All right, if you'll open your
Bibles now to the second chapter of the book of Acts, the chapter
begins with this statement, and when the day of Pentecost was
fully come, when you hear the word Pentecost, what comes to
mind? Pentecost. Well, first of all, we think
of a feast of the Jews. Pentecost was a Jewish feast. There were several Jewish feasts.
Three of them come to mind immediately. There was the Feast of the Passover,
which began in Egypt. The Lord gave this feast to the
Jewish people to observe every year at the same time, the Feast
of the Passover. And he said, when your children
ask, what meaneth this service, this feast, you will say to them,
it is the Lord's Passover. When he delivered us from Egypt,
he gave us the Passover, the blood on the door. When I say
the blood, I will Passover you. Christ is the fulfillment of
that feast in that he is our Passover. And then comes to mind
the feast of the firstfruits, or the waving of the sheep. the Feast of the First Fruits
upon a certain day, and that day was Sunday. It was the day
after, it was the first day after the Passover Sabbath on Sunday,
the first day of the week. The Jews brought a handful of
the first fruits from the ground, the first oats or barley or wheat
or whatever. called the waving of the sheep,
or the feast of the firstfruits, and this was waved before the
Lord. And they were saying on this
first day of the week, on Sunday after the Sabbath, that the Lord
hath given all things, that everything that we have, all is from God,
the sun and the rain and the harvest and the wheat and all
these things, the firstfruits. Well, Christ is the fulfillment
of that feast. because on Sunday morning, first
day of the week, he arose from the grave and became the firstfruits
of them that slept. Christ is the first to rise to
die no more. And then there's the Feast of
Pentecost. Pentecost is a word which denotes
fiftieth. It's the fiftieth day after the
Passover. And on this day they met together
to renew their vows and dedicate everything to God. Now, these
people just went through the motions. They just went through
the motions. These feasts had degenerated
into an end in themselves. They thought when they observed
the Passover, then they had God's blessings. Or when they waved
the sheep, you know, that was it. Or when they kept the Feast
of Pentecost, that was it. They were just going through
the motions, means unto themselves. When you see the word Pentecost,
that's the first thing you think of, a feast of the Jews. Then
secondly, many people think of this, that's when the Holy Spirit
came. That's when the Holy Ghost came.
Many people only associate Pentecost with the Holy Ghost. If you look
back at Acts 1, right across the page, verse 8, the power of the Holy Ghost,
the power of the Holy Ghost, after the Holy Ghost is come
upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, Judea,
Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth." That was
significant. Pentecost was this particular
feast when the Holy Ghost came. Verse 3 of Acts 2 said, "...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. All
right, some people, when you, I have, my question was this,
when you see the word Pentecost, what do you think of? A feast
of the Jews, the coming of the Holy Ghost. Some people think
of supernatural gifts, especially tongues, when they mention Pentecost. In fact, there's a, there's a
denomination now called Pentecostals. Pentecostals who try to duplicate
this particular thing here, this emotion and excitement and gifts
and these events. They're called Pentecostals because
they go back to the giving of the gifts and the speaking of
tongues, other languages. It says here in verse 4, and
they were filled with the Holy Ghost and they began to speak
with other tongues. as the Spirit gave them utterance.
And they were dwelling at Jerusalem, Jews, devout men, out of every
nation unto heaven. And when this was noised abroad,
the multitude came together and were confounded. They were amazed.
They were troubled in their minds, because every man heard them
speak in their own language. That ought to give you some clue
to the tongues. They heard them speak in their
own languages. It wasn't a gibberish. where you jar your jaws under
here and say some silly words nobody understands. That's not,
that's vulgar. It really is. It's vulgar. It's ignorance. For a man to stand in the pulpit
or in a public worship service and utter a stream of of words,
of syllables that nobody in there understands, not even he himself,
and calls it spiritual language, calls it praying in the spirit,
or talking in the spirit, or speaking in tongues. That's plain,
vulgar ignorance. God's not within 10,000 miles
of that trash. Is that strong enough? It's trash. It's not a duplication of what
happened here at all. These men were mightily endued
with the power of the Holy Ghost, and they spake other tongues,
but it was other languages, and people in Greek and Hebrew and
whatever, I don't know all the different languages, Arabic or
something, they understood what the people were saying in their
own languages. And that's the gift of tongues.
