You know, we talked last week
about the Holy Spirit's work before Pentecost, because our
Lord, He said that last day at the great day of the feast, He
stood, if any man is thirsty, let him come unto me, and out
of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. And this He
spake of the Holy Ghost, which had not yet been given. And yet
we had seen that the Holy Spirit had been in this world, was in
creation. He worked in creation. And that
he works to sustain the universe, to keep order in this creation,
to keep order in the universe. And that he also works among
men in general, in a general sense, in that he uses religion,
he uses morality, he uses governments, he uses the fear of judgment
and punishment, all of these things to restrain men from their
sin, to restrain them from their sin. And you know, in the Old
Testament, the Holy Ghost would come upon certain people for
certain offices and for certain things. You know, like Samson. He got all of his strength. You
know where he got his strength? The Scripture said in Judges
13 and 25 that the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, capitalized. The Spirit of God came upon him.
That's where he got his strength. And then there's another one
I want to show you. I want to show you this. Overlook
with me. Exodus, I think it's 31 maybe. I think it's 31. Yes, yes, Exodus 31. I want to
show you something. Here's how God gives people,
and it's so plain for us to see, how that the Lord and the person
of the Holy Spirit, the wisdom and knowledge and ability and
gifts that He gives to people in this world for the service
of God. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, See, I have called
by name Basileo, the son of Uriah, the son of Herb, the tribe of
Gentimen, bent Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of
God, in wisdom, in understanding, and in knowledge, in all manner
of workmanship, to devise cunning works, to work in gold, and in
silver, and in brass, and in stone, in cutting of stones,
Carving of timber to work in all manner of workmanship. And
you see that God, all this ability that he had to do all these things,
God gave him that ability. And so when you see somebody
with great gifts and great abilities, the Holy Spirit's the one that
does that in God's people then. In God's people. And that's what
he says there. And then look over with me in Numbers chapter
11, and then I'm going to get on to our message here. Let me
show you another thing about the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament.
and has worked in the Old Testament, talking about the Holy Spirit
before Pentecost. But in Numbers 11, 24. And this is one of the most glorious
things that Moses said. In verse 24, And Moses went out
and told the people the words of the Lord, and gathered the
seventy men of the elders of the people, and set them round
about the tabernacle. And the Lord came down in a cloud,
and spake unto him, and took of the spirit that was upon him,
and gave it unto the seventy elders." The same spirit that
God gave Moses, the wisdom, the power to lead, to guide, and
to judge. He took some of Moses' spirit
and spread it among the seventy, and it came to pass that when
the spirit rested upon them, now watch this, they prophesied.
That word prophesied means they preached. They weren't telling
us something that's going to happen in the future. They were
preaching. And did not cease. But now watch this. But there
remained two of the men in the camp. The name of the one was
Eldad. The name of the other, Medad. And the Spirit rested
upon them. And they were of them that were
written. But went not out unto the tabernacle.
And they prophesied in the camp. They was out in the camp. Didn't
go into the tabernacle. They stayed out there and they
were preaching. Now watch what happens. The Spirit of God came
on them. And that's how come they were
preaching. Now then, come on everybody, come on down. And
there ran a young man who told Moses, said, El dad, me dee dad
do prophesy in the camp. And Joshua, the son of Nun, the
servant of Moses, one of his young men answered, said, My
Lord Moses, forbid them. Watch what Moses said. Moses
said unto him, Endest thou for my sake, would God that all the
Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his
Spirit upon them. Upon them. So we see how He worked
in the Old Testament. But the Holy Spirit has always
been at work in this world. But let's look here back in Acts
2 at Pentecost. At Pentecost, something happened
that never happened before. Something new took place. Something
that's happening that had been promised, had been prophesied. Our Lord had told His disciples
it was going to happen. And the Holy Spirit, now He comes.
as a rushing mighty wind, and it don't just come upon just
this man to be used for that service, that man over there,
but he comes upon all flesh. Before it was a Jewish nation,
just certain people, just certain offices. Now it's going to come
upon all the Lord's people, on men and women alike, Jew and
Gentile alike, old and young alike, and we'll see that. But
he came as a rushing mighty wind, and 3,000 souls were converted
this day. But here in Acts chapter 2, talking about Pentecost. Pentecost. The Holy Spirit in
Pentecost. And I'll tell you, there's probably
several messages here. And it says here, our Lord told
these disciples to tarry in Jerusalem. He said, now you tarry in Jerusalem.
