Would I offend you this evening
if I spoke quite candidly and plainly? Well, I hope not, because
that's the way that I intend to speak. I watch a television preacher
on Sunday night who is forever making fun of what he calls denominational
preachers. He is a holiness Pentecostal
preacher. He's on late on Sunday night.
I generally watch him. He carries a microphone, he walks
up and down the aisle and heals people and says, let's give Jesus
a big hand and hello and somebody say amen and hallelujah and somebody
praise Jesus. And he's just always carrying
on a real emotional type of ministry. And whenever he refers to the
type of preaching that I feel God has led me to do, he always
The denominational preacher never moves out of behind his pulpit
and he folds his hands and says, dearly beloved, you know. Well,
I'm not against emotion, but I hope you understand that. He
said they won't let you clap in the church, won't let you
say amen. Please, if you want to say amen, please say amen.
I'm in favor of it 100%. What I can do without the clapping
while I'm preaching, you know, I just, what I'm trying to say
is, Brethren, there's a life to live and a death to die and
God to meet in judgment. There's an eternity to spend
and there's a book here to study. And we just can't spend this
precious 30 or 45 minutes walking up and down, hollering hallelujah
and clapping hands. That's all fine if you've got
time to do that. But we've got a precious time
here, people from all around, the young ministers here tonight
from everywhere and different walks of life and I've got a
half an hour 45 minutes to say something Edifying something
instructing something that will exhort us and and seeking God's
message now, I don't mind emotion because we're emotional people
and They say well at the ballgame they clap and shout. Yeah, but
nobody's preaching. I I mean, at a ball game, you're
watching fellas run up and down the court with a ball. You're
not listening to a man trying to deliver a message. And there's
a whale of a lot of difference to that. That quartet you just sang, I
wouldn't mind if y'all would have given them a hand. They
did a good job. It inspired me and blessed me,
and it was just a great song. But that aside now, as I deal
with this, I want you to understand I'm not against hallelujah, I'm
not against praise the Lord if it's genuine, if it comes from
the heart. I'm not against clapping, I'm
not against saying amen, I'm not trying to subdue us, I'm
not trying to bring us into cold stilted, I'm as afraid of that
as I am extreme emotionalism. But I want us to be honest about
this thing of the Holy Spirit and His indwelling and so forth.
Now look at verse 1 of Acts 2. Now, when the day of Pentecost
was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
Now go back to Leviticus 23, and I'm going to let you do a
lot of this on your own. This was a special feast. Pentecost
was the feast of the firstfruits. Now, if you look at Leviticus
23 in verse 4, it says, These are the feasts of the Lord, even
holy convocations, which you shall proclaim in their season. Now, in the 14th day of the first
month at even is the Lord's Passover. You see that? All right, skip
over to verse 15. Now, here's where we are in Acts
chapter 2. And you shall count unto you
from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that you brought
the sheaf of the wave offering, seven sabbaths shall be complete. Even unto the morrow after the
seventh sabbath shall you number fifty days. Pentecost here was
50 days after the Passover, is that correct? After that Sabbath
day. And these people were gathered,
like I told you this morning, they had a feast of the tabernacles,
and they came to Jerusalem. Now this is the feast of the
first fruits. See verse 17, you shall bring
out of your habitation two weigh loads of two-tenths deals, and
they shall be of fine flour, they shall be bacon with leaven,
They are the first fruits unto the Lord. Now this was the feast,
no need to tarry on that, but the day of Pentecost was fully
come, that is that 50 days. The Jews from all nations were
assembled here at Jerusalem and the disciples were of one accord
in one place. Now these feasts are types of
Christ. Christ is our Passover, sacrifice
for us, and then Christ is the firstfruits of them that slept.
Christ is the firstborn of every creature. He's the first resurrected
to die no more, Christ Jesus, the firstfruit. Now on this day,
verse 2, on this day the promise of Christ was fulfilled concerning
the Holy Spirit coming upon the disciples. And suddenly, verse
2, there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind,
and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there
appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it set upon
each of them. Now, if you ask me why the Holy
Spirit came in this way, in this manifestation, well, when our
Lord Jesus Christ came to the earth, God hung a bright star
over the manger where he was born. It was just no usual day. It was a special day. It had
a special supernatural sign that Christ had come. And even the
angels of God came down here to this earth and visited the
shepherds and talked to them personally, said, Peace be unto
you. Glory to God in the highest.
Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which
is Christ the Lord. Follow the story and you'll find
where the babe lies, in the manger, in swaddling clothes. And here
cloven tongues of fire, like as of fire, sat upon each of
them, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began
to speak with other tongues." And I'm just certain this is
other languages, and we'll see that in just a moment. other
languages as the Spirit gave them utterance, or the power
to speak. Now, let's go back to Acts 1, verse 8. Remember,
our Lord had risen from the dead, and He gathered His disciples
about Him on the mount called Olivet. He was about to ascend
up to the Father, and He said to them in verse 8, You shall
receive power after the Holy Ghost is come upon you. and ye
shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and
the uttermost parts of the earth." That's what happened here in
verse 3 and 4. The Holy Spirit came upon them as Christ promised
them. Now look back at John chapter
14. Let me read several verses here.
John 14 first of all. John the 14th chapter beginning
with verse 16. Now these are the promises our
Lord gave to his disciples concerning the Holy Spirit. Verse 16 of
John 14, I will pray the Father, he will give you another comforter,
that he may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, the
Holy Spirit, whom the world cannot receive. You say, who receives
the Holy Spirit? Every believer. If any man have
not the Spirit of Christ, he's none of his. He's none of his. We're all baptized into the body
of Christ by the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God, we're born
of the Spirit of God. Regenerations by the Holy Spirit,
awakenings by the Holy Spirit, conviction of sin by the Holy
Spirit, a revelation of Christ is by the Holy Spirit, we're
taught by the Holy Spirit, we pray by the Holy Spirit, we're
led by the Holy Spirit, we walk in the Holy Spirit. Any man who
has Christ has the Holy Spirit. I know there's special fillings
for special tasks and special missions and special responsibilities,
but every believer has the Spirit of Christ. The world doesn't
have it. An unsaved man doesn't have it. Paul said in 1 Corinthians,
and I'm not trying to be factual about this, it's the greatest
thing in the world to have the Spirit of God. The most blessed
thing in the world is to have the Spirit of God reveal Christ
to you. Without the Spirit of God, there's no understanding
of the gospel. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2, he said, I hath not seen,
e'er hath not heard, neither hath it entered the heart of
man the things God has prepared for them that love him. But he
hath revealed them unto us by Spirit. By Spirit. For the Spirit
searcheth the deep, the things of God, yea, the deep things
of God. No man knoweth the things of a man save the Spirit of man
which is in him. Even so, no man knoweth the things
of God except the Spirit of God. And he to whom the Spirit will
reveal it. So Christ says here, the Spirit of truth, whom the
world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth
him, but you know him, for he dwelleth with you, and shall
be in you." That's his promise. The Holy Spirit will come and
dwell with you and in you. Now John 15, verse 26. 15, 26. But he said, When the
Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father,
even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he
shall testify of me. And ye also shall bear witness,
because ye have been with me from the beginning." Now John
16, verse 7, our Lord speaking to the disciples again. Nevertheless,
I tell you the truth, it's necessary, expedient for you that I go away. If I go not away, the Comforter,
the Holy Spirit, will not come unto you. But if I depart, I'll
send him to you. And when he, the Holy Spirit,
is come, he will reprove or convince the world of sin and of righteousness
and of judgment. And this conviction is always
related to Christ, watch it, of sin because they believe not
on me, of righteousness because I go to my father, of judgment
because the prince of this world is judged. Who judged him? Christ. He came and found nothing in
Christ. And Christ put him out of business, lets him do what
he does now by his permissive will. So he says, I have yet
even conviction, even the Holy Spirit's conviction of sin, of
righteousness, and of judgment is in relation to Christ. Now,
in verse 12, he says, I've yet many things to say to you. You
cannot bear them now. There's a growth in understanding
in the knowledge of Christ, a growth in grace, growth in love and
faith. meekness and humility and all
these things, and that's by the Spirit of God. Howbeit, when
he, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of truth, is come, he'll guide
you into all truth. He will not speak of himself.
But whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak. He'll not
speak of himself, read it over and over again, over and over
again. Whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak. He'll show
you things to come. He'll glorify me, for he shall
receive of mine and show it to you. Now back to Acts 2. That's
the promise that's fulfilled here in these verses. The Holy
Spirit came. Cloven tongues, like as a fire,
appeared upon each of them, and they began to preach the gospel
in other languages. Now listen, verse 5. And there
were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation
unto heaven. And when this was noised abroad,
the multitude came together and were confounded, or that is,
troubled, because that every man heard them speak in his own
language. Now this is what seems to me
was taking place. The Lord Jesus had gone back
to glory, seated at the right hand of the Father, and he left
11 men here. There were 120 disciples and
all that met there in the upper room, but mainly these 12 men. And here was 12 men, limited,
limited to a certain location, limited to where they could go
and what they could do and what they could say, but here the
Lord of glory had died. The Lord of glory had been buried
and risen again, and the Lord of glory had ascended back to
the Father, And our Lord sent the Holy Spirit, and He empowered
and gifted these men, gave them signs and credentials and miracles
to preach the gospel of Christ, the crucifixion of Christ, Christ
fulfilling all of the Old Testament in this special way. And these
men were preaching the gospel, and see, out here before them,
standing or seated on the ground or wherever, were thousands of
people from nations everywhere, and as they spoke, like I'm speaking
right now, That man heard him in his language. Well, let's
look at some of the verse 7. And they were all amazed and
marveled, saying one to another, Aren't these men Galileans? How do we hear every man in his
own tongue wherein we were born? Whatever Peter was preaching
in, and James and John, the rest of them, Greek or whatever, these
men were hearing them in their tongue. They were hearing the
words in their tongue. All right, and they said Parthians,
Medes, and Elamites, dwellers of Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia,
Pontus, Asia, all of these places, Libya, Cyrene, strangers of Rome,
Jews, Proselytes, Cretes, Arabians. Verse 11, we do hear them speak
in our tongue the wonderful works of God. Peter wasn't just showing
off. Now, let me tell you this. I
had an experience back in 1952 or 3, and these weren't fly-by-night
preachers that we were associated with at that time. We were preaching
the gospel of God's grace, and one of the men had served as
a missionary in Africa for years. He was one of the top executives
in the Sudan Interior Mission. Another one from Lake Wales,
Florida was an outstanding preacher in his area. The other one was
pastor of one of the largest churches in Chattanooga, at that
time erecting a million-dollar building in 1952. So you can
imagine what it would be worth now. And men from different places,
and I knew these men, associated with men who believed grace all
over this country and all over the world. And I was 27 or 8
years old. These men kept talking about
these gifts to me. They'd call on the phone, they'd
write about these gifts. They said, we have the gift.
Now you preach grace, you preach the gospel of grace and sovereignty,
but you don't have the gifts. And I took a trip down there,
and Dr. Charlie Stevens from Piedmont,
and there were several Barnard, and there were several men there,
and we were in this man's home up on Signal Mountain, a very
big, fine home. And one of them turned to me
and said, what do you do with the gifts of the Spirit, the
nine gifts of the Spirit? Well, I'd never looked into that.
I just wasn't old enough or experienced enough and knew little about
it. I said, well, I really don't know. He went over there and
read them. The gift of tongues and diverse miracles and healing
and faith and discernment of spirits, interpretation and all
these things. I said, well, he said, wouldn't
you like to have that? Well, wouldn't you like to have that?
That's what I meant. No, I said certainly. But he
said, we have it. And if you can meet us in Knoxville
on a certain time, we'll lay hands on you and you can receive
the baptism of the Holy Ghost and you can have these gifts.
Well, I was interested. I, you know, I was young in grace
and, you know, let me tell you this. If you're ever delivered
from any error or tangent, don't thank yourself, thank God. You
put that down, because all of us, if we can, leave the gospel.
