Thank you. Open your Bibles if
you would to Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2. Name of the message
is the coming of the Holy Spirit. The coming of the Holy Spirit.
Now if someone comes to you and says, you must have the baptism
of the Holy Spirit and speak in tongues to be saved, that
person is a deceiver. They are lying to you. They are
lying to you and their versions of tongues is some gibberish
that they try to say and it means absolutely nothing. We are going
to see that tongues in the scripture is a known language. It's a known
language. It's a language that the apostles
had never learned before or never spoke and they were given and
empowered by God the Holy Spirit to speak to the people who were
at the Pentecost, the Feast of the Pentecost in languages that
they had never learned. It's amazing. All by the power
of God. See, our salvation is in Christ
and Christ alone. That's the only place our salvation
is. And last week we finished the
first chapter of Acts, chapter 1. And during the study of the
first chapter, we saw that the apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ
were told to return to Jerusalem and await the coming of the Holy
Spirit of God, the promise of God. And also the promise that
the Lord Jesus Christ said that I have to go back up to heaven,
that I might send the comforter down. and that being the Holy
Spirit of God, to wait for the prophetic promise from God the
Father of the coming of the Holy Spirit. And so what did they
do? They did as they were commanded.
They went back to Jerusalem. And today's text continues with
them on the day of Pentecost, they're in one accord still,
they're in total unity. And just as they were in chapter
one, so let's read Acts chapter two, verses one to 13, the verses
that we're gonna deal with today, verses one to four. But let's
read the context again of these verses. It says, and when the
day of Pentecost was fully come, They were all with one accord
in one place, and suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of
a rushing, mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they
were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like
as fire, and it sat upon each of them. This represents the
Holy Spirit in us, beloved, the Holy Spirit in us. And they were
all filled. with the Holy Ghost and began
to speak with other tongues. In the Greek, that's knowing
languages, knowing languages in the Greek, as the Spirit gave
them utterance. And they were dwelling at Jerusalem,
Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. So they
had come, there was Jewish converts had come, back or Jews who were
living in other countries. Every male, Jewish male, was
required to come for three feasts, and this was one of them. The
Passover, the Feast of the First Fruits, and then Pentecost. Every male Jew was required to
come to Jerusalem for that feast, those three feasts. There was
seven altogether, I think, but these are the three that are
here. And it says, and they were dwelling at Jerusalem, devout
men 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 their own tongue. So they were
from all different nations. And here they are hearing these
apostles preaching in their 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
his own tongue, his own language, wherein we were born? See, that
tells you right there, too, that it's a knowing language. It's
a language spoken where they were born. Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites,
and all the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and Judea, and Cappadocia, and
Pontus, and Asia, Phyriga, and Pamphylia, and Egypt, and in
all 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. Who are
they preaching, beloved? We're gonna look at that next
week. That's Pentecostal preaching. It's the same message we preach
today. It's Christ and Him crucified,
beloved. That's what they were preaching.
Oh my. 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. They thought they
got into too much hooch. And then they were speaking,
isn't it foolish what men will say? Isn't it foolish what men
will say, denying the power of God? It's incredible. They said, these
men are full of new wine. So in Acts chapter two we see
the promise from God, the Father, that the apostles were to wait
for. Fulfilled. Fulfilled. And all of God's born-again,
blood-blessed children will be richly blessed just by reading
what is recorded in this book, the book of Acts. And in this
chapter as well, as all of scripture. So let's read verses one to four
again in God's holy word. Acts chapter two, verses one
to four. And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they
were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came
a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all
the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them
cloven tongues like as a fire, and it sat upon each of them.
And they were filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak
with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. So we see
in verse one the coming of the Holy Spirit of God. Now they're
waiting, in verse two is the coming of the Holy Spirit of
God, but they're waiting in one accord. And this is all according,
remember too, this is all according to God's will and providence.
They're in that exact place. And they're all in one accord.
