Let's turn back to Acts chapter
2. Acts chapter 2, verse 12. Acts 2 verse 12 says, And they
were all amazed, and were in doubt saying one to another,
what meaneth this? What meaneth this? That is what
everybody wants to know. Last week we looked at what happened
at Pentecost. And this is what happened. The
Word of God came down. I wish I actually had time to
re-preach that so I could continue from there. The Word of God came
down and He proved it was His Word by signs and wonders. That's
what happened at Pentecost. And all who saw it, verse 12
says, they were all amazed and were in doubt, saying one to
another, what meaneth this? Last week we saw what happened
and tonight we're going to see why it happened. What meaneth
this? Here's a key concerning the scriptures. Something to remember with every
single scripture we come across. Every single one. Our Lord said,
search the scriptures for in them you think you have eternal
life, And they are they which testify of Me." All of them. Every scripture we study is a
testimony. It points us to Jesus Christ.
That's what every single scripture does. Every one of them. The
Apostle Paul said, For I determined not to know anything among you
save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Everything we're going to look
at tonight is about Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Every single
bit of it. Now, here's what happened at
Pentecost. The Holy Ghost descended on the Lord's disciples. They
were all meeting together in one room. And the Holy Ghost
descended on the disciples, and all of a sudden they started
speaking these languages. These different languages. The
end of verse 5 says, Out of every nation under heaven. Every nation under heaven. They weren't speaking gibberish.
They weren't speaking gibberish. Fifteen different nations are
listed right here and we just read them. And it says at that
time it was every nation under heaven. They were speaking actual
known languages and I want us to see where these
languages came from. Okay, let's see how each of these
languages started. Don't go with me to Genesis 9. If the Lord will enable this
poor vessel tonight, this is a great blessing. It is a great
blessing. I hope that the Lord will let
the message ring clear tonight. Genesis 9, this is right after
the flood when Noah and his family came out of the ark. It says
in verse 18, And the sons of Noah that went forth of the ark
were Shem, and Ham and Japheth, and Ham is the father of Canaan.
These are the three sons of Noah, and of them was the whole earth
overspread." The whole earth came from Noah's three sons.
Chapter 10 verse 32 says, "...these are the families of the sons
of Noah, after their generations, in the nations, and by these
were the nations divided in the earth after the flood." That's
how the divisions came. Chapter 11 verse 1 says, And
the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. And it came
to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain
in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. And they said one
to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone,
and slime had they for mortar. And they said, Go to, let us
build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven. And let us make us a name, lest
we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. Let
us. That's the error of man. That's
the whole error of man. Let us all of the error of man
stems from let us. Let us hold your place right
here and go to Psalm 68 with me. Psalm 68 verse 1 says, Let God. Let God arise. Let His enemies
be scattered. Let them also that hate Him flee
before Him. Look at Psalm 70 verse 4. It says, Let all those that seek
Thee rejoice and be glad in Thee, and let such as love Thy salvation
say continually, Let God be magnified. Let God be magnified. That doesn't
mean allow Him. Allow Him to be magnified. He
said over in Isaiah 43, I will work and who will let it. Who's going to allow it? Let
God, it doesn't mean allow Him, it means we greatly desire it. We greatly desire it. We greatly
love God being magnified. Romans 3 says, let God be true
and every man a liar. We greatly desire that. But they
said back in Genesis 11 verse 3, They said one to another, go
to, let us. Let us. When God opens a sinner's
eyes, and this is real, you see it
and you hear it and it's real. When God opens a sinner's eyes
to truly see who Jesus Christ really is, They stop saying,
let us. And they start saying, let God. Let God. He will work, who shall
let it? Verse 3 right here says, And
they said one to another, go to, let us make brick and burn
them throughly. And they had brick for stone
and slime had they for mortar. And they said, go to, let us
build us a city and a tower whose top may reach unto heaven. And
let us make us a name. Let us make us a name. That's
not what John the Baptist desired, was it? They said, who are you? And he said, buddy, that doesn't
matter. Just a voice. I'm just a voice. Let us make us a name, lest we
be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. Verse
5 says, And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower
which the children of men built. The eye of the Lord sees all. He sees all. Hold your place
there now and go to Psalm 33. Psalm 33 verse 13 says, The Lord
looketh from heaven, he beholdeth all the sons of men. From the
place of his habitation he looketh upon all the inhabitants of the
earth. He fashioneth their hearts alike,
he considereth all their works. What that means is, He sees me. He sees me. He sees everything about me.
While my heart is burning in sin, God is looking at it. He's
looking at it. Well, yeah, but He sees the good
parts too. He sees all that good stuff too.
What good stuff? There is none. He said, there is none good,
no not one, right? He said, all my righteousnesses
are as filthy rags, every single one of them. He sees me. That's what a sinner gets a hold
of. I can fool man, but I cannot fool God. Can't fool God. Back over in Genesis 11, verse
6 says, And the Lord said, Behold, The people is one, and they have
all one language, and this they begin to do, and now nothing
will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do.
