Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2. We'll be looking at verses 1 through
4 this evening. And if you add a title, it'll
be Pentecost, the manifestation of the person and work of the
Holy Spirit. Pentecost, a manifestation of
the person and the work of the Holy Spirit. Acts chapter 2 and
verse 1, it says, And 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. 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 in other tongues as the Spirit
gave them utterance." Now here, the apostles and others were
commanded of our Lord Jesus Christ before His ascension into glory. He commanded them to go to Jerusalem,
and there He says in verse 4 of Acts 1, He says, "...wait for
the promise of the Father, which, He saith He, you have heard of
Me." For John truly baptized with water, and here's the promise
of the father that they heard of him, but you shall be baptized
with the Holy Ghost not many days hence." Now, the time had
come for Christ to ascend back to glory where He was before,
to intercede where He is now ruling and interceding for all
His people. The time was appointed then to
pour out His Holy Spirit that was given to Christ of the Father. You remember the Spirit was given
to Him without measure. And it is then the will of Christ
to take the Spirit that God had bestowed upon Him, the Holy Spirit,
and to pour it out, pour Him out upon the church, to baptize
His church. Can you imagine that? The baptism,
we use immersion because that's the mode of baptism, is to be
immersed. And He says, I'm not going to
just baptize you with water. I'm going to immerse you in the
Spirit. immerse you in the Spirit. Jesus had promised them this,
that the Spirit of God, the Comforter, was to come to them. You remember,
He called Him the Comforter, that He should teach them and
bring them into all truth. and that not only He should teach
them and come to them and comfort them, but the Holy Spirit should
also indwell them, to be in them, to abide in them. They should have the indwelling
presence of God in every one of them. Now, there were in the
Jewish church, the Jewish nation under the dispensation of the
law. You remember there were three
feast days upon which every male was supposed to return to Jerusalem. The first of those was Passover. They were to go back for Passover.
The second one was the one that we're dealing with here, is Pentecost. And the third one was the Feast
of Tabernacles. Now, all three of these feasts
have pictures. They're meant of God to picture
something. We know this, that Jesus Christ
had chosen the first one, the Passover, to picture His offering
and satisfaction of the justice of God." That was His picture. That was the manifestation of
His coming and His work, Passover. What a beautiful picture that
was. But this second one, the Day of Pentecost, was chosen
of God the Holy Spirit to manifest to us His presence, His office,
and His work. The presence, the person, the
office, and the work of the Holy Spirit in the salvation of God's
elect. Now, so then why was Pentecost
ordained for this purpose? Why was it chosen? Why would
the Holy Spirit use this Feast of Pentecost to picture His person
and work? Now, just as Passover pictured
the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, as the Lamb of God. You remember
the Passover blood of the Lamb was slain and it was placed upon
the doorposts, and that night the justice of God, the judgment
of God came through Egypt. And everyone who had the blood
on the door, the firstborn of that household was saved. Jesus is the Passover Lamb. Jesus is our Passover. I think
it's wonderful that God's already passed over us. God has already
passed over. The Lamb has already been slain. The blood, through faith, has
been applied to the heart of every believer. And the justice
of God is passed over us. We shall never endure the justice
of God. That's what that feast represented. Now, the day of Pentecost, the
day of Pentecost was a wave offering, a wave offering of the first
fruits. This day was to take place 50
days, exactly 50 days after Passover. And the males of the Jews were
to gather in all of their first fruits. And then they would bring
them to the priest, and the priest would make these two loaves of
bread. And they would take these two
loaves of bread, and they would wave them before the Lord. It
was a wave offering. It was a wave offering. And we know this, that it was
two loaves, because if you see this, this is the whole church.
Those who were of the Jews before are pictured in one loaf, and
the other are those who are the Gentiles. Both are to be waved
before the Lord. And he would wave these loaves
before the Lord, and it was in this that they were to give thanks
for the harvest of the firstfruits." Now listen, Jesus is the firstfruit.