You stay in Jerusalem. You know, our Lord told him that.
He says, you stay in Jerusalem. And ain't that what it says over
here in verse 8, over in chapter 1? He says, but you receive power
that after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you. And remember,
our Lord Jesus told him, he says, you go into Jerusalem and you
stay there until you be endued with power from on high. This
is after he's resurrected from the dead. And he said there'd
be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, starting in Jerusalem, and then
go into Judea, and then go into Samaria, and then go into the
uttermost parts of the earth. But it's got a place to start,
and this is the starting place. And the power to be witnesses
unto me, and I want you to understand this. When the Holy Ghost come
upon them, that's when they had the power to witness. They didn't
have the power to witness before, in this sense, let me tell you.
When our Lord Jesus Christ, when He needed someone to witness
for Him, at the judgment seat of Pilate, at His judgment seat,
when those men brought Christ in to be judged, nobody stood
with Him. Peter denied him. They all fled. They all forsook him. They did
not have the ability to stand up and say, yes. In fact, they
asked Peter, you're one of them, ain't you? You know this man.
You follow him. Oh, no, no, no. He had the opportunity
to stand up and say, yes, I know him. Yes, he's my Lord. Yes, he's my Savior. Yes, he's
my Redeemer. Yes, he's the Son of God. But
he didn't do that. Huh? John fled from him. They
denied it. And then after he was resurrected,
Mary come and said, we've been to the tomb, and the angels told
us that Christ is risen. They went back and said, oh,
no, no, no, no, that can't be possible. And they had to run
to see. So they didn't have power to
witness of him before the Holy Ghost came upon him, when the
going got rough. And Pentecost here was one of
three great annual feasts, and this is a feast here. The first
was the Passover, when the Passover lamb was slain. And Christ our
Passover was sacrificed for us. And the second was the week of
unleavened bread, when only unleavened bread was all you could eat.
No leaven could be found in your house because it typified sin,
typified leaven. And then there's the Feast of
Tabernacles. The Israel men had to go up three times a year,
and there was a feast of tabernacles. And what that meant was because
as they were strangers and dwelt in tents, they had to set up
little booths made out of wood and branches over them and dwell
in those for a week. And then Pentecost is 50 days. 50 days after the Passover. And that's what Pentecost means,
50 days. And 50 days, this Pentecost means
the feast of weeks. That's when they bring in not
only the firstfruits, but the harvest itself is being brought
in. And that's what it is. It's a great feast because the
harvest is coming in, and the firstfruits are the harvest.
And I'll tell you, there was a great harvest on this day.
Three thousand souls brought into the kingdom of God. And
the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. And I know this
without a shadow of a doubt. The coming of the Holy Spirit
on Pentecost, on the day of Pentecost, was a once-and-for-all act. This happened one time in
all of history. There's not going to be another
Pentecost, not going to be another outpouring of the Spirit like
this was. Never to be done again. It was like the incarnation of
Christ. He can only come into this world
once. That's why men who reject Him and His sacrifice, and they
willfully sin after they said this is the only sacrifice, Christ
would have to be... If a man could be lost and fall
away, Christ would have to come, have to be sacrificed again in
order to put his sin away. And that's only one coming, only
one sacrifice, and so you see, beloved, Pentecost was one time. One time. Christ was born once. Christ died once. Christ was
resurrected once. Christ sits at the right hand
of God now. He's coming again. But I'm telling
you, Pentecost. One Pentecost. No more Pentecost. I don't care how many preachers
get up and say, you know, we need another Pentecost. We need this great power. It's not coming. It's not coming.
It ain't going to happen. This is a one-time thing to show
that the Lord Jesus Christ was who He said He was, and this
was given evidence that these men were called of God and used
of God. And look what happens here, talking
about the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. And when the
Day of Pentecost was fully come, and you notice this, everything
happens when time is fully come. It ain't going to happen until
time is fully come. Ain't that right? Our Lord Jesus
says, My time is not yet come. You know, when the fullness of
time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made
under the law. Paul says, The time of my departure
is at hand. So there's a time and a season
for everything under the heaven. And this was the time when the
day of Pentecost was fully come. And everything has a full time.