Certainly. It's the gift of tongues. Well,
but here's the thing I think of when I see the word Pentecost. Pentecost. And you know, somebody
might say, well, brother man, you shouldn't be so strong in downing the charismatic movement
in these tongues. You ought to be careful. You
might speak against the Holy Ghost. I'm not the least bit
worried. But another spirit is not the
Holy Spirit. Not the slightest. I'm worried
about a whole lot more things than that. I say they're conmen,
they're hucksters, they're deceived people, they're merchandisers
of flesh, is what they are. And those who support them are
supporting error. And that's as strong as I can
make it, and that's the way I feel. Not the least bit concerned.
I tell you when I get concerned about speaking against the Holy
Ghost, when I quit preaching the substitutionary work of Christ,
that's where the Holy Ghost business is to reveal Christ. Not for
a bunch of religious people to play games with a bunch of silly
gibberish and to lord it over one another, pretending to be
holier than somebody else. But you know what I think of
also when I see the word Pentecost is that At this particular time,
there were many people converted, brought to faith in Christ. Let's
look over here at verse 41 of Acts 2. Listen to this. After this sermon, verse 41 of
Acts 2, Then they that gladly received his word were baptized,
and the same day there were added to them three thousand souls. Now, I tell you, that was something. And this wasn't... I got a book
this week from Evangelical Press. A book by Errol Holtz, who's
a faithful pastor in England. A faithful pastor and a faithful
writer. The name of the book is The Great
Invitation. And he deals in this book with
with this altar call that's going on in so many churches, the one
for which Charles Penny, Billy Sunday, Dwight L. Moody, and
now Graham, Billy Graham is associated
with. And he gave an example. He said
that Billy Graham, see Mr. Holtz is over there in England
now, lives there, pastors And the information he's gathered
about these campaigns and so forth is fact. And he said recently, our friend
Brother Kendall, Brother R.T. Kendall, had Benny Graham preach
for him on Sunday night in his church, Westminster Chapel in
London, Buckingham Gate. Seats about 1,800, 2,000 people. And Mr. Graham, it's one of the
most prominent, well-known churches in England. R. T. Kendall's been pastor there six,
seven, or eight years, something like that. But anyway, Mr. Graham was over there in England
to see a doctor, and he came over to Westminster to preach
on Sunday night. You've been there. You know how
big it is. It's about 2,000. He filled it. Of course, he always
does. He always does. But at the close
of the service, he gave an altar call. He calls it an invitation.
just as I am." Eighty people came forward. It was that one
service, one message, one time, one visit, and gone. Eighty people. Now, eighty people is a lot of
people. There's about that many people in this center section
right here now. Eighty people. Every one of these people came
forward, made a profession of faith in Christ. They responded
to his altar call, to his invitation to believe on Jesus to be saved.
Now, Mr. Holt said in his book, Mr. Kendall
is not going to let 80 people slip through his fingers without
a fight. That's the way he words it. He's going to try to conserve
the results. He said, I followed up on it.
Do you know how many of those people were baptized? Those 80. Can you guess? One. One. Where are the 79? They're where all the rest of
them are, in a false refuge. That's where they are. Now, that's
not what went on here. Peter never gave an altar call.
Peter never had the counselor stationed out there on the end
of the aisle to walk forward or to grab somebody's arm or
pull them down. Peter preached Christ. And these
people were saved. That's what impresses me. Now,
here's what I'm saying. I want you to listen, and listen
good. What would you say is the dominating
factor here at Pentecost? The dominating, controlling factor
here at Pentecost? What would you say is the dominating,
controlling factor? Just people were converted here,
some people came to know God. There was a church established
here. What was the dominating factor, the controlling factor?
