Okay, Acts chapter 2, and I'd
like to read the first 11 verses of Acts chapter 2 to start with. Acts chapter 2, and 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 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
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. And they were
all amazed and marveled, saying one to another, behold, are not
all these which speak Galileans? And how hear we every man in
our own tongue where when we were born, Parthians, and Medes,
and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and Judea, and
Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, and Egypt, and
in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews,
and proselytes, Cretes, and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our
tongues the wonderful works of God. And we're going to look
at just a small portion of this, this morning. And I'm not much on title, so I'll
use part of what one of the verses says here in verse 2 of chapter
2. It says, suddenly there came
a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind. And that's what
we're going to call this this morning. Rushing mighty wind. And we'll see what that speaks to. There's three things that we're
going to kind of note in verses two to four that says, and suddenly
there came 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 a 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 a spirit
gave them utterance. And I think before we go on as
it says, and they spoke in those other tongues, I think we need
to first look at a couple of things. And I would like to look
at the sound from heaven of a rushing mighty wind, cloven tongues,
and it sat on each of them, and all filled with the Holy Ghost
and spake as the Spirit gave utterance." And we're going to
look at some of those things. In John chapter 3, turn to John chapter 3 if you
would please with me, and the Lord's visiting with Nicodemus
here and speaking some very important things about the new birth. about a man needing to be born
again. And Nicodemus not understanding
in the natural sense, or in only the natural sense, what this
might be talking about. But the Lord says here, start with verse
4 in chapter 3 of John, and it says, Nicodemus said to him,
how can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter into the
second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered,
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water
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. Marvel
not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind
bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof,
but canst tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth. So is every
one that is born of the Spirit. And I think a couple of important
thoughts here that bear on this same, the thought to start here
of the rushing mighty wind that they heard that came in. And
it says, came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind.
And it filled all the house wherein they were, verse two. And the
sound of the mighty rushing wind, and it says it came from heaven.
It wasn't just talking about the windows were left open and
the wind blew in, as it were. This was, it says, a rushing
mighty wind from heaven. And as it says here in John,
the Lord speaking, to Nicodemus how the spirit moves and how
the spirit works, some working, some important things. It says
that it has to be born of the spirit. The birth he's speaking
about, this is not, this is from above. This isn't just something
that we fulfill the religious steps and we end up with this
result from it. This is something that is from
above, as it says in verse 8. The wind bloweth where it listeth,
and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst tell when it cometh,
and whither it goeth. So is every one that is born
of the Spirit. Here they heard this mighty wind. They heard this, they couldn't
see it, that part of it. And as it says here, that it
was a sound from heaven, This is the direction that the spirit
comes to his people on this earth, is heaven down to man. It doesn't work the other way
around. Heaven down to man, the blessings and the spiritual things
that we have are from heaven above to us. He goes on in Nicodemus and he
speaks about these things and talks to him about Moses and
other things, that this has to be, this is done from above. This isn't something that man
can work through his mind on and come up with a solution to
a problem and there you have it. This is what, the wind blows
where it goes where it desires to go. We can't see what's causing
this. And as far as outward goes, the
wind goes. It can go different directions.