They're all in unity, waiting for the coming of the Holy Spirit
of God. Oh my. One might ask, what is Pentecost? Turn, if you would, to Leviticus
chapter 23. Leviticus chapter 23. It was
one of the three great feasts given by the commandment of God
in the book of Leviticus. This is why there's such a great
crowd in Jerusalem at this day, and at this time, because the
Israelite men were required to come to Jerusalem, and they would
have brought their families too if they could. So there's a great,
great multitude of people from all different nations, right, in the city of Jerusalem on this
day. Well, Pentecost is, again, one
of the three great feasts given by the commandment of God in
the book of Leviticus. And this was, again, the reason
why there's such a great crowd. Look at Leviticus 23. We'll look at three of these
feasts that God required every male Israelite to attend. The
first was the Feast of the Passover, Leviticus 23, verses 4 to 8. These are the feasts of the Lord,
even holy convocations, which he shall proclaim in their seasons. In the 14th day of the first
month, at even, is the Lord's Passover. And on the 15th day
of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the
Lord. Seven days ye must eat unleavened
bread. In the first day ye shall have
an holy convocation. Ye shall do no servile work therein. But ye shall offer by offering
made by fire unto the Lord seven days. In the seventh day is a
holy convocation. Ye shall do no servile work therein. So this feast originated in Egypt. This feast originated in Egypt
when the judgment of God fell upon the Egyptians. We remember
that, right? God sent Moses, said, let my
people go. And Moses hardened his heart.
He hardened his heart. And so the blood of the lamb
was put on the door of every house in Israel. And when judgment
fell, when judgment fell, what did God do? What did he do, Brother
Dave? He saw the blood, didn't he?
Amen. And he passed over them. What
a picture of us in Christ. Oh my. Rejoice, Brother Brian.
When God sees the blood, he passes over us. The blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Judgment passes over us! Isn't
that wonderful? Passes over us. Oh, it's so wonderful. My, oh my. So this is what this
feast is all about. That blood being put in the door
of every house in Israel. And when judgment fell, God looked
upon that blood. He looked upon that blood. Oh
my, and he passed them by. Passed them by. And the Passover
lamb, it pointed right to Christ. It represented Christ, Jesus,
who is our Passover lamb. He's God's Passover lamb, isn't
he? Sacrificed for us. You see, that night, there had
to be a death of an innocent one. Right? And it was a lamb. And that pictured
Christ dying for the sins of his people. My oh my. And that blood on the lentil
pictures the blood, blood upon us, beloved. So, Brother Travis,
God sees the blood and He passes right over us. No judgment. No judgment. Oh, it's wonderful.
It's absolutely wonderful. And Christ, He kept the Passover
feast with His disciples before He was crucified, and it was
then He instituted the Lord's Supper, too. That text we go
to in Matthew when we do the Lord's Supper, That was instituted
during the Passover by the Lord Jesus Christ. The second feast we see here
is in verses 9 to 11, Leviticus chapter 9 to 11, but we're going
to read from verses 9 to 14. It's called the Feast of the
First Fruits. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them,
When ye be come into the land which I give you, and shall reap
the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits
of your harvest unto the priest. And he shall wave the sheaf before
the Lord to be accepted for you. On the morrow, after the Sabbath,
the priest shall wave it. And ye shall offer that day,
when ye weaved the sheaf, and lamb without blemish. Now notice
that. What do we see there? Lamb without
blemish. That's pointing right to Christ,
beloved. That's pointing right to Jesus Christ, our Lord. A
lamb without blemish. Oh my. Of the first year for
a burnt offering unto the Lord. And the meat offering thereof
shall be two tenth deals of fine flour mingled with oil, an offering
made by fire unto the Lord for a sweet savour, and the drink
offering thereof shall be the wine, the fourth part of an hen. And you shall eat neither bread,
nor parched corn, nor green ears, until the same day that ye have
bought an offering unto your God. It shall be a statue forever
throughout your generations in all your dwellings. And this
feast of firstfruits occurred shortly after the Passover. At
the time, Israel bought a handful of firstfruits and waved it before
the Lord. And what did this signify? This
signified that everything they had came from God. That He was
the owner of it all. Everything. Brother Neil, you
know as a farmer that you plant, but God gives the increase. He
waters the ground and He gives the increase. It's all up to
Him. My oh my. Brother Brian, you
know that with the beans too. You plant it, you harvest the
ground and you plant it, and then God waters it and gives
you the increase. It's incredible. It's absolutely
incredible. Absolutely amazing. So when they
offered this up, they were saying that every result of man's labor
and toil comes from God. We labor and toil in gardening
or growing things, but the increase comes from God. Even the seeds
we plant come from him. Isn't that amazing? So we give him all the glory,
don't we? Oh my. And it was on this day that the
Lord arose from the grave and became the first fruits of the
resurrection. Oh my. And all the results of
His work on the cross, our redemption and resurrection, are all of
God. The fact that, Sister Carol,
we're redeemed is of God. It's wonderful. It's all because
of what He's planned, purposed, and did. It's wonderful. The resurrection, He rose from
the grave for our justification. All according to the will and
purpose of God, beloved. It's wonderful. My oh my. Then the third feast was called
the Feast of the Pentecost. We're going to read verses 15
to 21 to see the full context of this. Leviticus 23 verses
15 to 21. And ye shall count unto you from
the morrow after the Sabbath from the day that ye bought the
seed for the way of offering. So after the days of the Feast
of Firstfruits. Seven Sabbaths shall be complete. Even unto the morrow, after the
seventh Sabbath, ye shall number 50 days, and ye shall offer a
new meat offering unto the Lord. Ye shall bring out of your habitations
two wavelengths of two-tenth deals. They shall be of fine
flour, they shall be bacon with leaven, and they are firstfruits
unto the Lord. Now look at this, here we go.
