I want to be sure that it's
his will. I want to know. And so we inquire, as David did.
It's not complicated. If any man lack wisdom, ask the
Lord. He gives freely. Ask and you'll receive. You have
not, because you ask not. Not complicated. We know God's ultimate will because
he's revealed it. David knew now. Did David say,
well, you know, God said go up. I'm going to deliver. Boy, I
can trust it. The Philistines are goners. We're
victorious now. We'll just stay home then. Doesn't
work like that, does it? We know his will, he's revealed
his will in it. All of the Philistines are going
to be defeated eventually. I suspect that David had an inkling
before he even asked God, shall I go up? Will you deliver them
into my hand? He probably knew that someday
all the Philistines are going to be goners, one way or the
other. But what about now? What about today? All of God's
enemies have got to go, right? Sooner or later. And we know
that every enemy shall be made the footstool of the Lord Jesus
Christ. So it might be easy to just presume
that going up that day was the thing to do. But the thing about
it is God doesn't need me to defeat his enemies. What about now, Lord? The Philistines
may win a few before they're finally defeated. What about
now though? Shall I go up now? And what about me? Will you use
me? He may not. Doesn't need me,
does he? So we're not to presume anything. We're to inquire of the Lord. He doesn't need me. I know he's...
God's in the Philistine killing business. I know that. But God
was in the Philistine killing business when Saul was king,
and the Philistines were handing the Israelites their hats. So what about today, Lord? And what about me? Shall I go
up? Will you deliver him into my
hands? Will you use me? Will you include me? I want to
know, don't you? I want to know and I hope he
will. But we need to inquire of him constantly. We're not
to presume. It's not the power of positive
thinking. It's what does God say about it. And the Lord is
never unclear. Did you notice that? I will doubtless
deliver them into your hands. He's never unclear. If he has
a message for you, you fix him to get a message. You're going
to receive a message. You're going to understand a
message. You're going to know. Preachers may be unclear. God
is not. He's not. Verse 20, David came
to Baal Perizim and David smote them there and said, the Lord
hath broken forth upon my enemies. Isn't that beautiful? David smote
them. But he didn't say, boy, did you
see how many I killed? He said, look what God did. That's
what this is now. This is His work. And we're thankful
by His grace to just be in on it. God broke forth upon them. He just happened to use me to
do it. Thank God for that. What grace, what condescension.
Everybody else would have been better than me, but He used me. He chose the weak and the base
and the foolish and the despised and the things that are not.
And said, go up! The victory's yours! And it is. In spite of us. Paul said, I've fought a good
fight. I've finished my course. I've kept the faith. That's part
of it, isn't it? That's part of God's salvation. We do fight. We do fight in the
good fight. To know and to serve and to honor
the Lord Jesus Christ in this world, in this flesh, is a warfare. It's a warfare against our own
flesh. It's a warfare against the fashion
of this world and the prince of this world and the false religion
of this world, this world, all of it. It's a fight but all who
fight in it know that the victory is won by Christ. The Lord has broken forth upon
all of our enemies. When you look to Calvary that's
what you can say. The Lord Jesus Christ has destroyed
all of my enemies and he gets all the glory. The crucified
Lamb of God is the one who sits on the throne and all glory is
his. Paul said thanks be to God which
giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ because
Christ is victorious we have victory. He hath broken forth upon all
of our enemies and hath defeated them all at Calvary And in verse 21, there they left
their images and David and his men burned them. Now you think
about this picture, what a picture this is. The Philistines had
left their home and they had come and they had arrayed themselves
in the Valley of Refuge. They brought their gods with
them, they brought their idols with them thinking no doubt they
would give them good luck, you know, in the battle. But there
those idols lay scattered among their dead bodies. What a picture. The Philistines are routed and
their idols are left on the barren battlefield among their corpses
and this is the scripture that I thought of when I saw that
picture there in that verse. Isaiah 45 20 picture it in your
mind those idols laying there on the ground and there's the
dead Philistines that had been killed. Some had fled. They're
gonna come back and we'll see that in a minute. But many died. They routed them. And there are
their idols laying amongst them on the ground with blood on them
no doubt and dirt and mud. Listen to Isaiah 4520. They have
no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image and
pray unto a God that cannot save. Their gods didn't help them in
the battle. God gave the victory to somebody else, somebody who
called on his name, trusted him, sought his will and bowed to
his will. And the Philistines are lying
dead among the images of the gods that they thought could
save them, but they could not. There is no God beside our God. Tell ye, and bring them near,
yea, let them take counsel together. Who hath declared this from ancient
time? Who hath told it from that time?
Have not I the Lord? God's been saying it since day
one, literally day one. People talk about day one, you
heard that, day one. There's only one day one, and
literally since day one, God's been declaring who can save and
who does save. That's what he's saying here.