There's a time when time will cease to be. You know that? Time is a mysterious thing. God
don't measure time. God does not dwell in time. We
dwell in time, and God gave time for us to let us know that our
life is nothing but a hand's breath. That our life is nothing
but a vapor. That our life is nothing but
a shatter. Our life is nothing but as a
tale that's been told. And I tell you, beloved, just
a few days ago, I was 25 years old. Just a few days ago, I was
30 years old. Just a few days ago, yeah, I
was 40 years old. And just a few days from now,
I'll be 70. That's how short it is. Snap
your fingers. And that's what he said. Everything is going to fully
come. Fully come. And God has the time. Look over
here in verse 7 of chapter 1. Talking about the time. The time
the Holy Ghost came. Look in chapter 1 verse 7. The
Jews, the disciples, ask him there in verse 6, When they therefore
were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou
at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said,
It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the
Father hath in his power. All the times and all the seasons
are in his power. And that satisfies me. Tomorrow,
times and seasons in his hand. I like it like that, don't you?
I find great comfort in that. And then look at the circumstances
of his coming. It says there in verse 1 again,
chapter 2, they were all with one accord in one place. Ah, everybody was on the, we'd
say in the days back, are you on the same page? Are we on the
same page? And these fellas was all on the same page. They were
all in the same accord. They had the same purpose. They
had the same will. They had the same desire. They
had the same expectation. They had the same hope. They
were all there in one accord, and not only that, but that's
in one place. And oh, to be in one place, to
be in one place in Christ, to be in one accord, what would
God do? How would God bless a congregation
that they could constantly, and by His grace, be in one accord
for just an hour without minds going here and yonder? For everybody's
minds to all be at one time, at one place, together in one
accord. What would happen, you reckon?
Oh, it'd be a miracle too. With our minds the way they are.
Floyd, you shouldn't have said that. You know what you're saying
about these people? No, but that's the truth. It's going to be the
hardest thing in the world for us to get in one accord. Get
in one accord. But only one thing can happen.
If the Holy Ghost comes on strong enough, it can help. But oh,
let me tell you something here. It says they were with one accord
in one place. When the Holy Ghost came, it
brought unity at Pentecost. It brought great, great unity.
It brought unity between nations, between people, between tongues.
It brought great unity. And another time, and I mean
there's everybody in unity, here's this great accord, here's all
this Holy Ghost coming upon all these people. And yet on the
day of You know, so Lenin got together and they're going to
build a town of Babel. And they started building that town, and
everybody then spoke in one language. These fellows here are going
to speak in tongues. There they spoke in one language. Here they
speak in tongues. Well, what God done is He come
and said, I'm going to, since these men have taken upon themselves
to approach me, I'm going to come down, and I'm going to,
my spirit's going to come down and bring confusion on them,
and make them all speak different languages where they can't understand
one another. And here, they all speak different languages, but
they all understood one another. Brought great unity. There was
confusion. Everybody understood one another
before that, and nobody understood another after that. And our beloved
at Babel, at Pentecost, it was grace that brought the unity.
At Babel, it was judgment. And you know in glory, in glory,
there'll be out of every kindred, tribe, and tongue, and tongue. And then look what else happened.
And this says in verse 2, and suddenly, suddenly a sound. There came a sound from heaven. A sound and it came from heaven.
Oh, my. Suddenly. Just suddenly. Always there suddenly. It didn't
come through a process of them growing or learning or seeking. It didn't come through a process
of growth. It never evolved from their inner
consciousness. They didn't have a spirit in
them, and they just need to know how to bring it out. No, no. No, no. It was the Holy Spirit
came suddenly, and His sound came from heaven. A great sound
came from heaven. And I tell you, beloved, it was
a fulfillment of a promise. Look over here in chapter 1,
verse 4. This is the fulfillment of a promise. And you go through
the New Testament, you find so many places where they received
the Spirit by the promise. And verse 4 says this, And being
assembled together with them, commanded them that they should
not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for this, but wait for the
promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. Now remember when our Lord Jesus
says, I will ascend to the Father, and I'll pray to the Father,
and He'll send you another Spirit. And He'll send you the Holy Ghost.