What do you offer with the bread? And you shall offer with the
bread seven lambs, what? Without blemish. Seven is the
number of perfection, beloved. Oh, look at that. Lambs without
blemish. Christ was offered up without
sin, without blemish. Scripture says he offered himself
up without spot. Oh, how this pictures our Lord
Jesus Christ. Oh, my. Seven lambs were at blemish
in the first year, and one young Barak and two rams. They shall
be for a burnt offering unto the Lord. with their meat offering
and their drink offerings, even an offering made by fire of sweet
savor unto the Lord. See, this offering's gonna be
an offering of sweet savor unto the Lord. When Christ offered
himself up to God, beloved brother Zane, it was an offering of sweet
savor. Sweet savor. God is fully satisfied
with that sacrifice. My! What a blessing! What a blessing! Then ye shall offer one kid of
the goats for a sin offering, and two lambs of the first year
for a sacrifice of peace offerings, all pointing to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Because we have what? Peace with
God through who? Through the Lord Jesus Christ
and only him. There's no other way. No other
way we have peace. My oh my. And the priest shall
wave them with the bread of the first fruits for a wave offering
before the Lord. With the two lambs they shall
be holy to the Lord for the priest. And ye shall proclaim on the
self same day that it may be in holy convocation unto you.
You do no serve our work therein. It shall be a statute forever
in all your dwelling throughout your generations. So this feast
was held seven weeks after the Passover. And here the Jews renewed
their vows and dedicated themselves anew to the Lord God. Let's go
back to Acts chapter 2. So we see that this is occurring,
the coming of the Holy Spirit is occurring on the Feast of
Pentecost. Again, so there would be all
kinds of people in the city. You see how God ordains things?
Isn't that amazing? The Sabbath before, wouldn't
be all those folks there. But there's 3,000 of God's sheep
that are going to hear the gospel and more too. Oh my, and they come from, think
of this too, think of how God works in his prophets. They come
from all different places, right? We saw when we were reading,
Arabians, Cretes, all these different places. And they're all gonna,
and those who the Lord say, what are they gonna do? They're gonna
take that gospel home, beloved. Oh my, Lord's about to stir things
up, isn't he? Oh, he can cause a ruckus. And we're
going to see that through this book. Because when Paul went
and started preaching in the synagogues, man, there were folks
so mad. Then we're going to see when
he went into some of the cities like Thessalonica and all these,
them idol worshipers who were making idols, they got so mad
at him. Oh, my. One place, he had to
be lowered down in a basket just to escape at night. They wanted
to kill him. God wouldn't allow it. It wasn't
his time. It wasn't his appointed time. He still had some more
sheep to preach to. My, oh my. Oh, it's wonderful. So let's look at this. And when
the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one
accord in one place, verse one. Again, this has reference to
the same group that's mentioned in Acts 115. Some commentators,
there's a lot of opinions on how many people were there. I'm
just gonna go with what was in chapter one. There was 120 people
in chapter one. I'm just gonna go with that.
There may be more, there may be less, I don't know. I just
know they were in this room and they were in one accord. Right?
That's all it tells us. And look at this. What were they
enjoying? Oh, they were enjoying sweet
fellowship. They were in unity. They were
in one accord. They were enjoying fellowship
with one another. Talking about the great things God had done.