Well, the disciples were there, the apostles of Christ. But they
didn't magnify themselves. Peter didn't say anything in
this sermon about himself or John. He didn't say, now we're
glad to have with us Dr. John and Dr. James and all the other nine. They weren't pushed to the front
here. They didn't magnify themselves as men do today. I bet most of
you can't even name the eleven apostles. Boy, these fellas today won't
let us forget their names. I know them. I don't ever see
them hardly, but I know their names. They're all over the front
page. These fellas, these apostles,
didn't tell their life stories. They didn't organize an association.
They didn't debate doctrine. You don't even know their names.
But you know the name of Him whom they preached. Did I get across my point? Secondly, the Holy Spirit was
there, but there was no special attention given to the Holy Spirit.
He empowered these men to preach Christ. Peter didn't say, see
me speaking in tongues to everybody? Would you like to have this gift?
I have a book here on how to be baptized with the Holy Ghost
and speak in tongues. Peter didn't do that. The great crowd was there from
all nations. But there was no entertainment,
no celebrities, no ceremonies and rituals. They
just heard the disciples preach Christ in their own language. I was with a preacher in Brevard,
North Carolina last week. I want to tell you something
else. I want you to hear these things. I want you to know about
these things. I was with a pastor in Brevard, North Carolina last
week. I preached Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and twice Sunday. And
for the last few years, he'd been preaching the gospel of
God's grace for years. He was a fundamentalist Southern
Baptist pastor and so forth. You know where he was. And now,
don't misunderstand me. I'm not preaching, I'm preaching
Christ this morning, I'm preaching Billy Graham. I'm trying to show
you something. Billy Graham was coming to that county for a meeting. This was two years before he
was to come. Two years before he was to come.
They started the advance work. All the pastors of the city,
they canvassed the city. There was eighty and six, eighty
and fifty is a hundred and 30,000 people in the county. They found
out that 50,000, no, 80,000 were church members and 50,000 weren't.
They did this thorough canvassing. Each church, this pastor had
165 members. Each church was to furnish the
pastor and one counselor for every 10 members. This was the
organization. You would have one, he was to
have 16 and a half counselors, so he got 17. It's hard to have
a half a counselor. So he got 17. There's a pastor
and 17 counselors. one for every ten members. It was their responsibility
to go out and bring in the 50,000. They had maps of the city, and
each house where there were churchgoers, and already accounted for, was
white, and the other house was black. So they got all this,
and this was started two years. And over a period of the next
few months, they worked together. And finally, the counselors and
the pastors were all brought together. one counselor of every
ten persons. Now the pastors were told, and
the counselors, that when they came to the services where Mr.
Graham was to preach, that the counselor was to sit on the end
of the row. Counselor for each ten persons.
If you've got 20,000 people there, you've got 2,000 counselors.
Is my math right? 2,000 counselors. Is that correct?
One of every ten? And when the invitation is given,
when everybody stands and Mr. Graham gives the invitation and
the choir sings, the counselors are to step out and walk down
the aisle to get the thing going. This
pastor told me this was his orders. The counselor, so every time
you see this vast horde in a football stadium or a great auditorium,
and just as I Am starts and people start down the aisle, those are
counselors, they get saved every night. Two thousand of them. Three thousand of them. Four
thousand of them. They come down to the front.
You see, this gets people to moving. This gets folks to coming. This gets the folks motivated.
This doesn't take, you don't need the Holy Ghost. You need
plans and and you need outlines and you need convoys, this is
what you do?" And that pastor said, I quit
right then. That was my last meeting. He
said, I'm not going to be part of a charade and call it God's
business. He said, let go on pastor, I'm
telling you the truth. Manipulation. Brethren, I tell
you, that's evil. That's not of God. And all right,
the disciples were there, great men, honored men. The Holy Spirit
was there, the crowd was there. But the key factor, the one dominating
principle at Pentecost, as I read this sermon, was the preaching
of the gospel of Christ. The disciples preached Christ.