He's the firstfruits of the resurrection. He's the first. But we who are believers, James
says that we are a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. We are the
first fruits. So then this wave offering, this
day of Pentecost was a picturesque of gathering of all of the elect
by the Spirit of God. This was appointed of the Holy
Spirit to come on this day because He is the one that gathers the
people, as they gathered those first fruits, as they gathered
in all of that wheat from their harvest. This is a picture of
what the Holy Spirit should do in His work. He should gather
all of the church in and then wave them before the Lord. He
should bring them to Christ, bring them before the Lord, as
Christ is our high priest. So then they gathered all this,
they made the bread, and the high priest lifted them up before
the Lord. Isn't that what Christ does for
us? The Holy Spirit gathers, He makes us into His own, His
first fruits, and Christ lifts us up before God and gives thanks. He in a covenant of grace, the
Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit in a covenant of grace before
the world began, agreed to be the seal, the seal of all the
elect, and to apply the blood of Christ to every chosen and
redeemed sinner. Flip over to Ephesians chapter
1. Ephesians chapter 1. Look at verse 13. Ephesians 1 verse 13 says, "...in
whom you also trusted." Remember, God trusted in Christ to be your
representative, your surety. But in the appointed time of
grace, in whom you also trusted after you heard the word of truth,
the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that you believed
you were sealed, with the Holy Spirit of promise,
which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased
possession, unto the praise of His glory." You see, the Holy
Spirit is the one that gathers. And then, as the Word is preached,
He takes the Word of God and He seals us. You know, that's
the emblem, like a king would take his ring into the wax and
he would seal the letter. Oh, believer, know this, by the
work of the Holy Spirit, you have been sealed until the day
of redemption. No one can separate us from Christ
because the Holy Spirit hath sealed us. This was His work. This was His covenant promise
that He would come gather us and seal us through faith in
Christ. He delivers us to Christ, our
High Priest, and Christ makes us acceptable. We are acceptable
in Christ by the work of the Holy Spirit. Over in Isaiah 43,
God says this about His people. He says, I am the Lord thy God,
the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior. I gave Egypt for thy ransom.
Ethiopia and Seba for thee, since thou wast precious in my sight.
Thou hast been honorable, and I have loved thee. Therefore
will I give men for thee and people for thy life. Fear not,
for I am with thee." I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather
thee from the west. I will say to the north, Give
up, to the south, keep not back. Bring my sons from far, and my
daughters from the ends of the earth, even everyone that is
called by my name, for I have created him for my glory. I have
formed him, yea, I have made him. This was always the work
of the Spirit, so as to gather us from the east, from the West,
from the North, from the South. Why? Because God purposed to
save us. I am thy Savior. Thou was precious
in my sight. What a wonderful work the Holy
Spirit will do. There will not be one of God's
chosen, not one redeemed by Christ that He will not gather. Not
one. Think of it. God has given up
millions and millions of people and passed by them and got you. It's a marvel, isn't it? It's
a miracle of grace. It's a miracle of mercy that
God should reach down and effectually call us. That we were precious
in His sight, so precious that He determined to gather us. As
the first fruits of the harvest of Pentecost were brought in,
this pictures the work of the Holy Spirit of God to gather
His people. And I know this, He will gather
as many as the Lord our God shall call. As many as the Lord our
God shall call. Matter of fact, Peter says this
in Acts 2.39, I believe it is. Let's see. is for the promise
unto you and your children, and to all that are far off, even
as many as the Lord our God shall call." That's who this is for.
All those the Spirit calls. Second of all, let us see how
the Spirit manifests Himself in this feast of Pentecost. Now, we know that the Spirit
of God is just as much God as the Father and the Son. He is the third person in the
Trinity, but He's not third in power. He's not third in will. He's not third in the line of
deity. No. He is equal with the Father
and the Son. John says there are three that
bear record in heaven. The Father, the Word, and the
Holy Ghost. And these three are one. One. And so then, as we think of the
Holy Spirit tonight, as we consider His work and His ministry, we
must understand that He is not a force or an influence. He is a person. He is a divine
person of the sacred Trinity, equal with the Father and worthy
of worship and praise and adoration as the Father and the Son. How do we know this? Well, Paul
said, grieve not the Holy Spirit. Now, you can't grieve a force,
can you? You can't blaspheme an influence.