Go to, let us go down. Man said, let us. God said, no,
let us. Whose will do you think is going
to reign? Verse 7, God said, Go to, let
us go down. Us? Who's He talking about? He's talking about God the Father,
God the Son, God the Spirit. These three are one. He said
in verse 7, Go to, let us go down, and there confounded their
language, that they may not understand one another's speech. So the
Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the
earth, and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name
of it called Babel, because the Lord did confound the language
of all the earth, and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad
upon the face of all the earth. And then after that it starts
listing all of these people that were born. And verse 27 says,
Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah begat Abraham. Chapter 12, verse 1 says, Now
the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country,
and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land
that I will show thee. And I will make of thee a great
nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great. And
thou shalt be a blessing, and I will bless them that bless
thee, and curse him that curseth thee. And in thee shall all families
of the earth be blessed. So Abram departed as the Lord
had spoken unto him, and Lot went with him, and Abram was
seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. I will
bless thee." Now here's the point that I'm trying to make. There
was one language. And man's sin, man's own depravity,
and man's own pride, and man's own will said, To build us our own tower to
get to God. I can get to God on my own. And
God saw every bit of it. And God said, no, let us come
down. And God confounded their language
and He scattered them out. He sent them out. And then He
told one man named Abraham. He said, Abraham, I'm going to
make a covenant with you and with your seed. All these people,
I've scattered them out. I will bless thee. Now look at chapter 17 with me. Chapter 17 verse 1 says, And
when Abraham was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared
to Abram and said unto him, I am the Almighty God, walk before
me, and be thou perfect. Verse 7 says, And I will establish
My covenant between Me and thee, and thy seed after thee, in their
generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee,
and to thy seed after thee." And then he told Abraham, your
seed, my people, they're going to be in bondage for 400 years.
And they were. But he said, I made a covenant
with them. And I'm going to bring them out. I will deliver my people. Salvation will come to the Jews. Now look at Isaiah 40 with me. Isaiah 40, this is the commandment
of God. Verse 1, He says, Comfort ye,
comfort ye all of the world. That's not what He said. He said,
My people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem and cry unto her, that
her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned,
for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her
sins." You see that? Exodus kept talking about the
God of the Hebrews, specifically. Very specific. These promises
are to my people only. He didn't make any of those promises
or any of these covenants to all the world. Nowhere in the
Old Testament. Nowhere in the Old Testament.
Go with me to Matthew chapter 10. Matthew chapter 10 verse 5 says,
These twelve Jesus sent forth and commanded them saying, Go
not into the way of the Gentiles. Don't do it. Don't go to the Gentiles. and
into any city of the Samaritans, enter ye not. But go rather to the lost sheep
of the house of Israel." Go to Israel. This message is for Israel. Go with me to John 4. Look at verse 22. Our Lord said, You worship, you
know not what. We know what we worship, for
salvation is of the Jews. It's of the Jews. That was the testament of the
Lord. Specifically. That's it. But the gospel means good news. And this is good news. God sent
the Son of God, Jesus Christ, into this world with a New Testament. For 4,000 years, this was His
Testament. This is to Israel. This is to
the Jews. I'm the God of the Hebrews. And before Christ died, He sent
those messengers out and He said, don't you dare go to the Gentiles.
Do not go to the Samaritans. You go to Israel. This is for
Israel. Because of sin, back there in
the Tower of Babel, God scattered the people. And He created all these new
tongues and all of these outside people. They were unknown to
each other, known to themselves, unknown to each other. And He
left them to themselves and He said, these are going to be My
people. And it's all because of sin. John 1 verse 17 says, For the
law was given by Moses, the judgment of God was known through Moses,
but grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ. And God said salvation is of
the Jews. Salvation is only for my people. Salvation is only to those who
are in that covenant I made with Abraham and to his seed. But
here's the truth of grace. Here's the New Testament of grace.
You know it, so just listen to Romans chapter 2, verses 28 and
29. For he is not a Jew which is
one outwardly, Neither is that circumcision which is outward
in the flesh, but he is a Jew which is one inwardly. And circumcision
is that of the heart in the Spirit, and not in the letter, whose
praise is not of men, but of God." Do you know what that means? It means salvation is of the
Lord unto whomsoever He chooses to save. This is why Pentecost
took place. Go with me back over to Acts
chapter 2 now, and let's read this one more time. To me, this was so glorious.