He'll send the Spirit. He'll comfort you. And watch
this. And He says, For John truly baptized with water, but you
shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days from now. Not many days. And so this is
the fulfillment of the promise. This sound that came from heaven. And then look what it done. And
it came, this sound came as a rushing mighty wind. Rushing mighty wind. Now what in the world is this
talking about? Well, this is the Holy Spirit, because we know
that the wind speaks of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes
here as an invincible, irresistible power. He's uncontrollable. It came as a whirlwind. It came with such power. It came
with such force that it couldn't be resisted. And you know, the
Holy Spirit's called the wind. You know, our Lord said, except
a man be born of water and the Spirit, And he says, and the
Holy Spirit is as the wind blows where it will. And here, he says,
you'll hear the sound, you'll see the fruit, you'll see the
effect. And they not only heard the sound, but they saw the effects
of it when it came. And, oh, beloved, it's like,
you know, I think it, he read it, Sunday night, Ezekiel 37. Greg mentioned it, and I've mentioned
it. You know, when Ezekiel was preaching to those dry bones,
Can these bones live? Lord, thou knowest." He said,
you know, and they all come together, and flesh come upon them. And
there they stood there. They were just men. They had
flesh on their bones. They're standing there. They
had eyes in their head, ears on the side of their head, hands, feet, mouth,
lips, everything. But there's all just standing
there. Until He says, "...Prophesize
on a man for the four winds and time, and breathe on him in it."
They became a living army. And that's what happens here.
When the Holy Spirit comes, He takes dead, dry bones and puts
life in them. And oh, beloved, that's why God
says, you know, He breathed into man's nostrils the breath of
life. And so He came as a rushing mighty wind. And you know, this
is another reason why I know. that the Pentecost is a one-time
experience. Have you ever heard of anything
like this ever happening since? I know people get up and say,
we're going to perform miracles. I can tell that the Spirit's
here and all that. Come up here and get in the prayer
line. No. No. And then it says here,
not only was they, suddenly came a sound from heaven as a rushing
mighty wind, and He said, and there appeared unto them cloven
tongues like as a fire, and it set. It set out on them. Language is so strange in the
Scripture. And it set on them. You know, He said, Boy, set my
soul on fire. He set me on fire. And this is
what happens here when the Holy Ghost come on these people. It
set them on fire. It set their tongue on fire.
It put power in their tongue. It put life in their tongue. And this tongue, like this fire,
cloven means to part asunder. It means it made their tongues
open up. Their tongues appeared as flames
of fire, just full of fire for the glory of God, full of Christ
and His preaching. But look, let me show you an
Isaiah 5, just a moment. You know, that's what the Lord
said, you know, when you'll be baptized with the Holy Ghost
and with fire? Fire? What does He mean, fire? So fire has to have a spiritual
meaning. It's not literal fire. We know
that. Yeah, and here in Isaiah 5 and verse 24, look what it
says. Therefore, as the fire devours
the stubble, and the flame consumes the chaff." Now, look over there
at what it says, if you've got a margin in your Bible. I've
got a three by the word fire in mine. And it says, Therefore,
as the fire, the tongue of fire, devours the stubble, and the
flame consumes the chaff. Now, what tongue is he talking
about? He's talking about a tongue of fire. a preacher that's going to come,
a power that's going to come that will consume the stubble
and flame in the chaff. And so that's what happens here.
And he said he'd baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with
fire. And you know over in James chapter 3 and verse 6, he says
the tomb is a little membrane that sets on course the fires
of hell itself. It's a little membrane, but it
sets it on fire. And what that means is, and the
Holy Ghost here appears as fire, as he gives graces and gifts
to God's elect, and several things about fire. The first thing about
fire is it brings purity. Fire purifies silver, fire purifies
gold. God said, I'll begat you in the
furnace of affliction. The three who were killed were
cast into the fire for judgment, but God saved them in that. And
fire brings light. Fire brings light. You get a
light going, when electricity goes off, what do you do? You
light a candle, you light a kerosene lantern, and that fire gives
off light. Not only that, but it gives off
warmth. You're warmed by the fire. And fire also speaks of
judgment. The fire, the wrath of God came
as a fire and consumed. And it's also judgment, and that's
what the Holy Ghost does. He comes and He convinces us
of the judgment that we'll face, and He brings the righteousness
of Christ and brings us out from under that judgment. And Paul
said in Hebrews 12, 29, that our God, our God is a consuming
fire. Consuming fire. So let us therefore
have grace, grace to serve our God acceptably. You know, when
Moses was standing on the mountain, you know how God appeared to
him, how Christ appeared to him? Out of a burning bush. He said,
there's a bush on fire, and it's not consumed! And you know, God sets on us
with fire, and we're not consumed. We're not consumed. And then
the Holy Spirit, I'm telling you, He's irresistible. When
He comes, And oh, and look what it says in verse four. And they
were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with
other tongues as the Spirit gave utterance. And here it says they
were all filled with the Holy Ghost. It never happened before. Come on, Samson. Come on, the
prophets. Come on, Eldad and Medad. Come
on, Moses. Come on, Joshua. But here it says all of them,
all of them, were filled with the Holy Ghost, not just the
apostles. Men and women, not just the prophets, but also the
people. Ain't that what Peter says down here in verse 16? He
said, but this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel,
Joel 2.28. You can look at it yourself.