You can't do that. It's a person. The Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit,
is God. And as God, the Holy Spirit has
always been working on the elect. When the Holy Spirit was poured
out on Pentecost, it is not though this was the first time that
the Holy Spirit did work. We know this, that if anyone
had ever been saved, it has always been the work of the Spirit to
call and to regenerate them. Even Adam or Abel, this is the
work of the Spirit on them, as well as it is on anyone else. There's no one ever been saved
apart from the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit and the giving
of faith. But we know that God had for
many centuries confined or limited the scope and work of the Holy
Spirit to particularly that small nation. There have been very
few outside of that nation of Israel that the Holy Spirit had
been given to. But what's the significance of
Pentecost is this, that this barrier is no longer effectual. There's no longer segregated
by race or confined to one particular group of people. This was what
was so glorious as this was poured out to us. None of us are Jews.
I met a man a few weeks ago, as Gentile as they come, He must
have wanted so bad to be a Jew. He wore the little, you know,
Star of David, and he wore a little beanie hat on his head. He really
wanted to be a Jew. What does that matter? Because
the Holy Spirit is poured out so that he might save the Gentiles
as well as the Jews. You remember when the new song
is sung in glory, it says, "...where thou art worthy to take the book
and open the seals thereof, for thou hast slain and hast redeemed
us to God." Listen, "...out of every kindred tongue, nation,
and people." And just as the Father manifest Himself, so the
Holy Spirit now manifest Himself. The Father manifest Himself on
Sinai, didn't He? Oh, what a manifestation that
was. What a manifestation that was. The Son manifested Himself
in human flesh, lived among us, died under the justice of God,
and rose again. What a manifestation of the Son
of God that was. Will we not then expect the Holy
Spirit to manifest Himself? Which He did on this day of Pentecost. He manifest Himself in the presence
of God's Church. How did he choose to do this?
That's what our text tells us. Go back to your text. How did
the Holy Spirit manifest Himself and reveal His work to the church? Look at this. When the day of
Pentecost was fully come, they were all in one place, in one
accord, and suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing
mighty wind, and it filled the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them
cloven tongues like as fire, and it sat upon each of them.
And they were filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak
in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance, as the apostles
and believers were sitting there waiting." They were sitting. The Lord told them to be there.
Now, what do you think they were expecting to happen? They had
no idea. They didn't know. Christ didn't. All He said was,
you shall be baptized with the Spirit. Did they know what that
was? No. They had no clue. But in obedience
to Christ, they were there. They were there. And as they
were sitting there, all of a sudden, without warning, a hurricane
blew in the door. Now listen, this hurricane wasn't
everywhere. It was in the house. It was in the house with them. And there appeared cloven tongues
of fire over every one of their heads, and they began to speak
in other languages as the Spirit gave them the ability." Now,
in his manifestation of himself, this is a miraculous way, was
the picture of what happens to each one of us, to each one that
the Spirit gathers. This same thing that happened
to them happened to you. Not physically, but spiritually. Not physically. This did happen
to them in a physical, a real sense that they really had those
tongues of fire above their heads. They really did speak in other
languages. But this happens to every one
of us who believe on the Son of God, not physically, but spiritually. Now, there are fools and false
prophets who believe, and by tricks, deception, and by the
spirit of devils, try to imitate this physical appearance of the
Holy Spirit, this physical manifestation. They think that the Spirit of
God should always manifest His presence in a physical way, but
this is not true. Remember, I said the Father manifests
Himself on Sinai. Now, how many times did He do
that? Once. The Son of God manifests Himself
in human flesh, died on the cross and rose again. Now, how many
times did He do that? Once. So the Spirit of God came
down on Pentecost and really did this to them physically.
Now how many times did He do that? Once. Once. Physically. But this is true rather in a
spiritual sense, and I've got four things here, four things
that happen to everyone that is gathered by the Spirit of
God. First of all, we are gathered suddenly. Suddenly. Now what it says, and suddenly
there came a sound. Suddenly. Secondly, we are saved
from above. That's what it says. Suddenly
there came a sound where? From heaven, from above. So we
are saved, where? From above. Thirdly, we are saved
by the wind of the Spirit. He said, "...there came a rushing
mighty wind and filled all the house where they were sitting."
And third, all who are saved speak a new language. Speak a
new language. First of all, we are saved suddenly.
These men were waiting for something, they didn't know what. They had
no idea what it is to be baptized by the Holy Spirit. And so it
is with us before we're saved. We're sitting and we're not expecting
anything. We don't know. We heard that
if anyone's to be saved, they should be saved through the hearing
of the Word. I knew this as a child. I didn't
know anything else. I knew where I needed to be.
