May God be pleased to bless us
together this morning as we consider his word. Let's turn to the Acts
of the Apostles chapter 2 and we'll read the first verse. The
Acts of the Apostles and chapter 2 and reading the first verse. And when the day of Pentecost
was fully come They were all with one accord in one place. The day of Pentecost was a very
important day to Israel. It is still an important day
to natural Israel and it is a very important day to a spiritual
Israel. The day of Pentecost really goes
back to the time when Moses received the law of God from God on Mount
Sinai. It was 50 days since the Passover,
since Israel had come out of Egypt and gone across the Red
Sea and now come to be at Mount Sinai. And it was then that the
Lord gave Moses the law. And of course it was a very important
occasion. And it was an occasion that year
by year Israel remembered. Now we don't necessarily read
of it as that word Pentecost in the word of God. But we do
have other statements with regards to it. First of all, it was called
the Feast of Weeks. Seven weeks had occurred since
the Passover. 49 days had occurred. And therefore it was on the following
day, on the 50th day, when they held this festival to give thanks
to God for the law which he had given to them on Mount Sinai. It was also referred to in the
Word of God as the Feast of Harvest. You can trace both of these references. There are several references
to the Word of God with regard to this. The Feast of Harvest. Because it was on that day that
the first fruits were brought to the Lord. That was the first
fruits of the grain. Two loaves had been baked to
the grain, the fresh grain and these were presented to the Lord. So we see that this was an occasion
which was very important to Israel and how they remembered it all
those years. And it was so important that
all the people had come together and gathered together at Jerusalem
to remember these things which had occurred so many years ago. But now, the law was to wonderfully
appear on this occasion. And not only are we able to remember
on this day, the time when God gave the law, but also we can
remember today, especially when the Holy Ghost came down on the
people. And there was that wonderful
blessing at the beginning of the spreading of the gospel throughout
the world. So we see the uniting really
of these two things on this Pentecostal day of the law and the gospel. And what a blessing it will be
for us today if we understand the importance of the law and
also the importance of the gospel and to bless God for the Gospel
that the Lord Jesus Christ he came and he kept that law which
had been given by God to Moses on Sinai so many years previously
and which man had not been able to keep. Fallen sinful man had
not been able to keep and therefore the effect was that they were
condemned by the Holy Law of God And so that's come down through
the ages still to today, that we under the law of God are condemned
by the law of God and we're not able to keep that law of God,
that perfect righteous law. But we should be thankful today
for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who did indeed keep that
law. Now, on this occasion, we all
gather together and there was suddenly a sound from heaven
as of a rushing mighty wind and it filled all the house where
they were sitting and 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 with other tongues as
the Spirit gave them utterance. What it was an amazing occasion
when God came and blessed the people so they could hear the
gospel in their own tongue. And as we know, the apostle gave
a list of many of the countries which were represented on this
occasion. People that spoke very different
languages. And yet here, on this occasion, God had ordained that
they should hear the gospel. It would be spoken to them. And
the effect was, they were all amazed and marvelled and they
said behold on all these men we speak Galileans and how here
we every man in our own tongue wherein we were born. What an
amazing occasion it would be. And of course as always there
were those who believed when they heard the wonderful works
of God and there were others who did not believe and mocked
saying these men are full of new wine. And so the scene was
set. And then God's servant, Peter,
arose and spoke. And what a wonderful effect it
had. He cleared the ground to start
with. And he said, these are not drunken as ye suppose, seeing
it is but the third hour of the day. And then he quotes scripture. It's always good to quote scripture.