And this shall come to pass in the last days. This lets us know
when Christ was here, the last days started when Christ was
here. Saith God, I'll pour out my Spirit upon all flesh. All
flesh. Why do you think the Spirit,
when the Holy Spirit comes to us and He's poured out on us,
that's the one who brings us to Christ. He's the one who reveals
Christ. He's the one who makes the Scriptures real to us. And
your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. That they're
going to be witnesses of me. They'll be able to talk about
me. They'll be able to understand. And your young men will see visions.
They'll have visions of the lost. They'll have visions of God's
judgment. They'll have visions of the righteousness of Christ.
And a vision don't mean that they're going to have some vision
into the future. You know, except, well, there's one message people
perish. Well, it's not a vision. A vision
of what? A vision of the righteousness and the glory of God in the gospel. Men perish, and we have a vision
of what God is and who He is. Isaiah said, I saw the Lord. John turned around and saw Christ
in all of His glory, and he fell down as a dead man. And oh, that's
what he's talking about here. And my, all my servants, all
my handmaids, I'll pour out my Spirit in those days, and they
shall prophesy. So you see it come upon all of
them. All of them. And it says here, the house,
the house, fill the house where they were sitting. Fill the house.
You know, when it talks about filling the house, the Holy Spirit
just like rushing mighty wind came and filled the house. You
remember how the Shekinah glory would fill the tabernacle and
they couldn't even go in there because of the glory of God.
They couldn't go into the tabernacle and stand outside. And Moses
would go into the cloud, into the Shekinah glory of God, and
come back out in His face and be shining. He said, that's what's
happening here. The glory of God's coming down
in the person of the Lord, and He's filling that whole house.
I mean, He just filled that house full of His presence. And then He says here, And they
were all filled with the Holy Ghost. Now, to be filled with
the Spirit, And that's what it means here is this, to be filled
with the Holy Spirit is to receive as much as the Holy Spirit as
someone can contain. When you're filled with something,
you feel you can't contain anymore. You can't contain anymore. Now,
that don't happen very often, does it? But all we can do is
say, boy, I can't. And that's what he's talking
about here. Look over in Acts chapter four, let me show you
what I mean. There's many, many fillings, and we'll show you
that here in a minute. Acts chapter 4 and verse 8. Now here they
were filled with the Holy Ghost. And look over here again in verse
8. Peter preaching there, threatened before the council, and then
Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them. So he's filled
there again. He was filled over here in Acts
2, and there he is filled here again. Look down at verse 31
of Acts chapter 4. And when they had prayed, the
place was shaken where they were assembled together, and they
were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and spake the word of
God with boldness." So there's many fillings. You know, the Lord told Elizabeth
that John the Baptist would be filled with the Holy Ghost from
his mother's womb. Filled with it from his mother's
womb. Filled with it from his mother's womb. And there's two
things happening here when the Holy Ghost comes and they're
filled with the Holy Ghost. There's the baptism of the Holy Ghost,
and then there's the filling of the Holy Ghost. Now, the baptism
and the filling's two different things. There's only one baptism,
lots of fillings. Look back over there, and I think
it is in verse 5 of Acts chapter 1, verse 5. For John truly baptized with
water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost, not many
days hence." Now, what does it mean to be baptized and what
does it mean to be filled? See, the baptism is once and
for all. No more baptism after the first.