That's just so. That's the reason I'm preaching
what I'm preaching tonight. A young minister's here, and I'll tell
you this. Satan is a powerful enemy. You are your own enemy,
and the forces of evil are your enemies, and one thing Satan
hates worse than he hates anything in the world, that's the preaching
of the gospel of God's grace in Christ Jesus. That's right.
If he can take you away from it, he'll do it. He'll take you
away from it. And I'll tell you this, the only
one who can keep you on the right path, the only one who can keep
you with the right message, the only one who can keep you preaching
the gospel of Christ is God Himself. Now you leave if you can, and
Satan will take you in. Don't you get cocky or high and
mighty, because he can do it. He's stronger than you are. Our
Lord Jesus Christ said, Peter, I prayed for you. Satan has desired
you. He's going to put you through
the grinder. But I've prayed for you, and the only reason
you'll stand is I've prayed for you. And many of my friends went
off into this and they've left the ministry. I could stand here
and name them and just keep naming. In fact, all of them that went
into this and all of them that devoted themselves to it are
gone. They're gone, just flat, gone
from the ministry. And there were times when I've
heard them preach with tears in their eyes and a sob in their
throat and seemingly affection in their voice and with plenty
of gifts, seemingly. and real sincerity. And I say
the only reason I'm standing here preaching the gospel of
God's grace in Christ tonight and not off somewhere in a hallelujah
chorus praising the Holy Ghost and speaking in tongues is by
God's grace. Well, I kept that apartment in Knoxville, Tennessee,
and I met with these men in a room there in a hotel, and I heard
them speak in tongues. They prayed, never call Christ
Lord, it's always sweet Jesus, sweet little Jesus. There's always
sweet Jesus. Never any term of lordship and
sovereignty. Always on our level, that buddy
sort of thing, sweet Jesus, sweet Jesus. And they went on in these
tongues, and then they went through this hand-laying on situation.
And I'm a realist, and they've taken no credit or glory. It's
by God's grace. But one of them said, do you
feel anything? I said, nothing. He said, well, I feel powerful
jolts of electricity when I lay hands on you and so forth. But
I said, I feel nothing. Thank God. That's all I'm saying. Thank God. If you ever go through
this, you pray you don't feel anything either, because the
power of God is not transmitted from the hands of men. It comes
from Christ, comes through the Holy Spirit by His Word. Well,
he said, start speaking in tongues. Well, I said, I can't speak in
tongues. He said, you heard us. I said, I can't speak in tongues.
And he said, well, just say a syllable. He said, that's what we do. We
go out and practice. You say a syllable, and then
the next syllable, and then the next syllable, and the next syllable.
I'm not saying all of them are like this, but I'm saying these
were the leaders in that day. And I said, I cannot do it. And
they said, well, the thing you do is practice. That's what we
do. We practice. I'll tell you this. I thank God
so strongly and from my heart that I did not receive their
experience. and their spirit, Bill. And I'm
saying this to you. I'm not denying the fact that...
And then they start speaking in this gibberish. Now, this
gibberish, they say, is an unknown tongue. They say that they're
not praying, the Spirit's praying. That's what they're saying. And
nobody understands it. It's not a... It's a heavenly
language. It's a spiritual language. That's
what they're saying. There is no man on this earth
today who supernaturally ever speaks in Spanish or French,
or Russian, or German. It's always gibberish. Now you
mark that down. Isn't that true? It's gibberish.
These men spoke in a language. And these men from all other
nations heard them, what they said two or three times, in our
native tongue. You know what they said, Russell?
They said, we hear them speaking the wonderful words of God in
our tongue. In our tongue. Now let me tell you this. Calvin,
Whitfield, Luther, Spurgeon, Gill, Keech, Rippon, Watson,
Wesley, keep naming all of the men of God, of Augustine, Polycarp,
everyone, none of them spoke in tongues. Isn't that right,
Bill? None of them, not one of them.