The Holy Ghost glorified Christ, the crowd heard Christ, and Peter
was filled with the Holy Ghost to preach Christ. Now, let me
give you this, and listen to me in case I misunderstood. What
I'm saying to pastors, as we sat and talked the other day,
I want to see something happen. I do too. But I'm not going to
make it happen. God's going to make it happen.
Salvation's of the Lord. Lift up your eyes, and behold,
the fields are white already to harvest. Pray ye that the
Lord of the harvest will send forth laborers into his fields." I plant and plow and water, but
God gives the increase. I like to see people confess Christ,
but I declare I'm not going to manipulate people. I'm not going
to get into this trickery and tomfoolery and psychology of
bowing your heads while somebody hums or Martha plays this organ
soft and a choir is humming and I get in a real spiritual voice
and say, would you like to believe on the Lord? Meet Mother in Heaven? Would you raise your hand? Let
us pray for you. God bless you. Would you raise
your hand? That's manipulation. Now, if you really meant that,
keep your heads down. Why are your heads down? No one looking
around. Why not? We want to make it as convenient
as we can for people to make our false professions. Now, if you really meant that,
while we stand, don't anybody move, don't anybody leave, while
we stand, would you come forward and meet me here at the point?
I don't want you to meet me. I want you to meet Christ. Have
a confrontation with Christ. You see what I'm saying? And
I tell you, you don't know, you don't even know in your own life
and heart how much these fellows have influenced our day. This
is a hard day in which to preach the gospel. People are brainwashed
by what they've seen and heard. They're brainwashed by some of
you right here. are literally brainwashed and
tilted, you're tilted, and you're influenced, you don't even know
it, by these cunning, crafty, subtle messengers of Satan who
manipulate people's hearts and minds and bring them down to
the front and make professions of faith. is a new birth. It's regeneration from heaven.
It's a spiritual life given by the Spirit of God. The Word of
God's a seed. It's a confrontation with Christ. It's a bowing to Christ. It's a resurrection. It's a new
life. It's God giving a new heart and
new nature. And bringing a man into vital
living union with himself through Christ is not a decision. It'll come as a result of God
revealing Christ to a person's heart. He's not enlisting in
your army, he's being brought to Christ. Listen to Peter preach. Listen
to, I know, let me say this, we must pray for the sovereign
Lord to shake the dry bones and quicken dead sinners. We must
and shall strive to be in one accord. I hear preachers preach
on Pentecost and they spend the whole day on it. They were in
one accord in one place. But you can be in one accord
and support a candidate for president. Those people at those conventions
get in one accord after fourteen ballots. Being in one accord
won't do it. You've got to be in one accord
about somebody. That somebody's got to be Christ.
Yeah, we want to be in one accord. We want to be filled with the
Holy Ghost. I want to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I want
to preach the gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit. But I want
you to listen to, it says here in verse 37, Now when they heard
this, when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart.
Do you see that, verse 37? And when they heard something,
they were pricked in their heart. They didn't raise their hands,
they didn't walk down an aisle. They heard something. All right, go back to verse 22.
Let me just give it to you briefly. Listen to Peter pray. You men
of Israel, won't you hear my words? Won't you hear my words? Jesus of Nazareth, a man. Now, brethren, he is a man, wholly,
completely, totally, in human nature, a man. But he's a man
approved of God. He's the God-man. He's the God-man. God was with him, and God was
in him. And he was a man. He was Jesus
of Nazareth, born of Mary, worked in a carpenter's shop, walked
the shores of Galilee, was baptized in Jordan, died on the cross.
He's a man. flesh of our flesh and bone of
our bone, the man, in subjection to God's holy law, in subjection
to God's truth, in subjection to God's will, God sent him.
But he is the man, Christ Jesus. He's God's man. He's God in human
flesh. The word was made flesh and dwelt
among us with no apologies. As clear as I can say it, as
Peter says it here, he's God in human flesh. proved of God,
appointed of God, ordained of God among you, and proved by
miracles and wonders and signs which God did in the midst of
you. Who did it? God did it in Christ.