It goes different places. The Spirit, the same way. We
don't know. When the Word is read or preached
or taught or pondered on in any manner, we don't know what the
Spirit will do with that. But the Spirit is the one that
takes that and works that. We saw that, and we're going
to read a passage again a little bit about the seed on good ground. If God does not prepare that
ground, there is no good ground. It is all that stone and bad
ground by nature. There is no good ground out there. We see where the Lord says in
a couple of different spots, we have record that he looked
down and see if there was anyone that sought after him. He said
there was nobody. There was no one. So this is
from above, all this working that is spoken of here that in
John he likens it to the wind, and here it's in Acts chapter
2, that's what they perceive, a sound from heaven as a mighty
rushing wind, and it filled the house where they were sitting. It reminded me into the passage
where it says, where two or three are gathered in my name, I am
there in the midst of that, of them, of you. And
that this is a picture, I believe, of that at that time that was
there. And verse three, appeared unto
them of cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each
of them. physical picture of that at that
time. It doesn't say Cloven Tongues has a fire and
they sat on them, it said it sat on them. And I believe that
to an obvious reference to the spirit that was there amongst
them, and one spirit and not many spirits. In Ezekiel, We like to go to Ezekiel and
other parts of the scripture, but turn to chapter 37 just for
a minute. We know what this is speaking
about. In chapter 37, Valley of the Dry
Bones, in chapter 36 before this, the Lord speaks about that he
will make this change about what, and speaking about what the Lord
spoke to Nicodemus, the new birth, is by him. And in that passage
there in 37, the last half of it, there's about 20 times where
it says, I will do these different things. And there's none of them
that says, if you do this, I will do this. This is all of God's
doing. But in chapter 37, I like to
read, starting with verse 9, just down a few verses. And he said to me, this is the
bones, and he asked him if these valley of bones can live, and
he says, thou knowest. And the Lord put them all together
in front of him and put a put them together and cover them
with skin and put these bones back together again. In verse
9 of that chapter it says, And then he said unto me, Prophesy
unto the wind. Prophesy, son of man, and say
to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God, Come from the four winds
Oh, breath and breathe upon these slain that they may live. So
I prophesied as he commanded and the breath came into them
and they lived and stood up their feet exceeding great army. Then he said unto me, son of
man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they
say our bones are dried up. Our hope is lost. We are cut
off for our parts. Therefore, verse 12, therefore
prophesy and say unto them, thus saith the Lord God, behold, my
people, I will open your graves and cause you to come up out
of your graves and bring you into the land of Israel. And
you shall know that I am the Lord when I have opened your
graves up, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves, and
shall put my spirit in you, and you shall live, and I shall place
you in your own land. Then shall you know that I, the
Lord, have spoken it and performed it, said, sayeth the Lord." And
this reveres right back to chapter 36 when he says these things
that he will do and put a new heart in and circumcise the heart. Open the eyes and the ears. And
then it says here that he will do those things and that his
spirit will come upon his people. Put his spirit in you, you shall
live, verse 14, place in your own land. Then you'll know that
I, the Lord, have spoken it and performed it, said the Lord. goes along with what he was saying
in John to Nicodemus about the spirit is life to his people
and that his spirit is that life. And then after that happens,
it says you'll recognize where you were and where you came from.
In 1 Corinthians chapter 2, 1 Corinthians chapter 2, Another section about the Spirit
here in Paul's speaking to the Corinthians
but in chapter 2 verse 11. It says in verse 9, as is written,
I hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the
heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that
love him. But God hath revealed them unto
us by his Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all
things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth
the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him?
Even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the
Spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that
we might know the things that are freely given to us of God."
Here, speaking, natural man cannot know these things, but the Spirit
does reveal these things. And it says, the Spirit searches
and knows all things, the deep things of God, and This man can only know these
spiritual things by the Spirit of God revealing to him. And
it says, we have received not the Spirit of the world, but
the Spirit which is of God. And that's the important thing. There's maybe many spirits out
there, small s, as far as the philosophies and thinkings. that
type of thing, but there's only one true spirit of God, Big S,
that is not just meaning the connotation or the thinking of
things as small s might mean, but this is the spirit of God,
the power of God. unto salvation to his people.
And this was that wind that came upon those people in that day.
This was not this little S. This is the big S, Holy Spirit,
the Holy Ghost that was promised, that would come on this. Another
thing, here, this is not to say that these men were not believers
before that. We know they were. We know that
there were the group of those apostles that were with the Lord,
and he told them that The Spirit had revealed these things to
him, who he was, and the truth, and testified of the truth. Christ was not saying that you'll
be given the Holy Spirit as in salvation that day, but the Comforter
would come and He was going to reveal that He is in the midst.
It's always been the Holy Spirit that's made these things alive
in His people. It's always from day one, as
it were, or before day one. that the spirit was that which
caused life. And those men with him, they
were his. They were part of the church.
They were believers. But the spirit was going to come
on them in a visible way as the Lord himself was still the Lord
himself before he came in the flesh here. But he came in the
flesh to manifest himself, who he was. He was the son from above
that was well-pleased by, the father was well-pleased in him.