When God baptizes a believer with the Holy Ghost, there's
no more baptism. But now there'll be many fillings. Many fillings. You know, we go
through, we have many feelings, and I'll tell you, sometimes
the Holy Spirit fills us in different ways and in different measures.
Sometimes He makes, He just fills us and makes us feel like we're
just going to, oh, we're just so full, we're so happy. Our
cup runs over. You leave a service and you just
feel like, oh, my! You have some real good fellowship
with people and you just feel so up. And then there's other
times you'll just be sitting around by yourself, And the Spirit
will come and He'll fill you with a quietness and a stillness
and enjoyment of God's presence and His power and His enjoyment
of what's going on in this world and where you sit and where you
live. And you enjoy His creation and you enjoy your life. You
give thanks for what you've got. And He just fills you with this
wonderful peace and enjoyment of what's going on around you.
So there's different ways that He fills us. But there's only
one baptism, and that's at conversion. Let me show you that in 1 Corinthians
12. Chapter 12 and verse 13. 1 Corinthians 12 and verse 13. Let me show you that. Only one baptism of the Spirit,
and that's at conversion, when God saves us by His grace in
regeneration. He said here in verse 13 of 1
Corinthians 12, For by one Spirit, Are we all baptized, immersed,
or put into one body, the body of Christ, into the church of
God? Whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and
have been all made to drink into one spirit. All of us got into
the body of Christ. God puts us in the body of Christ. And Titus says, you know, by
the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which
He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ. And so that happens
just once, but conversion, I mean, feeling, just happens over and
over. It can happen many, many times. But let me tell you some things
here about this, about these people, these Pentecostals and
people who believe in Pentecostalism, charismatics and tongue speaking
and gifts of the Spirit and all that kind of stuff. I have no
qualms in saying almost every bit of that. There are people
that are deceived in it, and God will bring them out of it
if they are His people. But almost all of it is flesh
and demons. I mean exclusively flesh. You've
got some of these people, it's unbelievable the things they
believe and the things they do. But they'll tell you that you
have to go back and get baptized in the Holy Ghost, the second
blessing. But believers are never commanded to be baptized in the
Holy Spirit. Never. It just happens. The Spirit
takes you and puts you in the body of Christ. When He regenerates
you, He baptizes you, immerses you, and puts you in the body
of Christ, and you're a member of His body. And the Bible never
tells us how to be filled. People say, they've got books
on this, and they've got seminars on this, and preachers are teaching
on this, how to be filled with the Holy Spirit. The Scriptures
never tells us how we're to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
It just tells us we will be. So know now. And oh, beloved,
I know it don't tell us how to be filled, but we know we need
to be filled. And secondly, we want to be filled.
We'd love to be filled. And we'd love to be filled so
we'd be able to witness and never be ashamed or never be embarrassed
or never have fear of man. And we would love to be filled
to live to His glory. And let me tell you something
else, the Bible does not lay down any conditions or experiences
for feeling. Now people say, you know, this
is what you'll feel, this is what you'll do, this is what
you'll experience. When the Holy Ghost comes and
you'll have this experience, and that experience, and this
other experience, and you'll feel this, and you'll feel that,
and you'll do all this, you'll speak in tongues, and you'll,
oh my, you'll run out and all that. No, no, the Bible doesn't.
These fellas, they're sitting there, boom, here he is. And that's what happens to us. And they were baptized and filled
to witness of Christ. You will be my witnesses after
that the Holy Ghost has come upon you. And those filled with
Spirit, I'll tell you how you can tell if a person is filled
with the Spirit of God. They always speak of Him. Talk
about Christ. And then it says here back in
our text, I've got to hurry. And they were all filled with
the Holy Ghost in verse 4, and they began to speak with other
tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now, what's this other
tongues? It don't say an unknown tongue.
It says other tongues. As the Spirit gave them utterance.
They didn't just get up and start yackety-yackety-yackety-yack.
As the Spirit gave them utterance. Spirit gave them what to say.
And they didn't all start talking at the same time. Every one of
them didn't just get up and start jabbering away. No, no, no, no. That wasn't 40, 50 people up
there all talking at the same time, and then the crowd started
gathering around. What in the world is going on here? Why here?
I mean, what's that fellow say? That's not the way it was. No,
no. No, they began to hear, and they
heard about this, and this was going on, and then people started
gathering around. The crowd started going about.
And a multitude came around. And it says, and they were confounded
that they heard every man heard him speak in his own language.