Look at verse 12. Okay, now let me set this up
one more time. Our Lord told these men, don't
go to the Gentiles. Don't go to the Samaritans, you
go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And then the Lord,
He left and He told them, you stay at Jerusalem because I'm
going to send the Holy Ghost and you're going to be endued
with power from on high. And the Holy Ghost came and brought
to these men the Word of God. This is going to be my New Testament,
my new law, it's given. And all these men from right
here, Peter, And all these men, they went out and they started
writing stuff, and it's God's Word. Okay, now this is what
the Holy Ghost of God said, look at verse 12 again. And they were
all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth
this? Others mocking said, These men
are full of new wine. But Peter, standing up with the
eleven, lifted up his voice and said unto them, Ye men of Judea,
that's the Jews, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, that's the
Jews, be this known unto you and hearken to my words. For these are not drunken, as
you supposed, 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 in the last days, saith God, I will pour out My
Spirit upon all flesh." All flesh. I'm a Gentile. Thanks be to God. Grace and truth
came to us by Jesus Christ. Those whom the truth had never
come to before. Never. Those who could not know
the truth because they were dead in their trespasses and sins.
Those who, like Ephesians 2 verse 12 says, were without Christ,
being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel. That was me. And strangers
from the covenants of promise. That was me. Having no hope. Well, this is to Israel. Sorry.
What am I going to do? having no hope and without God
in the world, but now in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were
far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ." That's what
God said at Pentecost. He said, you men of Jerusalem,
everybody in Judea, you listen to this. All these languages that you're
hearing us speak, God created those at the Tower of Babel.
And because of sin, God scattered the people. And He said, this
is it. But now grace has come. And grace
has said, I'm going to go out to all those people and I'm going
to gather mine elect and I'm going to bring them back into
the fold. Isn't that wonderful? I think that's wonderful. Because of sin, man became alienated,
scattered abroad. But because of God's grace and
because of Christ's blood, God said, I'm going to go get them
and I'm going to bring them back. And I'm going to do this out
of every nation, tribe, kindred, and tongue. You know what that
means? The Lord is good. The Lord is
good. I'm going to bring them back
into the fold. You tell them they have My Word on it. We have
His Word on it. He said, I'm going to do all
this with signs and wonders so they know this is the Word of
God. You Gentiles, there's hope for you. There's hope for you. Verse 17 says, In Acts chapter 2, he says, It
shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I'll pour out
my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters
shall prophesy. That happened. And we're not
going to take time to look at it. Maybe we'll look at it next
Wednesday. But chapter 21, verses 9 to 11,
you know, Philip, he had four daughters in his house. Paul
went to his house and all four of his daughters prophesied.
They told things that hadn't happened yet. And in the next
verse, a man named Agabus told Paul, when you go to Rome, they're
going to put you in prison. Prophesied of things that hadn't
happened. Verse 17 says, Your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams. And that all happened,
every bit of it. Ananias, you know Saul of Tarsus,
the Lord said, Ananias will tell you what you need. The Lord came
to Ananias in a vision. That's Acts chapter 9. Acts chapter
10 is where the Lord sent Cornelius to Peter and the Lord came to
Peter in a vision. You remember he saw all those
unclean animals and the Lord said, eat. He had a vision. And
then Paul in Acts 22 had a vision. And John on the Isle of Patmos
had a vision. Every bit of that happened. Just
like God said it would. Every bit of that has already
happened. It's already happened. Men do not see visions and they
do not dream dreams anymore. Not from God. And the reason
is because the Scriptures are finished. Every bit of that was
for the writing of the Word of God. And the Word of God is finished. And we don't need that anymore.
We have the Word of God. These were not signs of being
saved. Well, if you're going to be saved,
you're going to have to speak in tongues. Well, they can't naturally speak
16 different languages or 15 different. So they make one up.
No, it was not a sign of being saved. Not at all. It was a sign that
this is God's word. This is the Word of God. I'm
going to prove it with signs and wonders. Verse 18 says, And
on my servants and on my handmaidens I'll pour out in those days of
my spirit they shall prophesy. I'll show wonders in heaven above,
signs in earth beneath, blood and fire and vaporous smoke.
The sun shall be turned to darkness, the moon into blood before that
great and notable day of the Lord. Remember that he is still
quoting right here Joel chapter 2 in the Old Testament. Every
bit of that is him quoting Joel chapter 2. And the Old Testament,
all of it says, somebody's coming. That's the point of the Old Testament.
Somebody's coming. Somebody's coming to do a great
and notable work. That's the cross of Christ. That's
what it is. All of the New Testament says
somebody came. That's what the New Testament
says. Somebody came and he's coming
back. Somebody has already finished the work. When was the sun darkened? Three hours at the cross of Christ. He's finished. It's all finished. It is finished. It's all finished. And because
of this New Testament of grace, verse 21 says, it shall come
to pass that whosoever, now because of Christ, thanks be to Christ,
thanks be to His blood, thanks be to His grace, thanks be to
His goodness, now whosoever, shall call on the name of the
Lord, shall be saved." Do you mean if I have Christ, I'm going
to be accepted? No matter who I am or what I
am? Yes. That's exactly what I mean. What meaneth this? Here's what it means. Where sin
did abound, Grace did much more about it. That's what it all
means. Isn't that lovely? I'm glad. I'm very glad. Well,
I pray the Lord will bless that. Let's stand together.