He goes back to Joel. And he said it was spoken by
Joel, the prophet. It shall come to pass in the
last days, saith the Lord, saith God, I will pour out of my spirit
upon all flesh. Your sons and your daughters
shall prophesy. Your young men shall see visions
and your old men shall dream dreams. And all my servants and
all my handmaidens, I will pour out in those days of my spirit
and they shall prophesy. And so there was the fulfilment
of this coming to pass from this day. We might remember later
on what the apostle Paul said when he wrote to the church at
Corinth and he spoke about the preaching of the gospel and he
spoke in these words in the first chapter, the first epistle, verse
21. For after that in the wisdom
of God The world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews
require a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom. But we preach
Christ crucified unto the Jews the Son of God and unto the Greeks
foolishness but unto them which are called both Jews and Greeks,
Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. And so the
Apostle Paul is really confirming in these words that which very
clearly began when the Apostle Peter stood up and preached the
Gospel to these people. This multitude that had gathered
together, it would appear they were probably gathered in a temple
and they were there on this wonderful day of Pentecost and the Lord
came and appeared in this way to appear and to convince of
sin and to work in their hearts and to turn them to the Lord
so they were willing to hear and obey God's words and the
Apostle says, ye men of Israel hear these words Jesus of Nazareth,
a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs
which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves know."
Yes, he wanted to preach Christ. And here was the occasion when
the Holy Spirit would come and apply the word to their hearts. So they did believe the Gospel.
And my friends, blessed it was on that day Blessed it has been
throughout the history of the world when God has come through
His Holy Spirit and has applied the Word to the hearts of the
people. Has touched their hearts, has
moved their spirits and is only for the work of the Holy Spirit.
Oh, this morning do we bless God for the work of the Holy
Spirit. To bless God that He reveals
to us the things of Jesus. And so the Apostle, he then outlines
what they'd done. Him being delivered by the determinate
counsel and full knowledge of God, ye have taken and by wicked
hands have crucified and slain. My friends, the Word of God doesn't
shitty shally. The Word of God is very direct. And as the Word of God speaks,
May it speak to our hearts today to be powerful and high and convince
us that we were those really who were amongst those who caused
the Lord Jesus Christ to be crucified because it was because of our
sin. Be no sin, be no need of a saviour. But we have sinned, all have
sinned, and come short of the glory of God. And so the apostle
goes on to say, whom God has raised up, having loosed the
pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be
holden of it. Christ could not be confined
to the grave. To be confined to the grave,
He would not have been a conqueror. But you see, he conquered sin
and death and the grave. And he rose victorious. So the apostle speaks in these
words that death could not hold him. We bless God today for the
risen Saviour. The risen Lord Jesus Christ. who kept that holy law of God,
which was righteous and was good and was true, which we've been
unable to keep. We failed. We failed. And therefore there was no hope
for us. Naturally speaking, no hope. Our hope is only through what
the Lord Jesus Christ has done. And so the Apostle goes on to
speak about David and what he prophesied. And he then says,
this Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we are all witnesses. There was no doubt that Christ
had risen from the dead. There were many people that were
witness of that. Over 500 we know witnessed the
risen Christ. And the apostles particularly
were blessed to be on that place at Bethany, when he was taken
up into heaven. He tells us, therefore, being
by the right hand of God exalted, and having received the promise
of the Holy Ghost, he has shed forth this which ye now see and
hear. Well, the Apostle was so thankful
for the risen Christ, thankful to know that he was seated on
the father's right hand and as he quotes David again for David
is not ascended into the heavens but he said of himself the Lord
said unto my Lord sit thou my right hand until I make thy foes
thy footstools therefore let all the house of Israel know
assuredly that God has made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified
both Lord and Christ. He clearly set before the people
the risen, crucified Saviour. That One who had come to redeem
His people from their sins. Now we then see the blessed,
wonderful work of the Holy Spirit. My friends, we can sit and we
can hear the truth of God. But you see, it will not do us
any good unless the Holy Spirit applies that word to our hearts. And that's what we have here.
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? What shall we do? I wonder this
morning if in our lives we've come to that position where we've
cried out and we've said, what shall I do? I've offended God. I've sinned against God. What shall I do? I'm a condemned
sinner. I'm condemned by the holy law
of God. What shall I do? Well, the Holy Spirit came, you
see, upon these people, causing them to cry in this way. They
were now concerned about themselves. They were concerned about their
eternal life. They were concerned as to where
they would spend eternity. They realised that it was through
their sins, they had caused the Lord Jesus Christ to be crucified
upon that cross at Calvary. And so they cried out, men of
Brentlyn, what shall we do now? Quite clearly that was the conviction
of the Holy Spirit of God upon these people. And it had made
them come and cry out, what must we do? What shall we do? What shall we do? And what did the Apostle respond? He said repent and be baptised
every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission
of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost for
the promises unto you and to your children and to all that
are far off even as many as the Lord our God shall call. You see the Apostle made it very
clear that they who had received this work of the Spirit in their
hearts and cried out like that, what shall we do? It was the
work of the Spirit because it was God who had called them.