He came to carry out those things that were necessary to the redemption
of his people. Here, I believe that in our brother
Hawker, It goes on for some length about this, that they had the
spirit. It wasn't that they weren't believers.
This was an outward sign of the third person of the Trinity that
they were going to see this carried out in a physical manner, some
things that were pointing to and showing what the Spirit does
in His people and opens their eyes and causes them to believe. In 1 Corinthians chapter 2, turn
over just another page or two. Oops, wrong page. Back to Acts. You've got your
thumb in Acts. In chapter 4, it speaks again
about Peter and John and company is here. Acts chapter 4, starting
with verse 31. It says, they had been arrested
for doing some things and healing
a lame man, an impotent man, and they'd been thrown in jail,
and then they were gonna get turned loose. In verse 31, it
says, and when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they
are assembled together, and they were all filled with the Holy
Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness. And the
multitude of them that believe were of one heart and of one
soul, neither said any of them that ought of the things which
he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common.
And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all." And
here, again, speaking of here in verse 31, well, 32 and 33,
that they were filled with the Holy Ghost, it said, and they
had the same spirit about them, the same spirit of God that was in them,
not just the same mind about doing something, but the spirit
was on them, as it says here, and this takes place not only in salvation when we
recognize that something has been changed in us, but the Spirit
is with us when we read the Scriptures. He may not, you know, flash a
lightning from us, but whenever the Scriptures are preached or
taught or read, His people The Spirit is what opens up anything
and we had a phrase that was used in message here just this
last week. God's people have circumcised
ears. just like a circumcision of the
heart, or the eyes are opened, the preaching of the word, the
spirit causes our ears to be attuned to those things. And
it's by his doing that the true truth of God, witness of God
comes forth to his people. There are many that are smooth
talkers, but Paul said to a couple of different groups, he said,
let me come to you with smooth words, I came to you with what
the truth of the scripture had to say and what the spirit reveals
to him. One quote from Brother Hawker
and he says, it matters not what the minister saith if we hear
not what the spirit saith to the churches. Doesn't matter. and how many of us have sat and
heard maybe good sovereign grace preaching messages before our
ears were ever attuned to them. It wasn't the failure of the
message or the method or those things, it was dull ears, deadness
that was there. The Lord himself is all that
can do that, but I like this. It matters not what the minister
saith if we hear not what the Spirit saith to the churches. From there, with your fingers
still in the axe, turn to Revelation chapter 2. And you probably know
what we're, what we're headed to here, but there's some, there's, and this,
the phrase is here many times in the next couple of chapters
in Revelation, but in Revelation chapter two, verse 11, and it
talks of it to the different churches that he's speaking to
here and that the Lord is speaking to. Verse 11, it says, he that
hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith under the churches.
He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.
And then in verse 17, and not just read the rest of that, but
the thought that's at the conclusion of these paragraphs, it says
in verse 17, he that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit
sayeth under the churches. To him that overcometh will I
give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone,
and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth, saving
he that receiveth it. And then in verse 29, it also
says, He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith
unto the churches. And that is key to every time
the word is open. That it says, he that hath an
ear. And remember Isaiah said, who hath received our report?
Those that the Lord had opened the ears to. That's the only
ones that can receive the report. And the ones that hath an ear,
and it doesn't mean that your hearing aid is turned on. It
means that that circumcised ears, and I like that phrase, it just
kind of struck me a little bit, but I liked it a lot, what that
had to say. And the Holy Spirit seemed to chose
to make his presence known and the manner to show his sovereign
power and method as Almighty God. In this picture we have
of the sound of the wind from heaven above, the tongues of
fire on them, and we know that goes on in the languages he gives
them, but this was how this part of the Trinity, and we kind of
compartmentalize the three parts, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
but they are one. And we can't juggle those pieces quite right.
