Alright, let's turn back to Acts
chapter 2. We finished up chapter 1 last
Wednesday. Acts chapter 1 began with the
Lord ascending up into heaven. And I wish I could go back two
Wednesdays ago and experience that message again, that word
again. All the disciples, it said 120
of them, they went back together into this upper room. And Peter
stands up and he tells everybody that every bit of this had to
happen that the Scriptures might be fulfilled. Every single bit
of it. And then they acknowledge the
Lord's choosing of the next apostle to take Judas' place. And now here we are at chapter
2. So chapter 2 verse 1 says, And when the day of Pentecost
was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. The day of Pentecost. Pentecost
means 50. 50th Pentecost. It was a feast that was ordained
by God to take place 50 days after the Passover. 50 days. It was a feast that the Jews
had to observe before their harvest, before their crops were harvested. It was against the law to harvest
the crops without observing this feast. And it was to commemorate,
to acknowledge and remember that the law was given to Moses 50
days after the children of Israel went out of Egypt. You remember
the children of Israel were the first ones to observe the Passover
in a very real way. And then they went out with a
high hand and fifty days later, the law was given to Moses. It is so precise of our Lord. It's so ordered that He died during the Passover. You know
that? They went by and they wanted
to break the legs because Passover was taking place. They wanted
them off those crosses before Passover started. And the Lord
was already dead, so they didn't break His legs, because not a
bone in His body shall be broken. So they pierced His side to make
sure. But our Lord died on the cross
during Passover. The whole reason for the Passover
back in Exodus was to show how the Lord would deliver His people. And our substitute, our actual
lamb that was slain, Christ, the one who took our place, he
died at the Passover, just like that lamb represented back in
Exodus. Isn't that something? With Moses, 50 days later, the
law came down. Mount Sinai, the law came down
50 days after the Passover and Exodus. And God right then established
the first. And we understand what that means.
He established His law. But with Christ, our Passover,
when He died on that cross, 50 days later, The Holy Spirit of
Christ came down and he established grace. He established grace. Judgment
has been met. The law has now been satisfied. Mercy has been born. And He put away the first that
He might establish the second. You know that verse of Scripture?
He put away the first that He might establish the second. Fifty
days after my Passover died, the Holy Spirit brought grace
down. So verse 1 says, When the day
of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord
in one place. are the 120 that chapter 1 was
talking about in that upper room, gathered together in one place.
Verse 2 says, 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 that's the Holy Spirit of
God. Go over to John 3. John 3, verse 8, our Lord said,
The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof,
but canst not tell whence it cometh, or whither it goeth,
so is every one that is born of the Spirit. When God sends
His Spirit, it's a mighty wind. And I am so glad for that. It's
a strong and mighty wind. It breaks doors down. It knocks
idols over. It cannot be resisted. Cannot
be resisted. Back in our text in Acts chapter
2, verse 2 says, 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." God is three persons. Three individual persons. And
we believe in and we believe on all three, don't we? All three. Look back at John
20. John chapter 20 verse 26 says,
And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas
with them. Then came Jesus, this is where
it says, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst and said,
peace be unto you. Then said he to Thomas, reach
hither thy finger and behold my hands and reach hither thy
hand and thrust it into my side and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered and said
unto him, my Lord and my God, Jesus saith unto him, Thomas,
because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed. Blessed are they
that have not seen and yet have believed. Not seen and yet have
believed. We believe, don't we? Peter wrote,
whom having not seen, ye love. And we do, don't we? We do. whom having not seen you love,
in whom though now you see him not, yet believing you rejoice
with joy unspeakable and full of glory, we believe. Having
not seen, we believe. Our Lord said, no sign shall
be given. But all three persons of our
Godhead, all three of them have proven themselves to this world
to be true. God the Father spoke out loud. There came a voice from heaven,
an audible voice, and people heard it. He said, this is my
beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. And then God the Son
was made flesh and dwelt among us thirty-three and a half years. And now God the Spirit has made
Himself. God the Holy Ghost is a person. He's a man. And He's made Himself
heard and He's made Himself seen right here at Pentecost. Okay,
verse 3 back in Acts chapter 2 says, And there appeared unto them
cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.