And you know it. And you know it. And he said,
if you believe not that I am he, you'll die in your sins.
Now that's the first thing. Have you heard that? They heard
this. Jesus Christ is not some poor
little defeated reformer. He's not on the same plane as
Mohammed, Confucius, and Gandhi, and the rest of them. He's not
just a man to be admired, a preacher to be listened to, a prophet,
a healer. He is God in human flesh. He that has seen this thing,
God. That's what I'm saying. That's what Peter said. Look
at verse 23. Him being delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God. What are we dealing with
here? We're dealing with predestination. Predestination. Foreordination. We're dealing with a purpose.
This Jesus Christ, this God-man, a man approved of God, was delivered
into your hands. He was put in your hands. He
was designated to be placed in your hands by the determinate
counsel and foreordination of God that took place before this
world had a beginning. I don't know why. I don't know
why preachers in my town, in my county, in my state, in my
country, and all over the world are afraid or ashamed to clearly
define that God is God. That he does what he will, when
he will, with whom he will. That known unto God are all his
works from the beginning. That this assembly here this
morning is no accidental assembly. This is no meeting to gather
confounded and confused people. Everybody's here on business. God brought him here, providentially
on purpose. Not a net flies through the air
without his providential purpose. That's exactly right. Everything
God does, he does on purpose. And Jesus Christ came into this
world in the fullness of time, God sent him. Just like God sent
the sun this morning, and sent the moon at night, and sent the
stars and the planets, and sent all things designated, delegated,
consisting, moving by His will, Christ came at a perfect appointed
time with a star hanging over His manger. And an angel out
there said, here He is. And He walked this earth doing
what God gave Him to do. He went to the cross and died
at the particular time. And God delivered him by his
counsel into your hands. Now look at Acts 13. Turn over
there a minute. I'm preaching too long, but let
me deal with this thing a little bit. This is so important, the
kind of preaching that produces results. Acts 13, 26. Listen. Let's just read verse 29. And
when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took
him down from the They didn't really, they did. They met and said, well he's
dead now, you can take him down. But what God said is when they
fulfilled every word they spoke, every drop of spittle they hurled
on him, every anathema they cast at him, every pain they caused
him to bear, every drop of blood they caused him to shed, when
they fulfilled every jot and kiddle that was written of him
in the Old Testament, they took him down from the tree. They
took him down. Now look back at Acts 2. He said, verse 23, He was delivered
by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, and you
have taken. And you, by wicked hands, have
crucified and slain. Let me tell you something. Turn
to Psalm 76. Now this will be a blessing to
you if you'll take the time to look at it. Psalm 76. Psalm 76. Psalm 76, verse 10, "...surely the wrath of man shall
praise thee." You see this verse? Look at it carefully. "...surely
the wrath of man shall praise thee, the remainder of wrath
shall thou restrain." I've got it marked in the Bible in a yellow
pencil. It's a vital scripture. You know what it says? That these
men who arrested Christ, Judas who kissed Him with a kiss of
betrayal, The soldiers who came and roughly grabbed him and took
him down to the soldier's palace and beat him. They did what they
wanted to do. They did what they desired to
do. They did what their wicked hearts said. God just left them
to themselves. They're rad. He said, they spat
upon him, Old Testament, they plucked out his beard, Old Testament
said they would. They pierced his hands and feet,
Old Testament said they would. They crowned him with thorns,
Old Testament said they would. How can God predict what a man
will do? Just leave him to himself. He'll
do it. He'll do it. So this verse says
here in Psalm 10-16, the wrath of man shall praise thee. The
wrath of man will accomplish God's will. That man that spat
in the face of Christ, he hated Christ. He just cleared his throat
and spat on him. That's the wrath of man. But he did what God determined
before to be done. He just said, go on, do what
you will. Now here's a river rushing, or
a stream. And here's a fellow with a mill
who's going to grind some corn into meal. He builds a mill on
the side of that creek. And that water is rushing down
through there, so what he does, what the mill operator does,
he uses the water to turn his wheel. The water that he wants to use.