If there was going to be any hope to hear the Word of God,
to hear the voice of the Son of God to give me life, I knew
that I should be under the sound of the Gospel. So I veiled myself
at every opportunity and I was there. I didn't know what to
expect, did you? And I didn't know when it would
happen. I didn't have any clue. of us do not have the same experience
of salvation. Some are saved immediately to
the realization. Others seem to be prolonged. They don't know exactly when
they were saved, but I'll tell you this, everybody saved is
saved all of a sudden. Now, whether you realize it,
or you realize it immediately, or you realize it later, whenever
it happened, it happened suddenly, didn't it? It happened as soon
as the Father appointed it to happen. That's when we were saved. You remember our friend Danielle
came to visit. That was one of the... I've always
enjoyed her testimony. She said, before I knew what
happened, I was believing. All of a sudden, all of a sudden,
that's when God saves someone, He saves them all of a sudden
at His appointed time of love and mercy. One day we were lost
and in darkness, dead and blind in our souls, and then the next
we were seeing and believing and loving Christ. When? All of a sudden. You see, I don't know exactly
when the Lord saved me. But when it happened, it happened
all of a sudden. Whenever that was, whatever point
in time that was, it was all of a sudden. And you know what?
I believed. All of a sudden, all of a sudden,
that's what happens. God saves. Peter, many preached
a message. Trying to think of the title
of that message, surprised by grace. You know, Paul wasn't
looking for salvation, but it happened all of a sudden. That's the way we were. We weren't
looking for it. We weren't trying to. We tried
to merit it. We knew we thought it was some other way. And all
of a sudden, God came to us. And if God's ever going to save
you, it's going to come all of a sudden. Second of all, it must
come from above. This Spirit that came in like
a rushing mighty wind, it came all of a sudden, and it came
from heaven. The Spirit of God descended from
heaven as it was given from Christ who now sits in heaven. If you're
a believer in Jesus Christ, it is because you have been born
from above. Jesus said, except you be born
from above, you cannot see the kingdom of God. Everyone that
is saved by the blood of Christ and have faith in Him alone are
given this life and faith by the Spirit of God, which comes
by grace. The spiritual birth does not
come by merit. or the desires of men, nor does
it come by family relation. As many as received Him, to them
gave He the right to become the sons of God, which were born."
How were you born? Not of blood, not of spiritual
relation. My children will never be saved
because I am saved. Never. Not of the will of the flesh,
not by my will. I wasn't willing. until He made
me willing in the day of His power, until I was born from
above. Then I was willing, and not by
the will of man. Some other man is not going to
make me saved. Now, I will for my children to
be saved, but that will never save them. They must be born
from above. That's what happened to us. We
were born from above. Thirdly, all who are saved are
saved by the wind of the Spirit. In that same passage in John
3, Jesus said, "...the wind bloweth where it listeth." You can hear
the sound thereof, but you can't tell whence it cometh or whither
it goeth. So is everyone that is born of the Spirit. See, the
Spirit of God is sovereign. Now listen, you won't wrangle
the Spirit to do anything. Have you not found that to be
true, believer? How many times have we who have the Spirit of
God pleaded, and yet there's no wrangling? He's sovereign. He does with us as He pleases.