Maybe even talking about the coming of the promise. Holy Spirit. We don't know. But we know they're
in unity. They're in one accord. There's
no strife. See, that all comes about, again,
by the love of God shed abroad in our hearts. It's amazing. It's absolutely amazing. So here
they are, they're all one accord. They're in sweet fellowship,
which is precious. They're in unanimous agreement. They're in full harmony and peace. All characteristics of those
who are the true followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because
again, that love of God is shed abroad in our hearts. And then
look at verse two here. Now remember, this wind didn't
occur outside. This sound occurred in the house. Look what it says. And suddenly
there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind.
Here it comes. And it filled all the house where
they were sitting. This sound was like a noise,
sounded like a mighty rushing wind. You remember when we get
bad storms sometimes and that wind's just... Just blowing,
right? or even you're at the sea, go
to the oceans, and that wind's coming off, coming off that ocean,
or even a lake, coming off that lake. Remember when we were up
in Whitefish Bay? My, that wind was coming off
Superior, just blowing us. Kevin and I are standing up front,
holding onto the rails. My. A mighty wind, a mighty rushing
wind. My. And here they are, and suddenly
there came a sound from heaven as of a mighty rushing wind,
a rushing mighty wind. It filled all the house where
they were sitting. My, and this noise got everybody's
attention in that room, didn't it? Oh yeah, it did, because
it filled the house where they were sitting. And this is a special
anointing of God the Holy Spirit, which the Lord Jesus Christ had
promised. He had promised that he'd send the comforter. He said,
I have to go away, remember? He said, I have to go away. If
I don't go away, then the comforter won't come. Then the comforter
won't come. So I must go away. Remember,
they wanted him to stay. And he said, I have to go. I
have to go. My, oh, my. And not only did it fill all
the house where they're sitting, but it filled all those who were
sitting in the house. Oh my. You know, this kind of
reminds me of John chapter 3, when the Lord's talking to Nicodemus
and he says this, the wind bloweth where it listeth, where it pleases.
and hear the sound thereof, but cannot tell whence it comes.
We can't tell where the wind comes. Now they've got this fancy
stuff, but back in those days, they couldn't tell where the
wind came from. They just knew, oh, it's coming from the east,
or it's coming from the west. But how do you explain the wind? The Lord said, The wind bloweth
where it pleaseth, listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof,
but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth,
so is every one that is born of the Spirit. John 3, verse
8. Think upon this, absolutely no
one can dictate to the wind where it's going to go. We can't say,
Wind, I want you to go north instead of coming at me. Yeah,
I want you to turn around and go north instead of coming south.
That's funny, isn't it? Not one of us can do that. Not
one of us can dictate the wind. And yet our master, yet our master,
the waves are rolling, the waves are beating, the boat's being
tossed, and he comes out. Be still. And what happened? It's like glass. The wind ceased,
the water stopped rolling. What power, beloved, our Savior
has? What might our Savior has? That's
the one who saved us. The Lord Jesus Christ cleansed
us with his precious, precious blood. My, so we can't tell the
wind to go wherever we want it to. It goes wherever it wants
to. My. And it blows, sometimes it blows
strong, sometimes it's a beautiful breeze, isn't it? Sometimes it's
just beautiful. And sometimes it's just real,
real light. My. Just as God pleased to have
it blow. So it is with our sovereign God.
Absolutely no one can dictate to Him what He has to do. You know, people talk about man's
free agency. God is the only one with free
will to do with whatever He wants. Now, we have choices now as born-again
believers. See, before we were saved, our
will was bound. It was bound. And we make choices
all the time. So do unsaved people. They make
choices all the time, too. But we're bound by our nature,
right? So if the Holy Spirit's in us, the Holy Spirit's guiding
us and directing us. But what happens when the flesh
starts acting up? We got that battle now, don't
we? The flesh sure wants to do things, doesn't it? But contrary
things to the spirit. So now we have that civil war
in the believer. What happens when someone cuts you off? You're
driving down the road nicely, two lane highway, some guy comes
right in front of you. Two places where you can see
the depravity of man on display. Driving and on a golf course.
They say, I don't golf, but I heard from golfing, people get pretty
upset. Brian, you can probably testify to that, right? People
get mad on a golf course? Yeah? Yeah. My. I've seen it driving, and I've
even done it driving. Right? My. And if we don't verbalize it,
we sure think it, don't we? Right? Oh, my. So our depravity is ever before.