As many as the Lord our God shall call. What was it? It was the effect of that work
of the Holy Spirit on their heart. It was the inward call. They'd
been called by the grace of God, not anything in themselves that
was worthy of it. The Lord had come and called
them, and he goes on to say, and with many other words did
he testify and exhort, saying, save yourselves from this untoward
generation. What a blessing it was for them
to hear the Gospel preached, to be directed to the Lord Jesus
Christ, and to be there on this wonderful occasion when the Holy
Ghost came down specifically at this time and at this place
to reveal the power of God in the souls of the people. And
so as we think on this occasion today, I wonder how we have been
affected in our lives by the testimony that we read of in
the Word of God by servants as it's recorded How we've been
affected by the preaching of the word. As we read just now
in that chapter in Corinthians you see it is through the foolishness
of preaching. Natural man would think for somebody
to stand up and to speak the things of God to preach is a
waste of time. There's no benefit, there's no
purpose. Well naturally that is so, but
bless God when he applies the word through the Spirit of God. It's that and then when the Word
of God is effectual, because it comes and it touches our heart,
it moves our spirit, our innermost being. There's a change wrought
by the Spirit of God. It's not that which we produced
ourselves. It's that which the Holy Spirit
has done within us. And we can bless God for it. And you see, the effect of this
work, the effect of this calling of God, will produce that concern
that we may hear such a word and repent. It means to be truly
sorry for our sins. It means that we desire to go
in an opposite direction. Rather than serving the devil,
we might be found serving the Lord. There is a real complete
change when God grants a spirit of repentance. And a spirit of
repentance is not something that you and I can work ourselves
up to. It's the gift of God. He comes
and gives us that blessed gift to be sorry for our sins. And
Peter said, repent and be baptised every one of you in the name
of the Lord Jesus for the remission of sins and you shall receive
the gift of the Holy Ghost. Now, what do we read? Then they that gladly received
his word were baptised. Well, that's a good thing, isn't
it? If we receive the word of God, in our hearts, receive what
God has spoken to us, as the word of God, and not as the word
of men, then they that gladly received his word were baptised. It's interesting, as we read
the word of God, and we read the accounts of the early church,
and the effect was that when they received the word of God,
when they heard God's call and received his word, what was the
effect? Well, they believed and were
baptised. It was, as I might almost say,
the automatic effect that they immediately were baptised in
the name of the Father and of the sun and of the Holy Ghost. Now, this occasion was a wonderful
occasion, because there wasn't one or two people that were affected,
there were a vast multitude, about 3,000 souls. And you may say, well, was this
a real conversion? Was this true repentance? Was
this really The work of God? Well, there was the outworking
of it. And they continued steadfastly
in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of
bread, and in prayers. They followed the example of
the apostles. They followed the words of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And it wasn't just a flash in
the pan. It wasn't just something which
came and went. It was the blessed work of the
Holy Spirit which continued. And that's the wonderful thing
to know. That when God works His work in our hearts, there
is a wonderful effect. An effect of that work. And so
we see that they continued not half-heartedly. They continued
steadfastly. What a good thing in our lives
if we continue steadfastly in the things of God. We don't just
cast them aside, go through just an operation like this and then
carry on in our life. These people were changed characters. My friends, the work of God in
our soul produces a change. And so I wonder, Today, if we
can trace out in our heart, really a Pentecostal experience, you
may say, well I don't think I have one like that. Well, you may
have done. And perhaps you haven't realised
the greatest effect of the work of the Holy Spirit in your heart,
which has produced a change. And that change is brought about
a difference in your view of things. All things have become
new. You see things differently. You
think differently. You speak differently. Because
you've been blessed with that fear of the Lord, which is the
beginning of wisdom. What a blessing it is. when the
Holy Spirit of God comes and blesses us like this. So there
is the fear of the Lord. You see these people here, they
realise they were guilty before a Holy God. And there was therefore
that fear of the Lord in their hearts. There was this great
and blessed change worked out by the Spirit of God and it produced
in them a desire. to do the will of God and to
follow the testimony of the Lord and his disciples and those who
preach the word. You see, they were pricked in
their hearts. Their hearts were moved. It wasn't
just a theory in their mind. My friends, knowledge in our
mind is good and necessary. But it won't be the work of the
Holy Spirit. The work of the Holy Spirit is
when our hearts are affected. When there's a change within.