We see them as individual offices or parts of it, and yet they're
one. But in this particular, the Holy
Spirit chose this method and this time to make himself seen
in a physical way. and a picture of the spiritual
work that will be done. And we see later on towards the
end of this chapter that he does indeed do that. And there are
those that witnessed, that they heard the wonderful works of
God. And we're gonna look at that
a little bit. And it might be a lesson or two till we get down
to that, into that. But look at two, If you would with
me please, let's look to the gospel according to Zechariah,
just for a second. And in Zechariah chapter 8, and
we've been in this neighborhood here for a while and have been
here lately. In verse 12, I like this verse
a lot. I like this verse a lot. It says,
Zechariah 8, 12, for the seed shall be prosperous, the vine
shall give her fruit, and the ground shall give her increase,
and the heaven shall give their due, and they will cause the
remnant of his people to possess all these things. wonderful verse
of God's promise to his people that not only that, but like
with Ezekiel there, chapter 37, 36 and 37 of who's doing this. This is not something that we've,
we've repped step 10. And so we can, we get the next
notch is God's blessing to us. All the things that we have now
and hope to ever have, we have all the, in Christ, in, Spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in him through him. He's the
one that there's there's no There's no us meeting the criteria We
know where we stand on that the bar set a little bit too high
for us by nature. We are we are dead And there's
nothing that we could do to cause the the seed to prosper the vine
to have its fruit and The dew comes from heaven again down
and causes the increase, and it says, I will cause the people
to do this. This is God's doing. These things are what the Spirit
does in his people. It's again the working of the
Spirit in the church, and he has done from the beginning. Until the Lord comes, the Spirit
is Him that does the working in His people. In chapter 4 of
Zechariah, just back just a little bit, I especially liked a couple of
messages we heard on this verse, verse 6, and also you can plug
this in a lot of places and it explains a lot of things. It says, then he answered and
spake unto me, saying, this is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel,
saying, not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith
the Lord of hosts. That covers 100% of what we are recognized and will ever
get is by his spirit. These things are revealed and
made to us. That's how the ears are circumcised,
the heart is circumcised. That just means an awful lot
that we can fall back on what the scripture says and that it's
not of our doing or our abilities. Back to the, let me go back to
the book of Acts again. For both the spirit of prophecy
that we know the prophets have given, as well as the power and
the meaning of that is Jesus Christ, the true lamb. and those
things that he has done and is for his people. The power is
the Holy Spirit causing the remnant to hear and to believe those
things. Cloven tongues, it says verse
three here in Acts chapter two, like as a fire and it sat upon
each of them. And I don't think the words were,
I think, The Lord caused those words to be there that we have
record of, and it says, like a fire, and it sat upon each
of them. I think it was, that shows that
there is one spirit of God that is the witness to all the church,
ever was and ever will be. It sat on all of them, not various
spirits or various ones. It's a physical sign again, that
instead of the spirit among them, The working of the Spirit in
us to life is shown and declared. And then the third point or third part
in verse four it says, and they were all filled with the Holy
Ghost. They began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave
them utterance. The speaking that they had, We
know we're going to look at that in later times, but the different
languages and it said, we each heard it in our native tongue. We understood what was being
said in that native tongue. And what was being said here,
the Spirit gave them utterance. They weren't just given them
the party line. They were given them the message
that the Spirit gave them. And we know and we're gonna see
that the utterance that is given to them, the wonderful works
of God that says in verse 11 of this chapter, that's what
they were hearing was the wonderful works of God. And it's saying
that there were not other things, but this utterance that is given
and prophecy and preaching It is the witness of our Lord and
Savior, Jesus Christ. That's what the Spirit does not
bear witness of himself and hold himself up as the pinnacle. He is the one that causes that
life. Without that, we have no life.
But the Spirit witnesses through the scriptures, he witnesses
of the Lord himself. And that is That is always the
case. There's never anything else that
is witness of except the mercy and grace that our God has to
us and what our Savior has done and means to us. In 1 Corinthians one more time,
actually 1 Corinthians a couple more times. 1 Corinthians chapter three. It first comes in chapter 3,
starting with verse 6, and it says, I have planted, Apollos
watered, but God gave the increase. So then, neither is he that planteth
anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase.
Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one, and every man
shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. For
we are laborers together with God. Ye are God's husbandry,
ye are God's building. According to the grace of God
which is given unto me as a wise master builder, I have laid the
foundation and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take
heed, how he buildeth thereon. For other foundation can no man
lay, than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." And that is
what the point of the gospel, the point of the prophecy is.