So we can't dictate to the Lord what He does. He does whatever
He pleases. And marvel at this, if you're one of the redeemed,
marvel at this. It pleased the Lord to save you. It pleased
Him. It pleased the Lord to save your
soul. I'm not going to get over that,
are you? That's wonderful. My, oh my. It's God himself who
moved the psalmist to write, our God is in the heavens. And
he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased, Psalm 115.3. He does
whatsoever he pleases. God makes the wind blow out of
nothing. And the coming of the Holy Spirit of God sounded like
a wind and it all occurred in a room where they were all seated. You know, it's nothing but foolishness
and sinful blasphemy for a finite man and woman to say that they
can determine their own destiny by an act of their so-called
free will. That's nothing but spitting in the face of God's,
spitting in God's face. Oh my. We are so, I'll tell you
what, this man standing in front of you, I am so needful. and
so needy. I've realized being taught by
God the Holy Spirit now that without Christ I can't do nothing.
Same for you. Can't do nothing, can we? He
gives us the strength to go to work every day. He gives us the
intellect to learn things. He increases our knowledge by
God the Holy Spirit teaching us and guiding us and directing
us through the scripture. It's all Him. It's all Him. He gives one the ability to do
one job and another the ability to do another job. You know, you keep hearing about
these breakthroughs and different things. That's just God allowing people
to learn new things. That's all. You ever hear breakthroughs
in cancer research or any other? That's just God teaching them
a little bit of stuff. And man says, look what we learned.
They get all pride. They take the glory right from
the Lord, but it all comes from Him. Don't ever forget that,
beloved. It all comes from Him. When you
hear something like that, some breakthrough, that's just God
revealing a little something. And you know what it's usually
for? Get this. Donny Bell said this one time. All the modern
medication and stuff that's made is for God's elect, and everyone
else gets the residual effects. Isn't that amazing? Any medical
breakthrough is for God's elect. And everybody else gets residual
effects. Any other thing that helps? Look
at Sermon Audio. God gave someone the ability
to make that website, build that website. Now they're in a vault
where they have their own service so they're not going to be reliant
on other service outside Sermon Audio. and they're making an
archive, a vault for all the sermons to go into. God gave
Stephen Lee, the man who runs that, gave him the knowledge
and the insightfulness and the vision to do that. Isn't that amazing? Scott Richardson's
message, he's speaking from the dead. All these old preachers, these
grace preachers, they're speaking from, he that is dead yet speaketh. Henry Mahan's on there, isn't
that amazing? That all comes by the providence
and will of God. And we get the benefit from it.
We get the benefit from that, it's amazing. And then the message
here go out all over the world. It's just absolutely incredible.
God's so good, he's so good. So no one can dictate to God
what he shall do. And those who are reading about
here in the second chapter of Acts, they received that special
anointing from God the Holy Spirit. Why? Because it was purposed
by God. It was promised by God. It was
prophesied by God through Joel that it would occur. And it was executed by God at
the appointed time. Isn't that amazing? Absolutely
amazing. And these true followers of the
Lord Jesus Christ, they didn't deserve what they were receiving,
did they? Do we deserve to be born again? Nope. They didn't
deserve to receive the Holy Spirit of God. Nothing in them that
would recommend them to God to do that. No, they were objects
of His grace. My, they didn't earn or merit
what they received. It all came by the free grace
and sovereign grace of God in Christ. And they were enabled,
empowered, to go and preach the gospel in different languages. My, oh my. That's a miracle,
beloved. That's a miracle of God. My. And neither their actions,
nor their prayers, nor their desires contributed anything
to the fulfillment of God's promise. All Christ said was go and wait
for the coming of the Holy Spirit of God, wait for God's promise
in Jerusalem. That's all he said to them. So
they're just waiting. They're doing exactly what God
commanded. My oh my. They were blessed by
God. And this truth applies to all
of God's children. In every generation, in the miracle
of the new birth, it was purposed by God, it was planned by God,
it was executed by God. At the appointed time, Brother
Zane, we've been talking about it. At the appointed time, God
gave us faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. By regenerating
us, we're born again by the Holy Spirit of God. And the only reason
we believe on Christ is because God gave us faith to believe
on him. We didn't deserve it. We didn't merit it. We didn't
earn it. It's a gift of God, not of works,
lest any man should boast. Right? And faith has one object.