What it means is we're partakers of the new birth. What a blessing
it is that we are partakers of the new birth. And the Lord Jesus,
of course, he spoke very much about that to that Pharisee Nicodemus. that ruler of the Jews, who had
come to Jesus by night. And Jesus had said to him, Verily
I say unto you, except a man be born again, he cannot see
the kingdom of God. Nicodemus wondered, he couldn't
understand that. He asked the question, how can
a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time
into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus said, except a man
be born of water and of blood and of the spirit, he cannot
enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. My will
not have I said unto thee, ye must be born again. Now, in this
account that we read on this day of Pentecost, what did we
read? We read this. The Spirit came
with a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and it
filled the house where they were all sitting. And what does the
Lord tell us? The wind bloweth where it listeth. Thou hearest the sound thereof,
but canst not tell whence it cometh. And whither it goeth,
so is every one that is born of the Spirit. There are no exceptions. We all, as it were, hear in our
hearts the effect of this wind blowing. Here is the sound thereof,
but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it bloweth. So is every one that is born
of the Spirit. Well now, what was it? The effect
was As the wind blows, as the spirit comes and blows upon our
soul, there is that change. There is that blessed change.
And what is that change? We know that we have passed from
death to life. Death to life. It's a wonderful
occasion in our life to know that we have been blessed. with
the work of the Holy Spirit. Well, this morning, my friends,
let us look into our hearts. Let us see whether the Holy Spirit
of God has indeed come and touched our hearts, so that we do worship
the Lord. We do come and fall before Him,
and we do desire to honour and glorify his great and holy name. You see Peter came and he preached
these words and the effect was upon these people that it had
a good and gracious effect. And what did the apostle say?
He said this, and it shall come to pass that whosoever shall
call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. You see the effect
was that these people cried out, what shall we do? And were effectively
crying out to the Lord, what shall we do? They needed to know. They were in a desperate condition,
what shall we do? And that surely is the wonderful
work, the blessed work of the Holy Spirit that causes us to
cry, that causes us to pray, That causes us to seek the Lord,
whereas previously we may have prayed, but we only prayed as
it were in the air. We didn't really pray to God.
We didn't really cry to God. It was just a form of words. That's a formal statement. It
was just some task that we felt we should do. But when the work
of the Holy Spirit comes, It causes us to cry out from our
hearts with reality. What shall we do? What shall
we do? And then to be directed. There
is a need, you see, to repent. The work of the Spirit will direct
us in this way that we will repent. We will turn away from our sins,
whereas we love sin. The Spirit of God will produce
in our hearts hatred of sin, that hatred of sin, so that we
do indeed turn away from the things of evil and we desire
indeed to serve the living God and to do that which is right
in His sight. It's a wonderful blessing the
Lord comes and speaks to us in that way. So that we come and
indeed cry to Him. You know, we read, well at least
we didn't read, but we spoke this morning, all you children
in Sunday school, spoke of those words that you learnt in the
last month. And that was this poor man cried. And the Lord heard him and saved
him out of all his troubles. These people this day of Pentecost,
what were they doing? They were crying to the Lord.
And what did he do? He saved them out of all their
troubles. You learnt also, the angel of
the Lord encampeth round about them, that fear him, and delivereth
them. You see what was the effect?