Now I have a margin right here for the word fire. And my margin
says Matthew chapter 3. So let's look at Matthew chapter
3. Matthew 3 verse 1 says, In those days came John the Baptist
preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, Repent ye,
for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Now look at verse 11. I indeed baptize you with water
unto repentance. But he that cometh after me is
mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear, He shall
baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire, whose fan is in
His hand, and He will throughly purge His floor and gather His
wheat into the garner, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable
fire." Fire. That's what this message is. That's what this message is. It's a fire. It really is. Anybody who has
ever experienced it through the Holy Ghost knows it's a fire. The Lord God called Himself a
consuming fire. When people get a hold of the
Lord Jesus Christ for the first time, when they truly fear God
for the first time in their life, what they get a hold of is this,
He's a consuming fire and I'm worthy to be consumed. He appeared to Moses in a bush
that was on fire. He gave Moses the law on top
of a mountain that was on fire. He revealed himself to Isaiah
and Isaiah said, the post of the door moved at the voice of
him that cried and the house was filled with smoke. That house
was on fire. He revealed himself to John on
the Isle of Patmos. That's when Revelation was written.
And John said his eyes were as a flame of fire. Malachi said he is a refiner's
fire. What does that mean? He said
in 1 Corinthians, every man's work is going to be tried by
fire. He said in Luke 12, I'm come
to send fire on the earth. We would be here all night if
I quoted all the scriptures that talk about fire. Fire, fire,
fire. How has he done that? This is
what he said to Jeremiah. Is not my word like as a fire? saith the Lord, and like a hammer
that breaketh the rock in pieces." This Word is a fire, and those
who do not heed it and those who handle it wrongly are going
to be consumed by it. You know that? His Word and His
Spirit is a living fire, but when God reveals the work of
Jesus Christ, when a sinner sees Christ suffer
the fiery wrath of God's holy altar in their place, their land, when
they hear His sweet voice come into their soul and say, it is
finished. Do you know what happens to them?
You know what happens at that point as soon as the Holy Ghost
reveals that? Their heart burns within them. A fire is kindled. I can't wait to, in glory, have that fire
that's never going to be put out. Do you know those moments when
the Spirit, you know the Spirit, is putting the Word in me and
blessing the Word to me. And nothing else matters. Nothing
in this world matters. And I see my Lord. And I can
say in my heart, burning within me, one of these days that fire
will never be put out. Never go away. We just sang,
revive us again. Fill each heart with thy love.
May each soul be rekindled with fire from above. That's what
I pray for. That's what I pray for. We are
weak. I'm so weak. I tell you all the
time, I feel like my mind is so cluttered. Look at that. Could you preach from that? That's
a mess. And I pray, Lord, would you help
me with this? And he can. He can rekindle me. rekindle me. That's the work
of the Holy Ghost. That's what the Holy Ghost does
through the Word of God. He makes it come alive and a
fire is kindled. Do you know what happened right
here at Pentecost? Pentecost has been such a intriguing subject, hasn't it?