This is a recent thing, and it's a flesh thing, and it's an evil
spirit. That's all there is to it. And
I solemnly, from my experience, from the Word of God, from my
own experience, I warn you, I warn you, don't be taken in by it.
It's fleshly. It's emotionalism. They'll appeal
to you from every angle. They say the churches are dead.
Well, many of them are, but Christ, it lives. His gospel. They say
people are dead, but we're not worshiping people, we're worshiping
Christ. And I'll tell you, if I'm the only one standing and
you're the only church standing and the three or four others
standing, we're going to stand for the grace of God and not
going to succumb to the flesh to get a little excitement going.
It's not excitement that saves, it's Christ that saves. It's
not emotion that saves, it's Christ that saves. And I'll tell
you this though, I just, you know, this happy all the time,
there's something wrong with it. Now, don't tell me, if you're
totally honest, don't tell me you're happy all the time. I'm
happy some of the time, but I'm in Christ when I'm happy or when
I'm sad. I'm in Christ when I feel good
or when I hurt. I'm in Christ whether I'm old
or young. I'm in Christ if I'm lying on a bed unconscious. I'm
in Christ when I can think, I think of Him. When I can't think, He
thinks of me. Isn't that it? And that is it. Now, here was a special feast,
but this feast is a picture of Christ. Here were the disciples
of Christ, the disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ, and they were
here as witnesses of Christ. Here was the Holy Spirit given
in supernatural visitation and power, but he came to reveal
Christ. The gifts of the Spirit were
there, but these gifts were given to make Christ known. These gifts
were given... Now let me help you a little
bit here. They were signs that these men preached the truth.
Now go to Hebrews chapter 2. I think this will help you a
little quickly. Hebrews chapter 2. Hebrews the second chapter. Now listen to this. Let me help
you right here. I just know this is true. And you weigh it. Don't make
up your mind yet. You see, when these disciples
went out to preach, when Christ commissioned them, sent them
to preach the gospel, they were going to a religious world that
had a Bible. That religious world had a Bible.
There were scribes, and Pharisees, and Sadducees, and Teeth. They
had a Bible. But you know what that Bible was made up of? Genesis
to Malachi. It was made up of the Levitical
law, of the sacrifices, of the priesthood, and the Temple. Now
Christ had come and fulfilled all this. As we know, the New
Testament teaches us that. The Old Testament is the New
Testament concealed. The New Testament is the Old
Testament revealed. The Old Testament is Christ in
picture, in promise, in prophecy. But that's all they had was the
picture, promise, and the prophecy. And these men went out to preach
to a religious world and to an atheistic world and to an agnostic
world and to a bunch of philosophers and so forth, and God gave them,
since they didn't have the New Testament, it was written by
them, since they didn't have the New Testament, which reveals
the old, which is all the authority we need, God gave them special
power and special gifts and special miracles so that folks would
do just what they did. This is what they did here at
Pentecost. Aren't these men Galileans? Aren't
they poor fishermen? How do they speak our tongue?
Somebody says, they're drunk. No, he said, they ain't drunk.
It's just 9 o'clock in the morning. They're not drunk. It's 9 o'clock
in the morning. Paul, when that serpent bit him
on the hand, he shook it off. They stood back and waited on
him to die. It's probably a coral snake, most poisonous snakes
there is. And he didn't die. And they said,
you're a god. And they listened to him. And
this was true of the disciples wherever they went. This is what
it said in Hebrews 2. You read this tonight, Bob. How
shall we escape, verse 3, if we neglect so great salvation
which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed
unto us by them that heard him, God also bearing them witness. both with signs and wonders and
diverse miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his
will." In other words, God gave these men, this gospel was preached
by our Lord and confirmed by these disciples, and the Lord
gave them special signs and special miracles and a special ministry
that they might get the hearing of the people. That's so. And
my friends, I don't need that. No preacher today needs it. I
don't need to stand here and prove that I'm speaking for God
except one way, and that is to read the Scriptures, be true
to the Word of God. That's all I need to do. I don't,
let me say this to you. Suppose God gave me the gift
of healing. Suppose tonight, I used to think
of this, John Howsam is well known in this town. They see
him on 29th Street, see him over on Hope, Hackworth, and and wherever
he traipses around. We call him the traipsing fellow,
you know, like the traipsing woman gone now and John being
the traipsing fellow. He's known. Suppose, just suppose,
that tonight through some gift I healed him. Do you know this
place wouldn't hold people next Sunday? This parking lot wouldn't
hold the people. I mean a real healer. If John
walked in Atkins Hardware tomorrow morning and they saw him make
headlines in this paper, at this place that comes from California. Now, what would be the emphasis?