You hear me say it? I'm going to keep saying it until
the day I die. Faith has one object, the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's it. God-given faith has
one object, and that's Christ. My, oh my. And now we as God's enlightened
children, we know we don't deserve this grace, do we? But God gave
it to us. Praise his name, he gave it to
us. And he purposed it, planned it, executed it all in Christ
Jesus our Lord. And all of us in our unregenerate
state, we were spiritually dead before we were saved. Therefore, our actions, our prayers,
our desires were as sinful as our fallen nature at that time. And we do not contribute anything,
nothing, to the sovereign life-giving power of God the Holy Spirit.
When He delivers us from the prison house of sin and unbelief
by His regenerating power, we're usually going this way. And what does he do? He turns
us around, doesn't he? He turns us around, and we repent
before God, don't we? Because in even that, repentance
and faith is both given from God at the same time. You can't separate faith from
repentance. No, no. And so we are repented
of our sins by the grace and mercy of God, by God-given faith
and believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's why we tell
sinners now, sinner friend, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and
thou shall be saved, right? There's that word again. I told
you last week, I looked that up. It's used 9,000 times in
the Bible. In 6,000 different verses, the
word shall is used. And that's legally binding word,
remember? My, oh my. Oh my, what a savior he is. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved. That's a promise from God. Not
might, not if you make a decision. No, thou shall be saved. And
Paul, at that time, that Philippian jailer said, what must I do to
be saved? What do I have to do? What's
required of me? And what did Paul say? Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved. My, what a Savior. What a Redeemer
is Jesus Christ our Lord. He's absolutely wonderful. Absolutely
wonderful. And when word delivered, When
we're delivered from the power of darkness into the wondrous
light and liberty in Christ, the freedom in Christ, we praise
God's mighty name, don't we? The ones who used to curse his
name now praise his name. That's a miracle of grace, beloved.
That's a miracle of grace. They're taken from darkness,
trapped in darkness, unable to get out, and brought into the
marvelous light of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what God's done
for every one of us who are believers. Oh, it's wonderful. Now let's
read verses 3 and 4 here. 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 the Spirit gave them utterance. Now this
is an open manifestation of God the Holy Spirit. This is an open
manifestation, open display of God, the Holy Spirit in the church. After the ascension of Christ,
again, he promised that the Holy Spirit would come, right? He
said, he'd come, I'll send him, I'll send him. And here come. Oh my. Turn if you would to John
chapter 15. John chapter 15. Mm. John chapter 15. And notice, right after that,
they went out and they preached Christ, didn't they? They didn't preach how to become
born again. Somebody wrote a whole book on
that. Well, that's easy. Open it up by the Holy Spirit. Book's finished. Right? That's it. by the power of the
Holy Spirit. Shut the book. It's done. Oh my. Look at this in John chapter
15. Our Lord promises, promises that He's going to send, He's
going to send the Holy Spirit of God. Look at verse 25. John chapter 15 verse 25. But this cometh to pass, that
the word might be fulfilled that is written in the law. They hated
me without a cause. But when the Comforter is come,
that's what we're seeing today. See, the Holy Spirit's the Comforter. And the Comforter is come, whom
I will what? Send. He sent. Remember Christ was sent by the
Father on a mission? The Holy Spirit sent by Christ
on a mission. Isn't that wonderful? I'll tell you, God's amazing.
He does everything on purpose. Everything on purpose. Look at
this. Whom I will send unto you from
the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth out from
the Father, he shall what? He shall, in another word, there
it is again. He shall what? Testify of me. And ye shall also bear witness
because you have been with me from the beginning. And that's
what they're doing when they go out and start preaching to
all those folks. They've been empowered by God,
the Holy Spirit. And now out they go, and they're
preaching the gospel. My, oh my. My, and we see the tongues which
sat upon the heads of the apostles. Some believe they only sat upon
the heads of the apostles. I don't know. But we see that these tongues
represent something. It says they were like a fire. Now fire is an emblem of divine
divinity. God appeared to Abraham as a
burning lamp in Genesis 15, 17. And he appeared to Moses as a
burning bush, Exodus 3, 1 to 6. The symbol of his presence
with Israel was what? A pillar of fire, remember? And
then he showed himself to Elijah by devouring fire, consuming
all those false prophets of Baal. And Isaiah's lips were cleansed
by a coal, taken off a live fire. And then Hebrews 12, 29 says,
our God is a consuming fire. So this is a mark of divinity. This is God, the Holy Spirit.