Do you know what happened when that mighty wind came through
and those cloven tongues of fire appeared? Here's what happened. The Word of God came to earth. That's what happened right there. These men started speaking and
we have it recorded. Okay, verse 14 starts to tell
us what Peter said. It is recorded what these men
started saying. And God said, write it down. And you tell the people to read
it, and study it, and believe it, because it's the Word of
God. This is an event that was not
much different than this event. People were there. One man was
preaching. Anything that I say, anything
that Gabe Stoniker says is not the Word of God. I can quote
the Word of God, but anything that I say in addition to this
Word is not the Word of God. It's not. These men spoke things
that were not written yet. That's important to know. It
was not written yet. And God said, I'm going to prove
that this is Me talking with signs and wonders. Isn't that
what we read a couple of weeks ago back in Luke? He proved confirming
these things with signs and wonders. Fifty days. After the children
of Israel left Egypt, God sent the law to Moses. And do you
know what that law was? The Word of God. The Word of God. Now see if this
makes sense. Do you know who wrote Genesis? It was not Adam. It was not Abraham. It was Moses. And do you know
who wrote Exodus, and who wrote Leviticus, and who wrote Numbers,
and who wrote Deuteronomy? Moses. Moses. Fifty days after the Passover,
God said, write it down. And you tell the people to read
it, and study it, and believe it. Because this is the Word
of God. Fifty days after our Passover,
Christ on the cross, the Word of God came to earth again. That's
what happened right here at Pentecost. The Word of Fire came. All those
who are opposed to this Word are going to be burned up. All those who are opposed to
the Word are going to be consumed by the Word. Acts chapter 2 verse
3 says, 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 with other tongues,
as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now what did they say? Did they
say, like we've said before, tie my bow tie, untie my bow
tie? No. They were given a particular
gift for a particular reason. Verse 5 says, And there were
dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, and the word devout means
religious, it means godly, it means devoted. Devout men out
of every nation, out of every nation under heaven. Now here's
what happened. These 120 were together in one
room, in one accord, all in the same place. And God sent the
Holy Ghost to them. And He proved that this is of
God with signs and wonders. And word got out. And all the
people in Jerusalem, came to where they were. Now look at
verse 5, And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men,
out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad,
they were all in one place, and when this was noised abroad,
the multitude came together and were confounded, that means troubled
in mind, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed and
marveled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which
speak Galileans? And how here we every man in
our own tongue wherein we were born. I was born in America and the
tongue here is American. I've got some British friends
and they say you don't speak English. Okay, this is where
I was born. Now they're going to give 15
different countries or languages or tribes
right here. Stated 15 different tribes. He
says the Parthians, Medes, Elamites, dwellers in Mesopotamia, in Judea,
Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, in Egypt, in the parts
of Libya about Cyrene, strangers of Rome, and then he says Jews
and proselytes. And Jews are those who were born
Jews, born into Judaism. And proselytes are those who
were converts to Judaism. They started out something else,
from another place, and they were converted into Judaism. So they're from another place. That's why they're from all places
under heaven. That's why they're not all from
Israel. So there were converts there. Verse 11 says, Cretes
and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful
works of God. These men spoke actual languages,
understood tongues, real understood tongues. Now with that being said, I want
to show you something that happens to every single sinner that God
saves. Go with me over to Acts 19. Acts
19 verse 1 says, And it came to pass that while
Apollos was at Corinth, Paul, having passed through the upper
coast, came to Ephesus, and finding certain disciples, he said unto
them, Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed? And they said unto him, We have
not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost. And he said unto them, unto what
then were you baptized? Okay. They were baptized and they said, we don't even
know if there is a Holy ghost. And so Paul said unto what then
were you baptized? And they said unto John's baptism. John's baptism is the baptism
of repentance. And it's, you know, I am sorry
for my sins and I want to go to heaven, so I'll be baptized
because everybody else is being baptized. It's the baptism of
religion. Verse 4 says, Then said Paul,
John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying
unto the people that they should believe on him which should come
after him. That is on Christ Jesus. What he's saying is, John was
telling people, the point of this has nothing to do with you
at all. This is all about confessing
Christ. This is all about saying Christ
did it all. This is not about me trying to
fix anything. It's saying Christ did. It's
all about confessing Him. It's not about John's baptism. It's not about just stopping
at baptism. It's confessing Christ. Now look
at verse 5. When they heard this, they were
baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Verse 6 says, And when Paul had
laid hands on them, the Holy Ghost came on them, and they
spake with tongues and prophesied. They spoke with tongues too.