What does he do with the rest of it? He restrains it with a
dam. See, here's the miller, he's
got this big mill right on the side of the creek, and there's
the dam he's built, and he lets the water through as he's pleased
to let it through. And when he does, he turns his
wheel and grinds his meal. And here's the flood of man's
wrath and rebellion and evil. And almighty God, He says the
rest of it He'll restrain. He just damns it up. He just
holds it back. But all in the world He has to
do to get to him, that man, to do his will and turn his wheel
and grind his mill is just turn loose at some of it. Just let
her go. See what I'm saying? The wrath
of man will turn God's wheel apropos. accomplish God's purpose. That's right, he's right. He's
just spewing and spitting, but he's turning that wheel, accomplishing
God's will. What about the rest of his spewing
and spitting? He just lets her go on out there, dams it up,
lets her go over, whatever he wills. Oh, you don't dare preach that
in this day, do you? Yeah, you do if you want God to do anything. God sent him. All right, look
at verse 24 of Acts 2. "...whom God raised from the
dead." Christ is our life. It's not possible for death to
hold Him. It said, "...whom God raised,
having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible he
should be holding of it." God raised Him from the dead in testimony,
in testimony of what He had done. And then in verse 25, Peter says David spake concerning
him. The prophets give witness of
who Christ is. Moses said, the Lord will raise
up a prophet. Abraham said, the Lord will provide
himself a lamb. Jacob said, as he blessed his
sons, the scepter shall not depart from Judah, the shallow comes.
Job said, I know my Redeemer liveth. Jeremiah said, he's the
Lord, our righteousness. Micah said, Bethlehem, you're
just a little place. Oh, he's coming forth out of
you whose goings forth have been of old. Zechariah said he's the
branch. The Old Testament has no message
and no meaning without Christ crucified. And then verse 33 and 35, 33
through 35, Peter said, being by the right hand of God
exalted. Who is Jesus Christ, the God-man? What did He do? He did what God
willed before to be done. He redeemed His people. Why did
He do it? That God may be just and justify. Where is He? At
the right hand of God. Verse 36, Therefore, therefore,
one message, one gospel, one hope. Therefore, let all of you
know assuredly, whatever you do with it, this is what you
know, that God hath made that same Jesus whom you despise.
that same Jesus now, not another, but that same Jesus, the one
whom he identified, the one whom he identified. He has made that
same Jesus whom we crucified, both Lord and Christ. And they
said, what shall we do? Now what we're doing in our day
is we're somehow we're assuming that everybody out there is knowledgeable
in the Bible, the gospel, who God is, and what salvation is.
We're just assuming. Well, we're assuming something
that's not so. Our generation doesn't know any more than these
people to whom Peter was preaching right here, about Christ. And if we preach the preaching
that produces results, We will have to go back to preaching
what Peter preached at Pentecost. Jesus, thy blood and righteousness,
my beauty are, my glorious dress. Mid flaming worlds in these arrayed,
with joy I lift up my head. Bold shall I stand in that great
day, for who ought to my charge shall lay. Fully pardoned through
Christ I am from sin, from fear, from guilt, from shame. I know
a fountain where sins are washed away. I know a place where night
is turned to day. Burdens are lifted and blind
eyes are made to see. There's a wonder-working power
in the Christ of Calvary. Our Father, we pray You would
bless the message. Lord, Thou knowest these are
Religious days. Days of confusing, perversion,
darkness. Lord, deliver us from this perverse
generation. Deliver us from this religion of a sort. This religion
of the natural man. This religion that uses the name
of Christ and honors him not. knows him not, this religion
of form and ceremony, teach us the gospel, give us
the place and the heart to preach it, and give us the ear of the
people to hear it. We pray for Christ's sake in
his name, amen.