Healing, not Christ, not the gospel, not salvation. Our message of grace and salvation
be gone right out that window. You see what I'm saying? Now,
God gave these men those gifts and that power and those miracles
as credentials and signs. It says that right there, right
there. Now Mark 16, turn over here.
And please remember, if God is, I believe God healed Jenova and
James. We pray for the sick, we anoint
with oil, quietly. There was one time our Lord healed
a man, he said, don't you tell anybody. Don't you tell. What
do you mean don't tell anybody? I don't want to just be known
as a healer, I'm here to preach the gospel. Just don't tell anybody. And we pray for the sick and
we'd be delighted and thank God if he's pleased to heal everybody
here who's sick. That's in his sovereign will.
But the healing that's important is the healing of the heart and
the soul and knowing Christ. Because you can heal the body
and a man's going to die again. But if the soul's ever healed,
we'll never die. I can know the healing of my
soul and live forever. I can know the healing of my
body and just prolong my agony. Paul said to go and be with Christ
far better anyway. But in Mark 16, this is what
he said to the eleven. He said, verse 15, Go ye into
all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He
that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth
not shall be damned. And these signs, signs shall
follow them. What are signs for? Well, somebody
told me. That when you lay hands on a
person that's baptized with the Holy Ghost and speak in songs,
that's a sign to that person he's been baptized with the Holy
Ghost. Turn with me to Scripture, 1 Corinthians 14. I'm not a lawyer,
and I'm not in the proving business, not trying to act like a lawyer.
I'm trying to find the truth. If God is giving these gifts
now, I want them, and God knows I want them. If God ever restores
revival to the church, I want to be right in the middle of
it, don't But I believe it'll come on the preaching of the
gospel. But look at 1 Corinthians 14, verse 19. 1 Corinthians 14,
verse 19. In the church, Paul's speaking
here, he said, I speak with languages more than you all, verse 18.
Yet in the church, I'd rather speak five words with my understanding. You know what those five, Christ
died for our sins. I'd rather say that, he said.
five words, with my understanding that by my voice I might teach
others in 10,000 words, in a tongue nobody understands. 10,000 words. Brethren, don't
be children in understanding. That's what we need to flee from,
being foolish children. Howbeit in malice be ye children.
Be forgiving like children, loving like children. That's like two
children have a fuss and go tell their parents and their parents
fall out the next day, the children are playing again, the parents
don't speak for a year. Be children in malice. In understanding,
be men. In the law it's written, with
men of other tongues and other lips will I speak to the people. And yet for all, and yet for
all that, will they not hear me. Verse 22, tongues are a sign. Not to them that believe. You
see that, David? Not to them that believe. I don't
need a sign. You have Christ, you don't need
a sign. You don't need any confirmation, except His Word. You mean you
could go to the Holy Land, believe a little more in Christ? Something
wrong if you do. You mean you could see some kind
of miracle and it really give you confidence in Christ, other
than the Word? Now, you wait a minute. That
man in hell said, Father Abraham, send Lazarus back to the earth
that my brothers might believe. He said, they have the Scriptures.
No, he said, though one rose from the dead, they'll believe.
Abraham said, though one rose from the dead, they won't believe.
Faith doesn't come through seeing strange sights. It comes through
hearing the Word of God. That's so. So tongues are not
a sign to them that believe. They're signs to them that believe
not. But preaching, prophesying, serveth
not for them that believe not. They won't hear preaching. They
call it foolishness. They like this tongues. Folks
that don't believe like the whoopee. Folks that are natural men and
unsaved, they like the whoopee edition. Folks that believe,
they like the gospel. Is that what that's saying? You
know that's what that's saying. You know. But how foolish we
are. We sons of men are so foolish.