He enlightens or He withholds. Remember those disciples on the
road to Emmaus? Who do you suppose closed their
eyes? And who do you suppose opened
their eyes? That was the Spirit of God working in them. The Spirit is sovereign and He saves
whom He will. Who will He give it to? I don't
know. All that the Father chose? All that the Son redeemed? Those
are the only answers I have. I can't tell you where the wind's
coming, and I can't tell you where it's going. Neither can
I tell you where the Spirit's coming or where He's going. He
goes where He pleases, and He saves whomsoever He will. He will. It's not for us to know the Spirit,
where He's coming or where it's going. What we can know is the
effects, right? When the wind blew today, did
you know it? Did you know it? Why? You felt the effects. You saw the effects. Now, you
don't know where it came from and you don't know where it went,
but you saw and you felt it. And so it is with everyone who
is born in the Spirit of God. There are effects. Great effects. This is as a rushing, mighty
wind. When the Spirit comes in, the
world turns upside down. That's what happened. We who once loved sin and only
love sin now love Christ. And our sins are offensive to
us. We who could not and would not
believe now desire nothing but to believe. That's all I want
is to believe. And I tell you, my faith, when
I look at it, how weak and pitiful it is, I desire more faith. This
is the work of the wind. This is the effect. Faith is
the evidence of our salvation. Love is the evidence and the
proof of faith. Love for Christ and love for
the brethren, love for the Word. This is the effects of the Spirit
of God to everyone who is born of the Spirit. And fourthly,
all who are saved have cloven tongues over their heads." Look
at that. It says in verse 3, "...and there appeared unto them
cloven tongues of fire as set upon them." Cloven tongues. This picture is the abiding presence
of the Holy Spirit as those cloven tongues of fire abode above their
heads. Listen, even so does the Holy
Spirit abide in us as a fire. Now, what does fire do? Two things. It gives light and heat. That's what the Spirit of God
does. It gives light and heat. Light and understanding concerning
the Word of God. Isn't that what Christ said the
Holy Spirit should do? He said, He shall lead you into
all truth. That's what the Spirit of God...
And not only does He give us light, He gives us affection
for Christ. Now, the Spirit of God does not
shine so much light on Himself, but the light He shines is on
Christ. Christ is his eye. If you are worshiping Christ
right now, that is the work of the Spirit. If you have any love
at all for Christ, that is the work of the abiding flame of
the Spirit of God in your very soul. That's what that is. If
you can understand the gospel, if you know the gospel of God's
sovereign election, of Christ's sovereign effectual redemption,
of the Spirit's work and power, this is the work of the Holy
Spirit in you. Now listen, if you don't have
the Spirit of Christ in you, you are none of His. So don't
talk to me about this second pouring of the Holy Spirit. It's
foolishness. If you don't have the Spirit
and you need a second portion, you don't have the Spirit at
all. We have the Holy Spirit abiding
in us. And He shows us these things.
He gives us light. The entrance of Thy words giveth
light. It giveth understanding to the
simple. Isn't that our testimony? We
were simple, foolish, ignorant. Now, we know. We know. What do we know? We know the
law can't justify us. We know our sin, don't we? We
know our depravity. We know God's grace. We know
Christ's effectual work. We know these by the Spirit of
God. And listen, He abides in us and He keeps us. This flame
keeps us. Peter said, you are kept by the
power of God unto salvation, ready to be revealed at the last
time. And listen, He causes us to speak with a different language. All this that the Holy Spirit
has given us, He comes all of a sudden. He comes from above.
He comes as a wind, where He wills. And when He comes, He
gives light and heat, faith and love for Christ. And He causes
us to speak an altogether different language. Many fools long for
the physical manifestation of tongues. But what was this really
for? When these apostles were allowed
to speak in tongues, what was it for? It was to manifest that
the Gospel should be preached to all men. That's what this
was for. That God by the Son had chosen to save all men from
all different backgrounds, all different races. And secondly,
to manifest that what these men were saying was of God. You see,
these men didn't know these languages. It was a miracle that they understood
and spoke in different languages. This was manifestly a miracle. But these were not unknown languages.
But rather, these were languages that men could understand. Matter of fact, the Scripture
says, every man heard in his own language, in his own tongue. So they knew that. So, this is... This now, speaking
in other language physically, is not necessary. But I'll tell
you this. Believers do speak another language. We once spoke only the language
of works. That's the natural language of
religion, isn't it? Salvation by doing. Now, I don't care what you put
on the door. Remember, there are only two religions. and grace. Natural man only speaks works,
but the man who is saved speaks an all new language, grace. Salvation by the free sovereign
grace of God without the law, without the will of man. but of God. Salvation by the
grace of God. Is this your experience? Have you not experienced the
Pentecost of the soul? Did it not happen all of a sudden?
Was it not from above? Was it not as the wind sovereignly
moving by the Spirit to give you what? Light and heat. Faith and love for Christ. And this is the ever-abiding
presence of the Spirit with us, and He causes us to speak in
the language of grace and love. I pray that God would teach us
this. The work, the marvelous work of the Holy Spirit. I'm
thankful for His work. I praise God for His work. May
He evermore teach us of Christ, show us Christ, and give us love
for Christ. That's His work. Let's stand
and be dismissed in prayer.