The Lord grants repentance, sorry, Sorrow for sin. And we went on,
O taste and see the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that trusteth
in him. Now, these people on this Pentecost,
they were trusting in the Lord. They were trusting in Him. As the Apostle came and said,
repent and be baptised every one of you. in the name of Jesus
Christ, for the remission of sins, and 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 shall call." And we see then, the apostle had
spoken this, and they did, they gladly received his word. Well, I wonder if we gladly received
the word of God. gladly received the preaching
of the gospel as we've heard about the Lord Jesus Christ and
what he's done as we hear about his great and precious and glorious
death how that he died upon that cross at Calvary in order to
take away our sins those sins which were condemning us those
sins which were causing us to cry out what shall we do We are to come to the Lord Jesus
Christ. The apostle, the Lord rather
told us these words, come unto me, all ye that labour and are
heavy laden, and I will give you rest. There's no one else
to go to. It's only the Lord Jesus Christ
we can come to. He is the one who died to atone
for our sins. And therefore he says, come unto
me. all ye that labour in a heavy laden. And if we have the effect
of the work of the Holy Spirit condemning us, that we've failed
to keep the law of God, we shall come in that position. And we
will be heavy laden. Sin will be heavy upon us. Because
we know that we cannot enter into heaven with sin. Sin does
not exist in heaven. Heaven is a holy, happy place.
where sin no more defiles, where Jesus shows his lovely face and
looks and loves and smiles. There's no sin in heaven. You
and I can't enter heaven with sin. And yet we are sinners indeed. We're black sinners. We're hell-deserving
sinners. We need our sin to be taken away.
And how can that sin be taken away? As we cry out, what shall
we do? Repent, says the Apostle. Come to the Lord. Confess your
sin. The Apostle tells us. Let us
confess our sins. Confess your sins. Unto the Lord,
those who confess their sins will be blessed. Will be received. Will not be turned away. And
to be blessed then with this wonderful receipt of forgiveness. We never wanted. But if we have
been blessed with true repentance, we come and we cry to our God
for forgiveness. The Lord has looked upon us and
given us that understanding that he has died for us, that our
sins are washed away. What will be the effect? Well,
I'm sure we will gladly receive his word. Have we gladly received
his word? Has it been a good word to our
souls? that word of forgiveness, and to come to him in our time
of need, have we received his word. And so the word tells us
then, they that gladly received his word were baptised. That was the effect of this gracious
and glorious work in the heart to follow the example of the
Lord Jesus, to follow the example of the apostles. and to come
and to hear the words of the Apostle Peter and to repent and
to be baptized. You see, these words, they didn't
fall to the ground. The people didn't say, well, that's irrelevant
to me. I don't have to bow down to such
a word as that. The gracious effect of the work
of the Holy Ghost in the heart was this, to make them willing
in the day of His power. The power of God had shown to
them. They'd heard the word. It came to them as that wind,
that mighty rushing wind. They didn't know how it had come.
It had come. They didn't know where from it
had come. It had come to them. It had touched
their hearts. It had moved them. They were
a new creature. Old things were passed away.
Old things became new. They'd been a partaker of the
blessed and glorious work of the Holy Spirit of God. And so
the effect was, they gladly received his word and were baptised. You see, fear came upon every
soul and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles and
all that believed were together. They were united together in
Christ. What a wonderful bond it was.
that unity in Christ. They were joined together. They
wanted to be together. They sold their possessions and
goods and passed them to all men as every man had need. And they continued daily with
one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to
house and eating their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,
praising God and having faith with all the people. And the
Lord added to the church daily such as should be so. Well, they
were wonderful days, weren't they? But my friends, God is
the same today. Know that we may know and experience
the wonderful effect of the work of the Holy Spirit moving each
one of us to be found in this way and to be blessed with this
continuance. You see it was a continuing,
not something which stops. And they continued daily with
one accord in the temple and breaking of bread from house
to house. They were remembering the Lord
in His death as a gracious God and instituted the Lord's Supper
when He was on the earth in the upper room on that Passover night.
And now these 50 days later on, as they remembered this occasion,
and here they were then, blessed for this wonderful blessing,
and they were praising God. Oh, that you and I might praise
God today for His work in our hearts, that sovereign work Beware
to praise sovereign grace or sin abounding. What reason there
is to bless God. May we praise God today, on this
Pentecostal day, to remember His work, His power, that power
on Sinai, that power at Calvary, the blessed work of the Holy
Spirit of God. And so may we be today found
praising God, and having favoured all the people, and the Lord
added to the church daily, such as should be saved. Amen.