And like fire, the Spirit of God illuminates the people of
God, right? He teaches us the things of Christ. When we're born again by the
power of God, the Holy Spirit, now he teaches us the things
of Christ. See, the natural man can't understand
the things of Christ. Oh, my. And like fire, he gives
power to energize and invigorate the church of God and the servants
of God. Because why? Because without him, we can do
nothing. They could not go and preach
without this happening. Without God, we can do nothing.
Isn't that amazing? Oh, my. Now, please listen carefully
here. Let's look at Acts 2, verse 4.
And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak
with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now, again,
any time the word tongue is used in the Scriptures, any time,
it means this instrument right here, right? or a language. James says this is the hardest
member to control, the tongue. So anytime the tongue is spoken
of in scripture, it's either speaking of the tongue or it's
a known language. That's it. You can't get away
from it. Now people who want to turn the
scriptures into something they desire it to be, they twist it.
And then you get the whole group built up who says, without the
baptism of the Holy Spirit of God, you can't be saved and you
have to speak in tongues at the same time. Well, I'll have something
to tell those folks that every believer is baptized with the
Holy Spirit of God, right? We're born again, right? And
the languages are known languages. It's not gibberish that somebody
can't understand. Now that's bought forth clear.
If you want to do further study, look in, look in first Corinthians.
It's bought forth very clear in first Corinthians, but there
has to be an interpreter there when there's tongues done. Oh
my. So anytime the word tongue is
used in scripture, it either means the organ in our mouth
or it means a language. And this language can be distinct,
audible, in an understood language which somebody speaks. And this
can be either a tongue in the mouth or a language. We will
see next week that when the Holy Ghost came upon them, these disciples
may, they began to speak in other languages, tongues, as the Spirit
gave them utterance. Look at verse eight in this chapter.
Look at this. This is so clear. And how here
we every man in our own tongue, language, wherein we were born. Isn't that so clear? So the scripture
here even giving us a definition of what the tongues are. These
men are hearing from all those different places. They're hearing
these apostles preach the wonderful things of God. What's that? Christ and Him crucified, and
risen, and coming again. My, the only sacrifice for sinners,
the Lord Jesus Christ. They preached the Word of God,
and they preached the Word of God. These apostles preached
the Word of God in a language that all these people understood.
See, I don't preach to you in French. I don't know French,
but if I knew French, you all wouldn't know what I was talking
about. Jean-Claude, when he comes here, he preaches in English,
doesn't he? Now, he's naturally a French speaker, right? But he preaches in French at
home, in English when he's here, and French when he's in Africa
to French-speaking nations over there. If he preached to them
in English, they wouldn't understand what he's saying. Oh my. So it's always a language
beloved. And even the underlying underlying
Greek word is knowing languages. It's a knowing language. So people were from everywhere.
Verses preceding verse eight tells people were from all different
places. And they heard the apostles preach the wonderful works of
God in their own tongue, in their own language. It's amazing. That's so amazing. Oh my. My, oh my. Sister D, your grandson's
learning the language down in Peru so he can preach the gospel
to them. My oh my. Pray for Sister D's grandson
David. He's down there in Peru and I
met with him. He preaches the same gospel we
believe. Pray for him. My oh my. These people all spoke
different languages. and they were all there to celebrate
the feast of the Pentecost. And the Holy Spirit came upon
those in that room, the disciples, and they began to preach the
gospel. And every, the men from every different country heard
the gospel in their own language, and they began to say, how, how
hear we every man in his own tongue, in his own language?