There was people that never knew what the meek language was, but
he was speaking in meek. They didn't know what the Greek
language was, but they were speaking in Greek. They didn't know what
the Arabian language was, but they were speaking in Arabian. And they stood back there and
said, Oh, these fellows are Galileans. They've done it by course, just
as sure as I'm sitting here. They'd hear somebody speak, they'd
say, He's talking my, I understand what he's saying. How can that
be? And another one said, Peter said something, said, wait a
minute, I understand what he's saying and I'm from way over
here in Arabia. How does that Jew know my language? And I believe
this, I believe that they were saying things that pricked those
fellas in their hearts. They were exposing things about
those people in their own language that they didn't know. And oh boy, and then the tongues
refer here to a foreign language. Never an unknown tongue. And
the Scriptures tell us, you know, that if a man is going to speak
in tongues, let him have an interpreter. When I go to Mexico, I'm speaking
in tongues, and they're speaking in tongues to me. If they can
say my name, I can say their name, and I can say just a thing
or two, and they'll come running up to me, and they'll say, Oh,
Donny, Donny, Donny. And I'll say, Jose, Jose, Jose,
or Mauricio, or whatever. And that's as far as it goes.
If we want to converse, somebody's got to stand there and talk to
us. And that's one of the frustrating things you've ever done for them
and us both. We want to talk to one another. We want to have
a real good conversation. But we can't. Because we don't
speak the same language. But now if the Holy Ghost gave
me utterance, I could speak then. We could just sit and talk back
and forth. Or if He told him to speak in English. But tongues
are mentioned in three other passages. Acts chapter 10, when Cornelius,
the first Gentiles converse there. You don't have to look, I'll
just give it to you. But Cornelius, when Peter began to preach to
them, the scripture says the Holy Ghost fell on them, and they
began to speak with tongues. And they backed up and said,
whoa, these are Gentiles, and they're speaking in tongues.
God gave them the Holy Ghost, and they began to speak in tongues.
And why did that happen? to give evidence that God had
accepted the Gentiles, that God had blessed the Gentiles, that
God had brought the Gentiles into his body. And the Ephesians,
when he went over there, he says, if you all received the Holy
Ghost since you believed, they said, we have not heard of any
such thing where there be the Holy Ghost or not. Well, who
are you baptizing? To John's baptism. And Peter
began, Paul began to preach to them, and he laid hands on them,
and then they received the Holy Ghost. What was the difference? One received it by preaching,
because they didn't have any religion at all. These over here
had a bunch of religions, so they had to have their hands
laid on. Had their hands laid on. And oh, beloved, and you
go through the scriptures, but look at the effects quickly,
and I'm through on these people. And it says, you know, devout
men, in verse 5, devout men out of every nation under heaven
were there. Devoted men, devoted to their religion, devoted to
their Bible, devoted to prayer, devoted to Him. Now when this
was noise to brawls, that this was going on, these fellows up
here preaching, these fellows up here teaching in other tongues,
and the Holy Ghost was on them. And they was on fires, speaking
that message with fire and power. They got together and were confounded,
troubled in their mind that because that every man heard them speak
in his own language, And they were all amazed and marveled,
saying one to another, Behold, are these not which speak Galileans?
So how in the world, how in the world here we have a man in our
own tongue worrying we were born? How is this happening? And oh,
beloved, and they talked about down in verse 11, they said the
Cretans and Arabians, we do hear their speak in our own tongue,
the wonderful works of God. And they were all amazed and
in doubt, saying one to another, what does this mean? What does
this mean? Oh, what does this mean? That's
a good question, ain't it? What does this mean? And others,
Malky says, these men are full of new wine. They're drunk. That's
what their problem is. They're drunk. They're having
a big time. That's how this is happening.
But Peter standing up with the lamb and lifting up his voice.
All you men of Judah, you that dwell in Jerusalem, these are
not drunk. It's just 9 o'clock in the morning.
But this is what Joel prophesied about. All you Jews are here.
You've come from all over the world for this Pentecost, for
the Passover, for the unleavened bread, for the Feast of Harvest.
You're all here. You're all here because you're
devout. He said, I'm here to tell you what's happening here
is what God said was going to happen. The Spirit fell on all
flesh. And so that's Pentecost, and
there will be some more things to say about that later.