And there are other places in here that said they spoke with
tongues and prophesied. They spoke words that were not
known to them naturally. They were known languages, they
could be understood, but they were not known to them naturally. This happens to every single
sinner that God sends his Holy Spirit to. Every single sinner. They learn a brand new language. Every single one. Go over to Luke 18 and I'll show
you what it is. All right, now this is the natural
language that all of us men and women are born with. This is
the one we know, okay? Luke 18, look at verse 10. Two men went up into the temple
to pray, the one a Pharisee, the other a publican. The Pharisee
stood and prayed thus within himself, God, I thank Thee That
I am not as other men are. Now, how many times have we heard
this? I am very sad to say that I'm
guilty of that. I'm guilty of that. We look down
on that Pharisee. We praise the public and we look
down on that Pharisee, but I'm guilty of that. I don't want
to be. God has mercy on me from time to time and convicts me
through His Word. But we all say, well, at least
I go to church. You know, if it's a scale of
0 to 100, I've got to be somewhere between 75 and 80. I've got to
be better than at least half of them. That's what we do. He says, they're all extortioners,
they're unjust, they're adulterers. Even as this publican, I fast
twice in a week. Somehow I've got to let it slip. I've got to let it be known,
everything that I do. Got to. I give tithes of all
that I possess. That's the natural language of
man. But when the Holy Spirit comes
to a sinner, this is the new language that that sinner receives. Look at verse 13. And the publican,
standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto
heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me,
a sinner. I am a sinner. I am no good. Nothing in me is good. Nothing
in me is worthy of glory. I am vile. I am vile. I'm wretched. Who shall deliver
me? That is not known to man naturally. Not at all. Not at all. But it's a language that every
child that's born of God, every child born into Christ understands. When one hears another one say
it, they say, oh, I'm in total communication with you. I know exactly what you mean. It's an outward confirmation
of an inward work. That's what it is. Other children
of God start to say, I believe the Holy Ghost has come to that
center. How do you know? He's starting to speak in an
unknown tongue. Woe is me. That has to be of
God. It just has to be of God. Go
over to Acts chapter 10 with me. Acts chapter 10 verse 44 says,
While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them
which heard the word, and they of the circumcision which believed
were astonished as many as came with Peter, because that on the
Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost, for
they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God. That's it right there. That's
what happens when the Holy Ghost comes to a sinner. That sinner
starts to magnify God. He thought he did before. He
didn't. We go to church to magnify God. And I'm very proud of myself
for going. And because I go, I'm going to
be worthy to enter into heaven. That is not magnifying God. A sinner's language goes from,
I did this, I did that to he, he did it all. He paid it all. That's the change
of language. Never knew it before. That's a language they never
knew before. They heard them speak in a way they'd never spoken
before. They heard them magnify God for
the first time. Totally magnify God. All the glory goes to our God.
We'll back over in Acts chapter 1. The apostles were given this
gift for the purpose of receiving the Word of God. Verse 11 says,
Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the
wonderful works of God. That's called grace. Grace. This all happened that grace
might abound. Verse 12 says, 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. Those that had ears to hear were
amazed. They heard it and they were amazed.
But those who didn't have ears to hear, those who were not given
ears to hear, there were 15 different languages represented there. And if I speak English and I
understand English, And over here, there's a man speaking
Japanese to a group of Japanese. And then over here, there's a
man speaking German to some Germans. And then over here, they're speaking
Russian. And I don't understand Japanese,
and I don't understand German, and I don't understand Russian.
It's all a bunch of gibberish. That's all it is. And I would think that's foolishness. That's all foolishness. And that's what this world believes.
Those who have not been given ears to hear by the Holy Ghost.
It's foolishness. But to us who do believe, this
is not foolishness, is it? It's not foolishness. We know
this is the power of God unto salvation. I pray that the Lord would open
our ears. Open our ears. Next week, if the Lord wills,
we're going to continue to look at this and bring out some more
things about this and then keep going. May God receive all the glory
for the great things He did. And He sent us the Word right
here. He sent the Holy Ghost and He sent the Word and I am
so glad. I'm so glad. I pray the Lord
will bless that. Let's stand together.