How is this possible? These Galileans? Remember what
the Pharisees said of these men, these apostles? Who are these
unlearned men? I like that. I like that. That's
me and Donny Bell and Norm Wells, right? That's Marvin. We're just
unlearned men preaching the gospel, right? That's what people would
say. My oh my. Taught by the Spirit
of God though, right? Taught by the Holy Spirit of
God, the gospel. and given by God's grace and mercy. Now God
makes the preacher. He makes the preacher who he
is. And every preacher will tell you, we're not sufficient for
these things. But God makes the preacher and gives us that message
that we might proclaim the gospel. And again, somewhere between
hear me speaking and you, God the Holy Spirit uses that and
blesses your soul. Isn't that wonderful? Glory be
to God, right? Amen. Hallelujah to our great
God and King. So they say, how do we, how are
we, how are we hearing it? Dave, you and I from Crete say,
well, how are we hearing these guys speaking our language, speaking
in Crete? How's that possible? Right? My oh my. So marvel at this great
manifestation of God the Holy Spirit. They spoke in a language
they'd never learned. Now see that? They spoke in a
language that they'd never learned. That's incredible. We know it wasn't their native
tongue, because all these folks from all different places, listen
to these guys. How many people would they know,
would they meet, who spoke their own language? Probably not very
many, except the folks who came with them. And here they are,
speaking in their own tongue. preaching the gospel. This was
a miraculous gift of God the Holy Spirit to prove that his
apostles were his chosen servants. They're his chosen servants.
These men were given special gifts to confirm the gospel of
Jesus Christ and God empowered them just as he empowers his
preachers nowadays by the power of God the Holy Spirit. and by how he empowers every
one of us, all of us, all of God's people. He empowers God's
preachers to preach the gospel, but he empowers every one of
us to be witnesses for him in this world, doesn't he? My, oh, my. He empowers us to
believe, to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, to the salvation
of our souls. It's amazing. It's absolutely
amazing. And they were given an utterance
to preach the gospel by the Holy Spirit of God. This is how you
know if a man's sent from God to preach the gospel. All of
God's preachers will preach the same message. I preached the
same message Jim preached. I preached the same message Donny
Bell preached. Scott preached. Henry preached.
Same message. Different styles. but the same
message. And how do you know if a man
sent from God will there be preaching the truths concerning the Lord
Jesus Christ? That's how. We'll be preaching that Jesus
Christ, who he is, telling our hearers that he is the second
person of the blessed Trinity, the word of God incarnate. Blessed,
blessed second person of the Trinity, our sovereign creator
who spoke everything into existence. by the word of his power. We're told here is that Jesus
Christ, our God, became a man, bone of our bone and flesh of
our flesh, to redeem us from all our sins, from all our sins,
and that he established a perfect righteousness, a perfect righteousness. Do you know that all of us put
together in this world, whoever lived, you put us all together
in our natural state, and we don't have a stitch of righteousness
that would recommend us to God? But the believer in Christ is
clothed in the perfect, spotless righteousness of Christ. All because of what Christ did. My, oh my, all because of his
perfect obedience in his life and in his death. And how did
that happen? According to the will of the
Father. By the Holy Spirit's utterance,
we're preached that Jesus Christ is the supreme sacrifice of himself.
By the supreme sacrifice of himself, paid the ransom that God demanded
for every one of the souls of his people. Every one. Paid it
all. There's nothing left. paid in
full for the sins of His chosen people. And we preach that He
perfectly satisfied God's holy law and justice, enabling us
to be saved and enabling God to be just and the justifier
of His people. We also preach and declare that
Jesus Christ is risen. He's risen. He's risen. He's not dead in the grave like
all the men of other religions. Mohammed, you can trace him back
to a grave. All these other religions you can trace back to a grave.
The grave's empty, beloved. He's risen. He's risen. He's exalted God-man who's seated
on his throne in glory. And he's our high priest, beloved.
And he's every believer's surety. And every believer's one and
only hope. Is it yours? Oh my, may God make it so. And
we also declare that our glorified Savior is the true and living
God, who reigns over the whole universe right now. People ask
me, what do you believe about the end times? I believe in the
present reign of Christ. That's what I believe right now. I believe that Christ is reigning
right now. You? He's in control, isn't he? He
coming again, praise His mighty name. He's coming, but He is
ruling and reigning right now, watching over every single one
of His people, caring for us like a good shepherd, providing
for us. My, what a Savior. What a surety
we have. And He reigns over the whole
universe as a sovereign monarch over it all. And He works all
things together, all things for our good. and for his glory according
to the counsel of his will. So, brethren, I urge you to put
this test to every preacher that you might listen to. Ask yourself,
does he preach the glorious biblical truths concerning Jesus Christ?
If he does, rejoice. Rejoice. God sent you a preacher. Rejoice. My. And rejoice with him who preaches
this wonderful savior. Isn't he wonderful? Isn't he
merciful? Praise his mighty name. Brother
Neil, can you close us in prayer?