I, the Lord, there is no God else beside me. This is the same context where
he just said they don't have any knowledge, they don't have
any understanding that pray to a God that can't save them. I've
been saying from the beginning, who saves sinners? There is no
God beside me, a just God and a Savior, there is none beside
me. Look unto me! Quit making up gods in your own
mind. Sometimes people make up a god
in their own mind and they chisel it out of stone or wood or something
like that. You can see the statues in all
the churches of this religious world. Sometimes they make up
a god in their head and just call it Jesus. And make him like they want him
to be. Begging them to do things and waiting on them to do things
and giving them the final decision and everything. There is no God
beside the God of the Bible. The just God and the Savior.
And He says, look unto Me and be ye saved. Don't be one of
the ones that prays to a God that can't save you. Look to
Me and be saved. All the ends of the earth. It
doesn't matter where you are, who you are, how bad you are,
what you are, what you've done. Look unto Me and be saved. For
I am God, and there is none else. That's what this is too, isn't
it? We're looking to Him tonight.
We're looking unto Him that said, look unto me and be ye saved. That's why I'm here, to look
unto Him. When David and his men came across
those idols, they could have just kicked them
aside and kept on walking. They didn't do that. They burned
them. They burned them. The true God had just won the
victory for them. And they not only had no use
for idols, but they despised them. They utterly despised them. They
put them in a pile and caught them on fire and watched them
burn. Anybody that loves God hates
every false god. You hate everything about them.
You hate the sound of their names even if they call them Jesus.
When you hear them describe them, you know it's a false god. That's
the most despicable thing in this world. Now we feel sorry
for people who are misled and lied to. Lied to on that which
is vital. But the false gods of this religious
world, they're fit for nothing but burning. They are despicable. They are to be hated. Don't have
anything to do with them. They have no proper function
in this world. The false churches, the false
idols, the false gods of this world, they have no benefit for
you. Don't look for one. It's to be burned. Well, I could say a lot about
that. When my girls were growing up,
sometimes their little friend, and I say sometimes, may just
happen one time, but I remember it happening. You come visit
my church, I'll come visit your church. No way. No deal. Don't you ever go near it. Don't
ever go near it. And don't let your children anywhere
near it. It's an abomination. There's a difference now between
lost people and false religion, false gods, idols, those who
teach a false god. They burned them. I'll just let
that stand. And the more we love Christ,
the more we will hate the gods of this world. Mark it down. And the Philistines came up yet
again, verse 22. There's always more Philistines,
isn't there? There's always more of them.
They come and again, they come and again. Here they come again.
Has that been your experience? And they spread themselves in
the valley of Rephiam. And when David inquired of the
Lord, I like the way it's just become routine now for David
to inquire. It doesn't say David inquired. It just says when David
inquired of the Lord. It should be routine, shouldn't
it? That's part of why we're here too. Let's find out about
God and what His will is, what He says, and commune with Him in the preaching
of His Word. I tell you what, you may be surprised,
you may not. You'll find that you won't have
a whole lot of dilemmas. There won't be a whole lot of
unanswered questions in your life if you inquire of God. I'm not going to leave you hanging
now. not going to. You mark it down. Well, you know,
the Bible just doesn't talk about so many things. You inquire of the Lord, you
hear his word, you worship him, you commune with him, and you'll
always know what to do. You mark it down. You'll always
know what to do. You may not want to do it, but
you'll always know. He's not going to leave you hanging.
When David inquired of the Lord, I like that. He said, Thou shalt
not go up. Don't take for granted you know
what he's going to say. I'm sure David, you know, he's
got his hand. Shall I go up? No. Not yet. Not like before. Not the same. Thou shalt not go up, but fetch
a compass behind them, and come upon them over against the mulberry
trees. And let it be, when thou hearest
the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees, a wind
is going to come and shake those trees, and you're going to hear
it. And the sound of a going is the sound of marching. It
sounds like marching, that the leaves are going to be rattling
together. You've heard the wind in the trees. And let it be,
when you hear that, that then thou shalt bestir thyself. Wait
for God to move and then you move. It's not if you will, God
will. It's if God will, you will. It's
just the opposite of religion. Wait for Him. You want to move
without Him and just hope that He's going to follow along? You
better stop. You wait for Him. When you hear
God moving, when you see that God is moving, bestir yourself. For then shall the Lord go out
before thee. I don't want to go before that,
do you? To smite the host of the Philistines.
And David did so as the Lord had commanded him. And smote
the Philistines from Geba until thou come to Gazer. There's always more. They're
always coming. There's going to be more. Be
ready. Be ready for them. Be prepared.
Expect it. Don't expect to sail through
this life as a believer on calm seas. There's going to be rough.