And the verses said that Jesus Christ is the spirit of prophecy,
is about him. That's what those, the gospel
according to Jeremiah or Amos or Hosea. Hosea speaking about
bringing in a people that weren't looking for him. The many pictures
we have of, that we have of speaking of the
Lord himself to his people. In chapter 12 of 1 Corinthians, These are not the only places,
obviously, that speak to this, but these are ones that came
to me as I'm looking through some of this. Chapter 12, 1 Corinthians,
starting with verse 7. Here speaks about the working
of the Spirit. It says, but the manifestation
of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal, for one
is given by For one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom,
to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit, to another
faith by the same Spirit, to another the gifts of healing
by the same Spirit. to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy,
to another discerning of spirits, to another diverse kinds of tongues,
to another the interpretation of tongues. But all these worketh
that one and selfsame spirit, dividing to every man severally
as he will. For as the body is one and hath
many members, and all the members of that one body being many are
one body, so is Christ. For by one Spirit we are all
baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether
we be bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one
Spirit." There are not many spirits in that regard. One Spirit, capital
S. He speaks about other spirits,
small s in here, and that's meaning, referring to the the direction
somebody's speaking about, not spiritual things, but what spirit of politics you have,
or that type of thing. It's a different, it's not the
big S. It's not the capital S, God the
Spirit. But here, I think speaking about
all the different things that God gives to his people is through
the Spirit. It's all the same Spirit. If
someone comes, and it does relate back here to the preaching of
the gospel by the Spirit there in Acts, that they all spoke
the same thing. One time somebody was a little
confused to start with when there was a man we know that said,
I have one message. Well, there is one message. One
spirit of God and one message of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ. There are many ways to get there, but it's all the same
spirit, the same message. If someone comes and said, by
the spirit I was directed over here, I think that's probably
a small S, not the big S. There are those that blame or
attribute to the spirit things that he has nothing to do with
in that regard. I think many have abused the
book of Acts here in the picture of this, of what was taking place
there, and turned it into something that we desire to have that gift. That's not what the point of
it was here. And then lastly, in 1 Corinthians
chapter 15. Chapter 15. 1 Corinthians 15, I'd like to start
with verse 1 and reading down just a bit here. It says, Moreover,
brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto
you, which ye also received, and wherein ye stand. by which
you are saved, if you keep in memory what I preached unto you,
unless you have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you, first
of all, that which I also received, how that Christ died for our
sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried in, that
he rose again the third day according to the scriptures, and that he
was seen of Cephas, and then of the twelve, and after that
was seen above five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater
part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. After
that he was seen of James, then of all the apostles, and last
I was seen of me also as one born out of due time. For I am
the least of the apostles, and not meet to be called an apostle,
because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God
I am what I am, and His grace which was bestowed upon me was
not in vain, but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet
not I, but the grace of God which is in me. whether it were I or
they, so we preach and so you believe. Now if Christ be preached
that he rose from the dead, how some of you say that there is
no resurrection from the dead. And it goes on that ones that
did not believe in that. But up here, the grace of God,
Paul said, I preach Christ in it. And that's the witness that
is preached, that is what the witness is. In 1 John, and we'll
close with this, turn to 1 John chapter 5, and we're not by any means done
with this passage, chapter 2 of Acts, but this last thought with
this first part of it, 1 John chapter 5, starting with verse
5, It says, who is he that overcometh
the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?
This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ,
not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit
that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. For there
are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word,
and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one. And there are
three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and
the blood, and these three agree in one. If we receive the witness
of men, the witness of God is greater. For this is the witness
of God, which he hath testified of his Son. He that believeth
on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth
not God hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the
record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record that God
hath given us to eternal life, and this life is in his Son. And he that hath the Son hath
life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. And
that's the sum and total of the gospel. And this again puts it
all on the Spirit of God revealing these things to his people. It's
not come by hard work or study, those type of things. that he
causes this witness. And that, the wonderful works
of God that those people were hearing in their own tongues
there in Acts, we'll see later, these were what they were hearing.
This is what they were hearing, the gospel according to all the
scripture we have by that spirit. And with that, we're Time to
close for now, and thank you for joining us on this. And as
Mike Baker says from time to time, as it says in John, be
free. Thank you.