God uses means, and God used these men, God used means and
miracles to reveal His grace in Christ. And what do we do?
We get taken up with the means. That's right. God uses means,
God uses miracles, God uses men. And instead of bowing to the
Christ that they preached and the Christ to whom they point,
we turn away from Christ and play with the means and get all
taken up. That's why I show you that in
a lot of places. Turn to 2 Kings. I'll show you one good example
of it. I'll show you one good example of it here, just real
good. Somebody says they're still looking for the Ark of Noah.
I hope they don't find it because somebody will form a denomination,
the Archaeans or something. They'll worship that thing. Sure
as the world. In Hezekiah, in verse 4, 2 Kings
8, it says, He removed the high places and break the images and
cut down the groves. Oh, look what He did. He break
in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses made. That blasphemer! Good night. Surely he didn't
do it. Oh, he sure did. That brazen
serpent that Moses made, they lifted up on a pole that the
people looked to by which they were... He tore it up. What did he do that for? Well,
in those days the children of Israel were worshiping that thing.
They were burning incense to it. And he called it Now, hushton,
you know what that means? A worthless piece of brass. That's what we ought to do with
all our images and all our trinkets and all our crosses and all these
things. I don't care. Watch it, Mahan,
that old blasphemy. All right. I don't care if you
find the cross on which Christ hung, you better burn it. You
better burn it. Better get rid of it tomorrow.
It'll take you to hell. That's exactly right. And I'm not afraid of saying
that. That's so. Christ is the object
of worship. And when old Hezekiah took that
blazing serpent that Moses had made in fashion that was so important,
it served a purpose right then. He broke it in pieces. He said,
that thing is a worthless piece of brass. God gave the law to
shut men up to the righteousness of Christ. We worship the law.
God gave Mary to bring forth his son. Men worship Mary. God
raises up men to preach the gospel. We name them Saint Jude, Saint
Luke, Saint Augustine, Saint something else and worship them.
God gave baptism to picture our identification with Christ. We
try to find salvation in the water. God gave the Lord's table
and we made it a sacrament. Oh my goodness. And at Pentecost,
God gave the Spirit and He gave tongues and other languages to
declare Christ the Redeemer, and men are ignoring the Redeemer
and seeking the tongues. And He's just not going to give
them to us. That's all it is to me. I don't want them for
that reason. If I could use them, if I could
use... Let me tell you something. It's not necessary for you to
build an ark to escape the flood. Christ is our ark, huh? Don't
go out and, I'm going to follow Noah, I'm going to build an ark.
What? No, forget it. Christ is our... It's not necessary
for you to be swatted by a whale to learn salvations of the Lord.
That's not necessary at all. It's not necessary for you to
see Christ in the flesh as Peter, James, and John, and Paul. Blessed
are those that have not seen and yet have believed. And it's
not necessary for you to speak in tongues to have the Spirit
of God. and to preach the gospel of Christ. Not necessary. Turn to 1 Corinthians 12. Let
me show you something here. In fact, actually, in that day,
all did not speak with tongue. Oh, I beg your pardon, they certainly
did not. They certainly did not, not even
in Paul's day. He said, verse 29, Are all apostles? No, sir, there were just 12.
Are all prophets? No, sir. Are all teachers? Are
all workers a miracle? Uh-uh. Do all have the gift of
healing? No. Do all speak with tongue?