There's going to be waves. Be in communion with Christ all
the time. He said, where two or three are
gathered in my name, there I am. That's how you commune with Him. And know His will. Inquire of
the Lord. Find out what He said. And He'll speak to your heart now.
And know His will. What are you going to do in this
world without Him? Is there anything that you've
got? I don't really need God for this. I got this handled. You need
Him for everything. Even when you think you don't
need Him, you need Him. You don't want to do anything without Him.
You don't want to balance your checkbook without God. You don't want to
take a step without God. You don't want to go to the grocery
store without God. We know that we need Him all
the time. A sound of a going. We are running out of time. The
wind is the Holy Spirit. The sound of the going. The wind
in the trees. The word spirit means wind or breath in the Old
Testament and in the New Testament. Both the Hebrew word and the
Greek word in both testaments mean wind. And our Lord Jesus
Christ said to Nicodemus in John 3, 8, the wind bloweth where
it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst
not tell whence it cometh or whether it goeth. So is every
one that is born of the Spirit. When a sinner is born again of
the Spirit of God, it's because the Spirit of God moved upon
them. And you can hear the sound, he
said. You can hear the sound of the going in the mulberry
trees. You can see the effects of the wind. You know when he's
come and when he's gone. But you don't know where he'll
come from, where he'll go, when, or if he will at all, unless
God says so. He does as the wind bloweth where
it listeth. That means where it wants to. And he said, when you hear it,
when you see it, when you hear that sound, then you go. And right there in that verse,
the word wind, the wind bloweth where it listed. So it is with
everyone that's born of the spirit, wind and spirit. Same word. Same
word. And so why did the Lord do it
differently this time? The first time he just said,
go up. This time he said, don't go up. Wait and watch and do
this. Same outcome. But the Lord uses
different means and he does this in the scripture to teach us
different aspects of his will, different aspects of his ways. The Lord's will is never to be
taken for granted. So we see in the difference here,
we're to continually inquire of him. But the main teaching here is
to show also in this how that God works mightily and gives
the victory in His church by His Holy Spirit. It's the Spirit
that takes the things of Christ and shows them to us. Are we
going to learn anything about Christ tonight? If we do, you
know how we're going to do that? His Holy Spirit is going to take
the things of Christ and reveal them to us. Turn to Acts chapter 2. I'm going
to close with it. Acts 2. Acts 2. 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.
And it filled all the house where they were sitting. Now our text
is a picture of this. This is a picture of God moving
by his Holy Spirit. And they heard the sound of a
rushing mighty wind and there appeared unto them, look what
happened in conjunction with that. It's not just the spirit
blows through and just saves some people and moves on and
leaves others. Look how he does it. And there appeared unto them
cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.
And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak.
Something was said. And they spoke with other tongues
as the spirit gave them utterance. And there were dwelling at Jerusalem
Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Now when
this was noised abroad, the multitude came together and were confounded,
because that every man heard them speak in his own language."
Remember what we said a while ago, if God has a message for
you, you're going to get it. He's not unclear. People talk
about, well, you know, He's real good at interpreting the Bible.
You don't need to interpret the Bible. It's not in a foreign
language. Don't tell me what God meant by what he said. Just
tell me what God said. Tell me so I can understand it
in my language. That's all I need. I need to hear from God and I
need to understand what's being said. I don't need you to be
so smart that I can't figure out what you're talking about.
I just need to know what God said. That's what happened here. That's why they spoke in other
tongues. And they were all amazed. Look
at verse 7. 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, Parthenians, and Medes,
and Elamites, and dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judea, and
Cappadocia, and Pontus, and Asia, to Phrygia, to Pamphyria, in
Egypt, and in the parts of Libya, And Cyrene and strangers of Rome,
Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak
in our tongues." What were they talking about? What God did. That's what? The gospel. The
wonderful works of God. That's what the Holy Spirit does.
He moves. And He regenerates. He gives
life to sinners. He births them again from above. But you know how He does that?
by the Word of Truth. We are begotten again by the
Word of Truth, the Gospel. When His Spirit moves, somebody's
going to say something about the wonderful works that God
has done for sinners. By His Son, Jesus Christ. Salvation
is of the Lord. And the way He saves is by the
preaching of Christ and what He did. We're not here to try
to get you to do something. We're here to talk about what
he did. And to see if he'll do something for you tonight. He
may just do it. He's able to do it, isn't he?
He may just do something for these children here. He's begun to save some of them,
hasn't he? He may save them all before he's through. That'd be
wonderful. He saves whom He pleases. But
we look to Him. We inquire of Him. We commune
with Him. It's all about Him. May He get
all the honor and the glory every time we open our mouth, every
time we open our Bible, every time we open our ears, every
time we gather. May the Son of God be glorified. Let's pray together.