No. Do all interpret? No, sir, they did not. The Holy
Spirit gave these gifts severally as he will, but covet earnestly
the best gifts. Oh, I do. You do. But I show
you a more excellent way. I'll show you something better
than gifts. Though I speak with the tongues, languages of men
and angels, and have not love, I'm the sounding brass and the
tinkling cymbal. Though I have the gift of prophecy
and understand the mysteries and all knowledge and have faith
so I could remove mountains and heal the sick or whatever and
have not love, I'm nothing. That's better. He said, I'll
show you something better. Now go back to Acts, and I'm going
to quit with this, in Acts chapter 2. I think I sufficiently dealt
with it, but I'm going to show you something right here. The
gifts of God which he gave to these men were used to preach
Christ. That's what Peter did on Pentecost. He preached Christ. These men
heard, and I'll tell you, when Peter stood there to preach,
now watch his sermon, he didn't say, we got the Holy Ghost, we
got the baptism, we got the tongues, you seek the tongues, you seek
the baptism, you seek, he started out, verse 22, ye men of Israel,
hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, That's our Jesus of Nazareth.
And he says this about him. He's a man. He's man approved
of God. He's Christ incarnate. And then
he says, in verse 23, he's the covenant Christ. He was delivered
by the determinate counsel, eternal counsel, and foreknowledge of
God. You have taken him by wicked hands, if crucified and slain.
He's the crucified Christ. But God raised him up. He's the
risen Christ. His resurrection declares his
work accepted. declares we're accepted and assures
our resurrection. And then, he says in verse 25,
he's the Christ that the prophets talked about. David spoke concerning
him. All of them spoke concerning
him. And then he said in verse 32, this Jesus hath God raised
up, whereof we are all witnesses. And then he says, he's the exalted
Christ, he's the mediator. Therefore, being by the right
hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise
of the Holy Ghost, he shed forth this which you now see and hear.
David's not ascended into the heavens, but he said himself,
the Lord said to my Lord, sit thou on my right hand till I
make thy enemies thy footstool. And here he is. He's exalted
Christ, therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly
that God hath made that same Jesus whom you crucified, Lord
and Christ. That was his message. And like
Brother Barnard said so ably, he said if I ever run into a
man who says he has the baptism of the Holy Ghost, and I say
every believer has that, and he speaks with others, he speaks
with whatever he speaks with, If he's preaching, the eternal
Christ, who was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge
of God, no accident, became on purpose, Son of God. The incarnate
Christ, the creating Christ, the Christ of the eternal counsel,
the crucified Christ, the risen Christ, the enthroned Christ,
and the coming Christ. And Christ is all. Lord. Not gonna be, he is Lord. We're
not living in a vacuum or a parenthesis, he's Lord right now. I listen
to it. If he speaks English, I'll listen
to it, because I can't understand anything else. And if I got a
French buddy with me and he hears it in French, we'll both listen
to it. It says, Jesus, thy blood and righteousness, my beauty
are, my glorious dress. Mid flaming worlds in these arrays,
That is, thy blood and righteousness with joy I lift up my head. Bold,
listen, bold shall I stand in that great day, for who ought
to my charge shall lay, fully pardoned through thee I am from
sin and fear and guilt and shame. Lord, I believe thy precious
blood, which at the mercy seat of God forever doth for sinners
plead for me. even for me was shed. I know
a fountain where sins are washed away. I know a place where night
is turned to day. Burdens are lifted, blind eyes
made to see. There's a wonder working power
in the Christ of Calvary." That made good song, right? I know
a fountain where sins are washed away. I know a place where night
is turned to day. Burdens are lifted, blind eyes
made to see. There's a wonder working power
in the Christ of Calvary. Our Father, we have sought tonight
to be honest, open, truthful from thy word with those who
have ears to hear. We know that prophecy and preaching
is foolishness to those that perish, but to those that believe,
It's the very food from the table of God. And Lord, we want to
know your way. Thou knowest all things. Nothing
is hid from thee. Everything's open to thee with
whom we have to do. If you call on us to speak with
other tongues, Lord, by your grace we speak. Give us the power
to heal or interpret or discern the spirit. Lord, we wait before
thee. But we tremble in fear lest we seek to counterfeit or
imitate or bring forth by means of our own any sham or fleshly,
emotional, religious activity. We wait for thy grace. Fill us
with thy spirit that we may preach Christ. Fill us with thy spirit
that we may teach Christ. Fill us with thy spirit that
we may witness for Christ, and be a good witness here and around
the world. In his blessed name we pray,
amen.